Address—T. Roach
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Sisters and the Lord. Happy to be back in Sony once again after a long time and from the wife with me this time.
So we'll start by singing #330.
330 What raised the wondrous thought? For who did it suggest that we, the turn glory brought with the sun relaxed #332.
Like it turned to Ephesians.
Particularly the 5th chapter.
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But I was thinking a little bit of the the statement in chapter 3.
And verse 10.
To the enchantment now under the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the Church, the manifold wisdom of God.
That is, by the Church, those powers would know the manifold wisdom of God and.
To ponder a statement like that, and I'm sure I don't have all the answers to it, but I was thinking how?
At the Tower of Babel, mankind was scattered. It was a scattering of the human race, and even the geography of the world was perhaps necessary to keep human beings from annihilating the rest of the human race, separating them by rivers and oceans. And now, of course, we can zip across an ocean in mere 10 hours. You can cross the Pacific Ocean. So these things.
Those natural boundaries don't mean as much, but here is something that those principalities and powers angelic beings must wonder about. As they see now, all mankind of any race, of any language, of any background can be united and one in the church.
It's a marvel, isn't it, that we could all be together of various nationalities. It's a shame then that we find.
Arguments between groups of Christians and so on. But this is a marvel and we should, we should see it that way, that it's God's wonderful overriding of even the judgment of the Tower of Babel to bring together Christians. Been telling some of the folks that when we were in Hong Kong at the meeting, they have a hymn book that's got both the Chinese and the English.
And the tunes are the same. And so when a hymn is given out, we were singing to him in English, They were singing it in Chinese to the same tune, the same words. And it was not confusion. It it landed together nicely. And similarly in Japan with another language. But these are wonderful things that God has done. He's brought us together.
And I was just thinking of going down through part of the 5th chapter.
And when we turn to these verses, you might think this looks like a lecture on.
A natural relationships or something like that. But God uses an actual relationships. In fact he says first that which is natural, then that which is spiritual. So the natural relationships are given. But because as we read it, I just call your attention to the fact that in every.
Not necessarily every verse, but in every statement about husbands and wives it brings in the Lord.
And it brings in then our relationship is the bride of Christ to our heavenly Bridegroom.
And that's what I really have before me to speak about. Not so much the natural relationship, but let's begin with verse 21, Ephesians 5 and verse 21.
Can everybody hear me?
I have a tendency to let my voice drop. And if I do, put up your hand. All right, thank you. OK.
Verse 21 Submitting yourselves 1 to another in the fear of God.
Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord.
Where the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church and he is the Savior of the body. Therefore, as the church is subject under Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands and everything.
Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it. But he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, that he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing.
That it should be holy and without blemish.
Men to love their wives as their own bodies.
He that loveth his wife loveth himself with no man ever yet hate of his own flesh, but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the Church. For we are members of his body, and his flesh, and of his bones. For this pause shall a man leave his Father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they too shall be 1 Flesh. This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ in the Church. Nevertheless, let everyone of you in particular.
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So love is wife even as himself.
And the wife see that she reverence her husband.
The Lord willing they might take up the children, fathers and the servants and masters more night, but we'll just see how far we can get with this part of the subject.
I was surprised to see that in verse 21 That we started with that in the Darby translation.
Changes God to Christ, submitting yourselves 1 to another in the fear of Christ.
Well, I never had noticed that before. I don't know of any other passage where that occurs. But then again, I am not sure that I've exhausted the possibilities. It may be somewhere else. Why is it here? Well, you wonder, don't you? But I believe it's because we're talking about the spirit of God is talking about the headship, headship. And it's not merely God as such. But we ought to have the fear of Christ and the fear.
I trust we all understand that it's not a terror of fright, but a fear of of doing anything that would dishonor that one. A respect, a reverence.
I remember reading an article in the paper which.
Help me to understand the way fear is used in the Bible. There was a blind man who wanted to swim across Chesapeake Bay and he had a lot of supporters and a lot of folks waiting for him on the other side, waiting for him to arrive. And it's a long distance. I don't remember what it was and it was a boat attending him, so I guess he didn't swim in a circle being blind and someone asked him if he was afraid. He said I was only afraid of disappointing my supporters.
Well, that's the kind of a fear that that we should have of the Lord, fear of disappointing it, fear of dishonouring it. And so it speaks of.
All of us submitting ourselves one to another in the fear of Christ.
Well, as we were speaking before about all the tribes and nations of the world and how God erases, separate them by natural barriers.
There is that fear of one another, and there's that.
Tendency of trying to be superior superiority and the arms race that we've had in our own lifetime, this type of thing. But here is submission. It's not something that we naturally take to it's that which as believers in the Lord Jesus, we are responsible to do, to submit, submit to one another.
In this case, it doesn't speak of elder or younger or any relationship in verse 21 submitting yourselves 1 to another in the fear of Christ.
Well, submission, that's the biggest barrier if we can, if we can get through that one submit.
Nobody wants to submit in the least argument. Each one wants to have the last word and speak the loudest and defeat the other person. But here we are brought together. How can we exist together only by submission?
Well then, when it speaks of wives submitting to their own husbands.
As unto the Lord, well that's the position that we all as believers in the Lord Jesus have as the bride of Christ to submit to him. Submit to him. Other is something that maybe could be repeated as to even those natural relationships because.
Tells us how we can exist in these natural relationships and how to get along and how to prosper and then how to enjoy them, whether it's husbands and wives, children and parents or parents and masters.
And if we disregard those things, we're going to have trouble in this life. But if we disregard them, we're also spoiling the picture. We're spoiling the picture.
So we need to attend on these things in the natural. But my point tonight is to to speak of it in a way of how we as believers of the Lord Jesus and the first chapter ties a few things together, says the church, which is his body. Of course we understand the bride is is another figure and each of those.
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Ways of looking at the body of Christians has its own thought connected with it. The.
The bride, perhaps. Her beauty and the life, the relationship and the body, the activities and the the church, the the building being built up increasing. Maybe there are other thoughts too, but.
We are to be subject to the one who is our heavenly bridegroom.
Verse 23 It says the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church and he's the savior of the body.
So we have that relationship of looking to one who is our head, and the head controls the body and we should get our our direction from the Lord Jesus, from Christ. It doesn't say God, it says Christ. And I believe that's why the 21St verse is accurately, more accurately priced.
Because he is the head, and we are to obey him, He is.
Savior of the body.
Therefore, as a church is subject unto Christ, I find that quite a statement. He's saying that the church is subject to Christ, and therefore why is there to be subject to their own husbands? The church is subject to Christ.
Well, as we look around us and we don't have to look very far because he can look within and see failure there, that the church has not been subject to Christ. But he didn't establish it that way. It's the way he intended it to be. And it's wonderful how in the beginning it was that that no one dared join himself.
To the church no one dared to joy himself to the group of believers, because of the matter of Ananias and supplier there was power there in evident power, and the Lord was in control of that.
Well.
Ashamed, no doubt, as we look at that. And it says the Church is subject unto Christ.
Church is subject under Christ, and I bath myself. How subject am I as a member of the body of Christ?
I believe we ought to have more of a sense of coming into the presence of the Lord.
I find myself very weak in that because we come together in order today, morning particularly, and we come into the presence of the Lord and well, we're we're discussing something and we keep on with our discussion and we want to ask somebody, how do you like your new car or one thing or another that can distract us?
Not because of the building, but because of the person of the Lord Jesus who's in the midst. He ought to mean enough to us that.
I I just wish that from the moment I got up on Wednesday morning, I could have that sense. I'm going to be in the presence of the Lord Jesus. What a difference it would make in the meeting if we all came that way, came subject unto Christ.
And then in verse 25 we have the other side of it.
And you know, the husband Dennis has the responsibility of acting in the place of Christ, as the wife has the responsibility of acting in the place of the of the Church. So this is a very great responsibility.
Husbands, love your own wives. It should be even as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it.
Well, how little do we do? We see that real responsibility that even as believers we have to other believers is to apply it in that way. The Lord Jesus came and he gave himself for the church. That's how far he went. The extent to which he went, He gave himself. He didn't give something. He gave everything. He sold all that He had to purchase that Pearl of great price.
And you know, in First John 316, that's an easy reference to remember First John 316, it says that we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren, but to lay down our lives for the Brethren, How readily, how willingly would we do such a thing, Interpose ourselves to protect another believer?
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I was just telling my brother today how at a meeting a few months ago the subject was brought out and in connection with that, laying down our lives for one another. You know, and I have made a comment that it isn't likely that any of us would be called upon to go to that extent. We may have persecution of another kind, but you know.
That's the limit. That's how. Help. We couldn't go any further than laying down our lives for someone else. Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.
Young brother made a comment after that and said.
He said. Is that possible that we should or isn't it?
The proper thing for us to be willing daily to lay down our lives for one another. But that was a good comment. That was a really excellent comment. We should be willing to lay down our lives for one another. It doesn't mean to say we'll necessarily lose their lives, but use their lives. And there's a comment made about Priscilla and Aquila, who for the sake of the apostle had laid down their necks. They had risked their lives. It was like they had their necks on the chopping block.
They didn't lose their lives because he's sending greetings. That's in Romans 16. So they were still living, but they had they had gone to the extent that they could have lost their lives for the sake the Apostle Paul, well, do we put ourselves out for one another?
Well, these things just come to mind as we look at these verses and see the extent to which Christ went for us.
I read the 25th verse again so we can get the connection. Husbands, love your wives even as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it. That he might sanctify and cleanse it with a washing of water by the word, that he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that it should be holy without blemish.
And so there is the end of the pathway. He's going to present the church to himself, A glorious church not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing.
And if you go back to chapter one.
In verse 4.
Says, according as he has chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be fully and without blame before him. In love, holy and without blame. Holy is a character of our lives, and without blame would be our conduct, our our behavior.
So even now, we ought to be holy and without blame and without lunch, I believe. I believe He looks at us that way. He looks at us that way. But as we go through life, we recognize that we are not really what we ought to be. We fall far short.
Then it goes on to speak of.
In verse 28 so ought men to love their wives as their own bodies, and that lovethless wife loveth himself.
I'm sure all of us.
Who have wives feel we have come very short in this.
But it just shows us the extent to which the Lord Jesus went. He didn't fall short at all. He fully carried that out. And I believe that we should recognize not only that this happened once at the cross, but he died for us. But we need to recognize something important. He's living for us.
He's living for us now and he's putting himself out just as much now.
As he did when he came down here, He has risen and he's living for us. I believe that's neglected in our thoughts in comparison with thinking of the past when Jesus laid down his life for us, for the future, when He's coming for us. But what about right now?
Now is the time when I need it, and now is the time when he is living for me. He is living up there in glory for me. He's he's our shepherd, caring for us. He's our great live priests that are seeding for us.
These are aggregate restoring us. He restoreth my soul, so He's living for us right now. A very important thing that we should we should bear in mind that the Lord Jesus is living and not only think of his death, but think of his life, his living for us in the glory.
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The remainder of the chapter speaks, just connects these two thoughts together. We'll read the last two verses before we go on. This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ in the Church.
Nevertheless, let everyone of you in particular so love his wife, even as himself and the wife see that she reverenced her husband.
These are the ways in which we should react as believers in the Lord Jesus toward.
The Lord Jesus.
The wife see that she reverence her husband. We should, as the believers, as the body of Christ, we should see that we reference, we reference the Lord.
Respect him.
And I'm sure that we would say, yes, I know I want to do that, but this, this involves every aspect of life respecting the Lord, respecting His.
His word and respecting himself.
It would come into honoring His word, not belittling it in any way or joking about it. It's a serious word. It's God's word, and He would have us reverence him.
Saw it, I think. It's not in this room. I guess it was impelled. I saw the verse and we have it at home in Dartmouth too.
God is greatly to be feared in the assembly of the Saints and the hadam reverence of him.
Americans. By them, there are valuings.
I'd like to turn now back to the book of Daniel.
Connect a few thoughts there.
Daniel was an individual who in the first chapter tells us he purpose in his heart. He had a purpose in his heart.
And he wanted to be pure. He wanted to be pure in what? Not want to defile himself that portion of the King's meat.
So he purposed in his heart that he would not be file himself. Now we're coming to That was in the early part of Daniel's life. He started out that way.
And we're going to turn to the 9th chapter, something that took place in the latter part of his life.
And let's make this observation that.
But we have just lately visited some of the elderly Saints, and we find them just rejoicing in the Lord. And we talked to our sister, Mrs. Reeves, over there in Des Moines and talked about the Lord's coming and the closeness of it. And she said, that's what I want to hear, you know, just a real delight. And she's enjoying the Lord.
And what I want to say to those who are younger, including myself, that it doesn't happen automatically when you pass your 80th birthday, that you suddenly become a very godly person automatically because you've passed a certain birthday. Those folks who enjoy the Lord like that in their late years have been enjoying them in their earlier years when they still have energy and and vigor to to give to the Lord.
And so we see them rejoicing in that kind of stored up.
Joy. In their old age, a sister who lies in bed, is helped to a wheelchair for part of the day, and has helped back to bed again at night, can join the Lord.
Tell other stories, too, but it's just wonderful to recognize the fact that these things start early in life and they carry on through. Daniel started early in life and 70 years have passed. He's no longer a young man.
I don't have any idea how old he was at the beginning, but I often guess that maybe 15, maybe he was younger. Supposedly he was 15 when he started out. He was chosen as one of those young men to be trained to stand before the king. I'd be pretty young to be chosen for something like that and let 70 years pass. He's 85 years of age, He's no young man. And so he.
He has gone through much and he has been used of God and he gains a title in this chapter which will in this 9th chapter. In the 10th chapter is repeated a wonderful type. Let's just look at it. Look at the one in the in the 10th chapter, verse 11. Daniel got a nice title there.
Some people go to college and they get a degree with some initials after their name. As opposed I'm entitled to write BS after my name, Bachelor of Science. I've forgotten all about it, but it comes to mind. And here is a man who could put MGB after his name if he wanted to in that 11Th verse of Daniel 10.
First of Daniel. 10 he said unto me, O Daniel, a man greatly beloved. A man greatly beloved. Why? Because he had purposed in his car early in life, and he carried 2 with it. He didn't give up partly along, and he set the call several times, A man greatly beloved.
Or a woman graces a lot. Or a boy. Or girl greatly beloved because of faithfulness. But I believe he earned that over a long period of time. Took him a long while to get his degree, but we'll just start.
We can start with verse two of Daniel 9.
In the first year of his reign, that is, of Darius the Meade I, Daniel understood by books the number of the years whereof the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah the prophet, that he would accomplish 70 years in the desolations of Jerusalem. And I set my faith unto the Lord God to seek by prayer and supplications with fasting and sackcloth and ashes.
I prayed unto the Lord my God, this father, because here's this man, Daniel. He's a prophet, Daniel the prophet he's called, and yet he's reading the prophecy of Jeremiah, the prophet. Interesting, isn't it, to find the prophet reading the words of another prophet. And he discovers that.
The captivity of his people would last for 70 years.
For the last for 70 years.
You know, some of us might just have looked at the calendar and said, Oh yeah, let me check off a few more days. Every day we check off a date and assume coming to the end, it'll be all over the way, Daniel.
And I wonder it wouldn't have an application to ourselves knowing that the coming of the Lord draws near to just follow Daniels example here, because he wanted to be in a proper state of soul with regard to the end of the captivity. And so he says. It says here he set his face unto the Lord to seek by prayer and supplication the fasting and sackcloth and ashes. Well that was quite an attitude to take, and he was willing to.
To do that, even though he was a great man in the Kingdom there, he's willing to take that holy place and pray to the Lord is gone. I believe what he wanted to do was to be in a proper state of soul when the captivity was over.
It could be that we we might just think of the Lord's coming in kind of a a remote way.
I read one time.
Of I guess it was in one of those little booklets like streams in the desert.
Where it was said, I no longer think of the Lords coming as a doctrine because it affects every aspect of our lives.
And that was always said, you know, in this little excerpt in the book.
So you start thinking about that. How does the coming of the Lord affect every aspect of our lives? Well, you'll find it referred to, for example, in the remembrance of the Lord until he comes.
Give it some Death of a loved one by First Thessalonians 4 speaks of the coming of the Lord and raising the dead, incorruptible and every aspect of life. You have got a subject tonight, but it's a good one to pursue because every aspect of life is is covered by the the coming of the Lord in Philippians Three. Maybe it has to do with our health in the breakdown of our bodies and and the bodies of humiliation. He's going to change our bodies when he comes.
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And so everything that we that troubles us here is going to be effective by the coming of the Lord and the thought that they returned.
Well, we need to be in the right state of soul and Daniel and going on then in the 9th chapter and verse 4.
He says, I prayed unto the Lord my God, and made my confession, and said, O Lord, the great and dreadful God, keeping covenant.
And mercy to them that love Him, and to them that keep His commandments we have sinned.
And have committed iniquity, and have done wickedly, have rebelled even by departing from My precepts and from Thy judgments. Neither have we hearkened unto Thy servants of prophets, which spake in Thy name to our kings, our Princess, and our fathers, and to all the people of the land. With Daniel is one of those rare individuals in the Scripture that we find nothing that could be charged against it.
Davidson and Abraham said. I remember a brother speaking on Abraham rather on the first words of some of these well known Old Testament people, and I don't remember the rest of it, but I remember Abraham, the first words that are recorded in the scripture of Abraham.
You know what they were? The law concerning his wife.
And shameful isn't it, to think that the first words recorded of that man is a lie concerning his wife, and the first words of every one of those patriarchs and wise men, and ones that are looked up to, They leave a lot to be desired. But when you come to the second is Luke.
There's a 12 year old, the Lord Jesus at the age of 12, and the first words of the Lord Jesus that are recorded that he spoke are just not that I must be about my father's business.
What a refreshing contrast that is. Well, Daniel, we don't seem to find anything.
You really have to pick at something to find fault with Daniel anywhere. And yet he says we have sinned, we have sinned.
And in the in the law of the offerings, you know, you find a priest eating the sin offering, the priest eating the sin offering. Daniel here is an associating himself with his people and their sins. And we cannot lift up our heads and say, well, Christendom does such and such because we're just as guilty. We're part of Christmas. We are, we're part of Christmas.
And we have a very privileged position to be gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus with a great privilege. It's a joy. And I certainly for one, don't want to lose that privilege. You know, we're so near the end. We're so near the end. I don't want anything to come in that would spoil that privilege and take it away. And I'm sure you don't.
Daniel has to say we have sinned, we have to hang his hand.
And have committed iniquity. So it takes that low place and I believe that has its application fully to ourselves today and to all that taking place. We don't know all that goes on in the rest of Christendom, but we do know a little bit about what's taking place among ourselves and we have to hang our heads in shame. Well, the next thought in verse 7.
He continues his prayer and he says, Oh Lord, righteousness belongeth unto thee.
But unto us confusion of faith faces, and at this day to the men of Judah, to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to all Israel.
So on.
Righteousness. Do all of them believe? He justifies the Lord, He justifies the Lord and all that he has done. Righteousness belongs unto thee. And that's a a good thing for us to see and an important thing for us to see because.
Sometimes it looks like why did the Lord do that? Why did he allow that as though we were charging him with some false Daniel is clear on that. Oh Lord, righteousness belongeth unto thee.
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And he speaks.
Of many things there on down to.
Skip down to verse 13.
Says as it is written in the law of Moses, all this evil has come upon us, yet made we not our prayer before the Lord our God, that we might turn from our iniquities and understand thy truth.
But we have to justify God. He justifies God entirely, you know?
In the prophecies like Jeremiah.
They're worn over and over again.
They're worn over and over again, and they don't seem to list.
I was thinking too, we'll come to it if we have an opportunity to take it up in the 6th chapter of Ephesians, it says of the masters for bear threatening.
Don't threaten. Don't threaten your slaves. Don't threaten.
Well, I used to read that I would think, well, what is God doing all through Jeremiah? Isn't he threatening?
I don't believe so. He wouldn't tell us for bear threatening and threaten himself. So what does it mean? I believe what God is doing is warning. He's warning faithfully because he will carry out the judgment.
Threatened.
People.
Sometimes they threaten their children. If you do that again, I'll never bring you to the store with me, you know? And the kids know that. They don't mean it. It's a threat. They know they don't mean it and they just carry on. But God doesn't threaten. He's gracious. He may wait, but he's going to carry out the judgment. Well, we have.
Then those repeated warnings to the prophets, and they refuse to listen, they put Jeremiah down in a pit. Another time they came to him. Believe it. The 42nd chapter and they said.
What's the word of the Lord today? I think they were hoping that the word of the Lord would change and so that it would agree with what they wanted to do.
They said whatever it is, we'll do it. Good or bad, we'll do it. And it took a week or more before the answer came back. God tested them by waiting, and that's a problem. We don't often wait for the answers.
I'm interested myself, and maybe that's the problem. We need to wait. We need to have that patience. Well, the answer comes back and they don't like the answer.
Are they going to accept it? Like they said? They wouldn't know. They said you didn't get that from the Lord, Jeremiah, you got that from Beirut. They made it the word of man rather than the word of God, and so they disregarded it. Well, we can't do that. We must turn from our iniquities and understand thy truth, he said. We didn't do that. We didn't make our prayer before the Lord.
Well, that's the second point, the first being Daniel.
Confesses the sin of the people as his own. He justifies God and what he has done, and then verse 14 to be part of the same thing but a little bit of another talk. 1St 14 Therefore have the Lord watched upon the evil.
And brought it upon us. For the Lord our God is righteous in all his works which he doeth, for we obeyed not his voice.
The Lord watched upon the evil and brought upon him studious the evil. When it speaks of the Lord doing evil, it means that he brought some kind of a judgment on people, some kind of a harm, and they looked on it as evil.
To to speak to that in in another place, I believe it might be in Jonah that the Lord repented him of the evil, for God has no evil to repent of in the sense of sin. But he was going to bring a problem. He was going to bring judgment on Nineveh, and he changed his mind. He decided not to do it because they repented.
And so he will change his mind about the judgment on the center when we repent. Is that the new life? So we don't have to be under that judgment. Well here.
Is a very interesting thing, I find.
That nowhere in this chapter does Daniel blame a particular individual or name anybody. He says. We have sinned. You know the people in general. But he doesn't say.
Is Zedekiah sinned and therefore Nebuchadnezzar had to come in? He doesn't say. Well it was rehoboam that split the Kingdom and terrible and set up false Bible. He doesn't speak of any of those people. He just says that the Lord sent this, the Lord sent this.
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I read a commentary not too long ago and mentioned.
Mentioned that Daniel did not say the Lord allowed it. We speak that way. The Lord allowed it as though it just happened, and the Lord didn't interfere with it happening, and so it took place. But this is more than that, Daniel, seeing the Lord brought it upon us. The Lord said it. The Lord said it. So we shouldn't be chafing under it. If there's judgment, if there's problems, we should recognize a long standard. A long standard.
And I don't need to say that when someone has a problem that I should start thinking, well, the Lord said it because.
He needed that. Maybe he sent it to another individual to make me think, and if he sends the problem to me, then I should be exercised about why took place. But I I just want to guard against the thought of.
Certainly not in here that we would look at someone else and say the Lord is judging that person.
It's up to us to take that personally for ourselves. The Lord watched upon the evil and brought it upon us. The Lord sends those things. He brings those things because what he sees and he knows the need, he knows the effect that he desires. And you know, Daniel does something else before the 4th thing that he recognizes in his prayer in verse 17. Now therefore, O Lord.
I'm sorry. Oh, now, therefore, O our God, hear the prayer Thy servant, and his suffocation, his supplications.
And buzz thy face to shine upon thy sanctuary that is desolate, for the Lord's sake, Oh my God, inclined on here and here, open thine eyes, and behold our desolations in the city which is called by Thy name. For we do not present our supplications before the for our righteousnesses, but for my great mercies.
Isn't a local prayer. He turns to the very one who sent the judgment, and he pleads with him to bring the blessing.
Can't we just turn right around to the Lord and after confessing our failure, just plead with him to preserve his testimony, his sanctuary, his name for his name's sake? Certainly not for our righteousnesses. But he says for thy great mercies He falls on the mercy of the Lord. Remember that David. One time he had a choice.
Because of his own sin and numbering of people, he had a choice of three things, and his comment was Let me not fall into the hand of man. But it is the hand of God merciful, and the Lord knows just what to do.
When God brought.
Human enemies into judges people, they want to thrive. They often want to farm and he has to charge some of them was saying if if thieves break in and steal what they just steal till they had enough to leave and someone would now harvest an olive tree. There's still going to be a few olives left on but he says you've just taken everything and so he's.
He's speaking here now of those that would just fall upon the Lord.
And not to unmanned.
He would They would turn to the Lord, the one who sent the judgment for his great mercies.
I just like to notice something about Daniel at the end of this is pleading with the Lord to heal, to hear verse 19. Oh Lord hear, O Lord, forgive the Lord hearken, and do refer not for thine own sake, Oh my God, for thy city and thy people are called by thy name.
And while I was speaking and praying and confessing my sin, in the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my supplication before the Lord my God for the holy mountain of my God, yeah, while I was speaking in prayer even the man Gabriel whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning.
Because the fly swiftly touched me about the time of the evening oblation. Just think about that about the time of the evening ablation.
And 28 the numbers we have a list of various.
Sacrifices that were to be given throughout the year in Israel's calendar and every time it speaks of us, maybe the Passover example, it'll say beside the morning and the evening sacrifice and it goes on to another special case.
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Beside the morning and the evening sacrifice.
I counted at one time. I if I remember correctly, it was about 14 times besides the morning and the evening sacrifice.
What that would be?
Would it be that we spend some time in the morning with the Lord and spend some time in the evening with the Lord?
The morning and the evening sacrifice what we can apply for ourselves, but I just think in here of Daniel.
Remember when he prayed and was put into the lions, and he was at his windows open toward Jerusalem, in accordance with Solomon's prayer, that if they were carried captive and they prayed toward this house that Solomon had built, as the Lord appeared, answered, and the Lord said yes, I will be agreed with Solomon, he said. I will answer this. The temple had been destroyed.
Daniel still prayed in that direction. His heart is there. He knew that's where the Lord would be if he could be, and he prayed in the direction of that temple. And here is the same thing. The sacrifices had ceased because they were all taken into captivity, and the temple was destroyed and there was no one there to offer sacrifices. But he still thinks in connection with the time of the evening oblation.
This is something like visiting one of these old brothers or sisters in the nursing home and coming away rejoicing because of what they just remarked on or what they enjoyed. Here's Daniel.
Daniel, just thinking about the time of the evening oblation.
I just think there's pressure going to put that out for us to consider, and even in the New Testament we find Cornelius a Gentile.
And the vision that he saw was about the 9th hour.
In the speech of the ninth hours, the hour of prayer, I believe that was the time of the evening oblation.
And here is this Gentile, just so close to the Lord that he knew when he should be praying. And you know that wasn't prayer when the when the vision came to him at the time of the evening of relation.
Now we'll just go on a little bit to see what the Angel says in verse 22. And he informed me and talked with me and said, oh, Daniel, I am now come forth to give these skill and understanding. At the beginning of my supplications the commandment came forth and I have come to show thee.
Thou art greatly to love, therefore understand the matter, and consider the vision, and against that vision of up to 70 weeks. But Daniel.
Has been faithful all along. I believe he could be a great example to us in our day.
Of purpose, of heart, and the result of that things are revealed to him. He sees things in Scripture as he was reading Jeremiah, the prophet. He saw something in Scripture that caused him to confess the fallen confession and to justify God, and to recognize that God not only allowed things, but sent things, and then to fall in that same one for blessing and and rely upon him.
Upon the Lord who set the judgment to be the one who will bring the blessing in the sanctuary, not for our righteousness, but for thy great mercies. But we have a wonderful position, a wonderful portion. And we may be weak, and we may be feeble, and we may be failing, but we have a wonderful resource, don't you? We have a resource in the Lord, and we have that.
Designation of Daniel here, a man grapling beloved.
Wouldn't it be wonderful to hear the Lord say, Well done, good and faithful servant.
A man greatly beloved in the New Testament we have a man of God. Timothy was called a man of God. And then he tells us that if we if we read his word in the Second Timothy 3 the end, it says old man of God. But the man of God may be fully furnished. I believe that's a special designation not applying to every Christian who may be careless about the word of God, but the ones who who read it, who are equipped by being close to the Lord.
I believe that's referring to such a person and just because it says man doesn't leave out the sisters because it's no doubt the generic term for the human race, man or woman or children who are faithful to the Lord and God.
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It would be a wonderful thing to hear that, Hear the Lord say that to refer to.
A woman of God or a man of God?
Child of God for different connotations, but just the thought of being those greatly beloved ones of the Lord because of faithfulness to him and dedication and devotion.
Well I trust the Lord and use that to stir up my own heart and as well as the heart of each one of us here to to continue on. We don't have much time towards coming soon perhaps tonight or as I've often repeated the words of a sister from the Pleasantville that was Scotia meeting. She's with the Lord now, Missus Murphy and she was so enjoying the Lord and and she was enjoying the fact that he would come soon and she said.
Is coming soon. Probably tonight. She didn't say maybe, and she said probably. And I think that's how we should be. Just probably tonight. We probably won't even see the morning the Lord is coming. And that's how real it was when he was murky. He's enjoyed it much.