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276.
That was 276.
No, no, no.
I want my heart that Abrams Chapter 13.
Hebrews 13 verse.
Eight, says Jesus Christ, the same yesterday.
And today, and forever.
We're told in verse 13 to uh, verse 13 says let us go forth therefore unto end. So they can't.
So that would be the my suggestion. It was 13.
00:05:08
Were you thinking of the entire chapter then, Brother Gattan?
Perhaps it'd be nice to begin with the seventh verse and read to the end of the chapter that in order to concentrate on the verses he specifically spoke of.
Well, that's five and six that might be good to be home soon.
OK.
Hebrews chapter 13, verse 5.
Let your conversation be without covetousness.
And be content with such things as you have.
For he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.
So that we may boldly say, the Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me.
Remember them which have the rule over you, who have spoken unto you the word of God.
Whose faith follow, considering the end of their conversation? Jesus Christ. The same yesterday and today and forever.
Venot carried about with diverse and strange doctrines. For it is a good thing that the heart be established with grace, not with means which have not profited them that have been occupied therein.
We have an altar whereof they have no right to eat which serve the Tabernacle.
For the bodies of those beasts whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest for sin.
Are without the camp. Wherefore Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people with His own blood, suffered without the gate. Let us go forth therefore unto Him without the camp.
Bearing His reproach. For here we have no continuing city, but we seek one to come by Him. Therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually.
That is the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name. But to do good and to communicate, forget not, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.
Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves for they watch for your souls as they that must give account that they may do it with joy and not with grief, for that is unprofitable for you. Pray for us, for we trust we have a good conscience.
In all things willing to live honestly.
But I beseech you the rather to do this, that I may be restored to you the sooner.
Now the God of peace that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep.
Through the blood of the everlasting covenant make you perfect in every good work to do His will, working in you that which is well pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.
And I miss you too, brethren, suffer the word of exhortation, for I have written a letter unto you in few words.
Know ye that our brother Timothy is set at liberty, with whom, if he comes shortly, I will see you.
Salute all them that have the rule over you, and all the Saints they of Italy salute you. Grace be with you all. Amen.
00:10:19
Well, we have in this chapter a number of practical exhortations, coming as they do at the end of the book of Hebrews.
Excuse me? We know that Hebrews was written primarily to Jewish believers, likely by the Apostle Paul, but the author isn't named. And it brings before us the precious truth how that everything in Christ is so far superior to what they had been given in the Old Testament. But here we have practical exhortations, no doubt related to what those Hebrew believers needed at that time.
But given here by the Spirit of God for you and me in our day.
And we can consider them in a general way. We can also consider them one by one. But they all have a voice to us, don't they? In particular, verses 5 and six bring before us.
Not to be covetous, not to be seeking after the things of this world, but then isn't it beautiful to see how that God never, if we could put it this way, take something away from us without giving us something far better in return?
I can well remember quite a few years ago now, quite a few years ago, at least 30 or 35 years ago, a brother who was relatively poor in North America voicing his dissatisfaction with those who had more than he had and allegedly telling him to be content with such things as he had.
And I was very thankful that it was pointed out to him. Brother, it is not.
Some other individual who says that it is the word of God.
It is God himself who says be content with such things as ye have. But does it leave it there? No.
For he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.
I suppose it is not out of place to say that at the moment there are people in North America who are.
In deep distress over economic difficulties, and I suppose that those who have the most have probably lost the most in the last week or two.
It is causing them some anxiety.
And I suppose it is not going too far to say that, at least in a measure, some of the difficulties in the broad sense have been caused by the fact that we have tried in a general way to live beyond our means.
What does the Lord say here? Oh, he says, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.
And some of our dear brethren in foreign lands have appreciated those words more than we have, because they have had to rely directly on the Lord from day-to-day, even to put food on the table, even to have a place to live, even to be able to afford the necessities of life. But how good to recognize, even if the Lord has given us relative plenty, that ultimately the Lord, as we had this morning before us, occupies us not with His blessings, not with His mercies.
But ultimately, with himself.
Yes, it is wonderful to enjoy everything that God gives us, but He doesn't want us to lose sight of the one who gave it. And if he takes everything that he has given us away.
The devil. No one can touch that which is ours beyond this world. And so no doubt those dear Hebrew believers were suffering a certain amount of persecution. We know from other scriptures that they were poor. We know that there was a good deal of hardship in Judea.
And they were feeling it, Paul reminds them. At least we assume it's Paul.
That God wants them to be occupied with that which is beyond this world. The Lord himself who says, I will never leave thee nor forsake thee.
00:15:04
Would you like to quickly review the various expectations?
Just to give an outline.
That's quite a mouthful.
About an hour.
Well, I will say a little bit and then I, I know others will go in here, but we have a number of things particularly that we have read together here. One is the issue of covetousness.
In verse seven we have the need to remember those whom the Lord has set over us as guides, those who have spoken to us the Word of God.
But notice it doesn't say whose failure follow, it says whose faith follow.
And so no doubt there was failure in those to whom these Hebrew believers could look, and there is failure in those to whom you and I will look.
S guides over us.
But who is the one again that is before us?
Jesus Christ, the same yesterday and today and forever.
And if we have seen anything in an older believer, a brother or sister, that is of Christ, God says I direct you to the source of it. Yes, remember the guides, but remember what they set before you.
Well, the exhortations that follow, they're too much to go through in just one short.
Summary. But he brings before them the need.
Not to be carried away with diverse and strange doctrines, because the Judaizing principles have always been that which were the bane of the church, not only the Jews, but also the Gentiles, because it brought Christianity down to the level of this world. And So what we get brought next before us is the way that we are to go outside the camp, outside of all of that which would speak of Judaism.
That.
To have only Christ before us.
And finally, later on in the chapter, we get worship connected with service. And that's as far as I'm going to go, because I don't know how far we'll get in this chapter. But there are a lot of very helpful details here, aren't there? And we don't need to dwell on them at great length, but they give us a lot of precious truth, which is important to remember in a practical way.
If I take up an interest in votes.
I don't have one at the moment.
I might look at a rowboat and say, boy, that'd be nice. I'd like to have a little rowboat. I can go out on the pond and enjoy the water and maybe fish a little and so on.
And so I will say I buy a rowboat.
But the tendency of the natural human heart is I've got a rowboat now and I decided I could get around better, so I'd be happy if I could have a little motor on it.
And so my present circumstances aren't quite satisfactory. If only I had the motor. And so I get the motor.
And I'm quite delighted with my little boat and my little motor. And in fact I try it out on a little bit di bigger lake and someone goes roaring by me and I say whoops, I need a little bigger motor.
And if only I had that, then I could just keep up and things would go better. And so in due time I I get my boat with a better motor.
But then I find out there are other people on the lake that have better features on their boat. And so I say if only. And, uh, so I have my eyes set on the catalogs in the store and so on. And I, I want a a little nicer one. And there are people today who.
Have built $400 million yachts.
And spent several years and that's a lot of money to spend on a boat. But no more had they got it in the water than someone else decided they needed a $500 million one that was a few feet longer.
00:20:01
And it's just a statement of the human heart. It is never satisfied.
It's constantly. If only then I will be.
And the an Israelite understandably had his hopes in the world.
But the Hebrews were being taught as believers that their hopes were not in the world. It wasn't how big a house they had, how big a farm they had, how much money they had, and so on, but the whole of basis of their life was.
To heavenly.
Well, I say.
Yeah, but I'm here right now, so I like that boat. And that's just the problem. If my heart is I'm here now until the Lord takes me, then I'm looking for my my boat or my car or my whatever.
The I'd like to expand the comments though, as Mr. Darby's translation it says.
Be satisfied with your present circumstances. I may not want more things. We live in a materialistic world and I may not say well, I need a bigger boat. I'm satisfied with what I got. But the test of our hearts as to being present since our home and our hearts.
Are with a man in the glory, it's easy to not be quite satisfied.
With my circumstances. And so I say, if only this was different, or if only that was different, then I could be satisfied, I could be happy. But to the life of faith.
The essential that I have to have is the Lord with me.
And if I have the Lord with me, I can be happy with the Lord with me without changing my circumstances.
And that's the difficulty. We think that satisfaction and happiness depend on circumstances. And God says no, Satisfaction and happiness for the believer do not depend on present circumstances.
They depend upon himself.
And I it's not easy to learn. That's something that we each have to, with the Lord, go through and perhaps little by little learn that it's not our circumstances that is the real root of our happiness or unhappiness. It's really as he says here.
The Lord my helper may keep me in my circumstances as they presently are.
But he's my helper. He's the one that sustains me in whatever circumstances I am in.
And that's, uh, something that Paul or whomever writing to the Hebrews wanted them to practically recognize that.
There was a life of faith, it was not a life of circumstances and it wasn't connected with this world.
The, uh, first nine verses of the chapter are basically about a a changeless Christ, Christ that never changes and therefore the chapter has been sometimes referred to as unchanging chapter.
Uh, when you look at those things in there, there are things that.
Should be the same all the way to the end.
An experienced by all in comparison to uh, contentment of a Christian and the contentment of the world. Look back at Mark chapter 15 together.
And Mark 15 and verse 15.
I was looking at this less than a week ago, so I'm glad to hear the the verse be read. Mark 15 and 15 and so pilot willingly to be to contend the people released Barnabas to them and delivered Jesus when he had scourged him to be crucified. He wanted to contend the people. He wanted to calm them down. He gave them Jesus and released a thief.
How long were they content?
I'd venture to say they weren't content very long.
It might have made a contempt for one day, maybe two or three.
00:25:05
But it didn't contend them very long.
So now look in Philippians chapter 4 and verse 11, Philippians 4 and verse 11.
Not that I speak in respect of want, for I have learned.
In whatever state I am in, in this to be content, that's where our brother was just talking about.
Whatever we are in to be content, James has counted all joy when you fall into diverse temptations.
Uh, we're not very joyful sometimes when we go into divers temptations, but the Lord has placed us there to teach us something and he is going to bring us through and we are going to be more mature and a better Christian in the end. So therefore we need to be content.
In whatever state we are in now, look with me at Timothy, First Timothy chapter 6.
First Timothy chapter 6 and verse 6.
With contentment is great gain.
Godliness with contentment is great gain.
Contentment spiritually.
We have an unchanging God.
He's the same yesterday, today and forever. He has satisfied my soul.
I can turn to him anytime I want to.
And have contentment in my Lord and my Savior.
Physically, on this world, I don't always have contentment.
But I have to learn to be content in whatever state I am in.
It's an unchanging Christ that we have, and what a beautiful thing that is.
There's some other little passages throughout versus or versus their other little things I thinking about verse seven says, remember.
Verse 17 says obey.
Verse 24 says to Greek.
Saluda, Reed.
There's one that is a guide.
In our life.
And we have to remember.
And we have to remember those that rule over us and teach us.
Those that lead amongst us.
And I have to obey them.
And I have to greet them.
Because they've has the old saying gone, walked down in my mind. The moccasins before me, they've been there.
And I can learn from them too.
And they can teach me if anything helps keep.
Assemblies happy.
And content and going good in these last days.
It's the word of God. It's our unchanged Savior, and thus those.
That are leading us, that are helping us. That's what our brethren are doing here today. It's been beautiful to sit back and listen to them and lead us and guide us through these scriptures with the help of the Holy Spirit.
Bill, Bill, would you say that I never had this thought until now? I was just curious if, uh, if I commend itself.
That in verse seven there where it says where it's umm brother Bill, just read, remember them that you have the rule over you who have spoken unto you the word of God.
Who pray follow with, uh, Paul or whoever wrote the book of Hebrews?
He tied in the those from the Hall of Fame in Chapter 11.
Our whole, uh, so to speak, Hall of Fame.
A lot of them unnamed there. I was thinking a neighbors back in there when he wouldn't give up his vineyard, his inheritance.
Nabals is remembered.
I was also thinking a little bit of something else too. Titus chapter 2 I believe it is, if I can get you with the Titus.
Hi, this chapter 2.
Verse 7.
In all things, showing thyself a pattern of good works and doctrine, showing uncorruptness and gravitativity and sincerity. I was thinking that little bitty word of pattern.
00:30:17
On my way here I developed a knock.
Motors evidently rocking. I think I broke a motor mount. When I get back home I'm going to have to tell them the year and the VIN and I hope I'm not getting this distracted on something. But by that year, in that vent and everything, they can give me the exact piece that fixed the exact car and the exact place to secure my problem there, see.
And this speaks about the unchanged Christ. And we have those that have gone before us that are a pattern or a type, and that helps keep the assembly strong and healthy.
And we have a leader that is unchangeless.
Unchangeless.
And we have those that are pattern and a type for us.
And we need them to teach us.
Unchanging.
To answer your question, Brother Russ, I I would suggest that the thought here primarily is those in the present. I don't want to exclude those in the 11Th chapter because the Spirit of God records their faith in order to show them that at any time, even under law, faith was necessary in order to please God. But we see here there's an exhortation in verse 7.
And a somewhat similar one in verse 17, both involving those who are in the present.
Those who have the rule over us, those who are leaders and guides. And in that sense, I believe the Spirit of God is right down to the time when they were living and of course for us to the present day too, where God always, even in a day of weakness and failure, I believe will provide those who can be a leader, who can be a help, who can be a guide. We are to recognize them. We are to respect them. As it says here in verse 17, we are to obey them.
And ultimately to consider the end of their conversation. Sad to say, there has been failure in every guide that God has ever provided for us, and if we focus on that, then we can.
Go wrong way and those who take the place of leaders have to recognize that, as someone has said, when one who is otherwise faithful to the Lord in his life and his service.
Allows that in his life which is not according to the mind of God.
He lends the weight of his godliness to that failure which he allows.
And that's the solemn thing to think about. But at the same time, He calls on you and me to recognize what is of faith, but not necessarily to follow what is a failure.
At the present time in the United States, since everyone an adult at least here I'm sure is very well aware of is that.
There are two men particularly who are spending hundreds of millions of dollars.
To tell the people.
I am the one you want to be your leader.
I have the answers to your needs.
Follow me.
Here we have a con.
Complete contrast to that.
The leader here is he who has spoken. What? I have the answer to your need no.
Who have spoken unto you the word of God?
There is a true source of truth and authority and knowledge.
That is necessary, and a true leader in spiritual things is not about oneself.
It is about the word that comes from God.
And so we are taught to remember what?
Those who have given to us.
The word of God, they're not a true leader if they have something else to offer us.
00:35:00
And the second part of it is equally if not more important, and that is.
Considering the issue of their conversation, that is, considering their manner of life, there is something about them that you are and I am to imitate.
It's their faith.
And immediately the object of their faith is presented to us, Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today and forever.
There are many of us who remember leaders, guides among us who are with the Lord now and there as well here living ones, but.
What was it that should have and we trust did does stand out in our souls about them? It was the faith they had in the object that we have before us today of Jesus Christ. He was the same yesterday. He is the same for us today. He will be the same for whomever comes along tomorrow.
It's an unchanging, unchangeable object for our souls that we can imitate.
The faith that they had or perhaps have in himself, What else is there?
We don't say follow the leader, follow what he believes in.
We had something better and that is the word of God and an unchangeable Christ that is given to us and those whose manner of life and conversation.
Draws us to that end.
I was enjoying the thought in Genesis, we don't need to turn to it, but the Lord spoke to Abram when when Abram was 90 years old and he says I am the God Almighty, Almighty God. In other words, he's all sufficient. He's all we need. And we see the apostle Paul instructed Timothy, he may mention Timothy in first Timothy chapter 4.
And I think it's good for all of us to lay hold of, especially the youth in First Timothy chapter 4.
We see in verse 12, Let no man despise thy youth. Be thou an example of believers in Word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity. Then we see in the next chapter he says, keep thyself here. What an expectation it is an encouragement to the youth, to the young.
To go out and speak well of this Almighty God, the one who is all sufficient, all we need.
I can carry on with the, the leaders. There's, uh, some thoughts I've pondered a bit over the last several years and would appreciate just a minute to share those.
There seem to be, uh, two different ways that they're looked at the New Testament and one is in this chapter. And the word is, is really the word those that are esteemed. And so as Dawn has said, there's a manner of life.
That goes with it.
It it they have walked in the path of faith and they are recognized by those around us. They don't set themselves forward. It's that they are recognized.
In, uh, Thessalonians, you know which verse it is, but.
Uh, 1St Thessalonians 512.
There's another, uh, word and, uh, to, to, to know them, which labor among you and are over you.
And that's sometimes it in translated leaders also are mentioned that way. And really this is someone who has the capacity, has the capacity of going, uh, and being able to stand in front of a, a group in front of a class or has the capacity to be at the front of the line. And so, and God gives those kinds of capacities and we appreciate it. These things are to be appreciated.
00:40:12
And also we recognize in their lives and they are to be esteemed.
But it's not a position as you sometimes think of a leader musician.
There's another word that has sneaked into our language.
And that is the word leadership.
Now that's quite a bit different than a leader. As a matter of fact, if you kind of peruse Brethren's writing, I do not find there might be some exceptions. I do not find it was ever used before the year 2000 in Brethren's legitimate Brethren writing. And so it's very recent among us. Matter of fact, it's very recent in the English language. 1821 is the first written use of the word leadership.
But, uh, that's a whole different thing. And that is, uh, a class of people, not, not a person, uh, when used in that way. And, uh, I would recommend myself that that word be, uh, not used by us. I do not find that it is at all the scriptural word. And there's at least 5 words in the Bible that can possibly be translated. Leadership.
And out of a multitude of uses it.
Never use a Christian except once.
And in those cases where it's, uh, used as the people of Israel and so forth, it's most frequently used in a very negative sense, those who set themselves actually in opposition to the Lord Jesus.
So.
Umm, I would suggest we we think about these words and, uh, use them in the scriptural context.
And, uh, be careful with, uh, the words that we use. Instead of projecting, uh, uh, a concept that may not at all be in the Bible, it might be good to avoid a word like leadership.
And the assembly that those who have the rule over us.
Be characterized as fathers.
First first John chapter 2 gives us.
As it were three stages of Christian growth. You have little children, you have young men and you have the fathers. And what was characteristic of the Father's is that they know him, that is from the beginning.
That is a a process.
That we go through in our Christian development.
Where through experience of walking with the Lord, we come to know Him.
How well it would be if those who had the rule over us.
Too.
Just like to connect back with the reading meeting we had this morning, uh.
For one verse in connection with what we have now before us.
Two Corinthians, Chapter 11.
All of us would recognize that the Apostle Paul was one who led. He was a leader.
You said be followers also of me as I also am of Christ. He was uniquely really in in the New Testament given to us of God as a patterned St. and He is.
A umm.
An example of what true leaders.
A true leader is to for the Saints of God, and here in this chapter there were those who wanted the place of being followed in Corinth, and the apostle Paul was compelled to speak about himself as a result of that because he loved the Saints so much that whatever it took to draw them to Christ, he would say or do legitimately.
00:45:08
And so the verse I want to.
Uh, to notice.
Is.
I've already lost it, but hold on a minute.
Nsnoise.
Somebody can help me find it? It's it's the verse that says.
The truth.
Of Christ that is in me. That's the expression.
Verse 10. Thank you very much. The truth of Christ is in me.
We're not gonna try to define that very much, brethren, but that's a pretty conscience.
Check up for any in this room that might think of themselves as a leader, or the Lord might want to lead. But here was a man who could say to his brethren, The truth of Christ is in me. He didn't say, I know the truth of Christ. I can teach the truth of Christ, but the truth of Christ was livingly.
In the his conversation, in his manner of life, and that's what he's really bringing. He isn't contrasting himself doctrinally on some point of doctrine with these others that were there, but he was essentially saying to the Saints, you see in my life the truth of Christ being lived out.
Tremendous.
Can I say voice to the conscience?
And yet He was one who could even go beyond that. And he said, be be an imitator of me, be like me, as I also am of Christ. Christ is the one and only standard. But they could see in Him that which was to be imitated as a reflection of Christ. The truth was in Him, and He lived it out in a way that others were to follow.
In their own life, that same thing. May the Lord help us.
That the realities of what we know be the realities of what we live.
And.
That doesn't put people looking at us.
But it it puts people that will say, I want what that person has of Christ.
And what do they have? A person who is the same yesterday, today and forever.
I don't know who's the Lord is going to allow to be the next president of the United States, but I can say from my lifetime, whoever it is, the people won't be happy with them very long.
It just doesn't matter who gets to be that. They won't have, as the world would say, very long honeymoon before something that they have promised to some significant number of people doesn't turn out the way those people who chose them for the intent that they were going to fulfill those promises. It doesn't work that way, and it's important for us to have a proper Jesus.
A proper Christ that we have our faith in because if our faith is.
Not in the true Christ. We may be disappointed too, when.
Something happens in the circumstances of our life and he doesn't change the circumstance.
He doesn't. We get sick. He never promises that we're going to get well.
Yeah, we we are in poverty. He never promises that that's going to change.
He promises no matter what circumstance you're in, I will be with you in it.
And I will be your helper in it. That's the promise for this life.
And if we expect something different from him?
Now then we can be disappointed in the Lord. We can say I trusted the Lord. I thought he was going to do this and he just didn't do it for me. So I don't know that, you know, I, I, I had to go some other way.
00:50:02
I meet, not all that infrequently, young people who say I tried Christianity.
And there's their words. It did not work.
So now I'm I've given it up, I'm looking for something else.
And the problem is, they were not presented with a true Christ.
They were presented with a false Christ. They embraced a false Christ because they were promised in the false Christ something that he was not. And when he didn't deliver, that is, the false Christ didn't deliver. They said, I tried it, it didn't work, and now I'm looking at something else.
And so it's, it's incumbent upon us, it's a necessary for us to be sure that we are disappointed either because we have lost the truth of the one who is the same yesterday and today and forever.
1St and asked us to look at this chapter about Jesus Christ. The same yesterday, today and forever.
If God.
Was not 100% everything, whether that's love, judgment, or whatever you wanna look at. He would not be God.
Jesus Christ if he was not 100%.
Perfect. He would not be Jesus Christ neither.
He changed in any percent, in any way, shape or form.
So when it says that God repented.
God still hated sin, and he never changed in his hatred against sin.
He changes with the way that he deals with mankind about it and we've seen different dispensations where he's dealt with it differently.
He still has 100% hatred for sin and he will judge it in a coming day. Any of those that are unsaved in our midst, there's coming a day the door is gonna be shut and they're gonna be cast in the eternal lake of fire, unchanging. 100% the same yesterday, today and forever. Whether it's love or whatever topic you wanna talk about, He is perfect. When we spoke this morning about the virgin, the chased virgin, the bride of Christ, looking at verse 12. Therefore Jesus also that he might sanctify the people, settle them apart.
With His own blood can never forget the power of the cleansing blood of the Lamb suffered without or outside the gate. Let us go forth therefore unto Him, without or outside the camp, bearing His reproach. Jesus is outside the camp, and we have to go to Him. What we didn't discuss this morning a little bit about the chase. Virgin that she is called out from the world called out. Rebecca is a beautiful type.
Of the Virgin, and in Genesis 24 and 16 it speaks of that.
And we are called out from this world. We have to leave the systems of this world, don't we? And we go on Sunday morning to remember him.
And were called out outside the camp and that, that is beautiful to see that there is one that's wanting us to come outside there and remember him.
Stop.
I want to give a little application of Jesus Christ the same yesterday and forever.
Before this world ever was.
God the Father, I'm going to be personal about it because it touches my heart and the personal sense. You can be personal as you listen with yourself.
Before this world was ever created.
God the Father.
Gave me.
To God the sun.
And his desire?
Is that I be with himself?
And every single thing that was necessary to fulfill His desire, as He has in John 17. Father I will, but they also whom Thou hast given me, be with me.
00:55:09
From that uncreated day, before this world ever began, his heart was set upon his desire that I, whom he loved as a gift from his father, be with him.
And everything in his unchanging character of yesterday that was necessary to make that desire come true, he undertook.
Including including becoming a man.
Because that was a tremendous step on his part of putting aside his Godhead glories from to reveal himself to a creature and to come where that purpose of his could be realized, that I might be with himself.
Set it uh, different ones in this room multiple times, but.
He never talks about really heaven.
It's his desire he talks about heaven, but with respect to us is his personal individual desire that we might be with him.
And its scripture presents it always that way that I will come again that where I am.
There you may be.
So shall we ever be with the Lord, to depart, to be with Christ, which is far better? The thought is always being with Himself, because that's what His desire is. It doesn't matter where it is, it's that we're with Him. And consequently, for now, when we're here, He puts it the opposite way. As long as you're on earth, I will be with you.
And that's what we have in multiple places. And in this chapter it says what do I fear?
He says I will be with you and consequently, as long as we're here because He does anything to keep him from the fulfillment of His own heart's desire. He said, well, I'll be with you there. And when the Father's time comes and when the moment comes, then you will be with me where I am, and we will be together forever. And He will never change. Nothing that has ever happened from past eternity to future eternity.
Will ever change that that is a constant of his own being with respect to me, the individual and to us as the body of Christ or part of the body of Christ. So he says I we can say from the Lord saying to us even individually, I will never change. I am the same yesterday, I'm the same with you today and I will be the same with you to ever forever.
And consequently, his work today and many of the circumstances of our lives is to use those circumstances to attach our hearts to himself.
And to detach them from everything else that wants to claim them.
With the altar here.
We have an altar.
That's the place of nearness to to God, to the Lord Jesus and he would bring us to that fellowship where no other no Old Testament St. could ever be brought into that place of nearness with God. They had types and figures of it in the Old Testament in their offerings. But when when the Lord Jesus offered the sacrifice of himself, then God, the grace of God goes out and can bring bring.
Lost centers into that fellowship. It's a wonderful thing then, to be strong, uh, in the grace or to have our heart, as it says here, established in grace. If what we've been talking about gets a hold of our souls, that is the heart, then we're established in that we will not be content with any other place of, uh, pleasure or entertainment or.
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A worship.
Uh, because there's no comparison where God would bring us into fellowship with Himself.
There's a beautiful verse in uh, first Peter chapter 4.
First Peter, chapter 4, verse 19.
I want to break into the verse.
Commit the keeping of their souls unto Him in well doing, as unto a faithful Creator.
The precious blood of Jesus Christ.
Saves our soul. We heard that we were the bride of Christ this morning on a chaste virgin, and they were called out.
He is a faithful Creator.
He is unchanging and we have committed our soul to.
To an unchanging faithful Creator.
Forever, forever.
What a safer place can we put our soul?
You know when vows rang out in heaven, and the angels rejoice over one soul that is saved, and there are vows that rang out, the committal, the commitment.
That's what a wedding is about.
There is the other side of it. What has He committed unto us?
He's committed the gospel and we have a gospel meeting tonight.
And we all need to pray for that gospel meaning for the unsaved souls.
We've committed our soul to Him and He's committed His word, the gospel of the precious Lord Jesus Christ, and their blood that is shed on Calvary's tree.
For the remission of sins.
Phone number 46 in the Doctor's book. He devoured objects bright and fair to fill and satisfy the heart and my, hopefully in the air and Nevermore.
46 in the back of the book.
Have I an eye?
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Nsnoise.