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To bear thy yoke, and learn of thee that we may rest, obtain 174.
Jesus God.
And I want to read just two words from the middle of verse 8.
Mark Chapter 9 in the middle of verse 8.
Jesus only.
Spray.
G 12 verse 5.
And you have forgotten the excitation which speaketh unto you as unto children. My son, despise not all the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked him for whom the Lord loveth he chase not, and scourge with every son whom he receive of if he endure chase, name God deal with you as with sons. For what son is he whom the Father chased? Not, but if he be without chastisement, whereof all our partakers?
Then are you ******** and not sons? Furthermore, we have had fathers of our flesh, which corrected us. We gave them reverence. Shall we, not much rather be in subjection under the father of spirits, and live for they barely 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.
Grievous nevertheless afterward it 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 laying be turned out of the way.
But let it rather be healed, while peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord looking diligently, lest any man fail of the grace of God, lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you. And thereby many be defiled, lest there be any fornicator or profane person as Esau, who for one more slow meat sold his birthright. Where do you know how that afterwards, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected?
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For he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears.
For ye are not come under the mouth that might be touched and that burned with fire, nor under blackness and darkness and Tempest, and the sound of a trumpet, in the voice of words, which voice they that heard and treated, that the word should not be spoken to them anymore.
They could not endure that which was commanded, if so much as a beast touched the mountain that shall be stoned or thrust through with the dark. So terrible was the sight that Moses said, I exceedingly fear, and quite.
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, to the blood of sprinkling that speaketh better things than that of evil, see that you refuse, not him the speaker. For if they escape not who refused him that spake on earth.
Much more shall not we escape. We turn away from him that speaketh from heaven, whose voice then shook the earth. But now he has promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not yours only, but also heaven. And this word yet once more, signifies the removing of those things that are shaken, as the things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain.
Wherefore we receiving a Kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear, for our God is a consuming fire.
But brotherly love continue.
Chapter between the Giving of the Law and what we are come to in grace.
I like to go back in these first four verses, 3 verses.
Review just a little of what we had.
Especially.
That word? Nothing.
In the second chapter, turn to the second chapter of Hebrews.
Our eyes are given to us as God.
Are the two channels.
Two avenues for God to get to our souls. He's interested in your soul and my soul.
And those two avenues get into our souls.
Well, what does God want us to get a hold of in this book we have?
Spoken yesterday that in a way the Lord Jesus is the apostle. He is the writer of this epistle. It's Jesus and it's the wilderness book. We were told that yesterday. So we have the Tabernacle in the parts of that. So it becomes very practical and the portion we read is very, very practical.
But in the second chapter and the.
Ninth verse, there's the other word that describes what we do with our eyes.
We speak.
Now who do we see? That's the important thing we see.
Jesus, oh, what a beautiful expression. And who is Jesus? He was the one who has made a little lower than the angels. You know, as you sit there, your level of creation is not a lot lower than the angels. We'd like to see angels and have the power that they have got, but we're just a little bit lower and.
Jesus.
Passed the angels by.
He came down from heaven and passed the angels by. There is no salvation for demons, angels who have sinned. There's no mercy for them, just judgment. Now that's a great thing. When you and I think of our level of creation, God has a way to redeem us, and it took a person to do it because.
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And the day thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die sin brought in death.
For what stops seeing them? Well, it's there. You never saw a dead person sin, and you never will.
But the Lord came and he died to put away our sins and to give us life, to come into his family, to be trained as children. That's what we're getting in these verses we just read, trained as children. God has his children down here and he has a hard time with some of them training them, but he doesn't give up.
So looking under Jesus is a little bit more intense than see Jesus. You remember. Let's turn to 1St John and see the first verse of First John. How the?
Lord was revealed to us.
And it was through the Apostles I John one.
That which was from the beginning. This is a person. This is Jesus.
Which we have heard, Oh yes, they heard the Lord, which we have seen with our eyes. There's the eye coming in.
That is John Peter James Matthews. They.
Heard the Lord, they saw Jesus with their eyes.
But then he developed it deeper.
Which we have looked upon. That's the intense occupation of the mind.
To try to grasp who Jesus was, they just looked at that man.
And they did it so that they could write about it for us to have.
So Hebrews takes up both these verbs.
That the eye has the power to do.
To see and to look upon. So I think it's nice that in the second chapter it's the word scene in this chapter.
Looking unto Jesus and as we considered yesterday.
He is the beginner, the author and finisher of faith. Leaves a little word hour out.
He tried the whole course of faith. He was the dependent man who could give expression to the.
16th Psalm.
Not defend himself before his enemies Dependent, fully dependent man.
The finisher of our faith, that is. He trod the whole course and has finished it. As we remarked yesterday, there is one man in the glory. He's he's there.
He's there. He's the only one that's there to get there. There was the whole of his course of faith.
We remarked on that yesterday. You don't need to go over that again, but it's good that we've had it and.
The cross comes in in the second verse and then the considering him.
In His course the opposition of mankind about it.
Then the fourth verse, ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin.
This tells you and me that we have not been martyred. Some of the prayers this morning were about the martyrs, and there are many of them if we can.
Believe some of the statistics.
More martyrs in this century than all the rest of them put together. Well, that's men's data.
But that's the kind of world we live in. But you and I have been preserved.
And we have been brought into a company.
Peter describes it as those who have obtained.
Like precious faith with us, the apostles. That's what we've got, brother.
As the apostles faith that was given to them, they wrote it down and gave it to us. So John says that which we have seen, that's that person, those apostles, they saw him, they heard him, they saw him and they handled him of the word of life and he has life and he gives life. Have you got it? You got to get it from him. And then when you're born into God's family, the change comes here in our chapter.
In verse.
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Believe because before that, Jesus is before us and we're looking upon him.
He's the object at the end of the way, he's the one before the soul, but he does not stay there in verse.
5.
He had forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children. The Lord Jesus never needed any exhortation. He was a perfect son. But we are imperfect. We have the life of Christ, but we have the old Adam life that wants to go its way. So you have not you have forgotten the exhortation which the speaketh unto you as unto children. My son Now now the relationship is as a son to a Father.
So that's what we're getting here. It's practical. We ought to walk as children of God.
Behave as Christ obeyed. Follow his steps who did no sin.
So that's the introduction to this.
Portion we have read.
Chastening. We usually think of it in terms of punishment, and that's certainly part of it.
There are times when I need to chasten my children. I need to punish them because of something, some disobedience or something that they have taken up. But I believe in Scripture, the thought in chastening is more than just that. It's really the thought of child training. I say that because when a trial comes into our lives, some or into the life of another, sometimes our first reaction is, well, this is God dealing with us because of some failure or sin in our lives.
Well, that may be true, brethren, but I often think of what they said when they brought the blind man to the Lord Jesus.
They said, who hath sinned, this man or his parents? That he was born blind? And the Lord Jesus said neither this man nor his parents, but that the works of my father might be manifested in him. There was glory going to be brought to the Father in the Lord Jesus healing this blind man. And so it wasn't the direct result of some failure in the life of the blind manner of his parents. And so I just say that because sometimes that's our initial reaction now. It's good when trials come in our lives or circumstances.
That we ourselves be exercised because sometimes it is a result of the chastening hand of God in that connection. But I believe God allows things in our lives for many other reasons. Sometimes it's to protect us from something. Sometimes I speak to my children and deal with them not because they've done something wrong, but to keep them from doing something wrong. I warn them and I seek to guide them and bring some circumstance in because I know if I don't.
It's going to lead them on a path that will be difficult, lead to some problem. God often allows things in our lives to preserve us. Sometimes, too, he allows things to prepare us that we might be used in blessing to others. You get that thought. I think it's in the first chapter of Second Corinthians where he passes us through a difficulty so that we ourselves can comfort other. We can comfort others with the same comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God.
So I only point this out. We're sons of God, and God loves us and he deals with us as his children, as his sons.
Because he loves us. And let's remember that brethren. And as we take up these verses that bring out the this chastening or child training, let's remember that we have one and a father who knows all about us, a father who loves us through and through, and a father who's dealing with us for our good and blessing. Sometimes we've heard it said that everything in our lives is working out for a purpose, and that's true. But I believe it's more than that. Sometimes I might have a purpose in the family.
Have some plan, but it may not be really a purpose of blessing. It may be just for a selfish motive to get something for myself, but not only is God working everything for a purpose in our lives, but it's for a purpose of blessing. And we need to remember this at all times, that every circumstance in our lives is allowed of God the Father, and it's allowed for a purpose of blessing if we're exercised by it.
Do with God, and I think that's so important to get a hold of. Sometimes there's a tendency in our lives to look at circumstances and blame a certain set of circumstances for the way things have turned out. Or perhaps some person that we don't feel as treated as exactly right. They haven't understood us. But, brethren, we have to do with God in every single detail.
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Life's experience down here comes directly from the hand of God, and it's so important to get that straight.
And I think that's why we are called at the beginning of this chapter to fix our gaze at the Lord. On the Lord Jesus everything comes directly from Him. No trial can ever come our ways, except at first be allowed by the hand of the one who was pierced for us. He loves us, and it's His love that allows the chastening notice verse six, whom the Lord loveth each hasteneth.
And scourge it, that's even stronger every son whom he receiveth.
Still remember brother Eric Smith telling about one time when he was amongst the Indians in the South of Bolivia. He was taken with a heavy fever and laying there in his bed quite ill and one of the poor Indian brothers came and sat by his side for a long time, didn't say anything.
And finally, he said.
Brother Smith, the Lord must love you.
Real life, all right? Why do you say that, brother? He said.
Whom the Lord loveth, he chases said.
He I really think I'm so blessed, brethren, to get a hold of everything comes directly from the hand of the Lord, and if we can just get a hold of that a little bit better, brethren. There's so much emphasis in our society, and I suppose it's the way of life, that when there's a accident, a problem.
We analyze it to try to find out how we can avoid it the next time.
But so often that leaves God completely out of the picture and in the life of a believer, brethren.
There is one factor that if we don't get it straight, nothing else will be right. And it's the fact that we have a loving father that allows every single detail in our lives. So we have two reactions in verse five wrong reactions, but I'm sure we can all relate to them.
My son despise not the chasing of the Lord. That's one way we handle sometimes, to chase me.
We despise it. In other words, we just act like, oh, that was nothing, no problem.
It was an accident. Oh, Insurance will take care of it. No problem. We'll soon have it all fixed up. Be careful, brethren, to recognize the hand of the Lord, no matter how minute it might be. It comes from his hand. And to despise it may mean that the Lord, to get our attention, may have to speak a little louder. He doesn't want to. He speaks.
In gentle tones at first, if we'll have ears to hear what he has to say but the other.
Reaction is nor faint when thou art rebuked of him, and that is another of our fleshly reactions to the chastening of the Lord. It happens and we think, oh, this is just too much. I cannot handle this. I'm not going to be able to take this that's fainting under it if the Lord has seen fit to put a certain difficulty into our lives.
He will sustain us there, but he means us to listen, so may the Lord help us not to give way to.
Despising his chastening, nor feigning under it. But like our brother was saying, if we go down to verse 11, we have the proper.
Reaction for every believer under the chastening hand of the Lord.
And that is to be exercised thereby. In other words, when it comes, is to simply say.
Lord, you have your hand in this. What do you want me to learn in this? That's the proper attitude for us to be exercised. There's something you mean for me in this sometimes. Like our brother Jim was saying, it's not necessarily that we've done something wrong, but as Jason, he might be to help us, to keep us from something wrong. The Apostle Paul had a thorn in the flesh. It was the Lord's discipline in his life.
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Why? Because he had done something wrong. No, it was that he might not be exalted. That's why when he had the abundance of revelations that he did, there was danger that he would be exalted. And so the Lord gave him a thorn in the flesh so that it would not happen. He didn't sin, but it was to keep him from that. And so it's the Lord's hand in every single detail of our life down here.
Oh, it's wonderful to get a hold of that brethren. It makes life, and even the trials of life so meaningful if we can just realize that it's his hand in every detail.
The story of Joseph seems to me to be just a marvelous illustration. Brother Bob, of what you and Brother Jim have brought out. You think about Joseph. A dear brother was sharing something about that with me yesterday at lunch, and it's really lovely to consider that.
Joseph was loved by his father. He, perhaps was the, you might say in one way the only obedient son that that Jacob had of those twelve sons.
But in any case, what did Joseph do in terms of evil and wickedness, to cause him to be sold as a slave and end up as a prisoner eventually in in a prison in Egypt, and done anything? He had been obedient to his father, he had pleased his father. He had gone out to look after the welfare of his brother.
He had sought to walk according to whatever he knew that would be pleasing to his father in submission to his father's will. What did it cost him? He became a slave, taken away from his family. Why did that happen? He ended up in prison, as I say, lied about, falsely accused. Why did that happen? Well, it was because Joseph was eventually going to be used in a marvelous blessing for.
As a very brethren who were so I had, so I'll treated him well. Brethren, perhaps we have to hang our seds and say at least I do that often. It's not so with me. It's there's a need to be when the Lord allows something in our in my life. But let's not forget that that we have a a beautiful examples in the word of God. A very thing. Our brethren have been talking about those who have gone through some severe fire. What did Daniel do?
To cause him to be carried prisoner. What sin did he commit? We don't know of anything. He was a young man, perhaps a young boy.
When he and his three friends were carried captive into Babylon, it was the sins of the fathers, the sins of the leaders of Israel, that had caused them to have to suffer that.
But what a blessing he was, and what a testimony to God he was there.
In submitting to the hand of God and then being used in blessings, so.
We don't like the pressure, at least naturally speaking. We don't enjoy the the feeling of the fire, you might say when the when the refiner is purifying the silver or the gold. It's not a comfortable thing to the flesh. But there's something that the Lord is working out in that beautiful tapestry. I say reverently that he's weaving of our lives and not all of those threads are comfortable circumstances and and happy events.
There are trials and there are difficulties caused by my waywardness sometimes, other times caused because in the end the Lord has a purpose of blessing, not only for me, but perhaps for others too. And if there's a trial in your life.
And the Lord is causing pressure in your life. Maybe someday that very thing will end up being a blessing to me.
So we have to see that, and that will help us, I think. Or it should help us not to faint when we go to the Lord and say, Lord, why is this happening? And I say for the young people too, Why have I been rejected by this friend? Or why isn't this working out? Why aren't my career plans going the way I want them to? Why is it so difficult to get along and to seek to go on in the assembly? It's such a little one here and I feel so alone. Why? Why? Why? Just consider Joseph.
Consider Joseph. The end was a marvelous blessing for the people of God. And that's not just for the older brother in here. That's for everyone of us, from the youngest to the oldest, that we go through those things in God's perfect ways.
That there might be blessing you have another Job, because we find that there were four things in the first chapter that characterized Job. God himself said that he was a perfect and upright man. He feared God and he astute evil. But God was seeking to do a further work with Job and seeking to teach him lessons in his schooling, and it took 30 some long chapters for the for Job to come to the end of himself.
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But what was the result? Why he gave him twice as much as he had before. And when he learned the lessons, it says that ye have heard of the patience of Job and have seen the end of the Lord. The Lord was seeking to do Job good at his latter end. But I'd like to just say this too, to go back to the example Bob used of the Apostle Paul with that thorn in the flesh. Because I just say this, that we're not always going to see the removal of the difficulty.
Paul prayed three times that that thorn in the flesh would be removed and the Lord said no Paul, I'm not going to remove it.
I'm going to leave it for a purpose of blessing, but, he said. I'm going to give you what is needed so that you can live for my glory.
And the blessing of the Saints, even in the trial. And so he said, My grace is sufficient for thee.
My strength is made perfect in weakness, so it's not that we may see the removal of the difficulty this side of glory, but if the Lord leaves that difficulty, then be rest assured it's for our ongoing good and blessing. And it's nice to see the spirit of the Apostle Paul in his whole life, because when he was a prisoner of the Romans and a prisoner of Nero, he never spoke of himself in that way. It was true he was a prisoner of the Romans, but he always referred to himself as a prisoner of the Lord.
That is, he recognized that the Lord was the First Cause and that the Lord had allowed this.
And submitting to it, then he was used in much blessing. Think of the blessing that comes from the epistles that were written. Because the wrath of man shall praise thee and the remainder of wrath, thou shalt restrain no doubt the enemy thought, If I can get Paul locked up in prison, he isn't going around preaching the gospel and encouraging the people of God. But God had something far greater in that Paul realized that he was a prisoner of the Lord, and he was used in a mighty way to write those epistles that were not only a blessing to those Saints they were directed to at that time.
But we hold them in our hands to sat this morning, we've received blessing. The Saints, all down through the ages, receive blessing because of these beautiful epistles that were written when Paul was in prison. And so, brethren, he has a purpose for us in our lives, for exercised by those things that he allows. If we seek by grace, and it's only by grace to learn the lesson, then he has a purpose for us, a purpose for our own souls, and, I believe, a purpose of blessing for others as well.
That in the chastening of the Lord.
If we can recognize perhaps what has been our failure, that God can come in.
Even in our failures and turn it to blessing. That's how great a God we have, brethren. And Paul might have reproached himself for going up to Jerusalem when the Spirit distinctly told him not to go through his servants, through his other servants, but it really was When he simply accepted what resulted from his going up to Jerusalem, his imprisonment, it really resulted in greater blessing than he could have ever imagined.
And so sometimes people get under the weight of a mistake they made back in their life, I say.
Recognize the mistake if you've made it, but leave it in the Lord's hands. He's able to take that mistake and make it a greater blessing than you can ever imagine.
Another thing, brethren, I think we need to see here is that.
Excuse me, The thought escaped me. I just said stop there.
Who has foresight in all these things to be?
Over us. God doesn't just chasing us in hindsight after we've made a mistake. But He knows everything about us. And He said to Peter, I have prayed for thee. He prayed before Peter had his failure. The Lord saw that coming and he warned Peter about it. And and so, brethren, that's our God. He knows all this about us. He's superior to all our circumstances and He He only allows it if we.
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If we get cast down afterwards when the hand is, the Lord is upon us. By then. It's really doubting that he knows and has allowed the best and even the governmental things that may be left on us later on. That's part of his hand too, and he could remove that thorn in the flesh if he and Paul afterwards, if he saw that Paul didn't need it anymore. What what peace there comes in and entrusting in the Lord.
So you have the two opposite reactions here in this verse five. I think of it as a superiority complex that is despising it. When we despise something, brethren, we we think we have some certain understanding about it and we look down on something else. But brethren, we couldn't despise what God does. He's so superior.
Feigning under the opposite, it's also distrusting God really giving up when we can't do it ourselves. We we kind of tend to give up. But that's when faith really should, should come into action. Again, trusting the Lord not to faint just to go on. He'll give strength, he'll care for us even if we don't understand. The whole subject here of discipline is in this place in Hebrews is really based on.
With the understanding that an older one would have on, as do things. And certainly our God is much wiser in all these things than any of us.
As we have in in verse 9 the father of spirits and there wasn't really.
Anything you could look at in the life of Job that was out of place was there. But there was something that God saw in his spirit, and we need to remember that He's the father of spirits, and maybe we don't see anything outwardly wrong in our lives, but God?
Who knows everything about us like was just said, and does all things for our blessing.
He being the father of spirits is going to deal with our spirit if it's wrong. And job, he got a pretty.
You might say upset at God in a way, justifying himself because of what God had done to him.
But God knew what he was doing and brought Job where he should be in his spirit. And that's what God is doing in our lives. He's dealing with our spirits.
What he is dealing with. But there are points in our lives that he may not show us in this life. Brethren, the full picture we're going to see at the judgment seat of Christ. I think it's important to see that.
The wise.
And the questions that we have of what has taken place in our lives, we may get some part of it down here, but it really remains that coming day to see the whole picture. So if you don't understand why the Lord has allowed something, remember he's not only preparing us for life down here, he's preparing us for that coming Kingdom.
And it's only going to be in that coming day that we're going to understand fully.
What he had in mind in allowing the disciplines that he has allowed in our lives.
I love what Paul says to Timothy in two chapter of two Timothy, where he says, remember that Jesus Christ of the seed of David was raised from the dead according to my gospel. In other words, at the end of the Lord's life, if you would have looked at it as a mere human, you would have said looks like complete failure at the end of the apostles Paul's life again it looked like failure all in Asia had abandoned him.
There were just a few with him, and he was waiting for the Roman sword to take off his head and you might say, complete failure. He says, Remember, Timothy, the answer is in resurrection. That's where we're going to get the full answer. And so if you don't get answers to your questions about the hard things that have taken place in your life down here, take courage. Trust in the Lord. He has your good in mind. He has proved how much He loves you.
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By dying on the cross. And so if we don't get our questions answered here, remember he knows what is best and will allow nothing but the best in your life and mine down here.
We owe Job a great debt. How much we are indebted to Job?
No one suffered. I don't believe any man suffered like Job did. And yet what a blessing.
All that Joe went through his whole testimony. What a blessing has been to the Saints of God ever since.
And so this is not only an individual thing. God made Jason one.
But it may be not only for himself or you and me, but it's for others to learn from.
And so I always, I can't always, never forget that that we owe Job a great debt.
One day we'll thank him for it, one day we'll tell him so.
I was thinking too.
In this thought that has been expressed about not knowing all.
The Lord Jesus himself said, what I do, Thou knowest not now, but thou shalt know hereafter. And there may be those things in our life, but those are comforting words. They're from the the Lord himself. And we will see someday all us, as we have said all, how the beautiful fabric of the life that he has put together has worked perfectly.
But we see a beautiful, practical example of it in the life of the apostle Paul. We've been speaking much about him.
And I confess, beloved brethren, I know very, very little about this. But to me it's a very awesome thing. The Apostle Paul said to uttered these words that are recorded in the word of God, Be of good cheer. Be of good cheer. And then a little later, he said, I believe God. When did he? When did he say those things? In the midst of one of the worst storms that has ever been recorded on the pages of any book written in the history of the world. They were in the midst of a horrible storm.
Out in an ocean or out in the sea, Paul being taken prisoner and taken prisoner, you might say, naturally speaking, because, as has been pointed out, he didn't heed those loving warnings that were sent to him by the spirit of God through his brethren. Then also out there because the shipmaster wouldn't listen to Paul. So it was a sad tale of not listening to good advice. And there they are, out in the middle of the ocean. The sun hasn't shown all hope that they're going to be saved is taken away.
Everything. Everyone has given up except Paul. What does he say? Be of good cheer. Why did he say that? Because he knew there was one who had perfect love, perfect wisdom, and and and knew all that was going on and was taking him somewhere. And he rested in faith on that so he could say in the not after the trial was over, not after he understood how it was all going to work. And this is what I know so little about myself, brethren, but in the midst of the worst part of one of those trials.
He said Be of good cheer. I believe God.
Forward to once. So I heard it several years ago, but it went like this absolutely tender, absolutely true. Understanding all things, understanding you infinitely loving intimately. Near this is God our Father. What have we to fear? So I think it brings before us, you know the love that God our Father has for us. And I believe faith always interprets.
Trials by His love, and realizing that all has been designed for our good and for our blessing. And even though we may not understand.
We can trust the Lord, can we? And somebody who is saying how that?
The circumstances of life may not change.
But the Lord is able to give the grace to surmount circumstances that perhaps.
Seem so difficult, I think of what David said there in Psalm 18, he said. By my God, have I leaped over a wall.
Well, I think sometimes trials, circumstances of life, they perhaps mount up before us as a wall and seem to hinder our progress and our happiness and so on, but.
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It's not true that God is able to help us to leap over.
And to rise above those circumstances, and perhaps one way is by recognizing that.
His will is sovereign and it's perfect, you know, because David said in the very next breath, he said, As for God, his way is perfect.
In recognizing that God's will is sovereign and that his wisdom is perfect.
And his love is perfect. I believe it's that which enables us to to rise above.
The circumstances of life.
Verse of our chapter. It's a good one for us. Shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the father of spirits, and live?
What does that mean and live? Let's turn to the.
Timothy.
Six. It's the same subject we've been having here.
Connection with eternal things and temporal.
Call writing to his son Timothy.
And calling him a man of God. Would you like to have that title?
I'm sure everyone would.
611 of First Timothy But thou, O man of God, pleased these things, and follow after.
Righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness.
Fight the good fight of faith. Lay hold on eternal life, or really lay hold yourself on what is really like.
We have.
To lay hold on eternal life that's given us, that is, make it our own and our enjoyment. Well, who is it that has brought us to this? And who is over us? The Father of Spirit. And he wants every one of his children to really live the life of Christ down here.
So we're having him as the one to look to and it gets very practical.
And it's such a rewarding thing and.
As was said yesterday, this is the wilderness book.
And.
In Deuteronomy 8, the Lord reminds those children who were in the desert.
After they had gone through it, why they were brought there. There were two things they had to learn, and we don't want to miss those. There's nothing like our lifetime down here. Our 40 years is our lifetime and we're in this wilderness journey. The Lord leads us here. He'll get us all out at the end.
Some of them live a long time and others a short time, but it's it's all a wilderness journey. Well, he led them.
Those 40 years he humbled them that he might prove them.
That they might know what was in their own hearts. God exposed it, just like he took all those chapters to expose Job.
Some of us have been here a long time. We've had a lot of things exposed, but that's only half of it.
The other is who led thee and fed thee to know what was in God's heart, that he would do them good at their latter end. That's what's before us. The end of the Lord is coming, brethren, and it's where Christ has gone. This chapter points these things up very nicely.
For us, the reason why chastening is brought out in this chapter.
The purpose of it, in the emphasis given to it in this specific chapter, is given in verse 10 that we might be partakers of His Holiness, and then the 11Th verse, the Fruit of Righteousness.
I'd like to comment on that a little because I think it gives a certain important emphasis to what's being brought out here.
He's speaking to son. It's not in this chapter to children that are being addressed, but it's sons. We hear the expression like father, like son. God has a certain character and he wants his son to have the same character and so he brings before us Jesus in this chapter, who is one who was a perfect son.
00:50:08
To a father, he was one who endured the contradiction of sinners against himself.
He was one that resisted unto blood. Now, brethren, are we like that?
Are we holy in that way that we endure the contradiction of sinners?
Do we partake in that in a practical way in our lives? It's God's purpose and will that we learn that. And so He brings us under His hand as sons, those who He would have to be like himself. And He puts us, every one of us, under the chastening hand, to teach us in such a way that each one of us will be like Him. It's not partakers of His love. It's not partakers of His grace.
That is brought before us. His grace is sufficient as needed in our lives, to sustain us. His love is the hand that is behind the chastening. But He would have us now, not just when we get to heaven, but now to walk in this world as His sons, as those that are like Him in our character before all men. And so as a result of that, as necessary, He puts His hand upon us.
And he brings things into our lives that we might be partakers of His Holiness.
Mentioned that these verses.
Are very practical.
And I wonder if we could just mention not to go off on a sidetrack, but something it seems to me is very practical in the 9th and 10th versus.
It says in the ninth verse. Furthermore, we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us.
And we gave them reverence, or in the new translation, moreover, we have had the fathers of our flesh as Chasteners, and we reverence them then in the 10th verse. And I'm also going to read this out of the new translation, for they indeed chastened for a few days, as seemed good to them. Well, it seems to me there's some practical exhortation for.
If I can say it this way for kids and for dads.
You know the children that are here, and I appreciate very much Brother Don, what you said about the father and the son. The father seeks to bring the Son to mold the son into something that he has formed.
And that's a special thing. And in that sense you might say morally, boys and girls, both men and women, are seen as sons in that sense. But.
The practical thing is the first thing we do when there's some chasing or discipline.
From Mom and dad is that we want to rebel against it and we don't feel very kindly dispositioned, naturally speaking.
Toward our dad, if he's administered that discipline. But here's a very good, simple, practical word for the children.
The fathers, your dads, when they administer the discipline, what's your response? Think of it. We referenced them. That's a word that we could say is called respect, submission and respect. And you may not understand or appreciate or like what your father, what your dad is seeing, important and good to do in your life, but the word of God isn't talking to old people here when it says we reference them. That's a little practical word for the young people, the children here.
That that is always the attitude that you should have towards your parents in these things. That there is a reverence and a respect, even though it's in view of a discipline. But then it goes on and there's a little practical word to the dads.
And that is For they verily, for a few days, chastened us after their own pleasure. It's not the thought of fathers enjoying something. It's what they felt before God was good and proper that they needed to do for the blessing of their children. But what I think is really striking is for a few days, Oh dear, Dad, you don't have those kids. But for a few days, don't, don't overlook.
The vital, critical importance of discipline and training. I'm not talking about punishment all the time, just like our brethren have talked about. It's more than just if I can use this word. It's more than just a spanking or something. It's the whole realm of careful discipline and training. And dads, You've got them for a few days.
00:55:12
In the in the if, I can say it reverently in God's calendar, that's all the time.
You have those dear little treasures, for don't neglect this vital thing.
Of discipline and chastening. You and I are under it. And could we have a better example than our Father, who is perfect in His ways with us, you say. Well, I don't know exactly how to do it. Sometimes I feel like I'm failing. Well, that's true, we do. But we couldn't have a better example than our own God. Wonderful God and Father, who individually in love and that we might be formed into that which is pleasing and glorifying to Him, knows how to order the circumstances of our life.
That that might happen, That we might be molded while beloved dads. That's your example, too.
You and I are not perfect. We have to hang our heads and say how often we fail. But for a few days you've got those dear treasures. Use those days wisely.
A little bit too about love in regards to all this. We're living in a society that doesn't understand discipline, and it's probably the most misunderstood subject in in our practical lives, discipline. But love is the basis of it. That's verse 6 and we we're thankful. We have a God who loves us and he never chastens because of love. That's always the motive.
But we're living in a society, brethren, that where it's difficult to chasten your children in public, almost impossible sometimes. There's a lot of confusion between abuse and godly chastening. That's not understood, and I think it's good for us to be sure we understand it. Abuse is not done in love, is it? Chastening is done in love. And they can be misunderstood. And it's becoming more and more difficult.
And we as parents shouldn't give up discipline because the society we live in doesn't understand that we we need to understand and we need to show that love. It should be felt even at the time when the discipline is is administered. And and if we haven't built that basis of love, I don't really think that there's very effectual chastening in whatever we do.
But where there is much love.
Very little chastening is necessary oftentimes.
In the pipeline.
Find ourselves, I believe too, as fathers, we have a responsibility with our children to open the word of God and show them from the word of God why we carry out discipline and chastening in the family in the way that we do. I believe this is very, very important because I believe, as Brother Doug says, that discipline and authority on every level is being undermined. I don't believe we really realize when we send our children and young people off to school, just how undermined these things are.
I've sometimes told this little story, but when I sent my youngest, my oldest daughter, off to school at five years of age to kindergarten, about a week later at the dinner table, she announced to me, she said, you know, Dad, you're not allowed to spank little girls. I thought they weren't long undermining that and getting that message across to the children one week in the school system. And that message had been conveyed well. The evening reading that evening took on a little different character than it usually does.
Because I believe rather than we need to open the word of God and show our children why we carry these things out. They need to know these things on a scriptural basis. But I just enjoy in this verse we've been meditating on how he says for our prophet, I have to hang my head and say that I don't always discipline my children for their profit. Sometimes it's just for myself. Sometimes I want to sit down and read in the evening and they're making a noise and around and I say go out of the room, go to your room and read. Well, that's not for their profit. That's just to get something for myself.
But isn't it a great comfort, as has been already been brought out, that this one who knows us through and through, He chastens us? Indeed, but He chastens us for our profit. There's never anything allowed in our lives that isn't for our profit. If we're exercised by what is allowed for our profit, that we might be partakers of His Holiness.
01:00:08
Isn't that wonderful to think that when we get home to the glory and we sit down there?
In the presence of our blessed Lord Jesus, one thing that will impress us is the holiness.
The holiness of that place where holiness shines brighter all will be one of the wonders of things in a world which is full of corruption and evil and unholiness. Oh, how wonderful it will be to be home. And but God is seeking to be make us in down here like his Mr. Hale used to tell us, He's seeking to write Christ on our heart that we might be partakers of His Holiness. And there's one thing that goes with holiness, and that's happiness.
Happiness. I remember something struck me some years back. I used to watch an old couple going down the sidewalk opposite our home and about the same time every afternoon. And I learned that they used to go down to the local Dairy Queen and get a their favorite.
Their treat and but the old man was always about a step behind the old lady, and there they were.
And hobbling down the street. But she always took the lead. And I wondered about that. And I thought. And I found out that the old man was practically blind. He was blind, just practically blind. But he can see enough to see her. And he followed her where she was. Why he followed right along behind. Just just a step behind. And so I remember reading something. A ministry from my brother. Always both.
Premier 100 years ago.
He made this, he said. Holiness and happiness walk together.
Holiness and happiness walk together. Happiness is but one step behind.
Well, I thought about that old couple and I said what a lesson that is, that is for me.
Where there is holiness, happiness will be, will follow close behind.
That I'd like to read in connection with what was said about disciplining children.
That could easily be taken wrong by the world in which we live in, but it's so important.
Proverbs 23 verse 13 and 14.
Withhold not correction from the child, or if thou feedest him with the rod, he shall not die.
Thou shalt feed him with the rod, and shall deliver his soul from hell.
Not a strong word, and it really speaks to our heart as parents. How is the soul of that child to be delivered from hell?
It's from learning in this life, from his parents that evil ways bring pain, bring things that are not pleasant. If he learns that from the parents, he will not have to learn.
At a later date from the authorities of the land. He will not have to learn at a later date yet from the God of Heaven that bad ways bring bad results. Oh how important it is to learn that lesson as early as possible. I'm sure that the world around us would interpret this verse as abuse, as Douglas saying.
But, brethren, it's the wisdom of God for us, and it's important that we realize perhaps it's going to be that we're going to have to control ourselves in public and get along with our children and deal about these things. It's wisdom. It's between discipline is between the father and the child. And sometimes we do it in public and maybe.
These things that are happening are going to have to make it careful to be alone with our children to administer this discipline, but it's important that we continue to carry it on.
I know of a godly mother.
Who has a boy?
2 1/2 years old.
01:05:01
And one day she was having trouble. Most of the time the boy is pretty good, but he just couldn't do anything right over and over again. He had to be spanked and corrected. And it was all done in love.
And finally, in her desperation, the mother took that 2 1/2 year old boy.
Set him down in front of her and read to him Ephesians 6-1 and two children, 2 1/2 year old boy, children, children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right honor. Give forever to thy father and the mother, which is the first commandment with promise. I thought that was so nice to have the love brought in and the youth. It's surprising how smart our kids are.
And so we bring the word before them, even though they can't read well. When it was over with, the little boy looked up, his mother said.
God. You knew that word came from God. Reverence, you know.
That it may be will and.
Good.
There's if you be without chastisement and this part whereof all are for takers, brethren, we all are under discipline at the hand of God, and this is in this particular chapter. It's discipline from the Father. It's what we all partake of. So I can't look out and point the finger and say that brother's under discipline from the Father.
No, brethren, we all are partakers. If we do not partake, there's a question perhaps whether we really are a son in that family or not in the family of God. But otherwise, brethren, every one of us experiences the discipline, the chastening hand of God. I think it's good to realize that that word disciplined, sometimes we we connected with punishment but really comes from the same root as disciple. And it's really teaching. It's bringing a a person along in a certain course in a right course. That's the thought of discipline. It's not negative really.
Chastening is perhaps corrective, but discipline is more the thought of deciphering, bringing them along in a rate course.
See, because you. I believe at least that that helps us to understand the 12Th verse. Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down in the feeble knees. Well, there are there are those who faint and and and one knows something of that himself. As you go through trials and sometimes the trials get heavy and you just feel so down and and you're not supposed to and you know that the Lord is there but you get down and it's so wonderful then when there's another.
Now brother or a sister who comes along and somehow by their actions or their words.
They come and they lift up those hands that are hanging down on those feeble knees. How can they do that? Because of what our brother Bob has brought out, that they too realize they're an object of God's discipline and chastening. And they've been through it, perhaps, and they've been blessed in something. They've gone through something. Now they're able to come to me and help when my hands are hanging down and my knees are feeble. And then I go on and I see a brother or a sister, and they're going through something.
Someone has helped me. I see that the Lord is there for me and He's working in my life for blessing. Now I've been encouraged a little bit. Maybe I can go to that one and help their hands and their knees. But if you, if you have no thought or no experience of going through this and you feel this is for those who may I say reverently, well, these are for the good people that don't have to be punished. They're the ones that know we all go through this and it's going through it experimentally or experientially that allows us then.
If we're properly exercised, yielding the peaceable fruit of righteousness, then we can go to someone else who's weak and feeble and stumbling under a discipline or a chastening, and we can be used in blessing.
A very important thing I think in assembly principal.
01:10:02
As we were younger, we have fathers in our assembly. Dear young people.
They are responsible. We should learn from experience from those with Gray hairs. And we can sit under the ministry, we can sit in the care meetings, we can understand the exercises that they have for the sheep, and we can learn them only better as we sit at their feet and as we see them go on, brethren and young people especially.
We have to understand.
That there is order in the House of God.
And where are we going to learn these things? We're going to learn them from our fathers. And we should be thankful that we have those who have have taken interest and carried on and carried the torch. If the Lord leaves us here, we're going to have to carry the torch on. Young people, young brothers, young sisters. Yes, it takes brothers and sisters, but may we listen and may we hid to them and may we understand.
That is for our care and for our admonition. We may not like it, but set in quietness and learn at their feet, and learn the ways of God more perfectly. And then when they're gone, how often it comes to me? Many times. Or if we only had brother so and so here. Well, we have to search the scriptures, and not only that, but anything that we do within the assembly.
From the word of God, and may we be established in that, and we're going to learn those at the feet of our elder brethren and their fathers, and they have a care for us. And even at my age, I realize that there are many things yet to learn, and those of us are older in the assembly.
Brethren, take these young people under your arms, take them and work together and encourage them in the things concerning the assembly and the exercises for the care of the sheep.
David had to learn how to take care of the sheep, and that's why he was so prominent and that's why he was so useful. But may we may we be exercised older brothers, younger brothers, We go on together in the assembly. But these are things that we learn. But we can only thank God for those that have taken the time and showed us the way more perfectly.
6th of repeated.
Could you give us a word on the 4th verse?
Disciplining and love.
No, I don't think so. Not for you.
And ye fathers, provoke not your children.
To wrath, but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. I think what was said earlier about all this discipline, love, and it's in our chapter, fathers.
They have chastened us, but let it always be done in love.
Some fathers have campers.
I suppose most of us find that out, so we have to be guarded. And I think this verse is a guard. He fathers, provoke not your children to wrath.
A hasty answer provokes wrath.
Wait on God, My own mother would make me kneel down.
And she would pray with me.
And in tears she would say to me now, this is going to hurt me worse than it does you.
Now that's not dealing in a provoked way. Well, I think it's easy to see, isn't it, Edgar? That's what it is.
That was bringing out. I've often thought of a little example in Utica, in the assembly at Troas in the third loft, because I've often thought as Eudicus, who we're told there is a young man as he sat down in that window and began to nod off to sleep. I've often wondered if there hadn't been someone, perhaps an older brother in the assembly there, who could have gone to him and put his arm around him and encouraged him out of the window in love, perhaps offered him a seat over where he was sitting.
01:15:18
If it wouldn't have saved Eudicus that bitter fall down to the level of the street. I don't say that to excuse Euticus in any way. He ought not to have sat in the window. He ought not to have wearied of the ministry of the Apostle Paul. But I've just thought of that, and I just encourage my dear older brother and speak to those of us who are younger. We need counsel, we need guidance, We need that shepherding care that the members should have the same care one for another. And I've been thankful for brethren who have spoken faithfully to me.
Who have instead of letting me go on some course that was going to lead to some detriment in my life, have come in faithfulness. Maybe it hurt at the time, but faithful are the wounds of a friend. And so I just say that too, as a young brother to encourage those who are older. And as those of us who are younger, we need to submit. We need to recognize that God has authority. When you go to work for a corporation, you don't start at the top. You start at the bottom and you work up. And there are different men when they form a company or a corporation.
They recognize there's need for authority on different levels, Sometimes said Would God run something more careless than humans?
Oh, no, He recognizes this. And we all then, too need to recognize that there are different needs. There's those of us who are at different stages in our growth, spiritually and physically, and the Lord knows as a shepherd how to care for each of his own and to deal with us. It says in Isaiah 40 he shall feed his floss like a shepherd. He shall gather the lambs in his bosom and carry them in his arms, and shall gently leave those that are with young. That is, he doesn't treat each one in the same way. Even in his chastening, He doesn't treat each one of us in the same way. We're all individuals.
Well, we need to learn that as brethren too, that we would seek the good and blessing of one another, and discern that there are different needs amongst the people of God.
This discouragement, as seems to be in verse 12, indicated that brother Doug has talked about that a little bit, is to lift up and to do that work as well. When we see someone under the a real trial, it is to come and to say brother, take heart, it is the Lord. He doesn't mean to do you harm, He's only thinking of your own good. To encourage in that way as such an important work as well.
Sometimes we judge why the Lord may be allowing the trial in their life of that person's life, but we need to leave it between the Father and the Son of times, and just simply seek to encourage them to receive it from the Lord. And then, like it says in verse 13 as well, speaks of the lame making straight paths for your feet, that that which is lame be turned not out of the way, but let it rather be healed.
A lame person is one you might have to go up and take their arm and help them to walk. It takes some patience. It takes some real care to go to a person like that and to get them walking in a straight way again. And here we have the lame being healed. I think this is nice. It shows real grace working with those that are under the discipline. We're all under this discipline. But, brethren, we proved I trust in some measure in our lives.
That the Father's discipline is for our own good, and so we need to encourage those that we see that are under a real trial at this time to take courage. That it is the Lord that He only has our good and blessing in mind. That's all, brethren. I'd like to reread that 13th verse our brother Bob has been sharing thoughts with us on, and I'm going to read it wrong. Make straight paths for the lame's feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way. It's not what it says.
Make straight paths for your feet. That, that which is lame. We can't afford to look at someone and say they're under trial. They sure failed and I want to go help and I have to bring myself into this and I have to be walking a straight path in order to help those that are failing or laying. So it's very pointed here. It's looking at myself 1St and making sure I'm walking according to the to the thoughts of God.
01:20:01
And in communion with the Father. And then there will be a path that that which is lame and small. I was thinking of what our beloved brother Clem was sharing with us about that dear old couple. Well, that Lady who was leading her dear husband on the sidewalk wasn't wandering all over the grass and off into the curbing, so he'd stumble. She was walking a straight path that he could follow so he wouldn't be turned out of the way. How important that is, brethren, that we are exercised about ourselves and our walk. And as our brother Loder brought out, very, very importantly, I think that those who are those spiritual fathers who are in that place.
Have that exercise on their heart in order to help the beloved younger ones, and how good it is that the younger ones appreciate those fathers.
But oh May God grant that the fathers make straight paths for their feet.
We get a nice example too. With David. There's a very interesting order to what happened in connection with Ziklag. David was discouraged. It was a real trial for him. But what did he do? He knew where to turn and he encouraged himself in the Lord. He got into the presence of his God. And what was the result of him? First of all, himself getting into the presence of the Lord and encouraging himself in the Lord. Why? Then he went down and encouraged the men that were with him, and as a result there was a great victory in Israel that day.
But it wouldn't have happened if David had tried to go down in his own strength and gone down and thrown up his hands and said, well, we'll just have to do the best we can. No, he got into the presence of the Lord 1St, and that's the order, Brethren, if we're going to encourage one another in the Lord and be a help one to another, it's only in the measure in which we ourselves are in the sanctuary, in the enjoyment of the Lord. Again, when you get it with the truth of foot washing, it's only I can only wash my brethren's feet.
Measure in which I let him wash my feet, because when the Lord Jesus washed the feet of the disciples, then he said wash one another's face. Left that which is lame, he turned out of the way.
Seems to me that that's the lame are all of Adam's race he got that poison in.
And to him it was said.
The woman's seed shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.
There's no one of Adam's race that can walk straight down here.
And so we have to get turned out of the way.
Where am I going?
To.
Be.
On your heart while.
Will run.
01:25:07
I don't know if you're wild World.
Hey, Cortana.
Where is my wish? Me la ha ha ha ha.
Our friends today, we don't know if you need anything.
In life.
Breathing. Why not drive?
There you go. And I know.
Verse 18.
And everything is thanks. So this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. And then over in Jeremiah 2911.
For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, say of the Lord, Thoughts of peace and not of evil, give you an expected end.