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243.
Hymn #243.
Perhaps we can start with first aid.
Hebrews chapter 12, verse 8.
But if you be without chastisement, where of all our partakers then are ye ******** and not sons? Furthermore, we have had fathers of our flesh, which corrected us, and we gave them reverence. Shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live? For they barely for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure, but He for our profit, that we might be partakers of His Holiness. Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous nevertheless afterward.
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It yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby. Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down in the feeble knees, and make straight paths for your feet, unless that which is lain 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 propane 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. We found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully, with tears.
Free or not, come under the mount that might be touched, and that burned with fire, and are unto blackness, and darkness, and Tempest, and the sound of a trumpet, and the voice of words, which voice they that heard and treated, that the word should not be spoken to them anymore, For they could not endure that which was commanded.
And if so much has a beast touched the mountain, it shall be stoned, or thrust shrew with the dart. And so terrible was the sight that Moses said, I exceedingly feared Quake. But ye are come on to Mount Sion, And under the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, into an innumerable company of angels, to the General Assembly and Church of the first born, which are written in heaven, And to God the Judge of all, into the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, 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 shape not the earth only, but also heaven.
And this word yet once more signifies the removing of those things that are shaken, as if 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.
We talked a lot about the chastisement, but I was thinking just one more aspect, not trying to drag it on is how we take it when we are being corrected. I'm thinking here mentioned about the earthly fathers. While many here are fathers, we know that correction for each child is different and they respond differently. I remember one of ours thought you were so smart that when it got spanked he stuck a book under his pants.
And he thought it was funny. So you might think, well, he was corrected with spanking, but that anger the parents even more so his punishment became more severe. So I was thinking, what is our proper response? It would be the the verse. I I think it's at the end of Second Thessalonians where he said in all things give thanks because it is the will of God concerning us.
So do we give thanks now? It's difficult. It's easy to say, how do you give things? I'm looking at many young people here. How many of you actually look at your mom and dad and say thank you for this? Thank you. At the time of being corrected, it was not easy. But many of us now can look back and perhaps, and we hear, we heard many said indirectly, they thank the parents for the correction because without that, we are probably not in the same position we're in today.
So do we give thanks for it? And it's easy to mention things when you're not in the circumstances. We don't go to a child after he was corrected and say did you give thanks for it? No, but it's good to learn the principle that we got to give thanks because afterwards we may see the wisdom why we will correct it.
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They have a wonderful father that fell as exactly how discipline to apply, not too much and not too little.
Before it was commented in verse six about chastening and scourging. I think scourging is more severe and, and so.
God, it's, it's wonderful to learn, or it's a good thing to learn.
How to apply?
Neither too little nor too too much.
Our God does that a good job of that.
And I think most of us have felt that afterward.
I don't think children usually thank their fathers for how they discipline until they've had children of their own.
We're on our way at the end of the race, as we have later in the chapter, to the city of the living God, to the Father's house. And here we have a work of the Father and maybe a little give perspective as to the importance of learning the lessons through the discipline that we are exposed to now is this.
Did the Lord Jesus?
When he finished the race.
And entered heaven. Did he have to make a whole lot of changes in his lifestyle?
They have to change the things that were important to him.
And what his heart was set on, well, we all know the answer. He had to change absolutely nothing.
So part of the Father's work presently with us is he would have us in her home at the end without having to change.
You don't want to get there and suddenly hardly have any idea of the place because the way you live life had nothing in consistency with the Father's house.
And so here it brings before us the character of the Father in several different ways, and the verses read, but one of them is He's righteous.
And he's holy.
And so he would have our life now consistent in practical righteousness and practical holiness. I say practical because the use of the word holy here is bearing out in the everyday life the nature that has been given to us, a holy nature that we receive when we put our trust in the Lord Jesus. But we have to learn to live it out.
In practice, in daily life, and the desire of the work of God with us and in US is to conform us to the Father's house that we're going to and that we learn now to live in a way that is consistent with the character of our Father as holy and righteous.
Yeah, the thought Jason was one more time with that. It reminds us too of the love of the Father.
It reminds us of the position that we have been put into. We, I believe we look at the verse in Ephesians a couple of times today, how we as Gentiles were without God, without hope in this world, being alienated from the Commonwealth of Israel, but yet now in Christ, the two thoughts, we have been born into the family of God, so we are sons or another thought it tells us is that we've been adopted into the family either way.
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We are His and when we are hiss, we are, as already mentioned by Brother Don, that we're being trained, we're being taught. Perhaps it needs to be through correction so that we would be fit to be the sons of God.
It is interesting.
Sometimes we see children misbehave. And here's the example. Isn't it perhaps in a shopping mall? And I don't know, children voice. I love children's voice. And I find that as you get a little bit older, the screeching sometimes make you jump. You hear that in the shopping mall and we don't stop and say, OK, let me calm this child down or perhaps give this child some correction.
No, we don't do that because this child is not ours. But if it's on the other hand, this happened to be your child and then we want that child to behave the way we expected in according to our family standard.
Sometimes people doubt their salvation, and this is can be one encouragement that that a person is saved is that the father does deal with them and chastens them. So it's something we can be thankful for. Like Dave was just saying, if if you weren't his child, he wouldn't, he'd just leave you alone. But yeah, works with us.
Jeremiah, chapter 48.
The Prophet speaks about Mole Ave.
I think I recall Moab. The name Moab means what father?
And so in verse 11 we read something characteristic of Moab, Jeremiah 4811. Moab had been at ease from his youth, yet settled on his leaves, and have not been emptied from vessel to vessel. And so on. Moab is exceeding proud, it goes on to say in that chapter. Well, the opposite is true for the believer. He is poured from vessel to vessel.
When Joe was was allowed to be.
Chastened or if you if that's the right word or or Satan.
His first response was why don't you let me alone? I think it's in the 7th chapter of Joe. He says am IA whale, am I something big and something important? Why don't you just leave me alone until I swallow down my spittle as I try to escape by sleeping and then you trouble me with dreams says leave me alone.
Well, the the unsafe person we sometimes forget.
That except a man be born again, born anew, he cannot see the Kingdom of God, let alone enter it, can't even see it.
An unbeliever has no consciousness of what you and I go through and being poured from vessel to vessel, they may see that your cars broke down, or they may see that you're going back and forth to the doctor or something, but they're not aware of this. But we have the privilege of being in the family of these kinds of experiences being poured from vessel to vessel.
Intelligently so.
Because the father of spirits has got everything, as Doug was saying, just perfect.
The last verse of that verse was live.
That's verse nine of our chapter, that you don't really live with God until you've been through this and come to the end.
The discipline and it's worth it to get to that point.
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Good to see a perspective here as well.
As it says of use the example of fathers that the type of fathers that are in this room and they discipline their children. It has a scope to it. That is in the sense that it's given, it says for a few days.
For in verse 10 for barely for a few days and.
Yet it's good for us to recognize that God our Father.
And when we're real, there's the question of reality and.
Verse eight, I might take a position as being something in before God that I'm not and there's no reality in the soul. But when it's real, then it is from God's perspective that He doesn't work and His perspective that started in this life is in view of what His end result is going to be.
That will last for eternity and so He has a longer term perspective than we will have in the natural things of this life. And yet it is that we might be partakers of His Holiness in that we will.
In eternity, be perfect, obedient, holy children, not only in our nature, but in our moral character. And that's God's perspective and so.
In that way.
It the present verse 11 That might not be fun. It's not. It's painful many times, but that peaceable fruit of righteousness.
As God works in us is going to be there forever.
That's his intent, that what that peaceable fruit that comes from the work he's doing through chastening will have its eternal, lasting character, and we will be forever thankful when we can see his perspective and glory.
I could just like to.
Read this verse as it's written in our King James translation in the verse 10.
For they fairly for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure.
And.
The Arby's translation reads for they indeed chasing for a few days as seemed good to them.
So and if if there was ever a thought that.
Enacting discipline on a child naturally brings a father pleasure. That would be a father who really doesn't understand.
Discipline. What the father is doing is he's looking at the the the character in a child that needs correction. He's considering.
What would be the proper action in order to correct what is is needed in the child and it's there's no pleasure in the process of disciplining. So it's as it seems good to the father and the father is weighing what kind of action is necessary in order to correct.
It's good to see. It's good to see here that.
Holiness, sometimes I can see your point there too. That. Well, is there any pleasure from the father? Or pleasure? Perhaps a different thought than I have. Sometimes it's our pride. Can you imagine your little child here is embarrassing you by doing something silly in front of all these people? Well, as a father, you're embarrassed. So what do you do? You chasing the child because he embarrassed you?
But here it tells us that God does so not because of any of the thinking that we would have, but with the end result that we may learn what holiness is.
I would just like to say that a father should never discipline his child because he is embarrassed by their behavior. That's not seeking the blessing of the child. It's really considering your own glory. Now, we may be guilty of that.
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But it's inexcusable that we would.
Act toward our children.
To defend our own glory. And I, I just say that not to be.
Not to contradict what you said, but I I have had to judge that as as I've had the responsibility of raising children, that the focus of my dealings with the children should never be with the thought of sparing my own reputation.
I believe what you see here when it says seemed good or meat to them.
As a father, I cannot compare myself to God the Father and how He looks at things. I might have an opinion or I might have a way in which I was taught that I think it is good to train my child up in, and I might discipline them in that way, thinking that it will keep them in line with that good route or that good way. But God the Father disciplines us to bring us to perfection, to holiness, and I think that's the point.
And so you see that maybe a little bit in first Peter chapter one.
Does mention there our perfection, or being brought to that in the coming day? Verse 13 it says, Wherefore first Peter one and 13. Gurneth the loins of your mind. Be sober, and hope to the end, for the grace that is to be brought onto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ, as obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts and your ignorance, but as he which hath called you is holy, so be holy in all manner of conversation or or conduct.
The way we behave ourselves because it is written, be holy, for I am holy.
So I can never train up my child to become perfect or to even understand that path. It's only God the Father that can chase him and do that.
Would just like to say that I believe that there is construction here for child rearing.
There is there is there is certainly deeper lessons that got as as we take up this chapter to learn the heart of God and his dealings with us, but there is also very practical, very helpful.
Lessons here to learn with regard to raising our children.
It's important to recognize in verse 11 This process is a process that goes on to bear fruit.
We often think of discipline or chastising is to stop something that's.
Bad or undesirable in behavior, but when God does it, he has a different objective than, and it's well for a parent to learn that the same principle that what God is doing is to produce a fruit.
Feasible fruit of righteousness. That's a very positive purpose and a very positive end result.
I think.
A brother that mentioned one time in this chapter that he had a father that.
Disciplined him in a way that.
While if they were making a lot of noise in the house, he sent the kids outside.
And that was for his, his pleasure, so to speak. It was so that he could enjoy the peace in the house and he didn't have to listen to the noise anymore. And as Mr. Rules brought out is for the peaceable fruit of righteousness. So I didn't send my child outside so I could enjoy the peace in the house.
There's not going to be a result of peaceful fruit of righteousness in that, is there?
Maybe just the thought as to.
Us to exercise thereby.
One of the.
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Hardest sources.
Of chastening for us.
Is our brethren.
I decided to say.
I think one of the hardest sources for my brother.
Of chastening is myself.
And that's really difficult.
Because there's all kinds of chasing that comes into our lives.
When we when we look at fathers here.
There is such a thing as fathers in the assemblies.
And.
It becomes really difficult in our lives when the Lord chooses a source of of chastening.
Ask those that we really love.
Those that love us and we have a hard time putting it together.
And yet the Lord would have us to be exercised regardless of what transpires, regardless of what it said, to be able to weigh it and recognizing it's the voice of the Lord.
I've been thinking a little bit connection with this portion of some of the experiences that David had.
And one of them, we have a message that was given to David by two different people and it was the same message.
So you remember when David was being chased out of the land by Absalom?
As he was leaving, there's a man from the House of Saul that that comes along and he curses David and he throws dirt and stones at him and he calls him a bloody man.
It was difficult and David's men are listening to this and they said, look, let's go and take his head off.
Now before we finish that, let's let's Fast forward.
With time and David's life.
When he wanted to build the temple.
He has this discussion with Nathan and Nathan says you don't do whatever is in your heart.
But the Lord speaks to Nathan that night.
Says to Nathan, you know David is not going to be able to build the temple, and he gives the reason. And it's exactly the same message that shimmy ideas to me. He was a bloody man. He was a man of blood.
Now in our own lives, we like it when a Nathan comes along and he puts his arm around us and he gives us a message like he gave to David. You know you're a man of blood, you can't build a temple. But what a shimmy eye comes along and has exactly the same message and throws dirt and stones.
It has the tendency to have us to rise up in our flesh and defend ourselves and react much differently than when it's amazing.
I thought of that in connection with often.
The Lord chooses a source of chastening, and it's our brethren.
And that that's the that's one of the hardest things because right after this, what do we read? We read here the tendency is to lift up the hand which hand down.
And the feeble knees, The tendency is the opposite of that. It's just a throw in the towel. And when it's our brethren, what's the use? Let's just throw in the towel. There's no use going on.
And actually what the Lord is seeking to do.
Is seeking to see what kind of a spirit I have which was what exactly what the Lord was doing with regards to David when shimmy I was throwing dirt and stones at him and you look at that at at such a beautiful spirit. You see what David when David said let's go take his head off David says no.
The Lord has bid him.
And sometimes that's really difficult in our own lives.
When it's our brother that are the source of chastening.
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But it's a real opportunity.
For us to realize the Lord is seeking to produce something in our hearts.
It's going to be a beautiful thing.
If it's the end result.
I'd like to make a comment to get on.
About the father's verily for a few days chasing us after their own pleasure it's not necessarily just raising our children for our own happiness, but maybe from the sense of we have our reasons for the rules we make in our own home and.
There's leeway for a father. You may you may raise your family in a little different way than I do, and I may be a little different from the way another brother would raise his family.
But there's a little leeway. But there are guidelines in Scripture for that too, if you look in Ephesians chapter 6.
We see the ultimately the father is responsible for the for the family and the raising of the children, the discipline and the instruction and the admonition and so forth.
And in verse four of Ephesians 6, he fathers provoked not your children to wrath, but bring them up in the nurture and the admonition of the Lord. And so the father is creating this the the atmosphere in the home for the for the raising of the children. We know that children are perhaps raised mostly by the mother, and so the father needs to provide a sphere where the mother can.
Can teach the children.
In a proper way if you look in First Timothy chapter 2.
I know our chapter is about the fathers, but the fathers, the fathers are responsible in the home and the women, the women have responsibility of the children as well. And if you look at verse 15.
Of second of First Timothy, chapter 2.
Notwithstanding she shall be saved, that's the mother shall be saved in childbearing.
If they continue in faith and charity and holiness with sobriety.
The father can support the mother in these things and and he's talking about the position of the woman in the church here and she shall be saved. That's not her salvation or return of salvation, but her position, her place in her position. She's saved by raising children for the Lord now.
There's a saying that the hand that rocks the cradle rules the world. Well, the woman is rocking the cradle. She's teaching the children the the, the Sunday school songs and the Bible verses and the Bible stories and, and applying them to daily life and.
This, the product of each person we have here, is mostly the product of the work of the mother in the home. And the father has a responsibility to to have a sphere in which the mother can raise the children in that way. And so you might look at it as a big responsibility for the women for raising the next generation of the assembly.
And if you and we had earlier about Timothy.
His mother raised him in faith.
In a sphere of faith and his grandmother also is in that sphere of faith and it affected and Timothy learned how to live by faith perhaps from his mother and grandmother. And so there the whole the family is involved here. The father needs to provide that sphere where the mother can act in her her responsibilities.
That went on for the commentation about Mother's.
When you go through the record in the Old Testament of the Kings, two things are brought very generally right beside each other. One is who the mother was, and the 2nd is whether the king was a good king or a bad king. And I believe they're put together to as a an example and a reinforcement of what Tim just said. The mother is a huge role.
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Even though in this chapter.
We call the father the one of the discipline to recognize that Scripture shows that the role of the mother in how a child turns out, especially when it's a place of responsibility, is almost inevitably it says whether the king is good or bad. At the same time, it tells us who the mother was.
Perhaps somebody can help me on this question. I hope I'm not the only one that has it, but.
At the end of verse 10, it's that we might be partakers of His Holiness.
But then at the end of verse 11, the after yield is the peaceable fruit of righteousness.
Is righteousness more the outward action and conduct and holiness is more than nature and internal side that would produce it? Or am I tipped over here?
Connected, but they are can be differentiated in the sense that.
God's character is holy. That is the very nature and character of God as holy, and he wants his children to be just like him.
We manifest that holy character in the way in which we act, and we should act what's doing what's right.
However, I say they can be distinguished but not.
Separated because.
Quite a few in this room, I assume. I've heard multiple times the statement, if you get everything right, nothing is right unless the motive is right. So I might do something that is, we'll say righteous in as far as the action itself.
But it's unacceptable to God unless the motive that's behind that action is right. So I think they're they're a little different aspect of something. But the way you expressed it, I think it's correct.
It says at the verse 11.
Unto them which are exercised thereby. I'm wondering about this word.
Exercise. How are we exercised? Would this be the opposite of what we have in verse 5?
Where the exhortation is my son despise not.
Thou the chastening of the Lord.
I suppose to despise the chastening would be just to pass it off as though.
Well, this is something that could happen to anybody, but would you say to be exercised is to ask the Lord, why is this happening to me?
You know what is the lesson that I have to learn in this circumstance?
This chasing and it might be difficult.
But to be exercised.
It seems to me it's a very important word and sometimes.
Maybe it has to be defined a little further as to how to be exercised.
I'm wondering if.
Do we always know the reason for the chasing that takes place?
In our experience, does the Lord always show us what the reason is?
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Or is it that we may ask why is this happening to me? We're exercised about it, but perhaps?
We never know exactly the reason.
And yet there is the after yield. There's the peaceable food of righteousness.
How do I know what's changed? I don't know why.
Have you ever disciplined your son? And he said, dad, what's that for? And you said, never mind.
Or did you tell it because you throw a rock at the window or whatever it was?
I think if we ask, we'll find out.
As far as the other matter that we've talked about, where trials come, we talk about those. We may never know why the trials come and, and maybe only partially here, someday we'll know all that. But the whole idea of correcting is so if if you went this way, you know, to go back here and go this way, if we don't know, it would seem like.
Capriciousness and God is not capricious.
I would like to think that we may not always know the reason why we have felt the hand of the Lord in our lives, but if we are exercised by whatever we're going through, we will always be drawn closer to the Lord in the circumstance. And that might be just what God is looking for in drawing us into nearness with Himself.
I just want to remind us here.
That all discipline comes from a heart of love. So as we are talking about this correction, we never want to lose the length of the relationship of love that we have with our Father.
Back to the question, I'm holding the righteousness I.
I hadn't thought of this before, but I like to connect this with Ephesians where you have these two things in chapter one, verse four, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love. I think that's the same thing as our chapter and God has to work to get produce that in them. And I I'm going to take a little exception, brother, and.
My experience.
When the Lord dealt with me was I wanted to know the reason and then put it right and the Lord told me it had to be the other way around. I had to subject myself and then the reason came was obvious. It's not the process, it's the end result that's important. And I don't think in glory we're going to be talking about the process. We're going to be in the enjoyment of the end result of it.
And that's discipline. Yeah, we it's nice to know the reason sometimes because we might not want not do it again. But I found that I don't get there by knowing the reason first.
But God knows that that's the Father of spirits, and he knows how to produce that. If I might just go on a little bit, take Job, for example.
Lord had to work pretty hard with him.
I'm in that same boat.
And it took a long time.
Until Jobs attitude was right and then when he got the attitude, when he got when it became known to him what the real problem was.
Then the chapter the book pretty ends pretty soon after that. I had a brother tell me once that the Lord had to hit him over the head with a 2 by 4 and then he said to him are you listening now?
00:50:02
Thinking about your question.
Thinking of verse 75, but I'd like to go back to verse 67, verse of Psalm 119.
There we read before I was afflicted, or people could use more cases before I was reflected. I missed the stray.
Then no further on in this exercise, verse 71. It is good for me that I have been afflicted.
That I might learn thy statues. And then finally in verse 75, the verse of after, I know, oh Lord, that thy judgments are right, and then righteousness. I know, oh Lord, that thy judgments are right. He's been exercised as to the righteousness of his tasting. I know, Lord, that that judgments are right, and that and Thy faithfulness.
Thou hast be quickened.
Believe that's very helpful. I appreciate the.
Thoughts have been expressed on this.
Giving the answer.
I think any trial that comes into our lives creates.
A situation where.
As our brother Phil pointed out, we look to the Lord, and if it's that which brings us closer to the Lord.
And we begin to change our ways and we walk in a manner that's pleasing to him, and perhaps we give up something or this or that.
We're not maybe all together aware that it's.
Contrary to the will of God, but.
We want to please the Lord and we.
Our exercise about why this is happening in my life.
And if it draws me closer to the Lord?
Certainly this is a good outcome.
But I do believe the Lord can show us those things that are not consistent with this word.
In job we find.
It says there that which.
I know not.
Teach thou me.
And.
If I've done wrong, let me just read that. I believe it's in joke.
I'm sorry, it's Job chapter 34 and verse.
32 That which I see not teach thou me. If I have done iniquity, I will do no more.
We're not here. We've asked them to rely on our own human judgment. With respect to Sam's comment about how do I know what to fix, remember, we have the Holy Spirit in dwelling.
His happy function is to take the things of Christ and show them unto us, to give us discernment.
And produce the fruit of the Spirit in us. But if we get careless.
Then the Holy Spirit brings that before us faithfully, and so we have the Word of God coupled with with enlightened consciences now because of the Word of God.
To to correct ourselves so we we have that but there.
This is broader than just chastisement, but there are things that happen that are extremely.
Striking and and sobering.
And we look to the Lord why? And we don't have an immediate answer and we don't need one. As Doug was saying, I think the Lord could show us if he wanted. I think of when the Lord went to wash the disciples feet, he said.
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What I do, thou knowest not now, but thou shalt know hereafter.
And so I like Doug's comment. We just, we submit and then if it pleases the Lord, he'll open up our understanding because it's by faith. We understand anything really ultimately. And I so much look forward to that time First Corinthians four. I think it is a little bit off subject here.
In First Corinthians 4/4.
Fall in combating the carnality of the Corinthians, if I could put it that way. Verse three says it's a very small thing that I should be judged of you or of man's judgment. Yeah. I judge not my own self, for I know nothing by myself. That is, my conscience is good. I don't know any. I'm not aware of anything that I really need to jump on right now. I have a good conscience. Doesn't mean that there weren't things, but he wasn't aware of anything, so he had a good conscience.
He that judges me as the Lord. But notice verse five. 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 hearts. So why? So that we'll know that we were right and the other brother was wrong, so that we'll know how badly we messed up the first says, and then shall every man have praise of God. It's just remarkable. I so look forward to the judgment seat of Christ. Even if I'm reduced to a thimble full, I just think it'll be wonderful to have the Lord bring out his view.
Of everything, it'll be everything weighed, according to the shekel of the sanctuary. It'll be weighed right.
Sorry for the digression, but.
Again, what Doug said. Submit first.
Then you'll find out.
Zancorp, Joseph, I think he did. Repeating again, I think that was a wonderful story. Do you think Joseph knew when he was put into the pit that he was sitting there and go, I'm going to rule over Egypt? Not at that time. And then you look at Joseph's circumstance, it seems to go from back to worse.
And it got even worse. He was sold, he became a slave, he was accused in Potiphar's house, and that wasn't enough, was it? Then he was put into Pharaoh's jail and in the jails looked like he was almost ready to get out.
But the Butler forgot about him, Have we? Do we have a few? That is like a sin from bad to worse.
But what did he have going for him? I believe he had the faith of the Lord will deliver him now. Brother reminded us we have a lot more than Joseph had and knew at that time. You and I have more. We have a Savior. You have Jesus as your Savior. You have the Holy Spirit indwelling in your hearts to help you understand these things. And now we can even.
Call. Call God as our Father.
And the word of God would say that my grace is sufficient for you, Joseph. I don't believe that much. But yet at the end, of course, it's always easy to look back at the story after you know, what happened. You can say, well, yeah, he was there so they can save his brethren. Well, that's easy looking back, isn't it? But we too will be in that position looking back. And I don't think you'll be long and we'll be looking down from above when we're with the Lord.
And there we'll find that it was the grace that has brought us along. It was the grace that saved us. Now just one more quick comment. I don't know if I'm correct. I'm going to go back to our brothers question about about the holiness first ten. I didn't have a lot of thought before that, but I noticed the phrase used here is that that we might be partakers of His Holiness. It doesn't say that by doing so, by being corrected, we will become immediately holy.
You know we would become Partaker because he is the Holy One. We partake of that.
And then the next verse about righteousness is that when we partake of the holiness of our Lord, then it says afterward you did the you did the peaceful fruit of righteousness.
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By exit, by participating, by being partaker of holiness, What's the result of our walk? It would yield the Spirit. What the fruit of the Spirit would have us to yield.
To exhibit to the world that we are is.
And then?
So there are troubles that come, One of the things that's in common between chastening that comes and the troubles that are common to men and the difficulties that come that the Lord sends into our lives. One thing that's common with both of them is God's desire is for us to draw close.
When a father disciplines his child and afterwards maybe has a conversation and there's a arm around the neck and it appears, and then maybe they dry up and there's a closeness between a father and his son, yeah, that's a pretty good thing.
And when a child is going through something and the same thing happens where they come to daddy up in his lap and he can hug him and or mom and they kiss the Boo Boo and whatever and they deal with that, There's a closeness. Lorde desire is for us to draw close to him. He wants that.
That closeness to that relationship, and we feel it too. If we reverence him, we accept it. We submit.
And then we enjoy that improvement when the worst day of my life took place when we got the news that my wife had stage 4 cancer. It was pretty bad for both of us and early on the devil attacked my wife with I'm being punished for suffering. When she got past that. My wife will tell you this.
She never grew.
As close to the Lord or grew in her path as much as she did during that experience.
That she got past the idea that somehow God was punishing her by allowing the cancer. But she grew. I watched in amazement and her closeness with her Lord.
You know, she got closer and closer and I know that that in the middle of all of these kinds of things, that's one of the that's the heart of our Lord. It was pointed out that love is behind this always, always, always there, his love for us.
To see us corrected, to see that produce in our lives. The man in First Corinthians chapter 5, who Paul is saying you need to put this guy out. What do we have there that the Spirit might be saved in the day of the Lord? The desire was restoration. The desire was that correction would be made and that there would be something there our brother just pointed out. Then shall every man have praise of God?
That guy you bet we find in Second Corinthians. Bring it back.
Then corrected practice has been changed and he drew closer to the Lord but I just think that's something that we should keep in mind no matter what comes the Lord wants us to draw close closer to him and as it were we talk about crying ABBA father that that intimate term of.
Like a child crawling up into his daddy's lap and leaning his head on his bosom boy. In both circumstances, that's a good place to run.
If I could add a word to the younger ones if you look in the gospels.
Whenever somebody fell at Jesus feet, there was always a blessing.
A number of the songs have been quoted here at the conference and in this meeting. Because David knew his shepherd. At the end of Psalm 23, he said, thou art with me. It became very personal. And if something difficult comes in your life, it's because God wants to increase and enhance his relationship with his son or his daughter. Just to read a few verses from Psalm 31.
Psalm 31 and I could read more, but just a few. Verse 9 Have mercy upon me, O Lord, for I am in trouble. Mine eye is consumed with grief. Verse 10 For my life is spent with grief, and my years with sighing. My strength fails.
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That's good because God's strength is made perfect and our weakness. That's a good point. Verse 10. My strength fails. I'm forgotten as a dead man out of mind. That sounds pretty difficult, but what is the result? What is the response in verse 14? But I trusted in thee, O Lord, I said, thou art my God. My times are in thy hand.
When people fell at the feet of Jesus, something good happened and that's what we need. We need to fall at the feet of Jesus. And then it says in verse 20, thou shalt hide them.
In the secret of thy presence.
Is there as anything more wonderful? Is there anything more precious? Thou shalt hide them in the secret of thy presence. Verse 21 Blessed be the Lord, for He has shown me His marvelous kindness, and sometimes these things are just to get our attention so He can show us is marvelous kindness.
I've experienced the 2 by 4 alongside the head.
Moment I call it God's remedial boot camps. The best way to not to have that happen is to learn the first time but we kind of chuckle about that but in adding to what our brother just said for the young people for anybody. I don't know why but that last part of Galatians 220 has been in my mind a lot for almost a year now but no matter what you're going through.
No matter how difficult or you don't understand and there are times where you're going to say, Lord, I don't get this, I don't like this, I don't understand this.
But I trust you, and I choose you. I don't know what else to say or do here but quote that back to you.
The last part of glaciers 220 The son of God who loved me.
And gave himself. For me, it's so personal, that means so much.
In the midst of that, I am loved deeply by the Son of God who gave himself for me.
Not just the world, but for me, you remind yourself of that in a dark moment and remind yourself even if you don't understand, you can cry out and say Lord is not going to be insulted or hurt if you say I don't understand this, I don't like this, I don't get this.
But I choose you, and with tears running down your face, as our brother said, anybody who fell before his feet.
What it says, bow your head under his mighty hand. What comes now? Uplift.
You bow and you there, and your tears and your pain and sorrow. And then remind yourself that He loves you deeply. He loves you deeply, personally.
My brother mentioned the Psalms. I was thinking how Psalm 23 it says the correction is with it. It says thigh rod and thy stop comfortably. The rod and staff goes together.
No more wandering sheep. And I love to be controlled. I love my tender shepherd's voice. I love the peaceful pull. No more a wandering child. I seek no more to Rome. I love my Heavenly Father's voice. I love, I love his voice.
No.
I see no more to grow.