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After the.
What is my love possessed me not alright?
Or by night, or fun by day. Unchangeable. Thy gracious love, Our earthly time, our ceaseless views, 166.
Lord, thou hast run.
What happened at the present time?
A fried rice and children.
Uh, phone number 80808080. No, I don't like.
A while on the road, nothing can come in from the water here. I don't even have this place in your life.
All right.
And.
Then after that, you're back in your legs, the hanging blows up and no one there's a bridge. It's not like it's a thank you. Let's let's, let's play lay down.
Doctor that we've been looking at, uh, unless, uh.
Our brother has another passage.
Like to consider.
Uh.
Mind of the brethren, that shall we go on with this? Hebrews 12.
I guess we got down to about here.
Reading from the book of Hebrews, chapter 12 and verse 12 for the end of the chapter. Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees, and make straight paths for your feet, lest that was just laying be turned out of the way.
But let it rather be healed. Follow peace 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 Esau, who for one morsel of being sold his birthright. For you know how that afterwards, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected.
00:05:23
Where we found no place of repentance, though we sought it carefully with tears. For ye are not coming to the mountain that might be touching, and that burned with fire, nor in the blackness and darkness and Tempest, and the sound of a comfort in the voice of words, which voice they had 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 without dark, and so terrible was the sight.
Then Moses said, I exceedingly fear and quake. But year comes among Zion, and under the city, the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, And 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 been 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 she refused on him that speaketh.
For if they escaped nod, who 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? And now he has promised, saying yet.
The moving of those things that are shaken, and the things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain. Wherefore 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.
Although we have some marvelous uh.
Revelations of the grace of God and the privileges of Christianity. The apostles developed throughout this epistle. Nevertheless, the standards of God's moral law have not changed.
Live in a moral world and dishonest the world.
By God's standard of holiness and sin have not changed.
Umm, and.
Even looking back on the verses that we have had before us, we should ever remember that there is a government of God in our lives. Perhaps the young people might have a difficulty understanding what we mean by the government of God.
Well, perhaps someone can explain it better, but it's God's dealings with us as children in the family. It's not a judicial character. The judgment of our sins was settled at the cross. That's not going to be raised again for punishment. I wouldn't call the government of God punishment, but it's God's dealings with us. We could be thankful that He does.
Because he says here.
Follow peace with all men, and holiness without which no man shall see the Lord. You look back in the Old Testament.
You certainly see the government of God very clearly illustrated in the lives of many of the Old Testament believers. And that's important young people and all of us that we read the Old Testament, not just the New Testament or some favorite passages, We need to read all Scripture. It's in the it's demonstrated.
In the lives of those Old Testament things.
Without going into detail and having definitely in the life of Davis and others, that is put it plainly whatsoever a man So what? That's Kelly also reads When I was young in Ottawa, Times without number, the brother, the older brother.
He highly respected gifted teacher. He used to repeat. You get off with nothing.
00:10:02
He got off with nothing in your Christian life. Every act has its present and its eternal consequences. That has never left me. And of course it's it's true, every word of it. And so it's not that we walk with a a a fear of the Lord and he's going to punish us, but we should walk carefully and in self judgment knowing that.
We, uh, have to deal with the Holy Father, one who abhors sin and, uh, whose standard of holiness has not changed. So in the world since, uh, we'll say since Dave and I went to high school, there's been a marked deterioration in moral standards in the world. We all know that in this country, but God's standard has not changed.
For nature, we don't have to yield to it. It's not inevitable that we have to sin. When we sin it's always our fault and it's always because we do not look to the Lord for strength in that hour of temptation. We think perhaps we can overcome that ourselves and we have a fall like Peter did. The point is is to put things in in a balance here that.
True, we are brought into a marvelous place in Christianity.
Superior to Judaism in every way. In fact, that's what the apostle deals with in the whole book. But there is a government of God in our lives. There's a governmental forgiveness, which means that if I judge that sin, the Lord will forgive it and can remove the governmental healing.
But uh, we can suffer. Well, that's what is mentioned in verse eleven. No chastening for the presidency grievous God would have itself You, uh, I'm not a father, but there are many fathers here. And if you're, you deal with your children, it makes fun of it you.
You uh, give a, uh, give a punishment and they, uh, flub it off or, umm.
Ignore it, it defeats the purpose of the of the discipline. And so God would have us feel these things, but nevertheless afterward to yield at the peaceable fruit of righteousness. But notice the last phrase unto them, which are exercise thereby. So when those things come into our lives.
Individually, we need to be exercised. Why has the Lord allowed this in my life?
He is speaking to me. He is speaking perhaps to correct me about something that I, uh, loathe to judge in my life, which is displeasing to him, may not be seen by our, by our brethren, but God can speak to us in these ways. So I just bring that before us, brethren. Uh, also we follow holiness, not in order to obtain it, but in order because we have a holy nature that wants to please God.
I'd like to ask a question.
Umm, in the life of David we see the government of God and umm, he sings so grievously, umm, with Bathsheba and umm, you know, he, Uriah, her husband, uh, killed by putting him on the front lines and uh.
We know that the sword, the Lord said to him that the sword sword would never depart from his house. Is there such a thing as Umm?
Lifelong.
Government of God and the other question I was going to ask was.
You know.
In Sodom and Gomorrah and.
The the terrible life that was down there and lot his, his, his.
Righteous soul or a saved soul was next daily by the.
The way people lived.
Just paraphrase it, but you know, umm, we, we know that the, we had to pay a price of that and, uh.
I'm just wondering there's some things that we can't have restored. I guess the question is that.
00:15:06
And then is that also included in the government dodge? And I don't know if I make myself quite plain. Yeah, I think I know what you mean. Well, certainly.
In the case of David, the warden marvelously forgave him that those sins and that he really committed adultery and murder. Umm.
At least he arranged with her. Uh, God gives her restore him marvelously. He wrote beautiful songs after uh.
We have in the scriptures.
But the results of his sin followed him to the grave.
Umm, the scars were there and, uh.
Remember a story in Ottawa?
About a a man who was a complete one thing stopped. He was a.
Lay on his belly and try to get the last drop of liquor from the bar.
But the Lord gloriously Savior delivered him from that habit. He was a bright testimony. They said, Brethren, I ruined my stomach, I ruined my health. For the rest of his life he suffered with stomach and digestive problems, and God never removed it. He died with it, but he was happy in the Lord.
So I went through the every act in our lives has its present and eternal consequences. You have that verse in Proverbs. His reproach shall not be wiped away, knowing the connection, moral connection there.
How careful we all need to be, especially the young people.
You know, you know what people say, well, you only live once, might as well have a good time while you're living. But the acts that we commit from our youth can leave scars for the rest of our lives.
There's a verse in Psalm 51 speaking about David and his sin and his forgiveness and here is he he's acknowledging his sin in Psalm 51 verse 3. For I acknowledge my transgressions and my sins ever before me. Like her brother has said, those scars may be there for life if a a within a life that's lived in disobedience to God. But if we look in first John chapter one.
And verse 10, verse nine, it goes along with with David who who confessed his sin and he first he was forsaking that sin and he was forgiven and says, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. So if there's if there's the if there's the repentance and there's the forsaking and there's the forgiveness.
And the all unrighteousness is cleansed.
I have freedom to come and worship the Lord and serve the Lord and be a a be a help in the assembly.
You back up in that, uh, chapter.
In first John chapter one.
We find out what it is.
That renders fullness of joy.
And it's not circumstances.
In verse 3.
John says that which we have seen and heard. Declare we unto you, that you also may have fellowship with us. And truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ. And these things rightly unto you, that your joy may be full.
Now, if we've messed up and we find out that there are these scars, if there has been repentance.
And acknowledging, like you point out, confession of sin.
Fellowship with the Father and the Son.
Will be restored and that is fullness of joy.
Even though from a natural standpoint we might wish things were otherwise in our life, it's good to see.
That even though they're making scars, we can still have this fullness of joy, can we not? Because it's fellowship with the Father and the Son.
Jesus Christ.
We have no, uh, desire as believers that we shouldn't have to, uh, break the law or God's holy commandments and said that the law was holy and the commandment holy, just and good. The children of Israel were under that, uh, uh.
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System under God's government, they were to keep the law. We know that they didn't have a heart to keep the law. But today in Christianity we've been given all things entertain on to life and godliness in Christ. And so we're in a in a in a brand new position before God in Christ on the other side of death as believers, but we're still under God's governmental feelings.
We don't have a desire like to break the commandments. We're not under those commandments at the old, uh, the children of Israel were under, but we are under God's, uh, holy law, his word. We're to keep his commandments. It says his words, but also there's a God's commitment to here on earth and we get in Romans chapter 13.
We're also to be subject to, uh, the government's in God as, uh, put into place here.
While we live breaking, uh, civil laws, we can also suffer.
It might be put into jail or put into prison depending on what one is done, and may not be delivered from it.
Yeah, one may be a Christian, and so we are subject to the laws of the land the governments of God has put into place, as well as God's holy lives.
I guess I feel for myself that by nature, I feel as man that we tend to be judgmental in our ways of thinking of people who hear about something in you.
Umm, our thoughts turn too often to me, to God is coming in government on a on a certain person.
Umm, I feel that there are scriptures even in the from the verse where we started with here that points in a different direction. Look at the verse where we started from Hebrews 12:00 and 12:00 and.
In the previous verse, it speaks about chastening.
No chastening, for the present seemeth to be joyous but grievous.
Nevertheless, afterward it yielded the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby. Now in the 12Th verse, where we started, Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees. What's the thought there? Why is that verse brought in? You know there's a brother who wrote long ago, Mr. Faraday.
And he made this comment. He said God hangs the key up near the door.
And if you go back to Genesis, because that's the the door that opens to this book that we have turn with me to the 15th of genital.
Genesis 15.
And, uh, verse. We start with, say, verse 19.
And he, that's, uh, Melchizedek serves verse 18. Melchizedek, king of Salem, is, I'm sorry, this is uh, Genesis 14, verse 18.
I was visiting king of Salem, brought forth bread and wine, and he was the priest God, and he blessed him and said, Blessed be Abraham of the Most High God, possessor of heaven and earth.
God owns everything.
And blessed be the most High God, which has delivered thine enemies into thy hand.
And he gave him ties of all, uh, ties of all. And the king of Sodom said unto Abram.
Give me the persons and and take the goods to thyself.
And Abram said to the king of Sodom, I will lift up my hand under the Lord.
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The Most High God, the possessor of heaven and earth.
What, uh, Abram was saying to the king of Sodom, and here I'm not gonna take the goods from you.
I'm gonna take them from God. He's the one who's the giver. The taking of them, the holding up the hands is holding up expecting a blessing. So Abraham was expecting a blessing.
From God rather than the taken from the king of, uh, of Sodom.
So over in our verse here it says lift up the hands that hang down.
You know when we get discouraged, when things come on in our lives, God wants us to look heavenward to get the blessing.
And so it says here that verse wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble meets its faith during times when things are difficult, when sorrows come into our lives, when when we stray from the Lord is to turn to the Lord. Now you remember when the Lord went back to heaven in the 24th of Luke, it tells us that he he lifted up his hands.
And bless them.
He wanted for the people of God as he went back into the heavens. He wanted the people to have the blessings of God. Well, I've enjoyed whenever I read that expression, lift up the hands that I I think that it is anticipating a blessing. You remember back in in Exodus where it speaks about Moses holding up his hands and his hands got weary and the two helped in connection withholding up his hands.
Why did he hold up his hands when he held up his hands? Why the people of God prevailed?
And so it's, it's, it's the energy of faith that would lead us to look up to ask God to intervene, to come in, in our lives. So I again, I just have enjoyed that thought here. There's encouragement, the grace of God and the government of God go together in our lives and when the Lord is speaking to us.
It's well for us to turn to him. And somebody is quoted just now from, from, uh, the epistle of John.
You know that book, First Epistle of John? You know what it's about? It's about fellowship.
It's a father who wants to have communion with his children and the and the and the father once com communion with his children based on light.
God is light in him is no darkness at all. And then what does he bring in? He brings in sin. He talks about sin. Is there going to be fellowship when there's sin? No. But is there a pathway for the child of God to come back so that they can be in fellowship again? That's what it's all about there in the first couple of chapters of the Epistle of John, if we confess our sins.
He's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us. He's a father or a mother here, very happy. If their child is not happy in the home, something's wrong. No, the whole her home is disturbed by it. We want to have a happy home and it's the same with our Father, which is in heaven. He wants his family to be happy and he knows that sin.
Is, uh, has to be dealt with. And so there's chastening, but it's, it's, it leads a blessing if it's taken from the Lord.
Very good babe. Umm, I'm thinking along that line. Perhaps a going on with our chapter a little here that looking diligently.
Lest any man fail of the grace of God, lest any root of bitterness bringing up trouble, you, and thereby many be defiled.
Well, alas, we have to admit that this has happened. It's happened collectively.
Happened individually and in many cases.
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It's very, it's very point that the apostle puts his finger on here. That's been the call, this root of bitterness that is, uh, may not be seen by others but never been judged.
Presence of God spreads. You know, a roof can go a long distance under on the ground before it screams up it it can travel a long distance and then suddenly it will spring up. It's the same group only 100 feet away. But the point that I'm trying to make is that these things in our souls, if allowed and nurtured, can.
Lead to very serious results.
In our life and in the assembly.
And, uh, we know our own hearts and, uh.
We have that exhortation here, lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble with you.
Not only does it troubles us individually, but it can affect many of us. And bring this on and the name of the Lord. And then we have the fornicator here who yields to self indulgence here. Esau couldn't wait until he got home. He had to have that mess of potatoes right away. No self denial. I've got to have it now. Well, reminds us of a lot that Bill referred to.
Wrapped up in the whole ungodly system wouldn't separate from it had to be dragged out of it.
And.
UMM lost his testimony, but here he saw for one morsel of meat, sold his birthright. You have no doubt. He didn't value the things that were important and of the spiritual value. He didn't say count upon them at all. He just looked for present enjoyment. That's what he wanted, present enjoyment. I wanna have that mess of podcast now. And uh, he got it. And he despised his birthright.
Uh, we, uh, regret it.
He regretted his choice after. Yes, there was remorse, was remorse in Judas. He can hang himself. But there was no repentance into this. There was no repentance in Esau either.
Uh, and uh, what he was seeking here was not to when he sought it carefully, he, he would have liked to have had the blessing, uh, and he regretted his choice in yielding to the to that self gratification, but he never repented of any of his act.
The root of bitterness too, wasn't it? Because he despised his brother? It was his own doing that he sold the birthright. Jacob didn't twist his arm. He sold it for a mess of pottage. And then the root of bitterness in his soul. He sought after Jacob's life. You know that he would have.
Slain his brother, but he was sent away, you know.
But another case where we have pain enabled pain did explain his brother same thing root of bitterness. He was jealous of his brother's offer before God. We've seen both cases there was it tells us that repentance is is the word God, not self pity, but repentance is to God only to God that we're what we have done and we see what you saw there was no repentance the Lord God.
Felt sorry that he lost his birthright, but uh, he didn't take the matter before and he left that root of bitterness build up inside. Sought after his brother's life. Does show how far roots of bitterness can go if they're on chat.
We need to think about how our actions affect others because we are being watched. We don't realize it perhaps, but we have those that are watching this and watching this carefully. You know, if I'm discouraged.
How can I possibly?
00:35:02
Encourage anybody else.
It doesn't work that way, you know, I gotta be encouraged myself in order to encourage somebody else.
That's why I believe it says lift up the hands which hang down.
And the feeble needs and we might think, you know, under chastening or discipline.
There is no excuse.
For that to happen, you know, it tells us, I think in the proverbs, if you faint in the day of adversity, your strength is small.
You're thinking about yourself. I'm thinking about myself instead of about the Lord.
And your hospital has already showed us that whom the Lord loves, he chases.
So how can we discuss if we're focusing on the love of Christ, the love of the Father?
So we need to, I believe, lift up the hands, let's hang down and people knees.
And make straight pads for your feet. I noticed the margins in my Bible were straight. It says even past.
I believe if I allow sin evil in my life.
Then it's not an even past.
I'm making bumps in the past.
And somebody that's following, somebody that's watching, following it very easily be tripped up on one of those bumps.
Have you turned out of the way?
You know, it speaks about those that are lame.
Well, there are those that are weak in the faith. We need to consider these ones.
Look for the lawyer. It might be acting away. That wouldn't be offensive.
To these ones because each and everyone here to the heart of.
Follow peace with all men, holiness without which no man shall see the Lord.
Looking diligently lest any man fail grace with God or fall from grace. It's not that they lose their salvation.
But they lose the enjoyment. I can do that in my own slope, you know, if somebody.
Search something.
Dad, I think.
It kind of hurts me. Well, why is that? Is it because I think I deserve better treatment?
Think of the grace of God.
And what is it?
It's, I believe, the kindness of God super abounding to those that don't deserve anything but that health and judgment. We heard about that last night and we need to keep ourselves in the love of God and in the grace of God.
And we need to look good. We don't lose sight of the grace of God because if we do, there will be bitterness, a root that's planted. And you know, it only gets worse.
But that route isn't pulled out.
Can I ask a question about?
Making straight paths versus following the straight path we think of the well known passage in Matthew 7 about entering narrow gate and following the straight top, which I believe is a call to salvation. We're on the straight path. But here it tells us to make straight paths. The idea that obviously when we enter the narrow gate were saved or put onto the straight path. We can then lose sight of the facts. Sometimes we get distracted by things along the way and we create our own stumbling and we are to I guess through the light of the word correct. Our path is the idea here that we're we're not leaving the straight path because we're on it. I'm gonna salvific standpoint. But in our Christian walk we can stumble because we're not exercising ourselves with the word of God and keeping our eyes in the past from a relationship between the two.
Making versus following.
It's a straight path and it's a narrow path on each side. Each ditch is dangerous. I always think of it. And one side is lasciviousness and the other side is legalness and tightness and not having any grace. And they're both very, very deadly. And you know, David.
00:40:13
I love.
How he knew, he knew he was being chasing of the Lord, He knew he was being afflicted of the Lord for his good, for his prophet. And uh, in Psalm 19119, uh, he mentioned several times, I'm not sure how many, I think it's six times. He says, uh, you know, uh.
I know, O Lord, that my judgments are right that verse 75.
And uh, and that's how in faithfulness has affected me. So if we never get afflicted by the Lord, we wouldn't want to go on for the Lord. We wouldn't want to, uh, read about them. We wouldn't want to be with other believers. And, umm, you know, he has to reach us through affliction. And uh, and verse 107, I'm afflicted very much quick in the whole world according to thy word, He knew according to God's word.
He knew that, uh, he was going to be, uh, there's an end to it. And uh, verse 67, it says, before I was afflicted, I want to spray, but now because I kept my word and so.
You know, uh.
In verse 92, unless thy law had been my device, I should have perished in my affliction. We didn't get the root of bitterness did not come out.
He and he, he knew, he knew when he was laying on his bed and he was being affected and all those things were happening against him. There was times, times when he was through in his bed chamber and you know, he, he was afflicted so much much, but he knew that.
I can't stay like this. I gotta go on for others and for myself. And so he was well aware of it, wasn't he?
And we know, I know. And I'm being afflicted. I know and I'm being patient and, umm.
I know I I always think of it this way.
Umm, you know, our, our, our comments, I think it's the worst is uh, the worst member of our body, you know, and uh, you know, uh, you know, a fast community, we have to judge them and uh, with the tongue, actions, thoughts and umm.
What I was just thinking of, umm, we know and uh, and then if we don't turn from it, the situation gets worse and, uh.
So once we turn to it, repent it's a lifelong condition of our state of soul is repentance towards God and.
If we don't have the evil that we're going on with, it's just like sleeping. Dessert under the rug keeps getting bigger and you have other things happening. You have funds, germs, bacteria, molds and keep getting bigger.
And then if we still no turn from it.
Well, the chasing is going harder and harder each time.
I think for myself that in connection with your question, Matthew.
Make straight paths for your feet. That's the Lord speaking to you and me.
And.
If you see me walking maybe taking a lot of part on Sunday and I just want to spend the rest of the week taking enjoying myself, self gratification and another person who is lame saying well look he looks like a pretty good Christian.
Well, look what he's doing all week long. What do you do? What do I do if I walk that way? I turn the other person aside, let that which is lame be turned out of the way. So, umm, uh.
I've heard of the expression, I suppose. Didn't hear it when I was younger, but younger people, I've heard it referred to smoke. You know what smoke stands for.
Sunday morning only Christian.
Well, if I'm going to be a small.
And the rest of my life is better for myself. I can turn around, I can, I can. I can stumble other believers that those that are lame be turned out of the way. Is that the thought there, Brother Stan?
00:45:08
I believe that's right what you're saying, yeah.
Umm, I was thinking of a verse in Judges chapter five. You don't have to turn to it, but it says in the days of jail the highways were unoccupied. In other words, the travelers were on the byways. They got off on the right hand or to the left.
And so I believe the straight path is the path the Lord has laid out for us. And as you say, if we get out of that path, we're going to be a discouragement, uh, to others.
But uh, Lord, what happens to be an encouragement to them so that they would be healed, as it says here in this verse? So, umm, it's very important for us to be exercised and remember that what we do has an effect on others. I remember I've said it many times, but I remember when I was young, a brother in the Smith Hall assembly came up to me and he said, Stan, you don't realize, but what you do has a real effect on what I do.
And I've never forgotten that, because I believe it.
We are either a good example or a bad example to those around us.
Yeah, I was thinking along that connection. And after that no man liveth unto himself and no man die of unto himself. So we are a health in the assembly or we're a hindrance one of the other and.
We should be exercised that.
There are pathway not only on Lord civil morning. We're gathered through the Lord's name seven days a week, not just Lord's Day one. We're at the Lord's table seven days a week. It only comes with the Lord's table once in our lives. We're there and uh, we should act in that character that what is becoming the Lord's presence at all times and then will be an encouragement rather than a a hindrance to a others.
My margin there where it says, uh, straight, it has the word even. I like that better in this sense that if we're walking on a path and it's smooth or even, we're not so apartment to stumble.
But if you're walking on a path that's bumpy and.
And, uh, Rocky And so on.
It one is at the stumble and so it says, uh, the margin there it says, uh, make even pass for your feet.
And, uh, we can get rid of the bumpiness and.
The lumpiness, you might say in our pathway by reading the Word of God and depending upon Him.
But these things here are following Peace with all men and holiness.
Without which no man shall see the Lord, looking diligently, lest any man fail of the grace of God.
To think of.
Tells us here to follow peace with all men that is another person in Romans that says as much as is in you is lived peaceably of all men and.
We have everything that we need to do this that the Lord has given to us.
But it tells us here that we're to look diligently.
For this grace. So where will we look?
Diligently.
For this grace that we need, says looking diligently.
All of these with all men and holiness.
One verse I was thinking of in this connection, when we look diligently for, uh, example of grace, we no doubt find it, uh.
In God's love toward us and what the Lord Jesus has done by this thinking of one verse there in Ephesians chapter 4.
I should read verse 32 or from verse 30 it says uh, grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, where thy year sealed on to the day of redemption, and let all bitterness and wrath and anger and hammer and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice.
You can't really, uh.
00:50:00
Do what it says in verse #1 or 31 unless we practice at 7:32 it says and be kind one to another gender artist, forgiving one another even as God for Christ sake has forgiven you.
How can we have bitterness, really, when we think about it, against our veteran?
Or.
Uh, walking on peaceably when we look at what the Lord Jesus has done for us.
We're we're here today because of what price has done for us.
Sitting here enjoying the Lord and.
Be able to meditate upon Him and all He has done for us. And yet we know that we have that flesh within us and we're capable of the things that spoken out here. Not walking in peace and showing peace and holiness, but.
We've got peace in the at the expense of holiness, you know, sometimes.
In the assembly, things might be just blurred over and not dealt with.
The presence of the Lord are compromised.
But we shouldn't introduce in the assembly anything that would bring umm.
Discord or unhappiness? However, there's certain things that must be dealt with for the Lord's glory, and it's not peace of any cost.
The peace of God.
And there's holiness. Mercy and truth are met together. Righteousness and peace are kissed each other. That there is.
The other side that we know we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
But, uh, I mean, you should be, it should be shot with the preparation of the gospel of peace. But sometimes there, uh, evil must be dealt with and not to ignore in the assembly. I think the whole, umm, it's a, it's, it's an ongoing, umm, umm, subject here that is brought before us. And last time we were taking up more of the question of chasing.
And, uh, now it's moving on.
Two, when the chastening has taken place, when there is a correction, then there's a way to walk in humiliation before God, to go on. And so he brings in these various things here, like lift up the hands that hang down. The people need that there be faith and trusting and looking to God, and then make straight paths for your feet. Watch the next time be careful.
And uh, so you, uh, umm, uh, others are encouraged to go on by the way that you're walking. And now it has come to follow peace with all men and holiness without which no man shall see the Lord.
Now I struggle with this for some time in connection with this expression. What does it mean for without which no man can see the Lord?
Well, if we turn back to, uh, to the fifth chapter of Matthew, we would find this verse Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God. Does that mean with the physical eye? No, I don't believe it does. It is unmixed motives. Now the na, the holiness is referring to the nature righteousness appeal is is referring to more of the practical side of carrying out the the the.
The what the nature would bring before us, and here it is the nature. And so with unmixed motives so it speaks here. Follow peace with all men and holiness. Do you want the mind of the Lord in connection with your pathway in life?
If you run into something, some stumbling blocks and you're wondering what the mind of the Lord is, well, we need to come to the Lord in a way that we're, we, we are humble before him to know what his mind is. So it tells us back in the Psalms. The meek will he guide in judgment. Do I want my own way? You know how it says in the book of James? It says ye ask and ye ask a message that he may consume it upon your lust.
00:55:05
So I asked the question of the Lord, but really I got my own secret desire inside for getting what I want to get. But here it says about holiness, without which no man can see the Lord.
So, you know, it's a wonderful thing that in our pathway of light life that the Lord wants to guide us, but it's required that I have a state of soul where I am going to listen to what He wants me to do. I believe, you know that God wants to give that to every man and woman in this world. I I thought of it right from the very beginning, the 1St, the 1St chapter of the Bible.
What's it say?
Let there be light. The world is full of darkness and it's getting worse and worse and man's lost his way more completely. But for the believer, there's light for the pathway and there's individual light that the Lord would seek to give each of us for every stage of our life. So I just thought of it in connection with follow Peace with all men. Sometimes disturbing things come in that maybe affect in the home.
In a marriage.
Work situation assembly, wherever it is.
Seek to take the low place before the Lord and go on. Fall peace with all men. And I think it opens up so that the Lord is more able to open His mind to us. You know the verse over in Ephesians, it says grieve not the Spirit of God which is in you, whereby ye are sealed under the day of redemption.
If if I seek to walk with the Lord, the Spirit of God does not grieve. It's like you walking with a friend. You know, you're talking back and forth, but you got something between you and if you got something between you, it's kind of difficult to talk about every subject together. Well, we have a divine guest inside of you want us to open up the path for us in life. So you know what this all fits along with the the verses here.
God wants a people that are happy going on with them and so you get it in little thought developed through the chapter it seems to me.
And then when you say too, umm, that, umm, you know, uh, the servant of the Lord must not strive, but must be gentle, have to teach. And oftentimes, uh, we as Christians, umm, and some people are more prone to it than others and they get frustrated and, uh, with another person's watch because they try to force it, you know, I think it's Jehovah's fact, you know?
Umm, he defeated the enemy.
By singing and umm, and they're all singing and the enemy, uh, were killing each other off. They never even had to lift a finger, you know, so it's it's.
It's like great, umm, that we have to deal with others if we're cranky or if we're forceful, umm, it won't work. It doesn't turn the person the other way. And the Lord was never like that. He never ever force himself.
And we have to learn a real lesson all through our lives. And you know, umm.
He just doesn't want us to use force and when we do, we prove his work. That or the work that he has given us to do. We can. We can put an end to it pretty quick by being forceful.
Would you say that's true?
I mean by being angry with somebody.
And, uh, we have no, uh, right to be anger to anyone, you know, And we can't, uh, we can't meet the flesh with the flesh. No, I mean, that's what you're trying to do, that sometimes it never works. Umm.
As he remarked, we need to take that humble place and the coals of fire upon the head of our brother.
By returning not evil for evil, but good for evil. That's what the Lord did with us. And, uh, sometimes that's difficult, but, uh, it's the God's plan of, uh, of the grace of God being shown in our lives. The time is going and there's a lot more in this chapter here. I just wanted to make a few remarks on the, uh, balance of the chapter here because, umm, we have a remarkable.
01:00:21
Contrast.
Here, between the giving of the law and the whole legal system of Sinai, with what we now have in Christianity, the apostle is saying, you haven't come to the mountain of Sinai where God was declaring His Holiness. The mountain was smoking with fire. The people were standing up far off and terrified and trembling.
He said you haven't come to that mountain.
You have come to Mount Zion. Now God is not that. He has changed in His holy demands, but He's been revealed now in Christ. He's been revealed as a Savior God.
Brought us into a relationship now that the children of Israel did not have.
And, uh, and he says you're, you're brought to Mount Zion and all these wonderful.
Blessings that God has brought to the believer. Now the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, innumerable company of angels, and so on. Now we're the Church of the first born, written in heaven, God the Judge of all.
Well, he's not going to judge us, but.
And then brought to the one who is the judge.
And will.
Will take that place in the future day and the spirits of just men made perfect at the Old Testament Saints.
They are spirits now.
Umm, they haven't been made perfect yet. They will be when the Lord returns. And, uh.
They will have a uh.
Glorified body. I think that's the meaning of that verse there. And to Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant. We are not under the new covenant now. Israel is going to be under the new covenant. We are.
Are we, we receive the blessings of the new covenant of grace, but we are not under any covenant now as the Church of God, blood of sprinkling, it doesn't call for vengeance as it did with Cain. He called for blessing. All our blessings now are through the blood of sprinkling, but with Cain he was a murderer and so on. So all of these things now we have in Christianity.
And members of the church and dogs in the highest place closest to the Lord, named, written in heaven and and and so on given to us in this 22 on there.
The first mountain is the mountain of law keeping. The 2nd mountain is the mountain of grace. The 1St mountain is what man can do and how man is made of failure. The 2nd mountain is what God has done, and that is great Mount Zion. It speaks of grace.
So a man's failure is brought before us in that first mountain, and the grace of God coming down to meet us in our need is brought before us, and that is the mountain that God seeks to bring before the Hebrews here now.
It's important, I think, to go back to the origin of something to find out you know the true meaning of what it's all about.
And really, the law is that which condemns it condemns.
The very best.
And there's no salvation.
It only exposes our scene.
The law is good. It's holy.
And God uses it to convict one of sin.
But as far as means of salvation?
01:05:02
It isn't available under the law because of the fact we are sinners. But when you look at when the law was given to Moses, you see the circumstances here and it's a terrifying experience to see that this mountain.
It's burned with fire.
It was black, dark.
There's a Tempest.
The sound of a trumpet, the voice of words, which voice they had heard and treated as a word, should not be spoken to them anymore. They don't want to hear any more of it.
It was so terrifying.
They could not endure that which was commanding, and there's so much as a beast touched the mountain.
It shall be stoned or thrust through with a dark This is vivid language describing the awfulness of this this scene, and so terrible was the sight that Moses said I exceedingly fear and quaint.
That's when the goal was given.
The loyalty by Moscow's well.
Does this description of Mount Sinai engage at high?
Now it's a fearful thing.
But as you point out, coming into the mouth of Zion, and this is great and this is what engages our hearts.
The grace of God, you know, it's been said, grace is God's riches at Christ's expense.
Grace does not demand anything of you and me.
It's a gifted card. It's a free giving of God.
I believe that.
It's the basis of our salvation.
By grace, are you saved through faith?
I like what you said, he said. There's no longer God requiring, but now God is putting in and God is giving.
Umm, you know what? We saw? We had to, we had to do, do, do.
I just have a quick question.
Verses 2223 and 24 I heard it said that it's a description of the Kingdom of God.
Would that be a correct statement?
We'll figure it on for that time yet as well. Uh.
It is a preview of the that coming scene of glory into which.
By grace repeated, the Christian is introduced.
General Assembly here is the the Angel. They are now the administrators of the Kingdom, but they're going to be called in, just like in Ottawa. We have the change of government recently and the ministers who were under the former government, they were called in. They no longer have a position. A new cabinet has been established in Ottawa now. And so we are going to be the administrators of that heavenly.
Seen in company with Christ, that's an acquired glory. That millennial glory that the Lord has is something that he has acquired through death. And what he's not going to take the inheritance. The inheritance is that all coming scene of glory, the earth and the heavens. You're not going to take it in possession until He has His people, his bride with him. So we're going to share all that millennial glory, acquired glory.
With the Lord, of course, we don't share His sonship, Lord or His divine glory.
But that's an official glory that that he's going to share with us. I think that's the general thought in the passage here.
It's all on the ground of the blood of Christ.
01:10:01
And the reward will be the mediator of that new covenant with Israel, who are going to be established and ruled in the Kingdom. They're going to have to longer be the tail, they're going to be the head, and all blessing will fall through that nation. So there's covenant of grace made with them, but we have part with Christ in that coming seat.
You sing #10 #10.
Praise is the sweetest sound.
Every shower can make it so when God can charge and jumpers.
And.
They're frozen by the rain.
Going on every day, that's not a dream.
Right.
OK.