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We ask the Lord's help. Our God and our Father, we thank Thee that Thou dost look down upon us in perfect love now to see us accepted in all the acceptability of thine own beloved Son before Thee. And yet.
Thou art the Father, spirits, and not us. Know our down setting, our uprising, the thoughts of our hearts, the words of our mouth.
And we thank Thee for Thy patient grace with us as the Lord Jesus brings many sons to glory. That Thou have an individual tuition for each one of thy sons and daughters. Impatient grace to conform us more and more into the image of that One who is the center of Thy eternal counsel and purpose, who fills Thy heart. Be the center is the center of all that Thou art about and what Thou art doing.
And we do thank Thee that each bit of discipline, each bit of training, instruction, would change us more and more to be like him. We thank Thee, Lord Jesus, for thy work in Calvary, that blood that has screened us. We thank Thee that thou art the leader and completer of faith, the Builder, the architect of the path of faith.
Lord Jesus thus designed it, Thou hast LED in it, Thou hast completed it, and Thou art our object in the glory. Now we do thank Thee. Thou art coming soon for us. We just ask for Thy continued help, Lord Jesus.
Through the Spirit to direct as we continue in Hebrews 12 for the prophet and blessing of our souls.
And for thine own glory, the glory of our God and Father.
Thy name, Lord Jesus, we ask this Amen.
To be.
We were reading in Hebrews 12 This morning.
We kind of discuss things in general with verse 8. Be about right, or should we go back further?
Might be nice to start at verse 6 here. OK.
Remember, this is our last reading meeting and I would suggest if we read to the end of verse 17, that's probably good. We read the whole chapter this morning, but I can't think we'll get beyond verse 17.
Hebrews chapter 12, verse 6.
For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.
If you endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons. For what son is he whom the Father chasteneth not? But if ye be without chastisement whereof all are 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 unto 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 on the feeble knees, and make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way. But let it, 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 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.
I'd like to say something about chastening as.
Privilege that we all participate in as being in God's family and having God as our Father.
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Sin has entered the world and it has been and still is a reproach against God. The fool says in his heart there is no God. And the mocker and scorner says, well, God's not really in control. And so when the prophet says the Lord is coming, the mocker says, Oh well, where is the promise of this coming? And this is the prophecy that that Peter.
The words that Peter addressed in the New Testament and a prophet, Isaiah and the old, you know, oh, Watchmen, what of the night? What of the night? And so.
The world goes on, and God in patience bears with it. But for men and women of faith in Old Testament and in New.
It's it's kind of a trial or exercise to be able to discern and to be able to possess our souls and patience.
While we wait for the other shoe to drop, so to speak, and God will reveal his thoughts about all things all along we're in the Kingdom and patience of our Lord Jesus Christ. And so the the psalmist could look out and see the wicked prospering and it troubled him until he got some spiritual intelligence in the sanctuary. And he says, aha, their end is going to be horrible.
And it encouraged him to just possess himself in patience and to go on. And that's the wisdom for you and me. But even beyond that.
If the world says, well, I don't see how the government of God is carried out. I see, wicked nations, I see.
Horrible things allowed to take place. Where is their order in the universe but for you and for me in God's family, we experience directly God's order with us because He's our Father. And what, as it says there? What? What son is he whom the Lord chasteneth? Not every one of us has this privilege that we're in God's school. He knows exactly what we need as individuals.
And he's pledged himself.
Continuously for our growth, our spiritual profit. As it says later on, He's the Father of spirits. To think that the Father of glory would be also the Father of Spirit. So engaged in your and my spiritual life that he brings circumstances intelligently and with love into our life day by day and year by year.
To do us good at our latter end. This is just a wonderful and a great privilege that we're enjoying. No chastening seemeth joyous when we're going through it and we go through an experience and we say, Oh my, this is humbling. And and, and and then we go through it and we say, OK, we're all done now and everything's good, right? And then, then we might have to then we have something else. And and so the Lord is just so engaged.
And knows exactly what he's doing. And it causes us to be thankful that we are.
Tied to one who has such wisdom and such love for us.
In verse five we had despised and think.
And now we have before us.
The exercise soul that recognizes that God our Father is always working toward our blessing and it ends in exercise thereby, doesn't it? In in verse 11, those are three different things that that one might experience.
But what the Lord would have us to do and.
To learn and to understand is that everything that the Father does is for our blessing, even our chastisement.
And that's so important, isn't it, because in being exercised thereby, as Bruce has said, the other shoe will drop. If we could use your expression, is that what you meant by it, Bruce? And.
As we had earlier today in the former reading, everything that God allows in our lives is not for the same reason, and so the Lord may be teaching us in order that there might be more fruit and more blessing in our lives. On the other hand, He may be curbing a sinful tendency that He seems in order that I might judge and deal with it before him.
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He may be, and the word here is pretty strong scourging.
In the days when this was written, if you ever read about the description of Roman scourging, it was something else, and I won't bother describing it now, but many men didn't survive it. Well, the Lord never takes it that far, but.
Sometimes the Lord has to get through to us in a very severe way, but how wonderful that it's always for our profit and blessing.
As a brother used to remind us, a father might tell his children to be quiet because he was.
Tired and had a headache and he couldn't handle the noise and racket. And my father did that with us sometimes when I and my brothers were young, even to the point if it weather was suitable of sending us out of the house to work out our energy outside or something. But it wasn't because we were doing anything particularly morally bad. It was just we were upsetting him. But God never does that, does he? It's always a purpose of love on his part.
And the being exercised by it allows us to discern because the Lord will show us He will, no question. He'll show us what is bringing before us. And as our brother Tim mentioned, there are no human parameters by which I can say, well, how did you know what the Lord was teaching you? How did you know that that's what the chastening was about? Well.
I can't explain it, but the Lord sure brought it home to my soul. Is that right, Tim?
That's what you are getting across. The Lord has His way of making something abundantly clear to us about His ways with us. If I'm exercised by it, we might say He uses different instruments and so He will use His word. If we read His word and it is supplied by the Spirit of God to reach our conscience as to a conduct that we might be going on with, He might use circumstances. Jonah was cast into the sea. There was circumstances. The Lord was correcting His spirit and it took a series of circumstances.
And then he might use one of our brethren. And so there are those you might use a prophet. I was just thinking of ASA. In Second Chronicles chapter 19, it says Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah, returned to his house in peace to Jerusalem. And Jehu the son of Hanani the seer went out to meet him, and said to King Jehoshaphat, Should us thou help the ungodly, and love them? That hate the Lord therefore is wrought upon me from before the Lord. But you find with Jehoshaphat that when he was rebuked of the prophet, he was rebuked from the Lord. The Lord went to great.
Expense, you might say, great resources. He sent that man on a mission and he spoke to his conscience. You find Jehoshaphat restored and going on. He made the same mistake, I think four times, and yet he picked himself up and he went on again for the glory of the Lord. So that's really the lesson, isn't it, that the Lord loves His people and He will go to great lengths to work with our spirits and to work with us, that there might be fruit for him and the spirit of Christ might be manifest in our lives.
And one more comment. I don't want to do all the speaking but.
There's an important point, I feel with that, and I know you'd agree with it, Robert.
We should be very careful about second guessing what the chastening is for in someone else.
But that doesn't obviate the principle you've been bringing out that occasionally the Lord may give the discernment if we know an individual well, or conversely, they know me well, to put in a word, as you say, from the Lord and say, do you think this could possibly be because of that? You know, I, I've been watching you and I wonder if the Lord is speaking to you about that, is that would you agree with that? Yes.
There may be a period of time.
Between when the Lord allows perhaps a dramatic experience in our life that's humbling for us or corrective for us or instructive for us and we may like the language of faith often says why Lord and what I appreciate about this verse so much, verse 11 is that we're able to get the peaceable fruit of righteousness, not just when we finally have the sense of of what the answer is or the reason why.
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But just by being exercised thereby, I think that's just beautiful because oftentimes something comes into our life. It comes in for a reason. And it's, if I could put it this way, sometimes with us, it's not the work of one day or two, but he brings in the experience and we're exercised by it, humble ourselves, we trust under it, and the peaceable fruit of righteousness is enjoyed. And it may be.
Many years, or perhaps it'll wait until we're home in the Father's house when it's unfolded to us in fullness and then we didn't fully appreciate it down here. I think if you turn to 1St Corinthians chapter 4 or I'll just read it.
I've appreciated this verse and that connection in verse five of First Corinthians 4. Therefore, judge nothing before the time until the Lord come, who will both bring to light the hidden things of darkness.
And will make manifest the counsels of the heart, and then shall every man have praise of God. Sometimes the Lord brings things into the lives of others. Another family in the gathering or or relatives that you're close to.
Tremendous trials and it affects you, it affects your children or the young people in your family and and raises these questions, honest questions as to why the Lord allowed it.
To me, it's an encouragement that burst in First Corinthians that there come a time when the Lord will roll these things back. What a wonderful time it will be at the judgment seat of Christ when these things are made manifest. And it'll be for it'll, it'll be for his glory. And what blessing as we enter in to to that wonderful time when we live and reign with Him.
I'd like to make a practical observation for parents, particularly fathers, but mothers as well, and I have a practical observation for children as well. Out of these verses, comments have been made in connection with the spiritual application to our lives, but I'd like to just put this out. Not that I'm a perfect example of it, but think of what it says here, talking about natural fathers, which is what I am and what many of you are.
Some of you would be natural mothers as well as Bill was talking about. His father would send them out of the housewife for his own pleasure.
And I think we can learn from the way God works.
As parents, because God's doing it for our prophet that we could share in His Holiness. And I think that's the instruction that I'd like to point out from these verses. I know it's not the main point of this portion, but I think it's a good learning that as parents we need to understand our children's heart. God loves us. That's one of the things we need to make sure we do love our children and then seek to understand the path of holiness for them.
And to correct them for their profit, to help them to be the kind of person the Lord wants them to be.
Obviously we don't have the understanding that God our Father has. So we need prayer, we need wisdom, guiding of the Holy Spirit in terms of how we interact with our children and now speaking to the children, the same lesson that we get as adults here and as young people that we should be exercised thinking about what God's trying to accomplish in our lives.
Children, your lives will be much better if you try and think and understand what your parents are trying to accomplish in your life and work with them instead of against them. That's the path of happiness. Try and learn those lessons that your parents are trying to teach you as quickly as you can. Both your parents lives and your lives will be better if you learn them quickly.
There's reference here to righteousness.
And isn't it true that much of our difficulty in life is because of the fact there's a lack of righteousness? I mean, this is true in the world today. We live in a world where righteousness, it suffers. And as a result, there's turmoil, there's confusion. But the day is coming when this is going to be reversed. And the work.
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Of righteousness is peace.
I believe that's the effect of righteousness, and I was just noticing in Isaiah what it says first.
17 Isaiah 3217 The work of righteousness shall be peace, and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance forever.
James speaks of it as well. He says in James 318 the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace. Of them that make peace. Well, I just noticed in our chapter here.
That it speaks of the peaceable fruit of righteousness.
And so I think sometimes the Lord allows chastening, chastisement because of the lack of righteousness.
Going on with that which is wrong, and the Lord can bring that to our attention through various means.
Various chastening were exercised about it.
We're going to live our lives more righteous. We know our standing before God is one of righteousness. But what about the practical side?
You know, God's desire is that our state might be more consistent with our standing.
And that, perhaps, we might live a little more righteously.
And the effect of it is peace. It's a peaceable fruit.
We might just comment and say that the Lord corrects two things in his people. That's the same as a natural father. If he's faithful, he corrects our spirits or our attitudes. He teaches us those attitudes in the the spirit that we should have. That's a right spirit, a spirit of humility and so on. He will also correct and teach us obedient and so.
He disciplines, you might put it this way, a wrong attitude, and he will discipline disobedience. So those two things, and you see the principles of them throughout the word of God.
And would you say that's why we get that expression in the end of verse 9?
Subjection under the Father of Spirits, Is that the correct? Yes.
We had natural fathers, and it is to be hoped, and I think you were bringing that out, Rob, that our natural fathers, as if they are Christian fathers, that that they would.
Try and deal with our spirits as well as perhaps chastening and teaching for the actions involved.
I remember reading about a girl who in adulthood said that she remembered very well the teaching and sometimes the chastening and punishment that she got when she was young. And she said what made the most lasting impression on me was the fact that especially my father would never leave me until we were both on our knees.
And I had confessed the sin to the Lord.
She said that's what made the impression and what was that Father seeking to do work with the spirit because the spirit is the God conscious part of our being. And it's where what you were talking about. It's that's where it starts, isn't it Wally? The righteousness has to start with the right spirit that works its way into our mind and our soul and eventually into our bodies and into our actions. And so.
God deals with us always as the Father of spirits.
I think it might be helpful, too, to say that he works with us privately to work that work of repentance and restoration to himself. It took 22 years for Joseph's brethren to come to repentance and to come before him and to bow before him, and then to recognize and confess what they had done. 22 years. The Lord was working with them. But you know, in connection with Solomon, the Lord appeared to him three times.
That two times he told him about his wives and how he was marrying those wives that were not of faith and so on. We don't have any record in Scriptures to that particular conversation. The third time it comes out, it's public. And so it's a principle with God. He deals with us privately, and if we will not hear the correction, we will refuse the correction in whatever way He is trying to train us, then it might come out publicly.
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Later on and then it's a little more severe. So I think it was brother Harrieto used to say something to this effect that.
Correction spurn brings sharper correction.
Maybe it'd be good to mention that not always is our chastening.
For correction.
Sometimes it's for correction, but if every time we were chastened, we would think that the Lord is correcting us for something.
They would maybe send the warning signals out, but it's not always that. It's not always for that. Sometimes the Lord is preparing us for something. Sometimes He's preserving us from something and we need to be before the Lord as to what He is.
Bringing whatever the situation is into our lives, what it's for. I just had the privilege of of being at a conference by the Red Sea.
And it's very interesting our Egyptian brethren have a because of their location, they have a great interest in the travels of the children of Israel in their parts, which is in Egypt. And that was very interesting to me. And I just in my looking at the Red Sea, what my room was about from here to the basketball court, the basketball net there away from the the Red Sea itself.
I got a beautiful view of it all the time.
And I was impressed in going through.
Numbers 33 and going through some of the other Pentateuch that the Lord brought the children of Israel back to the Red Sea on 4 occasions. We, we think, well, you know, they went across the Red Sea and that was it. But imagine traveling years and years and years on your way to the promised Land and you'll open your eyes and you're told to camp by the Red Sea. Like really and, and, and then maybe to go years again.
And to go from place to place and you know, you're going to the Promised Land, you know where you're going. And then to wake up one day and you're by the Red Sea. Like really, You know, sometimes in our lives the Lord brings something across our pathway and it's difficult. And maybe we've learned a lesson.
And maybe down the road sometime we we come into another situation. We think, you know, I've been here before and that happens in our life. And I think that's that that probably was grievous, I think, to the children of Israel to to cross the Red Sea, to see the Egyptians dead of the seashore, to travel for 30 years and then to have to encamp by the Red Sea again. I think, you know, how much closer am I to the Promised land after 30 years? I just haven't seen them make any progress at all. And it seems that sometimes it's not in our lives.
And it's grievous.
And I think that if we have before us always that the chastening is corrected, it's going to be a discouragement because it's not always corrected. I don't think the the point here is there needs to be exercise and it's, there's a, there's a wonderful, there's a wonderful result if there's exercise. Thereby. I think this is the thought that's brought out in Job 37 and verse 13.
Where it says he causes that to come, whether for correction or for his land or for mercy.
Well, I think that's excellent, Brother Dave. We did bring that out a bit this morning, but not quite in the fullest way. And I would just add one more to it, and that is that sometimes the Lord allows circumstances in our lives.
Where?
We are not particularly to learn anything special except.
That it's an opportunity to glorify the Lord by going through difficult circumstances, perhaps as a testimony to the world and to others. That is, if everything went smoothly in the believers life, or when difficulties came in, the Lord always stepped in and there was a victorious answer to it. The world might well look at us and say, well, there's no wonder they're happy. No wonder everything is.
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Good in their lives because the Lord looks after them. And that was what Satan in effect said to the Lord about Job Well.
No wonder Job's a Goodman. You've put a hedge about him and given him wealth and prosperity and everything a man could want, but you put your finger on him and see what happens. And we know how how Joe passed the test. But then of course, the Lord allowed the whole thing to go beyond that, to teach Job something that Satan knew nothing about. But sometimes we see a dear believer through put through a what you and I might call a nightmare of suffering.
And yet, what a testimony there is in the midst of it. So would you include that, Dave, in your list?
If you're going to use Job as an example, in the very end, what is it that the Lord got with him?
Said Joe got to know the Lord.
I've heard of thee with the hearing of the ear, and now might I see it me, and I abhor myself so.
Here in our verses, there in verse 10, it says what? That we might be partakers of His Holiness, but that's for a reason too. And down in verse 14 it says holiness without which no man shall see the Lord.
So I would my impression here is that it's all.
Regardless of whether it's correction or another reason, as has been mentioned, it can all be said that the Lord is doing it all that we might know Him. Is that right? Yes, love. Love has a an inherent desire, if I can put it that way, to be known by its object. That's that's.
God is love and love is just it's, it's the almost the central, you might say.
Aspect in Burnet County fail for words, but that's love is love wants to be known by its object and that is why God communicated. It's why he spoke, it's why he brought things into being. It's why everything happens to you is because God wants you to know him.
So if we were talking to somebody.
And he's going through a great trial, perhaps the chastening of the Lord we're taking up here.
That we would we would see in him that in verse 11 now no chastening for the for the president seemeth to be joyous but grievous and we be looking at that brother or sister and we can see them suffering so and and and we could see.
That, that it's grievous. But then he goes on and says, but there's an end in view. There's a blessing in view.
And so you could say to such a one, and I believe the Spirit of God is saying is thought to us. Nevertheless, afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them, which are exercise thereby. So he's the apostle here is teaching that there's a blessing, there's an end in view for those that are exercised about what they're going through. But then he says this.
Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down in the feeble knees, and make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way. But let it rather be healed. And so you say to that one that's standing in front of you. This is what the Word of God says, that God loves you, and there's a blessing in view. There's an end in view. Now lift up the feeble hands that hang down, and trust the Lord.
For what you're going through, that's really what this is bringing out, isn't it? It's bringing out that that we might be exercise. Everyone in this room is going to go through some form of a chastening and a trial, some something that exercises us, something that produces something of Christ in our lives. We've had that at the beginning of this chapter, him as an object and an example for our pathway. So, so that's what the Spirit of God wants for us.
Is that even though we're going through such a difficult trial, what do we want to see? What do we want to feel? What do we want our brethren to see? And what do we want the world to see? That we believe that God loves us despite what I'm going through at the moment. And I'll lift my my feeble hands. I'll lift up my hands and my feeble knees and to walk, walk forward because I know there's a purpose of love in it for me.
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That's I believe that's what we're supposed to, to arrive at in this, in this portion we're taking up. Yes, the first part here is up until the end of verse 11 speaks primarily to the one going through the trial or the chastening. But then what should be the reaction of other believers who are looking on and seeing it? And I can go to an extreme in both directions.
On the one hand I can say, well, the Lord's dealing with them, let them learn the lesson from it, and I can maybe.
Say, yeah, the Lord loves you. I know it's kind of a rough time, but don't worry, you'll get you through it and leave it alone. The other extreme to go to is that perhaps, and I'll use an illustration I remember well, a case years and years ago now where there was a brother who.
Found himself in very serious financial difficulties and I did not know much about the situation, but to those who were close to it, it was fairly evident that there had been carelessness and a getting away from the Lord and the brother's life. And if we could use the expression or running a lot of red lights that the Lord had put up for him until finally he was in major trouble financially.
And almost immediately another brother who had wealth stepped in and lifted him out of it. But it didn't do any good. It circumvented the lesson the Lord was seeking to teach him and resulted only in further difficulties down the road. And so there can be an extreme on both sides, can't there? We can step in inappropriately and without the mind of the Lord to lift someone out of a circumstance that the Lord is allowed.
Or we can on the one hand say well.
And it's rather extant in some countries some of us have visited where the attitude in false religions is, well, that's your karma. That's what the gods have allowed, so you bear it and I leave you alone. Both are wrong, aren't they? I am to be concerned about my brother or sister in Christ. I am seek to be an encouragement, as you said, Ed, I am seek to bring Christ before them.
Are there sometimes when we can alleviate some of the suffering? If the Lord leads, we should.
There's opportunity for real pastoral care, but that takes just as much exercise on the part of the one doing the help as it does on the part of one in the midst of the chasing, doesn't it?
The Spirit of God brings before us that when there are those trials in our lives and they may affect our families, they may affect our assemblies, and there are those that are weaker that are looking on. And so he says that.
In verse 12 Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down the feeble knees, make straight paths for your feet, less that which is lame be turned out of the way.
But let it rather be healed so we have the hands that bring before us perhaps service. There might be a little service for the Lord that we might be doing. And even though the Lord is dealing with us and seeking to train us in some particular matter or correct us, whatever it might be, we're not to get disheartened, say, well, I'm just not going to do this anymore. I'm giving up my Sunday school class or whatever it is. We're to do what we do for the Lord and for his glory. And then the knees, you know, we're to persist in prayer.
Were to persist and to be diligent in prayer. And our dependence upon the Lord is not to flag because of what He's doing in our lives. And then our paths were being watched and so were to follow the Lord. Were to continue on in a path of righteousness and holiness. And there are others watching, we're told. I'm not an educator, but apparently educators are told that 85% of what you might learn, you learn by observation.
You don't learn by speech and by being taught. Yes, we do learn by reading and by reading ministry and reading the truth of the Word of God and so on. But when it comes to learning practical Christianity, I believe we learn by observation. And so he's saying that there are those that are lame, those that are weaker in the faith, and they might be turned out of the way if we are going to react in a wrong way. And so rather let it be healed and let's go on.
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Together.
We've got to be careful and use discernment because.
Not careful and concerned to be gossip.
Sometimes following peace and following holiness can seem to be counterproductive to one another, can't they? It can be, in some ways.
Keeping more peace, perhaps by sidestepping holiness a little. Or if I insist on holiness, sometimes I disturb the peace. We're to seek both, aren't we? Not always possible, not always possible.
Follow peace as much as lieth in you as is referring to the outside world. Live peaceably with all men. And Paul had to talk about being delivered from unreasonable and wicked men. For all men have not faith. And so sometimes it becomes a real exercise before the Lord. But the scripture puts these two together, showing us that if we really are before the Lord.
It can be done.
How would you define holiness? Can you give a definition?
Holiness.
Well, I suppose the simple is simplest definition of holiness is that character in you and in me which corresponds to God's nature.
And God is holy. That is his character, isn't it? Holiness. And God is forming that in you and me. Do we have a nature that ultimately is holy? Yes.
We do we have a new life in Christ, and that new life cannot do anything that is not pleasing to the Lord, but as.
Tim was bringing out in the address. Things keep cropping up. I keep focusing on myself. If I'm not careful, thoughts keep coming in. And then of course.
There's a tendency to sidestep what is what is right, isn't it? Righteousness is the result of holiness. Righteousness is right conduct toward others on the ground of holiness, But holiness is the innate quality that corresponds to what God is. But if has been brought out, our brother Ted was bringing it out. If God is light and his character is holiness, God is also love.
Brother Harry Hill, you her brother Harry Hale used to have a little expression. He would say that holiness is a delight in that which is good and a hatred of that which is evil good. So a little synopsis, A delight in that which is good and a hatred of that which is evil.
We're exhorted to cease to do evil, but doesn't stop there. Learn to do good. So it kind of brings out what you're speaking about I was thinking of.
In Psalm 45.
With reference to the Lord Jesus, I believe in verse seven it could be said of him, Thou lovest righteousness and hatest wickedness. Therefore God, thy God, is anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows.
Loving righteousness, heeding wickedness, Is that not holiness?
Well, that's essentially Harry Hales definition.
The chapter began or early in the chapter. The exhortation was looking unto Jesus, whom we need as an object for our faith to draw us along in the pathway. But then in verse 14. If there isn't the practical.
Success to walk in newness of life with peace and in holiness. We're going to lose discernment.
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We won't be in communion with the Lord, and we won't discern the Lord's.
Actions, The word Lord still small voice. As Tim put it, we won't be seeing the Lord. It's remarkable at the end of John's gospel.
How such a one is Peter, who got discouraged because at that time in his life he was lacking the endurance of faith. He wasn't patient, he didn't wait. And so finally his eyes off the Lord, he says, I go fishing.
And others, of course, went with it. And then the Lord's there on the on the on the beach.
And says cast the cast the net on the other side and it fills up and you would think Peter would go aha, I've seen this thing before and it would have clicked, but it still doesn't seem to John has to tell him it's the Lord And of course then he you know, off goes the boom where I can't remember. He goes on scope yeah, and and and towards the Lord, but.
You know, that's the way we can get.
We can get so dull because of hairlessness in our life that we don't we're not enjoying the Lord and we don't see the Lord's hand in our circumstances. Little wonder we would despise chastisement or count it a small thing, just an ordinary happenstance, because we're dull and we don't see the Lord. So how important it is for us in our to judge ourselves not to be self occupied.
But as the old brothers used to say, to keep short accounts and judge ourselves so that we can see the Lord.
It's a question about the meaning of holiness or being holy in general, because.
Many times, many, many times in the Old Testament, particularly in the law, would say that.
A certain sacrifice or something offered to the Lord?
Was most holy, right? Is holy Well how, how can?
Something you offer to the Lord be holy if it has to do with behavior.
I think the word is the same as sanctity, right? Isn't it the same word? Doesn't holiness mean separated?
Something is holy. It's been set apart.
It's it's set apart. We call this the Holy Bible. Why? It's not like, you know, some books are close to it or some writings are close to it or no, it's, it's as we were saying, a class by itself. It's, it's holy. It's, there's there's no connection of anything down here on earth to it. It is holy, separated and.
God's name is that way.
Sanctity of his name is the same as saying the holiness of his name. It's it's a part, it is separated. And if we're a holy people, his people are holy. Why? Because he took them out of the world. He separated them unto himself.
Right.
I was going to say that I think sanctification is setting itself apart to be holy that right so and and first Peter chapter one. I'll just read these verses because it speaks on holiness. Verse 13. It says wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, Be sober and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought on to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ as obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lust in your imagination.
I'm sorry in your ignorance, but as he which hath called you is holy.
So be holy and all manner of conversation, because he, because it is written, be holy, for I am holy. And if ye call on the Father, who without respect of person judges according to every man's work, pass a time. So journeying in fear, I'm going to go any further than that. But but here, here it is. Is that because we're children, because we're identified with our Father who is holy?
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We're called to have that nature. We have a divine life. We have power to be separate from what we were, what God viewed as as a scene of judgment, and to walk in a path that's consistent with his will. That's the path of that's the path of holiness, isn't it?
Holiness has to do has an effect on whether you're going to end up falling into sin or something, because if you're if you're always walking close to the temptation or the source of temptation, and the more the the, the stronger the temptation, the more likelihood you're going to fall into sin. But Holiness would have you not walk close to the edge of the Cliff, so to speak, where you Holiness would say, well, I'm, I'm going this way. I'm not even.
Getting close.
A holy life would not would lead you in a path that you wouldn't even get close to those things which would cause you to stumble.
Some years ago there was a wealthy gentleman in England that was.
Had advertised for a new coach driver.
And he set up a date for an interview and he called in the prospective coach drivers.
And he asked them one question. He set up a scenario.
He said.
You may run into a situation where.
You are driving on a road near the edge of a Cliff. How close can you get drive that carriage when you're driving it next to the Cliff? Well, one of the first ones interviewed I would get as close as I could, maybe several inches away. Then the next was a little more cautious. And finally the last one said I would stay as far away from the Cliff as possible.
And so that man got the job.
Well, perhaps just a comment or two because our time is going on the last few verses.
I perhaps didn't draw the line where I should have with our responsibility versus the individual under chastisement, but beginning with verse 15, we are to look diligently.
Lest any man fail of what?
Holiness. No. The grace of God.
Chastening will.
Correct my lack of holiness if needed.
But a sense of God's grace.
Is the strongest antidote to falling into sin.
Yes, chastisement may be needed. There is government in the House of God.
And his brother Dave Mearns was bringing out all chastisement is by number means punishment or giving us something that we deserve for doing something wrong.
But the strongest force in our lives, if properly appreciated, to keep us in the pathway of faith, is an ever deepening sense of the grace of God in our souls. And that's.
Why? Peter says at the end of his epistle, Grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
The believer who has gone on in the path for many years and walks well before the Lord has on the one hand a deeper sense of what his own sinful flesh is capable of, but also a deeper sense of the grace of God that has saved him out of it.
The fail of the grace of God in my soul is when I lose the sense that God is for me. Yes.
And that is an important understanding for the believer to keep close to his heart that God is for me and.
I've experienced the chastisement up, you know, from the from the verses above and the ups and downs and sometimes it seems clear and sometimes not. And I see it in my brethren too.
And in others, but it's just vitally important that I lose that I'd not lose the sense that God is forming. And it's, I believe that sense that even though Job was struggling and he hadn't gone through the process yet to get to the place that Ted referred to a little while ago, he's still in the very beginning said, though he slay me, yet will I trust in him? Because he had that sense that God was in control, that God was for me.
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And even if you slay me, yet will I trust in him though to lose the sense that God is for me?
It's you can see why it would bring bitterness.
And bitterness is one of the worst roots in the human heart. It defiles others, it defiles assemblies. And if you go into old folks homes and assisted living and these kinds of places, I was so thankful that the Lord had it. My father went into a place. It was just saturated with Christians and I, I met all these happy.
Aged Saints. It was so refreshing, but that's not the norm.
The norm is when, you know, when the kids are in grade school. When I get to middle school, things will be better and.
Yeah, I don't. I'm not happy now. I'm not content, but it'll be better. Then they get to middle school. You know, this isn't, well, they have high school ahead of them and well, when I get out of high school and get out of my dad's house, then it'll be there. And people just keep substituting these hopes, the unbelieving, the ungodly people, because man needs that needs something before him. And then these folks and say, well, when I get a better job, when I when I, when I have grandchildren, and then guess what? You get to the end.
And you're in the place where you're only going to go out when you die, and there's no hope left.
And that harsh reality of bitterness just descends like a dark cloud upon these souls. It's a a solemn and sobering thing to see. So for you and me, we we need to be careful that I wonder what others have for thoughts on looking diligently. It seems to me that there's an exhortation to to have our antenna up with one another in a few sense that I'm losing that sense in my soul to come help me.
Because.
The root of bitterness is just it's a horrible weed that sucks the spiritual energy and joy out of a life.
And the root of bitterness is as you say.
Usually starts when I find fault with my circumstances.
Perhaps complaining, even though I might not say it out loud, but complaining that the Lord hasn't used me right, or perhaps more commonly, that other people haven't used me right, or that my brethren are not being fair to me, or whatever it might be. That's when that root of bitterness develops. I knew a sister once, many, many years ago now, who would no longer break bread.
Because her son had been wayward and the Lord wasn't intervening to bring him back, at least not as fast as she thought he would or should. And she would not go and break bread out of if I could use that awful expression out of spite to the Lord. Because he wasn't doing something for her that he thought, or she thought I should say that he ought to be doing, and other situations. And.
We know they arise where?
Things happen in assemblies and bitterness arises because somebody wasn't treated right or.
Something wasn't done right, and it's interesting here that it refers to Esau.
And I would expect maybe others can say more on it, but his root of bitterness ultimately developed because he resented the fact that God had, and I believe he knew it, that God had chosen his brother Jacob for more blessing than he was going to give Esau. Had Esau submitted, he could have been blessed of the Lord too. He wasn't going to have quite the prominent place that his brother Jacob got. And Esau never got over it, did he? And they've been a thorn in the side to Jacob's family.
Even today, that way you would see it. Bruce yes, he saw in in his descendants, even the Edomites. God raised up the prophet Obadiah to speak about the Edomites. And it is solemn if you trace through that people down through the ages in Scripture. I'm not sure there is another people upon whom judgment is so severe.
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Because, as you say, he was so close. What would have been wrong?
You know, the sisters are in a place where that are married and their husband is the head of the of the of the family and they are in the subject place. They don't all act like Esau. Esau didn't have to do that. It was only after his life was fully lived out that the prophet said in hindsight, Jacob have I loved and Esau have I hate. That was not said in advance, but Esau despised the blessing.
And that is a solemn, solemn thing.
It's just what the.
The Jews did with the Lord Jesus for one morsel of meat our place in our nation. They sold their birthright.
The other thing I was thinking of is a brother Ed read some verses at the beginning of the meetings from Matthew 11.
Where the Lord says.
And there, Matthew 11 Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in my sight. And then he says, Take my yoke upon you, and learn of Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and you shall find rest unto your souls. That's from revealing where he got his own rest. Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight. There was perfect subjection in every circumstance.
And there was peace. And so that's where we'll get peace. But the second thing is in verse six, whom the Lord loveth, He chasing it. And so through all of these things, if there's not confidence in His love, then there's going to be no energy for us to go through those circumstances. The hands hang down. Why do hands hang down? Because I don't have any strength. Why are the knees feeble? Because I don't have any strength. So I'd rather just roll in bed at night than get on my knees.
And lift up my hands in prayer.
His energy is gone because they don't have confidence in His love. I would that every men pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands for this, 'cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. It's it's dependence and confidence in Him and His love that gives us energy to go through the trials. He loves me. Don't forget it. Lift up the shield of faith.
And so when that's gone, bitterness has a way to come in.
There's not subjection. There's no confidence in his love. What awful circumstances I'm in and make everybody else miserable around me if I can too. Because misery loves company.
Satan seeks to sow seeds.
Of doubt in our minds is to the goodness of God. He seeks to make us suspicious.
Of the Lord, and that, I believe, can truly bring bitterness into our souls. But if we could just recognize the fact that the Lord always has our best interest at heart. He loves us too much to do his harm. Look at the cross if your question is love.
So may we keep ourselves in the love of God and trusting in His goodness, so that the trial rather than make us bitter, this will make us better.
No, You see an example in the Apostle Paul, he was in under house arrest and in Rome he really did have a desire, hearts desire for the people of God and for his own nation. But instead of bitterness, there was submission to the will of God. And he wrote the sweetest epistles when he was under house arrest. So may that be an example to us that the sweetness of Christ came out. And I don't think there's a sweeter epistle than the Epistle to the Philippians.
So what it means, make straight paths for your feet. I know we touched on it. It's an even path because a lame person doesn't have so much of a problem with a crooked path as they do an uneven path. That's where a lame person has a problem. So if my life is uneven, I'm up and then I'm down under it all, and then I'm down under it all. Whoever's coming behind me that's feeble, they're going to have trouble. It's the even, steady path of confidence in the Lord and His love.
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And submission to his will, that even path that the lame can follow behind and they can learn.
Themselves confidence in the Lord and trust in His love and submission to His will.
It's an even path. It's a beaten path.
There's two things to look at in verses 16 and 17. The The first one is the fact that that he was to he was the head of the house. He was going to be the head of the house.
In connection with being the head as the oldest son, that he would have the priestly privilege.
And so he despised it, didn't he? And so it's in connection with him being a profane person and despising what was his right, because he desired no relationship with God. God gave the inheritance and blessing to one whose heart was occupied with that position.
His brother wanted it, his brother got it. He sold it for a pottage so.
This is really, it's the, it's the other end of the spectrum, isn't it? It's, it's one who's not a child of God. It's one who's not a son. It's one that's not being chastened. It's one who has all the rights and speaking to any in this room that's made a profession and is not real.
I'm speaking to you because if you're not real, you're really like Esau here. You're, you're living a lie and you're rejecting what God has done for you. This is a call to the apostate. This is a call to those who've made a profession of being in a family who has particular rights and have despised it. So this is the, the end of what we, what we have here.
Is a call to you to search your heart if you have not confessed Christ as your Savior. If you're going along and you're pretending to be something you're not, own it before God and get right with Him. He desires to bless you.
The.
Everything was for him.
But we also sing the last two verses of #47.
#47 the last two verses.
May grapes free grace inspired our souls with strength. Divine verses four and five of #47.
May grace pray. Grace inspired.
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Our souls.
In heart make.
And grace. And.
Rain.