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13 in the appendix.
All of God by Christ. Salvation.
Rise for sin and.
Miracle.
Joy to find his greatest. Thank you. Some things to do.
They were.
With my friend.
And Jesus turned all day before me.
Runs right at your baby.
Sunshine.
To child as thy pilgrimage.
The subject of endurance was brought before us in the last meeting, the last reading.
And I've been encouraged greatly by a verse in Judges chapter 8. And it's not necessary to spend any time on it.
Read verse four. It says Gideon came to Jordan and passed over he and the 300 men that were with him.
Faint yet pursuing. I believe in many ways that describes the journey of many of us here. Faint but pursuing. How important it is to be pursuing.
Read from Hebrews 12 and 4/3.
Hebrews 12 and verse 4. You have not yet resisted on the 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 chaste nothing. Scourge with every son whom he receiveth.
If he endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons. For what son is he whom the Father chasteneth not? What if he be without? Chaste is meant? Where of all our partakers then are ye ******** and not sons? Furthermore, we have had fathers of our flesh, which corrected us, and we gave them reverence. So we not much rather be in subjection under the Father of spirits, and live.
For they verily for a few days, chasing us after their own pleasure.
But he for our prophet, that we might be partakers of His Holiness.
Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous nevertheless. Afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby. Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down with evil knees, and make straight paths for your feet.
Lest there which is lame be turned out of the way, but let it rather be healed.
All of 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. Must there be any fornicator, profane person as he saw, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright?
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We 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 under the mount that might be taught, and that burned with fire, nor unto blackness, and darkness, and Tempest, and the sound of a trumpet in the voice of words, which voice they that heard.
Entreated that the words should not be spoken to them anymore.
For they could not endure that which was commanded. And if so much of the beast touched the mountain, it should be stoned or thrust through the dirt. And so terrible was the sight that Moses said, I exceedingly fear and quake.
Year 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, into the blood of sprinkling that speaketh better things than that of Abel.
See that ye refuse not him that speaketh. For if they escape not, who refused him that spake on earth much more Shall not we escape, if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven, Whose voice then shook the earth? But now he is promising 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 can't be shaken may remain, wherefore we receiving a Kingdom.
Which cannot be moved, let us have grace, or why we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear.
For our God is a consuming fire.
Brother gave us a little bit of background about the book of Hebrews.
And we have.
Free books, if my memory serves me right, give me if I miscount, 3 books that are particularly addressed to the Jewish brethren, Hebrews and 1St and second Peter, which I counted as one in the book of James, and each one addressed this question of suffering.
The Jews looked for a promised land. They looked for the consolation of Israel. That's what Simeon looked for. That's the salvation that they saw.
The redemption of Israel. But instead what they got was suffering. And that was very hard for the Jewish mind to grasp. Why when they were doing something right, would the result be suffering. And so it was very easy for them to get discouraged and.
We, we are no different. We're no different, aren't we? We can have this idea in our mind that the Lord is, if we are walking right, everything should be smooth, shouldn't it? And as I said this morning, the chosen of Israel delivered out of the land of Egypt. And what were they brought into the wilderness? They weren't expecting that, but God met them there in his grace. And here the Lord Jesus has given not just as an example, but as an object, one that we should look upon. What's presented here is not his atoning sufferings. We're never called.
To go through those sufferings, but those physical sufferings that he endured, even those moderate sufferings that he endured, Christians have been called upon to go through and so.
As I said, it's very easy to.
Question the goodness of God.
Our minds start working as our brother Sam remind us this morning that God is not there anymore. He's not looking out for me.
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And misinterpret what he's allowing in our lives. But you know, God doesn't just allow things to happen to us capriciously. He has a reason for allowing us to go through things. As I said, Peter's epistles address this question of suffering too. So.
For example, in verse six of one Peter one wherein ye greatly rejoice though now.
For a season or for a little while if need be, we are in heaviness through manifold trials, says temptations in the King James. These are really external trials, not internal temptations. So they're experiencing trials. But if there needs be there, God allows these things in our life because of a need to be. And those needs, bees aren't always because of sin in our life, something that Satan wants to convince us of that every time something bad happens to us.
Oh, it's because you sinned. That's what Job's friends kept telling Job. And all it did was turn his thoughts inward. God doesn't want to turn our thoughts inward. I think Mr. Darby once said something to the effect that we should only be occupied for self long enough to judge self. And then finally someone came along to Job and had him look upwards, as it were to God. And so we he wants this, as we've said this morning to how our eyes fixed on that one. It says Jesus, you know the well Christendom talks about Jesus.
That's all they know. But Scripture uses that name reverently and an appropriate places. And he it was the man Jesus and his life through this world that we are to look to as both our leader and as our example.
So God uses even those things that we don't understand.
For our own profit and that's important to see that every time something happens in our lives that we view as negative God it's part of God's ways of.
Disciplining us, You know how that word discipline, I think sometimes we connected a lot with.
Correction and it includes correction.
But it's a word that's related to disciple, and we're disciples.
And the disciple learns not merely by what it is told, but by what he sees in his Master. And so we are taught.
There's correction, there's it's interesting the words that it uses here, verse six, the Lord whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth and scourge it.
That's pretty hard word.
Anybody here likes scourging? I don't think so.
But why does he do it?
Because he loves us.
Ever forget a story that Eric Smith told?
Some time ago and he said when he first went to Bolivia, you know on the high out the Plano you get deathly sick with a with a high altitude and he was in bed with mountain sickness Sorochi they call it down there and and deathly sick on his bed in an old Indian brother came and sat down beside him.
Just sat there for the longest time without saying anything and finally he said to Mr. Smith, Brother, the Lord must love you an awful lot.
Why do you say that?
Because whom the Lord loves, he chastened and scourges.
That is hard for us and we have to learn. Brethren, one of the big lessons in my life is sometimes when things go.
Contrary to our thinking, we tend to blame people or we blame circumstances.
Remember one time I did that and a brother came up to me and said, brother, everything that comes into the life of a Christian comes directly from that man above that just hit me like a sledgehammer. And to do that, to recognize you got something tough going on in your life right now.
Learn to take it from him, don't get upset with people or circumstances.
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You're short sighted if you do. It's the Lord that is training us. He chastens, He scourges every son whom we receives. So in the sense that we have here, brethren, we're all under discipline. Sometimes we talk about somebody under discipline and we're talking about assembly discipline. That's another matter. This is a discipline that we all experience. No one exempted if you are a true believer.
Then you will experience this.
Discipline this chase me this scourging.
Urging, actually rebuking comes first. So chastening, rebuking, and scourging, they're all different. They're not all the same. And as you point out, we think of chastening as being the same as scourging. It's it's not. In fact, this word is translated in Hebrews 6 as nurture.
You know, when you go to school, to college, university, whatever you might like to call a higher education, someone might say, well, what discipline are you studying? That's not punishment, is it? But it takes discipline to learn a discipline. And so a coach, for example, may put his athletes through a rigorous training schedule that is anything but pleasant. It's not punishment, but it's necessary for their preparation. And so, as it's been said many times.
Chasing the Lord can be described by three PS and usually I forget what they are actually, I've written them on my Bible on this page. But they can be purchased if they can be preventative, they can be preparative, they can be.
Punitive, which is the one that we associate with punishment, but the other three are not. And so God, as I said, there are needs fees in our life that God.
Works with us. Works with us on.
True thought coach. I like that illustration because if you've ever been out for a sporty, you observed it. When a coach does that, they like you said, they run drills, but if you mess up, run 2 laps.
It's still about getting you ready for the game or the race or whatever. We have a race in front of us here. Yeah, it's correct if he's trying to get you to think about what the mistake you made. And a brother once said in talking about this chapter, he said think of this as child training when you read these words, child training.
And all those things are mixed together with a good father and a good mother training their children, all those things are mixed together.
I know there are abusive parents that are in this world and they do it out of anger or whatever, but our Lord never does that. It has a purpose. It serves a purpose and it's to prepare us. All of it. Even the run extra laps is to prepare you for the game that you're going to run. And if you don't learn it by just doing the normal exercises, you need to run the extra laps. And maybe that's the the remedial boot camp. Well, I don't like going into remedial boot camp, but if that's what it requires, I only want to go once.
They do the same thing and think of the special forces in the military. How do those people go into this and thrill and have joy in the middle of the toughest thing you can do on this earth? Almost. But there is a sense in which we are told, quit ye like men, be a man, man up. That's how we would say it in our modern vernacular, man up.
Well, how in the world can you do that and be joyful in the middle of it? There certainly are people who can do that. And we're told to do that because we can have a joy in the middle of this if we get it right, if we understand what's going on, if we understand and see it as it's for my good, it's for my training, it's for my advancement and my correction.
But it is also to make us more Priceline, is it not?
It's not not what adversity is allowed in our life for that reason, I remember somebody saying.
That adversity and suffering in his life, he thought it was to make him more Christ like.
And because of that, it relieved him of aging society.
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And so, you know, whatever is allowed in our life, I do believe it's designed for our good and blessing, but also.
For the glory of God, glorious Christ, and to become more Christ like, I believe this is.
Desire for each of us.
This will bring joy and peace into our souls. I believe I was thinking of what you said Nick about.
There are those many they associate the suffering with.
Sin, In other words, if I have a problem in my life, it's it's because of sin. But you know.
That's what they were asking about the blind man.
In John Chapter 9 he said who did sin this man or his parents?
That he's been born blind, and the Lord says neither hath this man or his parents, but that the works of God might be made manifest.
And so.
That also would help relieve anxiety because.
Some things that are so very difficult, I believe.
God is going to come in in a wonderful way and manifest His own power and love. It's all going to work together for good.
So you know what you're saying, Brother Wally, And I think maybe verse 10 gives an answer. There's the object of God our Father in that chastening, that we might be partakers of His Holiness. The motive is love. And that's verse 6. And so it's the same with children. We discipline them not to show them love. We discipline to show them the holiness of God.
And so.
There's nothing a child wants to hear less than mom and dad coming to discipline them saying I'm I'm doing this because I love you. That's not the time to say that. You can assure them of your love later, but the discipline is to show them the holiness of God. It's done because you love them.
And it's the same with God our Father. So the motive is love. The object is to be partakers of His Holiness.
Brother Nick, I believe that you were thinking of a verse and Job chapter 37 and verse 13.
Where it says he causes it to come.
Whether for correction, or for his land, or for mercy.
We have in the apostle Paul one who suffered a thorn in the flesh, not because he had had sinned, but to keep him from sin. That's preventative, what you mentioned, and that's important to see that. Remember, when the Lord sends difficulties into your life, it's not always because you've sinned. Maybe it's to help you to keep you from sin. And then you mentioned preparative too, and.
Chapter 15 We have the Father pruning the vine, and He does it so that it bears more fruit. So it's not always for something bad we've done that's important to see. What we need is what we have in verse 11 here. No chastening, for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous nevertheless.
Afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are.
Exercise thereby to be exercised. What does that mean?
Is when something happens to recognize the Lord as something in this for me?
What is it and to search our hearts. I think that's important. We have the two negative.
Responses to discipline In verse five he says, my son, despise not the chasing of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him.
Sometimes somebody may have an accident. Oh, that happens to everybody. No problem. I've got it insured. I'll take care of it all. We despise the chasing of the Lord. We don't realize the Lord allowed that for a certain purpose.
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But Feeney is saying, oh, I've got so many problems, I don't think I'm going to be able to hang on. I just, I just can't take it anymore. That's fainting.
Neither of those responses are going to give you anything positive. What's going to give you something positive at verse 11 to be exercised by it? Say Lord Jesus.
You've allowed this, and there must be a positive purpose in it. Oh, that's so important, brethren. Beautiful to see. It yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby. Lord, help us to be exercised.
Exercise.
Can say that for themselves.
Those who resisted under blood we see as a group of them in previous chapter in verse 37. They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword, wandered about, and so on. That was those who resisted unto blood.
The chapter is looking on to the end result of our life when we are with the Lord in glory, the Apostle Paul.
Considered it a privilege if he were allowed to be martyred.
Would you consider it a privilege?
If you were allowed of, the Lord should go through martyrdom.
The Apostle Paul said with respect to such a thought, that I might know him.
And the power of his resurrection, he was saying.
I want to go through any experience in my life that will enable me to know him better.
For eternity.
And some of the quote trials of life are the going through, maybe not all the way to martyrdom, but they are, they're going through the experiences of life that the Lord Jesus went through, something of the same character that you might know him better. I've used this example multiple times and some of you have probably heard it multiple times.
No husband in this room.
Ever said to his wife during childbirth? Honey, I know just how you feel.
Because he's never experienced that, he does not share in communion with his wife what she's going through at that moment.
Other sisters might be able to say that to her and be a comfort and encouragement to her. You and I are going to look forward.
In our capacity to enjoy the Lord Jesus will all enjoy him completely.
But in the matter of our capacity to enjoy him is includes in it. What have you and I experienced that he went through in his life that we will share in fellowship and communion about in the coming day of eternity?
And then he goes on in verse five and says, and ye have forgotten.
Is changing to a different thought which has been before us for the last little while and what we have called discipline. But I, I'm not saying something new, but I'm just amplifying perhaps a little on what's been said, particularly what Steve had to say.
The reason for the discipline has to do with being partakers of His Holiness.
And connects itself with our direct relationship with him.
Why that in verse seven or verse five he's referring to my son?
In verse seven, God deals with you as sons.
In verse eight, if you're not, then you're a ******* you're not a son. And then he uses the example of earthly fathers in Chapter 9 and so on. The point is.
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We're going on.
To where the Lord Jesus wants us to be with Him in the same relationship in which He is in glory.
My father is your father and my God is your God, and he's licking on that was the very first and most important first words out of his mouth in resurrection was he could for the first time.
Speak directly to his loved ones that I'm going to the Father's house.
And now you can enjoy my father as your father.
And our enjoyment of the Father in the coming day of glory is directly related to being like His, according to His pleasure as sons. And what is God? God is holy.
And he wants everyone of his children to practically partake.
Of that same character of holiness and what He's training us now by the experiences of what we've been calling discipline correctly are those at trial training experiences that will make our enjoyment of the Father greater and permanent for all eternity and if we recognize the purposes in view.
Of the privilege of being like Christ and passing through experiences like Him. And also looking forward to what it's going to be to enjoy our Father in the fullness of holiness. I say the fullness of the enjoyment of it. We have the holy nature by new birth and resurrection, but we get and need the training to experience it now and grow in it that we might enjoy it to its full.
End of what we call the race and in the father's house and the end result of where we're going.
Years ago someone thought that one of the things that the Lord uses to teach us and train us is He allows us to lose.
And I had a hard time with that idea. Why does he allow us to lose?
Dan Gable was one of the winningest, best wrestling coaches ever. And he was a coach at the University of Iowa. My brother was a wrestler, A state champion heavyweight wrestler, and he told me about this and that we were talking about this idea. He said, you know, one of the things Dan Gable did influence the high schools in Iowa so that they had some of the best wrestlers in the in the United States, was this.
He said. You get all of these good guys that are champions in their little high schools.
And then they get to college. They've never lost. And then they get to college. Now they're with all of these people and some of them lose and they never recover.
So his method was to tell the high school coaches and junior high coaches, take your team, your best guys, and put them up against junior college guys or college guys during the summer and let them lose.
And then teach them how to recover from that. That experience will actually be to make them a better wrestler, better person all the way around, and teach them how to deal with loss. And with us as believers, if we are operating in the flesh, God cannot encourage that. And if we are, he has to allow us to lose. And we feel the loss and then we start looking at it. And as our brother was saying.
Exercise helps us to understand well, that's why I was operating in the flesh. There's nothing there to complete God after all. So then I learned something else. I learned how to recover from it. And I, through grace, my my Lord captained our salvation, then teaches us that from that loss, He teaches us all kinds of things.
Another comment on the side of, I'm going to say on God's side of things.
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There are a number of us in this room that are fathers.
And have learned from Scripture the responsibility that there is in the discipline of our children.
Is it a fun job?
It's very painful.
And when there's love for the child and the need for the discipline, the child has to be.
Pained.
But there's pain in the heart of the father, and that father can at that moment express the fullness of his love. Steve also made comment on that. And I would emphasize what was said, that that's not the time to say to that. Put your arm around the child and say, oh, Johnny or Mary, I love you. It's not the purpose and it doesn't accomplish the purpose at that moment.
We will also appreciate our Father's heart by the discipline as we learn what it is as parents to discipline our own and or learn what it is in having to have responsibility, even if it's not our own child. And so there is that learning process for us from God's side that also is going to result.
In a more full and rich experience in eternity in the Father's house.
The end of verse 9.
The father of spirits.
What does that mean?
The Lord is dealing with us on a lot of levels, perhaps, but here's one.
Deals with the spirit we have. It's interesting about Daniel. In the book of Daniel, he had an excellent spirit. He'd gone through some pretty heavy trials.
That God is dealing with us, not only.
For bad things we've done, but he's dealing with our Spirit. How do you handle things? Later on, he says in verse 15, looking diligently lest any man fail The grace of God, any root of bitterness springing up trouble you and thereby many be defiled. So often there is resentment.
Kept in the heart, and maybe nobody sees it.
Do you know it's there and the Lord knows it's there and he's dealing with it?
Perhaps there's other comments that could be made. I find that quite an interesting expression. The father.
Of spirits.
You think Bob, that's in contrast to.
Fathers of our flesh in the earlier part of that verse.
Keep going, brother.
As far as I can go.
In the Proverbs.
We have multiple instances and I can at the moment bring to mind a specific one to quote. But in the Proverbs there's indications where a father can, by his discipline or the thought of discipline, destroy the child because he disciplines it according to. Sometimes it's an irritation to him.
Somebody gets mad at their child for doing something that's wrong, and so they use their authority to discipline the child and in doing so they can be destructive.
To that child and give it some cases physical harm. People have broken the arms and legs and whatever of their own children and so-called discipline.
Because.
The father in his own heart spirit of love is not there at that moment operating and 2nd, it doesn't have the capacity to recognize what's in the child as to and I'm here's the father spirit sense to me that it doesn't have the realization of the capacity of the child in the receiving of the discipline as to how much.
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Is needed at that moment in time that the child can take in and respond to. Different ages of children need a different character and a father that has the spirit of understanding of the child is able to give that which is appropriate to the circumstance. The character of what is if it's had to be repeated more than once and so on. All of that is in contrast.
To God.
God acts in His child training activity with us with an absolutely perfect understanding of each one of us individually and where we are in our soul at the time He puts His hand upon us and exactly how much.
Is needed for the purpose of good that He wants from us.
And so we can thank him with grateful hearts that he is a perfect Father and he administers our training with perfect wisdom and understanding.
But at the same time, verse 11 brings in responsibility on the part of the one that's disciplined, and it goes on to.
The IT can get on to the point of bitterness and so on that Bob was talking about.
Because.
Some harden their neck.
The discipline.
Their rebellious children brought out in the proverbs, and the rebellion is a rebellion of I will not accept.
The yoke of my father's hand upon me and that can lead to absolute disaster in the past. And so some of what's brought out is to exhort us to accept and not rebel against that. But it can be rebelled against and it can result in a destroyed life as far as this life is concerned.
That either can end as it says in verse 11, yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness. That's if it's accepted and submitted to and learn from.
But then it says unto them which are exercised thereby.
Job is a wonderful example of a whole book that's given to this subject, really. And Job had a root problem of pride in him, but he also never gave up.
On wanting to see God and he went through his discipline until finally he could say.
Now mine eye seeth thee. And then he got the blessing and he was restored in the discipline to the righteousness that increased the amount of blessing in his life. And if there's a proper response to it, the end result, even as to this life is like Job's, there will be an increase in in the enjoyment of his hand of good and grace upon our lives.
God's desires that there might be repentance.
And repentance. It's a change of mind, it's a change of heart.
Willingness to acknowledge that I've done wrong.
And I believe it ought to also result in a change of behavior.
Show true repentance.
But it's possible for somebody to be punished.
But they're not repentant about the sin.
It just reminds me of the illustration. We've heard it many times about the child that.
Was misbehaving.
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So finally.
The child was made to sit.
On a stool.
Sit there.
And somebody came in and saw the child sitting on the school. They said what I see you're sitting on the stool.
And the little fella said while I'm sitting on the stool on the outside.
But I'm standing up on the inside.
So obviously there wasn't a change in the spirit.
I wonder if that something of what we have here in connection with.
Spirit God is the Father of spirits. He can change our spirit.
Because things might look right on the outside, but if the Spirit isn't right, really nothing's right.
What? You haven't done anything wrong?
Impossible.
I don't mean anything ever. What if you are in a situation where you're wrongly treated? And as our brother said, it's still allowed of the Lord, right? Right. Maybe it's to keep you from something. Maybe to keep you from something. But then there it is. You look. Am I to repent of something? Well.
Thank God for dear older sisters.
Ernie Monk's wife helped me some time ago and she gave me a little track and she told me a story about years and years ago she'd been wronged.
And she said this little track came into her possession from BTP. It's called the provoked spirit.
And she said how she was starting to become.
Are headed towards this person that's described here with a root of bitterness springing up to trouble you, thereby many be defiled. She had a provoked spirit because she had been wronged by someone.
And was trying to figure out why.
But inside.
She'd become provoked and she had a provoked spirit. Now that's a problem between US and the Lord. And when she shared that with me, I knew I had a problem between me and the Lord at that time.
That was very helpful. BTP has it on hand and that's very high. Give it out. But that that was very helpful because I didn't understand. She didn't understand. And I guarantee you everyone in this room may have experienced that where you've been wronged and you know it's wrong. Why, Lord, did you allow this? And maybe it's preventative, whatever it is, but allowing ourselves inside to become provoked and have a provoked spirit is not going to solve anything.
And it will get us into trouble.
When the Lord was rejected and the disciples wanted to call down fire from heaven, the Lord tells them, You know not what manner of spirit ye are of.
He discerned their spirit was wrong.
Elijah had done that.
And it was right on that occasion, but it wasn't wasn't right to call down fire from heaven when the Lord was coming grace at that time and the disciples didn't discern that. So I give that as an example.
It seems to me like it's closely connected with our motives.
We don't understand, sometimes even ourselves, why we do things. The Lord discerns it, and when He applies discipline, He doesn't make a mistake. And I think that's probably what John Hersink was referring to when it speaks about the Father's discipline. Us according to their pleasure. I think the right interpretation of that word there, their pleasures, is their best.
Interest and understanding abilities, they do it. Fathers usually do the best job they can. But we are limited. We don't discern our children perfectly. We make mistakes, we don't get their motives. A lot of times we do, and I remember my parents figuring me out pretty well. So a lot of times, but it's not always so, but with God.
He never makes mistakes. He discerns us, our spirit, our motives, everything about it, and he knows exactly an amount and the right discipline to happen. And the Job is a wonderful case of it. He had to let those three friends go a long ways with Job and they really tore him up.
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And job hadn't done the sanction.
Sam that they accused him of, but it when they accused him it brought out the reality of where Job was and some bad things came out.
That's what the Lord is getting at, and Joe wasn't. That's nice.
There's a bit of a question regarding.
This is being brought out here is regarding the.
Concerning the spirit of a of an individual, does this apply to some degree in the assembly? And the question of this comes up, do we have a cookie cutter?
Way of handling a soul that has all in and have to follow steps in order to be restored or or do we go to the Lord who?
Knows the Spirit and find discernment from Him as to when a soul is ready for restoration.
You've done a pretty good job of answering your question, I think.
Cookie cutter approaches because it takes no discernment, no exercise on my part.
Remember my father quoting with some making a difference.
And understanding.
I used to bring that up and brothers being sometimes and just said you know.
Nobody is the singing, no circumstances the same. Somebody said that earlier. We are not the same and the events that take place are not the same. And like you said, there's no discernment if you just have a kind of rote way of responding. And there's not any exercise either. But he used to say that and I've never forgotten it. I think about it a lot, with some making a difference.
Got an example in 19 about the last half of verse 11. I'd like to read that before go to Pomona.
Last half verse 11. Afterward it yielded irresistible truth of raising them.
Under them with our exercise.
This then Psalm 119, it was still irritating, verse 67, he said.
Before I was afflicted, I went astray.
Get down to verse 71, he said it is good for me that I have been afflicted and I'm in verse 75, the last part of it and that now in thy faithfulness and.
Exercise.
The verses we've had before us up through verse 12.
Are the father brought our fathers hand upon us and.
Training and so on as we've had before us. But then he changes the subject, if you will, a little bit starting in verse 12. And he says wherefore. And now he turns to us and gives us instruction for our own walk to be a help to each other.
And to encourage one another. And so there's part of the making a difference that was just talked about, he says. Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down in the feeble knees. That's a work that we are to seek to be a help to one another. And at one time your knees may be feeble and another time my knees may be feeble. The need can go back and forth.
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And so that.
Ned says in the next verse, make straight paths for your own feet so that your own walk is not a something that will harm someone else's walk or give them a bad example that they get turned out of the way by watching your life and so on. So the the verses which follow are intended for us to take to heart as an exhortation to us.
And how we you might, if I could put it this way, we walk and the manner in which we walk can be a help or a hindrance to the work that God is doing in His child training activity.
And how do we do that? How do we lift up the hands that hang down or strengthen feeble needs? I think it's it's going back to what we had at the earlier part. It's to remind one another that whom the Lord loveth, he chasing it. And so we need to remind each other that that his hand upon us is always a hand of love and there is always a needs beyond our part, but a purpose of love and his, as we heard that often quoted.
And that we're not to despise that chastening. On that way we can lift up hands that hang down when we find them. Strengthen feeble knees.
First Timothy 2 it says, I would that men pray everywhere lifting up holy hands. And in Ephesians 3 apostle says, for this, 'cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Wonderful thing if we can be an encouragement to one that is discouraged in that way, to bring them back to a place where they're lifting up their hands.
In prayer and on their knees before our God and Father and finding that there is grace to help and time of need.
I think we can do this by the words in which we say sometimes, and we know that there is a reference here to Isaiah chapter 35 and verse 3 which says, Strengthen ye the weak hands and confirm the feeble needs. Then in verse four it says, Say to them that are of a fearful heart, be strong.
Fear not.
Behold your God, and so forth. So there was a word to be given to them to help strengthen them, wasn't there? And I think that we can do that with our brethren when we see some that are discouraged, and we can encourage them from the Word of God.
Discipline that was given was preparative.
And I think we have an example of that in Second Corinthians chapter one where it says.
Because four who confidenteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in trouble in any trouble by the comfort where we we ourselves are comforted of God, I think, in helping others to.
Lift up the hands that Shank down in the feeble knees is not to be trade about it. You know the trials are real and if we haven't gone through them ourselves. It's very easy to tell someone. Oh you just need to get your knees and pray and Lord will make it plain. You know I once I was speaking to my brother.
Think earlier my father was an apple orchardist and you know one of the things that an apple orchard is fears the most is hail at the wrong time of season. And my dad had experienced something I can't remember was Halo not and I as AI think I was a teenager. I quoted him first from Habakkuk that said all of the fig tree shown up blossom. Neither shall fruit be in the vines. The labor, the olives shall fail, the field shall yield no meat, the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd of the soul.
Rejoice in the Lord. I will join the God of my salvation.
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But I had never been through a trial like he had just gone through. I couldn't enter into it. And he rather snapped at me, quite rightly so. So I think it's very helpful. Like brother said, I can't say to a sister, I know what you're going through in childbirth. Be very careful about saying to someone, I know what you're going through. You know, as humans, that is never true, never truth. Now, there are trials that we go through in our lives that are prevented.
Our preparative that God allows us.
Uses for us to help others, I get that, but in reality there's only one person that fully understands us in our trials and the things we're experiencing as the Lord himself. The best thing we can do is what?
A lie. Who did I always get jobs, friends, names a bit mixed up forgive me, but he pointed him to God. The best thing we can do is encourage them to look to the Lord himself. That you don't have the answers, that maybe you've gone through something similar, but only the Lord can really understand the depths of your suffering. Encourage them.
Yeah, that's end of my thought.
So.
Never understand the ways of God. You can hardly understand them. For ourselves, we can never understand them. For someone else, we can.
Encouraged and the goodness, the heart of God in the process of going through suffering. I think of some who are called to suffer basically their whole life. Maybe it's.
A bad back and forth.
Maybe you want to find through a wheelchair.
And we say that.
All the suffering they're going through is the chastening hand of God.
That would be cruel, wouldn't it?
But we can say that God has a special vessel that He is making for His own glory, and they can be encouraged in that He's doing something special. That is the only way He can accomplish.
The special effects seeking.
Being exercises not to be confused understanding we're we're talking about understanding each other and and and how we don't usually do I understand but exercise is is something that we can feel before the Lord and if.
Speaking from experience, if I think I've got figured out what the Lord is dealing with me, I've found out that I'm wrong.
And it's the wrong. It's the wrong viewpoint to take figuring out what the Lord's doing.
That's that.
Let's get Christ before us to be like him. Put the put the right object before us, not yourself and interpreting how what's going on with ourselves or even with other people.
But to be exercised #35 in the appendix.
Both of the wisdom and knowledge of God.
Our unsearchable are his judgments.
And his ways past finding out for who hath known the mind of the Lord, or who hath been his counselor?
Or who hath first given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again.
Or of Him, and through Him and through Him are all things to whom be glory forever.
Amen.