Reading
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It is also Divine hymn #61.
In Nehemiah.
The book of Nehemiah.
The.
And Chapter 8.
And I'd like to read starting with verse 5, Nehemiah chapter 8, verse 5.
And Ezra opened the book.
Verse 7.
Also Jeshua Bonnie Sharabaya, Jammin Akib, Shabbath AI Hodija Masiya Kulita, Azariah, Jazabad, Hanan Pelaya.
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And the Levites.
And the Levites.
Caused the people to understand.
Verse 8.
So they read in the book in the law of God, distinctly.
And gave the sense and caused them to understand.
The reading now One other portion, please.
In one Corinthians.
Chapter 14.
First Corinthians chapter 14.
And I just like to read a part of verse 9.
One Corinthians chapter 14, A part of verse 9 words easy to be understood. Now I'd like to reread that whole verse in the JND translation thus also.
Ye with the tongue, unless ye give a distinct speech, how shall it be known what is spoken?
And finally.
Part of verse.
19.
5 words with my understanding that by my voice I might teach others also.
Let's pray.
Our great chapter. I wonder if it would be good to go on with the fourth verse.
Reading in Hebrews chapter one starting with verse 4.
Being made so much better than the angels, that he hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they, For unto which of the angels said, He at any time thou art my son, this day have I begotten thee. And again I will be to him a Father, and he shall be to me a Son, and again when he bringeth in the first begotten into the world, he says.
And let all the angels of God worship him.
And of the angels, he said, Who maketh his angels spirits and his ministers a flame of fire?
But unto the sun he said, Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever A scepter of righteousness is a scepter of thy Kingdom. Thou hast loved righteousness and hated iniquity. Therefore God, even thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows.
And thou, Lord, in the beginning hath laid the foundation of the earth.
And the heavens are the works of thine hands they shall perish.
But thou remainest, and they shall all wax old, as doth the garment.
And as a vesture shalt thou fold them up, and they shall be changed.
But thou art the same, and my ears shall not fail. But to which of the angels said he at any time sit on my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool?
Are they not all ministering spirits sent forth the minister?
For them who shall be heirs of salvation.
Reflect on the closing of our last reading meeting, our brother Bob.
Stuck a negative note. We enjoy the positive, but I believe it's necessary to have the negatives so we can appreciate the positive the more. And I'd like to turn back to what he referred to and Hebrews chapter 3 in respect to apostasy.
We may have heard the same message coming from the same assembly from our brother Lundeen, but he mentioned how that Judas was a.
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Is an example of taking these three steps of apostasy. The 1St is in connection with hardening your heart.
That he had the responsibility of handling the bag, That is what the money that may have been contributed to a good 'cause he handled that, and it introduced hardness of heart to him, because it's taking you off the ground of dependence on the Lord.
And then it says they do always air in their heart. Well, Judas became a thief.
And you see him there in Bethany, in the House of Mary and Martha, and he sees this ointment being poured upon the Blessed Lord, so costly, and he's indignant about it that should have been sold and given to the poor. But he's really thinking about the income into that bag. And that's what got through to him. And I believe that he no doubt was a very stingy man and really didn't have a heart for the poor, just cut corners where he could.
But then the third step and the deadly step is the evil heart of unbelief. And he took that step when he sold the Lord for 30 pieces of silver. He wanted to try to recover the loss that he thought he saw there in Bethany. So he took those three steps. The brother-in-law would like to translate this to our day.
We have what we call a scenario of the dinosaur.
And Satan has made a mega dollar enterprise out of this situation.
And I don't understand the interest in this situation because I don't see where dinosaurs at an atom of spiritual blessing to our souls. But I see this thing catch on like wildfire. And you have dinosaurs and in rubber and in plastic and in pictures and books. And then I find it in the homes of the Lord's people, and I see the children intensely interested and the older folks still and trying to figure out when they lived and what they ate and what they did.
And.
And so I wondered where all this is leading to. This is backed by the powers of darkness. And where is it leading to? Well, the other day.
My wonderment ceased writing on the airplane. You know how they drop a video in for the public to see, and here's this dinosaur scenario.
And I suppose that man is looking for the biggest creature that they think God has created and seems to fall in this category.
And so this dinosaur.
I just it grieves me to say it, but the name of this dinosaur is Godzilla.
Now I'm naive as to worldly wisdom, but I have to say that that offended my soul deeply, and so you can't help but turn away with disgust from such cheap entertainment. But then it came down to the bottom line and you could see men with his rocket launcher, and he pulls the trigger and hits this dinosaur and he drops to the ground, Dad fatally.
And there's a big celebration.
Brother, is this apostasy? I believe it is.
They like to pick up those three steps. We enter into it innocently and it's an opportunity to make a lot of money for some people, and then it becomes a thief of our time. And instead of being taken up with that which would build us up in our most holy faith, we're wasting time in this kind of entertainment.
And then finally we come to the last deadly step and I say, is this giving up God and not wishing to retain him in our thoughts? Well, this indeed is a very negative thing. But I mentioned that at the beginning that the ministry that will come, that we might receive it, the engrafted word of God with meekness. And what's embodied in meekness, I believe is in self judgment.
In sobriety.
Receive it with tears, because we're sowing like the glorious men that we have brought before us in the first chapter of Hebrews. And so I just mentioned that as Satan coming in the front door of the back door, whatever it is, I believe the Lord would richly feed us, that we would have the spiritual power to overcome and not to go down in a deadly conflict that Satan is waging.
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Against Christ.
And against his interest in this world, I know I've violated our brother Doug's admonition as to 5 words, but I just wanted to mention that as a burden and a necessary thing to have negative notes, that we may enjoy the positive.
The fourth starts being made so much better than the angels.
He starts at the top of creation. Let's read the first, the last verse of the first chapter of John John One and the last verse connects beautifully with this, as we heard yesterday.
The Son of God became the Son of Man, in order that the sons of men might become the sons of God. Now we see the setting of the Son of man.
In the last verse of John one which.
Speaking to Nathaniel, the Lord says.
Verily, verily, I say unto you, Hereafter ye shall see.
Heaven open and the angels of God.
Asked Cindy, and descending upon the Son of Man. The Son of Man. God has determined his purpose, and we got it in our chapter that he's going to be set up.
Even in the second Psalm it says I have set my son upon my holy hill of Zion, and we're referring to Proverbs 8. Yesterday I was set up from Everlasting, wherever the earth was made. This is the person we had before us, the brightness of his glory shining out in his second coming, and this book of Hebrews is developing.
The time when God brings his Son into the center of the creation.
It's determined. That's what we have in the sixth verse of our.
Chapter.
Again, when he bringeth in his the first begotten end of the world, he saith let all the angels of God worship him. God is determined. This is a fact that's well established with God. That's an eternal truth. So as to us making gods out of angels, we don't even do that. That would be lowering the standard, certainly not dinosaurs. The old creation is gone.
Well may we learn from these things and enjoy Christ.
And the brightness of his glory and the nearness of his coming.
Blessed place in the creation of God, and they're used in the administration of things now. But angels were never made to rule.
An Angel was never made the center of a vast system of.
Of blessing such as Adam was when God had.
Finish the creation and establishing the for man to live in, he said. Let us make man in our own image, and after our likeness man was and let them have dominion. Man was made to rule.
Man was made to have dominion. Man was made to rule.
But Madam lost that Adam, lost that place, but it's all regained in Christ.
And we lost it too. But it's all regained in Christ, God's beloved Son. Oh, wonderful. And he is going to rule. He's going to have dominion. He's he's the 110th song. Jehovah says under my Lord set up my right hand until I make thine enemies thy footstool. And there he is. He has passed through the heavens. He's sitting at the right hand of the throne of God.
That blessed one who died for you and me on the cross of Calvary. He's sitting there in the very center of the glory of God and.
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How, how blessed and how wonderful to see. He's coming to reign, but he's and he's going to crush all his enemies under his feet. It may be the footstools of his power.
In a soon coming day, but there is one event which is going to take place before that.
He is coming to take his.
Coming to take his, the coheirs, he's going to take you and me and all his own home to be with him.
In that same glory in which he is, and we're going to reign with him. Oh, what a savior. Except the corn, he could say when those Greeks came up.
And they said we would see Jesus and he looked out as it were all over those.
Those dear souls that would come to him.
And he said, and he says now the Son of Man glorified.
Well, he couldn't be glorified as Son of Man, though He wouldn't be glorified as Son of Man and head over all things over all creation.
Until he has you and me with him in that glory and so.
Except the corn of wheat fall into the ground and die it abideth alone.
You know, natural heart for power. We see the great search for it today in all man's concerns, in science and so on. It's a great search for power. While there are two powers that are above man, brethren, the power of God and the power of Satan. Man likes to think that he is free, that he can carry out his own will. But he's not free because there are two powers above him. And unless we have been set free in Christ, why we're not free at all. He's the only one, and his power is above that. And we know that in the Jewish system of things, angels played a very important part.
Where they received the law by the disposition of angels. And so there's the feeling that man here is looking 2 angels, but there is a man that has taken the place above angels, and that, I believe, is what is brought before us here. And when that blessed one was brought into this world, born a babe in Bethlehem's Manger, it says that all the angels of God worship him. There was a multitude of the heavenly host crying glory to God in the highest and on earth, peace, goodwill to man. God had become a man in the person of Christ.
Has very important because we know that all the attacks in modern Christendom is an attack on the deity of Christ and on the work of Christ. But this book brings before us the glory of that person, especially here, and then the glory of his work, the glory of his service. If there was a priesthood in Israel, he's the great high priest. If there were sacrifices, he's better than all the sacrifices. And that's what God would bring before us, I believe, and in this chapter particularly.
Showing us that even though the Lord Jesus became a man and he was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, God says, as it were, that man who's taken that low place is above all the angels. He's above all creation, and he wants to have the worship and praise and Thanksgiving of our hearts. And I believe that's what is particularly brought before us here. And this book begins by setting him before us because.
Even in connection with his work, it's the person that gives value to the work. So he, the glory of his person, is particularly brought before us. But I say again, man is always searching for power. And even in what you're talking about, the dinosaurs, well, there's something huge animals. So there's something big. And man wants something big and he wants something that displays power. But if you and I and all the Lord Jesus Christ is made unto us, wisdom and righteousness, sanctification and redemption.
Is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth. He's the power for our walk, and that's that power that'll in that moment when He comes, it'll change every one of us who belong to him, and give us bodies of glory and introduce us into that scene. And brethren, there'll be a man at the head of that seed. But who is that man go on in whom all power is to whom all power is given? And that's the one the Spirit is bringing before us in this chapter. It seems to me we're saying here is.
A demonstration of what God wanted, the victory that he wanted in that.
He set the first man up as a head of a creation, and he lost it. How was God going to regain that? I tell you, brethren, it's a man. God gains the victory as a man. Man lost it, but God gained it as a man. The man, Christ Jesus. It makes it makes the whole plan so charming.
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If.
You might say a little word.
The Ministry and dear brother Ron to comfort you, I'll say more than 5 words too, but.
The ministry that we have been receiving.
All of us sitting here, from the youngest who can understand to the oldest is so rich and precious. But I wonder if we're gaining for our souls why it is so vital and so important and I am unable to enter into the depths of that. But I would like, with my brethren's allowance, to share this thought. Yesterday, a brother, I think it was brother Bob said that.
Likened in in the sense of all creation. And he talked about how the telescope's are made larger and larger and what do they see? Just more and more of this universe.
Never can see the end, and above it all is what our God. And so you have in Isaiah.
66.
It says heaven.
In verse, verse one of Isaiah 66, Thus saith the Lord. The heaven is my throne and the earth is my footstool. Where is the house that ye build on to me, and where is the place of my rest? This is an infinite our God is infinite, this glorious one we're Speaking of, and we can't really enter into that. But we can enter in, in some sense, to the the greatness and the power and the glory.
Then, a little later, our brother Gordon mentioned that when the Lord came into this world and he displayed what the Father was, the world's answer was as it were.
If that's what God is, we don't want Him. And So what we have, if I may say it carefully this way, brethren.
In the person of our Lord Jesus, we're presented with God who is bigger.
Then all of the universe that we can't understand, even of the universe and this one we're speaking about, is bigger than than than all of that universe. He's too big, if I may say it reverently, to fill that universe.
For the world, the world was too small to have him. And so when the light shone into this world, it says the darkness of this world couldn't comprehend that light. It was too little. But now here is the third thing.
In Revelation, the Lord Jesus says, Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If any man hear my voice and open, I will come in and Sup with him. Brethren, the Lord Jesus, this glorious person, beloved young people, this glorious person that you and I are hearing so much about, and these wonderful precious things that is too big for this universe.
Your heart is big enough for him. He wants to enter.
And enjoy fellowship with you and with me. And to me, that's the practical, A practical consideration of all of this is this one who is glory, so great, so vast, so infinite, that none of us can begin to comprehend it. A one that this Dark World, so dark and sinful that could say if that's what God is, we don't want him, each one of you here.
Each one of us here, each believer here, he seeks entrance into our heart. There's a place there that he desires to fill, not only as to knowing him as savior, but as to the object of our heart and life guiding us in every step of our pathway. And I think that ought to be wonderful, though I don't understand it myself. It's exceedingly wonderful to me to think that the one who's greater than this universe.
Is knocking to seek admission, to have fellowship with me today, and when I hear the glories presented of this beloved precious?
One that we're Speaking of. I have trouble understanding those glories. Sometimes they slip by me. And I think, yes, I've heard that before. That's true, but I don't really know if I'm getting them. But beloved brethren, we can all get this. He's knocking today, moment by moment, at your heart and mine, desiring to have personal fellowship and communion with each one of us. Is that not something that would say all?
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I want to learn all I can, all I'm able to take in. I want to learn about this glorious person. I want to read these verses and get to know all I can about him because he wants to have company with me.
And examples of personal fellowship and communion with Jesus Christ.
Yep, greeting in.
Certainly the way we can cultivate fellowship with the Lord Jesus.
And while he was down here, where there were those that accompanied with him, that listened to his word, that were there to have fellowship with him.
And I suppose Scripture abounds with examples that have been Think of Mary of Bethany, who was sitting at his feet listening to his word. There was a woman who you don't find at the tomb of the Lord Jesus. Why not?
She evidently had, as no one of the male disciples understood, that Jesus was going to rise again, and she was not found there beautiful fellowship on the part of a sister that didn't seem to get through to the disciples, the apostles.
No brethren, that is true.
It's fellowship with the Lord Jesus and it is down to earth thing, down to where we are. He came where we are. He became a man. I've noticed in this verse four notice it.
Being made so much better than the angels, that has to be his manhood that it's Speaking of, because as God he was not made anything.
As man he was made so much better than the angels.
He took a place in manhood here in this world so that he can relate to us. You cannot look up into the glory and say.
To your God, you don't understand where I am. You don't understand what I'm feeling.
We can't say that, Brethren, because he does. He was here.
He passed through the same circumstances of life that we passed through. He knows what it means to be lonely. He knows what it means to be hungry, to be tired. He knows what it means to be thirsty. He passed through those circumstances of life.
And he knows what it means to pass through them, and so he can fellowship with us in every circumstance of life. I think, brethren, that our God shows his greatness not only by attending to the great things in the universe that we've been talking to, but because of the ability to take interest in the most minute details of our lives. We were saying yesterday a great man in this world doesn't have much.
Time for children and what occupies children. Our God has time for those kind of things.
That's the kind of God we know. So there is one who wants to walk in fellowship with us in all those things. I'd like to hear a little bit more on this verse four though, this name that he has by inheritance obtained.
What is this name? It's certainly Speaking of his manhood here. I would enjoy hearing more on that.
Thinking that with what we were talking about yesterday, that he has exalted his word about his name. Because we read in John 114, and the Word was made flesh and dwelled among us, and we beheld his glory, the glorious of the only Begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. And then John and his epistle, he said, We've looked on him, we've handled him.
There was an expression and a person of all that God was, that the word received meaning in a person, and so.
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You could look, and as was quoted yesterday, he that had seen me have seen the Father, and God gave him a name and incarnation, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. And so you see that that man wants a name in Babylon they wanted to make a man wanted to make a name for himself, to build this great tower and make a name for himself. But if I may put it, there was no content to that name. But here was one who was the full expression of God, that all that God was.
And he was. He has been given a name as man to which every knee will bow, and every tongue confess and fellowship is walking with him.
As men in the pathway that he walked, You see that also in revelation. And we were referring to the Church of Philadelphia, but he speaks of that. It wasn't that they were going to write the name of God upon themselves, but I will write upon him the name of my God.
It was that they had kept his word and not denied his name, and so he was going to write upon them. Sardis. They had a name to live, but were dead. And so I believe that the whole quality of the Lord's life was that he gave expression to all that God was, and that our testimony is to walk. And Speaking of fellowship is into walking in the world and the pathway that he walked, and not to make a name for ourselves. There's lots of good names I see on the churches.
As I go about united brethren, brethren in Christ, disciples of Christ, all wonderful things, but it's not giving oneself a name, but it's blocking with Jesus, and it was because he walked entirely to please the Father. I do always those things which please my Father, that God is that, and that led even to death that God had given him that name to which every knee will bow and every tongue confess that he is Lord. He didn't take the place of Lord when he came into the world, though he was.
But he took that humble place and lived to please his father, and as a result every tongue is going to confess. And we're not to take a place, but to follow him in that pathway. But it seems a wonderful thing that he's obtained by inheritance, more wonderful name than the angels.
Asked. I believe it's good to understand what the word fellowship and communion mean. The word fellowship really means common thoughts.
And the word communion is the same, actually in the original How are we going to have common thoughts with God? Only as he has revealed in His Word. If I try to have thoughts about God apart from His Word, I have wrong thoughts. But our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. So God has told me of the glory of that person. I have God's thoughts about that blessed person, who he is, what he has done, what he is to me, that he has given me a life that is capable of entering into and enjoying what is in the heart of God.
And so, if there are those of us who desire, and I trust everyone who is the Lord has a desire to have fellowship with Him, we must read His word. But not only that too. We must walk in obedience. Because if a person gives you instructions what to do, and you don't follow those instructions, then you don't have common thoughts with them. You've gone opposite to them. And so if I walk in a path that is contrary to that which is God has revealed in His Word.
Then I'm out of fellowship with God because He's made known a path to me in His Word, and I have chosen to make a path for myself. And so if we do desire, and I know that is in the desire of every renewed heart, oh, I just like to walk closer to the Lord. How are we going to do it, brethren? Well, first of all, we'll get light an instruction through His Word as to what that path is. And before we were saved, we couldn't have common thoughts.
With God, the natural man receiveth not the things of God, neither can he know them. But when you got saved, God gave you the very life of Christ. He gave you the Holy Spirit as a gift. And now you not only have the life of Christ, but through the Holy Spirit you and I have power, because the Holy Spirit is the power of that new life that we have received. And so as we sit here and learn His mind and His will and.
Our thoughts are brought into communion with him. Then if we allow the Spirit his way, we're going to say well.
I see there was something in my life that really wasn't according to his will, and we own it and we'd get restored so that we can look in communion. That's why we say that when we get out of communion, we get out of common thoughts with God, we're doing the opposite to what His will and His word is, and now we own it to him and we're restored to communion. I must say I had a difficulty about that word. Communion is often said in the meeting area, in communion with the Lord. When I was a young person, I didn't know what that meant and one brother just made a simple remark one time, he said.
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Communion is just common thoughts, Gordon. Oh, that was really a wonderful help to me, to get common thoughts with God. We get it through His Word. We get out of communion when we walk in. Disobedience to His Word or in self will were restored when we own it, and we again are brought back into communion. And Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. And it's important too to realize that fellowship. It's only in the measure in which we enjoy that personal.
Fellowship and communion with the Father and the Son that we can enjoy. Fellowship and communion one with another. And so John, who leaned on Jesus bosom at supper and referred to himself as the disciple whom Jesus loved, he could later write these things, declare we unto you that ye may have fellowship with us. And truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ, because, brethren, if we're not walking in personal communion.
We're not enjoying the fellowship that is ours, and we have been brought into that wonderful circle of fellowship. That's what first John brings before us, that position that we have been brought into a fellowship with the Father and with the Son. But if we're not enjoying that in a practical way, we cannot enjoy fellowship one with another, because true fellowship one with another, is our enjoyment of the person and work of Christ.
Sometimes we use the word fellowship in perhaps shall I even say it, a very loose way, we sometimes use the word fellowship in connection with activity. And don't misunderstand me, there's nothing wrong with activity. I'm glad when the people of God are together and we enjoy activities together and our young people and children form friendships and relationships in that way. And the natural is very important. But let's not confuse activity and fellowship and perhaps, if you'll allow me, just go back to a couple of Old Testament Scriptures.
That bear out what we're Speaking of first of all in Joshua Chapter 21.
It's good to get some Old Testament scriptures, some scriptures, and certainly the Old Testament.
Gives us beautiful illustrations of these things in Joshua Chapter 21.
And verse 11. And they gave them the city of Arva, the father of Enoch. Which city is Hebron in the Hill Country of Judah, with the suburbs thereof round about it. And then notice this verse. But the fields of the city and the villages thereof gave they to Caleb the son of Jefuna, for his possession. Now just hold your finger there and let's connect this with a verse in Song of Solomon.
The Song of Solomon Chapter 7, I believe.
Song of Solomon, Chapter 7 and verse 11. Come, my beloved, let us go forth into the field, let us lodge in the villages. Well, I want you to notice these two things, the fields and the villages, because you remember that earlier on Hebron was set aside as the inheritance of Caleb, and he took Hebron in the strength of the Lord and overcame the enemy that dwelt there. But we find in the 20th chapter of Joshua.
That Hebron is set aside as one of the cities of refuge, and then in this chapter it set aside as the portion of the Levite. But what happens is that takes place. What does Caleb retain? He retains two things, the fields and the villages. Now I suggest, brethren, that the fields bring before us personal communion. I say that because you remember with Isaac he went out into the field at Eventide for the express purpose of meditation.
He went there to meditate. David said he maketh me to lie down in green pasture. We read in the New Testament, I will go in and out and find pasture. It speaks to us of personal communion and that's why it's mentioned first here, because that is the first thing. And I just challenge each of our hearts. Are we on a daily basis, exercised to enjoy personal fellowship and communion with the Father and the son Bob has brought before us? How we do that in a practical way?
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It's spending time reading the word of God. He speaks to us through His word, then spending time in prayer.
We speak to him in prayer. That's communion. That's fellowship in a very practical way. But it must be the fields 1St and then the villages. Because if the fields speak to us of personal communion, then I suggest that the villages speak to us of fellowship, one with another. Because if men have common desires and thoughts, and they want to dwell with their fellow men, what do they do? They form villages. They form communities.
And I read the verse in the Song of Solomon, because there you have the two things brought together again. And notice it's in the same order. God doesn't list things haphazardly. There's always an order to the list of. If there's a list of two or more things, notice the order in which God lists the two things. And here in Song of Solomon, you have the bride speaking, and she's been restored to her bridegroom. Her affections have been awakened. She's been restored.
Now she says two things that go necessarily together. And in this order come, my beloved, into the field. That's the first thing. And then what's the result? Let us lodge in the villages, brethren. My point is we cannot lodge in the villages. We cannot enjoy fellowship and communion, one with another true fellowship if we haven't first been in the field. It's a true fellowship if we've enjoyed anything of Christ.
During these meetings together, it has to be the result of us first being in the fields in personal. Then we can lodge in the villages and enjoy communion one with another. Well, I don't mean to get off our chapter, but I think these things are very practical and very necessary rather than there's so much to distract us young people. I know when you get up in the morning, the minute you open your eyes, the enemy is right there with every kind of thought and activity and what's the pressures of life and what you're going to face at work and school that day.
I beseech you, I beg you to spend some time in personal communion.
Before you leave your room, get into the presence of the Lord. Enjoy that communion.
Discipline yourself during the day to spend a few minutes here and there in personal communion. Oh, how well you'll be repaid. He'll come and fill your heart, and he's the only one that can. The world won't fill your heart, but Christ will fill your heart. And then you'll find as a result, you'll have precious fellowship and communion with your brethren.
Versus are helpful also.
One he that hath my commandments and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me. And he that loveth me shall be loved to my father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him. And 23 if a man loved me, he will keep my words, and my father will love him, and we will come unto him and make our abode with him. I think those verses connect up well with the ones in First John. I think you see that going on the road to Emmaus, they went to make their abode with him at Jerusalem. They were headed away from Jerusalem.
And they didn't have common thoughts with the Lord. They thought that he was the one who should deliver Israel. And so the Lord had to walk with them, and he went with them. But he did not manifest himself. I think the word show clearly was used the other day. He didn't manifest himself clearly to them, but he had to speak to them and say, oh fools of slow of heart, to believe all the scriptures had said. And that caused them to return. Not that the Lord would come in and dwell with them, but they would go and return to the plate and abide where the Lord was.
And that's the desire ought to be the desire of our hearts. But we can't the Lord.
Have to take scripture. But sometimes he doesn't have very much to work with because we haven't read it. And that's the problem. And there's ignorance of the Scripture. And so they had disappointed expectations and he had to take the scripture and show them that they had wrong thoughts and that's why they were walking away from the place where they told them to be. But if we don't read the scriptures, then we're not going to know what he has to say and we can't have common thoughts with them.
Come on. And I never forgot it. We need as Christians to keep up our RPMS, reading, prayer and meditation. We've been Speaking of the importance of all three. It's one thing to read the word of God, how important this is.
To hear God speaking to us through His word.
Prayer we speak to God. There's a two way communication, but I think meditation is so important, being able to take the time to truly hear what God is saying to us. I know we live very busy lives and it's been brought out already at these meetings that the enemy has something to occupy our time. It seems seven days a week, 24 hours a day.
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To keep us from the word of God. But how important this is Meditation.
One could say my meditation of him shall be sweet.
Because it's not enough just to read the word in the morning and never consider what we've read. That's why David said in 119th Psalm, oh how love I thy law. It is my meditation all the day. And so I think sometimes, and I know in my own life personally, I read a few verses in the morning. I close the book, the pressures of life pour in. And I never consider what I've read. And I believe, brethren, it takes real discipline to meditate in the day in which we live.
Maybe years ago, a brother could work with his hands at the bench and meditate on the word of God. Maybe he could go out and follow the plow and think about the scriptures. But the young people can't run a computer like that. You can't drive down the freeway like that. It takes everything you've got today. But I believe that's why we need to discipline ourselves. And without turning to it, if you'll just allow me to draw on another Old Testament illustration that I've enjoyed. And that is when the children of Israel went out in the 16th chapter of Exodus to gather the manna.
We find that it wasn't enough for them just to gather it and put it in their Omar, which was a certain measure, but they had to then take it with them and dip out of that Omer during the day. And there's an interesting comment made about it because when they did that, and I suggest meeting it into their Omar and taking it with them speaks to us of meditation. But when they did that, it says he that gathered much had nothing over and he that gathered little had no lack. Maybe sometimes in the morning we get up and we're late for work or the school bus is coming down the road.
And maybe we only have time to read just a verse or two. Maybe we have time to read a lot and that's good. But maybe we only had time 1 morning to read a verse or two. But put it in your Omer, take it with you and dip on into that Omer during the day, think about what you've read. Because he that gathered little had no luck. So it wasn't the amount they gathered, but it was what they did with it. And I know you've experienced this. You've read a verse or two and.
Then you had just a moment at coffee time at Work, Oregon, as you were going to your next class and.
That verse came back to you, and the Lord used it in real blessing. It was just what you needed for some situation.
That you face that day or something like that. And so I just encourage you. As Wally has said, it's not just enough to read the word of God, but.
Take it with you and meditate on it. And let me just say this too. It's not enough to read the word of God once or twice a week and leave it at that. The children of Israel had to go out and gather the man every day. Except the Sabbath, of course. But if they didn't gather it every day, if they tried to keep some over till tomorrow, they found the man that they had. Today was not what they needed tomorrow. It bred worms and stank. It wasn't palatable for tomorrow they had to gather freshmen every day.
It took energy, it took exercise, and it does take energy, spiritual energy and exercise of faith. Maybe to get up 15 minutes earlier in the morning and spend a little time in the word and in prayer, but I say you'll never, ever be disappointed. It will be a tremendous blessing. And maybe at first you had to discipline yourself to do it, but I believe you'll develop an appetite for that, and then it will be the joy of each day. There's another aspect too, and that's.
Don't forget how many men have read Bible who were not saved and got nothing. It's because they had no Holy Spirit within them. They could not be spiritual. All they had was their flesh and in fact they have gotten systems together. These men have who have, which has ruined the church. And so when we read it, we have to consider our state as we go into that book.
When we open that book, how is our state? We can't just approach it in our flesh or we're not going to get anymore out of it than some of these so-called theologians who made their living doing that and got nothing. There's a very simple illustration of what you speak, but it's not just unbelievers that are capable of that. There are two kinds of animals that were unclean in the Old Testament. There was the one that chewed the cut but did not have a divided hook. And I think that that's what you were Speaking of. There are those who would like to.
00:55:22
Take in the truth of God and enjoy it and so on, but are not prepared to walk in the pathway of separation from evil. And there's a great deal of that in Christendom. I mean, we may be Speaking of real believers. And then there are the others that walk in a divided pathway, like a pig that has a divided hook, but it doesn't chew the cud. It doesn't really enjoy the truth of God. It eats whatever is put before it. And so there are two characteristics of unclean animals, and we want to be clean for the Lord. That is, we need a divided hoof, so to speak, to walk in a separate pathway.
And also to enjoy the truth of God and communion with himself. And if you separate those, it only leads to uncleanness.
Few moments before our time goes out.
We reported yesterday that verse in John chapter 5 that said the Father had given all things into his hand.
Prophet Daniel tells us that my Messiah was cut off and had nothing.
So the Lord Jesus Christ here as a man, had all things committed to him, but having been seen as that parable teaches us that come, this is the air. Well, an air is one who has not yet received his inheritance. They said, let us kill him, and the inheritance shall be ours. Well, we know that you cannot have the inheritance without you cannot have the benefit without the benefactor. But here.
When the Lord Jesus Christ was given all things into His hand, he did not receive it. While he was here, man cast him up. We will not have this man to rule over us and those other expressions of rejection.
But God said him heaven must receive. If man would cast out the Lord Jesus Christ, heaven would take him in. And the verse that was quoted in Philippians 2 is his name and inheritance. It is the same Jesus that God has been has made both Lord and Christ. So man having cast him out.
God received him in heaven, and he has passed through the scene by way of the cross, and now as at the right hand of God, awaiting, as we have in our verse here, until his enemies be made the footstool of his feet. And so you and I are now connected with him as arisen and glorified man who has been rejected in this scene. And so we are enjoined by the Apostle through the Thessalonians, to be directed into the patience of the Christ.
He is waiting at God's right hand, a Prince and a savior, until he receives from his Father's hand that inheritance that was given him when he was here in this scene. And so we wait to receive our inheritance. We have been redeemed and sealed in that place until the redemption of the purchased possession, but we haven't received it yet, brother, and even when we go on high and are joined in glory.
To that blessed one, as we are now joined to Him by the Spirit, we are going to then come back with him and receive with him that inheritance that for which he still waits in this first and second chapter.
He's in contrast with angels, isn't he? And here it says being made.
I think that implies.
A position and half by inheritance.
That's as you've been bringing out. It's beyond death in resurrection, isn't it? We've mentioned.
The name of Jesus is given at his birth, but it's also given again, isn't it? After he's humbled himself unto death and became obedient unto death, the death of the cross, he's given that name of Jesus again.
But here's being made so much better than the angels and in the.
01:00:00
In the next chapter, he's made a little lower than the angels. So it's it's that he went down into death and is now raised again. And it's in resurrection, isn't it, that he's going to. It's in that newness of himself, risen and ascended on high. This inheritance he's going to take, it's a much more excellent.
Name than that of angels.
Brother Jim and I were mentioning last night that what would the Hebrew Christians have to compare? Angels. You know, the only angelic ministry that seems to be left is the troubling of the waters of the pool of Bethesda, is it? And then you would get angels at his grave. And angels.
As he.
A sense with arms of blessing towards the Church, And they say, ye men of Galilee wise stand ye here, gazing upward.
That would be the last.
Knowledge of angels, as far as the church was concerned, isn't the last verse in our chapter of present service of the angels? Are they not all ministering spirits sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation? We all prove this as we drive the highways in so many dangers that we constantly face. There is a ministry of angels taking care of us and preserving us. We can be very thankful for that.
They have taken a lower place now because the Lord Jesus has become a man.
But nevertheless they are ministering spirits sent forth to minister for them. We see that in Peter's case the Angel came and brought him out of the prison and so on, and then he came to the brethren. I just mentioned that because. And there's something very beautiful about that last verse. Notice it says who shall be heirs of salvation. It's not a wonderful thought, brethren. Before you were ever saved, the angels were taking care of you, because you were already predestinated. You were marked out.
It might be later in life that God by his spirit deals with you and you get saved. But many a man can look back in his life and say almost died. But I didn't. I had a narrow escape. Why weren't you? Why didn't you die at that time? Because God had a purpose. He was going to save you and make you one who would be brought into blessing. You were one of the elect. I think it's very lovely to see the wording of that verse administering spirits sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation.
It's true after we are saved, certainly. But it's true all through our lives that God is preserving us by the ministry of angels.
Go to be with the Father. No question. There's no, there's no discussion on that matter because Jesus said that their angels always behold the face of my Father, which is in heaven. And if those little children have angels, then they fit into that last verse of this chapter and they are heirs of salvation I just mentioned.
That they don't go to heaven because they haven't sinned, because they were born in sin, but they go there because Jesus died. And so there are two verses. As we all know, the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which is lost. That applies to us who are older. The Lord had to seek us and save us. But those children hadn't really acted by their own will. They hadn't come to that age at that time in life that their own will was expressed.
So they come into the blessing of the Father's will, but not because they haven't sinned, because they were born in sin, but because Jesus died. So the Son of Man has come to seek and to save, but he's also come to save that which is lost. Could you explain that verse he just gave out in the 18th of Matthew?
One of these little ones. For I say unto you that in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father, which is in heaven for myself. I had just looked at the thought of Angel as represented that they're represented before God because God has marked them out for blessing, and so God is caring for them. Of course God knows everything beforehand. He knows a baby that's going to die before it comes to the age of accountability.
01:05:08
And so he knows that beforehand. But there are angels to always behold the face of my Father, which is in heaven. For the Son of Man has come to.
Doesn't say seek, but to save that which is lost so they're not forgotten before God. I think the thought of Angel is representative.
When Peter stood before the gate, they said, oh, it's his Angel. There was someone that was there just representing him. But though it was really Peter, but I believe that's the way Angel is used in the scripture. So we have the Lord represented as an Angel. He would send his Angel and lead the people through the wilderness. So that was the Lord himself. But it's only representative. He's not an Angel, He's above the angels. But he represented the one who was their leader.
And so he was there to guide them. And the angels played a great part in God's dealings with his earthly people. I think that's the import of our chapter, is that they placed a great deal of, shall I say, honor to angels because God used them so much in the Old Testament. But now in Christianity, since the Lord Jesus has become a man, why God isn't using angels to tell his mind and his will? He has raised up men, fitted them to tell out his mind and his will.
And in that coming day in the 5th chapter of Revelation, when there's a multitude around the throne.
The angels which occupied the nearest place to the throne before now, as it were, stepped back and redeemed people, redeemed men occupy the nearest place to the throne.
You implied that those children were had passed on, that they were, they were children that had died before the age of responsibility. How do we get that out of that?
Well, it speaks about saving that which is lost, and that's the way from the next verse I had taken it that it refers to the Lord is talking about.
The ones who may be taken away, but I don't doubt that it's still true in the sense of care that many of us who have been parents and our children have done some pretty dangerous things and would have been killed if the Lord hadn't taken care of them. And I believe that's true, that the Lord has a care for them. But I think when it's connected in that particular passage with the Son of Man has come to save that which is lost, is the thought of the.
Showing us that if that child should die before the age of accountability.
It is brought into blessing. It's among the saved and will be around the throne singing glory to the Lamb.
Said to my brother Tom one time, and just as we're leaving a conference and getting into his car, he said. Well, he said, may the Lord send one of his angels to watch over you on the road. He's got lots of them up there.
And so that's what we angels are. Are they not ministering spent or they're their servants?
Angels never get beyond being servants. They have a wonderful place in the in God's administration, wonderful place in the creation of God, very above man in glory as that is at in creation. But they do have a wonderful place in an Angel does what he is told and he's he's a as a servant and angels are UN jealous and what a wonderful thing it is that.
When in that coming day, when we think of all those angels that are gathered before the throne, and myriads of Saints, myriads of redeemed sinners are going to be caught up and are going to.
Pour through the portals, as it were, of heaven, those angels look on, and you and I will be those who will be around the throne in that day on a marvelous what a marvelous thing that will be to be there with the Lord.
Be up there in the morning, but the angels will be UN jealous and when the one thinks of how.
In an administration, when there's a new administration, the there are those who who go out on new ones come in and take their place. Well, the angels will have a very wonderful ministry in the administration of things now. But in the coming day as we have it, it will be in the hands of man in the hands of man in the and we read in first reading Corinthians that tells us that.
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Knowing not that ye shall judge angels, well, what a wonderful thing it is that we will be called on hide to be in a place far above angels, with our blessed Lord. But they won't be jealous, and they won't be jealous. There they'll be ungealous servants, and of God and of Christ.
How? How wonderful when we're thinking about we're speaking about communion doesn't.
What we had there doesn't Hebron that speaks of isn't that communion.
Abraham was the spoken of as the friend of God.
Moriah Moriah, I believe, tells us is this is the same as Hebron or Hebron is the same as Moriah, and there it was that Abraham lived.
Lord, he chose the well watered plains of Jordan, and looked out over there, and there was.
Sodom and Gomorrah and but Abraham he chose his places on high with God. And who had the best? Who had the best communion with God? Abraham is called the friend of God. A wonderful to have God as a friend. We love to sing that little hymn. What a friend we have in Jesus. But to think of God having having Abraham as his friend and so the Lord Jesus. How wonderful to think that.
I call you not serviced, he says, But friends, friends. He wants our communion, He wants our fellowship. He wants us to walk with him. And he'll tell us things that the most very precious things, which are on his heart. How, how wonderful it is to be, to think that that to have that, to be a friend of God, like Abraham.
Like to give?
But in Scripture, that would encourage us to pray to angels. When we decided to come to this conference in Saint Louis and we set out on the busy highway or through the air like some have come, we didn't ask angels to take care of us, we asked the Lord to take care of us. When we arrived here safely, we didn't thank the angels for taking care of us and bringing us safely along. We thank the Lord for bringing us safely along. And I'd just like to go to a verse in the couple of verses in Psalm 34.
Because we're thankful for the service of angels in the way that we have been Speaking of it in the end of Hebrews chapter one. But it's the Lord that we give the credit to. The angels are just His instruments, just His servants as have been brought before us. And I'm going to read the 6th and 7th verse, but I'm going to read the seventh verse first, the Angel Psalm 34, verse 7. The Angel of the Lord in campus round about them that fear him and delivereth them.
And so we're thankful for that. And I know there are those in this very room who have experienced this in a very real way. We felt like Daniel said the Lord sent his Angel and shut the lion's mouth. We were preserved from something in a very real way. But notice the verse that goes before it. It wasn't that the psalmist was looking to angels in the sense, or asking angels to care for him. It says This poor man cried unto the Lord, cried, and the Lord heard him and saved him out of all his troubles. Who did the psalmist look to in the trouble? He looked not to angels, but to the Lord.
And who did he give the credit to when he was delivered out of his trouble? Not to angels, but to the Lord. And so I just say that to balance what we've been saying, angels have a wonderful service. We're thankful that they are ministering spirits, sent forth to be to minister to those who shall be heirs of salvation. But in the final analysis, brethren, it's the Lord. He takes care of us. We look to him. He takes care of us, and He delivers us, and we give him the glory and the thanks. I'm sorry, brother Don.
Like to draw attention to the 2 words in verse 5.
My son.
Here I'm sure without knowing positively, but I'm sure that in this room there's lots of purses that contain photographs.
And there are lots of sisters that would be very happy to show those photographs to you.
They would be delighted to bring them out and to share them with you and show you their children or their grandchildren or ones that they love. And in the measure in which you have interest in their children will be the measure of the interest that you have in looking at those photographs and hearing all about them, brethren.
01:15:13
My.
Son God has a Son who in which he is supremely interested, and in the measure in which you share interest in love in his Son is the measure in which you will be interested in seeking to know more about the person of his Son.
And if sometimes we see photographs and we're not particularly interested, yes, politely so. But there isn't in our hearts a particular bond with the ones that we're looking at. We show polite interest and we're ready for when the topic goes on to something else.
But we want to understand that our eternal.
Occupation in fellowship with God is going to be.
Concerning my Son, God is going to need all eternity.
To fully share what's in his heart concerning that one. And he's going to do it with us in the heavenly glories. And I'd like to make this comment about it with respect to we've used the word fellowship and a very helpful expression, common thoughts. It tells us in the Old Testament that God made known unto Moses His ways.
And his acts unto the children of men, that is, the Israelites in general.
Did not enter into very many of the thoughts of Jehovah, and so he tells them about his actions. But with Moses, Moses is called to enter into his ways. He has a deeper sense of understanding and appreciation of the reasons behind the actual acts of Jehovah concerning the people.
It is our delight not only to enter into the acts of God.
And into the ways of God. But God has made us as His children and bringing us into sonship that we might know His heart. It's his thoughts and his heart that he wants to share with us.
And has given us the capacity for it. We read of angels in this chapter, wondrous as angels are.
They do not enter in in the same measure in which we have been made capable.
Of knowing and having fellowship with the heart of God. We are unique in His creatures, of being brought into his family, of being redeemed, that we might be near himself. And now he gives us a chapter like this, and he says as it were to us. Would you like to see the picture?
Is that of interest to you? Perhaps you don't fully understand it, but does it matter to your heart? It's precious to my heart.
As he says. To which of the angels he said, Thou art, my son. They don't measure up to his heart, as great as they are, as wonderful as they are, as important as their service is. But all the heart of God would pass from the angels to one that.
Fully occupies his mind and his heart, and he says to us.
My son.
Just go back to the comments that our meeting began was that that's what we're looking for when we open the scriptures is to see the picture of the Lord Jesus. We're going to get a great deal of benefit. But if we open the word of God and we start to look for dinosaurs and fossils in the first chapter of Genesis or in the flood and so on, we're going to find all kinds of them. But we're not going to find Christ. And so we really need to, as we open the pages of God's precious book in every picture, to see the Lord Jesus Christ and what God is trying to communicate to us.
And often what we find in a passage and what we look for maybe shows what our heart is going after. But we really need to see that God is trying to reveal to us the first of his Son in every page.
01:20:05
The Book of Revelation is not about the price of oil and what Russia is going to do and whether Iraq's going to invade Iran and so on. Those details may be of interest, but it's really about the revelation of Jesus Christ and the purpose that God has formed concerning that man in connection with this world. The first chapter of the book is not about fossils and dinosaurs. It's about the purposes that God has in connection with that blessed man in connection with all of creation. And we need to read every page of the book in that way, so to speak, to look at the picture that God has placed before us because our many beautiful pictures in the book, and that's true of the Old Testament as well as the New.
And if we read wherever we read old or new, if we read it with that exercise.
I believe the Spirit of God will bring Christ before us. And you've heard me say this before, but I've appreciated when the Ethiopian eunuch was reading in the 53rd of Isaiah, that was an Old Testament portion. And when Philip the Evangelist, directed by the Lord, climbed up in the chariot with him, I love what it says. And beginning at the same Scripture, he preached unto him, Jesus. It wouldn't have mattered, brethren, Where that man was reading in the Old Testament, he could have begun at the same Scripture and preached unto him Jesus.
Because it all speaks of Christ and you get it too in the 24th of Luke. Instead of quoting it, let me just read it. But in the 24th of Luke it's brought before us concerning the Old Testament and its value in this way, because it says in the 24th of Luke and we've had reference to the two on the way to Emmaus, and the Lord is speaking to them. In the 27th verse it says and beginning at Moses and all the prophets.
He expounded unto them. Notice this in all the scriptures, the Old Testament Scriptures.
What the things concerning himself, because it all spoke of himself, must have been a wonderful exposition as the Lord unfolded scripture after Scripture concerning himself. And then notice in the 44th verse. And he said unto them, These are the words which I have, which I spake unto you while I was yet with you, And all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses and in the prophets.
And in the Psalms Now notice this again concerning me and brethren, I believe the blessing comes when we open this book, and we seek to seek Christ in every line. True, many things in connection with this person and work in different aspects, and the illustrations in the Old Testament, the doctrines and principles in the New Testament, and so on. But it's very important because the Spirit of God wants to minister Christ to us, and God wants to bring before us.
The glories and the beauties and the attributes of this person who glorified him on the earth, Brethren. He is the one that God would always occupy us with arisen, ascended, glorified man in the glory. How is he going to occupy us with that person? It's through this blessed book that we have before us.
The person of the Christ, unfolding every grace.
Once slain but now alive again in heaven, demands our phrase when some brothers start that please.
205.
Angels.
Bright girls standing.
Light.
From.
Make a lot of.
Delight for us.
Were always on.
Wake up.