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The fellow children's meeting has through the waste we roll the sweet to sing together. We are not far from home 231.
We're tail drums in the world.
'S mainly 10 one crying the whole.
They called and the lady and.
I am here.
In the beginning of the world when you explain your home.
All the time appreciate it all over the gods by ourselves from home and flesh and whisper and flour and flour and flour light flour in the sun. Our work and our praying come.
OK. And we're gonna follow up again. I'll call it a little bit. We're gonna have a lot of we don't have anything on.
We go, we don't get anything.
At 7:12.
And praying together. The normal pillow, the Grand Canyon.
Is so cold. So I'm getting very, very, very, very young. Remember the heart of God's heart. Yes, it's a long time ago. I'll go to the baby.
And yeah, you're having me.
Because I haven't been. I have a small, uh, heavenly today in.
Yo, pardon me brethren, but could we also sing uh, 233? Uh, this also speaks of that.
Place where we'll be with our brethren.
Someone please start.
Are the choirs always?
Standing in your heart.
You need anything for 100 bucks? Yeah for 595.
Thin tongue.
00:05:29
And, uh, what I mean.
By all the crazy things or yellow today.
Lord, may all have the heart and blood of the state people and the furniture of the land.
Our God and Father, we just come before Thee this afternoon, and we thank Thee for reminding us in this one little hymn that we are pilgrims and strangers, pilgrims on the way home and strangers away from home. And oh Lord, how much we need to be together to encourage one another. And we would just pray, Lord, that Thou would direct this afternoon in the readings. We pray, Lord, as I Spirit, might not be breathed or quenched, and that our meditations might be sweet. And Lord, that.
Our thoughts might be attractive to these. We thank you too for this little hymn that we have just sung. Now, that moment so near at hand, when we'll be in the glory the same night, praises through all eternity. We thank Thee for such a glorious future. And we pray to Lord for our dear brethren in Kirkland this weekend. We pray Thou bless their time together too. And we ask it all in the worthy and precious name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Amen.
Along with the 12Th chapter or yes, I think it would be good to start at the fifth verse, verse five, and then we could go over some of these points in connection with the training that the Lord.
Is involved with in our lives.
You reached out to call and, uh, starting with verse 5.
You have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you is unto children. My son, decides not thou the chasing of the Lord, nor faint when thou ever Duke of him? For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth. Encourage us every son whom he receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons. For what son is he whom the Father chasteneth not? But if you be without chastisement whereof all our partakers, then are ye ******** and not sons. Furthermore, we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reference. Shall not, Shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father's spirit, and live?
For a few days chastened us after their own pleasure, but He for our profit, that we might be partakers of His Holiness. Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous nevertheless. Afterward it yielded the feasible fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby. Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the people need, and make straight paths for your feet, plus that which is lame be turned out of the way, but let it rather be healed. Follow peace with all men, and holiness without which no man shall see the Lord, looking diligently, lest any man fail of the grace of God.
Unless any root of bitterness bringing up trouble, you and thereby many be defiled, lest there be any fornicator or profane person as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright. For ye know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place of repentance.
Though he sought it carefully with tears. For ye are not come unto the mouth that might be touched, and that burned with fire, nor unto blackness, and darkness, and Tempest, and the sound of a trumpet, and the voice of words, which voice they have heard and treated, that the word should not be spoken to them anymore. For they could not endure that which was commanded. And if so much as a beast touched the mountain, it shall be stoned or trustory with the dark. And so terrible was the sight that Moses said, I exceedingly fear and quake. But ye are coming to 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, into 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 Abel.
See that you refuse, not him that speaketh.
Birthday escape not who refused, and let's take 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 had promised, saying. Yet once more, I take 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 which are made, as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain. Wherefore we receiving a Kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. For our God is a consuming fire.
00:10:08
OK.
It was mentioned this morning that the thought of chastening is really child training, and I've always enjoyed what our brother Eric Smith said years ago in connection with chastening. He said sometimes chastening is preventative. In other words, the Lord sees something coming up in our lives and He wants to prevent something happening as a result of it, so He allows chastening.
Other times, umm, we know that, uh.
A man that, uh, has apple trees, he needs to prune the trees suddenly so that the, the, uh, trees will bring forth more fruit. And so pruning is necessary. And so there are times in our lives that, uh, the Lord sees that, uh, there needs to be that pruning, uh, which I've enjoyed. And then there are other times when the Lord has something that he would have us to do. And, umm, he's preparing us, uh, for that work. And he passes this through, uh, various trials in view of what he wants us to do.
Then of course, umm, can you say that, umm, there's also, umm, the punitive aspect that we sometimes mentioned when the Lord has to come in and, uh, deal with it because of something that we allow in our lives. And uh, then finally, I mentioned the thought of preservative preserving us. Sometimes the Lord allows difficulty so that we might be preserved from falling into a, a, a serious situation. So I've enjoyed those various ways that the Lord deals with us in, uh, chastening.
Just one other comment I want to make and that is that in this fifth verse.
There's two dangers, I believe in connection with, uh, chastening. One, we're liable to despise it and, uh, we get upset when the Lord allows, umm, chase something in our life. The other, uh, aspect is that sometimes we think because of it, and these are dangers to either despise the chastening or things because of it. And so the Lord wants us to look up to him and recognize that, uh, even though he allows these things.
It's because we're his children and he deals with and deals with us as sons. So I think these things are important, aren't they?
It's really to deliver us from wasting our time, Washington, wasting our lives, uh, living in the flesh, isn't it? And he loves us and he's seeking to conform us into the image of his Son. And he's willing to take the time individually, umm, create a, an individual course line for every one of us that we might receive what we need in training individually. So we don't go into the school of God and we all go into the 12Th grade or whatever. Uh, we all have an individual curriculum. It's the wisdom of God. It's the love of God. He tells us why. And as you say in different passages of Scripture and John's Gospel chapter 15, he says it's necessary for pruning.
And one that has life, he's going to prune that one. One that doesn't have life, there's not the pruning. And so it's evidence that we have life because he seeks to deal with us and to train us in such a way. And as you say, the first warning before he gets into some of this detail, he says, really, you forgot the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children. And he's quoting in the book of the Proverbs, isn't he? And he's quoting Solomon and the wisdom of Solomon, divine instruction given to be able to walk in a heavenly path. And this scene.
And he says, my son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint. So someone said it's like either behaving like a duck or behaving like a poppy. Some have been in Europe, you know, and you see the poppies growing in the sand at the edge of the road, even in, uh, Belgium and so on. And I've done it myself. I've got out of the car and gone over to these poppies that are blowing in the wind, brilliant red, beautiful. And, uh, I take my pocket knife out and just cut the stem and the thing immediately Wilts. It's literally like a piece of Jelly.
There's no strength at all. One second it was standing up, blowing in the wind, the next I cut the stem. It just whilst it's it's gone.
And the only thing you can do is take it and put in between 2 pages in a book and dry it off and you have some evidence that you were there and got a poppy. But his desire is to work with us and to train us that there might be a recognition of his love. I need to be on our part and a purpose of love on his part. And not to think that that, umm, rebuke, if there's a rebuke given and umm, so not to defise it, not to be like a duck and say, well, this happens to everybody. I mean, everybody has a car accident. Everybody, uh, it's just the way it is. Uh, everybody breaks their foot every now and then.
00:15:00
No, we're to just be very careful to take it from the Lord, take our circumstances from the Lord training us. And his brother Stan, you brought out there may be a purpose of preventing us from being in a place where we shouldn't be, being engaged in an activity that we shouldn't be engaged in, whatever it might be. That would dishonor him. And he sees in his wisdom he'll go to the effort to train us in this way.
Not to be despising the chasing, we're not to be fainting under it, but we are exercised by according to verse 11.
And as a result.
It felt this.
It's a beautiful result to being exercised by what does the Lord want me to learn in this and I'm not sure we always.
Understand exactly why this or that has happened to us, and I don't know that we really need to, but we are to be exercised by. That's what it's telling us here. I believe in verse 11. Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous nevertheless. Afterward it yields the feasible fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.
To realize that the Lord allows things in our lives really to do us good.
And it's always.
Is love that allows us chasing? I think it's important to keep in mind that perfect law casts out fear too. To realize that I experience difficulty. It's not because the Lord is against me but wants to harm me. It's because He loves me.
And you know, that could be a comfort to our hearts.
We find in the uh case of the Apostle Paul.
He had a form of discipline in his life.
You have that first in the Second Corinthians, the, uh.
Lest I should be exalted because of the abundance of the revelations leave out above measure that shouldn't be there. We, the truth is we can't stand to be exalted at all. Uh, but there was that danger in the life of the apostle Paul and uh, the Lord in his wisdom, you might say in, in a preventative character.
He gave to the apostle Paul a thorn for the flesh. We don't know what the thorn was.
Scripture doesn't tell us, but it was something that was very difficult for him to bear. It was something that really humbled him. And he besought the Lord three times that the thorn might be removed because he, he reasoned, I can serve the Lord better if this, this problem has been removed from my life. But the Lord never removed that horn. And then we have those beautiful verses.
Uh, my strength is made perfect in weakness. And, uh, that thorn, whatever it was, it had the effect of humbling the great Apostle Paul. He had revelations that no one else had. And, uh, there was a danger of him getting puffed up. And God said, I'm going to, I'll send this disciplinary action, uh, as as part of my training in the life of the apostle Paul.
And he learned lessons, he learned dependence upon the Lord and, uh, we need to learn that too. No matter how successful we have been, quotation marks successful in our service for the Lord, we need to be humble. We need to be humble in his presence. It's all of his grace. And, uh, the apostles said he learned that in his weakness, he had power, you know.
In my experience, which has been very poor and failing, I often have feel no strength to give the gospel out.
And, uh, I feel as weak as water, but you know, it's that time that you're cast upon the Lord and he comes in in a wonderful way. If we just look to him in that spirit of independence, confidence, owning our weakness, marvelous, the way that he comes in to help us in that little service that, uh, he, uh, would give us. But in the connection with what Stan, Stan, uh, very clearly distinguished these, uh, forms of discipline that I guess you can say there's five PS there, right? Preparatory, uh.
Purgative or punitive? Uh, preventative, Uh, punitive.
Punitive, of course, is because there's been some failure in my life. I've allowed perhaps sin in my life. In fact, this was very evident in the assembly of Corinth. Uh, you remember many are weak and sickly among you and many, sweet God had to deal with them because of their careless, ungodly ways in the assembly and some were taken away in, in debt. Well, I think we have to be very careful about pronouncing.
00:20:19
The reason why a brother or sister is passing through a trial, be very careful there and not judge, but for the individual, we should be exercised. Why the Lord has allowed this in my life. Is there something that is dishonouring to him? It was in Corinth and the apostle said if we would judge ourselves, we would not be judged. Maybe we should turn to that verse, first Corinthians 11. It was a very solemn verse there. Uh, it's good for us to be reminded of that, this, uh.
This point, the first verse, uh.
While verse 27 Wherefore whosoever shall eat this bread and drink this cup of the Lord, unworthily guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. And that's what some of them were doing in quarantine. The Letterman examined himself. And so let him eat of that bread and drink of that cup for this cost. 30 Many are weak. And well, if we're 29 that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's body.
If we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged. In other words, if I practice self judgment in my life before I come to the Lord's Table, then I I will not have to undergo this chastening that that was being brought among the brethren here in Corinth. When we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord that we should not be condemned with the world. This is definitely punitive here. And remember reading Mr. Darby or hearing what Mr. Darby said. He said, I believe that many of the sicknesses among the Lord's people.
Is because of lack of self judgment in their lives. But we have to be careful, as I said, about pronouncing on those things. We should, uh, we cannot, uh, always say the reason why a trial has come into a person's life, uh.
But we should be exercised ourselves about the, uh, the reason why the Lord has allowed that to come in. Sometimes it's a correction of spirit with Job, His spirit was wrong, His attitude was wrong. There wasn't a sin in his life outwardly, but his attitude and his spirit is wrong. And so the Lord allowed a purge into discipline in the life of Joel to correct him. And, uh, it was very beneficial to him as we see at the end of the book.
So it is an ex, it should be an exercise that, uh, we, we, uh, take these things from the war. Nothing happens by chance in our lives. Uh, as our brother Robert said, God has a purpose of love, uh, and needs to be on our part for the purpose of love on his part. And, umm, you have to be careful that we have the shield of faith because in these times of trial, Satan is very active. And if we don't have the shield of faith.
He's going to shoot one of his fiery darts.
Which is doubting the goodness that is in the heart of God, breaking down our confidence in the Lord. Why is this trial come in my life? I've tried to please the Lord and yet hear this difficulty and I don't know what to do and but umm, we need to remember that the Lord has a purpose of blessing and he gives it allows us to come in love and for our for our blessing in the end to do us good at our latter.
Just to sum up what you've said, Brother John, is that the Lord when he deals with us in our individual?
Training course in the school of God, He's training us in connection with our spirits and he's training us in connection with our actions. So he's training us and desiring to give us the desire to walk in obedience and faithless to his word. And he's also wanting us to do what we're doing with the right attitude. Now I'll just point out the last words of the apostles, the apostle Paul, his last words written that we know of in second Timothy chapter four, he says, the Lord Jesus Christ be with thy spirit.
And so in a day of ruin, Timothy might get an attitude that he would perhaps superior to his brethren and he might have an attitude that wasn't consistent with what it was to walk and commune with the Lord, with the people of God in a day of ruin. Now Peter, he speaks in the same a similar fashion. And really in second Peter, it was a giving up of, you know, practical walk of righteousness. And he has a word of exhortation in second Peter. He says in verse 18 of the second Peter 3.
Grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be glory both now and forever. Amen. So he says grow in grace.
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We need grace, we need to have in our spirits that grace. And then John, he says, he speaks and he says the last, uh, page of our Bibles in Revelation, he says the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. So our spirits need to be, uh, characterized by a spirit of grace and the Lord was and in the perfect example, wasn't he? He prayed for those that were crucifying him. The Father forgive them for they know not what they do. Stephen in the character of Christ himself.
Prayed in the same way, he says lay not to sin to their charge. What was the result of that prayer? His spirit was right. And God saved the apostle Paul approximately a year later. And so he deals with our spirits, He trains us in connection with our spirits, and then he also trains us in connection with our actions.
Thank you instructive that chasing.
Follows this contradiction of sinners. You know, sometimes when we face the opposition of the world, we may not have the right spirit. We may want to retaliate. That's not great. And the apostle Paul writing Timothy.
The second official he says be strong in the grace, which is in Christ Jesus, because there's a day of opposition.
And Timothy had to stand alone.
And the tendency, you know, in that circumstance might be to, uh, give *** for tat, but be strong, which is in Christ Jesus, a need for correction in our spirit. So we got chasing coming right after this contradiction of sinners. One time I think I mentioned this before I passed the track to it young fellow. And he said, fuzz off.
Well, at first it didn't set too well, but then I realized a wrong spirit. I just need to go on my way.
And pray for that individual and feel sorry for that.
I see there was no need for chasing here too, I think on my part.
So that's enduring, isn't it? In verse 7, if you endure chase news. So there's three responses that are given to us here. One is despising, one is fainting, and the other is enduring. So that's the proper umm response. So if he endure, it's practical submission to what the Lord is doing in our lives, whatever the circumstances might be. God dealeth with you as with sons. For what son is he whom the Father chaseth not? So I don't go into your home and start to train your children. That's not my work.
That's your work. You're the father in the home and you need to be exercised as a father as to how to train your child.
Train them in obedience, train them to, uh, umm, do what they're told to follow instructions, all those things. The Lord trains us to follow instructions. But how will a child know how to follow the instructions of the word of God if a father in a practical sense doesn't train that child to follow instructions in the home? He'll get to be older and he'll get to be a teenager and he won't be able to follow instructions. He won't want to follow instructions. Maybe there are no consequences if he doesn't follow instructions. And so that's why he brings in this thought that.
Umm, the Lord was, uh, he corrects us, and our fathers did as our fathers did in verse 9. Furthermore, we've had fathers of our flesh which corrected us and we gave them reverence. Shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits and live? So what a responsibility is to bring children into this world, to have them come into our homes. And now I, I have not been a father of any.
Particular example at all. That would be commendable.
I have to say, I look back on those years as a young man and I say I could have done things so much better if I'd only taken seriously those instructions that are given in the Word of God in the book of the Proverbs and some of the other books, some of the other examples in Scripture. I could have been a better father. I could have trained my children a little better. Well, there's none of that failure with God. He sees you. He loves you individually. He paid the price to redeem you and to himself. And He's got that course set out and he's looking for the submission, the enduring of the chastening, and He's going to deal with you as a son.
And he's going to correct you as a son, He's going to train you as a son. And then there's going to be fruit for himself.
And so it requires subjection unto the Father of spirits. So May God give us the grace not to point the fingers has already been said and say, brother, so and so just had an accident. And I know the Lord is dealing with him about something. We need to be very careful. It's only the Lord that knows how he's dealing with us governmentally, individually. And we ought to pray for one another and be sympathetic to one another. But at the judgment seat of Christ, he's going to tell us why he did what he did and every one of us.
00:30:15
It says the little him says that 77 in the appendix will bless the heart, the plan, the hands that guide it when thrown in glory in Emmanuel's land. Every one of us will bless his heart and thank Him for all He used his hand in our lives. But now we have the privilege of submitting to that his, uh, ways with us in training, sometimes in his governmental ways with us as is necessary, but it's always, he's always dealing with us as sons.
And, uh, with regards to judging others or trying to presume, you know why they're going through things, this does not have to do with facing at all, but sometimes people suffer things for the benefit of others got nothing to do with them at all. And the best example I can think of in Scripture is Lazarus when he died, I didn't say anything about Lazarus doing anything or, but it was very clear what happened to him was for one purpose and that was.
For the Lord's Lord, the Lord was gonna show his disciples his power. And this was all under the direction of the Father, of course. But it's just an example. Sometimes people go through things. Maybe the Lord's speaking to you.
To say to that the Lord may be speaking to the assembly, the Lord may be allowing a trial in the assembly. And collectively we go through the trial together because the Lord knew he needed to draw our souls together. We were apart, we were growing cold towards one another. We wouldn't support one another, we wouldn't express our love practically to one another. And the Lord touches us, He touches us that we might grow in our sympathies, we might draw near to one another, and we might use our resources to strengthen the testimony locally. And so.
We need to be very careful about pointing the finger and saying that we know why, but the Lord is gracious. And the whole point here that the writer gives to us is to these dear, dear Saints of God who are going through this persecution. Some of them were being martyred, some of them were losing their homes. We could read in chapter 8 of Acts, uh, there's all kinds of things that were going on and uh, instead of pointing the finger, they needed to just submit to what the Lord was allowing. So all from getting saved because the gospel was being preached other places and the truth of God as to the heavenly calling of the church was being made known all over the known world.
Because somebody had to leave their house. I'll just give you an example if you turn to Acts chapter, uh, eighteen, I think it is.
Yeah, Acts chapter 18 verse one.
After these things Fall departed from Athens and came to Corinth, and found a certain Jew named Aquila, born in Pontus, lately come from Italy with his wife Priscilla. Because that Claudius had commanded all Jews to depart from Rome and came unto them, and because he was of the same craft, he abode with them, and wrought provide their occupation. They were Tentacres.
So here the apostle Paul comes to court and he stays in this home. He's given lodging, food. He's, uh, able to write his first epistle to the Thessalonians, perhaps right there in the home with, uh, equivalent Priscilla. It was a provision of God. But then if you turn back to Romans chapter 16, you read again about Aquila and Priscilla.
UH-3 great Priscilla and Aquila, my helpers in Christ Jesus, who have for my life laid down their own necks, under whom not only I give thanks, but also all the churches of the Gentiles, likewise Greek, the church that is in their house. So now you find them in Rome. They're living in Rome.
Claudius Caesar had told all the Jews to leave Rome. Now they're back in Rome. Why? Whether or not Jews anymore, they're Christians. There's an assembly in their house, and there is fruit for God. And so you may lose your job. I may have difficulties. Every one of us. God has a higher purpose. And what does he desire? That we would trust his heart of love. That we would trust what he's doing. And as he disperses us from one place to another, loosens our pegs, that we use it for his glory and for his honor.
So I think this is really the point that the Spirit of God is bringing before us not only that he has wisdom and connection with training, but that umm in verse 10 that they barely for a few days chasing us after their own pleasure, but he for our prophets that we might be partakers of His Holiness Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous but grievous nevertheless afterward.
It yielded the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby. So he draws the conclusion to all of these events, all of these circumstances, all of this training.
00:35:04
Fruit for him. Could we have it any better? Is there a better plan? There's no better plan.
Things that we're correcting them. A lot of times it's because it's unprofitable mentioned in that first he corrects us for profit. That is that we might be more beneficial to the Lord in our service. So things some things we kindly have things in our lives that are on on the unprofitable and the Lord may reveal that to us. It may take some sort of a trial to get our attention, but it's all done in love and in the end the per exercise thereby it does.
Yield. If you say more fruit for him, the pruner that prunes the tree knows exactly what branches are cut off, and they know just exactly how to prune that tree so that it'll yield more fruit next year. And read one time that when a pruner is pruning the tree, of course the picture of the Lord, the Lord is closer to us at the time of that pruning. Perhaps in any other time, he's the one that's perfecting.
That tree to bring forth fruit. So he goes through every trial with us. So the Lord is supposed to at those times than any other time.
And as your invention is.
A real skill and as far as the cruder of that tree correctly, and I was thinking the same thing.
As well that it's pruning isn't done then the energy of that tree wasted on on a show of branches and leaves. My supposed that would be a picture of wasting your time doing things in flesh.
For for a shower, that's right. For a show, Yeah, yeah.
The Lord desires reality, doesn't it?
And then following the line, I just got some thoughts about the pattern that we have.
From, uh, Matthew 13, we have seeds, different seeds sown and it all springs up as we know when they're really going. But there's, but there's good ground there and there's good sea. We'll bring forth fruit. And I was thinking about the UMM in Matthew 3.
In Matthew three we have this.
And John appears and that's the Kingdom of heaven is beginning is introducing verse 2.
We thank you for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand and in chapter 4 the Lord takes up the same thing verse 17 repent for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand. In chapter 10 when the 1204 is exactly the same thing. Repent for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand and they were to receive it and so multitudes were talking about Judea and the regions all around about and came they joined this this proclamation to repent of the disconnect yourself with the guilt of Israel, the guilty nation and come.
So now we turn to John chapter 6. And so many many come in and follow. Of course they partake of the for loaves and the fishes and these things and they go on and on. But when it comes to the 6th of John.
We have some persecution. Something comes in and he identifies himself in 535455 about mice eating my flesh, drinking my blood. So now the persecution is sort of come in connected with that. And why do you get in verse 66?
From that time many of his disciples went back and walked no more with them. They were followers to disciples, but they there was a separation now, so they go more no more with them. And then Jesus says to the 12 we ye also go away, no.
There's a separation and so we find that as the story goes on, of course, the they reject their king and they crucify him. And so it brings a close the Kingdom of heaven is not being set up. So if you look at the very end of Matthew's Gospel and also the end of of Mark's Gospel, but in Matthew it says the Lord says to the disciples, go forth into all the world, teach, teach all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father Son, the Holy Ghost.
Darby says go forth and make disciples. In other words, just as the nation of Israel had to come out from their guilt of the nation before, now they have to come out from the guilt of crucifying the Lord of glory. So it's going to make disciples of all nations. So they come. And so in early Acts we see all these thousands and thousands come in, and they're coming in all sorts, but they're not all real. They're not all real so much. So there has to be the separation and what comes the separation? Go to Hebrews 6, for example, We get a little.
In this group that Paul writes to, there's many, many Jews.
00:40:01
Many, many disciples, but they're not all real. And so we look at, uh, opening chapter verse 6. There's therefore it says, let's leave the principles abduction of Christ. Let's go on to the on to perfection, not lay again the foundation of repentance for dead works or from dead works of faith toward God or an adoption of baptism and so on. And Eagles a little further says we leave all that alone for it is impossible for those who are once enlightened and have tasted up to heavenly gift and were made particulars of the Holy Ghost and have tasted the good word of God and the and the powers of the world of Connor, they shall fall away.
To renew them again and to repentance, there is a separation. There are real ones in there. So the trials that came in identified with these were, and they went away just because the other ones before went away. And so now he says now that there's separation, he brings in the same principle to his own at yoga verse nine that says, but beloved, this is 6 and nine. We are persuaded better things of you and things that accompany salvation, though we thus speak. So what's he gonna do now? He's gonna put them as it were, through the same kind of difficulties and trials we've been just talking about.
Giving an example of those who passed petition might say in Ebro's 11 and now in Hebrews 12, the very same things that we have the the the trial that they too can respond to, they can faint. We can get the stories, but it really is to say, I have better things for you're going to pass through these things and there's going to be fruit, there's going to be growth, but it's a proof of reality. It's a proof of reality to go on. That's the test to us right now. And these things come in. It's a test of me, my reality. Am I going to go on?
If I don't have that spirit, I'm done. I'm not going to go on. I'm going to leave this place. But really as a test. So and he means that that'll bring forth more fruit. That's what I see in that it it may be that you have a desire to devote your life to the Lord and serve him in some way and but you're he seems to be going through a lot of difficult times right now and you just can't seem to get over that home and to be free to serve the Lord and.
Difficult difficulties come into your life and how are you going to respond to those difficulties? And in verse nine it talks here about further in chapter 12. Furthermore, we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us and gave us, we gave them reverence. Shall we not much rather be in subjection to the father of spirits and live and so the father of spirits. I might suggest that that might be the father, the spirit, that might be the attitude that we have when we go through our difficult times. How do we react to the and respond to the to the.
Chastening in the in the instruction that the Lord is giving to us at this time. Are we going to be subject to it or are we going to have an attitude and and be defensive and then in verse 11.
There's no chastening, for the present seems to be joyous but grievous nevertheless. Afterwards it gives the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby. OK, so you're devote, you want to devote your life to the Lord, but you're going through a lot of troubles and difficulties.
Well, what, what is it the Lord has for you in this he maybe we've talked about punitive and, and other sorts, but there's preparatory also. There's preparatory, umm, guidance and instruction from the Lord. And so those instructions may be sometimes difficult for us to take the chastening And so, but if we're exercised by it and we understand that it will result in the peaceable fruits of righteousness. There's another verse in first Timothy chapter 4 I'd like to look at.
First Timothy 4 and verse first 1040. Verse 9 as well. First Timothy 49. This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation.
For therefore we both labor and suffer reproach because we trust in the living God. Who are we going to trust in our trouble, in our trials, in our instructions? Trust in the living God, trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding and all your ways. Acknowledge him and he will direct your past. And then we go down to verse 12 of our chapter. Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down and repeat your knees. I've heard people say this has been mentioned. Oh, you're, you're going through a difficult trial. It must be the judgment of the Lord on you.
Well.
It's not a real good reaction on our part when someone is experiencing difficult times. We've been, we've been seeing of grace today. We've been, uh, Speaking of grace. And now it says lift up the hands which hang down. We need to encourage our brethren who are going through difficult times, lift them up, strengthen them. Umm, and as has already been mentioned, the trial might be because the trial for that one person is speaking to the assembly. And so we need to encourage one another. I believe that's why the Lord gave us the, the fruit of the spirit. There's love.
00:45:07
Joy, peace, lung, suffering, gentleness, goodness, and so on. There's we. We need these in order to get along as an assembly together. We don't turn on somebody just because there's been problems in their life. We need to be gracious with one another and encourage one another and help one another along in the Christian pathway.
A trial or a sickness being for the benefit of others or for an assembly, it doesn't necessarily benefit others from the sense of waking them up to some sin they're like. It also could be an encouragement to see somebody going through a trial and yet.
Maybe a sickness, illness. And still we're faithfully coming out to the assembly meetings. They're still trying to encourage their brethren despite their own weaknesses. And I think of a, a story in Acts where two of the apostles suffered some things and yet they, uh, were encouraged by what they went through. I'm thinking of the story in Acts 5 of Peter and John. They were in the city of Jerusalem and they were in the temple teaching.
And the chief priests and and Sadducees.
Umm, we're upset by this. So in verse 18 of act five, it says that the chief recent statuses, they, they laid hands on the apostles and put them in the common prisons. The Angel of the Lord by night opened the prison doors and brought them forth and said, go stand and speak in the temple of the words, sorry in the temple to the people, all the words of this life. So they get captured. They put in prison to get miraculously delivered. They're right back to where they were preaching again. And the next day they find that they're missing. So they go and they get them again. And this time if you go down to verse 40 or in front of the council.
And it says Emilio Umm says some things in current counsel. And then they said that they called the apostles, they beat them, and they commanded that they should go speak in the name, that they should not speak the name of Jesus, and let them go. And what appeared and John do, they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were kind of worthy to suffer shame for his name. And this is encouraging to think that despite the troubles they went through, they saw it as being worthy, that they were worthy to suffer the name of Christ and that.
Obviously, umm, those going through second season trials and, and yet they're, they, they go a bit with a smile on their face rejoicing in the Lord and it's an encouragement to the soul to see the response and others to those kinds of things. I think we have that, umm, map in the very thought in second Corinthians, uh, second Corinthians, uh, one, uh, the apostle says they're.
Speaking of the encouragement.
Umm, or six, whether we be afflicted, it is for your consolation and salvation, which is effectual in the enduring of the same sufferings which we also suffer. Whether we be comforted is for your consolation and salvation. So, uh, where they were comforted in all their tribulation. Verse four, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God. I thought you might say that was a preparatory, uh, suffering there. Uh.
It was a disciplinary training.
In fact, uh, the Lord reverently speaking, he passed through that character of suffering because as a man down here, he endured everything that a righteous man could suffer, that that was a training in the Lord's life that he might be unmerciful and faithful high priest. As we said this morning, there was no chastening in the Lord because of any, any tendency toward sin or anything. He was apart from sin entirely, but.
There was a training there that he might now on high in the glory.
Intercede for us. Our brother Sean brought it out this morning very nicely, that he was passed through all these trials, uh, as a righteous man. Of course, the Lord doesn't have sympathy with our sin, and we shouldn't look for that either. We should judge it unsparingly. But with our infirmities, when we're rejected by the world, it's not easy to take. The Lord understands that. Loneliness, love in thy lonely life of sorrow here below. No one understood the Lord.
In his pathway down here, he was a lonely man, but now he can sympathize with us as our great high priest. Great. Being a high priest is not in connection with sin. That's advocacy, but it's in connection with our weakness and our our trials, our infirmities. Another thing I was thinking of is that verse in Hebrews, UH-10, Hebrews 10.
Verse 35 The apostle says here to the uh, Hebrews, who are passing through these awful times of affliction, the spoiling of their goods.
00:50:04
Umm, here they were gazing stock by reproaches and afflictions and so on. They were really in the furnace of affliction. But what does the apostle say in 35 cast not away, therefore, your confidence, which have great recompense of reward. You know at the judgment seat of Christ, Even that confidence that we have in the Lord at these times of trial instead of getting bitter or what a what a danger that is bitterness coming into the soul and we're all.
Umm, amenable to that, we can all get that bitter spirit. And it's, uh, when our confidence in the Lord is broken down and, uh, we cast it away in those doubts coming to our souls. Uh, there's gonna be reward even for the confidence and faith that we have in the Lord in those times of trial.
Another aspect rather than that, to umm, the Lord putting someone through a trial for your benefit, maybe to provide for you an opportunity to experience some of the things. That is where it talks about says week with those who weep. You ever had the expansion of weeping with someone who wept? If they weren't put through a time of weeping, you would not have that opportunity. That's just a small example, but sometimes we see people suffering. We should ask ourselves why. Why is the Lord allowing me to witness this?
Is this an opportunity for me to minister, to weep with them, to pray for them? You know, there's, there's all kinds of reasons why we go through the things we go through.
I think it's good to read the, the portion that John mentioned in Second Corinthians chapter one, but to read it with the wording that Mister Darby translates and, umm, just at verse four, we could take, uh, who encourages us in all our tribulation that we may be able to encourage them which are in any trouble by the encouragement wherewith we ourselves are encouraged of God. And so some of these sufferings that the Lord allows us to go through are preparatory to be able to comfort others and encourage others because he encouraged us as we went through those trials and so.
You think of the apostle Paul in verse 8 of this chapter, first two Corinthians, one verse eight. We would not rather have you ignorant of our trouble which came to us in Asia that we were pressed out of measure above strength and so much that we despair even of life. Can you imagine the apostle Paul despairing of life? He just, you know, the trial was so severe. He just, uh, he didn't know if he could live through it, but uh, in the mercy of God when he met brethren that were suffering the affliction of persecution.
He said, I know exactly how you feel. I know exactly how you feel. I've been exactly there. I was stoned too. Uh, I've been beaten with rods. Uh, I've suffered shipwreck. I know exactly how you feel. And so the Lord, those two points I think we need to take from that passage is in the preparatory work that the Lord does with us in training us. He encourages us as we go through the training. Isn't that lovely? And then we have the ability to encourage others that go through the same trial. And so This is why he goes, uh, in verse 12, he begins another paragraph and he says, wherefore?
He says, now here's the conclusion. It's like a salesman, so to speak. I don't wanna bring it down to, uh, a common level, but the Apostle Paul was always asking for the sale. He was always asking, now because of this, don't you think you should do this? And he would encourage the Saints in the right way because of what he had just spoken of. And so he speaks of the feet or the hands here. And the hands are connected in tight with our service. And our service might flag because of the trials that we go through. And the Lord is training us and we may.
Get disheartened and just not do the service that the Lord has given us to do.
And then we might, uh, he speaks here too of the feeble knees. We might say, well, it's no use praying about this anymore, but I just can't bear it anymore. I, I just too tough. No, he says, endure and uh, don't let the knees get people. Continue to pray, continue to be independent upon the Lord. Then he speaks of, uh, making straight paths for your feet. So there is a course of obedience, of course, of faithfulness, a chorus as one is mentioned here, the stranger in the Pilgrim in this scene.
A class of faith, and we need to.
Continue on in that path of faith through those trials. But there's a purpose less that which is lain be turned out of the way, but let it rather be healed so you and I have an effect upon one another when we go through a trial.
We're either going to turn others aside by how we reacted, or we're gonna strengthen them. We're gonna strengthen our brother. None of us live unto himself, and no man dies unto himself. And every one of us as we walk through this scene and endure what we have to endure, whether it's a health issue or an incident that the Lord allows in our lives, or an incident that the Lord is allowing in the assembly, He is expecting us to continue in our service, to continue in our dependence upon Him, and to walk in a straight path, not to turn aside.
00:55:07
To compromise the path of truth because of it, but to walk in a straight path so that the assembly itself, the family, might go on.
Those that are watching you will go on in a straight course.
Probably 1 of.
Uh, and even the young people may get discouraged here, uh, with the, uh, weakness of the assembly. And, uh, Satan is, uh, is often spoken of Satan as being the roaring lion. And it's referred to as, uh, in the persecution. But usually when the Saints of God were persecuted, they were happy. But, uh, Satan can get a St. a child of God discouraged. That's his, uh, that's his victory. If he can get you discouraged, your hands will hang down. And that's what I believe is this character is a roaring lion.
Is to bring in discouragement among the people of God.
It can happen at any stage of our our lives, but the apostle says here.
Umm, let let lift up the hands which hang down and the feeble knees, uh.
The Lord was never discouraged. Discouragement is a result of unbelief and we are all guilty of it, aren't we? How can we encourage someone who's hand hanged down and the people knees are weak? I was thinking of First Timothy chapter 2 and verse eight. It says I will therefore that men pray everywhere lifting up holy hands. So one way to get out of the Slough of despond, I suppose you could say is to.
Look up afraid, and look to the Lord Jesus. Why? Well, if you take a look at Isaiah chapter 40 in those wonderful words it says there in the 29th verse, He gives power to the Saints, and to them that have no might He increases strength. Even the youth shall faint and be wearing, and the young men shall utterly fall. Fail. But they that wait on the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings as Eagles. They shall run and not be weary. They shall walk and not think so if we look to the Lord.
And he gives the strength to carry on, doesn't he? Two of the back in, uh, second Corinthians chapter one might look back there again, but, uh.
Enjoy what you've been said there, brother. Uh, Stan?
Two comforts that come out of that trial in First Corinthians 1, Sam mentioned those comforts or two of them mentioned there and uh, you read back in the first chapter the effect that they had. It says, uh.
We had that in verse nine, we had the sentence of death in ourselves that we should not should not trust in ourselves, but in God, which raises the dead. And so this is a comfort they received from God through that trial. They trusted God through the more on dependence on him, Dean upon him and to trust him for the circumstances that they were in. The other comfort was mentioned.
In verse 11.
Yeah, they're the ones that suffered through the trial. With them ye also helping together by prayer for us.
How important that is. And so there's the comfort of having the Lord with them, casting their dependence upon him. And then the comfort they had from the other Saints praying for them spurred them on in their service. And so those two countries I mentioned here, the nice that is, no, we've made a lot of, there's been a lot of, umm, comments on the chastening and with regard to service. But I just got a question at the end of verse 10.
Very specific purpose for the chasing was to be partakers of His Holiness.
And my question is, is this not, uh, for the purpose of communion with him?
That's not a small thing to be a partaker of what you might say is an aspect of God's nature.
It's only.
And if we are partakers of that, that's a very, uh, that's a very narrow ground. You might say that that's very special place to be a partaker of God's willingness, is it not, to enable us to be in communion?
Into the and to discern the Lord's mind. You get that I think, don't you, Ted? In the 14th verse, follow peace with all men and holiness without which no man shall see the Lord. I think seeing the Lord is Speaking of knowing the Lord's mind. If I, if I seek to walk close to the Lord, if I'm exercising about something, umm, I get close to him and umm.
01:00:11
He opens up his mind, the wonderful thing the child of God has.
Got a problem?
Who do you go to? You asked the brethren. I'll go to the Lord. I don't want to despise the president by saying that, but you know what I mean.
Connection with lifting up the hands. How do you remember about Abraham? It says I'll just read the verse back in. Uh, in Genesis it says that.
Uh, Abraham said. Under the king of Sodom, I have lifted up my hand, under the Lord, the Most High God, the possessor of heaven and earth, that I will not take from.
Uh, take from a thread even to a shoe latch and that I will not take anything that is thine lest thou should say I have made Abram rich. He says I have lift up my hand unto the Lord. I think the thought what I've enjoyed in connection with with lifting up the hand is that it's expecting a blessing from the Lord. You remember how Moses hands why they they held his hands up.
Umm, and that was to expect a blessing. So here in our chapter that don't you think there's a there's discouragement that can come in with the people of God when there's difficulties that the Lord allows for whatever reason in the life in in our lives. So it says there in that 12Th verse, wherefore lift up the hands which hang down the people knees, go to the Lord in prayer and expect an answer from you.
Yeah, that'd be pain down ahead and forgetting the goodness of the Lord and as you mentioned.
Lifting them up, it's looking to the lower expecting lesson. And we follow holiness not in order to obtain it, but because we have a holy nature that hates sin. And the thought here, I think, is that practical sanctification in our lives. I should be more sanctified this year than I was last year from the world and from, uh, those, uh, fleshly attractions.
So I follow holiness because I have a divine new nature that loves holiness. If you are here at this meeting and you don't enjoy being over the word of God as we are today, then you don't have a divine life. You have no, you have no evidence of a divine life. And so we follow holiness and how important that is because we live in that and increasingly unholy atmosphere in the world and immoral and we can be easily affected by what we pass through.
And encounter every day.
So let us, uh, feed the.
The the, the, the new, the new nature by the word of God and communion with the Lord. Uh, as our brother Ted mentioned here, partakers of His Holiness in connection with what you said about communion. I was just thinking of a verse in Matthew chapter 5, verse eight. I just read it. Blessed are the pure in heart where they shall see God. In other words, God is holy and he cannot have communion with sin, can he? So we need to be.
Clean we need to have purity of heart before we can be in communion with him. I was thinking that verse two in first Peter chapter one be he holy as I am holy.
We have two natures. We speak about it a lot. You know, we've got the flesh and we have spirit and we have the old nature and the new nature and right, and we have natural life, we have spiritual life. But can we always tell which one we're going by at any given time? And I think the chastening trains us as to which is which.
So yes, if we uh, if we put into practice, I believe verse three there meditating senator hadn't endured such contradiction of sinners against himself as she'd be weary in faint in your mind. Meditate upon the Lord keep the Lord before us.
If we don't mention terrible painting in her mind, what happens if if we faint in our minds, our our knees get feeble, don't they? And it goes right through our knees and we're not able to serve the Lord the way that we should. People needs. And so we need to keep those, our minds occupied.
With the Lord and we have that in verse 3 and meditating upon what we have with him will keep us as we journey through the pathway. That's what we get our mind off the Lord, your eyes off him and onto other things that God sees this and seeks to correct those things put us back on the on the track again.
01:05:12
I couldn't help but just connect I I know we've moved past it, but just to notice that the the second part of verse 11 an expression.
Feasible fruit of the righteousness with the.
Isaiah chapter 32 we are very familiar with. This verse is often read in the breaking of bread.
Maybe read verse 15 because it also brings in the fruit. Until the Spirit be poured upon us from on high, and the wilderness be a fruitful field, and the fruitful field accounted for a forest, then judgments shall dwell in the wilderness, and righteousness remain in the fruitful field.
Work of righteousness shall be peace, and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance forever to the work of righteousness. What's its effect?
Another application of that might be the scripture that says if a man's weight please the Lord, even as makes, even as enemies, to be at peace with him.
Could you say that again, brother? There's a person that says a man's ways please the Lord. He makes even his enemies to be at peace with him. So there might be another application of this peaceable fruit of righteousness.
That's in the Romans chapter 12. There it's uh.
As much as in you is follow peace with all men here what it takes it's here, it's following following piece. We should always follow the path of peace, but it's not all all the time possible live peaceably with all men.
Some men are very unreasonable. Doesn't mean to say that on our part. We shouldn't be attempting to do that here, to follow that, but it may not be as possible, but it shouldn't be to fall with us.
We shouldn't be the ones that fall if if there's a problem, if there's a problem that we can't live peaceably with somebody, it shouldn't be because of us. But it's not only possible.
There's two failures here that are mentioned, aren't there? So you have a failure really in connection with holiness. So there would be someone that perhaps would get discouraged and fail in that path of holiness. Be therefore wholly even as I am holy. And holiness is to have a hatred of sin and to remain aloof from it. God is holy and cannot have sin in His presence. But then we might fail from the grace of God, of the grace of God, lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you and thereby many be defiled. So there could be failure in connection with holiness, but there could be failure in connection with Greece as well.
And both are needed. So we need the grace to continue on in a gracious spirit and to remember the how the Lord conducted himself under those very trying circumstances all throughout his pathway. They they could say, umm, speak of his gracious words. No, never man spake like this man.
The root of bitterness may travel a long way. You know, some plants, they can travel by roots a long distance and you never see them and all of a sudden they spring up. And so it's a very practical exhortation because how easily a root of bitterness can can arise in our souls toward a brother.
And even though it may not be expressed, uh, it's not careful, it's going to spring up and, uh, it can ruin and assemble as it says here, thereby many to be defiled. We've had examples of this, haven't we?
That's not unlike First Corinthians 5-6, right? 1111 is the whole month.
Bitterness is like that.
Very destructive and it's hidden beneath the surface of the way, isn't it? It's a root and you don't see it and it may, there may be a tree comes up, there may be a plant above the ground and you don't know really anything about the root structure. But the fruit isn't good. And so I think James brings that out the so the the proof we need to be very, very careful of the root of bitterness and it needs to be judged in the presence of God and.
Held for what it is, it's wickedness, it's sin. The Lord never held one ounce of bitterness against those that crucified him. It's hard to to grasp that, brethren, but he never had one ounce of bitterness. He came into his own, His own received him not. It didn't matter. He delivered his message anyway and he always spoke with gracious words. He went and it says in a couple of different places in the Gospels that says that, uh, that many were gathered unto him and he healed them all.
01:10:08
It's not just some all. And then you find all of the blessing that's poured forth, flowed forth from the cross. And so instead of bitterness, someone has said that we can have two reactions. One is the trials and difficulties will make us better or they'll make us better. And for the believer, there should never be any bitterness. It should be sweetness.
You find that the life of the apostrophe just make the statement in connection with Philippians. Have you ever read in a sweeter epistle of the apostle here? He, he, he laid the groundwork for this assembly in a prison at midnight, bleeding, having been beaten with, uh, Silas and, uh, the sweetest epistle. He didn't have an ounce of bitterness for anything. And so it brought forth the sweetness of Christ in his life and the sweetness of Christ in his word. May it be the same thing in our lives.
What's the business please?
The filament filament I think 2IN Ephesians chapter 4 is.
Verse 31 Says, let all bitterness, raw anger, clamor and evil speaking put away from you with all malice. Perhaps it's uh, bitterness doesn't go away. It uh, leads to these other things as mentioned here. None of them are any good, but rather have what it says in verse 32. Would you be kind one to another, tender hearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ sake hath forgiven you?
Might mention here however in verse 14 just to have a balance here that.
Certainly we should not be the cause of the disturbance, but sometimes, uh, it's necessary to deal with evil. And, uh, there are some that would say, just forget about it, just cover it up. Uh, it might be, uh, an assembly, uh, uh.
An assembly matter that has to be dealt with. It's not peace at any cost. Uh, however, umm.
Uh, love cover is a multitude of sins, but sometimes it's necessary to deal with evil in the assembly because of the holiness of God's nature and the fact that he is in the midst of his people and he cannot tolerate evil. So it's not to cover it up then, but as the apostle says in other passages that we are familiar with that Corinth, they, they have to deal with that matter and it, umm, it might be necessary in any assembly.
Uh, to act that way.
Between 181.
Wednesday.
OK, but I don't know what I don't know, so that's just fine. I'm scared of trouble.
All the Lord will throw up.
01:15:05
We give you our thanks for loving God and Father and thy care and thy teething helping, helping us through this wilderness scene down here. We we thank you that thou thus provide for us every need as we journey through this wilderness scene. And we do thank you for thy interceding for us there on high to give to us that which is needed for our pathway here. We know that thou does not put on upon us more than we're able to bear with the trial. Others make a way of escape that we might be able to bear it and we thank you for.
Those things that others do for us in order that we might be more profitable. So we thank you for this. We thank you for the ministry this afternoon, uh, in the address and also in our reading meeting. And, uh, we thank you for each one that's able to be here. We pray for blessing upon each one of every age. And, uh, we just spoke to Dave for continued blessing this day as the gospel would go forth here in this hall and sing to follow and also fellowship in the hospitality afterwards. And so we, we looked at a for the remainder of the day.
Those that would be traveling, we ask dirty mercies, we give deep thanks to these things, and thy worthy, thy precious name, Lord Jesus, Amen.