Reading
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.
231.
And three.
Ephesians 3 and 20.
I suggest that this has to do with the subject of Ephesians 3, not with temporal things, merely now unto him that is able.
00:05:11
To do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask, or think according to the power that worked in.
Us unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus, throughout all ages, world without end. Amen. And one verse in John.
The 7th chapter.
The end of the 37th verse if any man thirst.
Let him come unto me and drink.
He that believeth on me, as the Scripture has said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. But this fake he of the Spirit which they that believe on him should receive for the Holy Ghost, was not yet given, because that Jesus was not yet glorified.
And I'd rather steal it as the mind of the Lord.
Go on with the 11Th of Hebrews.
Beginning with the 13th verse.
Seems the hymn that we're seeing.
Especially touched with that how the Spirit of God is leading home the Bride of Christ.
Hebrew 11.
Verse 13.
These all died in faith, not having received the promises.
But having seen them a far off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.
For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country.
And truly, if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out.
They might have had opportunity to have returned.
But now they desire a better country that is unhealthy.
Wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God.
For ye hath prepared for them a city.
By faith, Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac, and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son.
Whom it was said that in Isaac, shall thy seed be called.
Accounting that God was able to raise him up even from the dead.
From whence also he received him in a figure.
By faith, Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau concerning things to come.
By faith Jacob, when he was a dying, blessed both the sons of Joseph.
And worshiped, leaning upon the top of his staff.
By faith, Joseph, when he died, made mention of the departing of the children of Israel.
And gave commandment concerning his goals.
By faith Moses when he was born.
Was it 3 months of his parents because they saw he was a proper child?
And they were not afraid of the King's commandment.
By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaohs daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin per season.
00:10:14
Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt.
For he had respect under the recompense of the reward.
By crazy forsook Egypt not fearing the wrath of the king, for he endured as seeing him who is invisible.
Through faith he kept the Passover and the sprinkling of blood.
Lest he that destroyed the first born should touch them.
Faith. They pass through the Red Sea as by dry land, which the Egyptians are saying to do, were drowned.
There's a very striking possibly in this verse 13 verse, these all died in faith and what we have in the 10th chapter.
At verse 28.
He that despised Moses, Lord died without mercy.
Thing to die without mercy.
We despise the grace of God. That's what the end will be.
Die without mercy, these dying in faith.
It would seem that in Hebrews we have the two positive sides. That is, either you are a believer or you're an apostate.
And so this is emphasized and the warning is given in the verse our brother called her attention to in the 10th chapter, just as it was in the early part of the second chapter, because God has spoken now.
Through his Son he might have spoken before to the Father through various Ways and Means, but now the full life of the revelation of what God is has come through His Son and those who.
Despise that revelation.
There's only one thing left, and that's judgment.
And so we have the two positive sides. There are those who died in faith. Isn't that lovely? And then, of course, the warning to those who would reject this marvelous, marvelous truth. And, brethren, isn't it a marvelous truth that we who were sinners of the Gentiles should be brought into such a place of elevation and blessing to be associated with God's own Son?
To be accepted in the beloved.
To be in the father's houses as one of his children, To enjoy the liberty of the Father's house, because I believe that's what's meant by the prodigal having shoes or sandals on his feet, That is, he has the liberty now of the Father's house. Oh, brethren, this is what we've been brought to and in the 12Th chapter.
Of Hebrews. We've not come to Mount Zion, to Mount Sinai. We've come to Mount Zion, or the heavenly city, really the heavenly Jerusalem. And there we have all grace, don't we?
Whereas sin, the ice book of law. And so I believe we have the two things here, and the Spirit of God would engage us, I believe, with this path of faith and the end of the path.
And that is.
The one who is there already has entered him, as we have in the 6th chapter, the forerunner, even Jesus.
I just want to request you just for a little while and I'm going to pass on something that I enjoy very much. Yesterday in connecting the day before yesterday in connection with being Pilgrim and stranger. And it's found on verse 9 now in the world, Countries Knowledge in the book of Exodus Chapter 20, I believe it is. I think we see a contrast that is very significant and how blessed we have been of our garden, Father.
00:15:01
Chakta Kwani, I believe it is of the book of Exodus. We find that something they encounters in verse five in connection with those that train and worship idols instead of a worship in the true God. And a knowledge of TD is the only one, not as what it says on verse five of Exodus chapter 20. It says that thou shall not power down thyself to them, nor serve them, for I am the Lord thy God, a jealous God visiting.
The iniquity of the fathers upon the children.
Arm to the trade and four generation of them that hate me. Now here in Hebrew Chapter 11 and verse verse nine we have a blessed contrast. Here we have 3 generations, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. How they became pilgrims, Well our brother was speaking to us about grace. Grace.
It was the grace of God that saved us.
And as the grace of God that has made us pilgrims, Abraham was taken from the land of the Chaldeans, land of worship in the idol. Did Abraham fail? Well, yes, he did. What about Isaac? He did. What about Jacob? He did. And so do we, and I in particular. But it was the grace of a God that was very much played our brother in the message yesterday. That is the grace of God, that he saves us.
And as the grace of God, that makes us pilgrims. And what a wonderful example we have in the person of the Lord Jesus. We need ever to look to him.
Our brother was telling us yesterday that if you want to warm your heart, just read the poor gospel. And of course, if you want to get the doctrine, you're going into the epistles. And as you look at the one that was the perfect strange in Pilgrim, he will move our feet to become strange and Pilgrim in a very blessed, practical way.
We started reading These All died in faith.
Not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth, I believe there is the practical carrying out of embracing a great and precious promises that Peter speaks of.
What will be the effect in our lives? It will make us strangers and pilgrims below. It isn't that we put ourselves under law and.
Try to control ourselves and say no, I can't go here, I can't go there, but let's have our minds and our hearts delighting and.
These promises.
How many more promises we have than those of old that we're reading of here. But what they had and what was revealed to faith made them strangers here below, and that's what God would have for his people like the Malachi Taylor says. Strangers with such strange ways.
Ariel, we you can't share in what the world is finding its satisfaction in. We've got a heavenly country a home before us and as J&D puts it to this to the treasure we found in thy love that has made us now pilgrims below. So I believe it is a very.
Lovely subject for us.
For after these meetings are over, everyone has to face the world.
Some with greater problems than others.
But it's a poor old world that rejected and crucified our Blessed Lord. But a little brethren may we have these promises before them. And you know, when you embrace anything.
Oh, how close you draw to your heart, and it's something of such importance, such great value to you. Well, maybe not. Just Simply listen to the instruction that I trust will be a.
00:20:14
A practical value, but may we make it our very own?
May we put great importance upon it, so that it's honoring to the Lord to walk past strangers here below. And another thing, isn't it true, brother, that in walking a strange design and keeping with the path the Lord has marked South?
We must act upon the whole truth of the word of God. If we go on to bypass metals like like Pilgrim progress, we'll soon find ourselves in the enchanted gardens where, you know he fell into the dungeon of old.
Giant despair. So keep steadily on the path of the truth of God. Don't turn.
To the right-hander to the left. For I believe indeed that God has gathered us.
How to hear the precious name of the Lord Jesus Christ apart from all divisions and systems of men? And if we begin to compromise and think, we can find some pastor elsewhere.
We'll soon stray away from the blessed pathway that are.
Lord himself has already marked out before us. We were reading this morning in the family, reading where I'm staying, the 17th of John.
Where the blessed Lord and talking to his Father, he says they are not of this world. Even as I am not of this world. Can we think of the Lord as having any part or parcel in this poor world?
Well, his separation is our separation.
We have a nice example of a Pilgrim or a stranger in Numbers 20 and verse 17 in connection with Moses.
Numbers 2017.
Let us pass, I pray thee through thy country.
We will not pass through the fields or through the vineyards.
Neither. When we drink of the water of the wells, plural. This might refer to the pleasures of the world. We will go by the King's Highway, a death in the past marked out for the film. We will go by the King's Highway. We will not turn to the right hand north of the left until we have passed thy borders. Here we have surely a bit of a picture of a Pilgrim stranger answering through the world without encroaching on its right.
Certainly not to the right hand north of the left, having one object with Forest to get through the goal, the other end.
A very nice brother Gladdy and the next verse of our chapter.
They that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country.
Well, we want not only to be in the enjoyment of these things, but we should be a testimony to those surround us and not an uncertain testimony.
It's sad when a child of God gets into a state where they can talk the language of the world when they're with people of the world, and talk the language of Christians when they're with Christians. I've known such and I've seen it in the sad and solemn way.
Let's be careful, brethren. Of course, I'm not saying that you can't talk business when you're in business, or that's your occupation, and you can't talk about heaven and such holy things in your school life.
00:25:10
Because you're preparing for.
The journey, but rather than may the tendency of our ways be such that we declare plainly that there may be that about our actions and our and our conversation, when not on definite business subjects, that will remind.
Those that we're with?
Of the fact that we're heavenly citizens often think brother Hale of your uncle Robert to have little business. So on time years ago and the parliament building, I remember how he took an opportunity to speak to a very important man there about it, the things concerning his eternal welfare. He didn't miss that opportunity, while business was the.
Occasion of our being there.
Yet he was declaring plainly.
Then he belonged to another world altogether.
I thought through that it's a kind of special challenge in this 13th and 14th verses, because when we compare what we possess now, is that what they possess, those referred to in the 11Th chapter, surely we can say that that's what we possess is a much more full and wonderful revelation and present possession that which they had.
Not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and what a tremendous and evident effect it had upon their whole life testimony. Well, you and I surely have that which is now our spiritual heritage, as well as that which yet lie ahead. I sometimes think of the comparison between the 6th of Exodus and the first of Ephesians. In Exodus 6 we hear the Lord promising his.
Enslaved people, that's what he's going to do for them. I will bring you up from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will with you of their ******* and I will take you to me for a people and so on, promising eventually that they will be brought into the land and that it will be given to them for inheritance.
And you turn to Ephesians One, and you find we have over and over again. As you go down the chapter you find the revelation not of equity, the far off, but of that which we right now possess in ours. And I feel, as I see verse 13 and 14, the effect of these far off promises upon those who believe them, and the declaration of their life.
What an effect there ought to be in the light testimony of those of us who have this present wonderful heritage, as well as the assurance of that which is yet future. I think of the Lord being brought up to an exceeding high mountain, and shown all the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them, and it only took a moment of time to see them all.
There was not for one moment the hesitation as to the attraction of these things. Where had he come from? He'd come from that home of unspeakable glory. Now what did this world and all the glory of this world look like in the eyes of one who had come from the glory of God? Presence. Oh, how dim it must have looked at its very best. And I believe this is the secret with us, if we are in the enjoyment of that which is our heritage.
If we are in the anticipation of that which lies ahead, all the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them will be very, very different.
Test With that word, embrace, we could find a word to translate into the Inca tongue.
A word that would explain embrace.
Well, we discovered one word that expressed it in left tongue, and the Indians got it. It means really to hug, to hug them to the heart, to the to the bosom. And so here we have these in the Old Testament, hugging these. What about us today, beloved? Sometimes we slip very glibly over the truth, you know?
00:30:17
And forget that we are a heavenly people and we get carried along with the world.
We were in a section to the north of Bolivia and we noticed that something had occurred, that the fish had died. So I drew the attention to the Indian with me that these were dead fish going with the tide, with the, with the stream, rather because the river and the Indian immediately remarked, he said brother.
It's easy for the dead fish to go with the current, but it takes a live fish to go against the cart. And so we came to the question of these wonderful promises that the children of Israel, that these who died in faith, they they hugged them to their heart, to their bosom. Do we cherish the word in this way, beloved? Here we have all the realities of it.
Do we hug it to our bosom?
Truth is only understood as it is couched in the language of God. Do we cherish the word of God and hug it to our bosom? To our hearts?
First brother mentioned the 4th of Luke the devil showing the Lord all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. He just unrolled before the Lord's eyes all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. But let me turn to Ephesians chapter 2 and verse 7.
It says that in the ages to come.
Not the amount of time He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. It took the devil just a moment of time to show the Lord all the kingdoms of the world, and it's going to take the Lord the the fall of eternity to show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.
In the next verse of our chapter.
Truly up there had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned.
There's always the tendency with our poor heart go back to the world, and one thing especially are the young people who have confessed Christ as a Savior and they want to please the Lord. But there is that drawing back to.
4 companions.
And two former ways. Well, do we not get a lesson in this verse? If they had been mindful of that country, they could have had opportunity to have gone back. So God doesn't put us under law, but he holds something infinitely better before the soul, and that's why.
The lava did so very important.
To daily read the word of God.
Remember when I was a young man?
I was at a tenth meeting and Brother close was present and he asked the question, he says. How many in this tent read a chapter in the Bible every day?
One brother raised his hand. That was brother GAIL Scott. The brother and I learned a lesson there and then.
Of the importance.
Or how wonderful it is if we are carrying that out, and if we're not neglecting his word. Because you know, brethren this, that if we close our Bibles, put it on the shelf.
We're just connected with this present scene. I'm not saying the world, but this present scene, where do we get eternal thoughts? Where do we get anything of joy is beyond this passing life. We get it in this book.
00:35:04
And to neglect this book, you see, the tendency is for us to go back to the country from which we came out. But.
Here we have those of us, Pilgrim life they lived as pilgrims, and the promises, the hope of the fulfillment of these promises, were such.
That they had no inclination to go back, although they could have gone back. Abraham could have taken his tent and his servants and gone back to her. Of the calories. There was his family connections and everything but all he had found something.
In his Pilgrim life there, that was so far superior to anything he had ever learned.
His life before the Lord called him. But he was satisfied. And it's lovely that he goes on in that Pilgrim life. Never builds a house, never has any subtle abode. He continues that path to the end of the journey. Beloved me, we be kept going on in this path of pilgrims and strangers.
In this world till the Lord calls us into His presence and glory.
Chapter 3 gives us two next verses there. Philippians chapter 3.
In connection with the Apostle Paul, we have a very blessed example, and here's what the Apostle Paul has to say.
Chapter 3, verse seven and eight to say but what things were gained to me?
This thing I consider lost for Christ.
Yeah, Douglas and I quaint all things for lust for the Excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord, for whom I suffer the loss of all things, and I count them with tongue that I might win Christ at Pilgrim parts. Isn't it, brother?
Connection with this part of the chapter we have.
Our brothers mentioned.
Christ.
In Hebrews we have a great shepherd. That's in the 13th chapter, I suppose.
And I was thinking of the connection.
With what we have in this chapter, the promise.
Now, it wasn't simply that they were looking for a literal city, was it? It wasn't simply that they were looking for material things We learned from Galatians, that that promise was Christ.
1C.
Christ. And if we think of the early part of Hebrews, we find that Moses is mentioned first as the one who had the mind of God to lead the people across this waste, howling wilderness.
Then we have Aaron, the one who kept them in connection with God.
In communion and for worship.
The priest.
But we find they're both set aside.
Everything is set aside and by the time we get through Hebrews, we have nothing left but Christ.
That's the promise, brethren.
And if we're going to get through this wilderness?
It will be in connection with this promise, the person of Christ.
And we find that if all of these are set aside, these examples have gone before. The Spirit of God would occupy us not with temporal visible things, but with what they refer to. We're going to be with Christ.
It isn't a place.
If Christ is here, it will be heaven. If we go up there, it's heaven.
Think of that little company in the House of Mary Martin Lazarus.
Oh, how wonderful it would have been to have been there and to have had the Spirit of God indwelling at the same time.
00:40:02
And we see that 13th of John There we see the heavenly family, Jesus in the midst.
Well, the day is coming when it will be like it was in the 9th chapter of Luke when those who had come.
The the the ones, Elijah and Moses, they suddenly disappear and they saw no one but Jesus only.
That's the way it will be, and I believe that's what the spirit of God would occupy us with here.
Not temporal, literal things, merely, but what they speak of. And we're so prone to think of things in that light, that is, of what we see around us. But the Spirit of God would raise us to a higher level, I believe, and as we have in Ephesians.
3 The whole purpose of it all is that we might know the love of Christ, which passes knowledge, And we have it here, too. There's one shepherd, a great shepherd. He replaces all that have gone before, and if it were not for that shepherd, we'd never get through this wilderness. And it'll take a great shepherd to do it because of what we are, but he's going to see us through.
And I was thinking of this.
16 First Brother Barry.
You're called our attention to these points here. But why is it that God is not ashamed to be called their God?
Well, it's because they weren't mindful of those things. They had one Arctic before them. It wasn't simply a literal city, but it was the promise.
It was the person Now they didn't know of Christ as we know him, but we learned from the Gospels that Abraham rejoiced to see my day and was glad. And even though faith may not see everything here, the object still is the object that God has set before our souls, and we see very little now.
But oh, what a day it will be like in the.
13 chapters of First Corinthians. Well, we'll know as we are known. We only know in part now, but let's enjoy the part we do know.
Well, that thought of God is not ashamed.
To be their God, we have prepared for them a city. Doesn't that show that there's companionship along the way? It's something special.
It's not something that said all God's children, but those who have heavenly things before them. There's a there's nothing that in their lives which brings shame and.
And which dishonors the Lord he can.
Hear delights to be to be called their God, or he has prepared for them a city. Well, we well know, beloved, that every believer in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Is saved and on his way home to glory.
And everyone will be there not because of faithfulness, not because we made ourselves strangers and pilgrims here below, but it'll be entirely his faithfulness. But oh beloved, isn't that important that we lay hold of the truth of what it is to be the enjoyment of those things that are before us?
A singing of a verse in the Epistle of John and the 4th chapter.
No, it's the second chapter.
The 17th verse. And the world passes away, and the lust thereof, but he that doeth the will of God.
Abideth forever the person and there and the life are looked at as one. He that is, the one who is following the Lord, is to abide forever.
00:45:14
Well, when the Lord comes, if we're walking in communion, what will it be? But just to change world, won't it? To go right on enjoying the Lord in another and a better scene, instead of walking by faith, then to walk by faith?
But it's the very same joys that we find down here that we'll continue to enjoy when the journey comes to an end and we enter His presence so he abideth forever. Just think of being in the communion and fellowship of that which will be our very life.
All eternity.
He walked regard and he was translated, I suppose was not intentional about him. It just was taken from this world into heaven. Whereas blessed to walk with God, isn't he beloved presence, the Rapture is going to come and just be going to go to be with him and to know him better.
The reference Brother Mary.
To the second chapter of first, John is very helpful.
For it has to do with communion. Down here, you'll notice that there are four things mentioned in that chapter. I'm sure you've noticed.
The keeping of his word number one. That's in verse 5.
That we keep His word. This is particularly necessary for us here as pilgrims. The keeping of His words, not the commandments as some teach Commandments of Moses are not mentioned here, but it's the keeping of His word. And then in verse 6.
We have these words.
He that says he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk even as he walked. Surely that's a great challenge to a Pilgrim, to walk through this world even as he walked. Can we walk the same?
We can even as he walk, can we do that? Here is the challenge to us to walk even as he walked, one brother said to the other. I can't hear what you say, brother, because of what you do.
To walk even as he walked. And then we over further, there's the loving of our brother in verse 10.
These are characteristics, beloved of the pilgrims, of one who is walking in fellowship with the Lord Jesus.
Of course, in Hebrews we have nothing of the assembly there. The assembly doesn't come into the book of Hebrews. But here we have something that's very practical.
Now that our brother Barry has mentioned there's the loving of our brethren, we can't always love their ways.
And we can't always walk with them, but we can truly love them. For he loved them. I have loved thee with an everlasting love concerning his earthly people. And then verse 15.
Love not the world.
How often we think of the world as the created world. But it's not the word here that's used. It's not God's matchless work. It's this diabolical spirit that pervades everything. And we saw something of it yesterday, Brother Brethren, and we were wonderfully spared from the horrors of yesterday that was the Lord's doing.
It's this diabolical spirit that perverts, pervades, pervades everything we notice it.
And it grieves our hearts to see it, and it grieves our hearts to see that God's dear people go along rather too much in the current of it. It's a very, very terrible current, and we find ourselves carried along.
00:50:04
If we're not very careful, but then this verse that our brothers mentioned, the world passes away with its lust thereof, but he that doeth the will of God.
Abideth forever. Oh, that is a wonderful verse, Brother Mary, he that doeth the will of God.
Abideth forever.
In the object of Christ of Christ, wasn't it?
He said I came down from heaven not to do my known will, but the will of him that sent me.
And I he could say No, I come to do thy will, O God.
That was his object wasn't to.
Glorify God his father by doing his will every step of the journey. Someone mentioned this morning that Abraham was possibly an idolater. Well left Joshua 21 and verse four. I think that's true, but he owned nothing in Cain but a tomb. That's all he has in Cain, A tomb but beyond the tomb.
Pardon me, brother. Beyond the tomb there was that glorious bright hope of resurrection, of resurrection. But that's all Abraham had in Canaan 2.
Our brother, but I thought you were through. But when we come to the 17th verse, we find the test of faith.
By faith, Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac, and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son.
God not only gives the faith, but he tests the faith. And I suppose there was never a child of God whose faith was so sorely tested as the faith of Abraham, and God didn't give him this test of faith at the beginning of his.
Entering the Promised Land.
But I believe it was about 25 years after God had made him the promise and given him a son.
That God puts him to the test if he was willing to OfferUp Isaac.
Where an obedience to His word hung that lovely to notice this that God saw in Abraham one who he could trust with this trial. And what a wonderful test it was of his faith. Of course, the.
The beautiful side of the way it brings in the gospel of God offering up his only begotten Son.
Not sparing that son of his love, but there is this practical side that is instructive for us, and that is to see that God could trust one who had gone on so many years.
And the path of faith, so that now he could tell him to offer up the dearest object of his life, that some that he'd given him in his old age. But again, we see that faith doesn't hesitate. He doesn't delay. He rose early in the morning, saddled his *** took Isaac, prepared the woods.
Took the knife and the fire and he doesn't stop until God calls to him or the Angel calls to him out of heaven.
Well, we and are small major.
Are called upon in our pilgrimage to pass through tests of faith. But when these tests come, as they do come in our lives.
If we've been walking, seeking before God to walk in obedience.
Well, then there is that preparation of soul to face the tests and the trials that we're going to experience for all. This was in connection with his wilderness journey that God put Abraham to this far and great tests.
00:55:21
To see how far.
Here's how he would be obedient to his word. Brethren, how far are we willing to submit to the word of God?
Romans 15/8 and 2nd Corinthians 120.
Now the first.
Verse was First Corinthians 15.
Corinthians One, 20.
Well, there is this, the very Romans. 15-8 Now I see that Jesus Christ was a minister of the circumcision, for the truth of God confirmed the promises made unto the Fathers, then the next person that the Gentiles.
My glorify God for his mercy. Where's the other verse?
In one verse 20.
For all the promises of God in him are Yay and in him Amen, unto the glory of God by us.
Now, brother, how far? I'm not a very much of a teacher, and I feel kind of my limitations when I ask the question like that. Of course we see there in Romans God's promises.
For Israel will all have their fulfillment in God's time and way, but now His grace has come into the Gentiles so that they might glorify him too.
And then in this.
For all the promises of God.
For all the promises of God in him.
Oh yeah, yeah. Now I'm in.
That includes the promises made, Abraham. Indeed it does. I'm glad you gave me a clue to what you had. Yes, all the promises that God made to Abraham.
Are one and all to be fulfilled. He's going to give him the land of Palestine, although they're struggling in their own strength to get it now. But when God's time comes, he's going to give.
That land.
Oh yes, his people, Israel.
But that's a lovely word there about.
All the promises of God are in him. That is, they're all in Christ and they're yay, they're all men. So be it. Amen. Obese. Let it be accomplished to the glory of God. Now perhaps someone can.
Answer you better than I could.
People of Israel, when they put themselves on the ground of responsibility.
The blessing was based on their obedience, and if they failed, there was no obedience. But in the case of our blessed Savior, every promise as because of God's grace, they are yeah, in a man in Christ. What a country, what a blessing that is. I know, Brother Gordon, you have some thoughts on that. You remember that before when you I told you once before.
Well, I believe in Romans 15. The contrast in the eighth verse is also with the.
16 First, that is, in the eighth verse it says. 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. And then in the 16th verse, that I should be the minister of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles ministering the gospel of God, and the offering of the Gentiles might be acceptable, being sanctified by the Holy Ghost, that is the Lord Jesus when he was here.
01:00:15
Did not bring out the truth of the church in the body of Christ. He was the minister of the circumcision. And all those promises that had been made to Israel as a nation will all be fulfilled because of what Christ has done. But the Apostle Paul had something more wonderful in a sense to do, and that was to bring out the truth of the church. And so he speaks of himself as being a minister.
Of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles ministering the Gospel of God.
He has a wonderful privilege of bringing out the truth of the Church. He speaks of that also in Colossians, where he says to fill up that which is behind of the sufferings of Christ for his body's sake, which is the Church, and so not only the promises made to Israel.
But all that God has purposed for God's purpose we have brought out in Ephesians one and 10 that in the dispensation of the fullness of time he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth, even in him.
Saw that this precious Savior is the one who is not only going to bring in this earthly blessing that has been promised, but he is going to bring in a heavenly sphere of blessing too. And all the promises of God and Him are yay and in him to the glory of God by us.
Anything that rested upon man would fail about anything that rests upon Christ can never fail. Indeed, I believe rather than connected with what we have here in Hebrews Chapter 11 and the emphasis in that 16 verse is on now. But now they desire a better country. It must have been very difficult for Abraham to understand that when God promised him blessing on the earth to thee and to thy seed, I will give this land for him to live and die without getting even a foot of land that he could call his own.
That must have been a very real test to his faith, to have continued right to his dying day. And Jeff, God had said he was going to have that lamb. Well, if you were to ask Abraham now and say, well, Abraham, God promised to give you that land and you never possessed it in your whole lifetime. All he say, I see now, God had something better in you than what I had anticipated. I had looked for the fulfillment of the promise.
Hero on earth. But I see he's going to have a heavenly portion for me. And more than that, when we have a heavenly portion we're going to be associated with Christ in both the heavenly and the earthly because that one who is going to take his place in heaven is going to be the center of the earths glory too. And when we are with him we're going to reign over the earth so that Abraham if he had only had the earth he would have had much less than what he's really going to have.
He's going to be associated with Christ in heaven, and where and in him all the promises will be fulfilled, that is in the seed, and so he will share in both. And so I think it shows us a very lovely thought and that is that those who have gone before are more intelligent now than they were when they were down here upon earth. Now they desire a better country. That is, I believe it's all clear to Abraham now and that there's something that God has before him that's better than what he had here upon earth. And we can see too that when.
Moses and Elias were on the mount. They were more intelligent than talking on the Mount of Transfiguration.
Than they ever were in their lifetime here, because in the heavenly scene there is a fuller entering into these things. Of course the perfection of it will be when the Lord Jesus comes and the whole redeem company are there. And then, as it's been remarked, we will no longer know in part you'll know even as also we are known. All will be enjoyed fully then.
The world better appears 14 times in this epistle.
I hope that I've counted correctly, but the word better appears 14 times.
01:05:00
I was reading an article written by a Christian Colonel, an English Colonel, and he mentioned that when Israel gets the land, it will be the second largest in Asia Minor.
Well, there's a great effort being made to make peace over there. All eyes are upon one little spot, beloved just now, Jerusalem, all the eyes of the world are centered there.
There will be all the riches of this world concentrated there too.
Someone said what about the Dead Sea?
Well, the Dead Sea has been declared by Jewish chemists that it contains 10 times more riches than this mighty world nation put together. 10 times more riches in the Dead Sea in the First World War. Thank God I wasn't sent to that section of Jordan. The Lord delivered me from their dreadful.
Experience where the Anzacs, the New Zealanders and the Australians, lots of them went raving mad with the heat and they threw themselves into that sea to drown themselves, but they floated.
They didn't. They couldn't drown. And they floated. And that led. That led the Jewish chemists to analyze it 10 times more richer in that one sea and in this mighty land put together.
Well, there the eyes are, all on that one spot. They're trying to make peace.
Without the Prince of Peace. But they'll get the land, as our brother has remarked, when God gives it to them, they'll get it.
In the 15th chapter that was referred to of Romans.
The 8th to the 12Th versus perhaps would give us those who participate in that millennial blessing.
Going down to our verse that we've referred to the test in the 17th verse of our chapter that Abraham had, I've been much struck by a few comments at the end of our chapter.
For instance, the one that speaks of Daniel. Daniel is not mentioned.
But all is said of him was to stop the mouths of lions.
Now perhaps some would wonder why.
Such an expression occurs in Scripture.
But I believe it's connected with what our brothers just brought out.
That Abraham was not tested at the beginning of his journey in this way.
He was tested after he had walked and learned to walk with God.
Now, in connection with Daniel, all that's mentioned is when he was finally tested and the Spirit of God had prepared him for the test.
I doubt if Daniel would have been able to go into the den of lions when they selected him as one of the Princess to stand before the king in the beginning. I doubt it very much.
But it was. It's a wonderful thing, isn't it, brethren in any little measure.
In which we've been given, in all of our failures to walk with God, any little measure to experience that companionship, and to get that confidence that enables us to take one step after another. And that we might grow up unto him in all things. That we might be enlarged in our hearts, that there might be that full confidence.
Which Hebrews really teaches confidence in God. Without faith it's impossible to please him. And the more we walk with God, the more we're occupied with this. Which the promise speaks of Christ, the more confidence there will be. And although we may never be thrown to lions, still we'll have tests and in the at the judgment seat of Christ.
There will be just such things as this and the end of this chapter as spoken of Daniel because it's the really the consummation of a life that was devoted to service to God walking with him. And that's all the Spirit of God needs to mention about Daniel.
01:10:13
Stop the miles of lions. That's all.
So notice Brother Hop what you were saying.
About all of the quoting are calling our attention to all the promises of God are in him, that is in Christ.
And you get that thought carried out in the 18th verse, of whom it was said that in Isaac shall thy seed be called.
And Paul commenting on that in Galatians called our attention to this.
That is not seeds as of many, but of one that is Christ.
So when God made promises to Abraham as you find it in the.
In the 12Th and I believe the 15th chapters of Genesis.
Is his seeds, that is, his descendants should be given the land of Canaan.
But when Abraham and obedience have offered up his only son.
Then we we have.
Well, I better turn to it in in Genesis 22.
Genesis 22.
Here and the 15th verse, And the Angel of the Lord called unto Abraham out of heaven the second time, and said by myself, have I sworn, saith the Lord, For because thou hast done this thing.
And hath not withheld thy son, Thine only son in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of heaven, and as the sand which is upon the seashore. And thy seed shall possess the the gate of his enemies. Well, that's looking at Israel as a nation in their final position of the.
Country that God prompts.
But look at the next verse.
And in thy seed Now here's what Paul specially speaks of. And in thy seed shall all the nations of earth be blessed, because thou hast obeyed my voice. And you'll find, typically from the time of the offering up of Isaac, that Isaac becomes the type of the risen Christ.
So that all our promises are now in that risen, glorified man.
And that's the 18th verse, I believe it's the quotation from the 21St of Genesis. And the last part of that verse, the 12Th verse, it says for in Isaac shall I see be called. And I think this is very precious, because what was it that sustained Abraham when he was called to OfferUp Isaac? It was just one verse of Scripture Now, that is if God called him to offer up his sons.
He had previously said in Isaac, Shall I see? Because so he said, God has said that in Isaac shall I see be called. And if he's asking me to offer him up, he must be going to raise him again from the dead, because his promise can't fail. And brethren, I think this is a lesson for us. We have to go through testing. And we might say, well, I don't know whether I could stand the test. I'm not quite as strong as Abraham or as Daniel.
What was it? The sustained Abraham. It was one verse of Scripture, And that one verse of Scripture strengthened him to endure that trial. And that's what we need too when we face the difficulties of life. If we look in and think about our faith, or how we have proved ourselves in the past, we might well hang our heads. But when we think of God's word, when we take our stand upon some precious verse of Scripture.
01:15:05
That's what gives us confidence to meet the difficulties and trials of life and to look beyond what we can't understand for. I'm sure he couldn't understand this, but he said it must be so. God has said it and he's able to raise up my son. That's just what God wanted me to think.
Because it was a figure of Christ going into death and being raised again. I think it's so beautiful. All because we don't have to have a great knowledge of the scripture to stand in trial. One verse of scripture is enough to sustain the soul and enable us to go through some tremendous difficulty that may come in life.
Thank you that we learned this, that we perhaps will never know in this life why God permitted us to go through some great trial or sorrow. Now Abraham all his life times didn't know that in offering up Isaac on that order that he was furnishing for all time and for all eternity.
A picture of God the Father offering up his only begotten son. Well, when he reaches the glory and we are in the glory with him, perhaps we'll go up to Abraham and tell him what that meant to us. Oh, what a reward for all eternity. And yet it looks so dark and sad and.
Unreasonable for him to have to go through that trial.
And yet, when you think of what he has gained for all eternity, we just can't estimate it at all. So there are things down here that we'll never understand the reason for in this life.
As the Lord said to the disciples when he washed their feet, what I do thou knowest not now, but thou shalt know hereafter all a wonderful.
Encouraging word, that is, Thou shalt know. Hereafter we're going to have many of the puzzles of this life all cleared up when the Day of Glory dawns.
And we're with and like Christ.
Wonderful promise and the one verse to Abraham. I was thinking what fetus says the 2nd epistle in connection with all God's promises. He calls them exceeding great and precious promises. He also speaks of the precious faith to embrace them and enjoy them.
Not only the promises, but the precious faith is picked off to enjoy them and to claim them rest upon them. Isn't it nice here to go on with this 20th verse? Here by faith Isaac bless Jacob and Esau concerning things to come. We have been noticing the outstanding faith and the action of Abraham, but here with Isaac when you go back and read the account as it's given to us in Genesis.
We find that Isaac almost blessed the wrong one. He was going to bless Esau instead of Jacob, but the mention of his failure is omitted here, and the Spirit of God only speaks of that which was of faith in his action.
Thing Following immediately this lovely example of faith, it can be encouragement to us. Sometimes we seek to do something for the Lord, and failure is mixed with it. But God still sees that which is a faith and is pleased to record it. And so it was a desire of faith to blast about him going about it. There were natural things that almost led him to go to the wrong one.
He loved venison, and he was almost going to blast the boy that should bring him the venison. But God intervened and doesn't. God often intervene in our lives? If we think of how we have tried to do something to the Lord, and perhaps something of self has come in, then the Lord graciously comes in and he intervenes.
But he takes notice of the desire. He takes notice of the faith. I was thinking of David when he wanted to build a house for the Lord. The prophet told him now that his son was to build it. But there was the added comment. It was good that it was in thine heart, so that God does take notice of these things. And this ought to be an encouragement, because when we read about Abraham, we might hang our heads, but when we read about Isaac, then we're encouraged to see that.
01:20:13
Does take notice of that faith, even in cases where there's failure?
Said that he saw stole his birthright for a mess of pottage. Of Isaac came very near selling the blessing for a mess of venison, but God allowed Esau, who was not a man of faith, to go on in his course.
Sad and solemn as it was, but for his own.
Child True believer. As you see in Isaac, God didn't allow him to go on to the bitter end of what his failure could have resulted in.
You connect that then with the pouring out of the broth, in the case of Gideon, where it wasn't acceptable, but the kid was acceptable, and the rest of the sacrifice. And also would it be connected with Leviticus, where the the feathers and the the crop of all this was put under the altar? And isn't it marvelous that our great High Priest?
The one who?
Presents the praises he presents, That's what's acceptable. And that that would go whether it be worship or whether it be service. Wouldn't it lovely.
Five six 256.
Raise the same.
Thank you.