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.
In folding, every grace, once slain, but now alive again in heaven, demands our praise. 132.
We didn't get very far yesterday. I suggest we just read from the first of the chapter again to get the context.
Hebrews, chapter 12.
Wherefore seen, we also are compassed about. Was so great a cloud of witnesses. Let us lay aside every week, 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 our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and it sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
Or consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, Lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds, you have not yet resisted unto blood striving against sin.
And you have forgotten the excitation which speaketh unto you as unto children. My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of Him for whom the Lord loveth, He chasing us, and scourge with every son whom he receive us. If he endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons. For what son is he whom the Father chased and not?
But if he be without chastisement, where of all our partakers?
Then are you ******** 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 he yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby. Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down in 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 peace with all men.
And Holiness?
00:05:00
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, profane person as Esau, who for one more slow meat sold his birthright. For you 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 ye are not come unto the mount that might be touched, and that burned with fire, nor under blackness and darkness, and Tempest.
And the sound of a trumpet, and 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. If so much as a beast touched the mountain, it shall be stoned or thrust through with the dart. 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.
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 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 you refuse not him that speaketh, for they escape not who refused him to speak 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 receiving a Kingdom which cannot be moved.
Let's have grace whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear.
For our God is a consuming fire.
Crowd of witnesses.
It makes me think that I'm in the middle of that crowd.
And we leaving a testimony behind as the Lord tarries.
Just like those that we were just mentioned in Chapter 11.
And the times you are living in, there are those who go through this tough treatments that they receive from the world.
And we are in that same evil world, even though we have peace around us now.
We ought to be conscious about what testimony we are right now and what testimony we're going to leave behind.
Like these that I mentioned.
Here in the scriptures.
Like to say at the beginning of this meeting, umm.
I do trust, brethren, that there will be exercise.
Jim and I kind of take the lead sometimes, but.
I'm conscious that we need to all be exercised and there are gifts that the Lord has given here that can be a real help. I sometimes have been approached.
Sometimes by my wife, sometimes by others.
That told me what you're saying is going over the heads of the young people.
And I think that happens sometimes, but if there's not someone who is maybe a little younger who can interject a question or a comment that will help, I find it very helpful when that is done.
I'm not saying this is a free for all brethren should be led by the Spirit of God, but let me just put it this way be exercised if the Lord wants to use you to be available.
00:10:13
Would you agree with that, brother Jim?
I'd like to read a verse from Gospel of Mark.
Chapter 4.
And on verse 18 and 19.
And these are they which are sown among thorns, such as hear the word and the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things, entering, and choke the word, and becometh on fruitful.
Mary at the grave of the Lord Jesus that says she stood and she wept.
She looked in and she saw two angels.
They said, woman, why weep us out? She didn't seem to recognize that they were angels. She turned from there. She saw the Lord, and he said, Woman, why weepest thou? And she didn't recognize the Lord either.
Just would suggest this thought that the weights we took up in the previous meeting.
Are not only the bag of golf clubs or those kind of things that might slow us down, but it's the cares of this life, the anxieties, the trials that come even that bring us, you might say the hand wringing and tears to the point where we don't see the Lord.
And that really slows us down in the path of faith.
And so the Hebrew believers were those who had suffered the.
Their apostles had early took joyfully the spoiling of their goods, at first became a gazing stock.
They really had nothing.
Time had gone on. There were those who were giving up and turning back, those who were saying this really isn't all that it was cracked up to be at the beginning.
Some in that company really that weren't real and turning back, proving themselves that they weren't real, but discouraging others who were real.
And I just say this, the weight was lifted off Mary when she saw the Lord for who he was.
And the first thing that the Spirit of God gives us in connection with being able to lay aside every weight and the sin that so easily entangles us is occupation with the Lord Jesus Christ.
And to see him, and really, without that, we're not going to be able to lay aside the weights or those things that so easily entangle us. And so the first thing is presented is a man in the glory for our occupation, and one who went through all that we might pass through here, who endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, rather than to disobey. He wanted, He purposed.
It was his whole being to be faithful to God, and He's the example for us. It's that alone that lifts us out of those kinds of weights.
And he's a real man, isn't he?
Brother Steve, he sometimes I, I get the feeling that we pray rather mechanically and we have our forms of expressions, not that they are wrong in themselves, but we forget that he's a real person. He went through this life. We can't look up and say nobody really understands what I'm going through. You can't say that because there is somebody at God's right hand who knows.
And he went through it as a perfect man. He experienced everything that it is possible for a perfect, sinless man to experience in life. He was forsaken of his friends. His closest disciples betrayed him, and another denied him. He knows what that means. He knows what it means to be hungry and thirsty and weary with the journey.
So we can't look up and say he doesn't understand. We have one who has gone before. He's the author or the beginner and finisher of the pathway of faith. Oh, brethren, isn't it wonderful that we have somebody that does really, truly understand just where we are right now? We can't expect this sympathy. If we get into sin, that is not gonna be sympathy. It'll be his work as our.
00:15:14
Advocate if we do that, but he's still there for us even then when we get into sin, but not in sympathy, but as our advocate to restore us to fellowship with the Lord. But he went through this life. He knows what it means exactly every step of the way.
Well, that's why it says in the 4th chapter he was in all points. I like that in all points, tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Sometimes perhaps we say, well, nobody understands my situation, nobody knows what I'm going through. That may be true as far as anybody else on earth, but there is one. If, as Bob says, if we look up, he was in all points, there is nothing that you will ever pass through.
In the path of faith and service for Christ that he himself as a man hasn't felt.
And not only has he felt it himself, but he's now living to make intercession for us.
We sometimes sing that hymn with joy. We meditate the grace of God's High Priest above. His heart is filled with tenderness. His very name is love. He, in the days of feeble flesh poured out his cries and tears.
And though Ascended feels afresh what every member bears, so we find in our chapter here.
That, as Steve mentioned yesterday, we have resources and encouragement for us to run the path of faith and service here in a wicked world opposed to Christ. And in the second verse of our chapter, we have immediately brought before us Christ where He is now, because in Hebrews it's not where He was, it's where He is. It's the results of the work that He accomplished here on earth, and it's where He is seated now as the resource for you and for me.
But in the third verse, then we have something a little different in connection with Christ.
It's to look back and see what he did go through here as a man. You know, in the epistles we have Christ in glory, and we need that. We need to read the epistles to see where Christ is now, what we have in him now, the resources that we have in him now as the glorified man at the right hand of God. But brethren, we need to go back to the Gospels too. Read the life of the Lord Jesus.
He's left us an example that we should follow his steps and where are we going to learn what contradiction of sinners he suffered?
Oh, it's to go back and to read the Gospels. Not to digress, but that's why we need.
The breaking of bread too. To sit down in his presence and look back and remember.
What he suffered in this life and of course, in connection with the work of eternal redemption.
But I think it's good for us brethren to go back and read the life of Christ.
Go back and read the Psalms that bring before us the work of the Lord Jesus and His pathway as He walked through this world.
The feelings and expressions, the innermost breathings of the Lord Jesus.
Feelings that you don't get in the Gospels. It will tug at our heartstrings. It will draw out our hearts. It will give us.
The courage to face what we face in the path of faith. And for most of us, it's nothing compared to what the Lord Jesus faced. In fact, he takes it up here in our third, uh, in our fourth verse. Ye have not yet resisted unto blood striving against sin. You know, many of our brethren have and are today. There are many who've laid down their lives for their testimony for Christ. There are many today brethren who are facing martyrdom.
Before sunset today, there will be many with the Lord because they were faithful to him and to his name and in propagating the gospel. We're not afraid the the this morning of the police busting down the door, coming in this hotel and arresting us. They're shooting us. But there are many of our brethren who meet in in that way and we need to remember them in prayer. But I just say this because we have two things brought before us immediately on.
Our encouragement to run the path with the cloud of witnesses that have gone before our eyes are lifted into the open heavens to see Christ where he is now as the object and resource for us, as the prize in the Christian life. And then he says, don't forget what he went through when he was here in this world himself.
00:20:16
I'd like to.
I'd like to fortify those last two comments.
The comment from our brother Bob and the comment from our brother Jim.
From this standpoint.
And I there may be some here who are younger that struggle with the same concept that I struggled with when I was younger.
And so I'd hear comments like the last two comments that that, uh, we have just heard, we read the scripture in the fourth of Hebrews, which points out that the Lord was tempted in all points like as we.
R without sin and when I was younger knowing those things.
In my mind I would say yes, but he was God.
And because of that I had the tendency.
To disqualify our blessed Lord as an apartment example for my soul.
And what we've just had before us is that's exactly what we're not supposed to do.
Now, you know, as I, as I, as I listen to to these comments and I look at the lives of the disciples, I realize they struggled with the same thing.
So let's turn to a question that they asked and the way the Lord answered in the 17th of Booth.
Loop 17.
And uh, in verse five, hear the apostles, they come to the Lord and they make this comment, they say increase.
Our faith.
Evidently, they felt a lack.
And I identify with that.
That there are so many times in my life where I really feel a lack.
And it's interesting, isn't it, the way the Lord answers?
This query that the apostles had in connection with their faith. Now, just before we look at that, let's go back to our chapter.
In Hebrews 4, and I'd like to just look at the third verse the way it's read in Mr. Darby's translation.
So in Hebrews chapter 12 and verse three, the first statement says for consider him.
But if you look at Mr. Darby's translation, it says consider, well, him. And perhaps that's not what I was doing when I was younger, when I looked at the example of our blessed Lord and I thought, well, you know, umm.
He was gone and so it just doesn't fit my particular experience, but it does. It does. Now let's go back to Luke's gospel and we'll see the way the Lord addresses.
That comment that the disciples had in connection with this struggle that they had, which seemed to be a lack of faith, which I also identify with. So the apostles say here in the fifth verse, they said unto the Lord, increase our faith. And the Lord says.
If he had faith as a grain of mustard seed.
You might say, under this Sick of mine tree, Be thou plucked up by the root, and be thou planted in the sea, and it should obey you.
Now you know the Lord could have used many examples.
The Lord could have used an example of if you're if your faith was like a grain of sand or if your faith was like a, a piece of dust, but he doesn't do that. He chooses something that was a lie. It's a grain of mustard seed. It's a lie very different than something the same size. That's a grain of sand. And I believe that was what the Lord was pointing out to them, that it mattered not how much faith they had.
But what did matter is what their faith was attached to at the other end.
And I believe it's exactly the same in our soul's experience too. And when we trace through the life of our blessed Lord and see what was attached to at the other end, that made all the difference. And so the fact that the mustard seed is alive is the very fact that we have the life of Christ within us as we walk through this scene. So the Lord Jesus is indeed an apartment example for our faith, as has been brought out in the fourth of Hebrews.
00:25:32
And I believe too in that connection, again, just to echo what we said, that that's why it's very helpful to go back to the Psalms and read those Psalms that are prophetic of the Lord Jesus, because they bring before us those innermost breathing and feelings of the Lord Jesus as a man, and they show how He felt things to the very heart and soul. Reproach hath broken mine heart. My enemies reproach me all the day.
In connection with his physical sufferings. All my bones are out of joint. My tongue cleaveth to my to my jaw. It shows how real he felt these things. Yes, he was God, as Davis said, but he was a real man. He walked through this world. He took on him. Not the nature of angels, as we get at the beginning of this epistle, but he took upon him the manhood. Sinless, yes, sin apart, yes, we want to guard that.
Very carefully, just like to say too, in connection with the incident in Mark that, uh.
In the gospel that Dave pointed out, when they said to the Lord increase our faith, he it's interesting the way he answered them because brethren, I don't believe it's really an intelligent prayer for a believer to pray and ask the Lord to increase our faith. The way the Lord answered them there was to show that our faith does grow, but it grows by putting it in operation. Let me illustrate it this way.
If I've known you for a short time, I might feel that I can trust you.
You gain my confidence and I feel that I can trust you. But if I've known you for 20 years.
And you've always been worthy of my confidence and never let me down. Oh, I say my faith in that person has grown over the years.
And brethren, our faith will never grow unless we put it in operation. Faith is a very real thing.
It's a very practical thing. Learn to trust the Lord in the little things of life.
And you'll find your faith will increase. Now let me just say in that regard as well.
That I don't believe the Lord will ever test us beyond our faith. The faith comes from Him. It's a gift.
But he knows what tests to give us at what point of maturity in our life.
I've often thought that with Abraham, if he had had a great test, like going to offer up his son Isaac at the beginning of his call when he first came out of Ur of the Chaldees, I suggest he might have failed.
But as he had walked with the Lord for many years, his faith had grown as he had proved his God in every circumstance of life, so that when the big test came, he was well up for it. His faith had increased. His faith had had grown. And I suggest that's another reason why the Lord used the the illustration of the seed. You put a seed in the ground and under the proper conditions, you tend it, you propagate it, it's gonna grow.
It's going to increase that little mustard seed someday under the right conditions.
Is going to be a great plant and our faith can be like that too. Again, faith is the gift of God, but let's put our faith in operation, brethren. He's worthy of our confidence. Trust Him in every situation of life and you'll find that without having to ask and subconsciously even your faith will increase to trust him in the different big difficulties that come.
That increase our faith. They were really looking inward and saying we don't have very much.
Brethren, faith in its proper operation does not look inward. It looks out to the one to whom we have the faith in. Is he worthy of confidence? What would you think, Brother Jim? If I'd say, Jim, I just don't have a whole lot of faith in you, could you increase my faith in you? And that could be kind of a slam.
So let's not look inward, brother. And I know there is a tendency to do that. I.
00:30:04
Have struggled with the same, but let's lookout and let's look at that person in whom we do have faith.
Is he worthy of faith? Has he ever been unfaithful in any way that we would have any doubts about him? I love this in verse two, brother. And getting back to our chapter in verse.
Two, where it says who for the joy that was set before him.
Endured the cross despising the shame.
Jim has spoken of the.
Different ways in which the Lord suffered and suffered physically.
Even those physical sufferings we don't have too much concept of, but these sufferings of his soul. And they taunted him when they said, he said he's the Son of God. If God delights in him, let him deliver him now. And God didn't come out to deliver him. Those things broke his heart. A broken heart is sometimes harder to deal with than physical sufferings.
But then the sufferings for sin, which is the greatest of all sufferings in which we cannot enter, dear brethren, but we can read those Scriptures and we can meditate on them. We can understand in some measure the awfulness of the suffering that was involved when He accomplished redemption for us. But what carried Him through it all?
Was the joy that was set before him.
Oh brother, I love to think of it. And it's been suggested perhaps.
It's two things. First of all, the joy of going back into the glory of God.
And to be able to say, as we have in the words of John 17, Father.
I have finished the work which thou Davis me to do.
The joy of that moment, no other human eye was there to witness it.
But I think that majorly is the joy that was set before him. Of course he will rejoice in having all his own around him, and that may be included. But oh brother, And when we think of the glory ahead.
We've been called to eternal glory. Tell me, dear young people, is there something down here that rates, that compares to eternal glory, that attracts your heart that you're willing to suffer because of that thing in this world?
Look on eternal glory shines before us.
May the Lord help us to get our sights set properly on the Lord Jesus.
He went through it all, he finished it. There he is sitting in highest glory. We're called to that same race and we are running. I asked you as I asked myself, how are you running?
Why is it or how the Lord enjoy?
The hostility and everything he went to.
Up to the point of the cross, He. He did it for us. Many, many here may not have ever.
Experience hostility of an enemy going after your life.
I know what that is.
I know what it's, it's, you know, you, you hear about Jim Roach's, uh, travels and the hostility that he goes to new.
The Lord with the much more.
To show us this was a joy for him.
It should encourage you to be joyful.
To preach his word.
I mean, we're, we're privileged here in North America.
We're, we're, we're free to worship them, to praise them.
Like it was mentioned early earlier, no one's gonna bust on these doors with assault weapons and starts typing at us because we have a Bible in our hands, the word of God.
00:35:03
It was a joy for the Lord.
To go through that shame, the hostility for us.
Was the Man of Sorrows and acquainted with grief, and we never want to forget that.
But I believe the key is that he understood the import of that verse that says.
Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning. And so he had.
Before him, the goal, so to speak. He knew what the end result was.
And I'd like to go back to an example of the Lord Jesus in the 13th chapter of John.
To see how he reacted under very, very difficult circumstances before I read this, perhaps to be just helpful to say too that the Lord Jesus in his pathway, as we've said, he poured out his crying with strong tears and so on, feeling things as a man. It's interesting that there is one time we read, and I think it's the only time we read of the Lord actually rejoicing in his pathway here. We won't turn to it, but it's in the 10th chapter of Luke where it says.
Jesus read that same hour. Jesus rejoiced in spirit. And if you notice the context, I'll give you a little homework. Go home and look it up. Read that chapter. If you read the context, it was again at a very difficult time in the life of the Lord Jesus. He looked around at the cities he'd come to bless. He felt it because they had rejected him, and he felt it very keenly, but he rejoiced in spirit. Why? He said Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight.
And I believe, brethren, we can rejoice in the difficulties and circumstances of life.
In the measure in which we accept things from the hand of God our Father, we see that it seemed good in His sight. So I'd like to see this again practically here in the 13th of John. I'm gonna read from verse one now before the feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour was come, that He should depart out of the world under the Father, having loved his own which were in the world, He loved them unto the end.
And supper being ended, the devil having now put into the heart of Judas Iscariot.
Simon's son to betray him. I want you to notice this, Jesus knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands.
And that he was come from God, and went to God. He riseth from supper, and laid aside his garments.
And took a towel and girded himself. And so on. You say, How could the Lord Jesus hear?
With perfect calm.
Minister to the disciples at such a time, Judas was going to betray him, he knew that.
The disciples were all going to forsake him and flee. Peter was going to deny him.
And more than that, he was going to suffer at the hands of Roman soldiers.
And more than that, he was going to be crucified, and even more than that, as Bob has brought before us, he was going to be made sin for us, who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. How could he calmly.
Gird himself with a towel and minister to the disciples in this precious way.
He had come from God, He was going back to God, and he knew that all things had been committed into his hands. In other words, brethren, he knew there was one in full control of the situation.
Brethren, I believe what really gives us peace and calm in the circumstances of life as we run the Christian pathway is 2 Things to realize the goal. We're all going to get there.
God hasn't promised we're all going to have smooth sailing, but we are all going to reach the goal.
We're all going to land safely and then to realize that as we go through these things in life.
There's one in full control. I remember going through some circumstances at home and brother came to see me. He just made one comment that calmed my soul and strengthened my faith, he said. Jim, remember this.
Things may seem out of hand, but they're never out of the Lord's hand. And I believe, brethren, degrasse that in our souls in a practical way is what's going to give us the courage to go on. And so how we need these examples of the Lord Jesus. As Dave said, I I can't emphasize it enough. He was a real man. He felt these things. In fact, brethren, he probably felt them more keenly than we did. Do why, you know, we get callous to circumstances. We get used to sin.
00:40:02
Because we still have the flesh in us and we can go through something several times, we kind of grit our teeth and we get through it. The Lord Jesus never got used to sin and its circumstances as the perfect sinless man, as God manifest in the flesh. And at the end of his pathway he could groan and weep at the grave of Lazarus because he still after 30 some years felt as real and keenly.
The circumstances that those sisters were going through and the results of sin. Brethren, what a resource we have.
I think it's tinted in the expression of the end of verse two. They sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. There are four times in this book where it speaks of him being seated at the right hand, but they have a pattern to them that I think brings out the activeness of the Lord in each of our lives. And so the the the figure I hope we can see in those four seated at the right hand.
Is that the Lord finishes the race. He breaks the tape first. He's the author and completer of faith, but then he turns around and he stands there to encourage us to do the same thing. The four right hands are in the first chapter was brought out in the gospel last night. Chapter one, verse three speaks of him seated at the right hand of the majesty or sat himself down at the right hand of the majesty. The first half of the book, as we were told yesterday, brings out the character of the person of the Lord Jesus.
Was there any question to His Majesty in eternity? Was brought out last night in the Gospel? None. But he finishes the work on earth, and he seats himself down. Is there any question now? Has anything been taken away from that majesty, the greatness of the person, by what he did here on earth? No, he has every right to see himself down at the right hand of the majesty. God wants our character to be like his, and so in the 8th chapter, in the first verse, it talks about Him seated.
At the right hand of the throne of the majesty, still in that first half of the book that talks about his person. Does God care about our character here in this world? Absolutely he does. And so he brings in the throne in the 8th chapter as kind of the thought of his active involvement in dispensing to us all that we need to bear his character here in this world. He's actively involved.
In our character this afternoon, we often enjoy the throne of Grace and his active involvement as our High Priest in the 4th chapter. But in the 8th chapter it's completing that section of the High Priest and it says the throne of the Majesty.
Finished the character race, and then he turned around and he's actively involved in our character. We had it yesterday. The light needs to shine out, the character needs to shine out. And then in the second-half of the book where his work is brought out, there's two more and they follow the same pattern. In the 10th chapter, I think it's the 12. First he does the work of atonement, and then forever, he sits down at the right hand. There's the third one, the right hand of God.
There's a completion to his work and here we have the 4th one. He turns around. Is he interested in our work?
Is he interested in the there was the light and there was the trumpet? Is he interested in what comes out of us to others? Is he interested in what we say? Absolutely he is. And so here he seats himself down at the right hand of the throne of God, the one that has the interest in our work was their joy in it for him that was already brought out, that there was joy in doing his Father's will here and actively doing the work of God.
And so he seated here in the fourth one, at the right hand of the throat of God. Why?
To actively be involved in each one of our lives, that we too would have the joy of bringing out the will of the Father in our life, in the work that we do is actively involved. And I think there's the sense of that in being seated at the right hand. Acceptance of all it is of the throne of God is active work on behalf of each one of us.
I'd like to make one more comment in, uh, verse 2 before we move on. Our brother Bob already talked about for the joy that was set before him.
That that joy of doing the Father's will. But I was, I was. I've enjoyed this thought too, Where, umm, many brothers here have been a bridegroom, and each one of us who have accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior are going to be part of the bride.
00:45:15
And I know when they the wedding, my wedding day was set, there was a great anticipation there that as the, as the I get closer to the date of, of that wedding, the anticipation great increased more and more. And, and until it wasn't the wedding day, the anticipation was even greater more. And I was just thinking my anticipation was limited.
By my imagination, I didn't know exactly what was going to happen next. The Lord Jesus did, because he's God. He knows the end from the beginning, as if it already happened. And that joy when he looks on, on us, his bride.
Must have been joy unspeakable. Joy unspeakable. And I, I just present that thought to you rather than I, I, I, I.
Uh, so, so that you can enjoy that too, as as much as I have.
That we have here in the first place.
Lukes Gospel, chapter 10.
This is a real challenge to my own soul. So we have in the 21St verse that umm that was quoted in that hour, Jesus rejoiced in spirit and said, I thank thee, O Father.
Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto bathes Even so, Father.
For so it seems good in thy sight. Now that was preceded by an incident.
And let's look at the incident.
In verse 17 and the 70 returned again with joy.
Saying, Lord, even the devils are subject unto us through thy name. And he said unto them, I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven. Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all power of the enemy, and nothing shall by this means hurt you. You know at this point, uh, they were not getting the point, because their joy was in something that could disappear.
And so he goes on, and he says, notwithstanding in this rejoice not that the spirits are subject unto you. And now he presents something that we can rejoice in on a continual spirit. And that's not to disqualify the fact that we weep with those that weep, but he says to them here, but rather rejoice, because your names are written in in heaven that which we can rejoice in at all times.
And I would just like to present this challenge to my own soul. Just consider your local assembly.
And there are those that stand out that are characterized by joy.
You know what's interesting in our minds view at that point when I make that comment immediately there are those that come to mind that pop right into our mind because they're characterized by joy. And I would suggest.
That our biggest testimony in this world is our joy in the Lord. It's our biggest testimony to our brethren. It's our biggest testimony to our families. It's our biggest testimony for the lost in this world is our joy in the Lord.
Reference John 17. I'd like to look at a verse there in John 17.
Umm.
Verse 13.
Where's the Lord Jesus? And now come I to thee, and these things I speak in the world, that they might have my joy in themselves.
00:50:07
Oh, that's nice. Nice to have.
Some taste of that, but that's not what it says. My joy fulfilled in themselves.
The Lord Jesus wants to enjoy, wants us to enjoy what is His.
Proper portion.
His joy fulfilled in US. And so these words are set before us in this verse.
Looking under Jesus, the author finisher of faith, who for the joy that was set before him and that joy is set before us and what did what did that having that joy before him enable him to do it enabled him to endure the cross. Well, we the verse it says in verse one, let us run with patience. The word patience there is basically the same word endurance. It means to take pain.
To bear with something.
And how do we do that?
By fixing her eyes on the Lord Jesus the the brother mentioned, it means to look well or consider well the Lord Jesus that uh, verse three begins with consider well. But verse two, when it says looking unto Jesus, it means looking away. It's a deliberate action looking away or looking Darby says looking steadfastly.
And I'll just leave you with a little thought. That's gonna help to me.
Uh, a brother. Robert Murray McCain.
Once wrote.
The look.
Save the soul, but the gaze sanctifies.
The look saves the soul, but the gaze sanctifies.
But I just hear someone thinking this morning as we talk about these things, Well, I don't find much joy in my circumstances. And I have no doubt there are young people here and some of us who are not so young who are going through real trials and circumstances. And you say I've shed a lot of tears. And I say this because, brethren, we don't want to give the impression again that we get callous or indifferent to circumstances. And the Lord Jesus had sorrow in his life.
Sorrow unparalleled, that I suppose no servant of God since has ever, ever experienced.
And it's not that the circumstances are the trials are joyful.
It's the result of the trials when we learn by the trials, and that's what we're going to have in the verses that follow here.
But I was thinking of Paul and Silas when they were in prison in Philippi. Now, brethren, I don't know what I would have been doing.
In that prison, probably grumbling and saying, well, Lord, I thought I got a vision to come over here.
Help somebody, And what good am I doing with my feet fast in the stalks, my back bleeding, I'm hungry, I'm cold. But you notice that they didn't sing praises right away. Scripture is very specific. At midnight, they prayed and sang, sang praises. Now, I don't want to speculate because Scripture doesn't tell us and it's not important that we know. But I have often wondered, how long before midnight were they cast in prison?
How many hours were they there before they came to the point where they sang praises? I don't know, and it doesn't matter. But I suggest it was at least some little time, if not a longer time. Because, brethren, isn't it true in our lives it takes us sometimes quite a while to see the hand of God and rejoice in our circumstances? So I want you to turn to the 119th Psalm. Again, I don't want to speculate, but I'm going to suggest that maybe.
This is the verse that came before Paul and Silas that caused them.
To sing praises at midnight. I want you to see this in the 119th Psalm and verse 62.
At midnight I will arise and give thanks unto thee. I'm going to stop there for a moment. I've often wondered if maybe they didn't remember this verse. The Spirit of God brought it before them. At midnight I will arise and sing praises unto thee. But the verse doesn't stop there. It gives a reason because of thy righteous judgment. In other words, to realize. And I have no doubt Paul and Silas finally came to the realization.
00:55:04
That what God had done and was doing with them was right. And I believe that's another way we're going to be able to rejoice. Not that we're going to be always taken out of the circumstance. They eventually were in the 16th of Acts. But it's not that we're always going to be taken out of the circumstance. But we can rejoice in it and go through it with rejoicing, not because the circumstance is good, but because we realize that what He is doing in our lives is right.
And that it is not just for a purpose, brethren, but it's for a purpose of blessings.
And that in the end, there is going to be fruit for His glory and for our blessing, and perhaps even the blessing of others.
Paul and Silas, I believe, realized that what God had allowed was right.
And it goes along with what has just been said, What was the testimony of their joy in the Lord in the prison?
The jail keeper got saved, the prisoners heard them. There was subsequently an assembly gathered to the Lord's name established there.
And when Paul wrote to those brethren later on and said rejoice in the Lord, it had moral weight.
They had could remember the time when he was in very difficult circumstances in their very city.
Rejoicing in the Lord. It had real weight when they got his letter and they were exhorted more than once to rejoice in the Lord. Well brethren, I just say that because just to add to what Dave said. So another reason we can rejoice in the Lord always, and that is because what He is always doing with us is always right.
In John chapter 15 we have a little recipe for John 15 verse 11, verse 10.
Hear the Lord speaking this If you keep my commandments, you shall abide in my love.
Even as I have kept my Father's commandments and abiding His love, these things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full. The joy of the Lord did not come from His circumstances.
But it came through keeping the My Father's commandments. It came through obedience. And if you look in Psalm 118 and in verse 22, we see the Lord.
The Lord Jesus is looking forward to the the cross.
And it says here in verse 22, the stone of the builders refused has become the head of the corner. So he had joy looking beyond the cross to what was going to be the time of the Lord, when the stone of the builders refused has become the head of the corner.
Of obedience bringing joy.
Umm, and, and, and it just so happens that the, the path of faith is a path that, uh, that God designs in order to teach us how to be obedient. I don't wanna speak irreve, irrelevant, uh.
Relevant, excuse me, without reverence to the Lord, but it does say that He learned obedience by the things that he suffered.
So God does sometimes design the path of faith in ways that teaches us to be obedient. And when you and I are obedient, we're bearing fruit for God. God is picking fruit. He's he's, he's seeing Christ produced in our lives and he is, he is reaping that which his heart desires. Sometimes we, we think, well, we're.
We're in this all, all by ourselves, and we've gotta, we've gotta, you know, force our way through the Christian path. No, God's there, and he's not designing a path in which he's teaching us.
01:00:07
To be obedient so that we can enjoy the joy of the Lord and our souls. So, you know, the, we have here the, the, uh, the, umm, it says run with patience or endurance. The race, this is a difficult race. The path of faith is a difficult path. Sometimes, uh, uh, an endurance runner has to run uphill and it has to slow the pace down. And sometimes they just barely make it to the top.
Just all part of the race, the R, the, the race that God has designed for us. I know I've talked to some just recently. And if you were to ask him, they would probably say, well, I'm just barely hanging on, but God's getting glory because you're hanging on. Why are you hanging on? Because you're trusting in the Lord. Well, what do you have? I mean, what outward circumstances do you have that makes you trust? I don't have any outward circumstances that make me trust. I've got the Lord.
To trust and I, I'm, I'm confident that he's going to see me through this section of the race because of who he is, not because of who I am. And faith is based upon what God has said and who God is. And he has all the resources for us to trust him. And when we do, when we do trust the Lord, we're bearing fruit and he's delighting.
In the fact, even, you know, some of you may, may just feel like you're barely hanging on you, you're just barely making it. But believe me, faith is faith is maybe at the strongest point in your life because that may be the, the steepest hill that you're climbing. And you're, you're, you're maybe you're almost to the top, but you're, you're, you're, you're hanging on. And that's, that's bringing glory to the Lord.
Alright with hanging on, be occupied with the fact that he's hanging on to you. And I love that the object of faith is outside of ourselves. Somebody has said an anchor in the boat doesn't do the boat any good during a storm. It has to be thrown out of the boat. Then it can be a help. And so, brethren, our faith is in him.
It's objective, it's looking to him, consider him or as it's been pointed out, consider well, him. I like the old Spanish version of this verse. It says translating it reduce your thoughts to him and you know, in our culture, we're constantly.
Honed to turn our thoughts in on ourselves. What do you think about this? What do you feel? Feelings are very real things. You can't ignore them. But that's not what our faith is re anchored to. It's not our feelings or our thoughts. It's him, his thoughts that will give us stability. So you might be troubled by thoughts about yourself that you don't measure up or one way or another.
Reduce your thoughts to him.
But they didn't treat me right. Reduce your thoughts to Him. It's constantly a struggle to get our thoughts turned around from pointing at ourselves to Him.
Brethren, that's what Christianity is. It's him.
And where he is now in the glory.
Chapter 43.
Psalm chapter 43 and verse 3.
Says, Oh, send out thy light and thy truth.
Let them lead me, let them bring me unto thy holy hill, and to thy tabernacles.
Then will I go unto the altar of God, unto God, my exceeding joy.
The Upon the harp will I praise thee, O God, my God.
There's that which has come out from God.
Perfectly.
In the.
01:05:02
Of our Lord Jesus Christ, His life, his death, his resurrection. Oh, send out thy light and thy truth. Let them leave me. Like something outside of ourselves, isn't it?
Let them bring me. It's outside of ourselves.
Verse 4 is.
Unto God.
My exceeding joy? That's not talking about.
Necessarily my joy in this thing or that thing, but it's our joy in the person.
Of God.
Unchangeable.
Like Mr. Darby translated, translated God, the gladness of my joy.
Wonderful.
That we have this in chapter 12 of Hebrews.
It's implying here.
When we consider him in verse 3.
That he has resisted unto blood.
We see it so clearly on the cross, don't we?
We see that blessed man hanging there.
Bearing our sins in his own body on the tree. It's already been brought out. There were those who said if thou be son of God, come down from the cross. Look at this contradiction of sinners when he's got the goal totally before him. If we turn back to Luke 17 at the Mount of Transfiguration or is it marked we get Moses and Elias and they're talking with him about his deceased.
Which he should accomplish at Jerusalem.
Men that lived in this earth 555 years apart.
What's their occupation and glory?
With the Lord of glory.
His death that he should accomplish if we turn to Romans 3.
It's those sins that were past their very sins.
We're going to be born on the tree and his body.
Through that death he should accomplish at Jerusalem.
It's marvelous.
When you think.
Of that contradiction of sinners against himself, is he going to accomplish this? How much did he feel it? Let's turn to Psalm 102.
So really, man?
So really, God there on the cross.
But we read in Psalm 102.
Verse.
10.
Because of thine indignation.
And thy wrath for thou hast lifted me up, and cast me down. How was he lifted up?
As he came into Jerusalem and they spread palm branches and clothes and hollered or cried out Hosanna.
He was lifted up, see the sequence in this verse and cast me down.
What is the human heart like? It's fallen.
Here's men, children.
With the great greatest knowledge of God in the world, the Jewish people.
They say hosanna one week.
In a week's time.
Let's they say crucify him.
What an awful thing are our fallen natures.
Here he is hanging on the cross.
What does he feel as man?
Look at verse.
23.
He weakened my strength in the way he shortened my days.
33 years old.
He's hanging there on the cross.
Suffering at the hands of men.
Crucified.
Verse 24 I said, Oh my God, take me not away in the midst of my days. It's not at all natural for man to want to die.
01:10:07
Self preservation is a powerful instinct.
But here is this man who came to die.
We sometimes sing that beautiful hymn of the Cross of Christ, the Center.
Of two eternities that look onward and back to thee.
How marvelous but this blessed man.
Has that complete focus of accomplishing the perfect will of God.
And Oh my God, take me not away.
In the midst of my days.
Then we get an answer in the rest of the verse.
This we would find in Hebrews chapter one.
Thy years are throughout all generations.
This is Jehovah the Father answering Jehovah the Son.
Of old hast thou laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of thy hands.
They shall perish, but thou shalt endure.
A. All of them shall wax old like a garment, and as a vester shall thou change them and.
They shall be changed, but thou art the same, and thy ears shall have no end.
There hangs that blessed man on the cross for you and I.
And in the midst of suffering and knowing what it is as a man to be cut off.
He's comforted with the words of who he is from eternity and what he will do yet.
Marvelous consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself.
Lest ye be.
Wearied and faint in your minds. Can you trust your mind?
The mind needs discipline of the word of God because we have a fallen nature. As we go on in the chapter we see chastisement. Christ was never chastised for wrongs.
He didn't have any.
But there is this battle of faith. He is both.
The author and completer of faith.
And he is the example of faith.
And here.
That faith goes on.
Hebrews is a very interesting book because we get something God had established.
In the order of things he gave unto the children of Israel.
The Tabernacle, the priesthood, the offerings, and all of that. As we go through the book and we see each time he touches something, it's for the first time perfected forever.
What is harder to set aside if you're a Pagan and you come to Christ?
You may burn your idols like we get in the book of Acts books.
Of witchcraft that were burned. But what about setting aside something God originally set up? That was the difficulty with the Hebrews.
There was something that had been God's order down through the centuries. It had become corrupted by fallen men.
As we see the way they high priests cried out, crucify him and move the crowd too.
But now.
It's become recognized as the world.
In a previous chapter.
And God has one focal point.
His blessed son, and they're going to be, are they going to be delivered from that system?
This is maybe the year AD 64.
69 Titus invades in 70 and.
The temple is burnt.
Here is the effort of the Spirit of God.
The ministry of God by the Spirit.
Release them from that old thing that had been of God.
01:15:02
And cleave to the Lord Jesus, even though there be such contradiction of sinners against themselves. We could look at Noah. What kind of contradiction does he have as he preached for 120 years? What kind of contradiction did Enoch have as he?
Spoke of the ungodly sinners awful, but the Lord Jesus.
Manifested the Father's heart in our scene and brought.
Brought in that which is forever and ever, the Messiah, according to Daniel, says he would be cut off.
Well, he felt it, and in our example and our author and finisher of our faith.
There's a, uh, order of things in the beginning of access corresponds to that.
Further, and we see in the first.
Chapter That the disciples are standing as the Lord is received up in the cloud, and the two angels appeared to them. And say, ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? And their eyes are directed back to the earth.
Because there's going to be a year under the ministry of the Spirit of God in which an offer was going to be made to Israel, if they would repent, that God would send the Lord Jesus Christ back to this earth and establish the Kingdom.
That offer was made if they would repent nationally.
And the chapters intervening between the descent of the Holy Spirit in chapter 2 and the stoning of Stephen in Chapter 7. When we come to Chapter 7 and we.
Stevens presentation and the power of the Spirit of God and the testimony to them, really convicting them of their sin and their guilt and refusing the witness of the Spirit of God.
Refusing to repent, it says he looks up. Verse 55, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up steadfastly into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing on the right hand of God and said, behold, I see the heavens opened and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God. And they stopped their ears, they gnashed on him with their teeth, They took him out and stoned him.
And in the stoning of Stephen, the church received its witness that her portion was not this earth, but heaven, where the Lord Jesus Christ was, where Stephen saw him. There's no man standing there saying to Steven, why are you looking up into heaven? No, their gaze is now directed into the glory itself. And he sees the Lord Jesus Christ not only in glory, but standing on the right hand of God. He sees him in that place of power.
And in his acceptance there at God's right hand, and the church receives her pledge and his stoning, that that was her portion, the glory, and that is the laborers our brother brought out of the Spirit of God.
In Hebrews to direct the Hebrew believers to that fact, that that was their portion in the glory where Christ was and.
In all that they were passing through and suffering and in persecution.
The relief was to look up into those open heavens and see the Lord Jesus Christ there, to see that that's where their portion really was. But if they failed in that, and if you and I fail in that, then He will, in His faithfulness to us, bring in what is next, and in His chastening hand in His love to us to recall our hearts, to be focused back.
Upon the Lord Jesus Christ, He'll bring in chastening into our lives to accomplish that purpose.
Just a little comment before we close in connection to tie it all, to tie what Steven has just said in connection with what we're going to take up in the next meeting. Lord Welling at the end of verse three, He gives us the results of not being occupied with Christ as the object in glory, with not going back and considering well that One who walked here through this world and suffered in the way He did. And that is lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds.
01:20:00
I'd like to just go to the end of Isaiah 40 because I believe there we get an exhortation in this connection.
Isaiah chapter 40, and I'll read from verse 28. Hast thou not known? Hast thou not heard that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not? Neither is weary not interesting. Sometimes we may get faint and weary, but we have one, brethren, as our resource, who never is faint. He's never weary. He's the eternal one, He's the Almighty, He's the powerful one. And then what does he say?
He giveth power to the faint and to them that have no mighty increases strength. You know, I know a lot of great people that have a lot of power and might, but they're not interested in me. And even if they were, they probably couldn't convey that same power and strength to me. But here's the one that we've been Speaking of, brethren, the one who has power and might and strength. And he gives us that power and might and strength. The one who walked through this world in the power and strength.
Of all that we've been saying, and with the goal before him of returning to the Father.
Having accomplished the Father's will, He gives us that same strength and power for our pathway.
But then, he says as a warning, even the youth shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall.
You know, natural strength even of youth isn't enough to meet the situations today.
It isn't enough to run with endurance the race that is set before us. I'm thankful for the energy of youth that I see in this room.
I'm thankful for young men who are willing to travel to other countries and to help us with the physical side of things. Wonderful. Some of us are feeling our natural strength begin to wane just a little bit. But natural strength of youth isn't enough to run the Christian life. But what's the answer? And this is what I want to focus on the end of our meeting. But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. Maybe there's someone here and you say I just.
I've had no strength. I just I've failed. I've I've missed the path like this and that and the other thing, you know, there's a renewing we can go on from here, get a fresh glimpse of the man in the glory. Consider well him take up the resources that perhaps you haven't been using in the in the Christian race. They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength and then what does it say? It gives us three conditions here.
They shall mount up with wings as Eagles. You watch the eagle. I've watched them.
Sometimes in other countries from the mountaintops and you see those Eagles soaring above the mountains.
There's a difficulty why the eagle just rises above it. The Lord can help us to do that.
He can help us to rise above the difficulty. Not that we become callous or indifferent to it, not that we shrug it off, but to rise above it. But maybe I hear someone say, Oh no, Jim's not like that in my life. I just can't get above the situation. What's the next one? They shall run and not be weary. So the running person, he can't get above the situation, but he's running and he's finding daily strength. As by days, so shall I strength be.
Think it was, David said. By my God, have I run through a troop?
You're not going to see the removal of the troop, you're not going to see the removal of the enemy. But David ran through the troop.
He could get through it by my God, if I leaped over a wall, that's the getting over it. But maybe we can't get over it. We're running and we're finding daily strength. But you say, Oh no, I'm not even running. They shall walk and not faint. Maybe you are just down to walking. Maybe you can't get above it like the eagle. Maybe you can't run through it like the athlete. But you say, he says they shall walk and not think. And this is really the answer to what we have, isn't it?
The enemy wants to weary us. The enemy wants us to faint. And I believe, brethren, one of the greatest tactics of the enemy today.
Is to weary the Saints of God. I have wondered if that isn't an application for us.
The roaring lion character of Satan. I know we normally think of that as persecution, and that's true. And still many of our brethren.
Are suffering the roaring lion character of persecution today, but what about us?
Scripture has a present application and I suggest that the roaring lion character of Satan for us.
His wearyment and discouragement he wants to wear. You ever watch a cat with its prey?
You know, we had cats when we were growing up out in the country and that cat would catch a mouse or a bird or a mole. It never killed it right away. It always would tantalize it and play with it, let it maybe let that mouse go for a while and then go after it and get it again, tormented again till that creature dropped of exhaustion and then it would spring in for the final kill. Isn't that what Satan does? He's just wearing down the Saints of of God. And it may not be sin. It may be just those weights.
01:25:32
It may be the cares of life, trying to keep your head above water at school, get through your courses, trying to keep up at work and get through all that you have to do, and under the pressure of work and home, and so on. Oh, brethren, they shall walk and not think. We don't have to be weary and faint in our minds if we have Christ as the resource, Christ as the object and goal, and to consider Him.
Who was a man here in this world and is now living to make intercession for us.
#282.
The cross shall meet its sure reward.
Must pass a little while, then joy shall crown thy servants toil.
And we shall hear the Savior say, Arise my love, and come away #282.
Masterwood no longer.
Breathing. It's coming back tomorrow night.
Life. I'm ready to go alone. OK. Thank you so much. And I can't remember all the crowds of the crowd. Oh, yeah. And the crowd is not a problem. You're you're you're you're quitting with everything. You've made little things. You've got a lot of dark and thorny and thorny. And you're all like anything for anything. I can't go away for a time. Or no one's gone.
Nsnoise.
Nsnoise.