Gospel—Steve Stewart
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We started our gospel meeting tonight by singing hymn #14 in the hymn sheets.
#14 Have you been to Jesus for the cleansing power? Are you washed and the blood of the Lamb? Are you fully trusting in His grace this hour? Are you washed in the blood of the lamb #14?
Have you been?
Alive, but I don't know.
Laurel, MD. Call 10-4 886538292638675. How are you doing tomorrow if you have a bottle of water bottle on the bottom of the line?
I don't wanna do that.
While I'm staying. Well, no, no, no, no I'm not.
0955 Are you lost in the door and all the time?
No, I didn't want it was one of the last.
77151.
Uh, no, I didn't want in the world.
Uh, bow our heads in prayer and ask God's help as we would open His precious Word tonight.
Our God and our Father, we look up to Thee.
We look up to thee as the one from whom every good gift comes every perfect gift.
And we look up to thee as the one who gave the dearest object of thy heart to come down into this scene. Thou didst send thy beloved son to become a man, and to go on to Calvary's cross and to lay his life down there.
To allow that soldier spear to Pierce his precious sign, that his precious blood might flow out in cleansing power.
All we do pray that if there is anyone in this room tonight that does not yet know the Lord Jesus as their Savior, that they might come confessing their sin.
To the and receive the Lord Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, and to know that that precious blood is washed them from every stain of sin.
And so we looked to these. We had opened thy precious word, that thy beloved Son might be glorified.
That whether Sinner or Saint, our hearts might be.
Warmed and drawn to him.
And so we just commit ourselves to the and for this hour and the precious name of our Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.
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Return to the Book of Numbers for one verse.
The Old Testament.
Numbers, Chapter 13.
And verse 22.
Since the last part of that verse, the Spirit of God had been.
Recording.
The Journey.
Of some spies that Joshua, captain of God's host.
That Joshua had sent into the promised land of Canaan to view that land.
And inserted here in a little parentheses is this.
Phrase now Hebron was built seven years before Zoan in Egypt.
Hebron was built seven years before Zolan in Egypt.
Hebron is a little picture in the Bible.
Of communion with God.
Zoan is a picture in the Bible of this world that we live in and all its independency from God, completely shutting God out and professing to be wise. Having shut God out, this world has become foolish. And so the prophet says the Princess of Zohan were fools. They were fools Communion.
Existed.
Before ever this world was and all its independency from God.
And that communion was between the Father and the Son and a past eternity.
We had some scriptures brought before us earlier today of how the Father sent the Son.
I'd like to turn to one in the Book of Genesis.
That was.
Genesis 37.
Verse 13 And Israel said unto Joseph, Do not thy brethren feed the flock, and Shechem come, and I will send thee unto them.
And he said, he said to him, Here am I. And he said to him, Go, I pray thee, see whether it be well with thy brethren.
And well with the flocks, and bring me word again. So he sent him out of the veil of Hebron.
And he came to Shechem.
The little picture, as was mentioned earlier, of how the Father sent the Son. He sent Him out of the veil of that place of communion, that place that was his from a past eternity in the Father's bosom.
That most intimate place of communion between the Father and the Son and He came into this world returned to the Gospel of John, chapter one.
1St 14.
And the word that is the Son of God.
The Lord Jesus Christ as the full expression of all the heart and mind of God, the Living Word.
The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us.
And we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.
A better rendering of adverse will read like this.
And we beheld His glory, the glory as of an only begotten with a Father.
Full of grace and truth.
There is a glory.
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That belonged to him and the Godhead in that place of communion that he had.
With God the Father.
That as they looked on him as he walked in this world, they said there is a glory, the glory that belongs to a special relationship between a Father and a Son as they walk together. The glory of, as of and only begotten with a Father. It's a peculiar, special glory, and they beheld it as that man walked through this world.
In communion with his father.
Return to the 40th.
Many, O Lord my God, are they wonderful, wonderful works which thou hast done in thy thoughts, which are to us word. They cannot be reckoned up in order unto thee. If I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be numbered.
Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire.
My nearest hath thou opened burnt offering and thin offering hath thou not required. Then should I? Lo, I come, and the volume of the book it is written of me. I delight to do thy will. Oh my God ye, thy law is within my heart.
I'd like to turn over to the Book of Hebrews where this portion is quoted.
In the new task commit.
Book of Hebrews.
Chapter 10.
And verse 4.
For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sin.
Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he says, sacrifice and offering Thou wouldest not but a body. Hast thou prepared me?
We read that in the 40th column.
And it's translated there. My nears hast thou opened. And if you look at the margin where the there's a notation for the word open, it says dig. I'm indebted to a brother.
Here tonight we'll open these scriptures up to me.
And then later I was delighted to discover.
Mr. Darby had, uh, opened them up too in the synopsis.
But he pointed this scripture out.
That that word opened, as it says in the margin, has a sense of dig.
You know, and, uh.
I work in an office most of my life, but when I went to help my father-in-law one time on a job, the expression came up about preparing the job site. Well, I went to the job site and there's a big hole in the ground. What were they doing? They were preparing the job site. They were digging a hole.
And a body hast thou prepared me is how it's translated in the New Testament.
Pioneer hath thou opened or digged, or prepared a body, as is translated in the New Testament? Hesitation prepared me. Oh, this is how.
That eternal Son of God came into this world from the Father's bosom.
A body was prepared for him.
A precious body.
He came down here the eternal Son, and he took manhood into union for himself.
And in the second call, maybe we can turn to it.
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Verse seven I will declare the decree.
The Lord has said unto me, Thou art my son. This day have I begotten thee.
He always was the Son, the absolute statement of Scripture, the statement of the Father. Thou art my Son.
But a body was prepared him, and he came into the scene and we know the story, how he was born in Bethlehem of a virgin in that stable.
Tenderly wrapped in swaddling clothes and laid in that Manger.
And as a man, for the first time, he could look up as a man.
And call God his Father, and he delights to say, this day have I begotten thee? Oh, he didn't become the Son that day. He always was the Son.
And now, as a man, he said, look up a dependent man.
Oh, it's man's glory to be dependent, but he refused it, and he reached out and took that fruit that God had told him not to, and he's walked in independency of God ever since.
Ronald comes into the scene, a dependent man who can look up and call God his Father, the eternal Son of God. A body is Thou prepared me.
We turn to.
The 50th 50th chapter of the prophet Isaiah.
The fourth verse.
The Lord God hath given me the tongue of.
Of the learned.
Or we could read it the learner or the instructor.
That I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary. He waken us morning. By morning he awakeneth my near to hear as the learned or learner.
Hold your place there. I'd like to include another verse of that in the Tom 127 Psalm.
First two, It is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows. For soul He given his beloved sleep.
All of the dependent man, he looked up to God.
And God would prepare that body for him. He looked up to God his Father.
And He could have him awakeneth me morning by morning. And so we give it his beloved sleep. Oh, we had a little thought before us earlier and the Lord asleep in that boat. And it was mentioned about the Lord being weary. Marvelous. The body is self prepared. Me could be weary. But you know, he didn't lay his head down on that pillow in that boat without a word from his father. His father said, if I can say it reverently.
Lay down, go to sleep.
And the disciples said, Master, we perish.
He said wake up.
Oh, we can hardly conceive of a man who walked in this scene so wholly dependent on God that every breath he took, every step he walked, every word he spoke, every thought he thought, all the thoughts and intents of his heart were fully in accord with the mind of God. Communion perfect.
Flawless.
I'm gone.
And yet every bit of man like you and I.
Truly man, truly God has that, hymn says.
O thou of God and man, this one.
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You have given me the time of.
The learner or of a, as it were, a disciple.
He received his instruction day by day from the father.
That dependent man.
And every day, it LED them closer to Calvary's cross.
He fully displayed all the heart of God as he walked through this scene.
As a first, I'd like to read in Deuteronomy.
That we often take for ourselves, for comfort as believers.
But I think he knew it. And perfection.
End of Deuteronomy.
Chapter 33. Verse 27.
The eternal God.
Is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms.
When the children of Israel.
Went into the promised land. They had instruction from God that they were to satisfy 7 cities.
Seven cities.
That were called cities of refuge.
Seven cities, that one who had inadvertently accidentally slain someone.
And there was an avenger of blood was going to come and take their lives because they had plain another They had shed someone's blood.
And the adventure of blood had a right to come and seek their life.
But they could flee to a city of refuge and find safety there from the avenger of blood.
One of those cities was Hebron.
The eternal God is thy refuge.
Oh, if I can apply it this way, what was that blessed man's refuge as he walked through this scene?
Eternal God.
Dependent man, he did not look.
Or depend upon anyone else.
Eternal God was his refuge. That place of communion was ever open to him. He was spotless, undefiled. There was nothing to separate him from God, no sin to come in between like you and I.
Oh, for all of us were born in sin and iniquity. Yes, we were born into this world as well, but that's where our existence began. His was from a past eternity without a beginning. He always was. We were born in a sin of our Father Adam, and we proved it. And you've proved it. I've proved it. We're sinners by nature and by practice.
We've lost that refuge if I.
I can say a barrier has come in between US and Gods. Communion is closed because of sin.
We turn over to the Gospel of John again in chapter one.
John, Chapter one.
Verse 29. The next day John sees Jesus coming unto him and saith, Behold.
The Lamb of God, which taketh or beareth away the sin of the world, He came into this world to remove, to take away that barrier between that divine bosom that He came from and us, and our loss ruin in sinful state.
Only came as the Lamb of God to take it away.
He came into this world and the apostle said.
Whom our ears have heard, whom we have heard, whom we have seen with our eyes, whom we have looked upon, and our hands have handled of the word of life. Oh, John, as it were. A sees him with his eyes here, and he says, Behold the Lamb of God.
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We could turn later to the 13th of John and see the apostle leaning upon his bosom, how close he came. We could see and Luke Simeon, as he came in, in the Spirit of God into the temple, when the Lord Jesus was just a babe, and he took him up in his hand from our hands of handle.
Mine eyes have seen thy salvation as he looked upon that day, he declared.
On later in this chapter, John the Baptist.
Says in verse 36, and looking upon Jesus as he walked, all more than just whom we have seen with our eyes, with whom we have looked upon, whom we have contemplated in there as he stood. No crowd around, just a couple of his disciples, and he contemplates this one. He says, Behold the Lamb of God.
All the other hands handled him.
Whom you have taken by wicked hands, and crucified nailed to a cross.
And they smote them with their hands.
All their ears hurt them and they were forced to say never man speak like this man.
And sitting down after they nailed them to that cross, they watched him there. Oh, they contemplated him.
And wicked mockery on Calvary's crime.
He came down the eternal sun, and he could be handled.
Could be looked upon.
Heard, contemplated, A body hath now prepared me. What did they see?
In their body and we beheld His glory, the glory as of and only begotten of the Father.
Full of grace and truth.
There's only one other person in the word of God that I know of who's called only begotten.
And that's in the 11Th of Hebrews.
By faith, Abraham offered up his only.
We got.
You know, I think the Spirit of God put that there to convey to our souls.
The force of the term only begotten. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son.
And whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have.
Everlasting life.
Oh, maybe we thought of it as his only son he was.
But more than that, you know Isaac was not Abraham's only son, and yet he's called the only begotten.
Abraham offered up his only begotten.
He had Ishmael, we read later. He gave the rest of his son's presence and sent them away when he gave all that he had to Isaac.
The force of only begotten is the one who holds the chief place in the Father's heart. The only place the Father's heart was fully taken up with that man.
This is my beloved son. Hear ye him.
Beheld His glory, the glorious of and only begotten of the Father, One who holds that place in the Father's heart of ineffable delight.
We turn over to the Book of Exodus.
21St chapter.
First one.
Now these are the judgments which thou shalt set before them. If thou bind Hebrew servant. Six years shall he serve, and in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing.
If he came in by himself, he should go out by himself if he were married.
When his wife shall go out with him, if his master have given him a wife, and she have borne him sons or daughters, the wife and her children shall be our masters, and he shall go out by himself. And if the servant shall plainly say, I love my master, my wife, and my children, I will not go out free. Then his master shall bring him unto the judges. He shall also bring him to the door, or unto the door post.
And his master shall bore his ear through with an awe, and he shall serve him forever.
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Oh, a body was prepared him.
A body that he might go to Calvary's cross.
That he might be the Lamb of God. That he meant lay his life down, that he might stand.
In the place of sin on Calvary's cross, and be made sin.
That that barrier might be removed, and all that He knew in the Father's heart of love and grace might come out to you and I.
And so this Hebrew servant.
He says I love my master.
My wife, my children, I will not go out.
Oh, it speaks to us of the love of Christ for the Father.
Of the love of Christ for the Church, like that merchant man that we read of, and the similitudes of the Kingdom. When he had found one Pearl of great price, sold all that he had and bought it. I love my wine.
And all the Old Testament Saints.
Who look forward to the work of the Cross. They didn't know it as finished like we have before us tonight.
Well, they know it's finished.
My children, I will not come out of free.
And so his master would take him to this post. All it speaks to us of the Cross.
He could have returned back to that glory from once he came.
No, he did. He went by way of the cross.
He bored his ear through whether all.
Oh, he was pierced on Calvary's cross for Youth Center.
For you.
That He might bring you into that place of communion that He always knew with the Father. That He might bring you into that place of light and love that He always knew and enjoyed.
He came down to where we were, He came to the lowest place, and He might bring you and I up to heaven. Fire.
Seated with himself.
We turn over.
Book of Numbers.
Chapter 19.
Verse I'd like to I'd like to look at there.
Here was a special offering given to the children of Israel.
I don't want to take that particular offering up, but just to.
Notice something in connection with it.
Verse five and one shall burn the heper.
Her skin and her flesh.
And her blood herder dung shall he burn?
Verse nine And a man that is clean shall gather up the ashes of the heifer, and lay them up without the camp in a clean place.
I'd like to turn over.
With that scripture in mind.
The book of lamentations that book gives us.
In a precious way.
The very thought of the Lord giva Christ as He hung on that cross when he was made sin for you and I.
Book of Lamentations.
And verse 12, chapter one and verse 12.
Is it nothing to you? All you that pass by? Behold, and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow which is done unto me, where with the Lord hath afflicted me in the day of His fierce anger from above happy sense He hath. He sent fire into my bones, and it prevailed against them.
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I'd like to turn.
To the first book of the King.
Chapter 18.
In this account.
18th of First Kings.
The prophet Elijah is facing the wicked prophets of Baal and there are two sacrifices laid in order there.
And there's a sacrifice laid in order there by the prophets of Baal, and they're calling upon their God. And the challenge is that.
Whether they'll can can send fire down from heaven to ignite that sacrifice or not, and the God who can send fire from heaven upon that sacrifice would be acknowledged as the true God.
And so they cried to their false God, but of course there's nothing there, because there's only one God.
There's only one God and one mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus.
And so now they've exhausted their efforts, and we come to the prophet Elijah.
Verse 31 And Elijah took 12 Stones, according to the number, The tribes of the sons of Jacob. Excuse me. Verse 30 And Elijah said unto all the people, Come near unto me. And all the people came near unto him.
And he repaired the altar of the Lord that was broken down, And Elijah took 12 Stones, according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, unto whom the word of the Lord came, saying, Israel shall be thy name.
And with the stones he built an altar in the name of the Lord, and he made a trench about the altar's great, as would contain two measures of seed.
And he put the wood in order and cut the Bullock in pieces, and laid him on the wood, and said, Phil 4 barrels with water, and pour it on the burnt sacrifice. And on the wood he said, do it the second time. And they did it the second time. And he said, do it the third time. And they did it the third time. And the water ran around the altar, And he filled the trench also with water. And it came to pass at the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice, that Elijah the prophet came near.
And said, Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and of Israel.
Let it be known this day that Thou art God in Israel, and that I am Thy servant, and that I have done all these things at Thy word. Hear me, oh Lord, hear me, that this people may know that Thou art the Lord gone, and that Thou hast turned their heart back again. Then the fire of the Lord fell, and consumed the burnt sacrifice, and the wood, and the stones and the dust.
And licked up the water. I was in the.
A hymn writer said.
I've been to the altar.
And witness the lamb.
Burnt holy to ashes for me.
And Zenith Sweet saver.
Ascend upon high, accepted, oh God, by thee.
Or have you been to the altar?
And by faith, seeing Christ.
In those hours of darkness as he hung on that cross.
And fire from above.
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Fell on him.
And answered his bones, and prevailed against him.
For you all, you belong in that place.
God judged him there.
He was made thin for us. He who knew no sin, the.
Oh, I don't know, a picture given to us in God's Word that conveys the intensity of that judgment and those hours of darkness City bore.
More.
Than the description of this fire that fell down and consumed everything.
Nothing left but that bare earth.
What absolutely clean even the duct.
I don't know why. Nothing but the trench. Oh, what's the trench? His pathway from this earth.
He took the lowest place, and my friend, you have to take a low place if you're going to come to God. You have to come as a Sinner, but you can't take the lowest because he already took it.
He went to the lowest place and was made to him.
Return again to.
Profitized now.
And the 52nd chapter.
There is a beautiful.
Aspect of the cross.
We agreed upon the Gospels.
Or after those hours of darkness, the Lord Jesus said it is finished. No, that cross was not empty after those hours of judgment.
Like that altar on Mount Carmel and 1St Kings?
Now he consumed the judgment.
Nonetheless, the picture in scripture is he was burnt wholly to ashes for me.
52nd of Isaiah.
Verse 13.
Behold, my servant shall deal prudently. He shall be exalted and extolled, and be very high, As many were astonished at thee, his village was so marked.
More than any man.
And his form.
The village is.
Once visible.
The Countenance.
The expression on the face is what you see when you look at somebody his business so hard.
All he felt as a perfect man.
And perfectly got to.
As a man, he felt those blows as they smote him.
But more than you and I could ever feel, he knew the heart and the intensity of the hatred behind it.
You know there are men.
And I've read of themes and battlefields.
And the awful carnage that has taken place in some battlefields where men are unrecognizable hardly as men.
What does it mean then? His visage was so marked more than any man. Is it that he was physically disfigured more than anyone has ever been?
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No.
But no matter how brutal the punishment any man has ever taken from another man.
I never felt it with the intensity that he felt it and the perfection that he felt it because he knew.
Fully the wickedness and the intensity of the hatred of the hearts behind it.
Of those wicked hands that took him, and nailed him to that cross.
But more than that.
In those hours of darkness on that cross, when he was made, sin and fire from above fell upon him His visage.
And his four more than the sons of men you know. Your visage expresses what you're feeling, doesn't it?
God clothed that scene in darkness.
He would not allow wicked man to behold the faith.
His beloved son.
Forest form.
Pain causes more than expression on our faith.
It can even move our forms.
Oh no, the hours of darkness, more than the treatment he received at the hands of man, infinitely more his visage.
And his former and the sons of men.
So on the hour of his greatest need.
On that cross.
Alone and forsaken of men.
He who knew perfectly.
That underneath him were the everlasting arms, He who had always enjoyed as a man down here to be able to look up in perfect dependence upon God. He will always walk as a man.
In communion with God.
Cried out and said, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
Oh, that city of Hebron was always open to him, if I can say it that way. That place of communion. As a man, he could always flee to it in distress.
Return to Psalms again.
40 seconds. Umm.
I looked on my right hand and beheld.
But there was no man that would know me.
Oh, is it? Is it were?
He came to that city of Hebron.
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As Gates had always been open to him.
And they were closed. And those hours of darkness.
All I see is the man.
And the Avenger.
Our blood overtook him there.
Did he turn to another? No, said the tower. Holy, oh, thou, that inhabiteth the praise of Israel.
Oh, he justified God.
And there is visage once so marked.
For you and for me in his form more.
Sons of man, Oh, sooner tonight.
He's gone back to that glory that he came from.
And he is beseeching you tonight by the Spirit of God. Be ye reconcile to God. He's removed that barrier of sin. All the ashes that the priest took up there, a witness of a finish and an accepted sacrifice. God accepted that sacrifice.
And he proved it in that he raised him from the dead.
I could finish.
Meeting tonight with the glory that he went back to.
Could we turn over to?
Book of Numbers again.
This account of the 25th chapter of the Book of Numbers. The children of Israel had fallen into grievous sin in the sight of God. They were in the very place that you and I.
Are as born in this world, and Adam our Father, sinners.
And it was a brave and then.
Who is more brazenly?
And to lift up his hand against the holy God.
Verse six We'll start. And behold, one of the children of Israel came, and brought unto his brethren a Midianitish woman, in the sight of Moses, and in the sight of all the congregation of the children of Israel, who were weeping before the door of the Tabernacle of the congregation.
All this sin was boldly, plainly in the sight of Moses before the Tabernacle, really in the sight of God. All your sins has been bold and plain in the sight of God.
Verse four we're gonna go back a little bit and the Lord said unto Moses, take all the heads of the people and hang them up before the Lord against the Son, said the.
Verse 7. When Finnehas the son of Eliezer, the son of Aaron the priest, saw it, he rose up from among the congregation and took a javelin in his hand.
And he went after the man of Israel into the tent, and thrust both of them through the man of Israel and the woman through her belly. So the plague was stayed from the children of Israel.
Verse 10 And the Lord spake unto Moses, thank, then ask the son of Eliezer, the son of Aaron, the priest has turned away my wrath, has turned my wrath away from the children of Israel, while he was zealous for my sake among them, that I consumed not the children of Israel, and my jealousy. Wherefore?
Right Behold, I give unto him my covenant of peace, and he shall have it, and his seat after him, even the covenant of an everlasting priesthood, because he was zealous for his God and made an atonement for the children of Israel.
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Off and 1/2 he rose up.
In the very place where sin was so brazen and bold in the sight of God. And he takes that javelin in his hand, and he puts away sin from before the sight of God. And God says he's been zealous for my sake.
He's made an atonement, and I'm going to give him an everlasting covenant of the priesthood.
Oh, the Lord Jesus Christ went to that cross zealous.
And he made an atonement on that cross.
For you and for me the way is open now to come in fully accepted in Christ before God. But you know it says in Hebrews he has appeared once and the end of the world to put away sin by the sacrifice.
Oh, he didn't appear with the javelin in his hand. No, his soldier with his spear and his hand Chuck and pierced his thigh. He received that javelin.
That was for you and for me.
We turn over to that same book, Book of Hebrews.
5th chapter.
Verse 8.
Go beware, son. He had learned the obedience by the thing which he suffered. We came in to that dependent place. He would have spoken the world into existence, came into the place of a servant, and learned the cost of obedience. It took him to the cross.
And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them.
That obey him.
Call of God and High Priest after the order of Mount Hizbak.
That word, called the translated, saluted a salutation, a greeting that conveys in it.
A sense of the title and bearing.