YP Address—B. Anstey
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Let's begin the meeting by singing #294 #294. Take thou our hearts and let them be forever closed to all but thee, thy willing servants. Let us wear the seal of love forever. There #294.
Let's open our Bibles to the 22nd chapter of Luke's Gospel.
Luke's Gospel, chapter 22 and verse 15.
And he that's the Lord Jesus Christ said unto them, his disciples, with desire have I desired to eat this Passover with you.
Before I suffer.
Now pass on to verse 31.
And the Lord said.
Simon, Simon, Behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not, and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren.
I've read 2 passages of Scriptures here in the very same chapter, and we have disclosed to us two great desires, the desire of our Lord Jesus Christ.
And the desire of Satan himself, the enemy of our souls.
The Lord Jesus great desire is that we would know what it is to have fellowship and communion with him, of which eating is a figure. He would have us to feast with Him and fellowship and communion, and to do that every single day of our lives. He longs for our company, He longs for our fellowship, and He wants to feed us with spiritual food for our souls, and feasting is a picture of that in the scriptures.
He would like to set on a feast for us every single day of our lives. This is what the Lord Jesus wants, not only for the young people, but for every one of His people, old and young alike, that we would know what it is to fellowship with him. But then on the other hand, as I've read in verse 31, we have the desire of the enemy of our soul.
This is directed particularly to Simon, but I believe that it has application to every single one of the Lord's people, and that is that Satan desires to have you, that he may sift you as wheat. So here we have two opposing desires The enemy here would desire to sift us. You may ask, well, how and what is sifting? Well, as I understand it, sifting simply means to draw out from the rest.
Through a disturbance, you know, you take a sieve, you shake the sieve and those things that pass through the sieve are taken away and what is left is the the other part that has been separated from it. And I believe that the devil wants to do that very thing with the young people today. But not only the young, all of God's people could be possible, that is to draw them out from the rest.
Lead them into a path that would dishonor the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and to make their life.
A failure.
And so these two opposing desires are before us on the same page in our Bibles. And in between we have the Lord Jesus speaking about his death and His resurrection and how important it is that we would let that capture our hearts affections, that we would be guided in the right way. And so the Lord Jesus has a design for our life, a design that would be for our happiness and our our good and our blessing.
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And the devil himself also has designs in our life. How solemn this is to think that he has a desire to have you as it says here, those of us who are Christians, you say, What would he want with a Christian?
He knows that a Christian can be a very good use to his end.
What better instrument could he use or call upon than a Christian? That is walking carelessly and with indifference he can get the Christian who bears the name of Christ to dishonor the Lord, and that's what his great desire is, whatever Christ is most set for. We read that the devil is most set against, and so fellowship and communion with the Lord is essential. And this is the great desire that the Lord has.
For you, dear young person, here this afternoon, but not just young, all of us. It is so essential that we know what it is to feast with our blessed Lord every single day of our life. It's with you. He wants personal fellowship and communion. He wants you to walk through this world and fellowship with himself so that we might know the joys of heaven and the secrets of his heart.
He wants us to speak to him and to talk to him and to pour out our hearts before him, as we're told in Psalm 62, to tell him what we really think about things in this life. We can tell them things that we couldn't really tell our nearest friend. He wants to hear it, and he delights to have that kind of fellowship with us. He wants to fill our souls with the food of heaven. He wants to feed us with himself.
You know, the Bible tells us we read this in the prayer meeting last night, that he has brought me into his banqueting house and his banner over me, His love. He wants us to feast together with him. But, you know, the designs of the enemy are quite the opposite. He wants to draw us out from the rest, make our life a failure. And you may ask, well, how exactly does he sift? How does he do this kind of a thing?
Well, I believe.
The way in which the enemy operates, and I might say on the side that we're very thankful for the word of God because it discloses the enemy's tactics.
So that we can say, like the Apostle Paul said, that we are not ignorant of his devices. The word of God tears the mask off of Satan's tactics and his plans. We're told that he has indeed plans and designs for every life of a Christian, and that's to spoil it. We read in Ephesians chapter six that we are to stand against the Wiles of the devil. You know what a while is? It's something that looks harmless.
Looks innocent, but behind it the soul is deceived into a path or making a step that would be.
A dishonor to the Lord. But I have noticed in Mr. Kelly's translation in Ephesians chapter six that he translates that word Wiles stratagems. We would stand against the stratagems of the devil. Now you say, what's a stratagem? Well, it comes from the word strategy.
Can it be that the devil has a strategy with regard to the Saints of God? Indeed he does. And what a strategy is the science of military warfare? And we're in a conflict and we're passing through an enemy's land, and there's no time for us to put our feet up and let our hair down, so to speak. We have to be on guard because this enemy is seeking to put something in our pathway that is going to distract us ultimately from the great feast.
With the Lord Jesus. And he knows that the way to sift the people of God is to 1St weaken their spiritual constitution by diverting them from the feasts. And so one of the tactics of the enemy is to introduce things into your life whereby you will be distracted.
From the feasts that the Lord Jesus wants to have with you. And we're thankful for the word of God that would.
Disclose these tactics you know I read in Two Corinthians chapter three. You might call them the three Bees. Satan's Three Bees 2 Corinthians chapter 4 tells us whom the God of this world hath blinded.
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So that's the first thing he likes to do. He's working to blind eyes. But you turn on a few pages in that epistle and you'll find that it says that as.
The devil beguiled Eve, so the enemy of our soul would like to deceive us. And so there's another tactic that is to beguile deceive and you turn another page in Second Corinthians chapter 12, I believe it is, and Paul speaks about the thorn for the flesh that he had.
And how that Satan would use that kind of a thing if he hadn't accepted it from the Lord to Buffett him.
There you have three bees that the enemy is at work with, to blind, to beguile, and to buffet the Saints of God. His attempt is to shake our faith and our confidence in the Blessed Lord and to deceive us into taking a path that is going to be for the dishonor of the Lord Jesus into our own heart.
And so we have two opposing desires here, the desire of our Lord Jesus and the desire of the enemy of our souls. Now verse 31 Says Simon, Simon, Behold, Satan hath desired to have you. The word you there in the King James Version is a plural. So though he was addressing Simon individually, because there was already at work in Simon's soul, that which was shows that his he was on a skit already.
He was occupied with his greatness among the disciples. The Lord had said to him that the other the disciples were going to forsake him and flee. And he said, the Lord be told, the Lord well, though I can see that what happened with these other disciples, that would never happen with me. And the Lord said, this very night, you're going to end up doing that.
And so Simon was particularly in danger here. But the Lord said, Satan hath desired to have you referring to the whole company. And so let's not think that we're exempt from the tactics of the enemy.
We have the Lord that's praying for us, interceding.
But the desire of the enemy is to introduce something into our lives that is going to weaken our spiritual constitution. And as I said, he's going to attack the very lifeline of the Saints.
Health. And that is the feast. Now, with that in mind, I'd like to turn to the 14th chapter of this same gospel and read a few verses. Let's turn to the 14th chapter.
And read from verse 17 verse 16.
Then said he unto him.
A certain man made a great supper, and bade many, and sent his servant at supper time to say to them that were bidden come, for all things are now ready.
And they all would want a consent began to make excuse. The first said unto him, I have bought a piece of ground, and I must needs go and see it. I pray thee have me excused. Another said I have bought 5 yoke of oxen, and I go to prove them. I pray thee have me excused. And another said, I have married a wife. Therefore I cannot come now these verses that I have read to you.
Are verses that have their primary application in the gospel and how that God is set on a great provision of salvation for sinners and has made a great invitation to this world for all to come and to partake of the blessing that God would bring in the gospel.
But these three excuses that we find that are thrown up here to reject the invitation that would keep sinners in their sins and from partaking of the salvation of God are the same three things that I believe that the enemy is using to divert Christians from partaking of the great feast of fellowship and communion with the Lord Jesus Christ.
This afternoon I'd like to apply this to ourselves as Christians. These three things are the same. Three things that.
Sinners from Christ keep believers.
From feasting on the Lord Jesus.
Well, the Lord has a feast for our souls, a feast of communion, and we find here that these three excuses come into the three great categories that might.
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That we will all encounter in our lives. The first one would answer to our possessions, our possessions. The second one would answer to our business pursuits. Oxen, as we know, were the the, the beast that they used in their businesses to plow down their fields. And so on.
Thirdly.
The third excuse would answer to our social relationships. I want to speak about these three things and how they get in the way of our feasting on the Lord Jesus and with the Lord Jesus, our possessions, our business pursuits, and our social relationships.
Our possessions, first of all.
You know, we're thankful to live in a society like this, which is affluent in comparison to pretty much every other place in the world. We can work, and we have lots of disposable income where we can buy the things that would tickle our fancy, that would amuse us. And I believe that this can be used as the enemy that is our possessions. We have Christians have a habit of surrounding ourselves.
Well, all kinds of things that we have purchased for our entertainment and for our pleasure. And in unconsecrated hands, they can be used as the enemy of our souls. Though they may not be wrong on themselves intrinsically, still they can be used as the enemy of our souls to distract us, to hinder us from the great feast with our Lord Jesus. And I believe that the enemy is at work today.
To introduce as much as we as he can of these kind of things into the lives of Christians with the hope that they'll be distracted in this way. The great result is that there's going to be a great malnutrition.
Spiritual malnutrition. I believe that the church today largely is suffering from that kind of malnutrition, Poorly taught and don't take time to have fellowship with the Lord. And it shows in our life. But when it comes to the feast that Christ would have with us, we can have as much of Christ as we want, and our lives show how much we want.
At any rate, our possessions can very often get in the way, and if we are not careful, we are not devoted Christians. What happens is that these things take up our attention, and they have a way of taking away our appetite for the food of God. There is just something in our preoccupation with all these various things that we can purchase and bring into our lives.
And I'm not picking in any one thing particularly, but you know what I'm saying? There's all these things that the young people are.
Of God for their entertainment. I don't even know what they are. The DVD and the VCR and the this and that and every other kind of thing that a man could crowd into his life for his own entertainment. Every single one of those things in the hands of an unconsecrated Christian can be used as the enemy. He can take advantage of that. He can make use of that. And I'm concerned about that for you young people, because.
We desire that you would go on for the Lord and be a help and further in the testimony of the Lord in this world. And the enemy is concerned about that too. He doesn't want to see you feeding on Christ. He doesn't want to see you growing in your soul. He doesn't want to see you being a use to the Lord Jesus. And he knows very well that if he can just bring in these things that would hinder you from feeding on Christ, that you're going to be rendered pretty much useless.
And the things of God, you know, there's an enemy in the Old Testament. I perhaps could have mentioned this when I was introducing the subject in chapter 22, but you have an enemy in the Old Testament that did exactly this. It's brought before us in tight and it illustrates really this very tactic of the enemy. You turn to Judges Chapter 6, and you read there was an enemy called the Midianite. And we find there that the Midianite came up into the land of Israel with one intention, and that was to systematically take the food off the land of the of Israel.
Away from the children of Israel, we find that they destroyed the produce of the land in a systematic way. The idea behind it, of course, was to weaken the children of Israel so they had no food. Then they would be an enemy to the Midianites that would be easy to push over. And that's exactly what the enemy of our souls is trying to do, to weaken our constitution. And then we're an easy pushover to the things that he would introduce into our lives. It says there about the Midianites, what they did to the children of Israel. It says they were greatly impoverished.
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Malnutrition. What a scene. Well, God delivered them from it. And God can deliver us from it too, if we have an exercise heart.
What we find here that he had bought a piece of ground and he thought that he needed to go see it and wanted to be excused from partaking of the feasts.
Well.
You know, there's an Old Testament type that I like to turn to now.
That would illustrate this movement of the enemy of our souls. So let's turn there now to Genesis Chapter 14.
Genesis 14.
Verse 17.
And the king of Sodom, His name is Biro. We learned from verse two, went out to meet him. That's Abraham after making a great victory.
After his return from the slaughter of Cable Omar, and of the kings that were with him at the valley, Sheva, which is in the King's Dale, or the King's Valley, and Melchizedek, king of Salem, brought forth bread and wine. And it was the priest of the Most High, and he was the priest of the Most High. And he blessed him, and said, blessed be Abram of the Most High God.
Possessor of heaven and earth, blessed be the most high God, which hath delivered thine enemies into thy hand, and he gave him ties of all.
And the king of Sodom said unto Abram.
Give me the persons, and take the goods to thyself.
And Abraham said to the King Sodom of Sodom, I have lifted up my hand.
Under the Lord, the Most High God, the possessor of heaven and earth, that I will not take from a thread even to a shoelace, and that I will not take anything that is thine lest thou should say, I have made Abram rich, save only that which the young men have eaten, And the portion of the men which went with me, ainor, eshkol, and Mamre LED them take their portion.
So here we have an illustration of this point that I have now made. We find here, after Abraham comes back from the slaughter of the kings in the valley there, that there are two kings that meet him. One is the king of Sodom. He's a type of the devil himself. And we have another king. His name is Melchizedek. He's the type of the Lord Jesus Christ. And these two kings come and make a bid for Abram.
And I believe that there's a bid going on for the souls of the young people, of the Lord's people.
But isn't it striking that Abraham met?
Melchizedek 1St and Melchizedek brought to Abram bread and wine, and he partook of this bread and wine which would answer to the blessings that God would have, or what Christ would have for us. And Abram gave him ties of all. And there he learned from Melchizedek that he was the possessor of heaven and earth. He learned that he had all things that would belong to him.
In the Most High God and by partaking of what Melchizedek gave him.
We find that he was well able to refuse what the king of Sodom offered to him. Notice what the king of Sodom said. Give me the persons, but take the goods to thyself. And that's exactly what the enemy of our souls is saying he's telling us. Take the goods to thyself. Now remember what this is. Sodom's a picture of this world and all of its corruption. And the king of it, of course, is a picture of the devil himself, who's over it. And he's telling Abram, take all the goods of Sodom to yourself. Just take it.
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You deserve it.
But Abraham would not take a shoe latchered of it, or a thread from it. He had tasted something better in what Melchizedek had given him, and he refused it. And the only way in which we're going to beat the enemy's suggestions of piling into our lives all kinds of things that ultimately could be used to hinder us from the enjoyment of the great feast with Christ as to taste a little of those things.
That are heavenly, that are from God. And the more we taste of that kind of thing, the more we'll have the spiritual constitution to say no to what the world is offering us and putting before us. But isn't this here a striking point with regard to the enemy's tactics so obvious as I say, the word of God unmasks his tactics, His stratagems give me the persons or the souls. That's what he's after. He wants your soul.
But, he says, take the goods to yourself.
What good were those goods be to a man that was living in a tent anyway? Abraham was a Pilgrim. He had no place for it. It was not. It didn't fit his lifestyle. And if we lived the lifestyle the scripture would set before us as strangers and pilgrims. A lot of the things of this world has to offer for us really doesn't fit that lifestyle.
And more than that, what became of these goods, anyway?
You read about 3 or 4 chapters on in the same book of Genesis. You'll find out what happened to those goods. They were burned up with fire and brimstone. They had an end. And everything that we look at, you know, everything we rest our eye upon. We could write that one verse over it in Second Peter reserved unto fire. Every single material thing that we look at we can say is reserved under fire. Now I'm not saying that we cannot.
Enjoy the things that God would put into our hands. What I am saying is that every single thing that we do possess and bring into our lives is a potential for the enemy to use to distract us. So the lighter we travel through this world, the safer we can be. And it's really the Pilgrim path.
Take the goods to thyself. That's the voice of the enemy. Acquire as much of this world's goods as you can.
Surround yourself with all kinds of things for your pleasure. You can just enjoy it from morning to night, but it'll take away your appetite for those things of God. Let's be warned if it's been used with unconsecrated hands. And so we find that Abraham has the spiritual strength to say I've lifted up my hand to the Lord, the Most High God, the possessor of heaven and earth.
And he said, I'm not going to take a thread to a shoelatcher, even something as small as a shoelace. He wasn't going to take something that might trip up his walk, may stumble.
That is an incredible victory of faith. Only faith can do that. And he had the strength for it because he had met Melchizedek first. And you know, we're here today. In the next two or three days, we're going to enjoy Christ and our souls. But we do have to go out into this world to make a living. You have to go to school and your education and all that I know is something that cannot be denied. And the enemy is going to be whispering.
Take the goods to yourself.
Get as much of this scene as you can into your life. We have to be careful.
Now we find the last verse that Abraham said he wasn't going to make a decision for the young men that were with him. He said, I'm going to leave it up to them, let them take what they think is right. But for myself, I'm not taking a thread to a shoe latcher. And I believe this is really important for us as older Christians in the past. You know, we can make decisions where our children are young for them, but there comes a time when they have to make their own decision. And so Abraham said for these young men.
Inner eschol memory and so on. I'm going to leave it to them with their own exercise.
They would do what they want to do with the goods of Sodom, but for myself I'm not going to take it.
And I believe that Abraham's example is the best thing he could have given to those young men. And it's the same for us. The older Christians know what's perhaps best for the young, but we can't always be insisting what they should have or what they shouldn't have. You come to a certain age. You need to make these responsible decisions yourself before the Lord. What the Lord wants you to have this, or what the Lord wants you to have that you need to ask him.
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And to be exercised before the Lord with regard to everything that you've purchased and bring into your life, because, because.
It could be potentially used of the enemy and So what an example we have here in Abram back, we'll look at the 2nd.
Excuse.
Luke 14 verse 19.
Another said I have bought 5 yoke of oxen. I go to prove them. I pray thee have me excused. Now this man allowed his business pursuits, his business interests to get in his way.
As I said, the yoke of oxen, what they used in their jobs and applying the fields and so on. And he had made a purchase here, so A5 yoke of oxen.
He bought them without even looking at them, which is not necessarily a very intelligent thing, but we won't focus on that just now.
He used this excuse to have himself.
Away from the feast.
You know, we can allow our business pursuits, our responsibilities to get in the way. And with this I would couple perhaps our education for those who are young, because really it's preparatory to our employment. All education is, isn't it? And we can allow that to come in the way of our feasting on the things of Christ. We have to be very, very careful that our jobs.
And our businesses, as I say, education too, which leads to that.
Are put in the right place in our Christian life.
Because, as we've been saying, in unconsecrated hands, the enemy can make use of it. And very often we can be deceived to think well, this is important because it's my responsibility. After all, the Lord wants us to work. It says in Scripture that I'm to provide things honest in the sight of all men, to work with my hands, and so on. That's true, but he wants us to be responsibly exercised with regard to the path, and these things would have the rightful place. And if we don't have a consecrated life.
It's very possible that the enemy could use this to crowd out time taken for the feasts of Christ. Let's be exercised about that. You know, I know a Christian man, Chinese Christian man that lived in Taiwan. I do business with him, actually. He was telling me one time that in Taiwan where he lived, he was just a young man. He didn't have much money. He was just working in a normal job. He couldn't afford a car.
But what he had was a little motorcycle, and if you know anything about the kind of motorcycles they have over there, more like what we would call a scooter over here. And he pulled up to a stoplight one day and he was on a scooter. And then up to what came up to him next was a car. It was a Mercedes-Benz, fully loaded. The window was rolled down, had some music going in there and there was this fellow that was sitting in there and he said I sat on this little motorcycle, or it was a scooter really. I looked inside there, he said. I could just smell the wealth and the.
And all that that man had, and he said I made a decision right there and then that I was going to work as hard as I could to get that because that was really success to him.
He looked at that and he said now that's success, The light changed. They went on and never saw him again, he said. He worked hard, very hard, and I know the man. He has definitely worked hard. He's become quite wealthy.
And he said a number of years later he had made so much money that he went out and put cash on the table and bought himself a Mercedes just like the one he saw.
And he said it wasn't too long after that. Of all the business responsibilities crowding in on him, he hardly had time for the things of the Lord, but he worked hard and he had made a lot.
There he was, driving his fancy car, he said he one day he drove down the road in Taipei, Taiwan. He came up to the very same stoplight that he had came up to 20 years before. He had passed there many times, but never thought about it. But he stopped there at the light, sitting in his nice Mercedes on the way home from work.
And you know what came up along beside him?
Some young kid on a motorcycle.
And he said that kid looked in at me and I looked at him and he said, I couldn't tell you exactly what was in that kid's mind. He thought, boy, I'd like to have that the light changed and the two went away. And he said I never saw him again, but he said that made me cry.
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He said. You know, I've wasted 20 years trying to get this stupid car and have a business like I got. And what have I got? This young kid thinks that I've got something.
And now he's serving the Lord more and more. I just thank God for it. But you know, what are we going to do? Are we going to waste our lives trying to get?
You know, through our businesses, through our jobs, just to acquire things.
And waste 20 good years of our lives.
Oh, how sad. What a picture that is. And I've heard him tell this story and it's really powerful to think.
That he chased something that he thought was going to be really cool.
And it turned out that it was nothing. He still got the car many years later. It's an old beat up Mercedes now, but.
Anyway, our business pursuits.
You know the enemy can use that.
In unconsecrated hands. Now I'm going to turn to an Old Testament passage that would illustrate this too. Let's turn to numbers 21.
Numbers 21 verse one.
And when King Arred the Canaanite, which dwelt in the South, heard tell that Israel came by the way of the spies. Then he fought against Israel, and took some of them prisoners. And Israel vowed A vow unto the Lord, and said, If thou wilt indeed deliver this people into my hand, then I will utterly destroy their cities. And the Lord hearkened unto the voice of Israel.
And delivered them up.
The Canaanites. And they utterly destroyed them and their cities. And he called the name of the place Hormone.
In the 13th chapter we find that the Canaanite that says he dwelt by the sea.
Here we find he dwells in the South. Now the meaning of the name Canaanite means the trafficker or the traitor.
In other words, he's the merchant man. He's the merchant man. This is an enemy here of the children of Israel. There are 5 wilderness enemies. You can look them up. Five of them. This is one of the five.
And we find here that this enemy took some of the children, Israel of Israel, captive prisoners. He's a picture, as I say, of the merchantman, the trafficker.
There's nothing wrong with doing business. We have to do business in this world, of course. But here is the Canaanite king, the enemy of the children of Israel that would come in and he actually took captive some of the children of Israel.
And they came under his power. It's a picture for us of coming under the power of business, life. I remember a brother said to me one time. Brother, I'm captive to my job. I can't do what I need to do. I have no time.
And I thought of this passage, captive to your job.
Oh, what the enemy would like to do to distract you from the feast but the Lord Jesus Christ and thus weaken our spiritual constitution. Many are captive to their jobs. They work from morning to night. Even when they get home, they're thinking about it. Is that what the Lord wants for us? You know, it's to be a means for us to get through this world. But it isn't an end all and be all of everything. Our objective should be the things of God.
But somehow, if we're not careful, the enemy with all of his Wiles will slowly but surely try to bring us under his power, and we become captive to our jobs sometimes.
Some of them were taken prisoner and captive, but a sad situation.
Could they be free to offer sacrifices to the Lord and be used of the Lord and service? Of course not.
They were hindered by this. What we find here that we have the remedy, just as we had the remedy in Genesis 12 as to how we can beat.
The world and all of its possessions. The enemy suggestions to take the goods. Here we have a remedy in this chapter two. First of all, we find that they vow A vowel. I'm not suggesting you take a vow. We know from the Scripture that Christians aren't to be involved with vowels, but it has. It's a typical meaning here or to interpret the passages of the Old Testament and their typical significance. And I believe this would bring before us the weight of a spiritual exercise. There needs to be exercise about it. If this is you, that you feel like you're captive to your job and you're going around and around like a mouse or a tempster on a wheel.
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First of all, there needs to be the weight of a spiritual exercise.
Then secondly it says. Then they cried to the Lord. There needs to be prayer and bring this before the Lord.
And then thirdly, we find that they rise up.
And they make war on the King of Canaan and the Deliverer.
Themselves from that enemy. Notice it was not the Lord that made war, it was the children of Israel. And the Lord wants us to extricate ourselves from such situations, and he'll help us. You know, sometimes when the children of Israel fought a battle, they didn't do anything but stand still. And the Lord bought the battle. Remember with.
When they came out of Egypt, the Lord took care of the Egyptian army, but not now. Not exactly. He wanted the children of Israel to put their hand on their sword themselves, and to deal with this enemy themselves, the Lord would help. There was something that they needed to be exercised about, and so I believe this is the manner in which we can be delivered from it. The Lord will give us grace to be set free from this enemy.
The merchant man. Let's turn back now to the third excuse.
Luke 14.
And verse 20, another said I have married a wife and therefore I cannot come. And as I said, this would answer to our social relationships. This man had a social relationship in his life.
That hindered him from the feast, and I believe that our friends can be a help or a hindrance. As we've said at other times, our friends are like the buttons on an elevator. They can take us up or they can take us down. What kind of friends do we have in our life? Are they ones that help us in our spiritual path, or are they ones that are just a drag on spiritual interests?
We need to be exercised about this. Our companions are very important.
And especially the kind of companion that's mentioned in this verse, a marital relationship.
But our companions very definitely will mark which direction we're going to go. You know it says in Acts chapter 4, being let go, they went to their own company. But we need to have company with those who have exercise of heart that want to go on. The psalmist said, I am a companion of all them that fear thee and keep thy commandments. Those are the kind of companions God would have for us. But sadly there are those amongst the Lord's people that may not have that such exercise to fear God and to keep His commandments.
And if we surround ourselves with this kind of companions, it will not do us any good. You know, I'm thinking of David's men. King David's men in First Samuel. I think it's 25. You'll read about Nabel's young men. They were in the fields, and David's young men there were with him. And all the while they were shearing their sheep, we find that David's men were there with them. And when they came back and reported to Abigail what David's men were like, they said they were like a wall unto us by night and by day.
And I think that's beautiful. You know, if you have good companions, ones who are friends of David, David's the type of Christ they can be. Like a wall to you. You know, a wall speaks to us of separation, doesn't it?
They can be a spiritual help from all of the influences of this world.
By day and by night and the troubled times and the happy times, you know, that's the kind of companions we need. They can be like a wall to us. Perhaps there's a weak moment in our life, but we have companions that are there to strengthen us, to encourage us. I think of Jonathan, who had an armor bearer, You know, they were going to go up and attack the land of Israel, of the Philistines. Rather, they got to a point where Jonathan got a little scared. He was thinking about turning back.
And his armor bearer said, Turn thee, turn thee. I'll be there with thee. You can read about that in First Samuel 14, I think just a weak moment there in Jonathan's life. He had the faith to go up and attack that enemy. But when he got to the point, he thought otherwise and he was thinking about turning back. And when he thought that way, this armor bearer friend of his encouraged him to turn, and they went up and they brought a great battle, A victory, rather.
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And so.
What kind of companions are we identifying ourselves with? What kind of companions do you have?
That's to illustrate that now by turning to Second Chronicles Chapter 24.
The Life of Joash, I thought, might illustrate this. Second Chronicles 24.
George was seven years old when he began to reign, and he reigned 40 years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was also Zabaya of Beersheba, and Joash did that which was right in the sight of the Lord. All the days of Jehoiada the priest pass on now to verse 15. But Jehoiada waxed old and was full of days when he died. 130 years old was he when he died. This priest had seen 7 kings come to the throne.
In Judah.
And they buried him in the city of David among the kings, because he had done good in Israel both toward God and toward his house. Now after the death of Jehoiada came the Princess of Judah, and made obeisance to the king. Then the king hearkened unto them, and they left the House of the Lord God of their fathers, and served the Groves and idols. And wrath came upon Judah and Jerusalem for this their trespass.
And he sent prophets to them to bring them again unto the Lord. And they testified against them, but they would not give ear. And the spirit of the God came upon Zachariah the son of Jehoiada the priest, which stood above the people, and said unto them, Thus they have the Lord, Why transgress ye the commandments of the Lord?
And that you cannot prosper.
Because ye have forsaken the Lord, he also has forsaken you. And he conspired against him, and stoned him with stones, at the commandment of the king, At the commandment of the king, did you, what I read in the court of the House of the Lord. Thus Joash the king remembered not the kindness that Jehoiada his father, which had done to him, but flew his son. And when he died he said, the Lord, look on it.
And require it.
Here we have an example of a man that got into bad company. He had been going on well for many years under the influence of Jehoiada. In fact, Jehovah's wife and him actually raised this boy because he was fatherless and motherless. He was an orphan from the age of 1. We learned from a couple of chapters previous and all the days that Jehoiada was on the throne and he was his guardian. This young man did good and went on for the Lord.
But there came a time when Jehoiada was removed out of his life and we find that these young men, the Princess of Israel and of Judah, came and began to influence this young man. And what happens is his heart was turned away from the Lord. He brought idolatry into his life. And then when the Prophet spoke, he didn't like his conscience being touched. And so he tried to attack the Prophet and gave order that they would stone him. What a sad, sad thing. And it came up as a result.
Of his companions. And so here we have an example, I believe, of companions that are no good to us. You know, your parents seek to bring you up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. They want to shield you from many things that there are in this world, and to guide you in the path that would be to the pleasing of the Lord.
But we find here that when this parental.
Of this guardianship is removed that this young man now had to make decisions on his own.
And it became very evident what kind of a person he was going to be. He was very glad to have those kind of people in his life. And we find here that he.
Hearkens to them. It tells us in verse 17, and it's not long after that that they introduced things, and it was life. That was a terrible dishonor to the Lord, and he got on a path that was terrible. So our companions have a great influence.
On our life, and particularly the one that we read about there in Luke's Gospel chapter 14, The wife, a husband. Now, dear young people, you want to marry someone who's going to be a help to you in the Lord.
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And I know it's difficult. When you come together at meetings like this. You don't know everybody. You don't know what kind of spirituality there may be. But there are certain ways to read the index of a person's character. I don't have time to look into it here now.
That would help you greatly.
But every person gives an index to their character, and if you know how to read it, you can tell where they're at. And one of them, as we've been speaking here on this subject, is to look at their friends. You see a young person that looks promising and might be someone that you could.
But you don't know really where they're at because you know you don't know them that well. I'll tell you this, if you look at those who are their companions, you'll get a ready index as to the kind of people they are with. Whom do they fellowship? Is it the godly and spiritual young ones amongst us, or is it the careless and indifferent ones? If that's their companions, you've got to there, You've got your answer. You know, they say, if you want to know a quick index to a person's character, if you can get into their home, look straight at their bookshelf.
Go to the bookshelf and look at it. You see a bunch of books on fishing, then you see a few more books on.
Baseball or whatever.
And you see someone on some other subjects, you know, basically there's where their interests lie.
And it's the same when it comes to the companions that we keep. We give a cross section to others as to what kind of person we are. Another principle I would just give you in Acts chapter 15, it says Paul chose Silas being recommended of the Brethren. Now I know this was the choosing of a companion in service and the work of the Lord, but you know, our wives and our husbands are to be our spiritual companions too. And the principle that's laid down there is broad enough to take in even the marriage relationship and that is Paul chose Cyrus being recommended.
Of the brethren. The point I'm making now is, does that person have the recommendation of their home brethren? They know them much better than you do.
If you consult with some person that comes from their local assembly, you'll find out what they're really like because they'll tell you if they're godly and faithful brother or sister. You know, You come here to a conference like this, everybody shows up with a little pad and a paper, but do they have pads and paper at the home gathering?
Well, it's hard to read sometimes whenever in a mixed multitude like this.
But I believe that if we lean upon the principles of the Word of God, the Lord will lead us and guide us to a companion in marriage that will be for our good and our blessing.
And so Paul chose Silas being recommended of the Brethren. There's a principle. I'm going to give you one last little passage here. We've got about one minute to go, and I'm going to read it very quickly.
It's in First Kings chapter 20.
One, I think first Kings.
We're speaking about the bid that the enemy would make first kings 20 and verse one. And Ben Haydad, another enemy of the children of Israel. He's a type of the devil himself who's an enemy of our souls. The king of Syria gathered all his hosts together, and they were 30 and two kings with him horses and Chariots. And they went up and besieged Samaria, and warred against them. And he sent messengers to Ahab, king of Israel, into the city, and said unto him, Thus saith Ben, Hey, dad, thy silver, thy gold is mine, thy wives also, and thy children, even the goodliest are mine.
Claim this enemy was making on the children of Israel. They wanted their wives, their children, and their gold, and their silver. Well the Lord told him, don't listen to him, You need to make war with him. Verse 13 And behold, there came a prophet unto Ahab, king of Israel, saying, Thus saith the Lord, hast thou seen all that this great multitude Behold, I delivered into thine hands this day? And thou shalt know that I am the Lord. And Ahab said, by whom? And he said, Thus saith the Lord, even by the young men, the Princess of the province. And then he said, And who shall order the battle?
And he answered thou.
Striking, isn't it?
The very ones that this enemy was making a bid for a claim on the children, the young men were the ones that the Lord was preparing to use for the deliverance of the children of Israel. And I believe that the deliverance for the people of God lie in the next generation that is in our midst here, and we need to strengthen them and encourage them to get on with the things of the Lord. The enemy would like to take them into his system, to draw them into his world. Ben Hedad wanted to take them back to Syria, render them useless in Israel. And yet we find here that the battle was going to be won.
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By the very ones that Ben Haydad was making a claim on. Now the enemy is making a claim on your soul, dear young people, and particularly you young brothers here, because you're the ones that are going to be used of the Lord to be a stalwart in the local assemblies and to carry on the meetings as far as the public side of things is concerned.
And the enemy is going to make a claim, and he's making a claim thy goodliest. The ones that are most promising is that those are the ones I really want.
And so we need to be careful, because God is preparing you. If you're faithful and exercised that you're going to bring deliverance to the people of God. But don't let these three things that we've talked about here this afternoon step in the way of your feeding on the Lord, because you will be useless to the people of God if you don't have the spiritual constitution and the building up in your own soul.
May God give you the grace, dear young brother, young sister, to make decisions that are going to be for your own good and blessing. Don't let these three things interfere with your spiritual progress.
And God bless his word, Let's pray.