Address—B. Warr
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The brother read a verse in Malachi 3 and he didn't finish it.
Wherein?
You know, sometimes the carelessness of indifference can rob us.
Of the value of those things that we actually have enjoyed.
It's been running through my.
Starts a little lately and it.
Brother this morning spoke about the sheep. Who?
Who went into a place where they thought there was number danger?
But there really was.
But they lacked the Shepherd, the.
You and I have, so I want to read a few verses.
And share our food thoughts.
About that this afternoon.
We have a treasure that you just can't hold on your own, and God has given us to enjoy that treasure together. I believe He certainly has me.
And now as we go back to our place, individually walking through this scene.
I want to follow up a subject, maybe a little to just follow up what some of the things that really Gordon was bringing out. But first of all, I'd like to read a verse in first John chapter. I believe it's chapter 5.
For whatsoever is born of God. Excuse me, verse four. For whatsoever is born of God overcometh.
The world.
And this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our fate. It's been said about this verse that if you see that Jesus is the Son of God, the world can no longer deceive you.
If you see that Jesus is the Son of God and you see what happened to him, you know what this world is like.
Verse 19. The end of the verse. The whole world lieth in wickedness.
Chapter 2. Verse 15.
Love not the world.
Neither the things that are in the world.
In a couple of verses in First Corinthians Chapter 7 and verse 29. But this I say, brethren, the time is short.
It remaineth that both they that have wise be as though they had none.
And they that weep as though they wept not.
They they rejoice as though they rejoice not in they that by.
As though they possess not.
And they that use this world is not abusing it for the fashion of this world. Pass it away.
I was struck reading this verse recently. We live in the world's largest marketplace.
We don't know the world. We buy more stuff than anybody in the whole world.
And you know this verse says if you buy it.
God isn't complaining about you buying it, so to speak, but can you live as though you don't possess it?
To buy as though those that purchase as though they don't possess it and the time is short. There are pressures as it were, will soon be home. Now with this is a background, I'd like to look at the 21St chapter of Deuteronomy and draw a few typical pictures.
From this chapter.
To remind us again.
Where we are.
Whose we are, where we're going like to read the whole chapter and then.
Make a few comments on the different parts of it.
If one be found slain in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee to possess it.
Lying in the field, and it be not known who hath slain him.
And thy elders and thy judges shall come forth, and they shall measure unto the cities which are round about him that is slain.
And it shall be that the city which is next unto the slain man, even the elders of that city, shall take on heifer.
Which have not been wrought with, and which hath not drawn in the yoke.
And the elders of that city shall bring down the heifer unto a rough valley, which is neither steered nor sown, and shall strike off the heifers neck there in the valley.
And the priests, the sons of Levi, shall come near for them. The Lord thy God hath chosen to minister unto him, and to bless in the name of the Lord. And by their word shall every controversy and every stroke be tried.
All the elders of that city that are next unto the slain man, shall wash their hands over the heifer that is beheaded in the valley.
And they shall answer and say, our hands have not shed this blood, neither have our eyes seen it.
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Be merciful, O Lord, unto thy people Israel, whom thou hast redeemed, and lay not innocent blood unto thy people of Israel. Charge.
And their blood shall be forgiven them.
So shalt thou put away the guilt of innocent blood from among you, when thou shalt do that which is right in the sight of the Lord.
When thou goes forth to war against thine enemies, and the Lord thy God hath delivered them into thine hands, and thou hast taken them captive, and seest among the captives a beautiful woman, and has the desire unto her that thou wouldest have her to thy wife.
Then thou shalt bring her home to thine house, and she shall shave her head and pair her nails, and she shall put the raiment off her captivity from offer, and shall remain in thine house, and bewail her father and her mother a full month.
And after that thou shalt go in unto her, and she shall and be her husband, and she shall be thy wife.
And it shall be, if thou have no delight in her, when thou shalt let her go whither she will.
But thou shalt not sell her.
At all for money. Thou shalt not make merchandise of her, because thou hast humbled her.
If a man have two wives, one beloved, another hated, and they have borne him children, both the beloved and the hated, and if the first born son of hers be hers that was hated, then it shall be when he maketh his sons to inherit that which he hath. But he may not make the son of the beloved first born before the son of the hated, which is indeed the first born.
But he shall acknowledge the son of the hated for the first born.
By giving him a double portion of all that he had.
For he is the beginning of his strength, the right of the first born as his. If a man have a stubborn and rebellious son, which will not obey the voice of his father or the voice of his mother in that.
When they have chastened him, will not hearken unto them, then shall his father and his mother lay hold on him, and bring him out unto the elders of his city, and under the gate of his place.
And they shall say unto the elders of his city, This our son is stubborn and rebellious, He will not obey our voice. He is a glutton and a drunkard, and all the men of his city shall stone him with stones that he die.
So shalt thou put away evil away from among you, and all Israel shall hear in fear.
And if a man have committed a sin worthy of death, and he be to be put to death, and thou hang him on a tree, his body shall not remain all night upon the tree, but thou shalt in any wise bury him that day. For he that hanged is a curse of God, that thy land be not defiled, which the Lord thy God giveth thee for an inheritance.
Chapter And I was thinking of it in this light. It's the death of Christ.
Stood alongside of our responsibilities.
We see the death of Christ, I think in the first portion of it, in two ways.
A man was found dead that marked that land.
And even to be near it was defiling even to be near it.
And we see the death of Christ there as a victim.
As a slain 1A heifer who was slain?
In the end of the chapter we see that verse. Of course, that's applied to our Lord Jesus in Galatians.
When he was publicly hung up on a cross.
Publicly put to shame.
And our meeting, the brother gave a thought, gave us a thought on that. He said, you know, God said one day, no more public shame, he comes down.
I have allowed you to put into public shame up to this point. Now he comes down off that cross.
And you know, the whole issue I believe in our pathway in our life, and I think we can see a few typical thoughts presented to us in this chapter is do we believe He belongs there? Do we live that way? Do we live that way as to say no, He belongs there on that cross? Do we take his name and then go back to this world and act like this world is right and he was wrong?
This is the victory that overcomes this world, our faith.
I see that Jesus is the Son of God. I know what this world is. I cannot be deceived by it ever again. It crucified the Lord of glory.
Well, this world, as I have said before, it's the most wicked place in all God's creation.
And yet God has seen fit to leave you and me here for our benefit. Not any wise should have us at a disadvantage but for our benefit. And this world is the most wicked place, and it was shown its wickedness the day that crucified the Lord of glory. And you and I have taken up his mantle, so to speak.
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A brother said earlier in the meeting is a solemn thing to take the name of a Christian in this world.
Do we understand that we stepped out into an enemy's land and that we took the name of Christ as a as it were, a challenge to this enemy?
Do we understand where we are, brethren?
And do we understand where we're going and what we're doing here?
Well, in this first part of our chapter, there's a city that got too close.
To the death of this man, you know this man dies. God knows, of course, who slew this man, but he's not telling, you know, as the time yet when God is not accusing people, as it were. Finally, in the final words of who killed the Lord Jesus, He's offering everybody a chance to be saved.
He's waiting, and yet the death of Christ has marked this place.
Do I understand I am where the Lord Jesus was crucified?
And here we find there's a measure that measures and you know, God will measure us. And there's a measures, a spiritual measure that links a city with the death of this one. You know, we can get too close to this world. We can get too close, and we can get too close to this thing, the death of the Lord Jesus.
We can be careless. I think of the elders in this city. And by the way, I think a city can be an assembly. I think it'd be your home. It's what you're responsible for. You're responsible. They're you, the elders in that you're the ones that God holds responsible.
You could look at it in the sense of Revelation where he said to the Angel of the church and so and so. But you're responsible in your home to is your home too close?
Is he measuring you out? Is he measuring me out and say you're too close?
To what the world did to Christ.
And so he measures out. And I see those elders there sitting by the gate, you know, and they look out across the field and there comes some men up to them. They say, well, here comes somebody to visit us.
When they come and they say you're too close.
You're too close to this. And immediately. Immediately.
They have to go find a helper.
Not just any effort.
And they are put to motion. They have to get this resolved. And so they get up and they go find a certain heifer and they're looking all through. I need a heifer that hasn't borne the yoke. I need a heifer that hasn't yet toiled and plowed in this scene down here.
Well, we don't have one. This one has worked already. That one has worked already. Until they find one that meets the qualifications.
Hath not been wrought with.
You know, brethren, it's a solemn thing to walk through this scene and to realize that we can be wrought with.
There's an enemy of our souls that's trying everything he can do to.
Work with us.
I again say we are at no disadvantage. We've had before us in these meetings. We have new life, we have life, we have power. We've just heard before had before us the fact that God is a shield, an exceeding great reward. We have no disadvantage, we have everything going for us.
To walk free freely through this scene, this effort had to be one that had never been wrought with. That was our Lord Jesus. You know we see him here in this heifer as that one who was found down here. He has glorified God here where sin is.
And when he came down here.
And to get a heifer that had not been wrought with, which had not drawn in the yoke.
Is there somebody here and I might ask myself? I'm included.
That there's a kind of a yoke, there's some pull and tug I'm feeling toward this world or something in it.
The Lord Jesus never felt that.
He was not one that had ever felt anything like a tug toward this world.
And he's the one who's walked it ahead of us and with whom we're to walk. Well, then the elders of the city had to find something else. They had to go find a valley. Not just any valley.
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A valley that was a rough valley, neither eared nor sown.
That is, this world is seen to be a very low place.
Not yet or some.
You know the Lord Jesus, when he was here, he never expected a crop in this world.
Is there anyone here, young or old, that we're expecting to harvest something down here?
The Lord Jesus will show us by his words and deeds that this world is a valley. That's not a year, no, so you can't expect anything out of it.
A rough valley for him. Think of what it was to come out of glory.
Be born that day in Bethlehem's Manger.
And walk through this scene down here.
And see all that was here?
You know, in it all, he never said his own words, never used his own will. He just simply was that obedient one. Walking through this rough valley and setting a pace for you and me and a pathway to walk didn't make the place any nicer, but he made the path right for us.
A rough valley, neither eared nor sown, and shall strike off the heifer's neck. I think of this as.
When the Lord Jesus said we read in our Bibles, he says not my will.
Not my will.
I would think that as far as you and I concerned about another one of the most profound lessons we have to learn is to say that not my will, the Lord Jesus who knelt there in Gethsemane.
He would have us come and kneel right beside him and say right with him. Not my will, but thine be done.
You see no stiffening.
How many times is it that we would have an excuse? How many times is it that we would in our own wills we would have some?
Reasoning by which we can get what we think will make us happy and what we want.
But they had to break this heifer's neck, you know, I think of them having to go. It's for you and me to have a little exercise to go back again to this blessed book.
And meet the man to again way over in his presence.
Who he is, what he's done. He was here, but he's not here now.
Does that mean anything to you and me? He's not here now. We're in the place where he was.
But he's not here now.
Then they in the rough valley, they took this and then the priests, the sons of Levi. And when we do that, you know, we we have responsibility as elders and we have now we meet a priest. You know, I think if we can just see the Lord Jesus in his path through this scene down here.
It'll make priests out of us.
If I can just see everything around as it appears in His presence, everything around as He showed it to be, then we get priests. The sons of Levi shall come near, for them hath the Lord thy God chosen. You know, whenever we need wisdom, we need to get close to Christ.
We need not just to have authority or responsibility in the sense of just God has made me responsible. I need to get close to Christ about that. And I need to have a priest character. I need to be able to intercede. I need to see as he sees and feel as he feels because it's by them, he says.
For them the Lord thy God has chosen the minister unto him and to bless in the name of the Lord, and by their word shall every controversy and every stroke be tried. So if we have responsibilities and we're seen as elders and youngsters have the responsibility, just like the olders. These are typical pictures. Wherever I find I'm responsible and I have a responsibility in this scene, I need to draw near to the Lord Jesus, handle that responsibility as a priest because it's there that God has given wisdom. It's.
Every stroke and things are decided it's handling my responsibilities in the presence of Christ so I can see again as I as he sees and handle them as he would have them handle all the elders of the city. Verse six that are next to the slain man shall wash their hands over the heifer that is beheaded in the valley that is to have the word of God applied to our works is wash our hands over that. Well, I think of it in a couple of ways. One is you wash off the dirt on the Lord Jesus.
Oh, what a place we have to run to or what a savior we have to bring Him and bring it all to him. But again, it's to have our hands washed in the view of what He is and what He did and what He has done when he's here. The path He is marked out before us. You know, nothing really is seen as it ought to be until you bring it over alongside of the cross of Calvary. And they shall answer and say our hands have not shed this blood. Which blood? The slain man. No, they're not, although.
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Same thing, it's the same one. It's the man who was slain is was seen as Christ who has died. He has marked this place by his death and then here this animal that they had slain in breaking his neck, He becomes that which answers for their involvement in it, for their closeness to it. It's the Lord Jesus in his workforce, the value of his finished work and the work he has today to get us through this scene and get us apart from.
This cursed place where he died. Verse 8 Be merciful, O Lord, unto thy people Israel. Now here we have responsible. They're answering for the people whom thou hast redeemed and lay not innocent blood on thy people, Israel charge. Verse 9 So shall thou put away the guilt of innocent blood from among you when thou shalt do what is right in the sight of the Lord. A lot of excuses could have been made. He's elder to say, I don't know who that man is. I never heard of him before. I don't know he you know.
Gold, I've been here 3 days, having gone outside the gates of this city. I couldn't have killed that man. No, it isn't. It's seeing it as God measures it. It's accepting God's measure of my practical life in view of the death of Christ. So the next portion we have here, we have an enemy who's conquered.
But there's something about that enemy I really like than the portion after that I'll just jump ahead and this woman that I like comes out of the enemy and it's all right in certain. I can use this. I can have this lady, this woman that comes out from the enemy, a conquered enemy, and I can have that.
Under certain circumstances I can have it here. The only thing there are two consequences.
One is that she doesn't please me and what happens? I turn her loose, something I've taken in from the enemy.
And turned it loose among God's people. And this woman who came from the enemy doesn't go now free from my house.
As from the enemy, she goes from my house and my commendation goes with her and I can't control her. The other consequence is that she does please me. Then she's going to draw my heart away from the legitimate wife that I have and she's going to have a son.
And I'm going to like that son more than my first born son. And it goes on down to the next little portion that we have about an incorrigible sun, which you and I have right in here. And last of all, it gets down to the one who bore the curse for you and me, our Lord Jesus Christ. If you want to go backwards, you can start with the Lord Jesus, seeing how that cross made a curse for you and me.
Time came when he had suffered and suffered and suffered. It was all over with as he were gone since. Take him down. No more public dishonor for Christ.
Then, working backwards, I have an incorrigible son who would desire something other than the ways of God.
That would ultimately be saying don't take him off the cross. The world would not take the Lord Jesus down. They still say they want him up there. They don't want him down when the Lord Jesus was taken down. Now he sits in glory. It's the finish for this world. It's all over with. They would have him back up on the cross.
You and I know he was there for us and he was made a curse to deliver us from the curse.
And now we can be free.
So let's look at this next portion about the beginning with verse.
10 When thou goest forth to war against thine enemies, well, that's a good thing to do.
And the Lord thy God hath delivered them into thine hands you got, You got your freedom.
And thou has taken him captive. Well, that's nice. It is almost as if there is something in your life.
That you can have and possess it. You can hold it captive. It doesn't hold you, you hold it.
And seest among the captives a beautiful woman, and has to desire unto her, that thou wouldest have her to thy wife.
Then thou shalt bring her in home to thine house, and she shall shave her head and pair her nails, and she shall put the raiment of her captivity from offer, and she remain in thine house, and bewail her father and her mother a full month. And after that thou shalt go in under and be your husband. She should be a wife, that is. Hear something now? I've, I've captured these people.
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But there's something there I like that pleases me.
And so under certain and he's saying how I can have this.
We read in our Bibles about those that use this world and those that buy.
And then we read about those that abuse this world and those that don't live as though they did not possess it, but buy it and can live as though I don't possess it. That's what Corinthians were saying. But here I have one. And this has no change in her. She refuses to submit, so she has to have her head shaved in submission. That's what comes out of this world.
Pair her nails, she becomes a little civilized. You remember about.
Think of that when I think of Nebuchadnezzar and when he was committed and put out in the forest and his nails grew like bird's claws, you know he this is a thing come become civilized. It's something have, but it hasn't changed a bit.
And she bewails and mourns.
The Fall.
Of her origin, she still belongs to that of the world, she still belongs to the enemy. And I have her now in my house and I am responsible for her in my house.
Everything else, seriously, that thing, it is beloved to touch anything in this world that you can't touch it and walk away from it.
You bring her into your house.
How many things have we brought in our house that we should never had in there?
How many things have we brought in our house that got out of hand?
You see when this woman, this is there and I have her and in the sense that those that use this world.
You see, I it is, it is. It's so much in danger that I abuse it.
And pretty soon that which pleased me doesn't please me anymore. I want to tell you that's the character of this world.
It may please you right now, but it won't please you long.
And when you bring in something and you're like you, I have a bad fault, I've had to confess this. It's us. You means all of us. It's this book I trust that's speaking. When we bring something of the world into our lives, our daily lives, we can't control it.
When we are using something from this world, we must stay close to the Lord. We must remember.
Whenever it's over with, they won't please me. It will not please me, and I'm going to have to let it go. And what does that mean? It's going to mean somebody down the street is going to say, well, brother Bill does that.
For the bill has that, and that thing that I have brought in from the enemy's land goes out to my brethren with my commendation. It goes out now from my house. Verse 14. It shall be. If thou have no delight in her, then thou shalt let her go with her she will.
You won't be able to hold it back. You won't be able to control it.
But thou shalt not sell it all for money. You are not going to get any value out of it, really.
Can't make merchandise over?
She didn't want to be there.
You're the one that was fool, not her.
What a world it is we live in that everything in it defiles.
And I was thinking this morning, your brother was speaking this morning about those are in jail.
And he reminds them, you know, where'd you come from, Where you going? What are you doing here? And I thought of a thing I've been thinking of recently. You know, the devil is a good liar. He doesn't believe his lies.
Man is a poor liar. He believes his lies.
Do we understand where we are?
Verse 15 If a man have two words, ah, now there are two things in my life which I'm and the Lord things illegitimate relationships in life are not the love things anymore become the contest in my daily path, my daily life. Verse 17 he shall acknowledge the son of the hated for the first born.
By giving him a double portion of all that he had.
Well, that's the way, isn't it? For us to go on with the Lord, we need to give a double portion to the Lord and those things that are legitimate in our lives. Verse 18, if a man have a stubborn and rebellious son, I want to tell you.
That I do and you do.
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And I think of this couple, they have a stubborn and rebellious son, and you know they love him.
And they do their best to cover up for him as long as they can. When one day they find they just can't cover it up anymore, they just have to bring it all out and open. It has to be dealt with. You see, it's public here, isn't it?
Public things. The Lord Jesus was publicly humiliated. It's public thing. Just the way we walk openly, brethren. It's not the way we talk or anything, of course. It's the way we walk. Open is public things. The Lord Jesus was publicly shamed. You and I can bring public dishonor upon the Lord Jesus.
And here we have this old, incorrigible, stubborn, rebellious son which will not obey.
You know the IT says they that are in the flesh. Is that where each cannot?
Please God that cannot obey.
Whatever there is.
That I would do that is something that pleases me. Remember this lady that I took from the enemy? This, this thing I took from the enemy pleased me.
I must remember.
Right in here I am found in the worst place in God's creation, and I have inside of me an old, stubborn and rebellious son. They just will not obey, and whatever He does is going to have that character to it.
And the only thing to do, beloved, is shouldn't we just own the truth of it?
Stone it with stones. You know, we talk about stoning. I think of stoning as.
Someone has a bad doctrine will say.
And one brother will be very much concerned about that. You would be upset. That's not right and obviously that's not right. Whatever, you may pick up a big stone.
And throw it. Or you may take a Pebble and throw it. And it may have been that the parents of this stubborn son took a Pebble off the ground and threw it at him. But a neighbor who had molested a long time picked up a big stone and threw it at him. Throwing a stone is your personal judgment or estimate of that which is wrong.
So when we have this stubborn and rebellious son.
And they bring him out to publicly end it with him.
Publicly ended with him.
And then we get down to this one, the Lord Jesus, now seen as the one who was made a curse for us.
You know, but in our lives are linked with the life of Christ. He walked down here.
And we walk, where, following his pathway, we take his name.
And really, the issues are already decided.
These issues are decided as to where we are and what we're doing here, what the world really is.
And if we're advised that, we can be advised that that's the issues of our life. I cannot walk it apart from my link with Christ.
And to walk carefully.
And to remember these things because they do affect our lives. And not be careless and not be.
Like we heard this morning, those that would do sheep that would go out into a place where there was grave danger and not think there was any danger there at all.
So as we walk through life, what would I say? All of this to bring back around to remind us what we've heard.
God is faithful.
But we do walk through a place that will never bring forth a crop. It is not planted.
And if there's anyone here, young or old alike, and we're expecting something from this world, is that it is a place never planted. It's never going to bring forth anything.
And if I touch it, if there's something in it all that pleases me just to remember the the the danger of the outcome of it all going to take my heart away from God's things over to my things. And all of it affects all of it affects the name of the Lord Jesus declared publicly in this world.