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Our Present Things and our things to Come and Change His Love. Divine Hymn 177.
We are.
All.
We are praying all.
How are things I'm fears?
Warrior.
Go away.
So.
Slaves with all your sleep.
Save.
Put you to what the Lord gave us yesterday in the reading, I'm encouraged to suggest to our brethren that we continue that subject.
Because, as our brother just prayed, God has given us the equipment to endure and to go on in the scene until we're taken up. So would it be?
$3 versions, 16 on the end, 610 to the end.
Ephesians chapter 6 and verse 10.
Kindly, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the Wiles of the devil.
Before we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places, Wherefore take on you the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, And having done all to stand, stand therefore, having your loins girded ball with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness, and your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace.
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Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.
And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, praying always with all prayer and suffocation in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for All Saints. And for me that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in bonds, if therein I may speak boldly as I ought to speak.
But ye also may know my fears, and how I do. Cheekacus, they, beloved brother, and faithful minister in the Lord, shall make known to you all things whom I have sent unto you, for the same purpose that ye might know our affairs, and that he might come for your hearts. Peace be to the brethren, and love with faith from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace be with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ.
In sincerity.
Amen.
Wander Clam, if you'd tell us again your exercise in bringing us before us.
What part I remember is why is it that Satan has seemed to have gotten so much victory in the last years amongst the Saints?
Well, I just. I just forget. But I believe that's true. I believe that's true. Clam. We feel. I'm sure we're made to feel the.
That the the power of Satan is being manifested increasingly.
Not only in the world, but in Christendom and amongst.
Listening to ourselves as the Saints of God.
Does he see?
Limited He's going to get in every blow that he possibly can.
To seek, to hinder blessing being.
Showered upon the earth, and that he wants.
Men to be kept in darkness.
Conflict is between God and Satan.
And man comes in between.
So he does. Satan does everything he can.
To.
Spoil the joy of the Saints of God and mar the testimony, but we have a full supply that it need not be so. So something must come in on our part that it's broken down so much and there's so much weakness. Are we not using the armor that's given?
Thing to think, is it not claim that the heart is a battleground in a way we can speak in that way between God and Satan, God and Satan?
Reminds us of the children of Israel.
They're down there on the plain.
And there's veil them up there on the height.
Hired to curse the Saints of God.
To rule them, to spoil their if they can't. But God is there. The children of Israel, they didn't know anything about what was going on up there.
But God knew. And God was there, and there it was. There was God and Satan.
And we know that it could only end in the.
In the victory and God's victory and.
We know too, that.
The Lord is going to have the victory in that.
Out of opinion is the most of he said above, didn't it?
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He was looking on to Jesus, who was coming of the line of David, his king, whom he sets upon his throne. But Christ hasn't taken that throne yet. So the mystery of God is that he leaves his people down here in a very wicked world.
Tested and tried, but kept by the power of God through faith under salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time. Now that was spoken here yesterday too. So thank you too claim that the.
Satan is He has a measure of liberty down here in this world. God has allowed it. The Lord Jesus is not here.
He's coming. He's not here yet.
But when he comes.
Power will will end, but for the time being God is allowing Satan to.
To test souls, test man and but it's in the during this time of his absence.
That Satan is seeking to ruin and spoil.
And everything he can of God and Christ.
And but the day is coming when he's going to be cast out.
Going to be cast out of heaven and his end will be in the.
In the bottomless pit.
It's true that Lord Jesus is not here.
But when the Lord Jesus was glorified, the Holy Spirit took His place in the world and the assembly.
And so, though the second person of the Godhead, the Son, is on high at the right hand of the Majesty, the third person of the Godhead inhabits the assembly and is in this world, and he is here as the restrainer of iniquity, until he be taken out of the way. So though the enemy has liberty to exploit, the Holy Spirit is here to resist that exploitation, and we have been given in our portion.
All of the equipment necessary to having done all things, and to endure all of the onslaughts of that evil, 1.
While we're about to have him go back to glory, I mean the Holy Spirit that restrains the evil one, we're about to go back to glory. Then it will be man under the influence of the evil 1. And that's what we know as the tribulation and will be anarchy of the highest sort, the spirit of God gone. Not restraining evil will bring about that awful tribulation when the enemy will again be in conflict for the earth. He's lost heaven.
And he is going to be in conflict with the Lord Jesus for this world.
And the Lord is coming to put that power down when he comes in power and great glory and then?
We will see the complete overthrow of the enemy's power in the world as well as in the heavenly that he now has lost.
To realize that when the enemy is permitted to make incursions amongst the people of God, that God has seen a needs be on the part of his people. And it is helpful for us to realize that it is God that is permitted it and to get into God's presence about it. Mentioned yesterday about Job when he was at the end of the book.
When he really got through to God.
It wasn't a matter of looking at his friends and defending himself from his friends any longer.
His supposed friends, it was a matter of looking directly at God, and then he got matter straight. And I think that's so important brother, in the in the book of Daniel you see Daniel too, and how he felt the ruin that had come in amongst the people of God, and they were.
In captivity in Babylon. And what does he say? In that 9th chapter of Daniel? He confesses the sins of his people as his own sins. He justifies God in allowing what had taken place. And to me there's a great secret in that. There's always a tendency when there are these battles is to defend ourselves. But rather than defending ourselves, it is humbling ourselves in the presence of God.
Realizing that he has something that he has seen in us that needs dealing with and humbling ourselves there. Recognizing his hand and getting back to him in it. Same was mentioned yesterday about AI. When the children of Israel went into the land of Canaan. They were defeated and Joshua was completely discouraged and the Lord said up, what are you doing on your face up?
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There's something that needs to be dealt with and so rather than if the Lord allows incursions, it's for us to get into his presence and saying.
Lord, it's thy hand that's on us, and here we are. We trust in the spirit of humility to learn what He has seen in us that needs to be dealt with, and it's extremely important in this battle of faith. It's what's involved in the breastplate of righteousness. There's been something the Lord has seen that needs to be dealt with right here, and I don't have to point the finger anywhere else.
I can confess it myself.
And is upon us. We need to look deeper because there is a heart behind that hand. There is a heart that guides that hand and and the.
Trial. The trouble. The incursions of the enemy can't go any farther than the heart of God will allow. So we can learn. So there's love. God is love.
But there's God is light now. We're getting light out of this scripture. Light for the eyes, light for the pathway. Light to see what is going on.
And when the enemy comes.
We have the whole armor of God, as with stress yesterday, the whole armor of God, another scripture says Put the on the Lord Jesus Christ, but on all the armor and put on the Lord Jesus Christ.
What you say is good, because it's good to realize when things come in our lives, even under the chastening hand of God, things are allowed not just for a purpose, but for a purpose of blessing, even in chastisement. His ways are for blessing. It says whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth, And it says there, too, that he chastens us for our profit, that we may be partakers of His Holiness. I often chasten my children.
But sometimes when I look back and consider the chastening, I realize that perhaps in the long run it was just to get something for myself. Maybe they were noisy and I was trying to read or do something and I told them to be quiet and maybe they came under my chastening hand. That wasn't for their prophet. In that sense, it was just to get something for myself. But God, everything that is allowed in our lives is for a purpose of blessing. We may not see the fruition of it all now, but when we get home to glory and we look back on the pathway.
We're going to see it all. Because when Israel finally crossed the wilderness and looked back, what did they have to admit as they rehearsed the wilderness journey? He led us by the right way. That's not what they said when they came under the governmental hand of God in the wilderness. They murmured and complained and wondered why God had LED them into the wilderness, to kill them with hunger and thirst and all that kind of thing. But when they finally reviewed it from God's perspective, they said he led us by the right way. They realized that those things that God had allowed in the wilderness were really.
For their blessing, and I believe that's the way we're going to view it in a coming day. But, brethren, the enemy is not going to give up as long as we're here in this world. We're here in a world where we're in the school of God. We come under the governmental hand of God and the enemy as has already been brought out as opposed to everything that God has set up and established. I've often said there were two great institutions that God set up and established. The first was the family for the blessing of man on the earth, and the second was the assembly.
And if Satan can get us discouraged as individuals, then it affects our family life. And if he can discourage us as families, and if things are out of order in the family, then it ultimately affects the assembly and Satan is busy to smash those things. Just look at our history. Is there ever a day when the family, and not just the family but the Christian home is being attacked the way it is in the day in which we live? Satan is busy and active as the end draws night as he listens to us, ministering the word of speaking from the word of God here Speaking of the Lord's coming, singing of the Lord's coming in the nearness of his return.
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He's busy. He's accelerating his activity to smash and ruin the testimony. But, brethren, the wonderful thing is that God always makes provision to the very end. When God sets up and institutes something, there's always provision for a day of ruin and weakness. Never excuse for failure, but provision for it. I may set up an institute something. Maybe I set up a trust fund for one of my children, but I may never be able to bring it to fruition. I may run out of the resources to bring it to the purpose for which I intended.
But when God sets up and institute something, we have the unsearchable riches of Christ and full provision to the to go on to the very end. I think it was mentioned yesterday that Timothy, in days of appalling ruin and failure, the breakdown in government, in the home, even in the assembly, what was he told to do? To just give up or compromise in some way, continue thou in the things that thou hast learned and been assured of. In other words, Paul says. Timothy, the resource is the same.
The truth hasn't changed. If I give up the truth, that doesn't change. The truth, the truth doesn't change. And so we can go on, as we've been saying in these meetings, realizing and being encouraged with the fact that God, even though the enemy, is busy and busier than ever, God makes provision for us, brethren, to the very end. And he'll do the same tomorrow if we're left here until we're safe home in the glory.
After Jericho and AI in The History of Joshua was Gibeon.
And it says they did work violently. That fits with what we've got here in the end of verse 11, that he may be able to stand against the Wiles of the devil.
Seems like in these last days of Christendom that there's so much of imitation. It's not real, and not just in the Great House, but imitations.
Particularly in the eastern world with a Muslim religion is taken over.
To a great extent, and creeping into the West.
It's just an imitation from start to finish. The God of the Mohammedans is not our God.
And Mohammed, called their prophet, is not Christ.
The Christ of God is known in this book, but Satan has made a masterpiece in the Muslim religion. It's an imitation from start to finish, and many that profess to be Christians think that Muhammad is God is our God, but he's not. You have to watch out. It's it's a wily thing, and there's so much of that Eastern.
Those Eastern old religions that Satan is dressing up and presenting, where Christianity is quite strong and we have to be on guard. Finally, me and my brother be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. That's the only way we can stand and we're.
We're not to turn around and go the other way. We're not to fear.
We've got the Holy Spirit in US and with us. Greater He does in you than He does in the world. But there are the emissaries of Satan.
And I believe there's lots of demons.
And back in those early years of Mohammedanism, it was God's judgment upon the West, upon the upon the unfaithful Church God, judgment upon idolatry. And they were allowed to sweep across Africa and even enter Europe through Spain.
And it will be a judgment. It will be in the coming day. We learn from revelation. There will be the judgment.
Of God against the West.
And the giving up of this the West have been so greatly blessed under the gospel of the Gospel of the Grace of God crossover, but that it hasn't been appreciated. And in a way Christianity is on its way out.
And far as the world is concerned, but I was thinking here we have on we're told to have on the whole armor of God.
Not to leave any part out. If we do, Satan will get the advantage. Satan will get the advantage we think of. Have on the whole have on the breastplate of of righteousness. Well, if there's anything in my life.
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That is not right with God.
Satan is sure to get the advantage. Supposing people will say, perhaps our neighbor will say well.
They understand that maybe he wasn't very He wasn't.
There was something wrong in his business dealings, they say. Well, he's no better than we are and Satan will use that.
In order to nullify the the the truth of the gospel, in order to win, win them for Christ. So we're called to have on the whole armor of God.
Every part of it.
I remember reading, I think it was in the collected writings, where Mr. Darby said what is the armor of God?
And a very simple answer he gave was a right state of soul.
Something to think about, because it is practical things, and if we're in the right state of soul, I believe indeed we do have on the whole armor of God.
What he said.
Is a status off and so that's they are all a state of soul, but I was thinking that these were.
Might be some difference here. You take Paul. He's in prison, he's in a trial, he's writing this epistle. But I believe at the same time he had on the whole armor of God, he was saying rejoice in the Lord. And again I say rejoice. He was enjoying the land, wasn't he? The heavenly land. So it's a bit different than just being in a trial. This is a foregone conclusion that if there's a ***** in your armor, you're going to get a fiery dart from the devil.
So, and that's the purpose I believe, of this armor we, I think in our day.
Because of our ways we don't enjoy these truths that we have in the book of Ephesians. It's because of our state of soul I believe. But he's telling us this is the way to enjoy heavenly things in the. I think it's a second verse of Joshua one you get the 2 foot rule.
You get the land that your foot walks on.
And so I believe it's the same thing in the Epistle to the Ephesians. So this armor is something that we could be in a trial and still have on.
These different elements of the armor, if we look at it this way, would point out the areas in which we are the most vulnerable to fail.
And I think we should look at these different parts of the armor in that sense, so that we each learn where we are potentially going to fail in our Christian walk. In other words, I think God has given us here and he's made it very plain, as we've had before us, the whole armor of God. So we could enumerate as we look at these different elements of the armor, those things that we should be sensitive to, we should be aware of if we want to have a walk.
That honors the Lord.
That will be a blessing to ourselves.
So the very thought of the whole armor, I'm not suggesting how to go on from that myself. But I think that for ourselves here, as we consider this portion, that we look at each one of these elements and think of it in a practical way. For our own walk, in our ways that we might walk for the Lord and be of use, you might say, because we each have that responsibility. As we read at the end of this chapter, Paul referred to himself as an ambassador in bonds.
But where each one called to be an ambassador for Christ as we go through this scene. So I just like to suggest that we look at each one of these elements and think of it in our own lives and in our own practical way so that we can fully walk and stand for Christ. That's really the answer. Verse 13 isn't it? It's an exhortation take unto you the whole armor of God. It's something that has to be done by each one.
Do I have my Lawrence gird about with Truth?
I have the breastplate of righteousness on. They are my feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. Each one of us need to reflect in the Lord's presence about these matters in a practical way. It's not enough to sit in meetings and learn what these mean. It's stopping and saying, is this something that is practical in my own life? That's what it means. Take unto you the whole armor of God.
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Could we say that if we do fail in these things, and we certainly do.
That the way to put on this armor is go back to Gilgal self judgment. And I would imagine that if one can speak for others since we've heard from the first address we've had to go back to Gilgal and where we've seen that some of this armor has been defective. You know this first piece of art mentioned here that is the loins girt about with truth isn't.
In itself a piece of armor. But the loins, as I understand they allowed their garments to flow when they were at ease, but that was no good for warfare. So they would gird up those loins. They wouldn't allow those flowing garments, as it were. So the contrast of what we have here is seeking out, as it were, more the path of ease.
Now that's an exercise to my heart, and perhaps it is to most of us here, that there is such a tendency to day. In fact, it's very strong in a in the prosperous countries to seek out, as it were, more the path of ease, And as a result we're not exercised as we ought to be about the truth. So I believe the loins girt about with truth indicate a readiness of preparedness, as it were, to face the battle.
And to be ready for the conflict.
Going back to Gilgal, that you're speaking figuratively, will you please explain it? Well, I believe it's. I believe that one said that it was a necessary aspect of going on with God is self judgment. These things come into my life and I might try to avoid them, but it's to go before the Lord and and to confess them and to say Lord. That's that's right. I did that.
And and then.
Communion is restored. We can't go on without communion. You know truth won't keep us. It's it's nice, you know, we value the truth that God has brought back to the Church.
By just talking to a man on a phone and and he said, well look how quickly the church gave up the truth. Well it was probably 100 years when the apostles passed off the scene. Rather we're not even 200 years.
From the place that God has brought all this back to us, and we have the experience of Catholicism and the and the Dark Ages and what all this Christianizing the world has done to the Church. They lost almost everything. God has brought her all back in His mercy and His grace. We're only 200 years, and we're just a handful.
So I believe that what you're saying it's self judgment. It's getting before the Lord.
And we need to get before the Lord. We cannot go on without a sense of His presence.
Victory in Israel. They had to renew the Kingdom, go to Gilgal, prepare sharp knives to cut off the flash. And we need that brethren, if there's a victory in our lives, to go back, to realize that the victory is because the Lord gave it to us. It's not anything of ourselves. And like you say, to judge ourselves is really the way of continued victory. It's important, extremely important.
Pain inside of Gordon of Jordan, right? Perhaps someone will give us a word on what is the meaning, the typical meaning, then, of crossing the Jordan about it.
You go ahead.
God, I trust some of our younger brethren have explored the precious truth that has been preserved for us at the crossing of the Red Sea sets before us in figure our coming and being delivered from judgment and coming into peace with God.
But when we experience peace with God, this just sets us on the journey.
That will end in glory, but to get into the enjoyment.
Are these heavenly things that Christianity and the falling epistles particularly, has been revealed? We must come to an end of self, and we do that by realizing not only that Christ died for our sins, to put our sins away, but Christ died for me to put me away. The old man has been crucified so that God now has absolutely no dealings with Adam.
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And Adam's race? The only connection that a man can have with God now is in new creation.
And connected with the Lord Jesus Christ in resurrection, and so the entering in by faith to the simple expression.
That Christ died for me as he died for my sins gives me peace.
Realizing that he died for me and put myself as a natural man forever out of the picture.
I can, in the energy and power of the Spirit of God, explore and enjoy the heavenly things.
Which is the crossing of the Jordan coming into the good of the death of the Lord Jesus Christ.
To put away the first man to enable me to enjoy the new creation and the energy and power of the Spirit of God.
Someone else may be able to add to that.
Peace in our souls until we come to that point again, to put it very simply.
In the Red Sea I see the end of my sins, but in the Jordan I see the end of sin, that is at the cross he condemned sin in the flesh. The new man, if I can speak carefully, is not a touch up of the old man. The axe is laid at the root of the tree, because it's the root of man that's bad. And so to see this the end of myself. That's why the man in Romans he never got deliverance. He had a struggle until he came to the point of two things.
He began to get deliverance when he said it is no more I but sin that dwelleth in me. That is, he said I still sin, but he said God doesn't see me in that way. It's no more I God sees me in a complete new standing in Christ and in all the perfection of that blessed one.
Of course he never got complete deliverance till he said who shall deliver me, Because he found that it was in a person just for the sake of the young people. I remember my reading years ago, Grace abounding to the Chief of Sinners by John Bunyan, and I hadn't read it for some years, but my wife picked it up some time ago off our bookshelf and read it, and I was surprised at how many times she commented during the reading of that book at how unhappy a man John Bunyan was. And yet he was a man greatly used of God in England.
So when she was finished reading the book, I picked it up and read it again, and I realized that he was an unhappy man. Even though he saw the end of his sins, he never saw the end of John Bunyan and spent his whole life fighting what he called the Holy War, struggling with the old nature and not realizing what God had done with it. Again, if you read his book, Pilgrim's Progress, you'll find that there was a man there who was carrying his bundle of sins.
And he came to the cross, and as the story goes, his bundle of sins rolled off into the tomb, and he went on his way a saved man. But if that man had rolled into the tomb with his bundle of sins and come out in resurrection, he would have been John Bunyan, would have been a happy Christian, if he'd only realized that at the cross he condemned sin in the flesh. And so we can never really enter into the good of our heavenly portion, all that is ours in Christ as seated with him positionally in heavenly places, and all that is brought before us in the beginning of this book.
Which, as we've often been told, and rightly so, corresponds in type to what the type is in the book of Joshua, will never fully enter into the good of that down here until we come to this point and see that we are not not only as Christ died for us, but we are dead and risen with Christ.
Isn't it with Christ our Death? With Christ the Dread Sea?
We have died in him, or he has died for us for or with. I was thinking then, dear Brad, we had something about the peace of God going on to this.
The 15th verse and your feet jawed with the preparation of the gospel of peace. Now a number of times God has spoken of as the God of peace, as the God of peace, And that's what grace is. Grace brings us into that which is of himself, and this we have.
Through the work of Christ, peace. And so as we are at our privilege to go through this world.
Ruined and throw an enemy's land, we go through it in peace.
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And carry something of that peace in our own souls as we.
Go through as you meet others, carry with them that peace, that same peace.
Of which is an act which is of God himself, the peace of God in our souls, and carry with him, carry with us, have our feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace.
Talking about how making it practical, what some situation in life you give us one? Well, I was thinking of the Apostle Paul.
There he was as a prisoner. And when he was before Felix.
And before those, great.
There he was before those great men of the Roman Empire. Yet he was.
A dear humble man. And yet he was in he was in positive peace. He he moved through those scenes. And isn't it so that it was just a reflection of his blessed Lord Jesus? We think of the Lord Jesus there in the garden with with a cross and and all that was before him. He went through it anticipatedly.
All of it, he could say. Now is my sole trouble and.
When we think of the agony, his agony in the garden.
And his sweat wases were great drops of blood falling down to the ground. There he was going through it all what he had before him, yet he was in perfect peace. He goes through all those scenes. And when finally he's standing before the high priest, before the Sanhedrin, and then when he's before Pilate, he's a man of perfect peace. He's well. This is what this is. The same peace that God would give you and me in our souls to enjoy. Is that right, brother?
I think so. I'd like to just add something Someone said. Well, why is Satan so busy trying to get us from enjoying these things? And I would like to just suggest that I feel that there's only two beings that God ever created that can respond to him, the angels and man.
That makes you to be a that makes you to be a very important being, just to be a man. Animals can't respond to God's heart. Only people can.
And so man has fallen. So that means, brethren, that only redeemed can respond. Do you realize how solemn a thought that is, that only we can answer to the heart of God, Only we can enjoy the things that He has given us?
What an affront to God to not respond to these things. So Satan is busy. He does not want you to respond to these things.
There is in this book we find out that we were chosen out in him before the foundation of the world.
You are not just an ordinary person, even as a man.
You are part of those that God has chosen before the foundation of the world.
And we're nothing in ourselves. But in Christ, no one has been blessed like a believer, and so why is Satan so busy wanting you to not enjoy these things?
Because it's a, it's a direct.
Assault on the Son of God.
Two of the farthest away, back into a place of the closest, the closest to God, we who are far off.
Those who are the farthest away God is brought into the place of the nearness, which is the nearness.
That any, any creature ever was, ever could be.
Doesn't it? It's a matter of our what I think it's extremely important to see that it's the preparation of the gospel of peace. It doesn't say shod with the gospel of peace. It's the preparation of the gospel of peace. The way we walk, brethren, is important. It prepares the way for the gospel of peace.
You've heard the statement. I'm sure the way you act speaks so loud I can't hear what you say.
That would be said about a person who is not shot with the preparation of the gospel of peace. And so our walk is important to have our feet shod in such a way that we commend the gospel of peace. We fail in this, remember distinctly one particular individual.
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And I had not been careful with the way I was acting. And when the time came when there was an opportunity to speak the gospel of that person, I felt that my mouth was shut because of my lack of acting in the right way. That's a lack of being shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. The way you walk is important. We need to shod put the on the shoes of the gospel, of the preparation of the gospel.
Is that another 2 foot rule?
I think all that and that is not only to walk in such a way, and this is absolutely essential, and it what I'm about to say is certainly not to distract from that, but it's not only to walk so as to commend.
Ourselves to the conscience of those who hear the gospel. But it's to walk in the moral state, as it were brought before us, to be ready to announce the gospel of peace we are given to know the grace of God.
And he said we should our speech should always be with grace, seasoned with salt that we may be written.
Able to give an answer to every man that asks us the reason for the hope that is in us with meekness and fear. So the preparedness is also a readiness to do it.
I believe Paul practicing what he preached, was he not. For instance, he said, I'm not mad, but speak forth the words of sobriety and truth. You know, he returned honor to that man. When Paul could have said a critical thing to him, and also to King Agrippa, he said, I would to God that thou were both almost and altogether such as I am, except this chain, you know, and what gracious things when you consider that. And Paul said that the things that happened to me happened rather for the furtherance of the gospel.
So his whole attitude, no matter what his circumstances were, he was shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. And that's what we're talking about. It's a practical thing and he it doesn't say that people were getting saved, but it was just that there was not anything to hinder in his conduct and behavior.
We're ready to March out of Egypt. They were not only to have their loins gird, but they were to have shoes on their feet.
And so here it's our feet shod, because I believe shoes would bring before us perhaps at least three things. One, it speaks of separation. As we go through this world, we need to walk in separation from the evil around us. If we're going to be a true testimony for Christ, we're going to have to walk in separation.
So we put shoes on our feet when we go outside, and our children when they come in from playing outdoors, we make sure they take off those shoes at the doors because those shoes have picked up the dirt and the mud from playing outside. They take off their shoes and their feet are clean and they come into the house. So it would speak of separation. I believe it would also speak of power because it says of Asher in the end of Deuteronomy, let him dip his foot in oil and oil is often a type of the spirit of God in scripture.
It speaks to us, I believe, of what we have in Galatians, walking in the Spirit. And then it says, as a result of that thy shoes shall be as iron. That's power, and as brass that's endurance. Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, and as thy days so shall thy strength be. But then I believe too, has been brought out. It speaks of our testimony. And I was thinking how in Philippians chapter 2 and verse 15 it says that ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation.
Among whom he shine as lights in the world. And so we're left here as a testimony that in the 15th verse is the life we live. And the very next verse, the 16th verse, says holding forth the word of life. That's the words that we speak. And young people, as you go to school and work, you can't speak as a testimony for Christ if your life isn't consistent with what you're saying. We have the perfect example of the Lord Jesus, who was the fine flower. It says in the beginning of Acts. It says of all that Jesus began both to do.
And to speak everything he did was in perfect harmony with what he spoke, so that at the end of his pathway they had to bring false witnesses against him. They had to confess. This man hath done nothing amiss, Pilot said. I find no fault in him. Everything he did and said was in complete harmony.
00:50:07
And so he's left us an example that we should follow in his footsteps. And if we're going to speak as a testimony for Christ in this world, I say our life must be inconsistent, must be consistent with what we say, Because if it's not, we're only going to bring reproach on the name of Christ. How often have we heard of those who say, well, I wouldn't want any part of Christianity, if that's what Christianity is. I don't want any part of that. Why do they say that, brethren? It ought to exercise us. We're epistles, known and read of all men. And they say that because they find something.
Inconsistent in my life. Something that I'm doing is that is not consistent with what I'm saying.
And so we ought to have our feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of God. And it's wonderful to be ready to always give an answer of the hope that is in us to those that ask wonderful to speak for Christ. But, brethren, our testimony for Christ will only be in the measure in which our walk is consistent with what we say.
Heard that in this verse. It doesn't say the preparation of the gospel of salvation, but it says the gospel of peace. And I'm sure, as we well know and all agree that every word of scripture is important. So why is it the gospel of peace? Well, my thought is that man by his basic fallen nature is estranged from God.
And reconciliation with God brings peace. That is the only source of peace.
And that's really what the gospel is, is to bring man back to God and to bring peace. And one thing that's always thrilled me is to think that the first words the Lord said to the assembled disciple disciples after his resurrection was peace. That was the first word that he said was peace. And in the salutation of all of the epistles, it always says peace. And so we're called upon for peace, and of other people can see in US peace.
That speaks to their hearts. I remember a man at work. In fact he was a Jewish man, and another brother and I had lunch together all the time, and I guess it was known that we were Christians. I was a new Christian at that time and I remember him coming to us and saying, is it possible to have peace in this life? And of course we then told him about the Lord Jesus, and that was very hard for him to accept, being a Jew, but Christ being the only source of peace.
So I just like to emphasize that here that it is the gospel of peace. And so in our own lives, if we're going to be shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace, we have to demonstrate to this world that we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
That those that were at the greatest distance had been brought into the nearest place conceivable, And in the second chapter of this epistle it says that he came and preached peace to those that were far off.
Well, he can do that because in Colossians one it tells us that he made peace by the blood of his cross.
The peace having been preached, then by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, and that which we preach is the gospel of peace. The Apostle Paul speaks of being an ambassador in bonds. Ye are ambassadors for Christ, beseeching men in Christ's dead be reconciled to God.
He had committed unto us that ministry of reconciliation, so that in Christ said we make this appeal.
To those with whom he come in contact. But we make that appeal out of a life of consistency and walk in peace, so that there is that evidence that what we say bears real fruit in a practical way.
We're going on to a scene where God is All in all, and he's the God of peace.
Oh, that'd be a wonderful, wonderful, shall I say, surprise. But it'll be something so wonderful to leave this world of of confusion and sorrow and disappointment, and to enter into that place, into the presence of God, who is the God of peace. God is going to have a scene which is perfectly answerable to what He is in himself. All those blessed attributes of God, all that he is, this will be heaven.
It'll be God will find his perfect rest in everything in you and me and in Christ.
And in you and me, and in that whole scene of glory, which will answer to all that he is, he is the God of peace. But by grace we're still down here in this world, and he gives us to it, gives us that same peace to enjoy down here and to display to others.
00:55:12
Really a little practical application of being shod.
With the preparation of the gospel of peace. And what I mean is this, being shod with something is wearing something on my feet that protects me.
That's part of the armor to have something that protects me from this world's defilement.
And I was thinking of Moses or of Abram in Genesis chapter 14.
After he goes out to a battle and he wins that battle and he delivers his brother lot, he comes back.
And two kings meet him, the king of Sodom and the king of Melchizedek, Melchizedek, king of Salem.
That is very interesting that the king of Sodom tries to make a bargain.
With Abram.
He says, Give me the persons.
You keep all the goods, you keep all the spoil of your victory, but give me the persons or the souls.
And I think that the answer of Abram is both lovely and very instructive for this thought of.
Being shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace, Abram says. I won't take from a thread.
To a shoe ratchet, lest the world say that you've made me rich.
Well, you know, a shoe line. She isn't going to make me very rich. Is there something wrong with taking something from the world as insignificant as a shoestring?
The danger is that we're talking about wearing armor to protect against the Wiles.
Of Satan.
And beloved brethren, if I take something as insignificant from this world as a shoe latchet.
At some point in my walk, that shoe latch, it's going to break and my shoes are going to fall off. You know, Brother Jim was talking about we come into the house, we take our shoes off and our feet have been protected from the defilement. But if we have allowed even a shoe latchet from the world, the shoe is going to come off before we get into the house. And we're going to be picking up defilement from the world before we ever get into the house. And we're going to become defiled. And it's such an insignificant little thing, but it's a while.
And the same can be said for a thread. And we perhaps won't go into that. But, brother, all of us, let's not be deceived. Satan works with the very most tiny, insignificant things. We talked about a ***** in our armor and one fiery dart getting through a *****. We take a shoe latch from the world. We take a thread from the world.
And it's not so much that.
We are unable to.
Preach the gospel or proclaim the gospel. But that thing that we have taken relying on from the world, whether it's a thread or a shoe latch, it fails.
And the armor comes off.
And when the armor comes off, then we fall and pray to the Wiles of Satan. I just say, brethren, let's be concerned that as we shod, see that we're shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace, that we don't have a shoelace from the world helping us keep that on our feet. It'll never last. In other words, let's walk through this world without the world's health. Abram did. And what a answer, What an example of faith he left us.
Have these things have practically failed the question that I would like to ask?
Solemn question. Why is it rather than? When I look through the list of gatherings, I find the gospel meaning substitute of the reading meaning.
When I go to a small assembly, and maybe it is in much weakness, but at least on a fairly regular basis, there is a gospel meeting held because, brethren, the Saints need to hear the gospel. It's the ground of all our blessing. When we come on Lords the morning to remember the Lord, what are we remembering? Why, we're looking back to Calvary. We're remembering that time when the Lord Jesus went to the cross and in obedience and love offered himself without spot to God.
01:00:07
We're remembering that time when he made peace, but through the blood of his cross. But, brethren, we also need to hear the gospel, because again, it takes us back to Calvary. And when we get home to glory, what is going to be the theme of our eternal song? Why the blood of Christ that has redeemed us out of every kindred and tongue and people and nation? And we're going to be occupied with a lamb freshly slain. We're never going to forget for all eternity what the Lord Jesus has done for us. And I fear this.
That the that the Saints who do not hear the gospel on a regular basis in the meeting room or from A and that is a good, sound gospel, they're hearing it somewhere else. They're listening to it somewhere else. And I'm speaking very plainly, and perhaps they're hearing that, which is.
A part of the truth. But if I can put it this way, I don't know how else to put it. Perhaps they're hearing what we might call a watered down gospel. Maybe there is the truth there, but there's other things introduced, and so we need to have our hearts refreshed. We sat here as the people of God last night and we heard the gospel of the grace of God where our hearts refreshed. Brethren, if our hearts aren't encouraged in hearing the simple gospel story, then we ought to get down on our knees and examine our state of soul. I like the way the hymn writer put it.
I love to tell the story for those who know it best seem hungering and thirsty to hear it like the rest. And when in scenes of glory I sing the new new song, twill be the old old story that I have loved so long, brethren, are our hearts refreshed. Do our hearts thrill when we hear the gospel? It's true we need to go on and enjoy the things of God in a deeper and fuller way and enter into those things, But we need to go back and sometimes said to my children.
When they're first born, they drink milk and only milk, and as they get older, they're introduced to solid food. And as we've got older, we need solid food. We need meat and good solid food, but we never give up milk entirely. Maybe it's in a little different form even, but we still need milk in our diet.
We still need to go back and be refreshed by that milk, that those fundamental principles and truths concerning our blessing. Let me just clarify one word that our brother has said. He used the expression the watered down gospel.
A watered down gospel is that having taken a shoe ratchet from the world.
And connected it with the precious truth of God.
Another thing for me is that I believe many well meaning Christians are sidetracked by so many issues. Now, of course we need to know where we stand as far as abortion is concerned and things of that sort. But to enter into all of that conflict, I do not believe we have our feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. It makes Christianity obnoxious to the world when they're pressing into so many things like this.
And I think of that verse in the Psalms there where it says Egypt was glad when Israel departed. You know they'll be glad to have a Christian out of this world. We cramped their style. But faithful Christians, I believe, would be even more so. But when they enter into the issues of the world, it really brings reproach upon the gospel.
Through 16 goes on, brethren, and it'd be nice to get into it a bit to something that seems extremely important because it says above all.
Taking the shield of faith. What's going on, brother?
I was thinking Brother Bob, that just a little thought of few verses Previous to this the Apostle Paul has been giving instructions to servants, to children, to husbands, to wives. And then he summarizes and he says, and I think it's very important in verse 11 or verse 10 for the rest brethren. And then he goes on, well, you know, if you and I, brethren are going to walk in this world.
As a servant, if that's what the Lord has called us to.
To his glory. We're going to need the armor of God as much to do that for his glory as if he's called us to something else. And it's going to take faith, isn't it, To walk pleasing to the Lord as a servant of the way that he brings before us? He says Servants be obedient to them that be your masters.
01:05:01
Well, I better know what it is, as our brother Bob has brought out the importance of this verse above all.
So I'm going to be obedient and thus pleased, and glorify the Lord Jesus, because Satan is going to seek to attack a servant as much as he as anyone else if they belong to Christ.
And a servant who belongs to Christ, who is not serving faithfully, will be a dishonor to the Lord Jesus as much as a king.
Who belongs to Christ and yet is not serving faithfully well. We need this shield of faith, don't we? Whatever position we're in, we need that that we can go on for His glory, and we need that armor and whatever and whatever circumstances were found in yesterday.
That whatsoever is not a faith is sin, and we all know that. But what does that mean?
What it means is if you're acting and you're not acting in faith, then you're acting in your own thoughts, your own will, and that's not God's will. And if it's not God's will, there's no power there. And so that's why this is absolutely essential. That faith is that shield. It's that shield. And you know, a shield is a mobile thing. It's not like something else that you might have in the armor as you stand, but you can move that shield around as these fiery darts come from different directions.
None of our lives are exactly the same. None of us face the same questions that come before us and work, or in our neighborhood, or wherever. But if we're grounded in all of God's wonderful promises for us, and His promises are yay and Amen, and we use God's word, then we have that shield and we can use it in any application. We don't read about television in this book, do we? But we know what the principles are. The lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh. That's what comes from television.
But if we have this book and we know it, and we trust the Lord to undertake for us, we believe all His promises that we can cast all our cares upon Him. There isn't any question that comes in our lives that we can't bring before Him that is walking in faith.
And that's not sin. But if we use our own logic if our own.
Thoughts. Our own desires? Not according to God? Then it's not going to be that shield, is it?
So it's believing God, It's believing his promises and using those promises as that shield.
Mother broke down on.
God had said something. Satan comes along, says Hath. God said. Do you believe what God said?
In a simple way, one of these these fiery darts of Satan, they come from many different directions. Satan often he's in an ambush and he throws these darts. And I was thinking oftentimes the connection with dear young young people perhaps haven't been saved very long. Satan Joseph dart and says, oh you're not saying you, you're not, you're, you're, you're not saved, you're. Well this is the dark a fiery dark thing. Well, how good it is though to have the the word of God and to know that I can. I remember old Mr. Gill telling us, speaking one time he says I tell Mister devil he says, Mr. Devil. He says I've served you long enough. I belong to Christ now.
I'm his cleanse me by his precious blood he's bought me. I belong to him.
So now and so This is one way of using the shield of faith, isn't it? To quench the fiery darts of the wicked wicked one. The wicked one, I believe.
Faith comes by hearing and by the word of God, and it's a nice day. People talk about faith in a nebulous sort of way, but the faith of God is always based on the word of God.
And I think it's important to see that it's not based on what I think or what somebody has said, but it's what God has said that the shield of faith can be raised upon. And we've been talking, it's been suggested that there are ****** in our armor. I don't suppose we could say that the armor of God has ****** in it, but perhaps we don't have it all on properly and maybe there are ****** there, but this is a movable thing. And those fiery darts.
Like you mentioned, our doubts that the enemy tries to throw at us, to get us off guard and to weaken us. It was mentioned Eve in the Garden of Eden. What was Satan's tactic with her was to throw a doubt at her. Yeah, hath God said, And then a little later on he directly contradicted God in saying thou shalt not surely die. He threw a fiery dart and she allowed it in she did not have.
01:10:15
The shield of faith up, but how important that is in our lives.
Sometimes they rather than you can write question marks all over my person that don't write question marks on God and His word. Never do it. Dear young people, if it's a question of what your school teachers say and what this book says, believe this book. Believe it always. Whether you understand it completely or not is not the question. It is a matter of believing this book. That is the shield of faith.
Satan comes and I must say that that happened to me in my youth, Uncle Flem, when I was young. And and Satan would come and say, you're not really a Christian you just think you are. And I found peace and simply taking a scripture. I said believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. And I hung on to that scripture and that ground that fiery dark could not get in.
Fell to the ground. Sometimes things go wrong in our lives and we, like Jacob, might say all these things are against me. But the Scripture says if God be for us, who can be against us? And we raise the shield of faith on the ground of the scriptures and those fiery darts can't get in. It's important to do again. I say young people, if it's what I say, you can have questions about it. You're justified perhaps, in questioning what I may say.
But when it's God that speaks and His word, never allow a doubt to come into your mind about it. Never allowed. That's the fiery darts of the enemy that tries to weaken us. Always on the ship going to Rome and looked like for all appearances, it looked like they were going to go down to the bottom of the ocean. But an Angel of God had stood by him and spoken to him.
And Paul stands up in the middle of that storm. Perfect peace in his soul. He says, Fear not, for I believe God. You have a choice of times in your life to either believe the circumstances or to believe God. I want to encourage you to lift the shield of faith. Believe God, Don't believe circumstances, their appearance.
Circumstances will change, and our God is the God who controls circumstances.
Believe God, and you'll find that you will be protected from those fiery darts, those doubts that the enemy wants to throw at us and get us weakened and fallen on the battlefield of faith.
To the Roman Saints of the obedience of faith.
To all nations. And we've had brought before us how that the Lord Jesus Christ.
Is our perfect example in all of everything. And when he had the fiery darts of the wicked hurled at him, it was the word of God.
That he was able to quench all of the fiery darts of the wicked. We have been taught that there is an answer in this book for every issue of life, and so when we act in faith, as has been said in obedience to this book.
The fiery darts of the wicked are absolutely futile. The Word of God refutes every challenge. It's true that he uses doubt, but he uses challenges. Cast Thyself down if they'll be the Son of God. Challenging. Or certainly he was the Son of God. The enemy recognized that. And certainly he could have cast himself down, but not in obedience to the Word of God. And so he would not act without a word from God in anything, And so the shield of faith.
Acting in obedience to what God has revealed to us in His Word enables us to render.
Absolutely powerless. Those challenges and those doubts, those fiery darts that the wicked one would hurl at us.
As that Uranus Lee contend for the faith once delivered unto the Saints, I believe that links.
The thought of faith with the whole word of God, the whole deposit of truth. And I was thinking too, you know, Elijah was used in a mighty way that was a great victory at Carmel. And I believe there is a special danger at times like that. And so the fiery dart of the wicked came through, you know, by means of Jezebel, when she says, thy life tomorrow be as one of those prophets, you know. And it immediately intimidated him. And he went off.
01:15:27
Way off. And he exposed himself when he said I'm not better than my father's. Well, did he think he was? You know, our hearts are very deceitful and we need to really stay near the Lord and judge anything of that sort that creeps into our hearts. Or we can certainly lay ourselves open for the fire darts of the wicked.
Lord Jesus who went to the Jordan and was baptized of John in the Jordan.
When he comes up out of the water, then he sees the Spirit of God.
Descending in the form of a dove and an abode upon him. And then we get the Father's voice, saying, Thou art my beloved Son, and thee is all my delight. Thou my beloved Son. Well then, immediately after that he's driven of the into the wilderness by the Spirit of God, taken into the wilderness. And there Satan meets him. And he says, if thou be the Son of God, he says, command that these stones be made bread. Satan was there throwing that dart. The Lord was no doubt he was hungry. Sure he was. He was natural.
But St. was there to throw in a, perhaps in a human way at a very weak time. And that's when Satan often scores, is when we are weak and a time of weakness. And but Satan beatily takes up that blessed words of of God the Father. And he says, if thou be the Son of God, he says command that these stones be made bread and so on. Oh how what a wily Foley is. But how did the Lord meet him? He met him with the word of God. And that's what we had this afternoon, so much the word of God.
He met him with the word of God, and Satan was powerless. Satan was powerless.
Testimony of set to his seal that God is true. And that's really what faith is. It's simply taking God at his word. And I've appreciated what has been brought out concerning first of all the first recorded words of Satan in the Old Testament. Half God said immediately, trying to raise a doubt in the minds of the mind of Eve as to whether what had God really said. This was this really what God had said, raising a doubt as to the spoken word of God And then when the Lord Jesus came.
As the living Word, immediately trying to raise a doubt as to if he was really the one that he said he was. If thou be the Son of God. And I believe, brethren, that the great attempt of the enemy is to raise a doubt in the mind, in our minds as to the word of God. But we need to take that Word of the Word of God, and rest upon it, not only read it, but to rest upon the Word of God. Has God said it? Is it the truth of God? It says, cast not away, therefore thy confidence.
Such as great recompense of reward. And you see it over and over in the history of Israel in the wilderness.
When he sums up their history in the 106th Psalm, it says they believed his word and sang his praises.
What was the joy in Israel's hearts? Why did they sing? Because they rested simply on the word of God. But it says also later on in that Psalm they believe not his word but murmured in their tents. And we've heard the expression before. It's not certainly not original, but we can be unbelieving believers. I often think of it with with Thomas, because we often speak of doubting Thomas. But if you read the account there carefully, it was more than just doubt in Thomas's heart, he said. Except I see, I will not believe.
Now Thomas was one of the Lord's own, and later on Thomas did see and believe, but his heart at that time was filled with unbelief. That was the fiery dart of the of the of the enemy. To fill the heart of Thomas with unbelief. Brethren, we need to be careful that we don't become unbelieving believers, because the joy in our hearts and the power in our lives comes when we rest solely on the word of God. And it says all the promises of God in him are yay and in him Amen, to the glory of God.
Another example, I think of Paul and Silas in prison in Philippi, and I've often wondered what I might have been doing in that situation. I probably would have been questioning God's direction, saying, well Lord, I thought, I got a vision to come over here and help someone. And what good am I doing with my feet fast in the stalks and my back bleeding. Is that what they did? No. They lifted the shield of faith. They rested on God's word and there was such joy in their hearts that at the darkest hour, at midnight, they prayed and sang praises. And what was the result?
01:20:16
Why? The jailer got saved. The prisoners heard them. There was a real testimony because they rested on the word of God, and that joy shone forth and there was blessing. Well, brethren, we can go through the circumstances like that. Maybe It is sometimes hard to rest on the word of God. We say, Why has God allowed this in my life? Why has he brought me to this point? Why has he brought me to this place? Oh, that's just when Satan wants to fill our hearts with doubt, he wants to discourage us and cast us down.
But if we rest on the word of God, if we lean on him, if we have that faith and that confidence that brings God.
Into every circumstance, then there can be blessing and testimony even in a difficult trial.
Let me just say before time runs completely out to the younger ones amongst us. We're not Speaking of the quantity of ones faith. One might feel, oh, I haven't the faith enough to do this or that, but at a time in the Lord's ministry when the disciples perceived that they needed Morphe, Lord, increase our faith, he said if you have the faith as a grain of mustard seed, you can say to the mountain to be moved in the sea. So no difficult situation is so huge and apparently immovable that just simply believing God and his word will not remove that problem.
So it's not a question of how much faith you have to whether or not question whether or not you just simply rest upon God's Word.
And it's putting that faith in option that causes our faith to grow. Because I sometimes said it's not an intelligent prayer to ask the Lord to increase our faith, but our faith does grow. Because when the disciples said Lord increase our faith, he answered to show them that the way their faith would grow was to be put in operation. In other words, if I've known you for a short time, I might have some faith in you. But if I've known you for many years and you've always been worthy of my confidence.
Now my faith has grown because you've always been worthy of my trust.
And so as we walk in communion with the Lord and as we trust him for the day-to-day situations, then our faith grows. That's the way it was with Abraham. If Abraham had been given a great test, such as OfferUp his son Isaac on the mountain immediately on his coming out of Ur the Chaldees, he probably would have failed. But his faith had grown as he walked with God all those years and dwelt as a stranger in Pilgrim and saw God undertake for him day in and day out and year in and year out.
His faith had grown and so when the great test came, that faith was there. But the wonderful thing is, brethren, he never tests us beyond what the faith that we that he gives us. He never puts us in a situation. It says he'll not suffer us to be tempted above that you're able to bear. He always provides for us in the situation. And so our faith grows. But it only grows as we put that faith in operation and trust him from day-to-day.
Oh, where you fall.
Here.
My blood imaging all the love.
What is it? Oh, yes, it will.
Number one.