Open—W. Mazerolle
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You see #275.
275.
Our God is like.
Christian.
Our loving God, our Father, we.
To thee this afternoon for this time that we've purposed to be together.
We think of how we have sung that.
We walk.
Across a trackless wild, but it's our board footsteps.
It gives us.
Guidance each step of the way, and we thank the.
That we can confidently look to be more for direction.
So there be a wilderness before us.
And so we would seek the.
By direction this afternoon, this week.
Want to hear?
God.
Here thy voice.
So we just commit ourselves to these for this time.
To thee.
For the leading of thy Spirit we pray for each one of us too.
Really have ears to hear, hearts that are prepared.
Receive thy word, and they ask this in Jesus name, Amen.
Can we sing #181 if someone can start please?
Yes.
When safety appears.
In try out like that.
Our Jesus footsteps ever show the path.
For every child.
Our Jesus footsteps ever show the path.
For every child.
Let's.
Let's hear a story first.
I think that children like stories.
I know I do. The Lord Jesus told a lot of stories.
They're called parables.
There was a sister that I knew.
She was a grandmother.
Very kindly heart.
And she told me this story.
She said that she had been asked to.
Babysit her granddaughter, who was probably about six years old.
And.
She had had her all day because her parents had had to go somewhere.
And it was storming that day. Winter storm, snow, Blizzard, wind.
Very cold.
And so it came to the hour where?
Grandmother would bring granddaughter back home.
And they just lived a little ways.
Maybe down the street.
From where her parents were.
And so.
They got dressed up real warm and.
Scarves and so forth because it was a Blizzard.
And it was dark. And so they step outside and the snow is that's built up. You can't see walkways, you can't see the street.
00:05:02
You don't know.
Of any path.
But Grandmother knew the path.
Even though it seemed to be all covered up in the darkness.
And so she said to her granddaughter.
Now you be careful. You follow me, OK? Make sure you stay close and you follow me.
And.
So they began to go. The granddaughter had a scented.
Now you can imagine that if the granddaughter decided to.
Wow. She might have gotten lost in the dark. She might have fallen into a a ravine or whatever, a low place and been deep in the snow, been very uncomfortable and difficult for her. But she was she was a good girl. She followed her grandmother and her grandmother turned back and said, are you OK?
She was checking on her and she said yes, I'm putting my feet into your feet.
And the grandmother looked, and she was stepping in the holes in the snow where her grandmother had put her feet. And so each step she took was into a hole where her grandmother's feet had been.
That was easy for her to follow.
So.
So it is drugs.
You know, if we're going to arrive at our desired end, it's important.
To follow the Lord's steps, I just want to read a few verses.
In first John chapter 2.
It talks about sin in first John, and sin separates us from.
Company or communion of.
But the one who loves us.
And.
The granddaughter, fortunately.
Didn't get willful and start wandering off and make things difficult for herself and the grandmother. She followed. She listened carefully to what had been said and she did what she was told.
Here chapter two of first John verse one my little children.
We're all little children.
John here is speaking to believers.
My little children.
These things right I unto you, that ye sin not.
And if any man sins, we have an advocate with the Father.
Jesus Christ the righteous and He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.
And hereby we do know that we know him if we keep his commandments.
Those are the footsteps.
His commandments.
He that saith I know him, and keepeth not his commandments.
In other words, doesn't walk in the Lord's footsteps.
So he that saith I know him and keepeth not his commandments is a liar.
And the truth is not in him.
The truth is in US when we walk in it.
Not just if we hear it. That's not enough.
But if we walk in it, do it.
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But whoso keepeth his word?
In him, verily, is the love of God perfected.
Hereby no we that we are in here.
So when we keep this word.
The love of God is perfected. It's not just perfected in us in that we enjoy what it is that He has for.
That perfected love gives us to our desired end.
To a safe place.
So the love of God is perfected when we obey His commandments, when we keep His word.
Hereby know we that we are in him.
This is how we know if we're in here.
He that says he abides in him.
Aught himself also to walk, even as he walked.
If you say.
That you belong to the Lord Jesus.
And you're disobedient.
And you show bad behavior.
Have bad attitudes.
And how do you know that you belong to him? That's not him. Those attitudes, those.
Sins, but not Christ.
But he that says he abides in him ought also himself to walk, even as he walked.
So how did the Lord Jesus walk?
Oh the Lord Jesus.
Has loved and kindness and compassion in his heart.
So much so.
That he left his place of glory, His place that really was.
Was his to be in.
It was a it was a place of comfort in a certain sense. Why? Because there was no sin there.
Things are uncomfortable because of sin.
In this world, we're always struggling to get comfortable.
That's because it's full of sin.
And we think that maybe if we get a better car, we'll be more comfortable or a better house.
There's lots of things we do.
Sometimes we think.
If I get a better woodworking machine, I'll be able to do more. I'll be able to put out more better stuff. And maybe that's true.
But always trying to do something.
To get more comfortable and to feel like we're accomplishing.
But you know what goes on in this world?
The only way that it has value is that if it's done.
As unto the Lord.
If it has the purpose.
Of a servant serving its master.
So when we serve the Lord.
We walk in this He shows us how to get through this world to our desired end.
He that saith, he abideth in him art himself also. So the walk, even as he walked, that's the place of comfort, the little granddaughter.
She was in the place of comfort. Maybe she didn't fully understand that, or maybe she was very smart.
Maybe she understood if I don't do this.
I'm in trouble.
And she stayed close to her grandmother. We need to stay close to the Lord. We need to get to know him better. And you know, if you get to know the Lord better, if you read about him in the Scriptures, if you think about what you read, what's it telling me about the Lord Jesus? What's it telling me about God's love? What's it telling me about sin?
00:15:26
These things will all serve to bring us closer to Christ to understand how.
Deep this love is how amazing it is compared to anything we experience here on the earth.
And so we have.
That position of safety, putting our feet into his feet.
And being expressions of the Lord Jesus here, we don't have to be 30 years old to do that. We don't have to be 70 years old.
Little children.
Do kindness show love be helpful?
Obey.
That's something all of us little children.
He that saith, he abideth in him.
Ought himself also so to walk even as he walked.
I'll look at a couple of verses. One verse that just.
Came into my mind this morning.
Haven't really been able to get it out of my mind.
The Lord have us to look at it.
Genesis chapter 49.
So the scene here we have on Jacob.
Whose name was.
Jacob, as we know, was.
The grandson of Abraham.
Abraham is called God.
Out of the.
Of the Chaldees out of an idolatrous.
Culture and was called to.
For places we read in Hebrews that he did not know, he did not know where he's going.
But it was called by God to be so that God could make him the Father.
Of the nation.
No, Abraham walked by the state. It's a beautiful.
Beautiful accounts that we've often enjoyed and I think will be one of this everyone in this room.
Familiar, not speaking to an audience of people who aren't familiar with the scriptures. It's a wonderful thing in itself.
And then we know his son Isaac.
Sort of the recipient of much blessing, you know. His father had gone.
Obey God.
And Isaac was brought into.
Much blessing.
As you know.
It's a wonderful thing to be raised in a home.
In which the knowledge of God is known.
And Isaac had that.
Great privilege. And you know his father was careful.
Careful to the way he.
Bride for his son.
He was careful.
With his son.
We know that, Isaac.
He too had to labor. He had to believe he was had to retake.
Who else?
Or maybe take some wells.
He had to also exert some spiritual energy.
00:20:02
That there's always.
Energy in the path.
Of faith and he had two boys. We can look at Abraham or Isaac.
We can find failure in them, but we also see that.
Which is the faith of the beautiful thing.
And then we know Isaac had two sons. He saw her and Jacob.
He was deceived.
My son Jacob.
And Jacob, as we know.
He sort of had.
Way of taking things into his own hands at times.
And yet God's desire was to bless him from his right, from the home. God's desire was blessed. Jacob had.
Jacob sort of had this struggle.
And his whole life really was a life.
That was.
Much There's a lot of struggle in his life despite God's blessing, and we know his name was changed to Israel.
They wrestled with the Angels. Amazing. These are real men, you know, These aren't just stories.
They will see the real men that really on Earth.
So I want to read. We know that Jacob had.
The 12 tribes of Israel came from him twelve sons.
And so here this scene.
Genesis 49 We have Jacob, now an old man.
An old man in Egypt.
His sons gathered around him.
And then finally enough, you know, in a place in his life.
I believe he can say he was really resting.
You know, he had finally come to a place where he was able to.
Stop that struggle just characterized so much of his life. Such a beautiful story because you know, I hate to use the term stories because they apply as if they're made-up, but these accounts.
That the Lord gives us in His word.
So in Genesis 49, it's blessing.
His children.
So I'm just going to start with.
First feet.
Judah.
Thou art he whom thy brethren shall praise.
Thy hand shall be in the neck of thine enemies. Thy father's children shall bow down before thee.
Judah is a lion's wealth from his prey. My son, thou art gone up. He stooped down and couched as a lion, and there's an old lion who shall rouse him up.
The scepter shall not depart from Judah.
Nor a lawgiver from between his feet.
Until Shiloh come not to him.
Shall the gathering of the people be?
And that was the verse that.
Sort of. I haven't been able to get out of my head.
Until Shiloh come.
And unto him shall a gathering of the people be.
If we read it in the Army translation, it's interesting.
Says.
Until Shiloh come and unto him.
Will the obedience of peoples.
Will be the obedience of.
And so.
As Jacob blesses his sons, each one, each one has a distinct blessing.
And Jacob also understands.
You know he knows his son, so he describes their characters.
But we have this prophecy. Really.
And as towards Judah, and it says that there's going to be the.
00:25:03
The scepter will not depart. So Judah has a rule, a rule in ruling.
And then we have.
This name, it seems, it seems as if it is a person. Shiloh. Shiloh come. So who is Shiloh? Who is Shiloh that we know if you go over to judges?
Chapter 18.
The judges.
18.
First one.
The whole congregation of the Children of Israel assembled together as Shiloh.
You set out the Tabernacle of the congregation there.
What was the reference again? 18 chapter one, chapter 18 verse one.
Judges, I'm sorry, Joshua.
Sorry about that eighteen one.
Joshua 18.
So.
So we we have this place Shiloh. So in Genesis it seems to be a person.
But in judges is a place.
The place associated with the Tabernacle.
Place where they set up.
The Tavern out the place where God.
Well, and then if we go over to judges, I'm sorry, Samuel.
Familiar with this?
And see Shiloh again. We see Shiloh a number of places through the Book of Judges.
But it says.
And Samuel?
Chapter One.
I.
In verse 3.
I will start with start with chapter verse one. Now there was a certain man of remix theme Zopium of Mount Ephraim, and his name was Alcana, the son of Jehovah realm, the son of Elihu, the son of Tohu, the son of Zuff and Ephraim.
And he had two wives. The name of one was Hannah. The name of the other was Pennanina.
Nina had children, but Hannah had no children, and this man went up out of the city yearly to worship and to sacrifice unto the Lord, the Host and Shiloh.
So we see Shiloh.
So Hannah goes out with his, her husband to Shiloh to worship. So this is a evidently, even now, so many years after what we read in Joshua, we seen the Tabernacle still here because they're going up there for more ships in the same place in Shiloh.
And you know, we know the.
We know the story here that Hannah goes to Shiloh.
And.
She eventually she expresses her sadness to Eli, who makes a false priest there, who makes a really a false.
You know, thinks she's drunk. She's so hot. She's overcome with sorrow.
Because she has no sun.
She but she goes there.
And the Lord gives her a son, and she brings that boy Samuel.
Shiloh.
And we know that Shiloh.
Was where the Tabernacle was. The care of the Tabernacle was given to the priests and the Levites.
And this man, Eli, is the.
Priest there. You know, there's great failure, great failure there.
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Says that the lights would would go out at night and it was dim. You know, they're supposed to keep these lights going all the time. So there was a lot of failure in Shiloh.
And it was failure with Eli's family.
That's still where Hannah went and still where she brought her son. She brought him and she left him there.
And she left a little.
So this place was a place recognized, and certainly Hannah recognized it.
As the place.
For the Tavern, Apple God was.
Despite all this failure, right So.
Kind of amazing.
So now I just want to make some connections with some of the comments that we made yesterday.
Over the last couple weeks, we've been reading the revelation.
And we'll tie it to again versus surely are familiar with.
Matthew 18.
1824 where two or three are gathered together in my name. They rely on this event.
So we have.
The connection. I think most of us in this room are probably familiar with this, but we have.
The Tabernacle being the place where God is on earth.
And then the disciples, we know they recognized that Jesus was the Christ, and they.
We're looking for him to set up his Kingdom.
They could never quite understand.
Really where where he was coming from, As we would say in today's vernacular, they didn't understand.
That he wasn't going to be.
Setting up his Kingdom where he would rule and reign.
And we have this verse. This verse really is a verse that we.
Understand, I think.
We understand, I think those of us here understand, that the Lord does not have a physical.
Place from which he.
Rules in the Earth is not in Rome, some people say sign Constantinople.
It's not in.
Some Bible school down South.
Where there's a lot of scholarly research.
Or there's some big TV stations that broadcast all over the world.
It's not where the Lord.
Where his authority is.
Authority or two or three are gathered together. I'll take his name.
And we connect that with the fact that Shiloh, there was that place.
And so.
And it's interesting again in the King James, it says on.
To him the gathering of the people should be, but in the new translation it clearly.
Also implies that his authorities there, it's an authority. And so, you know, we've talked a lot we've had in our meetings recently about authority.
Authority in the world?
And that all authority.
Is of God.
And.
Yet we have here an authority that is.
Most important part for us to understand it is God's authority directly.
The highest authority.
In the world today, is already is.
And.
The assembly.
Is in a state of ruin.
Just like it was in the days of Shiloh.
God was faithful to His own word.
The scriptures don't change.
And it's amazing.
00:35:00
And so I just say this by ways of you know, and and I remember as a young Christian.
We give a personal reference.
Having been saved out of the world.
With no Christian background, you know, it wasn't like.
Second generation like Isaac.
Many of you here are and have been, and that's wonderful. I really didn't know.
I just didn't know if I was right and wrong really regarding so many things. And I got saved and so excited that there was this guidance, there was this light, there was these clear answers, questions that I just didn't think was even possible.
And then after two or three years of getting after being saved, I just got so confused.
Because I get an answer here from some Christians, an answer there from other Christians, and everything was big and.
And I started getting confused, feeling like there's no practical way.
There's no practical way to put these these verses into my life and want them. I don't know how to do it.
Because there seemed to be no authority, because the word of God, there was no authority and.
By God's grace.
I believe.
He answered that.
He's yearning in my own heart. Desire.
To see the clear authority of the Lord on earth.
And it was through scriptures.
And you know, I remember us began to come to a place where the Bible, the Word of God, was held as the authority and the confidence that the Lord would.
Would guide according to the word of God.
And Christian friends would say, oh, yeah, you found a church. Oh, you don't have a pastor. Oh, well, that's not going to last very long.
Few years later, oh, you still go on that shirt. Yeah. Oh, that's interesting. 10 years later, still going that church, Yeah.
And, you know, having conversations that you know.
I could be wrong, maybe maybe this is not the place, maybe maybe we're wrong, but I know the scripture says there is a place.
It's always good to know because we can be wrong in our judgments, but the Word of God is not wrong.
But there is a place.
We're God's authority is.
Where two or three are gathered together.
So that's a amazing.
Thing and it says until Shiloh comes so we know.
Fulfillment.
Of you know when the Lord comes.
Then he will reign over the earth.
And his authority will be known.
Throughout the earth, as we had this morning in Philippians 2. I didn't mean will bow.
Every day, not just believers in this.
Every needle bow, very humble test, there will be no question. But in the meantime.
We have privilege.
Of understanding these things that God is.
With the Lord Jesus is.
You know he is the Christ, He is the King.
And he is the ultimate authority, and in the assembly we have.
That.
Responsibility and that privilege to own it.
And to expect that he will work according to his work.
So I was just thinking of these things to Shiloh cause we haven't again in Revelation reading there.
And we know.
Read chapter two and three again each assembly.
Has a lot of issues, so to speak. God knows there are issues.
But their assemblies.
And so.
Is as far as on there.
That's a very important principle, if you can look around and we can see problems.
You can begin to.
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Lose the sense that the Lord is there.
Now we do know canvas this can be taken out.
That's up to God the Lord.
That's the sets them out. The Lord takes them back.
It's really his assembly.
Told anything but it's also a wonderful thing, so.
It's just wonderful that he has not left us here.
Rudderless.
He has given us His word and He has given us His authority here in this world.
And it's really a liberating thing.
So you're saying #35 in the appendix?
#35 in the appendix.
All the paths the Saints are turning.
On.
Our gracious God, our loving Father, we.
Thank thee for the understanding that, whether individually as believers or corporately as an assembly.
That Christ is the focal point, that He is the occupation for our hearts. He's the guide. He's the pattern.
He's the one through whom we are kept and preserved.
Only go on to the.
Thy desired end for those who are called thy people. So we're thankful for the times that we've had together. This evening, today and this weekend, we just commit ourselves to the.
For.
The exercise that would come from thy word as we've heard it, whether it was in the question and answer period or and any other point for this weekend. We just look to the the there would be those things both for young and old that would be memorable and helpful to us without our glory. We look to leave for those who come from afar and.
Will soon this coming week be traveling?
The Renaults and Generuga and we just committed commit them to thee for safety, for their travels and.
We.
Thanks to our Father for all our gracious, gracious provision this weekend. And we think of Jeff catering, Jeff in particular, who seems to take an interest in spiritual things and yet.
Seems uncertain as to whether he truly is thine.
Though in a sense he professes it, it seems like there's a hanging back. So we just looked at it for any contact that might be had with him that that was give wisdom.
And a word in season.
And we pray for his workers too, for their souls, and are thankful for their laborers on our behalf. In Jesus name we give thee thanks, Amen.