Address—D. Bilisoly
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As best we can, how about #5 in the back of the book, #5 in the appendix?
Verse three says O to grace, how great a better daily I'm constrained to be. Let that grace Lord like a better buying my wandering heart to be thrown to wander Lord. I feel it thrown to leave the God I love.
Yet thou, Lord, hast stay in the ceiling with thy spirit from above.
#5 in the back of the voice Come thou found.
Great life change to my heart.
To save my grace.
Dreams of everything.
All forces.
Love songs of praise.
Give us.
Stranger.
Wonder.
Of God.
Here to rest.
Danger.
And.
Precious love.
All to grace my grace.
In love comes pray to believe.
Lord, I feel.
God I love.
Day to see you.
With my spirit.
From the ball.
Save your love.
May I?
Know.
Stranger.
As a son.
Oh, ask the Lords, help our blessed God and Father. We thank thee for these words of grace, reminding us of what thou hast done.
To the gift of Thy beloved Son, our Lord Jesus, that foundeth every blessing.
The one who laid down his life and death.
All to grace, how great a debtor, daily, unconstrained be.
Let that grace, Lord, like a better vine our hearts would be. We own that great tendency of our hearts to wander.
To leave the God we love. Why is it so On all we long for that day when we'll be in those courts above Lord Jesus and every hindrance will be removed. But blessed Lord, give us a strong sense of Thy grace as we press on through this scene, momentarily awaiting Thy coming. And what a deliverance it will be.
Out of a troubled scene where we see so many dark foreshadows upon the horizon of great trouble ahead. And we know from thy precious word our God and Father, that there is trouble ahead like this world has never known before.
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And yet we think of Thy grace that will maintain even a remnant through that state of things. But our portion, our hope, our objective, is to soon be with Thee, Lord Jesus.
In the Father's house. So we ask thy blessing upon thy word, that our hearts might be encouraged, and yet perhaps sobered as they ought to be, and our conscience touched, where necessary, we ask all, and give the art thanks, and the worthy and precious name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
Turn to Hebrews.
Hebrews Chapter 4.
Verse four and verse 14.
A passage often read especially in connection with prayer meeting. But how precious.
Seeing them that we have a great High Priest that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession.
For we have not a high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but.
Was in all points tempted life as we are, yet without sin.
Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.
I especially wanted to draw attention to that expression, the throne of grace. That's the character of that throne. Now it is a throne of grace. And you know, we've had so much in the meetings, especially in the readings.
Of our standing before God in all perfection of Christ and His precious words, His marvelous work. And how about grace itself? Well, it says we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand.
And also we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.
Not only that, with glory and tribulation also you see there's a very interesting connection between those three thoughts. That is grace and.
Glory and tribulation.
You may have noticed too how Peter puts that together. In first Peter chapter 5 and verse 10 he says but the God of all grace.
The Source who have called us unto His eternal glory by Christ Jesus. After that you have suffered a while, make you perfect, establish, strengthen, settle you to Him, be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.
So what an access we have now into this grace wherein we stand. It is all part of our standing before God.
But again, I want to emphasize that the character of that throne now, as far as we're concerned, is grace.
There's another point, maybe I should just mention it now, and that is we have an access.
That they did not have in the old dispensation.
They absolutely did not have it. It was under careful regulation only by the Aaronic Priestly family.
And we may get into that.
But we have boldness. Boldness to enter into the holiest.
By the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which he hath consecrated through the veil, that is to say, his flesh. He went into death to make that possible for us to have that access. So the blood clears us of all guilt. Oh brethren, our standing is indeed in grace, and I don't want to minimize that. And I'm emphasizing that fact for, you know, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich.
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Yet, for your sakes, he became poor, that ye through his poverty.
Might be rich, spiritually rich, as we've heard this afternoon.
I want to emphasize that and I don't want to leave any shadow of a doubt over this question.
Because.
I have something upon my heart.
That are here we need to consider. We've had so much to encourage our hearts as to our standing in Christ.
And we had some very practical ministry yesterday as to the value and importance of the assembly, for Christ is in the midst. And then we have ministry that was very important in connection with the Lord's table and the Lord's Supper that identifies us in connection with the assembly.
And we've had some practical excitation about the value of godly parents.
And so clearly set forth in the book of Proverbs.
And so we've had things to exhort us and to encourage us.
But brethren, there is something that has been a burden to me.
And I don't know that I can adequately express it.
But you know.
Almost 50 years ago.
A young boy right here in this Denver area.
Turn about the Lord Jesus Christ.
To his brother.
And got saved and he came very raw out of the world.
And the Lord by his grace brought him to the assembly.
And he felt a misfit, you might say, because he was so fresh and raw out of the world.
But as he looked around upon the walls, he saw these very texts.
That are here now. And he looked at this one. He looked at that one. What comfort. This is what I believe. This is what I hold. And he looked around and then.
But let me say this first.
This unseasoned, unexperienced young fellow, so raw out of the world, didn't have much understanding about anything, Even his mother said. Are you dressed properly to go to this place? I said, Oh yes, it's all right, they're Christians and they'll accept me as I am.
But as I sat there and looked around the room and saw these verses.
I saw that first.
And that that purse let this person in awe.
God is greatly to be feared in the assembly of the Saints, and He had in reverence of all them that are about Him, you say, Oh, that's known. Testament scripture. Yes, it is, but it applies to us today. You've got it up here in your room. And that verse was kept at 217 E 4th Ave. for years.
Now I'm humbled as I look at that verse, because how many times?
Have I failed in connection with submission to that verse? You know, that verse comes about as a result of a great deliverance that is laid out to us there in Psalm 89. A great deliverance. And so they're awed by the way God comes in and puts down the enemy and brings about a great deliverance.
Should we not be in that spirit too? Should we not consider how great was our deliverance, who delivered us from the power of darkness and translated us into the Kingdom of his dear Son? Oh, beloved brethren, I say for myself.
That I fear there is a tendency in my heart to turn the grace of God.
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Into lasciviousness.
We need to consider that verse up there. Here it is right in the front of the room.
How many of us even thought about it today, or considered it?
Well, the Lord is so gracious to us. The Lord is so gracious. And indeed we're we're encouraged, we're invited, we're exhorted to come boldly under the throne of grace, and we're encouraged to come boldly into the very holiest of all, but not with an attitude of recklessness or with coming in any state or spirit that we want to.
Oh, may the Lord exercise our hearts as to this.
I would like to focus a little more upon another throne in scripture.
It's the throne of glory. I think there is something for us.
Be exercised about Now we know. We know very clearly, for instance, in Matthew 25, that the Lord Jesus will sit upon the throne of His glory, and he'll judge the living nations there, and he's got those that are on his right hand and on his left, and it's a very solemn thing to consider.
To divide him, so to speak, of the sheep and the goats. But I believe that this throne of glory has gone on from the past. A very solemn thing to consider.
But could such a thought as that bring comfort when we look into the?
Throne of his glory. We'll see.
But it is it becomes a very solemn aspect because it has to do with his glory and anything that stands in opposition to that. How solemn to consider. But there's a verse that is beautiful in Jeremiah chapter 17.
In this connection.
Jeremiah, chapter 17.
Verse 12.
A glorious high throne. I think, Mr. Darby, words that a throne of glory from the beginning is the place of our sanctuary. Imagine such a statement as that. How can this be? Well, dear Jeremiah, who was a man of faith.
And who experienced and witnessed the total decline, you might say, of the Kingdom who lived in the time of Josiah, when things outwardly seemed very fair. And you know there was never a Passover kept like the Passover that was kept by Josiah, and talk about straightening up things and cleaning up idolatry. It was most remarkable what that dear man of God accomplished when he was fully established in the Kingdom. He did it for the glory of God, but the heart of the people was not changed.
Underneath it all, over all, the heart of the people was not changed.
And so as soon as Josiah went off the scene, things just went down rapidly. And Jeremiah witnessed some very hard things, and he experienced some very hard things personally. His life was threatened, he was put down into a cesspool, I don't know what else to call it, where he was sinking down in the mire and he would have been left to starve to death. And he was smitten at times and he was criticized.
Remind you of our blessed Lord where it says, consider to him that endures his contradiction of sinners against yourself, Let's be faint and so forth. That dear man of God went through a lot, and he felt it keenly, and he felt the deceitfulness of the heart in verse 9. And he felt these things, those about him who were glorying in their riches. We had a little of that this afternoon, and that's an important exhortation.
Beloved brethren, as to our attitude in stewardship, we're all stewards. We've all been entrusted with certain responsibility. And how are we carrying it out in the fear of the Lord? But you can see what the Spirit of things was in Israel in verse 11. And all of a sudden here comes this.
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Verse A glorious or a throne of glory from the beginning is the place of our sanctuary. You know the sanctuary.
Especially in the Psalms seems to be the resting place for the soul, and sometimes that's the only way or the only place we can get rest when we see things that are out of order that just are not right.
What a comfort it is to look to him and consider that.
Never changes, and nothing can alter his purposes in connection with what I'm saying here. Just take a look at Psalm 11.
It's a short saw. Maybe, maybe we'll just read it. It is a Psalm of David. It's a personal experience, and David certainly experienced some personal difficult things. In the Lord, I put I my trust How say he to my soul. Flee as a bird to your mountain.
For lo, the wicked bend their bones. They make ready their arrow upon the string.
That they may privilege shoot at the upright in heart. You saw a bow here this morning. That our brother brought some very interesting and important principles and thoughts before us. And certainly the wicked take up things in this way. Did the Lord Jesus encounter these Bowman? Oh, yes, we certainly did. Maybe in three different characters. The Pharisees, the Sadducees, the Herodians, they all bent their bows.
At him.
And it looks as though things are ready to break apart. Verse 3. If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?
Isn't that an interesting verse?
But it's like Jeremiah says, you know that this is a sanctuary to the heart. Why?
Verse 4 The Lord is in his holy temple. The Lord's throne is in heaven, and I fully believe it is the throne of His glory.
The Lord's throne is in heaven. His eyelids behold. Umm. His eyes behold.
His eyelids try the children of men and so forth. They're not going to alter His purposes. All his purposes will come to pass. All his promises in Christ are yeah, in Him and in Him. Amen. They will come to pass for sure. They'll be confirmed and they'll be verified. Nothing will be changed at all. We can rest upon that. Our standing is untouched.
This is a good point in itself, that no matter what happens to us in this scene, be sure of this that that which we really possess is untouchable because it's all reserved in heaven, reserved in heaven for you, as Peter said, and will bless with all spiritual blessing in heavenly places in Christ. So it can't be touched that which we really possess in him can be touched, but sometimes we're a little free to use the expression of blessings.
In connection with that which is really mercies, you know, if you understand what I'm saying, If the Lord has met our needs down here and provided us with things and food to eat, which we should be so very thankful, These are really mercies. These are mercies. But our true blessings are spiritual and heavenly. They cannot be cut. The enemy hasn't has nothing to do with that, but the Lord may for some reason.
Allow our mercies to be disturbed.
As we've already had brought before us, don't let us not think for a moment that everything is secure in this land. We might be in for a great upheaval. There's lots of men of learning that are worried about the turn of the year 2000. You know, they're not all ready and set up with their computerization to meet it. And who knows what confusion could be added. But we are looking for the Lord Jesus to come. That's our hope. We can't be sure of anything down here.
And the Lord, I believe, does allow us to.
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Realize and to see that.
There's nothing stable in this scene. He's touching man in different ways. Will they not listen? Will they not take heed, as we had the other night about that airline disaster, you know, And there have been enough of those. But here, in spite of all the current updated equipment, all the methods they have of regulating all of these things, human failure comes in somewhere, some way and spoils it all. And then sometimes.
They just can't plan or realize what can happen, like for instance, just a little quirk of nature as they say.
Up our way and here they get.
A freeze frozen rain that was so heavy on the power lines that started pulling down big power lines. How big? It pulled towers down and it messed up the the whole grid of power and some of our beloved brethren up in those areas were without power for some time and they would invite some of the other Saints to come in with them and if they had a fireplace or whatever.
They would keep the heat that way, and they would have candles or lanterns if they had them anyway. This is so encouraging to see.
Turn over to Isaiah now.
Isaiah Chapter 6.
Isaiah Chapter 6.
In the year that King Uzziah died.
Why is this vision key to the time that Uzziah died?
Oh brother, do you not realize what happened to Uzziah?
He was a godly king.
But I believe that Satan moved his heart.
To overstep and to enter into a priestly function. And what did he do?
He brought incense, he was going to offer incense, and he came into the temple.
What was his motive or intent? I believe that Satan perhaps had moved his heart to do this with the intent to corrupt perhaps the Melchizedek priesthood, you say? What are you talking about? Melchizedek is a type of the Lord Jesus and his priesthood is a royal priesthood. It is awaiting that coming day when the Lord Jesus.
Will be a royal priest, and in association with himself he has made us kings and priests, our Kingdom of priests. Or isn't that marvelous?
To show forth the glories of him that have called us out of darkness into his marvelous life.
But at this time, it was an act of pure.
Self will and presumption here he comes into the holy place, and at that time there was a godly priest for the name of Azariah, and he with 80 valiant priests confronted that king, and they they said it appartineth not to you.
To offer incense. This is a priestly function, And he got mad, and he he may have put those priests to death. He got mad, and as he was getting mad and angry, the leprosy rose up in his flesh. They looked at him, the priest looked at him, and they grabbed him and rushed him out of the sanctuary, and he hastened to go out himself. He was not in the dispensation in which we lived, having therefore boldness, brother, to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, not by any idea or self will.
Or presumption of our own, but altogether as a result of His glorious work and making us fit for His holy presence.
But this vision is key to that time, and it is a very sobering thing. And it was a very sobering thing, I'm sure unto Isaiah I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne. What throne is this? I'm convinced it's the throne of His glory.
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Oh, he'll have the glory and the end result. Do we see this throne of His glory through Scripture? Yes, we do. We it takes us clear on into the Book of Revelation. There it is in Revelation chapter four, that throne of His glory. And in that viewing we see.
4 and 20 elders and what is their state and attitude?
Well, we see lightnings and thunderings issuing forth from that throne.
Because they're accepted in the blood and they're in Christ. They're made fifth for his presence. And we see them before a sea of glass. That's the labor. And that was what the priest would wash every time they would execute their service. But they don't need that cleansing. It's it's in a fixed state. They're in a fixed state of purity, and they're there without fear. But that same throne in its marvelous.
And it goes on even further. But.
Go on with what we have here.
Sitting upon a throne high.
And lift it up, and his train filled the temple. Above it stood the Seraphim.
Each one had six wings. With twain he covered his face, With twain he covered his feet, And with twain he did fly, even these preachers that have some connection and some attribute to the throne of his glory.
Are extremely cautious in his presence. Are extremely reverential.
And with Twain he covered his feet, and with Twain to fly verse 3.
And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy.
Is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of his glory and the post.
Of the door moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke. Then said I woe is me.
You know, dear Isaiah, dear man of God, oh, how I look forward to meeting these dear men of God in the glory, don't you? And to talk to them, to consider all that they went through, dear man of God.
Lord had instructed him and he had pronounced woe after woe. Look verse 11 and verse 20 of chapter 5 and verse 18 of chapter 5 and on and on he pronounces about 6 woes on the people for the state they were in.
But the seventh boy pronounced of itself, all beloved brethren, we must feel, we must feel these things. And if there are conditions that arise that are a woe to the Saints of God, we ought to be on our faces. Why is it happening? Why are these things coming upon us? Do we sense our state person? Do we feel as we should feel about these things? Sometimes the Lord has to use measures to get our attention.
I can remember this time that I got rather interested in the book of Job and I think I used the subject about two or three times along the way as I traveled and all of a sudden after about the 3rd or 4th.
Time I begin to have trouble with the car.
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Trouble with the car. And it was a nightmare of trouble. I had the trouble fixed, I thought, and I was going right down into New York City, into an area I was unsure of, And the trouble came again. And finally this dear brother got me to a place where they repaired it, and they made sure that the bill went as high as possible.
And I drove away from there and I don't think I got more than a couple 100 miles. And the trouble came back again. And I said, why, Lord?
Well, I believe the Lord was giving me a little taste, just a little taste of what Joe went through. My how that man honored the Lord in the stand that he took. I'm not saying the way in which his friends riled him.
It seemed to take that to break that hard shell, but he didn't. He didn't. Satan did not get a victory In that situation, Satan really went away defeated and Job was kept.
But the Saints of God are passing through so many things, and we know so little about it and justice as our brother of Dalton. This afternoon I thought of some of the letters we received from Malawi. This one brother says I've never known such hunger in my life.
They just plain ran out of food. And why? It was because of a drought and it was a hand to mouth situation. If they didn't get the crop in and didn't get a return, they had no food. That was it. And the government, they began to recognize this need. But they were very slow in doing much to help. But our beloved brethren over there experienced real hunger. How difficult it was to help them out, you know, because.
It's so difficult to get money over there without having it stolen out of the mail and all, so you have to be so careful. But anyway.
Turn to Ezekiel. Now You see, as these times and pressures come upon Israel, we see as he raises up these servants how that he he gives them something to solemnize the servant even and to realize with whom they have to do. But still for the God fearing person, that throne of glory is a sanctuary, because we know not a thing we'll get out of his control.
And so here we see that Ezekiel, in the very opening of this first chapter, he has a most remarkable vision. Don't ask me to explain it, but you know, all the description of what we have here, I believe, certainly tweaks to us of God's ways In government. It's a very complex thing, like wheels within wheels, and everything is in a very rigid control. Nothing happens indiscriminately. It may seem like that to us.
But it isn't that way. God is working out all these things and purposes, not only for our good and blessing, but to try and bring man into blessing too, and know it's not that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance. What must it be to bring that about?
You know, we saw we witnessed the thing that was very hard and that is when we were coming into Michigan. It was dark and there wasn't a whole lot of traffic and we had the cruise control set on maybe about 70, I think it was 75. But it's a nice easy freeway and it was dark and all of a sudden I saw, we saw fast moving lights coming up behind us.
And here were six young fellows on racing motorcycles with their heads bowed down as they had those machines revved up. I think as high as they go, it looked to me like they were out running the reach of their headlights.
And Zing, Zing, Zing, they went. Biases. Oh, we were going backwards and all of a sudden the whole line of traffic stopped.
The whole line of traffic stopped.
And finally.
When we moved on and when we inquired from a man that was standing there.
One of those young fellows hit the back of the car and we saw and that back of that car was smashed clear in when the ambulance came with sirens.
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It left without silence.
And later on down the road, we came across the rest of these fellows. I suppose they wanted to get away from the scene of the accident. They were still hugging down.
But they were going very slow. Oh, the world is in such a rate.
So so but anyway, just notice that out of this all.
Ezekiel has a vision, Chapter One, verse 26 and above the firmament.
That was over their heads was the likeness of a throne.
Must be the throne of his glory.
As the appearance of a sapphire science stone, and upon the likeness of the throne.
Was the likeness as of the appearance of a man.
Above it. Who's that? Who's that? It's one in the same person. All judgment is committed to the Son, and even though we must stand before him and we must be reviewed, he will not judge his work. He will not judge his work because we're secure and safe in him. But we will suffer loss, as First Corinthians Chapter 3 clearly indicates. What a solemn thing to consider.
That we shall be manifest. The Saints of God who are sheltered by the blood of Christ, we will be manifest.
You know, No wonder. No wonder we see the solemnity of it. Wherefore we would persuade men. They're going to have to face him as a judge, and they'll have no blood to shelter them. What if solemn thing to consider. But here we have these likenesses of the throne of his Lord, and we see as you go through the word of God, you'll be surprised, I believe, both in the Old and the New Testament. But what an awful and a solemn thing to consider, that.
That this throne becomes then, as it were, a great white throne. That's how we last see it, and how tall that is. And you well know what all that brings before us, but dear ones here this afternoon.
Let us not forget what God has done for us, and let us not forgive what should be our conscience and our exercise of heart before him. We're not under law, we're under grace. But do we not fear? There is one verse I should read and that's in the end of Hebrews, because everything will be burnt that will not stand the test. And so on the end of Hebrews chapter 12 it says in verse 28.
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.
Everything that is contrary to his mind and His will will be tested. Everything that is done in this world, whether it's Sinner, Sinner, will be tested. It will withstand the test of the fire. Oh brother, may the Lord exercise our heart as to what's due him and think about these things when we come into His presence. He's had all this before us and how we need to be sobered in these matters. Shall we pray?
Our blessed God and Father, we thank you.
For the throne of grace, that we have been encouraged and invited to come boldly to make our request known. And we do thank thee indeed for so many answered prayers. And we thank thee too, that we likewise have boldness and inner in the holiest of all for the blood of Jesus, not like poor Uzziah, when a foolish thing that he did, and what a consequence and a price he had to pay for this act of self will.
But, O blessed God and Father, help us not to be careless and indifferent, and indifferent. What is due unto thee?
Who are blessed Lord Jesus?
So we do thank thee as we ask all in the worthy name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Amen.