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237.
Rejoice, Jesus, someone else.
Yeah.
To ask for God's blessing.
Our God and Father, where do you suggest?
1St 5.
Hebrews 12 and five.
And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of them of him for whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth, and scourgeth 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 ye be, if ye 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 reverence. Shall we not much rather be in subjection under the father of spirits, and live, for they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure. But he for our prophet, that we might be partakers of His Holiness, now no chastening for the present, seemeth to be joyous, but grievous nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.
Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees, and make straight cause for your feet less 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, lest any root of bitterness springing up, trouble you. And thereby many be defiled, lest there be any fornicator or profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright.
For you know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected. For he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears. For you're not come unto the mount that might be touched, and that burned with fire, nor unto blackness and darkness and Tempest, and the sound of a trumpet in the voice of words, which voice they that heard entreated that the 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 a mountain.
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Shall be stoned, or thrust through with a dart. And so terrible was the sight that Moses said, I exceedingly fear and quake, But ye are come unto Mount Zion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable 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 man made perfect, and to Jesus the mediator of the New Covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling.
That speaketh better things than that of Abel. See that you refuse, not him that speaketh.
For if they escape not, who refused him that spake on earth? Much more shall not we escape if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven, whose voice then shook the earth? But now he hath promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven. And this word yet once more signifies the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain. Wherefore we receiving a Kingdom which cannot be moved?
Let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear, for our God is a consuming fire.
I would like to.
Clarify some things that were said and I said them, and then make it clear.
What 1 believes on the first verse? I just want to make this let us I'm I'm reading Mr. Darby's translation. Let us also, therefore having so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us that's referring back to the previous chapter.
And there's a note in Darby's translation.
Witness in English has two senses, seeing so as to bear witness and that that that thought was advanced, but that's not what it means. And giving testimony to.
The last only I apprehend is in the Greek here.
Giving testimony to So the witnesses that are referred to from the previous chapter gave testimony to examples of faith in their lives. And that's what is meant. I believe not that they are looking down and seeing what we're doing here. The angels can see what we're doing here and God sees it. So whether those in the old in the previous chapter see it or not, probably not, but.
God sees it. And that's the important thing though. God sees me that everything that we do, even in secret, he sees it. So we shouldn't go away without the thought. Well, no one's seeing it because God sees it and the angelic hosts see it. But the real meaning of that that verse is.
To bear testimony to faith, and that's why they're brought forward.
Because the mount.
Sinai.
The escape knot.
Was to condemnation. But we'll come to Mount Zion, and so we have really the truth of Romans there. Eight, that there is now therefore no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus. And so the difficulty comes into the life of a believer. It is not to condemnation.
But it is for His good. And if we understand that, we won't despise the chase snake. And that's really what's being brought before us here, because we may despise the chastening of the Lord circumstances that come into our life, that grade us, or that trouble us, or seem to cause difficulty to us.
We may think that it's just bad luck and despise it in that way and say, well, bad things happen to bad people and just sort of stoically soldier on.
Or we may become crushed underneath it and say, well, I just can't go on, I'm of no use to the Lord now and I I just can't pick up and go on. Or else we can despise the chastening of the Lord by becoming angry with the Lord.
And so, but if we realize that all things work together for good to them that love God and are called according to His purpose, that we haven't come to Mount Sinai. We've come to Mount Zion, the City of Grace, that we realize that everything that happens, that he's head over all things to the church, and that everything that happens to us is for our good and our blessing, then we're going to be able to receive that and profit from it. What we have here that.
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When the Lord deals with us in such a way.
Particularly in this chapter in with as chastening us.
In Romans, all things work together for good. Something may very sad happen to a believer and it's not necessarily chasing, but here he's speaking specifically of those things that may happen to us, that that are a direct hand of discipline of the Lord in our lives.
To realize that our father loves us too much to let us go our own way, Naval said. As a child connection with my natural father, if I could have realized that that's why my father disciplined me when I was a child, I would have had a half year childhood. And so I say again, all discipline in our lives is because our father loves us too much to let us go our own way. But I think it is important to see that all.
Problems and difficulties in our lives are not the chastening of the Lord. I think of the blind man that they brought to the Lord. And they said, who hath sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind? And the Lord said neither this man nor his parents, but that the works of God might be manifest in him. And so it wasn't that there was some sin that this was allowed, but it was that glory was going to be brought to God and to the Lord Jesus through the healing and testimony of this man.
And so there are a number of reasons why problems and difficulties arise in our lives. And it's good when that problem or difficulty or test arises in our lives to get before the Lord and be exercised as to why he has allowed it. But I do think we need to be careful in looking at one another and judging, because the tendency of my heart is when I see a brother go through a real severe trial, is to say, well, there must be something in that brother's life.
That's not for me to judge. That may be true, but let that brother get before the Lord about why the Lord has allowed this. But let's be careful, brethren, that we judge as to why the Lord has allowed something in another brother or sisters life.
We have to do it, don't we? And that's important to come to grips with. I just feel sometimes, brethren, when the Lord allows.
Difficult times in our lives we tend to justify ourselves before our brethren. We tend to those that we're no longer walking in fellowship. We say, well, they they went the wrong direction and we're in the right position. We should have convictions about what we are. But, brethren, God has allowed these things.
For our exercise. And we shouldn't just push it to one side and say they're all unfaithful and I'm the faithful one no God has allowed it for me to be exercised by, and it's often been pointed out the three different reactions. I think you referred to them there. But just to point it out clearly in verse five, there are two wrong reactions to the Lord's discipline in our lives.
You have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children. My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord. That's one wrong reaction.
To despise it. Oh, that happens to anybody. We all have to go through our hard times, and I'll get through it somehow. That's despising it. The other is nor faint when thou art rebuked of him.
Yet so under the burden of it that we think that we can't go on.
Just too much for me. I just can't handle this. That's fainting. Neither of those reactions will bring the desired purpose that the Lord has in allowing those things to take place in our life. You go down to verse 11. You have the proper reaction from chastening. No chastening. For the present seemeth to be joyous.
But grieve us nevertheless. Afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby. In other words, when something negative happens in my life is to say, Lord, I know that you have something in mind for my prophet here. I really want to learn what you have in mind for me.
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Exercise. That's the proper reaction. And, brethren, we need to accept these things that God has allowed in our lives and be exercised by it. Recognize that He has a reason for it, and He allows it so that we might learn and to be before Him in that exercise of heart.
There's some else here. There's another reaction. A person may be a profane person like Esau and just give up and we see some just slip off. And the tendency of our own hearts to just slip off into a wicked life like a fornicator because they just say, well, I'm just going to escape this whole the hand of God altogether and live in pleasure. And many a believer has done that. I just want to say this in connection with the assembly, that this is addressed to my son and government is not directed in this way towards the Assembly of God.
I do not discipline my wife and I hope you don't discipline yours.
That is a relationship between a father and a son, the relationship between Christ and the Church as he cherishes it, and he nourishes at his own body. And so the exercise is individual here. My son despised not the chastening of the Lord, and I believe that that's important because we may well look at and at situations, and especially with the apostle Paul. He said, the more I love, the less I be loved. And he was faithful to the truth of God and all of Asia forsook him. Was it because was this some chasing hand of the Lord? No.
And an assembly may take a faithful stand for the Lord, and they may suffer for it. And so we mustn't think that because there's been a decline or there's been a difficulty that this is the chasing hand of the Lord. Chastening is an individual thing between the Lord and the individual. And I'm glad that Brother Jim mentioned that because we're often prone to look at ones and say, well, he's having that difficulty because he did something wrong. It's an individual thing between the soul and the Lord.
Jacob, you know when he when he lost Joseph.
Joseph was carried away and I suppose he could look at that and say, well, it just happens to a lot of people, but there was Joseph, you lost him and.
I suppose he could have blamed lots of circumstances upon his what had happened to him that day. But the end result? What was it?
Poor Joseph. Then all of a sudden he was going to lose Benjamin, and he he, he might wonder, well, why is this happening to me? Well, at the end of it, Joseph could say Now, therefore be not grieved for, nor angry with yourselves that ye sold me, hit her, for God would send me before you to preserve life. And so if we if we look at second causes in some of these things, and say, well, it's because such and such no, let's look at it from God's point of view.
And let's see what he has in it for you and me. And and I was thinking of that verse and you quoted there too, Neil, about for all. Let's recote that in a little different way. The all good things work together for good to them that love God, Is that what it says? No, he says. All things work together. We're good.
If we submit to the hand of God, even if we've done something wrong, if we submit to the hand of God, God can bring blessing out of it. Our God is above our failure. And it's important to realize that. Paul said to the I would have you know, brethren, that the things that have happened on me have fallen out rather under the furtherance of the gospel. I hope I'm quoting that properly. But Paul, against the testimony of the Spirit of God, went up to Jerusalem and all that happened to him. After that we find no fruit from his work in Jerusalem.
Had to get there and say, God hath not sent me unto you, but unto the Gentiles. That's quite a message, to go someplace, and to really have to tell them that he was sent to the Gentiles. But he could say afterwards he could see the hand of God in it when he submitted to the hand of the Lord, and say the purposes of God were worked out. And the Lord may well put us into a wedge. A man once left his wife and married somebody else because he wanted to be a missionary. And the second marriage turned out to be a disaster. And he said, what can I do? He realized it was wrong to divorce his second wife.
I said there is blessing for you, and there will be blessing in your life. If you submit to the Lord, he's obviously not going to get you out of this situation. There's no scriptural way for you to leave this marriage, but if you submit to the Lord, you'll be happy and you'll be used of the Lord.
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Now it may well be that there will be limitations on what he could do because of that situation. But there is no situation into which we find ourselves, even though it is as a result of self will, that if we submit to the Lord that the Lord cannot bring blessing out of it. But the escaping trying to escape, that if he divorced his second wife and married 1/3, which in fact is what he did, he just jumped from the frying pan into the fire. And so grace causes us to submit to the government of God.
It causes us to submit to the chastening of God, not to try to escape it. And trying to escape the chastening hand of the Lord is really proof that there has not been repentance and submission to the chasing hand of the Lord. The Lord may well cause me to lose all my money. He may well cause me to lose my health because of my sin. And you say, well, it was a direct result of of the hand of God upon me. But if there's submission, there'll be a perfume and a fruitfulness for God and a usefulness for God if we simply submit.
Brethren, I think the finest example of chastening because of love is Job, if you look at the first chapter, he said. The Lord said to Satan the devil.
Hast thou set thy heart, or considered my servant Job, there's none like him in all the earth, perfect upright, one that feareth God and escheweth evil.
And it tells us to in another place. He was a righteous man. And so that was a perfect example. And yet chastisement went on for chapter after chapter, probably up to 29 chapters, and in every kind of form that possible because the Lord loved Job. Now all these things. Look at chapter 29. I won't you don't have to turn to it.
But all this was true about Job.
Let's see. I'm sorry. I got to get to it myself.
Chapter 29 I believe it is.
I'm sorry, it won't take that.
Here it says, I was eyes to the blind and feet to the lane. I was father to the 4th and and the cause which I knew not. I searched out and my glory was fresh in me. Unto me men gave ear and waited and kept silence at my console. After my words they spake not again, and and on and on. It's all true. Job was that kind of a man.
But you know, the Lord chastised Job like he never chastised anybody else. First he let the devil get at him, and then he let his wife get at him. And then he used his three friends, so-called, and you know, Job never.
Despised it. He never fainted under it. But he endured it too long. He endured it for all those chapters.
And he says you are miserable comforters, everyone of you. And it turned Job into a spiteful man. He says I will not give up my integrity no matter how much you yell at me, and that's the only result with Joe. But finally he used Eli, who finally he used the spirit in Job's life, and he introduced him to the Lord who was chasing him for that purpose.
And the dog said, I'll put my hand on my mouth, I will not speak anymore. And then the Lord was able to talk to him. That's what the chastisement was all about. But it it was the most perfect man he had in this world. And yet he chastised him. Why? Because Job didn't know Job. That was the only problem. He didn't know.
Who he was, He believed what all said about him. A righteous man, upright, good to poor buying and all that. But he didn't know Job's heart and the Lord wanted it revealed. As long as he compared himself to his friends, he justified himself. When he got into God's presence, he got the right view of everything and humbled himself and brethren. That's what we need. I just feel so often we tend to.
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Justify ourselves. We try to convince people that we're right, brethren. That is not the point when God.
Chastises. He has something in mind. There was a flying job and that trial brought it out. But he didn't get it in perspective, proper perspective, until he got into God's presence. And that's what we need to do to realize that we have to do with God. He's not going to give up. We might give up, but not he. He loves us too much. We cost too much to him.
To leave us halfway. It's not going to happen. This verse six is so beautiful. Whom the Lord loveth he chasing us? What moves his hands to chasing us? His love. Nothing else but His love. And notice the last part, Scurja, that's even a stronger word. Anybody here like scourging?
I don't think so.
It's not pleasant, and we've all felt it. If we are believers in the Lord Jesus, there is no Son that gets away without discipline and scourging at times. It's not pleasant bread, but it's for our profit and we need to be reminded of these things.
One of the most severe.
Of the Lord is that we be left to ourselves.
And so the Lord Samuel said to of Saul to the froward or to the unwilling, I will show myself unwilling, the unsavory, I'll show myself unsavory. And the most severe government of God is that he let us have we let us have our own way. And so in Jude it says unto him that is able to keep you from falling. And when we fall into a situation, they say, well, he fell into sin. And, you know, it's especially important with young people at the crossroads of life.
You may get into a situation, you may have a child outside of marriage, you may get into a marriage with an unbeliever. And these are situations you can't undo. And. And is there a blessing if there's repentance, yes. But as well to think of that before that, the most severe government of God is that he's able to keep us from falling, but we won't listen. And so we get into a situation we can't easily get out of or cannot get out of in this lifetime. But again, I never want to imply that there's not blessing to any if there's not submission to the Lord.
But there are bitter lessons that sometimes have to be learned. And so I just say that to encourage our hearts is to know that the Lord loves us, but at the same time to be careful in our walk, and especially when we're young, at the crossroads of life.
Because there are things that leave a mark for the rest of a person's life, and there are things that a person may sow or a person may reap as a result of their sowing. But I think we have two examples of what you've been saying. Brother Neil in the Old Testament, 2 outstanding examples.
The first is with Abraham. When Abraham sinned, he was happily restored to the Lord.
And the Lord used him in much blessing, but we find that Ishmael and his descendants, as a result of that sin, they have become to this very day the constant enemies of the people of God. But Abraham was in his own soul happily restored to the Lord, and there was much blessing and fruit in his life prior to that.
The other example is David. David sinned and he sinned grievously. He was happily restored to the Lord. But a sword never departed from his house forever, and I believe it's very solemn to consider that. And I don't want to take away from what's been said, because when there is restoration and true repentance.
And submitting to the hand of God in our lives, Then there can be blessing and fruit as a result. But there are things that we may have to reap for the rest of our lives.
What a man, so ever a man, soweth that shall he also reap, is very solemn to consider.
In connection with that, because Jacob is one who tried to escape the government of God and is continuing to escape. To try to escape the government of God, Jacob deceived his father, pretending to be Esau. 20 years later the Lord met him in the way and he said, what's your name? Did God not know what Jacob's name was?
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Of course he did, he said. What are you going to tell me? You're going to say you're Esau? He sought to strike his conscience. We have no record of any communion between Jacob and God for those 20 years, but let's turn the clock ahead 4000 years.
Over there in the land, Israel is facing the time of Jacob's trouble and I believe, I think Brother Bob brought this out, that if you read the book of Obadiah, this conflict that is over there is between Jacob and Esau.
Jacob tricked his brother Esau to the blessing, and he's been trying with missiles and horses and alliances and a covenant with death. He's going to try to escape the government of God, but when finally he submits, finally he submits to the government of God. There's going to be blessing for that nation and blessing for the whole world.
But this is a direct result of a sin, and if you simply submit to the government of God, there's blessing. There was Pharaoh, Pharaoh would not submit. Nebuchadnezzar did. There was blessing. I believe we're going to see Nebuchadnezzar in heaven. Could it be that Pharaoh would have submitted to God and let the people of God go as far as responsibility was concerned? He would have passed into obscurity like Nebuchadnezzar, and there could have been blessing for him and sorry.
Is because you're no longer in the will of God, you're in your own will. Did Paul was Paul Chastise. When he was out of the directive will of God, he was chastised. Lord told him to go to Rome. He says first I'll go to Jerusalem because of my brethren and the flesh. And he went and you know what happened his brother.
Prudnear tore him apart limb by limb and the Roman army had to rescue him.
And put him in prison. That was chastisement, And the Lord stood by him in prison.
And said, Paul, you've testified in Jerusalem, now you're going to testify in Rome. There is a directive will of God for each one of us and there's a permissive will. I believe Paul at that time was in a permissive will. His motive was really very good courting and the even the Lord would acknowledge that. But there was no blessing for Paul.
Or his account in Jerusalem. I don't mean souls didn't get saved, but not to Paul's account when he got to Rome. Even many of Caesar's household got saved to Pauls account. So there's a difference. But you're never out of the sovereign will of God. Never. That's where chastisement comes in. The sovereign will. Verse 12 tells us, brethren, how we should.
Interact with those that are going through difficult times. I think it is so important, like it's been mentioned, not to try to figure out for somebody else what the Lord is saying to them.
The Lord is fully able to get the message through to that particular person. But what we can do is what we have in verse 12 lift up.
The hands which hang down and the feeble knees. It's a picture of discouragement. And when somebody is going through a time of trouble is to say brother, the Lord loves you and He has some purpose, some purpose in mind. Don't be discouraged and seek to encourage them. I remember Eric Smith telling about in Bolivia when he went through a time of Real.
Sickness.
When he was first amongst the Indians in the South, to the South of Porto Sea, and he was.
Frustrated in his bed, and one of the Indian brethren came and sat beside his bed for quite a long time without saying anything. Finally, he said. Brother Smith, the Lord must love you a lot.
Why do you say that, brother? He said. Because whom the Lord loves, he chastens and.
It was a comfort to him, and that's what we need to do with one another. The Lord has his own discipline with each one of his children, but when we see those who are going through difficulty is to seek to encourage them, to make them realize that the Lord isn't trying to destroy us.
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He has something good in mind. We're in the middle of a dark tunnel, perhaps, and we can't see any direction anyway. The Lord is the one that brings a person through it. But let's be an encouragement to each other in that process. That's what the three friends of Job did not do. They started trying to figure out why the Lord has allowed that, and they got themselves into trouble.
With the Lord for trying to figure it out. But Elihu was different, and he brought Job into the presence of God, and that started a work in the right direction. May the Lord help us to be an encouragement to each other in these difficult times we're passing through. Life is not easy anywhere, brethren. Travel around and you think there'd be some place where it'd be nice and easy. It's not so.
It's not going to be that way anywhere.
Beautiful. We've referred to Paul, But, you know, we often say the Lord never encourages us in a pathway of disobedience. That's absolutely true. But he often encourages us when we least deserve it. And as the Lord said, nevertheless, the Lord stood by me. And he says, as you've testified me of Jerusalem, you're going to testify of me in Rome. Did Paul deserve that encouragement? But the Lord encouraged him. And here was Paul. He warned the master and owner of the ship. He said, this voyage is going to be with much harm.
And then he just had to be quiet and watch the ship busted up. And what did he say? He stood forth. And he said, I warned you, brethren, that this was going to happen. I told you not to do this. What did he say? Sirs, let's read it Next there. What did Paul say to them in the midst of this? Acts 27.
It's so, and it goes along with what you're saying.
The Acts 27 and in verse 21. But after a long absence, Paul stood forth in the midst of them, and said, Sirs, you should have hearkened on to me, and not loose from Crete, and have gained this harm and loss. Their conscience need to be touched. But first of all, but then he said, And now I exhort you to be of good cheer, that there shall be no loss of life, loss of any man's life among you, but of the ship.
For there stood by me this night the Angel of God, whose servant I am, and whom I'm served, saying, Fear not, Paul, Thou must be brought before Caesar. And lo, God hath given thee all them that sail with thee. Wherefore, sirs, be of good cheer, for I believe God.
That it shall be even as it was told me, and so he had to touch their conscience. But he said be of good cheer.
And we may well look back and see something happen in another's life and say, well, you were warned, but and it may not, it may be good to remind a person of that, but we can always say, be of good cheer. God's for you in this, and if you submit, there's going to be blessing. And God did bring blessing out of this.
What's interesting too, there's a lot there in Acts, because first of all he was encouraged by the Lord, I think, of David. He encouraged himself in the Lord, and then he was able to go down and encourage the men that were with him. And as a result there was victory in connection with Ziklag. And so here Paul was encouraged of the Lord. Then he was able to encourage others. But just go to the 28th chapter and you find the fruit of it. It came back to Paul we find in the 28th chapter, in the 15th verse, and from thence when the brethren heard of us.
They came to meet us as far as AFI forum in the three Taverns. Now notice this whom when Paul saw, he thanked God and took courage. And I think this is one of the most touching scriptures in the life of Paul. Here was Paul. He could get just as discouraged as the others. He recognized no doubt there had been failure in his own pathway.
And these brethren, as they made this little trip out to meet Paul, we're not told of what they said.
Not told what they did, but little did they realize that it would be recorded in God's eternal record.
That they're coming out was what Paul needed as far as encouragement. It just gave him a lift, helped him to go on. And I thought of what Brother Bob said. You know, brethren, it's an exhortation to every one of us to lift up the hands and the feeble knees. Don't leave it for some of the responsible brothers in your assembly say, well, that's their responsibility, to encourage the people of God. You know, brothers, sisters. It doesn't take much sometimes to be an encouragement.
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Remember one time in my own life, I was very discouraged and I was just preparing for a long trip. I was going to be away from my, from my family for some time. There were circumstances that had really discouraged me. And I'll never forget a brother phoned me that afternoon, didn't talk for probably more than two or three minutes, he said. Jim, I just had you on my heart. I wanted to give you a call and let you know we're praying for you. I'll tell you, it was just the lift I needed. It just gave me that strength. I needed to go on and it doesn't take much. It doesn't take great things sometimes.
Some sister going through a real trial and another sister just calls her up and encourages her maybe take something over and helps her in a practical way. A brothers discouraged. And you just like Bob said, you just sit with them. Maybe you don't say a whole lot, but you just sit with them. You show you confirm your love to them. You bring Christ before them in some way, who knows what a blessing. And I think of these brethren, they came out as far as that by form in the three Taverns.
God was pleased to record that through. That was just the encouragement that his servant needed at that time.
14th verse This 14th verse I believe is a help to us because it says follow peace with all men and holiness without which no man shall see God. When we get into difficulty we tend to turn our guns on each other.
And so, unless we see seek to follow peace with all men, sometimes it means a simple parting, quiet parting of ways, as we saw there in Acts. After a long abstinence Paul stood forth. He was just quiet, and he had to leave the matter with the Lord to to let things develop as they were going to develop. And it's a hard lesson for us to learn. Perhaps some of us more than others, is just to leave it with the Lord, but to follow peace with all men.
And if we don't, we're not going to see the hand of the Lord in it. And when we just seek to lead things with the Lord, we're going to see the Lord working. God will not always use us, but he will always do his work. And if we seek to follow peace and we're going to see the hand of God in a situation, But if we let a root of bitterness spring up and we say, well, I'm not getting what I deserve this things that I just don't deserve, this many are defiled.
Instead of causing peace, we just defile everybody.
At the end of the tenth verse, there is a phrase that is given there and it it's as the objective of this discipline process, and it is that we might be partakers of His Holiness. What does it mean in practice to be partakers of His Holiness?
As I am holy, said the Lord. You know there is holiness, there is piousness, there is righteousness. You can walk that way. I don't say I do, but that's I strive anyway. I believe that's the thought.
In Scripture we have.
Positional holiness. It's the position that we occupy in Christ.
It's one of complete holiness that we might be says in Ephesians 1 wholly and without blame before him in love. That's true of every believer in the Lord Jesus, but.
Scripture also gives to us that it's something that to be, that is to be practical and.
The Lord sees the defects in my life, and He allows discipline in my life to take place so that it might be not just merely A positional thing, but a practical thing. And so we are brought into recognition that certain things in our lives are not proper. They are not according to His mind. And so the discipline is that we might be partakers of His Holiness that it might be.
Practically.
True that we That which is true of us positionally might be practically true in our lives as well.
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From was pride, and he was a proud man. And we all are proud by nature. There's one place that if we are there, pride cannot exist and that's the presence of the Lord. Pride cannot exist in the Lord's presence. And when he puts us through these trials, there is working in us something which feeds self.
And ministers to our pride, to our self importance, whatever it might be. And he must deliver us from that. We can't be partakers of His Holiness. If we have pride going on in our lives, we have to be delivered from self, and when that takes place then we can be in the enjoyment of His Holiness, which hates pride.
As someone said, getting out of the will of God.
And he sees something in our lives that is not in keeping with his character. Our father is holy, and if he sees something in our lives that is not in keeping with his, that character, he's going to allow discipline. If I see something in my children that is not in keeping with the character of the family, and I don't discipline it, it's going to become very evident. My neighbors are going to speak to me about it. My brethren are going to speak to me about it. And so I discipline my children.
But the wonderful thing is, when he disciplines us, it's for our prophet. And I believe that we'll receive brethren, a real blessing if we can get ahold of this in our souls. I can't always say that I disciplined my children for their profit. Sometimes it was just a selfish motive. Maybe I wanted to read and they were doing something and making some noise. And so I told them to go out of the room, stop making so much noise, I want to read. Well, that wasn't really for their profit.
That was only for my prophet. Sometimes I disciplined my children in the wrong spirit.
But isn't it wonderful that as the father of spirits, he disciplines us? He's not the father of lights here like he is in James. And he's brought before us in different characters as the father, but he's the father of spirits, and he disciplines us according to our spirit. He disciplines us in the right way. Sometimes I've mistakenly disciplined my children, and I had to go and say I'm sorry. I realized from what I know now that that discipline was mistaken. Does he ever discipline us mistakenly, our father? No.
And so it's for our Prophet. And then the result is that we might be partakers of His Holiness, that there would be manifest in our lives, in our practical, everyday lives, those things that are in keeping with one who is a son and heir of God.
That is a father.
Would have to own and admit that we've disciplined wrongly. We have disciplined wrongly. Our Father in Heaven never disciplines wrongly. He's always right and He sees what we don't see. He sees what we need to correct us because He wants our fellowship. He is holy and He wants our fellowship, and He can't have it if we're going on in sin. So He.
Brings in that which will deliver us from self if we're proud and we all have it. That's the last thing to die in. Man is pride and he has to deal with that. That was Joe's problem. He he he was a perfect and an upright man. One that feared God and his shoot evil God said that of him and yet he was proud of that. And we can be proud of so many different things in ourselves.
What has thou that thou has not received? And if thou hast received it, why glorious thou as though thou hast not received it? Everything that we have that we can take credit for came from him, and he's the one that deserves the glory and the praise.
And so, if He wants us to be a partaker of His Holiness, holiness is abhorrence of evil and delight in what is good, He wants to bring us into that state so he can have fellowship with us.
There is absolute sanctification and practical sanctification. There's absolute holiness and practical holiness. We've been sort of mixing them, but when we break bread, we do so as whole.
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Priests. God sees us only in the preciousness of his Son at that time. How else could we be at the table? How else could we be there in the presence of a holy God, doing what the Lords requested, but that we are holy in Christ and he sees us in His Son? That's beautiful. No sin is involved there, but practically.
We want to be holy, That's be thou holy as I am holy, the Lord said. There is that walk, that's testimony, and holiness is part of it. But there's two different things, absolute and practical. Holiness.
Numbers of times that if the motive isn't right, nothing is right. But I like to add something to that. Even if the motive is right, Pauls motive was right. He was told not to go to Jerusalem, but he loved his brethren after the flesh. He loved them truly and he he wanted to present the truth to them and bring them into the blessings of Christianity. The opposite happened. They converted him back to Judaism.
And he did some things that were that were totally not Christian.
And he's sitting there and he's so disappointed in himself, and it's so precious to read it. In Acts 23, it says that night the Lord stood by him and said, be of good cheer, Paul, you've borne testimony of Jerusalem. You'll bear testimony at Rome. His motive was pure and right. Sometimes when we sin, we don't have a good motive at all. But he had a good motive, and yet he didn't. He he wasn't going according to the word of God.
That's the that's the final word, isn't it? The word of God and your motive can be right, but if it's not according to the word of God, don't do it.
Connection with holiness. What you said is it's God's delight and good. God was holy before there was ever sin, and he will continue to be holy After all sin is put away, and so God is. Holiness is God's perfect delight in that which is good. And we often ask what's wrong with the thing? And the question is wrong because it delights in that which is good and is according to the mind of God. And we would void it. And I'm.
Bringing this up because it relates back to the weights that so waste. There may be many things that in and of themselves they are not wrong, and there are sins which beset us, which are things that are positively wrong. But if we really lay hold on what the purposes of God are, that really brings us practically into what we are. And every Christian exhortation is based on what we are. We are holy Brethren when he wrote to the to the.
Saints and faithful in Christ Jesus at Colossi. If he wrote to the Saints and faithful in Christ Jesus at Pella, he's not just writing to the people in this room, He's writing to every believer. We may practically deny it by our actions, and that's what sanctification is. But God delights in good, and so we enjoy holiness. We enjoy God delights in seeing he died, that he might gather together and want the children of God. Somebody once asked me, do you have a Do you have a pastor to your church? I said yes. We've got pastors. And I said we have a good song leader too.
Christ is right in the midst of the people singing. He delights to see us together in this way, and it's an expression of holiness. And we're not going to see that if we don't submit to the to the government of God and to the chastening of the Lord, We're never going to enjoy that practically here in this scene.
Would it be correct?
That being partakers of His His Holiness, is being able to enter into God's thoughts concerning that which is good, and recognise God's thoughts as to that which is evil. Is that being partakers of His Holiness? Is that where what He wants to bring us to? Is that His objective to bring us to that position?
Man is in our thoughts, but in our actions, in all our ways to practically.
We have holiness included in the 14th verse, along with with the following peace with all men. If that word of holiness was not there, it would be incomplete, wouldn't it? And it and it says, and without it we can't see God. Well, that doesn't mean that we're never going to get there, but I believe it's the same thought we get in in in Matthew where it says blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God.
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And it's it's a it's a moral thing, I believe. I can't. It would be wrong to try and follow peace with with all men and leave out that holiness I need to see. I I would only see God, purpose, and God's thoughts if I and and if if I would seek to bring that out along with my walking in peace with my brethren or whoever. But.
Just like to continue on here.
Seems to be somewhat of a key verse in this chapter.
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. And the rest of this chapter is a contrast between Law and grace. Mount Sinai, Mount Zion, the two Mountains that.
Show the contrast between law and grace, because the natural tendency of our hearts, and I have to say the Lord has had to deal with me about this, is so we tend to revert to the principle of law. It seems like we are trained to think in that direction. You do something, you get something, and that's the principle of law. But brethren, we cannot.
Get blessing on that principle. That principle only brought condemnation.
There is a different principle, completely different. It is the principle of grace.
And we are before God on the ground of his grace. And so we are to look diligently, not suspiciously, but diligently, lest any man fail of the grace of God turn away from that principle. Oh, it's so important to be challenged about this, brethren. We are before God on the ground that he is the God of all grace. What did I deserve to have this place before him in love?
Nothing. Absolutely nothing. And I need to realize that my ongoing We're not only saved, but by grace. But our ongoing is because he is a God of all grace. We are to come boldly before the throne of grace to find help in time of need. Grace and help to find in time of need. Oh, brethren, I really believe there's something here for us to.
Reflect on because when we lacked that grace of God, when we lose sight of that.
Then it gives place to roots of bitterness.
And brethren, we have witnessed amongst ourselves those roots of bitterness causing defilement. For many, it is shameful what has happened amongst us, brethren, because there's been roots of bitterness. We haven't realized that we are before God on the grounds of his sovereign grace. Can I stand up and say I've been faithful?
Cannot do that, Cannot do that. That's not understanding my position before God. And we naturally tend in another direction. We like to go back to that principle of law. And the rest of the chapter he contrasts and he says, You have not come to that mount that might be touched and that burned with fire and into blackness and darkness and Tempest and the sound of a trumpet.
Ye have come, oh, isn't this beautiful in this tremendous The place we've been called to brethren is so tremendous. We have been called to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, and the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels. Think of what we have been called to brethren. Why have we been called to such a grand place? It's because.
Of His sovereign grace. And as soon as I get away from that and revert to that principle of law, what's going to happen? It is fertile ground to give place to roots of bitterness.
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Are there is there bitterness in your heart? Is there resentment in your heart toward any brother or sister or any other person? Those roots of bitterness that you have down there, maybe you don't let anybody else know that they're there, but there is a resentment.
I ask your brother and sister in the Lord Jesus. Get him out of there. Let's get back to realizing.
That the only place we have properly before God is the grounds of His grace, and I cannot.
I cannot entertain any resentment, any bitterness in my heart toward anybody. The Lord help us to root those roots of bitterness out, brethren, to realize where we are looking diligently. We need to be a help to one another and when we see a brother.
Who has those resentments seek to be a help to bring them into the enjoyment of what it means to be before God on the ground of His grace?
So that those roots of bitterness can be removed before they cause defilement.
Just part of a verse in Ezekiel Chapter 11 That yes, I've read it before, but it came across me and hit me between the eyes and and it's good for us all to remember this when it comes to these roots of bitterness that are hiding, shall we say there from our brethren. But in Ezekiel Chapter 11 and verse 5.
Just a part of that verse.
Halfway down four, I know the things that come into your mind. Every one of them. Now that that is a solemn thing. So let us think about that, That we may be hiding it from our brethren, or maybe we're trying to hide it from ourselves, but God knows every thought that comes into our mind. Every one of them. And then verse 16 says, lest there be any fornicator or profane person.
And again, it's going back to an appreciation and an understanding of the grace of God. Just go to Titus, because I think it's perhaps summed up there what's been said by Brother Bob and what we have. As to the exhortation in this next verse, just go to Titus chapter 2 and verse 11 for the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts.
We should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world. And then he goes on to speak about looking for the blessed hope. But I believe what we have here is that grace is the teacher, and grace teaches us, first of all, to deny that which is not holy, that which is unholy. Is there going to be practical holiness in your life. You must have an appreciation, an understanding of the grace of God. It teaches us to deny those things.
And then it teaches us to live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present age. And when I see a brother or a sister who exhibits moral piety and practical holiness in their life, I say there's a brother. There's a sister who has an appreciation in their soul of the grace of God. Grace doesn't teach us to live for ourselves. It speaks of those who turn the grace of God into lasciviousness. That is, they take the thought that God is gracious, and they use it to live a loose life and to live for themselves.
But they don't really understand what the grace of God is. If they really understood what the grace of God was, they would be living soberly, righteously and godly. When, brethren, in this present age, you say, can it be really true that we can exhibit moral piety and practical holiness in our lives? In 2005, the young people might say, well, Jim, you don't know how bad it is out there. There's no line between right and wrong anymore.
It's an amoral society, and that's true. It is an amoral society. It's just anything goes. This is things are dark, morally and spiritually. In every sphere of society, things are dark. But we can deny the things that are unholy, and we can live soberly, righteously, godly in this present age. Whether it was the day in which Titus lived, whether it's the day in which our grandfathers lived.
Or whether it's right down here in 2005, at the very end. The grace of God, Brethren, is sufficient. It is sufficient. Do we need more grace? He giveth more grace. Is it all we need? My grace is sufficient for thee and brethren. The supply that we have of grace that is available to us today is the same limitless supply that has always been available to the people of God. And so I want to encourage our hearts. Let's get a hold in our souls.
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Of the grace of God, let's appreciate it more and more than These things will be practically exhibited in our lives and in our relationships to one another.
Warning with Esau if we lose that grace, you know, car dealer in Saint Thomas, there was the Lord's Day Act. He sold cars on the Lord's Day against the law. And he wrote to the newspaper, We're not under law, we're under grace, meaning I can disregard the laws of the land. And that's what you're saying in a practical way. And this is generally the thought and Christendom.
But when we do, what happens if the same thing happens to us as Esau is that we lose something. But you know, with Esau there was no repentance. He regretted what he lost.
By turning into sin. But there was number repentance in connection with his sin. And if he had submitted to the government of God and he said I sold my birthright but I'm going to take the 2nd place, that would have been blessing for him. But his whole life he strived to get back in resentment and bitterness towards Jacob to get back what he had lost by his own careless disregard for his birthright. And so there will be blessing there. Could there have been blessing for Herod? Herod said.
That he would give what was it up to the half of his Kingdom if he believed the Lord and said there was not a greater man.
Of greater profit than John the Baptist, he said. You asked for too much. I'm out of my bargain If there been real repentance and believing what God said. There's always there is a way if we submit but but when there is a grasping at trying to undo the consequences of our sin.
It is proof that there has not been real repentance.
Brethren, just the last part of the chapter, verse 27, yet once more signifies.
The end of verse 26. Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven. We are living in days of real shaking. There are things that can be shaken, and anything that can be shaken will be shaken. It's certain we're seeing it happen.
But there are things that cannot be shaken.
Verse 28 then wherefore we receiving a Kingdom which cannot be moved? Isn't it wonderful that there are things that cannot be shaken?
This precious book we have in our hands, it will never change. Heaven and earth will pass away, but it will never pass away. But then notice what it says. Let us have grace.
We have written that maybe we would have said let us have.
Zeal or fervency? But no, what is it that's going to give us to go on in the day that we live in? Let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence, in godly fear.
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Oh, blessed, it is our portion when we.
Love.
This.
Our dream, our day, our dreams, our dreams are present in the.
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When?
I am.
Very concerned.
Of the desert and all of our sins.
Yes.
Also 174.
Connect themselves.