Address—D. Newby
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
Greater Sun.
When to the time appointed, the rolling years shall run.
He comes.
To break oppression.
Don't we find ourselves living in a world full of oppression?
For the souls of men and women in this world suffer.
He's the one who comes.
To break oppression.
And we would say that he is the only one.
Who will be able to break oppression?
To set the captive free.
To take away transgression.
And rules and equity.
You would notice when you read through this hymn when we sing this hymn.
You might notice that there are many expressions in this hymn that come from the 72nd Psalm.
Which is the last Psalm in the second book of the Psalms?
Psalm to Solomon.
Pictures to us that wonderful rain.
Of the Lord Jesus, when he the one that we've been Speaking of in our readings, the one that we've heard of.
And the meetings?
The one who is the head of all principality and power.
The one whom the father would exalt.
And the only one who is worthy? The worthy 1. Isn't that something for us to realize?
That a crowd of people this size and yet we wouldn't want to leave out any of our our Christian brethren in this world today.
Have this blessed one to be occupied with. We've been Speaking of holding the head.
And there is no other head.
Saint Augustine, I believe it was he that made the comment about that the.
Purpose of man.
Is to glorify God.
And enjoy him forever.
Solemn thing to realize that.
He could have existed and yet chosen not to reveal himself in the way that he has. But.
At a particular juncture in time.
He chose to reveal himself in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. He that hath seen me hath seen the Father.
We heard about him as the only one, the way, the truth and the life.
In the gospel yesterday evening.
He is the one who is the Head. He is the one who is the Lord's anointed great, David's greater son. I believe that David is mentioned more times in scripture than any other name, including the Lord Jesus.
And yet we speak of great David's greater son, he who is the root and the offspring of David.
We have hope.
In no other.
And as believers in the Lord Jesus, we have the privilege of being gathered around Himself.
The truth again, that Brother Bob spoke of last night. He is the truth.
And there is no other truth.
We've been noticing in Colossians the things that men would bring in to beguile the minds and to turn aside even believers if they could.
The antidote is holding the head, He in whom all the fullness of the Godhead dwells.
Bodily.
Again, He that hath seen me has seen the Father.
Let's sing together #40 in the appendix if someone would start that please.
00:05:10
Our hands finished. Now I'm seeing.
My life.
In the heart and I really.
Till I rejoice.
In life.
Kingston fall down.
Spring.
All every time.
Let's look to him.
When we sing together that 40th hymn.
And we think of these.
Sentiments that are expressed in the 72nd Psalm falls right in line with what is taught consistently throughout the Scriptures.
You know, if you take the holy books of some other religions.
You might find that there are many unconnected thoughts, but when we take the Word of God, we see that the Word of God sets before us a consistent whole system that centers in the person that we've been singing about.
Great. David's greater son.
I want to read a quotation, and I think it's very interesting that we've had Colossians chapter 2 in our readings where the Spirit of God by the apostle Paul deals with Gnosticism in its beginnings as it began to make inroads among the Christian testimony. And again, Gnosticism comes from the Greek word gnosis, which means knowledge.
They thought they had a special knowledge that went beyond not only what other people had, but it went beyond the word of God.
In fact, the Word of God as it was contained in the Bible was really inferior to what they had.
Well, has to be that way if somebody is setting forth something that's contrary to scripture and they're putting it forth as though it's the truth.
And so the apostles, they deal with this error.
And this was one of the major battles that the early church fought. Now this is a quotation from Irenaeus against Heresies. It was written.
00:10:10
Between about 182 and 188 AD.
He says for error is plausible.
And bears a resemblance to the truth, but requires to be disguised.
While truth is without disguise.
And therefore has been entrusted to children.
Now think of that. I love that last expression. Truth does not require any disguise. If something is the truth that can be spoken of in this room, publicly in front of everybody that's here, it doesn't require to be.
Set forth in some kind of a clandestine way.
Put forth under figures so that only the initiated will understand it. If it's truth, it can be entrusted to children. And I believe that's one of the reasons why the Lord makes such a thing of the children in Scripture. You know the Lord Jesus, He received the children.
I look out on an audience like this and I see some who weren't even born yet.
When I came among the gathered Saints and now their parents, now they have the responsibility to raise their own children.
The truth has been entrusted to children, you know, the God of the universe.
The infinite divine mind. He who does not think God does not think God knows.
That's a very important concept. God does not think God knows.
God is omniscient. He has all things before him.
Without regard for time, there is no process connected with the knowledge of God. God knows and there is nothing that's hidden from him that was brought out. Also, there is absolutely nothing that is hidden from God.
3 Aspects of the sovereignty of God, His omnipresence. He is everywhere.
There is nothing that can be hid from him in any place.
His omniscience. He knows all things.
His omnipotence. He is all powerful. There is nothing too hard for the Lord.
These are the things.
That may sound like deep concepts.
And there is nothing deeper than the Scripture that God has given. These are the things that have been entrusted to children. But we go through a process.
Of understanding these things.
Of gaining them for our own souls, of learning to enjoy them. And it's a long, painful process. There's joy connected with it.
I know that there are those in the room here, perhaps a majority of those in the room here, who know what it was to see something from Scripture for the first time and how much you enjoyed that.
But also to come to realize that it may have taken you quite a time to understand that concept because there was something within you that the Spirit of God had to deal with, that you might have deeper communion with the Lord Jesus. And that's a fact of our existence. These things have been entrusted to children.
And children go through a process and they grow. This is true of each of us. I remember being a child just as though it were yesterday. I can't remember things that happened at work last week.
But I remember very clearly things that I went through as a child and even what I thought now I may put a spin on that now that I've been through a number of years. But you know what I'm talking about. Even you who are younger, you know what I'm talking about and something like that.
Truth is without disguise.
And has been entrusted to children.
There were a number of verses in our chapter in Colossians chapter 2.
Where we had this expression and these were iterated for us. Let no man beguile you.
You could see that we saw that about three or four times there. Let no man beguile you.
In first John chapter four he says that we are to test the spirits.
But then you'll notice he doesn't say because many spirits have gone out into the world.
He says because many false prophets have gone out into the world, the spirits use men as their instruments. And that's what we find in the book of Colossians. That's what we find in the first chapter in the first Epistle of John. It's what we find in the second epistle of John. You might know, you might notice in your own Bible reading you have something about false teachers.
00:15:13
I believe in all of the 2nd epistles.
Because in the first epistles such as First Corinthians, First Thessalonians, First Peter, the writer will set forth something for the believers to lay hold of. But then when he comes to writing his second epistle, he may set forth the dangers in the form of a warning when those things in the first epistle come under attack.
So, for example, in First Thessalonians he sets before them things relative to the Lord's coming and correct some errors that they may have had among themselves because of dear departed loved ones that they had lost.
But then we find in Second Thessalonians that somebody wrote a letter, and so now he has to correct something that was in their minds because somebody came in to undermine the faith.
We see this as a pattern in the Scriptures. Remember, the truth has been entrusted to children. In fact, doesn't the Lord Jesus Himself say if you don't enter into these things?
As a little child.
He speaks of that as a little child. The Lord Jesus received the children.
Many of us in this room, we have children. We know something of what it is to teach the verses to the children.
Maybe. Maybe we got in trouble a little bit because you know, they had a word wrong and now we want them to say it exact word for word.
Learn to be exact in the things of God.
Why is that?
These are the words of life.
These are the things that God has given to us that we might understand His mind so.
So as young people, we need to be established in the faith.
Established in the faith. It's very important to be established in the truth. How will you be established in the truth? Let's turn to a verse in Ephesians chapter 4. And again, this is by way of introduction that we might see something of the warning that the apostle, the same apostle, the apostle Paul.
Gives us an Ephesians and we've had reference to Ephesians.
In Ephesians we have more of a positive setting forth of the truth.
Whereas in Colossians because of these ones who had come in and were seeking to beguile the Christians.
We have more of correction and warning because of the positive danger that the Saints might have been in, but in Ephesians chapter four we see something of the gifts that the ascended Christ has given and some of the purpose for these things. But I want to just notice an expression.
Verse 13 Till we all come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man. This is full growth. We've had the reference to full growth Christian spiritual maturity.
By hearing the word of God, by feeding on these things that God has given unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, that we henceforth be no more babes. Now that's not children, that's babes we have an expression in other places about.
E Henceforth no more children or babes. Now notice this next expression tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the slate of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie and wait to deceive.
This is a warning.
The things that Christ has given to us, and this is the ascended Christ because we would see back in verse nine now that he ascended.
This is not only the man who was risen from among the dead. This is the ascended, glorified man. This is the one that we've been Speaking of in our readings, the one who is the head.
We want to be conformed to him according to the mind of God, according to the revelation that God has given to of Himself.
00:20:01
In order that we be preserved from this, from all of these winds of doctrine.
Now, winds of doctrine. This is like, you know, the blowing of the wind. You can't get your fist around it.
Let me ask you this question.
If you met up with a young believer or you met with someone who came to the Lord Jesus and got saved.
And they had questions and they wanted clarification on things. Would you take them to a Christian bookstore and drop them off and say everything that you need is in that store? Just go in there and tell them what you're looking for and you'll be able to find what you need.
No, we wouldn't do that.
Because you might go into a place like that, and it's not to criticize any particular person or making these things available, but you might go into a place like that. You might find something that comes from a Pentecostal or Charismatic persuasion. You might find something that comes from a covenantal persuasion. In fact, that's probably the most popular Now, you might find most of that kind of thing. The important thing is that the soul be established in the truth of God as He has given it.
You know, we can argue interpretation.
And that one particular viewpoint is your interpretation and has all the backing of great men from a certain school behind it and something that's completely different. It has its backers as well.
What are you going to do?
You must be a student of the scriptures for yourself.
Now there's another thing connected with this, and that's in John Chapter 7. Let's read a verse there.
In John Chapter 7.
Verse 15.
And the Jews marveled, saying, How knoweth this man letters, having never learned?
How does this man have anything to say? He didn't attend our school.
He didn't sit at our feet. He didn't learn our way of viewing things.
Jesus answered them and said my doctrine is not mine, but his that sent me there is the divine source of what the Lord Jesus brought, everything that he taught, everything that he set before his disciples and before men and women here in this world.
Came from the one who sent him.
Do we ask ourselves the source of what we're hearing? Does it come from the Word of God?
Does it hold the truth in a balance? Does it exalt Christ, or does it exalt man?
You know, Mr. Darby made an interesting comment. I think it's very insightful.
About some of these systems of teaching.
That hold that the world is going to be converted by the preaching of the gospel.
And by the efforts of the church getting out there and working and laboring.
He said it looks for results in man.
When we sang this hymn together.
It sets before us a picture.
And it's a scriptural picture because, you know, you have to be careful with him sometimes.
But in this hymn #40 in the appendix we see this thought. For example, kings shall fall down before him.
And gold and incense bring. Now look at this next expression. All nations shall adore him. His praise. All people sing.
And the blessing that comes to this earth when we see the Lord Jesus coming in glory and setting aside the power of evil and bringing blessing to this world. Let me ask you a question.
Has this ever been manifested in this world yet?
There are many that would say well.
Yes, it is.
These things are being fulfilled in the church.
We're in the Millennium today.
What about Satan?
It says that during the millennial Kingdom that Satan would be.
Bound with a chain and consigned to the bottomless pit.
What about that? Well, he's bound on a long chain.
00:25:07
Now you smile about that.
But that's actually what they say. I actually have that in the book at home. It's hard to believe you're really seeing it on the page.
You know, dear believer, dear young person.
You have nearly 2000 years of church history that has transpired in this world before you came into this scene. You did not arrive here in this world in a doctrinal vacuum. There's a lot that's happened before you showed up in this world.
And you are called upon.
Before God, to lay hold of the truth as God has given it. Now there may be some of you in the room here who were not raised in a Christian home, and we rejoice in the grace of our Savior that He laid hold of you and brought you to Christ.
And revealed himself to you through the Word by the Spirit.
And brought you to this place. What a tremendous evidence of the grace of God.
But there were most in this room, I would say, who were raised in a Christian home.
That's something to be thankful for.
It's really something to be very thankful for what you've been spared from the.
What you have not had to go through that many others have had to fight their way through.
However.
There may be a downside to that.
It came pretty easy to you.
But you have to learn to value it as well yourself.
And as we've been Speaking of in the readings and as you would see from the beginning of the Bible to the end of the Bible.
There is a conflict.
There is a conflict between the powers of light and the powers of darkness.
And when I read passages such as Ephesians and Colossians, I think of a comment that Mister Darby made that's very, very helpful. He says it's in the intimacy of the councils and of the grace of God that man fortifies himself for the warfare from which he cannot escape if he would enjoy his Christian privileges. Now keep in mind that last expression. If he would enjoy his Christian privileges, don't settle for any less than what Christ has called you to.
There's a day coming when all will be manifested.
And Clarence Lundin emphasized one time, and I thought it was very helpful, this thought of Peter when he says an abundant entrance.
That you would have an abundant entrance not only into the fullness of His presence, when we see Him face to face into the Kingdom in its manifested form, and when we're with Him.
But to have an abundant entrance into everything that the Lord would call you to, That's an application.
Dear young person, do you want to have an abundant entrance into your marriage?
Then keep yourself.
Set yourself before Christ in purity, lay hold of the things that He has given to you, and enter into your marriage with an abundant entrance.
While you're young, young brothers.
Sit at the feet of those who have gone before.
Be established in the truth. Read the Bible for yourself. Learn to read. You know, somebody might say, well, you're a reader.
There are brothers in this room. Who are readers going to tell you something about those brothers? Many of those brothers, and I know this they weren't readers until they had to be.
There were plenty of other things that could occupy their time, but you know when the Lord sets himself before you and He sets a need before you.
Come to the scriptures. He's going to draw you to the scriptures that you might see Christ.
You know what else he's going to do? None of us have walked the path alone.
As I mentioned, you have 2000 years of church history before you, the battle that you fight in your life.
You are not the first one to have fought that bad.
Now the Lord 3000 years.
Now it's your turn.
We want to be preserved if any man will do his will.
There is the key. As it's been said, understanding the truth or falling into error is not so much a matter of intellectual attainment or bent as it is a matter of the will.
00:30:05
And I'll tell you something. There are many and there are brethren here who could testify to this. There are many who have turned aside from the path of faith, and it was not because of intellectual objections to things that they saw in Scripture.
Is because there was something within them that said I will do my own will and then typically we will go find a truth that meets our will.
Now that's a solemn thing to think about. You want to be established in the truth while you're young. You know the truth that you are called to lay hold of is the same truth that God revealed that was finished when the last writer penned the last word of the New Testament.
And then approximately 300 years later, all the books that had been recognized, you know, the Council of Nicaea and other councils, they didn't, they didn't decide which books were going to be in the Bible. They compiled those books that for many, many years had been recognized as authentic by the churches, and they put them together.
And the Spirit of God watched over that in a marvelous way.
You know there are many nations where Bibles are scarce.
Dear young believer, Do you value your Bible?
You know, Brother Bob made a comment. He may have made it a number of times and it may have been a number of years ago. I haven't forgot it.
And I've used this illustration. How much time do you spend during the day fixing meals for your body? You remember that, Bob?
20 minutes for breakfast, half hour for lunch, half hour for dinner.
How long does it take you to read a chapter of the Bible? Can you turn that computer off long enough to spend half an hour in the evening? Maybe reading a few chapters, maybe reading just one page of a book of ministry? You have treasures at your fingertips.
That really do hold the answers to a lot of the questions.
Can you take a little bit of time for that? You know, it's wonderful to be with your friends and with the other young people and activities. You know, it's just an important part of growing up. It goes with it goes with the territory. But while you're young, learn to take quiet time with the Lord. You have to have that if you're going to be established in the truth.
You can have X amount of time, large amount of time during the day. You know, I say I'm hungry. If after school I'm going to head down here somewhere and get myself something to eat. And by the time you drive down there and get something to eat and get home, a whole hour has passed.
To feed your body.
What about taking some time to feed your soul on Christ and to have His word before you?
It's the most important thing.
There is nothing that's more essential than that we receive His word from Himself. He's given this to us as His communication of grace and some of us were speaking about.
About Mary Magdalene.
You know Mary Magdalene, she made a mistake.
And it's really sweet when we think of it.
She thought that his body was in the tomb. She was wrong.
But what brought her there? Love for the Lord Jesus. That is what brought her there.
What happened when she got there? She received the communications of His Grace she.
She was wrong in her thought when she came there, but she came because she loved him.
And when she got there, she saw him.
And she became a messenger for him.
Love to Christ for His own sake brings us to the place where we receive the communications of His grace.
Was so right in her affections, and what a blessing it was to her and to the rest of the disciples.
Every generation is responsible to take the truth.
And explain it and set it before the next generation.
The truth that you are called to be established in. That's why you're invited to meetings such as this. That's why the brethren ask to have a passage taken up that we might be instructed in. The truth that's why they asked people to speak to you.
00:35:09
That something might be brought forth for the establishment of your soul and the truth.
Because there's nothing else to sustain the believer in this world.
Now this world.
You might say Christian and a Christian profession I'm thinking especially of is like a spiritual shopping mall. You know, you can go to a grocery store and you can find, I understand about 30,000 different items in your average grocery store.
How many of those items are you going to buy?
I don't know about you, but I know that my wife and I, when we go to the grocery store, we always buy the same thing.
We know right where it is on the shelf.
Once in a while I might see something that's a little bit different or that I heard about, but you know, most of the time we get the same thing.
The same brand.
You know, it's like this in the spiritual world also.
The Christian profession today is like a shopping mall. There's something for everybody.
Every different flavor, every different fabric, every different this or that or whatever it might be. It's your choice. Whatever your particular bent is, you know, and it's like a supermarket. It's like a shopping mall.
But that can be very, very dangerous because then we have the will of man that's come in and set forth all kinds of things to meet the needs, maybe the needs of somebody who's more emotion minded.
A little bit more feeling oriented or somebody that's a little more on the intellectual side, or somebody that has more of an interest in music or more of an interest in some particular form of art or whatever it might be. There's a worship, there's this and that for every particular interest.
And that can be very dangerous to our souls. You know, the tried and the true is what we want.
If it's true, it isn't new.
And if it's new, it isn't true. And as we've had in the readings, we've been talking about Colossians.
We've seen something of the inroads of the Gnostic system and how it sought to turn the believers aside, but what are they trying to turn the believers aside from?
The head, the one who is the head of the body, the one who is the head of all principality and power. We want to be established in the truth concerning the Lord Jesus, because He is the center of all of God's counsels. If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God or whether I speak of myself.
Now the next verse, notice this verse 18 of John seven. He that speaketh of, or he that speaketh from himself.
Seeketh His own glory, but he that seeketh His glory that sent him, the same is true, and no unrighteousness is in him. The Lord Jesus Christ was the perfect dependent man. He never set forth anything that wasn't in keeping with the mind of the Father. That which the Father had given Him to say the words which the Father had given him, that was what He said.
And in the next chapter, in the 8th chapter of John, we would see there his person. I am altogether that which I say unto you, if any of us in this room, or any other man, woman or child in this world were to make that statement, we would be categorically a liar.
We don't know our own hearts, but the Lord Jesus.
Is the one who could say, I am altogether that which I say unto you. The words that he spoke about himself were a perfect representation of who he was. There was no unrighteousness in him. Which of you convicted me of sin? No one could.
In him is no sin. The apostle John says he did no sin.
He committed no sin.
In him was number sin.
He knew no sin.
Perfect spotless man.
We have in scripture clearly taught the deity of our Lord Jesus. I recommend that you study His deity that you see in the scripture that this One who was manifested here below as a man was God manifest in the flesh.
00:40:08
The Gnostic system had what they call 30 aeons. It's very confusing. I've been reading through Irenaeus Against Heresies. It's a very, very tedious read because he goes through all of the ways that they taught these different things and it's so confusing. You wonder how anybody could hold that kind of thing.
Why did they do that? Because it made me shine as knowing more than you. But what happened?
They gave up the truth, they lost this blessed One who was the only one who could save them. And that's why the apostle says in him, in this very one that you say is just another manifestation of the the pleuroma. That's the Greek word for fullness, some undefined thing, that very one in him, all the fullness, all the Pleuroma of the Godhead dwells bodily.
When we look at the Lord Jesus, we see one.
Who is unique and alone? Yes, he's going to have those around him who are like him.
Who are partakers of the divine nature?
But we will never be deity. There are systems who have a gnostic methodology that say we will be actual deity. No, we won't be deity. That's like saying ye shall be gods.
Goes back to the garden, doesn't it?
We are made partakers of the divine nature, but He will always be unique.
Son of God manifested here below, and soon to have all of his own gathered around Himself.
What a hope we have to be there. Is this something?
That we could be established in.
It is imperative that you as young believers, be established in these things, to be established in the truth. As we heard last night, the Lord Jesus said I am the truth.
Study him.
You know, we heard about David.
But David fell very short. We heard about that. We learned the principles of God's discipline in the life of David, perhaps as much as we learn it in any any other character that we see in Scripture. We see those principles acted out for our blessing. Romans chapter 15. The things that were written before time were written for our learning.
Through patience and comfort of the scriptures, we might have hope. Those things are for our learning. Think of the lessons that we learn through a job or a Jacob.
Or a Peter. Or the life of Paul.
But all of those men pale insignificance when compared to this blessed one that we're Speaking of. The one who could say?
I am altogether that which I say unto thee.
Whose words were a perfect representation of who he was.
The one in whom there was number lie found.
What a privilege for us today to know Him, to have been brought to Christ.
Think of his perfect, sinless humanity.
You know, I'm sure all of us have heard at one time or another.
How the Lord Jesus could never have sinned.
Because he was God and God could never sin. And you know, that's a blessed truth and I say Amen to that. But that is not why we say the Lord Jesus could never have sinned. We say the Lord Jesus could never have sinned because he was a sinless man.
That's very important.
Well, they might say.
Well, he could have sinned, but he didn't.
Then I have a question.
If he could have sinned, that expression implies capability.
He was capable of sin.
If he was capable of sinning, what would have produced the sin?
Dear young people, this is one of the reasons why it's very important that you be established in the doctrines of Scripture. We've seen something of that in the middle part of Colossians Chapter 2. Our practical walk in this world is based on learning these doctrines. Doctrine just means teaching. What do the Scriptures teach?
00:45:11
He was a sinless man.
What would have made him capable of sinning a sin nature?
Now it might be very conceivable that somebody would have a sin nature.
But it wouldn't be manifested.
That is not the way it was with the Lord Jesus.
In him is no sin.
He did not have that within him which bore the mark of corruption that would have produced those individual sins, that holy thing which shall be born of thee.
That expression could never be used about any other person who was born into this world.
We see in Scripture His deity, that He is God manifest in the flesh. We see in the Scriptures His perfect, sinless humanity.
And I want to mention something that's connected with that.
As to the death of our Lord Jesus.
The Lord Jesus was not capable of sinning because He did not have indwelling sin within him.
But he was capable of dying.
How do we know that he did die? He was dead on the cross. The scripture tells us that clearly.
But he was not under the necessity of dying.
He could have removed himself from that cross. He could have called legions of angels to deliver him. He could have reversed the entire process.
He died. He was capable of dying, but he was not under the necessity of dying. That is a battle that's been fought in the history of the church. That was a battle that was fought among the early brethren.
The Lord Jesus is the one that God has set forth for us to feed upon, that we might be kept, that we might have the enjoyment of Himself and communion with Himself as we go through this world. And we want to have the true Christ of God to feed on. Dear young people, take up this book.
There is enough between the covers of this book to captivate your heart and mind for all eternity.
I'm sorry that I have days when I am so tired that maybe about all I can do is get a few verses for the enjoyment of my soul. But you know, when I have that, I'm very thankful that I have that.
Think of the souls who have nothing. Absolutely nothing.
Do we value the things that God has given to us, This one that we've been reading of in Colossians chapter 2, the one in whom all the fullness of the God had dwells bodily?
We will have the privilege.
If we know him as our Savior, we will have the privilege of seeing him.
Face to face and hearing these things from his own blessed lips. And I look forward to that time when we're going to be with him.
But for now, when we're left here in this world, we want to lay hold of these things for ourselves, that we might have an abundant entrance into His presence if He worthy of being studied.
Is he worthy of being laid hold of that we might lay hold of Christ? Let's turn to Philippians chapter 3.
And look at a verse there.
Philippians, Chapter 3.
He speaks in verse 11 of being, If by any means I might attain under the resurrection of the dead.
Something of the character of the Christian pathway in a practical way, as the apostle expresses it.
Verse 12 Not as though I had already attained either were already perfect.
But I follow after.
If that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.
00:50:04
Now we talk about coming to Christ and laying hold of Him.
We hear the expression about being occupied with Christ.
But there's something that we need to understand that went before that, and that is that he has come in in such a way as to lay hold of you.
And JG Billet made the statement, and I think it's quite a statement. It's very simple, but I think it has profoundness to it. If I learn in Scripture that God is speaking, I learned that He is speaking to me.
Because the Bible is set forth in such a way as that it addresses itself to all people.
If God is speaking in His Word, He is speaking to me. There is something about this book and I think this is one of the reasons why this book.
Is maligned and castigated because there is something in this book.
That speaks to the heart of every man, woman and child in this world and there is no escaping that.
We heard about God being loved, but God is also light.
And you know, for many, the light would keep us away.
But the love is what withdraw us.
The light would expose that which we are by nature, but the love would show us.
That no matter what we are or what we've done, and the Lord knows all about it, nothing is hidden from Him.
He is there to bring us into His presence in righteousness.
Without compromising His Holiness in any way, shape or form.
These are things that are for us.
And for our children, for every generation.
And it's all found in the person of the Lord Jesus.
So when we read a passage such as Colossians chapter 2 and we see how the apostle by the Spirit of God expresses himself about this one, know that this is the one that we have been brought to. We need to study him. We need to learn him. There's an expression in one of the epistles about learning Christ.
Study him.
All of God's counsels center in the Lord Jesus.
We see the glory of His grace. We rejoice in that. We see the glory of His judgment.
And we can rejoice in that as well. We see that this blessed one, great David's greater Son, the Lord's anointed, the one that we can praise.
The one.
Lord willing that we would be gathered around tomorrow if He leaves us here to remember him in His death. This is the one that God has exalted. This is the only one that God has exalted.
And this is the only one that God has set forth for our blessing and for our instruction here in this world. You know, I thought when we think of the five books of Moses.
Each of the five books of Moses has its own peculiar character, and I think each of those books tells us something about our own pathway that God would provide for us. You know, in Genesis you see the people of God called.
In Exodus, you see the people of God redeemed.
And in chapter 25 and verse eight of Exodus, he wants them to make a dwelling place where he can dwell among them. You don't see them having a dwelling place for God among them until they are redeemed, until the blood is there.
Once he has his dwelling among the people we see in Leviticus, he sanctifies them.
In the Book of Numbers he guides them, those that he has called and redeemed and sanctified and brought to his dwelling. He guides them through this wilderness journey.
And in the book of Deuteronomy, he instructs them, you know, those are all vital aspects of the Christian pathway, and they all center in the person of the Lord Jesus. We have Our Calling in Christ.
He wants to follow after he hasn't made perfect yet, the apostle Paul.
But he wants to follow after, because he wants to apprehend that for which Christ apprehended him. Christ has laid hold of us, each one of us individually, for a purpose, and now He wants us to follow in that purpose.
00:55:01
That we might know him and enjoy him forever.
Redeemed with the precious blood of Christ.
Sanctified, set apart for him.
A holy people.
Guided through this world that is contrary to God. And think of the instruction that we have now, those of us in this day and age who have the full entire word of God. What a blessing.
What a blessing that God has given to us.
May these things be the study and the delight of each of us. Let's pray.
We thank thee, our God and Father, for thy.