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Our God and Father, we are so grateful for that which was brought before us in the open meeting. We thank Thee for those things that would stir us up rather than to fall into lethargy and discouragement and lose the brightness of testimony. We think of how Job could look back to former days when they were better days than what he was having then and then to be.
Renewed.
In thy grace, and to rise up, and to be a vessel of testimony, we pray it would work to that end in our own lives. And now, as we would again look into Thy word, we confess to thee how we enjoy thy fellowship, Lord Jesus, and cannot get enough of it. We do hunger and thirst for righteousness.
We're almost home and that was fill our vessels and bring us there.
With our joyful and our hearts satisfied, and they will be satisfied forever in Thee then.
Help us to be in that state now, and ask for the liberty of thy spirit.
To bring out those things that would build us up in our most holy faith. We thank Thee for the effort put forth for our dear brethren here that this could be afforded us. And we wait before thee for the blessing now and thy most worthy and precious name, Lord Jesus. Amen. Amen.
Johns Gospel, chapter 6, verse 51.
I am the living bread which came down from heaven.
If any man eat of this spread, he shall live forever. And the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. The Jews therefore strove among themselves, saying, How can this man give us his flesh to eat?
Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you.
Whoso eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood hath eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed.
Eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood. Dwelleth in me.
And I and him as a living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father, so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me. This is that bread which came down from heaven, not as your Father's, that eat manna and are dead.
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He that eateth of this bread shall live forever these things, said he and the synagogue as he taught in Capernaum.
Many therefore of his disciples, when they had heard this, said, This isn't hard saying, Who can hear it? When Jesus knew in Himself that his disciples murmured at it, he said unto them, Doth this offend you? What? And if ye shall see the Son of man ascend up where he was before, It is the Spirit that quickeneth, the flesh profiteth nothing. The words that I speak unto you, they are Spirit in their life. But there are some of you that believe not.
For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believed not, and who should betray him.
And he said, Therefore said I unto You, that no man can come unto me, except it were given unto him of my Father. From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him. Then said Jesus unto the 12.
Will ye also go away?
Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life.
And we believe and are sure that thou art that Christ, the son of the living God. Jesus answered them, Have not I chosen you? 12 And one of you is the devil. He's fake of Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon, for he it was that should betray him, being one of the 12.
Alright, so I appreciate our brother Don de Graaff focusing back on verse 35, and I just like to reinforce it. It's nice to see this verse hanging up in the meeting room. It's a wonderful gospel verse and when it's acted upon, when one is.
Feeding on the bread of life and drinking the water of life. It's evidence that.
They have a new life, a divine life that has been imparted to them by the Spirit of God.
And.
Eternal life is such a wonderful subject.
And I'm not going to belabor it all only at all, except to notice that four times, uh, in this chapter, we have the expression that's first in, uh, verse, uh, 39. And I think of every time that the Lord said this, that it must have been a special joy to his heart when he said, but should raise it up.
Again at the last day. And again he says in the next verse, I will raise him up at the last day. And then again in verse 44 at the end I will raise him up at the last day. And then again it was read to us in verse 54, the last part, I will raise him up at the last day. What day are we talking about? Oh, it's the resurrection morning that we're looking for.
When he calls us out of this world into his presence, but as this new life is imparted to us, this divine life, it needs to be nurtured, it needs to be fed, it needs to be developed. And so when a soul is saved, they immediately have divine life. And that life cannot die under any circumstances. It may starve and be miserable and upset and.
Ripped in about. But that's why we have general meetings, isn't it? That we might be fed that new life would be developed, but the last day, eternal life will have its fullest display and fullest fruition that can possibly be had when we're raptured up into the presence of the Lord.
Four times in this chapter we read of the Lord coming down.
In verse 33 read which came down from heaven and in uh verse 38 for I came down.
Verse 50 you see this is the bread which comes down from heaven. Verse 51 I am the living bread which came down from heaven. But.
He's going up again. You see that the end of the chapter, don't you, where verse 62 wasn't? If you shall see the Son of Man ascend up to where he was before, that rings before us. Resurrection. He's going up again. My brother Robert was telling us yesterday about three men who went down in the 10th chapter of Luke's gospel. You know that man who fell among robbers? That's a nice point. Not these.
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And the priests and the Levites, they all went down, you know. But it doesn't say that the Samaritan was going that same course, doesn't it?
We need to be reminded that when that moment comes that we are going to enter into Infinity but will never be infinite.
And we're never going to be divine in those eternal courts of glory, but we will have a divine nature to show how close He has brought us to His great heart of love. It has to be that way. But He stands in all preeminence, all sublime beauty and grace, to be the object of our hearts forever. Oh, to have Him now as they the object.
As that wonderful 35th verse gives us the.
Bread of Life, the water of life, gives us freely all we want.
Just like to mention in Exodus chapter 14, there is a a little illustration that we have here of the heart of man and it says in verse 12 in Exodus 14, it's not this, the word that we did tell thee in Egypt saying let us alone that we may serve the Egyptians, for it had been better for us to serve the Egyptians and that we should die in the wilderness.
And Moses said unto the people, Fear you not, stand still and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will show you today. For the Egyptians whom you have seen, you shall see them again no more forever. The Lord shall fight for you, and you shall hold your peace.
And then in verse 15 he says, the Lord said unto Moses, Wherefore cryest thou unto me? Speak unto the children of Israel.
That they go forward. Well, there's another place in Exodus, and it speaks of how they long for the food that they'd eaten in Egypt. And there's always the danger in our hearts not to be satisfied with the provision of God and to look back in the past and to see what we once eat in Egypt and to have an appetite for it. And the flesh has an appetite for that which is displeasing to our God. But the new man in Christ has an appetite for that which would nourish him in the path of faith.
And that's the appetite that we need to satisfy. And so we have that.
Umm, nature, not fallen nature, the flesh, the nature of the of the flesh is the sin and the seek after that which is fallen and is of the earth. And So what did they desire? The leeks and the onions, and all those things that were the fruit of this earth. But we have a heavenly bread, and so this is what the Lord says. I am the living bread which came down from heaven. Now they had the source of life and sustenance.
In the scene was going to be Christ himself. And so we need that we've never, never turned back. You know, I often remember and I'll just read the Galatians, uh, our dear brother John Burton, I grew up in the Pine Grove assembly in Ontario and he would often often quote this verse in, uh, Galatians chapter 2 and verse 18. He would say, dear young people, this is a, a serious thing. He says in verse 18, if I build again the things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor.
He said, Never, never build the things that we destroyed. If we left the camp, let us walk afar off from the camp, and let us go unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach, and then feed upon Christ.
What a lovely word of admonition for each one of us to feed upon Christ and not to build those things which we destroyed.
What does it mean to feed on Christ? You often see these bracelets that, uh, young people wear, and what would Jesus do? We shouldn't ask what Jesus would do because we could imagine all kinds of things, but we ask, what did Jesus do?
And so we're faced, we're, uh, we are what we eat. There's young babies here and every ounce of what we are now passed through our lips. We may not some meals we remember and some we don't, but every ounce of what we are now passed through our lips and we ate it. And to feed on Christ really is to consider him and his pathway here. And so we see how the Lord Jesus reacted to things, how he acted. His life was characterized by submission. We had that.
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And obedience.
And so the the Jews reasoned among themselves and they said, well, how can this be? But faith will never understand reason will never understand what faith lays hold of. And so the only way we're going to understand what's the the fruit and blessing of submission is to submit.
If you reason about it first, you're never going to understand it. The only way we're going to understand the blessing of obedience is to obey.
And they said, well, how is it that we can eat his flesh? How can he give us his flesh to eat while we get into the word of God and we see what the Lord Jesus did. And we we do that and we we find Christ in the Gospels and then we find Christ in the Old Testament because we see the Spirit of Jesus. Peter says that the spirit of Christ, which was in them to testify. You see the spirit of Christ in Noah. You see the Spirit of Christ in David.
You see the Spirit of Christ in Moses. There were failures in those ones. There was number failure in the perfect example.
Not in the in the perfect one. In the examples, you all find a flaw, and they're all to be measured by the one that is perfect.
Once you see Christ in the gospels, you can start to see what was of Christ.
And the others, and even in the exercise of seeing what was of Christ in those Old Testament characters and what was not, we begin to see what we begin to discern. We develop discernment because we can discern what was of Christ and Moses and what was of not, what was not of Christ. But it comes from feeding on Christ.
We find the great theme of this book is the person and the work of Christ, and we find those two parts in verse 53. Jesus saith unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, except she eat the flesh of the Son of man, that's his person, and drink his blood. You have no life in you, that's his work.
And so they this wonderful thing.
Is what arrests our souls, is it not? And there's that once for all.
Umm, isn't it verse uh 54 Whoso eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood hath eternal life. There's the once and for all. That's when we have entered into.
Repentance and realization of what we are in ourselves. We've had it brought very vividly before us in the morning meeting. How far from God we were by nature, sad to say, by practice, and now are brought nigh. And so the transaction of eating and drinking is settled once and for all. But then it goes on, doesn't it, The daily side of it.
In verse 55.
For my flesh is made indeed, and my blood is drank indeed, and eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood dwelleth in me, and I in him. That's a daily thing now, isn't it?
Very important is truth that what we have is the person of Christ and its work. It is the person that gives its work, the work, its value. And so you could say well.
Somebody sewed her address and depending on who sewed it, it's going to give value to what you're going to see before you even see it. And so I, I just use that as an example or but.
To really consider who the Lord Jesus Christ is, and I want to say this to the young people, people often say that brethren have divided and split up over all kinds of secondary points. That is not true. You're going to find at the root of every one of these is really the issue is of the Lord Jesus Christ and who he is. And you'll find that the root of every departure is indifferences to the person of Christ.
It may not be opposition, but indifference is almost worse than opposition. It's like people standing watching somebody murdered in cold blood and not picking up the phone to call the police, as it were. Its indifference is almost as bad as those that pull the trigger, if I can use that example. And so you'll find at the root of it, it's this person that is a is at issue and his work. And what a wonderful thing we have to do. We're saved.
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It's a daily, as you've been pointing out. It's a daily ongoing thing that we learned who our Savior is and the value of His work.
When we first got saved, we were like those children of Israel walking through the Red Sea. And there was, if you could imagine, there was a wall of water on this side and a wall of water on that side. And the only way to safety was to walk between these walls of water. And all that was keeping those walls of water apart was a mighty wind. That's how we felt the night we got saved. We realized we were in terrible peril and in terrible danger of hell. And we realized that there was danger for the those that did not.
Walk in the path of faith because they saw the Egyptians swallowed up in that water.
And we thought by what relief it was when we got onto safe ground on the other side and the water was behind us and the water was closed and we realized what Christ did. But then, you know, we learned some tremendous value to to the work of Christ and we through the.
By his word and considering him that we realize that he not only took care of what we did, but what we were. And then they stood there in, in on resurrection ground in the land of Canaan. And they looked back over the river Jordan that was rolled back from the city, Adam right back to the salt sea, the lowest place on earth. And they there was no water insight anywhere, not walls of water on either side, but no water on either side.
Water inside anywhere, and they really realized that.
Christ was not only the answer to what they had done, but what they were.
And that's a great relief because if we got to heaven then and we realized that we were just a bunch of forgiven, lying thieves as we had brought before us this morning, we feel pretty embarrassed. I think we were all as children, we maybe did something in somebody's home and then we had to go back there and we'd done something bad. And boy, were we embarrassed to go back to that home. And to think, you know, they know that I took something or I broke something or I said a bad word there. And we're just cringing at climbing into the car and going there. And we would have the same thought to going to heaven if we didn't realize the work of Christ on our behalf that.
We stand absolutely justified before God and so this is a daily ongoing thing is to realize not just that he's taken care of what we've done, but what we were his flesh as meat indeed, and his blood is drink indeed, to really realize that he is everything to us and for us.
Who to salvage? Always good. And how do we make good of the food? And I was thinking of the children of Israel. They were fed with manner perfect food on this earth. What do? What did they find after a while? Did they find it turned sour? Did they find that it become no good to the taste? Sure it did. Did the food itself turn bad? No. Perhaps. Let's turn to opacity in Deuteronomy chapter 8.
In Deuteronomy chapter 8 verse three, it tells us that the Lord suffereth them. He humbled them. In verse three He humbled, and he humble thee, and suffer thee the hunger, and fed thee with manner.
Which thou knowest not, neither did thy father know. Well, the food itself was good. They didn't know that it was provided, but the Lord had a lesson for them, because they were not satisfied with it.
They have to learn this, this verse, go on and say that man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word. Now we're going to go back to the previous verse in there. Then the Lord explained to us why that they were in the wilderness for 40 years.
For mere 11 days journey they have to spend 40 years. Well, why was that? Let's go back to verse 2 and thou shall remember all the days all the way which the Lord thy God LED thee these 40 years in the wilderness.
To humble thee, to prove thee, to know that what was in thine heart, whether thou keep us, that whether thou would keep us, keep his commandments or no. But we can blame the food. It's us. Our hearts have a natural tendency to be not satisfied with things. In fact, I was thinking to go further as Jeremiah would tell his people, as he tells them to repent. He said there were two problems that people have had been, and I believe it is still the same problem.
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That we have today. Listen to Jeremiah.
After two this one verse summed up the problem.
Jeremiah chapter 2, verse 13 For my people have committed to evils, they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters. They few themselves, they hew them, our cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold no water. Well, I know the thought is about the bread of life, but we know the Lord also, He's got living water. But here I've tried to point out the fact that 2 problems existed for the people of old, same 2 problems that we often face today, the two evils that he mentioned.
They have forsaken me. However we look at problems and difficulties in our lives or in someone else's lives. I believe in most cases we can trace this simple fact that we have forsaken the Lord. Maybe we're going to meeting every week still, but what is it in our hearts for my people have committed to evil. They have forsaken me and we put our Lord first thing in our lives, in everything. Well, when that happens.
Then the second problem almost become automatic. The second problem is this they do uh, and few of them out cisterns, broken cisterns have we find that we have problems and difficulties in our lives. And then the next thing is we seek solutions and often the solution is outside the assembly, often is outside our blessed Lord's guidance. And I even heard some Christians.
Among us would say that they would go to other Christian group because they have counseling or how sad when we know that the answer is right here. We had it before us for the last two days. Having that faith, even though as small as the pro as the solution may be, without the despise. Do we have that faith that we have our Lord in our midst, that he would take care of all of our problems here? Is that living bread of life? Do we depend on that? Do we trust that? Do we put him in our place? In fact, as we eat daily, you know, we think of giving thanks, but do we remind ourselves when we see that loaf on our table, we think of that.
The origin of all life sustenance is our blessed Savior.
John the Baptist sets a wonderful precedent.
In the third chapter of this same book, when they come to him and try to provoke jealousy, that the Lord's disciples baptized more than he did.
And the result, the response, he was just very happy to hear that.
Then he went on to say.
He must increase.
I leave out the Must I decrease?
We cannot decrease if we have, we only can we decrease if we have an increasing price before us and our enjoyment of Him. And so this, these that hear him say this, they now begin to realize that they're going to lose ground as to who they are and what they represent and so on.
And so John the Baptist, he was happy to phase out that Christ would be the object of his disciples that were with him. That was fine. And so we come down to the thing that brings us right to nothing, and that is in verse 63. It is the Spirit that quick enough, the flesh profiteth nothing.
What did you think of that the first time you heard that?
A real recoil wasn't there.
Flesh profiteth nothing, and I'm afraid I have to confess to my brethren that.
This seems to be a life long lesson to learn.
Proverbs chapter 23 and it's also Matthew 18. I'd just like to read a couple of verses to get that connection.
What is it? Why? What do I do? If I do have an appetite for that which I ought not to have an appetite for, what do I do?
Well, it says in Proverbs 23 when thou sittest to eat with a ruler, considered diligently what is before thee.
Do we sit with the ruler? Do we sit when the presence of the Lord? We ought to be careful not to desire that which is not suitable. For what is before the Lord says, Consider diligently what is before thee. Put a knife to thy throat. If thou be a man given to appetite, be not desirous of his dainties, for they are deceitful meat. And so the man of the world has what looks like is going to give him nourishment.
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It doesn't give nourishment, It says a little later on in this uh, uh, proverb in the 23rd and verse eight, it says the morsel which thou hast eaten, thou shalt thou vomit up and lose thy sweet words. So what's the what do we do if we have an appetite for that which is not of Christ says use the knife, it's gonna hurt. But there ought to be that self judgment in our lives and so on Chapter 18 of Matthew, it says.
In umm verse eight it says, Wherefore thy hand or thy foot offend thee, cut them off and cast them from thee. It is better for thee to enter into life may halt remain, rather than having two hands or two feet to be cast into everlasting fire.
And if I know I offend thee, pluck it out, cast it from thee. It is better for thee to enter into life with one eye, rather than having two eyes to be cast into Hellfire. And so he reached out with our hands, and we want to take something that God didn't give us.
What do we do? We take the knife. We exercise self judgment.
What do we do? We have a pot.
We once walked in Egypt and we'd like to walk that path again. We look at the path and we think maybe we could just go there once more.
What do we do? We take the night.
And the past is altered. Better to use that knife of self judgment than not to go but then the eye.
I once lived in Egypt. I'd love to see what was there in Egypt. I I'd just like to see it one more time. I'd just like to see that movie once more.
No, he says, use the knife, cut it off. It's Christ that gives nourishment. And if there's that which the believer feeds on, that's not of Christ. It needs to be given up later on. It doesn't provide nourishment. It's going to have to vomit it out.
Eating is the one of the commonest things and more men have stumbled over this passage of scripture in the religious world as to eating as flesh. But yet it's the simplest activity and we don't always remember what we eat. I would be surprised if very many people can remember what they ate for breakfast 15 days ago.
Umm, but there are special occasions when we remember. I would imagine most of us who go to our brother's house for breakfast tomorrow morning are going to remember 2 weeks from now eating on that occasion. But those occasions are rare and few and in between. But most of the time we get up and we eat what's available or what's our routine for breakfast just to feed ourselves because we know we're going to be faint if we don't. And so so that is true with the things of God is just to take.
That nourishment day by day as is necessary, and there's going to be times when you're going to have special remembrance of those times, but not every time.
And so it's just a simple activity and as our brother has said that the.
Life long lesson is that the flesh profits nothing and often we hear.
About the camp and people say, what are you, maybe the young people are saying, what are they talking about when they talk about going on to him without the camp and so on. The camp is really where they believe that man, the things of God, can be nourished by nourishing the flesh.
And so our brother brought that before us in the meeting that God had done everything. There was nothing more that he could do. He gave in Israel a perfect religion with a perfect music and a perfect sanctuary where everything in that sanctuary perfectly symbolized heavenly things. They didn't understand, I believe they understood that they spoke a better things. But everything there was a perfect order of priesthood. Everything there was imperfection as far as.
Nature was concerned and yet it did not produce fruit for God, and so God has set aside that whole system of things now and he says it's just Christ.
You can't. Our brother quoted that verse about rebuilding those things which we once destroyed. Man tries, and I'm gonna use as an amateur attempt to create symbols in an environment in which to foster the flesh of man.
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And God has already tried that with imperfection, if I may, in natural perfection. And it utterly failed. It wasn't that God's attempt was a failure, it's just that his subjects were a failure. And that's a hard lesson for us to learn. So a brother left the Lord's table and he went to a seminar in Chicago to learn how to play the right kind of music and create the right kind of environment to get people to come into, into churches, they call it. Well, it works. It packs the church.
But it's not going to produce Christ in the soul.
That's what we call the camp.
Thinking of a verse here as the brother was speaking about the knives, I'd like to turn to a verse in First Samuel Chapter 7. Perhaps can illustrate a little bit here. First Samuel Chapter 7. Two verses here that I like to read.
Perhaps one first time your Chapter 7 verse 16. This is Samuel and he went from year to year in circuit to Bethel and Diego and Mizpah and Judge Israel.
In all those places, I was thinking of a circus, how he continuously going around that circuit and what other places that he go to. That's all.
House of God, he knew that he needs to be where the Lord is the House of God. And what is Gilgal Gilgal I believe is something that we often ignore. I Remember Remember a brother used to come and he often used this phrase that sent chills up my spine. He said you got to take out the sharp knife and every time you say it, it just said chills. You know, go go as a place of self judgment, isn't it? We need to go to.
Like Samuel of old, with a circuit Bethel to Gilgal and then to Mizpah, and then back to his own house.
Maybe it would be helpful to make a comment on what the, uh, scriptural meaning of the word flesh is here. Umm, I believe that the believers that have been at the Lord's table for any time hear more about this and understand this more than Christians in general. And perhaps we assume everyone knows it and we kind of Passover it. But the brother in the gospel used the term many times last night about the flesh.
Well, one example that it doesn't mean is when the Lord said the Spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak, the.
Flesh there is our natural body, just like I have flesh that surrounds my bones and you do and sometimes the Scripture will use an expression or you will, that I'll see him in the flesh. That means I'll see him in this body. But the flesh in this verse 63, the flesh profiteth nothing is the same as a word that we've coined. Sometimes we call it the old nature, which is a term as far as I know is not in the Scripture, but that's sort of OK it's.
It means, I believe the same thing.
So when you hear somebody referring to old nature, you can substitute and really more scripturally you say it's the flesh.
Now, wonderfully, I learn after I'm saved and I begin to learn the gospel, that what Christ went through in his death and resurrection is made good to me in many ways, and one of those ways is he puts me in an entirely new position.
Once I was like in an old company which had its own president and ownership. I was in this company over here and the head of that company was Adam. And God now through the work of Christ and in love to my soul puts me in a whole new position, like being in a whole new company and the head of that company is Christ.
And so.
Death, uh, brings me into that place. And so there's three times in the New Testament, I think, where it speaks of what I was before as the old man, the old Bruce Conrad, the old Ruben Ruga.
What I was in that first company and now I'm in a new position altogether and I'm a new preacher in Christ. And Scripture uses the term the new man. Well, sometimes people use the expression, you know, when they allow the flesh to act. When we're careless, we say, oh, that was the old man. Well, we know what we mean when we say that. But I think strictly speaking, I've always found it helpful to stick with those 3 passages. One's Romans 6 and.
There's one in Ephesians, one in Colossians, but if you look them up in the Darby translation, you'll always see that they're in the past tense.
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Well, getting quizzical looks here, so let's turn to, uh, Ephesians four, I think is one of them. Verse 22.
That she having put off concerning the former conversation, the old man which is corrupt or corrupts itself according to the deceitful lusts and being renewed in the spirit of your mind. And that she having put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness, wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbor, and so on. And so in Colossians and Romans 2. It's past tense. And so God sees me in a new position. He regards me now with a new status.
I'm a new creature, there's the new man, a new creation. And then I have to go through experiences, though, and I see myself acting like I used to act before I was saved. And this can be very, very disheartening and troubling to a young believer, especially if he or she is poorly taught. Questions can come into the mind, well, am I no longer saved, or am I not saved enough? Or do I only have half of salvation? And there's doctrines that spring up around all those thoughts, but none of them are true.
The fact, the helpful fact of the matter is that that old nature that I was born with.
Even though I have a new position, there is that practical nature in me that I'm going to have all the way through until the Lord.
Snatches me out of here.
And I'm changed as to my body, and that corrupt nature will be behind me. And Scripture calls that nature the flesh. And so when we have practical instruction throughout the epistles.
It assumes that we understand these basic.
Truths of our position now before God, and it's helpful in a practical way.
So if I'm halfway through my day at work and I go to get a cup of coffee and pretty soon I'm, I'm, I'm the, the other men are there and I and I'm starting to get into silliness with them or something. And I say something inappropriate and I walk away saying why did I say that? That wasn't, I shouldn't have participated in that.
Well, what, what do I do from that point on? Do I act morbid and hang down and and go back and close my door and put my head on my desk? Well, I have the privilege of saying, you know, that's not who I am, that's not what I am, and that's not what is consistent with what Christ died to make me. What was that? That was that old nature, that flesh, that act, and I'm responsible. Then I have the privilege of saying, dissociating myself from that and saying that's not me.
But I take responsibility for it because I allowed the flesh to act. The flesh isn't weak. That kind of flesh is not weak at all. It's very strong. And so in Galatians is one of those places. Galatians 5 is one of those places where we learn that there's a warfare going on.
Galatians 5 verse.
I'll go back to verse 16. This I say then walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the loss of the flesh, for the flesh lusteth against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh. And these are country, the one to the other, so that you not, cannot, but might not do the things that you would.
So I learned here as well as in other places, when I believe the gospel of my salvation.
I was in dwelt sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise. I have the Holy Spirit indwelling me and I have a power now in that new life. That new position I'm in has a power now that wants to, desires to, that is and is able to do the things which please God and which please me now as a new creature in Christ, Greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world that says.
And so the flesh still wars against, There's that war that goes on inside me, a flesh worrying against the Spirit. And as these brothers have already brought out, to the extent that I'm careful practically, the psalmist in Psalm 16 said, I have set the Lord all way before me.
Because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved.
And so we may not feel one brother was telling me the other mornings that sometimes I get up. He says I change my hours at work if he permits me sharing this so that I could read with my children before I go off to work. And he says, you know, sometimes in the morning, he says I get up and I don't feel like that. That's a good thing that'll bear wonderful fruit. And that's what the psalmist said. I have set the Lord all the way before me. And sometimes you don't feel like eating, but you know you'll be hungry later.
00:45:04
And so it is, there's this practical warfare that goes on. The old brothers where I used to live used to talk about the, the white dog and the black dog and the story about the the two dogs fighting inside. And, and I'm sure you've heard many of these stories too, but these are good foundational and practical tools. There's young men here, they're studying trades to learn how to make a living. And as you learn, you trade, you acquire more tools and they're used. They need to be in your toolbox. You're a Carpenter. You need a catch pole because you're going to make mistakes.
And you need to repair them as quickly and painlessly as you can. And there are scriptural tools that we all need in our toolbox. And one of them is this basic understanding of what we are and what resources we have in ourselves so that we cannot be stumbled or disheartened or go along carelessly either. So this is a wonderful.
Understanding that the Lord has given to us, that is generally taught amongst us, and rarely so amongst our brethren in other places.
Uh, and, uh, their ministry, if you read it or are exposed to it, reflects that, uh, lack of understanding. So it's something to lay hold of as a young person and to, to, uh, to use practically, uh, in your everyday life.
See, in order to just ask the question, why didn't the Lord take the flesh away from us the day he saved us?
It has spared us from a lot of heartache, but he and his wisdom, he's left it with us. Why?
Is it so that we could learn the sufficiency of himself for our pathway? We never would have learned that if we're not for that fact.
He needs to leave a reminder with us too, of what we once were, who was our master?
Otherwise.
You might think quite a bit of ourselves.
Very humbling to.
Have to say that that man act.
But we have wonderful resource to overcome.
The board could have done that, he said. He could have turned strong into praising him. If he needs to be, He has all the power. But in doing so, then the grace of God wouldn't be manifest as the way it is. By having the conditions that we have and having us acknowledging that fact. It magnifies His names. It magnif. It magnified His grace of what He has to do to redeem us, what He has to do to teach us.
As those verses we read in Deuteronomy really in fact, let's turn to that again through purposes in there that we should really learn they were put, they could have been taken into the land in 11 days journey couldn't land. So let's look at that again, Deuteronomy chapter.
Yeah, chapter 8 in verse 2 and thou shalt remember. Well, that's the first thing they have to do, is to remember all the way which the Lord thy God let thee these 40 years.
And then it goes on and it sets in the wilderness to humble thee. Well, that's a big word that we use often. But do we truly understand what being humble with? You know, some of us will chat afterwards. It's often many young people do.
And I remember when brother mentioned a comment of of another brother saying when he talked to him, he didn't see any humbleness in that you know, we know what humbleness is. The Lord want us to be humble before him. Not only that, to prove thee Ah, do we know what's inside our hearts? We know that Jeremiah told us how good our heart is, is deceitful and desperate and waking even we don't know our own heart. So here it says to know what was in thine heart.
Whether thou would keep his commandments or no, you know when the commandments were given. What did the children of Israel say?
You commanded, we will do. And how long did it take for them to fail? Well, we don't know our own hearts, do we? And it is the grace of God that keep us. And then in verse three he goes on and said, He humbled thee and suffered either hunger and so on, so that man will learn that man does not live by bread alone.
You think about the abilities we have. You know, often we boast about how we can help people. Well, the abilities that you have, what did that come from? It's from the Lord, isn't it? And then we read out even simple factors. The Lord said even a glass of cold water given in his name, he's not going to forget it. Well, if we were to boast about giving that glass of cold water, then we have to ask the question, why did that glass come from? And where did that water come from? And where did that desire to give that cold water come from? Is all of the Lord?
00:50:16
And then when they all come that bright day, a certain featuring disc when we get those crowns and then we can truly see laying those crowns before him, saying that he is the one that's worth all the honor and praise. He referred to the past tense Bruce having put off. And maybe that requires a little bit of an explanation because a a young boy went to school and the teacher said about something that.
Wasn't right. She said, well, what are you going to do? And he said, well, we don't do that in our house. He was in the position of having already renounced something before he came to it. And somebody once said to a famous journalist, they said, what about these?
Fundamentalist Christian, Bible thumping Christians, he said. They think they're better than everybody else, and the journalists asked them, he said.
Would if you were hungry, would you steal? Or if you were in a jam, would you tell a lie? And the person stopped and thought and said, well, if I was very hungry I might steal or, he said. Or if I was in a real serious jam, I might tell a lie.
And this ungodly journalist made the comment, she said. That's the difference between you and them. They would never tell a lie and they would rather die than steal.
Now I wish it were true of me, but she recognized that they were in a position of having put those things off. I just say that because often this is attacked as legality. I don't like the term legality. Concision is to hack at the flesh. And so he makes 6 rules. If you don't do this and you don't do this and you don't do this.
You're all right. That's not what we're speaking about. But as a believer, we have purposed in our heart already that we are not going to do that which is displeasing to the Lord. That's what Christianity is.
That's not legality. Legality is saying, well, if there's six things that the brethren don't like and my parents don't like and I don't do them, then I'm going to be regarded as a good Christian. But if there's a purpose of heart that you're going to live to please the Lord, and as we've had, man shall not live by bread alone, but every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. And there's a predisposition, if I may put it that way, in a position of having already decided that that's going to be the course and the Lord will give grace and help.
But we need that daily help from the Lord to do that, because our flesh, as we've had, will not improve.
I believe that there is repeating that we have two natures, one nature that's lower than a beast.
And another nature that is higher than angels and you can't improve either one of them. And so it's nice to have God's thoughts. If we don't have God's thoughts, we'll be miserable. But if we have his thoughts, then we can go on happy in our souls. I just wanted to reflect back on what our brother Neil was saying in connection with, uh, coming up with false doctrine in connection with the work or the person of Christ.
That one thing you will always find is unhappiness in the soul, that is.
The earmark that what is being propounded is by a sober face and sometimes unhappiness.
And of course, the underlying thing is that the flesh wants to glory, and that causes the same unhappiness. It's really the the springboard of all false doctrine is to glorify man in some way and to be in competition, sad to say, with God's man. Not only unhappiness, but a lot of questions and no answers as well. Exactly.
It's wonderful to be simple.
In heart and mind. Now it doesn't mean to not know anything, but the simplicity is the thought of being.
What should I say? Impressionable by the Spirit of God.
That's simplicity and I think Mr. Darby says. And that's really perfection.
Teachers within us can often too go back to which do you feed and that's what what would manifest. You know, like our brother's comment, they say, well, just one more movie. Well, by doing so, you're really feeding that old nature and you're encouraging the results that will be exhibited by the old nature or the old man that was mentioned, the flesh wood exhibit. I, I like to use this example and perhaps it's not a very good example, but for young people it made a big impression on me. And someone asked me that when I was younger, he said.
00:55:22
Uh, have you ever been to, uh, have you ever been time that you get very hungry and you walk into the kitchen. The first thing you saw was this big bowl of potato salad. Well, you know, dinner is coming up, but you think that it could be late. So when you see this big bowl of potato salad, you go up there and some of the young men would know what I mean by that. You basically inhale that. So to take your hungers away. Well, shortly after that, mom or someone else may come along and you find out that there was a nice dinner that was already prepared that you didn't know of.
Well, how much of that dinner would you enjoy shortly after you inhale the potato salad? Well, you've been fed, but what were you fed with? Something that would satisfy your soul or your, or really your hunger for that little, little time, but not satisfying what is good. I know there's a worldly phrase now they say you are what you eat, but it's so true. It's what do you feed? You feed them. If you feed upon Christ, then you're gonna find that.
Your walk, your conversation would manifest Christ and people around you would know.
That by looking at you, they can look at you. And you know, for many of us who are parents, it is very difficult to see this. They will see that in our children. And the reflection is there. We can talk. You know, growing up in the assembly, spending the last 40 some odd years in the assembly, I realized something. I realized that many of us know how to walk and behave in front of our graduates, especially at a conference. We see everyone else going on so happily.
And then?
When we are back into our own environment.
We behave differently for some. And you know, when we see unhappiness, I believe is when our two lives do not match, when our our, our exhibition of our walk and our true walk in life do not match together. Then we produce stress, we produce difficulties, we produce anxieties. And you know when we have problems and we have to look at our lives.
If we walk the way we ought to before God and man, and then the result should be obvious. You think of Moses. When Moses was up on that mount in full communion with our God, and when he came back down, did he have to tell them to prove that he was with God? No, the glory on his face was so bright that they could not bear to look upon him. Well, brethren, if you were close to our blessed Savior, I am confident.
And that your results, your work would exhibit to your brethren that you were walking close and been enjoying our blessed Savior.
36 excuse me, maybe a comment on verse 62 would be.
In order.
Next to my Bible I have an exclamation point in the margin.
Where the Lord says what? And if you shall see the Son of man to send up where he was before.
I don't know how long ago I put that exclamation part well mark there, but.
It continues to.
To uh.
Lift up my heart when I rehearse in my mind the truth that I've known not not quite 30 years, that before the man Christ Jesus was born of a virgin in Bethlehem, He was with the Father in eternity past. I went to Sunday schools a little boy faithfully. My mother saw to that, and I had a string of pins for attendance from here to here on my little blazer. But I never learned.
That before.
Jesus became a man. He was the Son of God in eternity with the Father. I learned that after I was saved, and I don't think I'll ever stop enjoying and wondering at that truth for the rest of my life and for all eternity. And I don't like to skip over it whenever we have a chance because I think it's a precious thing to lay hold of. It's essential to who He is.
Earlier in John's Gospel we have the truth that the relationship between the Father and the Son was, as one brother put it, in unoriginated relationship, a relationship just like the persons themselves that had no beginning.
01:00:10
And to think as it says here earlier on when Reuben was making the comment about the living bread coming down from heaven, well how could he have come down from heaven if he wasn't there in the 1St place? John 316 says For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son.
The sun purely or merely only had his beginning in time. How could that verse make any sense that God could have a son to give?
Well, this is an error that some have fallen into over the over the years and centuries, and it's a horrible one. And conversely, the truth that the Sun was with the Father throughout eternity past is a wonderful one.
And that in the fullness of time, God sent forth his Son, come of a woman, come under the law to redeem them that were under the curse of the law. And it's a wonderful thing to think of that.
That the man, the Son of God himself.
Was there throughout all the Trinity His history, if we could put it that way, as a man had a beginning.
And Scripture traces that beginning for us. And the Spirit of God is always jealous around those places where it speaks of his humanity.
If you trace through your Bible and you see a place where it speaks of His humanity, you can go a few verses up usually, or a few verses down.
And if you look for it, you'll see the jealousy of the Spirit of God to preserve to your understanding.
His eternal deity as the eternal Son of God.
When uh, in the gospels the the pronouncement is made the let's go back. I think it's in Luke chapter one.
Luke chapter one, verse 35 And the Angel answered, and said unto her, That is Mary.
The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall over shadow thee. Therefore also that holy thing.
Which shall be born of these shall be called the son of God. Somebody put it this way. He never ceased to be what he what he was in becoming what he became and it's just as if in referring to this transition where the.
Eternal Son of God takes manhood to himself. The Spirit of God is right there to call him the Son of God. We sometimes say in the little flock him book without it's lay thy glory by and for us it's come from heaven as the Lamb of God to die.
And it's poetic license to say that, but it's important to lay hold of. I think that essentially he left nothing behind.
She didn't stop being what he was or who he was.
By becoming who he became.
And that's a wonderful thing. So it adds a majesty. I don't know any other English word to add to it, but it adds a profound dignity. As to lighter word, it adds a majesty to the pathway of Jesus as you chat and trace through the Gospel of John. He's walking all the way through the gospel. He walks off the end when we realize who this one was, who he always was. It's a wonderful thing to lay hold on.
That's the fountain of all Christianity's joy, and that's why Brother Ron said that attacking that truth just leads to unhappiness. Just say this to the young people. And I'm glad there doesn't seem to be as much of a problem with that. But all these modern translations, they confuse this issue terribly and with statements like You are my son today have become your father. The statement is blasphemous. Thou art my son this day have begotten thee, that the Son of God was brought into the world and became the Son of man.
That truth is the fountain of all. Christianity's joy is that the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world.
I like what Solomon raised Seven questions in regard to that. Look at a few times. Almost done. I'd like to turn to just the passage in Proverbs chapter 30. He raised seven questions in that one verse, Proverbs chapter 30.
So it's four, he said. Who has ascended up into heaven or descended. That's what we're talking about. That one who descended was who had to send it up or descended who had gathered the wind.
In His first, who hath bound the waters in a garment, who had established all the ends of the earth? What is His name, and what is his Son's name, if thou canst tell?
Verse 66 is a very sad verse in what we have just had before us as to that one that ascended up. So there were those that, well, we just noticed that. I forgot what the new translation is, but time is in italics from that time. But I'd like to use the word truth from that truth. What truth are we talking about that the flesh profiteth nothing?
01:05:22
That this company left.
And what did where did they go and what did they do? They composed the religious world that's well and healthy today.
Have religion without Christ and we have a lot of it and we are under severe test from this company. But then from the tenderest heart of the universe we have then said Jesus under the 12 will ye also go away?
I see, I hear that voice, intensely human, distinctly divine. Will ye also go away? Are we challenged? Are we being challenged?
I fear we are. Will we go away? What are we going to sell out for? What are we going to go to?
To I enjoy the brothers saying if we leave we've got no place to go.
We have no place to go. We're at the end of the road as it is and we're just waiting for the Lord to come and take us home. Is that right for the little?
You follow a man anywhere.
We've lost sight of the person.
Brethren, we just will reach the end of our meetings, but.
So we read a verse in the 15th chapter of John's Gospel that kind of summarizes the preciousness that we've had the last two days.
15th chapter of John's Gospel and verse 9. As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you. Continue ye in my love, yes.
That should be the prayer that we take away with us, each one to our homes.
He knew he in my love.
He's loved. This wasn't ever lasting. Love. How precious these thoughts have been. And as the Father had loved me, so have I loved you.
Perhaps we could sing that hymn 70 in the appendix.
#70 in the appendix.
What are you doing? What do you mean?
By that.
Makes fun of you.
Right now and everything.
Home, but such is love that He must bring us there to fill that home, to be with Him and all His glory share the Father's house, the Father's heart. All that the Son is given, made ours the objects of His love, and He our joy in heaven. I was 127.
01:10:20
Our blessed God and Father, we do thank Thee for our blessed Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, and what we've had before us in these meetings so far.
But we marvel, our blessed God and Father, thy love, that in an eternity past without its purpose to bring us into the circle of Thy love.
That ever existing relationship with thy Son to cause us to enjoy thy love to be there.
Be with and morally like him for all eternity. We do thank thee when we consider all that we were by nature and by practice, as we've had before us the tendency to feed that old nature that would take us nowhere but to death.
But we do thank thee, our blessed God and Father, for thy sovereign love that sought and found us, that by Thy Spirit arrested us and brought us into such blessing. We do thank Thee. We thank Thee for thy precious word, We look to Thee for thy continued blessing on the meeting after the dinner, and we do thank Thee for Thy care and Thy love to us. We do pray that these truths would have a practical constraining effect on us. And we do thank Thee that soon, though some in this room have heard it for many years.
Some for a few. We have the growing sense that it'll be just a moment before we're there. And so we just thank Thee for Thy love and our Savior's precious and worthy name. Amen.