Address—R. Klassen
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Let's sing together him 174.
Perhaps we could rise and sing this him as a prayer together in the presence of our Lord. M174.
Our.
Way.
Of change.
The mind and heart.
To fill Vipassion.
Let's open this very precious book to.
A question that is raised in the 18th chapter of Luke's Gospel.
We've had some questions brought before us.
And sometimes we.
Perhaps have the attitude of our childhood. Maybe you weren't like me, but sometimes an older one would speak to me and I just wouldn't say anything.
And my father and mother were distressed. With that kind of a spirit, they said, why don't you treat them respectfully and answer their questions? And if you don't understand what they said, just politely ask them.
And sometimes we treat the Lord like that. He asks questions and we just figure, well, it's for someone else.
But this question is found.
In the middle of verse 8.
When the Son of Man cometh.
Shall he find faith on the earth?
And we can say that the tenderest heart.
That was ever found in this world.
Asked this question, it's not a harsh question.
It's not a question for someone else.
And will not have any confusion as far as the teaching of this verse as the Lord spoke it. It's still a future day when He comes back after the great tribulation. This question is going to have great import. Will the Son of man find faith on the earth? Thank God He will, because His Spirit is going to be poured forth and there's going to be that spiritual exercise after deep plowing at the great tribulation and brought in.
But we won't go into that. But the Lord said this to the disciples. When the Son of Man cometh, shall he find faith? And there was an impact in that question to the disciples hearts that gave them to go on in faithful service to the Lord and enter into martyrdom. Most of them. John might be an exception.
And that question this afternoon has this same import to us.
Will he find faith when he comes for us? Perhaps there are many in this room that under their breath would say yes. I want to be walking in the path of faith, in energy and independence. And when that moment comes, it's just the thing to do, to rise to meet our eternal lover.
00:05:06
Now we find this question placed between two scenes. You have a woman that's coming to an unjust judge and she's pressing her cause. And he's saying, well, you know, I'm going to have to probably give in to this woman. And we look at the situation. We say, oh, what confusion. Then we look over to the other side and we see this proud Pharisee standing in the temple and he's raising his voice there and the words are hitting the ceiling and coming back down on his head.
And here's a poor publican standing afar off, and he won't lift up so much as his eyes. And as we look at this situation, we just walk away, say it's just confusion.
But the Lord is saying in a world of confusion.
Will he find faith?
Will he find faith? I may misinterpret and misjudge what I see by my eyes and sad if I do. But the question is, will there be faith when He comes in my heart?
Now we have an awful opposition to faith.
I don't know whether to say it this way, but I'm going to say it because.
It's the way it's impressed me that the opposition of faith is pride.
Pride of heart.
And those two words are very interesting. They both have 5 letters.
And the middle letter is I.
And so they seem to kind of stand together, but diversely apart.
And the acrostic of pride. One of them might be this.
P standing for pursuing, R for riches, I for this person right here.
And D for DE aside and E for everything. Do you have the picture? Pursuing riches, I decide everything.
Oh that's the pride of man. He can stand on his own 2 feet. But here's this broken hearted publican standing afar off and with him there is faith. He smites his breasts and says, God be merciful to me, the Sinner. Oh what a day to dawn in our lives.
When we just stand the center before God and have forgotten everybody else, I feel so naked and undone before the eye of God, with whom I have to do. And so the acrostic of faith is forsaking all I take him. Oh, how beautiful. Now I'd like to amplify this just a little bit in the 13th of Proverbs before we go on with faith.
Now this is where we find that verse about pride.
Proverbs chapter 13 and verse 10.
I remember as a young boy this really getting under my skin to have such a direct statement. Only by pride cometh contention. So there got to be other sources beside pride. Now here it is. Only by pride cometh contention. And what a warfare, what a struggle.
That what a thing to submit to this.
This is what stands in opposition to the pathway of faith. And then notice it goes on, but with the well advised is wisdom.
Oh, that's faith, taking counsel from God. There cannot be wisdom any higher or any greater that will stand for eternity.
But if we look up at verse 7.
It says there is that maketh himself rich, yet hath nothing.
There is that that maketh himself poor, yet hath great riches.
I've enjoyed this saying that goes like this.
A discontented person is never rich, and a contented person is never poor.
00:10:09
There was a man that uttered these words in the word of God. He said, He that walketh in pride, he is able to obey.
That wasn't the Lord that said that, That was Nebuchadnezzar, the mighty monarch.
Who just stood immortal, you might say, in his mind.
To think of justice dropping down on the ground as an animal to eat grass.
And in that abasement to find a meeting place with God, you know, I'm thankful he said that because it comes home to my own heart of the abasements that have come into my life.
And the heartache and the sorrow, and to find there to meet with my eternal lover.
And to be lifted up not in pride but in strength, to go on in the pathway of faith, that path that meets with his companionship. You're not going to go the path alone.
It may seem like it.
Yesterday it was mentioned about peer pressure.
And I can look back in my childhood and I can remember those that were very close to me.
As friends.
Grew up in the assembly, that very favored place began to feel.
The distance coming in.
Aren't we going on with the Lord? Aren't we going to take a hold of the ministry that's coming to us? Well, you know, well, just the spirit of carelessness, you know, answer, but just going on like this.
The day comes when they dropped out of sight.
That's a painful experience. Not too many escape it.
Now thinking of one who was a real pal to me and saw the day when it was goodbye.
And when he said goodbye and went on his way I said he must be a hell bound Sinner and I didn't realize it.
And he went on his course, and I would hear things that would just bow my head and heart and sorrow.
One day, the word came.
You should go and see him. There's been a work of God in his heart.
Couldn't believe it, didn't know what to expect. I appreciated the report.
And I went and I found that as I was told.
And justice in passing on this trip. I expect him to see him again.
Trusting that the Lord will restore the ears that the locusts have eaten.
Oh, don't let pride stand in your course this afternoon. There's an opportunity.
I appreciated what our brother said yesterday about his brother being there in the sports league, an ungodly place for any Christian to be.
And certainly the Spirit of God gives him the sea, the gross emptiness of his course, the empty glory of this world.
And you know, it was so strong, if I can put it in my own words, as I was impressed, it was so strong. The only way out was for the Lord to shatter his leg and make him just a cast off. That wouldn't be back. How gracious of our God, but that's how mighty the conflict is. Faith. We heard about Jonah this morning and he was in that fish's belly for three days and three nights. And I raised the question, when did he start to repent?
Probably at the last hour.
Of that, stay there. That's how we can hold out against the one who has bought us with his precious blood.
And so as soon as the work of repentance, you know, it's not a long stretched out, long drawn out situation. No, they that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy. Salvation is of the Lord. There he is on dry ground to be taken up as a vessel to warn sinners to flee from the wrath to come.
00:15:19
Well, let's turn into the faith chapter to see those dear ones who tread the path before us.
And to draw from their lives that encouragement that we need this afternoon.
Hebrews Chapter 11 and verse 21.
By faith, Jacob, when he was a dying, blessed both the sons of Joseph and worshipped, leaning upon the top of his staff. Oh, we've heard that this morning. Such a wonderful way. By faith, Joseph, when he died, made mention of the departing of the children of Israel, and gave commandment concerning his bones.
And by faith Moses when he was born was hid three months of his parents because they saw he was a proper child.
And they were not afraid of the King's commandment. By faith. Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter.
Verse 32.
And what shall I more say? For the time would fail me to tell of Gideon, and of Barrick, and of Sampson, and of Jephta, and of David also, and Samuel, and of the prophets?
Now we've read.
About two companies here.
We've read about three men who exhibited faith in Egypt.
The other 5-6 exhibited faith in the land of Canaan.
And we'll have more about that later.
But when we think of Egypt, we think of that world that just is right there in front of us, demanding our attention and our time and our energy and our ambition.
And to just be a constant distraction to us. But I ask the question, does it need to be?
Here we have Jacob. The Spirit of God brings before us a man.
Who fills about 24 chapters? The Book of Genesis.
And I used to read the life of Jacob and wonder why did God linger over that life so long to give us so many details that I just didn't know what value there was. But you know, the older I get, I find the life of Jacob nothing but a charm to my soul. Because here was a man that had divine values. He valued the things of God, but he had a nature that just went about things.
Totally apart from God's ways.
And so.
We kind of wind up saying, well, you know, he was just a schemer and he had a checkered life and he just kind of a warning of what not to do in this life and so on that, you know, he was a wonderful overcomer in all the things that he failed in. And, you know, overcoming is the course of the Christian pathway if you don't overcome.
You're going to go down under. That's just simple physics.
And Jacob would not go under some way leaning upon God in great straits he overcame.
A beautiful life to meditate upon.
And so we come to Jacob.
He's.
Lived 130 years.
And he's there in the land of Canaan, probably has accumulated all that he needs.
As far as working for a living, that's over with and past.
But in the midst of all this comes a crushing famine, and he's losing everything that he's accumulated.
Losing us going.
And finally, the word comes.
We're going to Egypt. Joseph is ruler over all the land and he said.
00:20:05
Regard not your stuff, but come down. And when he heard that Joseph was yet alive, that dear man said, I just want to go and just see him, and then I'll die. I'll be content to die. But you know, the meeting was so wonderful, the joy of it that filled his heart.
Lengthen his life 17 years.
The joy of the Lord shall be your strength.
I have a treasured memory in my heart, dear brother Arthur Clark.
That we came to the Regina meetings. That may have been Craven that time, I don't remember, but.
This dear man welcomed us and our little family.
And you thought royalty had come to town. And after the welcome, he kind of said to me, he said, brother, he said please excuse me if I'm not able to attend all the meetings. He says my ticker doesn't work very good. And he said I just have to go for a rest. Well, I assured him with all the sincerity of my heart, please, just when you feel a need to rest, will certainly all understand that.
That you aren't just skipping meaty just because you don't like to be here.
Well, I noticed through the first day that his chair was filled.
So the next morning we came together and I said, how did you fare the night last night? And he said, well.
Because I I really don't sleep very good and I said, well, if you need to rest today, why catch up and do it?
His chair was filled the next day.
The third day we passed the day.
We went into the prayer room. He was sitting there and as a chair empty beside him. And I sat down to him and I said, Brother Arthur, I didn't see you miss any meetings.
Holy said they were so good, I just couldn't miss the meetings. I said, are you telling me that the joy of the Lord is your strength, that he laughed and he said, that's it. That's what's carrying me. And it wasn't long after that, a few days later, and the Lord summonsed him home. Well, here's dear Jacob. He's down now in Egypt, and he's going to be there for 17 years.
Jacob had the privilege of enjoying Joseph as a little boy born and growing up for 17 years, and then his brothers sold him.
And now Joseph can enjoy his father for 17 years in Egypt.
But, you know, we have to stop for a moment to visualize this scene when it comes to Egypt, his son Joseph told him. You know, it would be nice, father, if you would.
Make an effort to go in to see the monarch of Egypt. He was the greatest monarch in the known world at that time.
And his father said I would be glad to do that. And so the day comes when they are going to go in before the throne of Egypt.
And Joseph might have said, please excuse the supposition that he might have said to his father. Now, father, I want you to realize that there's a protocol here that you should realize I've been here and and you just let Pharaoh take the lead and you kind of follow along with the what the conversation is going to be. And I can see Jacob just kind of nod. You don't know if he got it or not. He's got his staff in his hand bent over a worn out figure.
And Joseph and his other arm, and they go in before Pharaoh.
And Jacob blesses Pharaoh.
The divine record is what did he say to him? I don't know. He might have said to Pharaoh. Pharaoh, we are so grateful that you have opened the door for me and 69 my family to be here in Egypt while this famine is raging and to give us the land of Goshen. I don't know, but he blessed him. And then Pharaoh says to him, to him, how old are you? It wasn't just a question. It was a puzzle month.
Does the character and quality of a man like this, does the years bring this on?
And Jacob could say to Pharaoh, Pharaoh, I'm on a pilgrimage and I'm just passing through. This is not my home. I'm just a Pilgrim on my way home. And he said, furthermore, few and evil have been the days of my life. If I can put it this way, he said to Pharaoh, the hand of the Lord has been upon me for discipline and for blessing.
00:25:28
That's what makes equality.
That's what gives the virtues of Christ. And it says, and he blessed Pharaoh. And can you not visualize it? Just like Jacob looks at his son, he says, well, I'm finished.
I'm ready to go.
It tells us about the meeting of Melchizedek, and Abraham says that the less was blessed of the better.
One day I discovered that the less was Abraham and the better was Melchizedek.
I thought Abraham was quite a great man for having won a great victory and.
But no, Melchizedek was the great of it. You know it switches here, doesn't it? The less the man on the throne was blessed of, the better.
Well.
17 years in Egypt.
And the day comes when he's on his deathbed and the announcement is made. Joseph is coming, Jacob.
And perhaps if we would have looked in that bedroom on that cot where he was lying, we just see a man that was just exhausted physically and mentally and perhaps muttering some incoherent things, and they get through to him that his son Joseph is coming.
And he strengthened himself, he summons all the strength he had, and sat up on the bed.
Leaning upon the top of his staff, what a sight of dignity and beauty.
And it's time for the blessing of these two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim.
That time has come.
And he's a worshiper now, spirit completely free.
And, you know, we visualize this Joseph taking those two sons, E Freeman, his right hand.
And I mean Manasseh in his right hand, an E frame in his left hand, and he's walking toward his father so that his father will reach out his right hand and.
Put it on Manassas.
And he cunningly, wittingly crossed over his hands upon these two boys.
And you can see Joseph draw back and say, not so, Father.
And you can hear the pathos in Jacob's voice when he says not I know it, my son, I know it.
And at that moment, Jacob is leaving a universal message to every heart in this world. What is that message? That message is that we are blessed in sovereignty and no other way.
What are you accept being blessed in sovereignty? You say no. That goes against my pride. That don't give me anything to do to show what the potential that I have. That's right.
It doesn't.
Blessed in sovereignty, what a resting place. Sovereign love and grace coming in not because of merit, not because I'm the first born in some family. It all goes by the way, just lest in sovereignty, which means that I now have personally to do with the God of glory.
And to know that great heart that blesses and sovereignty.
And so after this time of blessing is over.
As a word, he says, call in my sons.
You see these men in their 50s gather around the bed. They hear their father's last words.
I enjoy the way Mr. Bellitt put it. He said he was like a mighty prophet looking down through the corridor of time and all the curtains of dispensation falling to the ground, and he sees the exultation of the true Joseph in the coming millennial glory. Oh, what a legacy he left to those sons of his.
00:30:06
Faith isn't faith beautiful?
Would it be all right to covet Jacob's life?
I think it would be all right.
Then we have Joseph by faith. Joseph, when he died, made mention of the departing of the children of Israel, and gave commandment concerning his bones. Oh, when we think of the life of Jacob.
And all those acts of faith that were such a beautiful example of the Lord Jesus Christ. I remember thinking, while the Spirit of God could have selected something else that seems more more outstanding than this.
Just to give commandment concerning your bones, in other words, where you want to be buried.
But you know, to grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ opens up the word of God to such a grand Vista that we wondered.
Why we were so slow to get some precious things, but they come in their time through meditation.
And so it's the last act that is recorded here in the book of Hebrews, of Josephs life, and it was the greatest. I believe it answers to what it tells us in Proverbs, that the path of the just is a shining light, shining brighter and brighter and brighter and brighter.
On to the perfect day.
Well, this was a real act of faith upon Joseph's part. Everybody else was buried in the land of Canaan. It was just the thing that you would automatically do. But he wanted to stay in Egypt as a testimony to all his posterity that God was going to visit his people and take them out of Egypt.
And remember my bones to take them with you. And it didn't make any difference how many welts would have been on the backs of the Israelites, as they had to make brick to walk by this casket that held this body.
Joseph said we're going out, the day of emancipation is coming and they lived in view of that day.
And so are we.
And you know that body, if you some of you have probably figured it out, laid in state for 145 years in Egypt.
You know a dead man can't talk.
And 145 years erases a whole lot of memories.
In fact, we say by odds, it's an awful chance to take that his bones would be remembered.
But the question is, why did he want to be buried in the land of Canaan?
Because in some respects, the land of Egypt was his land of glory.
That's where he reigned and was ruler. But you know, he wanted to be buried in the land and Emmanuel's land.
Looking on to that day.
When that man who was so shamefully treated on the cross, we had his sufferings before us.
To see him come back in exultation and glory.
And to think of the nation of Israel again, like us, sovereignly blessed, scraping along today is the tail, scattered and peeled and just in chaos.
The see them rise to be the head of all nations, to be the joy of the whole earth.
Would we dare to sit here this afternoon as the hell? I don't believe that's going to happen.
It's going to happen if you know that God who has purposed to carry out his purposes irregardless.
Oh, what a God we have. It's no wonder.
Jacob just worshipped.
The Song of Solomon we have. Who is this coming up out of the wilderness, leaning on her beloved?
There we have it.
Leaning on our beloved It's time to go home when we arrive at that point.
And then we have Moses.
What's interesting to me about Moses here is the fact that everything is recorded was before the law was given.
00:35:09
Grace was an operation.
Grace is what man is needed from Adam on to this very moment.
And so everything that takes place here is before the law, perhaps to remind us that faith does not come by the law.
Have you ever wondered what kind of an adjustment or adjustments that Moses had to go through?
As the people wanted God's holy law and they have to go through.
Getting the Law in his hands by the disposition of angels, and bringing it into the camp of Israel.
Painful, painful.
Painful to him.
And the extremity was so great.
Now when the Lord said to Moses, just get away from these people, I'll just make a great and mighty nation out of you, He just stood right in the breach.
That's not new, is it? Among the Lord's people?
We're here this afternoon because there have been those that have stood in the breach that would have scattered and divided us to the four winds.
Oh, how he loves us.
And to have those who love us too, That a willingness stand right there. They blot me out, but save my people.
And so in those years before the law, you know, it tells us that faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God, not by the law.
And So what a remarkable man Moses was when he sets a pattern, I believe that we dare not ignore in our Christian path. And that is that when the Lord takes us up, let us be his hidden ones. Don't be anxious to get out in the public light here. He's been in Egypt for 40 years, and he goes to the backside of the wilderness for 40. Say. That doesn't sound very wise. The man is losing his strength, his ability.
We cannot afford to ignore God's ways. A blessing.
Yes, the path of faith is not natural to us.
But it's what our new life that we have in Christ craves and must have.
Well, we come to the 6th then in verse 32.
And we might say this afternoon, well, I really think in my own opinion that it would be easier to walk the path of faith in the land of Canaan than it would be in Egypt.
And I might say, you know, it's a whole lot easier to walk the path of faith being together like this with a company of beloved brethren who are walking in the path of faith. It just makes it a whole lot easier. But you know, that isn't the way it is.
No. We are individuals before the Lord, and we have some lovely examples among us of those that are walking in dependence on the Lord. And we are free to imitate their faith, but we're not free to imitate them. We are a separate entity before the Lord, and he's going to take a suck because he's going to have a vast array of vessels that he's going to use.
He's going to fill your vessel different than he does mine, and when he takes your vessel and pours it out, it's going to be a blessing to my soul, because it's not.
The way the Lord has taken me up, but I can see it's the work of the Spirit of God and my soul is going to be refreshed.
And so these six men, their five judges and one king, and they're in the land of Canaan.
Was the path of faith easy for them? Not in any way, and we sometimes wish that the fossil Paul would have had time to give his thoughts about these men. But he did something better than that, and that is, he gave a listing of things underneath their names that are beautiful.
00:40:01
And in this listing of things, there's one thing, there's actually three things that I like to point out.
There's one thing that they all had in common and it's found in that expression in verse 34 that says out of weakness were made strong.
You feel your weakness.
Do you feel your weakness this afternoon?
Look what you're eligible for.
The strength of the Spirit of God to come in.
And help you.
The second thing I would like to notice.
Is in verse 33 that is common to all six of these men, and that is that they wrought righteousness.
When did that righteousness begin?
When they were young.
The foundation was laid when they were young and they were going through the valleys of disappointment and heartache.
Expecting that the Lord would certainly bless him on this wise and it just evaporated.