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Two together.
Last verse #3 reads, and God has fixed the happy day. A day that's fixed when the last year shall dim our eyes, and He will wipe away these tears and fill our hearts with glad surprise to hear His voice and see His face and know the fullness of His grace. 202 What will it be?
I don't suppose we got too much further than the first verse, did we?
We start from the first again.
Hebrews 12 And one wherefore seeing we also accomplished the vote with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which does so easily beset us. And let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of faith.
Who for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest she be wearied and faint in your minds. Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin, and ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children. My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord.
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Nor faint when thou art rebuked of him, For whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son, whom he receiveth.
If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons. For what son is he whom the Father chasteneth not? But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye ******** and not sons? Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh, which corrected us, and we gave them reverence. Shall we not much rather be in subjection under the father of spirits, and live? For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure.
But he for our prophet, that we might be partakers of His Holiness, Now no chastening for the present, seemeth to be joyous, but grievous nevertheless Afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby. Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees, and make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way, but let it rather be healed. Fall a piece with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord.
Looking diligently, lest any man fail of the grace of God, lest any root of bitterness springing up, trouble you, and thereby many be defiled, lest there be any fornicator or profane person as he saw, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright. For he know how that afterward when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears. For you're not coming to the mount that might be touched, and that burned with fire, nor under the blackness and darkness and Tempest.
And the sound of a trumpet in the voice of words, which voice they that heard and treated, that the word should not be spoken to them anymore, For they could not endure that which was commanded. And if so much as a beast touched the mountain, it shall be stoned, or thrust through with the dark. And so terrible was the sight that Moses said, I exceedingly fear and quake, but ye are come unto Mount Zion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, to the General Assembly.
And Church of the first born, which are written in heaven, And to God the judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, And to Jesus the mediator of the new Covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaketh better things than that of Abel, see that ye refuse not him that speaketh. For if they escape not, who has refused him that spake on earth? Much more shall not we escape if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven, whose voice then shook the earth?
But now he hath promised saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven.
And this word, yet once more signifies the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain. Wherefore we we receiving a Kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear, for our God is a consuming fire.
What I wanted to say, brethren, in our.
One and two is the importance of keeping the goal before us. I think it is really.
Important The athlete that runs.
He runs in view of a prize at the end, and here it is presented in verse two of Jesus. The author and finisher of faith is the one who ran that race before us.
And it was for the joy that was set before him that he endured the cross. There's a lot of obstacles in the Christian race, a lot of weights that we've been talking about, But to keep the prize before us and what was it that let the Lord Jesus continue on through all those hard times in his life was the joy that was set before him. And I think.
Chuck mentioned it, that it was particularly the thought to him of going back into the presence of God.
As a glorified, resurrected man in resurrection glory to be able to say, I have finished the work which thou gave us me to do. No other human eye was there to witness this, at least not in resurrection glory, you might say. Moses and Elias were there, but not in resurrection glory. Only he was the one that was there in resurrection glory.
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And we just don't have a very good concept, brother.
The glory of that side of things. Paul was caught up into the 3rd heaven. He witnessed that glory and from then on he was a ruined man as far as earthly objectives were concerned.
You get a glimpse of the glory before it will make you.
Esteem properly things of this light, and I agree with a lot that was said about the weights this morning, brethren, I really do believe that materialism is a weight that hinders us running properly as believers in the Lord Jesus go down to some of the poor countries.
In this world, and you see people who live in just the Shack, they are just as content, far more content in general than Americans are.
Not having a bunch of stuff that's going to make us happy, brethren, It's keeping the goal before us. We were not made for life down here in this world. We were made for a glory beyond, and Abraham was a wealthy man. Nothing wrong with wealth in itself, but Abraham, as far as we know, never lived in more than a tent.
Interesting, isn't it?
And the Lord Jesus Christ, the King of glory, came into this world. Never do you have a record that I remember in Scripture of him having a piece of money in his hand.
Never had a house.
As far as we know, he never had a donkey or a horse to ride on. Never did.
The poorest of all. Why was he willing to go through this life that way?
Because of the joy that was set before him, that heavenly home that he had come out of and was looking forward to going back into. And if we can just try to think in our feeble way of grasping things of him going back into the glory of God, I like to think of him in resurrection. He was here.
For 40 days after his resurrection, and the time came when he walked right back into the glory of God.
And set himself down at the right hand of the majesty, and high, oh the glory of that moment.
Brethren, that's the pathway that we are on to the same pathway. It's a pathway of faith and it is a continual challenge in our world to live on the principle of faith, not of sight. What do you mean, you say?
You can't walk around with your eyes closed, not talking that you do that. Use your eyes. But you don't live by sight. You live by faith, according to the principles of the Word of God. It's a continual struggle to live according to those principles of faith. It's a it's a race we are to run with. Patience, endurance.
Don't give up.
What's the use of going to meeting every single time and sitting there and sometimes it's dry. Don't give up. That's what scripture presents. Keep on, don't give up. Persevere. That's the point. There's a goal in front of us. The Lord Jesus ran that race ahead of us. Where is he now? At the highest pinnacle of glory.
In the universe of God.
There is the Lord Jesus, and that's the race that's set before us now. Is there something that you can tell me about down here that is worth spending your time on? Like Ken was saying, a car. Is there a car that can be so glorious that it's better than that? When you compare it to that brethren, I think you can see that nothing down here.
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Is worthwhile in comparison to that the Apostle Paul had.
A lot of.
Qualifications in his life, before he was saved that were admirable, he could say as to the righteousness in the law, he was blameless. But when he saw Christ in glory, he said it's all done. Get it out of here. I don't want anything to do with it anymore.
There's something far, far more precious to my soul, and it's when we see that brethren we give it that before our souls that we are drawn on this race to run with patience, to cast the weights to one side, to lay the sin of unbelief and run with endurance, keep on things look dark.
And things look discouraging at times, young people say. What is this?
And they say it doesn't look like anything's going anywhere. With those that are gathered to the Lord's name, it looks like things are getting less and less. We keep on dividing, and if you're going to go by sight, that's what it looks like. I agree. But that's not what we're called on to do. We're called on to walk by faith, and faith is simply obedient to the word of God. Keep on, keep on.
There's a goal at the end, and it's not here in this world. It's with Christ and glory. That's where the goal is. Make a few comments about this expression. Object of faith has been used many times in the last meeting and and this time as well.
Everybody in this room has one or more objects to their life.
God is so made us that we cannot live without an object.
And we've been talking about it on certain assumptions of what that object is. But I want to give a contrast to it that might help us, especially if we're a little bit younger and not so far along in our lives. Not too long ago, and at the moment I've forgotten his name. But there's a man that just recently set a record. He flew around the world without stopping and without refueling alone.
That same man has the balloon record for having gone around the world in a balloon without a loan in a solo. He has a number of.
Flight glider records. He has certain number of records in in sailing.
And.
If you wanted to say what's the man's object, you're going to say his object, at least as I perceive it is to set records.
That's what he wants to do. He wants to set records and his life is dedicated to setting records, and in some cases he lays aside lots of physical and other weights to accomplish that. When he wanted to fly around the world, I think 83% of his plane when he started out was fuel and he couldn't even sit up in it. It was so tiny that he commented he didn't take any books to read or anything else.
He was focused on the goal, the object of the record that he wanted to set. Now, something that's really important about that man's life is his object is not an object of faith.
It's an object of sight.
His life is dedicated to something that he can achieve.
Here in this world, for himself, for whatever motivates him. That's what his life is dedicated to and he doesn't. It doesn't require faith on his part.
To focus on what he's trying to achieve.
Everybody has objects, one or more objects that are governing our lives. And the purpose of this chapter really is to set our thoughts, our hearts, on something outside this world.
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As an object, not in it.
And young people grow up and they and people grow up and and I've seen people to try to help them focus their life on their object. They make a list of things. I remember reading about a man, and I think he laid down when he was a young person, 25 things that he hoped to accomplish before he died.
And he was mentioned how many, something like 17 of them or so, he had accomplished so far in his life. That was the object of his life, and it was here on this earth, and he was going after it.
But everybody in Chapter 11 here.
Was focused on something that could not be seen by the natural eye, and it required fate because they couldn't see it.
Abraham. He looked for something, and it required faith on Abraham's part because he looked for something that the natural eye, the natural man, could not see.
Noah was told something by God that no man had ever seen and Noah had never seen.
So it required faith on Noah's part to build that ark because man had never seen rain.
And consequently he was opposed in what he was doing.
The Lord Jesus had something as an object to his own soul that was past this world and into eternity, and he was opposed by it. People constantly tried to stop him in the path of his life to make it focused something on earth. All the people to whom this letter was being written had spent up to that point their whole lives.
With an object on earth they were Jews or had been Jews and and the Jewish teaching right in itself up until Christ came. Everything was for the natural eye on this earth.
Now young people hold their runs. Me, What's really our object? Is it in this world or isn't it?
Well, God wants to focus our hearts and our attention on a person, and we say that's the object of my life and he's not here. And consequently everything that wants to stop us from reaching the object before our hearts.
It takes faith.
Because you can't see it.
Nobody has can say to you, I've experienced it. I've been there. Except the Apostle Paul.
He could talk to us from the perspective of having seen it, but the rest of us we have to go on and and he too in his life apply the principles of faith. But still the point is the object of it has to be outside this world, and it is if we're really following the Lord Jesus and consequently our lives may be totally incomprehensible.
To other people in this world whose objects are not in the glory. And as young people, we're constantly being drawn back into this world to find our object here.
Materialism has already been mentioned, and that's one of the things that draws us back into this world, because we're really not running a race. Some of us, we're living here.
With the realization that we're saved, we're going to heaven someday, but it's not a race to us at all.
We're not trying to get somewhere, we're just here to live and waiting until the Lord decides to take us out.
But the sense that it's given here is it's really a race. That is you're trying to reach a goal and that goal you're seeking is outside this world.
And if.
The object isn't worth it to you.
You're not going to keep up.
Go ahead the faith chapter you've been describing. Faith Chapter 11, verse one.
Now faith is a substantiation of things hoped for the evidence of things not seen. Three Through faith, we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which do appear. That's a pretty good explanation of faith.
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Isn't it you've been speaking about it?
A young man.
Asked me once.
Would it be right for me to become a doctor?
You know, he was an intelligent young fellow.
And I told him I don't think there's anything wrong in having the desire of becoming a doctor, but don't make that the purpose of your life.
You know, and whatever we do, we have to do it with all our minds, the Scripture says in connection we think connected with this life, but we can even go to university to study as long as it does not interfere with my Christian life.
And my obligations to the Lord. This young man became a doctor, but he never gave up his Sunday school class and he never missed the meeting and he excelled at the university, so I'm just giving that as an example.
If he would have made medicine the purpose of his life, he would have suffered spiritually. You know we have Christ as the object.
And the Christian life is what we to live. And you can live that Christian life whether you are in medicine or whatever you do. There are certain occupations that you cannot do as a Christian. Could you drive a liquor truck? Would that be consistent for a Christian to drive something like that, to deliver liquor? I'm just using that as an example. And if we have a tender conscience.
And want to please the Lord. He can help us to understand what we can and what we cannot do. Whatever we do, do it as unto the Lord, and that is possible for us as Christians, but don't make.
These worldly occupations which we have to live up to, You know, if a man doesn't provide for his own, he has denied the faith and is worse than an infidel.
You know, so we have an obligation in that the connection, but it must not interfere with our Christian life and our life for the Lord. If I cannot live for the Lord in whatever I do in way of work, then I better drop it, you know. And we can have the assurance in our own soul. What I am doing, I can do for the Lord. Do it unto him, that means do it for him.
And that is possible for a young Christian to know. But do I want to excel? You know, even when you go to school as young children now?
You know, I taught my children.
Try to be good students, but don't try to show off as students you know to try to impress people.
To whatever you can and do it with all your might. But don't make it the purpose of your life. Because if you learn to be a good student and live up to your obligations there, it will have a forming effect on your character and it will help you to do other things.
That you have to do to the best of your ability, but don't let it interfere with your Christian life. You see a nice example, Brother Heinz, of that in Daniel, don't we? Daniel had very responsible positions under the kings of Babylon, but at the beginning of his stay in Babylon he purposed in his heart. There was a purpose of heart that put God first and the truth first in his life, and though he had very responsible positions.
Under those various kings, that purpose of heart and that goal in his life, to please his God and stand for the truth, stood him in good stead throughout his whole career. But I just want to say this too in connection with what Brother Don brought before us. And that is to just confirm in our souls that verse that says the things that are seen are temporal, the things that are not seen are eternal. And the goals that we place in this that we are the sites and the goals that we have in this life.
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And what we may place our hearts on obtaining in this life, our only temporal at best, and at best, they're for momentary gratification. They're not the things that are real and the things that are going to abide for eternity. I'd like to just look at another portion in Scripture where the Apostle Paul takes up this thought of a race. It's in First Corinthians Chapter 9.
First Corinthians Chapter 9 and I'll begin reading at verse 24.
Know ye not that they which run in a race, run all but one, receiveth the prize, so run that he may obtain, and every man that striveth for the mastery is tempered in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown, but we an incorruptible. I therefore so run not as uncertainly, so fight I not as one that beateth the air, but I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection.
Lest that by any means when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway. But we find here the Apostle Paul In taking up the subject of the race he first of all says that they which run in a race that isn't an athletic event that you would go to observe in this world, they run all but only one gets the prize. We can picture this 20 runners go out to run a race and as well prepared and trained as they may be for the event.
They know that when the event is over, only one is going to be brought to the winner's circle and crowned with the prize. Only one is going to get the prize. But isn't it wonderful, brethren to consider in the Christian race that we're all going to get there in the end and every man is going to have praise of God? There is going to be something in the end that he's going to be able to reward for and.
He's going to separate the precious from the vial and be able to say by grace and only by grace. But he's going to be able to say well done, thou good and faithful servant. And that's why, Paul, he wasn't running uncertainly. Those runners go out and I say no matter how well they've trained, they run in a sense uncertainly because they don't know who is going to be the winner when the race is completed. But what I want to notice here too is that he says.
And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things.
Temperance or self-control is perhaps the opposite of self indulgence and brethren. Isn't that what we have today? In our society? We're taught that self indulgence is the only happy way. The only way to be happy is just to follow your appetites and desires.
Whatever goals you set your sights on in this life, just go for it 100%. There's no temperance taught in the society in which we Live Today, but I've sometimes used this illustration. I'll repeat it. When I was growing up, I had a younger brother who was very, very athletic. And not only was he athletic, but he was a very picky eater. He really didn't like vegetables and especially things that were green and leafy. But I remember one season he went out to try out for the high school football team.
And I think he ate green salad every day for six weeks. Why did he bring his body into subjection to something that was not according to his natural bent? Why did he measure his food? Why did he not partake of things that perhaps, naturally speaking, he would have indulged in otherwise? Because he had a goal in view. His goal was to get his weight to a certain level, to go out and train, hopefully make the football team. Hopefully they would win their season and there would be a trophy in the front hall.
Trophy cupboard of the school with their names on it. He had a goal in view and it caused him to be in subjection and tempered in all things. Now, brethren, why is it so often we indulge and set our sights on the things of this life that are only for momentary and temporary gratification? It's because we don't have the goal in view. Now Paul makes a contrast here. He says they run. They do it for a corruptible crown.
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You know, as I think back over the years, I don't remember if the high school in Smith Falls won the season, and if they did, And the names of my brother and his teammates were splashed across the press and their names put on that trophy. Why, they've long been removed. Other names have come and gone. We've forgotten about it. They did it for a corruptible crown, for just something that was a flash of glory here in this world.
But, brethren, if we're running with Christ as the prize, Christ as the goal, we're not doing it for something that's just for time. It's something that's going to abide for eternity, something that's going to last. We often quote that poem to the young people. Only one life will soon be passed.
Only what's done for Christ will last. Do you realize all of us, how temporal things are here?
I remember cleaning out my parents home after my father passed away, and in just a few weeks, 51 years of accumulation of I'll put it very nicely, stuff was gone. We came into this world with nothing, and it is sure we can take nothing out. But brethren, are we building for eternity? Are we running the race in view of that incorruptible crown? Are we bringing our bodies into subjection? Is there temperance in our Christian life?
Are we laying aside the weights? The sin? If we are brethren, then there's going to be eternal fruit and eternal consequences as a result.
Of Genesis, of regarding Rebecca. And I suppose when she went to the well that day she didn't realize that her life was going to be changed so severely. But the spirit of God meets us in our pathway and.
Good it is when it's at the well and which speaks of the word of God. And he can change our lives in immediately and he gives us different desires and different objects for our soul. And you know that can happen in a moment.
And it did with Rebecca. And she from the moment that the servant met her, her life was changed. And from that moment he began to show her and tell her about Isaac. And she began to have her heart turned towards Isaac, and to to be longing to see this one who was to be her husband. And so a little by little her heart was wooed by the things that the that Eliezer told her.
And this is the way it is in your life. And mine is that the Spirit of God comes in and and he begins to work there.
And little by little he begins to occupy us and wants us occupied with the man that we are going to see. And so she she, she said when they she was asked if she would go with this man, she said I will go. And so she went.
And I don't suppose she was occupied with the camel that she was riding on. She may have changed it many times along the way. She maybe didn't ride on the same camel, but we don't know. But nevertheless, she wasn't occupied with the with the sights along the way. And you and I have many objects that we can see along the way that will turn our eyes away from the object. And and so the Spirit of God works in our hearts and He is here.
In order that you and I might be brought forward onto a perfect man. And so here we see Rebecca going on and and the spirit of God or the servant is is speaking to her about Isaac and she is occupied with what the camel or this and that site along the way. No. She's occupied with this man that she is going to see. And you know, I remember.
Brother Albert. Hey, hope I you don't mind me making reference to him again but he remember him take having some of us young fellows around And he was talking to us and he said, pointing to each one. He said now you're you've got this occupation. You've got that when you've got this one. But he said that isn't your purpose for for living down here in this world. We all need occupations we're told to to to carry on.
Honest trace.
And it would be wrong for us to sit in this world. So now, now, now I'm a believer. I'm going home to heaven. I'll let the Lord look after me and I sit down and wait. No, we have to be, we have to be busy down here and we have to carry on honest trades. But they are only our camel to get us across the desert. So don't let us get occupied with the camel and let's let's not make it our object. But remember that at the end of the pathway is the man that we're going to see.
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Of God. We've been called to eternal glory, and I find myself too, brother and I have to confess. Constantly distracted from the goal and we need to refocus conferences like this. Maybe a time of refocusing. We are not made to say again to the young people for anything grand down here. We are made for something out of this world.
Something eternal. Everything down here is for a brief moment, and it's gone.
And then what, Oh brethren, may the Lord help us to focus on eternal glory and that man?
That went through this world that ran that race and is now seated at God's right hand in glory. That's our goal when it says in verse 3. And I think we need to focus on getting on in our chapter because we're not getting along very far. But it says in verse three, consider him.
It's really putting our focus on that man in the glory. Consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners.
Himself, lest you be wearied and faint in your minds. Everywhere I go I find people that are discouraged, faint, and weary with a fight.
Get your eyes back on the goal, brother. Let me tell you when you get your eyes, I've been amazed at how that energizes you. The Lord in my time in Bolivia brought me into contact with a number of race car drivers and I've never had too much to do with that thing. But I remember one particular telling me he was on a race coming from the South up towards Santa Cruz and they race over the roads down there, which is quite a challenge in that country.
And he got into a sandy spot and you've ever gone through sand, you know what that'll do to you? And it flipped him. And he did about 3 or 4 flips and ended up with his wheels in the air.
You think you got discouraged? He got out of that car as fast as he could and he got a few people around to help him push the car over on its wheels. He checked the engine and started it up and it still ran good and he takes off turn down the road. But he got so disorientated in the flips he had done he realized after a bit he was going down the road he'd come come from. You think he got discouraged? No, he stops and turns around.
Sometimes we say young people, hey, if you go in the wrong direction, turn around. You get discouraged because somebody tries to help you. Don't get discouraged. You're called to eternal glory. That guy, what was he to call to Some earthly prize that didn't really mount to much? We who are called to eternal glory, we get discouraged. What's wrong with us? We've lost sight of the goal. And another thing I'd like to say, because our time is advancing fast, brother, and we're going to get to this.
Part of this chapter that speaks of the discipline of the Lord, and I really believe that a lot of the trials and problems we've been called to go through down here in different ways, sicknesses, accidents are because the Lord is trying to focus our gaze on something that we're called to. We get too intensely occupied with things down here.
The Lord is disciplining us. He's trying to get us loosened up a little down here. We are so tightly nailed down to things down here that the Lord is using the prior stick on us. He tries to pry us off of these things to get us occupied with things up there, brethren.
I really, truly believe there's something we need to be exercised about in what he's allowed amongst us. We are not called to anything great down here in this world.
We are called to walk the path of faith, the few moments we're going to be down here, and then eternal glory. Is that interest you, young person, or you have something else that seems a lot better than that? I challenge you to come up and try to interest me in what you think is so important down here.
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I I really think, brethren, we need to have our gays fixed on what we're called to an eternal Gloria.
What was the contradiction of sinners against himself? You know, we're told in First Corinthians don't have to turn to it. In First Corinthians it says they crucified the Lord of glory. That's the contradiction of sinners against himself. It's the worst possible death ever meted out against the highest possible one ever walked this scene.
And that's what it speaks about. But he never gave up, did he? When they hit him in the face, when they spit in his face, when they misunderstood him, when they falsely accused him. Did he ever say, OK, I give up. Never. Straight on brethren, that's our example. You might be a misunderstood, You might be maligned. We got the example here. How we should take it.
Desire to live godly will suffer persecution. And if we don't get persecution contradiction from sinners, maybe we're not walking faithfully.
16th.
Because we get that pattern, Serna. But I just want to say this before we make it's good to read the Gospels. In fact, I would suggest that make it the habit of your life no matter where else you read in scripture each day to read a portion from the Gospels. Because that's where we see what the Lord Jesus suffered. And he it says in Peter, he's left us an example that we should follow in his steps and go back and read if you get discouraged.
We talked about the stories of men and women and young people that are given for our encouragement in scriptures, but there's nothing will encourage you to go on and press on amidst the difficulties like going to the life of the Lord Jesus, so carefully recorded by the Spirit of God, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, four different aspects of the person and work of the Lord Jesus laid out for us to encourage us. You're going through a trial.
Go back and see how the Lord Jesus went through a similar trial. See how he endured. See how he went on. He didn't faint. He didn't become discouraged. He pressed on with the goal and view. I believe we need to read the Gospels perhaps more than we do. Yes, we need the Old Testament. Yes, we need the epistles. But go back. I just want to challenge your heart every day. Read something in the Gospels. It'll keep you, help to keep you from becoming faint and weary.
I want to hear well. I believe that we often speak of setting our eyes on something here as if it's a profession or something here. But we may become discouraged even in the things of God, and we may be going to an assembly and seeing two or three there and we see well. I don't have my goal on becoming rich and I don't have my goal on becoming having a big car. And yet I go to meeting year after year and I just see a handful there.
And you get discouraged. And I was just thinking of these verses in Haggai chapter 2 in connection with looking at the goal and.
You know, when they rebuilt the temple, they were carried away into captivity, and there was no testimony in Jerusalem was destroyed. And they came back, and they laid the foundations of the temple, and the young men shouted for joy, and the old man wept when they considered Solomon's temple.
And as we look back at Pentecost, we may see what the church was and we see we make that our goal. I was at a conference once and a brother said I have a dream, a beautiful dream that we're going to restore the testimony to what it once was. And you may well set yourself that goal to do that. It it's a it's a wrong goal.
And they, the young men, if you look back and see what the church was at Pentecost, if there were 2000 people in this room, I doubt that it would be every believer in Pella. And so we must never lose sight of what was in the beginning. And then you may rejoice and say, well, there were 600 at the conference, there were 1000 at the conference. And the young men may shout for joy, and you may be encouraged in that. And that's not wrong either. But you can't make that your goal because you may see that there's going to be a decline and a decline and a further decline.
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And there has been as our brother Bob was saying, but what Haggai what we see in the book of Haggai, he really saw the end in view. Maybe just turn to it and Haggai chapter 2.
They become discouraged by the building of the House of God. There was much rubbish and certainly we can become discouraged, he said. Consider the one that had such contradiction against sinners, against himself. You go, you give out the gospel and the first thing you're confronted with is not a Hindu or a Muslim, but it's some Christian with some strange wacky doctrine or somebody that's been damaged by it. And you have to sit down and patiently bring the truth before them. There's much rubbish in Christianity. There's a lot that's very much to encourage.
But they got discouraged in those days and so they gave up. Perhaps like, you see children come to the Sunday school, they get saved and then they go off to some other church and you're you're discouraged. You say what's the use? And that's why Paul said to Timothy, Do the work of an evangelist, keep it up.
And So what? What kept haggy eye going on in such circumstances is this, is that he saw in the ninth verse of the second chapter the the glory of this latter house. It should really leave the latter glory of this house shall be greater than the former sith, the Lord of hosts. And in this place I will give peace. And if we have our goal on Christ in glory, and to see the redeemed there in heaven, there is not one St. of God that's going to be missing there.
There's not going to be one problem there. And so if we labor for the Lord in view of that, then we're not going to get discouraged. But if we're labored to see things increased here, list of gatherings get fatter, the conferences get bigger. It may happen, it may not. We're going to get discouraged. But to get the view of the Lord in glory and the latter end of things, we're going to be encouraged to go on for the Lord. And as her brother was saying this, we're going to receive every kind. All they that will live godly will suffer persecution, it says in 116th Psalm, I believe.
Therefore I've spoken and what's the immediate response? I was afflicted and you're going to find trouble in your life if you seek to go on for the Lord and the we read that all through the Psalms that those you look around and the the wicked, they're at ease. And even those believers that don't have an exercise to walk in a pathway of separation, it's an easy pathway and the devil is not going to oppose you in it.
Chapter 3, verse 6. Just the latter part of that one verse we could together in Hebrews 3 and six. It says if we hold fast the confidence and rejoicing of the whole firm until the end this came up. The little word has been used here in the last few people that have spoke about being discouraged. When I'm discouraged, I have to find assurance.
In God's Word, the little book of Jude, the first verse has the word preserved. I am preserved in Christ. That's assurance.
When I read he nobody can pluck me out of his hand. That's a.
Appearance. All of a sudden I'm not getting discouraged anymore. I've got insurance. I have to read that. I have to be filled and reminded how assured I am. And then that's the only way I can have confidence rejoicing and I can hold firm. How else can I have confidence if I'm not assured it's impossible? I have to be assured.
I have to look and say that hope is coming. I'm assured of it that I will be there, that I am preserved, for that is that hope that lies ahead of me. Then I can have confidence in it. If I am assured that that hope is coming, I can rejoice in it. I can share it with others that don't know Christ.
If I am assured I can be firm standing on the promises of God, I will not be plucked out of his hand And all the other promises we can read everywhere, then I can be firm until the end. That's the goal out there and I have to be firm. And to that end, for the young ones, we're running out of time. The words quote, let us UN quote. I might be off a little bit. I think they're used 12 * 1 Time in our verse. Let us lay aside. We made a choice when we accepted Christ. We made a choice. We had choices all over in our life.
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We have choices, don't we? This is a choice to let lay aside those weights. The one in front of us is perfect. And he never had any weights whatsoever. When I started, I had all kinds of weights and I didn't even know it. And pretty soon Christ said, hey, hey, hey, Billy, that's wrong over here. It's time to correct it. And I had a choice. Let us.
This choice lay aside, we don't have a choice when it comes to remembrance.
That's doing remembrance of me, young Christians. There's no choice in it. If you're born again, Christ says do it.
But this is a choice, isn't it? Let us do it. OK? I had to. I have to lay aside this weight.
I should be more and more perfected and like him with less and less weights the older further along I get in my life. That's twelve letter chapter, verse 24 of our chapter and Jesus the mediator of the new covenant and the blood of sprinkling and the Speaking of quote better, UN quote things in that available. I believe this is the 12Th time if I'm not mistaken and the last time better is in the book of Hebrews.
Better.
Than Moses.
The new Covenants Better than the Mosaic covenant. Everything is always better, isn't it? What's the last one spoken of here? The blood.
The blood.
The sprinkling of better things than that of Able. The value in his blood. What a wonderful thing to end a meeting. Speaking of the value of his blood. The blood that removed those sins of Crimson stain and made us white as snow. There's nothing better than the value of that, is there?
Let us lay aside those weights and let us look at the better things.
That's some of the teachings of the book of Hebrews. Let us and better.
325.
We wait for.
The alone of God.
And all of God.
So I shall be praying today.
So.
Great.
Ha.
Our hearts.
And.
Souls.