Kirkland Conference: 2015
Table of Contents
John 14:1-3
Reading
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Soon will the master.
I.
Remember.
Oh I know, I'm brave to the game and live water.
33.
Deuteronomy chapter 33.
Verse 3.
Yeah, he loves the people.
All his Saints are in thy hand, and they sat down at thy feet. Everyone shall receive of thy words.
Let's ask the Word help and blessing our God and Father. I know it's the reason why we're here today, and it is because we want to know more of Thy blessings. Beloved Son, our blessed Savior and our God, we thank you for the opportunity that has afforded us this day to come into this place and to sit at His feet.
To hear His word, we desire Lord Jesus, nothing more than to learn more from Thee and more about Thee. And so we ask thee that Thou would direct us to a chapter this morning that would be suited to instruction, building us up in the most holy faith, encouraging us and occupying us, our Lord Jesus, with Thyself and Thy purpose of embrace. And now we just ask our God and our Father that that would lead us by the Spirit is that which would be.
Suited for the needs committees to Thee, the young people as well as the older ones, that each could receive something from Thy precious Word. As we have read and the rejoicing in our hearts, we commit this to Thee. We ask Thy help. We ask it in the name and for the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
To him we sang this morning.
Each person The word home is one of the sweetest words in the English language.
We just sang again about the time when the Lord is going to come call us away and then reign in righteousness as the Son of righteousness. And I hesitate, brethren, because I know we take it up so very often. But I wonder if we could take up the 14th of John again. Our brethren in so many places and no doubt right here in this room are longing for home. And there's much instruction in the 14th chapter.
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In connection with his provision for us as we wait that time too like make that suggestion.
14th chapter of John.
First one.
Let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in me.
In my father's house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you I go to prepare a place for you.
And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself, that where I am, there ye may be also.
And whither I go, ye know, and the way ye know. Thomas saith unto him, Lord, we know not whither thou goest. And how can we know the way? Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, and the truth, and the light. No man cometh unto the Father, but by me. If he had known me, he should have known my Father also. And from henceforth you know him, and have seen him. Philip saith unto him, Lord, show us the Father, and it sufficeth us. Jesus saith unto him.
Have I been so long time with you? And yet hast thou not known me, Philip? He that hath seen me hath seen the Father. And how sayest thou then show us the Father. Believeth thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? The words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself, but the Father that dwelleth in me. He doeth the works.
Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father in me, or else believe me for the very work's sake.
Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me the works that I do shall he do also, and greater works than these shall he do, because I go unto my Father. And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you shall ask anything in my name, I will do it.
If you love me, keep my commandments, and I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another comforter that you may have, that He may abide with you forever. Even the spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth Him not, neither noreth Him, but ye know Him, for He dwelleth with you and shall be in you.
I will not leave you comfortless. I will come to you, get a little while, and the world seeth me no more. But ye see me because I live, ye shall live also.
At that day ye shall know that I am in my father, and ye and me and I in you. He that hath my commandments and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me, and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him. Judas saith unto him not Ascarius. Lord, how is it that thou wilt manifest thyself unto us, and not under the world? Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man loved me, he will keep my words, and my Father will love him.
And we will come unto Him, and make our abode with Him. He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings. And the word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father which sent me. These things have I spoken unto you, being yet present with you but the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, He shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.
Peace I leave with you, My peace I give unto you not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. Ye have heard how I said unto you, I go away, and come again unto you. If you love me, you would rejoice.
Because I said, I go unto the Father, for my Father is greater than I. And now I have told you before it come to pass, that when it is come to pass, you might believe thereafter I will not talk much with you, for the Prince of this world cometh and ask nothing in me.
But that the world may know that I love the Father, and as the Father gave me commandment, Even so I do arise. Let us go hence.
Where we comment on these verses, people advocate the 13th chapter in the movie, the first verse of that chapter, because it's given the setting and reason why we have what we have just read together, chapter 13 and verse one. Now before the season of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour was come, that he shipped his heart out of this world under the Father, having lost his own which were in the world. He loved the mind at the end.
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This introduces to us what we often refer to.
As the upper room ministry, and we realize that not all the ministry was given in the upper room. The 1St 2 Chapters 13 and 14 were spoken in the upper Room. Then they arrived and go hence as we head at the end of the reading. And then there's further instruction in ministry as they travel from the Upper room to the Garden of Gethsemane. But we sometimes refer to these chapters. That is 13141516. That's the upper Room ministry, the Lord's final instructions.
And encouragement to the disciples.
Before He left them to go away. And this first verse of the 13th chapter gives us the needs and the motive for what we have in these chapters. The need was first of all that the hour had come that He would depart out of the world under the Father. The disciples had walked with the Lord Jesus during His public ministry. He provided everything that was needed for for them. They could come and talk to Him at any time, commune with Him, but He wasn't going to be with them the way He had been during His public ministry here on earth.
He was going to return to the Father by way of the cross. But then there was the motive too. Having loved His own, which were in the world, He loved Him unto the end. And I thought of this when Bruce said to us the verse in Deuteronomy.
Because when Bruce led to us in Deuteronomy 33, we find that the confirmation of the Lord's love there was not on the banks of the of the Red Sea, not at the beginning of the wilderness journey, but at the end of it. There had been amongst all the failures and the sins that had come in, in those years in the wilderness, there had been a consistency of divine love towards His people.
My brother that often encouraged our partners. We sit here this morning. I have no doubt there's many a burden and troubled hearts here today, a situation with the rise in our personal lives, in the family and sometimes in the assembly. But aren't we thankful that he loves us just as much today, in spite of ourselves, as he did when he picked us up with all our need and saved our souls? He loved Israel just as much on the banks of the Jordan as he did on the banks of the Red Sea, just as much at the end of the wilderness journey as he did.
When they were assuming people in the joy of redemption and deliverance from the 15th of Exodus.
And so the disciples here, he loved them just as much as the ends of his pathway, and they're being with him. That's why he had called them each from their secular employment and other activities. So he loved them under the end. That was the motive. And so in the opening of our chapter, he comforts their hearts here, knowing that they were in deep trouble that they thought when leaving them.
So many different things.
He in from verse 21 you find He's betrayed and then you find the stripe amongst the disciples which one would be the greatest. And then you find that He accounts them as those that have continued with Him in His temptation, and how they had failed in that, but yet He accounted as their faithfulness to him. And then he predicts that Peter will deny him.
And then he speaks about his He brings before them his sufferings in the garden, and then the betrayal by Judas. So everything was against the Lord, but yet He in his constancy never changed.
As you say, the, uh, Lord undertook at this time of the comfort the hearts of The Who were troubled that they thought of him going away and leaving them. And it's interesting to see the way in which he comforts their hearts. He brings before them those things that they would gain by him going away and sending the Holy Spirit that they would not have if he remained among them. And there he takes their thoughts away from themselves and occupies them with those good things that are going to come as a result of him going away and sending the Spirit, which characterized Christianity by the way.
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Which we have each one. And so one by one through the chapter, he brings before us and before them, uh, these wonderful games that they're, that are ours and blessedly so the chapter has two parts to it. In one sense, you could look at it this way. The 1St 14 verses really bring before us the fact that the Lord was going to the Father. Then from the 15th verse on to the end of the chapter, we have the Holy Spirit coming from the Father.
And that is really the two great features that mark Christianity.
A man in the glory and the Spirit of God sent down to connect his people here on earth with him there in glory.
So we have a relationship and blessings that the disciples never had while they walked with the Lord here on earth. And I think that helps to see, as Brother Bruce has pointed out, when I was a young person, I used to think it'd be wonderful to have been here in the days of the Lord Jesus, to walk along and to have seen the miracles, to have counsel with the Lord Jesus as he drew the disciples, sometimes privately around himself, like in the desert place the rest of while, and so on.
But we have far more privileges and resources now, and a closer relationship with the man in the glory. And that's really what is in the opening verse of this chapter, isn't it? Because Christianity, brethren, sets us in relationship with Christ, but not in relationship with Christ as the disciples knew Him on earth. Nor is it in relationship with Christ like the His earthly people will yet know Him in a future day.
The apostle Paul said henceforth know we know man after the flesh. Though we knew Christ after the flesh, henceforth know we him no more, and so we are brought into relationship with Christ as the heavenly man.
We're connected to him by the Spirit of God and Christianity sets before us Christ, not where he was not walking as the lowly man of grace here, not asleep on a boat on a for a few moments rest, not sitting on sight cars well weary with his journey, but a glorified man at the right hand of God. If you just allow me to point out there are three things in these opening verses.
That and we can develop them that the Lord gives for the comfort of the disciples on this occasion. The first one is in verse one. You believe in God, believe also in me. In other words, he says you believed in God whom you've never seen. Now you're going to have to believe in me in the same way. I'm not going to be with you the way I have been and we know the moment came after he had remained on earth in resurrection long enough to.
Give confirmation to his own that he had bodily risen from the dead. The moment came when his feet left the Mount of Olives, and the cloud received him out of their sight, and they saw him no more. And that's why Peter says, Whom not having seen ye love so, now you see him not yet believing. Ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory. Then there's the Father's house, the the home that as a result of the work of Calvary and the Lord Jesus going back there.
Was He was, was going to be prepared for them, and then the promise to come and take them to that home. And those three things given to the disciples for their comfort. Brethren, if we get a hold of them this morning, they will be for our comfort as well.
Verse in John 12, when the Lord Jesus.
Says in verse 27, Now is my soul troubled? What shall I say, Father, save me from this hour? But for this cause came iron to this hour, that moment when he was going to the cross.
And there was something that really troubled him. Does he understand the troubled heart?
Yes, he does.
Do you and I have troubled hearts at times?
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Yes, like you mentioned, Jim, we do, but.
To see what he says here, and I think it's important brother, and that we address.
Troubles of the heart.
It's a matter of confidence, isn't it? What is your confidence is in and we need to know in whom we've trusted.
We need to address those troubled feelings that we all have. So he says, like you brought out, you believe in God, believe also in me.
Is there any change with him? And I must say, in the world that we live in, brethren, we live in a world that is characterized by humanism, confidence in yourself. You've gotta, you've got the ability, go ahead and do it.
And we're encouraged to have confidence in ourselves.
And sometimes, brother, and we need to be reminded that he that trusts in his own heart is a fool. We should be confident people, but not confident in ourselves, confident in the Lord. But I have to say for myself of times I've been troubled because without realizing that my confidence was in my own ability, sometimes the Lord has to allow us to break down so that we realize we cannot trust ourselves.
Peter had confidence in his own ability and his own love for the Lord.
And he broke down.
And the Lord allowed it so that he would realize he couldn't trust in himself. We do have someone we can trust in.
It says trust, uh, in him at all times, You people at all times.
Trust in the Lord with all thine heart, and lean not to thy own understanding.
Simple verses, but so important.
Starting in this chapter, it's been mentioned by others that we have a progression from chapters 12 Through 17, and I've enjoyed that. We might just go over that very quickly to see how our chapter fits into that. But in chapter 12, uh, we have the development of, uh, again, as we've been mentioning of the position that disciples would be in when the Lord Jesus went back to heaven.
First of all, in Chapter 12.
Uh, as I mentioned, it's a progression that's given to us in the Tabernacle. And uh, this is my own thought that others have brought it out and I appreciated it. Chapter 12, the Lord Jesus brings in his death. That's the basis of the new position, isn't it? He was no longer presenting himself to Israel as the Messiah, but rather this new position would be based on his death, his resurrection, and his ascension back to heaven. So chapter 12, in a sense, gives us the brazen altar in the Tabernacle.
That's the foundation of all of our blessings. Then as we go to Chapter 13, we have feet washing. And so in the Tabernacle, the progression is from the brazen altar to the labor. And that labor, of course, is where the, where the hands and the feet of the priest were washed before they went into the Tabernacle itself. And so that corresponds to the daily feet washing that we need. And then in our chapter 14, uh, in a sense.
They've entered into the Tabernacle themselves. Only the clean priests could go in to that place. It's a special place of privilege. And this chapter, it seems to me, is, uh, has to do with communion. The, the new relationship of communion there would be. And some others have suggested again that it's with the three persons of the Godhead versus one to three with the Lord. Jesus is the risen Son of man, ascended Son of man. And then verses 4 through 14.
With the Father and then the rest of the chapter with the Spirit of God. I think as we read through it, we'll see that that corresponds, it's been suggested, to the golden altar. That's where incense was offered up. It's a whole new relationship that were brought into and were brought into with all three persons of the Godhead, which was barely known in the Old Testament. They the great theme of the Old Testament was that Jehovah our God is one God, and thou shalt worship the Lord thy God with all thy heart.
But in the New Testament we learned that God is one, but he is 3 persons and were brought into that intimacy.
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And then in chapter 15, it's the collective testimony and, uh, when the Lord was going to leave, uh, what we have there in chapter 15 is the Christian company and fruit bearing. Well, that's represented by the table of showbread in the Tabernacle. Uh, bread often speaks of communion. We hear the expression breaking bread together. It's communion among the Lord's people.
And the blessing that comes, uh, from that communion. And then in chapter 16, it's the testimony as we see there, uh, in, in, in a, in a hostile world, they're going to be persecuted and so on, uh, they become the light of this world. When the Lord Jesus was in this world, he was the light, but going back to heaven, it's the Christians that have to become the light. Well, that's the golden Candlestick, isn't it?
Now gold speaks of that which is divine. The oil in the candlesticks, or in the cups, of course, is the Spirit of God.
And the part that the believers have, of course, is simply the Wicks. We need a lot of dressing, don't we, to be cut back. But there we have the testimony, and it's a testimony of God. But it's the disciples now that are going going to become the light of the world. And then finally, of course, in chapter 17, as we've often heard, it's the Lord's high priestly prayers as he enters, so to speak, into the holy of Holies and their addresses God.
And we got to listen in. So I think that's helpful to see that pattern again in our chapter. Then we're being brought for the comfort of our hearts in this new position. We're being brought into a special relationship with all three persons of the Godhead.
Just another little word on trust, too, because I think it's very important. So often we have heart trouble, as you say, and it's not the physical heart, the heart institute of this world. They do wonderful things today. And but there's heart trouble often in connection with what Brother Bob brought out. And I remember hearing about a sister who was lying on a convalescent bed. She hadn't been able to get up from that bed for long, long time.
Was questionable whether she ever would again or not.
And brother went to see her, and she said to the brother, she was feeling down that day. She said, You know, just nothing I can do here on this bed to get reward in a future day, nothing I can do for the Lord. Well, he turned her to Hebrews, and he quoted her that verse. Cast not away, therefore thy confidence, for of such is great recompense of reward. And he pointed out to her that just to lie there and trust the Lord as to the circumstances he had put her in, she would get a great reward in the coming day.
And rather than doesn't that show how much he values our trust and confidence even in difficult circumstances? You say, I just don't know why the Lord has allowed this in my life. I've got a lot of problems that we come to the meeting and they talk about these things from Scripture. But these brothers don't know what I'm going through. Well, perhaps we don't tell you a little another little story about two sisters who are having a chat one time and this one, one of the sisters said, you know, I found a wonderful verse in Scripture. I I cling to it all the time.
All the other sisters said, What is it? She said, at what time I am afraid I will trust in Thee. All the other sisters said, I've got a far better verse than that. She said, what better verse can you have than that I will trust and not be afraid. Quite a difference, isn't it? Why are we afraid? Because we're not trusting. It's true. When we find ourselves in those times when we're afraid, we can turn to the Lord. Wonderful. But if we were trusting to begin with, there wouldn't be those fears and doubts.
That arise in our minds and in Hebrews 11. What is the sin that so easily besets us?
It's the sin of unbelief, isn't it? And we all have to, I have to hang my head and say often I have the sin of unbelief. I don't always trust. I don't always have that confidence. But what the Lord really desired for the disciples as they face the circumstances that were ahead and the Lord Jesus going back to heaven and leaving them in a hostile world, was that they would learn to trust more and more. That they might not be afraid, that they might not have heart trouble, that they might be comforted, and that they might go on in spite of the, the circumstances that they were going to face. And he wasn't promising them. It was going to be easy after he left.
In the world you shall have tribulation.
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But be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.
Send verse three, what time I am afraid I will trust in Thee, and then in verse.
11 In God have I put my trust. I will not be afraid. Someone has said that.
Verse 11 is first class trained to heaven. Verse three is second class. They both get to heaven but one has fear. I enjoyed that.
Think about that. What a privilege we have.
Living in this dispensation to have communion with divine persons, the Godhead.
There's new things that we find in this chapter.
You couldn't live.
In a time where there's more blessings than what we have as believers and I believe it's becau it's the the purpose of it. I was thinking of that before Jim suggested that 14 but the 8th chapter of the 15th chapter chapter herein is my father glorified that you bear much fruit.
So shall you be my disciple. So that fruit really is what we get in Galatians, isn't it? Lovejoy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, self-control.
The Father is glorified when those things are manifest in our lives, and so there's a purpose to it in this communion with Divine Person.
Way than they had known him on the earth, as Jim has quoted, that verse in Second Corinthians chapter 5 shows that there did not know him now, would not know him now, with him going back to heaven as the Messiah of Israel, as the head of new creation, and then the head of the church.
Another thing he brings before them too is in verse two, and that is that he would prepare a place for them in the Father's house. This was something that they didn't know anything about, nor was it ever promised to any Jewish St. that would live for the time when the Messiah would set up his Kingdom. This is a new blessing, This is a new privilege altogether, a place in the Father's house.
Why doesn't he say Brother Bruce in my house? Why does he say in my father's house?
I'd like to hear what you haven't said.
The whole book of John.
The Lord Jesus introducing us to his father and so much as saying, if all, if you only knew my father and I'm here to manifest him. I remember, uh, a brother, I think Gordon, uh, saying that as he traveled among the Saints that they were so kind and nice to him. He, they come into the house and they'd say, you know, if you need anything to eat, just go in the refrigerator and get it then. And this is your room. Feel comfortable. We want you to feel like this is your home.
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And he said, But I never quite feel like this is my home.
Uh, you know, there's some reserve, but he said. There's a place in Canada where I go in, I kick off my shoes, I lean back. I feel like I'm at home. It's my father's house and that's the way we're going to be. We'll be flesh apart. We'll feel comfortable in the father's house.
It says there, uh, well, in his bosom knoweth all that in that bosom lies and came to earth to make it known that we might share his joys. The Father's house is the place of the Father and the enjoyment of the Father's love. That was his place from all eternity, brethren, and I think that's why the Lord Jesus lived as.
A homeless stranger down here. There's nothing wrong with having a home in itself, but the Lord Jesus never had a home. Said the boxes have holes, the birds of the air has have nests, the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head. Why didn't he have a home down here, brother? And he came from the Father's house. That was his eternal dwelling place.
And now he's introducing us to that. In my father's house are many abodes. I love to think of it. It's not here, the truth of the church as the body of Christ, but it is here, the family of God the Father, and we as children in that family. And a father may have many children.
I often say I enjoy sometimes when I meet a a father who has many children. Remember a brother in southern Mexico had seventeen children. I like to ask him sometimes Which is your favorite child?
And when there are proper relationships in the family.
They say they're all my favorites, but everyone is a little different. And I think that's the thought, brethren, of the many abodes in the Father's house. There is a place for each one that is special that nobody else can fill. That's your boat, and there's a place for you that nobody else can have. Isn't that wonderful?
It's true, it's a wonderful truth of the body of Christ and that we are united together as one body in Christ by 1 Spirit. But here it's the individuality of each one. Is there anybody here in this room just like the others? No, we're all different and He loves you just like you are and He has a place prepared specially.
For you, I think that is so exceedingly beautiful.
None of the things.
Or in the Father's house presently it is a future state, the departed or with Christ, which is far better in soul and spirit. But the Father's house awaits the coming of Christ, as it says here in that chapter, when we will be with him. Christ is with Christ with and like Christ in the very presence of the Father, to enjoy this tremendous thing that you've been Speaking of. And I think it's very interesting to find, as we will get later in this chapter, that he mentions a board again.
That's in verse 23. And Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words, and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him and make our abode with him. I think that's exceedingly precious. This is a result of the Spirit of God having come. This great privilege and blessing would be realized by the Lord's people. But it's as much as He is saying now. That's what lays ahead for you to these many bodes.
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But while you wait here on earth, I want you to have a foretaste of it even now, and we will come and make our abode with you as you walk here, while you wait for that time when I will come and take you home, so we can enjoy the Father's presence and the Father's love even now by the power of the Spirit. But it's conditional, he says.
A man love me and keep my words. So there's practical obedience necessary in our lives to walk in communion with him to realize this, uh, enjoyment of his presence. But nevertheless, it is a privilege that's been granted to us here in this world while we wait for that future day.
It's interesting in first Kings chapter.
UH-6.
And in connection with the building of the temple in the time of Solomon.
They made chambers round about the house and it's a picture of this, isn't it? It's, uh, it was for the priests that were doing the service of the temple.
But there were three stories of compartments around the house. You can read it in your own time in First Corinth, First Kings 6 and verse 5.
Down, but it is a picture of that, those compartments where they could live in the father's house.
There are two things that the Lord Jesus still is anticipating, that we are going to bring His heart eternal joy and satisfaction and that I'm sorry there. There were two things on this occasion that the Lord was anticipating. One is still future and one has taken place. The first one was that He Himself was going to return to the Father. He was looking forward to it with joy.
In fact, I really believe that the thrust of the verse in Hebrews that says who for the joy that was set before him?
Endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of God. What was the joy there? It was really the joy of returning to the Father, having accomplished the Father's will here on earth and the work of redemption. And he's had that joy. As we've been saying, he has gone back to the Father. But there's another joy that he's looking forward to, and that is having his own there. And the Father is looking forward to having his house filled with children.
Children who will all be with and like his Son the Lord Jesus Christ. And so here the Lord Jesus speaks of it as the Father's house. I was thinking when Bob was speaking about the Lord's pathway here.
At the end of the 7th chapter, in the beginning of the 8th chapter, it says every man went to his own house. Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. Very few homes where the Lord Jesus was really welcome here on earth, but he's been welcomed back to the Father's house. God has said Amen to the work of Calvary, raised him from the dead and seated him at his own right hand as a glorified man. The Father has welcomed him back, but the Father's waiting too, to welcome his children home to.
The Lord Jesus is anticipating that moment, but I think it's important to understand before we move on from this second verse what it means when it says here I go to prepare a place for you. Sometimes people read this statement and think of it as the Lord up there now getting the place ready. And the reason he hasn't come yet is because the place isn't ready. You know, we had a call from some company we were expecting a while back and they said they were going to be delayed.
And actually, we were thankful they were going to be delayed because.
Things weren't quite ready. We got behind on certain things around the house and things weren't quite ready. And so we're a little relieved when they told us they were going to be an hour or so late. But that's not the thought here. Why is it here in the future tense? Why does He say, I go to prepare a place for you? Well, two things had not yet been accomplished at this time. One was the work of redemption. The Lord Jesus had not accomplished the work of Calvary, nor had He as a man returned.
To the Father. But the moment the Lord Jesus returned to the Father and sat down in the Father's house.
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Having accomplished the work of redemption, with the marks of atonement in his hands, and in his feet, and in his side, the minute he entered there and sat down the house, the poem has been as prepared as it ever will be. It's not that there's some preparation to the place that needs to take to happen. But why hasn't the Lord come yet? Because it's God's will that all men be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth.
He's long-suffering to us. We're not willing that any should perish, and there is still some work for the Spirit of God to do on earth.
The Spirit that was sent down at Pentecost, and he won't leave till we leave, because the Spirit and the Bride say come, and that is why the Lord hasn't come yet. But the place is prepared, if I can put it this way, on the cross.
He prepared the people for the place. His entrance into heaven immediately prepared the place for the people. So both have been accomplished and He and we are just waiting for that time when He'll get that word from the Father. He'll come and call us and we'll go to be with Him.
That we can understand.
And in our chapter, we have relationships. In the scriptures, we find that we're brought in as children.
To the Father.
Bride to the bridegroom. We understand these relationships, Brothers and sisters, children. Bridegroom, bride.
So he's going to bring us into the Father's house. There are many mansions. He prepares that place. We're going to be brought in as we already are, as children of God, as brothers and sisters. But it'll be fully manifested in that day when we're home with the Lord, when we say we're going home to be with the Lord.
My father's house are many mansions. It's a home who understand home, who understand bride and bridegroom. We understand brother and sister. It's a lovely thing. Relationships are the essence of life. It's not things.
It's not a fancy car, fancy house, but we enjoy a house and we enjoy transportation and we enjoy relationships. But the ultimate relationship is that we're brought into that relationship with God as his sons and daughters, as children and to the to the Lord Jesus, as the bride to the bridegroom's marvelous thing.
So I was staying in a home for a brother and sister and at first pointed out when they got when I got to the door.
At home, but when I got to the guest room where they put me up for the nights I was there, there was a motto on the wall over the bed that said so it's not home sweet home adjust.
And that's what we do down here. We adjust. And you know, even our homes, our earthly homes, our houses, there's always something we wish would be a little bit different, something we're always rearranging. We've got to bring in a Carpenter, a plumber from time to time. And maybe we build on or we scale down as we get older, whatever it might be, there's always some adjustment this side of heaven. You know, I was thinking too appalled when he was caught up temporarily to the 3rd heaven.
He said that it was a sphere of things so foreign to what he was used to on Earth. He didn't even know if he was in the body or out of the body, and it was only temporary. And he came back to Earth for the blessing of souls and the Saints. But when we're caught up there, we're going to be perfectly comfortable because we're going to have bodies of glory like unto his body of glory. John develops it a little bit for us in the third chapter of his epistle.
Tells us we're not only going to be with Christ, that's what we have here, but we're going to be like Christ when he shall appear, we shall be with Him, for we shall be like Him, for we shall see him as he is. We are going to sit down in the Father's house, perfectly comfortable in a way that we have never have, and really never. We really can't even think about it down here. Even in our own homes, not always comfortable. Sometimes there's something about our surroundings, something physical. There's always a worry, a care, a burden. I get home from a trip.
00:50:02
Yes, I'm as comfortable in my own home as it's possible to be on this side of glory, but there's always a burden and a care and something that needs to be taken care of. But think of it, brother. As God's children, we're gonna sit down in the Father's house perfectly comfortable. Nothing physical, nothing within to bother us, nothing about our surroundings, and best of all, to be physically and unhinderedly in the presence of the Lord Jesus.
To be occupied with Him and His glories for all eternity and to feel the sunshine and warmth of the Father's presence and the Father's love. We can't imagine what it's going to be like. That doesn't encourage us to go on for the Lord and live for His glory now. I don't know what will encourage us.
I suppose when the translators translated these verses, they thought that heaven must be a wonderful place, and so if it's a wonderful place, the abodes must be mansions. But as Bob, you mentioned, the new translation really says oppose, doesn't it? Doesn't give us the thought of mansions at all. And I think that's important. Think this is illustrated perhaps by the little story that little girl was coming home from Sunday school one day and a man met her. Who?
Knew the little girl and he wasn't a believer at all. He had no time for God. And so he said, well, where have you been? And she said, oh, I've been to Sunday school and what do you learn there? Well, I learned about the Lord Jesus, how he's going to take us home to be in heaven someday. And then he said, well, what if Jesus is in hell? Well then it would be heaven. That's really the secret, isn't? It's not the place so much, it's the person. That's what makes it home, doesn't it?
So the thought is of both. I know we have a hymn about about the mansions, but that's really not the thought, is it? As they say, the translators used had a little wrong thinking here. It's not so much the place, it's the person that makes the place. That's everything. And that little girl understood that.
I noticed in the Darby translation it says I am coming again.
I am coming again now. Why is that? Is it I asked. This is a question here. Is it that he's bringing before them the imminence of his coming? That he's almost like he's already on the way?
Or is there some other thought there? I like that.
I realized Paul near the end of his life knew he was going to suffer for Christ as a martyr. But early on in his ministry he wrote to the Thessalonians to explain to them the truth of the Lord's coming. And he said we which are alive and remain. Why did he say that? Because at that moment he expected to go to heaven through the coming of the Lord. He was expecting the Lord as being raid on the threshold of heaven.
Waiting to call his Saints. And when he says we which are alive and remain, he was referring to himself in the Thessalonian brethren. He was looking for the Lord to come at any moment, to call them home. And that is the way we ought. We ought to say today He's coming. Not just he's going to come, but he's coming. I've often told the story about a young man who had a little motto on his mirror in the bathroom. Perhaps today he wanted to be reminded every morning that when he got up and looked in the mirror that the Lord was coming.
And it might be today heard of another brother who when he closed up his desk at work every night, he made it the habit of his of his daily life to say audibly, Lord Jesus come. He wanted to be reminded that perhaps before he got to the office another morning, the Lord Jesus was coming. And so I think it's good for our souls. He's coming, brethren. He's coming again. Do we really believe that? Does that really affect our souls?
If it does, it'll have a practical effect on our lives. Every man that have this hope in and purifies himself even as he is pure, it's a purifying hope. It's a has a practical effect. Why do I settle down and play such value on things down here? I don't believe he's really coming. Let's have this hope. Let's look up every day and say Even so come Lord Jesus and in the meantime there's.
Two more coming. Uh, perhaps you could show us where those are 18th chapter, I mean eighteenth verse and the 23rd chapter verse.
There's three comings I believe in this chapter, aren't there?
00:55:10
23 yes, maybe you could.
Those are wonderful things, promises we can enjoy it right now, these things.
But in the meantime, the 18th verse says I will not leave you comfortless.
That's the present thing. Practical.
I am coming to you.
It's I will come, but it's I am coming, isn't it again? And then and the 23rd verse he said, Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words and my Father will love him. And we will come in a practical way in enjoyment of these things even before we get there.
Verse 18 says I am coming to you where you is plural.
Visitations of the Lord in the midst of His people.
It would be known by the power of the Spirit and these limits in connection with the coming of the Comforter.
And uh, we have enjoyed his coming in this way amongst us many times, gathered together His name there He is in the midst. Then also, as you mentioned in verse 23, in the individual, purely individual here it says, Amen, love me and keep my words and so on. There's a special enjoyment given to those who walk in obedience and in communion. It's known only to those who do it.
And that's a special privilege that we have and a special enjoyment of the Lord's company with us.
This morning as believer because the Spirit of God is here to make them good and they didn't understand even what he was saying in these chapters to them because they didn't have the Spirit of God yet. And I know we'll get to it later on. I just say this is summary to what Vernon said and several others have made comments that God always has done two things for his people in any age or dispensation. He always gives them an eye to the future because faith needs that.
We're made in such a way that there must be an object, there must be an eye to the future, and so that's what we have in the beginning of our chapter. But throughout these chapters too, He makes provision for their present situation and need. You have it illustrated with the children of Israel, don't you? When they came out of Egypt, He set before them the promised land. And when they were discouraged and they turned around and looked out over the wilderness, they saw the glory of the Lord in the cloud.
And as long as they kept that before them, they were encouraged to press on. And as long as we keep Christ in glory and glory before us, we're going to be encouraged to press on. As Paul said, he was pressing toward the mark for the prize. The prize in the Christian life is always Christ and glory at the end. But there is, as our brothers have been saying, that our present need and situation. And as we go on and look at these verses with the Lord's help during these next couple of days.
We're going to see that there's provision made for His people in their present situation. He was going to leave them in a hostile world, the coming of the Lord. He was going to come again, but there was going to be a gap. And there has been a gap, a good long gap between this promise and the fulfillment of it. Doesn't mean the promises failed, but there's been a gap of some 2000 years or so. But has the Lord failed in His promise? Has he failed to provide for his own?
All the promises of God in him are yeah, and in him. Amen to the glory of God by us. And so, brethren, to enjoy these two things in our souls and avail ourselves of these resources, the future, but that which is ahead, but to latch on to that which we have as our present resource from God in Christ, I believe is what's going to sustain it. We can't do it on ourselves. We can't get through one hour of the Christian pathway.
01:00:30
On ourselves, by ourselves. But no man goes to warfare at his own charges. It's all been provided. And in these chapters you have the seed sown of that which is later developed in the epistle as the provision for you and for me in the Christian pathway.
He waited for the Lord in his time, and that is always the proper hope of the believer. But now that he went to be with the Lord, there is no gap for him really, is there?
There's no gap there because anyone that passes from this life is really an eternity and there is no time measured there at all. In a certain sense you can say they're right at the coming of the Lord, although we measure and we think in relation to time, and so it's hard for us to imagine that.
They are waiting, however, for the same thing we are, in the sense that they don't have glorified bodies yet. Is is that right?
That without a sense of time. Very good.
Well, the Lord often sent God, often sent messengers, didn't He, For various reasons in the Old Testament. And angels were often sent to convey messages and so on. But isn't it wonderful to think, brethren, that when the shout is given, the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout. I will come again and receive you to heaven. Well, that's true to glory. Yes, it will be glory to the Father's house.
Yes, it will be the Father's house, but that's not what he says. I will come again and receive you unto myself, brethren. That's what he's waiting for as the man of patience. Now he's waiting, He's longing for the moment when he's going to have those. He died for His bride, His Church, there with himself. We think of our anticipation, and there ought to be that. But I think it's good to get the focus off ourselves sometimes.
Or all the time, really. But to realize that he's waiting. He's longing to have us just in the Father's house. No, he's longing to have us with himself. And so as we've been saying, 4 walls and fine furniture don't make a home. It's not all the wonderful things that no doubt will make up heaven that are going to be what heaven really is. No, He's going to look into our face. We're going to look into His.
And I think, brethren, when we get one look at himself, it's going to eclipse everything else. Are we going to have conversation one with another? Moses and Elias, they spoke together of the of his deceased that he would accomplish. They spoke of Christ. I have no doubt we're going to interact with one another in some way, but everything is going to be Christ centered in that day. And I say when we get one glimpse, his lovely face that was so mired more than any man.
Rather than that's gonna eclipse everything else, that's what's going to occupy us for all eternity. And when it says at the end of First Thessalonians 4, we're ever gonna, we're going to be ever with the Lord. Don't forget that. You know, when he's in the Father's house, we're gonna be with him. When he comes to reign over the earth, we're gonna be with him. We're never going to leave his side again. We're gonna be ever with the Lord. Oh, brethren, that ought to lift us above the horizons of this sad world and the circumstances of life.
To realize there's a day coming when we're gonna get a look at his face ever with him satisfied forever as we awaken his likeness. But more than that, even he's going to be satisfied. And who's going to lead the singing and rejoicing in that day? Who's going to raise the song in the Father's house? Some brother who has a good voice and can do it. We're thankful for brothers who can do it now the Lord Jesus himself is going to joy over I I know it's his earthly people back in the old test where it's perfect, but I believe it's.
01:05:11
True of us, too. It's gonna look.
House filled with God's children.
And I can hardly take it in to think that He himself is going to raise the singing, and then the redeemed are going to burst into the eternal song forever. What a day, brethren. Even so, come Lord Jesus.
Just to comment on the word of vote, I know we've spoken of it a lot, but it connects with what Jim just said. Now I think it's not a word that we use in our common language and so perhaps some are thinking, well surely it's just another word for a house, a mansion maybe, but that's not really the sense of the word at all. The word and it's related book are used repeatedly by the Apostle John and his gospel and also his epistle. And so it's an interesting study and I can't say that I have done it.
So look at this word in the original from the beginning of this book through into his epistle. And so in John in in chapter one, we find it. I'm not saying this is the first occurrence of it, but it's the first one. I found John chapter one verse 32 Says John bare record saying, I saw the spirit descending from heaven like a dove and it abode upon him. Then the next verse it says upon whom when thou shalt see the spirit descending and remaining on him. It's the same word.
And then umm, later in this chapter.
10 verse 39, come and see. They came and saw where he dwelt and abode with him that day for it was about the 10th hour. And uh, you can keep looking for this wood. Sometimes this translator remains. Sometimes it's translated above. If it's a verb, it might be abide. But really that's the sense of it. It's something remaining, something staying. Some a permanency is not talking about the dwelling as it were at all. We have that.
In end of verse 2, where it speaks of a place, there is definitely a place that is spoken of, but it's only a place of interest to us because he is there. And I, if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself that where I am that you may be also. So there's definitely a place, but it's only, as I said, of interest to us because he is there for this thought of abode and abiding. As I said, it's a it's a word like others. John loves certain words, light world.
Word no abode.
Umm, these are things that he repeats over and over and over again to, to, and, and there's very good reason for it because of the late date at which he was writing and the things he was countering. But just remember, the word abode is not talking about, uh, it's not just another word for a house, but it's really the sense of remaining, of staying where he is.
Why does it say many?
Because there's many of us.
What's your thought?
I didn't know you shall bear the sins of many.
That's every believer.
127.
Nsnoise.
35 in the Independence.
Nsnoise.
01:15:52
I know we're running late, but just in regards to the next.
Greeting meeting.
And I I understand that this would be a disorder and.
But I wonder if there would be an opportunity.
To read Hebrews 11.
The 1St 27 verses before we dig back into.
What we have in the Father's house there.
John 14 and not to deviate away from John 14, but more in regards as we would have the Father's house before us.
That there would be consequence we have there, and those verses in Hebrews 11.
Those that you saw the reflections in their life.
Of the hope they had before him. And they didn't even have the hope of the Father's house, at least not the Enlightenment of knowing the hope of the Father's house before them. I don't. I don't know. That could be something to pray about and be exercising with the brother and are are not for that.
I would completely understand that if there was any way that we could.
Just read those before we and then read the chapter, but as we would read those that we would be exercises to the reality that if the Father's house and being there with the Lord Jesus.
Really takes hold of our heart and our life. It's gonna it's gonna float down to our our walk. It won't just be the mental ascent of the joy of the Father's out house before us. I don't know to believe that.
Gracious Father, we would ask for direction.
This afternoon.
Lord Jesus, thou art the Head and.
There's something to consider in Hebrews 11. Guidance says to that as well. Father, we know that thou art well able. And so we ask that we might live in the reality of these things we've been talking about, Father. So easy to talk about them. And then just to live our lives as we always have, but help it to sink down into our hearts. We pray and give thanks, Father, in the name of the Lord Jesus, Amen. Amen.
N.
Lessons From the Life of Joshua
Address—Robert Boulard
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Maybe we would begin with #221.
I'm going to suggest that we sing this hymn and then perhaps halfway through, since after our lunch meal we sometimes get a little bit sleepy, maybe we can stand up halfway through. We'll sing one more short little hymn, and then we'll continue. So #221 maybe someone could raise the tune for us.
In Jesus.
That's not for what other sins?
Oh God.
Nsnoise.
Let's ask the Lord's blessing on our meeting this afternoon. Our loving God and our Father, we thank thee for the care that we've been singing of, the care of that blessed One who loved us and gave himself for us. We thank Thee that Thy care is never ceasing for thine own. And we think of the special needs of our young here this afternoon as we open up the Scriptures. We pray that thou sin thy mercy and thy kindness administered to their needs and encourage their hearts are gone and our Father to uh, cleave under the Lord with purpose of heart, and that they too.
Might know what it is to walk in communion with a Savior and we know that very shortly thou art going to come as we were reading this morning. Now will receive us unto thyself, blessed Savior, What a glorious reception that will be when we're received into the Father's house and we see the blessed Savior face to face in all of thy glory about. We long to live in the light of that truth, even as we walk through this valley of, uh, sorrow and death. And we pray that, uh, there would be fruit for the as a result of this, uh, short time together. We pray too, for our older brethren.
00:05:13
That, uh, they may be encouraged and strengthened and, uh, that they might have a portion for their souls. So we just asked you for thy blessing, our God and our Father, in the precious name of our Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.
So I'd like to turn to, uh, the book of Ajax, chapter 4 just to open up my subject here this afternoon. I would like to look at the life of a man that is not often spoken of, Acts chapter 4. We're just gonna read, uh, a couple of verses in the end of the chapter. I'd like to speak, uh, this afternoon and just outline something of the life of Joshua in the Old Testament.
And uh.
Just go over some of the things, some of the lessons that he learned, some of the company that he kept. You know, he lived in the presence of a man who had a cast a great shadow upon the generation that he lived in. He lived under the Moses, uh, the shadow of Moses. You might think it was pretty hard to overcome the influence that Moses would have. Moses was used of God to write the first five books of the Bible and Moses, uh, was the one that, uh, could go up into the mount with God.
And he was used mightily of God in his generation. We know where we came from because of the writings of Moses. We know that in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. And we know so many things in connection with the principles of God. Well, this is the one that, uh, Joshua kept company with. He was a servant. We're gonna read about that. But I'd like to read these few verses in chapter 4 of Acts first.
Just to present the New Testament equivalent, perhaps you might say it says.
In re let's read from verse 34, Acts chapter 4, verse 34. Neither was there any among them that lacked. For as many as were possessors of lands or houses sold them, and brought the prices of the things that were sold, and laid them down at the apostles feet, And distribution was made unto every man according as he had need.
And Joseph who by the apostles was surnamed Barnabas, which is being interpreted the son of Consolation, a Levite, and of the country of Cyprus, having land, sold it and brought the money and laid it at the apostles feet. I just point out this in connection with the New Testament. We have different ones that were an encouragement in the day that they lived in. And young people, those of us that are a little older too. It says in the book of Romans, none of us liveth unto himself, and no man dies unto himself. We're all having an effect upon one another.
And you're either an encouragement to your brethren or you just it's a heavy heart when they mention your name. It's a heavy heart. They think, I wonder how the path is gonna turn out for this young sister. I wonder how the path is gonna turn out for this young brother. Their hearts are heavy when they think about you. I hope that's not the case. You know, this young man, I take it that he was young. His name was Joseph. And the he was such a, an exceptional young man.
It was a Levite, we're told a little bit about him came from Cyprus, so he perhaps knew the language of that place, was a Gentile place, and so he could speak the Gentile languages as well as the Hebrew language. He had a piece of land. It was perhaps you might say, hindering him from walking with God.
And he wasn't just gonna be halfway Christian, wasn't gonna be a Christianity of convenience with him. It was all or nothing.
And how often it is in your life and mine. We all have to confess that we all have to lay our hands on our hearts, don't we? There are some things that we just won't give up. We don't want to give up. We hold them too dear. And perhaps their relationships, perhaps there's something that's hindering us from giving our all to Christ. But he's worthy of it. What think he of Christ? And here we have this man, Joseph. He was such an encouragement to the apostles.
That they decided his name didn't suit him and they gave him another name. They said his name really was the Son of consolation. He was a consolation to his brethren. When they thought about Joseph, their hearts were just comforted. Oh, he comforted the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, I trust this afternoon that, uh, you just see something of the person of Christ that would attract your heart and give you the desire of heart to lay aside every weight and the sin that does so easily beset us.
00:10:09
And to run the with races that race with patience.
Before the Lord comes that you might run the race of Christianity. It's really from earth to heaven. That's the race. And we're almost there. We're almost at the finish line. Well, I just point this out in connection with Barnabas. He was a young man. He was used in connection with Saul of Tarsus. And I'll just turn to one other verse, chapter 21 of Acts, verse 16.
And we'll read another little portion of Scripture.
I was speaking on the phone the other day and a brother mentioned this verse and I've enjoyed it in the past.
Says in verse 16, there went also, there went with us also certain disciples of the disciples of Caesarea, and brought with them one nation of Cyprus, an old disciple with whom we were we should lodge not nice. You know there was an old disciple there in that place that Paul went to the apostle Paul.
They were there and they, the prophets, were speaking. They came into Caesarea and they needed a place to stay. There was an old brother.
And he laid himself out for his brethren all his life.
And, uh, this is where they were going to stay at an old brother's house. They were going to have a visit. And even the apostle Paul, who wasn't Paul, called Paul the agent at that time, as we haven't Philemon, but he was going to lodge there. Who's going to learn something from that old man? Just as we read through these little portions, these little passages of Scripture in connection with Joshua and seek to learn some of these lessons ourselves this afternoon, I trust that there will be fondness.
And the memories that brought to mind in connection with our older brother and those of us that are younger, of how we enjoyed in the past, some of our older brethren and the memory of them. How often I remember, recall my own life, if you'll forgive a personal, uh, little illustration of having different ones of our older brother in my home. And as you know, I wasn't brought up in the assembly and, umm.
One of the things that I really long for when I was exercised about having a wife was would be a wife that was ex exercised about having exercising hospitality and having the Saints of the whole into the home. And we've had many of our older brother in in the home and, uh, how many little sayings, how many little expressions, how many little times that we sat down at the supper table that had the word of God open and just open up the passage of the Scripture Formula One place to another.
And just had an encouragement and encouragement and a little word of exhortation sometimes, but sometimes those little expressions that were used and the little bits of encouragement I received from my older brother. I just long I tell you from in truth is something like brother Jim wrote wrote me a letter a little while ago when my father-in-law went home to be with the Lord. He says, you know, I just like to have another half hour with brother Hammer. I just like to sit down maybe just one half hour and just visit with him a little bit. I'd love to have.
Brother Buchanan, Clem Buchanan in my home just to sit down 1/2 hour. Maybe I can't happen, but in a future day will. We're going to be in the Father's house. Well, let's turn to the book of Joshua and I'll just read.
A little passage there is introduction.
Chapter 5 I think it is.
Chapter 5.
Verse 13.
I really intended to get up early this morning and, uh, read this a little more diligently. I've been enjoying it in the past and.
You ever have a sleep and you're thinking that you're reading something in your sleep? I was reading this in my sleep and dreaming about reading this passage of Scripture in my sleep about this young man and how he had been raised up of God and oversight among the people of God. How afraid he was as he took up oversight among the people of God, and how he met the Lord one day as the host. Let's read this in chapter 5. Verse 13 came to pass when Joshua was by Jericho.
00:15:03
And he lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, there stood a man over against him, with his sword drawn in his hand. And Joshua went unto him, said unto him, Art thou for us, or for our adversaries? And he said, Nay, but as captain of the host of the Lord, am I now come? And Joshua fell on his face to the earth, and did worship, and said unto him, What saith my Lord unto his servant? And the captain of the Lord's host said unto Joshua, Loose thy shoe from off thy foot.
For the place we're on, the standest is holy. And Joshua did so well, you know the Lord met.
Moses on the mount, he met Moses and it was a burning Bush in the bro Bush wasn't consumed. He saw the Lord and the Lord presented to him as the great I am. You know, the Lord Jesus presents himself as the I am in the New Testament, in John's Gospel, I think it's chapter 18, when he stood before that crowd and that had come to seize him and he just unveiled his glory just briefly, and they fell backwards. They couldn't.
Stand before the presence of the holy God, the Son of God. But here Joshua's a man had been raised up of God to lead the children of Israel into the promised land. And he has to recognize that the people of God. There's one that defends the people of God. There's one that cares for the people of God. There's one that defends you young people that delights in your soul's welfare. There's one that has interest in every detail of your life.
No matter how small it is, the sword is grown on behalf of His people, and He loves you so much, He went to the cross to bear the judgment for your sin if you'd receive Him as Savior. I trust there's no one here that doesn't know the Lord, Jesus the Savior. But it's important, you know, as we grow in our souls, we begin to take up the responsibility, perhaps in the assembly and in our homes. Why is it necessary for us to remember that the Lord is the captain?
Of the host captain of the host of the Lord I am come and so if there's any interest that we have of the children of God, if we have any interest in being shepherds or under shepherds. Why we need to remember that the Lord Jesus himself is the captain of the Lord's host and he had something to say to Joshua. And so you know you and I, dear young people, if you pardon me from for addressing you specifically when you come into the assembly, you come into the Lord's assembly.
You come as you receive your, you received it to the Lord's table and you begin to remember the Lord Jesus and his death and you take up responsibility in the assembly. It's the Lord's assembly. He has authority there. He's the, the authority and he gathers by his spirit and the day that we live in, but there is authority and he raises up those that care for your soul. You know that, You know, it's just, uh, I'm just gonna read a couple of Old Testament passages and then maybe a couple of New Testament passages just to describe the work.
Of those that are shepherds that God raises up as shepherds in the assembly. Let's read the verse that was read to us this morning in chapter 33. I think it is of Deuteronomy.
Chapter 33 of Deuteronomy, this is towards the end of Moses life and he says in verse one, this is the blessing we're with Moses, the man of God blessed the children of Israel before his death. And then just verse three, yeah, he loved the people. All his Saints are in thy hand and they sat down at my feet. Everyone shall receive of thy words. Well, you know this is.
Really why God raises up those that are shepherds in the assembly, those that desire the welfare of God's people, is because He loves his people. That's why he loves his people. There's no one that loves you more than the Lord Jesus. The Son of God, the Creator of the heavens, says in John's gospel that all things were made by him, and without him was not anything made that was made, and so he made you.
For his own glory, it says in Revelation chapter 4, it says, I think it's verse 11, Thou art worthy, for thou is created all things, and for thy glory they are and were created. Oh, you've been created for the glory of God and the Lord cares for you. He loves you, He desires to care for you. And you know, the wonderful thing is that we're brought into the blessing of Christianity and God has given us the assembly where we might be cared for.
00:20:03
And so the reason he raises up oversight in the assembly really is in connection with our care and because he loves us. And then if we turn to to first Timothy Chapter 3, I'll just mention here the why or the The Who.
Who is it that God raises up?
First Timothy chapter 3, verse one. This is a true saying. If a man desire the office of the Bishop or an overseer, maybe a shepherd, he desires a good work. A shepherd must be blameless, the husband of one wife, diligent and vigilant, sober. Well, we have this whole list and then we have a list given in Titus chapter one, almost identical. So why is it that there's two lists given in Paul's writings almost identical? Well, one has to do with these responsibility.
One sees that there's a need in connection with the Saints of God, and he puts himself out and he desires to occupy the office of oversight. And I was shepherd among the people of God, and he lays himself out for the people of God. That's what a shepherd does. He lays himself out. I'll give you a little illustration. Perhaps you've heard me speak of this before, but when I was doing business in Portugal, in Portugal years ago, I was doing business with a tool maker. And we were.
Driving along the, uh, Oceanside.
And the road is kind of carved out of the shoreline at that point and near, uh, Saint Louis, holiday Lazare in, uh, Portugal, not too far from Lisbon. And so we're driving in a little car, a little, uh, polo, a pretty quick clip and, umm, the road was carved out of the shoreline. Then there was a little bit of a bank embankment and then a plateau on the top. And then there was some shepherds we saw about a mile away.
Shepherds with a flock of sheep and goats.
And uh, just as we came within range of those shepherds and that flock of sheep, there were two sheep that ran down that steep embankment and wouldn't you know it, they stood right in the middle of the road, 2 sheep. And there were two shepherds. One was an old man. He had an old great coat, was a coat, went right down to his feet and then a young man and he's up at the top. I suppose they needed to have one stay with the sheep and 1:00 to go down after the other two.
That old man, he took off after those sheep, he ran down that embankment and he stood in the middle of the road with his arms outstretched and in front of those sheep. And you were not going to cross, not going to touch those sheep. And he came, we slammed the brakes on and came within a couple of feet of that shepherd. And that's what a shepherd does. He puts himself between US and the full. And so isn't it lovely, dear young people, that you have older brother in the assembly that care for your soul and that they're praying for you and that, uh, to have a desire of heart to.
Preserve the Saints and to engage the enemy.
Well then if we turn to, umm, first Peter Chapter 5, we find that, uh, there are those that are shepherds and Peter tells us what their work is.
First Peter chapter 5 and verse 2.
This is really their function, he says. Feed the flock or shepherd the flock of God, which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly.
Not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind. Neither is being Lords over God's heritage, but being in samples or models to the flock. Not nice.
You know, brethren.
How we ought to thank God for older brethren in the assembly that have lived in a steady way, I don't know. There's older brethren here in the assembly and they've observed the godly life of an older brother, an older sister, just steady, steady walking through this scene and facing the enemy and facing the.
Opposition of the enemy from time to time, and they stood between US and the and the full oftentimes.
And those are their models. That's their function there to be a model, the feed to shepherd the flock of God. Well, you'll notice that Peter was given that responsibility in John's Gospel, chapter 21. I'm not gonna read it, but we're gonna turn now to, uh, Exodus. I'd like to turn to Exodus chapter 17. And we're gonna read the introduction to.
00:25:04
Joshua.
And learn some lessons as to how he spent time in the presence of Moses and the instruction that Moses gave him. I will say this, that just as you're turning to it, I've enjoyed John's Gospel lately in a rather unique little way. Maybe you have as well, but there's little expressions that the Lord Jesus uses all through John's Gospel. And there are three word expressions. Maybe you've noticed some of them the first time that the Lord Jesus speaks in John's Gospels, chapter one.
He says what seek ye?
And then they said master where dweller style.
And he speaks three other words. He says come and see.
And then in chapter 21, he speaks of, umm, he speaks to Peter and he says, uh, shepherd my sheep.
Feed my sheep, feed my lambs. You know what the last thing is? That the Lord Jesus tells his disciples in John's Gospel. The last three words that he speaks in the Gospels entirely themselves. He says, follow thou me.
Isn't that nice? But see, key, we're all looking for something here this afternoon. You're looking for happiness. Perhaps you're looking for a partner in life. Perhaps you just, uh, crying out to the Lord. You finish your education. You just desire to have a, a, some work that would be suitable. The line of things that, uh, you have, uh, being trained for all the Lord's interested in all of those things and he has his hand open. His heart is for you. His heart is 100% for you. Well, let's look at umm.
Exodus chapter 17 Here it says, verse 8 Then came Amalek and fought with Israel, and referred him. And Moses said unto Joshua, chooses out men, and go out fight with Amalek. Tomorrow I will stand on the top of the hill with this rod of God in my hand. So Joshua did as Moses had said to him, and fought with Amalek. And Moses and Aaron and her went up to the top of the hill and came to pass, when Moses held up his hand, that Israel prevailed.
And when he let down his hand, Amalek prevailed.
But Moses hands were heavy, and they took a stone and put it under him, and he sat there on, and Aaron and her stayed up his hands, the one on the one side and the other on the other side. And his hands were steady until the going down of the sun. And Joshua discomforted Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword. And the Lord said unto Moses, Write this for a memorial in a book, and rehearse it in the chil in the years of Joshua, for I will utterly put out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven.
Well, you know, the first instruction that was given to Joshua as we're introduced, I believe this is the first time that he's mentioned in Scripture.
Moses has to tell him, you know, as a young man you're going to have to pick up the sword and fight against that which speaks of the flesh. You remember when in those little test, those Old Testament stories that David when he went to fight Goliath, he had to lay aside the armor, Saul's armor. He couldn't use it. Saul was a man of the flesh. Every idea that he had appealed to the man of the flesh. He, he didn't go to to the Jehovah for any instructions. He just had it all.
He he wanted to do things a certain way and but you know, God has created this young people to be dependent. God has created us, doesn't matter what age we are, He's created us as dependent creatures.
You know, I was listening to brother Norman Berry and remember him in my youth. Another brother that I visited with in my youth was a help to me.
He had this little expression. He said, umm, when you got saved, you gave up your right to choose. You ever hear him say that when you got saved, you gave up your right to choose?
It was the Lord you desired to have your sins forgiven and you switched sides. You became a believer and you desired to live and allow someone else to make choices for you. Well Joshua, I had to come to this realization that all that is in the flesh, Paul said all that is in the flesh, all is in Mia, that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing. And the Lord Jesus said 4 words, the flesh profiteth nothing.
So it doesn't matter all the, uh, fleshly energy that we have and all the ideas that we have, all we need to pass them by the throne of grace. And the Lord knows that there's going to be a battle, a spiritual battle in our lives, all of our lives. And that's why it says here that, umm, in the last verse of this chapter, it says, for he said, because the Lord has sworn that the Lord will have war with Amalek from generation to generation.
00:30:22
So the first lesson that Joshua had to learn in the presence of this great man, Moses.
Really a type of crisis on high, seated on the mountain and he's interceding for us. The Lord Jesus is interceding for us as we battle with the flesh. One day after another we battle with the flesh and we seek to live for the Lord. Let's just sing stand up and let's sing one more little hymn.
How about 309?
Somebody raised the tune 309.
10-4, 10-4, 10-4, 580130183801800000000008.
Exodus chapter 24.
Verse 12.
And the Lord said unto Moses, Come up to me into the mount, and be there, and I will give the tables of stone, and a law and commandments which I have written, that thou mayest teach them. And Moses rose up, and his minister Joshua should really be attendant. Attendant Joshua and Moses went up to the mountain God. And he said unto the elders, Tear ye here for us, until we come again unto you. And behold, Aaron and her are with you. If any man have any matters to do, let them come unto them.
00:35:11
Well, I just wanted to read this little passage of scripture because.
There was a young man going with an old man, an older man. We know that Moses was 120 years old when he died. He was 40 years educated as an Egyptian, looked like an Egyptian, dressed like an Egyptian.
Spoke like an Egyptian. Thought like an Egyptian.
And then he met the Lord.
On In the Wilderness, we know that he was 40 years in the wilderness learning to be nothing. So he's learning to be something in Egypt.
And then he was learning that he was nothing because Albert Hale used to tell us that we're just a bunch of zeros, every one of us. Well, I think of that so often. We're just a bunch of zeros and except for the number one out in front would be nothing, be worthless for all eternity. But you have some worth for holy God because of that man Christ Jesus who loved you and wants to make something of your life. And so this younger man went up with the young man.
And he had a precious.
Experience. We know that they had all kinds of experiences. We know that the Lord had given these tables of stone to Moses, wrote on them with the finger of God, and he also gave them instructions in chapter 25 and verse 8 says, let them make me a sanctuary that I may dwell among them, really a consecrated place, a place where it was suitable for the Lord to meet among us with His people. And in the French translation, I don't have it here with me. It may be the same in other translations.
It's really translated that I may dwell in the midst of them. Not nice. Oh, the Lord delights to dwell in the midst of His people. And according to all that I show thee, after the pattern of the Tabernacle and the pattern of all the instruments thereof, Even so shall you make it. And they shall make an arc of **** and wood. And then a little bit further on in verse 22. And there I will meet with thee, and I will commune with thee from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim.
Which are upon the ark of the testimony of all things which I will give thee in commandment under the children of Israel. Well, at the point I want to make here there young people, is that there are mountaintop experiences and Christianity, you know, is a mountain top experience.
To walk in communion with the Lord Jesus, the crater, and not only the Creator, but the Son of God, and to be brought into relationship with the Father. To be able to address God as your Father and to recognize that you are every need He already knows and His desires for your fellowship. In this scene, if the Lord doesn't have your fellowship, if he doesn't have communion with you, if he hasn't won your heart, He doesn't have what he wants.
He doesn't want the, uh, best of the, this world has, you know, the blessed Savior is quoted, I think, uh, perhaps even today that he had umm, the birds of the air have nests. The foxes have holes, the birds of the air have nests. The Son of man hath not where to lay his head. He had nothing. You know what he wants in this world? He wants you. He wants to enjoy fellowship with you. And so he's provided a place. Really, it's the assembly where we meet collectively, but he desires to have.
Fellowship with you individually as well. And so here he says I will meet with the and Joshua was going to have the privilege of being with Moses up on that mountain top. And then if you turn a little bit further on.
Into I believe it's chapter 34 of Exodus, we find that Moses.
And Joshua are going to witness something of the.
Failure among God's people.
I should say maybe it's chapter 32. Just back up a little bit.
And verse 15 Moses turned and went down from the mount, and the two tables of the testimony were in his hand, and the tables were written on both their sides, and on the one side, and on the other side were written. And the tables were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God graven upon the tables. And when Joshua heard the noise of the people as they shouted, he said unto Moses, There is noise of war in the camp. And he said, It is not the voice of them that shout for mastery, neither is it the voice of them that cry for being overcome.
00:40:02
But the noises of them that sing, do I hear? Well, the point I have in reading this, uh, little passage here is that Moses had discernment that Joshua didn't have. Moses had experience. You know what? Your older brother and have young people, those of us that aren't all that young, your older brother have experience. They have something that takes years to acquire.
And they face situations year after year. They've faced some difficult situations that you don't remember, that some that took place before you were born. And they know how the enemy is at work, and they've seen different things. Well, Moses could discern that this was not the shout of warfare or of singing. He says it's the voice of them. It's not the voice of them that shout for mastery. Neither is it the voice of them that cry for being overcome, but the noise of them that sing. Do I hear?
Idolatry had come in among the people of God. There was failure among the people of God, and Moses was made aware of it. He was.
He had discernment. Oh, I value this in connection with my older brother and discernment and their desire to talk about, talk over different situations that take place in the assembly and, uh, give a little perspective from experience and a little word of wisdom in connection with those things that take place, but in connection with life as well.
Can I give you another little personal experience?
So we had a little business we were running in Hammer Bay for years, uh, about 10 years, a little manufacturing business. Brother Gordon Hale used to come to my home very often when he was an older man and his wife. And sometimes they would come for the Lord's Day morning and then they were too tired to drive back 20 minutes to go back to their own home. And, uh, so we would have them for the meal and then they would lie down for a rest before the 3:00 meeting, But in between we would have a nice visit over a meal.
And sometimes there were different business issues that, uh, I didn't really have a lot of discernment about. I don't know how much business experience Gordon had, but I did value his perspective on things. And so I spoke with him about one of the situations that we were facing. He said, well, let's go down to the office. So we went down to the office and this dear old man.
Kneel down on a chair by by me. And we poured out his heart and asked the Lord to give discernment for a particular matter that had arisen in the business that threatened the profitability of the business.
Hey, earnestly, that the Lord would just reveal the matter and it was revealed.
Not more than a couple of days later.
When there was a phone call that came into my wife and the matter was made known, the Lord answered his prayer, but he had some advice for me on that occasion as we knelt on our knees. And then was, we sat and, uh, we discussed something in connection with business, not really even in connection with the things of God on that occasion. Well, I just wanna say this. It'll make a difference to your life, young people and uh, even young marriage, if you, uh, take into consideration the wisdom and the experience of your older brother and the discernment that they have, the wisdom of the experience of years and you talk to them about this different situations that they face.
And, uh, the one that you're facing and you see godly advice, I will say this, there's a brother in Cuyahoga Falls, a beloved brother. He's, uh.
Young man, uh, he's a young, not young, but he came into the assembly when he was young. He was a Vietnam vet and saved in Vietnam.
Make a Long story short. He came to be gathered to the Lord's name and he said, you know Robert.
Anytime I was a young person and I, I wanted to do something and I knew I, I really should get some advice and I my conscience told me wasn't maybe quite right or anything. He says there were a few brothers that I could go to. He said I could go to brother A and I pretty well knew one answer I was going to get. And then if I went to another brother, brother B, and he said I asked the same question, I pretty well knew I would get a scriptural answer.
So sometimes he says a temptation overtook me. I would go and see brother A and I get the answer that I wanted to hear and he give me the answer that I wanted to hear. But then my conscience just wouldn't let me away with it. I just had to go and see brother B And brother B would open up the passage of Scripture, an older brother and he'd say, well brother, and he'd open up the passage of Scripture and he just tell it like it is. He'd say, my heart would melt and I just have to go and obey the Lord in that particular matter. Oh that wonderful to have our older brother and to go to.
00:45:10
And to seek advice. I just want to encourage you in that way. You have a line of work that you think a line of schooling that you want to go into line of work. Umm, something you, perhaps you're interested in a young lady, a young lady, perhaps a young man is asked to you to go out with you and so on. Speak with your parents, trust the experience of the years. And uh, Brother Gordon, if I could quote him again, you'd forgive me for quoting. He said he never, ever saw a marriage.
Take place that in which the parents disagreed and didn't agree, didn't approve of it. He never saw one of them turn out right, turn out well.
Oh, what a solemn thing it is not to have the blessing of your parents in connection with those relationships of life. Well, if we turn over another page or so here, Chapter 33.
Verse 11.
Let's read verse 10 for the connection.
Exodus 33, verse 11.
Her Verse 10 I'm sorry. All the people saw the cloudy pillars 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, or mouth to mouth, as a man speaketh unto his friend. And he turned again into the camp. But his servant Joshua the son of Nun, a young man, departed not out of the Tabernacle.
Department.
You know, there's only two people in the scriptures that I know of. Maybe if you know of another one, you could come and see me. I'd love to to know if there's others, but there's only two people that it says they departed not.
One in the Old Testament and one in the Old in the New Testament, and this one in the Old Testament is a young man. The Spirit of God records. Joshua had seen something of the glory of Jehovah in that Tabernacle, and he hadn't the light of Christianity like you have. He didn't have a full revelation of the Godhead. He didn't know of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. He wasn't indwelled with the Spirit of God.
If you know the Lord Jesus as Savior, you know the Father, you know the character of the Father, the love of the Father, you know the Son, you know the love of the Son, you know how much you mean to him. He gave his life to have you for himself. And you are indwelled with the Spirit of God. You have a power to live the divine life. And so Joshua didn't have those advantages, but you know, he saw something of the glory of Christ and uh, he didn't want to depart out of that Tabernacle.
He wanted to be there.
Moses had responsibility as an older man, he had to go back into the camp and exercise his responsibility. Joshua didn't have that degree of responsibility at the same time, and so he stayed in the Tabernacle and he enjoyed the presence of the Lord. I just want to say this, dear young people, you have a lot of time on your hands. You have, I think his brother Clarence London used to say that you have 24 hours in a day, you have 8 hours, you need to be sleeping or resting. You have 8 hours of responsibility, maybe school or work or something like that, and then you have 8 hours of discretionary time. What are you doing with those eight hours of discretionary time?
You know where Joshua was. He was in the Tabernacle. He wanted to enjoy the presence of the Lord for himself.
Oh, I hope that you enjoy going in to be in the presence of the Lord. You know, when I was, uh.
Living in Michigan, I had a lot of responsibility and I was tired. One night I had an older brother come over, a single brother, His wife was going to be with the Lord. We had him over to our home on a meeting night and I was beat. I was dead beat tired. I'd had a hard, hard day. We had the meal and I said Brother Bob, I said, I don't think I have the energy to go to meeting tonight.
He looked at me with a shocked expression. He said brother.
Let's phrase it a different way. You don't have the energy to go to be in the presence of the Lord tonight at the assembly meeting.
I said, well, I think I could summon up the energy to go to be in the presence of the Lord this evening to the assembly meeting.
Oh, he taught me a valuable lesson.
00:50:02
I trust you, younger ones that have your homes. You're setting up a home that you invite those older brethren into your home, you're gonna get a blessing you'll never forget.
You'll never forget, and perhaps they'll never forget.
I could tell you time and time again, one experience after another, little lessons I've learned that way. But Joshua, you know, he had to spend time. He could send, spend it selfishly. He could fritter away his time on a cell phone. He didn't have a cell phone, but maybe a chalkboard and a slate. I don't know. But we're frittering away our time, just frittering it away on Facebook and everything else. I just forgive me for giving a personal.
Illustration. But I do everything I can not to turn my cell phone on in the morning, not to look at an e-mail, nothing.
Until I spent an hour in the presence of the Lord.
So that he gets the 1St place, Does he get the first place in your life? This was a lesson that Joshua had to learn as a young man. And you have time as young people to spend time in the word. I trust that you do.
Well, let's just turn over to the Book of Numbers, Chapter 11.
Numbers Chapter 11. Let's uh, read the verse from verse 24.
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 came down in a cloud.
And speak unto him, and talk of the Spirit that was upon him, and gave it unto the 70 elders. And it came to pass, when the Spirit rested upon them, they prophesied and did not cease. But there remained two of the men in the camp. The name of the one was Eldad, the name of the other me Dad. And the Spirit rested upon them, and they were of them that were written, But they went not, they went not out onto 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 Nun, the servant of Moses, or the attendant of Moses, one of his young men answered and said, My Lord, Moses forbid them. Moses said unto them unto him, envious thou for my sake would God, that all the people, 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. Now if we just hold our place there and turned the Mark's gospel, I think it's Chapter 9, we have a very similar experience.
Yes, verse 38, Mark nine and verse 38 John answered him saying, Master, we saw one casting out devils in thy name, and he falleth not us, and we forbade him because he followed not us. But Jesus said forbid him not for there is no man which shall do a miracle in my name that can lightly speak evil of me. For he that is not against us is not is on our part. Well, I just read these couple of passages of Scripture because this is another lesson that.
This young man, Joshua needed to learn and that is that he wasn't to interfere in the work of God that was going on in the camp. And you know that there were these two men held dad and me dad, and they were, umm, prophesying in the camp. They hadn't the same exercise perhaps as Joshua did to be there at the Tabernacle. And so they prophesied in the camp. It just speaks to us of those that are not a part of our company in type and, uh, they.
Are perhaps.
Among so-called open brethren, or perhaps they're in the church systems and so on, and there's a work of God going on in those places. Let's not interfere with them. And but it doesn't say to join up with them either. And so they were in the Lord's day. He could say to John, that's all right, just let them do their work. Was there a work of God going on? I thank God there was.
You forgive my personal.
A little illustration as a 13 year old boy when we came out of that, uh, division that we were in.
I thank God during those first thirteen years that I was brought to reading meetings and I learned something of the truth of God. I learned something of the hymns that came. There was a a breaking of bread man that went out in division. He's he set up a table. It was a nice table with a white cloth and a loaf and all that kind of stuff. We use the same hymn book, the same Bible didn't make it right. It was an imitation of the truth of God wasn't right, but God desires to bless his people.
00:55:09
And he will bless his people. He's sovereign. And I say my soul was blessed. I was fed in my soul by the grace of God. And I was saved as a boy in that system, that imitation of what the Lord's table really is. Oh, I thank God for it. Well, here we have this lesson as young people, we need to learn this. We need to learn it early on is to let the work go on that the Lord is allowing. You know, if it was left up to the gospel, was left up to those that were gathered to the Lord's name alone.
It would be a feeble, feeble work, but how we can rejoice that the gospel of the grace of God and the in as much clarity as it goes forth does go forth. And any measure of truth that, uh, different ones give out, we can be thankful for. And so here Moses, as this older man in Joshua's life, gave him this lesson that he never forgot. No doubt. Well, we're, that's just, umm, press on here.
Perhaps, umm.
I don't have a lot of time, so let's, uh, look at uh.
I'd like to look at a place where perhaps there was a little bit of intercession for the people of God in connection with the Moses chapter 14 and verse 13.
Numbers chapter 14, verse 13.
Well, let's read verse 11.
And the Lord said unto Moses, How long will this people provoke me? How long will it be yet ere yet they believe me? For all the signs which I have showed among them, I will smite them with the pestilence, and disinherit them, and will make thee of the greater nation and mightier than they. And Moses said unto the Lord, Then the Egyptians shall hear it, For thou brought us up this people in thy might from among them, and they will tell it to the inhabitants of this land, for they have heard that thou art the Lord.
Among this people and thou, Lord, art seen face to face, and that thy cloud standeth over them, and that thou goest before them by daytime, in a pillar in the cloud, and in the pillar of fire by night. Now if thou shalt kill all this people as one man, then the nations which have heard the fame of the will speak, saying, because the Lord was not able to bring this people into the land which he swear to them. Therefore how he slain them in the wilderness. Now I beseech thee, let the power.
Of my Lord, be great according as thou hast spoken, saying the Lord is long-suffering and of great mercy, forgiving the iniquity and transgression, by no means clearing the guilty. Let's read umm, verse 20. The Lord said, I have pardoned according to thy word. You know, I just read this little passage of Scripture, young people, because I want to just say this, that your old brethren do have failings and they'll all agree we're all failing creatures.
But there is a desire I can say truthfully.
On the part of our older brother, to see that you were blessed in your soul, that you have a food for your soul at these meetings, that you're encouraged, that you're strengthened and that you receive some instruction that will give you a little, umm, bit of energy, encouragement to go forth in the path of faith. But you know one of the things that characterizes your older brethren and they're interceding for you. They're interceding for the people of God as they.
See the failures of the people of God. They're not criticized, criticizing their brethren. You don't find this in connection with Moses. The Lord said, you know, just leave him alone. They've tempted me these times. They're they're always rebellious. It's over. Moses says, oh Lord, bless the people. He says forgive them. He says forgive them. It's the Spirit of Christ. Father, forgive them for they know not what to do. Oh, how nice it is to see younger brethren praying for the older brother and to hear the older brethren praying.
For the younger brethren, and as we see that there's failure among us, that there's a desire for restoration.
You know, I don't have the time here, but if we looked at chapter one of Joshua, we find the he was going to put.
Moses was going to had died. The Lord says in chapter one of Joshua that Moses my servant is dead in verse 2.
01:00:04
And it takes no less than three times that the Lord says to Moses, to Joshua personally, he says be strong and of good courage. And then once and last of the chapter verse 18, people say only be good strong and of a good courage. And so Joshua was afraid when those older brother were gone.
He was afraid to take up the work of separating the people of God and to take up the responsibility that was his. He was afraid, but the Lord himself encouraged them three times, and the people themselves encouraged him. And So what a privilege it is for us to labor together and to desire the blessing of God's people together.
And to walk and fellowship and communion one with another, older ones with the younger ones, That there might be fruit for God.
In the assembly, let's just commend ourselves. Our loving God and our Father, we thank Thee for thy love and grace. We thank Thee for these passages of Scripture that remind us of how.
These younger ones were trained and how they desired the fellowship of their older brethren and how there was really training and strengthening of a future generation to come up and to enter into the responsibility in the congregation of the Lord. So we pray that thou bless our younger.
Brethren here, young brothers, young sisters, and as they begin to take up responsibility that there would be a desire to, umm, walk in fellowship with those that, uh, have uh, going on in the path of faith for many years. So we ask the blessed, thy people encouraged thy Saints here, We ask it in the precious name of our Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.
John 14:4-12
Reading
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9573.
5.
No, no, no, no, no.
Uh.
OK, how's your one with another and the fellowship around the Lord Jesus? We think of the words that we've heard.
1000 blessed my word to it, whatever wonderful thought it is of being home would be in the Father's house and so we would just ask by undertaking a my blessing in the name of the Lord Jesus and.
And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know. Thomas saith unto him, Lord, we know not whither thou goest. And how can we know the way? Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father, but by me. If he had known me, he should have known my Father also. And from henceforth you know Him, and have seen him.
Philip saith unto him, Lord, show us the Father, and it sufficeth us. Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? He that hast seen me, hast seen the Father. And how sayest thou then show us the Father? Believeth thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? The words that I speak unto you, I speak not of myself, but the Father that dwelleth in me. He doeth the works. Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me, or else believe me for the very works sake.
Fairly, fairly I say unto you, He that believeth on me the works that I do shall he do also, and greater works than these shall he do, because I go to my Father. And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If he shall ask anything in my name, I will do it. If you love me, keep my commandments.
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And I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another comforter, that He may abide with you forever. Even the spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him, but ye know Him, for He dwelleth with you and shall be in you. I will not leave you comfortless. I will come to you yet a little while in the world, see if we know more. But ye see me, because I live, ye shall live also.
At that day you shall know that I am in my Father, and ye, and me, and I, and you. He that hath my commandments and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me, and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him. Judas saith unto him not Ascarius. Lord, how is it that thou wilt manifest thyself unto us, and not unto the world? Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words, and my Father will love him.
And we will come unto Him, and make our abode with Him. He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings. And the word which He here is not mine, but the Father which sent me these things have I spoken unto you, being yet present with you but the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in My name, He shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance. Whatsoever I have said unto you, peace I leave with you. My peace I give unto you not as the world giveth, give I unto you.
Let not your heart be troubled either, let it be afraid. Ye have heard how I said unto you, I go away, and come again unto you. If you loved me, you would rejoice because I said, I go unto the Father, for my Father is greater than I. And now I have told you before it come to pass, that when it is come to pass, you might believe thereafter I will not talk much with you, for the Prince of this world cometh, and ask nothing in me but that the world may know that I love the Father. And as the Father gave me commandment, Even so I do.
Arise, let us go hence.
At the end of the last meeting, Hebrews 11 was mentioned, and I just want to make a comment or two in that connection because we find there that, as he said this morning, the face always needs an object. Faith always has an eye to the future. We mentioned that God always has done two things for His people. He's always given a present portion and resources for the pathway, but He does give an eye to the future. We're made in that way that there needs to be.
A gold. And of course, as we said, the goal and the prize in the Christian life that Paul was pressing toward in Philippians is always Christ and glory. And that chapter opens by saying that faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. We sometimes think of that as a definition of faith. I would suggest that the best definition of faith is in John chapter 3, where it says he that hath believed his word has set to his seal that God is true.
But what he's really saying at the opening of that eleven chapter of Hebrews is that it was faith that gave substance to the lives of those that are listed there, because that is what gives substance to our lives. A person who has no faith really has an empty, pointless life where they wander from pillar to post, as the old expression is. But what I've enjoyed in those ones that are mentioned there, we find that they all had an object. I just mentioned two or three examples in passing.
We find that Abraham, he looked for a city which hath foundation, whose builder and maker is God. He had a vision, a goal of something far greater than the city of Ur, the Chaldees from which he had been called.
How could he live by faith all those years, intense wandering about why he had something, an eye to the future?
We read of the patriarchs, they didn't receive the promises, but they saw them afar off and embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. We read later on of Moses. He endured us seeing him who is invisible. I've been to Egypt 9 times. It was not a base nation in those days. It was one of the glorious nations of its time and the treasures and wealth of Egypt in the days of Moses.
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Are really something remarkable, but he forsook it all. He left it all. Why? Because he had something far better in view. And so as we were speaking this morning of the hope of the Lord's coming. The Father's house, the blessedness of being with the Lord Jesus and like him. And then in other passages of sharing in that future day of glory when a king shall reign in righteousness and Princess shall rule in judgment rather than if we don't have those things before us. If we don't have the future before us and something beyond the horizons of this world. We are not going to live by faith. Our hearts are going to be troubled. We're going to be afraid as we said this morning.
If the if our vision is only as high as this world, what a sad thing that is. People today who are looking for better things down here, even believers who are looking for better things down here, are they really happy? Do they really have focus and direction in their lives? Many times you talk to them and you find they're really dri, they're really drifting. And if they're really honest with themselves, they have to admit things are not getting better down here. And they won't till the man of glory comes. The Sun of Righteousness rises with healing in his wings.
So perhaps this is what Eric had in mind and suggesting that that we need to have that focus and that faith and we need, as we've been saying in these meetings, to have the hope of the Lord's coming before us, that hope at any moment, and then also the glorious appearing that is going to take place after.
If we were to go through the article of death, would we be with the Lord where he is?
The absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.
Yeah, yeah.
No, no.
And Paul said to be with Christ was far better. You know, that's a remarkable statement coming from Paul. Who else better to write that than someone who had been caught up temporarily to the 3rd heaven, the very dwelling place of God? You know, we talk about being with the Lord and we talk about heaven and so on, but we've never seen it with the physical eye. By faith, we grasp it to some degree.
If John had written to be with Christ as far better or James or Peter or any of the New Testament writers, we say yes, wonderful. But Paul could write that from experience. He knew no wonder he struggled with whether to stay or not. And the and finally settled in his own soul that it was for the blessing of the people of God and the furtherance of the ministry. But Paul said far better, but it's to be with Christ. So they are with Christ, as you've been saying.
In John's gospel and here you have, uh, this, uh, statement that he makes in verse four, whether I go, you know, and the way he know.
Then Thomas has this question for him, but they weren't brought into the full revelation of Christianity at the time. So they had a lot of questions and the Lord is very gracious and it's been said the apostle Paul was used of God to fill up, uh, fill out the.
Word of God and he says in Romans chapter 8, he says as we've been Speaking of it says in verse 23.
Not only they, but ourselves also, which have the first fruit of the Spirit. Even we ourselves groan within ourselves waiting for the adoption to quit, the redemption of our body. And so we're going to have the redemption of our body. We have the redemption of our spirit, the redemption of our soul, and we're all going to see the Lord Jesus face to face all at the same time. What a wonderful to think of our blind brethren and the very first thing that they see those who have been blind all their lives.
They won't have seen the corruption of this wicked scene. They may have heard some of the words that they were hoped they wouldn't have heard and all those things, but they're going to see the blessed man Christ Jesus be the first sight that they they have. And so the Lord brings that before us in Paul's ministry.
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This question, this question that that Thomas asked here, these Lords bring in a little more truth with regard to knowing the Father and enjoying his presence and love. And so he that makes yet another thing that they would gain as a result of him going away and sending the Holy Spirit. So it's beautiful to see how that from verses four or five down through 10, the Lord uses this question that he gives.
Uh, that Thomas gives to springboard into more truth with regard to the Father and it's beautiful to see his answer. I am the way the truth and the life. No man cometh unto the father, but by me. Now evangelicals will tell us that this is talking about knowing the way that to heaven, but he's really talking about going away into deeper, more intimate fellowship and knowledge.
And enjoyment of the Father and his love and it's a result of the Lord going away and sending the Spirit, which is what would mark this present Christian day. So he says I am the way, that is the way into a present enjoyment of of the Father, the truth, the truth about the Father and the life that would give us to enjoy fellowship with the Father.
And so this is so beautiful. We can't come to the Father until the Lord in this more intimate way, until the Lord really would go away and send the Holy Spirit, because it is the power by which eternal life is enjoyed.
They were He revealed the Father to them in His earthly ministry, but they didn't get a hold of it. They couldn't understand it. But when He would go away and come and send the Spirit, then they would come into the full enjoyment and the benefit of the revelation of the Father, which is the characteristic feature of eternal life.
To know the Father and the Son and enjoy a relationship with them.
This statement in verse four has two parts. She says whether I go, you know and the way you know. And then notice Thomas's question also has the same two parts. We know not whither thou goest.
How can we know the way? To me, it's interesting, rather than perhaps this is something that we can refer to in connection with Hebrews 11, that was referred to as well, that there is a way, there is a place, and it's in the way that we get to the place. And I think it is beautiful because this is where we.
Exercise.
Faith and faith is something that grows. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.
How does my faith grow?
By reading the word of God, by letting it penetrate and then I got such an important process for us down here. How can we know the way and the Lord Jesus then gives this beautiful.
Answer in verse 6.
I am the way, the truth and the life. No man cometh to the Father, but by me. Like I said, it is about the Father, He is the way.
Oh, brethren, what a wonderful thing it is to know the Father. But there's a way to know the Father how? The Lord Jesus is the way, and so the more we know of him.
And no more we will know the Father.
So we mentioned this morning that in Christianity we have a far more intimate and deeper relationship with the Lord Jesus than they had in even with the disciples walking with him during his public ministry. But as we've been saying, we also have a relationship with the Father that was not known previously. There is an aspect in the Old Testament where they did know God as their father. And it says in Malachi, is there not one God and Father, one father of us all hath not one God created us.
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Uh, we're all, as it says in the 17th of Acts where all the offspring of God, Jeremiah said, wilt thou not from this time cry unto me, my father, Thou art the guide of my youth. So they knew God as their father coming from the hand, his hand in creation. And really all human beings are that come from God in that way. But the, what we're Speaking of here, what the Lord was introducing here and what we have now as to relationship in Christianity with God is a.
Is a relationship of intimacy to know God as our Father in a way that was not nor could be previously known until the Lord Jesus accomplished the work of redemption and returned to the Father and sat down at the Father's right right hand. And that's why we can now not just call God our Father, but twice in the epistles we call, we can address Him as ABBA Father.
That's an intimacy of relationship and the that was never known previously. And it is the same intimacy of relationship that the Lord Jesus enjoyed. You know that little expression, not to get off our subject, but that little expression. ABBA Father appears three times in the New Testament. In Mark's Gospel. The Lord Jesus as the perfect servant in his pathway and service up until the Garden of Gethsemane never addressed God as his Father.
It would have been very out of keeping in Mark's gospel for him to do so.
But when it's mini earthly ministry is done and the hour of his greatest trial and need is approaching as Calvary is approaching, he vows in the Garden of Gethsemane and he doesn't just in Mark pray Father, he says ABBA Father, he comes before the Father and all the intimacy and closeness of relationship that is possible. But now in Christianity we in Romans 8 and repeated in Galatians, we can come in that same intimacy now, brethren.
The Lord Jesus is the only begotten of the Father and will always remain such. He will always remain distinct, and in the Father's house He will remain distinct as the only begotten of the Father. But nevertheless, you and I who are on our way to the Father's house, we can enjoy this now because as the Lord said, He's the the way, the truth and the life. And we can enjoy the intimacy of relationship as the children of God, as John's ministry brings before us the children of God born into the family of God with the very nature.
Of God himself we can come and say, not just Father, but ABBA Father.
The New Testament, uh, and the main have different burdens, don't they? The apostle John, as was mentioned, brother Steve, I think you mentioned, has to do with the family of God, an eternal life and relationships within that family. The apostle Paul, uh, has primarily before him the whole council of God, what we might call dispensationalism and the mystery of the distinction between Jew, Gentile and Church of God. So with him, the word of God was completed in that sense, even though John wrote later.
And Peter, as we know, had had before him more the thought of the Kingdom of God. So it's good to understand those distinctions. And when it comes to relationships, all of our relationships are based on our relationship with God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost. He must have the 1St place. And so that's what's being established in our chapter, isn't it? Our relationship now with the three distinct persons of the Godhead. God is one, and yet He's in three.
And so as we mentioned this morning again, the 1St 3 verses have particularly to do with our relationship with the Lord Jesus the Son. And these verses 4 through 14 have to do particularly with the new relationship in Christianity with the Father. And then the remaining verses have to do with our relationship with the Spirit of God. I think it's helpful to see that. And all relationships, again, are based on that relationship we have with Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
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He must have the 1St place and then other relationships fall into their proper place. If other relationships are put first, things are out of order, aren't they?
Different things that he had told them about the father.
And we know that here in this verse, in this chapter that we're reading, he's Speaking of the Father. Again, if they had remembered some of these things, it would have been a little clearer for them. But they're written for our blessing, for our instruction. Chapter 5, verse 17. Jesus answered them, My father worketh hitherto and I work. So there was that seemed like a seamlessness in the the work, both the Father and the Son that were working in blessing.
For the race of men and men you have in verse 18 at the end God was umm. They said also that God was His Father, making Himself equal with God. Well, He was equal with God. And so he that hath the Son hath life, and he hath not the Son of God hath not life. They needed to have the Son, and so He was equal with the Father. Then in verse 20, the Father loveth the Son. They ought to have remembered that. And so He was the object of the Father's affection. Then you have in verse 21, the Father raises up the dead and quickeneth them. Even so the Son quickeneth whom He will.
So the Father could give life too. The Father is the source of life. And then you have umm, in verse 22, the Father judges no man, but hath committed all judgment under the Son. So here he's delivered judgment to the Son and imperfection. The Son will, uh, execute that judgment. And then verse 23, all men should honor the Son even as they honor the Father. He that honoreth not the Son, honoreth not the Father, which has sent him. He had told them all kinds of things about the Father.
And how the Father honored the Son, and how they ought to honor him as well. So he was the object of honor, not only the object of God's affection, but of the Father's affections, but also of His honor. And here the Lord Jesus was, as he was about to go, was desiring that they would have the Father before them in the recognition of the blessedness of that relationship.
These cycles struggled with that which was natural to the site and the natural sense is so Thomas couldn't seem to get beyond the physical place, the material place. But then you have Phillip and he couldn't seem to get beyond the physical person. Show us the father and it suffice with us. Well, if he's the if he's the if you're the way to the father, the truth about the father, the life that enjoys the father show us.
Well, he said, have I been so long time with you and hast thou not known me, Philip, He that has seen me hast seen the Father. And isn't it wonderful that we have the full revelation of the Father in the Lord Jesus. We find in Hebrews where he, the Son is presented to us. It's he's spoken in Son. He was the express image of his person. You know there's no other sun on earth that's been ever been the express image of their father. They have a little expression in English. We look at a.
Young man or a boy, and we say, oh, he's the spitting image of his father. Oh, I know whose son that is. No trouble to tell who he belongs to.
Well, that may be true, and we see those family characteristics, but there's no earthly sun that's ever been the express image of His Father. But the Lord Jesus here was the express image of his Father and everything he did.
Everything he said, every breath he took, so to speak, fully showed forth the Father. Just go back to the first chapter for a moment for a verse.
Verse 14 of the first chapter. And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. This is a beautiful verse to to expression, to consider. You know, to be glorified is to have every quality and attribute that makes up a person's character brought into full display.
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And the Lord Jesus could say at the end of it all, I have glorified thee on the earth. I have finished the work which Thou gavest me to do. Every attribute of God the Father, every quality, so to speak, was brought in to full display, both in the pathway of the Lord Jesus and of course, then in him offering Himself without spot to God. So show us the Father, and it suffice of us. Philip, you've seen the Father. Have you seen me? You've seen the Father.
And so we know the Father through the son, really, don't we? He has revealed him fully to us. There's nothing more concerning the father to be revealed. Is that right, Bruce?
Chapter One.
No man has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him. And so in the life and ministry of the Lord Jesus He fully displayed in character and in essence what the Father was. And so He re. He rebuffed his disciple Philip here by saying, Have you been with me this long? I have not seen the Father.
You had seen him in character and in essence, not, of course, with the naked eye in which no man will see.
It's a wonderful thing to see the glory of the Lord Jesus. There's moral glory in this way. He never, ever refused any of these questions. You might say as you read chapter 5, they should have known. You might read chapter one, and they should have known that about the glory of the Father. They should have known the relationship. But he answered those questions.
And that's why we have these answers given. But he never ridiculed the disciples for asking a question. And so I just want to say this is an encouragement. All of us have questions, Doesn't matter how old we are. We all have questions. And the right thing to do is to ask the Lord for an answer to those questions. And we can go to our older brother and often times and we can get an answer. We can get something that is commends itself from the scriptures, but it's good thing to ask the Lord those questions.
There's three apostles that ask questions in this chapter and then I think it is helpful. A good question helps to open up the Scriptures many times. Lord help us younger brethren. Lord help you to ask good, uh, profitable questions. They're very helpful.
It appears that the three apostles that answer these questions.
Related to the three things that the Lord mentions in verse six. You've probably heard that before.
I am the way, the truth and the life, Thomas, he didn't know the way, Philip, he didn't know the truth about the Father and Judas didn't know the life. And so he uses those things to, as you say, bring out some further truth with regard to the question that they ask and fills out the chapter, fills out a better understanding of who the Father is.
Ask the teacher, because he has an honest, inquiring mind, that he wants to know the answer. And I believe that's the sort of question God would have us ask. They're also the questions that the teacher asked the student. He doesn't ask because he wants to know the answer. And so we can also ask questions because we want to set our brethren straight.
And those.
Questions, uh, cultivate contention. So I think we need to have the right spirit in asking questions because sometimes I hear, well, you didn't answer my question and I'm afraid it's because there wasn't a question asked.
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How do we understand verses 10 and 11 when He speaks about Him being in the Father and the Father?
May sound a little mystical or difficult to grasp with our minds. What does it mean? I am in the Father and the Father in me.
I hope that was the right kind of question.
Is it not in character and in essence that he was? The Father was in him?
But doesn't mean that they were one person, 'cause there's bad doctrine that has come up in church history where they try to bring the Father and the Son and it is one person. I can't remember the name of that. I think it's called dualism or something. But that's not what is being mentioned here. He's Speaking of essence and character, is he not?
Chapter 16 and verse 32 I am not alone because the Father is with me. And so you have the expression in the Old Testament they went, both of them together.
Another verse uh, the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ that the law told what man ought to be, and the truth tells what man really is. But grace came to meet that need and there was.
Person could really represent or manifest the divine Person. That's what happened. One came from the very glory of the Father and revealed Him to us.
Is that what you're saying?
Five verse 18. It might be helpful, 518.
It says umm.
1St 17 and 18 And Jesus answered them, My Father worketh hitherto, and I work. Therefore the Jews sought the more to kill him, because he had not not only broken the Sabbath, but he also said that God was his Father, making him equal with God. So when they spoke of himself as being the Son and the in relation to the Father, they rightly understood what he was met Speaking of and what he was claiming. And I hated that, because He was the expression of the Father and and every essence.
Essential way.
Do we get that thought in in Colossians one and verse 15 where it says who is the image?
He's the presentation and the representation of God. That's the thought of the image there. I'm just asking as a question.
It's not just that he's spoken by his son, but he's spoken his son. God has been revealed to us in in the Sun.
I I think when we take up the persons of the Godhead, it's good just to stick to the language of Scripture because there's been a great deal of misconstruing things and if I can put it this way, trying to dissect the persons of the Godhead By our own reasoning, if we could understand everything about the Godhead, it wouldn't be the Godhead. It it's far above our thought. And so God has given us in his Word.
Scripture and the Spirit of God to make it good to our souls.
But I think when you go back and trace false teaching that's been propagated as to the Father and the Son and different and the Spirit of God and so on. But a lot of times what it is, is trying to take Scripture and reason it out and fit it into a nice, neat little formula. We're never going to be able to do that, brethren. And you know, even when we get to the Father's house, we're gonna be within like Christ, but we're never gonna reach deity. We're gonna have bodies of glory like under His body of glory. We're gonna have capabilities with that bot change that changed body that we don't have now.
00:40:03
But we are never going to be omnipotent on all knowing or omnipresent. Those things are reserved for deity. So the Spirit of God or God has taken and given us statements in his word and as I say, the Spirit of God to make it good to us. And I think it's helpful to read these scriptures go through and we've had some connections made and then just to leave it. This is the deity where this is deity we're Speaking of. What do you think, Bruce?
Uh.
In verse 12 he brings up another. They would gain by him going away to the Father and sending the Holy Spirit. Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that believeth on me the works that I do shall he do also, and greater works than these shall he do, because I go unto my Father. What was he Speaking of? But they would they would have as a result of the Lord going away to the Father and sending the Holy Spirit.
Uh, greater works in service and even the Lord Jesus did in his life and ministry. Now that's quite a statement. Let me say that again that they would actually accomplish greater works and service and ministry than the Lord himself did in his life and ministry. You say give us an example. Well, on the day of Pentecost, Peter stood up and preached in 3000 souls got saved. You'll not read about that in the fore gospel.
The Lord Jesus preached and many turned away, but we do not have any record that there was such a mass, uh, conversion as that. Another example would be, uh, when Peter was walking through the streets of Jerusalem, just his shadow coming across somebody would heal people. You don't read of that in the Life and Times of the Lord Jesus ministry, Paul. And, uh, let's see down in the end of the Acts where they take a handkerchief from Paul and they go and carry it to a person and lay on him and he's healed.
Again, we do not read of that in the life and ministry of the Lord Jesus. And So what an incredible gain this would be for them to have the Lord go away to the Father and send the Spirit. And I think they would give them to release the grasp of him and emotionally to be able to let go, knowing that there was going to be something better that they would have as a result. And it all worked for the the comforting of their troubled hearts.
Well, let's say we should be able to do those things today. Why?
Is it because we're at the end of the dispensation instead of the beginning one when things were not in?
The vision The Lord would be putting his, uh, stamp of approval.
God is not limited even now though, is he? And he can do things, amazing things. And if you hear about it being done in different parts of the world where there's severe persecution, where there's not a lot of the word of God around God, God is not limited. But I think it's like this portion is really the point of it is that there was going to be a man in the glory of God.
And that He by the Holy Spirit would work through his people here. That was something that was not the truth while the Lord Jesus was down here.
In this world, and that is one of the things that is characteristic of Christianity, presence of a real man, flesh and bones in the in the glory of God and through him by the Holy Spirit, he's working here in this world. I agree with you though what you say about because of the ruin of the Christian testimony, it is hindered the work of the Spirit of God. But God is just the same. He hasn't changed, has he?
So they are. I'm not saying that they couldn't. God couldn't do that. You know, that's, you know.
He could do anything. So that's not, I'm not trying to say that, but I'm saying this is not happening today. He doesn't have healers in the business. We see these things all the time, you know, and these we need answers for them, don't we? Why not? Uh, why not? Are these things being done today?
00:45:25
Wherefore tongues are for a sign, not to them that believe, but to them that believe not. And so there was a time when God used those signs, those sign gifts, as a testimony that this was a genuine work of God. And there's going to be in the future works of power or a display of power and miracles and so on. But it's really satanic.
There is no blessing connection with it, but just some sort of miraculous power. If you look at Second Thessalonians chapter 2 uses the same terminology, the same words in verse nine is Speaking of, uh, a future day. Even him who's coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish because they receive not the love of the truth that they might be saved.
And so it's a mercy of God that we don't have signs, uh, today in the sense that, uh, the enemy isn't deceiving us, Umm, with these signs and powers, there is a day when the church is going to be removed from this scene. And then there are going to be signs, power signs and wonders. But it's going to be the enemy. It's not going to be the, for the blessing of man. He's going to deceive and there's going to be judgment as a result of it. But the Spirit of God is still working.
By the world standards or Christendom standards, and you don't see 3000 saved and 5000 saved like we're later on and so on and great signs and wonders, brethren, it has been a thrill to my soul to realize that as long as we're here and the Spirit of God is here, there is a work for us to for the Spirit of God to do through the instrumentality of God's people here on earth. And as I say, it may not be great things in the eyes of the world.
Do you know, for the last few years my wife and I have had the wonderful privilege of traveling in Western Europe twice a year, and we have seen the work of the Spirit of God. It's not, as I say, in man's eyes, great things. But in the 20 years we've had the privilege of traveling in Europe, there's some places now where they break bread as gathered to the Lord's name where they didn't back then. We've been at baptisms. We've seen the work of the Lord in many, many ways.
Yes, it's just a family here. It's one or two here. But brethren, it says not to despise the day of small things, not to look back and say the former days were better. They do seem better and the most mighty work, but rather to realize that there's something for you and I to do today because the Spirit of God is still here and that there are still miracles going on in this world. You know, every time a soul gets saved might not be 5001 preaching, maybe it's 5000 preachings to save one soul.
But if, if that's the truth of the matter, isn't that a miracle, not wonderful, not reach that rejoices all of heaven. It ought to rejoice our hearts. A couple come in contact with the truth of being gathered to the Lord's name, and they're directed to a little assembly that's nearby and they request to be gathered to the Lord's name. You know, I, I think of Paris. I've visited Paris many times. It's a dark, apostate city.
But last summer a couple took their place at the Lord's table. To me, that's tremendous. Brother, that's great works. Let's rejoice in what there is not. Look for what is former, but look for what the Spirit of God is doing today and be exercised, Brethren, everyone of us be exercised. We're instruments. Yes, we don't have the apostles and the early brethren, but you're one of the brother. I'm one of the brothers. And the Spirit of God can still use us in a tremendous way for the blessing of souls.
I think to be precise, we have to say that there will be some miracle workers in the tribulation that are good. The two witnesses do miracles. Umm, they, uh, they call down fire and, uh, and they, they, they seal up the heavens like, like Eli should do, like Elijah did many years before. But the reason for that, and the reason that even in the Old Testament in the days of the kings, why some of the prophets in the last days of the Kingdom did miracles, was because the word of God was rejected.
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The Word of God is stronger than miracles, isn't it? It has greater authority. And so I believe these verses here to get back to our passage, it's so important. The reason why they would do greater works is because there's two great characteristics of Christianity. That is, there's a man in heaven who's both God and man, the Lord Jesus Christ, that's greater than when he was here on earth. And there's a divine person on earth, the Spirit of God. And so in Christianity, as Mr. Hale, you stop and remind us, God has reached a mountain peak beyond which he himself cannot go.
Speaking reverently. And so these are days which are very important, aren't they? They're, I've often felt that these are the greatest blessings that God has bestowed on any of his creatures at any time is what we have in Christianity. Would we rather be an Angel? Well, they don't know anything about the redemption blood of Christ for themselves. Uh, they don't sing the song of redemption. They, they sing the song of creation, but not of redemption.
Would we rather have been here when the Lord Jesus was here with his disciples? He's telling us in this very verse that greater things are going to characterize Christianity. Why exactly what he's telling us in this chapter. He's going back to heaven. Spirit of God is coming on earth and it's a higher order of things than it was when he was on earth. Would we rather have lived in the days of David? How dark things were then how about Moses, what we think that was a wonderful time. Or Joshua, like you were speaking about, Brother Rob.
But think how dark things were back in those days, to see all those forms and not know the true meaning. We have the whole counsel of God revealed to us now. There's never going to be a time when there's such a mountain peak of blessing as there is in Christianity Today.
Partial revealing of the truth through the life and ministry of the Lord Jesus, which He calls these things which I have spoken unto you. But then he says that when the Comforter, that which is the Holy Ghost, will come from the Father, that He will teach you all things which goes beyond just the ministry with regard to.
Christ the Messiah, but Christian truth, the whole council of God, as you just mentioned. So there is a greater volume of truth that has been revealed as a result of the man in the glory and the Spirit sat down. There's another game that we'll touch on next time we're together on this chapter, Lord willing.
Recommend ourselves.
Our loving God and our Father, we thank Thee for the gracious words of our Savior, the Lord Jesus, as He spoke with his disciples in this way.
How instructive these words and how gracious, blessed Lord Jesus, what love to speak to thine own in such a way, and to bring them into the knowledge of the nearness of that relationship with the Father. And so we thank Thee that we can address Thee. Our God is our Father without fear, and to know Thy love and to know that Thou art the source of all of our blessing. So we thank Thee for this time together. We ask that there might be blessed to our souls, that we might rejoice with one another and encourage one another so much the more as we see the day approaching. We ask Thy blessing now and give thanks in the precious name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Amen.
Special Ops
Gospel—Mark Rogers
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Good evening. Welcome to the gospel meeting. Tonight, I'd like to address my comments to those that are and their teenage years, those that are in their 20s.
Those that are in their 30s.
I'd like to open with two texts we will take from.
First Timothy.
Chapter.
One First Timothy One.
The portion of verse 18 at the end of the verse 18.
That thou by them might as war a good warfare. And if we can turn back to the book of Ephesians for one more verse.
In the last chapter of Ephesians.
Verse 12. Ephesians 6. Verse 12.
40 Wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
I live on the east side of Washington State where it's dry, and every spring we look forward to greenery coming out. It's not like what you have over here with the luscious green. We anticipate the springtime. I was mowing my lawn about four weeks ago, and as I'm mowing my lawn, I look up and I see our five blooming.
Flowering plum trees.
With all of their gorgeous purple color coming out of the trees.
Then about a week later, I'm out there again mowing the lawn and I look up.
And all the foliage is shrinking.
And as the foliage is shrinking, I know this year what it is. Four years ago I didn't.
It's because of the fact that there is something that this year I cannot see, because this year I'm using reader glasses. I cannot see what's destroying these leaves.
And if you look very carefully with the help of magnification, there's tiny little aphids heating my trees and so the luscious 5 flowering plum trees are shriveling and I can't see it.
There's another unseen warfare tonight that's going on.
And I wasn't alerted to this warfare until just recently. In fact, it's happening right here in Seattle. And many do not see it. In fact, we can't see it. It's called cyber warfare.
And right now there's maps and you can pull it up. There's cyber attacks coming right directly into Seattle.
From foreign countries that are pinging Seattle heavily.
Every minute of every day they are pinging Seattle hard, and I suspect that's because Microsoft has data centers here.
And they're ping pinging St. Louis, they're pinging the Bay Area.
But I don't see it. It's invisible to me.
Warfare can be deadly and it can be silent and re recently this week I think it was the IRS just claimed of data breach. It's because of foreign attacks coming into these data centers and grabbing information. The reason why warfare is happening is because something is of value and in this instance with cyber attacks the value is data.
On my front lawn, the value is having five flowering plum trees live. But tonight there's an attack going on and it has to do with something else that's valuable.
Souls.
Souls are valuable.
And such as it is, that Satan knows that they're valuable as well.
And tonight I would like to open up the Word of God and start from the beginning.
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And walk through page by page or section by section. We don't have enough time to see the effects of the attack. Because as I wanna speak to the teenagers, the 20 something year olds and the 30 something year olds, there might be something that you don't see, that perhaps tonight you might see for the first time in the word of God.
And just because you can't see it doesn't mean that it's not there.
Should we ask God bless before we open the word Our Father, our God, we thank thee tonight that we have just a few minutes before us. We ask for help now as we open thy word and to look Father, uh, from 1 Cover to the other in brief short moments to see this plan of salvation that is layout for us in the war that has been started from the beginning. We asked for the Holy Spirit to help us. Our Father, the Lord Jesus name we give thanks, Amen.
Should we start in the first book of the Bible, Genesis chapter 3?
Genesis chapter 3.
Well known and perhaps everybody in the room.
Everybody in the room has probably full aware of this.
And uh, verse one. Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord had made. And he said unto the woman, Yay hath God said, I want to stop there. Yay, half God said.
This is the start of the conflict.
God had made man and the glory of all creation in a sinless state.
And someone shows up on the scene to create a conflict.
And it happens to be Eve that takes it here. The question. Yeah, Half God said.
And tonight, as we sit here and look back 12 months, the last time we were here, I would think there'd be a fair agreement to the fact that things are changing very rapidly, specifically in this country.
And it all stems from the fact that there is a silent warfare going on in this country and around the world, But I particularly want to address those of us that are United States and Canada.
You know, it started, probably some can disagree or whatever, but about the 1920s when there was a a major national attention to a particular court case that basically was drawing attention to the fact of did we come from apes or did we or did God create us?
And then in the 1960s, we follow on through.
Man in the culture of the United States said we will not have prayer in the schools.
And merely a few years later, 1971, a court case came down. Roe versus Wade with a value of a human being was being questioned.
Now today we have another value that's being questioned, the value of what a family is.
And it all stems back to one thing that Satan says. Yeah, hath God said?
There is value in a soul, and he knows it.
Should we continue in Genesis?
The 18th chapter.
I'm not going to read the entire portion here, but we're gonna get the gist of it here. In the 18th chapter of Genesis, verse 16, we have here a picture, a beautiful picture of three heavenly messengers being sent, one of them being God in the form of an Angel speaking with Abraham here. And they have a conversation here. And verse 20 it says, and the Lord said, because the cry of Sodom Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grievous, I will now go down.
And see whether they have done all together, according to the cry of it which has come unto me, and if not, I will know. And the men turn their faces from sense, and went towards Sodom. But Abraham stood yet before the Lord. And Abraham drew near, and said Wilson, also destroy the righteous with the wicked.
Per venture, there'll be 50 righteous within the city, whilst they're also destroying not spare the place for 50 righteous that are therein. And he continues on verse 26. And the Lord said, if I find in Sodom 50 righteous within the city, then I will spare all the place for their sakes. And then we have in verse 28, Abraham's asking about 45 verse 29 prevention, there should be 40 found there. And then in verse 30, perhaps there'll be 30 there.
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Verse 31, perhaps there's 20 and then verse 32, perhaps per venture 10 shall be found there. And he said I will destroy it. I will not destroy it for 10 sake.
And this is an element here where we have a beautiful picture of a friend of God communing directly with his Maker and to realize the fact that there is a distinction between souls. Souls are valuable, and there's now a drawn and distinction between righteous and unrighteous souls.
And there's a pleading going on for souls. And may I say that there has been a pleading going on for souls for a long time, perhaps in this room. And certainly there's been prayer meetings, there's been pleadings for souls, and Abraham is pleading for souls here.
And it speaks to me to think.
Dear friend, there may be a soul in here.
That doesn't know there's a warfare going on for their own soul.
You know, uh, going back to the technology side of things, if, if the internet's coming in the house, there's firewalls that are put up, etcetera, all because of attacks that may be coming into the home.
Things that we can't see and tonight I believe the young people, the 20 year olds and the 30 year olds are not understanding the fact that there is an attack going on in society is showing the evidence of this attack.
And we have a very short period of time, things that are right or wrong and wrong or right.
It's getting to be very solemn. And so for tonight, let's continue on and look at the value of a soul. Let's turn over to Daniel.
The 5th. 5th chapter.
And the essence of this is that Daniel is visiting with the King Belteshowser, and Belteshowser has a problem. He sees language that is written over there on the wall, and he doesn't understand what the words say because some hand behind the scenes, invisible to him, wrote him.
And he's shaking to think about what these might mean.
And tonight I'm burdened for any soul in here that maybe has not fully bowed the knee to a Savior yet. There's a struggle. There's a struggle going on. And so about the shazer has a struggle here. And we see here in verse 25, and this is Daniel speaking.
Verse 22 Let's move up to verse 22. And thou, his son, O bell, to shatter, hath not humbled thine heart, though thou knowest all of this, but hast lifted thyself against the Lord of heaven, and they have brought the vessels of his house before thee. And basically as he describes that in that very long verse there was complete.
Derangement of all that was pure. The verse 24 then was the part of the hand sent from him, and this writing was written, and this is the writing that was written meaning.
Tikal, you Farson, this is the interpretive of this thing. Mini God hath numbered thy Kingdom and hath finished it. I just want to stop there. You and I do not know how many more steps we take.
God does.
And when this year is going to go by and there's going to be undoubtedly someone in your life that surprisingly takes their last steps. But I wanted to focus in on the second word here, Tico verse 27.
Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting.
Souls are precious.
And according to what God has written on this particular wall at this particular time to belt the Shazer Belteshowser soul is being weighed out.
And your soul tonight is being weighed out too. In fact, I woke up about 3 weeks ago with this little snippet here. I, uh, I, uh, go to the doctor and the doctor's asking that I lose a little weight. And so we're in the progress of this and it's always something to go into the doctor's office. And you step on that scale that has all those weights on there. And of course you take your shoes off. You want all the weight. You want all the weight. And it's cell phone, the keys and everything. I want all the weight because I've got a measurement coming up.
00:15:23
And I gotta see, gotta show the doctor that there was improvement. But I woke up about 3 weeks ago. What if I'm standing on the scale? There's not enough weights to go on this scale. They just keep sliding them across. And this thing is not balancing. And I got to thinking about that. Is that gonna be like a future day someday perhaps you think all your good works are gonna just kind of weigh things out.
There's not gonna be enough weights to balance that scale.
So do not think that there is something good that you are doing that is going to weigh out the balances. There's only one person that's gonna be able to put some weight on that scale to make this balance.
Souls are weighed in the balances. That's a solemn thought.
So tonight, warfare, conflict, those are what's on my heart because there's something that is going on right now that is very different in military warfare.
The special forces have have gained the entire, uh, momentum. The governments are using special warfares. And as we turn the pages into the following scriptures, there's some interesting similarities. What the what the gover, what the government is doing right now with special operations. These are small units of teams that are sent at a moment's notice into a remote region, generally fully outfitted.
Under the cover of Dark.
In silence, with full support from technology anywhere from 10,000 to 50,000 feet up.
With a president that has authorized it.
There is a story almost three years to the day today.
There was a British woman by the name of.
Helen Johnson in Afghanistan, and she was going through Afghanistan on horseback with several colleagues that were in a mission for a humanitarian effort, and they were captured three years ago.
And since she's a Brit, a British citizen, the British government moved into, into, into operation. And soon with their special teams that were on the ground were monitoring her capture. And she was being hit up into some remote areas of Afghanistan, the northeastern part, and they were moving her and her captives from cave to cave.
So the British government decided that after live leaving the communication, that the Taliban was looking for an execution. And so they made the decision to put a team on the ground two miles away. It was supported by the United United States Special Operations, Two separate teams, two separate caves.
They came in under the cover of darkness and they had full support in the air.
And they went in U.S. team on one cave and the British team on the second cave.
And the US team went in and killed the captors. There were no captives in there. And the British came back and killed the captors and got all four captives, 4 women that were involved with humanitarian aid.
And I got to thinking about this.
If you're tonight in a situation that perhaps you're bound and either you know it or you don't know it, I don't know, but if you're bound, there is a savior.
Shall we turn over to the northeast? Uh, book of Matthew, the 1St chapter?
Inverse UH-20.
Well, let's go to the verse 18. Now the birth of Jesus Christ is on this wise, when as his mother Mary was a spouse of Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost. Verse 20 But while he thought of these things, behold, the Angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, appear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost, and she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus.
00:20:07
For he shall save his people from their sins.
One of the things that the special Forces do that is absolutely critical is something called time.
In fact, the president of the United States and the other, uh, dignitaries and the other countries will give their OK and they're looking and they're OK. It's not a def definite tonight. It's a definite yes. You got to go ahead, but it's left for the command down below to look for the darkest night.
And so they're looking for no moon to make the to make the rescue operation.
And a savior, and these teams are assembled and these teams know that they're going into something. And our Lord Jesus is presented as a Savior. And timing is critical. We can read back a little bit earlier, 483 years before thereabouts, and it was prophesied that there was going to be a Savior, and he came right on time.
Timing is everything, and our Savior came right on time. And when those military operations take place, everything has to go on time.
And if tonight you're sitting in your seats and you haven't taken advantage of the Savior's offer, there's something that you don't know and I don't know. And that's when the time is up. Because we are told we're gonna look at this a little well, that there will be a Time's Up. Every military operation has a Time's Up.
Shall we continue over into the book of Luke, the 2nd chapter?
Verse 8.
There was in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And lo, the Angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone right about them, and they were sore afraid. And the angels said in them, Fear not for I, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David, a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you. You shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, line in a Manger.
And suddenly there was with the Angel a multitude of heavenly hosts praising God and saying glory to God in the highest and on earth, peace and goodwill toward men.
One thing that we notice here is we notice that the operation starts at night. There is a baby born into this world who is a savior under the cover of darkness.
And we also find something else that there's an entirely heavenly multitude that breaks forth. And while those special operations are going on, I mean Afghanistan and Yemen and other countries, there is an entire.
Military operation going up at the sky with AWACS planes and drones that are being flown out of Nevada and other elsewhere that are watching the situation.
And to think that there is a heavenly company watching the Savior born in swaddling clothes.
And a whole multitude. And the shepherds were only one to see it, apparently. I don't know who else got to see it. Apparently no one else at the end had any room for him. And there was a stable found for him. So it wasn't a big affair. And that's the deal with a special operation. It's not a big a deal. The Lord Jesus came down in solitude in the darkest of nights, and a heavenly multitude was glorifying God.
Should we turn over to the 19th chapter?
We have the story here in the first part of the 19th chapter of Luke about interaction with our Lord Jesus and Zacchaeus, who is a wealthy man. He was rich.
But the Lord Jesus makes a statement about himself that I just wanted to read here it says in verse 10.
For the Son of Man is come to seek, and to save that which is lost.
There's the mission. He's here to seek and to save that which is lost. And when those military operators go in under the cover of darkness and their silence, they're not interested in the rest of the city that's there. They're interested only on 1/2 or a handful of people to rescue or to destroy.
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And to think that this son of man is come to seek and to save that which is lost. And tonight, if you are lost, your friend.
Consider the fact that there is a savior that came specifically for you.
And to think of Miss Johnson there, the British gal held in one of those caves under the cover of darkness, she can't see anything. But the special operations guys are wearing special goggles, so they're seeing everything. If she says no, no, no, I don't wanna go. That's absurd to think about these men that risk their lives for thousands of miles with air, air support in the air and and commanders back at home base listing in on radio transmissions and video transmissions as to whether they're getting their their rescue underway and to have a captive say.
No, thank you.
It doesn't make sense in the physical realm. Why would it make sense in the spiritual realm?
If you found yourself captivated.
By things if thing, if life is getting to the point where you're held captive, think about the fact that there is a savior with open arms that's got only a limited amount of time.
Should we turn over to the 23rd chapter?
We have another darkness here.
Hollywood would lead you to believe that the in the regular culture would lead you to believe the fact that there is a martyr in the person of Jesus Christ that was put up on the cross and was martyred at the hands of man.
But there is much more going on in the operation that human eyes could see, and we see this here.
In verse 44.
Luke 23 verse 44 And it was about the 6th hour, and there was darkness over all the earth until the 9th hour, And the dark sun was darkened, and the veil of the temple was rent in the midst. And when Jesus had cried, with a loud voice he said, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit. And having said thus, he gave up the ghost.
The work was being done on the cover of Darkness.
And when the special forces went in to capture Osama bin Laden, it was under the cover of darkness.
And they didn't want the city that was located right there to see all the helicopters coming in.
They wanted to shield with darkness and get the work done and go home.
And the Lord Jesus is hanging on this cross after being flogged all night long at the hands of man.
And then after three hours of being a CRO on the cross or thereabouts.
The sun goes out.
Darkness came.
And we know very little from the scriptures what happened, with the exception of a few portions in scripture.
But I can guarantee you one thing, there was a tremendous weight and cost going on for those three hours.
In the cover of Darkness.
And we see here with Luke's account that when the three hours was of darkness was over with, the work was complete, he gave up the ghost.
And that's the same way with these special operations. This is an operation that goes in and they have one mission and they've got timetables and they're gone. They have to leave.
And for three hours, he took all of God's wrath upon himself. For you and for me. There was a cost.
Now the question is, are you gonna take the offer?
The offer was great.
The cost was great, the offer is even greater, and what I get to think about is the fact that for all of eternity I get to dwell. We get to consider what that cost was.
Because right now, like I said, we can only contemplate how much my sins and how much your sins was costing him in those three hours of darkness.
00:30:13
She would continue over to John chapter 20.
In the first verse.
So they took the Lord Jesus down from the cross. They put him in the grave.
They waited for a couple days, and now we have the first verse of John 20. The first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early, when it was yet dark unto the Suffolk her. And see if the stone taken away from the suffocation. Consider the mission. In the cover of darkness He rose from the grave.
To me, that's thrilling to see that again, it didn't take all the audience of the world to see anything, to see the fact that there was a woman here, Mary Magdalene coming to the to the tomb and all she sees is a row is the is the stone is rolled away. But John does say when it was yet dark.
And again, I I submit the fact that in your own heart, in your own soul, there is preciousness there and there is something that you and you alone can deal with, because no one can deal with it for you. But there was a Savior who dealt with it in the darkness on the cross, and he dealt with it in the darkness when he rose from the grave, completed the work.
That's precious.
That's precious that there's a completed work and there's nothing like the special operations guys as the helicopters take off and they head back and there's communications back with the command center and the command center is elated. And the Prime Minister was woken up at 1:00 in the morning to be alerted to the fact 2:00 in the morning to be alerted to the fact that Helen Johnson was indeed safe and in the British forces hands. And he turns around and calls her father.
The elatedness.
Of having a hostage taken out of a perilous situation with harm's way happening is a tremendous, I guess, privilege for these ones at the highest levels making these decisions.
Well, we also have another part of the mission, so he's turned over to Second Peter.
Chapter.
Two.
These missions that are the special operations take come in two flavors. They come in the flavor of a rescue, rescue situation like with Helen Johnson three years ago to the day where the British did what they did with the health of the United States. But then there's another term that that is being done and this has happened about four years ago with Osama bin Laden. There was not a rescue operation with these military ones. There was a destroy mission that was going on.
And so we read here the Lord is going to have his mission continue. Invert in chapter three of Second Peter.
Verse 10.
But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise.
And the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also, and the works that are therein shall be burned up. And shall we continue on into revelation to get the snippet there?
And, uh, chapter 19 of Revelation.
Verse 11.
And I saw heaven opened, and behold a White Horse. And he that sat upon him was called faithful and true. And in righteousness he does judge and make war. His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns. And he had a name written that no man knew but he himself. And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood, and his name is called the Word of God. And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses clothed in fine linen white and clean. And out of his mouth go with a sharp sword, and with it should smite the nations, and he shall rule them with a rod of iron.
And he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. And he had on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, King of kings and Lord of Lords. And I saw an Angel standing in the sun. And he cried with a loud voice, saying To all the fowls that fly in the midst of the heaven, Come and gather yourselves together under the supper of the great God, that you may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of captains, and the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses, that them that sit on them in the flesh of all men, in both free and bond, both small and great. And I saw the beasts and the kings of the earth, and their armies gathered together to make war against him that sat on the horse.
00:35:27
And against his army.
This is the other responsibility.
That the Lord Jesus will have to take his rightful Kingdom.
And the world would say that there is a gentle Jesus. And yes, that is in part true, as Satan always has half truths. Half truths are the mantra of what he gives. But there is a day that judgment is going to fall. And you know one thing that Osama bin Laden was scared of as he sat there and hiding for many, many years after, after attacking the United States in a disastrous way. He sat and he feared.
The silent drones that flew overhead.
In fact, when he went out or when he had his couriers go out, they would go out on the cover of a cloudy day. They didn't want the drones to fall. It was, it's, it's archived that in all of his writings and such, he feared what was flying above him.
And tonight, there's a fear.
There's a rebellion, we read in the Book of Revelation. There's a rebellion that there is indeed a fear of, of him coming back to reclaim.
And the thought is, if there's someone that says, no, I don't need the savior, if that's what you are, friend, no, I don't need the savior. There is going to be another element of the operation that'll unfold. And it's solemn because we just read it. He comes out of heaven on a White Horse.
And the word of God comes out of his mouth and destruction is evident around the world. And tonight there is it it it could be safely said that there is loved ones throughout this audience. And to think of the fact that someone that is loved says no to a savior who had a special operation 2000 years ago. That's on a limited time to say no to the saving grace of that of of that.
God that came down to save us.
It's a solemn thing to think about when that savior comes down and as we read here in Revelation 19, King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
And he deals out judgment.
So let's turn over to 2nd Corinthians chapter 5 in closing.
Verse 11 knowing therefore the chair of the Lord, we persuade men, but we are made manifesting to God and I trust also are made manifest in your consciousness. The conscience of Osama bin Laden was the fact that they're out to get me and he thought the United States government had a been had a had a crosshairs on him and he was right. It took a while, but they finally got him.
He was scared of the terror that the United States and the other countries would deal out in a situation like this and so tonight the reason why there's a gospel me is because there is a terror of the Lord coming. The other part of the operation is yet to happen and that's why the chair of the Lord we persuade men and made we are made manifesting to God. I trust also are made manifest in your consciences and the conscience is something that myself or no one else in this room can understand and your soul right now.
The conscience is a phenomenal thing and we pray that your conscience will be bothered enough that you will cling into the Savior that has a limited time.
And so verse 14 For the love of Christ constraineth us, because we thus judge that if one died for all, then we are all dead. And that if He died for all, that they were which lived should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again. This is the saving love. This is the saying that you may say, He died for me, now I will live for him, because that's what that says. He did the work, and now I owe everything to him.
And such as it is, is these captors. You, you really look at the pictures and as these captors are being freed with these special operations, there's hugs going around because there was no hope whatsoever in their condition in a cave or out in some part of Yemen that they're being held. There is no hope until the savings Special forces came in to free them. And there's elatedness with the family.
00:40:16
For the love of Christ constraineth us.
And that's the consideration is right now there is a longing to reveal the fact that there was a love. There is a love for the Lord Jesus for you as a soul. There's value. And just because just because you don't wanna be part of this warfare doesn't mean that you're not that you can't be part of the world because it's happening. It's happening. It's been happening since the beginning of time. There was someone out for your soul and we read about him and re in Genesis chapter 3 half God said.
And that questioning goes on today, and the youth are getting challenged by this and they're getting buckled by this because of the last 80 years of society giving up and saying there is no God, there is no value, there is no soul, you're just an animal. And so not tonight. To think about the fact that there's a savior with a limited time is where the pleading goes.
Should we turn if you have a, uh, black?
In book.
Let's turn into the back.
#5 in the back.
If you don't have one, share with someone. We're only gonna sing 2 verses.
And I'm going to read them first. Verse two of #5 in the back says Jesus sought me when a stranger wandering from the fold of God, He to rescue me from danger, interposed his precious blood. And then we're gonna go to verse five. The last verse rescued us from sin and danger purchased by the Savior's blood. May I walk on earth a stranger as a son, an heir of God. So the second verse and the fifth verse.
Jesus sought me when a stranger.
Wandering from Illinois?
Interposed his precious blood.
Rescues us from.
Till and danger.
Purchase by the Savior's life.
May I walk on Earth a stranger?
As a son.
An air of God.
So we talked tonight about the being if you are a captive.
When you're alone in The Cave with your captors, if you're alone with your conscience, it's a disturbing thing.
And the thing that this younger generation has, that the older generation doesn't have, and that is it has a short attention span.
And this is a wily tool. In fact, the statistics say that the average young person has an 8 second attention span. And that's why websites and the media are being developed in such a way to capture in a very, very short period of time.
But think of eternity.
Think of Eternity. It's more than 8 seconds. And there are those that are buckled down behind their Xboxes. They're buckled down behind their movies.
Taking their mind away. In fact, some of the greatest market share in the video game industry has to do with killing and wars, and the same goes with the movie industry. So it's all about us.
And to think that perhaps you've been in here for just a few minutes. To think that your attention span has been a little longer, hopefully, than 8 seconds. And to understand that the fact that this is a spiritual warfare, we wrestle not against flesh and blood.
So.
00:45:01
With very very short time remaining, I would like to ask.
That there would be 60 seconds, 120 seconds of silence.
Because if you're a young person, time is going quickly by and I would ask those too.
That have obtained the Savior to realize that there is a wrestling going on and Satan has got his timetable very close. And so I'd like to take 60 to 120 seconds in silence. And if you have not taken the Savior, it doesn't take long, but think of all eternity in its wave.
One last verse in Luke chapter 15.
We have here a very, very short account here that is so precious. It says in Luke 15, the Lord Jesus in verse three says, And he spake this parable unto them, saying, What man of you having 100 sheep, if you lose one of them does not leave the 90 and nine in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost until you find it. And when you found it, he layeth it on his shoulders rejoicing. And when he comes home, he calls us together, his neighbors and friends and neighbors, saying unto them, Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost.
I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one Sinner that repenteth more than over 90 and nine just persons which need no repentance. I wanted to focus in on this seventh verse that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one Sinner that repenteth.
And tonight, I do not know what happened in the 60 to 120 seconds in your soul. So when these special operations go on, in fact, you can see pictures when Osama bin Laden was captured and and the and the helos were heading back to their base, that there was a contingency of top personnel, the president, the vice president, the Secretary of State and a variety of ones cramped in a room watching a live video feed. And what happens is when that mission goes successful, there is complete elation.
With the mission going going successful.
And to consider the fact that if there is someone tonight that did make that offer, this verse right here thrills me that there is.
A whole host watching and there's rejoicing going over one center that repenteth because when that special operations those guys are flying back. They went in to do one thing it was successful and there's elation there was like tremendous cost lots of lives put on the line to to capture somebody to bring a captive back or whatever it is and to think about the savior came down to do a job for you because the value of your soul and then when that soul turns and repents.
Says there is joy shall be in heaven over one Sinner that repenteth.
And that's thrilling. So we have tonight, if you have taken the Lord Jesus as your Savior, yes, I can say in the word of God that there is joy in the presence of angels over one center dependent. But also to have to tell somebody here the fact that there was a mission that you took a hold of and you're you were once a captive and you are now free. Let the rejoicing continue.
Shall we close in prayer?
Our Father and our God, we consider the fact of this tremendous mission that happened since the beginning of time and this warfare that has gone on and Father to send an eternity past to consider sending thine only beloved Son for this mission to rescue souls.
00:50:09
And so tonight, our Father, as we wrap it up, we consider the fact that perhaps with all the clutter and the fastness of time, that maybe a soul has taken hold of these Lord Jesus and to recognize that there would be rejoicing in heaven over that one soul repenting. And so we asked too, for anyone that continues to delay, we ask our Father that the Holy Spirit would do continue to do the convicting. And so we give you thanks, Lord Jesus.
For this tremendous work there in that darkness on the cross and the work as others come out of that grave. And we also are fearful to Lord Jesus, not us, but for those that may not accept them to to see the coming back and to think that someone might be left that would be part of that glorious work of our Lord Jesus setting up his Kingdom here on earth. So we're thankful that we have the minutes here before us. The word of God open. We pray for the gospel continue to go out.
Around the world and over the Internet. So we just do give you things. The day of grace is still open and thy name we pray, Lord Jesus, Amen.
Lessons From Trials
YP Talk—Peter Eun
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Alright, so I've got 8:00 uh, I guess you guys are probably pretty anti one to maybe get some energy. I know you guys are doing a long day, umm, so I'll try to keep this sure. I know every speaker in the evening tried to say that and they, uh, I know it sometimes goes long, but if anyone knows, uh yeah, I usually try to keep on time. So I'm gonna keep this, uh, 15 minutes Andrew, give me a little flexibility, but, uh.
So let's start out, uh, let me wait for the rest of you guys to grab a seat and, uh.
Boy, that's a lot of young people here that some I recognize, others that I don't. But boy, over the years, it's been a while since I've been to a conference. What's your last year in Kirkland? But I used to go to a lot of conferences when I was single. And then I got married. And, you know, I, I'm not saying that I'm, you know, not got to be careful when I see my wife sitting next to me. So we're standing here. Fortunately, she doesn't understand everything I say. So I can translate things a little differently.
Tonight when I get home, so cover my mistakes, but umm, let's switch to the Lord. So I need, probably, I need the help tonight and umm, I'm sure that, uh, we'll just ask the Lord for his help and, uh, blessings. So our God and our Father, we just do, uh, thank you for today. Uh, thank you for all that you've provided for us in the meetings and, umm, and just in fellowship, we just pray that, umm, your name, umm, Lord Jesus Christ and the Father would be glorified, umm, in this little talk tonight and that, uh, the young people here were so thankful for them and so many, uh, wanting to go on and that they're an encouragement.
We just ask that there would be something practical for them tonight, umm, as uh, that they could, umm, as they go on in their Christian lives, like to encourage them and to, to be a help to others as well. So we pray all these things in the, uh, name of our Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.
So, umm, when I was asked to speak, umm, there's a lot of things that, uh, going through in my life and I was, uh, contemplating what to, to talk about, But, uh, Andrew actually said, you know, you've been, you know, he had asked me because I've been through some trials and I don't know if everybody, umm, is aware of the background, umm, of my situation, my wife's situation. Umm, So I'll just give a brief history. I'm not gonna go into, uh, a lot of this because I've only got 15 minutes, but also, umm, in the past, uh, few days when we're praying about.
This I didn't want to my purpose of sharing this is not for our glory, but it's for the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ and, and, and for the Father and umm, so I want to start with a couple verses umm, so.
In first Peter chapter one.
In verse 7:00 and 8:00.
That the trial of your faith being much more precious than of gold that perishes so if he tried with fire might be found unto praise, and honor and glory at the peering of Jesus Christ, whom having not seen ye love, in whom, though not ye see Him not, not yet believing, He rejoiced with joy unspeakable and full of glory.
Another verse that, uh, as my wife and I are going through this situation, umm, another that I really, umm, appreciated is that in Jane chapter one, uh, verse 2 Through 4, my brethren counted all joy when you fall into diverse temptations, knowing this, that the trying of your faith work with patience, but let patience have a perfect work that he may be perfect an entire wanting nothing.
And if any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God that giveth to all men liberally, and embrace not, and it shall be given him.
The things that a couple years ago were actually more than a little over three years ago, I got married and my wife in Korea, I, I was never anticipating to get married. So for those of you guys that are older and I noticed a lot of, you know, married couples sort of getting older now used to be that you guys got married at like 1920. I think he's still a deal, but that's very rare in the Korean culture. And so, but you know, some of us, I got married when I was in my 40s and so.
And I was never planning to get married. I was wanting to just go on with my life. But one of the things is that, umm, you know, God sort of can strike and hit at any time. And so, you know, even though I've sort of given up on marriage, umm, you know, the Lord has some different plans and I'm thankful, but I didn't know what marriage was going to bring for me. Umm, obviously the Lord knew because I had a lot of things in my heart that, uh, I had to change and I didn't really know myself until I got married and the Lord showed me.
00:05:02
Through my wife. And so for those that are, I don't know, those that are married, if that's, if you were, if you just got married, it's going to happen, right? Umm, they're there to be a help and umm, the Lord is going to bring this out, especially if you want to follow the Lord. Umm, it's sort of interesting because I, I was an up and down Christian, Umm, I will say that, uh, you know, I wasn't always fully devoted to the Lord early on, even though I had that desire in my heart, you know, and maybe some of you guys can relate. I, I really admire those that can just fully be sold out and good, you know, give everything to the Lord.
And forget about everything and go on. But I was not one of those Christians. Umm, you know, I, I sort of, I was an independent, uh, growing up, my dad taught me to be independent, umm, you know, do things on my own, learn things. And I felt like I can do a lot of things even though I was following the Lord. But when I got married and this trial came into my life where my wife, umm, she came, umm, to the States and she had some health issues and then.
Over time, and actually, I've got to give her so much credit and I wish that she could speak tonight, but we talked a little about maybe the things that she would share and she came to a new, new country with me. I mean, I asked my sister says just having to live with me is going to be hard enough, but to come to a new country, not learning the language. And then at that time, we actually, we were living with my mom. We moved in with my mom because that's sort of a Korean cultural thing.
And she was willing to do it even though you know there was verses that you know it talks about when you get married.
You know, you really, you know, sort of set up your own household. Well, my father, I passed away and I sort of said, yeah, we're gonna take care of my mom. And but that was any of your sisters that, uh, might get married or, you know, are married. Imagine what it is to live with your mother-in-law all the time, right? And then be sick. And so nothing against my mom, but it's just a challenging situation, right? And, you know, to have her be sick and then for me to take care of her, you know, it's also a burden on my.
Burden on my mom, right? Like, oh, you know.
Being a health caretaker is something that umm is going to wear you out. And you know, I, there's a lot of people, umm, you know, I start to look at others who are sick and I really, they, it came to me and say, you know, they say, how is T Jones doing? But then like, how are you doing? And I didn't realize that as a caretaker that, you know, you can, you gotta be careful. And so umm, but through this, the Lord taught me so much umm in realizing that.
You know, we've got to give up of ourselves. Umm, and I think that's the one, one of the points that I wanted to really, umm, you know, sort of get that message out to you is that the Lord, if you want to follow the Lord.
Give up yourself, uh, give it all to the Lord, Umm, you know, if you start thinking of yourself and what, what's in it for you, you're gonna be really it, It's kinda be a long road and you're not gonna be very happy. Once I realized that, you know, umm, the Lord put me in this position, Umm, and you know, I've gotta take care of my wife, you know, she's my wife and umm, you know, he's gonna give me the strength to do it. And there were so many different things that were going around in my life because not only was she sick and umm.
And then at one point she couldn't even walk. We were in the hospital for, umm, a month and a half where she couldn't walk. So imagine, you know, and we don't, you know, for all of us, we don't know what a day brings. Umm, let's talk about, uh, in the meetings. Umm, just don't know what's going to happen. And, you know, this was unexpected. And so she couldn't walk. Umm, and here I am trying to, you know, be a new husband, a good husband to her. But what it can be, you know, it can be a load.
And, umm, you know, obviously I'm not gonna lie to you. We, we had some, you know, uh, arguments, umm, you know, because I thought I was, you know, I'm supposed to lead and I thought I knew best, but yet, umm, you know, she, umm, you know, I, I wasn't listening to her. So husband, uh, you know, listen, those that are about to get married, listen, umm, and those that are in relationships or actually all of us, because we're all in relationships, right? Learn to be good listeners. Umm, don't think that you know it all. Umm, one of the things that the other point that I really wanted to.
Portrayed with empathy, that's something that I learned is that understanding what other people are going through. You know, some people say, well, I know what you're going through and it's like really it's like, how do you, you know, can you relate? But you really can't sometimes and I know that they're being kind, but yet sometimes people who have gone through struggles, they understand and others that don't, you know, we just say you're praying for us, you know pray for others, but to be honest and umm, you know, we, you know that's the other thing that I always wanted to, uh, wanted to say is that.
00:10:10
There's people who really care for me and they were praying and that was maybe the most powerful thing, umm, that I learned later on that one can do is to pray, uh, uh, behind the scenes. And after my wife got better, umm, she's able to walk now. We're so thankful. Uh, you know, it's been a couple of years and she is at AI mean she's, we're still not out of the woods because I think the Lord still got a lot of things to teach me, umm, and her as well. Uh, we realized this. And so every day is somewhat of a dependent thing upon the Lord.
And so, but one of the things that, umm, people, they're trying to be helpful, but one of the things that we did here is that someone said, you know, this is 'cause, you know, there must have been, you know, sin in your life or our lives that must get rid of. And obviously we do examine ourselves. Everyone, when there's something that happens, you should examine yourself and be open with God. But then after a point, you know, you get those things taken care of. But when other people, you know, you know, when you go to somebody, if somebody's sick, don't automatically assume that they're sin in their life.
Umm, And that they did something, you know, awful because that really hurts. Umm you know, my wife because she wasn't sure what was going on. The doctors couldn't figure out what was going on. Umm, And so, you know, we just looked to the Lord, but even there we need to learn, we needed to be, we needed to learn to be gracious towards others because we knew that people cared. Umm, sometimes people, you know, there's a lot of stress going on. And so if you can be a help to people who are, are in difficult situations, I would just say, umm, you know, the most important thing is to pray for them. Umm maybe. And then when you're praying for them, maybe send a word of encouragement.
Umm, or something. Scripture is so powerful. I think, you know, I give my wife so much credit because there's things that I was trying to do to help her, you know, to feel better. And umm, you know, she was going through all of the pain, but yet it always came back to what I realized is that Scripture and the Word of God always encouraged her and gave her strength. Umm, you know, fortunately the Lord allowed us to, umm, you know, a situation where my mother-in-law was here and being able to live, umm.
You know, got into a situation where we were able to live in a duplex and my mother-in-law and my father-in-law that's next door. And that was an answer to prayer because I would have never imagined that could have happened because there's so many. I won't go into the details that, you know, my entire world had collapsed and umm. And so it's when I got to the bottom that I realized that the Lord was now going to pick me up and walking by, I started to learn what walking by faith is. And you've heard that probably from others too. It's like you got to get, you probably go to the bottom if you really want to see.
You know what the Lord is going to do in your life and really walk by faith. You hit rock bottom and there's nowhere else to go and you realize there's nothing in yourself and then the Lord picks you up and you start seeing amazing things. And so that's what the incredible thing is, is that I'm, you know, now I don't have as much care, umm, about I'm not as concerned about the long term because this was talked about today.
The Lord could come tonight, you know. Are you ready? Umm, you know the Lord can, umm, you know, he might come into, you know, 10 years from now. But again.
Uh, there was a sister Jill Fakhtar just in a car accident the other day, bus driver ended up having a heart attack, pushed her car into another semi. I mean, if you saw the car, you'd be amazed that she was, uh, you know, she came out of that was just soreness. She wasn't really injured. No one knows what a day is going to bring. And so think about that. As far as you guys are young, you guys have a lot of energy, but yet, and then you guys probably want to do a lot for the Lord, but the most, you know, we've heard it in many other messages in the past that the, the best thing that you can do is get close to the Lord and let him guide, umm, you know, make sure that you get that relationship with him because.
Once you deal, everything else starts to fall into place. And that's what I've been, umm, so I guess blessed to learn. And that's why I read these, uh, verses is because I started to realize that it's true. It's like, who wants trials in their lives? But you know that, uh, when you have trials in your life that you become dependent upon the Lord and there's nowhere else to turn right? Because the doctors can't figure out what was going on with her. I couldn't figure out, you know, and I'm an engineer.
And I like to try to solve problems and, and you know, others who are engineers, I'm sure, you know, that's sort of the way that our minds were taught, right? It's to solve problems. And I couldn't solve this problem. I didn't know what to do. And I still can't solve this problem. I have to be dependent on the Lord. And so it's, but it's a really good place to be and it's an amazing place to be because you see the Lord working in your life. And I start to now realize what it means to walk by faith.
00:15:05
You know, I was walking as a casual. You would see in the past. I would see in the past. But yeah, you know, I'm a OK Christian. I'm not doing anything, you know, umm, but you know, there was always that these are, you know, you come to these conference and you get energized, right? You hear messages and you, you want to do these things.
But yet are you willing to just give it all to the Lord and, you know, set aside the, the world's things and, umm, you know, once you do that, I think you're going to start to see some amazing things. So I am at 8:15. Umm, there's a lot more I can probably share with you. I would love to share with you, but, umm, I keep my time. And if you, I would love to, you know, talk with you guys and, and, uh, you know, in private, umm, and just share more, but to learn what's going on in your life and how you guys are an encouragement to us by the way that you walk.
And umm, in the way that you care for others, umm, so, you know, build those relationships, first of all with the Lord, umm, you know, give your license fully. Umm, I know it's a hard thing. So obviously it took me many years to deal, but umm, you know, you, you're going to be in for an exciting, uh, amazing ride. Umm, that walking by faith umm, is just gonna be, I don't know how to describe it. Umm, it's tough. I'm not gonna say it's easy, but uh, it, it is amazing. And when we get to glory.
He's gonna, once again, he should, he's gonna get the glory. I guess that would be the final thing that I say is when you make your decisions and the different things that you do, think about who gets the glory. And it really needs to be, you know, the father. And if he doesn't get the glory, you know, rethink, umm, the decision and the path that you're doing. So with that, I'll, I'll stop there and maybe just quickly give me a good thing. I think you still, you give thanks for the, the snacks afterwards, if I recall correctly from my OK.
Our God and our Father, uh, we just do look up to thee and umm, we thank you that there are amazing God and that that wants to that they would even have a relationship with us and in these hymns that that that would come down and save sinners. Umm, and thou knowest our hearts, Lord, and thou knowest how wicked they are. And umm, but you have given us a new life, a life that only wants to please you and we just ask that.
It would help us in our walk to be dependent upon the, but to be more like Christ and to, umm, be able to see, umm, the way that he lived his life down here and that we would be able to emulate that. And that, uh, he knows what we go through, Umm, and to give us the strength. We realize that the, these, with these young people, that they've got a whole life in front of them, but, uh, that they would just pray that, uh, they would, umm, learn to be depending upon the first and foremost.
In all things. And so, father, we also do thank you for, umm, thy provisions and the, the meal that was, uh, provided for the, the snack that's gonna be provided. Umm, and just thank you once again for umm, all the brothers and sisters here that all the work that they do to, to be an encouragement, umm, and, and especially in these last days. So we pray all these things in the precious name of our Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.
John 14:13-18
Reading
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278 Two, 7-8.
Three 1/3.
100 and we have.
A man.
00:05:20
For the as did he hear the Holy Spirit and minister to our yeast and what?
We know that it's the true desire of the new man within each one of us that belongs to the Lord Jesus. And we pray that as we are together here today that.
There might be that work of the Spirit in our hearts that these things would be carried out in our lives, that there would be changes made. Help us to not be satisfied with the status quo of our lives, but to press on to know the Lord Jesus.
To follow him. So we pray direction and help in the ministry here in this meeting and we pray in Jesus name, Amen. Amen.
Chapter 14.
Start with verse 13.
John, 1413.
And whatsoever ye shall ask in My name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If he shall ask anything in My name, I will do it. If you love me, keep my commandments, and I will pray the Father. And He shall give you another comforter, that He may abide with you forever. Even the Spirit of Truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him, but ye know Him, for He dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.
I will not leave you comfortless. I will come to you.
Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more. But ye see me because I live, ye shall live also at that day ye shall know that I am in my father, and ye, and me and I in you. He that hath my commandments and keepeth them, it is that loveth me. And he that loveth me shall be loved of my father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him. Judas saith unto him not Ascariot. Lord, how is it that thou wilt manifest thyself unto us, and not unto the world?
Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man loves me, he will keep my words, and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him and make our abode with him. He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings, and the word which He hears not mine, but the Fathers which sent me These things have I spoken unto you, being yet present with you but the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name. He shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.
Peace I leave with you, My peace I give unto you not as the world giveth, give I unto you.
Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. You have heard how I said unto you, I go away, and come again unto you. If you loved me, you would rejoice.
Because I said, I go unto the Father, for my Father is greater than I. And now I have told you before it come to pass, that when it is come to pass, you might believe here after I will not talk much with you. For the Prince of this world cometh and have nothing in me but that the world may know that I love the Father. And as the Father gave me commandment, Even so I do.
Arise, let us go hence.
We've had these various gains that would result from the Lord going back to heaven and sending the Holy Spirit. We have noted a number of them so far. And now we come to another in verse 13 and 14. And that is that they would have a greater power in prayer than before because they were going to ask in His name. When He has the promise there that if you ask anything in my name, I will do it. What a wonderful promise that was.
00:10:11
Might be helpful to notice in that regard that this is the first of four references to this privilege, the resource that they were going to have after the Lord Jesus left them.
This one, as you say, Brother Bruce, he brings out the name in which we ask. And so that's why when we pray, we pray in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. And that qualifies what we ask for, doesn't it? If we're asking in his name, we're going to be careful what we what we ask for. I'll use an illustration. It's been used before. But we'll suppose, Brother Bruce, that you come to Smith Falls to stay with my wife and I for a little while.
And, uh, I'm in and out and so I tell you, there's a store down at the end of the street and, uh, I have an account there. And anything you need during the day while we're gone, you go down and ask in my name and they will put it on account. Don't, please don't pay for anything. Just ask for what you need. And they know me well enough that they'll put it on my account. But let's suppose you go down the next day and for the sake of illustration, you ask for a carton of cigarettes and a case of beer.
The store owner knowing me would say I'm not so sure I can give you that.
In Jim Hyland's name, I know Jim Hyland and he isn't involved in those kinds of things. And he probably would refuse you the request, but you wouldn't go down in my name knowing you and ask for something that you know I wouldn't approve of. And so when we ask in the name of the Lord Jesus, it qualifies as we say what we ask for. But if we just so quickly to the 15th chapter, he brings out something else in connection with this resource.
Chapter 15 and verse 7, if you abide in me, and my words abide in you, you shall ask what you will, and it shall be done unto you. Here's the condition when we pray, and I think of that verse that says if I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me. But when we pray, if we're going to have an effective prayer life in making requests.
We must abide in Him, There must be a walk in communion and fellowship, and if there's not, it's going to hinder our prayers and what we, we ask for. So we ask, but it's a condition here abiding in Him. Then just drop down in the same chapter, the verse 16. You have not chosen me, but I have chosen you and ordained you that you should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain. Now notice this, that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father.
In my name He, He may give it you. Well, this is the one we pray to. They came to the Lord Jesus when He was here directly, but now they were going to have an even far greater privilege. They were going to know God as their Father in the intimacy of relationship that we spoke of yesterday. And as a result, they could come now directly to the Father and make requests. We could develop these, but then just one more very quickly in the 16th chapter.
And verse 23 in that day ye shall ask me nothing whatsoever. Ye shall ask the Father in my name. That will, will that I'm sorry, he will give it you. I wanna make a comment or two about this because I've talked to some recently, especially some young brothers who have a little confusion with this verse. This is telling us when we've spoken of the, the, the condition we've spoken of the, the condition in which we asked the one who we pray to. But this is when.
And when it says in that day you shall ask me nothing, what is that day? He's referring to the day when he was going to leave them and be absent from them. But some have misconstrued this to say that we should never ask the Lord directly for anything, that we never pray directly to the Lord. That is not what this statement is saying. This statement is saying that the day was coming when the Lord Jesus would no longer be physically with them on earth.
So that they could come directly to him like they had for those years of his public ministry. But brethren, there are times when we do pray to the Lord. I'll give you 2 examples. There are times when we ask for the gospel. He's Lord of the harvest. And as Lord of the harvest, he says, pray the Lord of the harvest that he'll raise up laborers, send them into the harvest field. We pray that he'll provide for them, give them fruit for their labor, give them souls, and so on.
00:15:13
Another time is he's head of the body.
And when there are things that affect the body as a whole, we come to the head of the body and we look for direction.
So there are times when we come directly to the Lord. Generally, yes, we pray to the Father in the name of the Lord Jesus.
But don't take this statement and say that we should never pray directly to the Lord. One more example.
We thank the Father for sending the Son, but wouldn't we be in grates if we didn't thank the Son for coming in obedience to the Father and giving Himself at Calvary's cross? We never want to confound the persons of the Godhead. To thank the Father for dying for us is simply unintelligent. And so we want to, we don't want to confound the persons of the Godhead. But I think these four scriptures, if you go back and meditate on them, you'll find them very helpful in connection with this resource that is introduced to us in our chapter.
Maybe another question. I hope this is a, a good question. Uh, but it, it was asked and, uh.
When we pray just to the Lord Jesus, then do we have to say in thy name?
Is that was, uh, our discussion out on the court last night. We didn't, we didn't have an answer. Is there, could you answer that or not? Is that.
Well, I suppose our prayers are always are never perfect. I can put it that way. We perhaps stumble sometimes. Perhaps we don't always use the right terminology or we use certain terminology in a wrong context. I don't have an answer to Tim's question specifically, but I would say to quoted him to all our prayers and praises. Christ adds his sweet perfume and love. The sensor raises these odors to consume. And so while we want to be careful and intelligent.
We've been saying in our prayers, however we pray, in the end, the Lord Jesus takes those prayers like the high priest with the sensor in the Old Testament, and he presents them to the year of God. And as imperfect as my prayers may be, when they reach the year of God, he has taken them as my high priest and they're perfect to God. And I'm thankful that God then takes that and He knows the in thoughts and intents of our hearts too.
Even though we don't express it in perfect language, that's really all I can say on the matter. I'm not sure there's a specific answer, maybe someone else has something.
I would suggest that there are times when one gets up to give thanks for the emblems on Lord's Day morning, and perhaps, uh, when we get up to give thanks to the, uh, cop.
We might begin the prayer with.
00:20:02
We thank thee, and then at the end of the prayer and Lord Jesus, we give thee thanks and thy precious name and then sign off with Amen. In the revelation it says I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I think there is nothing wrong and I think it's very appropriate to begin with the Lord Jesus and to end with the Lord Jesus.
That we have 22 hymns that are directly addressed to the Lord Jesus.
If you shall ask or petition anything in my name, the Father will do it.
It says I will do it. So E even if I'm addressing the Lord, it's not as if I'm commanding him or directing him to do something. I think it's still in the sense that I asked him in His name. In other words, thy will be done. If this is inconsistency with you and your character then.
It I I I'm asking that this be done and so.
Maybe that's a help, maybe it's not very good.
Mm-hmm. Thank you.
His table. It's not the Father's table, it's the Lord's table, and so we address him as such.
I think it's nice here as well when it uses this, uh, little word ask. It's different in connection with the Lord Jesus. Won't get into that right now, but it's uh, really in verse 13, whatsoever you shall ask in my name, it's a spirit, umm, in connection with, uh, how we address the Lord Jesus and how we pray to the Father in his name. And there is the need that we express our need and our dependence upon him.
And in John's epistle chapter five, he adds a little bit to it here. He says in chapter five of first John and verse 14 that this is the confidence that we have in him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He heareth us. And if or since we know that He hear us whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of Him. So he adds this little expression, Umm.
If it is according to His will, isn't it nice? Do we not have the confidence that God knows what's perfect for us? And so we we express our desires to Him, and we rely upon the perfection of His will. And we ought to ask, not demand, not insist upon, but to ask according to His will. And we just ask if it is His will, and recognize that His wisdom exceeds our natural wisdom.
And he delights to supply the need according to his wisdom.
Per perhaps umm, if you brought up a good point and, and I really enjoy if someone has developed these 3 verses a little bit better. It says that whatsoever you shall ask in my name that well, I do doesn't really say so much of praying to the Father here. It's that the Father might be glorified. So and then it goes on. It says if you shall ask anything in my name, I will do it. So it's.
It's it's a petition that's made that the Lord is going to accomplish something that the Father might be glorified. So it it might be nice if someone would develop exactly what is it that is being represented here. What's what's to be asked for that's consistent with the Lord doing. We might really understand what these verses mean.
This is the help for what goes on in that 12 verse. For the works that they would do that was fairly, fairly. I say unto you, He that believeth on me the works that I showed, shall He do also. The work that I do he should do also, and greater works than these shall he do, because I go unto the Father.
00:25:10
And then he says.
Mm-hmm. And what store, you shall ask in my name. So specifically, I believe the interpretation is that this was, uh, the help for the greater works that they would do. Yeah, of course it, it applies, there's applications, but I think that's the interpretation of it. Is that does that sound right? Yes. And it's interesting when you go through the book of the Acts, after the Spirit of God is given, after Christ has gone back to heaven and the Spirit of God is given, if you notice the instances in the book of the Acts where there's prayer, there's power and blessing.
And.
There are a few times when there is, doesn't seem to be prayer mentioned and there isn't the same blessing. So the power for the Christian life is, is prayer in the power in the, in communion with the Spirit. It's prayer in the Spirit of God that gives any one of us, whether it's in our lives individually, in the family or personal or collectively. The more pro prayer, the more power and blessing there's going to be. But I think you see it exhibited so beautifully in the Acts when they go out and uh, even in the first chapter of Acts before the Spirit is given.
They're in prayer and then after the Spirit is given, there's prayer to the Father, to the Son, and the power of the Spirit, and there's much blessing as a result.
I may suggest umm, you know I'm asking a new question, suggestions that this is not where we learn how to pray. Umm.
It's like.
You know, they didn't even know who the father was.
Who brings us, you know, maybe spiritual intelligence or divine intelligence. Do you see that he's threatened full. I don't think it's a matter of either or because the God and Father of our Lord and Christ. If you look and see how all is praying into the epistle. He brings both together when he wants. It's just he brings to God our Father and.
Of our Lord your strike without me, I just kind of throw this out the question.
But, uh, you know, there's many Christian circles where all they learn is the Lord's Prayer. And so I don't know that it's, uh, you know, wrong and right. But as we grow, and I'm not trying to judge anybody by their prayer, and that's not what I'm saying, but it's been a big thing that I've thought about is how we pray sometimes awkward, sometimes we pray for the Father, sometimes we're praying to the Lord Jesus. In fact, I really like how Paul when he prays and he expresses its Goddard.
I really like somebody to look at the scriptures because they all have our own ideas here. And then there's what Scripture has here. Maybe somebody could bring us out all doctrine because that's where we're at right now. It's all done, yeah.
So. So is it right to say then that this is not really bringing out general requests to the Lord?
But it's really bringing out what represents the furthering of his work.
We do have a scripture in in Romans 19, the character of the request two, because in some cases where we know the mind or the will of God, we can ask in a positive way.
But where we don't know, we can ask enough if it's the Lord's will. And you get that in, in the, uh, verse 10 of the first chapter, making requests, if by any means now at length, I might have a prosperous journey by the will of God to come unto you. So it was a request of the Lord and he didn't know the answer. He didn't have a prosperous journey. He had a perilous journey. But thank the Lord, we have the epistle to of the Romans.
In God's mind and in God's will, it worked out that way for blessing.
So the more we walk in fellowship and communion with the Lord, the more we are going to ask His will.
Whether it's a connection with the gospel, whether it's in connection with the blessing of the people of God, whether it's in connection with something in the local assembly or I believe too. And we can apply it in connection with our family, our personal life. Because it's we want to make it clear that when it says here you shall, if you shall ask anything in my name, I will do it. And then as we read in the 15th chapter, where he says again in verse 7.
00:30:24
Ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you. It doesn't mean he gives us everything we want rather, but there are again qualifying things. Is it for the glory of the, of God? Is this gonna bring glory to the, to God the Father? Is this going to be for the blessing of, of souls? That ought to be our first thought when we pray in connection with something. But just in connection with this in a practical way, very practical way. Go back to the Psalms for a moment.
Psalm 37, I believe.
Psalm 37.
And verse 4.
Delight thyself also in the Lord, and He shall give thee the desires of thine heart. Commit thy way unto the Lord, Trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass. I would just suggest that what we have here is again not that He gives us everything that we desire, but in the measure in which we walk in fellowship with Himself. His desires become our desires.
And if His desires are our desires, then when we ask for something, it is going to be according to His will, and He will bring it to pass. But brethren, if we're willing to leave it in His hand, it may not be exactly to pass in the way that we thought, or as quickly as we thought committed unto the Lord. He'll bring it to pass. But as our brother Ernie said, it is so important in the day-to-day things of life to always pray in the spirit of the Lord Jesus.
Nevertheless, not my will, but thine be done in James. It tells us we ought to say, if the Lord will.
We shall live and do do this or that. Now there are things, as Ernie said, that we should. We don't have to wonder if it's the Lord's will. Let me just give you an example off the subject a little bit. Let me give you an example. Maybe there's someone here who's praying about whether they should remember the Lord or not in the breaking of bread. Well, it's good to be exercised as to the place where the Lord is, but you don't have to pray and ask the Lord if it's His will for you to remember Him in the breaking of bread.
He has asked us to do in in remembrance of me. And so there are some things we have scripture for. You're praying for a loved one. You don't have to pray and ask the Lord if it's his will that that loved one be saved because it's God's will that all men be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. But again, very practically in the day-to-day things of life, it is good to pray that if it's like if it's by will because as we said earlier, often our prayers are very imperfect and checkered with self.
Asking in our prayers with any kind of accuracy, and then according to the will of God, he mentions two things.
If you abide in me, that's communion, and my words abide in you. That's intelligence. When these two things are coupled together in our prayer requests, as the rest of the verse flows, it says you shall ask what you will, and it should be done unto you. And so it brings in the dimension of state of soul as well when these things are being asked.
Mentioned yesterday that in this chapter we have a, uh, the disciples being brought into relationship with the three divine persons. And again, that was a revelation. Really. They knew a little of that in the Old Testament, but not much. I, the, uh, first three verses we mentioned they're brought particularly in relationship with the Lord himself versus 4 through 14 with the Father and then the rest of the chapter with the Spirit of God.
But I just wanted to mention that I found it very helpful to see that there's different names that are characteristic of the dispensations in Scripture. For instance, in the days of the patriarchs, the name that God used in particular with the patriarchs was the Almighty, the one that could fulfill and would then have the resources to fulfill his promises to the patriarchs. And I think this is important before I go on, because you often find that, uh, Christendom.
00:35:12
Uh, people just use the generic name of God, it's God, God, God without distinguishing as Scripture does so often. And so as I mentioned, the different dispensations have different characteristic dispensational names. And umm, uh, when Israel went forth out of the land of Egypt, uh, they were introduced to God as the name of Jehovah was the particular covenant name of God with Israel when they entered into the land under Joshua.
We noticed that the name there was, uh, the, the, umm, the Lord of the whole earth because it looked forward to the time when the Lord would take possession of the earth. And when we come to the New Testament, of course, we know that the particular dispensation name that God takes with this dispensation is Father. That's the most intimate name. Well, how about the next dispensation? If we can call the tribulation the dispensation? Well, it's Lord God Almighty.
You notice that expression, the number of times in the Book of Revelation, because he's taking his rightful place, He's taking the, the, uh, his rightful deed to the earth. And then how about the, uh, the Millennium? Well, he's called the most high God, so it's good to distinguish the names here, isn't it? And so as we pass on beyond the Father here, we recognize that we have that special relationship with God, knowing him as our Father. That's the characteristic.
Dispensational name at this present time.
These men would be the servants of the Most High God, sensationally out of faith.
In communion with the Lord and according to His will, and so on.
But it's the time frame for the answer that comes to bear upon our state of soul. And as we pray and we agonize before the Lord and we see no answers, we see nothing coming. And very often we begin to question whether we're asking in the right way or the right time or the with the right name. And I don't think that that's really the issue with regard to our personal prayers. It is to persist in prayer. Scripture tells us to persevere in prayer.
I think we got an illustration of that in the story of Elijah and Mark Carmel. If you just turn over there real quickly, I'll give you a few little pointers illustrated in that, uh, incident when he prayed.
That's, uh, first Kings 18, I believe it is.
Yes, first Kings 18 verse 41. And Elijah said to Abhi, get the eat and drink, and for there is a sound of abundance of rain. So Ahab went up to eat and drink. And Elijah went up to the top of caramel. He cast himself down upon the earth and put his face between his knees. And he said to his servant, go up, now look toward the sea. And he went up and looked and said, so there's nothing he said.
Go again seven times it came to pass, and the 7th time that he said, Behold, there right with a little cloud out of the sea, like a man's hand. And he said, Go up and say, they have prepared thy chariot, and get thee down for the rain. Let the rain stop thee knot. And it came to pass the meanwhile that the heavens were black plows and wind, and there was great rain. So you get another number of different things here, elements we might call them, of effectual prayer. First of all, there was the sound of rain.
How did you know that there was no rain yet?
That's in verse 41, the sound of abundance of rain. There is intelligence. He knew that it was coming. He went up to Carmel. That speaks to us of nearness to God, communion. He cast himself down. That speaks to us of humility. He put his face between his knees. That speaks to us of dependence. Knees and Scripture always speaks of dependence. He looked toward the sea. That speaks of faith that would watch for the answer.
And again, he says, go seven times. There's perseverance.
Last but not least, he said, go over and prepare the chariot to Ahab. There we have.
Confidence.
And so when these things are present with us, the Lord will delight to answer his prayers. But let's not give up just because the Lord delays the answer. Delays are not denials. He's chasing our spirits. He's searching for the right spirit in our us as we wait for these prayers to be answered. And it's not for us to wait till the Lord when it should be done.
00:40:39
The next person says if you love me, keep my commandments. It doesn't say if you keep my commandments. Uh, you'll be showing your love to me.
And I was just thinking connection with the what was just said about the different names of God in connection with the dispensations.
I it's not that I have to keep in my mind, well I need to use this expression because it's correct for the day in which I am, but rather.
If I'm in the good of the relationship into which I have been brought, then through the Spirit of God, I'm going to cry. ABBA Father, it's going to be that which flows from my heart. And so if we love him.
Then.
There's going to be a desire to keep his commandments and hear his commandments are not the law. It's the sense of his instruction the the things that he has given us. And so I think a lot of times.
As Bruce has just said, when the prayer is not answered, we get hung up. Well, maybe I didn't ask it the right way. As if it's uh.
A formula and and that's and and and really a lot of times the waiting is to produce that cry from our heart. That is really what God is waiting to hear that cry of ABBA father in complete and utter dependence. Now it's good to realize that we have been brought into this relationship as sons sonship and by the Spirit of God we can indeed try ABBA father that God is not some distant.
Figure he's not a heavenly Father in the sense that he's far away. Now, sometimes we, we say heavenly Father to distinguish from our earthly father. But and so it is good to realize that we have a nearness. And if if we have never knelt by the side of our beds and just poured out our hearts to our Father, then we're, we're missing something. But what I'm saying is you can't use certain words to get into a certain state of soul. It's the state of soul that produces the words that God wants to hear.
The explanation of the difference between the commandments of the Old Testament and the commandments of the New Testament put in very simple terms. The commandments of the Old Testament were. Do this and you will live The commandments of the New Testament are.
Live and you will do this. So in the Old Testament, the commandments were given to man in the flesh who had a nature that was at enmity with God and didn't want to fulfill those commandments. The difference is now that God has given us a new life, and that new life that we have in Christ is a life that wants to do His commandments, and so it manifests.
The life that is already there, it's, it's, it's beautiful to think if you are a real believer, you have a desire to do those commandments. I still remember a problem in South America one time that came up between a couple of sisters that got into a disagreement and one of them said I hate that sister and a brother I thought was wise in his answer, he says.
If you are not born again into God's family, maybe it is true you do hate that sister. But if you have been born into God's family, you have a life and a nature that is capable of loving that sister. And that's the truth of the matter. Brethren, these are commandments of the New Testament. The New Testament is full of commandments. It should be our desire. We read through the New Testament and.
00:45:09
There's lots of commandments there. Quench not the Spirit, despise not prophesying. Those are commandments. It doesn't say do it if you like.
Loving one another, that's a command it's given many times. Doesn't say if you feel like it. No, you have a nature that loves like God loves. God loves us not because we're lovable. God loves us because God is love. And in that same way, we can love one another.
These are the commandments that you're talking about.
Through fear of death where their whole lifetime subject to ******* as you say. Why would a person not go out and pick up sticks on the Sabbath day? Because there was a penalty. If the law was carried out to the letter, there was a penalty and the penalty was very severe. It was ultimate. And so a person kept the commandments in the Old Testament.
For a different reason. I'm not saying there weren't those in the Old Testament whose heart didn't respond. There certainly was. David said I love the Lord and one of his songs and so on. And so he says, if ye love me. It's interesting in John's gospel that this is the first time he speaks of the disciples love for the Lord. Many times in this gospel we have the Lord's love for his disciples. We noted it yesterday at the beginning of this ministry in the 13th chapter.
Having loved His own, which were in the world, He loved them unto the end. But now we come to this, if ye love me. But brethren, it isn't that we try to generate a response of love within ourselves for the Lord. I don't think that's going to work. What is it that's going to generate a response of love to the Lord Jesus? What is it that's going to deepen our love for Him? Well, it's to be occupied with Himself and to appreciate more His love for us.
So many times before this verse, this statement, the love of the Lord for his disciples is confirmed, and that is the springboard. Then for him to finally say, if ye love me again. If we were to go back to an illustration in the Old Testament, when the bride and the Song of Solomon was asleep, and then she's awakened and she begins to be restored to her bridegroom and she goes over his qualities.
And, uh, she's occupied with himself more and more, and the the clouds and the lattices removed and so on. What happens at the end? Her response is far, far greater. There's no doubt her love is far deeper at the end of it all. Why? Because she was trying to generate a response within herself. No, occupied with the bridegroom, his love for her, his qualities and his beauties.
Awakened within her, perhaps an affection that she never had before. And brethren, that's what we need. And if we, if there's love, then his commandments are not going to be grievous. Because as Albert Hey Ho used to tell us in Christianity, when there's love, a request has the power of a command. And you don't have to beg someone to do something for you. If there's real love. No, in fact, maybe you don't even have to express it out loud, But they know that's your desire and there's real love and affection there.
Oh, they go ahead and do it. You say, oh, I didn't even have to ask because there was real affection. So that's what he wants from us. If we're going to keep his commandments, it needs to be that there is that love to him and then we are going, there's going to be an unconscious almost response to keep his word and to not deny his name.
If we have the Spirit of God, we would have power to walk like that.
But I, I have some questions regarding the context here because he's asking them to love me and keep my commandments. And then he says, and I will pray the father and he shall give you another comforter that he may abide with you forever. So this is almost like you got the, the, the horse before the cart. You know, I don't I, I understand what we're saying and I appreciate it because if we have the Spirit of God, we have the power.
To be able to love him and to keep his commandments. But this is asking to love him and to keep his commandments before he has the Spirit of God.
00:50:05
Then he says I will pray the Father and he will send you another comforter. Help me to understand the context here.
The book of John. I remember Eric Smith saying this often times the book of John can easily be outlined with three words. The 1St is life. That's the 1St 12 Chapters of John. So this is predicated on having new life isn't it? The natural response of new life is the love the Lord Jesus. Now it's true the power comes later on, but the natural response of life.
Is, uh, to love the Lord Jesus and to seek to keep his commandments. The power comes perhaps later on. And then the second word that gives us an outline for John the, the chapters we've been going over 13 through 17 is light. He's giving them the intelligence that goes along with this new life. Now, just as Bob was saying about the commandments, we had to have the life first before we could appreciate the new commandments. And then finally in the last chapters.
18 through the end of the book, it's the Lord Jesus shows his love in a way that's unmatched in the universe. So those 3 words, I think, give us an outline. And again, that's one of the ways that it's absolutely different from the Old Testament commandment. But I do have a question for you, Bob, that I'd appreciate, uh, your addressing. Speak about these commandments. How does that differ from Christian legality?
The commandments of the New Testament are given to man in Christ that has the desire to do them, and they are channels to direct that new life in Christ. But it is not a legal force thing like it was in the Old Testament. That's the way I understand it.
There is legality and I think it is trying to put the flesh under a code of ethics that it's not able to take care of, wouldn't you say? Is that what you have in mind? I wanted to hear your answer, but.
And it's more outward moral conformity without the heart being gauged. We can line everybody up and have them look the same and do the same thing. Like we used to have tin soldiers when I was a boy. But that's more outward moral conformity without the heart being engaged. But when the heart, as we've been saying, is really engaged, then there's a, there's that response to please and to walk according to the truth and the commandments that he has given us. Because as we've been saying, it really is a question of the heart. Just say to in connection with what Ed raised.
That you have to realize, as we said at the beginning of these meetings, that in these chapters he's making provision for them after he left them and the Spirit of God is given. And so it's an anticipation of his departure. What you have in these chapters is really the seed of the truth that is later developed in the epistles because as we find later on, there were many things that he wanted to tell them and develop, but they couldn't take the minute this time.
He just gives them, shall I say, a very basic outline of those resources that we're going to be provided for them after he was gone and the Spirit of God came down. But it's really an anticipation, isn't it, of what they would have and enjoy and appreciate after He had departed out of the world under the Father.
He could say I have finished the work which thou has given me to do. He hadn't even gone to the car. It's all in vicivatory like you say. Even when he said I am the way, the truth and the life that hadn't come yet. But he was the way to the Father. There was no way to the father unless he died and and brought us into relationship. He's the truth as to the father. He manifested him while he was here, he said.
He tells him, Thomas, uh, have now been so long with me and no, it's not the father. So and he is gives the life that we can enjoy the father communion with the father. So he's the way the truth and the life. Oh, that's not common history. But as we say, John anticipates and so.
00:55:00
He writes outside the realm of time. Yeah. Yeah, that's good.
So verse 16 begins with an end that doesn't separate versus.
15 and 16 it assumes that there is that new life and desire to do his commandments, and there is the Spirit of God as the power of that new life hadn't been given yet but was characteristic of Christianity when it was, uh, coming to full display in the book of the Acts. I will give, pray the Father, and he shall give you.
Another comforter, beautiful word. It's the same word we have in first John chapter 2 and it's translated in our Bibles as advocate. It's one who represents us. We have one advocate in the presence of God, the Lord Jesus. We have another 1A comforter or an advocate here with us.
Uh, uh, representing us and acting for us. Wonderful truth.
That he may abide with you forever.
The Spirit of God will be with us forever. Never again will there be a time when the Spirit of God will not dwell in US completely. Wonderful truth.
Then he expands on that. He says even the spirit of truth. It's interesting. The Spirit of God sometimes is mentioned as the Spirit of God, sometimes the Holy Spirit.
But here it is the spirit of truth. It's in connection with the revelation, the complete revelation that we have of God as the Father.
Even the spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him, but ye know him. And notice this last part, for he dwelleth with you.
The Lord Jesus was there and the Spirit of God had filled him, so he was with them. But then notice the last phrase is shall be in you. That's future because it was on the day of Pentecost that the Spirit of God came down and dwelt in them. And from that time forward, a believer who in this day accepts the Lord Jesus as his Savior.
Believes the gospel of his salvation according to.
Uh, Ephesians 113 when he believes the gospel of his salvation, he sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise, and the Spirit of God never again leaves that person.
Is that collective?
Vernon was simply that when he says he is with you, that is the truth that was at that moment he was the Spirit of God was with them in that he was in the Lord Jesus. He filled the Lord Jesus. He's with them and shall be in you and I would say that is.
The truth that we are brought together by 1 Spirit, By 1 Spirit have we been baptized into one body?
The Spirit of truth in the Lord.
But he was trying to come individually.
Indwell them because.
So I I think that the Spirit of God did not indwell them collectively at that time, did they? No, but he.
Was with them collectively. That's the person of the Lord Jesus Christ.
In the context here, it's int, it's individual, isn't it? John isn't taking up here the subject of the church collectively. It's the individual believer and the resources for them individually. Now there's plenty of scriptures when we go on to Paul's ministry and so on. And when you go on to the book of the Acts and you read what happened to show that the Spirit of God did come to do 2 Things.
01:00:15
To dwell collectively in the Church of of God, the new unit that was formed on the day of Pentecost, and individually in each, in each believer. So we find in Corinthians 2 Things collectively where the temple of the Holy Ghost and individually our bodies are the temple of the of the Holy Spirit. So those two things are true, but in the context here, it's a very, it's intensely individual.
Does that in the new translation, uh, read for he shall allow with you, or does it does it take well with you?
It says verse 17 in the new translation says the Spirit of truth, whom the well cannot receive, because it does not see Him, nor know him, but ye know him, for He abides with you, and shall be in you.
I like this expression, the comforter, and it's beautiful to see that it's the advocate of Bob pointed out, but I like it the way it is right in our King James Bible for this reason. And it's really part of the it's really the thought and that is that the Spirit of God sent down on the day of Pentecost has come down to meet us in our present need to minister Christ to us mainly in as to our present need. And what did the disciples need at this time?
They need a comfort and so he's telling them there's gonna be an another comforter. The Lord comforted them on the occasion. He was the comfort of their hearts. At the beginning and ending of the chapter, He says let not your heart be troubled. He gives them these things for their comfort. But he says, I'm not gonna be with you the way I have been, but I'm not gonna leave you comfortless. I'm gonna send down Ano another comforter. And rather is there someone here who needs comfort today? Your heart is sorrowful.
Something's happened in your life, you can be comforted because the Spirit of God has been sent down as another comforter. Now we have the Lord as our comfort too. We have the Father as our comfort too, and there are scriptures that bring that before us. Isn't it wonderful that the whole Trinity is interested in your comfort? Whatever sorrow you've been passing through, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are there to give you that comfort that's needed.
I was thinking about it to answer, uh, to Eric's question. Uh, it wasn't answered pretty well, but there is a scripture about you, the commandments not being, you know, bringing us into legality. That's not what it means. Umm.
And that's not what we have here is there's a.
Is John and the epistle's dawn. It says his dawn says later on. It's a magnifying lyrics, so they're not verbatim wireless. So it's a very positive thing. And uh, you know, we want to try to put ourselves under all kinds of rules. How I'm amazing myself. I always want to check to make sure I'm doing good enough. We all have this thing inside of us on the left and our quest profits. Nothing business is uh, but that's he doesn't want that for he doesn't want to put it under his diversion whatsoever.
50 uh, one draw apart after himself you want them to find accusing him. So we want to, uh, desire to do it out as well, but give the thing.
01:05:12
He knew exactly the same from the very beginning.
He also tells us that he and his father are one, so we can presume that he knew.
The Father's heart and what the Father's will was for him.
But I'm kind of perplexed by this verse in loop.
Where he said in Luke chapter.
22.
He prayed and he says, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me.
Nevertheless, not my will, but mine begun.
Is that brother?
What I have enjoyed in that prayer is I'm not sure if we can use the word dilemma, but the Lord Jesus was facing the cross.
He was a completely holy, intrinsically holy, and the thought of being made sin was so totally.
Outside of his experience that he just shrunk from it, everything in him shrunk from the thought of being made sin for us. But in Luke's Gospel, you have the struggle there in the Garden of Gethsemane greater than in any the other gospels. That's where it says, uh, he sweat as it were, great drops of blood falling down to the ground, but in the complete submission.
Of a completely, uh, submissive man, some completely, completely, uh, proper man, he vows to the will of God and goes forward. And so it wasn't doubt he knew what that will was. But somebody has said it. If he hadn't have shrunk from that cross, from that thought of being made sin, you might have had reason to believe if he was completely.
Intrinsically holy, but in the submission to God.
He vows and says, not my will, but thine be done. So in the Gospel of Luke, when it comes to those three hours of darkness on the cross, you don't have the cry of abandonment because he was so completely submissive to the will of God. I mean, it is extremely beautiful to think of it in that way. I don't think there was any doubt there.
You might say delimit in that the same way as in John's gospel where the Lord Jesus comes to the point and says.
Uh, father saved me from this hour for this cause came I into this hour. And so there was those two things that were in play, but a completely perfect man met that situation. Incomplete perfection. What beautiful.
Of the characteristics of our present day brethren. The presence and power of the Holy Spirit.
Today we, uh, in US collectively and individually, and to me it seems so important that we be sensitive as to the presence of the Spirit of God with us and in US collectively.
And individually, what does it mean to be led by the Spirit? What does it mean to walk in the Spirit? Is there a consciousness of that in our lives? Brethren, that's why the Spirit of God is here. He is the power of that new life that we have now that we are believers in this present dispensation. To me, it is the most wonderful thing to think of. The Spirit of God dwells.
01:10:19
In US collectively, do we give him liberty to guide us in our assembly meetings and This is why I honestly value increasingly the rating meeting. Do we have the fleshiness? Yes we do. Do we make mistakes? Yes, we do, but thankfully there are brethren and the Scripture says let the prophet speak to or three.
And let the others judge. And that's what we're doing here. There might be something that I say that is not quite right, but there are other brethren that are going to say, brother, here's another verse. And in that way the truth is maintained. It speaks about the assembly in First Timothy chapter 3 of being the pillar and ground of the truth. The assembly is not the truth. The assembly is the pillar and ground of the truth. That's where the truth should be made pain. That was God's purpose.
But it is in assembly meetings like this that there is the, uh, ability to uphold the truth of God. And I think it's so important that we do give liberty to the Spirit of God in our assembly meetings.
To uphold that precious truth here it is called the spirit of truth. He will not give testimony.
To what is false and I often think, and it's interesting, brother, and sometimes in our meetings things are said that are not quite right.
The Spirit of God in you and in me are not going to give testimony. And I've often heard somebody say that didn't ring true. Why didn't it? Because the Spirit of God gives testimony to the truth of God and.
It's it's a wonderful thing to give him his place in that way.
197.
Three Hindrances
Address—Bruce Anstey
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Let's begin the meeting this afternoon by singing #294.
O Come, thou stricken Lamb of God, who sheds for us thine own life blood, and teach us all I love. Then pain in life we're sweet and death we're gain #294.
Oh come, thou stricken Lamb of God.
For us I.
Fly.
Nsnoise.
Let's ask God's blessing on His word. Our God and our Father. We look up to the.
And thank you for the Lord Jesus Christ, the relationship that we've been brought into through what he did at the cross. May it touch our hearts, affect our hearts, affect our lives, we pray.
Now this prayer hymn that we have sung to Thee, Lord Jesus, may it be the true expression of our hearts. We think of how we want to know and enjoy that I love better and more. Yet our lives seem to reflect that we are not enjoying it as we should. We confess to these that, uh, we have failed in the pathway, and I've not walked as closely as we should have. But this day we asked you that that would give us a fresh recharge reset.
00:05:27
May we set our steps forward because the time is short now. It's coming. We know, and we wanna be Lord Jesus in a good state of soul without us. Give that shout. So we pray for every person here in the audience this afternoon that we would hear words that would lift up our hearts, quicken our pace, Lord Jesus and divine things, and that we would live the last few days of our lives for Thee.
We asked thy help on thy word. Now we ask our God in the name for the glory of thy Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
Brother Al Coleman told me a story years ago when he was young.
Long before I was born, I think. But anyway, Brother Eric Keating from the assembly where I come from, along with the Lord, now illustrated the brevity of life to young people and children at Sunday school, and he came out with a board.
And it was covered with uh tin foil, and on the board there were 3 candles, one tall candle, and there was a medium sized candle. Then there was a little stubby candle and he lit the candles, had them on fire there before the children.
Then he said, I want you to know that these 3 candles represent a young person, a middle-aged person and an older person and I want you to tell me which ones they are. Well he got a lot of hands and a lot of help. They all wanted to tell him what the answer was. And they all said that the little one would be the young people in the middle-aged, won't be in the older one, would be the the bigger handle would be the older one and he had to tell them that they were all wrong.
The little one represents the old folks, those of us who have been down the path some distance, you know that little candle was once a big candle, but it's Wick is almost all burnt out and it's just got a little bit left to go before it's done under normal circumstances.
That's what happens. But the little, the big candle represents the children, the young people. You got a lot of work to burn if the Lord doesn't come. And you know, my question for us this afternoon is what we're doing with our time, what we're doing with our WIC. We wanna put it that way. Are we just burning it for ourselves, for our own interests? Or are we burning it for the Lord Jesus, for His cause in this world?
Let's look at 2 verses.
2 verses, the first one in Acts chapter 20.
Acts, Chapter 20.
Verse 24 to 27.
None of these things move me, neither can't I myself life dear of unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy. And the ministry which thou hast received, I have received of the Lord Jesus to testify the gospel of the grace of God. And now behold, I know that ye all among whom I have gone preaching the Kingdom of God, shall see my face no more. Wherefore I take unto you record this day, that I am pure from the blood of all men.
For all, uh, for I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God and one other Scripture, to compare Second Timothy chapter one, Second Timothy chapter one.
Verses 11 and 12.
Whereunto I am appointed A preacher and an apostle, and a teacher of the Gentiles, for which 'cause I also suffer these things. Nevertheless I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed, and I'm persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day.
00:10:01
Now I've read these two scriptures.
For comparison's sake, the first scripture that I read had to do with what Paul was doing in what he calls this day.
And the second one that I read has to do with what he was looking forward to in what he calls that day. And so it brings before us this very simple fact that Paul, as he served and lived for the Lord Jesus, had two days before him, and only two days before him. He had this day, and he had that day. He had this present hour and day which he could use for the Lord and serve in whatever way. And he did those things which he did in those days, in that day.
In view of another day, that day, that day of coming glory, when there will be a manifestation of our lives before the whole world. And He lived in view of that. In fact, that day motivated this day in his life. Now He set before us in the Scriptures as a model for us. We learned that from the first chapter of First Timothy. And so I can safely, justifiably ask this question to each one of us.
What are we doing?
In this day, in view of that day, what are we doing with our time, dear young people, in view of the day that's coming, when there's going to be a manifestation of what we've been doing with our lives? You know, Mr. Hayhoe used to tell us a story. He said, you know, each one of us are like making a present in our lives for the Lord Jesus, and he's going to open someday at the judgment seat of Christ. Just think of it in that way. Your life and mine is like a little present that I'm making up for the Lord.
And it's gonna be presented to him at that day, and he's gonna open it. He's gonna see what I thought of him. He's gonna see what my life was really all about, or if he's gonna manifest it because he knows and sees it now.
And I have thought about that a lot, because we can live one way for ourselves and we can live another way for the Lord and for his pleasure.
But uh, the challenge for us today is what are we doing in view of that day? There's a time coming at the judgment seat of Christ when he my name is gonna be called.
And so to speak, I'm gonna go give him that present and he's gonna open it.
He's gonna look at it.
What will he see in my life? What will he see in your life? That was for him. I asked this question for the search our hearts this afternoon because the Bible says First Corinthians Chapter 7. The time is short. The time is short. You said time is not short. I got a big candle on my hands. Under normal circumstances, if the Lord doesn't come or tragedy sets in, in your life, you do have a big candle to burn.
But the time is short and we must live as if we have little time because we do not know the future. We do not know what tomorrow holds. There could very well be many of us here in this audience that will not be here in a few months in this world, because the Lord could have come. That would be all of us, my trust. Or one of us or two of us could have met tragedy in the way of death. So even though we have a candle to burn, that maybe have some considerable.
Length of Wick. We mustn't look at it in that way. We must look at it.
That we have time being short and we need to use it for the Lord Jesus. Now I want to look at three different hindrances that there are in the pathway to living our lives to the Lord. Because there is a conflict that we're involved with. There is a spiritual conflict that every one of us are in. We may not feel the conflict. We may not be even be aware of it. We heard about that last night in the Gospel meeting. But there is a very real conflict and there is a the far the forces of evil.
All right, over our heads vying for our time and for our life and uh, to turn us out of the pathway. And there are three hindrances. I say that I would like to speak about this afternoon that we need to be aware of and know what God would have for us to do to meet those things so that we would not be turned out of the side and have our life wasted on trivial things of this world and of nature and other things that I really don't count for the Kingdom of God.
Before I mentioned some of these these three things, I just like to point out something.
And uh, it's in uh, Luke's Gospel, chapter 24. There's a real touching verse to my heart, and that's, uh, read that together. Luke's Gospel, chapter 24.
00:15:15
You know to to motivate us and to cause us to have conviction and and interest in trying to live our lives for the glory of the Lord Jesus and glory the glory of God requires hearts that have been committed to him and carts that have been touched. And the problem is with many of us is we don't feel the touch of God in our hearts. And so many times we live our lives, many weeks and days, months where we're really living them for trivial things that have no.
Eternal significance. The thought of living for this, living in this day, for that day, brings into the perspective of what is being done for eternity. And I think it's important that we keep that before us. So in Luke's Gospel chapter 24, we know the subject. The subject is these two that are going down the road to a Mass. They're discouraged because what they had thought was going to happen didn't happen, and they were going to go home to their home, any Mass. The Lord met up with them. His eyes, their eyes were holding. They didn't know it was Him, and He opened the Scriptures to them.
And he talked with them, by the way. And what was the result, they say?
Verse 32 And they said one to another, Did not our heart burn within us while we talked with us in the way, and while he opened to us the scriptures?
You know you want your heart to burn for the Lord Jesus. This is the formula right here. There are two things that were that made their hearts burn, and they mentioned them here. Well, they talked with him and he opened to them the scriptures. In other words, reading and prayer are what will cause our hearts to burn within. Our hearts will be touched and motivated, and they'll be conviction produced by the power of the Spirit of God.
In our lives. And so I can't insist more strongly, dear young people and all of us, that we need to spend more time in the word of God, in prayer with the Lord, talking to him, because the more we take time to be alone with the Lord.
Great things happen. The heart gets burning. There's fire inside.
And it results in devotion of heart and transform lives. And so it's very important that we take time to be alone with the Lord. That's what they were doing. They were just alone with the Lord.
And he opened the scriptures to them. What a wonderful exposition they must have heard. And he talked with them. What a wonderful conversation that must have been. And you know, that's open to us too. In principle. We can talk with the Lord and have the scriptures open. And what a wonderful thing it is to provision that God has given to us in this day. And the results are all good. The heartburn heart is touched. Lives have changed, you see. What about their lives? They turned them right around. They were going the wrong direction.
They returned to Jerusalem, where they where their brethren were, and they found that the Lord was there too. So that's one way in which the Lord touches hearts. And I recommended heartily to each one of you dear young people, do you take time to read your Bible? I don't mean read a few verses, slam it shut. I'm talking about taking time to be with the Lord, to talk to Him. You know, there's a verse that I wanted to get into the Bible reading a child. Now I have the mic. I will do.
I'm just kidding. But uh, Psalm 62. I think it's verse seven or eight. It says pour out thy heart before him. Isn't that a beautiful verse? Just pour out your heart. Well, you know, the Lord loves to hear our hearts being poured out to him. I'll show you a verse in the Bible that says that it's John 20. There was, uh, Mary Magdalene. She was weeping.
Her beloved had been taken away through death, and she was weeping. And what did he say to her woman? Why weeping style, You know, What would he ask that question for? Did he not know what she was waiting for? Of course he did. Why did he ask that question? Because he wanted her to tell him. He wanted her to pour out her heart and to let him know how she felt.
Pour out thy heart before him. Psalm 62.
What a wonderful verse. Let me.
So our hearts will burn if we to spend time with our blessed Lord Jesus. But you know, there's another way in which God makes our hearts, touches our hearts. And I want to turn to that now. And that's enjoyable. Help me find this.
00:20:04
Job, I think it's 23.
Yes, it is job 23 and verse 16.
Job 23 verse 16.
For God maketh my heart soft. Oh, isn't this something? And the almighty trouble is me. Here's another way in which the Lord and God touches hearts of his people. He makes them soft. And when our hearts are soft to become impressionable. And the Lord can impress us and and create change as far as the soul is concerned with evidences and change of life. Maybe you're saying this afternoon that's what I want. A soft heart. Wait a minute.
Read the latter part of the verse. The Almighty troubles me. You know, the way in which He makes our hearts soft many times is through allowing trouble in our lives. I don't say trouble necessarily, because we've done something wrong and we're treading the wrong path. He might very well do that for such a case, even if we're seeking to go on the pathway. The Lord does allow trials and difficulties and troubles to come in through the path. Because He wants to soften the heart. Because He wants to speak to the heart, He wants the heart to receive.
And to get a benefit from it, So everything that's been appointed of God that is allowed in your life and mine is because he loves us and he wants to make our hearts soft and oh wonderful and faithful of a God we have that would take time to order our lives in such a thing. Every single thing that touches your life and mine has been ordered and allowed of a God who loves us and cares for us. And so is it. There's another verse in Psalm 30. It says, As for God, his way is perfect. He doesn't make any mistakes.
And so He uses these two things, I believe, to touch our hearts, to soften our hearts, to make our hearts impression, impress our hearts, that He may speak to our hearts, and lead our hearts after himself. One is reading of the Scriptures and talking to Him in prayer, and the other is the difficulties of life that come into our hands, that we are outside of our circumstances, outside of our ability to control. And he uses those things as well. Take them all, dear young people.
From his hand He does not mean trouble for you for no reason at all, is only because he has some good in the end, You know it says he all things work together for good to them that love God and are called according to His purpose. He has a divine end for your life and it's all good. But there may be some difficulties that he has to engage with to soften the heart, to prepare the heart to receive His word. And what a wonderful faithful God we have Now we have an enemy too.
And the enemy of our souls.
Is trying to interfere with this work and he wants to turn us out of the pathway. And here there are three hindrances that I'd like to point out. The first one is and found in Galatians Chapter 5. Let's turn to Galatians Chapter 5. We'll see this and.
Galatians chapter 5 and verse 7.
You did run well. Who did hinder you, that you should not obey the truth? This persuasion cometh not of him that caused you a little leaven, leaveneth the whole lump. I have confidence in you through the Lord, that you will not otherwise be minded. But he that troubles you shall bear his judgment, whosoever he be. Now we have this expression. You did run well. Who did hinder you so I see two things here.
The need and the importance of running the path of faith well.
And then I see something else. I see that there's an adversary that would like to hinder.
And whether you realize that, I'm sure you realize that you heard your brother and say this many times. But there is an enemy in our life that it stands in the path of faith to try to turn us out of the path of faith. And as I say, these things he would like to do to trip us up and to hinder us. And he has had a great success in doing this, Sad to report, but there's no need for him to have a success in your life, because if you follow the principles of God's word, we're going to be preserved.
Unblameably until that day.
The hindrance that I'm pointing at now in Galatians chapter 5 is being hindered doctrinally doctrinally.
00:25:08
You see what happened here? There was bad doctrine that came in and taught these Galatians Saints things that were wrong, and I let them off track. And the enemy knows that he can use doctrine, bad doctrine, to lead Saints off track. And he did. He had great success. Here wasn't just one assembly, but many assemblies in the province of Glacier were affected by this bad teaching. We find here that it was one individual. Apparently it was doing the teaching because he mentions it in the singular, whosoever he be.
Then he mentions the little 1111 is a whole lump, showing that it can grow.
Then he talks about they showing that others have picked up on this and it became a movement amongst the people of God in that region. And many were stumbled as a result of this. And the apostle had to write this very stern letter to correct things. And so we need to realize that we can be stumbled, we can be turned the other way by doctrinal error, and we need to pay attention to the truth of God and the teachings of scripture. And so I'd like to point out a few things that may help us in regards to that.
And the first thing I want to talk to you about is, umm, the fact that we need to maintain a right state of soul if we're going to read the Scriptures, because we could get LED away by some teacher or teaching or thoughts that we may have that are not right. And so let's turn to First Timothy chapter one, First Timothy chapter one.
And what we're gonna see here, what I wanna take up here is just very briefly to amplify this point of being preserved from doctrinal error. And the reason why it is so important that we get turned preserved from doctrinal error is because doctrine effects our walk. Doctrine, OK, if it's not right, can lead us in the wrong path and get us going the wrong direction. I can remember you listening to a tape one time by Chapter Brown. Now he passed away in 1967 or 8 so you're talking about.
50 years ago, he probably said this, but he said in a word, no. He said, uh, why don't I go with the Baptist to church with them? In a word, doctrine. My doctrine on ecclesiological matters is different than theirs. My doctrine is different. And so I go a different path. And he said, also, you need to believe, right, if you're going to walk, right? And so it has an effect on our walk. And so it's important that we understand that we need to be preserved doctrinally, in fact, almost every person.
That does depart in the past in some way or another, will usually have some doctrine that has got them on that track. Because what happens is, what we're going to see here in First Timothy is that we get into a state of soul that is not good, and then we get the will at work and we wanna do this or that. And then we adjust our doctrine to accommodate our state and our will. And so there's where doctrine can come in and affect or at least support a person's mistaken steps.
First, Timothy chapter one. So I want to just speak of a few principles here that would preserve us from getting off track doctrinally.
First, Timothy, chapter one, verse 19, holding faith and a good conscience, which some, having put away concerning faith or concerning the faith, have made shipwreck of whom is Hymenaeus, and Alexander, whom I have delivered unto Satan, that they may learn or be taught by discipline not to blasphemy. Here's the first one, and that is a right state of soul. Timothy had been charged by the apostle Paul to lead the Saints in a line of conduct in the House of God, that they may know how to move and walk. It would be pleasing to the Lord, and in accordance to the holiness of God's house.
But before he gets going and what he tells him to what he needs to labor for the Saints, he says you need to take care of your own state of soul first, because you've been called to fight a good warfare. But you need to have a good conscience and a good state of soul if you're gonna fight a good warfare. So Timothy is told to check himself before he used to address his brother. And that's a good state. That's a good thing for each one of us. We do address our brethren publicly, and we address our own state of soul first.
And I find here two things that are necessary for the maintenance of good state of soul, and that is holding faith and a good conscience. Then he goes on to say, and some didn't do that, and they turned aside, the word could be translated, swerved, or made shipwreck concerning the faith.
Two things here are necessary for us to maintain a good state of soul. First of all, holding faith. Now as a general rule in the Bible, when the word faith comes up without the little article the in front of it, it's talking about the inward energy of the soul's confidence and gar in in God. That's a Darbyism.
00:30:12
Let me say that again. Faith is a is the inward energy of the soul's confidence in God. But one of the little articles thus placed in front of faith, It's referring to something completely different. It's not talking about state, it's talking about the the body of Christian truth, the revelation, the faith that was once delivered to the Saints we were to earnestly contend for that. It's Jude, isn't it? Chapter Jude, verse 3. And generally you can see that now.
As we find here is talking about holding faith, So I was talking about our confidence in the Lord, how important that this must be held up, right and simple. But the enemy knows that when we have confidence in the Lord, we will not be moved. Many, many songs that would show us that we will not be moved, our feet will not be moved if we have our confidence here in the Lord. And so that's the very thing he wants to attack. That's the very thing he puts in the crosshairs and says, OK, let's go after this person's faith, let's shake their faith, let's disturb their confidence in the Lord. And the one of the ways in which he does it and he is most successful is by using the circumstances of life to do it.
Or negative or troubling or difficult disappointing circumstances of life come into our path. Very often what Satan will do is move in and say, see what's happening to you, look what's going on and then you may pray about it. You bring it before the Lord and nothing happens because he has his own timetable, which we had in the Bible reading. And you begin to weaken your faith and your confidence. You get troubled and often times we lose faith. We are for confidence in the Lord. Is, is, is, is.
Is compromised and what happens is.
We get discouraged.
And then what happens is we make a step on our own, not by the Lord. Leading of the Lord, we get into something that we know shouldn't have done or whatever, and then we get acquire a bad conscience. So he brings in a second thing here, and he says, and a good conscience. Now maintaining faith is done by holding up the shield of faith at all times. And when these doubts and things that come into trouble, things that troublesome, things that trouble our lives, we need to just hold up the faith and say Even so, Father, for so it seems good, and I sight and not let the enemy get a foothold in our souls of doubting the Lord's ways with us.
As soon as we begin to question the wisdom of God's ways with us, we are going to find.
Our faith be weakened and we're gonna start giving up on the path. And when we give up in the past, we usually turn to something else. Because the heart is like a vacuum. It gets, it doesn't, It doesn't like a vacuum. And something has to be there to replace it. And what happens very often is we reach for something that is outside the path of faith, something of the world, something natural or whatever that we think is gonna provide satisfaction and happiness or whatever in our lives. And we can get on a course in the past. They could lead us out of the will of God altogether.
And the cases here holding faith and a good conscience, How do we hold a good conscience?
By never doing anything wrong, you'll always hold a good conscience. But that's not realistic. We all fail. It says in scripture that we all often offend and we have to own it. And if we're honest before the Lord, we've all failed in some way or another. So how are we going to hold a good conscience? We hold a good conscience by practicing self judgment.
Practicing self judgment is to keep short accounts with God. Keeping short accounts with God keeps the communications open. It keeps us close to the Lord. If we allow something in our lives and we don't confess it to him, now we're going to hold a bad conscience and it will may grow and we can get off track further and further and further. But by holding a good conscience, by practicing, by practicing self judgment, we hold a good conscience. What I'm trying to say, so these things are necessary. But he brought before Timothy.
And they're necessary for us as well, that we would hold faith in a good conscience. And if we don't what's gonna happen is we're going to have happen when here when he mentions, and that is some having put away concerning the faith, have made shipwreck. They swerve from the course concerning the faith.
Now here the letter, there's a little article the I believe should be in there.
Doesn't mention it in Darby's translation, though other translations do, apparently, and so he's talking about swerving from the faith, that is, get off course with regard to the truth.
So what starts is the heart being, uh, affected by not holding our confidence in God, allowing certain things to come into our life without judging it. Then what happens is we accommodate that course that we're on by changing our doctrine, and we veer off course and it could get so bad that we could end up being a blasphemer of the Lord Jesus. These men were true believers, they were in the assembly, and they ended up being blasphemers. When Paul had to excommunicate with his Apostolic power by delivering them unto Satan that they would have been taught by discipline not to.
00:35:22
Last team. I'm not saying anybody may get that far off. We trust the Lord would rescue us from that, getting that far out. But the point of the matter is this and this alone. If we're gonna be preserved from getting into bad doctrine, we need to have a right state of soul. That's all I'm trying to say. Let's move on to another passage that would show us something with regard to being preserved doctrinally as well. First, a right state of soul. Second, second Peter, Chapter one.
Verse 20. I'll run through these rather rapidly because we don't have the time to expand on them like we perhaps could at other times.
First Second Peter, chapter one verse 20. Knowing this first that in prophecy of Scripture that no prophecy of scripture is of any private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man, but by the holy but holy man of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.
Here's another principle that we need to adhere to if we're going to be preserved be preserved from doctrinal error. And that is simply this.
Contacts, contacts, contacts. He's warning us here that they're and telling us that there's no scripture that has any private interpretation, and that word private is misleading. It should be translated for any particular.
Interpretation. What he's saying is that there are no scriptures that are orphans all by themselves and they have an orphan interpretation.
Scripture will interpret itself, and we interpret anyone verse of Scripture in the light of all the rest of it because it fits as a harmonious whole. Soon as we isolate one passage, come up with a doctrine or an idea that we're fixing that verse, we have to make sure that it matches the rest of Scripture, because the scripture stands as a whole and the Scripture cannot be broken. The Lord said John 10.
And it's important that we get that you know you've heard me say this many times at least young people have that you know when you go and buy a house, the real estate man sits you down and tells you the three most important principles that you need to adhere to when you're buying a house is #1 location, #2 location, #3 location. And when you sit down with your Bible open it is very important that you're here to three great principles and we could bring before you. They are context #1, context #2, and contact number three. You know to tear a text away from its contacts is a pre tax.
And that's what's happening many times when people get ideas that they try to find scripture to support is that they have isolated a passage of scripture from the rest of Scripture. And uh, they think they got something. But the true test is that will IT support the Scripture as a whole. Now, private interpretation, as I said, should be any particular interpretation. That is it that is talking really about an isolation or an isolating of one verse or one passage all by itself from the rest of it. Let me give you a couple examples.
01 Anyway, because we don't have the time to go on any further here, but the the use of the word 11 in Scripture 11 is we've often been taught throughout Scripture symbolizes evil, evil, working whatever way, doctrinally, morally, spiritually, whatever. But there are those that will tell us that the Scripture in first Matthew chapter 13, where the woman hides, 11 in three measures of meal, is a picture of something not evil but something good. And it's like the gospel. I've read this too, and and books of ministry that it's like the gospel.
We, we, we put it in one place and it spreads throughout the whole world. And the gospel will be, will be, will be preached in all every nation, and the whole world will be affected by the gospel because it permeates like leaven throughout everything. Well, it sounds logical, but it doesn't fit the rest of the Scripture. And so because the rest of the scriptures always has the context of evil. And so when we come to that verse in chapter 13 of Matthew, we must put it on our minds that it has to be representing something that would be.
Uh, of a of evil because.
The rest of the tenor of Scripture supports that idea. And when we look at it and that way, we can see what it really speaks to. So it's talking about how the church is bringing in things that were negative, negative and detrimental to the Kingdom of the heavens. He's talking about the introduction of in the restoring of the tears there. He's talking about the introduction of evil persons. And then we get the birds and the follows introduction of evil spirits. And then this is the introduction of evil doctrine. So it's all to do with negative things. If you get the context of the passage, we'll pass on here because we have to.
00:40:24
Continue, but just just to mention how that is important that we can observe context.
No verse in Max chapter.
17.
Acts, Chapter 17.
And verse two, And Paul, as his manner was when when unto them and three Sabbath days, reason with them out of the scriptures opening and alleging that Christ must needs have suffered and risen again from the dead, that this is Jesus, whom I preach unto you is Christ. Here's another point. That is, we need to reason from Scripture. Mr. Hajo Hejo used to often say, don't take your thoughts to Scripture, Take your thoughts from Scripture. We've heard that many, many times.
Over the years and it is a wonderful UH.
Point to make Don't take your thoughts to the scriptures. Take your thoughts from the scriptures. That's what we see here. Paul was doing. He was reasoning, but he says he reasoned with them out of the scriptures. He didn't reason into the scriptures. He didn't come with certain ideas and then reason them into the scriptures. He his reasoning was taken from the scriptures and that's important to see even if I thought that we may have.
Is logical. Does not necessarily mean it passes the grade as being the truth of God in the passage. I was talking to my brother a couple of weeks ago and he has a friend that has been talking to him about the rapture and appearing and so on, and they've enjoyed some things together. Anyway, one of the things that your manager said, and I've met the man too, is that the Lord's coming is like a thief in the night. The rapture is like a thief in the night, he said. And I told him that thereafter as a thief in the night is like is appearing, not the rapture, not the rapture.
And he said, well, I don't know about that. Because, you know, you think of it, you know the Lord's gonna come someday and just like a thief just secretly just show up, nobody's even waiting and watching and just take us away. Well, that's logical, that's thief does come quietly and very suddenly and so on. But the description also could you could say that it wouldn't characterize as a thief as he breaks in and there's destruction and there's uh, plundering and so on.
That's logical too.
But these two logical human thoughts lead two different directions altogether. One might point to the rapture, the other would point more to the destruction. Side of things would be more to the appearing when there's going to be judgment, and so on. But which is right, because you've now come to a fork in the road, and both thoughts are logical, and you're going to come across this as you study scripture well. You must not let human logic be the decider. You must let the word of God be the decider. Turn to the six places in the Bible where the Christ the Lord's coming is looked at as a thief, and you'll get the answer.
I don't have time to turn to it, but I'll just do it from memory here if I can. Starting in Revelation, chapter 16, verse I think 15. He's talked. He mentioned there as being a thief, coming as a thief. The next very verse says, And all the armies of the earth gather themselves together. Armageddon, and he judged them all. Well, does that happen at the Rapture? No. We know that's the period.
OK, move it to another scripture. Matthew 24. It says that he's gonna come as a thief, but he says he comes as the Son of man to be a thief. As a thief. Well, the Lord's coming as the Son of Man is always in scripture, is coming in judgment, His actions in judgment. He acts as a son of man. Always in Scripture He comes as a bridegroom and as the Lord for the Church. But when he comes in judgment in the world, he comes and acts as the Son of Man.
So it could not be that and that scripture and uh. Well, first Thessalonians chapter 5. It tells us that uh.
And I think my brother bought this particular scripture before him. And he said, well, first, Thessalonians chapter 5, where you get them mentioned as a thief. It says sudden destruction shall come upon them. That's not what happens at the Rapture. That's when the Lord comes and judges. But then he said, this is interesting. Yes, but the context is the Rapture because you leave the end of the fourth chapter of Thessalonians. It talks all about the Lord coming for the raptures and read right into the 5th chapter. And so there it is. So then thinking, all right, I like that. But he's thinking not according to scripture because if you look at the passage, you'll find that there is a change in the pronouns, that is the first person plural to the third person plural.
00:45:18
And you have to see that the end of chapter 4 is really a parenthesis in between what happens in chapter earlier and four and then what happens in chapter 5. What I'm saying about the the change of pronouns is vital to understand that that passage and other passages. What I'm saying is that the apostle speaks in first person, plural, we and us. We're looking for the Lord to come, to take us to heaven and so on, because he places himself among the numbers presently, hoping, waiting for the Lord to come.
But when he's talking about when he comes as a thief in the next chapter and sudden destruction is going to come.
He says they and them he changes to a different class of persons and talks about those who are going to be under that judgment as them and they distancing themselves from the Christian company as opposed to the company that are in this world. And so we need to take pay attention to the change in pronouns. And I find you can find that many, many places in scripture. So I just point that out. If you went to Luke's Gospel chapter 12, it says that his coming as a thief is when he comes from the wedding.
From the wedding, not to the wedding. If it was the Rapture, he'd be taking us to the wedding. We know there's gonna be a the the bridegroom. I see that Bob is turning to it, so I'm gonna beat him to it and we'll turn there. Just read that more carefully.
Luke's Gospel, chapter 12.
Verse 36 And ye yourselves like unto men that wait for the Lord, when he will return from the wedding.
And when he cometh in Narcos, that they may open unto him immediately, Blessed are those services whom the Lord cometh shall find watching gladly, I say unto you, shall gird himself, and make him sit down to meet, and will come forth, and serve them, And so on uh, verse 38 And if he shall come unto the second watch, or come on the third watch, and find them, So blessed are those servants for this know that if the Goodman of the house had known the hour that the thief would come.
He would have watched and would not have suffered his house to be broken through and so on.
So there you have the thought of destruction again. But isn't it interesting? It comes from the wedding. Now we know there's going to be a a marriage in heaven to our and we're going to be involved with that as the as the bride. But and after the wedding is over, after the marriage takes place in heaven, from Revelation 19, the heavens open the White Horse and then comes forth with the Lord on it to judge this world and so on. So what am I saying now? You're going to come across logical thoughts that miss it.
And there's nothing wrong with being logical. We wanna be logical. But that is not the decider. The decider is the word of God. And so we look at these six places. I don't have time to go any further on this subject, but you're in six different places. Every one of them point to the fact that is to do a judgment, not taking his bride to heaven. And anyway, I mean, you wanna be logical now, won't, don't we? Does any young man come to get his wife?
At a wedding as a as a bridegroom.
As a.
Fee.
Not likely, but there is one passage that you could probably argue for that, and that's Judges 21. Go look there sometime.
Those men went in there and told their wives. Remember that OK, enough.
First Corinthians chapter six, chapter Two First Corinthians, chapter 2.
Verse 12 and 13 For we have not we have received not the spirit of the world, but the spirit of witches of God, that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God, which things also we speak, not in the words which men's wisdom speaketh, but that which.
Is taught by the Holy Ghost. Comparing. The word comparing should be translated communicating spiritual things with by spiritual means. I point to raising this is that uh, when God inspired the apostles to write the scriptures, he gave them very words to write.
And they were inspired words of God. And the use that God has in those words are not always the use that we use in in modern English or even. And so we need to observe the fact that Scripture has its own dictionary, if I could put it that way. And we need to understand that some of the terms that we come across are not just the way we use them in common vernacular.
00:50:02
It's important to see that those who deny the eternal sonship of Christ.
Will tell us that he could not have been a son in eternity past, because son has the thought of generation, has the thought of the junior of the father, and therefore inferior. Inferior It would be making him inferior for all these last prostaternity. Surely that would be wrong because we know there were equal persons in the Godhead and so they want to deny that, not understanding that the word Son is often used in scripture not to denote generation but to denote essence being of the same essence. John 5 verse 18 we had in the meetings already when the Jews knew that he said, ah, he was the Son of God.
They knew that he was making himself equal with God because the Son is often used in Scripture to denote essence.
And it's mentioned many times in that way, not just in connection with the Lord Jesus, for instance.
The son of Perdition, the sons of Belial Borbilio, doesn't mean the Belial actually had procreated these group of people and they were, they're his sons by natural birth or anything. He's been talking about that. It means that they were of the same essence of him. And there are many other places that we could turn to to show the sun is used in that way. And so to plug that in and think, oh, there couldn't be eternal Son because.
Sun is generation all the time is to misunderstand the use of the word sun, and scripture itself denotes that first born is another one. We often think of first born a person being born first in a in a family and birth order. But it's not always birth order. In scripture it often is used to denote something completely different, preeminence and being first in rank. That's even used in connection with the Lord Jesus be only begotten. It doesn't have anything to do with the with being born.
Uh, congenitally, it's talking about one who is dearly beloved to the one who has begotten them. The emphasis is on the only dear, dear one not being begotten. Many other passages I could turn to to show that Adoption. We think of adoption. Yeah, you go down to the adoption agency and pick out a child and you can, after a lot of headaches and uh.
Pennsylvania paper and all that. You can actually choose a child and bring it into your family, but God doesn't use the word adoption in that way. And if you're gonna use those things in Scripture, you're gonna come up with wrong ideas.
Adoption in God's way of using it in the New Testament is really an upgrading in the family to a favorite position that the other members of the family don't have. And the church has seen the end of the adoption of the Spirit. We have a favorite place in God's family.
Then from all the others. So enough on that. But just to realize that we need to understand that scripture has its own terms. We must interpret scripture.
From scriptural terms and we need to rightly divide the word of truth. We're running out of time. But you know that verse in Second Timothy Chapter 2, it says rightly divide the word of truth. That is so very important because we're going to come across to something which is Bible teachers call standing in state. If you don't understand the difference in standing in state, you're gonna get totally confused because you need to rightly divide between what is what. Some places in the Bible were told that we're holy. Another one tell us be holy. Well, you say what am I? What's going on here? Sounds like it's contradicting.
Am I holy or do I have to be holy?
Well, one is to do a standing, the other is to do a state. And I could go on and on giving you verses and and subjects that would show how that there is a difference between standing and state in scripture and we need to observe that won't go any further with that.
Avoid personal preconceived ideas. Example that comes to mind with that would be, uh, baptism. Many Christians have the idea that baptism is a demonstration of the person's faith.
And the Lord Jesus. And so they gather people together, and they have a baptism where?
A person can show his faith to others and show that he's identified himself with the Lord Jesus. Unfortunately, when you bring that to some scriptures, you're going to have to do something to make it fit, and that is to infer things into scripture. Because you have a preconceived notion. You turn to Acts chapter 16. You'll find that Lydia's household was baptized and the jailer's house was baptized. So you're going to have to infer that the Muslim people, other than the Lady of the God that believed because they were baptized them all. And according to this doctrine, if you reverse engineer the thing.
That's according to this doctrine. If it's true, then they would have to have other believers there. It's better to leave scripture in scriptural position and not to infer things into many other scriptures I could give to you that would show that it's dangerous to infer by preconceived notions and ideas. We can't help it. I remember talking to a person one time about being a clergyman and he said, what are you talking about? The Bible talks about pastors and of course he's talking about the verse and Ephesians chapter four. Well, that's true.
00:55:07
But I told him the word pastors in the Bible. But the what they've made that into is a clergyman is not found in the scripture. So we have to understand that just because words are found there doesn't necessarily mean that what men have made them into attaching their own human reason meanings to them is in scripture. Mr. FB Hole told us that theological terms very often.
Our man takes and empties the terms of scripture of all their scriptural and meaning and fills them with man made ideas and then present them to us. And so we read about different things like pastors and the other topical topics and they've attached different meanings to it. Well, you're never gonna get the truth if that's the way you handle the scriptures. It's dangerous. And remember this too. You're never gonna understand all the scriptures.
Learn to park scriptures that you don't understand and leave it for time.
When the Lord will short you later, You know, don't let the things that you do enjoy spoil the things that you don't understand. Don't let the things you don't understand spoil your enjoyment. Other things you do understand. I've got many things I don't understand. I'm sure many of them here. One of them I'm thinking about is it's always wondered about this too, you know, help me with this. But I've never understood well what's gonna happen at the Rapture since we've been Speaking of that to pregnant women. What's gonna happen if a woman's pregnant? The Lord gives a shout.
This I don't know. I'll leave it with the Lord.
There's gonna be a birth in heaven.
I don't know. We live with the Lord. There's many, many questions we have. We have to leave with the Lord. I don't lose sleep over it, but I'm just saying you can't get all your questions answered now. Don't let the mind get at work. And the things of God is essentially what I'm trying to say. Now that's the first thing that we're talking about here. That would be a hindrance. Hindrance doctrinally by these principles not being adhered to. Now in the next 3 minutes I'm going to tell you the other two things we could we have to be careful not to be hindered with, and that is.
Family and friends, you turn to Genesis 24.
And we'll find that word comes up again, and it's in connection with Rebecca going with Isaac to A to where Isaac was Genesis 24.
And verse.
55 and 56 And her mother, and her brother, and her brother and her mother said, let the damsel abide with us a few days at least 10, and after that she should go, or 10 full months, the margin says, And he said unto them, hinder me, not hinder me, not now. The hindrance here is that of family and friends, companions. They can get in the way and hinder you. You know the call here. The bride Well, they were going to try to get her to stay home for 10 months.
And they interfere with this. And he said, hinder me not. And so when the Lord is moving in your soul, you want to please him, you want to live your life for him. There's gonna be family and friends that could come in if you have connections with people that may not have the same interests that you do, and they may be and they will be a hindrance. Now one last scripture and that's Hebrews chapter 12.
Hebrews chapter 12 verse one. Wherefore seeing we also are accomplished about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin or sin which does easily beset us. And that word beset could be translated hinder, The word beset could be translated hinder. So dust easily doth hinder us. And let us run with patience the race that is set before us. Now here we have something else and that is.
Being hindered by weight and sin. We've heard in the meetings that sin here is the sin of unbelief and weights would be anything that's not necessarily a positive sin, but just something that is not superfluous. It's not something that we really even need in our lives at all, but it's something we have. It could take the form of a recreation, it could take the form of a hobby, it could take the form of anything. I'm not saying you can't have a hobby or recreation, We need exercise and so on. But I'm saying if it gets to the point where it captivates my mind and I become enslaved to it, and I started to think it good morning, noon and night.
It's become a waste. And what are you supposed to do with the weight? He says. Lay aside the weight, Mr. Hajo said. There's three definitions of what, whether you have a weight or not, You can do the test on yourself and find out whether you have a weight in your life, he says. First of all, you'll find just you find yourself arguing for it.
01:00:14
You're Secondly, you're uneasy about it. And thirdly, you go around looking for some more godly, more spiritual, more intelligent, more doctrinally astute brother than you are to tell you that it's OK if you do that in your life. You gotta wait.
Now let's pray. Father, we thank you for this the time together with the word open. And you think of these three hindrances to the path of faith. We pray for these dear young people that they would be motivated to live their lives for thee and they would be preserved from getting off into doctrinal lab. They've been preserved by influence of friends. That would be negative. And they would be preserved from allowing weights to get into their life to the point where it distracts them from falling. The Lord Jesus. We commit them to Thee. We thank you for our time together here this afternoon. We ask this our God in the name of thy Son, the Lord Jesus.
Amen.
I Say Unto Thee, Arise
Gospel—Marc Payette
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May we begin this meeting by singing hymn #3 hymn #3.
354-800-8005.
We hope that when we think He's in, we can sing them for yourself. You can understand the words and realize really what it means to be on the solid rock, on Christ the rock. So may we ask the Lord for His help during this meeting? I go on the Father. We thank you tonight that we have this opportunity to be together and to open Thy word and to hear again the word that that was done, Lord Jesus on the cross of Calvary and thy words of wisdom.
And also the way that diode is open to be saved for Jesus.
By the sacrifice of the cross of Calvary, by thy shed blood. And Lord Jesus, we pray that if there's anyone in this room tonight that don't know thee, that they may come to know thee as their personal Savior and accept thee until Lord and it's too late. Lord Jesus, we pray that these, uh, these dear ones might turn to thee tonight and understand that thou, uh, ask for us to be saved and to believe in the Lord Jesus and thy precious name. We pray, Amen.
Recently I was reading a little bedtime story to my my son and we're talking about some friends at school that speak different language. And he was mentioning, Hey, there's a, there's somebody that comes from Israel. And he asked me, what language do they speak in Israel? And I said, that's you talk a lot about Israel, that and the story of the Bible in Israel. What language do they speak? And then I was thinking quick, you know, and that's Hebrew.
And then I start thinking of some words that we know ourselves. We actually know a little bit of Hebrew words, Umm, And these are important words. There's words spoken by the Lord Jesus. And one of them that came to mind, I started listening, a few of them. And I start with Eli, Eli Lamasa back tonight, which means my God, my God, why as thou forsaken me. That's what the Lord Jesus said on the cross and these three dark hours.
00:05:24
When he was there hanging on the tree.
And this is really an important, an important word. And I think it's nice that it's not translated and that we can know it in Hebrew. And I was also thinking of another one, and this one is Talita Kumi.
Which means damsel I sent to you until thee arise. And this is the story, an important story. And I think we should take time tonight and look a little bit into this story and see what happened there. And and that's our those are so nice words. Salitakumi. Umm, let's look into it. But before we, let's turn to mark, and it's in this chapter, Mark chapter five. Well, let's turn in verse 36.
Marks 5 and 36.
And it's the latter part of verse 36 that I want to point your attention to tonight.
Let's read the whole verse. As soon as Jesus heard the word that was spoken, he said unto the ruler of the synagogue, be not afraid, only believe. So this ruler synagogue, uh, his daughter was uh, really Hill and they came to Jesus and umm, by the time he was, uh, he was going there. Uh, the other one told him, don't, don't bother to master.
The verse of 35 At the end of the verse 35. Why trouble? Is thou, the master any further?
But the last part of the verse is really important. Be not afraid, only believe. So Jesus here is speaking to the the father of this young girl. I was really ill and what he's asking for him from him is to believe. And tonight we're going to talk about that believing, believing not in general, believing not in things, but believe in and somebody.
And this man, I believe.
He trusted in the Lord Jesus, He believed in him. So let's read what happened in this story. What this Talib Takumi means?
So let's keep on reading in verse 37. And he suffered no man to follow him, save Peter and James, and John the brother of James. And he cometh to the House of the ruler of the synagogue, and seeth the tumult, and there them that weep and wail Greekly.
This is because the man came in verse 35 and said thy daughter is dead. So everybody there was a built to mote there, the big tumult. Everybody was in tear. And this I I think my friend, is a reflection of human race is a reflection that the the power of death and the sorrow that it brings and the fact that life is only a vapor. Our life down here is only a vapor and we are fragile.
No matter what people say in this world, no matter what.
Science says, or what you read in the newspaper, we are fragile and our days are numbered. And here we can see in the scene that death brought sorrow. And there was weeping and they were, they were really in great sorrow. Well, Greekly.
And what does Jesus say verse 39 and when he came in he said unto them, why make ye this a zoo? And we the damsel is not dead, but sleepeth. You see the Lord Jesus could say that because he he is in a different position. He is the Son of God. He is God revealed in flesh and he has power over that. And you will read in this portion here what he can do and tonight I want you to realize.
That if you're not with the Lord Jesus, if you didn't believe in the Lord Jesus yet, you are as this little girl, dead. You're dead and your sins and trespasses.
So you have to realize that you have to realize that the Lord Jesus as power over that. Let's let's read keep on reading. And these guys this person they mocked him verse 40 and they LA laughed him to scorn. But when he had put them all out, you take it the father and the mother of the damsel and there them that were with him and enter in where the damsel was lying.
00:10:00
You see here the group is getting smaller, it's getting more personal, and you'll see at the end of this little portion that we're reading that is truly personal. But there was no place for these laughters. There was no place for these people that were mocking. And that's true. When you come to the gospel, you can't be listening to friends that are laughing about it. You can't be hanging out with people that don't respect the Lord Jesus. It doesn't work together.
You have to realize that this is a different calling. It's a calling that represents something spiritual and something serious. So these people that were cast out of the room.
And the answer, the answer there where the damsel was lying.
So the Lord Jesus is coming right there where somebody's lying dead. He's going right there. He's a God of proximity. He's a God that wants to reach, reach to sinners and people that are lost and people that are lying there that they realize that they can't do anything.
So what did the Lord Jesus do?
And he took the damsel by the hand, and said unto him, unto her salisakumi, which is being interpreted, Damsel, I'll say unto you, unto thee, arise.
So in this verse 3141, it's really touching. It's really touching to see the proximity of the Lord Jesus touching this young lady.
And selling her to Arise, it's really nice. It's marvelous action of the Lord Jesus. And that's what the Lord Jesus does to us when we come to him for salvation. He quickens us. He gives us this eternal life, this new life. And my friend, if you grew up in the Christian family and your parents are Christian and you're hanging out of the conference this weekend and you're with Christian friends and you know your gospel verses by heart, this doesn't mean that you're saved.
This doesn't mean that you accepted the Lord Jesus as your Savior.
You have to have done this transaction with him. You have to have come to him to be saved. Lord Jesus tells us that and and when we read an Acts when Paul was there with the UMM in the prison and he says believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. So here you see the parents of this damsel, they couldn't do anything for her. It was beyond their touch, beyond their reach, beyond their ability to do anything for the daughter.
And as Christian parents.
It's the same. We can't save our kids, but we can teach them about the Lord Jesus and we can speak of his love and we can call our kids to accept the Lord Jesus. But it has to be a personal transaction between the person and the Lord Jesus. You have to come to yourself, the Lord Jesus, and realize that you're a Sinner. Realize that that you're guilty of sin by nature and and by deeds and that there's a separation between you and God and that only the Lord Jesus.
Can you redeem you and only Him? Because he says I am the way, the truth and the life?
What's look nice in this portion, dear ones? It's it's really personal and it's one to one transaction, one at a time. And tonight.
The door of heaven is open. The door of salvation is open. The list of believers is not completed. I can tell you because we're here tonight and you want the Lord Jesus to grade your name on His hands like we just saw Him to have your name in the book of life. Do you want this?
Do you want to be on an eternal path to heaven, knowing that your sins are forgiven, being in peace with God? This is what the Lord Jesus offers, and it cost him greatly to offer that. It didn't come free. You have to lay down his life to go at the cross of Calvary and suffer there and die. And you know, verse 36, when you look at it, be not afraid, only believe. It's believing and who says these words? And it's the Lord Jesus.
And believing that he has the power to accomplish, he has the power to to make all this, uh, words come to life. If we read about what Paul said something similar and we had this verse before us today in second Timothy chapter one.
00:15:08
Bruce read this verse during the meeting. Second Timothy, chapter one.
Verse 10.
Let's start with verse 10. But is now made manifest by the appearing of our Lord G Savior Jesus Christ, who had abolished death and had brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. So that's the work of the gospel, bringing life, bringing somebody that was spiritually dead to life. My friend, tonight ask yourself the question, am I alive to God? Did I accept a sacrifice for me?
And it's nice to see that the Lord Jesus abolished death.
Our, our enemies, our, our enemy was vanquished at the cross of Calvary. He has abolished it. What a nice victory. What a joy when you think about this little girl that was risen. We'll go back to that chapter to see what happened at the end, to see that she went from death to life. And tonight, that's the calling, my friend. Did you accept the Lord Jesus? Did you realize that death is abolished?
And that has brought life and immortality, immortality, eternal life.
Ha having been if you read in John 3 and 16, God so loved the world that he gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life, everlasting life.
So, my friend, let's keep on rating. Here we're on two I am appointed a preacher and an impossible, an apostle and a teacher of the Gentiles. For the which 'cause I also suffered these things. Nevertheless I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed, and I'm persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day.
I really like the middle part of this verse that reads that I know whom I have believed. The solid rock, the foundation of our faith. It's in the person, the Lord Jesus Christ. I can't show him to you tonight, but I can tell you that my life changed the moment that I accepted Him as my personal Savior. And one day every knee will bow to him, every eye will see him. And my friend tonight you have the choice to see him as a judge or to see Him as your dear Savior.
And I beg you to accept them and not to think that I think.
Of this, likely not to think of It's a decision for tomorrow, because it's for today.
So this is the message of the gospel, to know who we have believed the Lord Jesus Christ, and being persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed him unto him against that day. So what did we commit to the Lord Jesus? We committed our lives, we committed everything. We were nothing in ourselves. We're sinners lost on the lost eternity, and we came to Him, and he washed us in his blood.
And he gave them, he gave us a part with him and we can call God our Father. What a blessing, what a blessing. And this Savior is going to come again and take us with him. And we're we have to be persuaded that he's able to keep what we what which I have committed unto him.
So my friend tonight, if you haven't accepted him, accept him because the faith of your parents, the faith of your friend, and it won't save you, it won't weigh down. You have to accept them. It's a personal calling. If we can take just a moment and sing a hymn that really says that hymn 38 and the Gospel hymn right there.
00:20:48
Nsnoise.
I don't know how thus they are.
Raining anything overnight and drinking a lot of them. Really good for the telephone number where you're at the Internet.
And it's not enough, but I know.
Nsnoise.
Let's keep on reading about, uh, this damsel here in Mark chapter 5.
And what happened after?
So he said to that damsel Talitakumi, which is being interpreted, Damsel, I say unto thee, Arise.
And straightway the damsel arose and walked, for she was of the age of 12 years. And they were astonished with a great astonishment.
And you charge them straightly that no man should know it and command it. That's something should be given her to eat.
It didn't take long. It was instantaneously when the Lord Jesus said arise, she rose, she arose and she she was there and they were astonished. And this is truly astonishing to see a dead person walk and be brought to life again.
And spiritual birth, accepting the Lord Jesus, I was our Savior, being washed in his blood is truly astonishing, is truly astonishing. It's nothing that man could have devised, nothing similar to any plan that man could have come up with to be safe. If you look at religion in this world, people that are ready to do long, miles, long walks, they're ready to do.
Tons of things to try to gain the favor of God. But I can tell you my friend.
This is all in vain. There's only one way. Jesus says I am the way, the truth and the life.
No man cometh to the Father, but by me as the Lord Jesus saying it, it's he's the Lord. He's he's God manifested, God made flesh who came in this world. So my friend, please reject all logic of man. Please come to an end of your human thoughts and let the faith in God take hold of you, of your soul and accept the Lord Jesus as your savior. Don't wait, don't tarry, don't push it to another day.
You're not too young if you're able to understand the words that I'm speaking now, if you're able to read these verses, you're not too young and that they.
00:25:07
Salvation is now.
They the the door is still open.
There's a verse in the Revelation that says I am standing at the door. I knock it. Let's turn to that verse and Revelation.
That's in Revelation chapter 3 and verse 20.
Revelation 3 and 20 Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to him and will Sup with him and he with me. That's the sweet communion that the Lord Jesus wants to have with you. He wants to have this personal relationship. He wants to be your Savior and your Lord.
And tonight you've been the Lord Jesus calling you to be, to be saved, to arise, to realize your lost condition, that you're dead and your sins and trespasses, and that you need a Savior.
And this little damsel, if you read the end of chapter 5, when we read there, they commanded that something be given her to eat. And that's the next step is you're gonna have to eat spiritual things. You're gonna have to grow for the Lord Jesus. You realize more and more of his love. It's a message of love.
It's a message of love, my friend, and it comes from heaven. It's come from the Lord Jesus.
You know, this week I was coming back from work and I found this on the sidewalk.
And it touches me, it touched me. This is a track actually, and it came from somewhere in Alberta, I think, or Manitoba. And it's a picture of the cross. And there's a list there of things or condition of man without God. And it basically says that before the cross, your old life, you're under Satan's power, You have no God, no Christ, no hope, no peace, and no escape.
And that way, Christ on the other side of the cross, you have a new life. You have God as your father, you have Christ as your Savior, you have the Holy Spirit to guide you. You have everlasting life. You have a sure hope and have peace and your bond for heaven, and you're saved. But you know, what's really sad in this story is that this track was on the side of the road, and I guess somebody gave it to somebody else.
Wanting to share is Savior. Wanted to share the most important news that there is in this world. Nothing else matter. Not your bank account, not your age, not your health condition, not the color of your car, not what you're going to do this summer. Nothing else matter. The only thing that matters is are you on the path to heaven? And there was the list here. And I can't understand why somebody would not want these things.
Would not want to have a new life, would not to want have God as their Father, Christ as their Savior, Holy Spirit, everlasting life, assure hope and peace. But this person rejected it.
Detroit by the window, that's what I suppose, but I know it's the case when you give tracks to people that people just read it and they say that they see the word Jesus and they throw it away. It's the most valuable name in this world. It's such a thing what it shows our condition without God we're lost, we're dead in our sin and friend passes this person, I guess referred to continue their life as it was continue in their old habits.
And do the same thing.
They were scared of approaching a God that could judge them. But reality is judgment fell. The judgment fell on the cross of Calvary and the Lord Jesus. We spoke about these words. Eli, Eli Lamassa, back tonight. My God, my God, why as thou forsaken me?
The judgment fell there on this dear one, on the Lord of, of glory, on the Lamb of God. He was there, smitten, stricken and afflicted in my stead and in your in your stead I believe. And in your stead, if you believe in him, I, I pray that you might accept him tonight. These wounds in his hands and in his side were for a reason, My friend, it's not just history, it's real. He's a Savior.
00:30:06
And he mana manifested himself and came in this world and suffered, bled and died to give us this salvation, to give us this free access to God. So please today, don't reject it. Don't reject it. Come to him, accept him, accept his work, accept that it was the weight of your sin that were on him, and it's for you that it you did bleed and die. It has to be personal. It has to be 1 to one.
It can't be general. I remember a friend at work that was, uh, from Columbia actually, and he told me I come back from a long trip and I went to, uh, Spain and I did the Compostel ride. I said, what's the compost ride? I'm not sure I heard the name, but what is it? I said it's a long, long walk that we do there and we trace it on the coast of Spain and it brings us at many different spiritual places.
And it's really good. I said, oh, that's interesting. That means that means you know a bit about the Bible and you know a bit about, uh, Christ.
Yeah, yeah. He said yeah. OK, So, uh, what do you know about him? So we keep on talking and talking, and at some point he says, you know, Christ is the Savior of sinners. I said, that's good, my friend, that's good. You're one step close. You're one step close.
He's your savior. Yeah. It has to be your personal savior. It's not a general savior. It's a personal savior.
And you know, as Christian ones, ones that are raised in the Christian family, often we're one step close. We're one step close to knowing the Lord Jesus as your Savior. We heard about him. We know his name. We know about the story of the Bible. We can tell a lot of verses, but let's not stay one step close. Let's get one step closer. Let's accept him. And my friend, do it tonight. Do it now.
Don't wait. Don't delay this decision. You know why? Because things of this life will take more importance for you now. This message, what you're hearing is fresh. It's right there and it's maybe touching your heart, and that's a great thing. But you have to act upon it. You don't want to let it there and sit a week because there will be more concerns, maybe an exam, maybe things you want to do. And you're going to say, yeah, in the end, this is secondary. I'm still living my life. I'm still alive.
I'm still having fun. You're missing it, my friend. Make it a decision now. Accept them as your savior. Realize that the Lord Jesus is calling you Tally Takumi. He wants you to answer this call. He wants you to say yes. Lord Jesus, I realize that I'm lost. I realize that you suffer for me. I realize that without you, I can't do nothing and I don't need a savior.
And you're that Savior, Lord Jesus, you shed thy blood on the cross of Calvary to save me.
You've been that Lamb of God sent from heaven. The Lord Jesus calls with words of love. He calls gently.
He doesn't call us force us the message because otherwise it wouldn't be faith, it wouldn't be believing. He doesn't impose it on us, but he wants to give us this piece. And when the Lord Jesus came to his disciple, having suffered the cross and being resurrected and on the other side of the cross. What did he say to his disciple? Peace be unto you. We read that today. Peace be unto you. He brings peace in the soul. Peace that there's no judgment and that were shelter in Christ the rock. We're in a dry ground, my friend.
And this is so joyful. This is such a blessed position.
We're so blessed and it's all by by His work, nothing by ourselves. He calls us with a gentle call. Let's read a verse in Jeremiah chapter 31 and verse 3.
Jeremiah 31 and verse 3.
The Lord asked the fear of all unto me, saying, Yeah, I have loved thee with an everlasting love.
00:35:02
Therefore, with loving kindness have I drawn thee.
So it's the Lord that loves us.
With everlasting love.
A love that's above human thoughts, that's above what we can show. We can show it in a measure, but never in the full measure that he has shown it. The Bible says no man had greater love than this one. To give his life for his friends. He gave his life, my friends, He gave his life for you to save you, to be your personal savior, and to give you this.
Life, this hope, this peace that we have been speaking about, this pardon, a pardon. Pardon from your sins, from the guiltiness of your sins. No, a pardon has to be accepted. A pardon is can't just be given. You know, when little kids fight together and you say to one say, say sorry, and then it comes to the other and say, oh, I'm sorry and it's OK. I take it it has to be accepted. But there's the story of this man who had the pardon.
And he has umm.
You had the death penalty on him in the United States, and he was granted the presidential pardon.
And then the man was sitting on this row of the desk and waiting for his penalty and the people were asking.
Why is he still sitting there? He got the pardon from the president, yes, but sadly this man has refused to pardon and the president could not enforce the pardon if the man didn't accept it. So this pardon has to be accepted.
The forgiveness has to be accepted, otherwise the transaction is not completed. So tonight my friend, the Lord Jesus is calling you, making you realize that you lost and your sins and without Him you're bound to an eternity a away from Him and you're a slave of Satan.
You know, some people, it's easy, I would say on the relatively easy to convince them of their guiltiness. If you talk to criminals, if you talk to people that had a really bad life down here and they know that they did really bad things, it's not that easy to convince them that they're they're bad, that they're guilty. But if you grew up in a Christian family and you more, more or less do what your parents ask you to do, then maybe you don't realize that you have that.
Saying of sin on you that only the.
Blood of Christ can wash. You have to realize that you're a Sinner.
And tonight is the time. Today is the day of grace, my friend. It's the time appointed. Let the Lord Jesus do the work in your life. Let Him bring you to life, to this eternal life and make you bond for heaven on your way to heaven. Let's turn to Amos chapter 4 and verse 12.
Verse 12 The end of verse.
Prepare to meet thy God.
Prepare to meet thy God.
So this calling is serious we're gonna meet God and as soon coming they and tonight you have the choice to be sheltered by the blood to be one of those that put their faith in the Lord Jesus.
Accepted them as their personal savior.
And be prepared to meet your God and be happy to meet your God and being confident to meet your God.
And have this marvelous hope to spend eternity with him, and to dwell in his presence, to see his duty and to rejoice and the great work that he has done, the work of salvation.
It's for you, it's for me, it's for everyone that comes to the Lord Jesus and eternity won't suffice to thank Him for this work. If you think that there's something else, that's the foundation of Christianity, accepting the Lord Jesus as your Savior. It's not about learning versus it's not about doing the right things. It's about accepting Him and then we'll follow him. We'll follow His command as we have been thinking about today.
00:40:00
For the motive is love, loving Him back because He loved us. So let us be fed by Him and be comforted by the Lord Jesus and by His work at the cross of Calvary.
Let's close by singing hymn #8.
Nsnoise.
So my friend, will you gather at his coming? I will do tonight. Don't delay this decision. Make sure your clients in the blood of the Lamb that your skins, your sins that were Saints as scarlet, they'll be white as snow.
Accept them tonight. Let's pray I go on the Father we thank you tonight that we had the privilege to open thy word and to see Lord Jesus the word that thou that spoke and I and the New Testament calling the damsel Saudi Takumi. Lord Jesus, thou are calling tonight lost one sinners. Lord Jesus, we pray that they might answer thy call and accept thee as their personal savior Lord Jesus and wait and beyond their way to heaven.
With a joyful company, Lord, we look forward to that day where we'll be there with thee in heaven. And we thank you, Lord Jesus, for thy great salvation. We thank you for thy love, thy grace, and thy pardon, Lord Jesus. And we couldn't ask for more. So tonight we command ourselves to thee, Lord Jesus, as Christian parents, to teach our kids and bring them to the Lord Jesus that they might accept. In our precious name we pray, Amen.
The Renewing of Your Mind
YP Talk—Stan Froese
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
Let's pray.
Our God and our Father, we give thanks for this time to be together.
Young people starting out in life.
And.
With a life to live.
Someone worth living for now. Help us as we open the scriptures that there would be some encouragement for each one of us on the pathway here.
And we ask this in Jesus name, Amen.
I guess you've never been in my shoes. None of you are 61 years old.
But I wanna tell you, it was a thrill to be here to hear you sing. I used to love to sing at your age, and I still love this thing and I'm just glad it's not passe.
It thrills me to hear you sing of the Lord Jesus and of these things that are so important.
And so necessary for us. So thank you for letting me be here. Now what I want to share with you tonight, I really want to just kind of reinforce some of the things that we've heard already yesterday and today.
And I wanna do it with about four.
Scriptures. But I want to point out this little book to you. It's titled Blind Chain.
And I don't know if you've ever had this experience, but I wanna give these books away. I re I bought them so I can get them, give them away and they only had two.
But the first people that come and ask for them, they're yours. Umm, but those that book there, I read it and it, it made me think, am I really a Christian? Have you ever had that experience where you read about somebody that's so committed to the Lord Jesus?
It just made me think, man, I'm a chicken.
I'm a coward.
Well, I'm not gonna tell you all what's in that book, but if you get a chance to read about Blind Chain, do it.
Let's uh.
Open up to Romans chapter 12 to start with. Am I being heard all around the room?
Thank you.
I want to read the 1St 2 verses of Romans 12.
I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God.
That He presents 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 ye may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
A living sacrifice.
This man here was both a living sacrifice.
And he gave his life.
For Christ, right now, we're living.
A living sacrifice has one problem, and that is.
He can quit being a sacrifice.
He can say I'm done.
I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice.
The mercies of God, His compassions are that we do that.
Is my life gonna be significant for myself, for you, for anybody else, if I don't, in some measure at least, live as a sacrifice?
If I live for me.
I'll be no blessing to you.
If you live for you, you'll be no blessing to me.
And so it's by the mercies of God that he beseeches us, that we give our bodies, present our bodies, a living sacrifice.
Wholly acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.
00:05:03
He gave so much for us.
We can go for him.
Or we can hold back, it says be not conformed to this world. That's a negative thing.
The leading principle of the world is I live to please myself.
By the mercies of God, He is beseeching us not to do it.
Not to live for ourselves.
Conform to this world.
But now we get to the positive, be transformed by the renewing of your mind. And that's what I had mostly that I want to focus on is the renewing of our mind.
Let's go to Colossians chapter 3.
Colossians 3.
And we'll just read verse 10 and have put on the Newman, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him.
God is not only given us a life to live, but He's given us an object for which to live.
And he wants us to have a proper.
Umm, if that knowledge would be according to who is our object that that didn't make much sense, I'm sorry. Umm, let's try it again.
Well, let's look at the verse renewed in knowledge after the image of Him that created Him. You know, if you make somebody or something, let's leave it to somebody as an object in your life, you're going to become like them.
You'll admire them, you'll pick up their characteristics in some way or another.
And I want to show from with some other scriptures that in.
Being renewed in knowledge after the image of him that has created us.
That's a good thing.
We have a good and perfect object before us in that one. Let's go to 2nd Corinthians.
Chapter 4 no.
Like chapter 3?
I only got one more verse after this so hold on.
The last verse of 2nd Corinthians 318.
But we all with open face, beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.
Notice it doesn't say we might be changed.
If you have the Lord Jesus, and this needs to be more than just a cliche to us.
Before us, I'm talking about just simply sitting down and thinking about him.
Reading the scriptures and being thrilled at what they say about him.
It can happen.
And you don't have to be 61.
And that's a whole lot better if you do it a long time ahead of that.
To sit down and think of the Lord Jesus, what he's done for you.
I remember one time having the opportunity. I was sick.
And I had a lot of time.
And I sat there thinking of one verse and the Lord just filled my soul with that one verse. I wish it happened more, but I look back and the chills are going up and down my arms just to think of it.
00:10:07
The Lord Jesus was made especially precious to me through that one verse.
Psalm 69, verse 20. Look it up some time, think about it.
It says, we behold him the glory of the Lord, we are changed.
It will change you.
And God in his mercies is a saying, Do it.
Be renewed.
Because as.
Mark Rogers was saying in the gospel last night, there's a battle going on.
And if we're not serious, we're gonna go down in the battle.
And at very best, we will just squeak by in this life, our life. No real true sacrifice.
OK last verse is in chapter 4.
OK, there it is, verse 16.
For which 'cause we think not, but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.
We had some exhortation already about reading our Bibles, about praying.
The Word of God is telling us we need to be renewed day by day.
That's where we'll get the energy to actually lay our life down as a living sacrifice.
We'll have right motives for life.
I have found in my life in trying to testify to others that when I am personally enjoying the Lord Jesus myself and what He's done for me, then it's not so hard to risk being sneered or mocked.
But if I want to do it in my strength.
I'm a coward.
May God give us to get into the Word ourselves.
To be renewed day by day.
And by his grace.
To present our bodies of living sacrifice.
Thanks for your kind attention.
And come and see me if you wanna stand. You wanna go ahead and give thanks for the refreshment again. I don't think they heard anything. OK, Thanks. The Lord our Father. We give thanks for this opportunity.
To hear your word one more time.
Give us ears that would hear it and apply it to our own hearts. Bless each one of these young people.
They might give their hearts to you that they would live for you.
Be willing.
To use the energy, the intelligence that.
The gifts that they've been given.
To lay all down.
At Jesus feet.
We pray this giving thanks for this opportunity for further fellowship and for.
Uh, refreshments too. Give thanks for them in Jesus name, Amen.
What A Day May Bring Forth
Children—Tim Harkins
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
Good morning. Welcome to the children's meeting.
Does anybody have a song that they'd like to start with? We uh, on the back of the hymn sheet we have.
Children's hymns and choruses that we can choose from this morning. Do you have one this morning? What number?
#44.
News of salvation We carried 30.
30.
Tell me again.
Nsnoise.
Nsnoise.
Umm.
I don't know. I haven't heard. I haven't seen anything.
And I am sure that he's asking him for me.
And I don't know.
How patience and so reignation are.
Nsnoise.
OK, who else? Raise your hand.
Which one number three?
#3.
There was still some room up here in the 2nd row. Come on up.
So we'd love to have everybody like to come up close to the front.
#3.
38 #38.
All right, good.
00:10:19
Very nice that him has to do with what's on my heart today. You had your hand up. Did you have a song?
#8 #8 thank you.
Let's close our eyes and look to the Lord for His help this morning.
Our God and Father with this opportunity to be here to have thy word open before us and we just thank you for each one of these young ones that we see here this morning. We thank you for their bright, happy faces and their sweet voices as they sing songs of thy beloved son. And we just pray for their souls. We pray that as they grow up and uh.
That they would recognize their need of a personal relationship, our Lord Jesus Christ.
That they would come to know him as their Savior while they're young. We ask for thy help this morning as they are verses and as we open thy word and and speak about it or just pray that.
I see it would have liberty to work and just commit the time today. Ask for thy blessing and the Lord Jesus name we pray, Amen.
So.
The verse this morning is in Proverbs chapter 27 and verse one says I I'm not going to have the ability to ask everyone to say their verse this morning, but we'll give a few of the opportunity to to say the reverse and umm, have a, a volunteer here. It looks like that.
00:15:14
We got it.
I think it might be on. Go ahead.
Good job. Anybody else?
Who's going to help tomorrow because I know it's not Wednesday evening report, probably 27 morning.
I have another one down here.
Very good, Very good too.
Very good.
Go to an example tomorrow and I will start with her days in any way, but I will be still in anyone. Thank you.
Nice to see so many ready volunteers.
Very good.
Proverbs.
Very good. Thank you. Anybody on this side?
Very good.
Very good.
There we go.
It will not take long to be another dinner on a Day in the world from Thursday in the World.
Thank you. Very good.
Well, I think that maybe thank you very much for offering, but I don't know that we have time to have everyone set. Thanks for learning it. And it's really important that every single one of you guys have committed this verse to your heart.
Is this uh?
Is this a verse that brings a smile to your face when you think about it?
It's a solemn verse, isn't it? The very solemn verse. It's a warning.
That God gives us in his Word.
So we can't take tomorrow for granted? I have no idea. But tomorrow we'll bring forth Return to James chapter 4. There's some more verses there that go along with this verse.
James chapter 4 and verse 13.
It says, Go to now you that say today or tomorrow we will go into such a city, and continue their year, and buy and sell and get gained, or as you know not what shall be on tomorrow, but what is your life. It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanished it away, But that you ought to say, if the Lord will, we will live and do this or that.
So these verses remind us again that we have no promise.
Of tomorrow.
And that the Lord holds our very breath in his hand.
You know, recently there have been many examples of this verse.
And, uh, about a month ago, in the country of Nepal, there was an earthquake that struck and in moments.
Entire sections of cities were reduced to dust, and 8000 or more people are in eternity instantly. That's solemn.
About a week ago down in Texas.
There's a river called the Blanco River down there and, uh, there's, it's a very populated area, a lot of homes, especially vacation homes that are along the river there. And, uh, they had a thunderstorm, a significant one, and it started to rain and that general area very, very hard.
00:20:09
And I can't remember the exact numbers of how much rain was coming down, but that river swelled at a rate of 223 cubic feet per second. Uncle Steve Hall would have to quantify that. I don't. I can't even comprehend what that is. But it rose 26 feet in one hour.
And a lot of the people that lived along that river, their homes were washed away in that river. And when they went to bed that night, they had no idea, no idea that that rainstorm was going to be that significant. The last time that river had gotten a flood was in 19 twe. Well, not the last time I had a flood, but the last time I got really bad was in 1926 when it went up to 32 feet above its above its flood stage.
This time it got to 44 feet very, very quickly. And so people were not ready. They they had no idea that they were going to wake up in the middle of the night and there was gonna be water in their house. And the next thing they knew, their house would be floating down the river.
And so Scripture gives us a solemn warning, that we do not have any assurance of tomorrow, both not thyself of tomorrow, For thou knowest not but a day may bring forth.
So what that means is we need to have an insurance of eternity. We don't necessarily have any.
Way to predict tomorrow. You know, there was a man, umm, I read last week he predicted that there was gonna be an earthquake and, and, uh, California this last Friday.
It never happened thankfully, but there are a lot of people that think that they can predict what's going to happen the next day or maybe they they think that this will happen or that will happen. The scripture says both. Not thyself of tomorrow, for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth.
And so.
There's another verse that says, behold, now is the accepted time. Behold, now is the day of salvation. And that's what the Lord has given us. He has given us the opportunity right now.
To have our eternity secure in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Umm. And John, uh, I'm sorry, in the first epistle of John, chapter 5.
In verse 12.
It says, He that hath a son hath life, and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may believe on the name of the Son of God. And so though we can't boast of tomorrow.
We can know with assurance that our eternity is secure if we know.
The Lord Jesus Christ is our Savior, and that is an imperative if we cannot if we cannot know for sure what is going to happen tomorrow.
We need to know where we're going to go for eternity. You know, I work in the fire service. I come into contact with people every day.
That have they, for the first time in their entire life, they are suddenly faced with a thought like the the thought occurs to them for the very first time that they may not see you tomorrow. The very solemn thing to see somebody and it's amazing to me.
That there are so many people that have no realization of the fact that they could be an eternity at any time. We have a tendency to think that we're impervious to death. We have a we have the thought that nothing can happen to me. The things that happen bad that we hear about in the news, they're happening to other people and therefore we're OK. But the reality is every single one of us.
Have a heart that can stop.
And we need to recognize the fact that our breath is held in the hands of the Lord Jesus Christ. We need to know Him as our Savior. So when I talk about these things, it doesn't necessarily it's a solemn message, isn't it? But what I really had on my heart this morning.
00:25:02
But first of all, every single person here needs to know the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior. You need to have the assurance of eternity since we cannot boast of tomorrow. And as I sit here and look at each one of these faces of these children in the in the front row here.
Fills my heart to see so many, and yet I hope that every single one of you have accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior so you know where you're going to go if the Lord calls you from this scene. But with all that said.
I don't want the message this morning to be so much. Maybe a negative side of things is to be afraid. I don't want you to be afraid. Does the Lord Jesus want us to be afraid? I'm going to ask you that question. Does anybody here think that the Lord Jesus wants us to be afraid?
Does anybody remember what the first verse of John, chapter 14, the chapter that we took up in the reading that this conference? Does anybody remember what that very first verse says and who said it?
Anybody remember?
That's Sir. Hang on just a second.
Mm-hmm.
Very good.
Thank you. Yeah. And there's another verse just a little bit later in the chapter that says the same thing again. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.
The Lord doesn't want us to go around worried about tomorrow and what can happen.
He loves us enough to tell us.
And another verse that says passing all your care upon him, for he careth for you. He wants us to rest in the fact that he loves us.
And we can be assured that he's watching over us and every single thing that we do.
You know I'm gonna tell a story.
Umm, and it's, it's a story that umm.
I wouldn't normally, I don't like to tell stories about myself, OK, But this story I enjoy telling because it it gives the example of what we're talking about the of the Lord's care over us.
About 13 years ago.
I was at work and I was.
Umm, on a medic unit with another man and, uh, at the fire department and we got a call for a structure fire and my partner and I responded to the, to the address and there was smoke. We could see smoke as we were driving there. We could see smoke coming up above the tree. So we knew that there was an actual fire and we were the first ones to get there.
But on the medic unit, we don't carry hose or, or water or anything. We just carry the equipment that we have to, to be able to go in to the fire. And, uh, so we got there and we got all our equipment on and another engine arrived that had all the hose in the water and, umm, we were ready to go. And so we were assigned to go in and, and attack the fire and the fire as, as we were looking at the house, umm, the fire was in the back.
Kitchen, which was in the very back corner of the house, OK, we could see fire coming out of a window over there. And, uh, so we knew that that was the general area of the house that we were going to need to go. And, uh, so we went to the front door with our hose and, umm, opened the door and there was smoke all the way to the floor and there's this brown nasty smoke that you couldn't see your hand in front of your face.
But we knew the general area that the fire was. And so I took the nozzle and went into the smoke and went to the right and followed the wall down to the right, knowing that if I followed that wall, then I could hit another wall and move down. And eventually I'd find a doorway that would lead me into that back area of the house. And again, you can't see anything. And it was hot in there. And I crawled down and my partner was at the at the door feeding hose through the door.
And I called and crawled and crawled down, found the, the next wall and moved down that wall. And as I went down that wall, I expected to find a, an opening in that wall that would allow me to go through into the next room. And I, as I felt down the wall, I kept having my hose get tangled up in chairs and couches and things like that. And umm, so I'd stop and pull some more hose and, and keep working my way down. And I couldn't find the opening and not walk and couldn't find the doorway that I needed to find to get back into that back corner of the house.
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And, uh, being young and inexperienced and, uh, having a sense of urgency about us, we didn't pay as close of attention to the conditions as we should have and.
Thankfully, as I was in there working my way around, there was other people, other fire engines and things showing up out in the front of the building and, uh, they noticed that the smoke started to change.
And the conditions and, umm, the smoke started to push out the door much more forcefully. And, uh, the color changed in the smoke. I couldn't see any of that where I was. I couldn't see my hand in front of my face. It was hot in there and I knew that, but it wasn't overwhelmingly hot. And I was so focused on trying to find that back area that I wasn't paying as much of attention as I should have to what was going on around me.
The, the people outside noticed and they said get out, you need to get out. And that's not what I wanted to hear because I was so focused on trying to get back to that area that was on fire that I wasn't really happy about being told to turn around and, and come back out of the building because I wanted to accomplish the job. I wanted to extinguish the fire. So I turned around and started coming back out calling, pulling my hose along with me and, uh.
They kept tangling up on those couches and stuff again and, uh, I kept having to move the furniture out of the way to, to bring the hose because we're trained, we never leave our equipment in the building because it would be destroyed. And uh, so.
As I'm working my way back out, my partner at the door is starting to get frantic and he's yelling in the door. Tim, get out now. And umm, so I'm, I said I'm working on it. I'm trying to pull my hose back and it's catching on all the chairs. And as I was crawling down the wall, umm, it had what's called wainscoting on the wall. It's like, uh, paneling that's made out of, uh, highly varnished wood.
And, umm.
As I was calling, there was a a big plate glass living room window right there and that window broke out and, uh.
Through the little bit of light that came through that window, I noticed that the that the paneling on the wall was starting to smoke.
That's really bad. It's a really bad sign. And so I kind of accelerated a little bit down that wall, and as I turn the corner to crawl out the door, there was this sound and the entire inside of the house ignited the entire thing.
And the flames shot out the front door, over the top of my head, and out through the porch and up on the other side just as I crawled out the front door.
Had I been 10 seconds later or less, I would have been incinerated as it ignited.
It's an unsurvivable condition called a flashover, and I told that story doesn't speak very well with me, but it speaks of my savior looking out.
And I want to read a few verses about that.
The first one is in Deuteronomy chapter 30.
I'm sorry, Deuteronomy chapter one.
And verse 30.
Deuteronomy chapter one and verse 30 it says the Lord your God which goeth before you.
He shall fight for you.
Verse 31 And in the wilderness, where thou hast seen how that the Lord thy God bear thee, as a man doth bear his son, and all the way that ye went, until you came unto this place.
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You know the Lord cares about us very deeply.
And.
He, more than we know, watches over us.
And provides for our safety.
I tell that story because it's one of those stories that I will remember for the rest of my life of the Lord's loving care of me.
And I'm sure everyone in this room, especially the older ones, have stories that they could tell of the Lord's tender loving care of them.
And so though we have this verse that gives us a solemn warning that says, boast not thyself of tomorrow, for thou knowest not what the day may bring forth, we can also, if we know the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior, we can know that he's watching over us and he's burying us as a man to bear his Son.
He's carrying us on this way, and as we're in this wilderness, we have the blessing of seeing how the Lord carries us through these times.
You know, umm, in Romans chapter 8 there's another verse there.
Romans 8, verse 28 it says, And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God to them who are the called according to his purpose. And down to verse 31 Says, What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall He not with them also freely give us all things?
So that's the message that I wanted to make sure that we presented this morning was the fact that there's no reason for us to be afraid of tomorrow and the Lord doesn't want us to be afraid of tomorrow. He said in John 14 twice, let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. And in second Timothy chapter one, the apostle Paul tells Timothy when they returned to it. So I don't misquote it.
Second Timothy. Chapter One.
He says in verse seven, For God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind, and so the message that.
We have this morning is that you would recognize the love of God for you, and you would rest in that love, and you would have a peace that passeth all understanding, knowing that though you cannot boast of tomorrow, if you know the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior, you can rest in assurance of eternity and recognize that in His love He will carry you on the way.
Let's just commend ourselves.
Our God and Father, we thank thee for.
A word we thank Thee for the the solemn mourning that we have in the verse this morning, and we just trust that there would be none in this room.
That have not yet come to know the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior. They just pray that they would be exercised as to the warning that thou has given, and that they would turn to Thee before it's too late. They thank Thee too. For the message of love, we thank Thee.
That Thou hast carried us through this way, recognizing our dependence upon Thee and our our need of of thy tender loving care. We just pray that each one of these little ones would come into the knowledge of Thy love and have the peace that's associated with recognizing that it's our carrying them.
Every step of their way. And so we just, uh, commit the rest of the day to thee and thank you for that goodness to us, our God and Father and the Lord Jesus name we pray, Amen.
The Place
Address—Bob Thonney
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We started our breaking of bread meeting this morning without him.
Lord of glory, we adore Thee.
We need to be challenged by that title, brethren. Lord, what does it mean? Is it just something we automatically without any knowledge of what it means to use?
With Jesus, Lord, Jesus, I hope, and I say it for myself. I have to sometimes challenge myself as to how I use that. What does that word Lord mean? We don't use it too much in English language. Maybe we say landlord. We know what that means. But one who is Lord is one who has supreme authority, one who has.
The command in our lives, is that really true? Or is that just something we say with our lips without really making it real? That's the challenge that comes to my own heart. I'd like to present it to you too. As we sing this hymn, let's think about it. We're addressing somebody that's sitting in highest glory at God's right hand. Let's mean it when we say.
Oh Lord, we had worthy. I'd like to suggest we stand up to sing this in.
Oh Lord.
Glory.
To God, I want to cry and fall from the tree.
I saw.
Him.
Irish.
Praise, praise and my heart.
Nsnoise.
We walk by faith.
Knotts.
That's correct.
Other so careful for our Lord Jesus.
Glorious man.
For thy precious word. I'll have another opportunity this afternoon. Just open.
We're thankful for thy spirit.
00:05:02
That is the power of understanding my precious word.
In our new siren this afternoon, is that a spirit without liberty?
I get across, we pray, Father, for blessing and help as we open my word, not only for ourselves, but wherever they people may be opening that word, that it would be Her blessing.
We give you thanks and that most wonderful name of Lord, Lord Jesus.
My wife and I have been going over the book of Job in recent times and we came over a chapter that rather I found very interesting and I want to refer to it as kind of an introduction to what I want to speak about this afternoon. Job, Chapter 28.
Job evidently knew something about mining.
Interesting talks about veins of gold and silver.
But what I was impressed with as they read through the chapter.
Were two words that seemed to stand out for me.
In verse seven, notice it says there is a path.
Which no foul north, and which the vulture's eye hath not seen, The lion's whelp have not trodden it, nor the fierce lion passed by it.
There is a path.
Little further down in verse 12 Says, But where shall wisdom be found, and where is the place of understanding?
Verse 20.
Whence then cometh wisdom, and where is the place of understanding?
Verse 23 God understandeth the way thereof. There is the word for path again, and he knows the place thereof. So the two words I want to draw attention from this chapter.
Are the path and the place. You know, we talk a lot about the place of the Lord's appointment.
And how important that is.
But sometimes, you know, I don't think we focus on the path to that place. And I think that's important. We talk about these things and there are principles in Scripture that are very important to consider in connection with the place that the Lord wants His people to be gathered.
But do we reflect on the matter of the path to that place? There is a path, and it's a path that no foul knows. You sometimes see a vulture way up there in the sky, and those birds have tremendously good eyesight. They can see from way up there a little mouse that's scurrying along the ground.
But they don't see this fact.
And it's figurative of people in this world that have very.
Good sight as to perhaps economic matters as the business matters.
They're like that vulture, that bird of prey up there that is looking down at the ground. But this path is something that that vulture does not see. And this is not a matter of human wisdom, This path and this place. It's a matter of.
Laying hold of it by faith. And as we read before we prayed, we walked by faith, not by sight. Very important principle for the day in which we live.
00:10:00
We walk by faith, not by sight. What does that mean?
You know when we shut our eyes, when we walk? No, God is.
Give us eyes and we should use them, but it means that we're not guided by what we see.
I did buy something else that is invisible to the.
Natural human eye.
Don't know anything about this. The energy and strength of youth doesn't know anything about this path.
Nor the fierce lion passed by it. And there are some pretty powerful men in this world today. They have no clue as to what we're talking about now, because we walk by faith and not by sight. But what I want to say when we talk about faith, Scripture says very clearly that faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
It's just not some idea that kind of pops into my head. That's nothing.
Faith is based on some revelation of God.
And so we have the complete word of God in our hands, and we should be guided by what that says. That's faith that goes by what God said God says, not by what we see.
But by what God says, and that's so important, increasingly I hear of younger people, sometimes older people too.
That do not think that there is a specific place for the Lord to meet with His people here in this world.
And so they go off in other directions.
You know, I'm not the judge of that when it happens. Sad to me because going down to South America, it's the other way around. People are laying hold of what that means and it's not something that you can point to.
Sometimes, you know, we make the mistake of pointing to something outwardly.
If I say to you, young person or older one too, this is the right place, you're gonna act on what I say, that's not faith. I want to give you some of the word of God, some principles that have made it very clear in my own soul as to the position I occupy.
But I'm not going to make myself the reference point, no, because that would not be the faith of the Word of God. So I want to show you some scriptures that have been very helpful to me in making that matter clear. You know, in the old, in the New Testament, when we come over to the New Testament before we do just want to mention two instances.
One is in Luke's Gospel, chapter 22. We're not going to look at it now, but.
There the Lord said to his disciples.
Uh, go prepare us a place that we may eat the Passover.
And Peter and John were the ones addressed, didn't say, well, let's go see what places might be the best. According to our understanding. No, they asked the Lord for directions and the Lord gave him specific directions. He said when you enter the city, there will a man meet you. He didn't say you're going to meet this man. No, the man is going to meet you.
Bearing a pitcher of water, follow him into the house where he goes, you know, that's the path to the place. And we need to be exercised about what it means to walk by faith. And so as they went to prepare the Passover, they had to be careful simply to do exactly what the Lord had told them to do.
They went into the city. A man met them.
Bearing a pitcher of water. Pitcher is a figure of a human vessel, perhaps made out of play, but it's filled with water. Water is the word of God. And so the Spirit of God is able to direct you to the right place. And I just want to challenge you to ask the Lord sincerely, young brother, young sister.
00:15:09
Older ones too, because I find that sometimes our older ones are the ones that are going off.
I think it's because we have not laid hold of these things by faith. We have related in our convictions to what's outward and visible. Oh, you're just a few little people over there. Do you think you are the people?
It's not about us. That's not the point at all. That's what our humanistic culture has done for us. It's made us focus in on ourselves. What I like, the people that I get along with, the music I like to hear, Those things tend to affect you in your decisions.
That's not the point at all.
The Lord Jesus Christ must be the reference .0. It's so important to have that before us. But I say again what it impresses me as I go between South America and North America quite often to see the difference to the way the culture in this in this United States of America. Thank God for all the liberty we enjoy, but it's doing damage to the Christian faith.
Because it's telling you you have the rights to do what you want to do.
What about Jesus being Lord?
What about asking him?
What about doing what he tells you to do?
So they went on that path, they followed the man bearing the pitcher of water. They came to the place that the Lord had appointed. The place is important, but remember there's a path to that place and we have to, we're going to enjoy this. Know what it means to walk by faith. There was one other example I wanted to mention. It's in John chapter one. We don't have to look at it now either.
But John the Baptist with two of his disciples were standing there one day, and the Lord Jesus.
Was approaching and John says behold the Lamb of God and those two disciples started following Jesus.
And the Lord turned around and said, What seek ye?
In the Lord's answer, brother.
Rob Bullard yesterday mentioned it, or the day before.
3 words, come and see. He didn't say, well, if you go down to that street and that number on that street, that's where I'll be. No, no, they had to be exercised to follow Him if they wanted to get to that place. And I think that's something that applies to you and me today. You want to get to the place of the Lord's appointment, follow him.
It is so beautifully, wonderfully true. You can follow him by reading the scriptures, by obeying what he has to say, not only in collective matters, but individually. Because if you don't obey him individually.
It's not going to last very long. You come to some collective expression of what God wants us to to, uh, express in this day.
So those are two things that show the importance of the path. And then the place. To me it is clear there is a place. But again, I say I remember her brother Chuck Hendricks used to say, I'm not going to tell you where that place is. The Spirit of God is able to lead you there. You follow Him. I might lead you astray, but He will never lead you astray.
I thought that was good advice, so I want to give you 4 portions of scripture that have been a help to me in discerning the place of the Lord's appointment. I trust you can.
Uh, jot him down and think him through. Meditate them on on them. Because I can't say that I've come into a whole lot of understanding.
In a very short time, it's been over the course of quite a few years, the Lord has given me what I believe is the teaching of the Spirit of God in these places, and I just want to present it as objectively.
00:20:09
As possible. I hope you know what I mean when I say objectively as possible, simply mean that I don't want to use myself as a reference point in connection with it. I want you to see the Lord Jesus as the reference point. I might be there. Or maybe, as Brother Chuck mentioned, maybe I might make a mistake. So please don't follow me, but I want to.
Show you these scriptures and explain them as the Lord has given me.
Understanding.
Consider it, please meditate on it and be guided by what the Lord says. First verse that I want to go to is Matthew chapter 18.
There's been so much controversy over this verse.
And I think it's because we get people in the picture.
But in Matthew's Gospel, let me say this, that we have the Church mentioned twice. It's the only one of the four gospels that mentions the church. Interesting, isn't it? Why Matthew?
Matthew's Gospel is the introduction into the New Testament and what is the main theme of the New Testament?
The church. The church is a word that means called out ones. The gospel is going out and there are people that are responding to the gospel and those who respond and repent and believe in the Lord Jesus.
Are part of what is called the church and so this is the. In the 18th chapter is the second time the church is mentioned.
Let's read from verse 15.
Because that's where it really starts. Moreover, if thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone. If he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother. But if he will not hear thee, then take with thee one or two more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established. And if he shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto the church. There is the mention of the church for the second time.
In the book of Matthew. But if he neglect to hear the church, let him be unto thee as a heathen man and a publican.
Verily I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.
And I say it to you, that the two of you shall agree on earth, as touching anything that they shall ask, It shall be done for them of my Father, which is in heaven, for where two or three are gathered together in my name.
There am I in the midst of them.
Who's the reference point? The Lord Jesus?
There am I, Am I interested then about this verse? I'll tell you I am. Why? Because he says there am I. It's his words here. And he says where two or three are gathered together.
It's passive. In other words, I'm not the gatherer. There is someone who is.
Gathering, and as we have had in these meetings, the Spirit of God is the one in this day and age who is gathering.
He is active, says in John 16.
He will guide you into all truth. So that's the purpose of the Spirit of God. He dwells in me ever since I believe the gospel of my salvation.
Ever since you believed. And the Spirit of God is what binds us together in one body in Christ. The church is the body of Christ, and so He's there to guide us.
Now tell me.
The Spirit is one. Is he gonna tell you to go One Direction and need to try to go another direction when the truth of God is one, the Spirit of God is one, and the body of Christ is one.
00:25:08
I don't really think that that's the picture. I want you to meditate on it. Don't take my word merely for what I'm saying, but let it be something that stimulates you to meditate. What God is saying here.
I remember when I worked at Bible Truth Club these years, a number of years ago, a brother from another group of believers came in and we were chatting together in the book room part. He was buying some books and.
We got talking about the positions we occupied and he says, you know what? Bobby says, I think the Spirit of God guides me to go where I go and guides you to go where you go.
I say, brother, be careful. I would prefer to say that I was mistaken in the way I thought the Spirit of God was guiding. Because if we say that both the Spirit of God is guiding both into division, and the Spirit of God would be the author of division. I prefer to say either I'm mistaken, or maybe you're mistaken, or maybe both of us are mistaken, but we can't both be right.
And be divided the way we are right now.
The Lord Jesus is the center, and it doesn't mean that the Lord is not with His people on an individual basis. He is. But when it comes to His collective presence, we have this expression used in Scripture in the midst. It means He's the center.
Because throughout all Scripture, it's really interesting to go through Scripture and meditate on that expression in the midst. And it shows that God has a Sinner for all his purposes. It's the Lord Jesus. And what a wonderful privilege it is to be in the place where the Lord Jesus says, there I am, I in the midst of them.
I leave that for your meditation. Please think about it. To me it has become very precious.
To my soul.
Next chapter The next place I'd like to look at is in First Corinthians chapter 10.
First Corinthians chapter 10 we have the subject of the Lord's fable.
It's mentioned.
Inverse uh.
21.
If you look over to Chapter 11, you have the subject of the Lord's Supper.
That's mentioned in verse 20th Chapter 11.
The Lord's Table.
The Lord's Supper. They go together in Scripture. They're not exactly the same thing. Sometimes people don't distinguish, but the table is the place where the Lord's Supper is to be celebrated.
The supper is what we celebrate in that place. So it's two distinct things, but they're very intertwined in a connected and I find this very interesting portion to meditate you speaking to the Corinthian believers who were intelligent people. And he says in verse 15, I speak as to wise men, judgy, what I say in other words.
Think about it, you have a head on your shoulders. Use it.
Judge what I'm saying, Is this right or not? And so he goes on to say, The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ, the bread which we break? Is it not the communion of the body of Christ? For we being many, are one bread and one body, for we are all partakers of that one bread. Behold Israel after the flesh. Are not they which eat of the sacrifices partakers of the altar?
What say I then, that the idol is anything or that which is offered in sacrifice to idols is anything but? I say that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils or to demons, and not to God. And I would not that you should have fellowship with devils. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of devils. He cannot be partakers of the Lord's table and of the table of devils.
00:30:19
Well, he begins here talking about the Lord's Table by saying the cup of blessing which we bless, Is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? Why does it put the cup first here?
Isn't it in the breaking of bread we have the loaf first? Isn't that the proper order? Remember, we're not dealing here with the Lord's Supper. We're dealing with the Lord's table. And what is it that gives me any right to sit down at the Lord's table? It's the blood of Christ, the only title I have to sit there. And if you are cleansed by that precious blood.
You too have a place at that table. Maybe you are not occupying that place, but your place is there.
And I think that's so important to understand.
Then he says, the bread which we break, is it not the communion or the fellowship of the body of Christ? Now, when we say the body of Christ here, we're not talking about the Lord's physical body. We're talking about the body which all believers in the Lord Jesus are united together. That is what it's talking about. That loaf on the table represents every true believer in the Lord Jesus on planet earth.
They are represented there.
And there are many who do not.
Express in this divinely appointed way that they are members in part of that one body.
And I see, and I want to be sensitive that so often these things are given up because we start looking at people and failures. We got a lot of them.
Don't start looking too much at me, brother and sister. You're gonna find some failures. I know you will. And you might be stumbled. You know, you can look at brethren for good, or you can look at him for bad. Either way is a distraction. That's not gonna help you. Don't do it.
So it's the Lord's Table, and we have the fellowship of the blood of Christ. We have the fellowship of the body of Christ.
I sometimes give this illustration to help in South America when I'm speaking about this subject. Suppose in one day.
I have the idea that I'm gonna have supper with President Obama, the White House. This is just my idea. I don't really have any invitation, but I'm gonna go and try to get in and see if I can. How do you think I'm gonna fare?
I don't think I'm gonna get past the front gate. I'm gonna be told I have no right there. And that's true. But suppose in one day here in the mail comes a letter from the president. Come and have supper with me at 7:00 PM at such and such a date. OK, Now I do have a right to go in. And so here at the appointed time and appointed.
Our I'm going along the streets of ocean in DC to have Pres. To suffer with the president.
But I'm not walking very carefully and all of a sudden at a corner I I fall in the mud hole.
I got some real problems. What do I do? You know, I still got my invitation in my pocket. I think I'm gonna just go ahead and present myself at that front gate of the at the White House. How do you think I'm gonna fare now I've got the invitation?
And I think they're gonna tell me that I'm not in a condition that is worthy of the president. But I got the letter of invitation.
It will tell me yes, and they're putting a place there for you at that table, but go get cleaned up because you can't come in in the condition you are now. You know, there's sometimes people think that they can come at any moment and ask in the received to the Lord's table right on them spur of the moment.
00:35:03
No. There are things that contaminate moral problems. There are doctrinal things that impede fellowship as well.
And the apostle here in this portion goes back to the Old Testament to take.
A uh.
Teaching very interesting verse 18.
Israel after the flesh, behold him.
Are not they which eat of the sacrifices partaker of the altar? So he takes a lesson from the Old Testament. Let me make it as simple as possible. You remember.
That the Lord appointed Jerusalem as the place where He wanted sacrifices to be done.
But in the course of time there was division in Israel and.
Jeroboam.
Took ten of the 12 tribes and divided off from Rio Bon, Solomon's son.
And so that the people wouldn't go up to Jerusalem, he set up two other altars with their corresponding idol, a golden calf, one in the north and one in the South, so that the people would go to there and not go to Jerusalem.
There's a teaching here that we need to understand.
And supposing there was a godly Jewish family in the north of the country, and at a certain time he's accustomed to offering a sacrifice to the Lord. And so he takes his animal, and he sets off for Jerusalem.
But on the way he passes this other place.
Oh, here's an altar. Maybe I could offer my sacrifice here.
I don't really believe in that idol, but I'll just offer my sacrifice to the Lord here.
Could he do that?
The teaching that we have here says if he eats of the sacrifice at that altar, he's approving all that is done there. He is connecting himself with the idolatry of that place.
Very important principle. People think that they can go most anywhere, worship the Lord, offer their sacrifices of praise to the Lord. Remember, the place is important if it is a place that has something to do.
With doctrine that is contrary to the word of God, you are showing fellowship with that place.
That's a very important thing, and Paul is using that for the Corinthians because in Corinth there was a lot of idolatry taking place.
You know, Greece had lots of idols, and so they'd have a temple, they'd have that idol in there, and they'd have an altar before the idol. And then after they sacrificed to the idol, they would have a table in there where they would eat the meat of that sacrifice.
Let's bring it down to there. Supposing there's a brother in fellowship, the Lord's Table in Corinth that.
Is going along the street and he passes in front of this idol temple and inside he sees one of his work companions eating at a table in there.
And he says, work companion says come on in here, I got a nice good chunk of meat here I'm going to invite you to partake of.
I know you're a Christian, and so you don't, you don't have to bow down to that sacrifice, but just come on in here and I'll give you a piece of this meat.
Did you do that?
No, why not?
Because if he sat down and partook there, he was showing fellowship with what was involved there.
I want to be careful on how I apply that in today's world because there are many true hearted believers in the Lord Jesus and different denominational structures.
And I don't call them tables of demons. It's tables of demons when there's idols there because there's demons behind the idols deceiving the people. But today's world, there's a lot of what we would call man's table where man has set himself as to be the authority. It talks about in Acts chapter 20 of.
00:40:04
Or 2121 is 20 of men who would arise speaking perverse things to draw away disciples after them. The center is no longer the Lord Jesus, it's them and their particular teaching. And so we have many groups that way today.
And I say, I don't judge people as to their reality of their faith in the Lord Jesus, but it is important where we offer our sacrifices of praise to the Lord. And he says this is another, uh, principle that I think is very important. He says, you cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the couple of cup of devils. You cannot be partakers of the Lord's table on the table of devils. Why not?
Because if they did in the table of devils and came and participated the Lord's table, what would that show? That would mean that their fellowship between these two tables.
Impossible for there to be fellowship between the Lord's Table and the Table of demons.
So think about that. Those are principles that are very important as to discerning the place of the Lord's appointment. Time is going fast and I want to continue on to two more. Second Timothy, chapter 2, please.
Second Timothy, chapter 2.
And I say I hope I can present this as objectively as possible.
And I want to say if you think I'm mistaken.
I'm open after the meeting. You can come and tell me where I'm mistaken. I'll listen to you. But I'm not gonna be guided by what you say. I want to be guided by the word of God. That's what's important.
Second Timothy chapter 2, just by introduction, mentioned that in verse 17 we have two individuals mentioned that we're teaching bad doctrine. They said that the resurrection was passed already and they were overthrowing the faith of some. That doctrine contaminates just like that living contaminates. And we have to judge things like that. Not judge the motives of the heart, but judge what's outward and visible.
We're responsible to do that.
And so it says here.
And uh, verse 19 and this is where I wanna start. Nevertheless, the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, the Lord knoweth them that are his hand. Let everyone that name is the name of Christ of the Lord depart from iniquity.
I love this verse, especially that first part. This foundation of God stands sure. It will never change. The foundation has been laid and it's sure. Oh, that's a con consolation to my own soul. You know, in the Old Testament, when the temple in Jerusalem was destroyed, even the foundations were broken up. And when they came back in the time of Ezra, they had to.
Relay the foundations.
But in the New Testament, even though there is a lot of confusion and ruin that has come into the Christian testimony.
Still, the foundation of God stands sure.
You don't have to worry about it. It's here. Sometimes I say I have to dig down through the rubble of my own thinking to get to where the foundation is. But when I find the foundation, it's sure.
It's solid, it's eternal. Thank God for it.
So the foundation of God is sure, but the other part is says it has the seal. There's two parts to the seal. The Lord knows them that are his. In other words, as I look across the Christian profession today, I don't pretend to be able to say who is real and who is not real. The Lord knows them that are his and I don't think we have to.
Bother ourselves to try to determine which ones are real and which ones aren't. But there is on the other part of the seal, something that relates to our responsibility, and it is this. Let everyone that name us the name of Christ, or the name of the Lord, because he's Lord, depart from iniquity. In other words, if I name that name, don't connect that name with iniquity in any form that presents itself, whether doctrinal.
00:45:22
Or moral, or whatever way you want to talk about it. Don't connect that name with iniquity. We're responsible for that even now, in these days of outward ruin of the testimony.
What are we gonna do? Verse 20. 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 purge himself, and therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honor, sanctified, and meet for the master's use, and prepared unto every good work.
So it's speaking about a great house. You know, in the first epistle of Timothy, it speaks about the church as the House of God. And there was order in God's house in the beginning.
But it has now encompassed so much that it is hard to distinguish who are real and who are not real.
What are we to do in this case? He says there's four kinds of vessels in this house, gold, silver, wooden and earth. And then he adds this.
Some to honor and some to dishonor. You know, it's interesting he didn't say which ones are to dishonor, but he does tell us which ones are to honor.
Doesn't necessarily mean that a vessel of gold or silver are to honor. You might think if you come to my house, I don't have any gold vessels in my house, but supposing I had one, you came into the kitchen and you see that I have my gold vessel as a garbage container.
Is that a vessel to honor?
Afraid it's not a vessel to honor in that position, even though it's gold, even though it's worth a lot of money.
It's not a vessel. Done.
What is a vessel to honor?
If a man notice, it's individual. This is what you and I individually have to be exercised about. There's a lot that contaminates in today's world. Moral things, young people be exercised. God wants to use you, but he can't use you if there's contamination. You know today's world, there's so much.
That is, that hinders God from using people. Somebody told me the other day that *********** is.
Epidemic proportions in this country.
Is there somebody here that's involved in that?
You know what, if you allow those kind of things in your life, it's gonna hinder the Lord from using you.
Don't give it place, purge yourself. This is what scripture says. If a man purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel of honor, sanctified, set apart, meet for the master's use, prepared to every good work. That's beautiful to see young people that are in that characteristic. I I must say I, I really rejoice to see some young people that really take time to be vessels.
Of honor for the Lord. God bless you. God help you to keep yourself pure so that you can be a vessel of honor. I come into my house, I'm thirsty and I need a drink of water. Where do I go? I go to where you keep the clean vessel, clean glasses.
There I have one that's ready to use right away.
Maybe they're all used. So would I do that? I have to go and clean one up so that I can use it. Sometimes that happens, but I say God comes into his house. This is the House of profession, of Christian profession. It's where the name of the Lord is named. And so it's the House of Christian profession. And God wants to use you to do our work. Let me tell you, it's a beautiful thing to see the way God uses people.
00:50:11
In blessing today, sometimes young people, sometimes even children, sometimes older people.
It was a beautiful thing to me to read about some brother that was supposed to be retired and taking it easy and he decided he didn't want that kind of retirement and he went over some part of the Far East and was put himself in extreme danger.
Uh, to be able to serve people in the name of the Lord. What a beautiful testimony that is.
God wants to use you, and He will use you if you give Him opportunity. But if we allow ourselves to be contaminated, He can't use us that way. He'll have to clean us up before He can use us. So let's be exercised to be vessels unto honor, to separate from that which is contaminated. People don't like that idea of separation, but let me tell you.
If I go to some brother or sisters house and I after the meal in the evening, I offered to do the dishes and you see me that I got the dishes on one side and supposing there's no dishwasher there, but I pick up a plate and put it in the water and I wash it and I put it right back with The Dirty ones. Is the sister of the house going to say anything to me? I think she will.
Supposedly now I've got a whole bunch of clean dishes over in this side that I've washed. All of a sudden I pick up one dirty dish and I put it over there with a clean one. She's gonna say something to me. We don't use those kind of practices in our homes. We take it for granted. But sometimes when it comes to the Lord's house, the great house, we try to practice those kind of things. Doesn't work.
We need to be separate from that which.
Contaminates.
One more portion I want to point out before we come to the end of our time, and it's in Hebrews chapter 13.
Hebrews, chapter 13.
And.
Verse 11.
Here's another portion that has been helpful to me in discerning the place of the Lord's appointment.
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. Notice the reference point unto Him doesn't say unto the group of people there, no unto him.
Without the camp bearing his reproach, for here we have no continuing city, but we seek one to come.
So here we have another portion that speaks about the camp, and I'd like to try to explain this as simply as possible. The camp is not the same as we have in Second Timothy 2 where it speaks of a great house. Sometimes I think we mix those two things up in our thinking. It is not the same. The camp is the professing House of Christendom.
I should say the great house is a great house is the professing House of Christendom. But the camp is Judaism. It is where those Judaistic practices of the Old Testament were in practice. They had a separated priesthood. They had a temple of stones and gold and silver and fine wood.
Built. That was part of Judaism. They had fine music to worship the Lord. This is all part of Judaism. Also in Judaism, another point was that they practiced tithing. 10% for God, 90% for me.
But this is Judaism and we're called to come out of the camp. We're never called to come out of the great house. We are called to come out of the camp.
What is the camp then today and how do we come out of it in any way that Judaistic principles come to light? We need to come out of it. And I say sometimes, brethren, we need to be exercised. Sometimes we say, oh, we're outside the camp. Are you really?
00:55:20
Why is it that sometimes enlarged the morning we leave it all to two, or three or four brother, as to worshiping the Lord?
Isn't that a principal of the camp? There's some that can do it, and others. No, I don't think I will.
Careful, you are adopting a principle of the camp.
Sometimes young people like music a lot. I like music a lot, I'll have to tell you that. But when we come to worship the Lord, we don't come for our own pleasure. We come for His pleasure. And what satisfies His heart is worship in spirit and in truth. And so in the New Testament, the only instruments that we have for worshiping the Lord are the heart and the lips.
That's what God wants us to use in praising Him. I don't say that music is wrong, and I don't think it's wrong that we have maybe in our homes. But let's remember this is a principle of the camp is to worship the Lord using musical instruments.
Others think that you have to have a fine, elegant building.
I heard one man say he filled Solomon, really put a lot of money into it in his day. Why shouldn't we put a lot of money into it now?
Because we're not part of the camp, we are called out of it sometimes. I've had the joy of breaking bread with believers under a tree. Where we in the temple.
Yes, because we are the temple of God, not only on the days we come together, but every single day we are His temple. So we are called to come out of the camp.
You know, I just wanted to explain the question of tithing because it's such a big thing and many Christian circles.
And I use this illustration sometimes. I say if you tie, you give 10% for God, 90% is mine.
But when we come to the New Testament, we find that the Lord Jesus paid his precious blood to buy us back for God. Not 10% is His, 100% is His. And if I try to practice tithing now in the New Testament, I'm really robbing God of 90%. It's all his. I'm a responsible steward in using what He puts into my hand, and I will give an account for that in the future day, but it's all His.
So it's so important to distinguish between what is Jewish, the camp, and what is Christian. In this day and age. There are two distinct separate things. Judaism was a religion for man in the flesh. Christianity is heavenly in every way you want to talk about it. So I just leave these considerations to you, young, personal, older ones to.
There are.
Real, specific principles of the Word of God that show us where that place is. Now, I encourage you to think it through, to take the path of faith. We walk by faith, not by sight. If you start looking around, looking at people, looking at different groups, that personalities, I know you're gonna get sidetracked, but I want to encourage you to look to Him.
Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.
One further comment brother, that I think is important to make. I trust it will be understood. I've heard the comment made sometimes by.
Maybe, well meaning brethren, that we have the Lord's table.
My response has been we do not have the Lord's table. The Lord has His table. It's His and I should recognize His authority there. It is my desire and my exercise to be at His table.
01:00:10
And if my conviction was otherwise, I you wouldn't find me here. But it's not my table. It's not our table. It's His table. And it's important to keep the focus right on His glorious person. What a privilege it is to be gathered to His precious name. But that's not think of ourselves when we speak about that, brethren, Let's think about His glorious person.
Time is up, so let's just close with prayer. Father, we're thankful for Thy precious Word. How clearly it speaks to us.
We do pray that Thou hast help us to be grounded in these wonderful principles of Thy Word. Help us, Lord, help the younger ones, help the older ones too. Lord, help us all to continue on walking by faith, not by sight, looking to the precious, infallible principles of Thy precious Word. We ask for blessing the rest of the day now in that most wonderful name of our Lord Jesus.
Sell It Not
Open—Aaron Deaver
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
This has been announced as an open meeting.
It's not open for brothers to speak.
It's open for the Spirit of God to guide.
I got some verses written down here.
Let the prophets speak two or three, and let the other judge. 1St Corinthians 1429.
If anything be revealed to another that sitteth by, let the first hold his peace.
For you all may prophecy one by one, that all may learn, and all may be comforted.
And the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets.
For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all the churches of the Saints.
#288.
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I remember you.
Know whatever it's a game of?
Running each other in my life.
Uh.
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00:05:25
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Stop.
Proverbs 23.
Proverbs 23 and verse 23.
By the truth and sell it not.
Also wisdom and instruction and understanding.
Psalm 1.
Psalm One, starting in verse one. Blessed is the man that walketh not in the council of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor cedeth in the seat of the scornful, but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law does he meditate day and night.
And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water that bringeth forth his fruit.
In his season.
His leaf also shall not wither.
And whatsoever he does.
Shall prosper.
Ezra, Chapter 7.
And verse 10.
For Ezra had prepared his heart to seek the law of the Lord, and to do it, and to teach in Israel statutes.
And judgments.
By the truth and sell it not is a phrase that I have heard often.
And it was a phrase that it was very exercising for me.
But as I consider that phrase, I consider another phrase that that isn't in the scriptures, but it is true of, uh, our economic system. It is. Everything has its price. Everything is for sale.
If the price is right.
Everything is for sale if the price is right.
By the truth, sell it not.
In 2012, the LA Conference had Brother shared.
In the break between meetings, during the prayer, preparing to pray for the the meal, he said that.
His observation one of the young sisters said that she had to.
You know she was wearing her medium dress.
As to opposed to address that she might have worn somewhere else.
00:10:02
So there is address for the meeting and address when we're out in the world.
During the prayer for the gospel that night, I shared a story about a figure in the evangelical church. 9.6 out of 10.
It's a different way of saying 96% of those children that grow up in the evangelical church will leave the evangelical church and never go back.
And that night that the young people sing.
A brother shared.
A figure. He didn't come right out and say the figure, but I ran the calculations.
And when he shared about the young people in his assembly.
And the number of them that left over a period of time.
It came out to 91 to 93%.
By the truth and sell it not.
I can look out across this room and there's people that aren't here, that we're here probably three or four years ago.
Different conferences, I remember them.
Not the young people. They were the older people.
Men that had conviction.
Caught with conviction.
But they had a price.
Look at your family tree. What do you see?
A heritage.
Of people that have gone on for the Lord faithfully, without compromise.
When you look at your family, what do you see?
The strong.
Close knit, cohesive group of people.
So tight that they hold each other up.
Do you look to a man?
You look to your father. Do you look to your grandfather?
Do you look to the person that's sitting next to you?
Do you look for the person?
Sitting across the room.
You know and Ezra chapter.
Seven and verse 10, there's a progression of study. First, to be a student, we have that in Psalm 119. We can call that the student Psalm of studying the word of God. And in Psalm 119 we have God as the teacher.
00:15:00
And we have the scriptures of the textbook.
So in Ezra, with Ezra he first studied, but then he lived it out and in James.
We have.
The living out.
Of our faith.
That which we've learned.
Now do we live out what we learn from other people?
Or do we live out what we learn at the school of God?
With him is our teacher and the scripture is our textbook.
Then Ezra taught.
We have that in Ephesians chapter 6 and verse four Fathers.
Teacher Children.
Chapter 6 and verse four. And ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath, but bring them up in the nurture and the admonition of the Lord.
Jesus said that if we.
See Jesus, We've seen the Father. If we know Jesus, we know the Father.
God has the heart of a Father.
So if you want to learn to be a father.
You need to learn from Jesus.
Who displays the heart of his father?
So we have God as a teacher, and God is a Father.
And I say this because it's very important as you look up the family tree.
I looked down the family tree however however it goes it.
It's real easy to be taken up.
With imperfect people.
I want to be like my father, a child might say.
Because he was like his father.
And so we have imperfect copies off of one another.
Looking to imperfect men?
To model our lives.
No, I'm not saying that you ignore the counsel of your father's. That's not what I'm saying at all.
But if you are to buy the truth for yourself.
You will take what your Father teaches you, and you will go to the scriptures to see if it is true.
And what's very important to understand about children when they look at their parents?
They do have the ability.
To know whether or not their parents are living out an authentic faith.
00:20:14
Do you come to meeting? Because that's.
What your parents did.
And your grandparents did.
And you just do everything that you do because.
That's what we do in the meeting.
By the truth and sell it not.
Of those young people that signed that birthday card.
All of them but three were breaking bread.
93%.
Left.
By the truth and sell it not.
Do you have a price?
Now, I don't know what is in your family tree. I don't know the history of a lot of your families.
Maybe there is some failure in your families. Maybe there is some very discouraging things in your family tree. Maybe there's some things that you just don't talk about.
Because other people might.
My cast of judgment.
Let me share with you a verse, a couple of more verses.
In Second Chronicles.
Second Chronicles, chapter 30.
And verse 8.
Now be ye not stiff necked as your Father's were, but yield yourselves unto the Lord, and enter into his sanctuary, which he hath sanctified forever, and serve the Lord your God, that the fierceness of his wrath.
May turn away from you.
I think we can find hope in that verse because it does demonstrate the character of God.
There may be some failure in your family's.
Maybe it's your father, maybe it's your mother, maybe it's your grandfather, maybe there's some uncles.
But the Lord wants to take you up.
It's an individual thing, not a family thing.
Psalm 27.
Psalm 27 and verse 10.
When my father and mother forsake me, then the Lord.
Will take me up.
I find it striking that the first word is when.
Many young people will point to the failures of their parents.
And of their friends and use that.
As a point at which they will sell.
That will be their price.
00:25:07
My father sold out, so I'll sell out.
My friends have all sold out, so I'll sell out.
My father neglected in in teaching me from the word of God, so that's my excuse.
When?
My father and mother forsake me.
Then the Lord will take me up.
It's an individual thing, not a family thing.
When my father and my mother forsake me, then the Lord will take me up.
He's a faithful teacher. He's a faithful father.
He's compassionate. He will not hold the failures of the past against you.
But the question is, will you buy the truth?
So we just look to the Lord for his help. Our God and Father, we just look to thee as we open thy word and.
Seek thy guidance, seek to be exercised by it. Their eyes and ears would be opened to receive it. Now hots might be prepared. So we just look to thee and just pray in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Amen.
What I have in my heart is not dissimilar to what we just heard.
I would like to begin by reading.
From Revelation chapter 3.
Revelation chapter 3 and verse 14.
And I'm going to read to the end of the chapter.
And unto the Angel, the Church of the Laodiceans write these things, says the Amen. The faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God.
I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot. I would that thou art cold nor hot.
So then, because they are lukewarm and neither cold nor hot, I will spew thee out of my mouth.
Because thou sayest I am rich and increased with goods, and have need of nothing, and knowest not thou art wretched and miserable, and poor, and blind and naked. I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, for thou mayst be rich and white. Raiment that thou mayest be clothed, and that by shame of thy nakedness do not appear. And anoint thine eyes with I sell, that thou may see as many as I love. I rebuke and chasten. Be zealous therefore, and repent.
Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come into him.
And will Sup with him, and he with me. To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also ever came and sat down with my Father in his throne. Either half an ear. Let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.
It's not actually my intention to take up that portion.
What it describes, I believe, is the present condition of things in Christendom, and we are a part of Christendom.
But the condition that describes it seems to me is not dissimilar to the condition of things in Jeremiah's day.
Jeremiah was a prophet to Judah.
The nation of Israel had divided many years before and the northern 10 tribes had already been taken captive.
And the Conti, uh, Kingdom of Judah continued on.
Until we get down to the time of King Josiah and the days of King Josiah, there's a revival.
And Josiah?
Unfortunately, he was caught up in the politics of this world and involved himself in something that was absolutely of no concern to him whatsoever, and his life was lost in the battlefield.
00:30:08
From that point on, that Kingdom of Judah lasted just 22 years.
At that point, it was a little more than a city state.
And Jeremiah the prophet was sent to preach to a people who did not want to hear what he had to say.
We read there in Legacy that the condition of things in Christendom is going to be so bad that God is going to spew it out of his mouth.
In Jeremiah's day, well in the days of Israel, the nation of Assyria was to the north, waiting there for God.
The UMM for God's time to execute judgment against that nation.
In the days of Judah and the days that Jeremiah preached, a lion crouched to the north. It was Babylon, waiting to execute judgment according to God's timing upon that people.
We live in a day when judgment awaits, but it's not now Assyria or Judah that is going to come. I mean, uh, Syria or Babylon that's going to come to execute judgment. It's the Lord himself.
And as we look around us and things in Christendom.
What is Alha's attitude?
Let's just begin. And I just picked some verses from the early chapters of Jeremiah and I'm going to apply them loosely.
And I trust you allow me to do so.
Let's begin with Jeremiah chapter 2.
Jeremiah chapter 2 Says, Go and cry in the ears of Jerusalem, saying Thus saith the Lord, I remember thee, the kindness of thy youth, the love of thine and spousals, when thou wentest after me in the wilderness, in a land that was not so on.
And we might ask ourselves the question, when was this?
When it is that nation ever have that kind of love towards Jehovah? But God saw it, He remembered it, and we think of the 1St letter in those seven letters to the seven churches there in Revelation, of which I read the last layer to see it, and to the first.
The Lord says to Ephesus, I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love.
Everything I say I direct to myself. Where is the affection of my heart?
You know, we live in a very difficult day.
There are so many things to pull us away, to draw our hearts affections away.
So we, you know, we are we're often appeared to be I don't think we intend to be. We often appear to be critical of the disciples. But you know, in John 14 there the 11 reason why the Lord spoke to his disciples as he did because they truly sorrowed that he was going to depart. They did indeed love him.
Would we feel that same love?
Do we Would we fill that same sense of sorrow?
If we knew that the Lord was going to leave us.
Where are our hearts affections?
And then later in this chapter.
It says, yet I have planted in verse 21. Yet I have planted the ennoble vine, holier, right seed. How then art thou turned into the degenerate plant of a strange vine unto me?
You know we have 7 churches there in Revelation.
Begins with Ephesus, which will speak of the Church. In the Apostolic period. We have Simona.
Which would speak of the persecuted church up until the time of Constantine. Then we have Pergamos.
And then pergamos, we have fire tire. Each of those four churches were successive periods in the history of Christendom.
Fire Tire would speak of the Church of Rome. It continues on until the end. We still have that today.
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And then we have Sardis, which would speak of Protestantism, not in its days of glory and the Reformation, when a light shone in Europe.
In the midst of the darkness.
That hadn't shown for.
1000 years.
Then we come to Philadelphia.
Now, brethren often accused of saying that they are Philadelphia.
I trust that none here would question if I said that.
I have no difficulty in correlating Philadelphia with the recovery of the truth that we had in the early 1800s in connection with the true character of the Church.
With the true nature of the assembly.
What it meant to be gathered on the ground of the one body. Let me just read something I wrote in my Bible long ago. It was not written.
By anyone we would label as brethren is written by a man who believed was Presbyterian. This is what he wrote and I, I don't, I. He may have changed affiliation, but he wrote following the eclipse of nearly all truth in the dark ages. It was given to Martin Luther in the 16th century to reinstate the doctrine of salvation through faith alone.
And in the last century it was given to Jay and Darby of England to reinstate the doctrine of the Church. That is an assessment of a man who was a theologian never connected with brethren.
And so I think it's fair to say, and I trust that no one here would disagree with me.
That Philadelphia, and incidentally Philadelphia and Laodicea, do not describe ecclesiastical system, but rather a moral state.
And so as I said, I I would trust that no one would argue with me that Philadelphia corresponds to the recovery of the truth, especially in connection with the church is heavily Co heavenly calling and so on in the early and mid 1800s. You know, I enjoyed something that a brother in Europe shared with me.
Recently.
He said, like it or not, we are identified with Philadelphia. What have we done with those truths? We are responsible, brethren, whether we like it or not. You and I don't have a choice.
Those truths were given to us. What have we done with them?
God plants his seed, a noble vine.
Do you value them?
Do you even care about them?
Do you have an interest in them?
You know, Jeremiah was preaching to a people and and we'll see. Let's move on and and in the third chapter, the Lord said unto me in the days of Josiah the king. This is chapter 3, verse 6.
Hassel seen that which backsetting Israel has done. She's gone up under every high mountain, under every green tree, and there have played the harlot. Verse 10. And yet for all this a treacherous sister, Judah hath not turned unto me with her whole heart, but faintedly said the Lord, saith the Lord. You know there was a tremendous revival in the days of Josiah, a revival that had not been seen in the days of Israel's history.
Before it eclipsed the revival in Hezekiah's day, I believe.
And yet in that enthusiasm of that revival, I think it's fair to say based on what we read here, that probably in the majority went along with the movement.
They feigned.
The revival.
And you know, I, I don't wanna point fingers. But dear young people.
I have to confess that I feel.
My part and the responsibility of letting you down.
I don't think we have held that we have practiced, that we have taught the truth that we were handed.
And it's had its effect.
It is having its effects. You know, activities are wonderful and fellowship together, what I would call social fellowship, is a wonderful thing.
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But it's no substitute for the fellowship that God would have us have with himself and his Son.
There's no substitute for sound teaching.
You know, we can create a lot of activity, a lot of revival.
And everything looked rosy on the outside.
But unless our hearts are touched.
It will prove to be vain. So in the next chapter, chapter 4 and verse 4.
It says circumcise yourselves to the Lord and take away the foreskins of your heart. You know repentance is inward. It's not just outward.
You know, as I speak.
I stand here because I recently said in Denver as the preacher.
And you might feel that I'm preaching to you.
And unfortunately, that's what happens when someone stands up and talks to an audience. But I'd rather you thought of it. Is the Word of God speaking to your own hearts? Take Me Out of the picture.
These things I find very searching to me. I look at Jeremiah and the deep exercise he went through and the condition of things in the day in which he lived. Those conditions of things that we see around us in the world today, they're no different. Am I? Am I exercise like Jeremiah? Am I brought to tears like Jeremiah? Does it move me to see the condition of things?
So I recognize my responsibility in it.
Do I humble myself? You know Daniel.
In Daniel 9.
He prays and says in verse four of Chapter 9, I prayed unto the Lord my God and made my confession and said.
O Lord, the great and dreadful God, keeping the covenant mercy to them that love Him, and to them that keep his commandments, we have sinned, and have committed iniquity, and have done wickedly, and have rebelled, even by departing from Thy precepts and from Thy judgments. Neither have we hearkened unto Thy servants, the prophets, which spake in Thy name to our King, and our Princess, and our fathers, and all the people of the land, O Lord.
Righteousness belongs unto thee, but unto us confusion of faith. That, brethren, should be our prayer. To unto us belong with confusion of faith. So we do we wonder at the confusion that we see about us.
Do we own our part in it?
Moving on in Jeremiah.
As many verses I could pull from.
Verse 21 of chapter 5 for example says here now this so foolish people without understanding.
Which have eyes and see naughty, which have ears and hear not. And just remind you what I read there in Revelation chapter 3 where it says.
I counsel thee to buy of me gold Trident fire, that thou mayst be rich.
And white raiment that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear. And anoint thine eyes with I salve that thou mayest see.
In verse 31 of Jeremiah 5 the prophets prophecy falsely and the priest payroll by their means. And my people love to have it so. And what will you do in the end thereof end of Timothy?
Chapter The Second Timothy. Chapter 4.
Verse three says for the time will come when they will not endure a sound doctrine, but for their own lust shall they heap to themselves. Teachers have itching ears. I believe we've already heard something of this in the ministry that we've enjoyed at these meetings.
When you have a thought, who do you go to? Of course we should go to the word of God, as we just had before us now. But if there's a brother that you want to look to for some help, you go to one who you know is gonna say yes.
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Or do you go to one who you know is going to challenge your conscience? You know, I, I love my Denver brethren.
I'm sure there are some that maybe don't think that, but I do. I love them.
And I recently wrote something and I was on the phone and my wife said to me, who you're speaking to? And I said so. And so he said, why are you calling him? Said, well, I don't want to call Brother A because I know he'll say, that's lovely. If I call Brother B, he'll tell me just the way he sees it.
That's hard. That's hard.
Because I I'm. I'm no different than you.
I don't like.
My conscience to be addressed.
Moving on to chapter 6 of Jeremiah.
Chapter 6 and verse 10. To whom shall I speak and give warning, so they may hear? Or behold, their ear is uncircumcised, and they cannot hearken. Behold, the word of the Lord is unto them a reproach. They have no delight in it.
Is that your?
And my heart.
Do we delight in the Word of God? Is it really a delight to us? Does it really? Does it really delight us to be able to come into His presence, to be over His Word?
You know, I am well aware that we get in the way.
I'm well aware that you may come into reading meetings and feel that you're tired of these brothers arguing about the meaning of this word or that. I realize that we have stumbled you, but that doesn't change what your heart should feel towards the Word of God.
Do you love it? You know, I think of David and the sons and the love that he expressed for the Lord of God. I know that the law is all, is all-encompassing. It includes, as the Jews call the first five books of the Bible, the Torah, that is to say, the law.
It includes all those five books, but nevertheless, when I think of the law, I think of the commandments, the curses connected with and, and we'll find it in the 11Th chapter of Jeremiah connected with disobedience to it. But David loved the law because it was a communication of Jehovah to his people. David loved it. If David loved the law, how much more should we love the word of God?
Given the revelation that we have received and the indwelling of the Spirit of God to comprehend it.
The position that we have been brought into in Christ.
Do we love his word?
You know, my wife and I met in the local assembly.
And so I only have a wrote her one letter.
But those of you before the days of e-mail and even and I heard recently of a young man that was writing letters to his fiance.
You know what happens when they receive those letters? Do they just? Oh, it's a letter. Oh, I'll put it aside. I'll read it when I have time.
Is that how we are with the Word of God?
You know, I, as I said, I speak these things to exercise us to, to challenge us. We this is the day in which we live, Christendom.
It is so much like the days of Jeremiah. There was a complete disinterest in the things that Jeremiah said. In fact, they so hated him, they wanted to kill him.
Jeremiah chapter 70. No, before we go on chapter six, another thing, verse 16. Thus saith the Lord, stand ye in the ways, and see and ask for the old paths, wherein is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls. For they said we will not walk therein. I just want to read a verse from Proverbs 22 which is somewhat similar. So Proverbs 22.
And verse 28.
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Remove not the ancient landmark which thy Father's have set.
And then I'm gonna read a verse from Jeremiah Chapter 7 because I want to connect these thoughts. Jeremiah Chapter 7 verse four says trust ye not in lying words saying the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord of the East.
So the first thing I wanna bring out is the old parts, the ancient landmarks.
You know, I I have told this story before and there are some very good listeners in this audience because periodically someone will come up to me and remind me of something that I said probably 10 years ago.
But I grew up on a farm in Australia.
It wasn't what we would call a station, which you would call a ranch. In other words, it wasn't thousands of acres. We lived in a very fertile part of the country. Most of you think of Australia as being desert and dry and brown. Well, where I grew up was a lot like Napa Valley in California, Philly vineyards, apples. And that's what my father grew. He grew apples. So we had 100 acres.
And uh, for an orchard that's pretty good considering we want a corporation. It was a these days farm seem to have turned into corporations and so on. But anyway.
But I loved being on the phone.
And my brother and I knew every inch of property and we walked the boundary of that farm. Not all at one time necessarily, but I say to my brother Steven, hey, why don't we go to such and such point of the farm? We haven't been there for a long time. And we'd walk down there, you know, that's like the truth that we've been given.
My son Steven, and he's not here, so I can't embarrass him.
So he is currently studying civil engineering and he finished his semester and he had to do what's called a field session, which was six, uh, three weeks, I think of six days a week, 8 hours a day where we had lectures. And then he went out and did actual field work, including surveying. But a group of three was sent out to find survey marks that have been laid out to describe sections, and there were descriptions that should have pointed to where those survey marks were.
Well, they slogged all afternoon.
Through marshes and bogs, they found one on the wall of a reservoir. It of course, had not been moved, and from it they could figure out where the next one was. And sure enough, they found it. And then they documented it based on existing landmarks to prove where it was.
You know those ancient landmarks of the truth, the principles in the Word of God that never change, but we wanna move them?
We wanna move them to accommodate our own wells.
Just like in Jeremiah's day, those old paths, they didn't want to walk in them.
But you know, it says the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord Lord. What does that mean? Well, that's like us saying, well, we're brethren, we don't have anything to worry about.
We're in the right place. We're the and you know, I really enjoyed Brother Bob's message. It's not about us. It's not about us at all. We're not secure because of who we are. Everything rests on who he is and not us. You know, when the disciples asked the Lord and John chapter one there, don't, don't turn because we're gonna go straight back to Jeremiah. But in John chapter one, they said to the Lord.
Master Wedwell style.
And the, the, the word there is abide where abide is thou. And he said, What did he say at the corner of such and such a street, and such and such a street? No, he says, Come and see. And they came and saw where he dwelt, and abode with him, with him.
No, we can't rely on our heritage and as a brother, just since we can't rely on what my grandfather did or my my parents did. The truth has to be individual. We each have to buy it for ourselves. You know, there's two tendencies when you talk about the old paths. The one tendency is to wanna to go back and live like things were.
That's what the Pharisees did. It was all outward. The other is to say, well, let's shake things up a bit and I'll get to that one in a minute. I just want to talk a little bit more about rolling things back.
00:55:10
You know, we can't go back and live like the mid 1800s. The truths haven't changed, the landmarks have not been moved. They're still there. We have to make them good to ourselves for the day in which we live.
You know, I I recently had lunch with a young man who wrote a letter to the assembly and said that he was leaving, withdrawing from fellowship. Since that time, he's come.
Sometimes and not others. And he there's a, there's a work going on there.
But every time I speak to a young person in that condition, one thing they always like to bring up is, you know, in the days of Mr. Darby, when Christians would come into the assembly that were allowed to break bread.
And, you know, I was recently in the South of France and I enjoyed hearing from a letter that Mister Davi wrote about his travels through southern France and how people came at quite a bit of risk to themselves personally. In fact, they were imprisoned because you were registered Catholic. And if you went somewhere else, that was a, a, an infraction that you could be in fact, be imprisoned for. And so when they would go to a brethren meeting, not necessarily from the Roman Catholic Church, but anyway, when they would come.
Umm, it caused problems because the authorities would wanna know how many, how many people are registered at your church and they couldn't tell them.
But you know what? We don't live in the days of Mr. Dobby anymore.
The truth.
Has been preached and it has been rejected.
The truth of that being gathered together on the ground of the one body has been rejected in favor of independent coalition of assemblies.
That's what we see around us with the mega churches. They're not part of the traditional churches of Protestantism.
They're large, independent.
Churches full of energy and music to, uh, lift the senses.
It doesn't mean to say that.
If someone comes in that they.
We don't have to be exercised about it, you know, in the end of June.
It says concerning some making a difference.
But I just want to point out, we can't roll things back and say, well, they that's what they did in that day. Remember, the tooth was preached and has by and large by Christendom. It was, except it was, it was recognized. I read that quote earlier. It was recognized as the truth that it has by and large been rejected.
And when someone comes in, it should be made quite clear to them. Do you realize that the way we meet is essentially in protest against the way that you normally meet?
And you're going to be identified with that.
Let's move on to the next chapter.
Let's just read UMM in chapter 8.
This is the other side of things, chapter 8 verse 11. For they have healed the hood of the daughter of my people slightly, saying peace, peace when there is no peace.
You know I have one tendency of how hot is 1 to go back to living a ex outwardly in the day and which is not the present day.
And pretend.
The other is to lighten things up a bit.
Oh, what do you mean?
There's problems. Peace. Peace.
You know we.
Just as dressing ourselves up as some some groups do, so they look like they come out of the 1800s. We can go the other way too and dress things up to look modern. You know, dressing things up. It's like putting old wine in new bottles or new wine in old bottles. That doesn't work.
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It doesn't work.
Let's turn to Chapter 9.
Chapter 9 Verse one Oh that my head will waters, and my eyes a fountain of tears, that I might, might weep day and night.
Do we really understand the condition of things in Christendom? Do we really understand, if I can put it this way, the pain that it causes God, the anguish?
If we did, we would weep like Jeremiah.
We would weep.
Verse 24 of this chapter says, Let him the glorious glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me.
I don't care.
Who you are, where you've come from, what truth you've had.
If I was speaking to another Christian who maybe came out of the Baptist Church.
I would say the same words to him he has received.
A certain degree of truth. What are you doing with it? You know it's not for us to put ourselves in the place of another. God has put you here. You didn't ask to be put here. I know God has put you here in a certain family, a certain assembly.
And you have heard these things taught. What are you doing with them? Don't worry about your Baptist brother down the street. He has a degree of truth that he is responsible for, and you're not responsible for it.
What are you doing with what? What am I doing? What am I doing with that which I've received?
Do I value it?
Does it make me weep to think of what God has brought in amongst us? The confusion of faith?
Do I own my responsibility in it?
Says let him the glory if you're going to glory in anything, glory in this that he understandeth. And no, it doesn't say knoweth my words. We'll talk a little bit more about the words in a minute, but it does. It's no good just knowing the words.
God wants a personal relationship. The Lord Jesus wants a personal relationship. He wants us to know Him. Going back to what we read in chapter 2.
And that they had left the love of their spouses going back to Ephesus. Now, you might say to me, well, we don't live in the days of Ephesus. And you're absolutely right.
But there's two different ways to look at the letters to the seven churches. Well, three, actually, But.
The one is that presents an outline of the history of Christendom, but the other is intensely individual.
And we find ourselves often taking the journey that we read there in those seven churches when we were first saved. There is that first love.
And then maybe persecution comes in and that turns us cold. That often happens in high school or college.
Where suddenly you realize that not everyone is a happy Christian and you get discouraged from opening your mouth.
And then pergamos, worldliness sets in. And so you see, individually we're all like.
That passed through the seven churches and there's nothing stopping us going back to Ephesus, you know, individually in our lives and re having that first love rekindled in US.
And then Chapter 11 of Jeremiah speaks especially of the covenant, and you look through Chapter 11 of Jeremiah and we find what it was like to live under law.
Verse 3 Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, cursed be the man that awaits, not the words of his covenant.
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Verse 4 obey my voice end of verse six, hear ye the words of his covenant and do them. Verse 7 obey my voice. Verse 8 yet they obeyed not we're not under law, but we had it beautifully brought out in the meetings here connection with the commandments that God the Lord has given us, the instruction that he's given us. It's not let me think of the word commandment and John uses that word commandment in his epistle and.
In his gospel and but whenever you think of the word commandment, I know for myself, my mind jumps to the law. Well, it's a different word in the Greek, the word for law is namas, I believe. And the word used for commandment is interlay and it speaks of instruction. Instruction. And I like what was brought out that when we have instruction in the word of God in the New Testament is not thou shalt the Old Testament says thou shalt not kill in the New Testament, Oh, this is says thou shalt not steal.
I'll just read a verse from F Ephesians that says.
1St Ephesians 428 Let him that stall steal no more. Brother Robert brought that out in the meetings. Let him and say, when it comes to thou shalt not kill in second Peter, I mean first Peter. It uses a similar expression.
So when we think of the commandments in connection with the New Testament, don't think of law, but think of those injunctions that we have been given that one who loves the Lord would desire to do so that they would not so that in this case the Lord. But if you love someone and they ask you to do something, you would delight to do it one because you love them and two, because you wouldn't want them to be hurt. And so I was just gonna the connection with the thou shalt not kill in first Peter chapter 3 it says but let.
None of you suffer.
As a murderer, so the Old Testament is thou shalt not was accompanied by a cursed New Testament. We know we have directives given to us, instructions given to us. It is let us but time is moving on. I wanted to get to a verse in verse 5th chapter 15.
Chapter 15 verse 16 says Thy words were found, and I did eat them, and thy words when I unto me the joy and rejoicing of my heart.
You know, every time we have restoration in the word of God, it always takes us back to the word of God. But like I said, it's not the word had an independence from the Lord Jesus. It's not the word had an independence from God in Ephesians. There's a in the apostles first prayer in Ephesians, it says.
That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in knowledge, in the knowledge of.
Him in the knowledge of him we can only have the spirit of river re spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him. The things that we read there in the Epistle to the Ephesians can only be had in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. But again, is the word of God a joy and a rejoicing to your heart and to my heart? Do we delight to read it? I I can't pretend that it always delights me to read it when I'm busy and rushed and and don't have enough time.
Again, as I said, I stand here as the preacher preaching.
But I don't want you to take it as if I'm preaching to you. I These are things that we need to be humbled about. These are things that we need to be exercised about. These are things that, as the brother kept saying, take away. Think about them.
Let them enter into our hearts.
Tuesday morning at 8:00.
Oh my God.
Nsnoise.
Thy word to our heart, to you. Pray in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Sell It Not
For God So Loved the World
Gospel—Jim Hyland
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
Start the Gospel meeting this evening with hymn #7 on the gospel hymn sheet. God loved the world of sinners lost and ruined by the fall. Salvation full at highest cost. He offers free to all owe to his love, to his wondrous love, the love of God. To me, it brought my Savior from above to die on Calvary. Let's stand up to sing this and if someone will, please start at #7.
All right. Thank you.
And get rid of the blah blah blah blah.
Blah.
Nsnoise.
Nsnoise.
Our hearts are stirred this evening as we have just sung of Thy love, that love that spared not thine own Son, but delivered Him up for us all. And we're thankful for the glorious gospel message that we can present once again, that love that sent Thy Son, the love of the Lord Jesus and going to Calvary's cross, and that love that has extended the day of grace and salvation thus far.
And now, as we open my word, and seek by grace to present clearly and simply the glorious gospel our God, we pray that if there's someone here tonight who's lost and in their sins, that tonight thou work mightily by thy spirit, open their hearts. We do pray that they might see their need as a savior, but that they might of a of a savior, but that they too might see that there is one.
Who wants to save them and forgive them of their sins? So we ask thy help and blessing. We ask it in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and for his glory. Amen.
We're going to start tonight before we make some comments by reading a number of scriptures.
And I trust that everyone of us here will open our ears and our hearts to hear God's Word, because the Word of God says here and your soul shall live. And we're only going to have a few minutes in the time allotted to us for the gospel meeting to speak from God's precious Word. And I just pray that everyone of us, young and old here tonight will put aside anything that would distract us.
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Put aside thoughts of what we're going to do after this meeting or tomorrow when we leave or go home, and that we would concentrate by the grace of God for a few moments on what God has to say to us, because this is what is important, this is what's vital. And so as we read these verses, and then as we hope to make a few comments about them, please open your ears. He that hath ears to hear.
Let him hear. We're going to begin in John's Gospel, Chapter 3.
John's Gospel chapter 3.
And verse 35.
The Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things into his hand, and then in the 5th chapter.
Chapter 5 and verse 20. For the Father loveth the Son, and showeth him all things that himself doeth, and he will show him greater works than these that ye may marvel. And then in the 10th chapter of the same gospel.
Chapter 10.
And verse 17.
Therefore doth my Father love me because I lay down my life.
That I may take it again. And now let's go back to the third chapter.
John's Gospel, chapter 3 And this time 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. And then in the first epistle of John.
First John Chapter 4.
And verse 9 In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world that we might live through him. And just one more verse for now in Galatians.
Galatians, chapter 2.
And verse 20.
I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless I live, yet not I. But Christ liveth in me and the life which I now live in the flesh. I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me, as are Him. And these Scriptures indicate I'd like to speak for a few moments on a subject that I feel very inadequate to take up.
And that subject is the love of God and the love of the Lord Jesus. And Ohio, how wonderful a subject it is. I am so thankful that tonight we can come and we can open the word of God and we can read of the love of God. We can read of the love of the Lord Jesus. You know, a survey of young people at universities in the United States of America some time ago indicated that what young people desire more than anything else.
In their life is to know that they are loved. I remember one time Brother Garvin Seymour from Saint Vincent and myself were visiting in a school in Trinidad. Trinidad is that last island of the West Indian chain off the coast of Venezuela and we were visiting in a school, an elementary school, and we had liberty to go from classroom to classroom with about 15 or 20 minutes in each class.
Just time to sing a gospel chorus with the children. Present a simple message and leave a children's gospel paper on each desk. Wonderful opportunity. And one of the classrooms we went to, Brother Garvin, was addressing the boys and girls. I suppose these boys and girls were about eight or nine years of age.
And he asked the boys and girls to put up their hand and when they were called upon to mention somebody that they knew for sure loved them. And the boys and girls put up their hands, Some said mom, some said father, some said grandma, grandpa, maybe a brother or sister. There was quite a variety of answers as he went around the room, but there was 1 little boy with his hand up.
00:10:29
And when Brother Garvin asked him who it was that he knew, loved him.
He said with the saddest look I have ever seen on a child's face. Nobody loves me. Isn't that sad? Isn't that sad? I'll never forget the look on that young boy's face, feeling that there was nobody on the face of the earth that loved him but Brother Garvin, who can present the gospel in such a precious and simple way. He assured those boys and girls that there was indeed someone who loved them.
Love them with a greater love than either even mom or dad or some family member or friend on earth, the Lord Jesus Christ, God who sent His Son, which will speak of in a few moments. But before we speak of the love of God for to us and the love of the Lord Jesus for us, we read these verses that bring before us the love of God the Father for His beloved Son, because I don't believe we can really measure.
In our souls, the love of God for us, unless we understand, at least in some measure, the love of God the Father for his beloved Son. When it says in first John the Father sent the Son, isn't that more than if it just said God sent Jesus? Oh, it's true that God did send Jesus, but it was more than that. It was a relationship that existed from a past eternity.
Between a father and a son. I never understood this till, at least in a little measure, until my first born was brought into the world. You know, I walked into that hospital with a husband's heart, and I walked out with a father's heart. And all to think of God the Father sending his Son the Lord Jesus, the one of whom we read prophetically in the Old Testament, I was daily his delight.
You know that that scripture I was daily His delight does not just refer to the Lord Jesus when he was a man walking here in this world. Oh, it's true. When the Lord Jesus was here in this world, heaven could open up in a voice, declare, this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. But it was more than that. From a past eternity the sun was daily the delight of the Father.
Any of us who have had children can hardly imagine such a thing, because our children, though, we love them very much.
I don't think there's a Father here who would say that that child has been daily his delight. Sometimes our children grieve us through their actions, not that we love them any less. But here was a son who was from a past eternity was daily the delight of the Father loved by the Father. Three times we have read the Father loveth the Son.
And yet this is the very one that was sent here by God the Father, God's well beloved Son. You know, it's remarkable that when we go back to the Old Testament and begin to take up through the word of God the subject of love, it does not begin with the love of God for us. It does not begin with God. So love the world, as wonderful as that is the first mention of love.
In the Word of God is in Genesis chapter 22, and it is in connection with one of the most beautiful pictures or types of God, the Father and the son going to the altar, and the son being offered up in tight as that sacrifice. And it is in connection with Abraham and Isaac. And the first mention of love in the word of God is this. Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou love us.
And get thee into the land of Moriah, and offer him on one of the mountains that I will show thee of. Oh, what a beautiful picture it is of the love of the Father for the son. Can you imagine the emotions that must have gone through the soul and the heart of Abraham? Here was finally the Son of promise, and now he is told to take him and to offer him up as a sacrifice.
00:15:12
What must have gone through the soul of Abraham, and much more than that?
Think of God the Father. When he sent the Son, he knew what was going to take place.
And when the sun came in love and obedience to his father, he knew exactly.
What the cost was going to be.
Two of the most complete types in the Old Testament of the Father sending the Son.
Our Israel sending Joseph to his brethren, and Jesse sending David to see how the battle was going and take some provisions for his brothers. And I've often thought of those two beautiful types because when Israel, when Jacob sent Joseph to see how it was with his brethren who were feeding the flock.
If Israel, if Jacob had, had any idea any inkling of what was going to happen on that occasion, if he had any, any.
Concept of the fact that his brought his other sons, Joseph's brothers were going to take him and throw him into a pit and then bring him up and sell him into Egypt and take his coat and dip it in blood. And for many years he was going to think that his son, who he loves so much, was dead.
Would he have sent him? I've often wondered. Perhaps he would have kept him home with within the veil of Hebron if Jesse had had any idea when he sent David.
To his brethren with some provisions, and to see how the battle was going with the Philistines. If Jesse had had any idea that David was going to be treated so unkindly by his brethren, and judged by his oldest brother Eliab, even the motive of of his heart for coming down, and that his son David was then going to go with just a few stones in his shepherd's bag and a sling in his hand.
And meet the Philistine, the champion of the Goliath, the champion of the Philistines. Would he have sent him? He might have kept him home, feeding those few sheep in the wilderness. Israel didn't know, Jesse didn't know. But no wonder of wonders. God the Father knew and the Lord Jesus knew. And in the 10th chapter, where we read, the Lord Jesus could say, Therefore doth my Father love me because I lay down my life for the sheep?
And all things have been committed into the hand of the Son as we read.
Even judgment, All judgment has been committed to the Son.
But isn't it wonderful, too, then, to realize that God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son?
When I think of this verse, John 316, I think of my father.
My father's been with the Lord for a number of years now, but my father was a man who took notes.
And jottings during meetings like this. And near the end of his life, he told me that for many years he had jotted down a list of Scripture verses that Gospel preachers began the Gospel meeting with. And when he tallied it up near the end of his life, he told me that more often than not, Gospel preachers began with John 316.
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. Edgerton Young was a missionary back in the early days to the native Indians in Western Canada, and the story goes that he felt led to go to the Indians in the Peace River District, the Nelson River District, the British Columbia.
And he went there to present the glad tidings of the glorious Gospel.
And there was a day set by the principal chief of those tribes in that area.
A day set for the hierarchy of those tribes to come together.
The leaders of those tribes, and to hear what Edgerton Young had to say.
00:20:01
And Egerton Young tells the story himself in his biography of how he stood up to face these Indians in all their ceremonial garb. And there they were sitting solemn faced before him a vast crowd.
And he stood up with the word of God in his hand, and he read this very verse, and for four solid hours.
He never turned from this verse. He presented the glorious gospel of the God of love and the coming of the Lord Jesus.
From this precious verse for four solid hours.
They say those Indians sat and listened with rapt attention.
And when Egerton Young finally sat down, all eyes were turned on the principal chief who had called and arranged the meeting.
He stood up with a great deal of pomp and ceremony. He faced Edgerton Young and you can imagine the emotions that must have been going through Edgerton Young wondering what this chief had to say on the matter and how he was going to react.
The chief turned to Edgerton Young and he said, Mr. Young, for some time I haven't believed in the great Spirit and all that we worship in the creation we see around us. But he said today you have brought a message that has brought peace to my soul. He said you can stay as long as you like and preach the message of peace through your Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. And the story goes on to to tell that Egerton Young did remain with those Indians and there was a great deal of blessing.
And oh, how glorious to turn to this verse, as has been turned to many, many times.
And to present that God Southern loved the world. When it's the world here, it's not so much the physical planet, not so much planet Earth as we think of it, but it is the people that inhabit this planet. God looked down and he saw sin on every hand, but he had a plan from a past eternity, a plan to send his Son the Lord Jesus.
And the Lord Jesus had already said, Here am I send me.
Oh, I come in the volume of the book, it is written of me to do thy will, O God.
There were many sacrifices offered in the Old Testament on Jewish altars, and it tells us that every priest standeth daily, ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices that could never take away sin. But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of God and all. Tonight we present to you a living Savior. The Lord Jesus came into this world.
He went to Calvary's Cross. There he died for sinners.
There he shed his precious blood, but there was a moment in time when he rose from the dead.
And he remained on earth long enough to give complete testimony.
To those who were His own, and those who loved him, that he had bodily risen from the dead.
And then the moment came when he left planet Earth and he went back to heaven.
And we sometimes sing that glorious gospel hymn. There is a Savior on high in the glory.
A savior who suffered on Calvary's tree. A savior as willing to save. Now as ever, his arm is almighty, his love great and free. What a savior we have. A savior whose arms were stretched on Calvary's cross, nailed there in hatred and anger. But a savior now whose same hands nail pierced hands are outstretched to receive lost sinners.
You know, tonight is just as if the Savior is bending low from heaven to hear one boy, one girl, one young person, one adult, say yes to the Savior to confess that you're a Sinner, but to receive his salvation. And so God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him, You know there was a man in a jail in Philippi long ago.
And there were two missionaries who had been beaten and put in that prison for preaching the gospel.
Thank God we're not afraid of that tonight. We're not afraid of the authorities coming in and arresting us for having a gospel meeting. Thank God for the peace we enjoy in a land like this. Many do preach the gospel with the peril of prison and their own life. But Paul and Silas, those two missionaries, they were there in prison, and they were singing and praising the Lord at midnight. And we know the story, most of us at least, of that earthquake.
00:25:31
And there was a man who was in charge, I suppose today we'd call him the prison warden. He was the jailer. And he was afraid because he was afraid that the prisoners would escape because the doors opened and the chains fell off the prisoners. I remember one time on the island of Bermuda preaching in a maximum security prison. And I was preaching from that very story. And I said to those prisoners as I looked out over the audience, and they were hardened criminals.
They were there for murder and many, many wicked things. And I said I wonder what would happen if the prison doors flew open because of an earthquake this afternoon. Oh, I could see the gleam in their eyes. I don't think I would have had one person left to preach to, but God held those prisoners there, and the jailer came in and he said, what must I do to be saved? And he didn't get a long sermon either.
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish. I want to focus in on that for a moment, because as we are stressing the love of God tonight, we would be less than faithful if we didn't warn you of judgment to come.
You know, there's a very solemn side to the gospel, and it's right here in this verse, the word perish. I wondered one time what a secular dictionary would say as to the meaning of the word perish. And so I had, I think it was a Random House dictionary at hand, and I looked up the word perish. It said to pass out of existence, but I wasn't that content with that definition.
And so when I got home, I looked up the word perish in Webster's dictionary and this is what it said, to die spiritually.
To die spiritually, in fact, to pass out of this world and go to hell, to a lost eternity in after the judgment, after the Great White Throne. Judgment is referred to as the second death. You know death in Scripture is always the separation of two things.
Death is taken up in three ways. In Scripture, you know we're dead in trespasses and sins. Why? Because your iniquities are Your sins have separated between you and your God. When Adam sinned in the garden, a separation immediately came in, and with a conscience he felt it, and he hid himself behind the trees of the garden.
There's physical death, and it's explained to us in the book of James. The body without the spirit is dead. It's the separation of the spirit and the body.
But the second death?
Is eternal separation from God in the lake of fire, And to be eternally separated from God is to know no love. All love, whether it's divine or natural, springs from God. God is love, as first John tells us, and to be in a lost eternity will be to to be without love, to be without friendship, without to be without companions. It will be as is illustrated to us.
In outer darkness, where there's weeping and gnashing of teeth to be bound hand and foot, it's a reality. You know, there was a young lady came to a gospel meeting like this one time, and at the door she was asked by someone, well, what did you think of the Gospel meeting this evening? Well, she said, at least the preacher was passionate and sincere about what he preached. And we are tonight because we know these things are real. We are sincere. We're passionate.
Hell is real. The Lord Jesus as he traversed the dusty streets of Palestine over and over and over again, he spoke of hell. He even told about two men who left this world. One went to a place of bliss. One went to a lost eternity. He wanted a drop of water to cool his tongue, and he never got it.
00:30:09
That story was told some 2000 or more years ago. You know, that man is still wanting a drop of water to cool his tongue. He's never got it yet, and he'll never get it for all eternity. But the worst of it all is to be separated from God. Just be separated from the Lord Jesus.
And to have the memory of a gospel meeting like this, we've read this well known verse. I suppose most of us have heard it. Many of us have memorized this verse and you've heard it. Once again the Lord Jesus said the word which I have spoken. The same shall judge him in the last day. If you end up in a lost eternity, if you go to hell, you will remember John 316.
But you will remember it as it rises in judgment of you. It will no longer be available to you as to refuge and salvation. But the very verse that you heard in this gospel meeting the same will judge you. You know why? Because you will realize that you had opportunity and you neglected or rejected it. Because God's heart is such. God's heart is a heart of love. He desires that all men be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth, and God never judges.
Without giving a warning and without making a way of escape. It's a principle with God. And if you go to hell when you leave this world, you will go to hell with the realization that the love of God was available to you and salvation through the Lord Jesus was provided but you neglected or you rejected that offer of salvation. But if you believe, should not perish but have.
Everlasting life.
Here and your soul shall live. The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. But remember this well. Salvation is free. It's not cheap. The gospel is free. And thank God it is. It's a gift. But it's not cheap. It cost God his Son. It costs the Lord Jesus his lo his life. Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it. If a man would give all the substance of his house for love, it would be utterly contempt.
What did the Lord Jesus give up in love for you and for me? Oh, he gave up everything. It's illustrated in the the parable of the man, the merchant man, who, when he had found one Pearl of great price, he sold all that he had, that he might purchase that Pearl. The Lord Jesus gave up everything. He came from heaven as a man. He went to Calvary's cross. He died. He shed his precious blood, of which blood we weed, the blood of Jesus Christ his son cleanseth us from all sin.
You know this is so serious and it is so urgent for two reasons. One is because we do not know how long we have to live in this world.
I have taken many, many funerals over the years. I have taken the funerals of those who have been stillborn, who have never seen the light of day to those who have been on in their 90s, and just about everything in between. There's no guarantee on life how often someone has dropped dead without a moment's notice, and we could stand here and tell story after story.
Of boys and girls and young people, and those who are so-called middle age, who in the prime of life.
Have without a moment's notice left this world. We were driving our car one time and we saw bumper sticker that rather impressed us, it said. Those who wait till the 11Th hour to get saved usually die at 10:30.
That's why the Lord Jesus said flee from the wrath to come. Now is the accepted time, now is the day of salvation. You know there's a verse in Ecclesiastes and I'm going to misquote it to make a point. Remember thy creator in the days of thy youth. That is not what the verse says. It says remember now, thy creator in the days of thy youth. Because no matter how old we are here today, we can always look at someone else and say, well, we're a lot younger than they are.
00:35:12
I know there's some of these boys and girls.
Who look at me and say boy, he's really along in life. But you know there's some people in the audience that look at me and say that preacher is just a young man. And so it doesn't say just to remember that the the remember and get saved in the days of our youth. It says now.
Because I have stood by many a casket with a young person, a boy, a girl, a teenager.
Oh, it's so vital to be the possessor of eternal life. And it is, as I say, a gift.
The Lord Jesus died to save us.
I come from the town of Smiths Falls ON.
And we heard this morning from a firefighter a story that stirred my own soul. But I want to tell you another little story about a brave fighter firefighter in the town of Smiths Falls, where I live.
His name was Moose Lee. I never knew his real name. He was Mr. Lee or Moose Lee and I think you can imagine why they called him moose. He was a big, strong, broad shouldered fireman. And as you know, a moose is a big animal. You know, a car may hit a deer and people survive, but you hit a moose. There's no give to a moose. They are one huge solid animal.
And many have died on roads hitting moose. But Moose Lee in the town of Smiths Falls where I live was a big, brave, strong fireman. Now in a small the small town that I come from, about 9-9 or 10,000, we have what is called a Volunteer Fire Department. And they're not always the fastest on the scene of a fire. And Mr. Lee was the Fire Chief mostly was the Fire Chief in the town of Smiths Falls.
And when he went to bed at night in his own home, he of course always kept the radio on beside him.
To get the fire calls. And one night in the early hours of of the morning I suppose about 2:00 AM or so, his radio came on full blast with a fire call. Mostly knew exactly where that fire was. He quickly dressed and he himself headed straight for the fire knowing that the fire trucks and his men would soon be there. When he got to the scene of the fire he realized that it was a two-story house.
And that the fire was already well underway. He also knew that there was a family.
Who lived in that home? But he looked around the yard and he couldn't see anybody. And so he rushed up to the front door and he pulled open the front door and he stepped into the front hall and looked up the stairway. And at the top of the stairs was a mother with a child on each side of her and she was just frozen with fear. And so, not thinking of his own safety, he rushed up that stairs in spite of the flames and smoke.
He picked up the mother and he put her over his shoulders. He picked up a child in this arm. He picked up a child in the other arm, but as he turned to go, he realized there was a baby in a buggy.
Behind him.
He also realized from experience that he did not have time to take his load down the stairs and come back for the baby.
What was he going to do?
Well, he bent down, and in his teeth he picked up that baby by its clothes.
And he staggered down that stairs under his heavy load. He put the two children in his arms down. He took the mother off his shoulders, and as he was handing the baby back to the mother, the stairs behind them collapsed.
That family was rescued because of Moose Lee's bravery. He risked his life to save that family below. Tonight, we're talking about a far, far greater love and sacrifice than just someone like a brave fireman who risked his life to save a family from a burning home. No, we're talking about the Lord Jesus who gave his life on Calvary's cross.
00:40:02
He didn't just risk his life, he gave his life.
To save us not just from the flames of a burning building here on planet Earth, but to save us from our sins and from a lost eternity in the lake of fire, and to take us to that wonderful home called Heaven.
Are you on your way to that home? It says, as we read.
In this was manifested the love of God toward us. God has clearly shown His love to us.
In the giving of his son, is there any doubt in our minds as we look to Calvary?
As to the love of God, it tells us in Romans chapter 5 verse eight God commendeth or recommends his love to us.
In that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us, He died for the ungodly.
I like to go to the grocery store when I'm home and do the grocery shopping.
That way I can pick up a few things that aren't on the list that I might enjoy myself.
And you know, often as we go through grocery stores or we go to Costco or Sam's Club, we often find tables set up here and there, and there's someone, a man or a lady, behind that table. And on that table is a new product that they're recommending to us. Maybe it's some new crackers that have been just put on the market, some different flavor of cheese, some new juice that they're trying to get you to buy.
And so as you go by that table, they're recommending it to you. They're commending it to you.
And I suppose few of us pass a table like that without trying a sample. And often those samples are very good. They're very delicious. But you know what the problem is? You go to the shelf to buy some and you find out pretty expensive stuff. And I would say in our case, more often than not, we leave it there on the shelf. What was recommended to us was good, but it was too expensive.
But again, as we've been saying, God has paid the price, the Lord Jesus has paid the price.
And now, if you come, as this Gospel meeting is the beginning to wind down and our time is gone.
If you come and receive God's offer of salvation and eternal life.
There's nothing to pay, there's nothing to do. And you will be fully satisfied. You will receive a joy and happiness in your heart that you've never had before. And you will be able to stand with the apostle Paul. And you will be able to stand with me by the grace of God and echo those glorious words, The Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. I love those words.
I love to put my name in that verse. The Son of God who loved Jim.
And gave himself for Jim. You see how personal it is. Oh, you wanna come into the knowledge of the love of the Lord Jesus. But don't be like the young man in Mark's Gospel. Chapter 10.
He came to the Lord Jesus and it says Jesus beholding him, loved him.
But you know he didn't receive what the Lord Jesus had for him and it says he went away sad. Don't go out of this room tonight. Sad. You don't have to. You can go out of this room with the joy of sins forgiven and you can bring even a greater joy to heaven tonight. You can bring a joy to the heart of God the Father and the Lord Jesus. You can bring joy in the presence of the angels of God over 1 Sinner.
That repenteth and I heard of a young couple who had this verse hanging in their home, the Son of God.
Who loved me and gave himself for me. And after they were first married, a man came into transaction business with them. And while they were out of the room, he was sitting there reading that text on the wall over and over again to himself. And when they came back in the room, he said, no wonder you're happy If you really believe that, oh, tonight, time is short. You don't know how long you have to live in this world. But there is another reason why time is short.
At the end of this meeting, I want to impress it upon your soul. The coming of the Lord doth nigh, and the coming of the Lord Jesus at any moment is going to close forever the door of grace. For those who have had opportunity like you've had tonight to receive the Lord Jesus as your Savior, there will be no more opportunity. We're going to pray now, and I think sometimes people at the end of a gospel meeting wonder well.
00:45:20
The preacher says it's simple, it's easy. But how can I really get saved as I pray tonight? You can pray and talk to the Lord in your heart. You can talk to God in your heart because he hears you whether you say one word aloud or not, And just to confess, to tell him that you're a Sinner, but that you want to come and receive that wonderful offer of salvation. That's how easy it is. Just pray quietly to God, to the Lord Jesus.
There isn't any special words you have to say, except that it comes right from your heart.
And whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. God is love.
He loves you and He wants to save you. Tonight, let's pray our God and Father for solemnized at the end of this meeting to realize that perhaps there's still someone after 45 minutes who still not ha, has not tasted of Thy love, still not as saved our God. We pray that they won't leave their seat, that they won't go home tonight unsaved. May they come to know the Lord Jesus as their Savior and rejoice in Thy love.
And bask in the sunshine of it. So he asked, thy blessing on thy word to each soul.
And for those of us who know the Lord Jesus the Savior, may the love, thy love our God and Father fill our hearts, the way our hearts might burn within us, and we might go out of this place in the freshness of first love. Once again we ask this in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and for his glory. Amen.
John 14:19-31