Hamer Bay Conference: 2018
Table of Contents
John 20
Reading
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276.
Girlfriend.
We are weak.
276.
I love you, I'm a great children.
Devil's grammar.
And that's what I thought we did.
Are calling everything. Hold on a second.
OK.
We also see #191.
191.
Hill in a land I was drowned and burned a lot more.
I can't hear it right.
Lay the Lord Railroad.
To yourself and there's a bomb and then I'm going to have whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, come out. Oh, man.
00:05:02
I think a lot.
Of things.
No longer. That's the stronger.
That's no more.
Here we read a couple of verses in Second Peter chapter 3.
Second Peter, chapter 3.
Verse 7.
But the heavens and the earth, which are now.
By the same word are kept in store, reserved under fire against the day of judgment and perdition of modern men. But beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing that one day is with the Lord is 1000 years, and 1000 years is one day. The Lord is not flat concerning His promise, as some men count slackness, but is long-suffering to us. We're not willing that any should perish.
But that all should come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the element shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also, and the works that are there in shall be burned up. Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought to be in all holy conversation and godliness?
Let me get tight. Our loving God and our Father, we thank thee that even though we're still in the wilderness scene, we can by faith acknowledge that's our Lord of all and that's our soon going to assert thy rights in this scene and that we shall be with thee, blessed Savior.
At thy side, as thou dost ruled in righteousness in this scene.
And so we know that this scene is soon to fall under judgment and uh, as those that are heavenly citizens, heirs of God, joint heirs with Christ, redeemed with the precious blood of Christ, set free at liberty to live for thy glory in this steam. We just pray that those minister to our needs, we ask you to direct by thy spirit as to the portion of Scripture that we might have before us in the Bible readings and that thou would speak glorified like people built up in their most holy faith.
And our God, our Father, we pray.
Our Lord Jesus Christ will be glorified, and that He would have a portion for His own heart among His people. He might rejoice in His own, the seed, his own seated and enjoying that which would reflect something of His own glory. And as He feeds His Saints, so we pray, our Father, thou glorify, we pray, Lord Jesus, thanking me for that work of redemption.
On cross of Calvary, thank you that Thou hast redeemed us with unknown precious blood. What a price was paid to make us thine old. We ask thee to bless thy people. We commend ourselves to thee for this reading meeting and ask you to direct Bye bye Spirit, our God our Father, and the precious name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Amen.
00:10:11
I've been reflecting a little bit on second Timothy chapter 2 verse one. The verse is thou therefore my son, be strong in the grace which is in Christ Jesus and just the grace that the Lord Jesus showed as he was here on this earth as he ministered and just thinking particularly of in resurrection. So it was.
Singing. Perhaps we could take up John chapter 20 and 21 as you see the Lord in resurrection, graciously working with his own, warming their hearts, winning their hearts, drawing their hearts back to themselves, back to himself, after there had been that bitter disappointment in their lives.
And just particularly with that thought of the grace which is in Christ Jesus, Second Timothy is a day of ruin and weakness, and we need that grace and we need that grace today.
That sense of the Lord's love and his care and His grace.
So maybe we could read chapter 20 for this meeting?
John, Chapter 20.
The first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early, when it was yet dark unto the sepulchre. And see if the stone taken away from the sepulchre.
Then she runeth and cometh to Simon Peter, and to the other disciples whom Jesus loved, and saith unto them, They have taken away the Lord out of the sepulchre, and we know not where they have laid him. Peter therefore went forth, and that other disciple, and came to the sepulchre.
So they ran both together, and the other disciples did outrun Peter, and came first to the sepulchre. And he's stooping down and looking in saw the linen clothes lying. Yet when he gnawed in, then cometh Simon Peter following him, and went into the sepulchre, and see at the linen clothes lie, and the napkin that was about his head, not lying with the linen clothes, but wrapped together in a place by itself.
Then went, then went in also that other disciples, which came first to the sepulchre.
And he saw and believed, and as yet they knew not the Scripture, that he must rise again from the dead.
Then the disciples went away again unto their own homes. But Mary stood without at the sepulchre weeping. And as she wept, she stooped. She stooped down, and looked into the sepulchre. And see if 2 angels in white sitting, the one at the head, and the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain. And they say unto her, A woman, Why weepest thou? She saith, saith unto them, Because they have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid him.
And when she had said thus, she turned herself back.
And saw Jesus standing and knew not that it was Jesus.
Jesus saith unto her, Woman, why weepest thou whom seeketh thou?
She is supposing him to be the gardener, saith unto him, Sir, if thou borne him hence, tell me where thou hast laid him, and I will take him away.
Jesus saith unto her, Mary. She turned herself, and saith unto him, Rabona, which is to say, Master Jesus saith unto her, Touch me not, for I am not yet ascended to my Father, but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father, and to my God and your God. Mary Magdalene came and told the disciples that she had seen the Lord, and that he had spoken these things unto her.
Then the same day, at evening being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut, where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus, and stood in the midst, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you. And when He had so said, he showed unto them his hands and his side. Then were the disciples glad when they saw the Lord.
Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you, as my Father hath sent me, Even so send I you. And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost. Whosoever sins ye remain. They are remitted unto them, and whosoever sins you retain, they are retained. But Thomas one of the 12 called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came. The other disciples therefore said unto him, We have seen the Lord.
00:15:03
But he said unto them, Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe.
And after eight days again his disciples were within, and Thomas with them.
Then came Jesus, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, Peace be unto you. Then saith he to Thomas, Reach, hit her thy finger, and behold my hands, and reach, hit her thy hand, and thrust it into my side, and be not faithless, but believing. And Thomas answered and said unto him, My Lord and my God, Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed. Blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.
And many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. But these are written that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing he might have life through his name.
Well, we know that John's Gospel is a gospel of transitions, and our brother Bruce Anstey has a nice little booklet out, a little outline of John's Gospel, and in it he traces the transitions. Every chapter has a little bit of a transition taking place from Judaism to Christianity, and it's a well worth the read if you haven't read it.
And so he points out in chapter 20 that there's a transition from Christ, the Messiah of Israel to Christ, really the head of a new creation race. And so the key to understanding this chapter and really being able to appreciate it in connection with resurrection is really from verse 19 down to verse 23. And you'll notice that the Lord Jesus breathed upon them, it says in verse 22.
When he had said this, he breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost. Whosoever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them. And whosoever sins ye retain, they are retained. And so there was a new authority in the earth, and the apostles were given authority to bind and loose. And we have examples of that in the book of the Acts and other places. Maybe we'll mention that as we go a little further, but that these disciples.
Now we're learning and becoming, uh, being introduced to the Lord Jesus as the head of a new creation race. And remember that Adam was breathed into, Let's look at it, uh, in Genesis chapter two, I think it is.
Genesis chapter 2 and uh verse seven. And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of light.
And man became a living soul. So man is the only creature that has this connection with God. He has a living soul. He has spirit, soul and body. So he's created in the likeness and image of God. And but he fell into sin and the whole race of men has fallen into sin. But now there's a new creation race. And the head of that new race is Christ himself. He was raised the very same body that he had when before he was crucified, before he died.
He raised, he was raised and now that body is glorified and there is a man that has ascended into heaven glorified, seated on the right hand of the majesty on high. So we have this transition going on in this chapter where they're learning that they're a part of that new creation race. There's new relationships. And then really you have this transition in this chapter as well from really what took place in the temple and temple worship. But.
They're now found in the upper room, no longer really associated with Judaism. And so you have this fear in verse 19. The same day of evening being the first day of the week when the doors were shut, where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst and saved unto them. Peace be unto you. And so now they're found in a large upper room that the Lord Jesus had introduced them to. It's no longer.
The temple left knot would characterize their life as believers. We know the church was not yet formed. The day of Pentecost hadn't taken place, the Acts chapter 2, but God's beginning to measure everything from the first day of the week not to happen. Christians don't have a Sabbath. There's no rest for the believer. The Christian has the first day of the week, and that's the resurrection day. That's what characterizes Christianity.
00:20:11
There's a new beginning the first day of the week.
In John chapter one verse 14.
We're told the word was made flesh.
And dwells among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father.
Full of grace.
And truth.
And we see that all the way through the Lord's ministry.
And as we we come to the Lord in resurrection, it's striking if you trace.
The the time that the Lord spent here on earth.
Before his ascension, it seems the majority of his time was spent encouraging his Saints, drawing his Saints back to himself. You think of him making that trip with the two on the road to Emmaus. You see him working in this chapter with Mary Magdalene, with the other women. You see him working with the 10 disciples. And then with Thomas you see him working. With Peter you see him working with, I believe it was the six disciples that went on the fishing expedition.
And just that grace.
In in spite of weakness, they had all forsaken him and fled. And just that beautiful character that he bore.
And that's it. It's as we, as we spend time in his presence, as we observe that character that he displayed in a time of weakness.
When there was failure, it's as we spend time in in company with him that we can we can exhibit that same character in the day that we live in. And so it's easy to be like Elijah. I only I am left and they seek my life. Also, it's easy to be like Moses.
E revels and stiff neck. Must we fetch you water out of the rock? It's easy to be discouraged. And yet as we as we spend that time in company with the Lord and and observe his gracious words, one full of grace and truth.
As we feed on that, we'll be able to reflect that same character, take my yoke and learn of me.
And so that's, we see that so beautifully in these chapters and that's, that's the spirit each one of us needs to cultivate. And so it's my desire maybe not perhaps a verse by verse consideration of these chapters, but to reflect on that thought.
Of of the Lord, that man of grace. He didn't beat Thomas with a stick, he drew him with the cords of love.
And just we, we need that same spirit. And as as a, as the Lord's grace has its effect on our heart, It won't bring about a spirit of looseness. It won't bring about a spirit of indifference. It'll, it'll humble, humble us and draw our affections toward him.
Thinking of that verse in Zechariah chapter 13.
With regard to your comments with Jonathan about the Lord taking up these different individuals after his crucifixion, but Zechariah chapter 13 and verse 7.
Prophetic, obviously, of our Lord Jesus. Awako sword against my shepherd, and against the man that is my fellow, saith the Lord of hosts. Smite the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered.
And I will turn my hands upon the little ones. We know that consequent upon the Lord's death, the sheep were scattered.
Then this last expression I will turn my hand upon. The little ones Jarred me for some time. It didn't seem consistent. The Lord would raise His hand and discipline and wrath upon His little ones. But I understand the thought might be in terms of reaching out in the shepherding care and recovering them. And so you find a consequence about the Lord's resurrection. How, as you say, you meant the two on the way to Emmaus, you find Mary the Magdalene here.
You find him reaching out and have that personal dialogue with Simon Peter. The Lord is risen indeed, and that appeared in Peter and Simon and there you have an individual conversation where nothing is said. But the Lord restored Peter's soul at that time after having denied him. And so here is he a beautiful example of this with the Lord and and Mary's heart was there we find a remarkable illustration of a heart that is affectionate to the Lord Jesus.
00:25:02
It's true she did have intelligence, but she had affection. The optimal is like Mary of Bethany, who is both devoted to her Lord and was intelligent and anointed the Lord's body before his, before his burial. But here we do find Mary Magdalene, who was devoted to the Lord Jesus, and although she didn't have intelligence, she was true to him. And the result was she had a personal manifestation of the Lord Jesus to her heart. What a singular.
Blessings she received, and she was the one to whom the Lord said, Go to my brethren and tell them, I have sinned my Father, and to your Father, to my God, and to your God.
I'd just like to add brother's as a woman, generally speaking, has a heart. And here we find Mary showing forth her heart's desire.
Men aren't aware of much of what's going on. That's it. But it was a woman.
And it means a woman today quite often assurance and loves more than maybe. And it shows for your men's life.
If you look at the Luke's Gospel chapter 18, we have a little key perhaps to how the Lord spoke so plainly to His disciples. It says in Luke 18 verse 31 Then he took unto him the 12 and said unto them, Behold, we go up to Jerusalem, and all things that are written by the prophets concerning the Son of Man shall be accomplished.
For he shall be delivered up, and delivered unto the Gentiles, and shall be mocked, and fightfully entreated, or insulted, and spitted on, and they shall serve him, and put him to death, and the third day he shall rise again. And they understood none of these things.
And this saying was hid from them, neither knew they the things which were spoken.
Well, you know, they had heard about the death and the resurrection of the Lord Jesus many times, but why is it that they didn't comprehend it? Why isn't why is it that they didn't enter into the reality of what he was telling them? We know that from Luke chapter 24 that they didn't understand the Scriptures and that perhaps set aside some of the Scriptures in their minds unwittingly. Perhaps the sufferings of Christ and the glory follow, say one of the glory of the Messiah.
But they didn't consider the sufferings of Christ, and so they weren't as well indwelt with the Spirit of God. The church was not formed and so they didn't have the Spirit indwelling. And so we know from John's gospel chapter 141516 that they would the Spirit of God would teach them and bring them into the knowledge of these things and the enjoyment of these things while they were in 12 of the Spirit of God. But isn't it nice, very negular, had affection for Christ.
And.
She wanted to be where He was. He didn't understand about resurrection. He didn't understand the doctrine of it. She didn't understand really very much. But she had a love for the Savior, and the Lord appreciated her faithfulness, her devotedness to Himself. And so he appeared to her, and she had the privilege of announcing to the disciples already mentioned that the Lord Jesus had arisen unto his Father.
And our Father, so he says in verse 16.
Touch me not, for I am not yet ascended to my Father, but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my father, and your father to my God, and your God. So the first time really that he could address another that way, and that they were a part of that new creation race, he addresses Mary Magdalene.
And I think it's a practical note that, uh, if we walk devotedly with Christ, we may not understand all of the doctrines of Christianity. We should read and study the truth and the word of God, but we may not understand at all. But the Lord will reveal himself to us. And it says in John's gospel, I will manifest myself unto him. And this is really what was taking place in connection with Martha or with Mary Magdalene now.
We know that.
There were others that were more intelligent than Mary Magdalene. He went to the tomb. Mary of Bethany, he didn't go to the tomb. She wasn't there. Why wasn't she there? I think we have this hint in Luke's Gospel, chapter 10.
00:30:05
At the end of the chapter Luke chapter 10 verse 38. Now it came to pass as they went and he entered into a certain village. Certain women named Martha received him into her house and she had a sister called Mary which also sat at Jesus feet and heard his word.
Mary was found sitting at the feet of the Lord Jesus, and she had heard what he had said perhaps on more than one occasion, that he was going to go into death and that he would be raised to gain the third day glorified. And he had the intuition of faith, as it were. She believed what he said, and I think Mr. Garvey calls it the intuition of affection.
For Christ she didn't go to the tomb, and she waited, and she too perhaps received a blessing in a different way. But isn't it the grace of our Lord when we don't understand all of the details?
He reveals himself to us that there's a devotedness to himself, and he desires to have that relationship with every one of us.
OK.
And aluminum was lasted across until the 1St at the.
And it's a picture of wonderful affection. It was a man that denied the Lord Jesus with curses. And oh, that was a man that identified him as a mob of the traitor's fifth. But you don't find a woman that followed him in the Scripture that ever did such a thing like that. Adam, he was deceived. So Adam was in the transgression he willfully send.
And uh.
So again already been touched on beautiful pictures. I just want to go back to what our brothers had mentioned in connection with second prefer sympathy to it is a nice way to see that expectation of Paul to Timothy be strong in the great.
Or Lord Jesus Christ, to be confident, we often apply that a personal enjoyment of His grace. And so it should be.
But her old sister investor used to say about the Saints and perhaps feeling there wasn't what there should be, she said. You know, if there's life, it'll move.
And if there's life, there'll be a response and confidence in the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ in the day of decline and ruin. And Timothy was going to have to continue on and that service with the Lord without Paul.
You're going to have to be confident that the Lord was going to act in grace towards his own. Otherwise it would be so discouraging to be a minister of Christ in that kind of a day without any confidence that the Lord was going to work in some way. So it's not just a personal sense of grace. We need that too, but it's confidence that he's going to work.
I'm on his own, and that gives encouragement and energy to one who would seek to go out and be an encouragement to the Saints. If there's life, it'll move you. Just keep it with the Lord, confident in His grace to act even in the day like we're in.
It's interesting, the devotion that she showed to him, a quiet devotion, isn't it? And that we see even when she wept at his feet and.
It's interesting that Brother Robert read that same verse to me on Friday, sitting in his house in Zechariah chapter 13 and verse 7, and it tells us in Matthew 18 and 10. Be careful that we despise not one of those little ones.
And so he gives us an example of His grace here and how He speaks to Mary and in John chapter 12 when she anointed him with the spleener.
Verse 3 Mary took a pound of ointment of spaghetti and very costly, and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair, and the house was filled with the odor of the ointment. Then say if one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, which should betray him, I was not disappointment sold for 300 pence and given to the poor.
00:35:21
Be careful if you decide not one of these little ones.
Verse 7 Then said Jesus, let her alone against the day of my bearing hast she kept this for the poor. Always ye have with you, but me ye have not always. And so we see her quiet devotion in how she waited, and then she went to the tomb where her Savior lay in death. And I think that that must have been such a time of grief and mourning for her, and then to see that stone rolled away.
And the one whom she came to be with was no longer there.
And but it reminds me for some reason of those ones in Acts chapter one that were standing there gazing up the men of Galilee. Why standing, gazing up, the same one that has been taken up, received into the cloud, will come again in like manner receive you and himself. And so they were encouraged to keep pressing on and to look forward and work to encourage one another to do that today and embrace to treat each other in the same way with the example with which He has given us here in this chapter.
Theater.
Might have been.
One of the greatest.
Examples except for.
He dropped his eyes and and he lost that devotion just for a moment, and he sank down. He had to cry out again. Lord, save me. But Mary was always there with that quiet devotion.
Perhaps it's a little bit off the subject rather Jonathan, but you referenced the 12Th of John. I'd like to make a comment on one of the verses there that.
It helped me when I was younger and uh, maybe it'll be a help to some.
We know on the 12Th of John, it's one of the most beautiful pictures of the devotedness of the soul whose heart was won by the Lord. But we find that such an action is not always received well. And as you read, I'm going to do this, I'm a scariest son said, Why was not this ointment sold for 300 pence and given to the poor? Compelling argument, isn't it? Why don't you care for the poor? Why don't we take up with something for the service of man?
And the good and and practical needs of math. But notice the next verse.
Inscribed by the Spirit of God verse six this he said not that he cared for the poor, but because he was a thief and had the bag and buried what was put there in.
Everything is not always as we hear it presented. What this man said sounded very compelling, very noble. This man is concerned about the poor, but the word of God says the Spirit of God says he cared not for the poor.
And so just because we hear something doesn't mean it's so in the spirit of God unravels the thief that Judas Iscariot was. They've been disciples didn't know of, but the God knew what the Lord knew it and he commends Mary of Bethany of this act of devotedness.
Another thought here too. You know when the disciples went to their own home, it wasn't the first time this had happened. Go back to the 6th chapter of the same gospel.
Around the 7th chapter.
And this is when the Nicodemus had, let's say it was coming into the light, and he defended the Lord the best he could.
In the Pharisees and their condescending arrogance said, certainty, there's no prophet that comes out of Galilee. Well, there was at least one Jonah for one that they probably didn't want to remember and perhaps made him profit as well. But at this time, verse 52, they answered and said unto him, Art thou also Galilee church and look, for out of Galilee arises no prophet.
And every man went into his own house, but Jesus went into the Mount of Olives. This dark Harvey includes that word. But Jesus went in the Mount of Olives. And that's what we have here in this chapter as well. Then the disciples went away again under their own home. But Mary stood about at the self occurs weeping. And so we find the situation like this. Sometimes we look at things very objectively, factually, and say, well, there's no sense waiting around here.
But you know, you think of those disciples who company with the Lord and we wonder why, why did Jesus go to the Mount of Olives? Wasn't there one among them of the 11 That would have said, why don't you come to our home? And so here again, the disciples went away to their own home. They saw the Lord was not there and no sense hanging around here. But Mary, her love and affection kept her there. So sometimes we can be very accurate, technically accurate, and you look at things objectively and say, well, that's just the way that it is.
00:40:28
But one that's devoted to the Lord can see things that someone that just looks at things naturally will not.
Could, could we say, would be a fair thing to say that she was rewarded for her devotedness and how she returned to her first here?
OK, now it says Hebrews 11. I saw that recently, Brother Jonathan. Now we say, well, God is a giver and that He is, but he's also a rewarder. He that cometh to God must believe that He is, and he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him like Mary Magdalene.
The true bread and I was thinking that mind if I stand up that umm.
We have here a uh, a new relationship with uh did not obtain before.
Uh, retained me not uh, for saying, uh, whereas with the woman of Galilee, he allowed that to, uh, to, uh.
He had his speaking to touch him. Why was it?
That Mary was told not to touch him yet. Why is that so?
Well, I was wondering the report. It's in anticipation of Christianity.
We are now to know the Lord in a different way. You don't know him as the Messiah. You don't know him after the flex. He's been reigned through the Gospels. But now we know Price in a different way. You know now has resurrected and seeking that God resigned a glorified man. This is the whole point of the gospel of God. And now we are to know Christ in a different way.
Not as the children of Israel did we have known now in Christianity. Exalted, exalted.
You'll notice that in that verse 16 that you referenced Brother John, it says that she turned herself and saith unto him, Rabona, which is to say, Master. And so in a sense, she addressed Him just as she did before the resurrection, before He went to the cross. Now after the cross, she can no longer address Him in the same way. It's a different relationship that she had with him. She didn't understand that.
But now she's a part of a new creation race. She's brought into relationship with the Lord Jesus as the Son of God, as the Lord and as her Savior, and she can address God as Father. So he says, touch me not, for I'm not yet ascended unto my Father, but go to my brethren. And so she could not.
Receive him, as it were. She could not.
Continue the same relationship that she had with him.
As she had before the cross. The cross changed everything. Resurrection changed everything. We don't realize it, but after the resurrection of the Lord Jesus.
Things were never the same again. Remember when they at the resurrection, at the death of the Lord Jesus, there was a greater earthquake and the rock rent? When it speaks of a greater earthquake in the scriptures, it speaks of some event.
Cataclysmic event and things will never be the same ever again because of that event. And so you can't run around and glue the rocks all back together again and make sure that everything's put back together again. It can't be done.
And So what took place at the Cross of Calvary?
Allowed God to go forth to man in grace and in truth, and to deal with you and I on the principle of grace, and to bring us into the knowledge of the truth. Bring us into the knowledge of what God has desired for us to understand and enjoy His thoughts as to the person of Christ and His glory, and that He will reign and have a place of glory in this earth.
00:45:04
And in the heavenly sea all will be brought into subjection to him. And so resurrection change everything. So he says, touch me not where I'm not yet ascended unto my Father. Go to my brethren, say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your father and my God and your God a different relationship. So it's necessary for us to thank the Lord and to remember that resurrection and what took place at the cross of the Calvary changed everything. And she could not have, she couldn't go back to Judaism.
I've often thought that.
Got the.
Because what made Mary Magdalene is still devoted.
With the fact that, as it tells us in the same account in Mark 16.
Uh, it says that he appeared first temporary migraine.
Shot 7 double.
She was. She had been.
Under Satan's control, and we can only imagine.
Electrolyte must have been light before.
Calcium pill 7 dose. I don't make any of those have any idea.
What kind of control Satan has on her and he the control that he has.
Even today.
All around us in this world.
Thankfully, you cannot have that control on us as believers.
You can certainly try to make us unhappy believers, and that leads very often successful in that. But I don't think we have any idea what Mary Magdalene has been saved from, and she obviously realized that so late. I've been totally changed by what the work I've done for her. No wonder she had the devotion.
To be the first one to supplicate her.
And, uh, stay there and to, to be. And then we've already been said was rewarded.
By the fact that the word spoke to her.
We don't know either that she had a home.
We read them, they had homes to go to. Mary and Martha had a home in Bethany, but we never read of Mary Magdalene having a home and uh.
In addition to being possessed by 7 demons, it would have been a pretty wretched condition that she was saved out of those those demons. And Satan loves to drag man through the very lowest depths in in.
Not just spiritual self, immoral self, but even physical filth and deplorable conditions.
She had no home but the Lord. When I was a boy, we lived in Addis Ababa for about a year and on the way to Sedan Interior Mission School for the missionary children, my dad would take us there and drop us off and we would go on the outskirts of the city every morning, every day on the way home.
And there were It was just a bare hill, no trees.
Didn't look like much on but there were people on that hill.
And, uh, some little lean crews barely big enough to maybe if you could crawl under them and curl up in a ball and be under. And uh, I remember asking my father what that was, He said, well, that's a graveyard and the people that are there are Ludo's.
For children who have no parents any longer because they die and they're living on their grace and there they would live. They had no place else to go.
So they would just set up home, so to speak, and the grave of their loved one having no place else to go. I think that was Mary. She had no place else in that way to go. Christ was everything to her. There's no question of her going back to a home. And then she makes this remarkable statement. If if that was carried him, wait, tell me, I'll, I'll take him where?
She has an old thought of where.
00:50:00
It's just anything to be as close to the Lord as she could possibly be. He was the home of her heart in that way.
Paul tells us in Romans that there's no difference for all of us. We were all. We were all in that same position before the word picked us up, and stages hate to believe we were all.
Maybe not so directly, but we were all undertaking control and that's the more we realize what we have been saying from.
The board, what we will have to the world.
Another little lesson. I have been a help to me on this again, I, I haven't received any, anything came up with on my own. I'm sure I got this from somebody else, but, uh, Mary didn't recognize the Lord through her tears. And you know, trials can come that are so severe and the tears come and we can fail to see the Lord because of our tears. She, she was looking right at the Lord.
And didn't see him. You know, the trials can get overwhelming enough to us. And so occupied we are with the trial and our loss that we fail to discern the Lord's hand in it and see that he's in it and he's there. And so she needed that little call to her heart. He called his own sheet by name, doesn't mean. And so he calls her by name. And it's upon that that she recognizes them to the Lord, it's the Lord.
And what a wonderful day that was for the disciples here and there is they're solely brought into the realization.
Their their greatest disappointment of all their lives has turned into the most ecstatic joy and rejoicing of all her lives as they realize he was risen from the dead. What a wonderful day it must have been.
And how?
That then forms them for all the rest of their pathway. All of the apostles except for John, as far as we know, all suffered a martyr's death rather than to give up what they learned that day. Jesus Christ raised from the dead and what would what fervor and devotedness and and.
Enthusiasm, so to speak. They went out and preached.
After the Spirit of God was sent down and that became the power to witness for Christ to go out and preach the resurrection. That says there in Acts with great power they gave witness to the resurrection.
That reminded me a little bit what you were saying about how she didn't see him. And it reminded me a little bit of the portion in, uh, Luke Chapter 7 when he was in the Pharisees house and she came in and.
Was there?
Verse 38.
She stood at his feet and behind him weeping, and began to wash his feet with tears, and to wipe them with the hairs of her head, and kissed his feet, and pointed them with the ointment. Now in the Pharisee which has been installed, he stayed within himself, saying, This man, if he were a prophet, would have known who and what man or woman this is that touches him, for she is a Sinner. Jesus answering, said unto him, Simon, I have somewhat to say unto thee. And he saith, Master, say on. There was certain creditor which had two debtors 1. Owed 500 pence to the other 50.
When they when they had nothing to pay, he frankly forgave them both. Tell me therefore, which of them will love him most? Simon answered, and said, I suppose that he to whom he forgave most? And he said unto him, Thou hast rightly judged. And he turned to the woman, and said unto Simon, Seeth thou this woman? I entered into thine house, Thou gavest me no water for my feet. But she had washed my feet with tears, and wiped them with the hairs of her head.
That gave us me no kiss. But this woman, since the time I came in, have not ceased to kiss my feet. My head was oiled out. It's not annoying, but this woman hath anointed my feet anointed wherefore I landed in her sins, which are many are forgiven. She loved much, but whom little is forgiven, the same love is little. And he said unto her, Thy sins are forgiven in verse 50. And he said to the woman, Thy faith I saved thee gone peace and I, it was just.
00:55:08
Allowing me to consider for a moment what Mr. Robert Muir said over there, how young. We've all fallen short. We've all been to come short of the glory of God.
Why is it that we don't see him sometimes? Why is it that we miss it? This man had him in his house and yet he didn't invite his deep. He didn't wash his feet, he didn't kiss him. So why is it that Mary had that devotion?
And some of us being like married, maybe some of us being like the other.
And it just made me realize that, you know, we had such a blessed privilege as believers that belong to him.
To be just like Mary here, to be devoted and to get rewarded in a safe fashion, not just on Lord say as their brother John Kemp reminds us, all the time that were gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ 24/7 were His thought by His blood 24/7 we belong to Him. So why are we not each one of us devoted like this? Why are we missing? Why don't we see Him when He is right in front of our face?
What might the?
Might uh, just, uh, clear that John was one of those that was a witness. I think it's Acts chapter one that umm, verse 8 is really the key verse to understanding the book of the Acts. So Acts chapter one, verse eight, you shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost has come upon you and you shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and uttermost part of Europe. Well, to be a witness, a credible witness.
A witness has to have seen something and has needs to have heard something.
And they were credible witnesses. There are several things that John saw here in John's Gospel chapter 19, verse 35. He that thought their record and his record is true. And he knoweth that he say is true, that he might believe. For these things were done, that the Scripture should be fulfilled. A bone of him shall not be broken. And again another Scripture says, they shall look on him who may have pierced. So one of the things that John saw.
Was the Lord Jesus.
Dying for him. He had an appreciation for Christ who he speaks up in chapter 10 is that Good Shepherd that giveth his life for the sheep. He saw the Lord Jesus a dying Savior, and then he sees two in our chapter in chapter 20 here he saw this open array that says in verse 6.
Uh, then come as Simon Peter following him and went into the curse, see at the linen clothes line the napkin that was about his head, not lying with the linen clothes, but wrapped together in a place by itself. Then went in also that other disciple which came first to Sepulchre, and he saw and believed. So he saw an empty tomb. He saw the fact that there was Christ had risen. And I believe at that time they began to understand in some small measure. We know that say.
Even in the upper room at the end of the first day of the week that the Lord had to upgrade them for their unbelief. But there came a time when John, because of what he had seen, he saw that resurrection was real. And then the last thing that he saw.
Or the third thing, three things that he saw that were very significant, he saw in verse 19. He saw the Lord Jesus in the midst of His people. He saw Him in the midst.
Then came Jesus in verse 19, stood in the midst and said unto them, peace be unto you. So those three things really I believe help John and they will help us. If we see the Lord Jesus, we understand and appreciate what took place at the cross of Calvary. He didn't die for everyone. That's not the point. The point is he died for me, the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. And John saw that.
Faith and then he saw the empty tomb. He recognized that the Lord Jesus was risen, glorified. He speaks of them in that way. And then in verse 19, he saw him in the midst of his people. Isn't it wonderful to come into the assembly and see Christ in the midst? You come to be in the do you come to be with the brethren? Do you come to be with your friends? You just came for the wrong reason. If you do not see the Lord Jesus in the midst, if you don't believe that Christ has the power.
01:00:20
By His Spirit, to draw souls into His presence and to be gathered by His Spirit, neither the presence of the Lord Jesus, to remember Him in the circumstances of His death and to sit in His presence, to read the scriptures, to sit in His presence and remember Him in His death, to be in His presence and to offer praising Thanksgiving as a holy priest. Why, you've missed the point. You haven't got the enjoyment of these things. And that's what will keep us and preserve us as we see those three things.
Don't unnecessarily hold us back, but just to more comments and verses 16 and 17.
You look referencing back to what you said, Brother Steve, about Mary not seen through her tears, but you think of that moment of sheer joy when he says one word to her, Mary.
She heard that voice before and she knew. You say that he quoted the verse that he calls his own sheep by name. That's his side of it. The other sheep is my sheep. Hear my voice. She knew that voice. She heard that before and the joy that flooded her soul when she heard that. Interesting that the promise of the overcomer there and Laodicea, I guess it's not even the promise to be overcomer. It's the appeal to those ladies. See if any man here in my voice. Behold, I stand at the door and knock if any man hear my voice.
Not here than not but hear my voice. And so it brings us into connection to the Lord himself and it's something that was very personal to her. But then in that great 17th verse when the Lord Jesus unfolds to her really and said, isn't it John's gospel. We have the buddies of Christianity. God is no characteristically his father in Christianity, but here to this woman. He unfolds this truth. I sent it to my father.
Now that was eternally true, the eternal sanctions of Christ. He was ever his father, my father. When we come to the Book of Revelation, we'll see it's my father throughout as well. It's not our father. Revelation doesn't give us the body of Christian teaching. We're service in the Book of Revelation, but revelation is my father. Here is my father. That's his eternal sonship. But go to my brethren and Sinner thou, my Sinner to my father and your father. This is this is a blessing we enjoy consequent upon.
The indwelling spirit that God has sent the spirit of his Son into our hearts, whereby we cry out the Father and to my God and your God. Well, we know that he said my God, that was truest. The psalmist to say Psalm 22, thou art my God from my mother's belly. There was a time when the eternal Son of God came forth, conceived of the Spirit in Mary's womb and at that time Jesus would say my God.
And your VOD. But the order is important, isn't it? That with our Lord Jesus Christ, the order is my Father and my God. He was eternally His Father and an incarnation. He could speak of them as my God. And we sometimes sing that expression now, our Father and our God. But the order for us properly is our God and Father. He was always our God. He was only our Father consequent upon redemption. And so in that there is a great difference. He was the eternal Son of God. We're sons of God by faith in Christ Jesus, in that place of Sanchez and with him.
He was equal with the Father that He came into that place of lowly manhood and incarnation, and as such He could speak of his Father as my God.
A new relationship for him and a new one for us.
Might be good to note that uh just for clarity, that God is the one that judges sin and so God forsook his son on the cross and so he could say my God, my God why has stopped forsaken me?
But it's the Father, his relationship, and so he is in that relationship as a man, and he addresses God as his Father. He will be a man for all eternity. And you and I can address God as our Father. We have that relationship. It will never be taken away from us. Now we may slide in our souls and we may get cold and our souls may not, may not enjoy that relationship, but it never will change. It cannot change.
01:05:16
Respondent of God or heirs of God joy heirs with Christ. It will never change. You can't do anything to change it. And so the Lord Jesus and the wonderful that one of the first things he wants to brethren to know is that they can now address God as their father and it's a privilege for us to address God as our father. I often think of Galatians. Oh no, it's Ephesians chapter 5.
Verse 20, maybe you already know it's the by heart, but it's uh.
Verse 20 Ephesians chapter 5 Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. And so in Paul's ministry, oftentimes you have God and the Father.
In, uh, because we're heavenly citizens, we belong to heaven, we have the right, the authority, the privilege of addressing God as our Father and the wonderful. And then when we pray, we can pray in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Isn't it wonderful to give him his full title? Give him his full title. He's worthy of his full title. And the Father, I believe, enjoys hearing the Lord Jesus given his full time.
Your tomb was opened here not in order to let the Lord help.
But in order that we could walk in and see and everything that's redemption. Your work has been finished and.
The Lord did not go back to the glory unless He, as soon as that word help him, He entered the glory in manhood. If He had not put away our sins, He was charged with them on the cross, but the Rose triumphant, and we have an empty tomb now.
1.
Might just comment on these, uh, two angels in verse 12. It's the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. You know, he sees this woman weaving it too, and he didn't mean to send to me. There are things in life that God doesn't need to do. He doesn't it's, you might say, optional, but in the heart of God, his, his heart towards his people is revealed.
And when you have tears, when you have heartache, the Son of God himself notices, and he will ascend an encouragement to you in a special way. And an Angel you know is just a messenger from God. He's a servant. All the angels are just servants.
He could have sent 1 Angel, that would be fine, but he sends 2 angels to talk to Mary and to talk to those perhaps that were there. We have those two angels on different occasions that are spoken of in different ways, but it's, uh, adequate witness to angels to speak to this woman that has such devotion for Christ. And so isn't it the way with the Lord? You have the suffering, you have tears.
There's messengers from God sent with a verse of scriptures, perhaps with a heart and just a little message from the Lord himself to give you comfort through that experience. Reminds us of the, uh, the two angels looking down on the mercy seat, one at one end and one at the other. One here at the head, one at the feet where the Lord lay looking at that place, he who had given himself satisfaction to God.
For, uh, our internal medicine.
All sign of resurrection. There was really going to be no blessing for man.
There was gonna be no association of ourselves with the Lord outside of right direction. And so really in the Lord's name to to Mary, don't I think that.
Have a more literal rendering be. Don't persist in clinging to me that way.
After really the hopes of our own heart representing Israel and their hopes in the Messiah, we thought this was he who should deliver Israel and so on.
01:10:02
But they hadn't entered into what the Lord had said, except the corn of wheat fall into the ground and died, and bite us alone. But if it died, bringeth forth much fruit. And so in resurrection now we are associated with Him, we have His risen life. And like that cornered wheat that fell into the ground and died, it springs up a new stock. And on the that stock are all these little kernels, just like the one that went into the ground.
And they all have their life because they're on that stock that sprung up identical to the one that went into the ground, and they have the same life. And so outside of resurrection, there could be none, uh, associated with him in that way. He had gone back to the glory alone and remained a man alone forever. One of the saddest things you could think of to think of a man alone for all eternity. It's not good for a man to be alone, the Lord said.
And so.
If she could have them after her hoax, it would have left her outside of Christ.
And left hand alone for eternity, but you're brushing that away. And now he's going to introduce this whole new thing. And it starts with that new relationship to know God.
As their Father, as he knew him as Father, he could speak of him as their heavenly Father in in in the Gospels. But that was the sense of distance. And in the Old Testament God could speak of himself as acting towards Israel like a father.
You know Father character, but to know him as Father and the Lord Jesus known as Father was something that he never spoke of previous to his resurrection.
There wasn't very much time from when she went to the tomb.
We went in the garden reverse.
14 and 15 and 16 to that period, there wasn't very much time I believe in that day.
And I believe it's a picture of how closely.
We've been saying devoted, but how closely she wanted to spend her time with the Lord, and it's an example to us. We can all be devoted on different levels. If I can use that word again, we can all be.
Close in certain ways, with him in different ways, but as Brother Bill pointed out, my sheep hear my voice and know them, and I give them to them. Eternal life and so on. It reminds me of him that my wife just helped me with. I sing it all the time, but I am thine, O Lord, I have heard thy voice, but I always change it and say I am thine, O Lord, I've heard Thy word because He speaks to us through His words. And so we need to read His words to learn more of these things like we are here today.
But I believe with my whole heart that the closer that we are with Him while we are here, the more quickly as He did with Mary here, opens her eyes and allows her to see. The more quickly He opens our eyes and allows us to see. The closer we are with Him, the faster we can see.
I told this story the other day and I hope it's OK, but I was driving along just the other day and by no means am I saying I'm closer to the Lord than anybody else here in this room, but I was driving along.
I was having difficulty in my life, something that had gone on in my house, and I was upset and I was getting angrier as I drove and I was getting upset. And I realized, well, I didn't realize right away, but all of a sudden my phone, which is in a holder on my dash, lit up. The screen lit up, and there was a verse, only a verse, only a verse texted to me. I don't think he'd mind me saying Brother Walt Porter.
It was name one and four I believe, and I can't quote it all to you, but it says Jehovah slow to anger.
And that's how he dealt with Mary here, and that's how he can deal with you and I in our lives through grace, as Sean can point out from the beginning. And that's how he works in our lives. But we have to be close, walking closely with him, hearing his voice. We have to open his word. We can't just come to meeting through the week and think we're going to get enough. He goes on in the next couple of verses here, the verses I love in this chapter so much in 19 and 20. We speak to that first day and.
01:15:02
Then he came in, the first day of the evening being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut, where the disciples were assembled.
Well, where is disciples today? We assemble on Lord's Day morning, the first day of the week, and we come together just like this. And it says.
Jesus came and stood and missed where to appear, gathered together in my name and their mind in the midst of them. And we appreciate that on that word today morning, all week, all week, we have the opportunity and the privilege to be reminded.
By him in the same way Mary was as we can cry for a positive relationship that we've been told about here just shortly ago. But on words day, we can be reminded then of the relationship that we have with our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, because he's in the midst and he shows himself to us just like he does here in this verse.
And came Jesus, and stood in the midst, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you. And when he so said, he showed unto them his hands in the side. Then where the disciples bladder, when they saw the Lord.
What a blessed privilege we have all week in that relationship that we've been Speaking of, but what a portion we can have on Wednesday morning to be reminded and to be brought back into that gladness that they had here when they saw their Lord.
They were gathered in that upper room.
But the consequent upon the testimony of Mary.
She brings that message of arisen Christ, brings that message of new relationship. And on that testimony we find them gathered in the upper room. And so from this point on, we really see the nucleus of the assembly given to us here. We also get a little later a picture of the place of the remnant, those who didn't receive that testimony at first, and Thomas, but we get the nucleus of the assembly.
They're gathered as a brother Jonathan brought out with the Lord Jesus in the midst are gathered on the testimony of him are risen victorious over the grave, ascending back to his God and fathers risen and ascended Christ. That's the testimony that uh has gathered them together with the Lord Jesus in the midst. He says receive ye Holy Ghost. This is a Pentecost, but it certainly.
Prefigures that day that was coming in the picture that's given to us when the Spirit of God would come and unite all those believers in one. There's a different aspect of things that's emphasized here, but in the picture, the Holy Spirit being received as the power of testimony and witness. They were going to become a best role in the churches of vessel testimony for Christ in this world by the power of the Spirit of God and what is the message?
Whosoever sends you rheumatoid or remitted unto them, whosoever sends you pain, they are retained. And so they go out with a message of forgiveness of sin. But there also is invested with them a measure of authority, the Lord being in the midst in connection with a, a governmental dealing, uh, administrative dealing with sins here in this world. So the assembly has authority because the Lord is in the midst in connection with.
Maintaining the assembly and holiness and purity.
So we see in these things just a little quick outline the nucleus of the assembly. Thomas then doesn't believe until he misses out on the blessing. Then when the when the OR he wasn't there, he misses out on this first little portion. He refuses to believe when he hears the testimony, but he finally does come into the place of faith and believing when he physically sees the Lord.
And see, uh, those, uh, prints of the mail and, and, uh, his fear Pierce side, just like Israel. What are these wounds in my hand? Right. There's going to be a blessing they come into when they see and believe by sight.
But they missed out on the greater blessing of those who believe by faith. So they will come into their own blessing in place. But the greater portion is what was.
I missed out on by Thomas. So there Thomas is a picture of the remnant will come into blessing, but they're not going to be part of the church because of the refusal to believe at first.
Not hardly, not told that we should the horse day morning count with our basket full.
01:20:02
How can you fill that out?
We got it from Monday to Saturday night that we can prepare for.
Sometimes it makes me critically of these brethren that the doors were shut for fear of the juice.
But I believe it was a good thing to see what happened throughout the epistles. The danger was that, uh, the, uh, infiltration of Judaism, that was, it was a sad day when the Church of God ceased to be afraid of those influences. And just to briefly add to what you said, Brother Stephen, along slightly different light, we have pre expressions here. Peace be on TV three times as reference. And I believe we have a nice order here The first time in verse 19, peace be unto you. And when he had so said, he showed unto them his hands and his side. Then with the disciples glad when they saw the Lord.
Send me a little picture of peace with God that we find here is His hands in his side. Now look at his hands and his feet. It's the pathway of that blessed man to show that he was not a spirit, that he was a true man. And behold, my hands and my feet, it is I myself, the Spirit not, hath not flesh and bones that you see me have, but here in John is his hands in his side. Why? Because in John is where the only gospel that brings out is the blood being shed from his pure sight. And so it's on that basis on which we can have peace with God.
Jesus our Lord who is delivered for our offenses and raised again for our justification, therefore having peace, uh, therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. So the first peace beyond you, I take it here is peace and relationship to his atoning sufferings. It's peace with God. But then he says in verse 21, then said Jesus unto them again, peace be unto you is my father hath sent me Even so send I you and he breathes on them and so on. But here.
Now they have, he might say, typically, a peace with God. Now they're sent forth to bear witness for him what is needed.
That piece of God, that peace in which God dwells, that peace which he gives, He's not ruffled by circumstances like we so often are. And so in that pathway of service, they will have this peace. And then we find a subsequently to Thomas restoration. And we find in verse 26, when Thomas is restored, he comes back, the door is being shut and stood in the midst and said, peace be unto you.
I just saw this in a product to go away. Sometimes there are little differences that come up among us and, umm, they can bring a little tension, a little, uh, lack of dis, maybe a little discomfort in the assembly. And it could have been this way. Thomas wasn't there the first Lord's day and after the, uh, the resurrection, but then he comes again. But if the Lord comes in, he says peace be unto you. And I think of what it says there in First Thessalonians 5 and be at peace among yourselves.
You'll notice that this uh, little expression piece be unto you, that the B is in italics. So it's really a little three sentence, a three word statement that the Lord makes peace unto you.
It was not said before the cross, it couldn't be said before the cross, it couldn't be said before resurrection. But now they have the peace of God, peace unto you. And so it's individual. They could individually enjoy their peace with God and all from John's gospel, the Lord Jesus expresses himself in these three word, little sentences, little expressions, all of them trace them through the.
John's Gospel. It's very identifying.
They said Master, where dwelleth saw. He said come and see in chapter 21, we'll read a little later and he says come and dine just a little three word expressions that the Lord uses. I just mentioned just before we close in verse 23, a piece of an authority there. It speaks of the Apostolic authority. The apostles had authority to buying and Duluth individually. But then in Matthew's Gospel chapter 18.
It's really the authority of those that are in the assembly. And so there's God has vested that authority in the assembly. In verse 18, Matthew 18, verse 18, verily I say unto you, whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven. Whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loose in heaven. So it's authority in the assembly. So it's important to notice that and that distinction that there is a Apostolic authority that apostles have authority.
01:25:01
Paul could say, what will you do? Shall I come with a rod? He had authority.
From God to maintain order in the assemblies at the beginning, but it's now the responsibility of those that are gathered by the Spirit of God into under the precious name of the Lord Jesus that we maintain authority in or maintain order in his presence. And so that's why there is authority given that there might be a clean place, a holy place that we're for the Lord to be in a lot of time is up.
Even the pen.
Until we see his face and all the things above and sing forever of his love to attend.
OK, praises my praises. Now you're being sorry.
So I have my students charges and so I'll still throw blood and grain screens on the dark hair.
1000, two months away.
Right.
I'm going to show great land and.
That shall be swinging them today.
Live.
Time to change forever of his predator.
And they're out in town.
OK, God my loving Father, thank you so much for these things that we have been able to have before us and before opening the scriptures to us and opening our understanding that we may understand these things and we just thank Thee for.
All righteva and all his beauty, all his glory, just, uh, pray that as we, umm, continue to think on him, that these things that we take in would be able to stay with us, that, umm, as we continue on through this, uh, life, through this pathway, as we're last year, we just pray that we'd be able to retain them and that they would, uh, work themselves in our lives. And then.
It would be for the honor and glory our Father. So we just try these things and thank you, bless your master fine and thank you for answering our prayers. Umm, so far the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.
The Word of God
Address—Bill Brockmeier
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.
Let's open with #294 two 9/4.
All Lord and large are scansy thought to know the wonders thou hast wrought, Unloose our stammering tongues to tell thy love immense, unsearchable.
Oh, come thou stricken.
Around the world.
Listen for us.
Vinyl of life.
And Jesus.
All thy love.
Then pain in life.
Were Sweden.
Take.
Low our hearts and let them be.
Forever.
Very close to all of thee, thy willing.
Servants, let us work the seal of love.
Forever.
There.
Our blessed are they.
A sin of mine.
Who sheltered by?
Thy watchful side.
Life and strength from thee racer haven with.
They move and in.
They live.
Our Lord and Lords are scanned, he thought.
To know the one.
Nurse the astronaut Unloose.
Our stammering tones.
The My Love.
Amen, son, Sir.
Able first born of.
Many.
Brethren.
Ball to whom both heaven and earth must bound.
Heirs of thy shame and.
Of my.
Throne Reaper.
Like cross and seek.
My crown.
Let's pray. God and our Father, we thank you this afternoon.
Turn first, if you are pleased, to Psalm 119.
Verse 161.
Princess have persecuted me without a cause, But my heart standeth in awe of thy word. I rejoice at thy word. Is one that findeth great spoil. I hate and abhor lying, but thy law do I love.
Don't know exactly how to express it, but my desire is this afternoon, but it would be that I could pass on some things that would, uh, have been a help to me. I trust it be a help to you, uh, some specific scriptures and then some larger themes that would cause this. I trust to gain an appreciation or a further appreciation for the word of God, the scriptures, and I trust to, to make a few comments that might help us.
00:05:29
And our understanding of this blessed book.
When, uh, we were first married, we have an assembly at that time was in the Winchester assembly and we met in a refurbished garage and there was, it was like a retirement home for some of the older ones. And there was a aged brother lived right against the, uh, the, the, the garage or the meeting hall like justice of old, whose house joined heart of the synagogue. The brother could open the door and walk right into the meeting room.
However, what struck me is when you went in the front door of that brother's house.
There was a text that immediately faced you. I've never seen it before or since. And this text was the last half of this 161St verse. My heart standeth in awe of thy word and knowing that brother, it was a reality with him. He loved the scriptures, He valued the scriptures, He respected the scriptures. SO3 brief points in these verses. That is good for young and old. It's interesting here how the.
It really gives us insight even to the path of the Lord Jesus here who loved the Word of God. Thy laws within. My heart looks on to a coming day when the the the New Covenant will be written on the hearts of the Jewish people, the Jewish remnant. And again this gives us a language. Part of it is love for the Word of God. Well heres his Princess that persecuted me without a cause, but my heart standeth of them. No, my heart standeth in awe of Thy word.
Since said by using the same word we don't all mean the same thing, which is true, but also we find that occasionally a word is used.
To describe something but it really overstates it. For instance, I might say.
I had a piece of cheesecake that was simply awesome.
But it really wasn't. It was delectable. It was mouth watering perhaps, but it wasn't awesome. Standing in awe would be the suggestion, the presence of hear the scriptures of our God to be overwhelmed with a sense of His Majesty, his greatness and his glory. This is what's standing in awe is to come before the word of God. This is.
It is the word of God living in powerful and sharper than any two edged sword. And so I just bring this verse out at the beginning that there is holy reverence for this book. There is no book like this. This is the word of God. Just recently again, I picked up on Miller's church history. That's pretty cumbersome. It's it's it's, it's thick and good. But I there's a little church history book by Price GHS price. I think it is. But anyway, I read it because it gives you a quick snapshot of church history and very few pages.
I encourage you to read it, it gives you a quick overview. But what I was impressed with it again is these men like William Tyndale that sacrificed and gave their life in order that we might have copies of the Scripture in our own language. What it treasured is to have the word of God, men and women that have laid down their life and sacrificed their life really as martyrs, that we can read casually the PLA, the blessed precious word of God. Well, the first thing the psalmist was this.
His heart stood in awe of the word that the word of God that would have a commanding influence in our life that says in Isaiah 66 to this man will I look even to him that is of a poor and contrite spirit and that trembleth at my word. This is no common book. This is the word of the living God, so we need to stand in awe of it. But more than that verse 162 I rejoice at thy word as one that.
This great spoil. Isn't it a wonderful thing to be in the presence of somebody who is enthused in reading the scriptures? This is no dry, tedious book. This is filled with riches. This is a delight. You may have heard the anecdote I was told of by a friend of mine when I was younger. Thought a younger brother went to an older brother and said this book is dry. He says. Then try wetting it with a few beads of sweat.
You know, we understand that it requires labor, and of course I've heard a variation of that as well.
Which is perhaps more to the point. Try wetting it with a few tiers.
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There's brothers that have given their life, as we say, to have a copy of the word of God, but it's not dry and tedious. If I'm out of communion, it is. But if I'm walking with the Lord, a psalmist says, I rejoice as thy word of one that findeth great spoil. Go back to, uh, verse. See if I can find it here. Yeah, 72 of the same song.
The law of thy mouth is better unto me than thousands of gold and silver.
I don't have it here in uh, because I have a parallel Bible, but in the King James, I think you noticed on the introduction to it 1611 how they spoke of this book as an inestimable treasure. And so it is the word of God. It says here the law of thy mouth is better unto me than thousands of gold and silver. Just a couple points here. Why doesn't it just say thy law is better than thousands of gold and silver?
But it's better unto me.
It's true it's better than gold and silver, thousands of gold and silver, but what is it to you? What is it to me? The Psalm says it's better unto me than thousands of gold and silver. But then he also says the law of thy mouth finally say thy law is better than gold and silver. It's the law of thy mouth. Made me think of this this morning. It's the voice you know in in the chapter we read this morning in the 20th, John wasn't commented on. Perhaps you noticed it that Mary came and spoke.
The Lord that he had spoken these things unto her.
There's things we pick up, there's things that we learn in our Christian pathway and we value them, but haven't there been times when you have something because you have the sense the Lord has spoken these things unto you? Like the woman in John four there she went and told the men of the city and Samaria there come see a man that told me all things that ever I did. And what did they say to her later on in that chapter?
They said now we believe not because of thy saying.
But we have hurt Him ourself, we've hurt Him ourselves, and that's the great thing. The law of Thy mouth is what I've heard directly from Him, what I've received directly from Him. Well, rejoicing at His Word. And now verse 163, I hate an import line, but thy law do I love, Love for the Scriptures, respect for the Scriptures, joy in the Scriptures, love for the Scriptures. You know three things that mark the Saints of God. They love Christ, they love His people, and they love His Word.
If any man love not our Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema Maranatha.
Love for Christ, a markable believer, and then love for the love for the people of God. Hereby know we pass from death into the life because we love the brethren and here we have love for the Word of God. Well, those three things we should all have in order that that we are going to value and benefit from the Word of God. But I want to move on to Matthew Chapter 9 for a few further thoughts.
Matthew, Chapter 9.
And verse 11.
And when the disciples saw it, that is, the Lord eating republican sinners, they said unto his disciples, Why eateth your Master with publicans and sinners? But when Jesus heard that, he said unto them, They that behold need not a position, but they that are sick.
But go ye, and learn what that meaneth. I will have mercy and not sacrifice, for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.
We'll just stop there. The point I want to bring out here?
Is the, uh, the men criticized? He's been criticized. The Lord. And who did they go to? The Lord? No, they went to his disciples. Why is he doing this? But what does the Lord say? Go and learn what that means. I will have mercy and not sacrifice. He told them to go learn what a specific scripture meant, not just to know the scripture, but to know what it meant.
Now turn over to Chapter 12.
Verse one.
At that time Jesus went on the Sabbath day through the corn, and his disciples were in Hungary, and began to pluck the ears of corn, and to eat. So when the Pharisees saw it, they said unto him, Behold, I disciples do that which is not lawful to do upon the Sabbath day. But he said unto them, Have ye not read what David did when he wasn't hungered, and they there with him, how he entered into the House of God, and eat the showbread, which was not lawful for him to eat, neither for them which were with him, but but only for the priests. Or have you not read in the law how that on the.
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They, the priests in the temple, profane the Sabbath, and are blameless. But I say unto you, that in this place is one greater than the temple. But if he had known what this meaneth, I will have mercy and not sacrifice. He would not have condemned the guiltless. For the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath day.
So the very thing the Lord told them to go and learn, they didn't go and learn. And he says if you would have learned, specifically, if you would have gone and learned what I told you to learn, you would have not have condemned the guiltless, whether it was the disciples doing nothing wrong or ultimately when they would condemn the guiltless 1. Sinless 1.
They condemned the guiltless, But why? It's because they didn't go and learn what the Scripture meant.
We wanna know what the scripture means, but first we have to read the scriptures. Now That passage is in the 6th chapter of Hosea.
It's not a perhaps a real, real well known passage, but we find something else I find very interesting here with what the Lord says to the Pharisees. Now, we noticed before that when the the Pharisees were criticizing the Lord, who did they go to? They went to his disciples. Conversely, when they're finding followed the disciples, they go to the Lord. They don't go to the master when they have an issue with him. They don't go as disciples and they have an issue with them. It just seems like there's that.
That insidious effort to undermine and to bring in dissension and discord, but the Lord was aware of of their operating procedure, but what he does here in reference to what they're doing eating corn on the Sabbath day. He says twice over. Have you not read?
Haven't you read what David did? Uh, when he ate the, when he ate the showbread, it's only for the priests. And then he goes on to say about the, the umm.
The priest that profaned the Sabbath.
Numbers 28, they have scripture for it. Now a couple of points on this. The one is these are what we might think of as relatively obscure passages tucked away in First Samuel, tucked away in numbers, the end of numbers, tucked away in the profits. But the Lord says, have you not read?
And Mark is even stronger. Have you never read?
It's almost as if the Lord would expect that we're familiar and comfortable with these passages.
I worked with a Christian woman for a number of years. She was effectively a single mother raising three daughters. And uh, she had, she'd been saved, uh, later in life, but she wanted to raise her, her girls for the Lord. And she did. Umm, she wanted to get good exposition teaching, really teach, get teaching. At any rate, she seemed to have a desire for the word of God. And one day an issue came up at work where.
Uh, there was an issue between her and and the the boss and.
Spoke about having the right attitude and so I just referenced in passing the story, which I suppose most of us are familiar in the story in this room are familiar with the story about, uh, Naaman's little mate and said to her, her, uh, name is wife all that what the God that Naaman was with the prophet in Israel for he would heal him of his leprosy. My only point in bringing that portion before her was what a beautiful attitude she had towards her boss.
Arguably, your parents may have been slain by the man in his armies if you looked at maybe kind of a blank look. And I said, you don't know that story, do you? She says, no, I don't.
I felt very bad. She wasn't raised in the Christian home. She wasn't raised in the store. What a wonderful work it is for those who teach the children of God these stories that we speak of them. Just when we mentioned that everybody knows what we're talking about. But now the challenge for us is to hear the Lord refers to three other passages that are perhaps not as well known. And yet I take it from this verse. His expectation is that we would have read it and even here we would have read it.
And gone and learned what it meant.
One more passage in Luke Chapter 9 and then I'll get on to some other things. So the importance of knowing the Word of God, reading the Word of God.
And then the importance of applying the Word of God as we've learned it.
We read in First Thessalonians chapter 2 how Paul thank God for the Thessalonians believers because.
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What they receive the word from him. They received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth the word of God. And then he says, which effectually worketh in you that belief. He thanked God. First of all, they received the word, but not Paul's word. They received this. What it is, it's the word of God, and that's how they received it. But more than that, it says it effectually works in you that believe. That is when the word of God is read.
The effect is it's going to work in us, it's going to change us, it's going to and we need to have application in our life and that rejoiced the heart of the apostle. But Luke Chapter 9 for one other point here 52 verse 52.
Our umm Verse 51, I should say. And it came to pass. When the time was come that he should be received up, he steadfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem, and sent messengers before his face, and they went and entered into a village of the Samaritans to make ready for him.
And they did not receive him, because his face was as though he would go out to Jerusalem. And when his disciples James and Josh saw this, they said, Lord we all, thou, that we command fire to come down from heaven and consume them, even as Elijah did. But he turned and rebuked them and said, You know not what manner of spirit you're of. For the Son of Man is not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them. And they went to another village.
Well, here's another point for us, the disciples.
Knew the word of God. They knew the story about Elijah calling fire down from heaven. The captain in this 53 times over.
They knew the story and something else in addition to knowing the story. They applied it. They were ready to apply it. Well, Elijah, he brought down fire from heaven. And is that what you want us to do? Lord, too? So you can't fault him for not wanting to apply the scripture. But they didn't apply it correctly, did they? And what did they do? They compared the Lord to Elijah, not Elijah the prophet of grace.
And the Lord just said, you know not what manner of spirit you're of. And so it is not enough to not only know the Word of God and to apply the Word of God, but we need to apply the Word of God intelligently. The disciples were not In Sync. They were not in harmony with the Lord's mind, the prophet.
That, that umm, you know, it was a profit, but he was that man of grace of like the prophet of grace, Elijah. And so how important it is that we apply the word of God intelligently. Sometimes the expressions made well, we need to connect the dots. Yes, we need to connect the dots, but we need to correct connect the correct dots. One doesn't go to six or to 10. It goes to 2 and so on. There needs to be a proper order.
Well, we had it. We're familiar with the verse. I'm not gonna quote it.
In the second Timothy chapter 2, to study thy shell self, to be approved unto God, a Workman that needeth not to be ashamed.
Rightly dividing the word of truth. And so the rest of the meeting, I would just like to make a few comments that I trust will be a help to us and, and rightly dividing the word of truth. And, uh, kind of sense the comments are directed to those who are younger that haven't perhaps had the opportunity to hear these things before. And, uh, I always hesitate to be telling my dear brother things they already know, but, umm.
I I do wanna pass on a few things.
I'd also like to say something else is by way of encouragement. Maybe it doesn't apply up here at all, but uh, sometimes we emphasize and stress the importance of younger ones, younger brother, and to get a hold of the word of God because if you don't get it when you're young, you won't have it when you're old.
And that's fine as long as we're addressing young people. But it has been to my great encouragement in our days of weakness. I can think of two assemblies +5. Right where we live is there are now older brothers, leading brothers and their youth, they did not contribute either in priesthood or in the readings. And as they got older.
The responsibility became.
Of of caring for the Saints of God and teaching the Saints of God became very real to them and brethren well under their 60s and past. 70 getting into the Word of God and getting into the ministry with obvious growth, obvious progress in understanding the scriptures and teaching it with profit.
My brother said to me one time. He said well.
You know, I think it's the government of God. Why? I'm just not getting on the word. I really didn't, you know, live for the Lord. And my youth is just, you know, earthly minded and all that. Now that I'm older, it's the government of God that hinders me from enjoying the word of God like you and some of your brothers.
You know that wasn't an issue at all. The issue is not past behavior. The issue was present behavior.
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If we get into this book with earnestness, God will by the Spirit open to us. We may be sorry and sad we didn't use our youth better than we did, but I believe it's the work of the enemy to shut down older brothers from enjoying the scriptures. Like you wasted your your youth. You blew it. You're not kidding anybody. No, that the Spirit of God would open the word of God to us as we get older. So I just mentioned that as an encouragement. I can say I can think of two brothers specific. I thank God for them.
They have been such a help to me and there is a humility, uh, with one that's just remarkable. Well, we need to know the word of God. We need to apply the word of God and we need to apply the word of God intelligently. So we said about cutting the word in a straight line and the Darby are rightly divine, the word of truth.
Wanted to see a few words about the differences between Paul's ministry and John's ministry and Peter's ministry. But I see I have a little bit of time and what I would like to do is just very briefly go through the New Testament and just try to give a few quick thoughts on each of the books. That may be a help to you, especially as you're starting out, that there might be a little bit of guidance and nudge in the right direction. So turn to Matthew's Gospel chapter one.
Now I suppose many, if not most here.
Know the character of the four gospels. You have the king in chapter one, the servant in chapter 2, the perfect man in chapter 3 and son of God in chapter 4, or the four beholds and Matthew's gospel it's behold your king Matthew. Mark's gospel is behold my servant, Luke's gospels behold the man and John's gospels behold your God. So Matthew's gospel again begins the book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.
And so here in Matthew's Gospel we said, Behold your King as we find through it we have the genealogy of the Lord Jesus.
Through Joseph, his legal father, not his biological father. God was of his father, but legally the Lord Jesus was an heir to the throne of David because Joseph was in the royal line.
It takes us back to David, the son of David, the legal heir to the throne, the son of Abraham, to win all the promises are committed. When you look at the early chapters of Matthew, you will find one Old Testament passage after another. From Isaiah, from Hosea, from Jeremiah, you find all these references to the prophetic scriptures, which to the Jew would make a lot of sense. Understanding, connecting the fulfillment of the prophecies was in this one.
We find as you come to chapter 8 his powers, the miracles, whether it's over creation.
Whether it's over disease, whether it's over demons, indeed, whether it's over death.
He demonstrates the power, uh, as as to who he is, We have the character of his ministry in the early chapters. Now in something in Matthew's Gospel, remember he is, he was the king of the Jews, but he's the rejected one chapter 12, he's rejected. They ascribe the works that the Lord Jesus did and the power of the Spirit of God. They saw the work of the Spirit of God in perfection before them and they said that's the work of the devil.
That's to be eligible.
And now it's a sin for no forgiveness there it could they they took the work of the Spirit of God and said the work of and that's the work of Satan. You know, the coming day is going to be the man the Antichrist called the man a sin and he is going to sit in the temple of God showing that he is God. And will we worship as God such as man state by nature that the man of sin is worshipped as God.
And God manifest in flesh. Who does this? Miracles and the power of the Spirit of God. They say that's the work of the devil. How far man is from God? That's chapter 12.
And then in chapter 13 we have the Lord Jesus sword that goes forth and sows the good seed of the Kingdom, not looking for fruit from Israel anymore because he's now the sower. And so in Matthew we have 10 similitudes of the Kingdom of heaven. The Kingdom of heaven is like unto similarly, the similarity a likeness to it. And it describes this present day when the King, the Lord Jesus has been rejected by his people. He's gone on high.
And the Kingdom is seen primarily in two ways. We have the expression in Matthew and the in in these parables of the Kingdom of heaven are only in Matthew in keeping with this king that's been rejected. And it is.
The Kingdom of heaven and mystery. Why is it in mystery? Because the reject, the king is rejected. He's gone back to heaven and he's not seen, and yet there is a sphere on earth that owns his authority. There is a day coming when that Kingdom will be in manifestation and the Lord Jesus will come in power and glory. But that's not Matthew's gospel. If the Kingdom is in mystery, so that you have the Lord Jesus as the king and as you go through it.
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We we find that there are citizens.
And then this trouble, this is not just abstract. I remember when I was going to school and umm, Matthew 22, and I had some very zealous umm, believers coming up to me. And there you are. Unprofitable servant cast into outer darkness is a believer.
He's a servant. What am I gonna do? I'm what, 18 years of age? And here I am, someone coming to me with the word of God saying there's a servant, Says he's a servant, you know, cast out.
Well, I'm going into the ministry for one. All I could say was all I could say was the 10th of John. My, my share, my sheep hear my voice, and I know them and they follow me and I give it to them eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. I am resting there on that. And he said, he said, well, yeah, you'll never perish, but.
But uh, there's outer darkness. No, we need to rightly divide the word of truth. A citizen of is not a a son. You may be in as a profession that may be without reality. Well, Matthew's gospel is behold your king. And so you have administrative principles in the Gospel of Matthew and that's why it's so important. Matthew 1820. See how scripture just fits together for where two or three are gathered together unto my name, there am I in the midst of them. What's the force of that It's.
Straight of authority, right in keeping in the context with the gospel, that has to do with administration, and that's where the authority is the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, as Paul quotes in First Corinthians 5, when ye are gathered together in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that is the name, that is the power, that is the authority for exercising assembly.
Action it's his name, not the great minds that we might think we have no, the power is in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. So the Mark's Gospel, the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Now let me just say this. It was a help to me and again I'd like to pass it on to you that the four gospels in Matthew you have the Lord's birth, but you do not have his ascension. It was very important that we learn his birth because it was of the royal line that.
Get a legal right to the throne of David, but you don't have his ascension, Matthews. Uh, Matthew's gospel is earthly in character. Now in Mark's gospel, we don't have the Lord's birth, but we do have his ascension. Why is that important? Let me put it very simply this way. You don't need pedigree to serve the Lord. You say, well, my father served the Lord and my grandfather served the Lord. That's irrelevant in a certain sense. Thank God, if we've had a godly father or godly grandfather, but the call of God to the servant.
When the Lord comes here, there's no genealogy. He comes out serving from the beginning, John the Baptist serving from the beginning. And I believe it gives great liberty. The Lord can raise up whom He will, irrespective of your upbringing. And there's so many men that have been a help to me that we're not raised in the assembly. They came into the truth later on and they bought it for themselves. But in Mark's Gospel, we don't have this genealogy. The Lord serves from the beginning. And if you wanna fun little exercise, those of you who are younger.
Is just pick a chapter out and see how many. Let's see what the first word is of every verse in that chapter. Take any chapter you want and you're gonna see and and and and and and and and, and. The servant constantly doing something else, constantly doing something else. And so we get at the end of Mark's gospel, the Lord is ascended and what is he doing? He's serving with them now, Luke's gospel.
Not sure the best verse to reference here.
The go to a chapter 4. This is a temptation.
Luke chapter 4 When Jesus full of the Holy Ghost went into the wilderness, and verse three of the devil said unto him, If thou be the Son of God, command the stone, that it be made bread. And Jesus answered him, saying, It is written, that man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.
Now in Luke, we have the Lord's birth and we have the Lord's ascension. Now his genealogy in Luke, as we've often heard, is not through Joseph as the legal heir of the throne, but through Mary because Jo, Joseph and Mary were, were sons of David, one through Solomon and one through Nathan. So he was the seed of David and and Luke's gospel. He was the perfect man. And it's in Luke that we have not only the birth of Christ, the virgin birth of Christ.
But his conception, he is a perfect man and as we quoted uh this morning, how and when they they were thought they'd seen a spirit there in Luke and and he said handle me and see a spirit hath not flesh and bones that you see me have. He is a real real man. Yeah, in resurrection flesh and bones, not flesh and blood, but he was a real man. Now what we find in Luke's gospel, I think 14 times we find the Lord praying either says he's praying or we actually read his prayers. And here we have him in the wilderness tempted of the devil and what?
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Do he references the word of God and in that he's the perfect pattern for us. True, he's God. He could say get thee behind me Satan or get thee hence Satan and properly. It's not here in Lucas. It is in Matthew as the king would dispatch him. Well, Luke, the point is it's his he he takes the place as a dependent man. He prays and he uses the word of God and so in this it can be helped to us those two things we can do we can pray.
And we can read and follow the word of God.
Just another minor point that's intrigued me.
When the Lord Jesus quotes Scripture to the devil.
It's all from the book of Deuteronomy 2IN chapter 61 in chapter 8, they're all relatively compressed together in a, in a, in a, in a, in a, in a small, uh, area of the book, which seems I have wondered that maybe that was something that the Lord is he is his ears open morning by morning, something that he'd read only recently. Often we found it if we're reading the word of God, that when a test or a challenge or a question comes off often.
If we're before the Lord, the very scriptures that we've only recently read will be of help.
To us, so he is that perfect man.
We could, we could say more, but we need to move on. And of course, and John, and John, his birth is not mentioned, nor is his ascension mentioned. Why is that? Because he's the eternal one. He's the everlasting Son in the bosom of the Father in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And so in John's gospel we have the Lord Jesus as the Son of God, the eternal Word, the eternal Son.
And because his deity is so prominent there, we have his miracles brought out in a remarkable way. We have those singular expressions, I am, I am the Good Shepherd, I am the divine, and so on. But we find that the hours of darkness are not mentioned in John's gospel. Why? It's because he's seen as the eternal Son of God there.
Not as the dependent man that we have in Luke or as the as as we have in the other gospels as well, who became the sin bearer, but he's the Son who is in the bosom of the Father. I can make just a comment on that expression. The Buddhism of the Father. I heard a brother say one time he says, well, he left the Buddhism of the Father in order to come into this world. But that really is not the the force of scripture, the force of the expression, the bosom of the Father. It's true the Lord left.
The Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world.
But the expression, the bosom of the Father is that eternal dwelling place of love, and He never left it.
When he came into this world, He was as much as in the bosom of the Father when he was here as he was before incarnation. And so we don't have the hours of darkness. There's no cry. My God, my God, why I thou forsaken me? Because in John he's the eternal Son, but it's only in John where we have his bloodshed. It had to be the death of an infinite sacrifice in order to atone for our sins.
So I just mentioned those little things briefly to give us perhaps a little bit of an outline.
Of these of these things now we go to the book of acts Acts is really a book of transition and Acts of course picks up from where Luke leaves off right at the Mount of Olives. They see the the Lord going up and then the next one that we see the Lord, uh the Lord ascending to heaven and says Terry of Jerusalem until you be endowed with with endowed with with power from on high by the Spirit of God being sent down and so in Acts we have the work of the mighty work of the Spirit of God and it is a transitional book that.
Takes us from the Gospels into the light of the epistles. The book of Acts teaches us by pattern. It doesn't give us doctrine per SE. So for instance, you say, well, what what do you what do you mean by that? OK, OK, occasionally you may have in your local, your assembly, you might have what we speak of as a care meeting where matters are are taken up that pertain to the local assembly. What scriptural basis do we have for doing that? Is it just a good idea?
Well, we have the pattern for that in Acts chapter 15, when the apostles and elders came together to consider a matter. But we don't have apostles today. We don't have the elders and strict sense of the word.
But it gives us to print the pattern of it, how they came together to discuss a matter before it was brought before the whole assembly. Dodd has an order in his assembly, just as we have order in in our homes, order in business. God has an order too, and we have to learn God's order by reading the word. But the book of Acts teaches us by way of pattern and it's a very important to see some of these truths lived out. Even the the meetings they they continue to steadfastly and the apostles doctrine.
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There needs to be ministry.
In fellowship and breaking the bread and in prayers. And so again, as I said, we have the pattern in the book of Acts. It takes us from the Mount of Olives and then halfway through the book and and then Jerusalem and then it changes to Antioch and I just, you know, let's go to Acts 13. I love this thought, but it really, I believe shows a change in the character of.
God's work as Israel has set aside and God takes up in Christianity.
In a new way, Acts chapter 13 and verse one. Now they were in the church that was at Antioch. Certain prophets and teachers is Barnabas and Simeon that was called Niger and luscious of Cyrene and Manan which had been brought up with Herod the Tetrarch.
And solve 5 men that ministered and labored there in Antioch.
I really enjoy this. Each man is known for something different. The first one is Barnabas. His name is Son of Consolation. He his, what do we know about him, was his character. It's not a name he gave himself. It's a name his brother gave him. They said there is a brother that loves the Saints, that cares that he's the son of Consolation. He's a brother you'll like to see walk in. He's a he's a brother. That sympathy. He was with the Saints. He was one that was a help to Paul.
So he was there and then Simeon that was called Niger Black. So he was known and characterized by his physical appearance.
But he was ministering right alongside Barnabas and then Lucius to Cyrene. He was known from where he came from from Cyrene. And then you have Manan, which had been brought up with Hera, the Tetrarch. He was known more for his upbringing. And finally the last one who was the most notable servants of them all eventually is just tacked on. And so none of his none of his accomplishments that he would read about any fi in the Philippians chapter 3. But this is the character of.
Church of God today of God is called out of the nations a people for himself.
It's not heritage, it's God and the sovereignty pulling in one, pulling one there, and he would delight to take it and use it in this way.
So then we come to umm, then we come to Romans in Romans through Hebrews. We won't have time to go through all those, but I would say that's something I, I read as a young man that was helpful. I just passed it on.
That Paul's ministry primarily has to do with the assembly, Peter's ministry has to do with the Kingdom, and John has to do with the family.
Now, when it comes to Christian physician.
Our individual blessing in Christ, or it has to do with the assembly. We get it in Paul's ministry.
Now, all of Paul's ministry is not contained in every epistle. What do I mean by that, and what's my point in saying it?
Well, for instance, I say, well, the one body is not the subject of Romans.
You see, I can point to chapter and verse chapter 12 where Paul speaks of the one body in Romans. What do you mean it's not the subject?
Just because something is mentioned does not mean it's the subject. And so as we read the different epistles, they each have a different character to it, and we would desire that we might learn what the character of the different books are. Romans, of course, is the unfolding and teaching of the gospel of the grace of God. Relationship to sins and deliverance from sin is the ruling principle in our life and a practical expectations, whether it's in relationship to the government or personal exercises or whatever it might be.
What Paul has to do with the assembly? He is the only writer that mentions the one body.
Of Christ, that was Ephesians 3, that was given to the apostle Paul to make known that truth others had a revealed to them, but it was Paul that was given to teach it. And so if we're gonna take up truth as to the one body, we're gonna have to go to Paul's doctrine. And more than that, we're gonna have to go to the epistles that teach that.
Now, Peter, let's turn over to umm, first Peter for a moment.
And I realize we're going rapidly and we're going very top line, but I, I trust that these few comments might be of, of help to clarify some things.
In our minds.
Peter and apostle 11 and the Jesus Christ to the strangers scattered throughout pontus, galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and bithynia, and.
00:45:07
Then he speaks to them elect according to the foreknowledge of God. Now you remember that Paul was the apostle to the uncircumcision. Paul was an apostle to the Gentiles. Peter was an apostle to the Jews to the circumcision. So when he writes his addresses, he's writing to Christian Jews. Again, it doesn't bring us into the full light of Paul's doctrine in the one body of Christ.
And so we need to understand our remarks based, uh, understand the passage.
In reference to what what the writer, umm, what his line of things was, I'll just say this as an aside that might be helpful that.
Paul, all the assemblies you wrote were Gentile assemblies, but it does seem from what Peter writes in his epistles about Paul writing to them, that Paul did write the book of Hebrews, but as such as apostle the Gentiles, his name is not mentioned.
And Hebrews and further, of course, in Hebrews, it's Christ who is the apostle and high priest of our confession. It's almost like the Lord said, Paul, I know you have that great burden for, uh, for your brethren according to the flesh. So I'm going to let you write them, write epistle to them, but your name is not going to be on it. I take the vast Hebrews. Now Peter was the apostle to the Jews, But remember, go back to Matthew 16. What did the Lord say to Peter? He says, I give you the keys of the Kingdom of heaven, not the keys of.
And we've heard all these little jokes and things are about Peter being at the door of heaven or the key of heaven with keys to heaven. It's keys to the Kingdom of heaven. That is Peter opened up a sphere of blessing on the earth that would own the rule of the heavens. And he did that in the book of Acts, Acts chapter 8 with regard to the Samaritans in chapter 10 in regard to the UMM and the the Gentiles. So.
Sometimes we want to make things cut and dry, but we find that the apostle to the Gentiles was given the privilege of writing to the Jews, and the apostle to the Jews, Peter was given to extend blessing to the Gentiles.
So when we read Peter's ministry, we're not gonna have a lot of the great Christian truths that Paul brings out.
So when we come to chapter one, for instance, the second Peter, and he speaks to establish them in the present truth. What is it that Peter wanted to establish these Jews who are now Christians? What did he want to establish them in?
He wanted to establish in the fact that that coming day of glory, that that wasn't lost, that that truth of his coming day, of his appearing, that it wasn't lost, that they'd be established as they went through trial and burden and hardship and suffering. They would be sustained by what Peter emphasized, the truth of the Kingdom. There's a moral side of it, and Paul takes it up as well. But we don't have time for that. Now turn over to 1St John chapter.
Two, if you would.
I know it's.
A bit warm and it's hard to.
Stay focused and we're covering a lot of ground here.
But in first John chapter 2.
Verse one says, My little children, these things write unto you, that ye sin not.
Then verse 12 I write in your little children because your sins are forgiven you for his name's sake. And then you see in chapter verse 13, fathers, young men and little children are addressed. So we mentioned that John is more the family of God and what characterizes the family of God is everyone in the family of God has eternal life.
John's ministry brings before us eternal life as a present possession.
And Paul is generally future at the end, everlasting life.
But in John, it's a present possession and it's the family of God. Now a couple verses I read there where I said, little children, it's helpful to read Mr. Darby's translation because I think there's three times, maybe 5 * 3 times at least where he addresses my little children. It should be just my children. You say why? Because he's addressing the whole family of God. My children, these things are right and you sin not, not just the little children. He doesn't want any in the family of God to sin.
All our sins are forgiven for His name's sake, regardless if you're a little children, a young man or a father.
And so as he dresses the family of God, we see that all have alike. They have eternal life.
The Lord Jesus had it. It was true in him, and now it's true in US. Every believer has present possession of eternal life. But in the family of God, why that's in common, There's growth. There's little children, there's young men and there's fathers. There's growth. And that's what his desire is, that there would be growth in the family of God.
00:50:01
Two other short epistles. I didn't mention James I.
I think it's Mr. Ferriday that makes the statement William Faraday that says, James is to the New Testament what Jonah is to the Old Testament and all the Old Testament that's written to Israel. There's one little book that talks about blessing going out to Gentiles, Nineveh, the capital of the Syria that that, uh, so afflicted the people of God. But right there in the Old Testament, there's a story of blessing the Gentiles. Well, James, what assembly was that written to?
Well, you say it wasn't written to any assembly. Well, what individual wasn't written to? It wasn't written to any individual. It was written. Think of this in the New Testament. It was written to the 12 tribes that are scattered abroad. And so when they come to the Epistle of James, if we're gonna look there for Paul's doctrine, we're certainly not gonna find it. Because when we come to chapter 2 in the book of James, we find that if one comes into the assembly and splendid attire.
Really. The thought as he comes into the synagogue.
And the truth of God, it wasn't just the light was slipped on and everything came into view at once. There was a gradual bringing out of Judaism into the light of Christianity. But James brings a very practical point of living faith. Faith without works is dead.
And you can have faith without works. The devils believe in tremble. There's no living faith there. But faith, uh, is living faith in James. And it shows the distinction between those who are simply in an outward position and those that have real faith. Say that again as an example of an epistle if we're trying to.
Force all of Paul's doctrine into the book, into the Epistle of James. We're just going to get ourselves confused. Jude has to do with apostasy. And then of course, Revelation in the last, the last book. Let's just read a few verses there to begin with.
Or or rather at the beginning of the first chapter.
John 21:1-14
Reading
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Why am I allowed close that's waiting on?
I started running on our sunlight and.
I'm free, no blood when heart spreads drying.
To stay.
My gracious.
Mum, our earth leaned by. I received so it's good.
And neurology.
15 projects and whatever you're going to do about it, that's very.
So, you know, uh, I had to go out and I was about to stand on that. I don't know, I'm pretty flowers.
Our God and our Father, umm, if we start this meeting, we give thanks for what we've had so far in these meetings, yes.
And, uh, I think of the wide variety of needs and conditions and spiritual states that are here and, uh, whether there's some here that have their hearts on fire that are earnestly attractive, like marrying, but they're those that are searching, like here, John worth the tomb. Whether there's those that need to be restored like Peter out in the lake and whether someone is doubting like Thomas. Father, whatever the needs are to give thanks that you are more than able to meet them through your Holy Spirit. So we pray for.
Help for each person that participates this afternoon that they would follow the leading of your spirit and the things that they say. The questions that are asked, the answers that are given is.
We pray that, uh, the rest of us that listen, that, uh, we would really listen with our hearts, that we would be willing to, uh, hear what you would say to us from your word and by your spirit and we ask for help and count on the blessing in Jesus precious name, Amen.
The burden on my heart would be to begin at verse 26, just thinking about verse, the grace, you know, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. And often we come to appreciate it the most when there's failure. And so we see that in the case of promise and then on in these next verses of chapter 21.
So maybe a breakdown Diverse 14 in chapter 21.
Or read the whole thing. I think we can send another 30 seconds and read the the whole chapter.
00:05:06
And after eight days again his disciples were within, and Thomas with them. Then came Jesus, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, Peace be unto you. Then saith he to Thomas, Reach, hit her thy finger, and behold my hand. And reach, hit her thy hand, and thrust it into my side. And be not faithless, but believing.
And Thomas answered and said unto him, My Lord and my God, Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed. Blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed. And many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book, but these are written that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you might have life through his name.
After these things Jesus showed himself again to the disciples at the sea of Tiberias, and on this wise showed he himself. There were together Simon Peter and Thomas called Didymus and Nathaniel of Cana in Galilee, and the sons of Zebedee and two other of his disciples. Simon Peter saith unto them, I go a fishing. They say unto him, We also go with thee. They went forth and entered into a ship immediately, and that night they caught nothing.
And when the morning was now come, Jesus stood on the shore, but the disciples knew not that it was Jesus. Then Jesus saith unto them, Children, have ye any meat? They answered him, No. And he said unto them, Cast the net on the right side of the ship, and ye shall find. They cast therefore. And now they were not able to draw it for the multitude of fishes. Therefore that disciples whom Jesus loved saith unto Peter, It is the Lord. Now in Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, He girt his Fisher's coat about him.
For he was naked, and did cast himself into the sea. And the other disciples came in a little ship, where they were not far from land, but as it were 200 cubits, dragging the net with fishes. As soon then as they were come to land, they saw a fire of coals there, and fish laid there on. And bread. Jesus saith unto them, Bring of the fish which ye have now caught.
Simon Peter went up and drew the net to land full of great fishes, and hundreds, and 50 and three, and for all. There were so many, yet was not the net broken? Jesus saith unto them, Come and dine, and none of the disciples durst asked him, Who art thou? Knowing that it was the Lord? Jesus then cometh, and taketh bread, and giveth them, and fish likewise. This is now the third time that Jesus showed Himself to his disciples. After that he was risen from the dead.
So when they had dying, Jesus saith to Simon Peter. Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these? He saith unto them. Yeah, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, Feed my lambs. He saith to him again the second time. Simon son of Jonas, lovest thou me? He saith unto him, Yeah, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, Feed my sheep. He saith unto him the third time.
Simon, son of Jonas, love a style me.
Peter was grieved because he said unto him the third time, Lovest thou me? And he said unto him, Lord, thou knowest all things, Thou knowest that I love thee. Jesus saith unto him, Feed my sheep, Verily, verily, I stand to thee. When thou is young, thou girdest thyself, and walketh whither thou woods. But when thou shalt be old, thou shalt stretch forth thy hands, and another shall gird thee, and carry thee whither thou wouldst not this fakie signifying by what death he should glorify God. And when he had spoken this, he saith unto him, Follow me.
Then Peter turning about, see if the disciple whom Jesus loved following, which also leaned on his breast at supper, and said, Lord, which is he that betrayeth thee? Peter, seeing him, saith to Jesus, Lord, And what shall this man do? Jesus saith unto him, If I will that he tear it, shall I come? What is that to thee? Follow thou me. Then went the saying abroad among the brethren, that this disciple should not die. Yet Jesus said not unto him, He shall not die.
But if I will that he carries tarry till I come, what is that to be? This is the disciple which testifies of these things, and wrote these things, and we know that his testimony is true. And there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written everyone, I suppose, that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written in them.
00:10:05
It's gone verse 24 this morning.
That Thomas was not there.
The first time the Lord Jesus appeared to his disciples.
Your wrist and then we find that verse 26, after eight days he was there.
And it's very instructive, I believe, to see.
What the words used to, to change Thomas's, uh, attitude or his, his thinking in verse 25, we read, we read that the disciples, the other disciples said to Thomas, we have seen the worst. They didn't say, why weren't you there yesterday? Or why not? You know, why didn't you come?
They just said we've seen the word.
And then when I was young, growing up in Montreal, I, I think fans will excuse me.
For referring to his, uh, great grandfather, 30 Lakefield.
If you, if you missed a meeting, a reading meeting back in those days, you would probably get a letter from Ernie Wakefield in the mail. Umm, not saying where were you, why weren't you at the meeting, but just telling us, telling, telling me. In some cases I got a letter like that.
Telling me what I had missed, what they had enjoyed, what had been enjoyed in the assembly.
In, in the, in that assembly reading, reading about Tuesday, right? So I believe it. That was what Ernie was doing. He was saying, we've seen the word. This is what we've enjoyed.
And I believe that that that.
That attitude, that way of encouraging somebody who might not be coming to the meetings regularly.
That way it works.
Drawn by the course above as well. Yeah, if we can, if we who have been at the assembly meetings.
Can really honestly say that we've seen the word and we've enjoyed the word and share something with the with the brother and sister like that. We see here that it worked because the next week Thomas was there. He may not have had all those questions answered and and for another verse or so. And so the Lord himself spoke to him, but he was there.
It's very significant that the Lord appeared to his disciples.
Two times in a row, uh, Lord's day, first day of the week. So first time was here in verse 19 on that resurrection day. And then on the 26th, he, uh, in verse 26, eight days after, it's really another Lord's day, He appeared unto the his disciples, He stood in the midst and said peace unto you. And then we have a little bit later on in Acts chapter 20.
Uh, the, uh, Apostle Paul and uh, he was uh, there in Trollis and Acts chapter 20, verse seven, it says upon the first day of the week when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached unto them ready to depart on the Morrow and continue to speech until midnight. There is a prophetic element to that passage, but we'll just touch on it that uh, uh, it's the first day of the week.
They came into the presence of the Lord. They didn't come into the presence of Paul to hear, uh, a sermon or anything like that. It was after, I believe the breaking of bread that Paul had a little ministry and he had liberty there to be able to speak. And, uh, he was an apostle. It was the last time perhaps that he was going to be there. And he preached till midnight, said prophetically speaking, he's, he preached. Paul's doctrine was heard in the large upper room until.
The Dark Ages until the darkness of Roman Catholicism.
Enveloped the Christian profession, but it's significant that the first day of the week is that which is most prominent in Christianity and brother chapter Brown I never met him, but being very thankful to be able to listen to some of his ministry and recorded ministry used to say that every single assembly meeting that I miss, I miss something that God had in mind for me that the Spirit of God would have brought before me something that would have been for my prophet for my blessing, for my enjoyment.
00:15:19
Every single meeting that I miss, I missed the opportunity to be in the presence of the Lord himself. And the Spirit of God was not able to bring before me that which I needed to have. And that would have really, uh, been a blessing to me. But more than that, that I miss being in the presence of the Lord. He didn't get his portion. He didn't have me in his presence. And so we need to be exercised about this, these passages of Scripture.
Are prophetic in some sense as brother Bill brought before us that it's in a future day. The godly remnant of Israel and police Steve mentioned as well that the godly remnant of Israel will see and believe. They'll see Christ, they'll see the Messiah and they'll believe. But for you and I we believe by faith and we have a blessing we have the Lord has a portion for us if we'll be diligent in our responsibility to be found in his presence.
That all of the assembly meetings.
In Romans chapter 5, verse 20.
We have a principle brought out into the ways of God. Japan.
The last part is particularly What I would like to emphasize is reading the whole verse. More over the law answers that the offense might abound.
But we're then abounded great and much more abound. And so we can trace through the history of God with man. We look at the Garden of Eden and soil that garden then came in. So at the end of God's ways of man, he's going to bring him into a far better place in the garden that was lost in man's failure. And if you replace that, you cannot spoil. You see failure under.
Under the the conscience the failure in every every possible way that manifesting net rate over a balance.
And God's ways are no different than no different with us now until it was mentioned in the last meeting about those who were older.
If they had a chance that they hadn't used that time, they should have. The grace of God is not limited. And so we have with we have with Thomas here. He missed the blessing.
The great overbound at this the same scenario. We sat up again, though it was a week later.
Promises there Thomas received that lasting the Lord taking special care directly forth on us. Reach it with thy finger. It holds my hand reach it with thy hand and thrust into my side. Grace down the Lord didn't the Lord didn't punish promise because he wasn't there. He he gave more grace he he showed more grace and for myself and I'm sure many in this room will say the same. Often those signs were most appreciate the Lord's love.
Going forward, as our our after times move with easy sales, we feel our wretchedness.
Realize it only brings fresh opportunity to bring thought to shown.
Attending the meeting.
It's not a matter of continuing.
The Lord is there in this. What did they say?
Definite and spirit, all right, and we speak a verse, have to walk around. We read a verse. The joy of your Lord is your strength. I guess we all know that and we all apply it to ourselves, which I'm not objecting to. But if you see the true force of that verse, the joy of the Lord is your strength.
It's the joy that the Lord has to see us gather. It's an illustrator here. I'm invited out for supper to Howard. Howard.
00:20:04
And all right.
And, uh, the weather is terrible. I feel dead tired after a hard day's work. I called him up and I say, Howard, I'm sorry that I cannot come here. We get just all power except I'm, I'm so disappointed and, and we were expecting you. We're longing to see you right away. I get spiritual strength. Well, I said it, that's the case.
Inclement weather or whatever.
I'm going.
And the fact that He wants, they want to have him there gives me strength to go on. We go on. And so we often focus upon our joy, which is all right. But remember, and it's been brought out already that the Lord has support. And when He sees us, Gather your sisters here. How much part do you take in the meeting?
Well, that's not exactly correct. The sisters have a very important contribution to the need with your spiritual state. You're a priest as well as the brothers. The spiritual state affects the whole being. That goes for everyone. For your sisters, be encouraged will be a reward for your presence at this meeting here today.
And every meeting, every meeting that you missed, all eternity, never be able to regain. You've lost something that can never be regained. May God bless you.
Thomas did his house, Did he? What did he miss out on?
This is since the Lord is here, and say, Peace be unto you.
Well, if you missed out on the message that Mary brought.
Hold the disciples.
It wasn't part of that. And that really brings the force, our association with Christ, one in life and nature with Him.
His Father not our fault, His not our fault, missed out on receiving Holy Spirit. The Spirit of God is the power of that new life, enjoyment of divine person and fellowship with God Father, God's Father.
He, uh, missed out on that Commission that the father sent me to somebody and missed out on that again.
And so really.
Though he very peace for him too.
He has the privileges that are pictured here of the Christian position.
And so it was a real in that way, a loss as pictures here.
Umm, again, we're only speaking as a picture.
Personally and uh, came into sort of all of those things that belong to through umm.
Christian and, uh, presence of sensation. But in the picture here, he missed out.
And get the remnant of Israel to other purpose. They're going to be blessed in thee and they're going to know that the peace that they have with God is on the same foundation as what people.
They're going to be surprised. We're going to need wounds in that hand.
And uh, so it's umm, but.
Just like Nathaniel Bowles, the Lord said that he saw him under the fig tree. So what's the first word that the Lord said here after?
Throughout, the thief is to put his finger right on something common. That said, when the Lord wasn't there, it's very much identified or complete.
So all things so he says, my Lord, and.
And this world will come to say that in the coming days, just like the famous said my God in 19.
Realization that this is a blessing that is theirs, but they wanted to sign. They demanded that the Lord assign it was fine. Show us now. Well, they're going to get a sign to come into the sunlight. We're going to get a sign when they see this hands, here's the sign. They're going to be just overwhelmed by the signs that they think.
00:25:18
So there's a.
No loss, you might say for Thomas, but nonetheless, uh, as with Israel, there was a loss and they're refusing to believe, but they're yet going to come in blessing. The Lord has a little word because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed. That's what Israel's belief is gonna be based on seeing, seeing.
But for us, it's faith without having seen we believe. And, uh, there is a greater blessing for that.
Truth. It was very emotional, Uh.
Find.
It's a nice confession that he makes. Really, my Lord.
Oh my God. And brother Norman Berry used to have that little expression that he would say that the day that you got saved, you gave up your right to choose.
You acknowledged Christ as your Savior, but you also acknowledged Him as Lord.
You gave up your right to choose to direct your life. It's now do you look to the Lord to direct your life. Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? And so Thomas acknowledged Christ as Lord, his Lord and my God. He recognized the beauty of Christ. And so you'll have those that come to your door and say that he is not God, that he said he is a God, and all those sorts sort of things. This is one of the scriptures that you can use.
To that teaches the deity of Christ that he is God.
And right from John's Gospel chapter one to the last of the verses in chapter 21.
John presents Christ as the Son of God. God himself is eternal. He is the eternality and His.
Distinct personality in the Godhead. So it's a little word to us as well, isn't it? Do acknowledge the Lord Jesus as Lord. Do we get up in the morning and acknowledge Him? Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? And do we give him that first place?
Well, it's nice to hear that until I see.
And it reminds me of Mary and how she didn't see him in the garden there until she heard his voice. And maybe she was a little off, but maybe Thomas was a little further off yet again. And he said, until I see, except I shall see in his hands the Prince of the Nails, and put my finger into the Prince of the nails and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe.
Mr. Kemp mentioned about.
Each one of us as we come into meeting.
And my wife has written on a piece of paper here that it is our privilege to come into his presence, and I believe somebody said that already.
And so when we consider what we've been brought into and it is a privilege to have that we should want to be there and the women were mentioned, but we could mention the children too, says every joint supply and so.
With these.
I guess I'm considering how I was, if I can say that, and I'm considering that I didn't go to meetings through the week.
And I'm considering that I was missing out. But ones would come and they would say, you know, your seat was empty and we missed you. And maybe I had something to provide in the way of encouragement to those ones. Thomas surely must have had something for them. They missed him. And they told him. They gave him an update.
And so.
A brother came to me and he said that you need to be out for the week night meetings with your wife and with your children.
And he told me repeatedly, week after week, that you need to be out the week night meetings with your wife and with your children.
00:30:08
Sometimes I would golf, sometimes my wife would go. It was never a.
All family going, and so with one there or the other, somebody was missing out.
And so when you go and when you take your children, when you go with your wife.
It's just collective.
Union is a part of that marriage, it's a part of the growth and learning the things that the Lord has for you and He wants to prove it. Thomas listed all those things while until this and until that. Maybe you do that. Maybe that's why you don't go to the meet week night meeting. Maybe you have a whole list of reasons.
But the Lord wants to prove himself to He proves himself more and more. I think of, uh, if it's OK to go back to Judges with Gideon, with the fleece.
He says, oh, I know, but if you would just do this too and just prove this to me. And the Lord did it. He proved it to him and he proved it to Thomas here, doesn't he? And then Thomas says in verse 28, my Lord and my God has been pointed out.
And so there's that great beginning.
Has been mentioned time and again to us.
And maybe you're just like Thomas.
Missing out.
But if your eyes were open.
You could see.
Two would say my Lord and my God.
It might just clarify that for the church we don't look for signs, do we? There are no signs for the coming of the Lord. We're not given signs. And so here it was proper Jewish hope, you might say, and that says many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples. But the church had not yet been formed. And so it was proper to Judaism that they would have a sign and they looked for signs.
And the Lord in his ministry umm in the Gospels speaks of signs.
Of his appearing and what would take place in the, in the book of Daniel, in the, uh, uh, some of the prophetic scriptures, he speaks of some of the things that would indicate that his appearing was very near.
And but when it comes to the rapture he speaks of umm.
Is coming in as a person for his bride, for his church and there are indications for us as we read the scriptures indications that the coming of the Lord is very near, but there are no signs. He doesn't give us a sign, but we can see by reading the prophetic scriptures that the state of things would be such that they would men and women would be living as if it was in in immorality. Let's read in Matthew's Gospel chapter 12.
So that we don't.
Mix the sauce here.
Umm, I'm missing uh.
Chapter 11. It's verse 20.
Chapter 11 of Matthew, verse 20. Then began he upgrade the cities wherein most of his mighty works were done, because they repented not. Woe unto thee, Quraizen, woe unto thee beside a For if the mighty works which were done in thee, you had been done in tire inside, and they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. But I say unto you, it shall be more tolerable for tire anxiety in the day of judgment than for you and thou, Capernaum, which are exalted unto heaven.
Shall be brought down to hell. For if the mighty works which had been done in thee had been done in Sodom, it would have remained unto this day. But I say unto you, that it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment than for thee.
At that time Jesus answered and said, I thank the Father, oh Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because I was hid these things from the wise and prudent and has revealed them under babes and then he begins to take up things really the nation the common people at at rejected him as Savior and rejected him as the Messiah. Chapter 12.
Chapter 12. The leadership of Israel.
Mentioned already verse 24 Beels above the Prince of the devils. And then he speaks of, uh, the character of things In chapter 13. He goes over those seven similitudes of the Kingdom or the fir, the first ones, uh, uh, parable perhaps. And then you have the, uh, 6 milliliters of the Kingdom. He gives indications as to the nearness of the coming, uh, of the appearing in chapter 24, chapter 25, he goes over the prophetic elements of uh.
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The teachings from a prophetic point of view in Matthew's Gospel and how what would take place at the appearing and so we have a little indication of what those things that though that time is drawing near. So the church doesn't have signs about the Lord's coming, but has the indications that the coming is near.
Beautiful that we have a promise from the Lord himself in John 14. I will come again so even though.
We don't have a sign as to when.
He we have the promise I will, and that's.
An indisputable promise. There's nothing that's going to change that. And then when Paul speaks about the rapture in umm Thessalonians, he says the Lord shall descend from heaven. It's a it's, it's a definite event which is going to happen and it could happen.
Right now, this afternoon, before this meeting is ended.
So we have that promise and we are to be. We should be expecting it every day.
We might just notice too, that the Lord gives the seed plot in connection with the coming of the Lord in John's Gospel chapter 14, those first three or four verses, but he doesn't give any details. He says I'm coming back again, I'm going to return. But we he leaves it to the apostle Paul because it's a part of church doctrine. He leaves it to the apostle Paul to teach the details of what's going to take place at the rapture.
How the sequence of events, you might say first Thessalonians chapter 4 and then in, uh, well, Philippians chapter 3 verses 2021, he speaks of it. There's going to be a sequence of events that's going to take place. There's going to be a change that takes place. It's Paul's doctrine, Paul the apostle teaches that change and how we are a part of that new creation race, but he doesn't teach that there's signs to wait for that coming and so.
Here it's really just a seed plot given in John's gospel in connection with his coming.
We're here. Why? The signs are written that you might believe one, that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. But go back to, uh, Matthew 22.
When the Lord brought this matter before the Pharisees.
Matthew 22 and verse 41. While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them, saying, What think ye of Christ, whose son is he? They say unto him, The Son of David. He said unto them, How then doth David in spirit call him Lord, saying, The Lord or Jehovah said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, till I make thine enemies thy footstool. If David, then call him Lord, how is he his Son? And no man was able to answer him. A word neither endures any man from that day forth. Ask him.
Any more questions and those two points have to be realized, don't they, that Jesus was David's son, that is the Messiah, but he's also David's Lord, He is Jehovah. They have to recognize he's not only the anointed one, he is God himself, and that was he is the root and the offspring.
Of David.
As deity and his his Messiahship as the King of Israel.
Yeah, the reason the book was written, and John's Gospel is unique in that it was written after the inroads of, of wicked doctrines as to the person of Christ. So when the Lord found, uh, John, what was he doing when he called him? He was mending that. And really that's John's ministry is those inroads of evil doctrine.
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Had, uh, have you might say, put rent in the net?
And, uh, so he was given, uh, the job to fix those things, to make those repairs needed repairs. And uh, especially Gnosticism had come in and there was a denial as to both of those truths, the Lord Jesus being Messiah and Son of God. So in his epistle, umm.
First, John, you get that in chapter 2.
And verse 22.
Who is a liar or the liar?
But he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ.
There's his messiahship, that's Jewish apostasy. Or deny that Jesus is the Christ, he is Antichrist, that denies the Father and the Son. That's the full revelation of the Father and the Son, Christian truth. And so the liar is the Antichrist and he's the head of.
Not only Jewish apostasy, but Christian apostasy as well. And so those are two things that John touches on very strongly. And that's why this gospel brings out so much of that aspect our brother touched on and his address, the divine person of the Son of God in this gospel. It's interesting that the Lord Jesus calls himself throughout the Gospels by many different titles and if you add them all.
Up. He calls himself Son of Man more than all of them. And if you put them all together, he still calls himself Son of Man more than all put together. And you go to Matthew, Mark, and Luke. And it's the same with each of those gospels. He calls himself Son of Man more than any other title except John.
With John, he just calls himself the Son. It's fitting to that gospel because it presents him as the divine Son, Son of the Father from all eternity.
Might take us on to.
Chapter one. Verse three. To whom also he showed himself alive after his passion, by many infallible proofs.
Being seen within 40 days and Speaking of the things pertaining to the Kingdom of God, the resurrection was fully attested to thorough, uh, witness, uh, was had to the risen Son of God. And uh, even by any of man's standards by which he judges, whether a historical fact is accurate or not, there is nothing so fully testified to as to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And the apostle Paul received it by revelation. It says in first Corinthians 15 verse three, I have delivered unto you. First of all, last week I also received He got this by revelation. How that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he rose again third day according to the Scriptures, and that he was seen of Cephas. Then of the 12 after that he was seen of above 500 brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain.
Under this present, but some are fallen asleep. After that he was seen of James, then of all the apostles, and last of all he was seen of me also as of one born out of due time, for I am the least of the apostles.
And so there was the evidence of resurrection and it's one of the things that is unique to Christianity is the teaching of resurrection. There is a resurrection and the Lord himself taught of the resurrection of the just and the resurrection of the damned. And this is the really one of the things that is characteristic. So verse one of the next chapter after these things, Jesus showed himself again to the disciples at the sea of Tiberias and on this wise.
Showed he himself. So it's wonderful the, uh, desire of the Lord to reveal himself to his disciples. Now they saw him physically, but you and I can have a glimpse of Christ himself, a glimpse of himself in his glory, a glimpse of his grace, a glimpse of his moral glories as we read the stories of himself in the Gospels. It's one of the things that is.
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Characteristic of the Lord Jesus as arisen man, he desires to give a revelation of himself to his own.
We know that.
The first one that came out in his own power and rose from the dead. But the church is called the Church of the first born. Now that does not refer to the war cast. That mistake is made sometimes the Church of the first born.
Means us. We are the we are the first born in one. That is a term of, uh, the Old Testament Saints were not in that category, but we are.
Chapter 12.
The Church of the First Born Ones is a correct translation. There we are in a special place of nearness to the Lord.
Lord is the first born.
First form doesn't be referred to. 1St order is the first warning from the dead, first born in the blood. So we are going into that place of the enemy as the As.
The body of Christ. So that's not the result of God. No, in dawn it is the family, which is always intense. But we do have the light, of course.
We have the life of us.
Oliva.
Well, that's the same life as the Lord Jesus has and it's the life in One Direction and eternal life in John is something that the Old Testament saying did not happen. Eternal life in John, John Scott says we are studying, is a life that has intelligence. It's a life the characters dependent upon the death and resurrection of Christ, the different characters of life.
Monte is a different light, the different character of life, than the old questions and facts.
By the way.
The Spirit of God dwells in.
But we have the life of Christ. Lord, don't thank you. I don't think it's life going to be corrected. I don't think it's right to say that Christmas person.
Yes, in Colossians it says Christ in you, the hope of glory, but that's really the display of Christ, the character of Christ in the believer coming out and so.
We're not indwelled by two persons of the Godhead, we're indwelled with the Spirit of God, but we are, as we are occupied with that, blessed 1 The moral features of Christ are formed in the believer, and Christ is seen in this world.
As the believer walks in fellowship and communion with God, and so that's the responsibility that we have, is to walk with Christ and to display his character.
The overview of this chapter 21 That umm in the Jewish system, the Levitical priesthood and the ironic priesthood, but really the whole tribe of Levi were involved in the service of the Lord. Only the tribe of Levi and the high priest came in once every year, not without blood, and he was afraid every time he went. But in Christianity, we're all priests unto our God.
Every one of us and we might just read it as we consider this passage. Hebrews chapter 13 and umm, just at the end of the.
Chapter it says uh.
Verse 15 By Him therefore, let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name.
00:50:00
And so you and I are priests, a Kingdom of priests, and our sacrifices are not physical sacrifices. They are sacrifices of praise and Thanksgiving to his name. And so everyone of us comes into the presence of the Lord. We have the privilege of coming into the presence of the Lord without any fear. And so instead of the Levitical priesthood being presented to us in a sense in chapter 21, he's presenting to us the truth that there's a transition from Levitical priesthood and Levitical service to the service of Christianity. Now we serve the Lord Jesus as those that are sons, those that are brought into relationship with him.
As family, as it were, and umm, so we're indwelled with the Spirit of God and we have intelligence. And so instead of the priest going to Aaron and Aaron giving every priest his work to do, we go to the Lord and the Lord gives us the work to do. So he says in verse 15, uh, feed my lambs, and then in verse 16, feed my sheep or shepherd my sheep, and then in verse 17, feed my sheep.
So that the work we are to do for the Lord as those that are called to do a little work for him, every one of us, none of us is exempt. He gives us that work of service for himself, in intelligence, affection for himself. And so there's that transition that was going on in John's Gospel chapter 21 from Levitical service to service of the Master in a different relationship.
In his next account here in chapter 21, you see the Lord's grace again being shown.
It's quite Marco's bowling. Peter was commissioned. Initially it was the Fisher demand and here we see him reverting to old habits.
Come in, whatever the case may have been, and here, he says, I go fishing.
And this is this is a very.
Sobering 4 should consider Peter makes the decision to do something and you said you count.
Daniel in Galilee, one just in Rusev, the sons of W 232 other disciples 4-5.
And Tory Thomas, uh, Thomas Paul didn't have fixed and Peter 7 that's that if you do the ratio of that seven out of 11. And so something around 65% of the disciples are drawn away because either one will go fishing.
And what does the Lord do? The department just fall as Peter.
And and just say, what are you doing? You may have asked you denied me did it and did that you did the other that's off in a way of a way of nature. Thou therefore my Son strong and embracing Jesus.
For you know the grace of.
Our Lord Jesus Christ, if if in the Gospels as we as we trace his ways as we as we come to trace his ways personally in our lives where you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. So it's touching as we see him here. He allows him to waste a lot of time.
It's about a whole night. Either have that occasion once before in his life at least.
The Lord worked in a very similar way to Lord Peter's heart. He works to address Peter and his responsibility in beating the other cycles away, but he works to draw the facts himself.
We we live in times where there's a lot of failures, a lot of weakness, and yet.
See, the Lord wants to store goals to restore my soul.
So we see him working and and.
Cycles are brought back to refocus to redirect it.
Is that that treatment is how the word works, even when when the course of March on, it's not. It's not at this direction.
Garden Town we have Umm Norman 13. The night is far spent and the hymn that we sing the days at the end of year exists all night and they caught nothing.
Warning the first pore. But when the morning was now come, Jesus stood on the shore, But the disciples knew not that it was Jesus. And Jesus saith unto them, Children, have ye 80 meat?
00:55:03
Call.
Verse 30 and 31 are kind of a little break.
You might have a little pause and it, but it picks up again and, uh, in the beginning of chapter 21. So we've had an unbelieving believer with Thomas and he says, no, I want you to be believing believers. And then he goes on because then Thomas has that little picture of the remnant, uh, restored. There's a pledge there in that sense that he is going to restore Israel. They missed out, yes, on Christian blessing, but they didn't miss out altogether. They're not going to miss out altogether.
He will yet restore them. And so when we come to chapter 21 and those first verses, maybe 14 verses, uh, really lay out a little millennial picture.
And, uh, so I think the night is far past. There is not so much with our hope and expectation of the Lord's return as it is the night of the tribulation. And you know, they toiled all night and there was no, no results from their, their laborers.
And so in a certain sense, Israel is going to toil through the tribulation and nothing is going to be produced. But when the Lord comes and he restores that relationship, and that's what you see. You see the relationship that the Lord had at the beginning and the Synoptic gospels, uh, Matthew, Mark and Luke, where he calls the disciples and they're fishing and they forsake all.
And follow the Lord. It's like he just like goes back again. We're going to go all the way back to the beginning now.
And you blew it. So to say, We're going to start all over. We're going to start all over. Only this time it's not going to be dependent on you. It's all going to be dependent on me.
And so there's a renewal of that relationship, so to speak, that's going to take place with Israel. But the Lord is going to make sure they don't fail this time. They're going to be the elect and preserved by him and go on into millennial blessing. And that's in those first 14 verses, what's pictured in various details.
Some of the things that are similar, I think if we go down through them, we can sort of see them, you know, interesting to look at.
There we get the, uh, Lord shows himself to the disciples by the seaside. We think of the different ones he called there they were by the Oceanside when he called them, some ending their Nets, some casting their Nets in, you know. And so here he is again by the shore and uh, is uh.
Brother pointed out. How many are there? 7/7 fishers this time is perfection. It's completeness. The whole picture here is gonna be perfection. And so when, umm, he tells them to cast the net on the right side of the ship, that reminds us of how he told the disciples to let down their Nets before, you know. And what did they do? They drew in that tremendous hall of fishes.
And what happened? Well, the ship began to sink, and that was broken. You know, things were getting to be a real tangle. None of that here. No breaking of a net.
Nothing's lost of what they caught. There's no sinking ship. Everything's in perfection. And it's so. It's that millennial day that's pictured to us. You know, the gospel is gonna go out again. That gospel never said the gospel. That Messiah is here and he's reigning in Jerusalem and calling all, so to speak, to acknowledge him and to worship him. And Israel is going to have the blessing of carrying that out to the whole world.
And it's gonna be all dependent on the Lord. There's gonna be no fault with it. There's gonna be no problems with it. They're not gonna gather in the net like we have in, in, uh, Matthew 13. Oh, there's bad fish in here. Throw them on the shore, put the good ones in vessels. None of that. Every single fish drawn to shore here is a good fish. Every single 1. So it's a, it's a picture of millennial perfection and all dependent upon him and his renewal of his relationship.
01:00:01
With Israel. And at first they don't recognize them, do they? Who is this? He says, children, have you any meat? They answer so sharply, you know, they don't recognize him. At first he wasn't that far away, but they don't. And so they have to be brought to recognize him. What a day that's going to be when he comes again and they realize who he is and they recognize him for the first time.
David could speak of that day coming Kingdom as a morning without clouds. A lot of clouds, a lot of darkness as they go through. But son of righteousness will arise with healing in his wings.
I'd like to add this to.
Practical.
Word, how the Lord asked them the question, children, have you any meat? He knew they didn't have any meat, but he wanted them to admit it and to confess it, that their, their, uh, fishing trip was for naughty. But, uh, I'd like to apply it in a little different way. They had to acknowledge that for all their laborers, they had no meat.
But there is something too, as we.
Would, uh, visit with one another? Do we have any meats? Do we have anything to share? Uh, the scriptures, they didn't have any for themselves. We don't have it for ourselves. We don't have it for anyone else. But I think it's a good word for us too. Do we not only do we have something for ourselves, we have something to share to others. Do we have any meat to share?
Well, the blessings to Christianity under Christianity is broad. The Jews, if someone during the, uh, Jewish era had wanted a blessing and needed to go to Jerusalem and that was the place where they had the word of God, they had the law, they had God's revelation and connection with the word of God. But in Christianity, the truth goes out to every nation. And so someone has pointed out that in Genesis chapter 10, Chapter 11.
You have 153 nations includes Abraham's family, but I've never really counted them all up but it looks like there's 153. So the bro, the blessing will go out and has gone out throughout the whole world in under Christianity. But in the future too prophetically, the world will be blessed. The earth will be blessed, all of the earth that says figuratively speaking in Isaiah, the trees will clap their hands. The whole earth will be blessed as a result of the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus.
And there's going to be restoration. You know, some have suggested one of the writers says, you know, chapter 21 really is written. The Spirit of God has written of the restoration of Peter. We could just take this up and just read about the restoration of Peter and how God restores the soul. And so God was interested in that disciple and he was a prominent disciple. So the apostle to the.
Circumcision.
Is the first one that's listed in verse 2, The second one that's listed in verse two is Thomas. A little picture of the remnant, the godly remnant that we'll want to see a sign and will be restored. So God restores individuals. Isn't it the grace of God to restore individuals? And He knows how to bend the knee. If you're a rebel in your heart, God knows how to tame and bend the knee.
And he's in the business of bending knees and he knows how to bend the knees and he will bend the knees in his time and he will bring you to repentance and restoration. And so this is, uh, a little picture that we have of God's interest in Peter. Peter would never have been restored, never have been, uh, any, any, uh, recovery on Peter's part apart from the advocacy of Christ. So we have that truth given a little bit further on in, uh.
First John. We might just, uh, consider it at this point. First John. Chapter 2.
It's John's ministry, as you say, he's mending the Nets. He's telling us how.
To mend the Nets and how God mends the Nets.
Verse Chapter one. Verse 9.
Well, let's read verse eight. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in US.
If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar and his word is not in US. My little children, these things right eye unto you that ye sin not if any man sin. We have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. So it's not a part of the family character to sin. You have a new life. You have the very life of Christ. You're indwelled with the Spirit of God. You believe in the Lord Jesus as your Savior. You know God is your Father.
01:05:27
You believe that Jesus is the Son of God.
You have a new relationship, you're a son, you're brought into a relationship with him and it's not a part of that character of the son, the sin. But if you do, you step out of character. And if you sin, you have an advocate with the Father. The Lord Jesus prays for you as an advocate. He prays for you. And uh, the reason that you do get restored is that Christ has prayed for you.
And that he is working to restore you. We cannot restore ourselves.
And so he would have this little picture given to us in connection with Peter, of the restoring work of Christ. He's on high as our great high priest. He's interceding it for us in our weakness. But if we sin, he advocates for us. He prays for us that we might turn and that we might be restored. We cannot save ourselves, we cannot keep ourselves, and we cannot restore ourselves. We need Christ.
22nd Some we get a little.
Picture that kind of is similar in some ways to what we have in these two chapters. We get the Lord raised from the dead after His sufferings. Verse 21 Saved me from the lion's mouth, for thou hast heard me from the horns of the unicorns. I will declare thy name unto my brethren in the midst of the congregation will I praise thee. And so he appeared to his own in that upper room declared the Father's name.
And that he would send them in the father's name. And really he is the leader of their joy and praise in that sense. And so it's a little picture of a present blessing that, uh, we have. He's in the midst of the congregation. And then he goes on and he speaks of a great congregation in verse 25. My praise shall be of the in the great congregation. I will pay my vows before them that fear him.
That.
Is the great congregation really of a millennial day when the Lord is going to come and bring in the good of all the promises of God made in the Old Testament, those prophetic, uh, utterances of blessing, uh, that will not only be the restoration of Israel, but go out to blessing and the whole earth. But this is what I wanted to look at verse 28. For the Kingdom is the Lord's and he is the governor among the nations all day that be fat upon the earth.
Shall even worship all the way that go down to the dust, shall bow before him, and none can keep alive his own soul.
Most of Christianity, the thought has been that it's going to be through man's efforts, he's going to bring in the Kingdom.
But like the little picture we have here in the beginning of chapter 21.
It's going to be manifest that they could produce nothing. It's going to be the Lord that brings in the blessing. He's going to be the one that brings in the blessing to the whole earth. None can keep alive his own soul. And the millennial day, it's going to be evident that all is sustained by the Lord, that all the blessing comes from the Lord, that He's the one that is doing it all. So he tells them, cast the net and they're the haul of fishes.
Brings him in and what does he have? He has something already on the shore that wasn't even their efforts, but he says now bring what you've caught too. We, we're going to enjoy your laborers as well and brings them in together. He still does that today with us, doesn't he? You know, we see it's his work and, uh, yet we get the privilege of laboring for him. And he says, now I want to eat the fruit of your laborers too. And so he has that which he's provided and he wants us to enjoy what he might use us for.
In his service.
But it's going to be evident that all is based upon him and his power alone.
01:10:06
Found that the nations will be blessed with Israel in that day and I know it's a little bit different than what we're discussing, but I think it's important to to notice the distinction between the Gentiles blessed in that day and how they are blessed today. Just turn to Acts 15 for a couple scriptures.
This is the great discussion as it related to.
The laws applying the circumcision applying to the Gentiles that Paul and Barnabas, they went up to Jerusalem. Read verse 2.
I went there, for Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension in disputation with them. They determined that Paul and Barnabas and certain other of them should go up to Jerusalem under the apostles and elders about this question.
And being brought on their way by the church, they passed through Finesse and Samaria, declaring the conversion of the Gentiles, or it should be relating the conversion of those of the nations.
And they cause great joy into all the people. Now drop down to verse.
14 When James speaks, he says Simeon or Peter hath declared how God is the first to visit the Gentiles, to take out of them a people for his name. In the coming day the Gentiles will be blessed as nations with Israel today. They're not being blessed that way. We sometimes speak of Christian lands. That's not scriptural. There is no scriptural land. The Christian lands scripturally the order of Christianity as God is taking out of the nations.
A people for himself, conversion of those among the nations. So God and a nation, Israel and now Gentiles, those of Gentiles which we largely are of been taken out of the nation. Ephesians brings us into the truth of Jew and Gentile brought into one body. But I believe it's important distinction that today God is taking out from the nations or out from the Gentiles a people for himself forming into one body ju and Gentile. But in that millennial day it will be the conversion of the nations. They will be blessed as nations.
With Israel, not as individuals.
As it is today and again it's Jew, Gentile and Church of God that God is taking out of the Jews and the Gentiles and forming one body for himself.
It's interesting to notice the order here. Scripture is very orderly and you have this expression that the Lord Jesus uses in verse 12. He says come and dine.
And he feeds his disciples. He feeds these erring disciples. He didn't tell them to go and fish. They went and fish was a fruitless night.
But he fed them in his grace and His mercy, His kindness. He fed them before there was restoration. And don't you feel nourished in your soul when you've been at a distance from the Lord? You come into the assembly meeting, perhaps you sit down with the Word of God and he nourishes your soul. Then he touches the conscience and he brings you into His presence as he speaks to your conscience. And there's restoration and there's a communion restored.
And so this is the order of things I believe in connection with restoration that.
There needs to be a feeding upon Christ and a recognition of the food. He is the bread of life, the water of life, and He has that food to give us, to bring us into a place where we can be restored.
I guess our time is up.
And you're saying 330?
330.
OK.
What race? The one race for?
John.
I wish I turned to the rainbow.
Your brother's heart.
Divine.
Oh.
Unreachable.
01:15:09
So I love you.
There would be.
Oh my sure, oh oh, oh, oh 030 oh, oh oh oh, I have thawed and saw.
So crazy.
No, no, no, no. That's what I'm like. That's right.
Go and go play.
Uh.
How long?
Commit ourselves, our loving God and our Father. We thank Thee for Thy precious word that we've had before us. We pray that Thou is taped by Thy Spirit, Those, uh, passages of Scripture that have been spoken of and read together here in my presence this afternoon.
That there might be fruit for the our God. We think of how long this value the fellowship of thy creature man individually, every one of us, that noblest Savior. Now this desire is to be in communion with thyself, to have thoughts of enjoyment of the results of that finish and that holy work. That was the concept of the cross of Calvary, and that we have been sanctified, set apart by thee for the holy purpose.
Of being in fellowship with thee to enjoy thy coming blessed Savior, and not only soul, but have been.
Given a position of favor and blessing before Thee's sons are gone to be able to address Thee's father.
Something that the Jews never could have foregone. We pray that we might value what we have. Value these things. At the end of the day of grace, we thank Thee that Thy coming is so near. Help us to dig into the Scriptures and to enjoy these things for ourselves. So we ask before that blessing if there's anyone here that has been walking in a distance from Zycell, Blessed Savior, that they might have dined a little in my presence upon my word.
I just seen some of the sweetness of the person over Christ.
Seeking to draw these different ones to Himself, and that they too might be restored in their souls. And walk with thee. So we ask thee for thy blessing, our God, our Father, in the precious name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Amen.
Great Grace of God
Gospel—Robert Boulard
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Hello, I want to welcome everyone to the Gospel meeting. If you're not a believer in the Lord Jesus tonight, I trust you're going to hear words by the grace of God, words whereby you might be saved. We're to read from God's book, the Bible. There's only one revelation that God has given in His and it's in His word. He's told us of his Son, and He wants us to believe upon His Son and to have our sins forgiven. So if you've never had your sins.
You've never had a relationship with God. Perhaps tonight is the night to make that decision for Christ. Let's, uh, sing #6.
Number six.
Maybe somebody can start it.
While it's torture and they're shooting the stars.
All the glory.
Oh, progress shining.
In the standing, they're standing.
Uh, let me deliver from above. No, it's no, it's not in the Lord and love.
To bring the light.
Of the glory.
Of not very good.
Shall I continue?
You know, let's get into your standard and we're not going to make sure. I don't know.
On the red hands make it leaves.
And we're like Christine.
Lord of all the trees, let's not happen and bring it in, my father.
Is out of the grave.
It's not funny. And let's say they're saying.
And.
Promised.
Lord is laundry and glory and glory.
He could suffer once and will drain anything.
All right. Umm.
Jesus Christ.
And Lord.
Shining.
That's a hand with a strange ending. Uh, let me see you soon.
God is going to go away and go out loud together. The blood.
Let's ask the Lord's blessing in our meeting together.
Our father is.
Just read a couple of verses of scripture to open up.
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The passage that I would like to take up.
Just Two Corinthians chapter 5 and verse 14.
If there's going to be any blessing here tonight, it's going to be on the part of God himself and God in His Word. Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. But it says in verse 14 here that the love of Christ constraineth us because we thus judge that if one died for all, then we're all dead.
And that he died for all that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him.
Which died for them and rose again.
Dear friends, tonight there's a God who loves you, a God who sent his son into this world because he loved you. He loved you as an individual. He knew that you would be sitting here tonight. He knew what state your soul would be in. He knew ahead of time. And he has arranged for you to be here tonight to hear His word and he if you're not saved tonight.
You still have the judgment of God hanging over your head for your own sins. By the grace of God, He's allowing that you will hear about the Savior tonight and that there is free forgiveness of sins on the basis of the finished holy work of Christ, and that the blood of Jesus Christ His Son can cleanse you from all sin tonight as an individual.
And we're going to read a passage of Scripture. I'd like to take up Luke's Gospel, chapter 14.
In the gospel, because you know, the, some of the writers have referred to this chapter as the gospel, uh, the chapter of the great grace of God. I think Mr. Kelly calls it that and.
I think in connection with the feast in verse 16, Mr. Darby says it's the UMM, the Gospel of the great Gospel, the supper of the great grace of God.
And so we're going to read about this chapter, and I'd like to just comment on these few passages, these few little stories.
That the Son of God himself spoke.
God sent his Son to speak to you.
It was inconvenient to leave those courts of glory where sin can never come, inconvenient to come into this scene that was so filled with sin, such defilement. But you know that Holy One came into this scene and He brought blessing wherever he went in chapter 14. His rejection is already a foregone conclusion in this gospel.
But he went about doing good. He came.
To display the grace of God, and to pronounce the love of God for sinners, and yet to pronounce solemnly that there was judgment to fall upon those that would refuse the grace of God. And so let's read this chapter.
It came to pass, as he went into the House of one of the chief Pharisees to eat bread on the Sabbath day, that they watched him. Behold, there was a certain man before him which had the dropsy.
And Jesus answering, spake unto the lawyers and Pharisees, saying, Is it lawful?
To heal on the Sabbath day they held their peace. He took him and healed him and let him go.
And answered them, saying, Which of you shall have an *** or an ox fallen into a pit, or a well, and will not straightway pull them out on the Sabbath day? And they could not answer him again to these things. And he put forth a parable to those which were bidden, when he marked how they chose out the chief rooms or the first places.
Saying unto them, When thou art hidden of any man to a wedding.
Sit not down in the highest room, lest a more honorable man than thou bebidden of him. And he that led thee and him come and say to thee, Give this man place, and thou begin with shame to take the lowest room. But when our bidden, go and sit down in the lowest room, that when he that made thee cometh.
And he may say unto thee, friend, go up higher.
Then shalt thou have worship her honor in the presence of them that sit at meet with thee. For whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased, and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.
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Then said he also to him that bade him, when thou makest to dinner or supper, call not thy friends, nor thy brethren, neither thy kinsmen nor thy rich neighbors, lest they also bid thee again, and the recompense be made to thee made thee. But when thou make us to feast, call the poor that my named the lame the blind.
And thou shalt be blessed, for they cannot recompense thee.
For thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the just.
And when one of them that sat at meet with him heard these things, he said unto him, Blessed is he that shall eat bread in the Kingdom of God. Then said he unto him, A certain man made a great supper, and bade many sent his servant at supper time to say to them that were bidden come, for all things are now ready, and they all with one consent.
Began to make excuse. The first said unto him, I have bought a piece of pro of ground, and I must needs go to see it. I pray thee, have me excused.
Another said, I have bought 5 yoke of oxen and I go to prove them, I pray thee have me excused. Another said I have married a wife, therefore I cannot come. So the servant that servant came, showed his Lord these things. Then the master of the house being angry, said to his servant, go out quickly in the streets and lanes of the city.
Bring in, hit her, the poor, the maimed, and the halt and the blind.
The servant said, Lord, it is done as thou hast commanded, and yet there is room. And Lord said unto the servants, Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled. For I say unto you, that none of those men which were bidden shall taste of my supper. And there went great multitudes with him. He turned and said unto them, If any man come to me.
And hate not as father and mother and wife and children and brethren and sisters. Yeah, and his own life also.
He cannot be my disciple. Whosoever does not bear his cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.
For which of you intending to build a tower sitteth not down 1St, and counteth the cost, whether he hath sufficient to finish it? Less happily, after he hath laid the foundation, and is not able to finish it, all that behold it begin to mock him, saying, This man began to build and was not able to finish? Or what king going to make war against another king sitteth not down 1St?
And consulteth whether he be able.
With 10,000 to meet him that cometh against him with 20,000, or else while the other is yet Co a great way off. He sent us an ambassador, and desireth conditions of peace. So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple. Salt is good, but if the salt has lost his savor, wherewith shall it be seasoned.
It is neither fit for the land nor yet for the dunghill, but men cast it out.
He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.
Dear friends, tonight.
The Son of God, the creator of this universe, the one who created Adam with his own hand and breathed into his nostrils. The breath of life came into this man's house, a Pharisee.
Grace was shown to the religious bigots of the day, and there may be religious people in this world and they're going to have the gospel of the grace presented to them. And you may be sitting here in your sins tonight very religious about it and pretending to be a Christian. This Pharisee, you know, he saw the Lord Jesus doing these works, these miracles.
And he perhaps we're not told exactly what was going on in his heart, because God knew.
But he wanted the Lord Jesus to come into his house.
The Creator, the one by whom the worlds subsist.
He came into the world. The world was made by him. Without him was not anything made that was made. And he came into this Pharisee's house to deliver a blessing on the principle of grace. He wasn't going to bless this Pharisee on the basis of his religion, on the basis of his ability to keep the law. God wants nothing from the Sinner. He doesn't need your money, He doesn't need your service, He doesn't need what you have.
00:15:17
He doesn't want it. He's a blesser. He's a giver.
And He has something to give, and He wants you to be blessed in his presence for all eternity. And He's come. He came into this world right to where you are, and he's speaking to you right where you sit. He came into this man's house to eat bread on the Sabbath day, the last day of the week. You know, in Judaism, they had six days that they could use for themselves.
Monday, Tuesday. Wednesday, Thursday, Friday.
Lords Day, the first day of the week, they used all those days for themselves, but then they were to give Saturday. It was commanded that they give Saturday to the Lord no end this or but they had to give him that one day. Well, you know what they did? They used all seven days for themselves. That's what they did. But in Christianity is different.
God has given us the first day of the week, and in grace He doesn't command you to keep the first day of the week.
No, He says, let us offer the sacrifice of praise and Thanksgiving to pray to God continually.
That is the fruit of our lips giving thanks unto his name. He says on the first day of the week, the disciples came together to break bread. He says, let us. And so he's not putting you under law. He's not suggesting that we keep it as a a law. And as we said earlier in the reading meeting here.
The Christian has no Sabbath. God never promised you a rest in this world, and God isn't going to promise you a place of rest in this world.
If you accept the Lord Jesus as your savior, you're going to have the struggles of normal life and the Lord will use those struggles to produce the characteristics of Christ in himself in in your life. But he came into this world. This Pharisee watched him to see what he was going to do. And there was a certain man before him which had the drops. He had a build up of body fluid in his body. Not sure what would cause that.
Maybe congestive heart failure, whatever it would be, Jesus answering, spake unto the lawyers and Pharisees, the doctors of the law, The Pharisees saying, is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath day? They held their peace.
You know their conscience is, answered him.
You're a Sinner tonight if you don't know the Lord Jesus as Savior. You sit in your seat and he sees you as a lost Sinner. But I see some people here in this room that I know belong to Christ, and he doesn't look at you as a Sinner. If you've accepted Christ as your Savior and you've been forgiven of your sins, you're no longer guilty before God. He sees you in a new position.
Justified because of the finished work of Christ. He sees you.
As a son or as a daughter. And that dignity, not honor. And the Lord Jesus, the Son of God, came into this world to release this man from the power of sin and Satan, and he gives us a story.
The Lord Jesus come into this house. The Pharisee evidently didn't receive a blessing.
Solemn, the Lord Jesus came to your house. Would he be welcome?
You know, chapter Brown tells a story, says he was visiting out in the country, some place in the city, and he came to knock on the door of a family. In those days, they wouldn't call ahead and say we're going to come and visit your house. They would just come to the house, knock on the door and with their Bibles and say we'd like to come in and have a a visit.
And they knocked on the door.
And there was a lot of noise going on in the house. There was a boom, boom, boom. There was a music going on. It was loud. He banged on the door. Finally, somebody came to the door. The wife, she came to the door. She answered. She looked through the curtains, and then she shut the curtains. And then she called to her husband. Turn it off. It's the Browns.
Turn it off. It's the Browns.
Well, her husband finally heard her and he shut the music off and then they came. They got things sorted out in the house and then they finally let the Browns in. They have the Bible reading in that home.
00:20:12
It wasn't a very good ending in that home. Mr. Brown told the story in one of his meetings. I just want to ask you this, friend.
What the Lord Jesus, be welcome in your home.
Could you come into your house?
When you open the curtains and say, oh, I just have to straighten things up a little bit.
What hast thou in the house?
O the Lord, Jesus wants to bring a blessing into your home. Don't bring anything into the home that would cause them discomfort and that would bear upon your conscience that it ought not to be there. You might miss a blessing. The Lord might not be comfortable, so to speak, to come. You might not be free in the presence of the Lord in your home, to be able to have a reading in the home and to be occupied with spiritual things because of what you've allowed in the home.
The Pharisee didn't get a blessing.
Religious man. And he was shown the grace of God, the Son of God, the one who kept the orbits in perfect synchrony, the one who maintained the breath, the amount, One who created that very man. He came into this house to give him a blessing. He didn't get a blessing.
Solemn.
But there was a man, he was afflicted, he was sick, and he came. He was presented before the Lord. He got the blessing. He came to show grace to those that are afflicted by sin.
Sin destroys life.
Had a man in my car years ago.
We're driving, doing business.
I can't remember. It was probably an engineering call. We were going someplace and, umm, we were trying to present the gospel of the grace of God to this man. He was an unbeliever. Name is **** Merritt.
And I said, **** you have an illness that is fatal. You have an illness, it's fatal. It's called sin. And you're gonna die because of sin.
You're gonna die because of sin and you need Christ. You need the blood of Jesus Christ to cleanse you from that sin. You need the forgiveness of God.
He said I don't need the blood of Christ. I don't need it. I don't want it.
I don't want the blood of Christ.
I said there's only one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus who gave himself a ransom for all.
God sent His Son into this world to cleanse you from your sin. He didn't want it.
He was sick with sin, and tonight in your seat, if you don't know the Lord Jesus as your Savior, you're sick with sin and it's fatal.
The soul that sinneth it shall die.
The eternally separated from God. If you die the second death, if you die without Christ, if you die without your sins forgiven in this world, you leave this scene without Christ.
You will forever be separated from a holy God, never to experience the grace of God, the love of God. And it's the love of Christ that constraineth us. Do you know that when the Lord Jesus came into this man's house, it was on the basis of love for him? He healed this man on the basis of love.
Well, he goes on. He tells this story in verse 7 down to verse 11 of, uh, this feast, a wedding feast.
And how these men like to have the 1St place, a place of prominence among their brethren. You know, there's a lot of pecking order going on in this world, people that want to be at the top of the food chain, at the top of the government, at the top. Can you imagine? Would you want to be at the top of the government?
In the country like America.
Would you want to be the top man?
Would you want to be reigning over a country filled with rebels?
Could they be managed? Could they be governed?
Just barely.
Would you want to be the government, the head of the government in Brazil?
00:25:02
Would you want to be the president of Brazil?
These men wanted the 1St place. They wanted the best place in this world, a place of position, authority, respect, honor of this world.
But you know God is going isn't going to give you a blessing based on your pecking order in this world.
This world is under judgment. God is already pronounced. It's under judgment. Why would you want to be the captain of the Titanic when it's already hit the iceberg and it's already going down?
We are living.
At the end of Western civilization, we are living just before the collapse of Western civilization. When the Lord Jesus comes, he gives a shout. Perhaps tonight he's gonna give the shout. Arise, my love, my fair one, come away.
Approximately 7 years later, the Western Christian world will be an utter collapse. It will never rise again.
We could read of the final demise of this whole world. We might just read it in second Peter chapter 3.
God is the God of grace and he's offering forgiveness of sins tonight, but if the grace is refused, there's judgment. It says in chapter 3 at First Second Peter.
11 verse 8 Beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing. That one day is what the Lord is. 1000 years and 1000 years is one day. The two days of grace are almost up.
The Lord is not slack concerning His promises. Some men count slackness, but his long-suffering to us were not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. The day of the Lord will come. That's the appearing of the Lord Jesus after the Tribulation period, at the time when the Western Christian world and the remnants of it will be judged by the Son of God.
The.
At the appearing and then he speaks of the end of the thousand years of the millennial reign of Christ, and he says, The heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat. The earth also, and all and the works that are therein shall be burned up. Not one thing will remain.
What are you working for tonight? What are you thinking about? What are your plans?
I was reading a book recently.
A man by the name of Arthur Scott, young man, he came to age approximately, I guess 18 years old. This is in England.
And Arthur Scott, his father, gave him a grand party at 18 years old.
Given the privileges of being the son of the wealth, the heir of his estate, and he had this big ball going on, he had a rich uncle.
His uncle came to the house.
Drove up. It is, uh, nephew.
Arthur Scott thought, Ma, I'm gonna get some money out of this. I'm gonna get a good check. His uncle gave him two envelopes.
Said Arthur. I'm giving you 2 envelopes tonight. This one here you can open right now.
He opened it up. Wonderful check. Large amount of money, he said. Arthur, I'm giving you this one, and when you get into your room tonight, you open this one by yourself.
Arthur got into the room and he was an honorable man and he didn't open it up until he got into the room. He opened it up and it said this for me to live is.
Dot dot dot.
That's what was on that piece of paper inside that envelope. And Arthur Scott, you know, he said. I wonder why uncle gave me this one.
Then he began to the gear started to grind a little bit and he said.
He understood something of the word of God. He wasn't as well versed in the Scriptures as he should have been, but that's a quotation. In Philippians, the apostle Paul quotes this. He says for me to live is Christ.
00:30:12
And highest gain.
I wanna ask you tonight, what are you living for? What are your plans? Are your plans in this world? If I gave you that sheet of paper and you went into your room tonight by yourself, what would you put down at the finish of that sentence for me to live is?
Dot dot dot I'm not gonna ask you to do it.
But it might be a good exercise for every one of us. What are we living for?
Well, this man, these men, they wanted the 1St place, a place of prominence, place of honor in this world. But God doesn't bless the Sinner on the principle of pride. He blesses people on the principle of humility. Whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased, and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted. Have you humbled yourself before God?
Have you told the Lord that you're a Sinner?
Have you confessed to God I'm a Sinner, God, be merciful to me a Sinner? Have you bowed the knee?
You'll forgive me if you've heard my give me this little give this little illustration before, but I often think of this.
There was a young girl. Her name.
Was Jessica Blaine before she was married?
And Jessica worked at a little factory in Mount Eaton, OH, as summer job. She's 16 or 17 years old.
I came into the office, I had an appointment with a fellow by the name of Jim and I came in there a little bit early and 15 minutes or so and Jessica said, well, Jim's not here, have a seat and enjoy. Well, we'll just talk and so on and just just wait. He'll be here.
And so beside her computer she had a little piece of paper, 8 1/2 by 11 sheet of paper pasted on the side of her wall. And this is what it said, If you meet me and forget me, you have lost nothing, but if you meet Jesus Christ and forget Him, you have lost everything.
And she quoted a couple of verses of Scripture.
Behold, I stand at the door and knock.
If any man opened the door, I will come in and Sup with him.
Oh, she's quoted John's Gospel 5/24.
If you meet me and forget me.
You've lost nothing, but if you meet Jesus Christ and forget Him, you've lost everything.
Well, we had a nice chat on that morning.
I said, Jessica, is that your sign on the side of your computer? She said yes, that's my sign.
I said, are you a Christian? She says. I'm thankful to have bowed knee to our Lord Jesus Christ in this life. Every knee shall bow.
It's the most wonderful concession of faith I've ever heard from a young girl. I'm pleased to be numbered among those that have bowed the knee to our Lord Jesus Christ in this life. Have you bowed the knee? Have you bowed the knee and said yes, Lord?
Lord, save me.
Every knee shall bow.
Some of us have had the experience of driving out to Otter Lake. I don't know if the sign is still there, but it says every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. There were other signs that Otter Lake, but that's the one that had bullet holes in it.
That's the one that had bullet holes. Have you bowed the knee? You will bow the knee. What a wonderful to bow the knee to our Lord Jesus Christ in this life.
And to enjoy his fellowship, to enjoy his communion and to enjoy his leadership. Well, it says here a little bit further on, he's going to show grace. And he shows grace on the principle of those that are the weakest, the poor. Verse 13.
The lame, the lame, the blind, all those that have been so ruined by sin.
00:35:06
You don't need to walk very far to see someone that has suffered the results of sin.
And God is saving sinners that are damaged by sin.
And Satan has invented all kinds of ways to ruin your life.
You are engaged in a Mortal Kombat with an enemy that is determined to drag you down into a lost eternity, but you have a God who is more powerful.
Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. And God is going to see to it that heaven is filled, and He is offering you tonight because of His love, because of His grace, because of His kindness, because of His mercy. He's offering you the free forgiveness of sins. On the basis of the finished work of Christ, God sent His Son into this world.
Someone sinned and someone had to pay.
You sinned.
And you would have had to pay for all eternity. Impossibility to exhaust the payment.
But God sent his Son, and in those three dark hours.
Every sin, not one, was swept under the carpet. Every sin that I have committed, past, present and future, were laid upon the Son of God, the Lord Jesus, and He bore my sins in His own body on the tree.
He paid the price.
So that I could be judicially forgiven. I will never face God as a judge. God would be unrighteous.
To judge me for my sin. They have already been judged. You know, there was a man who stood before Napoleon.
The draft board drafted this man in France, young man, and in those days, if you're wealthy enough, you could hire someone to go to war in your place. So this man, he hired someone, paid him a decent sum of money, man went off to war and he died.
And then the draft board sent the young man another draft notice.
The man said, oh, I was drafted before.
And I sent a replacement. He's dead, he said.
I, I'm free from the, the law of, uh, being drafted. No, the ones that were running the conscription, they said no, we're short of men and you need to come. We're giving you a draft notice. You have to come, he says. I appeal to Napoleon. He stood before the emperor and the representatives of the draft board.
The story was told in Napoleon.
And Napoleon said the man is free. Someone else paid the price with his life. The man can never be drafted.
And God on a righteous basis wants to offer you the free forgiveness of sins so that you can sit here in your seat tonight and rejoice and say I'm no longer guilty before a holy God. No longer guilty. That's what it means to be forgiven. Because if you have your sins upon you, you're guilty before God. You're guilty of sinning against him. You're guilty of rebellion against God.
And you can't get away with it. Oh, what a wonderful thing it is to.
Have the free forgiveness of sins. Well, this man, these ones came, all those that were in a poor state. But then there was a supper made. He said in verse 16. He said unto him, a certain man made a great supper, and bad many.
You know the gospel is an individual invitation. God is giving you an invitation tonight. He's inviting you to receive His Son.
That he has set a feast.
Christianity is a feast.
A feast.
And there's going to be a feast in heaven. There's going to be, you know, it says in the language of Scripture, that's wonderful to think of in chapter 12 of Luke, it says in verse 37, the last part, he says he shall gird himself and make them to sit down to meet and will come forth and serve them.
00:40:07
You're not going to have angels serving you. Those of us that know the Lord Jesus as Savior, you're not going to have an Angel serving you.
The Lord Jesus, the one who died on the cross for you.
Loves you so much, you know, Mr. Darby said. Love delights to serve. Selfishness wants to be served.
Love delights to serve. Did you know that the Lord Jesus, who loved you and gave Himself for you, bore the judgment for your sins in those long three dark hours? Dear St. of God is going to delight to have you sit down. He's going to delight to serve you with heavenly happiness for all eternity.
And did you know that the heaven is going to be full?
Absolutely full, it says in this verse. It says in verse 23 said unto the servant specter of the Spirit of God, and the Spirit of God can compel sinners.
Go out into the highways and hedges and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled.
Heaven's gonna be full.
There was a man not too far from here.
Jacqueline Family.
One of the brothers was in fellowship at the Lord's Table here. Gerald, Jacqueline.
There's another family here. I think it was, uh, Bob Gaulette's family. There were five boys in the Gaulette family. Let me get my family's mixed up, but there were five boys in the family.
Godly mother, she prayed for those boys all her life.
She never saw one of them saved, Not one of them. She prayed to the day she died for those boys to be saved. They lived reckless, godless lives, but they had a praying mother.
And after she died, every one of those boys got saved.
Bob Goulet said he would be in a reading meeting or he'd be just talking in the home at a meal. And he said, I don't know about you, brother. I don't know about you, brother, but when the Spirit of God gets a hold of you, there's no getting away. He said. I couldn't run.
He got saved. He took Christ as his Savior. What does it mean to be saved? It means to be saved from the judgment of God.
God is a judge, God judges sin, and God wants to save you from judgment.
And he has made full provision because of his love, that you might never face God as a judge.
He sent his son.
We would never know the love of God or the extent of the love of God except that God sent his Son. The law could never tell us of the extent of the love of God, but God sent his Son, and his Son showed us well. There were all kinds of excuses.
It says that without they all, with one consent or without exception, began to make excuse.
An excuse is an insult to God. Are you sitting in your seat making an insurance an insult to God? An excuse as to why you cannot come to Christ tonight?
An excuse as to your age, an excuse.
Something else has distracted you. You know the grace of God. He presents this little story, the Lord Jesus. He says he speaks of man that bought a piece of ground. He was a man of the earth. He wanted something in this world. He, he was attracted to the real estate of this world. He, that's what he wanted. Another man. He's bought 5 yoga box and he was a man of business. He wanted business. That's what he wanted. He wanted prosperity.
And he loved business. He lived for business. For me to live is business. That's what he would have said.
Then he says of one that I've married a wife. I cannot come.
He was a man of relationships. He let the relationships of life interfere with his relationship with the Creator God, the Savior God. And everyone of us needs to judge those things. Are we?
Allowing relationships to hinder us from walking in obedience and faithfulness with Christ Himself.
00:45:02
Oh, May God give us the grace, those of us that know the Lord Jesus to set those relationships in their proper order. And we know that the Lord Jesus is not saying here that we, uh, set those relationships and we ignore those relationships that we have responsibilities in. That's not what he's saying. He's saying that needs to be one relationship that has the priority in your life.
You know, if you turn back just one page or two in your Bible to John's or Luke's gospel, I think it's Chapter 9.
It says in verse 59.
Let's read verse 58, loop 9, verse 58. Jesus said unto him, Foxes have holes, birds of the air have nests, but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head. And he said unto another, Follow me. But he said, Suffer me first to go bury my Father. Jesus said unto him, Let the dead bury their dead, but go thou and preach the Kingdom of God. And another also said, Lord, I will follow thee.
But let me first go bid them farewell, which are at home at my house. And Jesus said unto him, No man, having put his hand to the plough, looking back, is fit for the Kingdom of God.
Well, there's a lack of sincerity. There's a lack of commitment.
Me first.
That in all things he might have the preeminence.
Does God have the 1St place that the Lord Jesus have the first place in your life?
It wasn't convenient to leave heaven.
It wasn't convenient to leave the Father's house.
It wasn't convenient. He knew what would take place.
The Lord Jesus came in obedience, He said prophetically speaking in Isaiah chapter 6, it says here my send me.
He could say I do always those things that please my father.
Who are you trying to please tonight?
Are you trying to please yourself?
You will never be happy.
God has made us in such a way.
That the only way that we can be happy is that we're trying to please someone else. If we're trying to please ourselves selfishly, we can never obtain satisfaction. But to have the happiest life is to desire to serve Him and to please Him. The happiest man that ever lived upon the face of the earth is the Lord Jesus. He rejoiced in spirit when he was rejected of men, and he said, Even so, Father, for so it seemed good unto thee.
He accepted it from his Father. He rejoiced in spirit in the face of adversity while the Lord Jesus wants to have the first place in your affections, but you're going to need to come to him. And so this is what it says in.
Luke's Gospel chapter 14, verse 26. He says, if any man come to me.
Have you come?
You know that word is used something like 1900 times in the word of God. Come, come.
You know, obedience is one of the things that's been thrown out the window in the North America, in the Western Christian world. Obedience.
Obedience to children.
Is not really stressed.
We live in a different age, don't we?
But now it says God now commandeth all men everywhere to repent. Men and women are going to be a lost eternity for disobedience. You know, when I was a little boy, you'll forgive the personal illustration, but.
As a little boy, my father worked at the Canadian Pacific Railway of north of Lake Superior, Lake uh, Huron in the middle of nowhere.
And there were bears, moose, deer, but the bears?
One summer we were very hungry. It was dry.
And, uh, couple of two year olds, 3 year olds along the track. And in those days, my father was Telegraph operator, high tech Telegraph operator, and he was working in the office and he could see down the track both ways. And his two little boys were working. We're, uh, walking along, playing along on the railroad track.
00:50:14
He stepped out of the station house window. Uh, out of the station house door.
And he said come.
And he had trained us to come the first call. If we didn't come the first call, there was a spanking.
He said come, we came running down that railroad track.
And you said we said yes, dad, what? What is it? He said turn around and look. And we turned around and looked and there were a couple of bears. They had decided a couple of little boys would probably be a pretty nice snack at this time of day. And he had seen us.
In our lives had been spared. God has seen you in your danger. God has seen you that you're just about to perish into a lost eternity. He knows when the Lord is coming. He knows God knows when he's going to give that.
Give his son the call to call his bride into his presence.
You're in danger of going into a lost eternity, and he's giving you a command. Come.
Unto me, all ye that labor, and our heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Have you come to him? If not, come tonight. Well, he says too, he nee we need to come after him.
We need to he speaks of building a tower. Which of you intending to build a tower? Sit us not down 1St and counter the cost whether you have sufficient to finish it. Friends, if you take Christ as your Savior, it's only the beginning.
If you're saved by the grace of God, saved from judgment, it's only the beginning.
It's like stepping through the door.
It's only the beginning, and he wants you to enter into all of the privileges of what it is to be a son.
An heir of God, joint heir with Christ.
He wants you to enter into the blessedness of what it is to be set free in His presence, to be in the Father's house, know what it is to be justified in a new legal standing, legal position before God, liberty before Him.
He wants you to know it all, He enjoy it all. Being saved is only the beginning.
And if you take Christ as your Savior tonight, it's only the beginning. God is going to open up the floodgates of blessing. And if you will just read His Word, study His Word.
Read some ministry, some teaching. The floodgates will open.
Never in the time of this history of this world, the Western Christian world has ministry teaching being as readily available as it is today. You and I in the English language can read and study the Word of God, and there's no excuse for us not to know the Bible front and back.
Especially the New Testament, because that's written to you and I, and it's written for us.
And to read the Book of Revelation, the book of prophecy that's written.
To the church and for the church, so that we would intelligently know what God is going to do in the future.
And how soon it is that he's going to do it.
Are you studying the Word of God?
You're building a tower one day at a time, 1 brick at a time.
If you're taking crisis, your Savior every day is a little brick. You're building that power at the testimony before this world. Your life is a testimony. People in this world are looking and they're saying you say that you're a Christian.
I wonder what kind of a tower this is.
Is it a good power? Is it well built, founded upon the truth of God, founded upon Christianity and the principles that Christ has made known to us through His apostles?
You know, there's some people in South America.
That don't have the liberties that you have.
That are saved by grace.
No, Christ's Savior and they don't have all this.
They have almost nothing that has been written and translated into Portuguese. There's a sister, her name is Rosemary.
She lives in.
00:55:01
And she was saved as about 12 years old, thirteen years old. And she wandered in the air of church systems for 30 years.
Different pastors and church people telling her that she could be saved and lost. Again, I'm here to tell you on the basis of the Word of God, the truth of the Word of God, I give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish.
For this girl wandered in the church systems for 30 years.
And she was distraught one day and she was on the Internet and she wanted to have certainty as to eternal salvation, eternal security. She wanted to know and she listened to them gospel messages.
By Mario Delfona and she contacted him and she asked him about the truth of what it was to be saved and forever forgiven of her sins.
He told her the truth. She read the word. She asked him where she could go.
And he told her there's a little assembly in Curitiba. You go there, she's been gathered to the Lord's name. Five years or six years.
She works for the government in Brazil. She has a high up job.
She's well spoken and she's well educated women.
Articulate and capable in the Portuguese language, and she's also required to be able to speak English, so she is able to communicate in English and writing and so on. She's translating.
Some of these books.
I guess I don't see it here, Philippians.
She has a husband that's not very spiritually minded. Paulo, dear brother Paulo, he has every.
Laurel and Hardy movie ever made all the posters and he spends his life looking at these movies and so on. He's gathered to the Lord's name. He comes to the meetings with her, she sits on the sofa.
She takes this book in English.
With her laptop sites beside her husband, he's watching these movies and she's reading and she's translating this book.
She says I have to put it down.
And I weep, and I weep and I weep, she says. After I stop weeping, I've learned something. I've enjoyed something, and I never read it before. I'm enjoying it. I'm enjoying it.
She says finally I stopped weeping and I keep translating.
Dear friends, tonight God not only wants you to have your sins forgiven, He not only wants you to be saved from the judgment of God, but He wants you to enter into all of the full privileges of Christianity. He wants you to enjoy the feast that He's prepared for you.
Do you have an appetite for what He's prepared for you? We're just about to pass out of this scene into the presence of the Lord.
But we're in a state of starvation as we.
Are waiting the coming of the Lord. Well, May God bless his word tonight. And if you are not saved, you never have accepted Christ as your Savior. And you're sitting in your seat tonight while I'm praying. You pray and you tell the Lord you're a Sinner. You bow your knee tonight, the knee of your stubborn heart, and you thank him for Christ and the work of Christ on the cross and the blood that was shed. And you start building that power.
Our loving God and our Father we thank.
Children in Whom There is No Blemish
YP Sing Talk—Jonathan Grinton
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.
Well, thankful for everybody is still here. Good.
A few years ago.
I have had the privilege to stand here to speak.
Jonathan Bullard is the thing. And I thought, boy.
I could have done things too, thought that'd be great.
Wanted to do it. So tonight he left the prayer for the gospel and I said, did you get somebody to do the singing? He said he asked him to speak.
No, if you could do that. But I think he meant I could pick somebody to do it, but I didn't do that. So I get to do the thing. So.
Did anybody have the 192? It's not, but you have to pick one that we know or else it won't be any good. OK #90 two.
Oh.
I'm not going to be able to do anything else I'm going to be able to do.
And the.
End of the world turns out.
Forever so far.
Restore.
If the Lord is thy favorite comes from our age, I believe.
Believe to be honestly all crowned and crowned and crowned and crowned and killed more.
So for me and the Lord is cracking the swallow toward me.
And me clean up and we fall.
Into crowd his water and all the.
Lower and then again, like the Christmas tree.
Raise the dark.
Ness and Itchy.
Umm.
Thursday I'd rather look at granny run through him. One blood transplant.
Lower down and you can burn over your knees.
00:05:31
It's not. It's all. Perhaps, it's probably.
The blood work or puzzle?
It is so hard, but it ain't come so long already. Have you seen? Thanks.
Round and round to put a blower along.
Well, that was a really good one to get our heat wet.
Maybe I want to survive with mine. Basically, when we sing at home, sometimes we start at him and.
Sound really good by about the third verse. So low that you have jacket back up. I don't know what happened there. We never really got low.
Seems like we're up pretty high the whole time, OK.
'Cause I have one that I might be able to start.
Well I have one. I don't think the issue.
A number of balls and 17.
7.
1/5.
And then my sore breathing lifted my thumb.
Framing myself.
Of all my hair.
$55.
It's me like dangerous Valentine's Day long.
Perfect. That's OK. It's showing all the way down.
Uh, in United States watching and waking up and.
Yes, uh, anything. That's why I love that.
Yeah, there's my story. And since I saw.
Praising by save your all the day long.
Message my phone.
Praise, make my sand, take your Wellness and take it home.
Industry should be divided from other side uh it's making anything like my daughter and dad. Oh sheep of his pasture. There's a long justified.
Nesting and by.
It's not badly.
00:10:08
I'm not I'm allowed to do.
So you know that then you're doing that. Let's see.
No, no.
I hear from the heavens and sleeping.
Newton Valley.
Uh, no, 1000.
Dollars.
Yeah. No, it's actually.
Umm, no, I don't think that's fine. That's fine. That's my daughter name Night.
Dial 05391 Shall I know he'll pregnant come back in wherever I am crying.
I'll come down in the valley by his hands, live without the dream.
They speak and and no.
Oh, it's a family. Umm, that's about an employee.
53 + 9 dollars and a night.
On the mountain.
Step by step by the water damage.
Business day is really good help for someone please or an experience.
Monroe.
123168.
It's horrendous.
And I gave we can hear apart.
On the plumber and so the rain.
2-3 bedrooms as well, explained Claire.
Let's see, I'm fine. We shall be on that dear trip of storm.
In the sweet.
By the way.
We shall stay come back here to get the shower.
I don't know.
And my spirit shall sour no more.
No, I don't die for the last day of Christ.
We shall finish the last night during the cold storm.
In the spring, I am tired.
It's not like you're very close to.
In a long time, let's go, Father of God.
We do not know alcohol for our children.
Our Blood reunion and.
And.
Blasting them out of the fireplace.
In the sweet I am lying.
00:15:00
We shall be on that, dear. What's your Lord?
In the street, by the light.
We just now let me see now that you're very good, looks strong.
186.
My Redeemer and I reached the other side, and it's my Little Rock on me.
No, no, no.
Him I shall know. I don't give him. Why not breathe and everything in his hands?
The stone family rapture. When did I do his last mistake? And the bluster of this thy need be now.
Oh my God, I'm crazy. Love and praise every day for me. I'm passionate, not God.
I don't know if you're not sure.
It's not.
I shall tell you.
About.
Here I'm saying glory and one day that didn't need to come and start partying at the river, I recalled.
You can't sleep. There's some reason they will save my welcome home, but I come to keep my savior first of all.
I don't know.
Everything.
By your side I shall stand.
I don't know.
I shall know him. I don't forget him.
It's OK, it's not steady, it is not a robust of this life. He will leave me without your child ever fall.
In the cloud consultation I shall mingle with these light, but I belong to me, my favorite first of all.
Dial Zero 200 and 31500 and 12/31/75.
It's 116.
00:20:17
I rejoined and down the ground and all that. Wrong.
I see your head.
And.
When is that one? I think I'll arrange.
This one and pray.
And when he died, he had realized.
Uh.
3000.
27 was my second fellow baby.
Transaction.
Done. I am my Lord and He is my.
He throws me and I also don't know when I do come down the one behind.
Umm.
It's a good day when James does not fall asleep in the rain.
He brought me up to the right and pray and then every soil thing every day.
Umm, he said. Uh, he said we're going to change that $196 away.
Now that's my lungs. It's pretty high in my heart.
There's always.
Ness around northern prawns, thy voice departed.
Will heal. My God, that's crazy dreadfulness.
And.
Again, I have to change that one twice and celebrate.
He brought me around to watch them. Dragged.
And every joy is named and brings back.
Ah, today.
Happy day.
When is the last night?
Wonderful thing that last night.
I'll have to go. I wasn't too bad but.
You know, at home, the thing that I stay at home, my knees and I probably so.
Speed it up, but it really keeps you going with some energy. Sometimes it really sounds happy, you know?
We're trying to fast.
We have. I'm not sure how long we supposed to go for.
166.
Somebody knows a great offer started this morning.
No, I'm here to build the eyes. All this is forever thorough. All thou had to be trolled and yelled.
00:25:07
At a day in the morning.
Wednesday, 2 Thousand 2525 days. Let's try and stop sleeping. And my daughter's her positive painful one. You're saying you need to take a high and it's great and then you're going to be great. Pretty high in my hands.
Wednesday morning.
No more than any sense. No pain.
No.
There and forever, I will be with the water. You die for me.
What a day.
Glorious day, and I will be.
One day without a fruit, it's no way. It's my jeans and I fight something and I love the color you say.
So what you say she's crying crazy. When he finished, he arrived like her hands and he sinks in the promised land.
100 and 28.
Thanks for the help. Sympathy safety was trying to continue to go faster.
It's amazing that, you know, I grew up saying these hymns and as much as Jonathan told me, I should pick somebody and do this.
Probably.
Saving somebody from.
Let's strain and stress is difficult and say good these numbers and you look at it's like, Oh no.
Remember, my daughter was dead.
But some cleared their growth. OK, All right, I get it. Let's pray.
Our godfather be thank you for.
And so it's encouraging to be able to look out and see familiar faces like this. And, you know, I was driving along heading this way, and I was kind of thinking, well, this is going to be a nice time.
To sit here and listen to the meetings and and take in what the Lord has for me and no real responsibilities except for you know.
The ones that each of us have when we're together like this.
And so I was staying with Mr. Bullard in the living room and we were chatting about a few things and he said, did Jonathan call you?
I said well yes, because Jonathan does call me.
He said. So you're prepared for Saturday night.
For what? He called me, but he was coming to pick up my boys to go out in the lake and do some work. He said, well, he was supposed to ask you to speak at the hymn thing for the young people, so.
I'm thankful to be here and.
I wasn't really sure how or what I might present to you, but I do wanna share a verse with you that my family is known just this past week because I shared it with them and I'm hoping that you may see this verse the way I saw it. I've never seen this verse like this before. It's in Daniel chapter one.
And we were sitting around our kitchen table and we were reading our calendar pages. And so I'm not certain, but Jim might have wrote that particular page, but I don't remember if it was the children's or the young people. But we've all known the stories of Daniel and.
00:30:05
And so.
The story that was on the calendar page, I don't even remember, but this verse was in dark black and I read it and these things just seem like they leaped off the page at me. And so I'm going to try to explain it to you how I saw this. And so the verse is verse four, and it says children in whom was no blemish but well favored.
And skillful in all wisdom and cunning and knowledge and understanding science, and such as had ability in them to stand in the King's palace.
And whom they might teach the learning and the time of the Chaldeans. And so it was the majority of the first part of this verse that really caught my attention, and I just want to read it again. Children in whom was no blemish, but well favored and skillful in all wisdom and cunning and knowledge, understanding science. And such has had ability in them to stand in the King's palace.
I'm sure I've read that verse.
Many times.
But to me.
It was Speaking of this time.
US.
And I saw it as the children in whom was number blemish as you and I.
And how God looks down because of his Son the Lord Jesus Christ, And he sees you, and he sees me, and he looks, and he sees no blemish.
We know the verse in Ephesians chapter 5 it says.
I better look.
Ephesians chapter 5, Speaking of the church.
Verse 20.
Six, that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of the Word, by the washing of the water by the Word. And this is the verse 27, that he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle, or any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish.
And so it made me think of you and I.
Children with whom was number blemish well favored.
I wanted you to see tonight.
How precious you are and what he has turned you into and how much he loves you. Well favored.
And I wanted you to realize.
These things in your heart.
In your mind it was mentioned today.
About relationships.
Spoke of a lady that translates from English to Portuguese and her husband.
Sitting in the room.
Watching videos.
And you know Daniel and his three friends here.
They were going to be taken into a situation where they were going to be surrounded.
By idolatry, worldly things.
That Lady was translating God's word.
And that TV was going in the background. I don't know if I can explain this exactly how I hoped, but I wonder what distracts you in your lives today?
And when I think of the relationships that you have with each other, I know some of you, you talk often, I know that you FaceTime and you do these things.
But when you consider the place that he has brought you into and you consider if you know the story of Daniel, and we always go by their Chaldean names with Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego to consider what they went through.
And the wisdom that they had and the knowledge they were given. And you consider what you have, the wisdom and the knowledge that he's given you. And it says the ability. And then to stand in the King's palace.
00:35:00
How did they withstand? How did they do it?
How did Daniel walk out of the lion's den?
How did they walk out of that fiery furnace?
And you?
We know that verse in First Peter 5, which I'll have to turn to as well. I can't seem to quote anyone. I'm standing up here.
But we're in no different condition than they were. Speaks of the devil here as a roaring lion walking about, seeking whom he may devour.
And you're in no different condition than Daniel was in that day.
You're well favored. If you put your trust in the Lord, then you're without blemish.
I think Mr. Bullard mentioned in his gospel.
Can't quite remember exactly how he said it, but what are you taking up your life with? What is in your life? What is in your everyday life?
So Daniel was taken up with the Lord, and he put his trust fully in him.
And these things didn't sway him.
And they didn't affect him and they didn't defile him. I think he says a little further on in verse 8, but Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with a portion of the King's meat. What have you purposed in your heart?
Now I can tell you from personal experience and again I did not know how I was going to present this so.
From personal experience, the things that I had in my life, we just recently finally after I don't know how many years.
Had the cable television taken out of our home and you know, we wanted it out of our home.
For a number of years, let me tell you how Satan works.
Satan has these little things set up to trick you and I, and so I'll just give you this quick example. I called the cable company and I said, well, I would like to keep the Internet, which I really wish I didn't need that either, but I would like to keep the Internet and my phone.
My long distance phone because I get to talk to so many of you and they said well.
Mr. Grinton.
It's much cheaper for you if you keep this whole package and so we'll we'll give you a deal.
And the deal is much better than what I was actually paying, and it ended up it's much better than paying just for the phone and the Internet.
And so I agreed.
3-3 years I agreed that I would keep this cable in my house, this TV that I didn't want because it was cheaper. What did it cost me? What do the things that you involve yourself with cost you, dear ones?
It cost me tremendous because I would sit there with my family and we would watch something and then a commercial would come on the TV.
Satan was speaking again.
So I got to tell you, I'm so thankful to be getting rid of the King's meat, getting that, the filing thing out of my home. That's for me. I'm not speaking that for you and the things that you have. But you know what these things are. And you know, we had a portion in Saint John Laurenville conference, Colossians chapter one was the reading meeting and we got going along and it says about being holy.
Unblameable and unreprovable in a site and then it goes into.
Uh, Colossians chapter one, I can't remember.
How it reads. I'm sorry, umm, right after that verse.
Verse 23.
Verse 22 Says to present you wholly and unblameable and unreprovable in his sight, if he continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away. Be not moved away. Mr. Bullard read if you turn to Second Peter, chapter three. He didn't read this verse but jumped off the page at me.
Second Peter, chapter 3.
00:40:02
Verse 13 says, Nevertheless, we according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. Wherefore, beloved?
Seeing that you look for such things, be diligent that you be found of him in peace without spot and blameless. And I just jumped off the page sitting in the meeting tonight.
Without spot and blameless. And so though he looks and sees you unblemished, you and I have a great responsibility, a super responsibility to make sure that we in diligence are without spot and blameless. And that's what it talks about in that verse in Colossians one as well.
So I ask you again, what do you have in your lives?
And does it take you from the happy time that you have with the Lord? Does it take you from reading your Bible?
These are distractions that Satan puts out there for us. You know, somebody was trying to describe to me in Daniel chapter one, it talks about at the end of that verse four about the language and that they wanted to teach them all those things. You know, umm Moses in Acts 7, he learned all the ways of the Egyptians and they wanted to teach these ones here. Uh, the, those four, those children.
All those things and you know, why did they want that?
Why does Satan want to come and take you away? Because you belong to the Lord and so he wants you to be distracted and he wants you to learn these things of the world. And then what's going to happen? Well, if you're talking to your friends in the meeting, just like who was it said today? The disciples, Peter, he said, I go a fishing, we'll go with you.
And that's what happens. Young people, older ones too. And so maybe I get a little distracted and I get a little bit away and I tell you about it and I learn those languages and I fill you in the next thing.
Well, you'll go with me.
And so that's what could have happened with these ones, but they stayed faithful. They remain putting their trust in the Lord. And they walked out of that fiery furnace and they weren't. He wasn't eaten by the lion. Are you going to be eaten by the lion? Satan wants to, he wants to devour you and I so quickly the Lord says you're precious.
He loves you unblemished, favored.
He's giving you wisdom and knowledge.
Why do we throw it away on things like cable TV and saving money?
Why do we throw it away on our phones and.
There's a verse in, uh, Second Timothy. I read this little booklet last night that was on the table back here. Continue though.
Second Timothy chapter.
Three.
And verse 14 says, But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned, and has been assured of knowing of whom thou hast learned them.
I think that's so important, knowing of whom thou hast learned them. Be careful what you learn. Be careful who you learn from. Do you know one another? How hard have you tried to get to know each other?
How hard do you spend learning the little things about each other that can tell if you're true or not, or if that person is true or not? We do have to trust each other in these things, but you know you can tell a lot by one another if you spend that time together and you find out, well, all this person wants to do is talk about worldly things on their phone or all this person wants to do is.
I don't know shop. There's nothing wrong with shopping. I kind of like it sometimes, but.
I just, I just try to get you to see these things. And so we have to know each other as believers to be able to help each other. And I think Daniel knew those ones. You know, he was.
I don't know if it's fair to say, but it seemed to me that he was favored just maybe a little bit more, and it goes on in that.
I lost my bookmark but.
Goes on a little further there to say.
00:45:08
And verse 17 As for these four children, God gave them knowledge and skill.
In all learning and wisdom and Daniel at understanding, in all visions and dreams, he seemed like he was maybe a little favored a little bit more. I don't know. Maybe he was a little bit more faithful. I'm not certain.
But I believe that in his heart he loved his friends, the ones with which he learned these things and communed with. And so I'm certain that they probably spent time over the things of the Lord together and not the things of the world together.
And so I caution you, dear ones, I grew up in a time that.
And I take full responsibility for this. But the young people, we did things that.
We're worldly things, and I continued on in those things as I got older. And you know, I'm just going to say that as you get.
Into those things a little bit by little bit, Daniel said I will not be defiled and he was firm. I will not be defiled. I didn't say that.
And I'm going to give you a little description as best as I can. And again, my family's heard this, but this is defilement to me. Jeremy wears a black coat. Barracks. Got one? OK, I've got one, too. And you know, if you ever brushed up against The Dirty car.
You know, you can take that coat and you can wipe it off. You might even get a little rag and wipe it and it looks pretty good. But you know, if you did it again.
You get same spot and you rub it off and well, I, I think I got it, but you probably can see a remnant by the 3rd or 4th time. If you haven't taken that jacket to the washing machine or to the dry cleaners, you can rub that all you want. That black coat's got a big dirty stain on it.
That's what the defiling things of this world do to you and I. You think you can get in there just a little bit and you can get back out. But you know what? As soon as you're defiled by it and you go back and you're defiled again, and you're defiled more and more and more to where you think it's everyday life and you think it's OK. But you know what? It's not OK. It's not good. Satan is the one winning that battle, not you.
And there was something somebody was telling me about the end of that verse.
4.
I'd be wrong to try to explain it because it was something about the language, but they said it was.
Umm, it was like 1/2 of the language and, and half of the language. But what it made me think of was how we, we try to serve 2 masters. And I know we've heard that before, but we tried to serve 2 masters and you know, with that language where it was half of this language and half of that language, they ended up, they didn't, they wouldn't speak it. And that should be us. We shouldn't have any desire to try to serve 2 masters.
We should only have one in our hearts. We should want to be filled up with that and to go on for him. And if so, if you have things.
That are worldly and defiling and slowing you down in baggage begging now and I'll pray for you. Get rid of it get it out of your life and get rid of it because you have something far greater without blemish favored He loves you the ability to stand up.
He loves you, and He's given that to you all. Now you have it. If you believe in him, if you put your trust in him, why would you throw it away on the foolish things of this world?
It's not worth it.
It's not worth it. And if you would get to know each other, I don't mean that you don't because I don't know you all that well, but if you would get to know each other as as brothers and sisters in Christ.
Everybody knows this is my favorite thing about provoking one another to love and the good works. Poke each other, say hey, what do you doing that for? What is going on with you right now? Don't be afraid to ask, We've come through this time.
And I, I was a part of it that we have, we've gone through this thing where we're afraid to say anything to each other, you know, oh, so and so they might not come back if I said something to them. Well, you know what if you do that in love and you really care for that person.
Then you're doing the right thing and you should go to that person and you should pray about it and go see them and help them along.
00:50:06
Don't be afraid to do it. You love them, help keep them.
The Lord will give you the strength and the courage to do it.
And so that was how I looked at that verse the other night when I jumped off the page. I really, really enjoyed it. I hope you understood it and I hope it will help you realize how precious you really are to Him and how much He loves you and wants you to stay.
That's right.
Gideon and His 300 Men
Children—Howard House
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.
All right, welcome children and everyone to the Sunday school this morning.
And uh, does any, do any kids have any songs for us to start?
All right, 47.
#47.
When he cometh, when he cometh to make up his jewels, all his jewels, precious jewels, his love and his own.
Life, the stars of the morning. It is bright brown on the water. King Ray, So sorry and the River University rising down the floor.
Around do you like God? That's better. If you love God, you're done and jealous of our heads and you know all the same climbing on the Friday flies here the blood and Grizzlies.
Like the Dark Lord.
Yeah, right. Right now it's going to hurt you. They don't start anything.
Good.
Right in terms of our heads and crowns.
There is no shadow on the ground, there is no shallow ground pillow falls. Blair breathing deeper are let you know righteousness.
But I can hear the thorns.
Let's start.
Right round and go on everything. Grace don't shine again.
Yeah, right. And so I'll go ahead and get rid of it. Umm.
All right, that's a good one.
Into a chance where I can see boy raised by.
Salvation with everything. Nobody ever has told it to me.
Hell and I began family. Not again.
Salvation story, repeat or endorse.
Hell, man can say of the children of men nobody ever has talking before.
And it is so lovely young for less of a boy standing to be the first time that joy.
Nine months every My hands will be all nobody ever. That story hassle.
And then again Halloween again.
Salvation story repeat or end O or till none can say of the children of men.
Nobody ever has told me before.
Ending, we caught the last word of his breath.
That's the answer, the valley of that God sent his son, whosoever says he.
That I am sure that he sent him for me.
00:05:05
Salvation story, repeat orders all.
One can say of the children of men, nobody ever has told me before.
Our children we've been talking about Tell it again, Tell it again and tell what again? What are we supposed to be telling again and again?
Yes, that's right. So, yeah, God's story about salvation and I hope each one of us here, uh, children, especially all of you who have, uh, gone to that age where you can, umm, have made sure that people haven't not heard this story before.
All right, so let's sing another song.
Uh, Shane 40, OK.
That's a good one too.
Jesus loves me that night.
So I'm still handsome.
There are me. I'm really neither strong, you know, I got it. You're not like the city, you know I don't. I don't see anything inside one thing.
No, no, no, no one. Three level of blood and plus 1000 lbs leak so.
She is logical last name. It means she's heard no light. That I'm going to do all of the pains and go out of anything. He will watch her. Obeyed my extent. Why I've done that full of children.
Yeah, that's his dream. You're not just watching things.
Yeah, big. That's not maybe anything. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
All right, now maybe, uh.
08/5/2000 and 18095.
31 Great Wilbur's beginning in the heart. Give me a straight round and break your heart.
Yeah.
Well, I think, yeah, I'm shaking the slice and flush anything. Yeah, it's just, that's why you're just.
I don't really know.
Hmm, blood may be in loudspeaker.
When I'm very raining, passing down for all against shining. Oh my God.
Yeah, well, I'm seeing where I can find. Yeah. I don't know. Do you mean you don't have to have anything? Yeah, you need to satisfy the drinking.
Yeah, that's good. But mostly.
No, no, no.
Search lovely New World Day 2018 Alabama on Saturday night in the eyes touched him to my eyes.
Do you need anything else? OK, you need no problem with your mind.
Yeah, I'll see you. So I've lost faith. Yeah, she's done the last meeting.
Dial 325-2166. No, I am not going to go down to the UMM.
00:10:00
All right, I had a little boy telling me yesterday that he wanted to say his verse today.
So I have some candy here, a little reward for you. Hope your parents won't mind, uh, give you some candy this early in the morning.
So uh, I hope you all would like to say a verse or have one to say. Umm who would like to start?
Do you want to start? All right, go ahead. Can you stand up, please? And we'll try to get you to speak into this man.
Ephesians 6/18.
Praying always without prayer and supplication in the Spirit.
Easy and.
Ephesians 6 and 18.
All right, Yeah.
Nice and loud if you can.
Ephesians 6 and 11 put on the full armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the walls of the devil. 6 and 11 Very good. All right? Anybody else?
Whatever you want to try.
I'll help you if you need it.
John 1125. Jesus said I am in the resurrection, in life. John 1125.
Very good, very good.
Anybody else?
Alright, well, we'll reward those who have said it, and then maybe we'll have some more takers.
These are fun bugs. Hope Jonathan doesn't mind me taking them from his house this morning.
No, OK.
All right, anybody else want to try?
You want to try.
Some drivers would be anyone and then I'll give you a candy, OK?
OK. Yeah, you can come tell me afterwards too and I'll give you a chance, OK?
Alright.
Alright, so.
This morning, children, we have a story for you from the Book of Judges. Book of Judges.
And.
This is a story that I hope all of you have heard before.
And it's the 6th chapter.
And let's start reading from verse one.
And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord, and the Lord delivered them into the hand of Midian 7 years. And the hand of Midian prevailed against Israel. And because of the Midianites, the children of Israel made them de dense, which are in the mountains and caves and strongholds. And it was so when Israel had sown, that the Midianites came up, and the Amalekites and the children of the East.
And they came up against them. All right, let's just stop there for a minute. So the Children of Israel had three enemies, and you can tell me what they were.
Alright, who has an answer for us? Caleb, do you know?
Verizon enemy? What about Hannah?
The Midianites.
All right, 11 missing one more. Yep.
And the children of the East.
Very good, very good. All right, that was a joint effort. All right, so let's keep reading. Three enemies. Wow, that's a lot. And they camped against them and destroyed the increased earth till thou come unto Gaza. And left no sustenance for Israel either sheep nor ox nor ***. For they came up with their cattle and their tents, and they came as grasshoppers for mult.
00:15:03
For both they and their camels were without number, and they entered into the land to destroy it. And Israel was greatly impoverished because of the Midianites. And the children of Israel cried unto the Lord.
And it came to pass when the children of Israel cried unto the Lord because of the Midianites.
That the Lord sent a prophet unto the children of Israel, which said unto them, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, I brought you up from Egypt, and brought you forth out of the House of *******. I delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians.
And under the hands of all that oppressed you, and drove them out from before you, and gave you their land. And I said unto you, I am the God, the Lord your God. Fear not the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell, but ye have not obeyed my voice. So they were bad, they did evil in the sight of the Lord, and the Lord is not happy with that. And so he sent their enemies to.
Uh, teach them a lesson.
And children, today we have three enemies against this as well. Those of you who believe and even those who don't, umm, in the Lord Jesus. And what are the three enemies? Does anybody know? This is a really hard question. Maybe, uh, somebody older can help us out.
Let's, uh, let's pick on Jonathan.
Good, flashed the world and Satan. Thank you.
Those are our three enemies, children, and they're always against us. Now let's so then the next section talks about Gideon and let's let's read it. And there came an Angel of the Lord, and sat under an oak, which was an Orpha.
That pertained unto Joash the abyss, right? And his son Gideon threshed wheat by the winepress to hide it from the Midianites. And the Angel Lord appeared unto him, and said unto him, The Lord is with thee.
Almighty man of valor. And Gideon said unto him, Oh my Lord, if the Lord be with us, why then is all this befallen us? And where are all his miracles which our fathers told us of saying, Did the Lord bring us up from? Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt? But now the Lord hath forsaken us, and delivered us into the hand of the Midianites. And the Lord looked upon him, and said, Go in this thy might, and thou shalt save Israel from the hand.
Of the Midianites have not I sent the And he said unto him, Oh my Lord, wherewith shall I save Israel? Behold, my family is poor in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father's house.
And the Lord said unto him, Surely I will be with thee, and thou shalt smite the Midianites as one man. And he said unto him, If now I have found grace in thy sight, then show me a sign that thou talkest with me.
Depart not hence, I pray thee, until I come unto thee, and bring forth my present, and set it before thee. And he said, I will tarry till thou come again. So what Gideon did next? He made a meal for the Angel, and he presented it to him.
And the Angel touched the what he made his meal, and it went into fi it. There is fire that came out of the rock and consumed it, consumed the meal. And then Gideon realized it was the Angel of the Lord. Umm And he was afraid, but the Lord said, Peace be unto thee. Verse 23 Fear not, thou shalt not die.
Then guilty Gideon built an altar there unto the Lord, and called it Jehovah Shalom.
And to this day, it is yet an Ophira of the Abe by Ezra.
So he built an altar there, children and an ulcer is a picture of worship often in the scriptures, and it's a, it's a picture of worshipping the Lord. You children can worship the Lord for many in many different ways. Umm, you can see the beautiful creation outside and you can worship the Lord because of what he's made. You can worship the Lord because of what he's done on the cross. You can worship him because of how great he is even before the cross in the days of the cross.
All those things you can worship him in. And what is worship? It's simply thinking how great God is.
That's what worship is. And if you think of that song, many of you probably have known it. How great thou art. Oh Lord my God, when I an awesome wonder, consider all the works thy hands have made. I see the stars, I hear the Rolling Thunder, and then what's the chorus? How great thou art, how great thou art. That's a worship song. It's just thinking how great God is. And children, God values that when you even in your youth.
00:20:12
Just worship him and just appreciate Him for what he is.
My brother Kevin, he was a good example to me growing up and he, uh, he was 10 years old when he wanted to remember the Lord in his death when he wanted to, when he understood that the Lord Jesus said this do in remembrance of me.
And he asked to take the, the the loaf, take some of the loaf, take some of the cup. And that was a good example to me and.
It's just, it's wonderful that even at a young age you can just realize what Lord Jesus has done for you and taking away all of your sins, all those things that you've done wrong, and you can be thankful to Him for that.
So let's continue on our story, children.
And verse 25 And it came to pass the same night, that the Lord said unto him, Take thy father's young Bullock, even the second Bullock of seven years old, and throw down the altar of bail that thy father hath, and cut down the growth that is by it, and built an altar unto the Lord thy God upon the raw top of this rock.
In the ordered place, and take the second Bullock, and offer a burnt sacrifice with the wood.
Of the Grove which thou shalt cut down.
Well, after we worship the Lord, we and we have a sense of his greatness, then we want to get rid of the idols that we have in our lives. And this man Gideon, he was from a small family and his dad had an idol and an altar to Bail and his dad.
And the ones in the city, uh, really valued this altar, it seems.
And so the Lord said that that had to go first. Before there could be any victory for the people of God, that altar had to be cut down. And so it took a lot of energy.
He needed a book, he needed a cow, and all the strength of that animal to pull down the idol. And let's read the next verse. 27 Then Gedian took ten men of his servants and did as the Lord had said unto him. And it was so because he feared his father's household and the men of the city, that he could not do it by day, that he did it by night.
So he did it by night. So he needed a couch to pull it down.
And he needed, and he took ten men as well, and.
Then the altar of the Lord was built, and let's keep reading. Verse 28. And when the men of the city rose early in the morning, behold, the altar of bail was cast down, and the Grove was cut down. That was by it. And the second Bullock was offered upon the altar that was built. And they said, one to another, Who hath done this thing? And when they inquired and asked, they said, Gideon the son of Joash hath done this thing. Then the man of the city said On Joash, Bring out thy son, that he may die.
Because he has cast down the altar of bail, Because he has cut down the Grove, those by it. And Joash said unto all that stood against him, Will you plead for bail? Will you save him? He that will plead for him, let him to be put to death whilst it is yet mourning. If he be a God, let him plead for himself, because one hath cast down his altar. Therefore on that day he called him rubble.
Rubble saying, Let Bail plead against him, because he hath thrown down his altar.
Well, children, you can be a real help in your family. You can help your dad and your mom in pleasing the Lord. And that's a wonderful thing when a child can be a help to parents. And some of you children might think, oh, can I really be a help to my parents spiritually? They seem so strong. They seem to know so much about the scriptures.
Can I really be helped them? But yes, you can, children, instead of saying, oh, we have to have the reading, you can say let's have a reading tonight, dad, let's have a reading. Let's read the Scripture. Let's read the Bible.
00:25:06
Remember what you read last time? It was so good. Your children can do that. And that's a tremendous encouragement to your your family.
So Gideon Hughes an encouragement to his dad and then his dad said, hey, wait to the men of the city. Really, if they'll have any strength, then he can he can get back at, at Gideon. Let's see what's gonna happen. Let's see if let's see if Bail has any power at all.
So let's continue reading and see what happens.
And all the Midianites, and the Amalekites, and the children of the East were gathered together, and went over and pitched in the valley of Jezreel. And the spirit of the Lord came upon Gideon, and he blew a trumpet, and a by user was gathered after him.
And he sent messengers through it all, Manasseh, who also has gathered after him. And he sent messengers unto Asher, and unto Zebulun, and unto Naphtali. And they came up to meet him. And Gideon said unto God, If thou save Israel by mine hand is thou hast said, Behold, I will put a fleece of wool on the floor. And if the dew be on the fleece only, and it be dry upon all the earth beside, then I shall know that thou shalt save Israel by mine hand.
As thou hast said.
You might say, wait, he already was told by God that he was going to save Israel. Is God really going to do this? Let's read verse 38. And it was so, for he rose up early in the mortal on the Morrow, and thrust the fleece together, and ring the dew out of the fleece, a bowl full of water. And Gideon, son to God, let not thine anger be hot against me, and I'll speak but this once.
Let me prove, I pray thee, but this once with the fleece. Let it now be dry only upon the fleece, and let upon all and upon all the ground. Let there be due. And God did so that night, for it was dry upon the fleece only, and there was dew on all the ground. God is so gracious, children, and He is so good to us even when we don't have much faith.
He still answers again, again and again. Our prayers.
So let's keep going on Zen's drubble, Who is Gideon? And all the people that were with him rose up early, and pitched beside the well of Herod, so that the host of Midianites were on the north side of them, by the hill of Mori in the valley. And the Lord said unto Gideon, The people that are with thee are too many for me.
To give the media nights into their hands, let Israel want themselves less. Israel want themselves against me, saying mine own hand that saved me. Now therefore go to proclaim in the years of the people saying, whosoever is fearful and afraid, let him return and depart early from Mount Gilead and the return to the people 20 and 2000 and there remain 10,000.
Wow, a lot of people were scared. A lot of people were scared.
22,000 That was most of the people, and they just walked away.
Now, if you were Gideon children, wouldn't that kind of scare you? It kind of scare me.
All the people, the children of the East, the Midianites, the Amalekites, there were a lot of them. There were an awful lot of them.
But.
Gideon needed to trust the Lord. Let's read verse four. And the Lord said unto Gideon, The people are yet too many, bring them down onto the water.
That I may try them there for thee there. And it shall be that of whom I say unto thee, This shall go with thee, the same shall go with thee. And of whomsoever I shall say unto thee, this shall not goeth thee the same shall not go. So he brought him down to the water, the people unto the water. And the Lord said unto Gideon, Everyone that laugheth of the water with his tongue, as a dog lapeth, thou shalt.
Thou him shalt thou set by thy himself.
Likewise everyone that boweth down upon his knees to drink, And the number of them that lapped, putting their hand to their mouth, were 300 men. But all the rest of the people bowed down upon their knees to drink water. And the Lord found the Gideon by the 300 men that left. Will I save you, and deliver the Midianites in thine hand, and let all the other people go, every man unto his place.
00:30:03
So the people took their tug vittles in their hand and their trumpets.
And he sent all the rest of Israel, every man to unto his tent and retained those 300 men and host the Midianite of Midian was beneath them in the valley. For you children, I hope you've had a you can see a picture of what happened here in your mind. So there is some water you can picture. And some of them went down and they went down maybe on their knees, and they just put their faces right in the water and they laughed. Water like that.
OK. And they drank straight from the water. Their faces were right down in the water, and that's how they were drinking. And then some people kind of went like this where they brought their hand down, scooped some water and then brought it up to their mouth, and they drank like this and laughed. Water says like a dog.
OK, so they they last water like this. So when you're in this position.
Instead of being on your face right in the water, you're a lot more watchful, aren't you? The enemy came running over you could easily.
OK. And you know, children, when we're when we're listening to a meeting, when we're reading the Bible, that's especially when Satan wants to tempt us and wants to make us fall.
And so it's good even when we're reading the word of God, it's like the water, right? Water is like we read it. The water is the worst. So even when we're taking a spiritual drink, say, and you're in your reading or in Sunday school class and you're you're enjoying the word of God, it's good to still be watching. And if Satan says something like, oh, you should poke your brother or you should just kick him.
Or something, you know, anything that he tempts you with.
You can, uh, you can raise up the shield of faith and say no, I'm not gonna do that.
Verse nine. And it came to pass the same night that the Lord said unto him, Arise, get thee down unto the host, for I have delivered it into thine hand. And if thou fear to go down, go thou with Fura thy servant, down to the host. Thou shalt bear hear what they say. And afterward thine hands, ye strength, shall thine hands be strengthened to go unto the host then when he down with Fura his servant.
To the outside of the armed men that were in the host, and the Midianites, and the Amalekites, and all the children of the East lay along in the valley like grasshoppers for multitude, and their camels were without number, as the sand by the seaside for multitude. And when Gideon was come, behold, there was a man that told the dream unto his fellow, and said, Behold, I have I dreamed a dream. And lo, a cake of barley bread tumbled into the host Midian, and came.
Unto a tent, and it smote it, that it fell, and overturned it, that the tent lay alone. And his fellow answered, and said, This is nothing else save the sword of Gideon the son of Joash, a man of Israel.
For into his hand hath God delivered Midian and all the hosts. This is a remarkable thing.
Absolutely amazing that God would allow this man to have a dream one.
Allow it to be told.
To allow the interpretation the fellow to say this is nothing other than Gideon Three, that he even knew Gideon this fellow or heard his name ever before. It's a miracle.
4-5 That, uh, Gideon and his his friend. We're right there to hear it. This is an absolute miracle. Again, amazing.
But the Lord knew.
Knew that Gideon was weak and Gideon owned his weakness. And that's the path of blessing for us children. Let's read verse 15. And so, and it was so when Gideon heard the telling of the dream and the interpretation thereof, that he worshipped, and returned unto the host of Israel, and said, Arise, for the Lord hath delivered into your hand the host of Midian. And he divided the 300 into 3 companies.
And he put a trumpet in every man's hand, with empty pictures and lamps within the pictures.
And he said unto them, Look on me, and do likewise. And behold, when I come to the outside of the camp, it shall be that as I do, so shall ye do. When I bloweth the trumpet, I and all that are with me, then blow ye the trumpets also.
00:35:02
On every side of the camp, and say the sword of the Lord and of Gideon. So Gideon and the 100 that were with him came unto the outside of the camp in the beginning of the middle watch. And they had but newly set the watch. And they blew the trumpets and break the pitchers that were in their hands. And the three companies blew the trumpets and break the pitchers, and held the lamps in their left hands and the trumpets in their right hands to blow with all.
And they cried, the sword of the Lord and of Gideon, and they stood, every man in his place roundabout the camp.
And all the hosts ran and cried and fled, and the 300 blew the trumpets, and the Lord set every man's sword against his fellow, even through all the host. And the host fled to Beth Schitta in Zerirath, and to the border of Abel Mihola unto Tabas. And the man of Israel gathered themselves together at of Naftali and of Asher, and of all Manasseh, and pursued after.
The Midianites. So there is a great victory that day, children. And it was through the power of the Lord. It wasn't through the power of the 300 men. That's very clear. So the Lord as well can win battles in our lives. Let's just, uh, sing #15 in the children's book, uh, brave Gideon. I don't think we have it with us today, but I think most of us know it.
Brave Gideon, Hungry 100 and A Million Nights had a whole.
But Union has the lower.
Yeah, yeah, the Lord's giving. Hi, the Lord. You wanna fight with the minion? Nice Corn, Giddy and the Lord.
So if you be a soldier true and win a full reward, these brave and kind and all you do and fully trust the Lord.
Can you have the Lord? Gideon had the Lord. He won the fight with Dominion. I forgive him and the Lord.
Great, our love in God and Father.
Is Comfort Our Governing Principle?
Open—Steve Stewart
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.
He came on the 267.
267.
465455.
Pleasure. He made-up a story.
You're not doing it. Sometimes there are problems with me and you're busy.
All the different returns. I hope everyone is very thoughtful. So another one of them, Oh wait a minute, I'm scared. I can't draw it through the middle of it against the end of the Lord.
Oh my God, this year.
Where is the Swarovski standard flowers? Oh, you're generous from God, and here's my way on my face.
Do you know how long time is it in my?
Room. When I do, you know I can hear you. Please, I have to write anything to say I don't know.
I don't know why you're so. I've been strangers and I've been doing. That's pretty clear. That's what I'm talking about.
Maybe perhaps this project gentleman?
Who came out in my life where I'm going to start, where I'm going to, well, kind of starting.
Really the numbers are around all the night needs to be staring at you and I've never seen a lot of life and fall along together with thyroid. Thyroid thou shalt care to never find out.
This is number 18 when you send it.
#18 in the back of the book.
00:05:59
No, no.
Bridge is.
Three.
Palatine Chapter 3.
And the last part of the verse.
Verse 10.
Mountain three last part first ten. Prove me now to wrist, saith the Lord of Hosts.
If I will not open you.
And then you know perhaps last Friday with reverse board see that speaketh of an unknown time they're fighting himself, but he that processed by it edifying the truth of phrase head of mind he had prophesied and appointed.
Then further on chapter 14, verse 29.
What's the process?
Two for three.
One by one, that all neighbours and all may be comforted.
Call George.
00:10:30
I'd like to speak a little bit on.
The word comfort.
Perhaps in a different?
Way then you might first think John chapter 13.
To start.
John 13.
In verse 4.
He riseth from supper, and laid aside his garments, and took a towel, and girded himself.
After that he Porth water into a basin and began to wash the disciples feet and to wipe them with a towel wherewith he was girded. I'd like to read also just the first part of verse two and supper being ended. The Lord had a lot of things that.
He wanted to communicate to his own.
But he brings them into a place before he opens up.
His heart to them and those communicates those things they would need in his absence. He makes them comfortable.
You've heard them.
And when supper was ended, then he washed their feet.
And uh.
You know, when your feet are, are dirty, uh, and tired or sore if you've been on a hike, it's just so comfortable to have them washed and refreshed in the water. The Lord made them comfortable. He refreshed them. Umm, you might say it's hard to hear something if your stomach's rumbling, you're thinking about eating, you know, or just settled all of that.
And then a little picture. Here he removes every distraction.
That he might be able to communicate to them is mine.
And so we can say, I think from this Scripture that the Lord wants us to be comfortable.
In the sense that he wants all distractions removed so that he can tell us what's on his heart.
And then the action of feet washing. We know the picture well, the application of the water of the word.
To our hearts to wash away those things that we might pick up as we go through this scene that would defile us, that would hinder communion.
With the Lord, with our God and Father.
And so he wants to take those things out of the way. He wants us to be comfortable.
When we're traveling and, uh, we're looking.
Or a hotel. I have to admit, probably one of the biggest things on my mind is I'm hoping to get a very comfortable bed.
And, uh, there's something so nice, probably, if there's any area of life.
Where I want to be comfortable when I climb into bed or to get a good night's rest, I think of that often as free at night before getting into bed and then done with with praying. And you climb into that bed and we're climbing into luxury. And most of the world is never known all down through human history.
Getting those clean sheets and mattress and the pillow and it's wonderful. And uh, there's a verse and I can't put my finger on it right now, but Brother Little used to love it. He spent a lot of time in hospital beds.
He maketh my bed in all his sickness, in all my sickness.
And he said there's nothing so comfortable is when you're ill is somebody moving in a chair in the hospital on the side of the bed, making that bed up fresh and then putting you back in it.
00:15:08
I don't think there's any doubt that the Lord desires us to be comfortable.
That's his heart towards us and how richly He provides in so many things, naturally speaking.
To meet us in those, but the question that I wanna raise is should our comfort?
Should our comfort.
Be there, which is the principle upon which we make the decisions in our life.
Turn back to Song of Solomon.
We've been raised from the time we were before we can remember.
To hobble ourselves, if I can so say. I know that's how it is with me. To protect ourselves. To insulate ourselves from anything uncomfortable.
Uh, we've been all our lives, I would say for most of us. I know there's some here that that's not perhaps been the story of their lives because of illness or whatever it might be. I have to say that's how it's been for me.
The Song of Solomon Five. We have someone here who's comfortable.
Verse 2.
I sleep.
But my heart.
Waketh.
It is the voice of my beloved that knocketh saying open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my undefiled, For my head is filled with dew, and my locks with the drops of the night.
And now her answer. I have put off my coat. How shall I put it on? I've washed my feet, how shall I defile them?
My beloved put his hand by the whole of the door and my bowels were moved for him. I rose up to open to my beloved. My hands dropped with myrrh and my fingers with sweet smelling myrrh upon the handles of the lock. I opened to my beloved. But my beloved.
Had withdrawn himself and was gone.
So here she is in bed.
She's washed her feet.
She's relaxed, sleeping.
But her heart wasn't.
Her heart waketh.
Just put it this way, you know we can be.
Say well, you know, it's, it's well with me. I have peace with God. I'm saved.
Gather to the Lord's name.
So thankful the Lord gathered me to His name.
I'm not walking in a defiled way. My feet are clean.
But I can't get out of bed and answer the door.
Because the ruling principle is my comfort.
And so I can't be bothered.
To respond.
And her beloved Knox.
I washed my feet, how shall I defile?
She doesn't. You know, it's if you're in bed, especially up here in the cottages and it's all warm. Those cottages are kind of cold and you got a lot of blankets on.
Time to get up in the morning. You don't like to put your feet out on that cold floor. Just if you could just stand that a little longer, you know it's not comfortable.
Put your feet out on that floor. My parents used to have a big police sheepskin.
Either side of their bed, so when they put their feet, it was on that sheepskin. They didn't have to hit the cold floor. Well, she didn't want her feet.
On that cold floor, she didn't wanna lose her comfort.
00:20:00
You know, recently among us here and maybe everywhere, but I think particularly.
In some of the meetings here in the North East.
There's been a lot of discussion.
On Christian deportment.
We go through this world.
When I opened that closet in the morning, we're going to meeting to remember the Lord. I pull that dresser drawer open. What's the governing principle on which I reach into that closet and pull something out or that drawer and pull something out that I'm going to put on and wear needle?
Is it my comfort?
Is that what's governing me?
Is that the principle?
That's guiding my choices.
In this life.
The solemn question. Because we've grown up to just do everything with that in mind.
To make our choices all around ourselves.
And we're like this one in her bed.
Just can't leave my comfort. Doesn't the Lord want me to be comfortable?
Yes.
I think we've looked at that. He wants us to be comfortable.
But that's the Lord's desire. To have me comfortable is different.
Then my desire to be comfortable, to be the ruling principle and my choices in life, that's a totally different thing.
And so we can reach into that closet and we can pull out things.
That I'm comfortable.
And.
Rather than reaching in to pull out those things.
That would honor him.
That would be.
Respectful of the one into whose presence we're going. Some years back, when George Bush was in the White House, I was quite struck with an account there was an American women's.
It was a badminton team.
I did quite well. I don't know if it was Olympics or what, but George Bush wanted to celebrate their win and he invited them to the White House.
They can.
But it made quite a splash in the newspapers, other news media.
That those young ladies all showed up at the White House.
Dressed in a way that was very unbecoming to the one who invited them there.
They had their flip flops on and you know, just very comfortable, very comfortable.
But they dishonored the president of the United States.
And so there was a bit of a debate going on about whether they were wrong or right and so on.
And one particular news organization interviewed a young lady who worked in the offices of the White House.
And she gave this account.
She came in off hours, the White House offices.
To catch up on some work.
And she came dressed. It was off hours.
One was round very casually.
And got to her desk and she was doing her work and the messenger came through. The president is going to be walking through the White House offices. He wasn't stopping at the office.
He wasn't visiting anybody in that office. He was just walking through because that was the path to get to where he was going in the White House. And because of security, they would, every path that the president takes as carefully considered and, uh, security is involved. So she heard presidents coming through.
00:25:15
She said. I immediately left the White House.
I went to the nearest store. I bought a dress.
I bought close code shoes and got changed. I went back and I got my seat just a few minutes before the president came through.
Didn't stop to talk to her.
Wasn't the point.
She wanted to dress in a way that was becoming to the man.
And his office.
I was walking down that aisle.
But she didn't appreciate the way that badminton team had shown up.
In the way that they had dressed themselves for that occasion.
Not comfortable.
The odd is it?
It's not comfortable to have others look at us.
And make comments that were odd or were strange or.
Those kinds of things.
Maybe it's not comfortable to have a tie around your neck.
That way.
But there is a deportment that's honorable.
To the one who in whose presence we are, in whom we represent in this world.
Is what we wear.
A testimony to our Lord Jesus Christ in this world.
Absolutely it is.
Absolutely yes.
Not only that, we find in Second Timothy.
For first Timothy, let's just turn there for a moment.
That there is a particular testimony that the man and the woman bear in this world.
God has put us each in our place in creation and as His creatures.
In creation, each of us occupying the place that He has given us, we each have a peculiar testimony that we render to Him.
And Second Timothy 2 gives us that testimony.
Verse eight. I will therefore that men pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands without wrath and doubting. Oh, excuse me, First Timothy two. I'm sorry. Thank you, brother.
First Timothy 2 and verse seven or verse eight. I will therefore that men pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands without wrath, and doubting. There's the man's place. His place is more a public forward.
Uh.
Representation or witness for the Lord and what he has to say, an expression of his dependence upon God. Brother Floyd, back home, your brother said I'd love to give thanks at the table when I go out the restaurant to eat. I've met so many other believers.
It's a public testimony will that men pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands. It's a testimony to the Lord because men in this world are independent from God. And so to see a man who is openly confessing his dependence upon God, not only in his words but in his ways, is foreign to this world, and it's a witness.
To our God and our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ.
The women's place is given next, and like men are also that women adorn themselves in modest apparel with shamefacedness and sobriety, not with braided hair or gold or pearls or costly array, but which becometh women professing godliness with good works. A woman's place and testimony is M much more.
And what she wears than in what she says.
Demands is more on what he says, not as much emphasis on what he wears, although we find in First Corinthians 11 That if he seeks to represent the Lord with a covered head, he dishonors his head.
00:30:14
Oh, how many believers I see brothers sprang publicly, What a nice confession of dependence, but with their hat firmly on their heads, this honoring their heads all the while, Oh, I think in ignorance so often, not willfully with inhabitants. But there it is, Yes, there is for each of us a testimony we bear and what we wear.
And then what we say.
With a stronger emphasis on what is said is with the men, the stronger emphasis on what is won is with the sisters.
In Psalm 19, if we could turn back there we get 2 testimonies that God has rendered to this world.
Psalm 19.
The first one is in verse one. The heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament showeth his handiwork. Day and today uttereth speech, and night unto night showeth knowledge. There is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard. Their line is gone out through all the earth and their words to the end of the world.
That's the first testimony in creation. It's a silent testimony, but it speaks in a language that reaches every corner of the globe. There isn't a place that it doesn't bear witness to God.
What's the next testimony?
Verse 7 The law of the Lord, the word of God, the law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul, the testimony of the Lord is sure, making the wise, simple, and so on.
You have creation and you have the word.
And in them, I think our picture, the peculiar testimonies that are borne by the man and the woman in this world. Hers is a silent one. It's not in words, but it's seen by the world, and it speaks in a language that transcends the Tower of Babel. It does not need an interpreter.
It reaches every corner of the goal.
And that's her godly department.
What she wears.
The next one is the word itself.
Converting a soul.
That's the man's more the man's testimony and public utterance.
And communication of the Word of God.
In this work, each has their place. H is so necessary. You know, I've said this enough that my children are probably cringe. I already are.
You go into.
Walmart somewhere out public and you see Christian family and he said I wonder if they're Christians have done. Have you ever done that? Yeah, haven't you? I wonder if they're Christian. You know a pretty well. I'll tell you. You probably said that because of how the woman was dressed where the girls were dressed in that family.
That's probably why you said that.
Doesn't matter what language you speak.
It conveys the testimony.
Oh, thank your sisters.
To give up that testimony.
To walk away from it.
I'm not comfortable.
And the Lord wants me to be comfortable.
Rosini.
Yes.
That shouldn't be the governing principle.
And those choices I make, all this.
One in Song of Solomon, I didn't want to get out of her bed.
00:35:02
What did she see? She saw her beloved's hand by the hole.
Of the door. So we got a glimpse of this.
You know what the hands speak of.
Speak of service, of love, you know, women's hands are mentioned in scripture in that way, the service love.
So were the Saviors hands he came to serve. He didn't come for his own comfort.
So you got a glimpse of that hand?
And so we need a glimpse of that hand pierced for us all. If I could speak in the language.
Ways of expression today, and I don't mean this in a disrespectful way.
Think of that pier stand. Can I say how comfortable was that?
To get a glimpse of that one who gave himself for us at.
The cost of everything.
That's what got her out of that bed, you know?
She found he was gone. She'd gotten a lot further away from him than she'd realized.
Before she woke up.
But it got her on the right path.
Luke, just one more verse to finish with.
Chapter 9.
I think that's a chapter I want Chapter 9.
So we think of again.
The comfort of, uh, a comfortable bed.
Verse 58.
Reverse 57 came to pass, that as they went in the way, a certain man said unto him, Lord, I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest.
Jesus said unto him.
Boxes and holes.
Birds of the air have nests.
But the Son of Man.
That's not where delay is have.
You wanna follow him?
I wanna follow him. How can my comfort then be the governing principle of my life?
Follow the man.
Who had not where?
Late, it's a.
Dangers of Seeking Our Own Comfort
Open—John Kemp
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.
Iggy Azalea one, I'm not going to speak too long.
Verse two. Chapter one.
Las Vegas, the Lord of hosts saying this, people.
Say the time is not come. The time.
That the Lord's house should be built.
Then came the word of the Lord by Hagii the prophet saying.
Is it time for you or ye to dwell in your sealed houses, and this house be waste now? Therefore, thus saith the Lord of hosts.
Consider your ways, ye have so much and bring in little. Ye eat, but you have not enough. You drink, but you are not filled with drinks. We close you, but there is none warm and he that.
Earneth wages, earnest wages, to put it into a bag with holes. Thus saith the Lord of hosts. Consider your ways. Well, I think we're familiar with this passage of Scripture, Children of Israel.
That little remnant had been brought back from Babylon. It was a work of God, without doubt.
Their hearts were stirred, they responded to the call, and they returned. They were in through Jerusalem. They were in the right place. They were in the center that God had chosen.
To put his name there.
They were energetic when they arrived under the leadership of Zerubbabel to build the temple. They laid the foundation, they made progress. And then they stopped and they.
Succumbed to their own company.
There wasn't any prohibition. They had Cyrus's permission to proceed. They became careless in their souls. The Lord's interests were no longer a priority with them.
They wanted their houses to look nice. They spent time and effort and money, no doubt, to erect their beautiful houses and to embellish them, urbish them.
It tells us that but they did not have the blessing of the Lord upon their work.
They weren't prospering even materially. The Lord did not, uh, descend with the dew of heaven there.
Like we had on the fleece this morning.
They were occupied with their own interests, no doubt.
Doesn't say they went into immorality, but they sought their own comfort and their own.
Prosperity.
This was first in their minds, and the Lord raised up a prophet, Hadiya by name, and he had a message for them from the Lord. He spoke to their conscience. He stirred them up from their lethargy.
And, uh, they listen to Hagee Ayah.
They, it, it touched their conscience with, with Zachariah, it's a little bit different. He's speaking to the heart and looking onto the day of the glory and encouraging word. But Hegeia was one who spoke to the conscience of the people and, uh, verse, uh.
Verse 8 Go ye up to the mountains, and bring wood, and build the house, and I will take pleasure in it, and I will be glorified, saith the Lord.
You want prosperity in your material life. Doesn't mean that you're going to accumulate riches and be at the very top of your class, but if you put the Lord first.
Now those that honor me, I will honor. Some way. The Lord will honor you for what you give up for him. You've been studying in Ottawa.
00:05:11
Mark chapter one where we have fasting mentioned not a very popular subject. I haven't had much fasting in that character here at the conference and uh.
It's, uh, was applied by certain brethren in a different way to its actual meaning, and I have no objection to that. Umm.
Fasting, depriving ourselves of that which is legitimate. There is no wrong in it.
But we know in our conscience that it's a weight and that it is a hindrance to our progress, our understanding, our enjoyment of heavenly things. We know that, and we're loath to give it up.
Let us lay aside every weight and the sin which does so easily beset us.
But weights are not sins, and they're not morally wrong. But the point is, it's our interest first, our comfort first.
Then if we have time, we'll go to the meeting. Matter of convenience if I'm tired.
Weather is not good, you know the children need me. I won't miss the meeting.
This happens in Brazil a lot.
And, uh, it's been a concern of mine, uh.
Many brethren, God bless them, they're a wonderful group and, uh, very loving and kind and appreciative, appreciative of any ministry, but they're careless about attending the meetings.
This is a burden that I've had.
It would go to the beach. Oh yes, that wouldn't be a problem.
As part of Brazilian life.
But I don't think that is the place to be any time.
Especially on Lord's Day morning.
No, we need to realize the Lord's claims upon us is love. What He has done for us, His sufferings, His sacrifice, He gave everything that we might have a happy eternity and a happy pathway through this dark and sinful world. Are we going to hold back and say no?
It's too difficult to give that up.
Are we present at the assembly meetings? We've covered this already.
Where the Lord is in the midst.
What excuse are we going to give?
Yes, we missed the assembly meeting Zechariah Chapter 2. Just a few thoughts and I'm finished.
I lifted up mine eyes.
Uh again, and looked, and behold, a man with a measuring line in his hand, Then said, I whither go a spell? And he said unto me to measure Jerusalem, to see what is the breadth thereof, and what is the length thereof. And behold, the Angel that talked with me went forth, and another Angel, uh.
Went out to meet him, and said unto him, Run, speak to this young man, umm saying, Jerusalem shall be inhabited as towns without walls, or the uh, multitude of men and capital therein, or I saith the Lord will be.
A unto her a wall of fire roundabout, and will be the glory in the midst of her.
Well, as I said, Zachariah looks on to the glory, He gives an encouraging word for the, uh, remnant that had come back and they listened to the, uh, exhortation of Hageia, and they began to build a house. There was restoration in their souls, in their actions. They, they ha, they received the Lord's blessing, as you read on in the book of Hezekiah, uh, Hagiah.
But brethren, let's not pull out the measuring stick.
Like this young man here, let's not pull the measuring tape out and measure things down here according to man's estimate. Remember, the assembly may be very small sometimes. It's some places it's getting smaller all the time. And uh, we have the tendency to.
00:10:20
Judge things by what they were before looking back 30-40 years.
We pull out the measuring stick. What is being done here? There's no activity.
Uh, we can go to places where there's a lot more.
IA lot more umm.
So we say, uh, energy, as they say, and, uh, results and so on. Let's not do that, Bradman. He has gathered us to his name in the place where he would have us to be. And those things are weak, and we are part of that weakness ourselves. We have to acknowledge we're part of the failure. We have contributed to it. Let us not judge.
By human standards.
Obedience to the Word of God, gathering according to His mind and His will in the place where he has put His name, will have its reward. And although things may sometimes be discouraging, but all discouragement comes from the enemy, you know, And we go on year after week after week in the same.
Condition circumstances, perhaps of the Lord values.
Faithfulness book of Nehemiah. There are some that were faithful. The nobles, they had a position they putting up there next to the work. You'll see in Nehemiah 3 in the building of the old gate, the sisters had a part. New sisters have a part the building of the old gate.
In maintaining, uh, in maintaining the truth of God, uh.
Uh, as He has given it to us in being present in the gathering that is helping, that is contributing to, uh, the testimony that God would have maintained. So let us not.
Pull out the measure measuring stick and, uh, compare ourselves with others, other groups that might be, you know, there's a lot that have drifted into the systems of math. There's more activity, there's entertainment and outwardly sometimes.
There seems to be a lot of fruit, but God values obedience.
We obey us better than sacrifice, and so let us remain and seek to strengthen the things that remain. And remember, the day is coming, as Zachariah mentions, when the glory will be manifested, we'll no longer be a weak company. We'll be together in the presence of the Lord, and He will acknowledge any faithfulness.
What a glorious day is coming and all the Saints will be gathered. Uh.
Uh, to Christ himself. And uh, I believe the Lord will reward any measure of faithfulness there has been in our lives. May the Lord bless His word.
Yeah.
Four Garments Joseph Wore
Open—Robert Boulard
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Should we just look at Genesis chapter 37?
I've just been enjoying.
My own soul trust itself, the Lord, that we just look at this very briefly.
There were four garments that Joseph wore.
And they speak to us in some measure of the glories of Christ.
In Genesis chapter 37 it says in verse three now Israel loved Joseph more than all of his children because he was the son of his old age and he made him a coat of many colors, or if you look in the margin, a code of many pieces.
And when his brethren saw that their father loved him more than all his brethren, they hated him and could not speak peaceably unto him. And then we find a little bit later on in UH chapter 39.
And other garment.
Let's read from verse 11 because of time came to pass about this time that Joseph went into the house to do his business and there was none of the men of the house there within. And she caught him by his garment saying lie with me. And he left his garment in her hand and fled, got him out.
And then a little bit further on in Chapter 41.
Genesis chapter 41.
And, uh, verse 42.
And Ferrell took off his ring from his hand and put it upon Joseph's hand, and arrayed him investors of fine linen, and put a gold chain about his neck, made him to rise in the second chariot which he had. And they cried before him bow the knee. He made him ruler over all the land of Egypt.
Then just back in chapter 41, verse 14.
I, uh, forgot to read that one first. Then Pharaoh sent and called Joseph, and they brought him hastily out of the dungeon, and he shaved in himself and changed his raiment and came in and the Pharaoh.
And then if we just turn over, we'll keep our place there and turn over to Luke's Gospel chapter 15.
Luke's Gospel, chapter 15.
Just part way through.
Verse 20 But when he was, he had a great way off. His father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him. And the sun said unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in thy sight, and no more worthy to be called thy son. But the Father said to his servants, Bring forth the best robe, and put it on him.
And put a ring on his hand and shoes on his feet.
And bring hit her the fatted calf, and kill it. And let us eat and be merry. For this my son was dead and is alive again. He was lost and is found. And they began to be merry. And then one other passage in Revelation chapter 19.
In verse 7.
Let us be glad and rejoice and give honor to Him.
For the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his wife hath made herself ready, and to her was granted that she should be arrayed.
In fine linen, clean and white, for the fine linen is the righteousness, or righteousness of the Saints. And then a little further on in the chapter.
Uh, Verse 14. The armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen white and cleaned.
Well, brethren, we know that the Lord Jesus came into this world, and he could say to his disciples, He that hath seen me have seen the Father.
And so he displayed the glories of his God.
00:05:01
Imperfection.
Never out of step at all in the mind of his father, in his department or in his words. Never spoke a word that he ever had to retract, Never had to say, I'm sorry, I didn't mean it that way. No, you always. Imperfection represented his father. And so here, when he came into this world, I believe this is a little picture of the sun.
In enjoying the communion of his father.
His father had bestowed upon his son those glories and those glories that he had before.
Those intrinsic glories that were his before he came into the world.
He was had the glory of the sun. He was the Creator. He had a glory that was unique and we read that in the 19th Psalm. He was the Creator. He had glories that were connected in connection with that.
Work of creation. He's the creator and so we came into this world and he acquired glorious as well. We know that he's now the Redeemer and he has the glories is not one who is the Lamb of God.
He's the one, the one man in glory.
With a glorified body, glory isn't a place, it's a state. He's a man and he's in the presence of God. His body is glorified, and God has bestowed upon His Son every dignity and every honor that is possible to bestow upon him. There is nothing missing.
But he came into this world as a servant, and you might say he was serving his father, keeping the sheep.
And his Father delighted to give him this garment that would reflect his moral glories and the glories of the Father. And as we read through the Gospels, we see something of those little pieces of the glory of Christ.
Well, we don't have time to comment further on that, but we read a little further on and Genesis chapter 39 that he had the garment of his slave.
He was asleep, we read this morning of the Slave.
The bondsman bond servant in Exodus chapter 21.
And he willingly came into this world as a servant, as a slave.
A slave to his father.
Appointment.
Came to serve. Why are you here? Why are you and I here?
Or you might say, well, we're saved. So our work is to be a witness and to, uh, keep the gospel. That's our whole purpose now is to preach the gospel and to be a witness for Christ. Well, no, that's not really the truth.
That's a part of the work that is ours to do. But you and I are here as those that are the children of God, the sons of God, and to represent him in this scene and to represent his interest.
And so Joseph, man of faith, a picture of Christ here in this world, was maligned and falsely accused, and we know that his garment as one who was a slave.
Was a garment of perfection. You think of John's Gospel. I think it's chapter 19. It speaks of the coat that he wore.
And the Spirit of God records it because he was gone. A man, yes, but gone as well. The sun. And so he says in John's Gospel chapter 19 and verse 23, the soldiers, when they had crucified Jesus, took his garments.
Made four parts to every soldier apart, and also his coat.
Now the coat was without seam, woven from the top. Throughout speaks his of his sinless perfection, His Holiness, his, uh, you might say, the meat offering the meal, offering perfect evenness.
One piece.
A little bit different than Joseph with his coat of many colors or in many pieces, a different aspect of things that he was gone, you know, all of his perfection.
And he wore that garment and he veiled his glory in this scene. While he was here, He didn't set aside his glory and become a man. He always was gone.
00:10:06
And he is God, but he veiled his glory in this sea, and when he removed that veil for a moment in the presence of those that mob, they fell backwards.
As they were exposed to the glory of the Son of God, God Himself, yet they had the audacity to lay their filthy, wicked hands upon His holy Person.
And take him, arrayed him from one place to another in mockery and shame.
Brigham finally to the cross.
To strip them naked.
To crucify him like a criminal, the only man that ever pleased God and ever glorified His Father in everything he said He did, in every way, every in every way. His garments included, naturally speaking, were for the glory of God. But then we read in Genesis chapter 41 of how Farrell sent and called for Joseph and he had a prisoner's garment.
He was in the prison. The dungeon apparently in Egypt was a tower of so it wouldn't be underground but above the ground.
Probably pretty hot.
Aaron, please.
And, uh, he had a garment there, but it wasn't suitable to be brought into the presence of the king. And so he did something, he shaved himself, he changed his raiment and he came in into Pharaoh. And I think about our brother Steve just mentioned in connection with, uh, those that went into the presence of the president of the United States.
The dignity of the office is really.
What we ought to consider.
The dignity of the Office of the President of the United States. The dignity of the Office of the Judge of a Certain.
State the Chief Justice.
You know, there's a Chief Justice, I think it's in Texas and he had, uh, some cases that he was going to hear and uh, someone showed up in flip flops and T-shirt and all that sort of thing, uh, with loud slogan and he wasn't allowed, he wasn't permitted to come into the courtroom. Well, he says I have a court date.
The guard says the judge says no one is coming into his presence improperly attired. He says, well, I think I'm just fine that your opinion isn't what matters.
The judge has stated you are to come into his presence with dignity and you are. Your dress is to be consistent with the dignity of the office of that judge and so he was not permitted to come into the presence of the judge.
Well, here Joseph, isn't it wonderful as a man? He shaved, he prepared himself.
Change agreement.
Wasn't consistent to come into the presence of the king of Egypt with the prisoner's garment, and you and I ought not to be dressed like the prisoners of this world.
They're prisoners of the thinking of this world. They're prisoners of the.
Fallen creation. They're prisoners to their own lifestyles.
But we've been set at liberty.
We've been a set at liberty to be able to please the Lord. That's why he set you at liberty to live for his glory. And so he put off those raiment. He changed his raiment. Then he came into the presence of Pharaoh. And so it says that Pharaoh in verse 42, he took off his ring from his hand and put it upon Joseph's hand and raid him in the vestures of fine linen.
Put a gold chain about his neck.
He made him to ride in the second chariot which he had. They cried before him, bowed and knee. They made him to rule over all the land of Egypt.
And then, uh.
Verse UH-45 Pharaoh called Joseph's name Zachna Thania, and he gave him the wife Asana, the daughter of Potiphar, priest of Anne. And Joseph went out over all the land of Egypt, and Joseph was 30 years old when he stood before Pharaoh's king of Egypt.
Well, here he is. He begins his public service.
Arrayed investors of fine linen.
00:15:00
It speaks of righteousness, divine righteousness, holiness.
With a gold chain about his neck.
Ring on his hands.
All of the authority and the dignity.
Of the office and the Son of God, the picture that's given to us, who will reign over this world and he will be arrayed in such a way.
That the Father will be glorified perfectly in how his Son is arrayed in this world.
But you know, just to close with this.
I've enjoyed the thought in Revelation chapter 19 we could read different places of scripture.
You and I.
Have the best place in heaven.
None of us is going to have the place of a servant. None of us is going to have the place of a slave. That's the place of the angels.
All of us that know the Christ as our Savior are going to have the place.
Of affection, the nearest place to the Son of God in all of heaven and all of us will be arrayed.
Refined linen.
And the whole heavenly company, the Old Testament Saints, as well as those that are martyred during the Tribulation period, they will all be arrayed in white linen.
Fine, that is white and clean. Verse 14.
The armies will come out of heaven at the appearing of Christ.
Rather, you and I are going to be arrayed.
Fine linen will be arrayed before seeing this world and in that eternal state, as a part of the Bride of Christ for all eternity.
You'll display you and I as a part of His bride during the Millennium. This whole world will see the glory of the sun and the glory of the Bride of Christ in perfection, in submission to Him.
As she lives in His presence for all eternity. What a privilege it is for us to conduct ourselves in such a way in this world while we wait the coming of the Lord, not to live and think the way this world thinks, but to consider the glory of the one into whose presence were coming from week to week and from day-to-day.
And to conduct ourselves in such a way that we live for His glory.
I wonder if we could spend a lot in the versus of #77 in the appendix.
77 Endick VS 2.
John 21:15-25
Reading
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And we spent 300 and one 301.
All right at the same time.
The rest is calculated.
That is why should we try the flow and cry over here?
And building our hopes in the return like that.
We look forward to it. We're trying to not fall. We had four of our country by 1095.
We were not lying down in non Rosen below.
Dangerous progress, of course.
They'll only make heaven more sweetheart, but close.
Sorrow, whatever may be.
I'm home with her God. You make up for it.
Miranda script on the back and the stand in the hand we March on.
It's an enemy's land, the road may be rougher, it cannot be long, and will smooth it with hope, and will cheer us with some.
But in 1/4 we just got up to date or 9 correct.
While we continue in John 21 or another 5.
Well, it might be nice to begin at verse 15. In that chapter, we really didn't speak of, uh, the, uh, last few verses. I believe there's, uh, profitable. It's a profitable passage.
John 21, verse 15.
So when they had dined, Jesus saith to Simon Peter. Simon son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these? He saith unto him, Yeah, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, Feed my lambs. He saith to him again the second time. Simon son of Jonas, lovest thou me? He saith unto him, Ye Lord, thou knowest that I love thee.
You sayeth unto him, Feed my sheep.
He saith unto him, the third time, Simon son of Jonas, lovest thou me? Peter was grieved, because he said unto him, the third time, Lovest thou me? And he said unto him, Lord, thou knowest all things, Thou knowest that I love thee.
Jesus saith unto him, Feed my sheep.
Verily, verily I unto thee. When thou is young, a gerdes thyself walketh whither thou wittest. But when thou shalt be old, thou shalt stretch forth thy hands, and another shall gird thee and carry thee whither thou wouldst not this fake ye signifying, but by what death he should glorify God. And when he had spoken this, he saith unto him, Follow me.
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Then Peter turning about, seeth the disciple whom Jesus loved, following, which also leaned on his breast at supper, and said, Lord, which is he that betrayeth thee?
Peter, seeing him, saith to Jesus, Lord, And what shall this man do? Jesus saith unto him, If I will that he tarry till I come, What is that to thee? Follow thou me.
Then went this saying abroad among the brethren, that this disciple should not die. Yet Jesus said not unto him, He shall not die. But if I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? This is the disciple which testifieth of these things, and wrote these things. And we know that his testimony is true. And there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written everyone, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written.
Amen.
When we read the verse of 15 to 16 and 17 and the Darby translation is slightly different. When the Lord Jesus, uh, asked us, uh, Peter loves him. Uh, Peter responds by saying he, he's attached to the Lord and that happens twice with the third time instead of saying umm.
Uh, I've got a son. If you want to slow, tell me.
In the Derby says, uh, some of those joints are attached to me. There's a difference there. Umm, I thought I'd just mention that.
Been said, hasn't it, that.
When it comes to that third time.
You're no longer, uh, responds in that way. He relies on the Lord's omniscience.
For knowing simply that he's attached to him. And as much as to say, I know there's nothing that I've demonstrated that would show it, but you know all things. And so as such he could rely and rest on that.
There is a beautiful history, though, isn't there, with Simon Peter in this restoration. It might be worthwhile just to notice a couple of those passages that we turn back to Luke's Gospel, chapter 22.
We recall how Peter. Simon Peter.
How he had assured the Lord of his devotedness, his love for him, and he surely did love the Lord, but he didn't know his own heart and the weakness of it. He could say, Lord, though all will offend thee, yet will not I. There will be one that's true to thee to the end, Lord, and that would be me. But it was affection on his part that caused him to say it. But like ourselves, he had to learn something of the distrustfulness of his own heart. But in Luke's Gospel, chapter 22.
And not to read the whole account, but just in verse 60, as we come to the end of Peter's denial. And Peter said, man, I know not what thou sayest. And immediately, while he yet spake the cock crew. And the Lord turned and looked upon Peter. And Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how he had said in him before the **** crow, Thou shalt deny me thrice. Peter went out and wept bitterly.
Instead, the cocktail was for his conscience. It was that which would awaken him. But the Lord's look was for his heart. And so when the Lord looks upon Peter, he went out and wept bitterly.
We're talking between the brakes about numbers. Chapter 19. It's the great chapter of restoration from defilement. And there's two prominent days. There's the third day and the 7th day. And it's been said helpfully that the third day is the recognition of sin in the presence of grace. And that's the history with David. And so with Simon Peter, he came to this point where as the crew and the Lord looked upon him, he was convicted of his sin.
And he wept bitterly. There was no joy at that moment. It was an awful moment for Simon Peter. He wept bitterly how he had denied his blessed Lord. The Lord had warned him. The Lord said I prayed for you. And then Peter didn't listen. And he seized the Lord's look and he weeps bitterly.
00:10:00
But the Lord wasn't done with him to turn over to the 24th chapter.
So we said the third day is the recognition of.
Of a sin in the presence of grace. And that's what really brings the sorrow home to us when we realize we've sinned not only against light, but we've sinned against love, and we sinned against the Lord's tender grace. But the Lord isn't content to leave us there at the third day. Luke 24 And this is the account, of course, of the two, two returning to Emmaus. And then they turned around and went back to Jerusalem. Verse 30, uh, 33 And they rose up the same hour and returned to Jerusalem and found the 11 gathered together and with them.
That were with them saying, The Lord is risen indeed, and hath appeared.
To Simon.
This is a tremendous passage, I believe, full of encouragement for us. What did the Lord say?
He appeared in assignment. What did Peter say? We don't know and it's one of those secrets in the word of God that's kept and preserved for that and believe it's an encouragement to anyone or everyone of us when failure has come in. The Lord had a private meeting with Peter that brother knew that he had appeared to Simon, but were not giving any given any details of that in the Lord's very personal work of restoration to Peter.
And so we find also in Numbers chapter 19, If a man did not.
Cleanse himself on the third day, he'd be unclean on the 7th day. You remember when David had sinned? Uh, and Nathan the prophet comes to him with that parable and David acknowledges his sin. You find it in Psalm 51. He, uh, begins with his confession and he ends that Psalm in worship. And that's where the Lord wants to get us on the 7th day. Where as again has been said, it's when we recognize, uh, we recognize grace in the presence of sin.
That God's grace, as we sometimes sing, greater than all my sin. For God's grace comes in and restores, and he becomes a worshipper. And so there was that private work to restore Simon Peter's, uh, uh, to himself. But when we come to this chapter here, John 21, it's his public restoration. There must be both. And so the Lord had restored Peter to himself. But now if Peter was gonna be raised up and serve the Lord so adequately as he did.
The Lord would confirm to the other disciples that Peter not only was restored, but the Lord had sent him forth on a very important ministry. What grace of the Lord. And yet there, while there were those personal things, no doubt that the Lord had to go over with Simon Peter in His presence, there was also that which Peter had said publicly. That had to be addressed publicly, and Peter had to acknowledge it in the presence of his brethren. His failure. But yet we find the Lord that in commissioning him.
With the greatest, the greatest service to care and to feed for his feed his sheep.
There are two kinds of falls, aren't there? There is a fall like Peter had. He failed and there was restoration. And you and I live in a scene that's, uh, filled with all kinds of temptation. And we may fail the Lord in one way or another, but there is restoration. And the work of God is to restore his own for his own namesake. But we have to the fact that, uh, Judith went out and, uh.
He went and betrayed the Lord and there was no recovery for him. He really is a picture of an apostate who once professed to have faith in Christ as the Messiah. He once professed to be a believer.
And perhaps it's very solemn to think that he perhaps did miracles and so on, were not told specifically, but he went right along with the whole program of, uh, what it was to be a disciple. But it really, when it came out into the end, he was filled with remorse. I think that's Mr. Darby's translation in connection with his, uh, betrayal of the Lord. But there was no repentance, Godward. And so he went out and hanged himself.
An apostate, he gave up the knowledge of the the profession of faith as in Christ as the Messiah. And so Peter didn't do that. He knew that the Lord Jesus was the Christ. He had divine life. And so there is restoration for one that fails, and there's a work of restoration. It's the work of Christ himself to restore us, no one less than Christ himself.
00:15:01
To restore the one that is an A failing believer. It's a marvelous thing to think of one who is our great high priest who intercedes for us because of our days of weakness.
But then if we sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, and it's Him because of His advocacy that we ever come to repentance and restoration. So this is a wonderful passage of Scripture that gives us detail as to the personal interest of the Lord Jesus in the recovery, the restoration of a soul who is really his but has failed.
The efficacy of Christ comes into UH operation as soon as we fail.
Uh, not our fax, the greens reward that we see to, uh.
The operation.
Worse in the soul and the conscience first, and that leads to your family.
We cannot save ourselves, we cannot keep ourselves, and we cannot restore ourselves. It's all a work of God.
Thing about on the clock, set a faucet like Judas was.
Never be applied to a believer. A believer can never afford some time.
Uh, we may backslide as Peter did in his history, uh, store he learned the flesh by a fall. Uh, you should learn what the flesh is in communion with God. But, uh, an apostate, one who has turned from, has made a profession of the truth.
Made a perfection in Hebrews chapter 6. Hebrew chapter 10 that there was no reality.
Turning of the back upon what truth they had had acknowledged. And, uh, there's no repentance.
Possible for an apostate?
Might be good just to look at Siebert's copper pen, just quote that verse. I don't mean to take up a lot of time with that because Peter was not an apostate, but it is possible to apostatize from the faith. And so in, uh, there are five different warnings given. I believe it is in Hebrews. Umm, he was, it was the last warning to the nation of Israel, those that had come out of Judaism and had professed Christianity.
Professed faith in Christ and they were going on in the Christian testimony, but they had leanings towards the, uh, Judaism. They still hadn't uh, really, uh, judged the fact that, uh, what had taken place at the cross was a final judgment of God upon that whole religious system. And so in the epistle to the Hebrews, he's calling them out of it and so he says in verse 24 of uh, chapter 10 of Hebrews, let us.
Consider one another to provoke unto love, and to good works. Oh, I'm sorry, Verse 23. Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering, for he is faithful but promise. And, uh. Verse 26. For if we sin wilfully, after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sin, but a certain fearful, looking for a judgment, and firing indignation which shall devour the adversaries.
And so it's possible for those who have, uh, it's possible for one even in this room to go on in the blessings of Christianity, to enjoy all of the privileges and the evidence of the power of the Spirit of God among his people. And yet to give up that profession of faith and say, I tried Christianity and it doesn't work for me. I'll just go and do something else and I'll try some other religion. There's no recovery for one who's an apostate. Now just say this that you and I cannot say. And look at the person and say, now there's an apostate.
God can and he knows and so isn't it wonderful just to be able to read this and.
It tells us in, uh, Timothy, the epistles that Paul writes, he says the Lord knoweth them that are his. And so we may not be able to detect that, but it's the work of restoration, repentance and restoration. The process is the work of God, the work of the Lord Jesus individually with the soul. And so this is what we have displayed here.
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The apostles and of course is not with us now, but, uh, we see, uh, things moving in that direction. But when the search is taken, uh, there will still be a profession increasing them until the middle of the week and then it will be all gone overboard. So we are complete, umm, denial of, uh, any.
Of any Christian perfection, it will go. It'll be open atheism the last half of the week.
That is the apostles. He's broken up in the second. That's all in two.
What verse is it that you two are connecting these verses with? I'm kind of lost. There are two different types of a fall. One fall is a believer, a true believer. He falls into sin and he can be restored, an apostate. That speaks of a fall different times in the epistle of Hebrews, particularly in the fall, and in Paul's epistles, he mentions it. A fall of an apostate. There is no recovery.
And so we need to make that distinction doctrinally, that there are some that teach that you can be saved and lost again. And those are the passages of Scripture that they misapply. There is recovery every time for a believer. It doesn't matter what he has fallen into. It says if we confess our sin is faithful and just to forgive us governmentally, to restore us, He will restore us. He will restore leaders. When it's an apostate, there is no recovery.
And so that those are the two failures among in the Christian profession. One who is real will be recovered. One who is not real is one who is given up the knowledge of God. And as a brother John says publicly, what we have today is a gathering momentum of apostasy in the Western Christian world, a gathering public giving up of the knowledge of God, a public umm.
Defacing of the Christian testimony.
A public removing of the Bibles from hotel rooms and wherever you want to apply it so publicly, the Western Christian world is giving up the knowledge of God.
It's in 2nd Thessalonians 2IN which uh three, that let no man deceive you by any means. 2nd Thessalonians 2 and three four, that day shall not come. That is the apostles that he's referring to. Except there comma falling away. Falling away there is not applied to a true believer. Falling away there is the giving up of a position.
That was taken.
Uh, a knowledge of the truth being, uh, given up and, uh, forsaken. And, uh, then he says, uh, and that the man of sin, who is the enterprise of that, uh, we revealed the sound of tradition and so on describing the doctor. Yet it's been noted there's two types of apostasy. There's what we have in the book of Hebrews is falling back.
Specifically in Hebrews, there was those that embraced, uh, outwardly Christianity where were baptized and then turned back to the old order of sacrifices and, and as such, they tried under foot the Son of God and counted the blood of the covenant or what they were sanctified and the holy thing and have done despicable the spirit of grace. That is, they turned away from the all sufficient work of Christ. There is no more salvation. There's no more sacrifice for sins that one refuses that especially after having embraces, there is no hope.
That's apostasy, that's falling back, and that's the great bird in Hebrews in first John, I think we had this earlier, the epistle of John that apostasy is going forward, moving forward. He that goes forward and abides not in the doctrine of Christ hath not, hath not the Father and the Son. And there are those that have apostasy and going beyond the revelation of the Father and the Son and umm, denying his, his person. And so both when we when we tamper with the work of Christ.
Or the person of Christ there is deny the truth of it. There is no hope. But again, that would be only an unbeliever that would do that.
Let me backslide. We don't know how far God would allow it. But again, if one turns away from the person or work of Christ, there is no other hope for them. But I think in Second Corinthians Chapter 7, we have a very pertinent passage as it relates to restoration and the distinction between the sorrow of a believer and the sorrow.
00:25:13
I'm an unbeliever in Second Corinthians Chapter 7 and verse eight. We have here perhaps more of the restoration of the assembly accord. We know there was a man that was was living in simple conditions and the assembly ultimately dealt with him, but the assembly had declared themselves as to the evil that had come in among them. So Paul writes in Second Corinthians 7-8 says, oh, I made you sorry with a letter. I do not repent for I do not regret it.
Though I did regret it for for I received that the same epistle I've made you sorry though it were were but for a season. So Paul had written very sternly, very firmly and faithfully in the First Corinthians, even to the point where we find here he regretted it. It made them sorry. And he said I did regret it, but I don't regret it because it bore fruit. And then he just lines out these two distinctions of sorrow. Verse nine. Now I rejoice not that ye were made sorry, but that ye sorrow to repentance.
For you remain sorry after a godly manner or a man. Notice the margin according to God, that ye might receive damage by us in nothing. For godly sorrow work with repentance to salvation, not to be repentant of, but the sorrow of the world worketh death. We might read verse 11 as well, because again, this is the assembly clarity in itself of evil and its midst. For behold this self same thing that you sorrowed after a godly sort. What carefulness it wrought in you. Yeah, what clearing of yourselves.
Yeah. What indignation? Yeah. What's fear? Yeah, what vehement desire. Yeah, with zeal ye with revenge in all things ye ever proved yourselves to be clear in the matter. Not the man that sinned, but themselves. But we do have that great distinction about the godly sorrow that works. Repentance not to be repented of. That's what the Lord had worked in Peter. He sorrowed to repentance, but it was a repentance not to be repented of. It was a repentance to be rejoiced in. Because.
And that is ultimate restoration, not only personally to the Lord, but publicly in the service. But consider you This is scary at the sorrow of the world worketh death. There was guilt, there was remorse, but there was no hope and he went out and hung himself such as the end of one that has rejected the blessedly.
Its remarkable to see the ways of the Lord with Peter after that failure. There are certain activities that are performed where it's vital to have something that's reliable and consistent. For example, if you were to be doing tree work and you had a rope and you were working with loads overhead, if there is a nick in that rope, if the rope is sprayed, you throw it out or you use it for another purpose, it is unsuited for the use for the job at hand.
And there are certain tasks that require absolute reliability. And so if if there's failure, once it's done, you're out. And yet the ways of the ways of the Lord, he entrusts those that are most precious to his heart, the one who has just failed and being restored.
As as has been mentioned that that phrase in in Psalm 23 and I'll I'll neglect the phrase in the middle. Both both phrases are correct when put together. He restoreth my soul for his name's sake. And so we see Peter restored and the sheep and the lambs are entrusted to his care. Feed my feed my lambs, feed my sheep says to shepherd the flock and the resource that he's given. And it's repeated to him twice the end of verse 19.
It's told follow me the end of verse 21 follow thou me. So even if there's been failure.
Even if there's been that which is dishonored the Lord, where there's a work of repentance, where there's that work of restoration in the soul and where the heart is is focused on the Lord, there can be fruitfulness, there can be usefulness for the Lord. And these these portions it's it's good to look at them in in their broad sense and their broad application. But this was an individual who had failed and failed deeply. Each one of us were individuals that truly walked as members of the body of Christ is through the collective aspect to all of our walk.
And yet we walk as individuals as well. And it's it's touching to see the the way the Lord dealt with Peter here. He restoreth my soul for his namesake.
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The Apostle Paul mentions gives instructions to the Ephesian elders in Acts chapter 20 and verse 28 says Take heed therefore unto yourselves.
There's I believe exercise required on the part of those that are feeding those people and that is the fear of self judgment and taking care of ourselves, our own testimony, being careful of our own state of soul and community with the Lord and then to all the flock over the width where we're in the Holy Ghost have made you overseers feed the Church of God which he hath purchased.
With his own blood, so the price was steep.
Everyone is a lamb, young in the face perhaps with the the picture there and a cheap one that perhaps is a little bit more mature in the things of God. Peter was given the responsibility to feed those that particularly had come out of Judaism made professional faith in Christ and he was the apostle that had seen the Lord Jesus and had walked with the Lord during his public testimony here in the scene and he had seen how the blessed Savior treated.
Those that were his, and the Lord entrusted those that were of faith to Peter. And so we have still 2 epistles, don't we? That Peter wrote. And there he is, shepherding the sheep, shepherding, shepherding the lambs, making sure that they would have in writing the instruction from him that would permit them to live a fruitful life for Christ as they saw the demise of Judaism and then went forth unto him.
Without can't bearing his reproach. So we need to remember the price that God has paid that Christ has paid for those people. They don't belong to us, they belong to him. And so This is why the Lord shows how tenderly he deals with one who is one of his sheep, one who is in responsibility, but he feels very tenderly with them corrects him. And uh, there was a public failure that needed to be public restoration, but it was done in the kindest possible way.
And then Peter himself in his second epistle, uh.
Uh, the end of, I know, I'm sorry, the last chapter, the first epistle, chapter 5, the first year and the address of the elders, which are among you, uh.
I absorbed them also another witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed. Feed the floss of God, which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by a constraint, but lonely, not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind, either as the Lord's over God's heritage, or the margin says, over ruling, but being in samples to the block.
So you're with Peter, who had.
Had the experience of failing very sadly.
Uh, failing the word very sadly and, and then being restored by the Lord and the word, giving him the instructions that we have in the chapter that we're considering to, uh, to feed my lab. Now here's Peter, uh, able to, to give the same, similar instructions as what uh, Paul gave to the elders, Ephesus.
Umm, to, to be aware of their own, as Robert was referring to, to be aware of their own walk and their own, uh, possible failures, uh, and to feed the clock of God.
I have a question, uh.
Concerning what we were Speaking of before.
Umm, uh.
That, uh, the Lord will always restore.
A true believer to himself.
Umm, as he did with Peter, Could it be that?
Sometimes.
The the way that the word does that might be to take.
A true believer who has gone far off the path to take him home, to be with him, to be with him and have him.
That is the same on your desk. That's definitely the case. Uh, Robert, first key, uh, first John Chapter 5 brings that out very clearly. But there is a sin unto Jack. I should not pray for that. Umm. A person, after repeated warnings, falls again and again into the same simple course. Umm.
00:35:24
And does not show repentance or, uh, heed the warnings the Lord has given to him. He may be taking in, in, in. Apparently that was the case in form. But this caused many are weak and sickly among you and many sleep. They were at the Lord's table and going on with the careless simple ways at the Lord's table and the Lord removed them. I would take from that scripture in a minute. Listen 11 umm.
There's no way through, uh, so we may not see repentance in a case like that here in this seat. And it may look to us, uh, difficult to, to know whether that person really was a Tuvalu, but the word was.
Word nose, ananias and sapphire.
Another example.
Quite a good to read those verses that John referred to in first John chapter 5 because it gives us a little picture of one who is recalled. Umm, some of our older brethren have taught us that there is such a thing as recalling an ambassador. And you and I are here as ambassadors for Christ and we represent him. We ought to represent Him and we represent him 24 hours a day. We speak for him.
We had in our last meeting.
Dressed in our deportment is to reflect his glory. Uh, everything that we do is uh, for ought to be for himself. But it says in the first, uh, John chapter 5 and verse uh, sixteen, that if any man see his brother's sin as sin, which is not unto death, he shall ask and he shall give him life for them that sin not unto death. There is, you know, a course. I might go in a course and I might sin and I might, uh, fall into a certain thing, but it's not a determined purpose. And I'm not setting my course in self will and going into that course, maybe, perhaps.
A sense of weakness because of weakness of the phlegm. There is recovery, but it says that there is. He shall give him life. There is a sin unto death. I do not say that he shall pray for it. All unrighteousness is sin, and there is not a sin not unto death. So there is a course. Sometimes when someone goes in a court of willfulness and will not give up a sin, then it may be that the Lord will recall that. And ambassador, he might say, because the testimony is marred, and whether there's restoration or not, there may not be a public restoration, but.
I believe that the Lord would work, that there would be at the final there's a restoration between the Lord and the soul. I I can't speak to the umm specifics. The Lord is the one that restores the soul.
Refer to Isaiah. I've got your, uh, 38th, I think it is. You see the respiration? About the respiration.
Uh, marvelous.
We have another example and the guy I had failed seriously and, uh, the more the spoke to him where he plainly and, uh, we see his, uh, square of repentance here, remarkable 38th of Isaiah, I was from verse 14 like a brain or a wall like shattered.
I did more than he does, and then he was 15. What shall I say?
He had both spoken unto me and.
Himself after done it, I shall go softly all my day, all my years.
In the bitterness of my soul, O Lord, by each thing men live, and in all these things is the light of my spirit. So will thou recover me and make me clear. Well, there's the upright infection of Hezekiah and.
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Thanksgiving to the Lord for respiration, but it humbles him.
That are failures you shouldn't get under our failures that that can be possible.
That's what, taking months to get under our families, but uh, to be right above them, confess them, not exonerate ourselves, uh, have a, a clean break with whatever it is that is hindering my communion or my testimony, whatever. Walk softly, uh, the rest of my days, Uh, we're humbled and we have to walk, be more watchful, more careful.
You know I walk from bend off, all right?
Peter tells us we're past the time of our sojourning here and here.
We're under the.
And then, uh, John 15.
And verse 2 every branch in need that beareth not through you taketh away. Let the true branch out of line, but not bearing fruit. You might even have to take it away. But you know Philippians says he that has to be done.
Well, completed after the day of Jesus Christ. So the day is going to manifest that every work that he has begun will be complete. Let's not ever, uh, get discouraged if we don't feel we see evidence that it won't be that way.
But that they will manifest that everywhere is complete. And it really won't. Won't that work? Be complete in that moment when we gaze into the face of the Lord Jesus. And we have scripture for that.
I think so.
I think so. First John 3.
First John three and verse two. Beloved now are we the sons of God, and doth not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when he shall appear, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is, or it will be complete, will be like him turn through.
So you have a gang in your neck first, uh.
You referred to in John's Gospel chapter 15, those that abide in me are those that are real. But then it says in verse six, if a man abides not in me, he has cast forces the branch and his Withers and men gathered them and cast them into the fire, and they are burned. And so those are those that are not real, not in me. And so while you and I cannot often tell, always tell which is a real branch, which is a false branch, the Lord knows.
And so he's going to be able to deserve what is it wonderful that he here gives us this little picture of how he dealt with Peter publicly. He had there was a private restoration, but there was that public dishonor that had come in. Peter had dishonored his Savior publicly. And it's often times necessary. There's a public training of the name of Christ and the testimony that there needs to be the public restoration. So we have that taught in First Corinthians.
And in Second Corinthians, and we know that, uh, we just read those verses. And so the Lord speaks and he, he gives a little bit more light in connection with, uh, Peter and, uh, a little bit of encouragement perhaps in the sense of telling him that in the future that he would do what he thought he was, had the power to do in his own strength in the flesh. God didn't give up his life as a martyr. He didn't have that strength, but the Lord was going to give him the strength in a future day and he would glorify God.
And he would have the martyrs crown.
He would have a crown because he loved the Lord and the Lord knew his heart and he was going to give him that murderous crown. It's all you know, You think oftentimes with little passage of Scripture when Peter was sleeping so soundly between those sixteen soldiers, I think it's in Acts chapter 12. He's sleeping soundly. He knew that his life was in the hands of the Lord and he could just rest in the goodness of the heart of God. And if he was to be delivered, that's fine. If not, he knew that he was going to glorify God as a martyr.
00:45:02
Until.
He says the.
He speaks of this. He should glorify God.
The test that he should glorify God.
You ever think maybe that when he was between those soldiers, he looked back and remember the Lord's words? And the Lord says, when thou art old, he wasn't old yet.
I don't know if he thought of that or not, but I wondered.
Well, Peter got occupied with, uh, his brethren.
With us as well, you know, the Lord is given each one of us.
A little service to do for him and you can do that to that work, uh, better than anyone else. But sometimes we're dissatisfied with what, uh, our lot is and we want to do someone else's work. Uh, perhaps we want to have a more public recognition.
But if you do that little service which the warden has given you.
Uh, to do as a member of the body twice you have a function that no one else has this hand in mind. That's a function directly from the head. Uh, and uh, it performs a certain service, doesn't do what my teeth do. There are members in my body, as you well know, that are not seen, but very important. So the Lord says, follow me Christmas, the one that was the object and to be the object of either, not his presence.
Not seeking a place that reward had not given him, but having Christ as the controlling.
Wrecking umm head in his life.
Like I mentioned yesterday that, uh, the Lord uses these three word little expressions all the way through John's Gospel and in the Gospels. And then he also uses little three word expressions in the Book of Revelation. And, uh, this is the last instruction that he gives to those disciples in the Gospel in verse 22. Follow thou me.
The last words that the Lord Jesus started recording that he gives to his disciples in instruction in the.
Gospel individually, he would delight to have us to follow him and uh, then we have any, uh, Book of Revelation is really 4 words that, uh, he gives us this, the last words in that testimony, the whole word of God, John is given the apostle of the affections had so much affection for the Lord, devotedness to him and he says in verse 20, Revelation 22, verse 20, he would testify these things, say it surely.
I come quickly. I think Mr. Darby's translation, better translation says yeah, I come quickly.
Over the last word that, uh, the Lord Jesus speaks, as it were, to the church.
Yeah, I come quickly, but in the present day that we live.
His desires that we should be through disciples follow me individually. And so you and I have a cause. It's a cause of Christ before us, the person of Christ, His glory, His honor, everything that we do.
Ought to reflect something of the dignity of Christ and how we conduct ourselves in this world. Ought to be for His own, for his honor, for his dignity, and we ought to be seen as those that follow Him.
It's been noted that was the 1St and the last thing that the Lord said to Peter, Matthew 4, when he and his brother were casting Ned into the sea. The Lord said follow me and I'll make you fishers of men. And here at the end he says follow me, John 12. The Lord said, if any man, uh, serve me, let him follow me in where I am there also show my servant be. And so perhaps sometimes the great Oz put on service, but.
But the great thing is about following the Lord.
00:50:06
The Lord works in our lives and sometimes we, uh, the, uh, things that he brings along Cal are calculated, really reach our conscience of being a subtle way. And he wants us to, to see his hand in it. And, uh, earlier in the chapter when the Lord was on the shore and he asked that question, children, have you any meat? You know, he's trying to reach their conscience.
And it's not until they cast the net in response to his direction and drawing the fishes. Then John says it's the Lord. It's the Lord, you know, the ones who lay on his bosom was the first one to say, well, that's the Lord. And I think of it this way. He looks at that whole circumstance and says this is just like the Lord. Everything I'm saying reminds me of the way the Lord works and all that I have known about him. And it's a.
I think it's a wonderful thing in our lives to be sensitive enough to see in the circumstances that he allows in our life to say, oh, that's the Lord. Remember a brother saying he got in an argument with his wife and things weren't going so well and he went out and had a pop up camper. We had to get taken care of, put away from season one out there clothes live Wham his thumb with right in between the top and the bottom. He said well just had said.
That that's right, Lord, I was wrong.
You know, sometimes he speaks pretty loudly, but it's so good to be sensitive to what the Lord allows and the circumstances of our life to see. It's His hand. Well, then, will they come to the shore, and there's that cold of fire. Well, where had Peter seen that last time he warmed himself there. But it would reproach his conscience, wouldn't it?
Now here's a fire he can warm himself by. There's no reproach to his conscience.
But it would reach his conscience in reminding him that he had partaken of another fire that he had no place at. And so each step is something just as the Lord is going to work in that restoration with Peter publicly ways that the Lord didn't say anything to him about. Hey, do you see this coal-fired? Looks like that one you're at before.
A theatre workout, right? There's little things in our lives that the Lord allows that he wants us to be sensitive to say, yeah, that's the Lord. That's just like him to work that way, isn't it? And the closer we are to him, even if there's a fall.
The more we'll be sensitive to those little things that he may bring in to respond. And so is these steps. Feeder through and ask them these three times. What does that mean? How many times have Peter denied the Lord?
Right. And he starts out in the first one. He says love is not even more than these. That was Peter both. I love you more than the rest. So he settled that one first.
Do you really love me more than all the rest love me?
And then he drops the comparison.
Do you love me?
Any sign Peter says don't know if I'm attached to thee or I dearly love thee. It was like Peter's little uh pet expression of affection for the Lord and he doesn't right so much dare to use the term the Lord Jesus, but it breathes him a third time when the Lord used his own expression. That old Peter. Is it even just that you know, and our brother already brought out. We have to home that uh, it took omniscience to see if there's anything there and when he's finally brought and humbled.
And that way the Lord commits in front of all the rest.
That which was dearest to his soul, the Father's gift of love to him were his own, that which He gave himself for.
She had his own blood point that was dearest to his heart. He said, now, fever, I'm committing that to your care. I'm going, but I'm committing that to your care. It's been said that when a bone is broken and then it's splintered up and it heals, there's no stronger part of that bone in the place where it broke. And so it's not true that one who's had a fault can't be used again in the Lord.
The Lord trusted the very dearest man He had.
Computer's care.
00:55:01
There's a couple passages and no testament just to call it on what they say. Brother Steve, uh, Hosea Chapter 7.
We know that Hosea is the really the ministry of the restoration of the the 10 tribes written to the two tribes about the 10 but in Chapter 7 verse one it says when I would have healed Israel then the iniquity of Ephraim was discovered and.
The wickedness of Samaria there is Israel as a nation, I presume here it's more of the 10 tribes taking that place and they're need of healing and the Lord begins to move and what happens is we use the expression to peel back the layers of the onion. What do you find?
All the iniquity of Ephraim is discovered. There's something deeper here.
And then further and the wickedness of Samaria, now the capital. Now I just look at nationally, as we peel back the layers of the onions, we see there's more there. And the Lord has to oftentimes do that with this peel back one layer after another, because sometimes the issue is much deeper and the language of the lever than the surface of the skin. But in also in Genesis chapter 45, it's such a remarkable story. We love the restoration of Joseph's brethren.
To himself, how he restores them as to their sin against him, and also their sin against their father. But in chapter chapter 45, when his brethren report back to their father about Joseph, Genesis 4526, verse 25 And they went out of Egypt, and came into the land of Canaan unto Jacob their father, and told him, saying, Jacob is yet alive, and he is governor over all the land of Egypt. And Jacob's heart painted.
For he believed them not.
And they told him all the words of Joseph which he had said unto them. And when he saw the wagons which Joseph had sent to carry him, the spirit of Jacob their father revised. And Israel said, It is enough. Joseph, my son is yet alive. I will go and see him before I die.
Joseph's brother had proved to their father they were really not worthy of his trust, and they came back with this marvelous news that Jacob Joseph was still alive. But he believed them not.
And they told him the words of Joseph, there must have been something that resonated with him and yet he didn't trust them. But in Speaking of recognizing the Lord's hand, whether it's in chastening and so enjoy the thought of another. He expressed it this way when he saw the way he said chosen for July. That was just like Joseph. It had the the all the marks of Joseph on it, his largesse, his kindness, his generosity. And it wasn't their words is what he saw. And he said that's Joseph.
The goodness of God that leads us to repentance.
So you can cut on that. You refer to that verse, the goodness of God leadeth us to repentance that maybe others have thought the same thing. I always have thought of that versus God is good. Therefore he leads us to repentance. But you know, it's his goodness. It's a display of his goodness that breaks the heart now and leads to repentance. It's when the prodigal remembered all the good that we're going to call this house.
Let me turn back. And so the, the display of equipment and it's kindness for the, in spite of what we've done and all that we have perhaps dishonored it, uh, him in, he's the same towards us unchanged and, and his love for this and affection, that's what Peter found. He found a Lord that loved him all the same. No change with the Lord.
We see something in the ways of the Lord's working with Peter. He had instructed Peter, as was mentioned after his restoration here, as to what would happen. It was indicated how that could have given him. He had every right to have confidence when he was in prison there, bound between the soldiers.
The word of the Lord was given to him for faith to lay hold of. The word of the Lord is not given to us to satisfy our curiosity. And that's really the question that Peter then would have about John.
Verse 22 If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee?
Fall without me.
The Lord is not in the business to satisfy your curiosity. And if we approach the Scriptures in that way of wondering, you know, what this particular dinosaur bone is doing here or there or anywhere, and whatever the case may be, that's that's not why the Scriptures are given to us. That's not why the Word of God is given to us.
01:00:14
And so it's just to see the Lord as he, he has restored Peter and now he's, he's focusing his direction for the rest of his life. He's giving that which faith would lay hold of. And so for each one of our, our lives, if we are seeking the Lord's will and we're seeking his direction, he's not, he's not just going to tell us what we're going to be doing five years from now to tickle our fancy and just make our lives easy. It's that faith would have something to lay hold of the trial of your faith being more precious than of gold.
That perishes. That would be trying to fire and that's.
That's something that the Lord so values, and so it's beautiful to see this in the life of Peter and I. I believe each one of this, each one of us experienced this in different ways in our life as well.
Is another uh.
Aspect of this more coming back to the.
Dispensational lines of things or whatever other cuts on the other day in the various books of the Bible and God's purpose in picking up each instrument. The Lord says to Peter, follow thou me. Peter was going to have a particular ministry and it was especially following in the Lord's ministry. John the Baptist was raised up he what did he do? Repent for the Kingdom of God is at hand.
He's put in prison from that time Jesus began to preach repent for the Kingdom of God is hand at hand. The Lord goes up to glory and on the day of Pentecost Peter comes out and he says repent to who? It's really a repentance to Israel, a national plea, a plea for their national repentance as well as individual and so in Romans.
Chapter.
I don't know if I can find it here, I think it's chapter 15.
Verse 8IN connection with the reception of the Jews, because it's a matter of of, uh, receiving one another that's making up your first aid. Now I say that Jesus Christ was a minister of the circumcision for the truth of God to confirm the promises made unto the fathers. Peter was going to be a minister in circumcision.
And he was going to bring before those Jewish Christian believers that they had not lost.
No blessing because they had come out and received price, though they had lost every earthly thing. They had the best promises that God had to give you. They had something even better than the promises made to Israel. They had something high and something better. And that's the exceeding great, precious promises. I think might be better translated the greatest and best promises at the conference to what Israel has. And so he was going to follow in the Lord's steps as a minister of the circumcision. What about John?
It says you leave that to me. John was going to have a special place too. Where do we find John? Well, at the end of the Apostolic age. Mandy Lynette, so to speak. As we touched on before Paul, Peter's gone. That time came when the Lord's word was fulfilled and his ministry was close.
Paul had finished his course and his life was poured out of the libation, as he mentioned to.
The 14 he was gone and John is there in prisoner in the Isle of Pat Austin and the Lord and the Spirit on the Lord's day and the Lord turns him around and he looks out over the Spear Falls ministry. Lord says I've got a word for you for where Paul later and in a certain sense John coming at the end of the Apostolic age, being a netmender where the enemy had made inroads is overlooking that Spear Falls ministry.
With his special ministry that he had been given.
And then the next, where the enemy is made holes and to walk over, uh, Paul's laborers, one is said. And Paul gives us as a wise master builder, the construction of the house.
He lays out the foundation that none of it could land, and he gives the House of God an all twerkings. He gives us the Church of God and all's particular.
01:05:05
But you know, we have flood in 2011 in our area and it was so interesting to drive through those streets at night and see all those houses with no light in the windows. It was really eerie.
John's ministry gives us the light that shines out over the windows of that house that fall down. He gives us the light that is to be manifest and evident and shines up the warmth and the light that shines out at that point. Paul gives us that structure. But if we didn't have what we have in John.
There would be nothing. It's the life of Christ's manifest in his own, in this world.
And so he had a special place that came at the end of the apostle gauge to give us the truth of that life which is in Christ Jesus and which is ours and should be manifest in our lives.
In that sense, uh, let's see, uh, the, uh.
He went on to the end, if I will, the entirety till I come. What is actually, it's a little difficult to know the meaning here, but I need Doctor Olson that he said that John in his ministry takes us right through the act and that's the Book of Revelation, which is a marvelous, umm, presentation of the end of.
Christendom.
The, uh, portion of the, the church in this administrative character and so on, it's all laid out for us so clearly in John's ministry, leaning us right through to the end, uh, in, in his final treatise there in level we're taking also better, but repentance is an ongoing process.
And, uh, it should characterize our lives if he ceased to repent about some sin that we have done, uh, and we change our mind about it. That's what we're trying to do, the change of mind. But if we seem to be repent, then we regard that skin as acceptable. You know what I mean? So I was looking for the verse in, uh, Jeremiah and I can't seem to find it. Umm, after I was turned, I repent it.
Showing that there was.
Her refills were sentence in the life of the believers. I just can't put my finger on that.
3119 Well, thank you very much. 31.
Give me one.
19.
Read it, buddy. Surely after that I was turned, I repented, and after that I was instructed. I smote upon my thigh. I was ashamed, Gabe confounded because I did bear the reproach of my youth. Well, that's the, uh, the, the, the teeth came there.
You see in the life of Abraham that, uh.
He failed in, uh, deceiving, uh, the Egyptians about his wife.
Umm, the Lord brought him back to the land of pain, but later in his life he failed in that same thing again with Abimelech, you'll remember.
Seems that there was not really a judgment of the root of the problem. That and uh, judging the root is is is a difficult thing for us. Sometimes we don't do it.
I think that's a little term until I come is really a little instruction perhaps to continue on. And so we have the term used and I believe the expression used throughout the New Testament several times, I think maybe six or seven times. But in chapter first Corinthians, Chapter 11, verse 26, right at the end, he uses the same term, the apostle Paul by divine inspiration and we know that it was revealed to him. I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you and he says.
For as often as eat his bread and drink this coffee to show or announce the Lord's death till he comes. And so we have continuation. There's God has placed us in this scene that we might continue to announce the coming of the Lord and announce to him to this world and to one another that he died and why he died. And we know that we glorify the Lord in connection with the.
01:10:16
How he was trained and we recognized him as a resurrected one and we can do it till He comes. But here it's really continuing on the path of steadfastness and the path that allows us to walk in community with the Lord right till the end, didn't it? Marvelous. The Lord says you're going to be able to walk in John's ministry right to the end. And I think that was good really. Perhaps specifically what he was saying. If I will they carry until I come. What is that to be?
Another set if there's anything real.
In this world of empty profession and pretension.
We live in and the day of the room of the church. It's the manifestation of the life of his beloved Son in his own, in this world. And so the last epistle of the apostle Paul and its opening words dovetails from John's ministry. Just read that verse.
Second Timothy in chapter one.
All the apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, according to the promised of life, which is in Christ Jesus.
Is that Paul's closing is course and as as much as dovetailing in with with, uh, John's oversight that's going to fall.
You sing 182.
182.
Our tongue shall spread.
Last day. First day.
Let's say.
Our.
Our shadows and Dark Souls and dawn again.
Sheraton Clinic, South Carolina. Uh-huh. I'll send you a lot of.
I love you.
About 10.
Oh.
Mm-hmm.
Umm, hair and rare hair. And it's pretty, uh.
We've gone by, you grow.
A dream of all the parents. Very, very, very well, yeah.
And the trouble?
Of.
01:15:22
No.
And why did she come out of the world happening?
It's OK.
I'm in Tennessee to make themselves pain.
All the.
We converse with Injustice chapter 50.
Chopper 50, verse 15.
And when Joseph, brethren saw that their father was dead, and said, Joseph will first venture hate us, and will certainly requite us all the evil which we did.
And they sent some messengers to Joseph, saying that Father did command before he died, saying so. So shall you say unto Joseph, Forgive, I pray thee now the trespass of thy brethren and their sin. For they did evil on the uh, they did unto the evil, and now he's crazy. Forgive the trespass of the servants of the God of thy father. And Joseph wept when they faith unto him. And his brethren also went and fell down before his face. And they said, Behold, we be thy servants.
And Joseph said to them, Fear not, for am I in the place of God, but As for you, ye thought evil against me, but God meant it unto good to bring the past as it is this day, to save much people alive now. Therefore fear ye not, I will nourish you and your little one, and you comforted them, and speak kindly unto them.
Our godfather's been our privilege to.
Open thy word and learn the and we just pray that, umm, as we go our separate places after the conference is over, that we would try and encourage each other and comfort each other and speak kindly. And that if there are those that are backsliding or falling away, and if they do come back, then we would comfort them. We kind of into them. So we thank you, Lord, for the, umm, encouragement that this time has been. We thank, uh, the for the.
The brother here in Hammer Bay to put this on and we just asked for, uh, continued blessing here.
Is our time of fellowship in the Gospel this evening. My name is.
Rabboni Master of My Heart
Gospel—Rick Shower
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.
Good evening. I'd like to welcome you to the gospel meeting tonight. I noticed that you all came in here and I noticed something about all of you back to know two things about every one of you.
Whether you're young, tall, older, shorter, I know two things about everyone of you.
The first one is every one of you was born a Sinner.
So some of you are wondering, what's the other thing?
Every one of you has 2 bones in your inner ear that are the same size from birth to death.
And everyone of you have those two bones in your ear or you couldn't hear me.
Now, there's a reason why God gave you those two bones, and that's so that you could hear. And those two bones are the same size whether you're very young or you're over 90.
So that you could hear. And what is the purpose of God giving you those bones? To hear, To hear the gospel of the grace of God, that he sent his Son to be a Sinner for you.
Yeah, I can probably tell you a third thing. It might not be true of all of you, but I think most all of you have searched for happiness.
You want to be happy.
We've all been around people who are unhappy and you know, that's pretty hard, but we all want to be happy.
Not too long ago I was in a store.
And this store had a lot of house decor in it, and it was one that had a number of these fancy kind of plaques with the, uh, farm look to it, kind of rusty. And it has all these words written in fancy letters. But there was one plaque that really stood out to me.
And you know what it said?
It said it's never too late to live happily ever after.
And I thought, wow, that is the gospel. That is the good news. It's never too late to live happily ever after.
Ever after, not just in this life, but in the life to come to live happily ever after. So we're going to speak of some things tonight that can make you happy ever after. And you all have those bones in your ears. So I know you're going to hear what I have to say or what the Lord has to say to you tonight. I'd like to start with a song.
If you look at your hymn sheets.
I'd like to sing #2.
Her brother had raised the tune to #2.
Jesus gently calling. He will care and call our friends.
With your guilt, thou air appalling.
Command I will give you rest.
For your sake.
He won't pass suffered on the.
Uh, the work was done.
And outward down South now utter, to which we Resov.
Come, the father's husband.
And I will return into the folder.
All due to you may not be alone.
So long to do his sisters and smile down.
00:05:10
Tell her father's out of the plane and the father's welcome to come.
Come for lunch and gathering with sleep our little world like we see the day.
Yes, and then dress down from the fire and sniff yells and we're blinking. You're alive. I have to go away to me.
I've been waiting till one day. It's hard as long.
When his patients are amazing, Jesus is making him hurts for you. Come, just ask God's help.
Our God and our Father.
So what the Lord Jesus said himself, Matthew 1128 Come unto me, not somewhere else, Come unto me, all ye that weary and heavy laden. Now you might say tonight that you're not weary, especially if you're younger and you're not heavy laden, that is burdened down with sins. I'm all right, I'm OK.
But you know that's a lie of Satan.
At His desire to make you comfortable as a Sinner. He doesn't want you to be uncomfortable. He wants you to be comfortable so you'll continue on on a course that you chose in sin.
So what is sin?
Send.
It is simply the evil principle of doing one's own will without reference to God.
Just doing your own will, just doing what you wanna do. We hear it all over in our society.
Just do it. That was Nike slogan.
Do your own will. Don't think about God. Don't think about God has an influence on your life at all. Just do what you want to do.
And that's what Satan has done. Satan is the greatest example of doing your own will. He wanted to exalt himself above God, and ever since then, he's wanted to do his own will.
And that is to bring down God.
And so he faithfully works at it in your life as a Sinner. Now he's going to make you feel comfortable.
Because if you're uncomfortable, you're gonna question things. You're gonna question, well, why am I unhappy? Why am I not, uh, joyful? And.
Having a good time like everybody else.
Couple of years ago my wife and I were in a Bible museum in Arizona.
About, uh, less than half the size of this room. And this gentleman who owned the museum had collected a lot of original Bibles, the originals, and he had them in a glass plate glass case where you could look at them and as we were walking around and he had them kind of in order as you went around the glass case from the.
From the oldest that he had around to the newest and.
As we were there, there was a young man and his wife and two children, and I noticed he was pretty intent at looking at those bibles, so I struck up a conversation with him. Turns out he was from Indonesia.
And he was looking at these Bibles. And so I asked him, are you saved? Oh, yes. He said, yes, I'm saved. And I, I said, well, what are you doing here in the United States? Always says I'm, I'm putting together a video for our people back in our land of how we got the Bible.
00:10:00
He says, you know, in our land they don't know much about the history of the Bible and how it all came to pass.
So he said.
That's, that's, uh, what I'm on and we're kind of combining our, a little vacation and we're traveling around here to different places in the United States. Uh, and I'm making a video and I said, wow, that's, uh, quite interesting. I said, uh, how did you get saved? He says, well, he says, my wife and I were into the now times.
He said. We both had very good jobs, we were making good money there in Indonesia.
And he said every night we partied and every night we drank.
And we come home, we go to bed, we get up, we do the same thing the next day, we go to work, do our work. So the work was over, we go party. And he said we did that for several years on a daily basis. And he said one day.
I thought to myself.
Is this all there is to life? Is this it just to have a good time and even the good times we're wearing out?
And so he said out of boredom he turned on the TV and he was turning down. I think he said they had a couple of channels there on the TV, but one of them was a channel that a group of Christians had and they were able to broadcast the gospel. And he listened to what was said and got saved.
And he immediately realized there was something more to this life than the happiness that he, quote, had up until that point. And so he was happy. He realized his sins forgiven. The first person he told was who?
Is why? And she said, really? She said, you mean you weren't having fun All those times that we were out and we were partying and doing all the things, you weren't having a really good time. He said, no, you got to be just terrible. And she looked at him and she said, me too. And she said, I didn't want to tell you.
And he said I found something better.
And so he gave her what he had heard from that radio of that TV station, and they both got saved now, he said.
The first thing we wanted to do was get in contact with that TV station and they were not allowed to solicit any kind of feedback from in their country because it's mostly a Muslim country. They as Christians, they were not allowed to have any kind of a feedback. So what he did, he said there was a telephone number down on the bottom of the screen.
And he said. So we called the telephone number.
And he says, the short of it is, I'm working for the TV station now, my wife and I. And he said just through that telephone number, we are able to send out books only if they ask. We send out Bibles to them. And so it was very interesting to hear a young man and his wife whose lives were turned around. They thought they were happy. They really thought they had the world.
As they say by its tail, they were just having a great time and yet deep down inside they were not happy.
Not happy at all.
Now there's something interesting I think about every person that gets saved.
Because when the Spirit of God works in your heart to make you realize you're a Sinner, He makes you realize you have a need.
You have a need.
You might use your sins, he might use circumstances, he might use whatever because he knows what works with best with each of us. But he had a knee, and that young couple had a need.
They had a need of something more than what the world would call a great life at all. The money they needed at all the time they needed, and they just lived it up. They had to admit after a short time that was not happiness at all. So tonight I want to look at a man who had a need. So we'll turn to the book of Mark.
That I firmly believe.
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That God creates needs in our lives, and when that need is met, it will be met by the Savior, the one we were just singing about, the one who wants us to come to Him. So we're going to look in the Gospel of Mark chapter 10. Mark chapter 10.
And umm, I'm going to read the whole passage and then I'm going to come back and make some comments. So mark chapter 10 and we're going to begin at verse 46. I think this is a story many of you already know and have heard.
Mark 10 verse 46 And they came to Jericho. As he went out of Jericho with his disciples and a great number of people, blind Bartimaeus the son of Timaeus, sat by the highway side.
Begging. And when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out and say, Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on me. And many charged him that he should hold his peace. But he cried the more a great deal, Thou son of David, have mercy on me. And Jesus stood still.
And commanded him to be called. And they called the blind man, saying unto him, Be of good comfort, Rise, he calleth thee. And he, casting away his garment, rose, and came to Jesus.
And Jesus answered and said unto him, What wilt thou that I should do unto thee?
A blind man said unto him, Lord, that I might receive my sight. And Jesus said unto him, Go thy way, thy faith hath made thee whole. And immediately he received his sight, and followed Jesus in the way.
Now the the very beginning here is kind of an odd expression. It says when they came to Jericho and as he went out of Jericho.
And sometimes if you read it in the in Matthew and Luke where you get the same portion, one talks about coming in and the other talks about going out. Well, if it's the same incident, how are you coming in and going out at the same time? I'll just say for those who like to convey with the scriptures, research excavations have found that in connection with Jericho, there are two cities.
The one the original back from the days of judges.
And coming into the land, the other one being a ruins of a Roman city. And they were slightly apart from one another, the whole foundation of the original old city, the whole foundation of a Roman city. So it was very possible to come into one city, pass through and go out the other city. And he was in between a little space where they were. So he sat by the wayside. So that's the by the by there, for those of you that think about it. But the city was Jericho. Remember about Jericho.
Place of a curse.
You live in Jericho, you know.
You live in the place of the curse. This world we live in is under the curse.
And there was a man there that had a need. His name was Artemaeus, the son of Timaeus. And he had a need. Now. He had a need that was very obvious he couldn't see. And everyone of you and myself.
The Lord uses a need in our lives to bring us to Him.
Now sometimes the need is totally inside.
The young couple that were there from Indonesia.
Their need was inside. If you'd have looked at them, you'd have thought, oh, this is a happy couple. They're making good money and they're seem to be happy and had two children. They have a family. Everything is going right. Uh-huh. Until the Lord Jesus became their savior, they weren't happy. They were truly unhappy. But the Lord created a need inside. Sometimes Lord might use circumstances to bring about a need.
There was a story of a of a young man who was a rebellious young man, as young men sometimes are in their family. He had a praying mother. She prayed for him every day. He would go out. Sometimes he'd be gone all night. You come in the wee hours of the morning.
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You find his mother down on her knees, praying for her son.
And that all went on for some time and as it got a little older, probably out of high school.
You couldn't take it anymore, so we left.
But he knew his mother was still praying for him.
But he went on, and as we said, what is in It's the principle of doing one's own well. He went and did his own well. He went and lived his life the way he wanted to.
But a circumstance came in.
One of the people there that knew his parents sent him a letter and said your mother's sick.
Mother's really sick. You really need to come home and see your mother.
Any thoughts? I probably should really go home and see mom. Been a long time. You know how Satan is.
If don't worry about it.
Oh, he didn't. He got a second letter. The 2nd letter said your mother's no better.
And so he thought, I better go see my mom.
So AI think it was a train, He took the train, the city where he used to live and he got off the train and it was already dark, but he knew the way to the house and he thought he'd take a shortcut. And the shortcut happened to go through a cemetery. And so he knew his way and there was enough light for him to be able to see where he is going, sort of.
And as he went through the cemetery, he was hurrying because he he just had this feeling he needed to get home and see his mom or she died. And as he was hurrying along, all of a sudden.
You sell right over on his face.
Ripped.
He brushed himself off. He thought. Oh.
A triple. And he turned around and looked. Lo and behold, there was a fresh grave.
Nissan, OH.
And so he worked his way to the head of the grave. And there was a little.
Cross with.
Piece of board on it, at his mother's name on it.
Too late.
Never got back.
There was a circumstance in his life. God brought it in for a reason.
He broke his heart.
And he realized that he could never tell his mother he was sorry. He could never tell his mother that, uh, he lived a life that really wasn't pleasing and it really wasn't happy. And what did he do? He cried out to God.
To save his miserable rotten soul.
It had no use for a praying mother.
What about the mother?
She never got to see, her son say.
You think she ever quit praying?
She loved her son.
Lord Jesus loves each one of you far more than a mother's love. Sometimes we might not think that's possible when we're younger because we really love our mother and He loves us far more.
And so so it was too late.
Mother's prayers were finally answered. So there were circumstances that brought that person to the Lord. Young couple, it's inside for Brian Bartamas. It's something visual, literally, that you could see.
Verse 47 And when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out.
Now, you know, there's something about blind people. If you've been around them a little bit, it seems that God gives their other senses the capacity to make up for one that's missing. Whether they're deaf, whether they're blind. It's amazing sometimes just how well they can function without something you and I think they couldn't function without.
Well, flying borrowed Emmaus.
Had those air bones and they were working really well.
You know, sometimes blind people can often hear. Their hearing becomes so acute that they are able to hear things. You and I just kind of tune out. We just, we just don't hear it.
And blind Bartimaeus had heard about this one called Jesus of Nazareth.
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I don't know how long he'd heard or how much he had heard. It doesn't tell us. But he did know something about him. He knew that he was the son of David.
Because it says in verse 47 he cried out, Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on me. Now he wouldn't have said those words if he didn't have a little bit of understanding about who this was.
But what did the people around him do?
They said in verse 48, and many charged him, that he should hold his peace. In other words, they said shut up, be quiet. We don't need to hear you crying out to this one who's going by.
If you're not saved tonight.
That's what your friends wanna do.
That are in the world they wanna and Satan wants. Do they wanna shut out?
That cry that you have towards the Lord, they don't want you to do that.
But not for him, he continues it says. But he cried more a great deal. He didn't just say it once and then give up. Oh no, The Spirit of God was working inside of his heart and he cried out the more a great deal.
Thou, Son of David, have mercy on me, says it twice.
Then in verse 48 or 49, excuse me? And Jesus stood still and commanded him to be called.
As someone has said.
A cry of a Sinner will stop the creator God in his tracks.
That's what happened there.
The God of all creation, the Son of God, come down from heaven in bodily form, came to a dead stop as he walked on this earth because.
One cried out with a need.
If God's speaking to your heart tonight and you have a sense of need.
Don't resist the sense of need.
Because he's waiting for you to respond to it, and he's waiting for you to respond so that he can bless you.
Unless you're saved, you don't know what real blessing is.
You only think you do, and that thinking is Satan's thought to keep you where you're at. He doesn't want you to get saved. So what else happens here?
You stand still and he commands him to be called and they call the blind man saying be of good comfort. Oh wait a minute, these are the same ones that just told him to be quiet. We don't want to hear from you, don't bother us.
Now what's happened? They called the blind man saying be of good comfort.
Right Ecolethe.
Did he respond to what they said? Yes, he did. You bet. And he, casting away his garment, rose came to Jesus.
Now, a little sidebar over here. We had some wonderful things brought out before us in the open meeting today.
Precious things. I would like to say this and comment on what was said.
But sometimes in our deportment we do not consider into whose presence we come.
What a blind Bartimaeus do.
It says that he, casting away his garment, rose and came to Jesus.
There was a fit.
Way in which he was to come into the presence of someone greater than himself.
I'll let you do the research.
Joseph.
Ruth.
David.
Peter.
They all changed their garments when they came in the presence of someone greater than themselves.
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I'll let you apply it.
So he changes his garment, he comes to Jesus, And Jesus answered and said unto him, What wilt thou that I should do unto thee?
Did he know what blind Bartimaeus wanted? Yes.
He knew, but he wanted blind Bartimaeus to verbalize it. He wanted him to say it.
Because usually when we say things, we mean what we say.
And he wanted him to articulate that he had a need.
And then what does he do? He meets that need.
So completely.
And So what should I do unto thee in the blind man? Sent it to him, Lord, that I might receive my sight.
Doesn't tell us why he wanted his site so bad, but we could probably think of a lot of reasons. If we were blind, we'd really wanna have the ability to see again.
It doesn't tell us.
I'll later make a suggestion as to what it might have been.
Verse 52 And Jesus said unto him, Go thy way, thy faith hath made thee whole.
What's faith?
Talked about what sin is. It's doing your own will without reference to God. Just go do what you wanna do.
Faith is believing what God has revealed to you about Himself.
That's what faith is believing God, believing what God has revealed to you.
Uh, sometimes faith might be pretty simple.
Here, with blind Bartimaeus, he's simply taking the fact that Jesus of Nazareth is passing by.
And believe me.
We have a whole lot more than blind Bartimaeus had. Do we believe it? We take it by faith, and just simply what God has given to us we're able to believe and put into practice.
And he said, So go thy way, thy faith hath made thee whole. And immediately he received his sight, and he followed Jesus in the way.
Follow Jesus in the way there's no thought of him doing his own will again.
The thought is that he is going to follow Jesus and what his will is in the way.
Now.
Oh, if you don't know the Savior One, you're not happy.
Two, you're headed for hell, lost eternity, tire separation from God.
And three.
You make a mark of the death of the Lord Jesus Christ for you.
You mock it in the sense that you have nothing to do with it. OK.
If you're in that state tonight, I trust you'll re realize your condition and do something about it by accepting Christ as your Savior now.
What's the first thing that Blind Bartimaeus did?
The first thing that he did?
Is.
He said one word, Lord.
Yeah, I want to share something here because it's kind of a nice way to end the conference.
The word Lord there is not Lord, it's rabona, and if you check Mr. Darby's translation, you'll see that it's Ramona.
The word roboni doesn't mean just master.
Rabo and I in the case here and the only other place it's used in scripture, means the master of my heart.
A master of my heart. It wasn't just the fact he was owning that Jesus was Lord or the one having authority over him.
Oh, it was the heart that had been captured, the affections had been brought into play. And so he says, Lord, that I might receive my sight. This is the first use of the word rabona in the New Testament.
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It's a man, the only other case we had at the beginning of the conference with Mary Magdalene.
Saying to the Lord Rabona, it's the same word. Master of my heart, master of my affections.
It's our affections, people.
That guide us. It's our affections that give us the love of the Lord Jesus back.
Now I think it's interesting that.
With Reliant Bartimaeus, it's a man.
With Mary and Magdalene, it's a woman. It's open to everyone in this room, male or female, to have that great affection for the Lord Jesus. It's not limited to the women who tend to be more romantic and loving and so forth, and the men that are more stalwart. They don't have that chance. No, no, no, no, no. It's open to every man and woman in here to have that ribbon eye character to say that you are the.
Lord Jesus, you are the Master of my heart.
The other thing that I'm most impressed with is that with him, it started right at the very beginning moment of his life in connection with Christ, right from the beginning, he said Rabona.
Master of my heart.
Yeah, I mentioned that. I don't know how much he realized about the Lord Jesus. He calls him Jesus of Nazareth. It's a spies term. I don't know how much he learned about him, It doesn't tell us. But I do know that what he had learned was enough to capture his affections.
And so when he said, Lord, that I might receive my sight, what was?
What you What was he really asking?
Captured my affections. I want to see you.
Don't we wanna see?
Physically with our eyes, that one who loved us and gave himself for us. Don't we wanna be in that capacity? What did Mary Mae do? Lynn, say, show me what you did with them. I want to see him with my eyes.
That's the rabona character that you and I should have.
In our relationship with the Lord Jesus.
And so we come to Mary Magdalene. She's a little different.
She's down the road, if a little farther.
She's known the Lord, and the Lord had captured her heart sometime in the past. We don't know exactly how long, but it wasn't as quickly as it was here with Him. And I like to think of it this way.
We want, should want, to love the Lord Jesus and have that affection for Him as we did at the very beginning when we knew our sins were forgiven.
So it's possible to have that affection whether you've just come to know the Lord Jesus as your Savior or whether you're down the road 4050, seventy years.
Still have that affection, just like Mary Magdalene did. The loving with all her heart.
He starts out right here.
Now one more thing.
I mentioned about how he followed Jesus in the way.
What gave him to want to follow him?
The affection of his heart.
What you and I do for the Lord Jesus.
Is but a reflection of how much we love him in our heart.
That rabona character.
Now Scripture only uses the word twice, here and in the resurrection.
The Lord had the opportunity to hear with his ear.
Blind Bartimaeus, say Rabbonae, master of my heart.
After his death and his work was done, resurrection.
To hear it again.
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Mary after resurrection to hear one say.
Master of my heart, Master of my affections.
That's what he wants. That's what he wants from us. But you're not what I'm what I'm saying tonight means absolutely nothing to you.
If you don't know him as your savior.
You can't love something you don't know.
But if you're knowing, shouldn't we have that rabona character?
And we said so many things and there were nice things, just we said, uh.
When the conference started about Mary Magdalene and the situation she was in.
And we all recognize that she had a great affection for the Lord.
But it was a rabona character.
That meant I believe so much to the Lord.
He that was forgiven much?
Loved much and her brother brought out what kind of a life she must have had if she had seven devils in her we can read about one devil taking a child and young man or casting him down, throwing him into the fire, wallowing around, foaming at the mouth, all these things. We can read about the man called legion because he had a legion of devils in 2000 swine going to the into the.
Sea.
Devils, She had seven full complete number.
What it must have been to be delivered from that what it must have been delivered?
From a blind state to be able to see the one.
Who gave him that side?
In the ninth of John, another man is blind, blind from his birth, but he didn't get.
What line bar to Mascot? Because when his eyes were open, he didn't see the one who gave him the ability to have his eyes open. That came later.
But for, uh, blind Bartimaeus, it was right then that's what I would desire for each one of you here, that you might know of the Lord Jesus as your Savior and realize in the heart, deepest part of your heart and your affection that he loves you so much.
And you in return.
And love Him. We love him because He first loved us. That's where it must begin. So you must know Him as your Savior. And I trust everyone here tonight does. And if you don't, don't waste a moment.
Don't delay, now is the accepted time to knowing as your Savior, let's just pray. Our God and our Father, we're thankful.