Kentucky YP Camp: 2015
Table of Contents
Position & Responsibility Part 1
Address—Jim Hyland
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Everybody should have a set of charts. We're going to take up a subject that we will label, position and responsibility.
You're taking notes. That's great. I should have mentioned there are, and I see you have availed yourself of them some pads and pens on the back table. We're going to talk a little bit about our position as the chart first chart indicates, starting at the outer circle. Our position and responsibility as believers in this world. We're going to take up the subject of our position and responsibility as being in what the next circle says, the great House.
Then the church, and then what? I have labeled the testimony, and we'll give explanation as we go along.
Now I'll make it very clear that what we're going to do is just give a very basic outline. We only have time for three talks together, and you'll notice there are 6 charts. So we're going to have to move along very quickly. I hope that what you will do is go back and fill in some of the pieces after, maybe jot down some of the scriptures that we mentioned very quickly, and then go back over them in your own time. So we're going to talk a little bit about our position and responsibility.
We're going to start with the outer circle, but before we do that, perhaps to introduce this subject in a broad sense, I want to read 3 portions of scripture. The first one is in the book of Job Job chapter 28.
Job chapter 28. I'm going to read verse 7, but I'm going to read it in Mr. Darby's translation.
You can follow along in your King James Bible, but I want to read it in Mr. Darby's translation.
Verse seven and eight of Job 28. It is a path no bird of prey knoweth, and the vulture's eye hath not seen it. The proud beasts have not trodden it, nor the fierce lion passed over it. What this verse is basically saying in its simplest form, is that for every one of us who know the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior.
God has a path of faith for us. In other words, a way that you and I.
Can walk through this world to please the Lord Jesus and know what His will is for us while we are left here. And this verse makes it very clear that it is not a way or a path that is discerned in an by the natural by natural ability. So no bird of prey knoweth it. I just go through these very very quickly and give you 1 little thought. It may not be the only thought.
But when it says it is a path that no bird of prey knoweth again, I'm reading from Mr. Darby. It's a path where the devil cannot touch you. Now the devil harasses us, of course, and the devil is a roaring lions walketh about seeking whom he may devour. But if we walk on the path that the Lord has for us, there's a protection there from the Lord himself that the devil cannot breakthrough.
And why is it so often we get into trouble? Why is it so often we fall into sin? It's because we digress from the path, and the bird of prey is there, so to speak, ready to grab us. Can't rob us of our salvation, but sure can rob us of a lot of the joy of Christianity, help get us to spoil our testimony and so on. Then it says the vultures I have hath not seen. You know, the vultures soars up above, and the Vulture has a very sharp eye.
The Vulture can look down and see that little road running through the grass.
And swoop down and and and get it in a in a moment. And the Vulture also that's the bird of prey. I'm sorry but the Vulture, the Vulture feeds on that which is dead, OK. And the voucher likes the carcasses of of the dead and so on. And if we get missed the path of faith, you know our again Satan he can he can't rob us of our salvation.
But you know, Satan is the destroyer. He likes to destroy our testimony. He can even, as the Lord said, destroy the body. And you know, I believe there are many who have left this world, that God has taken them out of this world because they weren't living to please the Lord and walking in the path of faith, the proud beast have not trodden it. You know, it's not a path that we can walk in pride. It's only the grace of God that preserves us. And it's a path that has to be walked humbly.
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Nor the fierce lion past it. You know it's not a path that can be walked in natural strength. Knowing the end of Isaiah 40, it tells us even the youth shall faint and be weary. I'm glad to look into the faces of those who are young and have a lot of natural strength. The glory of young men is their strength, the Bible says. But you'll never know the path or walk in the path the Lord has for you in your in your natural strength. Now I want to read a verse in Ephesians chapter 4.
We're going to turn back and forth in the scriptures. I think it helps us to keep alert if we're looking through our Bibles.
Ephesians chapter 4.
And verse one.
I therefore the prisoner of the Lord beseech you that ye walk worthy.
Of the vocation or really the calling where with your called this verse is exhorting us to walk worthy of what God has called us into. But you know we'll never be able to walk worthy of something if we don't have understanding of what it is. And that's another reason I am exercised to take up this subject this weekend so that we understand what our position is if we don't understand.
What our position is in relationship to the world, the great House, the Church and so on will never be able to walk worthy of it. God has a path for us and we need to understand what it is now. One more verse and then we'll get on with our subject. First Chronicles.
First Chronicles, Chapter 12.
And justice part of verse 32 First Chronicles.
Chapter 12.
And verse 32 and the children of Issachar were men that had understanding of the times. So it's not only important to know.
Our position. But at what time we find ourselves in this position in our history? You know, we're not back in the days of the Apostle Paul. We're not back in the days of Mr. Darby and some of those brethren that God used to recover much truth and light to us after the Dark Ages. We are here.
At the end of our history in 2015, and we need to like these men a Visa card, We need to have discernment of the Times Now, young people. That doesn't change the truth. The truth is the truth, and the truth is good for all times. But there are ways that we act and react in the world and so on relative to the time in which we live and the conditions and situations that God has allowed.
In our day, and even for you young people, it's a different day.
Than a few years ago when I sat in your position and listened to some of the older brethren expound and minister the truth. And so we want to take up something of this as well. So the first chart is basically the.
It's basically the chart that's going to that we're going to break down in the future charts. So this morning what I want to do is I want to take up this second chart that's entitled The World.
So if you turn to that chart.
Now we're going to take up the subject of the world under 3 headings. They all start with P Sometimes when we have something that all starts with the same letter, it helps us to remember it. Remember this young people that when we take up a word or a subject from the Bible, it doesn't always mean the same thing in every place. You have to take up scripture in its context. This is completely aside, but let me give you another illustration.
Another example before we talk about this, You know, often in scripture God uses the figure of water for different things.
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Sometimes water is a figure of the Word of God. Sometimes water running water is a figure of the Spirit of God.
Sometimes water is used as a figure of blessing, like the dew of heaven.
But sometimes it's also used as a figure of judgment. His voice is as the sound of many waters. You see what I'm saying? You always have to take up everything in its context. And don't just think that because it means something in one place, it's always going to mean that in another place. Context is vital when it comes to the scriptures. Now we're going to take the world up under three different headings. Sometimes when the world is presented to us, it's the planet. It's this physical globe that we live on.
I'll give you an example in a minute, but sometimes it's the planet, sometimes it's the people that inhabit this planet.
So it's the planet, the people. And then what this chart illustrates and what we're going to spend most time on this morning, is that sometimes it's the program. It's a system of things. And we'll explain this as we look at a number of scriptures. So we have the planet, the people and the program. The first two we're gonna take up rather quickly, but I do want to turn again to some scriptures. Let's turn first of all to Hebrews chapter one.
Hebrews chapter one.
And I'll just start reading at verse one God, who at sundry times and in diverse manners spake in time passed under the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he has appointed heir of all things. Now here's the point by whom also he made the world. Now what he's talking about here is the physical universe that was made.
Created by God and by the Lord Jesus. Because remember, whatever God does, he always does in Trinity. So the Spirit of God is always the mighty power in which he moves. And in Genesis chapter one, the Spirit of God moved on the face of the deep and so on. God is the Creator, but the Son has a part too, and so this makes it very clear. So it's the physical universe that we have here.
But let's narrow it down a little bit. Let's go to first Peter.
Chapter One.
First Peter chapter one and verse 18.
For as much as you know that you were not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold, from your vain conversation, received by tradition from your Father's, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. Now again notice this, who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you. Now let me just point out something that I believe is very significant.
When he talks about the universe being created and brought into being, he says worlds.
But that does not mean young people, that there are other worlds, like our world when it comes to the earth, or the habitable part of the earth, or mankind as a responsible creature to God, it is always in the singular. And so when the Lord Jesus says the Lamb of God was barely foreordained, or in other words, back in a past eternity, it was determined that the Lord Jesus was going to come into this world.
And go to the cross and offer himself as that sacrifice, as the Lamb of God. You notice he was barely foreordained before the foundation of the world, singular. There is only one world where God has people made in the likeness of his image. Only one world where the Lord Jesus. One planet where the Lord Jesus came as a man and died for humanity. So we want to make that very clear.
When they tell you there's other worlds with people and God is interested in, perhaps some of you have heard this and I've heard it and read something of it.
It is not the truth of God's word. There is one planet, one world where God has a people such as you and I, and where the Lord Jesus came as a man. Now let's go to Ephesians chapter One.
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Ephesians chapter one and verse 3.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ.
According as he has chosen us before the foundation of the world.
That we should be holy and without blame before him in love.
Now we noticed that the Lord Jesus as the Lamb was for ordained, or it was decided by the Godhead, the counsels of God, back before the world was created, that He would come into this world. But for those of us who know Christ as our Savior, we too were chosen way back before creation, before this planet, Earth and the other planets and all the creation, the universe.
Was brought into existence. God knew you way back then.
I'm just gonna pause for a moment to say this. If there is someone here this morning who does not know the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior, God's way of blessing is open for you. You're still part of this world, so to speak, and this world is under judgment. This planet is under judgment. And if you don't know the Lord Jesus as your Savior, it is our prayer that today, this morning.
You will come to know him, the one who died as the Lamb of God shed his precious blood. That way of blessing is open for you. After we're saved, we find out this wonderful truth that we were. None of us are an afterthought with God. God chose us now the Gospels for everybody. Everybody can come whosoever will may come. After we're saved, we find it was a work of God.
Because we were chosen way back then. You know, when God chose me, He knew all about me. Let me illustrate it this way.
You know, I've never known my biological parents, but I was adopted by Harlem Amy Highland when I was two years of age. They're the only parents I've ever known, and they raised me in a Christian home in an the assembly, an assembly gathered to the Lord's name and.
They read the Bible to us, taught us the truth of God, and I'm very thankful for it. But you know, when they went and chose me, they had no idea what I was going to be like. They had no foreknowledge about all the grief I would cause them as a young person and all the things that I would do. They really didn't have any idea about my personality or any of that.
In fact, they were given a very, very basic file of information.
Which basically told them nothing beyond that I was a boy and a couple of other things, some childhood diseases that I they I had already had before I was 2 and so on. You know, so often when parents adopt children, they are perhaps in the end somewhat disappointed in the way those children turn out. But you know, God chose me and he knew all about me way back then. He knew what my failures were going to be.
He knew my personality. He knew what I was going to be like before I was saved and after I was saved. And you know, he's loved me through it all. You know, he's never been going to be disappointed that he chose me or that he chose any one of us. In fact, the Lord Jesus, in a coming day, he's going to rejoice over us with singing, and he's going to view the heavenly company in a coming day, and he's going to be completely satisfied.
And So what? What's a wonderful truth? To realize that we were chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world. Now I want you to notice that that it's before the foundation of the world. Because what we find when we take up the subject of the world is that you and I are really, as believers, are not part of this world. The only thing that connects us with this world is the fact that we are still physically here on planet Earth.
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But as we go on and we we speak, we look at some different scriptures, we're going to find that the word of God.
Christianity detaches us in every way from this, from this world, and so we were chosen before the foundation of the world. Now let's go to Matthew's Gospel and see a little contrast. Matthew's Gospel, chapter 25.
Matthew's Gospel, chapter 25 and verse 34.
Then shall the king say, Say unto them on his right hand.
Come ye, blessed of my Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you.
From the foundation of the world, Not before the foundation of the world, but from the foundation of the world. Now, you say?
I thought you just said that we were chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world. That is absolutely correct. But he's not talking to the same people here. What he's talking about here is the blessing for God's earthly people, the children of Israel, and they are going to be blessed in an earthly way. And their blessings were not before the foundation of the world.
But they were from the foundation of the world. You see, you and I are a heavenly people.
As I say, we're not connected with this world in any way other than the fact we're physically still here on planet Earth. But Israel in a coming day is going to be brought into an earthly blessing. And so their blessings and the Kingdom for them is not before the foundation of the world. It's from the foundation of the world, the spirit of God, showing that they're going to have a very different sphere of blessing.
Than the Church of God the Christian the believer in this age.
From Pentecost to the Rapture, we'll speak about a little later in another meeting. They are chosen for heavenly blessing. And so we're before the foundation. Israel's for earthly blessing. They are from the foundation. So we have the planet, this physical planet on which we live, that which was created, that which was brought then into order back in the first chapter of Genesis. Now let's go to a very familiar verse in John's Gospel, Chapter 3.
And let's talk about the people just for a moment.
John's Gospel chapter 3.
And verse 16.
For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son.
That whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life. Now notice it's the same word here. It's the world, but it's in a completely different context. This is not the planet. This is the people. If I can speak reverently, God doesn't love a planet. God doesn't love the globe that we live on. It's the people that inhabit the planet. And when the Lord Jesus came, sent by God the Father.
To go to the cross, it was the people in the world that God loved.
He loves all people in this world. Every man and woman who has ever set foot on planet Earth has been loved of God. That's why there will be nobody in a lost eternity who will be able to blame God or say that they went there unloved. God so loved the world. It's the people. So I think we see that very quickly. But now we're going to go back to the second chart and you'll notice that.
In the larger circle I have drawn 3 smaller circles that are connected in the middle. We're going to speak now of the world as a planet and the world as a planet.
I'm sorry, the world as a program. The world as a program is a system of things set up by by Satan, by man, apart from God, of which Satan.
Is the God and the Prince and I have broken down the world into three different categories here.
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We'll start on the right hand side. There's the political side of things, there's the social side of things and the religious side of things. I believe the world can as a program can really be divided into these three categories. And we'll look at some scriptures that bring this out. Now again, just to confirm something I've alluded to go to John 17 as an introduction to this.
John chapter 17 We have the Lord Jesus praying to his Father before he goes to the cross. We often refer to the 17th chapter as the Lord's High Priestly Prayer. And just notice verse 14. I have given them thy word and the world hath hated them because they are not of the world. Even as I am not of the world, I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world.
But that thou shouldest keep them from the evil, they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.
So when we get saved, we no longer belong to this world and its programs. We belong to heaven. You and I are now a heavenly people. The Lord Jesus was praying for his disciples, and if you read this chapter, this prayer, carefully, he not only prayed for his disciples, but he embraced all those that would believe. That's you and that's me. If we know the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior.
So we are not of this of of the world. He says here that the world hates them. You know if you live for the Lord Jesus as a heavenly citizen, if you please the Lord Jesus walk in the path of faith. As we mentioned earlier, you're not going to be popular in this world. I know that there are those who teach that we can make Christianity popular and so on and we should fit in and be accepted. But that is not the teaching that the Lord Jesus gave his disciples.
Nor is it the teaching that we have in the New Testament. In fact, the Lord said if they've hated me.
They're going to hate you also in the measure in which you and I walk in separation from this world as heavenly citizens.
We are not going to be popular and fit in in this world and we shouldn't expect to.
Now again, we're going to look at some scriptures very, very quickly. We'll make some very brief comments.
Again, we're talking about the world, not as a planet, not the people that inhabit the world.
But as a program or a or a system, let's go to Luke's Gospel chapter 4.
Luke's Gospel, chapter 4.
And verse 5.
And the devil, taking him up into a high mountain, showed him all the kingdoms of the world.
In a moment. Now here we have the Lord Jesus and the temptation in the wilderness. And the devil takes him up and he shows him the kingdoms of this world. And it all is just for a moment. Now I mentioned that we're starting with the political aspect of the world. Man has set up a political system in this world again, of which Satan is the Prince.
Of this world. Let's before I develop that a little bit, go to John 14 and you'll see that we could quote these verses, but I think it's helpful to see them. John's Gospel, chapter 14.
And verse 30.
Hereafter, I will not talk much with you. Now notice this, for the Prince of this world cometh and hath nothing in me. So when it's the Prince of this world, it's the political side of the world. And that's why, young people, I don't believe it is our place to get involved in the political wranglings of this world. Now we are the salt of the earth we're here to.
Represent Christ and so on. We're ambassadors for Christ. But you know, this world goes on without without Christ politically and it's all going to be come down, crashing down, and it's all going to be judged because God has only one answer for this world politically, and that's his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Not until a king right reigns in righteousness.
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Will there be justice and equity in this world? It tells us in the Book of Malachi that the Son of Righteousness is going to rise with healing in his wings. And we know from Revelation and other places that there's a day coming when the Lord Jesus is going to come out of heaven and he's going to be announced as King of Kings and Lord of Lords. This world is under judgment.
Not only the planet, but the system. It's all under judgment.
Now is the judgment of this world, the Lord said. And if you and I get try to get involved in politics in this world, couple of things are going to happen. If we try to do it righteously, we're not going to be appreciated. Let me tell you a little story. The brother I know very well, he's very, quite elderly now. But you know, he was telling me that when he was first saved and going on for the Lord, he thought it would be good to run.
For the mayor of the city in which he lived here in the United States. And so he ran for mayor and he actually got in and he ran for mayor, as he told me, with a genuine exercise to clean up the drug trade and the crime in his city. And he used to go down and sit with the police and monitor things, he said. After two or three months I realized I was in the wrong place, he said. Actually, I feared for my life.
Because, he said. I realized there's no righteousness and justice in this world today.
And he got out and he said it was a good lesson for me and so you're not going to be appreciated.
If you seek to bring about righteousness, now you know young people, We cannot expect righteousness in an unrighteous world. They cast out the only righteous man, truly righteous man, that ever walked on planet earth, and they chose a man named Barabbas who was actually characterized by three things. You never get all three things in one gospel, but if you compare the account, he was on trial as a murderer, as a robber.
And for insurrection, which is rebellion against authority.
Now I know those three things have always existed from the beginning of time, but after they chose Barabbas over the Lord Jesus, I believe what we have seen in the last 2000 years plus is that those things have become more full blown violence, corruption and rebellion against authority. They're not just practice today, they've always been practiced from eating down, but they're preached and glorified. So he's the Prince of this world.
Polit, politically. And that's why I put Satan in the middle here, because again, the program is all governed by Satan. Now, that's not to say that God doesn't rule in the kingdoms of men, He's in control over it all. But he's allowing Satan and man to have his time now to show what man really is in himself, to show how bad things he really is and how bad he can mess things up if left to himself. God is in full control, make no mistake about it, Daniel tells us that.
The most high rules in the Kingdoms of Men, but nevertheless.
There's a vast political system program set up in this world by man, of which Satan is the head. But now let's go on and speak of the social aspect of things. Let's go to 1St John Chapter 5.
First John Chapter 5.
And verse 19.
And we know that we are of God and then notice this and the whole world lieth in wickedness. Or Mr. Darby's translation is in the wicked one. And who is the wicked one? Well, I don't think we have any problem seeing that that Satan, that's our enemy. And so I just want to apply this in connection with the social aspect of things. Now young people want to make it very clear that I'm not saying it is it's wrong to have fun and there are activities and so on that we can enjoy and participate.
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In that are not wrong in themselves. But let's be careful that we don't get caught up in a social aspect of things that is going to be a detriment or a hindrance to us in our Christian pathway in following the Lord. And let's be careful that we don't make friendship with the world again. Friendship in the in the context of it being that which spoils our relationship and our communion with have with God.
With the Lord Jesus. And that causes us to forget that we are not of this world. Yes, we need to be friendly. Yes, we need to get along with our classmates at school, with our neighbors, and so on, Because we'll never be a testimony in this world for the Lord if we don't show ourselves friendly in that way. But let's make sure that that those were closest to.
Are those who really want to please the Lord, other heavenly citizens, other?
Of our fellow fellow believers, and that we seek our real fellowship and encouragement from those who are going to strengthen us as believers and not drag us down to the level of this world.
Now there we've spoken of the political aspect of things, the social aspect of things, but then there's also the religious aspect of things. Now, I want to comment on this very carefully before I do. Let's go to 2nd Corinthians Chapter 4.
2nd Corinthians chapter 4.
And verse 3.
In whom the God of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not?
Lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.
Now we notice that when it was the political aspect of things, Satan is brought before us as the Prince of this world.
But when it has to do with the religious aspect of things, he's the God of this world religiously.
You know, there is a lot of religion in this world, but it's religion without Christ.
You know, when the Lord Jesus was here, there was a lot of religion. The Jews had their religion, and it was religion that had it was a system of things that had been set up by God in the Old Testament. But it's interesting that by the time the Lord came, that system of things had deteriorated to a point where it was religion without Christ. In fact, surrounding the trial of the Lord Jesus, there were certain things that they did as religious rights.
That had nothing to do with what was laid down in the Old Testament. And in the end they rejected the Lord Jesus. They rejected all of that the person of which all of that in the Old Testament pointed to and spoke and spoke of.
In view of the Lord coming, and eventually they took the Lord Jesus outside the walls of Jerusalem, that holy city that deteriorated to such a point that it had religion.
Without Christ. And so we want to be careful. We don't get caught up in a system of things that has religion without Christ, or even a system of things that has introduced that which is simply of man. You know, it's interesting with the feasts of Jehovah in the Old Testament, you remember that in Leviticus there were a number of feasts given to the children of Israel that they were to keep throughout the year.
And those feasts had to do with memorial, and remembering what God had done for them, and owning the goodness and provision of God, and so on. But when the Lord Jesus was here, they were not called the feasts of Jehovah. They were called the feasts of the Jews. Why? Because they had introduced so much of man's tradition, the traditions of the scribes and the Pharisees and the Sadducees, and the religious leaders of the day. They had introduced so much.
Tradition that the Spirit of God doesn't even call them the feasts of the Jews in the new, the feasts of Jehovah. In the New Testament, they are the feasts of the Jews. And so we want to be careful again, there is a system of things set up by man, of which Satan is the God and the God of this world, and it is religion without Christ. Now for the 10 minutes that are left, we're gonna very quickly go through some scriptures because I wanna stress.
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Our responsibility in relationship to our position still in this world, because we are, though we're not of this world, we are still in this world. We're still here physically in this world, and we need to operate in this world in a responsible way before the Lord until the Lord Jesus takes us out at his coming, what we call the Rapture. Let's go to Mark's gospel first of all.
Mark Gospel chapter 10.
Mark's Gospel, chapter 10.
And.
Verse 29 And Jesus answered and said, Verily I say unto you, There is no man that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my sake in the gospel. But he shall receive an hundredfold. Now in this time houses and brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands, and with persecutions. And I want you to notice, and in the world to come eternal life.
You know.
There's another world. We're here in this world as we've been describing it very briefly this morning. But let's remember that if we feel like we give up anything in this world to follow the Lord, there is a reward in a you know, in the world to come, you know a hundredfold is 10,000% interest on your investment. That's a that's quite an investment. I don't think there's any other investment connected with this world.
That's 10,000%. You know you don't get much on your return when you inve when you put your money in the bank. You may get a little more with annuities and other investments, but here's an investment that go that's really out of this world. Couldn't tell you a little story. I know some of you have heard me tell this story before.
But you know, there was a man many years ago by the name of William Kelly. Some of your your parents have his books on their shelf and.
They're still sold and many appreciate them today. Commentaries on the word of God. And Mr. Kelly was one of the great minds of England back in his day, a brilliant scholar. And Mr. Kelly had a nephew who was attending one of the great universities in England. I can't remember it was Cambridge or Oxford, but one of the great universities in England. And Mr. Kelly was giving him some tutoring on his Greek studies. And the Dean of the college realized that this young man was excelling in his Greek studies and.
So he questioned him about it and he told him that it was because his uncle William, who was a Greek scholar.
Was giving him special tutoring. And so the Dean of the college.
Arrange to have an interview with Mr. Kelly. And he was astounded in the presence of one of the great minds of England. And finally he leaned across his desk and he said, Mr. Kelly, you could be a great man in this world. And Mr. Kelly looked back at him and said, which world? Now that's what we have here. Which world? Now that isn't to say we shouldn't work hard at school, get a job, provide for ourselves, perhaps later on for a family if the Lord gives US1.
It's not what I'm saying, but we need to keep it all in perspective because this world is under judgment. Everything that we build for down here is not going to last. Peter tells us in his epistle. Second Peter that it's all reserved under fire. Again, we want to value what God has entrusted to us in a material or temporal way, or our intelligence, our energy, what whatever talents and abilities he gives us, we value them. We use them. We can use them in a proper way.
But we want to remember that everything connected with this world and this life.
Apart from what we do for Christ is only for time. It's only for a little time. So it's a little motto we sometimes see on the wall. Only one life will soon be passed. Only what's done for Christ will last. Let's go to the book of James.
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James Chapter One.
James, Chapter one and verse 27.
If any man among you seem to verse 26, if any man among you seem to be religious and bridal, is not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man's religion is vain, pure religion, and undefiled before God and the Father. Is this to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world? You want to be a religious person? Here's the formula to help others who have need and to keep ourselves.
Unspotted.
From the world. What does that mean? It means really, to walk, in a way.
Where we do not defile ourselves, our minds, or our bodies from that which Satan would have to to spoil and tarnish our testimony through this world, to keep ourselves morally pure, we won't turn to it. But in the Book of Titus it says that grace teaches us to live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world, right where we are. It also teaches us to deny worldliness and ungodly lusts to keep ourselves unspotted until live in a way, in a pure way.
So as I say, we don't spoil our testimony for the Lord or our joy in the Lord. We don't have time to develop that because I want to go on and read two more verses. I'm going to read three more scriptures before we close, but two more verses.
I want to connect together in First Corinthians Chapter 7.
First Corinthians Chapter 7.
And verse 31.
And they that use this world as not abusing it for the fashion of this world passeth away. And then with that in mind, I want to connect it with a portion in first John John's Epistle, First Epistle, Chapter 2.
First, John chapter 2 and verse Fif 15. Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him for all that is in the world, The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life is not of the Father, but is of the world. The world passes away, and the lust thereof, but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever.
So we find here that there is a way to use this world and what God has entrusted to us. Whether it's in creation, whether it's the material or temporal things that he has given us, there's a way that we can use it without abusing it. In fact, it tells us that we can make friends of the unrighteous mammon. I'm gonna tell you a quick story to illustrate this. When I was a boy growing up, I was quite young and my sister was younger.
My parents lived in a predominantly French suburb Of Montreal.
There were a few people spoke English, but we grew up in a predominantly, uh, I'm sorry, a predominantly English suburb Of Montreal. There are few people spoke French, but it was a predominantly English suburb. However, the people that live directly across from us only spoke French. My parents were very neighborly and friendly with their neighbors, and one day after my father left for work, my mother fell off the back deck.
And broke her arm. She had two small children, the man across the street. He couldn't speak English, but he came over. He packed my sister and I in the car with my mother, took us to the hospital, took care of us children, while my mother had her arm set in a cast and brought us home, made sure we had something to eat, and so on. There was a result of of being making friends of the unrighteous mammon that is. The day came.
When the neighborliness of my parents paid off, and the Lord used one who was not a believer and couldn't even speak our language, he used him in a way that was very necessary. And so we need to make friends of the unrighteous mammon, but not friends in the way that we spoke of later or earlier. And we are not to love this world. We are not to have divided affections with Christ. Our affections are to be solely.
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For the Lord Jesus Christ. And so he says love not the world nor the things that are that are in it. Now just one more verse in closing Galatians chapter 6. And then I'll leave this subject with you.
Galatians, chapter 6.
And verse 14.
But God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.
By whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.
Just very briefly make this comment that it is the cross of the Lord Jesus that separates you and I.
From this world. When we got saved, well, let me back up. The world rejected Christ. They took him outside the walls of Jerusalem and nailed him to a Roman cross. They said we don't want him away with him. We have no part with him. When you and I get saved, we take our stand positionally on the side with the Lord Jesus, and it separates us from this world and its system. And you and I will never come under the judgment of this world.
We can in our hearts take up the world, but positionally, as far as not being part of this world, as being a part of another world, the another world that is heaven, we will never get back to where we were.
Psalm 23 Part 1
Reading
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Pick up the 23rd Psalm so Psalm 23 and gonna encourage participation. If you have a thought, something you wanna share concerning the portion and I've asked himself to read it for it.
Shepherd, I shall not want to make it for me to lie down in green pastures, still waters to restore my soul. He leaves me in the path of righteousness for His namesake.
Yeah, you know, I walk through the valley of the shadow of death. I will fear no evil. So thou art with me. I Rod and my staff, they comfort me, Stop, prepare us. They came over for me in the presence of my enemies. Uh, anointed to my head to boil my cup run over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the House of the Lord forever.
I'll just, uh, make a couple of introductory comments in connection with this song. If you notice, it's a Psalm of David. And when we read these psalms, it's always good to notice the titles of the song.
Because the titles of the Psalms were not added by the translators. They're part of the original manuscripts, and being part of the original manuscripts and part of the word of God, they have something to say to us. Because as Solomon said in the book of Proverbs, every word of God is pure. And the title. I know some of the Psalms don't have titles, but the titles of the song kind of open up what follows in the song. It's like the title of a book or a song.
It gives you a hint as to what the book or the song or the poem or whatever is about. And so God has, by His Spirit, caused the writers of these psalms to often put titles. Now all the songs were not written by David. When we think of the Psalms, we think of David, and David wrote a good many of them, but not all of them according to the title. And some of them were not sure because they don't have titles.
But this one, like many of them, is a Psalm of David. Now these psalms can be looked at in different ways. These psalms are prophetic in their character. These psalms bring before. Some of the psalms bring before us the feelings and expressions of Christ as a man passing through the circumstances of life and the work of redemption. For instance, on Lord's Day morning, in connection with the sufferings of Christ, we often read the 22nd song, the 69th song, the 40th song, the 102nd song, the 88th song. Songs that bring before us the inner most.
Expressions and feelings of the Lord.
That you don't get in the Gospel. In the Gospels you Get the facts, in the songs you get the feelings. Some of the songs, like this one prophetically, are the expressions and feelings of God's earthly people in a coming day as they go through tribulation and finally are brought into blessing and association with the Lord Jesus. So they're Jewish in their character. They have to do with the restoration, some of them with the Jewish remnant, some of them with Israel especially.
Later on in the Psalms with Israel as a whole.
Some of the songs and.
Having said that, so we have the feelings of Christ, the expressions of God's earthly people, but they are also the feelings and expressions of the Saints in any age. I know there are some expressions in the Psalms that are really Jewish in their character, but they take us through the ups and downs of life and the circumstances that we pass through, and I think that's why all of us appreciate many of the songs.
And this song with a title is a Psalm of David. Remember, as we go through these verses, it is the personal experience of David as a man experiencing relationship with his God, with his Lord, and going through the ups and downs and circumstances of life. And I think if we see it in that light, in these little times we share together, I think we'll get some benefit and some profit in a practical way.
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For our own soul. But always read the title of the Psalm. It's part of the inspired word of God and it has something to say to us. So this is a Psalm of David about the shepherd, written by a shepherd from real personal, practical experience.
Roberta said that the first verse could be.
Could be, it could be said, uh, the Lord is my shepherd, what more could I want? And uh, I've enjoyed that often in regards to thinking of how sufficient the Lord is for, for our every, for our every need.
The Lord is my shepherd. What more could I want?
There's almost a boasting there, isn't there? You can you, you can just.
You can say the Lord is my shepherd and and.
You can say there's confidence knowing that the Lord is, is is capable.
It's very personal, isn't it? And 17 times in this song you have either I, me, my or mine. It's David claiming the Lord and the Lord's provision for him in a very, very personal way. And that's what everyone of us here can do if we know the Shepherd.
And not only know, but acknowledge Him as as a shepherd.
That's that many times we want to get the green pastures we wanted, the waters we want, all the nice things that follow through in this, but we don't wanna really recognize the Lord as being a shepherd of our lives.
Related to I shall not want. I think there is.
Connection to Psalm 37 Sometimes we we look at a little different on this verse, but Psalms 37 four the light thyself also in the Lord, and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart. In many cases we want to see it as he will give us what we want in our hearts, but we can look at it as that he's the one who provides the things that we want as we were looking at southwest 23 that I Shawn off want or if I want.
Am I wanting something according to?
His desires.
Just to make another connection there with uh 23 one I've enjoyed the, uh, psalms 8411 and it says, uh.
For the Lord's God is a Son and shield. The Lord will give grace and glory. No good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly. No good thing will he withhold and then walk uprightly just again. It's God's provision for us.
I just got back from a trip from California and I was in the Central Valley and, uh, I wasn't there to look at the seat, but every now and then driving down the road we see, you know, S the field and out in the middle of the field would be a bunch of sheep. And there are always two things out there. In the middle of a bunch of sheep. There would be a big water truck and a little camper that the shepherd stayed in and the separate was there the whole time.
One thing that wasn't there was a fence. There was no fence. I've seen people keep cheap in their backyard in a fence, but there'd be a flock of, I don't know, maybe 200 sheep and they'd all be around the shepherd in that water tank and, and the green pastern. When they see they got down, the, the shepherd will find his thoughts and move the water truck in the camper too. And the the sheep would fall and move to the new spot. And it was everything that the sheep needed, the shepherd provided.
And it's it's the same for the Lord's house.
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Yeah, that's good, because it's a person that that this song brings before us and when we talk about the shepherd, it's the attraction to a person. And we're going to be followers. We're going to walk in the proper way as the Lord sheep in the measure in which we're attracted to the to the person. And sheep are one of the few animals. And I'm not a farmer, I'm a city boy. But I do understand that she.
Are one of the few animals that you lead, you know, when we're in the West Indies and South American places, you see, uh, flocks of goats coming down this, the road to the villages and they're usually being driven. There's a little boy behind with a switch or a lady behind with some kind of a stick and they're driving the goats ahead of them. You drive cattle, but you lead sheep. The other thing that's wonderful in connection with the shepherd is, as we were saying, it's very individual and he, a shepherd does not treat every sheep the same way.
The shepherd takes into account the personal need of each sheep. Turn to Isaiah 40 and I think you see it.
Uh brought out very well in Scripture, Isaiah chapter 40. This personally is one of my favorite verses in the Word of God verse 11.
He shall feed his flock like a shepherd, He shall gather the lambs with his arm and carry them in his bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young. To me, what this verse brings out is that the Lord knows that there are we're at various stages in our Christian growth and experience. Some of us need to be LED, some of us need to be carried. We all need to be fed.
And and so on. There's individual needs with each one. My father.
When he was a young man, he kept sheep and he used to tell us that as a shepherd you went out into the walk of sheep and you looked at each sheep for the individual needs. Some of them sometimes had a cut on their foot. Some of them needed different, different attention. And on a particular day, if you were leading them in a certain way, some of them when you came to a rough spot, they needed more time to get over the rough spot or maybe a little extra encouragement to get through.
That narrow passage or whatever. Well, the Lord is our shepherd. He understands the individual need of every person in this room today, young and old. Sometimes you young people, you think, well, the older people don't always understand what we're going through and what we have to face in our day. And that's true. I, I'll be the first to confess, I don't always empathize or understand what you're going through because it's a different day.
As we said this morning, there's these are different times for you than they were when I was a young person in a large family. I know some of you come from large families. Perhaps you feel that your parents find it hard to treat everybody equal or as individual. It's hard not to have favorites in a large family, but in God's flock of sheep, He has no favorites and He treats everyone according to their spiritual and physical need at the time.
The second version reminds me of that the verse in the gospel that says come unto me, you'll either labor and on our heavy laden and I will give you rest. That's really what the Lord wants for each one of us is he wants us to come into his presence and enjoy his company and and his fellowship, and those are the places of true.
Rest.
Yes, and that verse you quoted we often use in the gospel and rightly so, but strictly speaking it applies to one who knows the Lord. And sometimes we don't have real peace and rest in our soul. Why? Is it because we're not walking in the company of the person, We're walking apart from him? And so he says, you come to me. You know, it's interesting again with David in his life, he's a picture of the Lord Jesus.
And you remember that there were those who came to him in The Cave of Adela and it says they were the distressed and those who were in debt and those who had all kinds of problems. And they came to David and they found a place of safety and rest beside, uh, in dwelling with David in The Cave. And again I say the picture of the Lord Jesus. So maybe there's a young person here and you just, you've come to this, these meetings and you just don't have real peace in your soul. You know, you're, you're, you're a Christian. You know, you're gonna go to hell.
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You know, your sins are forgiven, but you say I just, I mean, only in a turmoil inside. I just don't have peace in my circumstances. Well, I suggest that it's at least in part because we're not walking in company with the Shepherd. And you notice it says he's gonna, He leads us in various places, but it begins by saying he makes me. You know, he leads us and we sometimes think about he gently leads us and so on. But when it comes to green pastures, he makes us to lie down.
You know, some of us perhaps feel this more than others. Some of us are doers and we like to be on the go and we like to be multitaskers and so on. You know, sometimes the Lord has to put His hand on us and make us stop. He has to allow circumstances to make us lie down in green pastures because the green pastures in Scripture speak of personal communion with the Lord.
And sometimes then I'll be the first again to confess it in my own life. Sometimes I substitute service for Christ, for commute with and, and I, I, I substitute communion with the Lord for service with Christ. And if we do that, then our service, as good as it might be, is simply activity. It's not true service. And there's not going to be the fruit that God desires from it. So.
If we don't stop and and enjoy the green pastures, enjoy personal communion with the Lord, sometimes he has to make us to lie down. Might be sickness, that might be circumstance. It can be any number of things.
Ultimately, He's put us in this world so that we might know His heart. Isn't that right? It's not Even so much, although service is good. Like you say, it's knowing God's heart.
Yeah. Remember, young people, that there is no substitute for personal fellowship and communion with the Lord. Martha was busy with her service, but the Lord said to her, one thing is needful. You know, I often think about that just one thing. I think if the Lord was to tell me about things that were needful in my life, it would be more than one thing. It was a pretty good record, but the one thing that was needful was the thing she needed the most.
And that was personal communion to sit at Jesus feet. And so Mary had chosen the good part. She let some work go. Wasn't that the housework and getting the meal wasn't important. But she let it go because there was an opportunity to sit in fellowship at the feet of the Lord Jesus. And Mary said this is an opportunity that can't be missed. So don't substitute personal communion with service.
Or vice versa, service with pub for, uh, communion. Communion is vital. We need to lie down in the green pastures. I say that too, because one of the characteristics of a clean animal like a cow was that they chew the cot and you see cows out in the fields. Maybe they're standing or lying and they're just contentedly chewing the cut. They're taking that food and they're going over it, regurgitating it and going over it. It's personal communion and meditation.
On the food that comes from the word of God.
And then there's the still waters. Remember I said this morning, sometimes water is a commute, is a picture of the word of God. And I suggest that's what we have here, the still waters here, it's not running water. That would be a picture of the Spirit of God. But here it's Stillwater and it's the refreshment that comes from the Word of God. In other words, there's nothing in this world to feed your soul, to feed the new man, the new life you have in Christ.
And nothing to refresh your spirit spiritually apart from what we have in the shepherd. And how do we get this? How do we get the food and refreshment we need? It's the Word of God. And so it's the washing of water by the words that we speak so often about. We need that refreshment and cleansing that comes from the still waters.
00:20:11
The margin of my Bible that says water and quietness, I just kind of enjoyed that, as in, yes, we're opening up the word of God right now, but it's that quiet time of the Lord, one-on-one personal communion that's kind of carry us along very good.
So we fail, we sometimes signals allowed in our lives, dullness of soul, we get away from the Lord. You know, David did that. You read the life of David. There were times when there was a moral sin in his life in connection with Bathsheba. There were times of discouragement, times when he was afraid. But as he says here, he restoreth my soul. Maybe there's someone who came to this camp and you think, you know, I haven't been following the Lord or maybe I've allowed some sin in my life and got away from the Lord.
You know, there's restoration you can get before the Lord. When David's sin in connection with Bathsheba was brought before him, he immediately got in the presence of the Lord. And on your own time, Joe said in the quiet of your own reading, read the 51St song. It's the prayer of David. It's David's confession when his sin was brought before him by Nathan the prophet. And there was restoration for David. So when David said he restoreth my soul.
He knew that by experience he'd experienced the restoring grace of God and the joy and peace that comes from that. And everyone of us needs that, and we can enjoy it too.
Will be a direct connection to 1St John 19.
If we confess our sins, is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to pleasant us from all righteousness.
Yes, we don't have to ask for forgiveness. I have the forgiveness of sins, but what He does want me to do is come and confess when there's failure in my life. And then there's that cleansing to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. That's again the cleansing effect, moral cleansing effect of the Word of God. That washing of water by the word, the feet washing to remove the defilement and the things that chill and dull our soul. It all comes from.
But He doesn't just restore us. That is, when we confess our sin, there's restoration, but then there's something that's ongoing. He leads us in the path of righteousness. In the verse that Lucas read in John, it says if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins. And then notice what it says and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. That is to keep us from going any further in that path and to lead us back into the right path.
Righteousness is just that which is right.
And how are we gonna get back on track? The grace of God.
Restores us, but he doesn't leave us there. He puts us back on the right track. Are you on the wrong track? You wanna get back on the right track? You don't wanna just stop on the wrong track, that's one thing. But you wanna be back on the right track. And so he leads us then back into the paths of righteousness so we can continue on. Because don't ever think that you've gone too far.
That you can't have full restoration and be back on the right path. Yes, there may be consequences in your life and we reap what we sow. And sometimes in God's government there are things that we bear marks the rest of our life. But as to personal restoration and living for the Lord in a right way, there's always sufficient grace to put us back in the path of righteousness.
And it's for His name's sake. Notice that. In other words, it's because of His faithfulness.
Not because of our faithfulness. We can claim nothing if we have restoration and we're on the right track today. Don't think that's anything of ourselves, that he's done it all and he's done it for his glory, for his name's sake. Remember when the MO, the children of Israel sinned and God said, I'm just gonna cut them all off? Oh, Moses said, no. He said, Lord, if you do that, you're it's gonna bring, it's gonna be a reflection on you.
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You've brought them out, you've redeemed them, you've delivered them, now you're going to let them perish and let the heathen think that you're not the God that you say you are. And basically that's what Moses was saying. He said, Lord, for your sake, carry this people through. And the Lord said yes. And so he carries each one of his sheep through, not so much, yeah, for our sake too, for our good and blessing, but even over and above that, for his own sake and for testimony and glory to his name and to his person.
It's beautiful to think of how the Lord will leave the 90 and 9:00 to to to search after the one, the one sheep that's lost.
Well, our time is gone. Let's have a little word of prayer. Our blessed God and Father, we thank thee for this, uh, little Psalm that.
Q&A 1
Q&A
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00:05:38
Nsnoise.
OK, we had some questions in the UH, question box, some good questions. Some of them, uh, will have a little shorter answers, but I think we can get through them. The first question, uh, I have here in front of me is how do we know when we're really safe? So this is the question, how do we know if we're really saved or when we're really saved? So we're gonna, if anybody has a scripture to help with the answer, a thought.
Umm, that would be good, but let's start out with a verse in Romans to help answer this question.
Sometimes setting a question meeting like this, we perhaps don't have all the answers, but we have the answer book and the Bible is the answer book, and it's able to answer every question that we have if we're willing to search it. So we wanna get these answers from the Bible tonight, and I wanna read a portion in Romans 8.
Romans chapter 8 and verse 15.
For you have not received the Spirit of ******* again to fear, but you have received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry ABBA Father. The Spirit itself beareth witness with our Spirit that we are the children of God. Now just hold your finger here and go over to John's Gospel, Chapter 3.
John's Gospel chapter 3.
And.
Verse eight. Well, I'll read Verse 7. Marvel not that I said unto you, Thee, ye must be born again. The wind bloweth where it lifteth, and thou canst not, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whether it goeth. So is everyone that is born of the Spirit. I begin with these two portions, because I believe what we learn from these scriptures is.
That as we well know when we get saved, the Spirit of God, when God gives us divine life, when we're born again, the Spirit of God comes to indwell us. And it is the Spirit of God that confirms to us in our own, in our spirit that is in our own being, that we are the children of God, and it is the Spirit of God that produces results in our lives.
You know you've never seen the wind, and I've never seen the wind. But we see the results of the wind, and that was what the Lord was telling Nicodemus. And so he said, the wind bloweth where it lifts us, and thou canst not tell whence it cometh or whither it goeth. So is everyone that is born of the Spirit. In other words, we don't see the wind, but we see the results, and with salvation when someone's born again.
Or so someone gets saved. I always look to see some results, some difference in their life. I remember a young man, His name was George. Some years ago I knew him quite well and he professed to be saved. But I watched his life for some time and after some time I said to him, George, if you have no desire to please the Lord in your life, then I question whether you really were have ever been saved.
Because if you're really saved and you have the Spirit of God indwelling you, there's going to be some desire in your life to please the Lord. And there's going to be, as a result, some fruit in your life that others can see. So you see, look out on a windy day and you say, oh, it's awful windy. It's not the wind you see, it's the trees bowing down and before the wind, it's the leaves blowing, stuff blowing around, whatever it might be.
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And so if if you are saved, if you know the Lord Jesus, if you have divine life, you have the Spirit of God indwelling you, and it will be confirmed first of all in your own soul, you'll have a you'll, you'll, you'll feel it in your own soul, in your own being. And then there will be a result. There will be actions that will prove that you're saved. Now we can look at some other scriptures then, but maybe some others have some thought. And if you have a question related to the question, please ask.
I would suggest Romans 51 also.
Repeat that for being justified by faith. We have peace with God for our Lord describe.
So it's a piece that we have with God based on what what he told us, what we read on his word.
That's also another.
Another point, but I think part of it as well is.
Uh, trust the enemy can control.
Throw questions in our minds as well. So I think it's it's important as uh the two two sides of it. One is uh as Jim was mentioning that the his period connected with our experience that we have we're sons of God as well as that we have peace in God as we we trust and we confess with our mouth and trust with our heart.
But sometimes there will be some doubts as well coming to our mind. I think that going back to the ward and confirming because the enemy tries to to bring themselves as well the same way as he did with uh, with Eve. Is that what God said. So I think that's also a a moment to to go back to the word and see uh John five. I think it's a good.
Good assurance.
John 524 Verily, verily, I say unto you, Here that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me half everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation, but it path from that unto life So different times in life perhaps we in our walk we we go a little distant from the Lord. That's a a a moment where where the enemy can can put those in in our minds once again. It's good to go back and see that he promised. We hear.
We believe it. We have everlasting life.
I would be inclined to include uh. Impossible John's writings in his epistle as well. John is very characterized uh By his black and white approach.
The issues UH chapters four and five in particular, are first drawn.
We'll bring up, uh, how we can know.
How could we be assured? Uh, we are living as a Christian, knowing God through love, keeping God's commands, ultimately coining. Verse or chapter 5, verse 13. I've written these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life.
Yes, thank you, Austin. I appreciate that. Because I wanna turn to some further scriptures in in John's epistle and I wanna say this, that in John's epistle first epistle we have a series of tests as to whether we really are true believers or not. And as you go through that epistle, you can take these tests. Am I real? Is this true about me? Let's just notice a couple of them. First, John, chapter 3.
First, John chapter 3 and verse 14. We know that we have passed from death unto life because we love the brethren. If you meet another Christian, another child of God, and there's an immediate response in your heart to that person, if there's an immediate love that goes out to that person, a bond there, then that's a pretty sure sign that you are also a child of God.
Because remember, John's Gospel, uh, John's ministry takes up the family of God, the children of God. So if you're a child of God, when you meet another child of God, there's going to be an immediate response there. And I know you've experienced this. You meet someone at work, maybe someone on a trip, somewhere you've never met before. You handed the cashier the restaurant or the waitress at the restaurant a gospel tract or a wallet calendar and.
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Oh, I'm a believer too. I know the Lord. Why? There's an immediate bond there, and that's a proof that you are also a child of God. Notice another one in the 5th chapter.
Earlier on in the chapter.
I'll start at verse one first John chapter 5, verse one who whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ, is born of God and everyone that loveth him.
That beget that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him. Is there a response when someone brings up the name of the Lord Jesus? Is there a love in your heart for that name and for that person? The world doesn't love the Lord Jesus they hate, they hate the Lord Jesus. The natural man is at enmity with God. But if you have been born again, if you have divine life and the spirit within you, why there's gonna be an immediate response.
To the to the name and person of the Lord Jesus verse 2. By this we know that we love the children of God.
Now notice this when we love God and keep His commandments, for this is the love of God that we keep His commandments and His commandments are not grievous. Again, as Austin said, is there a response in your heart to follow the word of God if we take up something on this weekend? Some instruction from the word of God and there's no response in your heart to desire to walk in obedience to the word of God.
Then you might question, do you really have divine life? Now, I know a Christian can get into a condition where there's very little, if any, response to, but generally speaking, it's another little test. The word of God is brought up. There's a response to the word of God. And when there's real love for the Lord, real love for God, and a commandment or a principle from Scripture is brought before us, is that going to be difficult? Is it going to be some oh, we gotta do this, and it's a hard thing.
Not if there's that. If there's that family relationship, not if we're real, there's going to be a response and it's not going to be difficult to respond to love. And you know that the natural thing, if Somebody Loves You and you love them, why just a request has the power of a command and they don't have to beg you to do something. You know what pleases them. And there's a real response. So these are just a couple more of a little test that John gives and you can read his epistle.
And as you read it over and over again, he says, well, if this is true of you, then you must be a true child of God.
I wanna address 1 little thing specifically regarding this chapter, Umm chapter 5 in particular. First John.
Uh, this is.
I've been told it's written in response to a movement called the Docetics movement, which was at the time a rejection of Jesus, full incarnation UH, or Jesus becoming fully man. So if we were to address UH, proclaimed Believer, who held this kind of position that Jesus did not become fully man.
Uh, how would we approach a fellowship in that way? I could wouldn't even call a fellowship. I would say how we approach a situation such as that. Because the Apostle John here makes it very clear, uh, that that is one of the key tests is do you understand and believe that Jesus, God himself, became fully man because the works on the cross would not be complete.
If it was not, if the divination was superseded his humanity.
Yeah, just go to the second epistle for a moment and I think you get at least part of the answer to your question, Austin. And let me just say in second and third, John, we have those who are to be received and those who are not to be received, those were to have fellowship with and those that were not to. In the third Epistle, it's those that we are to receive and have fellowship with. But in the second epistle, it's those who are, we are not to receive.
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And not to have fellowship with, and I want to read verse seven of of the Second Epistle. For many deceivers are entered into the world who confess not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an Antichrist. And those who come along and tell you that the Lord Jesus is not God manifest in the flesh, or that he did not become a man.
Because there are those who say, well, the Lord became a man in circumstance, but not in fact, and they cloud the whole issue of his incarnation, that is, his becoming a man, a real man sent apart, but a real man.
And we are not to have fellowship with those. And there are those who go out today.
And they go from door to door, Jehovah Witnesses and Mormons and others. And they do not bring sound doctrine concerning the person of the Lord Jesus, the Incarnation.
Of the Lord Jesus. And what are we to do? We're not even to bid them God's speed, it tells us.
We're not to invite them into our home. Yes, we might give them a scripture and send them on their way.
But you know, even if you try to argue with those different ones, it really isn't going to have an effect. Maybe quote a verse of scripture and just uh, just leave it, leave it at that. So we want to be very careful we don't have fellowship with those who deny that Jesus is the eternal Son of God and that Jesus was meant God manifest in the flesh, a real man walking here on earth.
Now our time is is moving and I do wanna cover these questions. I know we're not gonna cover every aspect of every question, but here's a good question I thought.
What books of the Bible would you suggest to a young Christian or someone who's been newly converted? Someone who's newly been saved? Now I'd be interested to hear what some of you have to say. I would just say an introduction to this question that it often depends on the person. Maybe someone you know you've been working with and uh, they've gotten saved and you wanna be able to suggest something for them to read somewhere in the scriptures to begin.
What you might suggest to one person may not always be what you suggest to another person. So sometimes it has to do with the person. Maybe how much comprehension you think they've had or exposure perhaps would be a better word that they've had to the word of God in the past. I would say that as a general thought, John's Gospel is a good place to start. We get a lot of foundation truth in John's Gospel. Again, as Austin's been pointing out, we get the person and work of Christ.
The Son of God as a man here on earth. And that's a good place, a good foundation, a place to start. Another suggestion, and again it depends on the person, is in a practical way for practical living, is to perhaps suggest that they go through some of the stories in the scripture of men and women and young people that were believers both in the Old Testament and the New Testament.
And to see from a practical standpoint how they lived. Stories like the story of Joseph, I know it's a picture of Christ, but it's also practical living. The story of David, Daniel and his friends. Those kinds of stories are helpful too. But maybe some others have some suggestions in that regard.
In groups, uh, I don't know how it's different, like you said, for every, for every individual. I mean, the individuals I deal with on a daily basis are.
On the intellectual side of things, right. So whenever I engage in conversation or or date or argument, uh, I can't really pick any scripture because they don't want it. They don't want the, they don't want the the touchy feely as a as a answer. They want, they want the, uh, the logic, they want the reason, they want the empirical evidence. They want that kind of thing. It's kind of.
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Kind of difficult to approach that kind of thing and and show that Scripture in fact does.
Satisfy those those accounts, but at the end of the day, you know, they may stand somewhat convinced uh of its empirical uh, truth or or whatnot. But at the end of the day, what has that done for their soul, you know?
The wife of the Lord Jesus is sure at.
It's a nice place to start. So I mean all that you you said John's Gospel, but I know I really like the Mark's Gospel cut. So the Gospels are pretty good place to start. Everything. Mm-hmm. Yes. And it's all good. All scripture is good. I I would just say this too in regard to the to the comments that have been made that a true believer, a true believer's heart will always respond to ministry for the heart.
For scriptures, for the heart, yes, we need that which teaches us and we need to have principles and so on and that comes. But I think a good place for young believers, especially someone who's just been saved, is to again bring before get them to read scripture and maybe even some simple ministry that speaks to the heart, because that's what we need if the heart isn't engaged.
Then we can talk principles and truths and all that kind of thing till really we're blue in the face, but it's not going to have any effect to the heart that isn't engaged. So as you say, Austin, the life of Christ speaks to our heart as well as it's the example Peter says he's left us an example that we should follow in his footsteps. Some of you have heard the name Eric Smith, and Eric Smith was a pioneer missionary to the.
Into Indians in Bolivia and spent his whole life really ministering to the Incas. He translated the Bible into their language, the Quechua language and so on. And he lived to be, I think 104. But someone asked him at the end of his life, near the end of his life, what was his secret in studying the word of God. And he said this, he said throughout his life he made it the habit of his.
Life in reading the Scriptures to every day, no matter where else he was reading in the Bible.
To read something from the gospel.
I thought that was a very good exercise because in the Gospels, as you say, we get the life of Christ, it speaks to our hearts and it gives us that example for our pathway as well.
A another suggestion for young believers and even when I say young believers.
Not necessarily those who've just been saved, but a good suggestion for young believers is First Timothy, because first Timothy is written to a young man. And the apostle Paul gives Timothy a great deal of instruction, not only how to go on for the Lord individually, but to go on for the Lord with his brethren and in the assembly, and how to go on for the Lord in the world and and so on. It's all there really in both epistles. But yes, the epistles to Timothy I believe are very, very important and very relevant to the day we live in.
Because they speak of the last days and days very parallel to the days in which we find ourselves now.
OK. Let's move on to the next question.
This question asks is a business partnership of a Christian and an unbeliever wrong or just not advised or advisable? OK, so is going into business now? We're not talking about working in a company for an unbeliever. I suppose Most of us who are working here we perhaps work for. If we don't work for ourselves, we most of us, I suppose, work for an unbelieving.
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Employer or a company that's headed by unbelievers. But that's not what this question is asking. Is it wrong to go into a business partnership with a unbeliever? Let's go to 2nd Corinthians.
Chapter 6.
2nd Corinthians chapter 6.
In verse 14.
Be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? And what communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial? Or what part hath A believer with an infidel? And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the Ye are the temple of the living God. As God has said, I dwell in them and walk in them.
And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. So the simple answer to this question is it is not just unadvisable to go into a business partnership with an unbeliever, but it is a it is directly against scripture. Now when it says here be not unequally yoked with unbelievers, it's a very, very broad statement and it really applies to many aspects of our lives.
I know sometimes we apply it in connection with Mary, and that's right. It applies to that. It is never justified to marry an unbeliever.
And I I just say that in passing young people, it is you will never be able to justify before God marrying someone who is not a believer. It's an unequal yoke. And I'll just say in passing, if you never date an unbeliever, you'll never marry an unbeliever. Be careful. But it also applies to many other aspects of our lives as well, and I believe it applies to our business now.
When you go through the Old Testament, you find that the people of God were warned over and over again with making unholy alliances with the nations around them, that is Israel with God's people. The Jews were God's people, and they were not to make any kind of pact or agreement with those around them, whether it was going out to war, whether it was marrying outside the people of God.
Whether it was working with them on some project or whatever, you know, even in Nehemiah's day, and I know it's maybe a little stretch of an application, but when Nehemiah and the people of God were building the wall and there were others of the heathen around them that wanted to join in, in one way or another, Nehemiah said No way we're we're working here, we're doing, we're building and we're not going to join Alliance and have any others help us.
In this building project. And so we're never justified in in a business partnership with an unbeliever. And here's why. Because you sign agreements and enter into a business partnership with an unbeliever, you will very quickly find that they have very different standards and principles than you do. You're going to want to go by the word of God. You're not going to want to fudge the books at the end of the quarter.
You're not going to want to operate in some Gray area when it comes to accounting or sales or legal contracts or whatever it it might be. And your unbelieving partner say, you know everybody does it now and and you got to survive in the business world. And if we're going to make it, you got to just stretch it a little bit. You're going to have to go against your conscience if you've entered into a partnership like that. So I just want I I would say and I would warn you.
Do not.
Do not go into any kind of business partnership with an unbeliever. Now that's not to say that if you're in business, you might have contracts with different companies to service their equipment and so on. When I was in business, we were in the Fire Protection equipment business. And yes, we had service contracts with companies where we went in and service their equipment, but that's very different than entering into a business partnership.
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With with others, my dad and I were in partnership, but we never brought in somebody else into the business who was not not a believer, although we had contracts with different companies and school boards and hospitals to go in and service their equipment. But you're going to find if you go into any kind of business partnership with an unbeliever, you will eventually have to or they will seek to have you compromise your integrity and your Christian and biblical principles.
And.
Well, we've got two more questions we'd like to cover. This 4th question is, and this is an age-old question, This is probably the most asked question by young people and sometimes those who are not so young. This question says how do we know the will of God in our lives?
It's probably the most asked question, and perhaps the most difficult question to answer.
You know the Bible is not a self help book.
And and what I mean by that is, if you've got a problem in secular things, you can go to the shelf and pick out a self help book. Or you can Google the question and in six easy steps, it'll tell you how to get from point A to point B. But God's Word doesn't. It doesn't operate like that. The Bible's not a book of rules. It's a book of principles, and it always leaves space open.
For spiritual exercise and discernment, now there are infallible guidelines in Scripture to guide us in the decisions and circumstances of life. Like I said, this is the answer book, but we have to search it out for ourselves and let the Spirit of God.
Make it good to us and show us in a way that perhaps is hard to explain.
To anybody else, but first of all, let's go to a scripture in the 12Th chapter of Romans.
To get a little hint as to how we can know the will of God in the first part of this chapter, I'll start at verse one, Romans chapter 12.
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service, and be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. For I say there, I say, through the grace given unto Me.
To every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly according as God has dealt to every man the measure of faith. Now we get some little hints here as to knowing the will of God.
Because God wants us to know His will. And maybe I'll just say this, if we don't know the will of God in some aspect of our lives, the hindrance is never on God's part.
But I believe there's an Old Testament scripture that corresponds with what we've read here and perhaps sums it up. And it's in Proverbs chapter 3, and it's there Solomon says, commit in all my ways, acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy path. In other words, as Paul says here, it's to give ourselves to the Lord.
To turn our whole lives over to the Lord and say Lord.
We don't have any might of ourselves. We don't have any ability in ourselves to know your will and what service you have for us. But we're giving ourselves into your hand. You make it clear, and you you do with us whatever you desire and whatever you see is best. When we give ourselves to the Lord in that way, then He wants to make His will known to us as long as I in my heart.
00:40:00
Desire some part of it for my own will.
I'm not going to know the will of God. In John's Gospel chapter 6, it says if any man desire to do his will, he shall know. That's the first thing. Do we really have a desire to know the Lord's will? Then the other thing is, do we really have a desire to do his will?
If any man desire not just to know it, but to do it.
We won't turn to it, but if you're taking notes and you wanna jot down a reference, Psalm 143, verse 10, says not teach me thy will, but teach me to do thy will. See, I believe sometimes the hindrance to knowing God's will is we're not willing to do it. We say, well, I wouldn't mind if it wasn't something quite so big or something just quite that direction.
And we're not willing to take the steps of faith, and we're not willing to do it. We're never going to have further light as to what God's will is for us in our lives if we don't have not only the desire to know it, but the desire and the faith to do it.
So it's that. That's where it begins.
And the desire to do it is not by evaluating what.
The will of God. Here I think the same verse. It says that verse 2, Romans 12, what is that good and acceptable and perfect we've got?
At the moment that we don't take it His word or the God's word, that it is good, acceptable and perfect will of God, we start questioning perhaps is it good to me? Is it accept acceptable to me? Do I think it's perfect? And that's when we don't. We're not given further, further life. I believe there is a thing.
Uh, first Kings. I think we can see some some examples. First Kings 17.
In the life of Elijah.
I'll read a few verses.
Uh, for the brand of correct me if I'm wrong. Here in on this passage we're first king 17, verse one in the light of the Tish, by by falls of the Hemet inhabitants of Gilead set into Ahab. As the Lord God of Israel liveth before whom I stand, there shall not be doom, nor reigned his ears, but according to my word. And the Lord of and the word of the Lord came unto him, saying, Get thee hands, and turn thee eastward, and hide thyself by the Brooke cherry that is before Jordan. And it shall be that thou shalt drink of the bruise, And I have commanded the Ravens to feed thee there.
So he went, and did according to the word of the Lord. For he went and dwelt by the brook Cherith, that is before Jordan. And the Ravens brought him bread and flesh in the morning, and bread and flesh in the evening. And he drank of the brook, and he came to pass after a while, that he the brook dried up.
Because there had to be no rain in the land. And the word of the Lord came unto him, saying, arise, get to deserve fast. And so and so I think they're interesting to see 33 instances here. One is that Elijah knew the word of God, that when, uh, Israel would not be following the God of Israel, that there would be no rain and no dew on the earth. And upon that knowledge he proclaimed.
That to the to the people. But he was going to be suffering the same. He didn't. He didn't have, as Jim was mentioning he didn't have the full picture, but he act upon that word from God even though he was going to be affected by it. After that we see that the the word of the God of the Lord came into him to see how how he could go through once he had subjected himself to to what was in the word of God. So he he would.
Being taken care of by drinking of the brook and by having by being fed by the Ravens. Now we can say that's great, the Lord provide for us when we start acting, uh, based on what we see on His board. But it was also the will of God that the broke dried up. So I think this is a a part of the encouragement as well exhortation in many times when we are walking based on what we see in the word of God.
00:45:08
And situations come that we see the brook drive and there's no more food. Is that really the real God? And it was here for for Elijah and and for what purpose? So that it could be blasting to away the woman? It was not directly a blessing for Elijah himself, but after he subject, he submitted himself to that will of God, that he would have no more water there, no more more food there, than the word of the Lord came to him again to go somewhere else.
And the rule of God was displayed in how that widow would be would be sustained. So I think there are three things. One is acting upon the word of God even when it means uh us being affected of it. There is also real God that we we receive direct blessings for it. But there is also a good example and purposeful of God works first will seem as the brook has dried up on us, but the Lord has uh larger plans than our own lives alone.
Yes, and I'd like to just follow up about the word of God.
Because I suggest that generally the way we know the will of God is by orderly, consistent daily reading of the word of God. It you know it's not enough when you're faced with a decision in your life to set the Bible on the table on its spine, let it fall open, put your finger on a verse and expect God to answer your question or direct you. Now I know in I've heard stories and you probably have to, of God directing in that way, and God understands our weakness and so on. But generally speaking, that is not the way God directs you. Notice a well known verse in the 119th Psalm that I think.
Sums up what what we're saying Psalm 119 verse 105.
Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. And I want to encourage you to every day. And I was encouraged this morning when I got up early, to see some young people in various corners of the lodge and around, reading their Bibles, having their morning reading. And if you do that, and you have questions about some direction in your life, God will use those readings.
To answer your question, it may not be the real meaning of the Scripture. It may never mean that to you again. It may never mean that to anybody else. But I've had scriptures jump off the page at me at times when I needed an answer to some step or decision in my Christian pathway. So the word of God is sufficient light to guide you in every step of your Christian pathway.
But you have to do like Lucas said. It's like the flashlight or the Lantern. You take hold of it and it only shines a few feet in front of you. But as long as you hold onto it and keep walking.
It'll guide and direct you no matter how many miles you have to go on a dark night down a dark road. And that's the way the word of God is. However, having said that, I wanna read a verse in the 32nd Psalm because I believe there's something else as well.
Psalm 32.
And verse 8.
I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go. I will guide thee with my nigh. Now I read this because while it's true that the word of God is our light and direction for the will of God and for our pathway, I believe this, that there are some steps in your Christian life that you will never discern apart from closeness to the Lord Jesus.
If I can illustrate this expression, I will guide you with mine like this. When my children were younger and we were sitting in meeting, or perhaps they were sitting across from me when they got a little older and they were doing something I didn't want them to do. If I could catch their eye, they could tell by my expression, my eyes, exactly what I was saying to them. I didn't have to utter one word aloud.
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However, there were two things that were necessary for me to guide them with my eye. They had to be close enough to me to see me, and they had to be looking directly at me. And as I say, I believe there are some steps in your Christian life you will never discern unless you're walking close to the Lord and the Lord Jesus is your occupation. Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of faith, you want to walk in the path of faith.
You've got to be occupied with the Lord Jesus looking at the Lord Jesus and then.
And it's a little bit unexplainable, perhaps, but I believe you will be able to discern. Maybe you won't be able to explain it to anybody else, but you'll be able to discern and know that this step is the will of God for you in your life.
And of course, prayer goes along with it too, seeking the Lord's mind in prayer. So we need to prayerfully read the word of God.
Our time is almost gone and there is one further question this question has to do with.
Something that was said this morning and I was asked to clarify it, and it's a very good question. This morning we said that in connection with God choosing us in Christ before the foundation of the world, that in the end he will never be disappointed in any one of us, that he'll never be disappointed in the fact that he chose us and we know from scriptures as we mentioned this morning.
That when he views us in the coming day, he's going to be satisfied with the travail of his soul. He's going to rejoice over us with singing, not going to be disappointed that he chose us, that he saved us, that he carried us through and brought us safely home to the Father's house. But the question has to do with what about our actions? Isn't the Lord sometimes disappointed in our actions?
And I want to clarify that because sometimes the Lord is grieved.
With the way that we act, he's not disappointed with us, but he's disappointed or grieved with our actions. Want to contrast two statements in the book of Malachi that I believe help us to understand this.
Now just say before I read these two statements in the book of Malachi, we have God's people in the Old Testament.
At their lowest point, morally and spiritually, a lot had been introduced into the service of God and even into the sacrifices and the service of the temple. That was not according to the mind of God. And we find that Malachi comes along as God's messenger, and he has a good many rebukes for the people of God. The people of God are told that they need to stop what they're doing. Turn around. Repent.
Get back to the word of God and act. You know the way that God had spelled out earlier in His word. But I want you to notice first of all the second verse of the first chapter.
I have loved you, saith the Lord. Isn't that interesting that before he rebuked them and exhorts them as to their condition of things, he?
Says to them, I love you because positionally, the people of God hadn't changed in connection with his love and His purposes for for them. God still loved his people just as much in Malachi's day as he loved them when they were a singing, rejoicing people on the banks of the Red Sea, when they had first been redeemed and delivered by the blood of the Passover lamb and the power of God.
You say, Well, I know I could understand if it said he'd love them at the beginning of their history in the Old Testament. But here's at the end of their history. His love and his purposes for them had not changed. And his love for you and me will never change. And his purposes for our blessing will never change. And so that's his purpose. That's their position. But now notice later on in the chapter in verse 10.
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I read the whole verse, but it's really the last part of the verse I want us to get. Who is there, even among you, that would shut the doors for not? Neither do you Kindle Fire on my altars, for not Now notice this. I have no pleasure in you, saith the Lord of Hope. Now you say, how does that correspond to what we had earlier in the chapter? I thought he loved them. I thought that hadn't changed.
That's true as to their position and his purpose, but as to their condition and practice, he had no pleasure in them. It was not the them personally, but it was their practices. What they were doing did not please the Lord in any way. And so in our lives there may be things that we do in our lives, places we go, a course of things that we follow.
And the Lord may have no pleasure in that. It may not please the Lord in any way that doesn't change his love for us. You know, at the end of the Lord's pathway, it says, having loved his own, which were in the world, he loved them unto the end. That wasn't stated just after the Lord called the disciples. And they were in the freshness of following the Lord and so on. That was at the end of the Lord's pathway, and they're walking with him during the His public ministry.
Was his love for Peter any different than it was when Peter had left his neck and his vote to follow the Lord? No. Was there lots of failure in between? Yes, and there was going to be more to follow. But that didn't change the Lord's love and purpose for Peter. He loved all the disciples just as much in the upper room as he loved them on the banks of the Sea of Galilee, or wherever He had called them from initially to follow him.
And so again with Laodicea at the end of Revelation 3.
Where you have the last state of profess, the professing Christian testimony described as many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. He loved them just as much and laodicea as any other assembly, even though there were a lot of things that he had to rebuke and chasten them for in that assembly because of their practice. So I I I hope that clarifies it. God's love and purpose for us.
Never changes. The Lord will never be disappointed in US, but He may sometimes be grieved with our actions and sometimes has to chasten us and act accordingly because of our actions, but that doesn't change His purposes for us.
No matter what what we do, God's plans will not be frustrated.
That's absolutely that's other part we may miss, we may miss the blasting.
We may get a a a rebuke or we may have to learn something about it, but God's planning out to frustrate it. Thank you 2 examples Uh one is the one that was uh put together this morning about uh Gael killing. That was something that was baruch to go but he was afraid. So God's purpose in having the judgment uh is was still going to be done but Baruch lost lost the the reward if we were him doing that.
And another example also I think the the life of Elijah. Elijah when he's.
Lane from Jezebel. He goes forth and hides himself and then he goes through to the desert 40 days. The desert that was not what God wanted for him. But he still goes through and not only he goes through but the Lord provided for him to go through with meat. And you can read later on 1St Kings 19 with meat and water for the 40 days. But once he's there the Lord talks to him and what the Lord tells him.
Tells him to go back, so he he lost some time. He had to learn from the Lord, but even Even so the Lord was was with him, sustaining and correcting him.
01:00:17
Well, maybe someone has a hymn for us and then someone can close in prayer after we sink.
140 In which book? The blue hymn book. OK 140 Thank you.
Bringing the.
Water back again.
Into the.
Bowl of my sailor.
Give us the last name.
Us all ever, We can once let our soul.
Bringing the.
Water back again.
Position & Responsibility Part 2
Address—Jim Hyland
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89 And which one? The blue one. OK.
Nsnoise.
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All right. I'd like to also sing him out of the little flock, 200 and 10210.
00:05:24
And it was.
Everybody.
'S pride.
Go ahead with these charts that we've been looking at. We looked at the first two charts yesterday and we spoke a little bit of our position and responsibility as being here in this world, but not of it. But now I want to go on and look at the next circle, and that is the circle that is labeled the great house. And if you will turn to your third chart in your set, you'll see, and I might just say this, that these are just illustrations, these circles.
Perhaps they don't convey the complete thought, but they're just circles that perhaps will help us to picture and understand a little bit clearer our position and responsibility in these different spheres that we are taking up. Because as we said yesterday, if we don't understand our position, what God has brought us into, or where we we are in these different spheres and at different time frames in our history, then we're not going to be able to act and react.
In a proper way, as those who know the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior.
So we want to talk a little bit about what is labeled the Great House And to get this we'll go first of all to second to First Timothy just to get a little contrast, and then we'll go to second Timothy where he takes up this subject. But before we go to Second Timothy, I want to read in first Timothy chapter 3.
First Timothy chapter 3 and verse 14.
These things write I unto thee, hoping to come unto thee shortly. But if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the House of God, which is the Church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth. Now when we go on to the next circle, we're going to speak of the church.
And here I read in one Timothy, because in one Timothy the church is brought before us as the House of God. Not the great house that we're going to notice in notice in the second Epistle, but it simply brought before us as the House of God. Those of you who were here last year will perhaps remember that we had a series of charts on the church, and we took up various aspects of the Church of God, and one of the aspects we took up was the aspect of the Church of God as the House of God.
And in each aspect that the church is brought before us in the New Testament, there is again responsibility and reaction connected with it. And what we learn from this verse, these verses we read here, is that when it comes to the House of God, it has to do with our responsibility as to the truth of God and our behavior as being part of the House of God. How thou oughtest to behave thyself in the House of God.
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And when it talks, when it says behave ourselves in the House of God, it's not just talking about how we behave or act when we come to meeting.
It's a far broader statement than that, because if we were to go over to the book of Hebrews, chapter 3 and verse six, we won't turn to it, but in chapter 3 of Hebrews and verse 6.
It tells us that we are the House of God. We are in the House of God, and we are part of the House of God. Whether we are at meeting, whether we are in our own homes, whether we are at work, whether we are at the mall, wherever we are, we are the House of God. We're the building of God. We'll talk about that a little bit, too, but we are the House of God, which means that there is a behavior, a conduct that is in keeping.
With being the House of God, no matter where we are. Now, don't misunderstand me. There is a conduct that is in keeping with the special privilege of coming collectively into the presence of the Lord. Whether it's for breaking a bread, whether it's for assembly, prayer, ministry of the Word. We need to be conscious that we're coming collectively into the presence of God or presence of the Lord Jesus on Lord's Day morning, or whenever else. There are times scheduled where the assembly is together as gathered to the Lord's name, but nevertheless.
What Paul was telling Timothy here is there is a conduct, there's a behavior that is in keeping with each believer being part of the House of God. Now having said that, now we want to go to the second epistle and we're going to read in the second chapter, Second Timothy, chapter 2.
Just a little helpful comment before I read this and comment specifically on our subject.
When I was a young person, an older brother made a comment in a meeting that I never forgot and it's helped me to understand the difference between 1St and 2nd epistles. We know that some of the epistles are have a first and a second like Corinthians like Timothy, Thessalonians and so on. You know there's even the 2nd epistle to the Ephesians, not written by the same person, penned by the same person. But we have Paul writing to the Ephesians.
And then John writes another epistle to the Ephesians in Revelation chapter 2. That's really the 2nd Epistle to the Ephesians. And I say that because Second Epistles, and this is the comment that was helpful to me. Second Epistles always denote days of weakness and failure. In the first epistle you have set before the Saints of God that which is according to God's mind and the truth of God that.
He desires that we would walk in and then when we come to the second epistle we find that it always has to do with some failure in keeping or walking in the truth that is brought in before us in the first epistle. So just as an example, in Ephesians you have wonderful truth as to the heavenly calling of the believer, our position we're seeing in Christ, we're chosen before the foundation of the world.
There's wonderful truths as to our position and responsibility brought before us.
But when you come to the second epistle of Ephesians in Revelation chapter 2, why they left their first love, and in fact so much so that they had everything in order. They were either even in Ephesus able to to detect the false apostles, but they had started on a course of things that I believe collectively the Church has never recovered from. It's possible and we should be in the individually in the enjoyment of first love, but as far as historically, the Church has never collectively.
Returned to that So second epistles always denote days of failure and days of weakness, and it's no different with this second epistle of Timothy. And I think you'll see this as we read some scriptures and comment on it. So Second Timothy chapter 2 and verse 19. Nevertheless, the foundation of God stand ashore, having this seal, the Lord knoweth them that are his, and let everyone that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity.
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But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and of earth, and some to honor, and some to dishonor. If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honour, sanctified, and meet for the master's use, and prepared unto every good work. Flee also youthful lusts, but follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace with them that call on the Lord.
Out of a pure heart. So we see very quickly here he's introduced the subject of the Great House. Because what has happened between First Timothy and Second Timothy is that in the course of time, the professing Christian testimony has become a mixture of those who are really saved, those who are part of the true Church of God, the House of God, and those who simply make a profession.
Those who say they are real, but they are not, You know, there are many people today who are going to go to a place of Christian worship. They may sing some hymns, they may say or recite prayers. They may listen to the word of God read. They may say some wonderful things. But whether they are believers, true believers, true children of God or not, as he says here, the Lord knoweth them that are His. So in this circle on our chart, I've drawn A dotted line down the middle. I've put reality that's real believers on one side.
And profession? That's those that take the name of Christ in one way or another.
But they may not be truly saved. The reason I put a dotted line and not a solid line is again, and I I know these are just perhaps not clear illustrations, but the point is that it isn't always distinguishable. And what Paul was telling Timothy is you can't always distinguish who is real and who is not. You know, in one of the parables the Lord told, He told about, wait, that that is the seed being sown.
He told about seed falling in different ways on different types of ground.
And there was seed that fell on Stony ground. And it's when the disciples asked what it meant, he said it was those that Anon with joy receive the word, and they sprung up. And there were leaves, and it looked good. It looked like there was reality. But when the sun came out and circumstances were brought to bear on those leaves, they withered and and wilted away. Why? Because there was no root. There was nothing under the soil. The root would speak of true repentance, and there had been no true repentance.
Like again, it all looked good on the surface. You couldn't tell initially which plants had root and which ones didn't. But circumstances were eventually brought to bear because the Lord knows them that are his. And there are many believers that I have had to say are many. I'm sorry, there are many who have professed Christianity, and I have had to say to myself, I can't judge.
But the Lord knows them that are His. There are those who've made a good start, and they've.
Perhaps gone into things that you say are where they really believers or not. Well, again, only the Lord knows. And so in a great house, not just the House of God. But it's a broader sphere of things. It's what we sometimes call Christendom professing Christianity, and often one is brought into the great house through baptism. You know, when a person is baptized.
They take the name of Christ in an outward way, but it has nothing to do.
With what is inward Now having said that, it is wonderful when a person is saved like the Ethiopian eunuch that they want to take the name of Jesus outwardly. God always gives us a way that we can give expression to what's in our hearts. But I am afraid that there are many who have had the name of Christ placed on them outwardly. They're part of professing Christianity, they're part of the Great House, but there's no reality inwardly.
What makes a person a child of God is the fact that they have come to know the Lord Jesus Christ as their savior. There's been repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, and their sins are gone and they're washed in the in the blood of Christ. And so there's this great house. Now. He uses this illustration of a great house here with different vessels, different containers.
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Now most of you have had an opportunity to help with the dishes in the kitchen. And if you haven't yet, believe me, you still will. And so you realize that there are vessels that have been put out to serve the various meals, vessels of different sizes, vessels that are made with different things and vessels that are used in different ways. You know, the ladies have used vessels.
That you never saw this side of the kitchen. They weren't put on the table because they were vessels that were used for cooking, for holding things in the kitchen that were then transferred to another vessel before they were put on the table and so on. And the point of this passage is this not so much what the vessel is made of now There are vessels, as he says, of wood and of earth and of gold and of silver.
But what makes a vessel here useful?
Is not so much what it's made of, but how clean it is, the fact that it's been sent, cleansed and sanctified. So what makes the vessels out in the kitchen, in the dining room useful is not necessarily what they're made out of, but whether they've been washed, whether they're clean or not. Because all the vessels we've used this weekend in this facility are not all made from the same thing.
There's been pots and pans made of aluminum or iron. There's been.
Cups and and plates and bowls that are made of porcelain. There's been paper cups and Styrofoam cups. There's been glass pots that hold the coffee. What made those vessels useful, what they were made out of? No, now what they were made out of made them useful for various things. We didn't try to serve fruit in a coffee pot. We didn't try to cook oatmeal.
In one of the the in a wooden bowl. No, you'd have a problem if you did that. But again, what, and I want to stress this, what made the vessels useful was their their cleanness. Now you think about you who've done dishes. You think about this. When I was a boy, we used to have to do the dishes and let me illustrate it this way and see if I get it right. So on one side of the counter there's a pile of dirty dishes, just like The Dirty dishes were pushed through the window here.
And then someone, myself or my sister would stand at the sink and wash those dishes.
And then put them back with The Dirty dishes.
Not a chance. If we did that, those dishes would not be ready to be used again. No, When the dishes were washed, they were set aside or sanctified, and to be sanctified is simply to be set apart. And so they were sanctified in the dish rack on the other side of the sink. And often that's where I stood, to dry them and put them away. And once those dishes were washed.
And set apart, they were ready to be used for the preparation or the service of the next meal. And I believe this young people, that what we learn here is that every one of us have a different capacity and a different use. But every one of us can be useful in the service of God. Even in this mixture of profession and reality, even in the great House, we can all be useful in the service of God.
Only in the measure in which there is personal cleanliness and sanctification. I'm not talking about being cleansed from our sins. That took takes place once and for all. You know, in the Old Testament, when the priest served, the first thing that had to happen is they had to come to the door of the Tabernacle and they had to be washed all over and the blood had to be applied. But that never happened again.
But what they did have to do from day-to-day and time and time again, was to come to the labor that held the water. And they had to wash their hands and their feet because they picked up in their service for the Lord. And as they moved around the wilderness, they picked up the defilements of the wilderness. And the things that that soiled their hands and feet had to be washed probably many times a day. And so it's the washing of water by the word, and it's separation from that which is evil.
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If you and I go on.
With that which is not according to the holiness of God, we're not going to be prepared.
To every good work, what prepares us is personal holiness and and sanctification, and so we're to flee. That which is is, is unholy. So if you notice verse 21, if a man therefore purge himself from these, from what? It's not a question again of the gold and silver being real and the wood and the earth being not real. I don't believe that the point of this passage is it's.
Separation from that which defiles its separation from E from evil. You know a wooden salad bowl is just as useful in its capacity as an aluminum pot.
A a crystal goblet and a a Styrofoam cup or a or a ceramic mug are both just as useful, but in their proper capacity, and so it's not a question again of what the vessel is made of.
But is it clean? Is it pure? And so I want to encourage us as we leave here. You know, it's wonderful to be here at camp, to be all together, to enjoy fellowship. We've been separated from the world to a certain degree. But when we go back home, if we want to be useful vessels, it says be clean, that they're the vessels of the Lord. Everyone of us that know the Lord Jesus are a vessel of for, for, for the for the Lord. Now just say this too before we pass on. I don't believe in scripture. We are ever.
Ju uh. We ever have a scripture that would teach us to separate from true believers?
OK, think about that and then I'll qualify it. We never have a scripture that would encourage us or tell us to separate from true believers. However, we are to separate from that which is evil. And if that means there are true believers I cannot go on in full fellowship with, then I have to be, let's say so be it. If there are vessels I cannot go on in fellowship with because of defilement.
Then so be it. And so that I believe that's the point.
Of this, of this passage, So one thing that makes us in the great House of profession and reality, one thing that makes us useful is separation from evil, personal purity in our lives. But there is also something else that makes us useful, and I want to go on to the third chapter now.
Chapter 3 and verse 14.
But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned, and hast been assured of.
Knowing of whom thou hast learned them, and that from a child thou hast known the Holy Scriptures.
Which are able to make the wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.
All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works. So in the chapter before we have separation from evil that makes the vessel sanctified and meet for the master's use, prepared the good work. But here we have something else.
Now you'll notice that the apostle in exhorting Timothy in this epistle and where we began reading here in this 14th verse.
It's very individual, and that's another characteristic of second epistles, and it's a it's characteristic of the last days. The last days in Scripture are always characterized by individual faithfulness, and God desires that there would be individual faithfulness. Now, there is a collective side of things too that goes on to the end, and we'll speak of that probably in our next meeting this afternoon.
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But nevertheless, there's always the exhortation. When there's a mixture of profession and reality, there's a lot of stuff that's introduced that isn't according to the mind of God. It's a question of individuality. You know, it's interesting that when the Lord Jesus came into this world, there was a great deal, as we said yesterday, that was wanting in the sacrifices, the feasts that had been set up in the Old Testament, the rites and ceremonies of the temple and God's order of things laid down for.
His earthly people, Israel, the Jews. But you know that it's very beautiful to see.
That in the Gospels, when the Lord Jesus came, there were individuals who were going on faithfully.
Not many, but there were a few commended. There was Anna and Simeon. There was Zacharias and Elizabeth. There was Joseph and Mary and others because it says there were others who looked for redemption in Israel. But there were those individuals, You know, there was a lot of things they could have criticized. There was a lot of things wanting, but there they were at God's center. They were at Jerusalem, they were at the Temple, and they were going on faithfully.
And God valued that. And God rewarded them and gave them each a special blessing.
In connection with his coming and and and so on. But here we find, so here we find it's to the individual. Now what I want to point out is again in the chapter before, it's separation from evil that makes us useful. Here in this chapter, it's more the positive side of things. It's the truth of God. It's going on walking in a day of ruin in a day of weakness, in a day of giving up of the truth. It's to individually walk in faithfulness.
According to that which has been established and given at the beginning, you know, there's a question raised in the Psalms. I believe it's Psalm 11 and verse three. It says if the foundation be shaken, what can the are destroyed? What can the righteous do? But we we we didn't pay particular attention, but we we read in the chapter before. In the second chapter the foundation of God stands ashore. You know, no matter how unfaithful we are to the truth of God.
That does not change the truth of God, the foundation truth that was laid at the beginning.
That truth hasn't changed. It stands sure the the the answer to the question if the foundation be destroyed, what can the righteous do? Is this the foundation of God standeth? Sure, having this seal, the Lord knows them that are His. And having said that, then we, like Timothy, can go on in that which has been laid down for us at the beginning. Don't look for something new.
Don't look for some new twist to the truth now. It is true, as we have said in these meetings, that we have to have discernment of the times. And there are applications of scripture that perhaps we see more clearly than perhaps brethren of a past of past times. But that doesn't change the meaning and interpretation of scripture. That doesn't in any way take away from the foundation principles. And if they don't change?
Then we can go back and continue in that which we have received from the beginning. So he says, Continue thou in the things which thou hast learned, and been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them. Who did Timothy learn the truth from? He learned it from the Apostle Paul. Now I know he had a godly grandmother and a godly mother, but the truth of Christianity he had learned from the apostle Paul. And Paul says what I've given to you from the Lord.
That hasn't changed, even though, between first Timothy and second Timothy.
There has been a change as far as the outward side of things. It was the House of God and the.
First epistle thought, which was just reality. Now, outwardly it's become this great house with this mixture.
Of profession and reality. But he says go back and act on the on the truth. And then he says all scripture is given by inspiration of God that is not just.
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The.
Paul's ministry, but the Old Testament, the other writers, there are actually 8 New Testament writers as well as the Old Testament writers. He says all scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable and that's why.
If we're going to be useful vessels in the day in which we live, we must have all scripture. We must read our Bibles. You know what? I find it helpful to read a little bit in the Old Testament as well as the New Testament, and to some to compare. And sometimes there's books in the Old Testament that go with the New Testament books, for instance, numbers, which brings before us the wilderness journey of the children of Israel.
That's a nice book to read with Philippians, because Philippians is, as we sometimes say, the wilderness book. We're still here in this world on our way to glory, with the goal that Paul was pressing toward before us, Joshua, where they go in to possess the land, a picture of our heavenly blessings and inheritance. It's a good book to read with Ephesians. And so there are books that go together well, but we need all the scripture because we need the Old Testament illustrations and figures and types and foreshadows.
But we'll never understand those unless we have the New Testament doctrines and principles.
Perhaps some of you have heard me use this illustration before, but I'll repeat it. You know, those who know me best know that I'm absolutely useless when it comes to building anything or putting anything together with my hands. Give me something to memorize or write, but don't give me something that I have to figure out.
And sometimes, especially after we were first married, we would buy some furniture or some cabinet or something and it had to be put together. I try to avoid buying something that says on the box.
Some assembly required or if it tells me that they they will put it together for an extra $25, I'm it's it's well worth it. But let me give you this illustration. After we were married, I bought a bookcase and I was ready to prove myself as a new groom. And so I got this bookcase all spread out, all the pieces spread out, the wood and the hardware and everything, and I'm struggling with it and I'm mopping my brow and I get this all together because I'm I'm reading that in 12 easy steps. It goes like this.
And I get it all together. I get the Masonite nailed on the back and I went to put the pegs in for the shelves and the holes were on the outside. The whole bookcase was put together backwards. And Faye came along and turned the page and said, why don't you look at the illustration? It'll help you to understand the 12 easy steps. Now God has given us both. He's given us the illustrations in the Old Testament that help us to understand the principles in the New Testament. So it's like the written instructions in the New Testament, but the illustrations are given to us in the Old Testament.
So he says here all scripture is given by inspiration of God. And then notice verse 17, that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works. So in the chapter before again separation from evil, personal purity makes prepares us for service for Christ. But we also have to have with personal purity and piety, we also have to have the Scripture. You'll never be able to be thoroughly furnished unto all good work.
Unless you know the scriptures and act upon them.
You know, if we act on some of the scriptures, we'll be prepared unto some good work.
But God wants it more than that. Let me give you a little illustration of story. It's a true story.
There was a young man some years ago and he exercised.
A number of his fellow believers that he knew at work, I believe it was He exercised them about the truth of being gathered to the Lord's name, and he even brought them to a place in his city where this truth was practically acted upon. But you know they were all turned aside. You know why? Because he didn't act upon the truth himself. He came there from week to week, but he was not at the Lord's table. He did not remember the Lord from week to week.
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And his friend said, how can he believe this if he isn't acting upon it himself? You see, he wasn't prepared unto every good work. How can a believer that's never been baptized speak of baptism to a new convert and seek to exercise them about baptism if they haven't acted on the truth of it themselves as it is brought before us in Scripture? You see, they're not prepared.
Unto every good work. Now we're not going to turn to it. But before we pass on to the next chart, I just want to use another illustration.
If you were to go back to the 22nd chapter of Luke, you would find there that.
When the disciples were told to go and prepare the Passover for the Lord and for his disciples to eat it on the Passover night, they were given very specific instructions. First of all, they were to enter into the city. Now a city in Scripture generally speaks to us, not always remember the context we talked about yesterday, but generally speaking, a city in scripture speaks to us of this world.
In its confusion without God.
The first mention of a city is Cain. Cain. After he had refused, he sinned and refused to repent, he went out from the presence of the Lord and built a city. We find that after the flood they came to the plain of Shinar and they said, let us build us a city and a tower that will reach to heaven. And it became Babylon again. It's the world in its confusion without God. And so the disciples were told to go into the city.
Just as we are still in this world, as we spoke of yesterday, we're in a place of confusion. But not only were they to go into the city, but they were to go into a certain house. We're gonna liken that house for our purposes this morning to what we've been Speaking of, the Great House, because it was more than just going into the house. When they got to the house, they were not to choose any room, just any room in the house.
Or any other company of Jews that they wanted to associate with that night know when they got to the house they were told to go upstairs and to to to prepare the Passover in a specific room that had been appointed. They might have got to the house and said, you know, the room doesn't have to be so large. There's only going to be a handful of us tonight and we don't need such a large room.
Why do we need to have it upstairs? It'd be a lot easier to have it on the ground floor. They might have decided, you know, there's another group of of God fearing Jews and they're going to keep the Passover in this room if they had chosen any other room in the house, if they had chosen any other company in that house. And I don't want to read more in description than there, but there may have been other very God fearing Jews keeping the Passover in other rooms of the house that night. But if they had chose any other room or any other company.
They could have kept the Passover, that's true, but they would have missed the company of the Lord Jesus. There was only one room in that house where collectively he sat down with his apostles in the midst of his apostles. And I know that it was particularly the Passover supper that was in view there. But the Lord also knew that that was the very spot where he was going to take a loaf and a cup and introduce what we refer to as the Lord's Supper, set aside the Passover supper and introduce that which is in our.
Privilege and will be our privilege.
In a little while this morning if the Lord leaves us here, so again there needs to be that separation.
From that which is not according to the mind of God, if we're going to be useful vessels in the great House of reality and profession. And there needs to be an understanding and an acting on the truth of God if we're going to be prepared to every good work. So that's the great house. Now let's just introduce the next chart in the few minutes that are left to us this morning.
I believe that those of us who were here last year had in our set of charts on the Church.
A very similar chart, if not the same as chart #4. So this will be a little review. You know, they they say in the education system there are three Rs to learning review, review, review. And certainly that's true when it comes to the scripture, you know, there are a number of writers who bring that out. Just give you an example. Peter said. I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things.
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Though you know them and you're walking in the present truth, Peter said. Even though you know the truth, and even though you're acting on it, I'm gonna remind you again and again, Paul said to the Philippians, to write the same things unto you. To me is not grievous, and for you it is safe. So we need to go over these things again and again, because they do slip and we forget them. And the enemy's right there too, to distract us from the truth that we have once heard.
And enjoy. So we need to be reminded. Now you'll notice on this chart then this number four, there are two circles. If we were able to physically separate these two circles on the chart, we would have what we find in the Old Testament. That is, we found in find in the Old Testament that with the call of Abraham there became 2 distinct companies on earth.
God called Abraham, and because of Abraham S faith and obedience to the word of the Lord.
And coming out from ur the Cal days, God said that he would build of him a great nation.
And he made Abraham the depository of of a number of promises and blessings. And that nation, as we well know, was the nation of Israel. And so up until Christianity, up until the day of Pentecost on Earth, there were two distinct companies. There were the Jews and the Gentiles. Now let's see this from scripture by going to Ephesians Chapter 2.
Ephesians chapter 2 and verse 11.
Wherefore remember that ye being in time past Gentiles in the flesh.
Who are called uncircumcision by that which is called the circumcision in the flesh made by hands that at that time ye were without Christ being aliens from the Commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise having no hope and without God in the world. I'm gonna stop there for the moment, because this just brings.
Confirms what we've just said. So he's writing to Gentiles here. The Ephesians were Gentiles. They had not been born.
Inside the nation of Israel. So in the Old Testament, it was by birth.
Up until Christianity, you were born either inside the circle of blessing, you were born a Jew or you were born a Gentile. Now I know in the Old Testament there were some individuals who were brought into blessing by faith and by grace, like Rahab the Harlot, Ruth the Moabitess, and so on. But generally speaking, you were within or you were without. And it was because of the family that you were born in into the nation that you were. You were the nationality that you were born into.
So the Apostle Paul in writing to the Ephesians, he reminds them.
That there was a time before they were saved, that they were outside the circle of blessing. They were without hope and without God in in the world. But now let's go on and see what he says. In verse 13 he introduces a but but now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off, that's Gentiles. They were afar off. They were not part of God's purposes in the old. In the Old Testament they had no approach to God.
That is nationally.
But he says that you, you who are sometimes we're a far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ.
For he is our peace who hath made both one and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us. Now you'll notice on the chart I've brought these two circles together in the middle there's a football shaped segment and I put the Church of God in that and I put a little cross there to the side because we never want to forget that we are members of the Church of God, whether we were born a Jew or a Gentile.
We now are members of the Church of God based solely on the work of the Lord Jesus on Calvary's cross. It is only because the Lord Jesus died and shed his blood as he says to these Gentile believers in Ephesus. He says to them, you're made nigh by the blood of Christ. It is the fact that the Lord Jesus died and shed His precious blood on Calvary's cross that we can come now.
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And be part of the Church of God, and a Jew has to come now in the same way.
You know it was a struggle in the early days of Christianity, and you see this in the Acts and in some of the apostles writings. It was hard on the one hand for a Jew to accept the fact that having been the nation of blessing for so many generations now, the Gentiles could be brought into that same sphere of blessing. Very difficult for them to realize this. And there was a conflict too with the Gentiles.
Being brought in because, as he says here, there was a time when they were at enmity with one another, the Jew and the Gentile. In the Old Testament, they were diametrically opposed to one another. They were, as he says here, at enmity, but now because of the work of Calvary, because of a work of grace, because of the Spirit of God, these two.
Two entities, if I can put it that way, that were once at enmity with one another, are brought together in Christianity in perfect harmony and peace. Positionally, he is our peace when he's talking about He is our peace here. It's not so much the thought of peace in our own souls that results in the work of Calvary and being justified and so on, but it's peace between these two.
Diametrically opposed entities that existed before Christianity and now, and you see it so beautifully in the in the New Testament, when those things were taken care of in the presence of the Lord, and the Spirit of God came in and grace was exercised. Why, you see beautiful harmony and beautiful peace, you know, in the early Acts, in the in the early Christianity, in the Acts.
The Jews wanted to circumcise the Gentiles. They wanted to make Jews out of the Gentiles. And you know, the apostles and the elders, they got together and they discussed the matter, and the Lord came in, and by the Spirit of God they were given direction.
And just read the 15th chapter of Acts when it's brought before the assembly as to the decision that was made in the presence of the Lord and as a result of the work of the Spirit of God. Why? There's no discussion really about it. There's no hashing it and rehashing. It is beautiful harmony. And that would be true in all our interactions with one another if there was that true looking to the Lord and bowing to the Spirit of God and the headship of Christ in our lives. Now go to 1St Corinthians chapter 10.
In Speaking of the church, we're only going to give some very basic, a very basic outline. We can't speak too long of it, because this evening we want this afternoon we want to take up some other aspects of things on the 5th and 6th chart. But just notice to confirm what we're saying in First Corinthians chapter 10 and verse 32 give none offense neither to the Jews, nor to the Gentiles, nor to the Church of God.
So when Paul wrote to the Corinthians here after the day of of Pentecost and the church was formed on Earth, he recognizes that there are no longer just two groups of people on earth. Not no longer are there just those two circles, the Gentile in one and the Jew and the other. But now he recognizes that there's a third entity and that is the Church of God. So we wanna make it very clear that the Church of God.
Is made-up of saved Jews and saved Gentiles. A Jew and a Gentile have to come in the same way now to receive the blessing and to be part of the Church of God. Hard as it was for a Jew to accept this in the early days of Christianity, it was wonderful for a Gentile to hear that they could be saved by faith in the Lord Jesus based on the work of the of the Lord on the cross.
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Tremendous truth to think that those who were afar off are now brought in to this place of blessing. And so there are there are three categories here, The Jew, the Gentile, and the Church of God. You know, we talk about saved Jews and saved Gentiles. Perhaps it's not quite accurate because when a Jew is saved and a Gentile is saved, they become members of the Church of God, members of the Body of Christ.
Where I break bread in Smith's falls gather at the low assembly gathered to the Lord's name. There was he's with the Lord now there was a brother in fellowship there and he was raised a Jew. He was a Jew by birth name was Howard Schechter And Howard was saved as a young man and came to know the truth of being gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus. I like I believe everybody else in Smith falls who was get has been gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus.
And still is, by the grace of God, I believe was born a Gentile. But when we sat down together at the Lord's table to break bread, we really didn't break bread as a saved Jew and a saved Gentile. No, we broke bread as members of the body of Christ. And so we have the Gentile, the Jew, the Gentile. But now we have this new entity formed the day of Pentecost. Now let's make it very clear.
That the Church was born. The Church began on the day of Pentecost, and not a moment before.
We were to go to Acts chapter 2, and we took it up at some length last year. So for the sake of time we'll just mention a couple of things before we close this morning. But when we go back to Acts chapter two, we find there were about 120 believers who after the Lord Jesus went back to heaven in res in resurrection and ascension. They were waiting in the upper room as they had been instructed to do, and on the day of Pentecost the Spirit of God descended and there was what is called the Baptism of the Holy Spirit.
And the church was formed. Not only did the Spirit of God come to dwell each individual believer, but the Spirit of God came to to dwell collectively in the Church of God and to link each individual believer by the Spirit of God with one another as well as with their head in heaven.
We never want to forget that that's the head of the body is in heaven. We get that in the book of Colossians. We get it in the book of Ephesians.
And so we're linked together by the Spirit of God.
To our head in heaven, with the Spirit of God dwelling collectively.
In the church, you know, I've heard people say the thief on the cross was the first member of the Church of God.
That is not true. The thief on the cross was the first one who had absolute confirmation.
From the Lord Jesus himself as to where he was going when he left this world.
But remember, the thief on the cross was long in paradise with the Lord before the Church of God.
Was formed. Now there will be many companies in heaven. There will be the Old Testament Saints. There will be children who died before the age of responsibility. They'll be of course the angelic Company and so on. And there will also be the Church of God and the Church of God formed on the day of Pentecost. Is has been added to and and continues to grow in this way. Just in closing, go to Acts Chapter 2 to the end of the chapter.
And just see this for yourself. So the Church of God has been formed.
On the day of Pentecost, brought before us very clearly in the first part of this chapter. And then it says at the end of the chapter.
Just the last part of verse 47 and the Lord added to the church daily.
Such as should be saved, and that is still going on. When someone gets saved today, they are added to the Church of God. They become, as we get in in Peter, a living stone in the Church of God. They're put into the building that God is building, the spiritual building, the spiritual house that God is building.
Those stones are added and you'll find as you go through the Book of the Acts that there is only one church formed and there is only one true church today. You know, when we approach some of the towns and cities that we come from. If you were to come to Smith Falls, where I live, you'd see one of these famous signs. The Churches of Smith Falls welcome you. Why does it say that? Well, it began long ago with, sad to say, many divisions coming in and people having different opinions and so on.
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As to how to meet and where to meet. But in Scripture we find only one church, and the Spirit of God in the book of the Acts is very careful to guard this truth. I realize on the day of Pentecost when the church was formed, it was only formed of Jews, but later on in the 8th chapter when the Samaritans are brought in, they are added to that which was already established on the day of Pentecost.
It went right back to what had happened in the Upper Room later on in the 10th chapter, when the Gentiles are brought in through Peter's instrumentality in the House of Cornelius. It goes right back to what had been formed. And on the day of Pentecost, there's no such thing as a Jewish and a Gentile church or a Samaritan church, and there's no such thing as a Jewish hyphen Gentile church or Jewish hyphen, Samaritan hyphen Gentile church.
No, it all goes back to what took place on the day of Pentecost. There is one church I know. Sometimes it speaks like in when he writes to the Saints in Galatia, he says the churches of Galatia. Why? Because there was more than Galatia was a province, and there were different towns and cities within that province where there were believers meeting the church, which is in my house. What does that mean? It's where believers met. There was a home open for the believers to come where they could meet for breaking of bread, prayer and ministry. Acts 12 You have Mary.
The mother of John Mark opening her home for the assembly, prayer, meeting, and so on. But as far as what we have in the access to the Church of God, there is one church on earth and we'll notice it again in Ephesians chapter 4. God looks down and no matter how broken up things are, no matter how fragmented, no matter how confused things are from our standpoint and outwardly speaking, God says there is one body.
Nothing will ever change that because the unity of the Church was never committed to you and to me that is safe in the hand of God and the hand of the Lord Jesus. On this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against him.
Position & Responsibility Part 3
Address—Jim Hyland
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This afternoon with 330 in the little flock.
What raised the wondrous thought? Or who did it suggest that we the Church to glory brought should with the sun be blessed? 330 Someone started, please.
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Well, we're going to go on now and continue our subject in connection with these various spheres that we've been Speaking of. Before we leave this chart #4, I want to read one further portion of scripture, just an extremely brief comment on it and then we will quickly move on. This is our last talk together on this subject, Matthew, Chapter 16.
OK.
Matthew Chapter 16.
And I won't read all of this. We know the context. Peter has just made a wonderful confession. He has just said, thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And now I want to notice the Lord's response to it in verse 18. And I say also, this is Matthew 1618. And I say also unto thee, that thou art Peter. And upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. Now if Matthew 18 was all we had to go on.
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We might well think that the rock that the Lord built his church on with Peter.
But, you know, it's interesting that Peter is the one who is used later on to clarify who the rock really is. You can take time. But if you will go over to first Peter chapter 2, and read that chapter carefully, you will find there that Peter himself later on clarifies the fact that the Lord Jesus is the rock that he was Speaking of here, and that it is the Lord Jesus as the cornerstone that the church is built upon. The church was not built upon Peter. It was built on the confession that Peter made. Thou art the Christ.
The Son of the living God and the Lord Jesus was introducing here in Matthew the subject of the Church.
Very significant that Matthew of all the four Gospels, is the one that's most Jewish in its character.
It is the gospel that presents the Lord Jesus as the Jewish Messiah, the Jewish King. There are things in Matthews Gospel that you don't have in some of the other Gospels in keeping with that character of things. And yet it is the only gospel. It is the only gospel where the Lord Jesus specifically introduces the subject of the church.
And it's twice. It's here in the 16th chapter and in a few minutes we'll look at the other time he speaks of it. What I want to point out here is that in introducing the subject of the Church in anticipation of its formation on the day of Pentecost, he introduces it as a building, not a physical building unlike what we see today. The church in the New Testament sense is never referred to as a physical building, except for the places like someone's home, where the church met, where the those who are members of the Church of God met the.
You know, they talk about people going to church, and I understand what they mean. But really, this morning when we met here, the church came to the place it was members of the body of Christ, members of the Church of God, and we met together as gathered to the Lord's name to remember the Lord Jesus. And so the church in the New Testament sense is always in connection with the spiritual building. And again, Peter brings this out in his epistle. You can read it, that we are living stones in the Church of God, and God is building a building. And as we notice this morning, he's adding to the church daily.
Such as should be saved.
Now we're gonna go on now and we're going to look at this next chart, Chart #5.
And I want to make a comment to introduce this before we read some scriptures.
Because it's really the bridge between what we've just said regarding chart #4 and chart #5, and that is that sometimes we hear the expression, I've said it myself, that the church is in ruin, but that's not quite accurate. That needs to be qualified. If I say the church is in ruin, I'm really saying that the Lord Jesus has failed in regard to the statement that we just read.
In Matthew 16 on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. There is nothing that the devil or man can do to prevail against the Church of God or to bring in any ruin to the Church of God. What is in ruin is what we have on the next page, the testimony. As to the truth of the one body, that's what is in ruin and that's what's in weakness. You know, often we speak about a testimony.
And I understand that, and I trust we are a testimony and when we meet together to remember the Lord Jesus.
At the Lord's table we show forth the Lord's death till he come. It's a testimony to the world and so on. But really, in a sense, if we're a testimony to anything, it's a testimony to ruin and weakness. Because outwardly we see things fragmented and broken up. We see Christians today in various pockets and fellowships of Christendom in various so-called churches and denominations, and they are wonderful believers and we're gonna speak of that in a in a moment.
And we're thankful for them. I'm thankful for every brother and sister that I have in Christ.
On the face of this earth, in fact, it's interesting. I know we pointed it out last year and taking up the subject of the church, but this camp is called Basics, and it actually is called Basics because it stands for brothers and sisters in Christ. I thought when we first rented this camp, that was rather neat, that that was the name of the place that we're able to have you young people together. But it shows that whoever named this camp understood very clearly.
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That every believer I trust they did. That every believer is a brother and sister.
In Christ. There are many brothers and sisters in Christ in this world that I'm not in fellowship with at the Lord's table.
But they are brothers and sisters in Christ. There's many brothers and sisters in Christ that I have never met here in this world. I'm going to see them another day in the Father's house, but nevertheless they are brothers and sisters in Christ. Now, I mentioned earlier that there are really 7 distinct aspects of the Church in the New Testament. There may be some others too, but I don't want to be dogmatic on it. But to me at least, there are 7 very distinct aspects of the Church, and one is.
The Body of Christ. We've just spoken of it as a building, but it's also brought before us on a number of occasions and Epistles as the body of Christ, and I'd like to speak of that for a moment. Let's introduce this by going to 1St Corinthians chapter.
Chapter 10.
First Corinthians chapter 10.
And verse 17.
For we, being many, are one bread and one body, for we are all partakers of that one breath. Now you realize this morning when we came together to remember the Lord Jesus in the breaking of bread.
To partake of the Lord's Supper at the Lord's Table, there was one loaf on the table.
And that's the way we always celebrate it. It's not crackers, it's not wafers. It's one loaf. And that one loaf in its unbroken state represents to the heart of God. And I trust to us as well every believer alive on the face of the earth at that time, because there is one body, and when we break bread in that way, we are given it giving expression to that.
Every believer this morning alive on planet Earth was represented in that loaf that we had on the table.
That loaf this morning did not just represent those who were here this morning. It didn't just represent those who break bread and practically express the truth of the one body in the breaking of bread from week to week. That loaf represented every member of the body of Christ. Now, it's true that when we broke the bread, it had a little different significance. Just point out we don't have time, but we just point out that in the 10th chapter.
Of one Corinthians we have the subject of the Lord's table. That's confirmed by verse 21.
And what is the our title to be at the Lord's table? It's the blood of Christ. That's why again, in these verses, if we were to back up to the 16th verse, the cup is mentioned 1St and as a result of being washed in the blood of Christ, which the cup represents, we are members of the body of Christ. That's our title to be there. Then when we partake of the Lord's Supper, which is the next chapter, and that's confirmed by the 20th verse of Chapter 11.
We find that the order is reversed because the loaf has a little different significance there. This is the way the Lord instituted the Supper. This is the way we always celebrate it. We break the bread first because the bread broke. When we break the bread, it is to be a reminder of the Lord's body given in death for us on Calvary's cross. Then we have the cup second, because on the cross the separation of the blood from the body was the proof of death.
After the Lord Jesus had died, given his own life, commended his spirit to the Father, No man took his life from him. He had power to lay it down. He had power to take it again. And after he did that, a soldier with a spear pierced his side and forthwith came there out blood and water. And so again it's separate. The loaf is separate from the cup. It's not all combined in one. There have been those who have taught down through the ages that it's all combined in a wafer or whatever. But that is not the truth of Scripture. The Lord gave it separate and in that order.
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And that is the way we always celebrate it. So we, being many, are one bread and one body. Now we're gonna look at some scriptures very quickly. Let's go to the 12Th chapter.
Chapter 12.
Of First Corinthians and verse 12.
For as the body is 1 and half many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ. For by 1 Spirit, we are all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free, and have been all made to drink into one Spirit. Now here we find that again he's bringing before us the fact that so we are all separate members, we're all individuals, yet we are one body. And I want you to notice there's a little article put in by Mr. Darby in his translation that I believe belongs.
Just before the last word of the verse, Christ, so also is the Christ. Because I believe what we learn from this is that the Lord Jesus has the head in heaven, the head of the body, and we the members on earth make the body of Christ complete. He is incomplete without us and we are incomplete without him. And you get that in Colossians and Ephesians and we'll look at that in a moment. But what I want to also notice here very quickly is that he speaks of being baptized into one body.
I believe that the baptism of the Holy Spirit took place.
On the day of Pentecost, and it's a collective thing.
The baptism of the Holy Spirit is never an individual thing in Scripture. People say Have you been baptized by the Holy Spirit?
It's not an individual thing, and it took place on the day of Pentecost, Never in that sense to be repeated, except there was a little extension or addendum to it, as I mentioned this morning, when the Samaritans were brought in in the 8th chapter, and when the Gentiles were brought in in the 10th chapter to guard, lest we ever think there was more than one church. But as such, the baptism of the Holy Spirit took place.
Once and for one time only on the on the day of Pentecost and it when the when the Church of God was formed. Now I want to go to Colossians chapter one.
Colossians Chapter One.
And verse 18. And he is the head of the body, the Church.
Who is the beginning? The first born from the dead, that in all things.
He might have the preeminence, just a couple of little differences between Colossians and Ephesians.
Many of the expressions in Colossians and Ephesians at face value at quick reading seemed to be the same, but there are some little marked differences. This is just a little aside from our talk, but that's why when we read the scriptures, we need to read it slowly, carefully and with prayerful exercise and notice a little differences that there there are. They're there with for a purpose. And in Colossians it's more the subject of what Christ is to the Church.
And what is he to the church? He's the head of the body. He's the head of the church.
And I don't want to sound crude or mundane, but if I can put it this way, what we learn in Colossians is that a body without a head is an incomplete unit. I think, yeah, I again, I don't want to sound crude, but we understand this In natural things. A body without a head is an incomplete unit. It cannot function. And you and I as members of the body of Christ, cannot function properly in a spiritual sense.
Without direction from our head, he's the head of the body.
That's why, and I think perhaps we mentioned it before at the beginning of these talks. That's why in the book of the Acts, when there was after the Church was formed, whenever there was a difficulty or a question arose amongst the body of Christ, the Church of God, they came and in prayer and looked to the head for their direction, you know, as gathered to the Lord's name. And we seek to express these truths. Let's remember the thoughts why the assembly or an assembly gathered to the Lord's name is not a democracy.
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It's not where the majority rules. We are to take our direction directly from the head, from the Lord Jesus. So that's what you have here in the book of Colossians. But now let's go to Ephesians and we'll see a little difference. Ephesians, chapter one.
And.
He's Speaking of the Lord, Jesus having ascended. And then he says in verse 22 Concerning the Lord and has put all things under his feet and gave him to be the head over all things to the Church, which is his body, the fullness of him that filleth All in all. So here it's more what the church is to Christ. In Colossians, it's what Christ is to the Church. He's the head of the body. But here it's what the Church is to Christ and what is the Church to Christ. He's the the Church is the fullness of him that filleth. All in all, we are.
Wonder of wonders, marvel of marvels, we are the completion of Christ.
So in Colossians a body without a head is an incomplete unit. But to me this is even more wonderful, because here in Ephesians, a head without a body is an incomplete unit. To think that the Lord Jesus as the head in heaven is incomplete without you and me isn't that tremendous. To think of the position that we have been brought into. We noticed in Ephesians chapter 2 The other day what we were by nature.
And how far away we were from God and without hope and so on. But now we have been brought into the closest relationship with the Lord Jesus that anyone has ever known and enjoyed on planet earth. Because remember what we said earlier, that the church is unique to the New Testament and there was no such thing as the Church of God on earth.
Before the descent of the Spirit of God on the day of Pentecost.
The Lord Jesus, as we noticed, spoke of it in the 16th of Matthew.
But it was in anticipation. On this rock I will build my church. It hadn't been built and it hadn't been started yet. It did not start to the day of till the day of Pentecost. And it's very, very important for us to understand and get a hold of this. And very important to realize that every person saved by the grace of God from the day of Pentecost until the Rapture is going to be part of the Church of God.
Now, having said that, I would like to say this too, that the Church of God is taken up in three different contexts.
In the New Testament, I'm not talking about different aspects like the body, the bride, the lamb's wife and so on. I'm talking about context.
Now remember what I said earlier. Context in scripture is very important.
And I believe there has been much confusion as to our position and responsibility in Christianity by taking.
Scripture concerning the Church of God out of its context and applying it to another context. And here's the three contacts. Sometimes when it's the Church of God, it has to do with every believer from the day of Pentecost when the Church was born.
Until its completion at the rapture. Because when the rapture takes place, it will be the proof that the Church of God is completed that the last living stone has been put in. And I know they'll be the gospel of the Kingdom and they'll be blessing on earth and so on after the rapture, but the church will be completed. There will be nobody blessed after the rapture who will be part of the Church of God.
OK, there will be those who have a heavenly portion, the tribulation martyrs, and they're taken right to heaven because they have their part in the first resurrection. And to have a part in the first resurrection denotes that they have a heavenly blessing. So there's a little addendum to the first resurrection after the rapture, but they're not going to be part of the Church of God. They're going to be another one of those groups, those families that are going to be in heaven that we alluded to this morning. So the Church of God is sometimes looked at as every believer from.
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Its birthday where there were about 120 believers in the upper room till it's completion at the at the rapture. And that's what the Lord was talking about.
In Matthew 16, that's the context. On this rock I will build my church. That's the context every believer from Pentecost to the Rapture. Sometimes the church is taken up in the aspect of every believer alive on the face of the earth at anyone given time. And that's really the aspect of the body of Christ.
You know my father, who?
Was a believer gathered to the Lord's name much of his life as a member of the body of Christ. He functioned here on earth, but he is no longer functioning as a member of the body of Christ on earth. The body of Christ has to do with the function of believers in this dispensation on earth. Now my father is going to be part of that bill. He's part of that building that the Lord was Speaking of. He's going to be part of the bride, the lamb's wife, the city, and described in her millennial glory in the end of Revelation reigning with Christ.
The church coming down from God and so on is going to be all part of that because those are contacts of the church in its broad sense. But as a member of the body of Christ, my father is no longer functioning as such, nor is any other believer saved in this dispensation who is now with the Lord. They're waiting for the end result, the final thing when the church is displayed in her completion and in her glory with Christ. And if you read Corinthians very carefully, you'll find, like the 12 Chapter, that that is the context every believer alive on the face of the earth at anyone given time. So the loaf this morning I didn't see my father in the loaf.
Because that is not the context of the body of Christ.
I saw I trust by grace every believer alive on the face of the earth.
But I did not see my father in the loaf or my mother. They have been with the Lord now for several years. But then we find sometimes the church is taken up in its local expression or aspect. And so again we find when Paul wrote to the brethren in the province of Galatia, there were a number of areas where the Brethren were meeting to break bread at the Lord's Table, no doubt for prayer and ministry for what we sometimes refer to as the assembly meetings.
And he wrote to the churches or assemblies in Galatia. There were a number of them in that province. When he wrote to a specific city like Ephesus or Colossi or Thessalonica, it was always in the singular. But when it was a wider territory and he was speaking to different areas where they were meeting in that way, then and only then was it was it plural.
And so this is what we want to speak of then, for a few moments.
This little circle I have put in. Again, please don't fault me if this chart isn't exactly what we're trying to convey. I struggled with what to put in this smaller circle, and I put the testimony because, as I say, there is a testimony given in being gathered to the Lord's name. And when we come together to break bread on the ground of the one body, we give testimony in a world that is still at enmity with Christ.
A world that not only cast him out, but a world that still hates Christ. We give testimony that we an expression that we honor Christ, the request he made, and we seek to go on. In spite of the failure and ruin around us. We seek to go on in some measure, at least according to the to the truth of God. Now remember, if we find ourselves gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus, if we find ourselves at the Lord's table, it's nothing of us.
It is only by the grace of God, and we are going to see that from Scripture in a moment. But there's nothing to be proud of, because in Christianity the onus is never on me. As far as things like this, that is we mentioned this morning, The keeping of the unity of the body is not committed to man. If we find ourselves going on in the truth of God, I know there's responsibility. That's another side of things.
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But if we find ourselves with a desire to please the Lord and going on in the truth of God, it's only the grace of God. It's God that works in us both to will and to do of his good pleasure, if I find myself at the Lord's table where the Lord is in the midst.
It's only by the grace of God that I'm brought there, and only by the grace of God that I am preserved. But there is God always gives us a way that we can give testimony and expression to the truth.
You know there are two great institutions given to us in Christianity whereby we can give expression to the truth.
And give expression to what's in our hearts. And the desire by the grace of God to honor the Lord one is Baptism.
When a person is baptized, they are giving expression. When a true believer is baptized, they are giving expression.
To the truth that they want to own the lordship of Christ in their lives. That's what baptism does as far as its testimony. And then there is the privilege of being gathered to the Lord's name and breaking bread at the Lord, partaking of the Lord's Supper at the Lord's table, to again give expression and testimony to I trust what is really in our hearts. But let's go to Matthew's Gospel again.
I mentioned there are are two times where the Church is introduced. Matthew's Gospel, chapter 18.
Now what we're going to find here is that it's not the church in the context that we had in the 16th chapter. In the 16th chapter, it's the broad sense of the church. But here, what the Lord Jesus does is he gives provision, truth to make provision to go on in the new position. God doesn't bring us into a position and then leave us to wonder how to operate.
Within that position, no. He always gives instruction. Now I know we need more than Matthew 18 and these 5 verses from verse 15 to 20 to function as those gathered to the Lord's name. But the seed of it is here. It's developed later on in the epistles, but we have to go back and get the seed of it. Now I would just say from verse 15 through verse 20 we have.
The the function and administration of the local expression of the church or assembly. And it's really the same word. The King James translators chose to use the word church. It's really assembly or called out ones. You know, again, it's like what we said at the beginning of these meetings. We don't belong to this world. We're called out from this world and so the word church is really assembly or called out one.
But let me read verse 20 for the sake of time for where two or three?
Are gathered together in my name. There am I in the midst of them. And so he sums up what has gone ahead before with this verse that we often quote. Now notice he doesn't say where. Two or three hundred or two or three dozen? No, he brings it down to the smallest corporate testimony possible. I suppose it's in keeping with what was established in the Old Testament.
In the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established. And so he brings it right down. Why? Well, I want to make this little suggestion, at least it's been precious to my own soul. And that is that the Lord Jesus. When he uttered these words, he looked beyond the days of Pentecost, when there would be about 120. He looked beyond the days of the early Gospel, when there were 3000 saved and 5000 saved, and multitudes gathered to the Lord's name. You know, in Acts 15 the assembly came together in multitude. There were many.
Because it's normal Christianity to be gathered to the Lord's name. It's normal Christianity to be at the Lord's table. Thought from the New Testament is what normal Christianity is. But the Lord looked beyond that. He looked beyond the revival of things after the Dark Ages, when truth was recovered and God raised up men, and you heard their names. Mr. Darby and Mr. Cronin and Mr. Kelly and Mr. Ballot and Mr.
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Miller and and those early brethren who writings are still published today and I trust read and valued, but he looked beyond.
Rate down to 2015, and he made provision to go on to the very end. You see, God never asked us to do anything that He doesn't make provision to the very end. You know, when it says you do show the Lord's death till He come? He wouldn't say till he come if he wasn't gonna provide a scriptural ground on which to do it. The Lord never asked us to do anything.
Without providing A scriptural ground on which to do it. Because people say it doesn't matter anymore. It's all in ruin and it just it's wherever Christians meet and it's whoever group we like the best and it's wherever it's most convenient. That is not the teaching of the word of God. And so he says where two or three and you know as they and I have opportunity to visit in England and throughout Western Europe and other parts of.
Even North America and around the world, we often find two or three here. You know, we often quote this verse about two or three being gathered, most of us. I know there's probably some here, perhaps, but most of us are still at the eights and 10s. Most of us still have more than the literal two or three and three at the breaking of bread or at the assembly meetings from which we come. But, you know, there are many brethren in the world today who understand in a very practical way.
And appreciate the fact that the Lord brought it right down.
To two or three. I remember when we had the first conference in Emmelord, Netherlands, about three years ago.
And there was a a that we had a baptism and a couple received at the Lord's table. You know what the local brother in in the Netherlands said to me? He said Jim the assembly has grown 100% this Lord's day. It went from 2:00 to 4:00. You know that was pretty thrilling to me. I thought that was pretty neat and they appreciated it. They value it and they are very thankful for the these words where two or three now I want you to notice this are gathered.
Let's be careful when we pick up a translation of the Bible. And I'm not being dogmatic about translations, but let's be careful.
That when we turn to a verse like this, they haven't destroyed the real meaning of this verse by saying something like this, Where two or three meet together, where two or three come together, where two or three gather together. Be very careful because we find here again the onus is not on us. There's a force outside of ourselves that gathers where two or three are gathered. Now I've ministered on this and I've had people say to me after well.
You talk about the gathering power of the Spirit of God. I I don't get the Spirit in there at all. Well, you can't separate or.
Divorce, Divorce this verse from other scriptures that bring before us the work of the Spirit of God in every aspect of our lives. Let me use a simple illustration. You know, up where I come from in the wind, in the autumn, in the fall, when the cold winds start to blow and the snow is predicted, birds gather together.
And sometimes in great numbers, in the wires and the trees, they gather together, ready to migrate to a warmer climate.
But eggs are gathered. If you find 12 eggs in a basket, you know those eggs had no power to gather themselves.
Some outside force somebody else had to take those eggs and gather them together in the basket. And if you and I find ourselves at the Lord's table, gather to the Lord's name. It was nothing of ourselves. And if we're preserved there from week to week and year to year, it is nothing of ourselves. It is the Spirit of God that gathers to the name of the Lord Jesus at his table, and it is the Spirit of God that preserves us there by the grace of God.
And so where two or three are gathered together, that's God's word, isn't it? You know, God doesn't desire to see his people scattered. He didn't desire that this morning. He looked down on this earth and see Christians who weren't in fellowship with one another and breaking bread in different places and going on with things that weren't according to his word and so on. No, that wasn't God's desire, you know, in the early days of Christianity.
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You didn't go to Corinth and say, where are the Christians gathered to the Lord's name meeting?
You would have simply said where are the Christians meeting? Because initially they were all together.
They were all in fellowship together. You didn't go to Jerusalem in the early days of the church and say.
Where is such and such a group of Christians meeting? No, they were all together, you'd say. Where are the believers meeting in? In Jerusalem or any other city? Now we know from Paul's epistle to the Corinthians that things were coming in very quickly that have led to the many sad divisions that we see outwardly amongst the people of God. But remember, in spite of the outward fragment fragmentation of things.
What we see today in the world, there is one body. We won't take time to turn to it. But Ephesians chapter 4, verse four says there is one body. God looked down this morning and he saw in that loaf, as I say, one body. It's the outward testimony of it that is broken up and fragmented. So he makes provision here to go on together. And then he says in my name.
Why is it in my name or under my name? Because the name is the person. You can. You can't separate the name from the person. If I say the name of some celebrity or politician or some famous, some famous individual that would be known to everybody here, immediately you envision in your mind everything you know about that person. The name is the person, and to be gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus is to be gathered to the person.
Of Christ. And then he says, There am I in the midst of them Now I wish I had time to develop this.
But just to put it very simply, there is a difference in scripture.
With the Lord being in the midst collectively and with us individually.
You know the Lord is with every believer and wherever Christians met today.
For worship, for to break bread or whatever reason it was. Wherever Christians met today, the Lord was with them. Because he says, Lo, I am with you always, even under the end of the age. But that is quite different than the Lord being in the midst collectively. I want you to do a little homework sometime and read through Luke 24 in that regard you find at the beginning of the chapter.
That there were two who were discouraged. They left the other disciples who were in Jerusalem in the upper room, where they were to remain together, and they had were going away to their own home in Emmaus. They were very discouraged and they were going the wrong way, and the Lord didn't forsake them. And notice the language. Jesus himself drew near and went with them, and when they got to Emmaus he went into Terry.
With them. And as he sat at meat with them, he was with them. He's with every believer. I will never leave thee nor forsake thee.
As soon as they recognized him, he disappeared. Why? Because they shouldn't have been at Emmaus. They should have been back in Jerusalem with the others, and so he immediately disappears. When they when they recognize who it is, they get up, they return to Jerusalem, and now the language changes for the rest of the chapter. Then and only then came Jesus, and stood not with them any longer, but in the midst they were back where the others already were, in obedience to the word of the Lord. And now for the rest of the chapter, He is in the midst, because we cannot claim to have the Lord in our midst collectively.
Unless we are where he has already established that place.
You know, sometimes I hear Christians say I want to be where the Lord, where I I hope I'm where the Lord wants me.
I think it's better to say I want to be where the Lord is, because as soon as you say where the Lord is, you recognize that there is already a place established on earth where the Lord Jesus is in the midst, and it's not wherever we choose to be. Just like in the Old Testament, it wasn't where they they weren't to bring their sacrifices to every center and altar and so on. And it became a great beginning with King Jeroboam when they went to different.
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Different places.
To Dan and Bethel, to offer their sacrifices, and so on. No, they were to come up to the House of the Lord at Jerusalem. It was never given to them to decide.
Where they were to come up to worship and where the name of the Lord was, and where He dwelt with His people collectively, which is very different. Again, context, it's very different than the Lord being with His people individually. Well, if you and I are really exercised and pray about it, then the Lord can lead us there because as I say, that's what He wants. It's normal Christianity for a Christian to be at the Lord's table. But why did I draw the circle so small here?
Because while it's true, every believer is a member of the body of Christ, and every believer's place is there.
Yet how few there really are who by the grace of God are at the Lord's table. And remember this it is there are many who break bread. There are many who partake of a loaf and a cup.
But there that is very different, I believe, than partaking of the Lord's Supper.
At the Lord's Table there's only one place to partake of the Lord's Supper, and that's what the Lord's table. There are many who break bread, There are many who remember the Lord, and I'm thankful for it. But that is different, I say, than partaking of the Lords Supper as the Lords Table. Now, for the few minutes that are left, I want to go to the 6th chart and I want to speak of something a little different. I want to speak of this very, very carefully. And that is the subject of the camp.
Let's go to introduce this to the 13th chapter of Hebrews.
Hebrews, chapter 13.
And verse 10.
We have an altar, whereof they have no right to eat, that serve the Tabernacle for the bodies of those beasts whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high Priest for sin, are burned without the camp. Wherefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate. Let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach. Now I first of all want to put it in the context.
Of what we have here in Hebrews. And then I want to show that there's an application for you and for me today.
Because I've had people come along and say and I've even read that the camp there's a it's not a brethren writer. We we we read a lot of and he was never gathered to the Lord's name. He was with another group of so-called Brethren. But when he he Co it comes to his commentary on Hebrews and he makes a comment on these verses he says it is presumptuous to think that the camp is anything.
In application beyond Judaism.
OK, we'll leave that for a moment and we'll come back to it in a strict context here being written to Jewish believers. That is exactly what the apostle Paul was. I believe it was Paul, but the apostle was writing about. We don't have a name attached to this epistle, but I believe there are some little hints that it probably was Paul. Nevertheless, what the writer is pointing out to these Jewish believers, believers, these were not Ephesians saved as Gentiles and brought into the Church of God. These were Jews that were saved and brought into the Church of God and he is exhorting them to separate.
From that which was of the old system, that is the old ceremonies and rites and the physical building and the incense and the robes and the all that, the circumcision and all the things that went with Judaism. They were to now separate from that. Because that though it was a picture by type and shadow of Christianity and what was and and Christ and so on. Yeah, that had all been set aside now and they were to leave that.
And they were to come out from it. However, it does say, let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp. And Scripture always has an application for us, a present application. And if we say that the camp in its strict application only applies to Israel or to Judaism, then what are we to separate from? There's got to be some application for you and for me.
Now I'll try to put it as simply as possible. And then we're going to go to two instances in the Old Testament that I hope will help us to understand this stand this, that is the camp for Israel for the Jewish believer was Judaism.
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But in application for us, I believe, if anything today.
In the Christian world, that has taken on the characteristics of Judaism.
And I don't think I have to explain too far what I'm saying. You understand this very, very clearly. Because in Judaism, there was the beautiful building, there was the temple, there were the beautiful robes that the priests wore, there was the incense, there was the music. Everything was for the natural senses.
But in Christianity that has been set aside, we are not of the Circumcision that worship Christ in the flesh. The Old Testament was worshipped for man in the flesh. Yes, there were those who were real and whose hearts truly responded. But a man could be stirred up in his religious being. He could be stirred up in his soul by simply walking into that beautiful temple, smelling that beautiful incense, all the wonderful things that he saw and heard there.
But in Christianity it is not religion for the flesh. And so we find as we go through the New Testament that all that is set aside. The Lord said they that worship the Father must worship him in spirit and in truth. You know tonight we're going to have again if we have a sing some music like we did last night and we appreciate the young people that brought some instruments but this morning we didn't have that because to introduce that in our worship is.
To go back to the camp, it's to go back to that which takes on the characteristics of of Judaism. Now I want to go back 'cause I wanna make this very clear. I wanna go back to two instances in the Old Testament that I believe bring before us what the camp really is and those in the camp and outside the camp. Exodus Chapter 33.
Exodus Chapter 33.
And verse 7. And Moses took the Tabernacle and pitched it without the camp, a fire off from the camp, and called it the Tabernacle of the congregation. And it came to pass that everyone that thought the Lord went out under the Tabernacle of the congregation, which was without the camp. And it came to pass when Moses went out under the Tabernacle, that all the people rose up, and stood every man at his tent door, and looked after Moses till he was gone into the Tabernacle. And it came to pass.
As Moses entered into the Tabernacle, the cloudy pillar descended and stood at the door of the Tabernacle. And the Lord talked with Moses, And all the people saw the cloudy pillar stand at the Tabernacle door, and all the people rose up and worshipped every man in his tent door. And the Lord spake unto Moses face to face as a man speaketh unto his friend. And he turned again into the camp but his servant Joshua.
A young man, his servant Joshua, the son of Nun, a young man departed not out of the Tabernacle. So here we have an introduction to, I believe, what the can't what is referred to in the book of Hebrews as the camp. And we find here that sin had come in to the people of God, and it required that there be a very real degree of separation, because as we said earlier in these meetings, God's way of blessing and fellowship is always separation from evil.
That's why in the verses we read in Hebrews on the Day of Atonement, when the question of sin was taken up, the sacrifice had to be taken outside the camp and burned. What God was really teaching his people was that sin was a thing that was not fit for his presence or the presence of his people. And you know, in taking the Lord Jesus outside the gates of Jerusalem and having him nailed to a Roman cross, that's really the way they treated the Lord Jesus.
They treated him as sin itself. They said he's not fit for our society, and they took him outside that city, that holy city that deteriorated to such a point that it had religion without Christ. And they nailed him to A to a Roman cross. But what I want to point out here is that every man stood up and worshiped in his tent door. There were not many evidently who separated and went outside where those the Lord was.
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There the Lord was no longer in the camp collectively. Now he was outside. They pitched it away from the camp outside a far off from the camp. But what I want to notice is every man stood up and worshipped in his tent door. It didn't mean that those who were in the camp were not, were not the people of God. They were. Nor did it mean that there wasn't worship. There was. And you know, there are many today.
Who worship who came together on this Lord's day and worship the Lord. Every man stood up and there was worship in their tent door. And there were are many true believers, my brothers and sisters in Christ. I love them dearly. I have as much fellowship as I can with them when I meet them from time to time with Gospel literature supply for which you were doing text work today. Most of that literature it we make available to our brothers and sisters. If I can put it this way in the camp. And we're thankful that we can provide good sound literature for them. They are true believers.
They worship the Lord, but we find there was a special blessing here.
For those that went outside the camp, a special sense of the Lord's presence. And I think it's beautiful that Joshua, this young man, he he goes outside and he departs not out of the Tabernacle. He valued that special place. Yes, it was separation from many of his dear brother, perhaps even from family. Maybe there's somebody here and you have family members that are not happy you're here with other believers.
Gathered to the Lord's name. There was a very real degree of separation here with Joshua and others. But what a blessing there was to go out where the Lord was at the in the Tabernacle of the congregation. Now we find that Moses. Then he goes back into the camp. Why? Because he's a picture of the Lord Jesus, and the Lord doesn't forsake his people in the camp. You know, wherever there is an individual appreciation of the person and work of Christ.
There's going to be worship, and the Lord doesn't forsake his people. Again, as I mentioned, He is with every individual believer. He'll never leave them nor forsake them. And so wonderful privilege to go outside the camp, to be separated to the Lord's name and the Lord's name alone, to be gathered to his name, to give testimony, give expression to the truth of the one body, and so on. But remember, there are many of our brothers and sisters.
Who either know nothing about this precious truth or for one reason or another are walking a little different path and not in fellowship with us. Let us go then for the other example to Numbers Chapter 11. I know our time is gone, but we just take another few minutes and finish this subject Numbers Chapter 11.
And verse 24.
And Moses went out and told the people the words of the Lord, and gathered the 70 men of the elders of the people.
And set them round about the Tabernacle. And the Lord spake, and I'm sorry. And the Lord came down in a cloud, and spake unto him.
And took of the Spirit that was upon him, and gave it unto the 70 elders.
And it came to pass that when the Spirit rested upon them, they prophesied and did not cease.
And there remain two of the men in the camp, the name of the one with Eldad and the name of the other Me Dad.
And the Spirit rested upon them, and they were of them that were written, but went not out under the Tabernacle.
And they prophesied in the camp and there ran a young man and told Moses and said Eldad and me dad do prophecy in the camp.
And Joshua the son of none, the servant of Moses, one of his young men, answered and said, My Lord, Moses forbid them.
And Moses said unto him, Envious thou for my sake would God, that all the Lord's people were prophets, and that the Lord would put his spirit upon them. And Moses got him into the camp, He and the elders of Israel, I want to speak of this in connection with, if we can put it in our language for today evangelical work and the going forth of the truth in various ways. Now we find here that what happened? If you started back in the 14th verse, you'd find that Moses complained about the work the Lord gave him to do, And he said, Lord, I'm just not able to do it.
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And so the Lord allowed that there would be 70 elders appointed, and he took some of the Spirit off Moses, and he distributed it amongst the 70 elders. In other words, there was more machinery, but there was no more power. Moses had been given all the power that he needed for the service God had raised him up for. And when God calls us to a service, whether it's little or great, and everyone of us here who know Christ have a service, it's not a question of.
Can you do it? It's a question of is this the service the Lord has given you to do? If it is, He's given you everything you need to do it all. The power is there. So there was more. There was no more power, but there was more machinery because Moses complained. And what was the result? Eldad and me dad prophesied in the camp. Immediately we find these two prophesying and a young man runs and he tells Moses what Moses What's going on in Joshua's.
Oh, no, rebuke rebuked them. Oh, Moses says no. I'm glad for those that are prophesying in the camp. In other words, in our language, Moses said, I'm glad for anybody, anywhere that's telling forth the truth of God that has a message from God. And I am too. Again, most of the literature that is distributed through our book rooms in the Caribbean and South America, it goes out to those who are prophesying in the camp.
They're giving out the gospel and to some degree the truth of God too, and we're thankful for it. And you and I need to rejoice for every effort there is.
Both to reach the lost and to encourage and teach the Saints of God. I want to say this carefully, but if the gospel effort depended on those gathered to the Lord's name, it would be a very feeble effort at best. Now I'm not saying there isn't much done amongst those gathered to the Lord's name, and percentage wise too, and so on, but nevertheless, aren't we thankful for the eldads and the me dads? You know, there's so much tons and tons and Joe knows this Working at Bible Truth, there's just tons and tons of literature.
That goes out around this world every day and through many organizations, Bibles and good solid literature distributed every day through many who've never been gathered to the Lord's name. They're not in fellowship with us as far as the Lord's table. But here's what the Apostle Paul said. He said, whether in truth or pretense, Christ is preached. And I therein do rejoice. Yeah, and will rejoice when the disciples saw.
Others casting out demons.
That weren't walking with the disciples, they said, Lord rebuke them, bring down fire from heaven. The Lord said no.
They that are not against us are for us. And so how wonderful it is that we have brothers and sisters out there in the camp, out in the in other Christian fellowships who are prophesying, telling forth the word of God. Because that's what prophecy very simply is. It's speaking for God. It's a message from God for others 1St and and God has given us every believer a message for others, whether it's to the lost in the gospel.
Or whether it's in ministry to the Saints. But again, notice that Moses doesn't encourage Joshua to go and join them.
He doesn't tell Joshua you go and prophecy. In the camp Joshua was responsible to stay.
Where there was a special sense of the Lord's presence outside the camp and young people, we don't have to join up with that which is not according to the word of God, to have opportunities to speak for God. There are many who have so much work to do for the Lord they can hardly get it done and they keep 1 foot in the assembly, if I can put it that way, and one foot out giving out the gospel and encouraging.
Their brothers and sisters in Christ be like the compass that you use from the math set in school. Keep that. Keep the one end of the compass firmly planted at the center where God, where the Lord is, where He has promised to be in the midst. And then go out and in a in a circle and meet the needs that you see around you. You don't have to leave the Lord's table or to go other places to be useful for the Lord.
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You know you don't have to get up in the morning and ask the Lord for opportunities as much as you need to get up in the morning and ask the Lord.
That you would be sensitive to the opportunities that arise and avail yourself of them because there are certainly no shortage of opportunities. The young people. We've covered these six charts very, very quickly. We certainly have not given an exhaustive explanation of the truth that we have tried in a very feeble way to illustrate through these circles. But again, I trust you'll take these charts with you. Go over some of the scriptures you've jotted down if you have any questions.
There are many who would be happy to explain further things to you. I know we've run a lot by you in these meetings this weekend, but we trust you've got something for profit and blessing.
Psalm 23 Part 2
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Jesus, my Lord.
From the day he arrived at all when the light is lying for his soul.
Gonna go back and re read the 23rd Psalm. I'm gonna ask if Austin will read it for us. Please read the whole Psalm.
The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures. He leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul. He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his namesake. Yeah, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me. Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me.
Thou preparest the table before me in the presence of my enemies. Thou anointest my head with oil. My cup runneth over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the House of the Lord forever.
Just mentioned in connection with this Psalm that there are two very distinct parts to it. In the 1St 3 verses of this Psalm, David is talking about the shepherd. The Lord is my shepherd. He does this, he does that. But we you notice in the three verses that fall over 4-5 and six, he's not talking about the shepherd any longer. He's talking to the shepherd. And so it's wonderful to be able to talk about the Lord and to know a lot of things about the Lord.
But now we find that David enjoys a personal conversation, personal fellowship with the shepherd. And that's even greater than knowing just about him or being able to list off some facts about the, uh, his, the, the, the Lord about it's one, it's more, it's wonderful to talk, to talk about somebody, maybe a friend you have, somebody you love, but isn't it more wonderful to be able to talk to them? Well, David was able to do both. He talks about the shepherd.
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And then he turns and talks to the shepherd for the whole rest of the song.
Just say 2 about this valley of the shadow of death. Now I realize we often read this, it's often read at a funeral or at a deathbed in connection with one passing from this life through the article of death into the presence of the Lord. And that's fine. That's that's a very good application and a great comfort.
But I do not believe that's what the valley of the shadow of Death in its meaning is referring to here. The valley of the shadow of death is not just one passing from this life to the next, that is from this world to the presence of the Lord. But the valley of the shadow of death is this world through which we walk. You know, this world is stamped with death, where pilgrims in the wilderness are dwelling as a camp created things so pleasant.
Now bear to us death stamp. And so there's death. Everything is stamped with the mark of death in this world. And it's a shadow. It's a valley. And David recognized that he was passing through the valley of the shadow of death.
But he didn't have to be afraid in the circumstances of life. And it's interesting that as soon as he talks about the valley of the shadow of death, he starts talking to the shepherd. That's what it took. And so, you know, we're going to leave this place. We've had a wonderful weekend fellowship, been isolated from the world to a great degree, but we're going to go back walking through this world that is the valley of the shadow of death. But we don't have to fear because we have one that's with us.
And we have one that we don't just know about, but one who is a personal friend and guide, and then one that we can talk to constantly, any hour of every any day, through every circumstance, to the valley of the shadow of death.
When we're, when we're in the valley of the shadow of death or in a, a place of pressure, I think we can say the same thing that uh, David said. Umm.
Several times later, umm, in pressure I enlarged would be Darby's translation of it. And a lot of times when the going is easy, it's easy to, uh, to talk about the Lord and to enjoy the things of the Lord. But that personal relationship is made much closer when we're placed in a place of pressure and there's conflict in our life and it brings us to that dependence on the Lord. And, uh, I think that's why it's here.
So when there's that, that pressure around about, I think that he just doesn't, doesn't bother with whoever his audience may be, but speaks directly to the Lord, the one who, uh, is providing in this time that uh, would not be so easy as the still waters or the green, green pastures.
It's amazing here and my staff, they comfort me.
When I think of a ride and the staff, I don't think of comfort, but.
It's, it's amazing. He can kind of.
You know, kind of correct us or.
Keep us safe with.
His You might call it judgment, but it's like if you're in the right state of mind, it can be comfort to you.
Sorry to think, yes, When I was growing up, my parents had what they called the rotter correction and the radar correction. As Austin said, I didn't, as a boy, find to be much comfort. In fact, it stung quite a bit when it was used. But you know, as I look back, I'm thankful that my parents had the wisdom to use it. Now, the problem is, sometimes as earthly parents, we use it too little or too much.
We use it too softly or too hard, but our father has a rod of correction as well.
And he chastens us, it says in Hebrews according He chastens us for our.
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Profit that we might be partakers of His Holiness when when he corrects us, when he uses the rod, when there's training or chastening, it's always for our profit. As earthly fathers, we can't always say we corrected or chastened our children for their profit. Sometimes it was just for myself. If my children were noisy and I wanted them to be quiet or go out of the room, I said go out of the room. I want to read. I like it wasn't. That wasn't for their good necessarily. That was just for my profit.
God our Father, he's the Father of lights and as the Father of lights, he perfectly discerns what is necessary for each one of us in our Christian life. So that's the rod the staff in Scripture speaks of support anybody that does any hiking. You go on a hike, a rough trail up a mountain, you take a, a, a stick with you, a good stout stick, a staff. And that staff is for support.
And a stop in Scripture too speaks of dependence. It's like Jacob.
You know, Jacob was a man who thought he had it all together and he tried to get the blessing by his own scheming and devices. And he was a guy, I think that was always felt like he was on top of things and he could handle it. But at the end of his life, he finally learned the lesson of dependence. And it says he worshipped leaning on his staff. Leaning on his staff would speak of dependence. Well, would the God that it didn't take us 100 and some years to learn it like Jacob did.
He wants us to learn it more quickly, and the sooner we learn these two things, as Austin said about the rod and the staff, the more comfort and blessing there's gonna be. If I could have learned as a child that obedience to my parents was the best way, and that the right of correction was for my good, I would have had a happier childhood. Sad to say, we often don't learn those things till we're older. But would the God that we would learn it as the children of God or as the sheep of the shepherd?
In his school and his flock.
And here I mentioned mentioning about if you're hiking user staff, umm, for support. And I was, uh, just thinking that song that we gave up. I think the, for the last Bible study about UH-75 is sheep in mind. And at the end of the course, it says rough the way on the mountain, step by step, step by step by Lord. And I, so a staff, when I think of a staff, you use it each step of the way, every step. And I've just enjoyed that with the Lord, umm, no matter where we are in our life, you know, you have.
Quite a few different ages here represented and we go through different periods of our life as the Lord deals with us and comforts us and helps us along and He knows just how to do it and each individual step that we take.
One thing that was always was a comfort to me when we speak of the shadow, the valley of the shadow of death.
Umm, every one of us no doubt are are impacted with death. We will face it. Umm.
But umm, there's a verse in.
In First Corinthians chapter 3.
Three verse 22 it says.
Whether Paul or a Paulus or Cephas or the world, or life or death or things present or things to come, all are yours.
Here it says death. Death is really a servant. It's a vehicle that the Lord uses just as he uses people, he uses death also. It's a vehicle. It's something that the Lord is is in control of. We, we don't have to. So as we have the shepherd first before we have going through the valley of the shadow of death, death itself.
You know, it says, oh, death, where is thy sting? And you know, in the Old Testament, they did not have that assurance when they died what was going to happen. And Satan used that to, I believe, torment the Saints. But we don't have to.
It's it's not something that we need to fear.
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The the whole summation of the matter really is sour with me and that that really if we can get a hold of that, it's going to cause every fear and anxiety to to flee If we realize that the Lord Jesus is with us every step of the way. He doesn't just provide the tools that are needed to get through this life, but he goes with us.
We might.
We, we might send someone out on a journey or to do a job for us and we provide all the tools that are needed for the job or the journey, but we don't necessarily go with the person. But David was on a journey. He was going through the valley of the shadow of death. And he said, but thou art with me. And you know, we really don't have to get up in the morning and pray and ask the Lord to be with us. What we need to do is get up in the morning and pray.
That we would be walking in the sense of the Lord's company with us. Because remember, as we said earlier, He'll never leave us nor forsake us. Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the age. And sometimes I hear people pray and ask the Lord to be with us. Now I'm not being critical and, and I understand that, but I think it's more intelligent to pray. Lord, give us a sense of your presence with us.
Because when we have a sense of the Lord's presence with us, then we're going to be able to talk to Him.
And turn to him in any situation. Just go over to the 76 some I, I know we read this earlier in some other context, but just again to get actually Psalm 73. I'm sorry.
Psalm 73 This was in some private conversation with one of the young brothers, but we were talking, he, uh, another brother and I were talking about in this Psalm. The psalmist had all kinds of problems and difficulties and he felt discouraged because he saw the, the wicked going on.
And they weren't living for the Lord, and they had prosperity and nothing seemed to happen, and they were getting along well. And he said, I have all kinds of problems and I'm trying to please the Lord. But notice what he says near the end of the Psalms, Psalm 23, Psalm 73, verse 23. Nevertheless, I am continually with Thee. Thou is holding me by my right hand. Thou shalt guide me with Thy counsel, and afterward receive me to glory. Whom have I in heaven but they?
And there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee. So in spite of all the ups and downs of his life.
And all the problems he had and all that he saw the wicked were having, even though they weren't pleasing the Lord and they were living for themselves, He said, But I've got something far, far greater than any circumstance and far greater than anything that the wicked might enjoy for the moment. I've got the presence of the Lord. Lord, you're with me. And that's what really matters, and that's what really counts. So if we can leave this camp with a fresh sense of the Lord's presence with us.
I believe that that's going to clear up many doubts and fears in our lives. Maybe there's someone here and you say it's been a great weekend, but I'm just afraid to go back, back to work. Maybe a family situation. Sometimes in the local assembly. There's real problems that distress us all, but we don't have to be afraid. Now I haven't arrived. I I'm often afraid, but we don't have to be be afraid.
I sometimes told about two, two sisters who were talking and one of them said I found a wonderful verse that's in the 56th Psalm. And she said it's that verse, what time I am afraid I will trust in Thee. O the other sister said, I found an even better verse that's in Isaiah 12. Oh, she said, what better verse can you have than the one I just quoted? The verse she quoted is I will trust and not be afraid. You see the difference now? It's good when we're afraid to turn to the Lord.
And that's me more than the other. But this sister, she learned to trust and not be afraid. And So what a good lesson that is. Fear not. I have redeemed thee. I have called thee by thy name. Thou art mine. Nothing can change that.
It might be important to give some context to this thyroid and I staff, they come from me. You know, there was a point in, uh, David's life where he said, take not thy spirit from me. We're not in that position, are we? We are in a position where we're in dwelt by the Holy Spirit. So that's not really something that we should fear. Umm, whereas David, I believe that when he was there that Rob that, that staff, you know, that staff to lean on that rod of correction. That was his comfort, knowing that the Lord was with him.
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And we can have that also. We can, we can experience that, uh, in a similar manner, but we don't have to be afraid that that spirit is going to leave us. So it's beautiful to know that.
Yes, and in Christianity we have full assurance of faith, as you say. And as Dave said earlier, they didn't have full assurance of faith in the Old Testament.
Well, a table speaks of a number of things in Scripture and there's many applications that could be made. Of course, we think of a table, we think of food provision for, for our, uh, for us, we've had some good food provided, uh, by the ladies here while we've been at camp and it sustained our physical, our natural body, but we need spiritual food as well. And, uh.
There's a question raised later on in the Psalms. Can God provide a table in the wilderness? Yes, a wilderness is a place where there's nothing to sustain life. But God provides in a spirit our spirit, the spiritual wilderness we're in to sustain the spiritual life. Just another quick thought about a table is a table has the thought of authority. This morning we sat down by the grace of God at the Lord's table. It wasn't the table of Jesus.
It wasn't the table of Christ because the Lord denotes authority.
Who has authority at his table? It's the Lord himself. I have no authority there. If you're invited to my table in my home, who has authority at that table? I have the authority. It's my table. I invite who I will. I can ask a person to leave if they're acting in a way that's not according to conduct I feel is suitable for my table. So a table has the thought of authority, and we need to recognize the authority of the lordship of the Lord in our lives, His Lordship.
He ought to be Lord of our life. We used to sing to him when I was growing up. Lord of my life, I crown me now thine shall the glory be. And there's other thoughts in the in a table as well, The thought of fellowship. We sit down at a table and we eat together. Eating in Scripture and fellowship are synonymous. And so there's the thought of having fellowship with the Lord and having fellowship with one another.
And make no mistake about it, we're never going to be rid of the enemy this side of heaven. It's in the presence of mine enemies. David wasn't looking for to be delivered from the presence of his enemies. He knew he had one who could preserve him in the presence of his enemies. But you and I aren't going to be done with Satan and his hosts seeking to harass and to discourage us. It says your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion walketh about seeking whom he may devour.
And we're never going to be delivered from the presence of the enemy until we get home to glory.
Well, he anoints our head with oil, and oil invariably in Scripture is a type of the Spirit of God.
And I believe what we have here in connection with the head being anointed with oil corresponds to what we have in 2nd Corinthians 10. Let me just read it here. Second Corinthians chapter 10. He's speaking in this chapter about our warfare and the enemy and so on. And then in verse five he says casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God.
And then notice this and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. The mind, the head has to do with the mind, with our thoughts and we want to have our thoughts governed by the Spirit of God. And so we need to read the word of God. We need to have the Spirit of God take it so that when I was growing up there was a brother used to say read the word of God to you. Think in the language of Scripture.
Again, it sets your mind on things above where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God.
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And whatsoever things are are lovely, whatsoever things are pure, a good report and so on, think on those things. What are we filling our minds with? Are we filling our minds with that which the Spirit of God can bring before us concerning Christ and the Word I I know we have to study and we have to get along at work and we have to survive in the work a day environment we find ourselves. And it just takes about all your mental capacity today to do that.
But I believe when we have opportunity, then what we need to do is occupy our minds with those things that are pure and lovely, those things that are of Christ that's having our head anointed with oil.
And the result is my cup run is over so.
The pessimist says my cup runs over. What a mess. But for us, our cup runs over. That's a joy.
Yeah, that's really what it speaks of. It's it's the joy of walking with the shepherd in the presence of the Shepherd, communing with the shepherd and utilizing the resources that the shepherd has given us as we pass through the valley of the shadow of death and through the enemy.
Well then just very quickly before we close the comment on the last verse, there's two things that follow us. We're to follow the shepherd, He leaves, but there's two things that follow us, goodness and mercy. I remember one time when we were in the country of Wales and they have vast blocks of sheep there, and I remember the road was blocked as a flock of sheep passed from 1 pasture to the other.
And there was a shepherd who led the sheep across that busy road and into the next pasture. And as the flock of sheep passed by and, uh, got over to the other side of the road, we noticed something coming behind two sheepdogs. I said to Faye, there's goodness and mercy. And what were those sheepdogs doing? They were keeping the stray sheep and the sheep that wanted to wander from following the shepherd. They were keeping them rounded up and on the right track. And if one of those sheep lagged behind or went off in another direction.
Those sheepdogs were dogs were perfectly trained to bring them back around and focus them on what was ahead and who was leading them. That's what goodness and mercy do. And so God has given us goodness and mercy to follow us, to keep us on track so that we will walk in the paths of righteousness to keep us focused on the shepherd. And then I will dwell in the House of the Lord forever. Now, as Dave said and and and maybe Mike too, there was always a little uncertainty in the Old Testament, but.
David is a very unique individual. You know, earlier he said, and I know it's prophetic, but he said I will be satisfied when I awaken my likeness here. He says I will dwell in the House of the Lord forever.
Doesn't really sound like uncertainty. You know, there were those who had little flashes of light and revelation that were beyond the normal revelation of the day. And I believe David was one of those.
He had an understanding of things that was not the general understanding of things amongst the people of God. And yet there I'll give you another example. Moses esteemed the reproaches of Christ greater than the treasures of Egypt. What did Moses know of Christ? But God gave him, I believe, a little flash of something beyond the normal revelation of the day, because of the circumstances in which he found himself. And so David ends here on a note of certainty and triumph, a note of assurance. I will dwell in the House of the Lord.
Forever, but I want to leave you with this. Go over to the 27th Psalm and you have a similar statement, but just slightly different.
Psalm 27 and again it's a Psalm of David verse four. One thing of I desire to the Lord that will I seek after. Now notice this, that I may dwell in the House of the Lord, not forever here, but all the days of my life. This is something present you and I are going on to the Father's house. We know it in a little more intimate way than David did. We're going on to the Father's house. That's future.
But we can enjoy the House of the Lord now. In other words, David said, I know there's something future. I'm going to be with the Lord in the future, but I want to dwell with the Lord every day of my life. I don't want to have to wait till the future to walk in company and communion with the Lord. I want the House of the Lord all the days of my life. And this when David uses the expression the House of the Lord, very interesting because.
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When we think of the House of the Lord in the Old Testament, we usually think of the temple that was built later on under the direction of Solomon. But that can't be what David was referring to. It hadn't been built yet. When David uses the expression the House of the Lord, it denotes a sense of the Lord's presence with him. He wanted to walk in such a way that he could enjoy every day of his life the company and fellowship of the Lord.
Knowing that there was a future day when he would enjoy it unhindered. And again, you and I can leave here with that one desire. This is not multitasking. This is focused. One thing of I desire to dwell in the House of the Lord, to enjoy the company of the Lord every day of my life, and then to know where it ends. In the House of the Lord, yes, but for us in the Father's house with the Lord Jesus. So we've taken up this little Psalm very quickly. There's a lot here.
But it's one of those little portions of Scripture that is very, very encouraging.
And the Psalms largely speak to our hearts. And that's what we really need, isn't it? We need something that speaks to our hearts concerning the person of Christ. And here is particularly the Shepherd.
146 OK 146.
Save the world every day.
And the world can make it.
Last, let me do it something mom.
And grand life might be a great joy. I will give me all the money.