Lassen Pines Family Camp: 1994

Table of Contents

1. A Vision of Christ
2. Fellowship
3. God's School
4. A Servant Forever
5. God's Counsels & Purposes #1: Introduction
6. God's Counsels & Purposes #2: Ephesians 1
7. God's Counsels & Purposes #3: The Kingdom of Heaven
8. God's Counsels & Purposes #4: Practical Considerations
9. God's Counsels & Purposes #5: Concluding Thoughts
10. Harps
11. Then He Restored That Which He Took Not Away

A Vision of Christ

Address—Dean Rule
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Proverbs chapter 29, the first half of verse 18.
Where there is no vision.
The people perish and I think if you looked in some other translations like the Darby translation and some others who would read something like where there is no vision, the people cast off restraint and then the second verse.
In Hebrews chapter 12.
And verse 2.
Looking unto Jesus, the Author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself.
Lest ye be wearied.
And faint in your mind.
And maybe before we start talking, we could just look at two more verses, one in John chapter 6.
Verse 63, just the second clause, just four. Verse 4 words, The flesh profiteth nothing, the flesh profiteth nothing. And then just to finish what we're going to read, to start going back to the Old Testament, to the Song of Solomon.
Song of Solomon, chapter one.
And just two words at the beginning of verse 4.
Draw me, we've got something back here. Just a pitcher of water.
OK. And I'm sorry, maybe we're going back to something you may think of more as a Sunday school illustration, but.
I want to just take a picture of water and I brought two things with me.
And I'm going to maybe just use this if you don't mind, as an illustration of something.
I've got some sticks.
If you were to go back to the book of Ezekiel and I think chapter 21, it's in a couple of places, it talks about a person being as weak as water. And I don't know how you feel, but I feel many, many times that I'm as weak as water, that I have a very hard time sometimes saying no to what I shouldn't do.
I have a very hard time being channeled to do what I should do.
And one of the solutions.
That's often proposed, and I'm not talking about some limits like curfews and things that need to be said in a week like this so that others are not disturbed, but I'm talking about when you go back home.
When Monday of next week you face the circumstances that you're going to face every week. Now I've got some sticks of wood and I could take out a pen, a pen out of my pocket, and I could start to write on every one of those sticks of wood.
Some some things maybe I could say here. Don't swear.
OK, maybe there's someone in this room that has a difficulty, they're out playing a game and they have a hard time.
And I could go and take a group of these and I could take these and try to hold four of them together.
And say, well, I'm sort of as weak as water, but.
You know, if I do something like this and I hold it and I can't even get the four things to stick together, if you're going to go away from this week with nothing more than a few rules, a few things that you're going to go back and you're going to try to do better.
Assuming already that you know the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior, but that you're going to go back and you're going to build a little fence around your life now.
Friend, that's been a real problem because that friend says, hey, it's Friday night, we're going out and you maybe have gone out with that friend and done some things that that don't make sense and, and some things that cause problems later and everything else. Maybe it's a problem you go into school and you haven't studied and there's a temptation.
To just take a look at the paper next to you, whatever things there are in your life and my life that are bothering us.
That our struggles for us.
Let's go back to that first verse we read where there is no vision. The people cast off restraint. My question to you and to me today is there's a bunch of rules that we might make for ourselves to try to conduct our daily life. Something that's going to help us get through this world. Something to help us, we who are as weak as water, we who have the.
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Inside and the Bible says the flesh profiteth nothing. Is that going to work?
Someone, maybe someone could answer me. Does that work in our life to set up some sort of artificial boundary?
Like little sticks around, like a fence that that we try to preserve. Does it work? Doesn't it doesn't work? How many of us have proved that? You don't have to stick your hand up, but if you want to, you can. I've proved that and proved it time and time again now.
That water stays inactive, it stays without motion. But if I come up to something and I take something very simple.
I can make a space that's even smaller, even more constrictive, but I can just take this straw and I think it's long enough.
And put it down in this water. And now all of a sudden every molecule of water that's in here is affected by just a small draw that's being placed on the end of this straw by a small attraction, by just in a sense, creating a small vacuum. And what starts to happen? The water that's in the bottom of the tube, instead of having just some sticks or some sort of rules around it that might try to control it.
And it doesn't work.
We've proved it. We've proved it time and time and time again. The only thing?
That will change your life and my life. Leaving here at the end of this week and going back and perhaps Monday morning, facing the same circumstances, the same people, the same temptations, the same trials and everything else that we left behind when we left our normal circumstances a couple of days ago, a few days ago. The only thing that will change any of that.
Is going back with hearts.
Have been drawn by the Lord Jesus Christ.
Nothing else.
It's not going to be something that is just some sort of fence around it. The best fence.
The best fence that's ever been built.
Finishes on page 1109 in my Bible for the Old Testament finished. It was the best tense that the best test there's ever been of taking sort of a perfect fence and putting it around man and trying man under that and giving him a whole list of things that that men and women and young people and boys and girls and everything else could do. But what happened at the end?
The message at the end was it didn't work.
And so now we pass on to the book of Matthew, we come to something else, and there's a verse up here that I think is going to be before us this whole week. Sir, we desire to see Jesus.
The only thing that can change our lives is to be constantly looking at the Lord Jesus Christ and so I want to go back for a minute to for a minute for most of the rest of the the time the half hour we have left the Hebrews chapter 12.
And maybe we'll stay there most of the time, maybe go for a few minutes, but my desire this afternoon is that Hebrews 12, chapter 2, chapter 12, verse two is something that might be.
May be more practical to me and more practical to you at the end of the hour that we might go with a little more with the Lord's health because I sure can't do it, but with a little more vision of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so I want to go back and maybe look at this verse and talk about what it means to be looking unto Jesus.
Then let's start by this. Where is it? Maybe if you don't mind, I'm going to ask some questions.
So I know after we've eaten and it's hot and everything else, I'm, I'm one of the best to fall asleep for a few minutes. So I'm going to ask some questions. Where's the best place we can we can open up or we can go to to look at the Lord Jesus.
If you had someone come up to you and say, well, where can I find the Lord Jesus? Where can I find out about him? Where can I find things about him? Where would you suggest to them?
In the Bible, OK, excellent. That's the first thing when you want to make a list or you want to think through in your mind.
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Where can I be looking at the Lord Jesus Christ? The answer to start is look in the scriptures.
Look in the Bible, OK? And if you want to narrow it down a little farther, where's the place where I'm going to find, in a sense, the most concentrated things?
About the life of the Lord Jesus Christ.
In the Gospels, I'm going to pass on something to you that was said to me back.
20 years ago or so when I was in college.
A brother got up and he was probably about 80 years old, someone who had gone on for many, many, many, many years following the Lord Jesus. And he said when I get up every day or during the day, he said I try to read from different parts of the Bible. He said I try to read some from the history in the Old Testament and from the poetic books in the Old Testament.
Gospels and from the epistles and things, but he said, you know, some days my time is limited. And he said on those days when my time is limited, he said, there's one place I try to read every day. And I thought, oh, he's going to, I thought he's going to come up. He's going to say, well, you know, I still, there's some things I don't understand in the minor prophets or something like that. I thought that's what he was going to say. No, he said, every day I try to spend enough time to read at least one chapter out of the Gospel.
A little hint, I know you're busy sometimes. I know you're in the middle of exams at certain times or or when you're starting out a new job. There's a lot of pressure and there's a limit on time. But if you want something that will really help you every day, look at the Lord Jesus Christ, open up your Bible and start. And if you haven't done it before, start in Matthew. Start tonight, start tomorrow morning, but maybe each day.
Read something about the Lord Jesus Christ.
Why is that important? Because the Lord Jesus Christ is the one that can fill our hearts.
And there's something else. You never in your life will live in a vacuum.
You've been taught that in science. I'm sure the teachers have said something like one of the hardest things to maintain is a vacuum.
There's a statement that nature abhors a vacuum, and that's true in our hearts too.
Our hearts won't live with a vacuum for very long. They have to be filled with something. What better thing is there that we could fill our hearts with than the Lord Jesus Christ? And where better can we go to to fill it than in the Scriptures? And so the first thing in looking under Jesus is to look in the Scriptures. And then the next thing question, where's the Lord Jesus right now? Where is he?
In a sense, you being being an infinite being omnipresent, he's.
Is everywhere in that sense. But where is his home now?
In heaven.
His home is in heaven.
And so if we understand that.
And if you take two people that are engaged to be married.
Where do they want to be?
They want to be at opposite ends of the earth.
No, they want to be together.
And my Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, your Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Is in heaven.
And I'm waiting for a day that's coming.
Not very far off when I'm going to get a call from heaven.
I'm going to get a call from the Lord Jesus that will come down and in the clouds, meet us and take us home. When you go back to the verses in in Matthew, I think it's Matthew chapter 25 where it talks about the lamps and the bridegroom and everything else. We go back to the way weddings were handled in that time. It wasn't possible to pick up the telephone and to make arrangements for a wedding or anything like that over the telephone, but what would happen was.
Young man would go to where the young woman lived and he would express to her his desire to get married to her. There would be an engagement, a promise made between the two. And then he would go back to the town that he came from. And when he went back to the town that he came from, it wasn't to clean up his room to to talk to his parents about her having come and going to be coming to live in their house and everything else.
No, he had a responsibility. He had to go back and he had to make a place for them to live. And that might be something that would last a month, it might be something that would last several months. It was an uncertain thing.
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But the surety was this, if it was a real engagement, a real promise between the two, he would be coming back and those things would become known. There was less population and things. And so when you read through in Matthew chapter 25 and it says, behold, the bridegroom cometh all that was was something that let's say you live in Los Angeles and someone starts in in one of the southern suburbs of Los Angeles and somewhat and the the bride is from the northern.
Suburbs of Los Angeles, if we can imagine that, but it's much more farm territory when they see the guy coming with his friends.
Because he's going back to take her to be his wife. They would start a cry.
Behold the bridegroom cometh. Behold the bridegroom comet. And that the words could go faster than the people could walk. And so before he ever got to the house where she lived, before it was ever possible for him to communicate the message.
I mean, to himself personally, she already had the news. She already had the news. Now you would think if she had several months to get ready to get her dress ready and whatever, she had to get ready to go.
You would think that you probably wouldn't wait until the last minute, but her thoughts during that whole time would be occupied in part with that young man that was preparing a house for the two of them to live after their wedding. I've got a question for you and for me today. If we're truly looking to the Lord Jesus Christ, we know that the preparation was made not with having some construction workers up in heaven build a place when it talks about I go to.
Prepare a place for you. It means that he went to the cross almost 2000 years ago. There he did the most important preparation.
But he's gone back to heaven, and there he is, our Lord, our Savior. He's waiting for us.
And he's coming again soon.
Now, in the middle of all the busyness of your life and my life, in the middle of all the day-to-day things that we have to do, how often do you stop? How often do I stop and simply think about the Lord Jesus sitting in heaven waiting for the moment when is it where he'll be released to come and call us?
Does that ever cross your mind? Does that ever cross my mind? Do I think about the Lord? Jesus is the one at God's right hand who's waiting? I get so busy. I have things to do. You have things to do. And we get so busy that we seldom stop and take time to see Jesus.
But that's the attraction in our heart. That's just like taking that water and pulling it up through a straw. If that's the attraction in our heart, then everything we do, even in the middle of classes that you're in school or your job or everything else, everything will be channeled toward being toward the time when you're going to be with the Lord Jesus. So one thing is important to see Him risen.
Another thing that's important in this verse when it says look unto Jesus.
Is to go back and consider his life.
I was going back and reading some verses recently.
About this and thinking about it or a couple of months ago and in realizing how often I come up to situations in my life and someone does something and I get upset about it, I get mad about it.
And I just read some verses about it and seeing how the Lord Jesus responded always, as we would say, on an even keel, not acting in a way that we would act, or I act at least so often, and getting mad about it, trying to set it right, trying to figure out something I can do, trying to go in and push my own way. I'd gone into mail a package.
On an express service at the airport near where we live.
To another town and and I came back out and I had parked and there was a vehicle behind me and I pulled close enough just to let him get out and I came out and parked and there was just in front of me there was a driveway and I time was sort of short had a long list of errands to do that afternoon I came back out and.
The car behind me had changed and left about this much room.
Vehicle in front of Maine. There wasn't one before. There shouldn't have been anyone parked there.
And yet there was blocking a driveway and they again had left maybe 10 inches.
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And there was number way to get out, maybe by moving inch by inch by inch by inch.
And immediately the flare up went inside. How could anyone do this? I'm going to storm in. I'm going to say who has the car that's such and such a description, such and such a plates.
And then the verses came to me and haven't done this very often, but I just sat there and said, Lord, thank you. Thank you because you allowed a circumstance in my life that says sit here and wait.
You've rushed through this whole day. You've got a Bible in the bag beside you. Just take it out and read and be thankful for a few minutes.
And I don't respond that way very often. I'm afraid to confess that usually respond in the flesh in getting mad. But the Lord allows circumstances in our lives, even the little things that might irritate us. What's going to keep us doing the right thing?
Just a simple occupation with the Lord Jesus Himself. Well, since then I've responded the other way so many times.
But that's an important thing in our lives. OK, if we go over and and maybe we'll take a minute to do it in the book of First John, First John chapter 2.
Verse one.
My little children, these things right I end to you that you sin not.
And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.
Another question is that looking unto Jesus if when we mess things up.
And we do and we will continue to mess things up, even though this verse makes it very clear we're never given permission to sin. It's never right. But we still got an old nature. And if we think we get beyond that, we will. But it's when the Lord Jesus comes. But here it says if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father.
You know who's accusing you? You know who's accusing me before God.
When we do something wrong, you know who's saying, oh, look at that, look at what that person did. Can't be real, can't be a Christian. They, they must not be real. Satans doing that. Satan is doing that right now continually. He's accusing us. But you know who's there defending us?
The Lord Jesus Christ and how can he do it?
He just simply can hold out his hands and there's the mark of nails in his hands, there's a mark in his side. There's the one who died carrying the penalty for your sins and my sins on Calvary's cross. And so when we messed something up, yes, we have to judge it. Yes, we have to confess it to him and deal with it. But you know what Satan wants to do to you and to me? He wants to keep your mind on that thing for a long, long, long period of.
Time to discourage you and he knows that as long as he can keep your mind and my mind on our failures.
On the things we do wrong, he knows that our response will often be that if I can put it this way, take another stick, write another rule and add it to the fence around us. You know, one time I was struggling with something and, and I was, I was in college and really a tremendous battle. That's why I'm going to win this one. And I just took a piece of paper and I wrote the letters.
NA on it and stuck it in my death.
So every day when I would open up the desk and get it out, NA na stood for never again. Never again. Well, it was maybe two days later when I was back struggling with exactly the same thing. Why? Because I was looking for the answers in here instead of looking for the answer in the Lord Jesus Christ. You have an advocate with the Father. I have an advocate with the Father, one who's pleading our cause, and when we mess things up, he's there.
Not saying it was OK, but He's there clearly indicating that that was one of the many sins that he died for on Calvary's cross. And so when we messed things up, who should we be talking to about it? Should we try to do it in ourselves? We can. It's time to go and look at the Lord Jesus Christ and realize that He's our advocate. He's the one who will take care of it for us. He's the one who will help restore us to Himself.
But it's not enough to just wait until we mess things up. Let's go back in Hebrews. Another thing that the Lord Jesus is for us in Hebrews Chapter 7.
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Hebrews Chapter 7 and verse 22.
By so much was Jesus made sure to have a better testament, and they truly were many priests because they were not suffered to continue by reason of death.
But this man, because he continueth ever hath an unchangeable priesthood.
Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him.
Seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them. For such an high priest became us who is holy.
When so often our actions are unholy, who is harmless? When so often our words, our actions, are harmful to others and to ourselves, undefiled? When we go through this world, constantly being defiled by the things we come into contact with.
Separate from sinners, we're like Peter.
It's one thing to be out in a sinful world and to be a light there, but it's another thing to be out in a sinful world and have the light capped over like light being under a bushel. And that that's that's when we're not separate from the center. It doesn't mean to isolate. God never told us to go up into a mountain to go build some cabins up in the far part of Lasso National Park and live isolated from this world. But he did tell us to be separate from the evil in this world.
And made higher than the heavens beyond this world. That's someone who is constantly interceding for you, the Lord Jesus Christ.
He doesn't want you and I to mess things up in our life. He's constantly interceding. He's constantly, if we could put it, that's the word we would use sometimes for praying for us. He's constantly concerned about us because he doesn't want us to fall in the things that are going to be so harmful to us. Have you ever stopped today or sometime in the last week and said thank you Lord Jesus, for being my advocate for when I've messed things up and for being my high priest to help me keep.
Messing things up to help me keep from sinning in my life.
If you try to do it, or if I try to do it in our own strength, we just find time after time after time, we fall into the same ditches and we can't get ourselves out. But if we stop and say Lord, I'm having a problem and I need help, He'll intercede for us. He has anyway, but we need to be one with Him in that when you have a problem, it's time to see Jesus.
Hebrews chapter 12 if we can go back to that verse.
Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who is it that will help us in our life? Look to the Lord Jesus if you can keep your finger there again and let's go over to John.
The Gospel of John chapter 16 and verse 7.
Nevertheless, I tell you the truth, it is expedient for you that I go away. Why is it good that the Lord Jesus has gone to heaven? Wouldn't it be wonderful if this week, instead of listening to to some who has a responsibility of standing up and talking, be far more wonderful if we could just simply sit here and listen to the Lord Jesus Christ? That'd be a wonderful thing.
But The thing is.
The Lord Jesus said it's the right thing for me to do, it's expedient. It's the thing I need to do. I need to go away. Why? Because He's gone to heaven to wait for us. He's gone to heaven to wait for us. That's where all our hopes are. If your hopes are down here, if your hopes are in anything in this world, they're going to be crushed. They're going to be crushed.
Relive.
Umm, next to Colombia and.
I have quite a few students who are Colombians and that they're, they're, they're living outside of Colombia. And the weeks before the World Cup in soccer, those students were quite anxious. They had tremendous hopes. They had hopes of Colombia going farther in the World Cup than they'd ever gone before.
They had hopes of Colombia perhaps winning it.
They were had no question at all that they would make it out of the first round.
Their their hopes were set.
There wasn't very much question, and something rather struck me in coming into San Francisco a couple of days ago.
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People right behind us when we were renting a vehicle where two gentlemen from Colombia and they had plans. They were coming in because they were going to observe some World Cup games that they had already calculated that the team from Colombia was going to be in. But some people were so disturbed by the team losing that you probably heard the news. But Andres Escobar, a defense, someone playing in the defense in the back row for the Colombian soccer team.
He made a mistake and ended up the ball going off his foot into the goal in the United States team, getting a goal. And when he went back, he went to a restaurant. And I don't know whether it came out in the papers here, but in the papers at home where we live, he said the day before his death, he said it was hard, but it was a wonderful experience. But life doesn't end here.
Life doesn't end here.
He realized, he said, it's just a sport. He said I made a mistake, but it's just a sport. He came out of a restaurant a little more than 24 hours later than someone who evidently, maybe had bet money on the game had their hopes on Columbia advancing, carrying away the Cup with his little model of the world on top. That's where his hopes were set. But he realized, he said, life doesn't end here. It's just a sport.
But one of his countrymen didn't understand that, took a gun and shot him to death.
This world doesn't have hope, but you and I do.
Our hope is in the Lord Jesus Christ. Our hope is in the Lord Jesus Christ.
And so the question is, our hope is something that's sure it'll never be disappointed. We'll never come up and say, oh, we wanted to win this game and we lost it. Hey, when you go out and play a game of baseball, try you, it's great all the efforts you can and everything else. But when it's all over, it's over, it's done. It's not the end of the world because that's not where our hopes are. Our hopes are in the Lord Jesus Christ.
But this world doesn't have that.
The question for you and for me is, do we see Jesus? Are we looking to the Lord Jesus Christ through the circumstances of every day? Do we have someone inside that can help us? That's why he sent the Holy Spirit. He's a comforter, one who will help us through all of the troubles, all of the difficulties, and even in in all the joys that we have in this world. He sent a comforter. He sent his Holy Spirit to be with us.
Today, have you looked at the Lord Jesus and thanked Him for sending His Spirit to help you and to help me? It's the Holy Spirit that when we're out and we lose or someone bumps into us or we or someone else on the team messes up, they they strike out on three pitches or they drop a fly ball that may mean the end of it. The Holy Spirit's inside and helps restrain us, helps us realize and put that into perspective.
That happens when we put our eyes on the Lord Jesus Christ. But if we don't put our eyes on the Lord Jesus Christ, we'll be like the man who pulled the pistol and said that game.
Is a matter of life and death, and you're the responsible and you're dead.
Values that are completely messed up in this world, but we can be looking at the Lord Jesus Christ. And so it goes back and if we go back to that verse.
Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.
Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. Make that in another translation, says Leader and completer.
If you want to go out, you want to run on a path and you don't know where it goes, what's the easiest way to help us find our way in a path where we don't know where we're going?
What do we do? What makes it the easiest? What's the easiest way to find it? Well, a map might help, but a map isn't complete, so if you want to find some place that you've never found before, the easiest thing is if you have what?
If you have a guide, if you have someone who knows the path, they've been down it before. They understand all of the potential dangers, all of the potential problems.
That that's the best thing.
And we're going down a path in this world that's difficult. But the Lord Jesus isn't just talking from a theoretical basis, if I can put it that way.
He's not just talking from the distance. And it were, as it were in our minds, a distance to heaven, but the Lord Jesus came down and He walked on this very earth that you and I are walking on. He was a real man. He was presented with all the temptations. He didn't have anything in him that could respond and sin in that way, but He was presented with all the temptations, all of the difficulties. He understands.
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Those things and so he can be a perfect guide and a perfect help and he knows the way to lead us much better to be able to follow a guide. And there's another verse and we won't where time is running out. We're in the last two or three minutes. It says come take up your cross and follow me. Doesn't say take his cross. We couldn't do that.
But a cross means rejection.
And if you think in this world that you're not going to be rejected.
That that it doesn't mean that people won't respect you. People should respect those who know the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior. But if they completely understand that something's wrong because it means that we're just going right down the same way they go. But the Lord, as it were, he gives out each day what our cross is for that day, what we have to bear that day.
Perhaps it's taunts, perhaps our cross that day.
Is the struggle against temptation the Lord Jesus after spending 40 days in the wilderness?
At the end of that, He had to bear the temptation of being offered things that would have naturally satisfied needs but would have been against the will of His Father. You're going to have a cross to bear, and I will each day. And the Lord Jesus is that where He, He deals that out. He allows it, but He only allows it in the size that we can bear, and He helps us through all of it.
And so those are just a few thoughts on thinking about it.
But I just want to go back and quote the verse that we read at the beginning where there is no vision, the people cast off restraint. The question for you and the question for me today is this. Do you have a vision in your heart, in your mind of the Lord Jesus Christ? Is he the one who daily is ahead of your eyes, your vision when you wake up in the night? The verse that brother read this.
Before the prayer meeting talked about a night vision and Daniel. Daniel had a night vision. It meant that.
I don't know if you've ever had it, but when I face a big decision I can't sleep and when I think something that I've I've had trouble with or messed up, I have nights where I just toss and turn and roll and everything else.
And sometimes I fight it and want to get to bed and get to sleep and everything else, but I can't. And finally it's time to say, Lord, OK, I'll listen. I'll listen. What is it that that that you're trying to tell me? What is it that you're trying to get through? To me? It's often because I've cast off restraint. I've sort of poked a hole in the side of the straw. And so all the drawing that he would do on my heart isn't having an effect.
But the Lord Jesus wants.
To fill your heart. In my heart, our whole being with a vision of himself is the one who meets completely every need in our lives.
If we don't see that, then we're going to cast off restraint. We're going to choose our own paths and we'll make a royal mess of it. And so it's time together to encourage each other to look up to see the Lord Jesus Christ. I did read the whole verse and Song of Solomon, but it says draw me and we will run after thee a last. I'm going to give you a homework assignment if you don't mind. And that's when you get back to a city, go back to a.
Corner some time to just stand there like this.
And what are the people around going to do?
Huh. They may look at us for a minute and then they're going to say, what is he looking at and what are they going to do? They're going to look up too. And that's something you can do for those around you this week, for the people in your cabin, if they see that you're looking up, you take time out to look up to the Lord Jesus Christ. You'll take time. And hey, sometimes the hardest time to get down on our knees and pray, the hardest time to open our Bibles and read it as we were surrounded.
By those that we enjoy being with.
Someone tonight in your cabin or in the morning, who's going to be the first one to look up, open your Bible, say, hey, let's all just take a few minutes and, and spend some time with the Lord Jesus that's looking up. And if we start doing it, those around us will do it. It's contagious and the love of the Lord Jesus when it comes out in our lives can be contagious to those around us.
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But often we're contagious in the other way. We go through light, discourage, cast down, not looking up. Well, let's, let's just ask the Lord to help us look up.
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Fellowship

Address—Dean Rule
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Maybe we could just read one more verse to before we go to the.
Verses were perhaps we spend most of the time.
In the next 40 minutes or so. And that's in the book of Amos.
Amos chapter 3 and verse 3.
Can two walk together except?
They be agreed.
Well, today the Lord's help, what I'd like to look at together some verses that talk about communion or fellowship. And as we go along, perhaps we'll sort of try to define those words or the word. But I'd like to read now in first John chapter one, we're going to read the 1St 3 verses 1St and stop there and then go on.
Perhaps later.
That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we've looked upon and our hands have handled of the word of life.
For the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness and show unto you that eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested unto us, that which we have seen. And I'm going to add something in there because I don't know anything about Greek, but I've heard it said that if you took that word that says seen, it has a meaning that goes beyond just one word. And so if you allow me, I'm going to read this in for seen and heard.
What they say, it really, really means in the original that which we have seen and the vision doesn't go away.
That which we have seen in the vision doesn't go away and that which we have heard and it keeps ringing in our ears.
Declare we unto you.
That ye also may have fellowship with us, and truly our fellowship.
Is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ.
You wouldn't be very happy tonight if I had a super strong flashlight.
And a very good bulb and and I came up to you when you were outside and I took that flashlight and held it right in your eyes.
Because if I did that, a real strong flashlight would sort of you would even continue to see it after a while. If we went out to the baseball diamond and you were standing there watching on the side at the end of the game or during the game and I was there and all of a sudden we decided we were going to look up and start to stare at the sun. Not a recommended thing at all because it'll do damage to your retina and stuff. But, but if we were going to go back out and do that, you would continue.
See it for a while after.
You could stop looking at it.
Yesterday together we looked some at the.
At some of the things about the life of the Lord Jesus, we talked together about the importance of having a vision about seeing the Lord Jesus as the one who lived a perfect life in this earth at the end of his time, the one who was crucified, who rose from the grave, who was glorified and went back to heaven.
And the person who wrote these verses that we just read about the apostle John.
He had a privilege that I've never enjoyed in a physical way, and that's to be that close to the Lord Jesus Christ. But it seems like at different times through his life, he was so close to the Lord Jesus Christ that it says that he put his head on his bosom. Perhaps they were they were resting from walking or whatever. But to me, it would be an amazing thing to be so close to the Lord Jesus Christ that you could even hear his heartbeat.
But today, the desire that I have for my heart.
Because it's not very true of me very often. And the desire I have for you is that we have the privilege of looking so closely to the life of the Lord Jesus being so completely filled our vision, our eyes, so that that vision doesn't go away. So it's something that stays burned on our hearts and our minds.
We're living in a world that.
Has different kinds of vision, different things that are important, but the thing that must be important to us, the thing that really matters is to start enjoying right now fellowship with the Lord Jesus and then start enjoying it now and enjoy it forever. You know, sometimes people have said that that's fellows in the same ship, but it goes a long way beyond that. That sometimes the the comment that people have used for that I could be in a ship. I've been on a ship a few times.
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Crossing, for instance, from Nova Scotia to Newfoundland and there were a lot of other fellows on the ship, but I don't have any ideas who they were. But I've had people that I've been on the ship or the boat going across and I've enjoyed the time. It's six or seven hours, enjoyed the time talking, visiting. We were enjoying fellowship. We were sharing thoughts. My question to you today and my question to myself is, are we enjoying fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ?
That's the great basis of fellowship that we have here.
You know, if it wasn't the fact that the vast majority of us here know the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior, we would never be here together now.
That's the thing that draws us together, that's the binder, that's the glue. That's the thing that makes it so that our hearts are one. That's the thing that makes it so that we can sit down and talk to someone we've never met before, that lives in a different part of the country and it has a different age, it has different interests and everything else. And we immediately share something in common. We share the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, the apostle John.
He said I've been so close to him that I could touch him.
I've seen them with my eyes. What else does it say? It says.
We've heard him. He heard his words and everything else he said that had such an effect on me that what I saw with my eyes, it's like it burned its way into my retina and it keeps sending messages to my brain. It keeps sending messages through the optic nerve to my brain because it's a vision that won't go away. It's going to have its effect on me all the way through my life. He said what I've heard from the Lord Jesus Christ is something that had such an effect on me that He didn't have a tape recorder.
If there had been tape recorders when the Lord Jesus was around, you can imagine that there would have been someone the whole time walking along with a tape recorder and a microphone and it would all been would have all been recorded. It wasn't that the apostle John heard those words and they were recorded in his brain and they got their way into his heart and he said, I keep hearing it today. I keep hearing it today and you can imagine if you had been following the Lord Jesus Christ.
Then perhaps been there when he had.
Given the Sermon on the Mount or when the Mount of Transfiguration or when he had been going along and through some of these chapters in the later part of John by a vineyard or something. Well, now the Lord Jesus was gone. John couldn't look at him. He couldn't see him anymore with his eyes. He couldn't hear him anymore with his ears. He said it's still with me. He said the vision I saw is something that's burned onto my eyes. It burned into my ears and he said I'm never going to forget it.
Now.
I want you to hold your finger there.
And let's go to a verse in Hebrews in contrast with this.
Hebrews Chapter 11 and verse 25.
Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God.
Than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season. This is nothing new that's being said, but it's a very true statement. Don't ever forget it. Sin has pleasure. Sin provides pleasure. If anyone says to you that it doesn't, they're wrong, because the Bible itself says that sin provides pleasure.
But it has a clause at the end and it says its first season says that after there's a problem.
But one of the objectives this week, I'm sure of the different ones of us all being invited here.
Is something different than if we were all invited to a party.
If someone is invited to a party, then let's take it out of any culture that any of us live in. But let's go to something that we've seen. We've all seen pictures of a tribal dance in Africa, I'm sure. And at a tribal dance in Africa, you would see pictures of people going around in a circle. I've never seen one, never been there. But you'd see people going around in a circle and there would be people through the whole time beating on the drums.
And as time would go on, people would probably be drinking some sort of alcohol and get drunk and finally fall down.
And wake up the next day.
Well, you know, we could get together as a group of Christians and we could have something that would be our own version of a drum beat, our own version of that sort of a thing. But then what happens on Monday? What happens when the drum beats are all gone? What happens when that's all left behind and we're back, all of us each facing our own individual circumstances, our own problems, if you ask. And you could interview someone in Africa and say, well, what about when the Fiesta is over? What about when the party's over?
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What about when you go back to the normal thing? They'd say, well, it was a lot of fun when it happened, but you know, I had a horrible headache the next day and, and now I've got to go back and it still hasn't rained and I've got this problem and that problem.
When the drum beats are over, where's your heart and where's my heart? Has it been so captivated by the Lord Jesus Christ? Has it been so attracted by Him?
That the vision is still burned onto our eyes and into our hearts. The words we've heard, we don't hear them directly in a way that we hear them from his own mouth, but we can hear the words of the Lord Jesus Christ every time we open his word. Is it so strong that it still comes in and it filters into us through every moment of every day? Not that you sit there when you have to be doing school work or in your work or something and, and your thoughts are.
Directly on the Lord Jesus Christ. No, we're not made to be that way. We have responsibilities.
But the fact of that communion that we need to enjoy with the Lord Jesus should be so strong.
That it should influence every decision we make, every way we respond to everything in this life. And so perhaps we could go back to first John. We have something that lasts. And so how does it start? It says our fellowship is with the father. I'm going to give you just a story that you may have read, and I can't tell it very well, but it's a true story that happened back in.
Perhaps 50 years ago.
And to me, and it's the end of the chapter that shows something about fellowship with the father.
It's about a couple, John and Betty Stam, who were living in Africa. Excuse me, they were living in China, and John and Betty Stam were in a tight spot because the Communist army.
Back in the early days, in the sense of Mao Zedong, when he and his the Red Army and things were advancing across China, John and Betty Stam were sitting in their house where they had lived for a little while. Not very long.
And the word came that there were 2000 soldiers that were on their way. John and Betty Sam knew that when they were on their way that it was time to get moving. Because when the soldiers came, at that point in time, there was no strong resistance to them. They could go across that part of China basically at will. And so the mother, Betty, packed up things for their baby that was between one and two months old, Helen.
She got things ready. She got some diapers together. John went off to try to arrange some sort of transportation. They were going to try to make it to the next town they lived in something called Singte or something like that, and they were going to Meow Shell or Sheo or something on that order. I can't pronounce them or remember it, but The thing is, they were going to go from one town to another.
Before they ever got any transportation arranged, the soldiers came to the door, knocked on the door, came in, took the father away.
Now Betty never knew at that point in time whether she was going to see John again. She never knew whether she was going to see John again. Well, there's a verse that that can give real comfort. It says thy Maker shall be thy husband.
Shin thought that at that point in time she might be left behind, but there was the promise. Thy Maker shall be thy husband. Well, she could only wait. John did come back. They took both of them. They took both of them, and they they allowed them to take the baby and they were pretty well done taking what they had wanted to take. They plundered their house, took it, and they all started out on the trek toward the next town where they were going.
These three were walking the the father and the mother and the baby and not very far out of town, the soldier said.
What are we going to do with the baby? And lonely bug us all the way. That was the terminology, but that's what we'd use now. Just get rid of them. Just kill them. And some man who had heard the gospel from them came out and said don't kill the baby. Why are you going to kill an innocent baby?
I said to the man, it's your life for the babies, he said. OK, boom, head rolling off on the ground, body topples over and they go on.
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That man hadn't heard very long before about the gospel, but it was enough to reach into his heart and say, OK, I'll give my life, I'm not afraid. He was walking in communion with the Father. But they went on a little farther. They got to the town, and first they pulled.
John out in front of the crowd, made him kneel over, took a sword, one cut head on the ground, the mother standing there. The baby was off. They had had to leave the baby in a room. The baby was off in a room. Not much they could. There wasn't anything they could do. There was no way they could escape or go do anything about the baby. But here's an old man dead along the road, willing to give his life. Here's a father willing to give his life.
And so the mother is there now she's standing there. You think about it for a minute. If you had a baby and your husband was dead, you didn't know anyone around the baby sitting there back in the room, and you can't go back to it.
And you know that you're a minute away from being dead. What would you do?
She had communion with the father she'd already gotten to know. God is her father. She'd already come to understand that God would take care of them even if her husband was dead beside her on the ground. She knew that God was taking care of them now. Does that make sense to you? Doesn't make sense to any of us naturally. Just like something Steve said that this book doesn't make sense naturally. It doesn't.
But she had an understanding of something. She understood that if God had taken care of him to that far, she knew that her husband, with his head on the ground and his body lying next to it, was already.
The Lord Jesus Christ. She had communion with her Father. She wasn't afraid, and she knew that if she was gone, there wasn't anyone around that she could know at that point in time. It would take care of that baby wasn't anyone around, but she had a sense that she had a father.
Who would take care of that baby? How about your communion and my communion with the Father? Is he someone that's so far off, distant in heaven that we don't understand that He's the Father to us?
Or she was there in peace. All she did. If she got down, she put her own knee down. She said there's nothing more I can do. In an instant, she was an eternity. She was an eternity. That baby was there. The soldiers could care less about that baby. But 30 hours later, 30 hours later, a man named Low came and took that baby. And he and his wife, with great danger of their own lives, took that baby across.
The mountains and got it to people.
And by the time that baby was three months old, that baby was cradled in the arms of Betty's parents.
And they said, John's gone, Betty's gone. But we have a proof in our arms of a God who loves this, of a God will take care of us all the way. She has an understanding of a father. How about God as a father to us? Do we have fellowship with him in that way? It's God, someone you and I can talk to when you wake up at night, when you're on your way to school, when you're on your way to work, when you're in the middle of a problem, when you're in a happy time and you want to share it with someone. And.
Around to share it with is he a father you can share it with? Is he a father I can share it with it. It amazes me that that mother could have peace about it, but she had peace about it. And then just two weeks ago, hardened stories and the digression. But sometimes there's examples of things that speak to our hearts. I was in a basically a straw mat house, nothing more.
And north of Lima, Peru, and and talking with a man, Alejandro Maravilli.
And he spent a lot of time lived in the mountains of Peru, all through the Shining Path gorillas. And he talked about it. I started asking questions, didn't volunteer, but I started asking questions about some of the things that had happened. And he talked about a time a few years ago where someone had stood with a gun in his stomach.
Someone had stood with a gun in his stomach. And how did you feel? Feel afraid. What could he take away from me?
He didn't have much of A house. If any of us lived in that sort of house, we'd be pretty struck by it. We think, well, this is really the problem.
But it was basically saying, what can he take away from me? He said my home is in heaven. That's where my Father is. What about you and what about me? Are we enjoying fellowship with the Father? And then it goes on to the next part. And with his Son, Jesus Christ, the Lord Jesus understands it all. He understands completely because he's been through it. He's been through it all the way.
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Bearing my sins on Him.
Is he real to you? Is he real to me, Those of us who know the Lord Jesus as our Savior?
We can skip back up. It says you may have you also may have fellowship with us and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. If you can imagine, I don't have one here, but if I had a bicycle wheel right here and you wanted to enjoy.
Fellowship with someone and let's use the thing that we reach out sort of on our own spoke. OK, now the only way and a very simple thing, but just maybe to have a thought of it in our mind. The only way that we can be drawn together, the only way that we can be drawn together, the only place of meeting. And that whole bicycle wheel is right at the center. It's right at the center.
And the only way your heart and my heart can be drawn together is by both.
Drawn to the Lord Jesus Christ. If we enjoy fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ individually, we'll enjoy it together.
But if we're running away from the Lord Jesus, we're going out on our own spokes in our own direction, we won't enjoy fellowship together. And you know, there's a lot of reasons we can give for walking out on our own spoke heading our own direction. You know, sometimes some of the reasons that that there are.
I'll give you one.
I've heard the reason that the time is too short, and I'm going to say the next phrase in a way that wasn't said. This way, the time is too short and I'm too valuable.
If any of us ever begin to think that we're too valuable, that we have to choose our own path instead of seeking fellowship with the Lord Jesus or enjoying fellowship together, we've got it all mixed up.
The Lord Jesus doesn't need me. He doesn't need you. He wants us. He wants to have fellowship with us, but he doesn't need to use us. He does want and need and sense fellowship with us, but he doesn't need to use us. He's capable, as it says, of taking the stones and making them cry out. Praise to it. But the Lord Jesus wants to use you and he wants to use me, but he doesn't need to use us. The time is not too short for us to take shortcuts.
To choose their own way, to find their own ways to try to serve him, to say, well, I'm going to change, as it were, the rules of the game because I find these rules are sort of these things and it becomes rules instead of an attraction to the Lord Jesus. But I'm finding they're not the way I'd like to do it. And I think the Lord Jesus could use me more in another way. Forget it, forget it. He doesn't need us to accomplish his work. He doesn't need any of us, but he wants to use us.
But the thing he most wants more than anything else is fellowship with us. He wants us to have a two way communication and let's apply this. Let's look at a couple more verses and just two very quick applications and we can try to finish up a few minutes early. Try to do that.
Verse #6.
If we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not the truth.
Very interesting.
You very seldom.
See a lie connected with do not we would if we were writing it put tell the truth.
But it doesn't say that. It says do not the truth. Our lives can be a lie sometimes.
Our lives can be a lie. My life so often is like a lie.
It's one thing in front of the eyes of those who see me. It's another thing what's running around inside my head and perhaps what I do or think or whatever when others are not looking.
Your life, Is it the truth or is it a lie? If your life is a complete lie, it only means that you're a professor, not real.
Here's a test whether someone is just a professor or whether they're real.
And it says in verse 7, but if we walk in the light as he is in the light.
We have fellowship, one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son.
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Cleanseth us from all sin.
We have fellowship one with another, and how are we going to have fellowship? How are we going to enjoy things together if if some of us and don't don't ever think you get beyond the point where it's not a danger, there's a danger of every one of us walking away completely choosing our own path, leaving completely the path of following the Lord Jesus until he calls us home, either by death or by his coming.
We'll never get beyond that. We never arrive until we're in heaven.
Never, not a single person you look at the person you say knows the most closest to the Lord. The minute that person begins to depend upon themselves and instead of upon the Lord Jesus Christ, they're headed away from the Lord Jesus. And so the concept, the key thing is to get into the light. Jesus said I am the light. It's getting in under the light of the Lord Jesus. It's having an eye that single so that the whole body.
Is full of light. That's the key. That's the key to fellowship, it says we have fellowship one with another.
OK, I'd like to talk.
For five to seven minutes about and then try to finish up early.
But I'd like to talk very, very briefly about a kind of fellowship that young people, and with good reason, are interested in, and that's the fellowship between a young man and a young woman. And in the light of what we've talked about here, I'd like to go just to.
Corinthians.
2nd Corinthians, chapter 6.
Verse 14 Be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers.
For what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness?
And what Communion hath light?
Darkness.
And what concord hath Christ with Belial, And what part hath he that believeth?
Was an infidel.
There is no natural relationship on this earth that requires.
For joy in it, greater communion, greater fellowship, greater sharing of thoughts.
Than to be a man and a woman united in marriage.
This world is absolutely full of disasters in that.
Because many people think and people who don't know the Lord Jesus don't have the opportunity for fellowship, but even on a natural basis, people say, ah, look at her good looking. She looks at him and she says, oh, nice guy, nice personality, I like him. And they start a friendship and it it goes on for a while.
And there's an attraction.
Well, the attraction starts at the body level.
Upside down, if I can put it that way, from where God would want to start things. But it starts at the body level. There's a physical attraction.
And then it advances to the soul level and the soul level of this earth. But.
There's maybe a matching of personalities and things, but it's it's in a sense an inverted relationship from the way that God would have it.
Well, if you meet someone.
When you perhaps you've come this week and hey, you're not the first person to have these thoughts and you sure won't be the last to say. It would be nice to meet someone this week that might be the person that I would share my life together with.
And perhaps you're going to go home this week and say, oops, not this time. Nothing happened, didn't meet the person. And that's happened to all of us at one time or another. We come and we come with that hope and things. And then next Wednesday morning at wherever you're going to be or next Monday or someone, someone comes up to you and and they show you kindness.
They're they're very friendly, nice person. You enjoy talking to them and everything else.
Temptation. Yeah, it's a temptation.
What level can you share things with them? If they don't know the Lord Jesus Christ as their savior, there's no sense of physical attraction.
There can be an attraction on the person to person, the sole basis in that way, and that's all the farther it can go, you've taken out.
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Key place to start.
God doesn't say those things to make us unhappy. He doesn't say those things because He wants us to be dissatisfied. He doesn't say those things because He doesn't want us to have the love and understanding another person. He says it because He knows that if you're really enjoying fellowship with the Father and with the Son, that that can also carry over into a relationship and marriage even being a natural relationship.
But if you leave.
That part out.
Leave that completely to one side, then you've got a problem. It may take a week or a month or a year or ten years, but it will show up. One of the saddest stories and that I've ever heard is about a woman who met a young man, and in this case he faked it. He was a great faker. He came. He said, oh, I'm saved. I want to be baptized. I want to remember the Lord in his death.
And everything else. And this all happened because they already sort of had the friendship, the relationship developed instead of her letting it happen and seeing if it was real. They went to their honeymoon. They got home from their honeymoon 7:00 at night or something like that, with a meeting at 7:30. The question came, well dear, it's time to get ready. No response 715 seven, time to go out the door.
And this was a number of years ago when they had street cars, before buses and before everyone had cars.
Said you don't run after the streetcar once you've caught it.
Never again did he show a bit of interest in the Lord Jesus of the Lord's name. Be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers. It'll destroy your communion with the Lord Jesus Christ. And so we're going to look at one very positive example in the two minutes or three minutes before we close. That's back in Genesis, very, very well known verses, but I just want you to look at two things.
If you look at Genesis chapter 23.
Genesis chapter 23 and verse 19. And after this, Abraham buried Sarah's wife in The Cave of the field of Machpelah before Mamrie, the same as Hebron in the land of Canaan. Kay, just remember that so we can find it on a map and then we go over to the next chapter.
In OK, let's see, it says.
Verse 10.
The end of verse 10 he arose.
And went to Mesopotamia under the city of Nahor. If you could just hold your fingers there and go to the maps in the back of your Bible.
I was going to try to point it out here so it saves a little bit of time, but if you look right here, right around Vertex Samaria, that was about where they were. From what I understand, Abraham was around there and if you want to look at her, look at all the way across here above the Persian Gulf about where Iraq is now.
Little little distance measured out sometime and if you could go in a straight line at 7 or 800 miles.
7 or 800 miles by jumping on a Southwest Airlines flight, being there in an hour and a half, or getting in a car and driving for a day. No 7 or 800 miles across the desert with Camel.
Wasn't there anyone closer? Couldn't there have been someone for Abraham's son that was a little closer that that he would have been attracted to and that they might have shared life together?
God's direction with someone who was all the way across the desert.
And even more frustrating than that, how would you like to have been Isaac sitting there and saying, I wonder what the servants going to come back with?
I wonder what the servant is going to come back with. Is there going to be someone just to look at her? It's just going to turn my stomach. Someone I don't want to be with. Someone who's going to make me unhappy for my whole life.
I, if I had been Isaac sitting there, sorry, I'm saying it that way, but I think I would have gone through some of those things because those are some of the feelings I had. Those are some of the feelings. But what was Isaac doing in that time? What can you be doing waiting for the time of the Lord, if it's his will will bring the right person into your life? Let's go back to Genesis chapter 24.
And verse 6316 hundred mile trip in the desert.
Rebecca turned around, and if you figure out the time, if you go back and read those verses carefully, it appears like she turned around in one night. He got there, the servant one afternoon. She didn't have a whole long time to get everything ready. The next morning she was on her way back across the desert. Not very long. When the Lord's time comes, it can be something that can be very quick. It makes it very clear so often. But here, here was Isaac.
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Isaac went out to wonder what was going to happen.
No to meditate in the field that the even tide.
And he lifted up his eyes, and behold, the camels were coming.
He was out meditating. He wasn't worrying, he wasn't fretting. He wasn't saying, oh, I hope God doesn't make a mistake. I hope the servant doesn't make a mistake in this. He was out enjoying communion.
With God and God took care of things. He was out enjoying communion. And so let me give you just one little reminder in the time that you're waiting for different things to happen in your life. Don't say I'm going to enjoy communion after God has made it all clear. Enjoy communion now. And God will go answering each thing as the time comes along and He answers it far better, far better, far more wonderfully than we could ever.
Answer it ourselves.
Just to finish it.
In verse 67, and Isaac brought her into his mother Rebecca's tent and took Rebecca, and she became his wife and he loved her. God wants us to be happy. He wants to fill our hearts with something at last and joy and even earthly joy. Some of us have made mistakes in this. I was within three weeks of getting married to the wrong person.
Invitations were sent out. Honeymoon was planned, apartment was picked out.
Everything else and I had made a mistake. I was wrong, and God and His infinite love had someone infinitely better than my wife. We didn't know each other at the time. Years later, we make mistakes, but God overrules so often in our mistakes. He wants the very best for us. But meanwhile, if we're still waiting for things to work out down here, let's enjoy communion with Him and with His beloved Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, who we pray.
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God's School

Address—Dean Rule
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.
Like maybe before we pray to read one verse, you'd like to look at it together. It's in second Peter chapter 3.
In verse 18. But grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be glory both now and forever. Amen. We pray together.
What I'd like with the Lord's help this afternoon to talk a little bit about is God's school. They've looked one day a little bit of looking unto Jesus, the vision for our lives a little bit it just very briefly a communion with God the Father and with the Lord Jesus Christ and today.
That's the Lord's help. I'd like to talk a little bit about the school of God.
And maybe just to talk about a few of the characteristics of this before we look at some verses.
I don't know if any of you have ever been in the circumstance of coming up and having a a book report due the next day, or having a test in an English class or something like that that required reading something that was 4 or 500 pages and you ran out of time or you were busy doing other things. And so off you chug to the nearest bookstore and buy us the Cliff notes.
That have the questions and summaries and.
Some main points and some character sketches and everything else and they help you get through the test. I don't know if you've ever been in the position of trying to reduce everything you possibly could down to a one page set of notes that you could study, or whether you've gone off to someone else and said hey, would you mind loaning me your notebook? I've had classes that I found were rather boring and fell asleep in and every 15 minutes or so would try to wake up enough to.
The notes of the person next to me, you know, those things all can work in the schools that we go to in this world. But when we're talking about the school of God, we're talking about something that's different. And we're going to look at a few characteristics. We don't have very much time, but a few characteristics of it. Today we're going to find that God's school.
Doesn't have any comparative grades. It's a school that none of us will ever get out of until.
We hear the shout until we're called home to be with the Lord Jesus. It's a school.
That has extended hours in the sense that last 24 hours a day.
Seven days a week, 365 days a year, for the rest of our lifetime, because it's something that will influence where we are, what we're doing, the decisions we're making through all that time. That's another characteristic of God's school. God's school doesn't have shortcuts like some of the things that we talk about. Another thing about God's school.
Is that it's full of laboratories.
I don't know whether when you hear the word laboratory in a class, whether that's something that makes you.
Happy because you're doing something with your hands or whether it's the kind of thing you say, oh, I got to get through those because I'd much rather be taking notes or reading books or whatever. Different ones of us have responses to laboratories. I worked in laboratory for a number of years, and then they've gone and taught science and a lot of the classes are laboratories. That happens to be something I like, but maybe laboratories are something you don't like.
But God's school is full of laboratories, and so we're going to go and look at a few of the characteristics of it today. But one of the purposes of God's school is that he wants us to grow in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so perhaps we could start maybe in a little connection to what we had yesterday in Second Timothy.
Excuse me first Timothy.
We're going to read chapter 4, verse 10 to start.
And if you're trying to think of a little bit of a title to put on this, this is the admission requirements to God's School, the admission requirements.
One Timothy chapter 4 and verse 10. For therefore we both labor and suffer reproach.
Because we trust in the living God who is the Savior of all men.
Especially of those that believe.
Have you ever been frustrated by looking and looking at problems you've had in your own life, things that you have struggles with, and you look around the people that you work with or you go to school with and you don't see the same struggles in their lives. Sometimes it may look like their lives go along with sort of not having the same problems you do, some of the same conflicts you do.
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The admission requirement to God's school is to trust.
In the living God is to know to be a believer, to know to be one who believes in the Lord Jesus Christ.
To know him as your Savior. And immediately one of the problems that that those of us who trust in the Lord Jesus Christ have is a conflict. We have some conflicts that this that the rest of the people don't have. And the objective this afternoon is to not talk about those conflicts, but maybe for a very brief review to think about it. Once you know the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior, you still have the flesh. I still have the flesh. We still have something.
Sometimes just it seems like wells up and has desires that are so strong for things that are so wrong. It's a battle and we know it. It's a battle and it has a battle continually with the new nature that we have inside. Those who do not trust in the living God, those who do not know the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior don't have that battle.
They don't have it another enemy and they're they're well known, but the first one, if you know, if you if you've never spent a lot of time reading the book of Romans, it's a excellent book to really try to read and digest. Another battle, another enemy we have is this world. It has a whole system built up that tries to make people comfortable, tries to attract us and everything else. It's full of attractions and this world is full of people who have sometimes very high.
Intelligence. California is probably the place in the world. There's more Nobel Peace Prize win, Nobel Prize winners, excuse me, and things like physics, I'm sure in California, from California than from almost any country, entire country in the world.
State that's full of people with with higher education and everything else and people that that are always constantly trying to set this world is the goal. The problem is a person with an IQ of 200 maybe twice as intelligent as a person with an IQ of 100, but a person with an IQ of 200.
Is a complete imbecile in comparison with the with God.
Have you ever thought about that comparison? This world is a system that people go around comparing themselves in classes, in jobs, there's rank orders on everything. And people look around and say, well, I'm smarter than he is. I'm smarter than she is. I've got it together up here. And they're so busy making the comparison, looking down, that they never stopped to look up and compare themselves against a God who is infinitely intelligent, who is the creator of everything.
Of everything, a person who can move behind all the scenes and move all the circumstances so that even in the middle of problems, they can workout for the benefit of a multitude of people. We can't do that. We can't resolve, if I could put it that way, schedule conflicts in an athletic event and things like that. But God is capable of resolving all the conflicts, and so we're in a world that tries to elevate itself.
But it forgets the God is so far above it.
And so that's one of the battles and the third battle, and it's well known, but maybe it's a review that I need and that's that Satan is constantly causing problems. He'll come up to you after you've done something, even for the Lord Jesus in a flattery about it, saying it'll be the first, if I could put it that way without us feeling it, He'll be the first to pat us on the back and say nice job. He's a great flatterer if that's what he wants to do in some cases, and he knows when that'll work.
On other occasions, he doesn't come to flatter, he comes to just tear us down and discourage us and make us feel really bad. And so there's one characteristic of this school that if we could look at it and and to to leave it there. But in the book of Isaiah, no. Excuse me, Psalms.
Some, I think it's 144.
Verse one and here we have an introduction to one of the teachers in this school.
One of the teachers in the school is the Lord Jesus.
Here in Jehovah, in the Old Testament, but it's the same one. Blessed be the Lord, my strength which teacheth my feet, my hands to war and my fingers to fight, my goodness and my fortress, my high tower and my deliverer, my shield and he and whom I trust, who subdueth my people under me.
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Where we live, it's very common for university students and students and even other people to come to the university campus whenever there's a a raise in the gasoline prices go up or something around the central university. If you have to go anywhere close to it, the Main St. in front of it is always blocked whenever there's any problem. And if you want to go around it, the students can't get to their classes, classes have to be cancelled.
Because if you go down even a block below, I've had to go sometimes a block below because there's a post office that familial certain things at.
There'll be students out there and they'll be taking rocks and and throwing them and the police are there with a, with a blue and Gray sort of vehicle that has screens on all the windows. It's almost set up every time there's a protest as a war zone, the school is under siege. God's school, those of us who know the Lord Jesus Christ is our Savior are in a school that's constantly under attack. It's constantly under attack.
When you and I go off to some school where where we might.
Study or teach or whatever, It's a pretty calm place. There's not much at stake. It's the concept of teaching certain subjects and people learning it and and spitting it back out on an exam. But in God's school, all the students are constantly under attack. We're under attack from problems within ourselves. We're under attack from problems outside ourselves. And so one of the things that the students, those of us who are in God's school, those of us who know the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior.
One of the things we have to learn how to do is to fight the battles. Now, it's not like a few years ago, the University of Beirut, Lebanon, where you would read about it and the teachers would be killed and everything else. That's not usually the the pattern, but there's an attack on you and there's an attack on me continually.
We can read our Bible in the morning. I had an experience in years and living in the Chicago area where several of us were bachelors and sharing, renting an apartment, then finally a house and stuff where I would go to a 711 or something like that in the morning and I might have spent some time that morning reading my Bible.
And praying and hopefully thinking some about what I'd read. And then then if things were busy and there wasn't, with the poor planning and everything else and a bachelor household, we might end up going off to the store to get some yogurt and something like that for breakfast. Well, I found sometimes the battle started the day I walked in a sense, out of out of the morning class, if I can put it that way.
Got in the car, turned it on and drove to the nearest store.
And got to the store and behind the counter where I had to pay, there were things that I would see on the counter, magazines where there was a battle that started, things that went right to my eye, things that attracted my old nature. In fact, one of the things that I found I had to do is I had to drive a little farther to a store because I wasn't strong enough for the battle.
I wasn't strong enough for the battle.
And so we're in a school and when we come out of classes, we're constantly under siege. We're being attacked from every side, and we can't fight those battles on our own. But if we go in First Timothy chapter 4 and we go on in these verses, we get some examples of some things that that are supposed to characterize us. And we don't have very long. So I'm going to go through them fairly quickly.
First Timothy chapter 4 and verse 12. Let no man despise.
Thy youth.
I trust, and I think I can say it honestly. I don't despise your youth. I respect it. You've got energy that I no longer have. I didn't think that I would be saying 5 or 10 or 15 years ago that approaching 40 years old, I would already start to feel like I was running out of energy to do things.
But you've got it, you've got it, you've showed it when I see it on the ball field and that's great. Like Doug said this morning, I like to see people that go out and do something and do it with their whole heart where they don't just say, well, this is a championship game of four man volleyball, so I'm going to give it all I've got. But now I'm surrounded with a bunch of people that aren't as good volleyball players I am. So I'm just going to half, half heartedly do it. No, it's it's good to see you give it. Give it whenever you're doing it to to give energy and everything else. But you've got youth.
You've got energy. You've got energy that I don't have. I live in a place with my family in the mountains and.
Doors open if you ever want to come and visit. But I'll point, I could go to a place along the road or I can point out houses that are isolated up in the corners of them, you know, back in the hills and back in valleys and everything else. And I doubt if many of many of those people have probably never, never, never had anyone come to their house, knock on the door and said I'd like to talk to you about the Lord Jesus Christ.
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And they're still waiting.
And I don't have the energy, very honestly, I don't have the energy to make it to a lot of those places. You do. What about your youth? How is it being used? It's fine to go out and play the games. I love them. I'm looking forward tomorrow to a softball game. But when it's all said and done, what about your youth? How are you using it? Is that energy something you say? I'll give God.
Time in my life. I'll give God energy in my life.
When I get to an age where I'm done doing what I want to do for myself or right now, are you giving the best of what you have to God? Are you giving everything you have to the Lord Jesus? That's a question for every one of us. Let's go on. In this verse it says, but be thou an example or a model of the believers in Word.
What are you saying this week?
You're closer. You're closer to the people that are in your cabin, in your tent deck than I am.
You, you know them better than I'll ever know them. What about the words that even come out of your mouth in this time? Sometimes they have needs, and there's no way that I'll ever get inside, if I can put it that way. Get inside their brains the way you can. Or they get inside your brains to understand. But you can be someone with your words to, to be able to comfort someone who's going through a difficult time, to perhaps exhort someone who is, who's really struggling with whether they should be.
Doing something to edify, to build up someone who's discouraged. You can be doing that in a way that many times those who are older, those who might meet at 7:00 in the morning for a prayer meeting might not be able to do. Are you using your words this week for the Lord Jesus? It says in conversation, but it perhaps if that was translated today, it would say in conduct.
Is your conduct something that attracts people to the Lord Jesus Christ? Makes people say hey, that person really wants to follow the Lord Jesus Christ and they want to live for him?
And that conduct can have an effect on others, it says. In love or in charity.
Is love being shown out?
You don't want to know how to show love in a very practical way. Have you seen any young person around here this week who seems to be a little isolated, who doesn't seem to know other people, who seems to be sort of standing off on their own? You know, hey, maybe you're with four or five people that you feel very close to, people that you enjoy being with and you have limited time being with. Would you spend 5 minutes today going over and saying, hi, my name is so and so? What's your name? Where are you from, like to get to?
Is that love? Yeah. The world talks about love all the time. We talk about love all the time. But do we know practically how to simply show love to others who might be here? And I think there was a comment made some earlier today, People who are alone in a crowd. There's nothing worse than being alone in a crowd.
It says in spirit, in faith. You know what? It is in faith, in purity, the greatest attack almost on the life of a young person is on their purity, the greatest attack.
There's an attack on the purity of young women. There's an attack on the purity of young men.
If I can speak to the young women for a minute.
Don't ever be fooled.
By promises or statements of love from a young man who doesn't respect your purity, keep your purity.
Young men in this world.
Have made.
Millions and millions of statements of love with the objective of violating the purity of a young woman.
And then when the young man has what he wants, he's gone. He doesn't care about the young woman when he's done that. Don't ever let it happen. You're going to pay a price.
There's millions of young women in the world who now are carrying the price of the loss of their purity, and the young man has disappeared. Young men don't ever violate the purity of a woman.
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You may be able to walk away from it the way people in this world walk away from it. You may be able to walk away from it with your feet. But your conscience will never walk away from violating the purity of a young woman.
That's on this list and it's inspired by God that that's in this list. And that's a very important thing. And don't think because we know the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior, because we're we can be together at a time like this, that we're not tempted by those same things. And don't ever think you'll get beyond the age where you're going to be tempted by those things.
Purity are we examples of that in our life? There's everything in this world to defile us to to destroy that purity that God wants in our minds and we have to constantly fight the battle to get back and and speak in prayer to the Lord, confess what we've seen that gets at least our feet, if I could put it that way, dirty.
But purity is in the list. It says in verse 13 Till I come give attendance to reading.
To exhortation to doctrine, there is no when I was a young person.
And not that old and I don't think yet, but but I, I constantly thought, oh, it'd be great if I get one book that I could read and was about 75 pages and it would once I read that I would know what was in the Bible.
That somehow it could be condensed down that way. But I've got a question for you. It was a question that was asked many years ago, I believe, by Doug's father, Columbia Cannon, at a Des Moines conference many years ago when I was maybe 13 or 14 years old. He stood up and I don't remember what he spoke on, but I do remember he asked a question at the beginning of the meeting. He said, have you ever read the whole Bible from the first verse of Genesis?
To the last verse of Revelation. Have you ever read it all?
I hadn't read it well. That kind of spurred me on. It took a while but but give time to read.
Don't be no, I understand that there's days and I have them where two or three verses is is maybe all I get started with in the morning, but.
Two or three verses.
Multiplied out over 365 days if that's all we ever get.
Isn't very much.
It may get us through one book, one of the gospels or something like that.
If you have a class at school that's requiring a lot of your attention, you may.
You may have to read far more than that. You will have to read far more than that to get through the class. Well, this is a class that lasts for our whole life. I just have a question for you and don't answer it out loud, just answer it to yourself. Have you ever read this whole book from cover to cover? When you're done, did you start over?
This is the book that gives the instructions in the school of God. It's the book that will give the wisdom that we need when we're down here. So that's one thing in that verse #4 verse 14. Neglect not the gift that is in thee, which was given thee by prophecy with the laying out of the hands of the presbytery. We don't have anyone that comes and and puts their hands on us to give it to us now, but God has given you a gift.
And you may say, well, I don't know how, I don't know what it is.
If you get out on the baseball diamond.
The first baseman, if we can, we can go around to a few of the positions. The first baseman has to be someone who is very sure with their hands because the ball may come at any angle. They have to be able to keep their foot on the base and reach whether it's it's high and to one side or whether it's down in the ground. One of the they don't have to be the best person to throwing the ball on the team.
But they they should be very good at catching it. It's an absolute necessity. It's tough to be able to throw it, but but that's a characteristic. The person is playing third base and if there's a right-handed batter, they better have quick reflexes because sometimes it doesn't take the ball very long to get there. And if you want to play shortstop, you better be able to throw the ball long distance because maybe you're going to get it in the very deep part of the base paths. And if you're going to play left field, you better not be the slowest person on the team.
Well, how are you going to know which position maybe your most ideally suited for? It's not by sitting and reading a book that says how to play softball or how to play baseball that that won't do it. Yeah, that may help. But you're going to have to get out in the field. You're going to have to get out and do it and find out. And if you're having problem at one thing, well, maybe it's time to go on and try something else. Well, that may be how you'll discover your gift.
00:25:17
Maybe there's going to be an opportunity, maybe you go out with someone else.
I sometimes have gone out with Rons brother Paul and and if the two of us go and we were to invite 100 people to a gospel meeting, if I invited them, one or two might come. If Paul invited them, 10 or 20 of them might come.
The Lord has given him a gift in making that contact and the contact with someone in the gospel.
Well, it doesn't mean that I, I wouldn't go invite someone, but I recognize there's someone who's far more gifted at that than I am. Well, are you ever out in, if I can put it, the playing field of life, putting whatever God has given you into practice, trying it, trying to perhaps share some verses teaching someone or whatever.
That's the way you're going to discover it, but don't neglect it. Verse 15. This is where we found Isaac in the field yesterday.
It says, meditate or occupy thyself with these things. Give thyself wholly to them.
That thy profiting may appear to all.
We're busy. We're living in an age that has so many things to attract us and so much business. If you're driving down the freeway in Los Angeles, it is not often in rush hour, a time where you can be completely daydreaming.
Because vehicles may stop in front of you, far in front, and the reaction time that you're left with is not very much. You and I have to make a determined effort to find time to think, to occupy ourselves with the things of God. Because we have days that in the day of convenience, we start doing more things and our time gets more filled. And so we have to meditate on these things. We have to take time. You and I have to look for quiet hours.
I I found that, for instance, in the university, one of the one of the few quiet hours I had was to try to find some time when I was eating to go off and and get away from other people. Or even in the middle of a crowd of people if I was at some place having a hamburger, sitting at a table myself and trying to tune out everything that was around into focus on these things.
You're going to have to find the time. I can't tell you when it is. I'm going to tell you that you have an advantage over many people in the world, and that's this. You're usually living in a place where it's not so crowded.
Many people in the world.
There are there are cases that there's a line painted here on the floor. And if I took from this fireplace over to where Brother Wally is and made a little square and took something like that. I have been in houses that had 10 people living in a space like that with three beds tied up on top of each other, no room to get a quiet time. It takes an extra battle.
Most of you probably have your own room, or a room with one, one other person, or maximum 2.
But you have spaces, you have houses where there's a basement you can go off and get into the corner.
Other people don't have that. How about you? How are you using that time? How am I using the opportunity of having?
Some quiet time without distractions. If we're going to give ourselves wholly to these things, we're going to have to have the quiet time. Because if you go back and you were to read the biography of anyone where people have done things and others have said that that life is worth writing down into a biography, you're going to find out that those people, those people had hidden time which no one ever saw.
Perhaps, or very few people knew about, they had quiet time alone with the Lord Jesus.
They had time that was spent where the Lord Jesus was bringing him through circumstances, where they were spending quiet time, where they got rid of things that would fill their time. And there are things we've heard of things that will fill our time. One thing that was mentioned this morning is music. I'm not going to stand up here and make some rule about music, but I am going to say that if.
It silence is a thing that young people today.
Are not very used to.
If I come in and I have students come in for a science test, there's a very common apparatus that nothing wrong with the apparatus that the instrument itself is fine, but they'll have a Walkman and they'll have earphones on and it's, it's like I can't go through the through the test for 5 minutes or half an hour without listening to music. I said, well, it's not going to help your concentration. Oh, I'm, I'm used to it. No problem. I said, well, you have answers recorded on the tape you're playing. No.
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They there there's a but, but people live where where there has to be filled. How how are you at handling silence?
Think about that for a minute. God's school sometimes requires silence.
So that we can listen to the voice from above.
Can you handle silence?
Or there's some noise in the sense some music, whatever kind it is, and I'm not sitting here in judgment on it, but but can you handle silence?
If someone said to you, I'm going to put you in a room that is absolutely soundproof and the only things you're going to have in there are a table, a chair, a mat on the floor and your Bible, and I'm going to leave you in there for the next six hours.
Does it sound like prison?
Or do you look at that as a oh?
No interruptions. I can spend time with the Lord. How does that strike you? How does that strike me? Is that time we could enjoy? Is that time we could benefit from?
Last verse Verse 16 Take heed to thyself and unto the doctrine.
Continuing them, for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself in the sense of save our testimony, and them that hear thee. And I'd like to just read some last verses before we close. Time has gone almost in Philippians. Excuse me, in Romans. I just like to read about the laboratory classes for a minute.
Romans chapter 5 and verse 3.
And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also. Knowing the tribulation worketh patience and patience. Experience and experience hope.
There was a young brother a number of years ago who asked an older brother to pray for him. He said I'm having a problem. He said I don't have much patience. And the story goes and I from the way I heard it, I believe it was a true story. The two of them got down to pray. The older brother said, dear Lord, please send tribulation into the life of this young, young brother.
And went on and and that was it. Young brother got up to him, got up from their knees and he said, I don't think you heard me right. He said I didn't ask for tribulation.
He said. I ask for patience.
Said But let's let's read this verse in Romans chapter 5. We glory in tribulations also knowing the tribulation worketh patience.
In God's labyrinth, in God's school, the laboratories often include tribulations. They include problems. They may be problems in relationships. They may be problems in in temptations. They may. There's many, many different kinds of tribulations. We don't have time to look at them now.
But tribulations are often the start of God's laboratories for us.
Because the tribulation is a thing that God uses to say.
Oh, now, now what am I going to do next? What am I going to do next? I've got this knowledge stored in my brain, but now I've got to find a way to apply it in the situation I'm in. That's God's laboratory. And in the objective, in the end, is what tribulation worketh. Patience. Patience means we have to wait on God because we don't have the answers in ourselves. We sometimes can't change the circumstances.
You and I may sometimes beat through a door, we may pound through it, and God may allow us to go through the door and find out on the other side that there was something he was trying to spare us from in our lives. In Psalms, you can read about the about the children of Israel and says he granted their request, but he sent leanness into their soul. Nothing is worth leanness in our souls. How often we've experienced that and it's not worth it. It's not worth it. The tribulation is far better.
Because the Tribulation produces patience, it produces a waiting on God in the circumstance.
And what about patience? It produces experience. It produces experience. Experience is one of the key ingredients of wisdom. I don't know if you've picked up one of those booklets that is in the back corner on Proverbs, but I picked up one a day or two ago and started to look at it and, and it talks about wisdom. It's a really worthwhile little booklet to read. It won't take you very long, but wisdom is a very important thing to to get something that through the experiences of our lives.
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The Word of God applied in Him helps us know what to do from day-to-day in the things that we we confront and experience hope.
God never abandons us in any of our tribulations. We may turn away from Him, but He never abandons us.
He just shows if we'll let him, He shows how He's with us there the whole time, helping us, permitting things. If you never had sorrow, how could God comfort you? You wouldn't have any need of it. But isn't it wonderful to know God as the God of comfort?
You can go on through the whole list of any problems you might have. God permits them in our lives because that way we learn things that we would never learn any other way. We'll never learn them in heaven. We'll only learn them here. And so while we're in God's school.
Let's thank him for the lessons. Let's thank him for the lessons. Let's praise him for the lessons. If you've got some health problem.
Do you thank him for it? Are you upset?
It's a test. There will be other problems or relationships, problems with financial problems or whatever it might be. They're all opportunities for God in his school to show us that He's taking care of us. And if you want to find the other teacher, you can look in John 14 and 1St John 2 where it talks about the Holy Spirit being our teacher. He's able to take this, the instructions in this book.
And apply them individually to your lives and mind. Let's just thank our Father for it.
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A Servant Forever

Address—Dean Rule
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.
Perhaps before we could pray, we could just read a few verses in Exodus chapter 21.
Verse two. If they'll buy in Hebrew servant, six years shall he serve, and in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing. If he came in by himself, he shall go out by himself. If he were married, then his wife shall go out with him. If his master have given him a wife, and she have borne him sons or daughters, the wife and her children shall be her masters, and he should go out by himself.
And if the servant shall plainly say.
I love my master, my wife and my children.
I will not go out free.
Then his master shall bring him under the judges.
He shall also bring him to the door or under the doorpost, and his master shall bore his ear through with an awe, and he shall serve him forever. We pray.
Perhaps we could start Hebrews chapter 12.
And verse 28.
Wherefore we receiving a Kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear, for our God is a consuming fire.
In the mornings we've been hearing about the councils of God and about God's Kingdom and about the Kingdom of heaven and for making me think and reminded me of this verse that I had thought before some before coming to lesson says we receiving a Kingdom which cannot be moved. Everything in this world that we can see and it's just a repeat of what was said this morning, but everything we can see is going to be moved. It's unstable. It's not sure.
But we have something that is invisible, is sure and cannot be moved.
And we've heard about that and time is shorts and couldn't add anything to it. But let's go on then to the second-half of the verse. It says let us have grace whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. One of from and I am getting farther and farther away from current lingo, if I can put it that way. But I think one of the common words that's being used today.
Is the word awesome?
Very common word and it's used and applied to different things. One of the words we have in this this verse, the word reverence comes from a root that's very much from what I understand or has a similar meaning to the word awesome. And so if you'll permit me to say it, we have an awesome God and we have an awesome Savior.
Far more awesome than anything that that word could be applied to in this earth. But that's our God.
And Father and the Lord Jesus Christ our Savior. And if we can go back for justice a minute to the verses we looked at a few days ago in the beginning of this chapter without going and reading them.
But talking about looking unto Jesus, I'd like you to leave your finger in this verse for a minute and go with me just for a minute to something that in the English language almost becomes a play on words. And that's in the last chapter of the Old Testament, Malachi chapter 4 and verse 2.
But unto you that fear my name shall the Son of righteousness arise with healing in his wings. And we'll just read that part of the verse in English. It works out as to almost a play on words because the Son of righteousness is the same one we know as the Son of God and the Son of man. And our desire this week is that all of us go away.
From this time.
With sun damage in our eyes, not our physical eyes. I'm not talking about going out and lying down on the baseball field.
And looking up into the sky so long with our eyes open that it begins to damage our physical eyes. But if we think of the verse that we read when we went on from vision and we talked a little bit together about communion where it says whom we have seen. And the vision doesn't go away if our eyes have been captured and they continue to be more and more captured to be as we look on the Lord Jesus Christ, as we read through the Gospels, as we read through the.
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God can see more and more things about the Lord Jesus Christ.
Then the Sun of Righteousness can help damage our vision.
For this world.
He can leave such a permanent blood as a permanent damage in a sense on our vision for this world and have our vision so that it can only see him. You know, if a person can't see anything else in this world, the one thing that they can sense is on a bright day, on a sunny day, the light that comes from the sun, it's by far the brightest thing that there is.
Out in anywhere, basically, unless you're standing maybe right up next to a very bright light, but it's a very, very strong light.
And so hopefully our vision has been in a little way turned on the Lord Jesus and it's and that is something that will bring us more and more into communion with him. But if that's true, what do we have? At the end of this 12Th chapter of Hebrews, it says that we've received a vision from the Lord, perhaps.
We've gotten communion from him. We've been on the receiving end of the teaching in God's school.
And so does that mean we can stop? Does that mean that everything has to be on the receiving end? No, God wants us to go out and use our lives to serve him. And I want to look at two different ways that we can serve him. And they're in in Peter first, Peter chapter 2 and verse five is the first one.
But we're going to start from verse three and first Peter chapter 2. It says if so, be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious or the Lord is good. Have we tasted that the Lord is good? Do we have a sense of that in our hearts and our souls says here in verse four, to whom coming as unto a living stone disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God and precious.
Going to stop right there. What did this world do to our savior?
What did this world do to our blessed Lord and what are our hearts like one of the in the hymn book we often use in in in in home assembly in the assemblies where we are in the evening for gospel meetings is the book that it has a song in there. And if you've not read it, I suggest you you maybe drop this title down and and you go back and read it. But if I see the crowd and pilots Hall, the furious cries I hear.
Their shouts of crucify appall and they can't remember the words but.
But one of the verses ends, and in that din of voices, rude, I recognize my own.
If we go back to the cross, how many of us can say we would have done anything any different than those that were around did?
Some of them disappeared, some of them denied the Lord Jesus even of his own his own closest followers and our hearts are no different. He was disallowed of men. He was set aside. He suffered 3 hours at the hands of people like you and like me, and we might have been right there among them if we had been living in that time. But the most horrible thing he suffered were those last three hours when the lights is at where were turned out. God wouldn't permit anyone to see the.
That His beloved Son was going through for you and for me. Totally rejected. Totally rejected. And what was He bearing in those three hours? He had the burden of my sins on Him, and He had the burden of your sins on Him if you know Him as your Savior.
There's never been anyone like it. In all the history of mankind. No one has ever done what the Lord Jesus has done for us.
And it has to get a response in our hearts, our hearts that are so cold, that are so, so often so indifferent to the Lord Jesus. But what does it say here? Chosen of God, chosen of God, Could any of us have been there and done it? Absolutely not.
For sinful creatures, our whole eternity hinges on what the Lord Jesus Christ did in those three hours. And precious. The question today is the Lord Jesus precious to your heart.
And precious to my heart. Words that are thrown around, bantered around a lot. The word precious.
People talk about and with reason, precious stones because they're limited in quantity, they're high in price.
But when it comes down to the Lord Jesus Christ, there was only one, there's only one and there was only one who could ever take our place. And so how's the 1St way that we can serve, that we can give back something to him in verse five, He also is living lively stones are built up a spiritual house.
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And holy priesthood.
To OfferUp spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God.
By Jesus Christ.
If we go to John 10 and we won't take time, we don't have very much time, but it talks about going in and going out. The first service that you and I can do for the Lord Jesus Christ is to offer up the spiritual sacrifice of praise, of Thanksgiving and worship. Why do we praise? We praise the Lord Jesus because of what He's done on Calvary's cross. We praise Him because of what He's done.
Why do we worship? We worship the Lord Jesus because of who he is, the eternal Son of God.
Are you going to be bored in heaven? Am I going to be bored in heaven? Not a chance. Impossible for us to sit down right now and with our limited minds to think of spending a complete eternity forever praising and worshipping the Lord Jesus Christ, when sometimes when we sit down for an hour, an hour and 15 minutes on Lord's Day morning together and we remember the Lord in his death. And if you're like me, my mind can be wandering all over.
But every distraction will be left behind when we are with the Lord Jesus and we will have hearts that are going to be able to praise Him fully, to worship Him fully, and He's worthy. But that's the first service that we can do for him right now. Have you thought today when you got up this morning and said thank you to the Lord Jesus for who He is and for what He's done?
Have you said thank you for that? You know, if we go through the line and someone gives us food, we we say thank you. I think it's something that every one of us should do.
At the end of this week, but to say thank you to Wally and Dolores and for everything they've done, and say thank you to your counselors, for those who helped you in your cabinet and everything else.
But every day, every time we can think of it, perhaps every time we should, when we just give thanks for our food, we can thank the Lord Jesus for who he is and what he's done. You know, if we were in the Old Testament, what did they have to do? They had to go and pile up some stones and, and there they would take an animal and they would kill the animal on that altar and, and that was part of their sacrifice. But we don't have to do any of that wherever we are, individually or collectively.
We can stop and think about what the Lord Jesus has done.
You know, there's an interesting thing sometimes people say and call the meeting on usually Lords Day morning at different times and different places and things that when, when there's a a cup and a loaf on the table, they, they, sometimes people will call it the worship meeting.
But I think it's interesting, I don't know if he said this before this week, but I think it's interesting that the word of God doesn't call it that. It says it's the breaking of bread and it says we do it to make, to to remember the Lord in his death. And if you and I simply stop and think about what the Lord Jesus has done, it will produce praise and worship in our hearts. If we say I'm going to go worship and we try to get it from here inside, from something, we try to produce ourselves.
It may be something that's not real, but if we simply stop and consider the Lord Jesus Christ, it will produce true worship. And so that's the first kind of service. And then if we can, and I wish we'd had time for the verses in between, but we'll read them verse six and on. Wherefore it is also contained in the Scripture. Behold, a lay in cyan, a cornerstone elect.
Precious, and he that believeth on him shall not be confounded.
An important point there, this world is full of people that are confounded, people that are confused, people that don't understand, you know what the first thing to do to get rid of being confounded is to get rid of the confusion as it were clear the spider webs away. It's to believe and then God starts taking care of the confusion of different things. And so if there's anyone in this room today who has not believed on the Lord Jesus Christ as their savior.
Don't expect all the all the questions you might have to be answered. Now. Believe, believe. Is it true that the Lord Jesus died? Why did he die? Did he die for you? If you believe that he did, if you know that he did, then he'll start taking care of the questions. But if you with your own mind, try to figure out the answers to all the questions before you're again trying to elevate your mind and put it up on a level with God's mind which is impossible.
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God will start answering the question.
If you'll just believe, if you haven't believed already. Verse 7.
Unto you therefore which believe He is precious, but unto them which be disobedient, the stone which the builders disallowed.
The same is made the head of the corner, and a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense. Even to them which stumble at the word, being disobedient were unto also they were appointed.
But ye are a chosen generation, a royal.
Priesthood. Unholy nation, a peculiar people.
That you should show forth the praises or the excellencies.
Of him who hath called you out of darkness.
Into his marvelous light, the 2nd way that we can serve the Lord Jesus Christ.
The 1St way is by thanking him, by praising him, by adoring him. He's worthy going into his presence. And the second thing is to go out to this poor Dark World with the message.
That there is a Redeemer, that there is one who loves there. We heard last night about the Kinsman Redeemer like Boaz. Have you announced the Redeemer to those who you come into contact with every day?
If all of a sudden we could have a person here standing here next to me and that person, we could say, well that person has 5 minutes to live and you have the next 5 minutes to talk to that person. How would you respond?
Would you say, well, I'm really pretty busy and I I don't have time and we're gonna finish things? No, I think you would respond very quickly and tell the person of their need to be saved before it's too late. Can we turn over for a few minutes to a verse in Proverbs?
Proverbs, chapter 24.
And verse 10.
If thou faint in the day of adversity, thy strength is small, if thou for bear to deliver them that are drawn unto death, and those that are ready to be slain.
What does it mean to for Bear in this case? I think it means to neglect to perform a duty that you have.
If someone is on the point of dying.
If someone is on the point of dying and you could come up to them and give them the thing that would give them life and you neglected to do it.
What would happen if you were in a hospital and you were standing next to the bed of someone who you loved?
A parent, a brother, a sister, a friend, and you were next to that person and you noticed that the person was starting to go into a coma and you were concerned that they would never come out of it. And so you hit the nurses call button and the nurse comes running down and the nurse looks and the nurse calls out the code. Whatever the code is in that hospital that says every able body who knows what to do get here because we've got an emergency.
We've got an emergency and the Doctor Who has the most knowledge about it says.
If I go now, my lunch is going to get cold. I'll go after I'm finished my lunch.
And the doctor comes up after lunch and the sheets already pulled over the head.
I don't know if you've ever been in one of those situations with a family member, but my father, before he passed away, my dad, I was in the hospital one time.
And we had just gone home from visiting and we got the call.
And the call said a code, and I don't remember what the details were. A code has gone out. And I answered and they said, who is that for, your dad? And immediately we went back to the car and drove as fast as we possibly could to get to the hospital, go running up the stairs. A code had gone out.
That there was a mistake. They had called us and it was someone else.
And there was already then a man dead in the intensive coronary care unit of Riverside Hospital in Columbus, OH. And I have to admit that I had very, very mixed feelings. I was very thankful that my father was still alive. But I thought about that man, and I wondered, you know, I miss him, but I'm going to be with him again. But there was a man who had died in the few minutes before that. The code had gone out. We'd gotten the wrong call.
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I don't know where that man is. I don't know where he is. How about the people that you and I come into contact with? They're ready to be slain. They're on, as it were, their deathbed. What if the Lord Jesus Christ were to come back today? People that I have been too afraid to talk to.
May go into an eternity without hearing about the Lord Jesus Christ. I understand fully that God is sovereign.
But God never told us that we could hide behind the fact that He's sovereign, that He works in hearts in spite of ourselves. All we can rest in that in a sense, but it's never given to us as an escape for our responsibility.
And so let's go on to verse 12 and Proverbs chapter 24. If thou sayest, behold, we knew it not.
That not he, that pondereth the heart considerate and doth not he? And he that keepeth thy soul, does he not know it?
Does not even render to every man according to his works. I have a question.
Does it matter to you and does it matter to me that every day thousands and thousands of people are passing into an eternity without the Lord Jesus Christ? If we were to go around the world, and I don't remember the exact numbers, but.
There's something like 19% of the world, between 19 and 20% of the world are Muslims.
They don't know the Lord Jesus Christ as their savior. Something like.
13% or 12 or 13% of the people in the world are Hindus and 12 or 13% of the people in the world are Buddhists.
They don't know the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior either.
And you go on around there's 818 or 20% something like that of the 5.5 approximately billion people in the world.
Who have no quote UN quote religion. They don't follow the Lord Jesus Christ.
They don't follow anyone else. There are several percent that are animus. They're out worshipping the trees or the animals or the rocks or the weather or whatever it is.
And then one in every 400 people about in the world is a Jew. Not very many. It's pretty amazing the things they've accomplished for being only one in 400 people in the world. And that leaves about 1/3 of the people in the world professing to be Christian in some way. And if you take that, maybe 1/4 of those, some people have estimated maybe 1/4 of those people approximately really know the Lord Jesus Christ as their savior.
Can you and I say that the others don't matter?
Is that possible for you and I to say that the others don't matter? Do they matter to the heart of the Lord Jesus Christ who gave everything to save us? If they matter to Him, they should matter to us also. How are we responding? Are there people that you're in school with that you work with, that I work with, that I have as neighbors?
Who I've never told them of the Savior's love.
Can I serve the blessed Savior by telling them of the Savior's love?
Can you serve the Savior by telling them of the Savior's love? Yes, you can.
And yes, I can. Is it important to us? I don't remember the name, Maybe someone can remember the name, but.
On a bulletin board behind my desk for a long time and I don't have it anymore. There was there was a little girl who was caught in a, you know, an abandoned well in the backyard. We've got a book about it at home. I don't remember what the person's name was, but do you remember a few years ago, Jessica?
Jessica and I remember when Jessica was down in that hole.
And they were drilling a whole parallel to it. And 24 hours a day someone was there working and then they had to drill a hole sideways to get her from from below. And then they brought Jessica out and everyone's attention was focused on saving the life of that little girl. And I had a someone had written a statement and they had it. And I don't have it on where it is now, but something like.
If.
If you realize that X 20,000 or 30,000 or some number.
Of Jessica's. We're going into a lost eternity every day. Would you focus some of your attention on that?
Have you ever had someone you've gone to school with or worked with that you saw on Friday?
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And you went back and on Monday morning they were no longer going there.
They were dead. I had a friend, George.
We met at a certain place in high school, like 10th grade, and we rode our bicycles from that place to school.
Every day, almost every day when we would meet up. One weekend, George got a new bicycle. He was an exchange student from Hong Kong, living in Columbus. He got a new bicycle, didn't bother to put a new light on it. He worked at a Chinese restaurant on the weekends as a waiter. He was coming home, coming down to Main Street in town.
On Saturday night.
On Lord's Day, another sister went to the meetings on large, day said. Did you hear about George? No, George is dead.
The week before we talked something about eternity and he said I've got time, people don't have time. You and I are acting so often and I put myself first on the list like all our neighbors have an eternity to wait to hear about the Lord Jesus Christ.
But it may be too late by the time we get back, because we're on our way home to the glory. So let's serve the Lord Jesus.
With reverence and godly fear, let's serve him by offering him what he deserves in some as much as we can in worship and praise and Thanksgiving. Let's worship him by in that, but let's also serve him. Why is this verse said by being royal priests, by announcing to this world that there's a Savior who loves them? You know, it's a wonderful message.
It's a it's a a very important and very limited thing.
The United States, as big a country as it is, has only approximately 200 ambassadors in the whole world. That's all. There's only about 200 people that represent the United States and the whole world.
And I've only met one ambassador in my life, But you and I have been told in the Word of God that we can be ambassadors for Christ in this Dark World. We can be ambassadors for Christ. Does the vision of the Lord Jesus Christ burn in your heart and my heart so much that it's something we can't contain?
If he's real to us, if he's overflowing in our hearts, it'll go out to others.
If we find that he's not overflowing, we'll keep it to ourselves, but then it's time to go back.
And to get into his presence quietly, individually, until the Lord Jesus means so much that we can't hold the message back.
We just close by reading the last couple of verses of God's Word.
He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly.
Amen. And I'm going to stop there and ask a question. If you had never read the last half of verse 20 and verse 21 of Revelation 22 and you just heard these words for the first time, surely I come quickly.
Let's stop for justice 10 seconds or something and just think about how we would respond to those words.
The divinely inspired response was Even so. Come Lord Jesus, the grace of our Lord Jesus be with you all. Amen. Could we pray?
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God's Counsels & Purposes #1: Introduction

Address—Doug Buchanan
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.
What am I?
By me, King's reign.
And Princess decree justice.
By me, Princess, rule and nobles, even the judges of the earth.
But ye have said it not all my blank.
And would none of my reproof, I also will laugh at your calamity.
What am I?
One word, I'm one.
Close. That's the right answer, but it's it's not the exact word that I wanted.
Counsel.
Wisdom Counsel.
This has been impressed on me of late. The Council of God. The councils of God.
We had it yesterday afternoon, so beautifully brought before us the 1St 10 men named in Genesis.
Who worked that out? Who planned that?
Only God could do that.
God has a purpose.
An eternal purpose, young people.
I was struck the other week with a comment that a brother made. I'll pass on, he says. You know the history of man as we know it and the Bible.
Is going to be about approximately 7000 years.
Counting 1000 years of the Millennium.
We're already nearly 6000 years down the course of history. I believe that's a part of God's council.
Out of that 7000 years.
The average span of life is 70 years.
Not all make it.
But that's the average 4 score and 10.
Given to us 1%.
Of the total history is given to you and me.
How are we going to fit in?
What are you going to do with those seventy more or less years of your life?
How you going to live it?
What is our purpose?
I noticed sometimes that sometimes young people and the rest of us are older too.
We don't seem to have a vision, a purpose in our life.
God has a purpose.
He's written it down, he's given it to us, told it out 66 books.
70 countings the five books of Psalms.
That's another perfection.
God.
A couple weeks ago.
I was impressed by a young person down in Peru. His name was Alejandro. He told me this story.
Said I was.
In my home city.
It's very dangerous. There's a lot of bandits or thievery robbers, St. robbers on the street, so common. I can tell you all kinds of stories about wallets and money and things stolen. And he told me this story, he says. You know, one day I was going down the street.
All of a sudden a robber came along. I didn't notice. He came up from behind. He grabbed my little satchel, my little Bible case and things, and he took it and he started running.
How would you react in that kind of a situation?
I don't think I would have reacted like he did.
He said in the name of the Lord Jesus, drop that.
What did that thief do?
He dropped it. That's a miracle, isn't it? Anybody that knows anything about robbers and thieves will understand.
God was in control.
Even of that robber.
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He told me of another young fella.
David was his name, or Dave what we call him. I know this young brother too.
Also in the same city.
He was also accustomed by a robber.
A little more violent.
And this one had a knife. He grabbed him around the neck with one arm and elbow, and with his other he had a knife in his hand, holding it right up to his face and saying give me your money. Money.
How would you respond in that?
Where's your faith in the Lord?
Do you believe God has a purpose in your life? Are you trusting God?
You know what that young man did?
He said Lookout, there is somebody looking.
And the robber said where? Where?
Where is he?
Said he's over there. He took the robber turn. Said who is it?
The young fellow said God.
He let him go, didn't hurt him.
God, God lives.
Now, I hope we're not subjected to those kind of tests, but we are subject to the tests of our faith.
What do we believe? I appreciated what was said to us this morning about our habits.
You know, we don't react in a situation like that.
Rightly, unless we have already formed a good habit.
Unless we have already laid hold of God, how are we going to cry to Him in a moment like that?
If we haven't formed the habit already.
We need young people.
To enter into the mind of God, the purposes of God, the counsels of God. God allowed those robbers to come along, and he's going to allow certain things to come along in your life and my life to test us, to prove us.
I'd like to just in brief read our quote a few verses out of Proverbs. You needn't turn to them, but I just want to bring them before us quickly and as we go continue our.
Meetings. Maybe these thoughts will come back in our minds, these verses.
All of these verses are out of the book of Proverbs except the first one.
Isaiah 4610 declaring the end from the beginning.
And from ancient times, the things that are not yet done saying, my counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure.
Psalm 3311. I already made a mistake, didn't I? I said they were all from Proverbs. This in Psalms 3311. The council of the Lord standeth forever the thoughts of his heart to all generations.
Proverbs 2130 There is no wisdom, nor understanding, nor counsel against the Lord.
Proverbs, 2018.
Counsel in the heart of man is like deep water, but a man of understanding will draw it out.
Proverbs 2018. Every purpose is established by counsel.
And with good advice make war Proverbs, 1921.
There are many devices in a man's heart, nevertheless, the counsel of the Lord that shall stand.
Isn't it wonderful?
That there is something God is controlling and holding.
And nobody is going to change it.
Do you want to be on his side?
I've been impressed. How much time?
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I waste.
Not considering the Council of God.
I'll give you an illustration. Few weeks ago we had a birthday celebration for my mother.
You'll never guess what we got her.
We bought her a trampoline.
Not feeling better? You know my mother.
You'll know why. It was kind of a strange. It's kind of nice, you know, to have grandparents so you can give gifts to so the grandchildren can use them.
It's nice to have a grandparent or a parent like that, you know?
They want to share with what they have and their joy.
Was complete seeing the grandkids enjoy it.
That was nice.
Well, we got this trampoline and.
On her birthday, didn't have much time planned because it was wheat harvest and we were all busy and a lot of come in and go. And so we got this trampoline, got it, took it out-of-the-box and everybody wanted to help put it together. Now you all know how trampoline is, doesn't take too much for the trampoline together. In that box there was a one sheet page of instructions.
The kids all took a look at it. Oh, I know how to put a trampoline together. They didn't say this, but.
I'm adding a little bit to it. They started putting this trampoline, they got the frame all around. They started getting, they got the pad out and all the springs, basically only three different parts.
Started hooking up the springs here and they started working around. They got about 2/3 away around this trampoline.
And they were pulling on those strings trying to get them tight and they couldn't make them. And they were even stretching the string, the springs.
Uh, we didn't do it right.
Where's the instruction sheet?
We went back and looked on the instructions. He and it told very plainly how to put it together. We had to take all those springs off, start all stop, start out all over again and redo it. And it worked just fine when we did that.
Is that what your life, my life, is going to be like? Are we going to get down the road not 10 or 15 minutes? Are we going to get down the road 20 years?
Have to backtrack.
Counsel with good advice make war.
God has a plan. He has a plan for your life and for mine.
For all of us.
Oh, but how much time we waste?
Forgetting to read the instructions.
So much so that we have the well known saying if all else fails, follow the instructions.
Not a very good motto, is it?
The counsel of the Lord shall stand. A brother was telling us the other night, yesterday. God makes the rules.
That's right. The wonderful thing though, dear young people.
He's told us the rules. He's written it out for us. We have it in black and white.
Now I'd like to go back.
Let's go to turn to Genesis 3.
And start out.
In real brief.
I'm going to.
Just touch on.
A little bit of the plan of God.
Genesis 3.
Verse 5.
Just the one clause that Satan the serpent put before Eve in the garden.
He said to her, Ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.
Understand this word God's.
Is the same root word as word for judges.
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He put before Eve.
A temptation.
That she might make a judgment at his instructions.
And elevate herself.
To God, to be a God, to know more, to advance.
Eve followed that instruction.
Fell into sin with her husband. We had it beautifully brought before us yesterday and we know the sad result.
Sin.
God allowed that to happen.
It fits still in his purposes. He could bring blessing out of it.
Now let's turn over to Exodus chapter 22.
Verse 7.
If a man shall deliver unto his neighbor money or stuff to keep and to be stolen out of the man's house, if the thief be found, let him pay double.
What Eve aspired to and sought after was a thief.
Taking something that hadn't been legitimately given to her. Aspiring for something.
She forgot to read the instructions before she acted.
She fell into sin with her husband. We're all here. The result of it fall in creation.
That God is not frustrated. The penalty here was double.
In Psalm 69, we won't turn to it, prophetically speaking, of the Lord.
It says of him. Then I restored that which I took not away.
This is part of God's council.
The Lord Jesus came into this world to restore what the 1St man.
Took by robbery.
From Satan and not from God.
The Lord Jesus became a man.
In order to pay back and he had to pay double I believe according to this verse.
The Lord Jesus has paid for our redemption. He came into the world.
He gave his life, he died, he rose again, he overcame the enemy Satan, and as a man conquered.
The stronger enemy. Death, Satan, Hell.
And has committed to us the Ministry of Reconciliation, salvation.
We have the gospel preached freely, all because the Lord Jesus came.
And pay the price to liberate us from our sins and from the slavery that we fell into.
When Anna Beneath didn't follow the instructions.
Things were not as far as God is concerned.
Now let's turn over to 1St Corinthians chapter 15.
And I'd like to read just the 24th through the.
20.
Six verse.
Then cometh the end, when he this is the Lord Jesus, shall have delivered up the Kingdom to God, even the Father, when he shall have put down all rule, and all authority and power, For he must reign till he hath put all enemies under his feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.
This is the end of the story of God's purposes, young people. The end.
The last thing that's going to be put away is death.
But the Lord Jesus has power to do it.
He is in control and will one day soon put it all into control.
Do you know Him as your Lord and Savior?
Do you want to walk your life?
According to his plan.
Or do you want to walk your life some other plan?
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The counsels of God.
Now not only are those counsels of God all known, he knows them known unto God.
All these works from the beginning of the creation of God.
The wonderful thing we want to take up?
In these meetings.
Is how the Lord Jesus has a plan of blessing.
And he has revealed that to us.
We live.
In probably the most favorable time the world.
Let's turn to a verse in.
Romans, the last chapter. Romans.
The last three verses of Romans.
Now to him that is of power to establish you according to my gospel, and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began, but now is made manifest by the Scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the everlasting God made known to all nations.
For the obedience of faith.
To God only wise be glory through Jesus Christ forever. Amen.
Dear young people, God has made known this plan to us. This plan was not made known in the old time, in past dispensations, only in brief and in pictures and type and in part. What did David, King David, know about the Millennium, the day of grace?
Or about Christ coming down to be the sin bear.
Only in shadows and pictures did he know. But men like Abraham.
David Daniel we had about a remarkable man.
They didn't know what you and I know of God's plan. God has unfolded it at this time.
To who?
To you and me.
And this dispensation?
Were special in that regard.
Not even to angels.
Did he make this known or bring into blessing?
We had before us yesterday also about.
Adam and Eve and the penalty, the punishment that was put upon them, and also upon the serpent.
Never has God offered salvation to any fallen Angel.
As recorded in the Word of God, Never.
And yet we.
Fallen men and women in sin, He has come down to rescue, to bring into favor, to make known to us.
His ways and purposes.
Doesn't that make a?
Something ring in your heart of appreciation.
Some desire to walk with your God.
To enter into that plan and to go along with it rather than contrary to it.
This is what we want in our life, isn't it?
To go along with God.
It's not just a hit and miss thing.
God has told us what his plan is.
But we mess up because we don't inquire. How often in the Old Testament you have, they did not inquire of the Lord, and they go out to battle and they're defeated. Over and over the story repeats itself. We ought not to need to learn it that way anymore, but we still do. God is patient.
How patient he was with Moses and all those children of Israel those 40 years.
Oh, he's a wonderful God.
And he's waited in our life, too.
So here in Romans it says the mystery which was kept secret.
Since the beginning of the foundation of the world, God couldn't really make it known to us.
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Until the Lord Jesus had come down to open up the way to become the sacrifice.
Put away our sins to bring us into a relationship with God where we could enter into these purposes and councils. None of that was able to be made known in the Old Testament.
But it is now.
It's all told out.
But is now made manifest, and by the scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the everlasting God made known to all nations.
Not just to the Jew anymore.
But to all nations, to those of us here, it's made known.
For the obedience of faith.
That's the way the book of Romans starts. The obedience of faith. What's the obedience of faith?
It's not just a question of having it up in your head.
And we're not here to expound on prophecy to.
So everybody just can know it in their heads.
I think probably that's not the biggest obstacle in our lives.
Now in some places where I travel, it may be.
They don't have the Bible. They haven't had parents that read them the Bible from their youth up.
They haven't been taught to sing. Read your Bible, pray every day.
They don't know, and it's a privilege to make some of these things known to them. It's a real joy to see faces light up when a when a truth gets hold of their soul and they see it.
But that's not enough.
The obedience of faith. It's a question of obedience.
It's a question of submitting to God and His plan.
Just like with the trampoline.
We think we know.
We presuppose things.
Without consulting with the Lord.
We have to backtrack. I do it all the time. I can tell you a lot of other stories, how often we start out on some project, good intentions.
And then we get down the road and the Lord has a way of teaching us and He is so patient. It's wonderful to have such a Savior.
That the obedience of faith.
It's a question, dear young people, of submission.
Now we've had.
Harp status a little bit. No, that's not the way to put it. We've had spoken to us some of the rules and regulation of the camp here.
And.
We need it, young people.
Why? Because it's the way to blessing. It's the way we can function together here and everybody be blessed.
And so.
When we go over these things over and over again.
Be patient with these young people and don't think that we learned it any other way.
No, we've all made mistakes and that's probably why I'm up here speaking on this subject, because the Lord is impressed on me. How often?
I do not consult with my God.
The obedience of faith. When we get saved, how do we get saved? Owning Jesus as Lord. If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thy heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
We like the part about being saved.
Sometimes we have hang ups with the part about owning him as Lord.
What the obedience of faith is about submitting. God has this plan and He's not going to change it for you and me.
We don't make God accommodate to our desires. We must commendate to God's desires. Is that bad? No, it's good because God has the best desires, the best plan. He formed a back in eternity, and the wonderful thing is that He brought man into it, not angels.
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A lot of times we think, I remember thinking when I was a young person, a little kid who would be nice to be an Angel. I could fly through the air and do all kinds of things. I'm glad now that God didn't make me an Angel.
Or any other creature.
It's a wonderful thing to be a man or a woman because the Lord Jesus became one.
If I look back to my first parents and read this story about Adam and Eve and a lot of the other ancestors of we all have.
Sometimes I'd be ashamed to be a human being.
And I read the paper and I'm ashamed to be a human being.
When I see what humans do, you don't see animals going out and doing those things.
And if angels ever did them, they would be locked up for eternity in the abyss.
Why is God so patient? Why has God chosen us?
Because he's gone.
And that's the way he wanted it.
Now there's one other key verse that I want to read, and then we'll leave the Raspberry tomorrow. Ephesians chapter one.
Verse 9.
Having made known unto us the mystery of His will.
According to the good pleasure which he purposed in himself, this is God.
That in the dispensation of the fullness of time, He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth, even in him. This verse sums it all up, the purpose of God together all in one in Christ Jesus.
That's why God made this plan. He wanted the Lord Jesus to be the preeminent 1.
To be the one that would gather it all together, bring it into shape, put the Rubik's Cube back together again.
And he's going to do it.
Let's go along with him.
And enjoy God's way and be a part of it.
Because if it's not for blessing, it will be in testimony to the power of God to judge, Ben said. Every, every soul of man is a testimony to God in one of two ways, either that the power of God to save or the power of God to judge.
The obedience of faith brings us into the blessing any other path.
Power to judge.
Shall we pray?
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God's Counsels & Purposes #2: Ephesians 1

Address—Doug Buchanan
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.
I'd like to continue.
Our thoughts this morning on the Councils of God.
One of the verses we quoted yesterday morning.
Counsel in the heart of man is like deep water.
But a man of understanding will draw it out.
We'd like to draw out from that Council.
I'd like to encourage all of you. These meetings are only just helps introductions.
Little pointers here and there, we're not going to be able to touch the surface.
For the thoughts of God towards us.
And I particularly had it on my heart to speak on this because young people, I think we need to realize that it isn't just exhortation.
Admonishings.
Rules and regulations that make us become better Christians.
There's a verse in Psalm 10 that says They that know thy name will put their trust in thee. Do you really know God?
Does my heart really know God?
The more we get acquainted with him, the more it will make us.
Like him?
Like he wants us to be.
So we must make that decision.
What do you want to be?
What do you want to do with your life?
Who do you want to follow? Who's going to be your Lord?
Is it the Lord Jesus I trust so?
We're here for that purpose.
Learning to follow him.
Become disciples.
It's a lifelong process.
Learning to know him unsearchable riches there are.
And I believe it's the more we get acquainted with him.
Our lives will be more like him, more pleasing to God, more beneficial to ourselves, to our neighbors, those about us.
Even more beneficial for all of us here at Lesson Today.
Now yesterday we went back and we started from Genesis.
Little the plan of God.
There's one verse I didn't touch on in the first chapter of Genesis.
Remember when God made the world, He said, let there be light, there was light.
And he said, let there be a dry firmament, and there was.
But when it came to making man.
It says.
And God said, let us make man in our image and our likeness. Let us.
I believe that's the first time in the Bible we have.
A council meeting.
Of God.
Why does there? Why is there that different?
Oh, it's a privilege to be a human being.
Because God set his affections on humans.
He put us in a special place, and before he made us, He took special counsel with the Godhead himself. The Trinity was there.
That's how it all started.
Special objects.
You know, sometimes.
And some of you sitting near the back will forgive me. You know, sometimes we notice in as young people grow up, special needs.
Sometimes we see hearts crying out for little attention and it shows itself in different ways.
One of the peculiar ways that it shows out sometimes is a little foolishness and a little naughtiness in public to become noticed.
Well, I don't really think that's the right way to get attention, but I think God does notice it.
And I think he's made provision for us.
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There's better ways to get it, and I hope we learn to grow up.
And I hope that as we go on through life, we become more familiar with God's purpose, a blessing for us.
God said let us make man.
You can think about that as yourself. We all can. God thought about us, and He took counsel.
We traced it through Indiana brief how that Adam and Eve sinned.
It looked like they spoiled the whole creation, the first creation of God, but it wasn't. God knew beforehand what was going to happen.
He knew he was going to send the Lord Jesus.
He knew the Lord Jesus was going to have to come down here and die. The Lord himself told his disciples that over and over. That was planned way back in eternity.
Things are never out of control with God when he let something happen.
There's a reason for him letting it happen, even when he turned Satan loose to tempt us and to test us.
There's a reason probably that we have to unlearn something.
First, before we can learn what God wants to teach us.
So this learning process is an unlearning process too, because we have that old nature.
The Lord Jesus came down to give us life, and we noticed that it was only then.
That God could really come out in the open and declare plainly to us all of those councils that he had way back in eternity.
We noticed also from Corinthians how that in the end, after the Lord Jesus has finished 1000 years of rain.
And when he has put into subjection all power and authority, and everything is put back into His perfect original state, the Lord Jesus is going to give it all back to God. And there's going to be a man there that turns it all back to him in perfection, just like it was, or even better.
Than it was when God made it the beginning.
That's the whole span of time that we've talked about.
Now today I'd like to dwell a little bit more on the part that applies to us, and this time here we're in.
I'd like to pick up again with Ephesians one where we left off and we'll read part of chapter one of Ephesians verse 3.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ.
According as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world.
That we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of his will.
To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the Beloved.
In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins.
According to the riches of His grace, wherein He hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence, having made known unto us the mystery of His will, according to the good pleasure which He hath purposed in Himself, that in the dispensation of the fullness of times.
He might gather together in one all things in Christ.
Both which are in heaven and which are on earth, even in Him.
Whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of Him who worketh all things, after the counsel of His own will, that we should be to the praise of His glory. Who first trusted in Christ, in whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth.
The gospel of your salvation.
In whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance, until the redemption of the purchased possession unto the praise of His glory.
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That'd be far enough unto the praise of his glory.
Is that what we want to be?
There are two men in the Bible. The 1St man we read about him.
Yesterday, Adam Eve.
We read about how they fell. They lost their position.
They lost their control.
Of the first creation.
You ever wonder why there's wild animals out there?
We lost it way back there.
Why is there sin in the world? We lost control.
Why are there sicknesses, infirmities, problems in the environment?
We surrendered it up to Satan. He got the upper hand back then.
He took it away from us. He robbed it from Eve. He stole it.
Nobody.
That is not overcoming. Satan is in free control of their life. There's no such thing as a free moral agent as long as Satan is running around in this world having the upper hand.
The Lord Jesus wants to undo that. He's going to undo it.
That's sure. The counsels of God are sure.
If you want to be on the winning side, you better get on his side.
You better follow his rules.
But they're more than rules.
There are councils and purposes of blessing.
You know the angels up in heaven are looking down at us here in this morning. They were looking last night when the gospel was preached.
I imagine they were shaking their heads. There were any fools here?
That weren't taking up the offer of salvation before it's too late.
Because never have they had that presented to them, I can imagine.
They would long for a second chance.
But they'll never get it.
You and I do.
Let's not spoil it. Let's not depart.
From God's counsel, purpose of blessing.
Well, here the apostle Paul.
He said, I have not shunned to declare unto you all the councils of God. That verse tells us that Paul was the last instrument that God would use.
In unfolding his counsels, and it's largely through the apostle Paul in the New Testament that we have the counsels of God, the purposes of God, the ways of God, the church, the rapture.
Much of the doctrine that we hold dear is through the Apostle Paul.
Special special messenger chosen for that.
He wasn't any better than anybody else. In fact, he was worse, and that's the reason God chose him.
So if there's anybody here that thinks that maybe they're not good enough, or maybe they've caused too many problems or already spoiled their reputation here at Lassen Pines or in their own home assembly, or maybe even in your own home.
Remember, God loves you.
He likes to take that kind of person and change him and make him like the Lord Jesus.
And all of us here that are saved, that's what we are. That's what we were.
It's a wonderful thing to be blessed in that way. Paul wrote this and he knew what he was talking about. Calls himself the chief of sinners. How marvelous, he writes here. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who have blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ.
With all spiritual blessings, there isn't anything that God is holding back from you of blessing this morning.
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Why? Because the Lord Jesus has opened up the doors so that God can even pour out blessing to the ungodly. Because it's no longer on the basis of our own goodness, it's on the basis of God's grace.
And it glorifies God to accept that.
To take your place as a lost Sinner.
Recognize the Lord Jesus died for you. You washed your sins away.
There's joy in heaven over every Sinner that repents.
Because God loves such. He loves you and he loves me.
And not only does He love us, He wants us to bring. He wants to bring us all into the goodness of this blessing.
Oh, and if our souls could only get ahold of this.
That's what transforms lives.
We heard some remarkable stories these last few days of how lives were transformed.
Augustine way back years, years, hundreds of years ago.
Transform Paul here another one. There have been cases today. I've seen it over and over again.
And I could tell you lots of stories, but we don't have a lot of time here, so we're not going to digress too much on the stories this morning.
Now it says with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places, the verses that we ended up with last yesterday where versus 10.
9/10/11 I'd just like to drop down to them for a moment.
Speak about the heavenly blessings, because in those two, those verses we have.
Parts.
Of the purposes of God.
Enjoying all things in Christ, in heaven and on earth.
Now I'd like to go back and connect that with what we were saying about Eve and about Exodus, about paying double.
I believe the Lord Jesus has come down and he's paid the price.
And he's paid it double. Not only has the Lord Jesus come back to restore this first creation, all that Adam and Eve spoiled and we continue to spoil by following the evil path from time to time.
Not only is the Lord Jesus going to set all that back in order in the Millennium, there's no there's going to be no such thing as an open rebellion in the Millennium. There'll be secrets in yes, but the minute it manifests itself, or the day it manifests itself, the Lord will judge it.
So there will be sin, but it won't be allowed.
Then he's going to put it all in this right place. That's the first creation, all that we look about here.
Men talk about the problems, ecology, the environment and so on. I think a lot of it is forgetting that the Lord Jesus is the one that's really going to put it back in its right order.
The earth has to do with this earth, what he has given to us now to live in, to dwell. But the Lord Jesus is also His thoughts go back, go farther than man's. As the heavens are higher above the earth, so are God's ways higher than our ways.
When man spoils it down here, and when they rejected the Lord Jesus down here, the Lord Jesus said that God said to the Lord, then all right, they won't have you down here, I'll take you up in heaven.
When the Lord Jesus goes back into heaven.
And John 17 before he goes back.
He prays for you and me. He prayed for those disciples there, and included you and me, and all the rest of his own. And he says, Father, I will, that though they whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am.
Has that ever entered into your soul? What the meaning of that is the effect?
That's our title to heaven. That's the only way we get there ever, because the Lord Jesus wanted us there. And that brings in and introduces the second heart paying double.
Returning double to God not only here on earth, but heaven.
We've got it best in both worlds, young people, this life, the life to come in heaven. This is our proper portion. This is what God has chosen us for. This is what this dispensation, this time period that we're living in is about. The special purpose of God right now is not to populate the earth to make it a better place to live.
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Oh we shouldn't spoil it. I don't think it's proper to go out and abuse the creation.
I think we need to respect God's right and order that He established in all things of our human relationship too. They still in effect, God instituted marriage and we ought to respect it. All these things are part of the first creation.
There's not going to be marriage in heaven, but there's going to be the marriage of the lamb, something higher and better.
We learn to understand it through the family relationships. Little children learn what love is from their parents. That's usually the 1St place. It's one of the first things we need to teach our children, among many others.
But God's thoughts now.
Are to bless us with spiritual blessings in heavenly places.
He wants us to lay hold of that and I believe young people, that particular attack of the enemy is to destroy that.
Satan is intelligent enough to know where to attack.
The special thing that God is doing now here on earth in the proclamation of the gospel and calling sinners, and into fill God's house in heaven, is to fill heaven.
Take poor human beings, make them acceptable to God.
Present them to him.
The world doesn't see this going on. It's not apparent what's going on.
That souls are being taken out of the first creation, born again.
With a new life, the same life they're going to have in heaven.
That already can enjoy these things of God.
And.
They don't notice that the Lord is filling heaven with converts right now.
They don't notice the Kingdom of Heaven, but it's being formed now.
And Lord willing, we'll talk more about that tomorrow.
Verse four. According as He hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love.
You see, this wasn't a second thought with God, His purpose of blessing to you and me. It wasn't that God walked along and all of a sudden, here, late on the history of the earth, He noticed the poor downcast person that was.
In sin and need. And he said, Oh well, I'll I'll show him some kindness.
No.
We might feel a little disappointed if that were just it, but God had this plan and purpose before He laid the foundations of the world. That is, He made all with this in view.
You have a little picture of it perhaps, and Adam and Eve just come to me now. Eve was made for Adam, not Adam 3.
And that order continues on today. And there's a reason.
It fits in with God's plan.
God made us.
Or rather, I should say God made all of the creation for.
It says by Him and for him, and I believe when it includes Him, it includes all of the Lord's people.
And it's wonderful to look on the creation and go out and enjoy the stars and the scenery.
Climb up the mountain, play the games and all.
Recognizing that God made all these things just for us.
For the Lord Jesus and all his people.
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So he chose us in Him, in Christ, before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame, holy as to nature and without blame as to character.
Are we that?
Well, we well know that oftentimes we don't act that way, do we? But in Christ, that's how we are seeing.
That's the only way God will ever view us.
And it's only that which we do and act in our lives that is for Him that'll ever pass on into the new creation. That's where the judgment seat of Christ comes into play. That's where you have the big, the big fire that takes care of all the rubbish.
Be thankful to get rid of all that rubbish them.
But here we have the position that God sees us in.
It's wonderful to understand, It's very important to understand young people, the difference between our state and standing.
This this verse is talking about our standing.
God could never accept us in heaven on any other basis than our standing in Christ. That never changes.
Our state, our personal appreciation of these things.
It goes up and down. One day we may be real, spiritual and living close to the Lord.
Another day we may be way down.
God doesn't accept us on that basis. We never get to heaven on that basis.
We need to keep that.
That condition right up there where God sees us, and when we do that, then we are enjoying the things of the Lord.
Verse 5 having predestinated us.
Unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will.
Predestination. Telling beforehand, deciding the destiny beforehand.
Oh, it's a wonderful thing to look back over the the door of salvation when you walk through, when you take the Lord Jesus as your Savior and look back and say he had me all marked out and chosen beforehand.
Wonderful thing there's anybody that's insecure about their salvation.
Oh, this is what gives security, recognizing that the Lord Jesus died on Calvary's cross and that God, not only has he saved me, but he had me marked out ahead of time, purpose for this particular cause. And he's the one that brought about the right circumstances, brought the gospel to us. He's the one that touched our hearts and changed us.
Because he wanted us for the adoption of sons.
You know the story, you know the parable about the the marriage feast and the invitation the wedding sent out so often beautifully used in the Gospel. And they despised the messengers of the invited to the marriage. One of my favorite things to go to is a happy wedding. All of us enjoy that. It's one of the most happy times of anyone, naturally, the happiest time of anyone's life probably.
It's nice to participate in it, something that all the young ladies look forward to.
In the will of God, and God gives us those earthly relationships.
I believe to help us to understand the heavenly side. What do we know about heaven?
Mostly it's just by comparison. We know things. What are there? There are two wonderful Paul said. He couldn't describe it, but we understand it through our earthly relationships.
Christ in the Church.
The marriage relationship.
It's wonderful and so forth, Children of God, where everybody here is a children, a child of a parent.
We know what that is.
God is our Father.
The Lord Jesus is his Son. We are maiden sons. We are brought into this family relationship. The Father's house is called and John into the Father's house. I believe that's a near and dear relationship, a place then reigning over the earth during the Millennium. That'll be wonderful.
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But I believe there's something even more sublime, blessed, than that.
Sunship the adoption of sun Whenever scripture speaks about adoption, it speaks about.
Choice. All adopted children are chosen. None of my children were chosen in that sense. They were all born.
Children that are born into a family have the same life and nature as their parents. Children that are adopted have a different nature. They're different parents, but they are chosen and so they have a special place that has sent. The person born does not have. By the grace of God, we are both.
We are chosen here in Ephesians, in other places.
It speaks about being born again into the family of God. John the epistle of John example. So we have both.
In the spiritual sense.
Having predestinated us under the adoption of children, by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace.
You know, naturally we like to have the praise centered around ourselves, don't we? I remember speaking to one young man about the the gospel.
He wasn't saved.
He didn't really want to hear about it too much.
And he lifted up his arms and he had nice flexes here on these biceps and he said if I get to heaven, it's going to be by my strength.
That isn't to the praise of his glory. There's not going to be anybody in heaven that's up there flexing their arms and their legs and say, and I did it.
No, forget it. Oh, there's a place for for that.
Here on earth, but not in heaven.
The Lord Jesus.
Is the way.
And he's going to have all the praise there.
And if we're not willing to submit that to him?
Forget it.
It's too late not forget it in the sense that I want you to, but forget it in the sense there's no other way. There's no other way. There is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. People of the Oriental, the Eastern religions rationalize and they look at it as bigoted, the Christian faith.
To say salvation is only through one person.
How exclusive can you get, they say.
Now granted, it is very exclusive. It's all exclusive.
God didn't say that till after testing man for 4000 years.
And do you think that after sending the Lord Jesus, who lived a perfect life here on earth, never told a lie, never disobeyed?
And they took him and crucified him. Nail them to a cross.
Said away with him. We will not have this man to reign over us.
Do you think God really needs another test to see if there's any other way?
No, there's no other way.
Is it wrong after all that that the Lord Jesus be the only one be ahead of the new creation?
Oh, On the contrary, we'll bow and worship. We'll cast our crowns at his feet when we're there.
Because he is worthy.
To the praise of the glory of His grace.
Oh, we'll be thankful then. We're thankful now to be to the praise of the glory of His grace.
And I believe that oftentimes even the unbelievers out in the world.
They look on the Christians and they notice, yes.
They have something worthy.
And following the Lord Jesus. But there's a problem with their wills.
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And usually that is our biggest hang up in these things of God, our wills.
That's why repentance is necessary. Repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.
You know, repentance doesn't really save us as to get into getting favor to God. It isn't really any asset. It's only the work of Christ on Calvary's cross, the benefits us. But repentance is necessary because we got to turn around before we'll even look at God, even look at God's plan of salvation, accept it because naturally we won't have it. We like our own way.
Verse seven, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.
According to the riches of his grace.
Redemption.
The price has been fully paid to buy us back to God. That's what redemption is. There's two thoughts and redemption, I believe, setting free and buying back. And that's what God has done. He's brought us back.
Brought us into relationship with him again. You see the.
Distance was so great after the fall of man, there wasn't even yet a common ground where they both could get together.
Kind of reminds me like the peace talks over in the Mideast. Oftentimes they can't even agree on a country to meet to try to talk.
But the Lord Jesus has laid aground where you can stand and start dealing with your God. That's where the blood has been shed.
And those that stand on redemption's ground.
The blood covers and shelters their sins.
Verse 8. Wherein He hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence, having made known unto us the mystery of His will, according to the good pleasure which he hath purposed in Himself. That in the dispensation of the fullness of times, He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth even in Him. There we have the two parts.
Heaven and earth and it's all going to be brought into.
Relationship with Him and Lord willing, tomorrow we will look on to more particularly the part that applies to us, the Kingdom of heaven.
Well, our time is up, I believe. Let's close with prayer.
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God's Counsels & Purposes #3: The Kingdom of Heaven

Address—Doug Buchanan
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.
We wait for thee, O Son of God, and long for thy appearing. A little while they'll come, O Lord, thy waiting people cheering.
Thus hast thou said, We lift the head in joyful expectation, for thou wilt bring salvation.
We wait for the content to share and patience days of trial.
So meekly thou the Cross did spare our sin, reproach, denial. How should not we receive with thee the cup of shame and sorrow, until the promised Mars 325.
I'd like to continue again today the Councils of God.
Yesterday we went over in brief the 1St chapter of Ephesians, where you have unfolded there the purposes of God gathering together in one all things both which are in heaven and in earth.
And we mentioned about the difference. There is an earthly side to the Kingdom. There is a heavenly side. The heavenly side was not made known in the past. It was a mystery kept secret from the beginning of the foundations of the world.
Now it's revealed and this is what we want to inquire into to search out.
The councils of God, then the purpose blessing intended for each one of us.
Today I'd like to pick up one more verse in the first chapter of Ephesians before we go on to consider some of the aspect of the Kingdom of heaven, the heavenly side. So if we could just turn back to Ephesians one again and read verse 12 That we should be to the praise of his glory.
Who first trusted in Christ?
In whom ye also trusted, after they ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation.
In whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise.
Which is the earnest of our inheritance, until the redemption of the purchased possession under the praise of His glory.
I'd like to call extension to this expression those who first trusted in Christ or I believe the new translation says the pre trusters or those who pre trusted.
Because I believe that is helpful in understanding the characteristic of.
The Kingdom of which we enter into.
The Kingdom of God, The Kingdom of Heaven.
The gospel is preached, and God is calling sinners here on earth to enter into His Kingdom.
The Kingdom hasn't been manifested yet.
It's going to be manifested. We're waiting for its manifestation.
And when the Lord Jesus come back, comes back and manifests himself before the world and power and glory, he's going to have a people with him.
And that's what the Lord is doing today. He's filling those ranks for heaven.
When he comes back, it will be too late to enter into the Kingdom.
The door will be shut, just like the parable of the 10 virgins.
When the bridegroom came, those that didn't have oil in their lamps.
Were locked out.
They knocked on the door. Lord, Lord opened to us. They were professors. Oh, May God spare anybody here from that. But the children of those who have heard the gospel are those probably that are going to be knocking on the outside.
So it's a serious, it's a vital issue here, young people to enter into the Kingdom.
There is a Kingdom being formed, the Kingdom of Heaven.
Here it's called those the pre trusters.
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You trust before the Kingdom manifests itself.
You trust while the king is gone.
Into heaven.
They rejected Him here on earth. He would have formed His Kingdom here on earth had the Jews received him. But they rejected him. The Lord Jesus wasn't going to force the issue at that time. No, God knew that ahead of time. This was all part of His counsels and purposes.
He knew that they wouldn't reject him here on earth, and so he had the plan all worked out. He was going to fill Heaven first.
That's our portion, beloved. That's where we have the privilege of coming into blessing.
Entering into and participating in the heavenly side of the Kingdom.
When it manifests itself, yes, there will be Jews and there will be the nations here on earth.
And he's going to separate them as the sheep and the goats and on the left and the right. And those that are on his left are going to be cast into outer darkness. And those on his right, they're going to enter into the earthly Kingdom. They're going to live here on earth and under his reign participate. And all the promises that were made in the Old Testament are going to be fulfilled to the Jews.
But that's postponed now, as it were, because the Lord has a higher motive. And as we mentioned, the double portion, the paying double, the Lord Jesus is first of all filling heaven. And so I'd like to turn for a few verses in First Corinthians 15.
Just to to show the contrast between these two again.
First Corinthians chapter 15 verse.
45.
And so it is written, the 1St man Adam was made a living soul, The last Adam was made a quickening spirit, albeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural afterward that which is spiritual. The 1St man is of the earth, earthy. The 2nd man is the Lord from heaven, as is the earthly. Such are they also that are earthy.
And as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly.
And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly. Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God, neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.
Here you have the two men, Adam and Christ contrasted, both of them the beginning of a new creation, a new race.
All of us partake of the first creation or children of Adam.
I trust most partake of the 2nd.
The heavenly, the man that came down from heaven, the Lord Jesus born into his Kingdom, into his family to participate with Christ the One, the 1St man that rose from the dead. He was the first fruits we're to follow afterwards when the Lord comes and he's going to call all his redeemed ones home to heaven to be with him, and then he's going to come back and reign.
Only the pre trusters will be called when the Lord when the shout.
Goes out.
Arise, my beloved. Come up. Hit her.
If that would happen at this moment.
How solemn to think if there was an there was a chair that still had somebody sitting in it. It could happen today, beloved. Momentarily, it could happen.
How wonderful for those that are saved, how wonderful for those who have entered into the Kingdom.
Oh, there's a struggle going on.
The Kingdom of heaven, the Kingdom of God, suffereth violence.
There's a struggle going on.
There's an enemy that would hinder us from entering into this Kingdom.
Not just in being saved, but in possessing the Kingdom to its full extent and really going into it, you know, I like to see it.
When the when we play the games.
That we.
Don't half heartedly play the games.
Now I know that's not the we've had some wonderful messages about how that sports.
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That's not the end, it's only a means.
And our time together here, the fellowship, even it's not the 1St and most important thing. But I don't believe I on the other hand, that we should neglect these things. And but I think that we should do it heartily as unto the Lord. Just because we can't do it to win, or just because we can't do it because we think we're the best, doesn't mean we have to do it half heartedly.
No, On the contrary, for the glory of God we do it, whatever it is.
If we can't do it for that reason, we probably ought not to be doing it, whether it's preaching the gospel or playing a game or helping someone.
All these things, dear young people, are possessing the Kingdom.
Sending our treasures ahead, as it were, and they'll be given back to us then in the eternal Kingdom, because we know all that's here on earth is going to pass away.
But the Lord Jesus died and he rose again, and he's given us of that new life, and that life is never going to die. It's going to go on. It's going to inherit the Kingdom. But what we've done in the body, Corinthians speaks about it as being put to our account there.
And so we won't be losers.
If we do all unto the Lord, if we do it for our King, the Lord Jesus in heaven, he's gone there. He's gone ahead of us, but he's coming back in the meanwhile.
We're as it were, as as John says, in the Kingdom and patience of our Lord Jesus Christ. John the Apostle was on the Isle of apartment when he wrote that.
Suffering and in affliction in bonds.
Because that truth was opposed by the enemy and it wanted to blot it out, but God has not allowed it to be blotted out.
And heaven is going to be full, it says. Every seat in heaven is going to be filled.
And when the last soul is called in, I don't believe the Lord is going to tarry long. I expect the rapture to happen immediately.
Now we bear the image of the earthy. We have our human bodies, our natural bodies. We don't yet have our spiritual bodies, but we have the life now. We possess that now, and we can carry it out, and we press into the Kingdom.
Says flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God. That is, you can't get a hold of this by natural means. Nothing of the first man or what he has done is ever going to help us get into the Kingdom of God.
All our human intelligence, all our physical energy, nothing of the 1St man.
Oh, the 1St man still has his place.
And we need to respect it and use it properly, not to have used our bodies. The our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit. That's what we have there in Ephesians than the last verse, the earnest of our inheritance. God gave his Spirit to dwell within us as a guarantee of what's yet to come.
And so by the Spirit we can cry. ABBA Father, we know it. When we're saved, we have that relationship formed with our Heavenly Father.
But it is a struggle. Young people, these two natures, these two kingdoms, the earthly and the heavenly, the natural and the spiritual, we all know what that's about, those of us who are saved.
And that's not going to end until the Lord comes. But we have the guarantee.
How it's going to end. So we need not be fearful of that part, but there is such a thing as pressing into it wholeheartedly.
Now I'd like to turn back to Matthew's Gospel.
We might notice a verse in chapter 12 first.
Verse 48 We have the Lord Jesus here speaking to the multitude and his disciples there.
They had they had called the Lord and said his brethren, his mother, and his brethren were wanting to speak with him. He answers in verse 48.
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He answered and said unto him, and told him, Who is my mother, and who is my brethren?
And he stretched forth his hand toward his disciples, and said, Behold, my mother and my brethren, For whosoever shall do the will of my father, which is in heaven, the same is my brother and sister and mother.
You see here the Lord Jesus was in that time of transition when the earthly side of the Kingdom was about to.
Become a disaster when he was about to be rejected.
He was already beginning to introduce the new because he knew that.
And so he said, he's telling them who his real brethren are, those that hear the word of God and do it, those that follow him, those that are going, are born again, are going to enter into the new Kingdom, the heavenly Kingdom. He was already making preparations for that.
And following in chapter 13, which we want to go over and brief we have.
The Parables The seven parables. The 1St 7 parables of the Kingdom of Heaven.
And this is what I'd like to go over in brief this morning because they give us a view of this Kingdom and how it's being formed, how you get in.
How you really take advantage?
Of your position and bear much fruit. We want to be fruitful Christians, but we don't want our fruit just here on earth. If it was just an earthly fruit we had, what would happen to it? It would be destroyed when the earth is destroyed.
Oh, there will be those that enter into it and possess it, but it's not the calling of the people of God today. And you have to see the difference between these two kingdoms, the earthly and the heavenly, to really understand your Bible. Or, right. And there's so many Christians that confuse this. They go back to the Old Testament and apply it as if we were Jews.
In the Old Testament, by and large was written to the Jews.
And for the earthly side of the Kingdom.
That's why in in Thessalonians, after the Lord speaks about the rapture, when the Apostle Paul had been given the revelation about the rapture, the Lord descending and calling his own home into his heavenly Kingdom.
The first verse of chapter 5 says, But of the times and season. You have no need that I read unto you, for you know. And he goes on and describes how they knew the description of the earthly Kingdom. The Old Testament is full of it promises.
Would be nice to go back and look at some of those.
Well, maybe we might just and we'll just hope we have time in Zechariah just just just so you'll have a, a scripture to to refer to as.
What the earthly Kingdom is?
Zechariah, Chapter 14.
Verse one.
Behold, the day of the Lord cometh, and thy sport in the midst of the.
I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle, and the city shall be taken, and the house is rifled, and the women ravished, and half of the city shall go forth into captivity, and the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city. Then shall the Lord go forth and fight against those nations as when He fought in the day of battle, and then he speaks of standing on the Mount of Olives.
Will drop down verse 6 and it shall come to pass in that day.
That the light shall not be clear nor dark, but it shall be one day which shall be known to the Lord, not day nor night, but it shall come to pass that at even time it shall be light, and it shall be in that day that living water shall go out from Jerusalem. Half of them toward the former sea, and half of them toward the hinder sea. In summer and winter shall it be, and the Lord shall be king over all the earth.
In that day shall there be 1 Lord?
And his name won.
Well, these verses in brief give us a little picture of the introduction to the earthly Kingdom, when the Lord is going to come back down to the Mount of Olives and set up His Kingdom here on earth.
And there are going to be a people on earth.
But I don't want to dwell on this because we don't have time and.
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I think it's more important that we speak about what really directly relates to us.
And our entrance into the Kingdom, though we will come back with the Lord, we will be with Him when he comes back to reign on the earth, and there will be a relationship there in both the heavenly and the earthly.
Now let's return back to Matthews Gospel.
Chapter 13.
I'm not going to read this whole chapter, but we will pick out certain parts of it.
I want to begin with verse 10A. Touch a few points.
And the disciples came and said unto him, Why speakest thou unto them in parables?
He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries.
Of the Kingdom of heaven. But to them it is not given. For whosoever hath to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance.
But whosoever hath not from him shall be taken away, even that he hath therefore speak I to them in parables, because that seeing they seeing see not, and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand.
Verse 16 But blessed are your eyes for they see, and your ears for they hear.
For verily I say unto you, that many prophets and righteous men have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them, and to hear those things which ye hear and have not heard them.
That refers back to the Old Testament Saints that didn't even understand their own writings, and there were little glimpses of the Kingdom and the heavenly side too, and they didn't understand it all.
But he's speaking a part to his own disciples, those who were genuine, He said. But ye see, and I trust that's true of us here. We are those who have the anointed eye. We have been born again, and we have eyes to see and understand, because these things are not perceived by the natural man, neither does the natural man.
Enter in inherit the Kingdom of heaven or the Kingdom of God.
These verses seemed a bit strange to me. For a long time I couldn't understand. Does it? Does the Lord not want people to understand? Why is this?
Well, I'll explain it this way.
You see, the Lord was about to be rejected.
It was the earthly people that rejected him.
And he was about to introduce.
The new Kingdom.
And.
The Lord informing that new Kingdom could not.
Openly form it.
Strictly by the earthly relationship that he had had with them.
Just like he had denied his mother and his brethren, and said, Who is my mother and my brethren? He that doeth the will of God, heareth the will of God, heareth the word of God and doeth it. Those are the ones that submit to his position as King.
And if you haven't submitted to the Lord as your King, you will not understand.
These points you will not understand this. It will not enter into your soul. You cannot.
You can read the parable, but it won't make sense to you.
Those of us who have been born again by the new nature, yes, we can enter into, understand, and we need to feed that new nature. We need to grow in it. We need to understand our position in order to walk as good Christians here on earth in order to represent our King. Why? We'll still hear because the King is not here. He's gone into heaven. He's left us here to represent him.
That's why we preach the gospel.
We don't preach a gospel to make the world a better place to live. We don't preach the gospel to tell people to turn over a new leaf and live better.
No, we we preach repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. Entrance into the Kingdom of God.
The Kingdom of God does not meet and drink. That is earthly satisfactions. Strictly it's righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost.
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So for us is the unfolding.
Of the Kingdom of Heaven. Now what is the Kingdom of Heaven?
The Kingdom of God is also used in Luke and I believe they are nearly synonymous terms, the Kingdom of God being more the moral aspect but of the same people.
By and large, the Kingdom of heaven, that gives us to think of the position where it is. It's heavenly, not earthly. And that's what you have here in Matthew, because Matthew was the Gospel written to, particularly to the Jews.
The Messiah, and so it introduces, in contrast to the earthly, the heavenly.
And here in this chapter 13 of Matthew, we have first of all the parable of the sword, which is the formation of the Kingdom. The Lord Jesus had come down from heaven and he started sowing the seed, the good seed, the word of God. And it's by receiving that seed into our hearts that we're born again. We enter into and become a part of the Kingdom.
We'll notice that.
In its wide extent it includes also all those who profess who make a profession of faith in the Lord Jesus. And so in its widest extended it includes a lot of them. The Americas and the Christian lands by and large are the Kingdom of heaven here on earth. And it's interesting that other nations that are non Christian recognize us as.
Christian lands and they recognize that Jesus Christ.
Was the author of this? But they see a lot of confusion, don't they?
In the divided state of it and all the misrepresentation that exists.
Of what the King is really like. You could hardly come to a conclusion by observing publicly what the Kingdom looks like to know what Christ is really like, could you? It so failed.
But there is a genuine part of it, and we'll notice that in this chapter. And so we have the seven similitudes or likenesses of what the Kingdom is like, what it really is, and we'd like to go over these in brief.
1St we have the Lord Jesus as the sower. He sows the seed, and it falls some in by the wayside, some on thorny ground, and so forth, And only that which is fallen onto the good ground really brings forth fruit, although there is appearance of bringing forth fruit with nearly all of it until it dies or is trampled and so forth.
Birds of the air catch the seed sometimes.
And that's what often happens when the preaching of the gospel.
The enemy, it works, you know, during a gospel meeting. And he will distract us.
Even a little fly can come along and bother us and get our minds off of it, of the solemnity of the what is being spoken of.
All these things are distractions that the enemy brings along so that the seed will not bear fruit. But God's desire is fruit for him, fruit for Christ, many crowns and glory in in the Kingdom when the Lord is manifested, and all those things that are done for the Lord Jesus now.
Will be put to his account then, and it will bring glory and honor through the Lord Jesus.
For every scene of God who is there and has done something even to a cup of cold water, it says in His name will not lose its reward, and the Lord Jesus will receive the praise and glory for it. Then that's why we don't go to pains about getting praise and thanks here on earth now.
The Lord observed the scribes and Pharisees and that looked for that, and he said, verily they have their reward. That is right now they got it, but will they have it in heaven?
Only if you're really born again.
That is pressing into the Kingdom. We need to press into it. It isn't a question of justice being saved, delivered from hell. Is that enough? Is that all we're looking for? Oh, no, no. We want to have an abundance entrance into the Kingdom. Everlasting abodes. Why? So we'll be important? No, because Christ will receive it there. If we got it all now, I'm afraid he wouldn't get the credit.
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That he deserved to receive.
So you have some bringing forth 3060 and 100 fold.
Now we'll go on to the second parable.
And verse beginning with verse 18.
No, it's in verse 24.
Perhaps we'll read this one another parable. Put he forth unto them, saying, The Kingdom of heaven.
Is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his field. But while men slept, the enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way. When the blade was sprung up and brought forth fruit, then appeared the tares also. So the servants of the householder came and said unto him, Sir, dost not thou? Didst not thou sow good seed in thy field? From whence then hath it tears? He said to them, and an enemy.
Done this the servant said unto him, Wilt thou then that we go and gather them up? But he said, Nay, lest while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest, and in the time of harvest I will send to the reapers. Gather ye first together, first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them. But gather the wheat into my barn.
Now in these.
Next three similitudes we have the Outward View.
What the Kingdom looks like It's what is apparent here on Earth while the Kingdom is being formed.
It isn't the view that God sees of it from heaven, the genuine aspect, but it's the profession aspect of the Kingdom, and that's what we see out in the Christianity Today.
A vast sphere, wheat and tares. Tares are are a weed that looks just like wheat and you can't tell it apart until it gets near the time when the head comes out the fruit.
And when the head comes out of the tares, it looks totally different. It's easy to recognize the difference, but by just looking at the blade, unless you're an expert, you can't tell the difference. And so that's what the likeness is here in the Kingdom of heaven. You look out here.
And it's difficult to tell who are the real Christians and who are the false ones.
Sometimes the false ones put on a better show than the real ones. We get fooled. How many of the disciples recognized Judas?
But the Lord knew him.
He knew it before he chose it.
Well, it isn't our place, thankfully.
To make that decision.
No, our part is to help in the sewing, to sow good seed. The enemy does the sowing of the bad seed, and it brings forth.
No fruit.
And so, thankfully, it's not our position in the Kingdom of Heaven.
To separate.
And pull out the tares. No, let them grow. That's what God said to do here. This is not talking about the Assembly of God, the one body, or the church. This is not talking about those at the Lord's table and the sanctification that we maintain there. That's a different subject. That's not the Kingdom aspect, at least as to the reception at the Lord's Table.
We don't. We could not defile the Lord's name to just because somebody makes a profession was good enough to break bread.
No, that's a total different subject. We got to put that aside for now. We're not considering that. We're looking at the Kingdom of heaven and the vast view that it appears like here on earth today. And that's what we see. Not too difficult to understand this, I don't believe.
That what that is, it's what's noticeable here is that the disciples, when they, when they heard the parable, their first inclination was to go out and pull out the terrors. But the Lord told them, no, that wasn't their place to do that. We learned later in the chapter that he's going to send the angels to do that. The angels in heaven, that's one of their their services and they will do that.
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It says they are gathered first of all in bundles to burn, but I believe that wheat is gathered into the greenery.
First the bundles are burned, afterwards other scriptures. Putting it all together, we understand that order.
So as we are in this Kingdom, yes, we each one must press into it, seek to bear fruit. And if you're just a tear here, if you're just a weed here, you need to be saved, you need to recognize the Lord Jesus in heaven.
He is Lord, He is coming back to take His Kingdom, His heavenly Kingdom. Fill heaven with it.
Now we're going on to the next parable.
The grain of mustard seed.
The least of all seats.
Its own ******* into a great tree, and the birds of the air come and lodge in it and build their nests there. Now this is another public view of what the Kingdom of Heaven is like. It wasn't God's intention that Christianity become a great big thing that is used for all different business religious purposes.
And every other imaginable purpose.
People like to attach.
For business promotional reasons, the name of.
The Lord to their thing, thinking that it will be beneficial for business purposes. That's not what God intended the Kingdom of heaven to become. It's grown into that, yes.
We learn later on what really God wanted or the Lord wanted. He wanted that Pearl, that treasure hid in the field. There was something genuine, yes, that he wanted, but to get it, he had to buy the whole field. And he did that.
So the Lord has the right and title of all creation. He has bought the whole field really.
He has right and title to it and he's going to take it one day. Doesn't mean that everybody because he's bought the whole field that everybody saved and that's in the field.
No.
Then we have.
The woman hiding.
In verse.
33 The woman hiding.
The leaven in the 33 measures of meal till the whole was 11.
The tree is the outward view of it, the external view of it.
The leaven is the internal corruption, the bad doctrines.
That are in Christianity Today that are leavening and ruining the true testimony or the Kingdom in its right testimony. And so you have these two differences here.
Work of the enemy doesn't mean there aren't genuine Christians.
And it doesn't mean that the Lord isn't going to have a people in heaven. He's going to have that.
Just because things are so confused today doesn't mean that he's not going to have a people.
Well, I see our time is about in the last three parables. We have the treasure hid in the field, the Pearl, and then the net cast into the sea.
Those are the last three are God's view, what God sees as genuine. And when God looks down on here on earth, he saw a treasure and the Lord Jesus came down to purchase that and he died to purchase it. He paid his precious blood. He bought the field to get not the field, the treasure. That's the Kingdom of heaven, the treasure.
Those are the ones that are going to be called up.
Do well with him there. The Pearl too. The last parable really the net cast into the sea. Sea brings out how the different how the separation process is going to take place.
Similar to the tares and the wheat. And the angels are going to do that. They're going to cast bad aside.
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And they're going to collect the good. And so only the true believers are going to be taken home.
To heaven, to dwell there. The rest are going to be all set aside and that's going to be the end of this age. After that will become the Millennium, and then the earthly side of the Kingdom will be introduced well.
That's in brief, a little resume of the Kingdom of heaven and are entering into it. May the Lord bless it. Shall we pray?
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God's Counsels & Purposes #4: Practical Considerations

Address—Doug Buchanan
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.
Come, thou fount of every blessing, tune my heart to sing Thy grace, streams of mercy, never ceasing call or ceaseless praise.
Oh, to grace, how great a debtor daily I'm constrained to be. Let that grace, Lord, like a fetter bind my wandering heart to thee, like to continue.
With the last five parables, the Kingdom of Heaven.
Because I believe we find something practical in the last five we've had before us. The councils of God, His thoughts back in eternity, How He has revealed His ways, His purpose to us so that we might know it, so that we might fit our lives in with His plan. Reap the blessing. Walk with God here on earth.
We've had.
How there are two parts?
In God's eternal plan, the earthly and the heavenly, and how in this day and age that we live, God is choosing a people out for himself to feel heaven. That's our lot, the most blessed part. But we're still here on earth, natural bodies, and we're living in the.
Time when you enter into the Kingdom of Heaven.
And you learn to possess it and make it your own. You learn to send your treasures ahead.
So that you will have them when Christ comes back.
And on these last five parables similitudes the Kingdom of Heaven.
I believe we will notice that we have.
Something about our attitude, forgiveness, something about work.
Something about dress or appearance.
And then in the fourth light bearing.
Or power of testimony.
And lastly, rewards.
So let's turn to Matthew 18.
We won't read all of these. I'm going to take it for granted that you have read.
These.
But I will read this first one.
Matthew chapter 18, verse 23.
Therefore is the Kingdom of heaven likened unto a certain king, which would take account of his servants. And when he had begun to reckon, one was brought unto him which owed him 10,000 talents. But for as much as he had not to pay, his Lord commanded him to be sold, and his wife and children, and all that he had, and payment to be made. The servant therefore fell down and worshiped him, saying, Lord, have patience with me.
And I will pay thee all. Then the Lord of that servant was moved with compassion.
And loosed him and forgave him the dead. But the same servant went out and found one of his fellow servants, which owed him an 100 pence.
And he laid hands on him, and took him by the throat, saying, Pay me that thou oweest.
And his fellow servant fell down at his feet, and besought him, saying, Have patience with me, and I will pay thee all. And he would not, but went and cast him into prison, till he should pay the debt. So in his fellow servants saw what was done, they were very sorry, and came and told unto their Lord all that was done.
Then his Lord after that he had called him, and said unto him.
Oh, thou wicked servant, I forgave thee all that debt, because thou desires me.
Shouldest not thou also have had compassion on thy fellow servant, even as I had pity on thee? And his Lord was wroth, and delivered him to the tormentors, till he should pay all that was due unto him. So likewise shall my heavenly Father do also unto you, if ye from your hearts forgive not everyone his brother.
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Their trespasses.
I believe we will notice as we go through these last five similitudes that in each one there's a common thread, a common theme, and that is grace, Mercy, love, grace to those who do not deserve it. That is what is particularly characteristic of the time that we live in.
We're living in the time when God has chosen to show blessing to mankind on the basis of grace. Not works, not doing, not meriting anything, but as in this case, this man was in a terrible predicament and hopeless predicament.
10,000 talents one time. I calculated it several years ago and it was over $1,000,000.
Maybe even over 2 by now. I haven't recalculated it. Tremendous debt. If he worked all his life time hard, he probably could never accumulate that.
It's a picture to us of what we owed God, our debt to God. There's not a soul on earth that could have ever paid it.
But what did God do? He sent his beloved Son to pay the debt for us.
He paid it and now he offers us the forgiveness just for the taking of it.
By faith it is. It's so accessible you don't even have to step up to the front to get it. By faith accepting it. And so we have in this parable.
This.
Man who was forgiven all his debt.
I trust that everyone here has received this forgiveness. May not be that all have. Sometimes I wonder by the actions if it's true, because I think what we see taught to us in this parable is our attitude after we have received such blessing. That's what's noticeable and stands out in this. How do we appreciate?
God has given to us.
Oh, that it be not like this man who soon forgot what had been done for him.
The power to a Christian life, your young people to go on for the Lord, is to enter into what God has done for you and me.
That great forgiveness, that debt that we owed, how much it was. I believe that's part of the reason from week to week, we, the Lord instituted the remembrance of Himself and his death, and the disciples were accustomed to do it. Each week, because we need to be reminded what a cost it was that redeemed us. We forget that. We become appreciative.
You also have the privilege of living in one of the richest countries in the world.
As to material and perhaps spiritual blessings.
Or provisions for you, for your Christian pathway in the Christian fellowship. There's not very many countries where there's gathered Saints that can meet together with over 100 young people together at one time.
It's part of the grace of God, dear young people, shown to you.
Now the challenge for us is how do we receive it? How do we appreciate it? Oh, I know you appreciate it. We all appreciate it. But it's easy to forget it. And when we get tested, when somebody comes along and does that's a wrong, it's so easy to forget that and start thinking of my own self and what has been done to me. You know, this is a, this is a follow up or Peter asked the Lord how many times he was to forgive his.
When he had trespassed against him, and he said till seven, and the Lord told him, no till 70 * 7. Or in other words, never stop doing it because this is the the rest of the story is our parable. How do we forgive our brethren?
Oh, look back at Calvary's cross, dear young people. Look at that death that he paid.
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It becomes easy. It becomes easy.
But this man did not enter into the sense of what Grace really was. I don't really believe he ever repented.
No, He was in the Kingdom of heaven, yes.
Probably one of those.
Tares, Professors.
And so he teaches us a great lesson, doesn't he?
We do learn lessons from our young people and older brethren who make mistakes too. May we learn them.
From the examples of the mistakes in the Old Testament or elsewhere in the scriptures, rather than having to learn it ourselves the hard way. And so we have this parable about forgiveness.
And how to do it and it ends up?
So likewise shall my heavenly Father do also unto you, if ye from your hearts forgive not everyone his brother.
Their trespasses.
I believe this is perhaps a governmental thing I have seen.
Some who are walking with us turn aside from the path of obedience, from the path of appreciation and giving thanks to God for the many blessings that we have. And it's sad to see the governmental hand of God fall upon them. You know the stories, you've seen it too. You don't have to be very old to witness.
Examples of this of how they are delivered over to the tormentors.
You see young people we really have no other option than to take.
The blessing that comes to us through the Lord Jesus Christ because it's already been shown.
There's no other way to be blessed. God already proved that in the past dispensations.
And if we turn away from this offer of grace and become unappreciative of it? Unbelieving.
There's nothing else left for you. What can you do for a person who won't even take a gift?
And that's the basis that we get all of this on.
God's free grace.
There's no other, there's no other recourse and that's why I believe at the end of this dispensation.
There's going to be a strong delusion sent aloud.
Of God, the Spirit of God, Satan himself is going to send a strong delusion that they believe a lie that they may might be damned. It says why? Because there's no other recourse. That didn't happen at the end of the law law period. There were many that were under the dispensation of the law and when that finished they entered into the blessing of the following dispensation.
But it's not going to be true.
At the end of the time of grace.
God is perfect in his counsels and ways, and it's the most solemn for those who sit and listen in gospel meetings, make a profession of it, but aren't real.
Don't really have a sense of appreciation for the grace of God.
And aren't willing thus to forgive if God lets a little Trump problem in your life difficulty with some person, Dear young people and us older ones too.
I think even more so us older ones because sometimes we get a little more hardened and stubborn in our ways as we get older.
Look back to Calvary. Don't forget what's been forgiven you. Now we'll go on to the next parable, chapter 20.
This beginning with verse one, we have the parable. I'm not going to read all of it. We might just read a few little sketches because perhaps this is one of the more difficult ones to comprehend or understand the force of.
We have here idle men looking for a job.
There's no work, kind of like things in California, a depression, no work. Understand there's some of our brethren here that don't have work too, and our heart goes out to them. But here it's a lesson taken from this and the Lord.
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This householder, he goes out and he sees him and he has compassion on him. He sees they need work, they're hungry, they have families and they need work. And so out of the goodness of his heart, he goes out there and first of all, he makes a deal.
We like to make deals and this, this, this parable can be an example to us about making deals.
With God.
They agree to work for a penny a day. I understand that was fair labor wages for that time. We've had a lot of inflation today. Things have got less valuable. Our numbers are bigger now, but the money is not worth more.
Penny a day, they agree.
He goes out a little later in the day and he finds some others. But notice when you read it.
Let's notice it.
Verse 4.
And he said unto them, Go ye also into the vineyard, and whatsoever is right.
I will give you and they went their way. Notice he did not agree to pay them a penny a day.
Or he did not agree to prorate a penny a day to the number of hours they worked. He just said what is right.
You see this householder, he was a Goodman. He was going out there in goodness towards them. He wanted to help them.
And so it gives them work.
That's what our gods like.
He's a good God. We've been noticing the blessings that He purposes to give to us over angels, over all any other of the creation, we are the most favored.
And in this dispensation that we are the ones that he has chosen.
And called into that nearest and dearest relationship with Him in heaven to sit with the God in the Father's house.
And all eternity in the counsels of God and the joy of God.
Before him, you see these people that made the deal.
They.
Agreed, according to their.
Appreciation, their standard of wages, and that's what they got.
But there's something better than that. Let's not be making deals with God. God, if you give me this, I'll do that.
There's a better way.
Rely on the grace of God.
The goodness of God. And we notice in this parable that those that work only an hour or two a day of the day, they ended up getting paid a penny too.
That revealed the heart of the 1St.
So that when?
Payday came the end of the day.
He started with the last ones and he gave them a penny.
Well, you know what our hearts are like. We see somebody get something.
Ah, then we want it too, don't we? That's what our natural hearts.
And they saw that he was a Goodman.
They started becoming covetous.
So when their turn came.
Remember, they had agreed to a penny.
He paid them a penny and they were angry with them. They had thought, well, he was going to pay him more, but remember, that wasn't the deal.
They should have not made a deal. If they had not made a deal, they might have got more.
You know, there's people. Beggars on the street are pretty astute. Have you ever noticed it?
Try it someday.
Have you ever noticed a beggar? I've gone up to 1.
Perhaps we don't see them too often here, but maybe if you ever get down to Mexico or somewhere.
You might have a chance to try this. You go out on the street and see a beggar, put your hand in your pocket like you're going to give them something.
And say how much do you want?
More often than not, they will say to you whatever you want to give me.
I've had very few that will tell me how much.
They've had experience. Waiters and waitresses, I think, learn a little bit about this too.
You see?
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When they see a person who's willing to stop.
And give them something. And a beggar doesn't get something because he deserves it or because he's worked for it or anything like that. No, it's strictly on the basis of whatever you want.
And when it's left up to you, your reputation is at stake. If you just give them a penny, you don't look too good, do you?
You give them a dollar bill.
They smile at you.
They'll say something about you when you walk on down the street. They'll appreciate it.
God.
Wants to bless us. Dear young people, there's no other better basis to deal with God than God's own thoughts about us and His ways and blessings.
When that gets a hold of our souls, dear young people, it changes us.
An understanding, a realization of grace. May it sink deep into our hearts. May we understand how good our God really is.
Now we go on to the next parable, chapter 22.
Here we have the marriage feast.
The King with a son and a wedding.
Weddings are one of the most wonderful things to go to here on Earth, aren't they naturally?
Beautiful, happy marriage in the Lord. Beautiful.
And so we have here a parable.
But this time it's the Lord who's given the marriage.
And it's his son that is to be married.
And they're the guests that are invited.
The invitation goes out, but people are too busy, too occupied. One for this thing, one for another.
Make excuses and so on. Why do they do that?
They do not believe the goodness of the man that is putting on the wedding.
O may our hearts enter in and enjoy and appreciate what God wants to do for us.
This is so often used in the gospel preaching, and rightly so. Beautiful invitation.
Picture of God inviting us to his marriage, the marriage of his son.
Even a more wonderful part of it is that we are to be the bride.
Now that doesn't come out here, I have to go to other scriptures.
You young ladies, I know you look forward to the day when you're going to have that beautiful white.
Garment picture of the righteousness Purity. Our brother was speaking to us about purity last night. Twice we had it. You know, purity is a wonderful thing.
The bride in heaven is going to be all white and pure. No stain, no block, no bad reputation to look back on.
May we keep it so now in our life and testimony.
Well.
We have before us here our dress and appearance. There was a person that came to the wedding afterwards.
And he had no wedding garment. Now I understand that it may have been the custom in those days for the householder or the one that put on the marriage fees to provide a garment.
It seems to fit the picture here, and it seems to speak to us of the garments of salvation.
That we have by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. He clothes us in the righteousness of God.
Perfection. How will the bride be there in spotless raiment?
Christ died for them, washed them away and made them such.
It's a sense of that entering into our souls that helps keep us pure.
Not seeking to add our own righteousness to that our own works, things of our own self. It's all of God. Everything we have is of God. We receive it in appreciation and use it. And so this person here who came in without the wedding garment, he was.
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He didn't have any answer.
No answer.
He had despised.
The wedding garment wouldn't have cost him anything to take it.
But he was occupied with himself alone. He went there on the basis of his own garment, garments and scripture. Speak of our outward testimony, what people see of us exterior, the exterior testimony.
Well, he's taken and he's cast out.
It says at the conclusion of it, for many are called but few are chosen.
So that anything of our own dress, our own actions.
Not going to have any place in heaven at the wedding feast.
All things of God.
So let's take it now, young people, what God has given us and accept that.
No other righteousness, no other object.
The Lord Jesus.
Our outward appearance, how we behave, is a Christ like.
If it's Christ like, I believe it will compose part of the dress of the bride there in glory.
We get that in the Book of Revelation.
Now we'll go on to the 25th chapter.
Where we have the 10 virgins.
Light bearing lamps. They're waiting for the bridegroom.
There are ten of them. Five are wise, five are foolish, 10 speaks of responsibility, 5 is the number of men.
We notice they all have lamps.
But some of them don't have oil.
You can't see the oil in the lamp.
All you can see is the light and the lamp.
And so it's a picture here, professors, people that profess to be Christians, they got lamps.
This is what the Kingdom of heaven is like, but not everybody is real.
But they all have one purpose. They're waiting for the bridegroom, that is they own allegiance to the king, and they're waiting for the king to come back. Because remember in the in the Kingdom of heaven, the kings in heaven and the people are on earth and the king is going to come back and take them home.
That's our picture of our position here on earth. We're not earthly people. That's not our destiny. We're waiting for the Lord to come.
A lot of years have gone by, haven't they, since the Lord promised this?
He hadn't come yet.
Everybody's lamps are burning kind of low.
Not much testimony in the Kingdom of Heaven today.
To the truth of the Lord's coming, the lamps.
The truth was actually lost, only recovered about 160 or 70 years ago.
And the proclamation went out. The rapture. The Lord is coming.
It isn't just a general rapture at the end of the world when God is going to raise everybody and then he's going to divide the sheep and the goats and all.
No.
It's amazing to me how much.
Christians today in the systems of men are giving up the pre tribulation.
Hope of the Rapture.
They're giving it up. That's dangerous. That's vital your young people.
Because when you give that up, you become earthly minded.
And you perish with the world and its judgment. That's coming.
So these virgins are waiting for the bridegroom. They have their lamps.
Do you ever try to stay awake in a dark room?
They say one of the best ways to stay awake is to put a bright light in there. They're just now learning that people who work shift work.
They put real bright lights in there because along about 2:00 in the morning, they just can't stay awake. They need light.
I believe there's an application for us spiritually in this. We need light, brethren, to stay awake.
To not go to sleep, to not lose the hope of our possessions in heaven.
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Sad to say, all ten of these started going to sleep.
All ten of them. Did you know we failed? We often do. It's so easy to lose the sense of what our position here is on earth and of the hope of the Lord's return. It's a sure thing.
Well.
Bridegroom came. The Lord came.
The foolish had no oil in their lamps, and while they were looking for oil the others went in and the door was shut and they were on the outside knocking.
If we have not been born.
By the Spirit of God.
And have the Spirit of God dwelling within us. There is no oil.
Our lamps will go out.
You know, sometimes we like to, at a time like this when we got a lot of people watching this, put on a good appearance.
We can fake it, like it's been said, we can put on a show.
But it's an exterior thing.
It's like lightning a kerosene Lantern.
With this the wet Wick but no oil down underneath.
And a Wick like that will burn really real bright for a little bit.
You have awful lot of light, quite a bit of smoke too though sometimes.
And then it will go down real fast. It will burn the Wick up until the wick's gone, and then it'll go out.
You can't live the Christian life if you don't have the Spirit of God dwelling in you. Impossible. Oh, there are people that will do it for a month or two or even years sometimes if they're really, really have a strong character.
But that's not the way to live.
Now who are we fooling?
Not God. Anyway, I don't know whether these the five wives had noticed about the foolish or not. Doesn't say. It doesn't really matter. One thing matters is the bridegroom.
The Lord and He sees your heart, He sees my heart, He sees the outward testimony to and He knows.
Now we have the last one in the same chapter.
Parable of the Talents.
Well, wait a minute. Before we do that, I want to I want to touch on the 13th verse of of the.
First the next to last parable says, Watch therefore, for ye know not neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of Man cometh.
I'd like to express a thought or two on this.
We are subject to Christ. He is the Bridegroom.
He is the one that sets the date in this case.
When he's coming back.
How good it is for us to learn our position before the Lord.
Everything we have comes from Him. Isn't it right for us to wait till He comes instead of getting impatient sometimes? You know we want the Lord to come right now, get us out of our troubles.
Well, there's nothing wrong with wanting the Lord to come, but are we patient on the Lord? He knows the right time to come back. If He had come back yesterday, those who are will be saved today or might be saved today. Would not have gone in, never had a chance. So there are reasons why the Lord does things. But I think we have a lesson here on patience, endurance.
Waiting till the Lord comes. And it's a real test. It's probably the hardest test of all going on for the Lord day after day after day.
Maybe it isn't too hard to go on for the Lord here, with all the young people and the help around us and the good food and the beautiful place to be, and we don't have the temptations before us in the same way as we do when we go back to school or in our jobs.
But the Lord.
Has a reason and how good it is for us to wait on him.
He's the one that calls the shots.
Oh yeah, I ought to say it in much more magnificent terms than that, because it is so beautiful how God does it all.
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But I think you understand that.
Now we'll go on to the last parable. The Kingdom of heaven is like a man in verse 14 traveling into far country. And you have the Italians given out every man in verse 15 according to his abilities, several abilities.
We all have abilities given to us young people.
Everyone of us naturally and according to those natural abilities also the Lord gives us spiritual.
Talents or spiritual responsibility? Moral obligations to fulfill? For who?
For whom? The Lord Jesus our King. That's the purpose. And that's what we notice in the use of the different ones here. There was one who used it on himself. That is, he went and hid it in the earth. He didn't use it for the Lord, his Lord. He had made a profession to recognize him as Lord, but he really didn't recognize him as Lord because he didn't use what belonged to his Lord.
For his Lord, he hid it in the earth.
That's a picture of using what God has given to you in the material and things here on the earth. Every all your abilities and everything given to you to use this time. They're only loaned to us. Dear young people, we're not our own. We don't belong to ourselves.
We don't have a right to do our own will if we're in the Kingdom of heaven. If you're on the outside, fine. That's what you want, that's what you get.
But not in the Kingdom of heaven. You have the responsibility, because you have owned the King, to recognize him as such.
It'd be better to be outside and not even own him than to be inside and get something put into your responsibility and then not use it. So it's a serious thing to profess to be a Christian.
And not be real, it would be better to make no profession at all.
Because to whom much is given will much be required.
Rewards, though, we don't want to just look at this in a negative sense.
To think that our Savior, our God, will give rewards.
He gave us the faith to believe. He gave us everything that we used to do. What we do, our bodies, the world, the air, the sun, the water we drink, the food. He gives us everything.
Then we use it for Him, we play the volleyball for the Lord, the baseball.
We eat at the tables for the Lord, trying to help and encourage one another and fellowshipping together.
For the Lord.
And then he gives us a reward for us. Isn't that grace?
Wonderful, wonderful.
Our Savior.
What he wants to do for us. May I get ahold of our souls.
May it cause us to walk with him, in fellowship with him.
So it concludes verse 29.
For unto everyone that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance, but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath.
And then you have the casting of the unprofitable servant into outer darkness. He was never born again.
To everyone that hath shall be given.
Have you made made your own what God has given, and have you used it for Him? If we use what God gives us in temporal things here for the Lord, He's going to give them back to us as our own. They're in glory. Nothing of what we really is committed to us here on earth is really our own.
Everything tangible that you can see touch.
Feel here on earth is really only loan to us.
It's given to us to use why we're in this life, but nobody is going to of their own self going to take anything of it with them when they die. The rich man who dies, he dies just the same as a poor beggar. He's just as dead as the as the rich man or the poor man.
No different. Or they may put him in a gold casket or something.
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They may write nice beautiful words on top of the stone, but underneath down there, he's just the same.
Lord gives to those who use it for him, for the King.
He gives to the everyone that hath, to him shall be given.
Well, it's wonderful that the Lord would give us that that reward. Not that the reward would should be the motive before us, I believe, but it certainly is therefore encouragement.
It's the King, brethren.
It's the Lord to have before us and the sense of His love and grace.
I'd like to close with him.
Hymn #17 in the little flock.
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God's Counsels & Purposes #5: Concluding Thoughts

Address—Doug Buchanan
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.
Marella was suggested that maybe we have just a few concluding.
Thoughts of what we've had before us, counsels of God and sum it up. I don't know how to do that, really.
The at the beginning we quoted a verse from Isaiah 4610. I'd like to read it first of all.
I'm going to go rather quickly through some of these scriptures so you can look them up, or else just listen.
Declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times.
The things that are not yet done saying my counsel shall stand and I will do all my pleasure.
We have noticed that God began His purpose in eternity.
He had that desire, he originated it, and the wonderful thing is.
That we have come into a place of blessing in it more so than angels.
More so than any other part of the lower creation.
We have noticed that it is all centered from Ephesians one around the Lord Jesus. It was His purpose that His Son come and redeem a people for himself.
Recover that which had been lost through the fall of the 1St man.
Bring it back to us.
At a level where we could.
Reach it.
On the basis of faith, His love and grace, salvation is preached freely.
One of the best known verses in the Bible, John 316 for God Southern loved. That's the greatest love there ever was the world that's the widest extremity that could possibly be shown that whosoever that's all inclusive of everybody should.
Believe, and I whosoever believeth in him.
The most accessible, easiest way to obtain only by faith. Nothing to do, nowhere to go. By faith we receive. It should not perish. That's rescue from the greatest destruction ever was made. But have everlasting life, the greatest salvation, the life eternal, the best possible there ever could be.
That's the wideness of God's plan for us.
We had before us the importance of laying hold of this, lining our lives along with the Lord's plan. That's the path of blessing for you and me. There are many other paths, but all other options really are all proven to be useless after 4000 years of trial of man.
In different dispensation God has brought to us.
This plan fully revealed it to us. We know what our position is. We know what our future is. The first three hymns that we sang all spoke of that beautiful. We can sing about those things, beloved. We can rejoice in it. And as we go home now, to our work and all.
We can carry these things along with this, and I trust that these will be some building blocks to our faith, something to make our lives a little more stable, maybe a few less ups and downs in our Christian life. Not just trusting in experience, but in God's thoughts, because that is what's important. My counsel shall stand. Don't forget it.
You can trust in it. It's unbelief in that.
That always leads us into problems.
Like to read those verses in Ephesians 13 verses?
919 Having made known unto us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He hath purposed in Himself, that in the dispensation of the fullness of times He might gather together in one.
All things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth, even in Him.
In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will.
And so on. It's hard to know where to stop in these verses. The praise of His glory. Well, God has made known this purpose and counsel in the two parts of it. And I believe it's very important, dear young people, that we always distinguish these two parts and not confuse them. So much confusion has come into Christendom today.
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Because of mixing up earthly things with heavenly things.
The things of Israel with the things of the Church. Period.
The natural man with the spiritual.
We need to rightly divide the word of truth, not mix these things up.
Keep them each in their place.
And I believe it's when we mix these things up and start applying what applied to a Jew to us that we become earthly minded.
I believe you when we read in the Book of Revelation, which speaks of the in judgments of the of the time when the Lord's going to come back, there's an expression there. Next time you read through the Book of Revelation, notice the expression them that dwell on the earth.
That's where the judgment falls. Those that dwell on the earth, the earth dwellers, the people that became earthly minded Christians and lost their heavenly hope and lived for this life.
Put it on the priority.
When we do that, young people, we miss Our Calling. We miss the purpose of God for us at this time. Yes, God is going to have an earthly people and He's going to bless them with large families, large lands, riches in abundance, peace, joy on earth.
It's for the millennial time.
And so if we try to get it now, we're going to miss out because the Kingdom of heaven is now being formed.
And we went through Indiana brief the 12 likenesses of the Kingdom of heaven, the first seven in the chapter 13 of Matthew, introducing first the sower. That's the Lord Jesus. He is the corn of wheat that fell into the ground and died, rose again and bears much fruit.
And he has entered into heaven the king.
Now that good seed continues to be sowed to sown. It's sown in the hearts of men, sown in our hearts, and according to the reception, that brings fruit in our own lives. And if it brings fruit in our lives, the King will have it in glory when he comes to reign too.
There are the following three parables given exterior view, An outward view that everybody sees what the Kingdom of Heaven looks like.
The tares and the wheat, the leaven.
And in the three measures of meal and so on. And this is what we see today. The last three of that chapter present the internal view God, what God sees here on earth, the Kingdom of heaven. It's the good, it's the treasure hid in the field that the Lord Jesus saw and loved and wanted and went at all cost to himself, to Calvary's cross to get.
He's got it.
We are that treasure.
Special object of his love and favor brought into his counsels of love and blessing.
Others are going to be in his counsels but for judgment, but we are in his counsels of purpose. A blessing.
The Pearl of Great Price went and sold all that he had and bought it.
That's us, beloved, that that are called into the church, his people, and then the gathering together of the.
The fish and the net, and so the preaching of the King of the Gospel.
Gathers together all these fish when you preach the gospel, you don't need to be.
Occupied first of all with getting converts.
That comes second. First of all, preach the gospel for the Lord Jesus sake.
Glorify him also that souls be blessed #2.
So the gospel gathers many, but they're not all real. In the end of the age, the angels are going to separate and decide who the real and who the false are. That's not our business. We can leave that with the Lord. That's why we don't have to have either alls or calls and things like that and really push people and and force them beyond their own hearts desire and willingness to submit to the gospel.
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Then in the later chapters of Matthew, we have the five last.
Uh, parables, the likenesses of the of the Kingdom there and I would just like to mention.
Where we have in Chapter 18, the forgiveness needed, because we have been forgiven the great debt.
And I just like to read the last verse, the last verse or two of each one of those.
In conclusion, because I think it's interesting to note, notice the last verse. There's a kind of a concluding verse to each one of these parables.
And in the 35th verse of the 18th chapter it says so. Likewise shall my heavenly Father do also unto you, if ye.
From your hearts, forgive not everyone his brother, their trespasses.
We are a group of people, beloved, that have been forgiven. We are in the Kingdom of heaven on the basis of the grace and goodness of God, and we're never more than forgiven sinners in that respect as to our own worthiness. And therefore we should show that character forgiveness to one another.
In the twenty 20th chapter we have the work.
The service and notice the.
16th verse.
So the last shall be 1St and the 1St last for many be called, but few chosen.
What's better, to be called or to be chosen?
Which would you rather be?
Many are called. That's the character of the Kingdom of Heaven. Many are called. Many enter in, but few are chosen. Are you one of the chosen ones? Are you real? Are you one of the real ones?
The great thing here is not how much we bring to God and what we do for God.
But that we lay hold of what He has done for us, to be chosen for something and to go along with it. That's the obedience of faith. That's submission.
Chapter.
22 we have.
The marriage fees.
Verse 14.
For many are called, but few are chosen.
Perhaps ream pretty much the same thing before us.
Our outward dress. Now I'm not speaking just of our clothes that we have, but our outward appearance, our garments.
What we are.
As Christians, as those who enter into the Kingdom of heaven, we are because of what God hath clothed us in.
Who has given us salvation? Who has made us what we are, the Lord?
Nothing of ourselves.
Those are the ones that go into the marriage, are blessed in the place of blessing.
Chapter 25. The last two.
He has the parable, the likeness.
The 10 virgins.
Verse 13. Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour, wherein the Son of Man cometh.
It's the Lord's choice when he comes.
We are waiting that moment. That is the end that we are looking for, the Kingdom of heaven really here on earth.
That's not the end, it's the means. Our time here is the means, the real blessing, although we are blessed now and enjoy it, but we don't enter into possess what a Kingdom really is until the Lord comes. And so that's what we look for and if we lose that?
We've lost everything really, because that's, that's the principal thing. That's what the Kingdom of heaven is all about, gathering together people for heaven to be taken there. So we cannot lose the hope of the Lord's return if we lose that.
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We are what Revelation speaks of Earth dwellers.
There are many Christians who are earthly minded Christians, earth dwellers.
Looking for their Kingdom here, trying to live it here now. The good American life if you please.
That's what Satan is using to hinder us from entering in and possessing.
In the fullness of what God's purpose is the Kingdom of heaven.
And then lastly, we have the rewards.
In the talents.
And it says.
In verse 29.
For unto everyone that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance, but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath.
Cast ye, the unprofitable servant, into outer darkness. There shall be weeping, weeping and gnashing of teeth.
So those two that have now shall be given, if we possess the Kingdom now in practice and walk and fulfill God's purposes, and walk according to God's purposes, we have and we will receive them in like manner when the Lord comes.
And so that servant was given again, according to has he used his talent?
And then it's interesting here the reward is, enter thou into the joy of the Lord.
Isn't that wonderful? Enter thou into the joy of the Lord.
There's joy in the presence of the angels of God over one Sinner that repenteth. We have the part, brethren.
Of entering into that circle of enjoyment there in God's presence.
Where the joy is shared, there's such a thing as those that sit on the outside and view it. There's also those that are on the inside participating. And I believe we are brought into that nearest and dearest relationship. Enter thou into the joy, thy Lord.
Well, we have about 15 minutes I believe, that we could use to pray together and commend ourselves to the Lord now as we go on our way. So let's just kneel.
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Harps

Talk—Gordon Whitaker
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If there could be one wish that I have from each one of you, if you could tell me what's on your heart, I wish they would be these four 5-6 words up here. Sir, we desire to see Jesus.
That's why we're here, isn't it?
Well, this morning I had in mind to talk a little bit about the musical instrument, instrument called the harp. Also like to think about the sufferings of the of the Lord Jesus Christ for us. And then toward the end, I'd like to sing some more hymns out of this little flock that tell us about this.
Deliver. We have our Lord Jesus and what He did for us and the sufferings that He went through on our behalf. So let's start then with a few thoughts.
About the harp, well, before I do that, you know, it's nice to start fresh in the morning. Had a good night's sleep and we wake up and we don't have the clutter of the day yet before us. The pressures are gone momentarily and we can be alert and we can be listening and ready to hear what the Lord might have to say to our hearts.
That's a good condition to be in, isn't it?
Want us all to be impressed with the love of our Lord Jesus Christ and the fact that He wants you near to Him.
Some people picture God as being way off there and being looking down to look for any infraction to land on a person. You know the Lord Jesus Christ is not that way. He wants you near to Himself.
Well, he also appreciates the spirit of a child.
What's different about a child? You see a little two or three-year old gal lost in a department store because the mommy stepped around a rack of clothes or something. Boy, the sirens go off and she's making it known she wants her mother right? And soon as she spots her it's Pell mill running and grab her around the legs. You know, once mommy, well, the Lord Jesus is perhaps looking for that kind of a reaction in your heart and mind.
To his call of love and he doesn't want a soft straying on a hillside somewhere. He likes to have us right near at hand where he can minister to our needs.
So.
The simplicity, you know, I know.
A little fella. He's not little anymore, but when this occurred, he was a very young, simple person. They went down to the ice cream store and he stepped up to the counter and the clerk said, and what would you like, Sonny? He said, I'd like a chocolate Lord's Day.
Well, all right, I don't find any fault with that. There's a boy that's thinking in the terms of scripture, even though, you know, he wasn't trying to make anything funny about it. But.
The Lord wants us to be simple with them. If we don't understand something, come right up and ask them. Don't be afraid, He's there to help us.
So we've got our Lords day before us.
Ever wonder what it would be like we didn't have a large days or Saturday back right on Monday, and nobody was there to remind you about the Lord Jesus? That'd be awful. It's just a blessing that not only does He want us near himself, but it gives us a special day to kind of devote to Him, to remind us about him, about his love, what he did for us. What a tremendous thing.
Asked us to be near him. Asked us to remember him.
Wants us right by his side, promised his presence.
What a tremendous thing you can go someplace today.
And you can be guaranteed that the Lord Jesus Christ will be present.
Boy, when I think about that, I need to be reminded of it often. I kind of like to think, well, Lord, here's a chair right next to me that's vacant. You sit there.
I like to picture him there in my mind's eye of faith that he's right beside me.
You have that privilege too.
Well, So what do we come to commemorate the Lord's Day?
About the Lord Jesus and his death.
Well, why did he die?
Well, some people like to just kind of gloss over this subject of sin and they are not too interested in talking about it. In fact, they laugh about it and said it's all relative. It's whatever is happening today, whatever the public opinion is, what's good and what's bad, that's what it is. And.
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What the Bible said 2000 years ago might not apply today, but I thoroughly disagree with that. But the Bible says today about sin is the same 2000 years ago as it is right this minute. God's opinions haven't changed about that. So this whole subject of Christ coming and dying and suffering?
It all hinges on this question of sin and God being a holy God and wanting to bless you and me. How does he do it?
While there had to be a sacrifice, didn't there?
The Lord Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, so we go to remember him in that regard, don't we?
Well, wouldn't you like to come to Jesus? Does everybody here know the Lord Jesus as their Savior? This is an excellent time to tell Him that you want to come.
Come unto me, all you that labor and are heavy laden, I will give you rest.
Take my yoke upon you and learn from me.
By meek and lowly in heart, you shall find rest for your souls.
We long for rest, don't we?
The pressures that the enemy would bring in on us, that's no fun.
Lord Jesus wants to lead us in green pastures besides still waters.
So let's turn our attention to the subject of harps.
The reason I thought about harps is because recently I heard a tape that was on that subject and justice brought some things to mind. But you know, if you are the Lord Jesus Christ.
He has saved your soul. I think it's kind of nice to think of it like he's given you a harp. He's given me a harp.
In Revelation 8, I think these are five, it talks about many people there, each one having a harp. So what's what's the deal about the harp? Well, a stringed instrument, you piano, a guitar, a harp, you got a two, no strings. And if you got a good ear, you get that thing just in precise tune. So somebody who knows how to play the instrument.
Can strike a chord and you just hear beautiful harmony.
Well, so each of us, God has given us a harp. So our new nature, our new life, if you will. So what does he make use of therefore? Well, the Spirit of God, like this morning down in Red Bluff, we plan to remember the Lord Jesus. And who runs that meeting? Well, it's the Spirit of God. He directs and he'll take you if you're in tune perhaps.
Or the one sitting next to you.
And he might strike a note on your harp.
There'll be some praise come out to His glory.
So think about that as we talk about some of these things.
Turn first of all to Psalms 43.
Verse three says.
Send out thy light and thy truth. Let them lead me, Let them bring me unto thy holy hill and to thy tabernacles.
Verse four. Then will I go unto the altar of God, Unto God my exceeding joy, Yeah, upon the harp will I praise thee, O God, my God.
Well is God your exceeding Joisy, my exceeding joy today.
What a wonderful thing that God invites you into a relationship with himself, to be called God's children, to be able to call God your Father. What better thing could there be?
The enemy of our soul has nothing like that to offer you.
So.
Our harps, are they in tune? First off, do we have a harp at all? Well, we need to be concerned about that, don't we? He certainly wants to provide this new life for each one here.
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved and thy house.
Well, what if our harp is sort of rusty over there in the corner and it's never been tuned for a long while and you try to get a tune out of it? It sounds just horrid.
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That's no good. What can the Spirit do in that regard? Publicly in the assembly?
It's difficult, I'm reminded. I think Wally read the portion in Acts 20 this morning.
Remember that story about Eudicus? He was the man that a young fellow that was went to meeting and Paul was preaching and he's sitting there in the open window. And mind you, this was like the third story. So he's way up there. I don't know what he was doing sitting in the window. You know, there's sometimes a tendency to want to sit in the back row. Well, that that doesn't help anybody. Let's sit up front, but namely Eudicus. He's probably looking down on the street below and maybe there's a.
Going on down there and he's checking that out and maybe he's thinking about something else and not paying too much attention to what Paul's saying. We need to pay attention to what Paul's saying.
And he sinks down in sleep and before you know it, he's down on the stones below. Looks like he's dead. For all intents and purposes, he is dead.
But Paul comes to his aid.
In his love he throws himself upon him, and.
You know, it just reminds me of of the love that the Apostle Paul has for you and how he's expressed it in his word. He's given himself and the doctrine that the Lord has given to Paul for each one of you here today and for me is a message that's going to see us through if we'll take up with it.
It's a message of joy and of satisfaction.
So we want to wake up. We want to be in earnest.
We want to come and say, Sir, we would see Jesus.
Well, let's turn over to Song of Solomon.
Song of Solomon, chapter 2.
Right after Ecclesiastes.
And verse 14214.
Oh, my dove, that art in the clefts of the rock, in the secret places of the stairs, this part. Let me see thy countenance, let me hear thy voice.
For sweetest thy voice, and thy countenance is comely.
Hear the Lord Jesus speak into your heart. He'd like to have you right near to Him. He'd like to be able to hear your voice. He hears you all singing this morning and that's a joy to His heart. He'd like to have you in His presence First off so He can see you, and 2nd off to hear your voice, that there might be praise and that you might be encouraged as a result.
Let me see thy countenance, let me hear thy voice.
Well, young brother.
In the assembly, do you feel constrained, maybe by the Spirit, to offer a word of praise or give out of Him?
Well, that's the Spirit of God. Speak into your heart. Don't put Him off. Be in tune. Let Him strum those strings that are tuned for His own praise. Now look up in the chapter at verse three. We'll draw near to Him and let Him minister to our needs and encourage our hearts. Here's what we might be able to say. Look in the middle of verse 3.
I sat down under his shadow with great delight.
And his fruit was sweet to my taste. He brought me to the banqueting house and His banner over me was love. Every one of us want to be loved. And He wants you to know that He loves you and His banner over you is love.
This reminds me of.
Fortune in Genesis 49 about Joseph, if you'll turn to Genesis 49.
And verse 22, it's a verse about Joseph, and we know Joseph is a wonderful type of the Lord Jesus Christ. If you read the story of his life, it's so wonderful.
And I want to just give you a little word picture of what I see in this verse 21 and 22. Verse 22, excuse me, Genesis 4922 Says Joseph is a fruitful bow, even a fruitful bow by a well whose branches run over the wall.
00:15:16
Tell you, when I think of that, what comes to my mind, I think of my need and how the Lord Jesus Christ has met that need and how he wants to encourage each of our hearts. And naturally, you know, this world is just a wilderness wide. And so in my mind's eye, I see this scene kind of like Death Valley, let's say, OK.
You got not a green thing inside, you got jagged rocks in a trail. That's.
Very hard to negotiate and it's hot, scorching sun and the buzzards circling and here you are going down the trail and you don't know how long it's going to be before you get to where you're going.
And there's no relief insight, and your mouth is dry and you're just wishing for some respite, some rest, some coolness. And so you go around the bend in the trail and lo and behold, here's a high Stonewall, way higher than you could ever climb over. And on the other side, here's green, lush vegetation and trees.
My look at this, did you see this out in this barren wilderness?
And you look and wish I could get in there and Nope, there's not even a gate through the wall. You know, this is kind of like Israel. And here's the Lord Jesus Christ, his people, and he's with them and meeting their needs in this beautiful garden, you might say. And here I am, a poor Gentile coming along. Is there any hope for me? And so you go around the corner of the wall, and lo and behold.
Here is a beautiful apple tree, if you will, with its branch just hanging over the wall, loaded with fruit, and it's right down within your reach.
And you walk up to it and my it's shady and you sit down in the shade of this beautiful tree and you taste of that wonderful fruit. You know, I just picture that as the Lord Jesus Christ coming right where you are, meeting your need and just supplying that which just exactly suits your situation at the time.
So this Joseph being a fruitful bow, that's the Lord Jesus.
Today, he wants to be that for you. All you have to do is recognize that he's there and reach out for it.
Sir, we would see Jesus.
That's a nice thing. Now turn over, please to 1St Chronicle.
Still a little bit more here on a harp.
First Chronicles, 25.
And in verse three, at the end you see a man named Juduthan who prophesied with a harp to give thanks and to praise the Lord.
And in verse three, at the end you see a man named Juduthan who prophesied with a harp to give thanks and to praise the Lord.
Then he's got a fellow Workman there named Heman in the next verse. And if you look down in the middle of verse five, First Chronicles 25 five.
It says And God gave to him and fourteen sons and three daughters.
What a family. Now look at this next verse.
All these were under the hands of their father for song in the House of the Lord.
Just that much of it.
All these were under the hands of their father for song in the House of the Lord.
Well, what do you think about that?
Here's fourteen sons and three daughters, all in their father's house, and being willing to be there and to be under the hand of their father to some good end. For praise in the House of the Lord for song.
What do you think about your Father's house? You know that's a place of blessing.
Some folks might have an idea that it's a good idea to get out of there as just as fast as possible, but the Lord doesn't look at that way. He's given you two places of refuge and safety. He's given you the assembly, and He's given you your home, your father's house, if you're still living there.
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What a wonderful place, a household, family, the assembly. The assembly is there to meet some needs, but it's not there to meet all the needs, not some of the needs you might get from home. So it's good for us moms and dads to think that over and say, are we doing what we should be doing for our young people?
But think of the household and think of the assembly as places of safety.
And if you get out of those two areas, you're going to be in danger of coming into trouble.
You read about elephants, you know, they stay in the herd pretty much. But once in a while you'll get our rogue elephant that just wants his own way. Something tweaks out in his mind and he just is rampaging through fences and just making a mess. Let's not be like robes that just out there stirring up trouble.
Let's recognize what God has given us, and let's find our happiness and our joy in the confines there, where we'll be blessed.
You know, everyone has someone over us. I don't care how old we are, somebody we report to and so.
To submit to that.
The Lord takes care of everything when we submit to Him.
Wonderful place, the assembly.
Well, another place to look here is is in Matthew. So I'd like to now talk about the Lord Jesus Christ.
If we look at what he prophesied in Matthew 16.
Matthew 16 and verse 20.
One from that time forth began Jesus to show unto his disciples how that he must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the third day.
So let's talk about how the Lord Jesus fulfilled what he just prophesied here and what happened and why it had to happen. And let's turn to Isaiah chapter 53. We all know that portion pretty well, but let's just look at that and remember.
It's this question of sin, and if we've come to grips with it, well and good, but if we haven't, we need to.
And why did the Lord Jesus suffer? Wasn't because of any wrong that he had done, is it?
If you look at 52 and verse 14, that's an amazing verse as many were astonished at thee.
Speaking of the Lord, his visage was so marred more than any man.
And his form more than the sons of men.
So how did the Lord suffer? He suffered in in several ways, and he suffered for more than one reason, I dare say.
But he suffered at the hand of man, didn't he? And of course, then there was.
The power of the enemy, the power of darkness, was against him there, and finally he suffered under the hand of his God.
Verse one of chapter 53. Who hath believed our report, and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?
For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant. Just think of the Lord Jesus growing up.
From a little baby to manhood, like a root out of dry ground, He hath no form nor comeliness. When we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.
He is despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief.
And we hid, as it were, our faces from him.
He was despised, and we esteemed him not.
Surely he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, and yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.
You know, people had a problem with that. They said why is the Lord Jesus having to suffer? And they might have had the thought that God was punishing him for something that was wrong in his life.
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Harvey the thought, the reason this happened is because God wanted to bless you and he wanted you and he wanted me to be with him in glory, with his dear Son, the Lord Jesus. And so this question again, we've mentioned of sin had to be dealt with. So we needed a suitable sacrifice, one who was perfect without blemish and without spot.
And our Lord Jesus Christ was exactly that one.
So in verse five it says.
But he was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities.
The chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with his stripes we are healed.
Are we, like sheep, have gone astray? We have turned everyone to his own way?
And the Lord Jehovah hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.
He was oppressed, he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth.
He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter.
And as a sheep before her, Shivers is dumb.
So he opened not his mouth.
He was taken from prison and from judgment.
And who shall declare his generation?
For he was cut off out of the land of the living.
You know, sometimes prisoners are put in prison as much for their own safety as anything else.
You get somebody that has excited a mob of people and if they're out, they get lynched, you know?
There's times when a prison is a safe place.
The Lord Jesus, he had no safe place. He was taken out from prison.
And there was the judge that was supposed to understand the difference between right and wrong and make a right judgment. Did he? No. So he didn't even have decent judgment.
He was taken from prison and from judgment.
And when somebody passes on, you usually have someone stand up and say all the nice things that this person had done. Read his obituary, if you will.
Eulogize.
But who shall declare his generation?
There wasn't anybody there standing to stick up for the Lord Jesus at this time.
He was cut off out of the land of the living for the transgression of my people. Was he stricken?
And he made his grave with the wicked and with the rich in his death.
Because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth, yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him.
He hath put him to grief, when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin. He shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.
That's all we'll read there.
You know, I think in Matthew.
20 roughly, it says.
A bruised Reed, shall he not break? A smoking flax, will he not quench? The Lord Jesus is tender. He's full of compassion and love. You know, we might see a cattail, if you will. It's kind of bent, got a kink in the stems that's useless and rip it apart and throw it down. The Lord isn't like that if you're like a bruised Reed and you can barely stand straight spiritually.
He'll take care of you.
If there is a little spark, a little glimmer there in your life for him, he appreciates that.
He won't dump water on it. He wants to fan that into a warm flame.
So just think of what the Lord Jesus did.
And let's appreciate him. Let's appreciate what he did. Let's appreciate the fact that he wants us to remember him and made it so easy for us to weakly be reminded.
Well, you know, I was looking on the way down here through the little flock. And I started with hymn #1 and I started flipping through the pages, seeing if I could locate the hymns that spoke about the sufferings of Christ and his death. And I came up with quite a number in the first half of the book. And I thought if you didn't mind too much, I'd, I'd quickly breeze through them and, and I just read some of them to you. Maybe toward the end, if we got a few minutes left, we can sing a few.
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If you want to just follow along with me, I'll tell you the number and and we just read them together.
Hymn 5.
I got a number of them, so I kind of go rapidly through hymn #5 unto Him who loved us, gave us every pledge that love could give freely shed His blood to save us, gave His life that we might live. Be the Kingdom and dominion and the glory ever more. You know when people write hymns or poets.
They jumble up the words and it doesn't read too smoothly sometimes, so you got to watch the punctuation real carefully. Some of these hymns you swing through me. If you're not seeing where the commas and the periods are, you get all confused.
But just just watch that as we go through. Look at #27.
Lamb of God, our souls adore Thee, While upon thy face we gaze. They're the Father's love and glory Shine in all their brightest rays. Thy almighty power and wisdom. All creations works proclaim heaven and earth alike. Confess Thee as the ever great I am.
Son of God, thy Father's bosom ever was Thy dwelling. Place His delight in Him, rejoicing one with Him in power and grace. Oh, what wondrous love and mercy Thou didst lay. Thy glory by and for us did come from heaven as the Lamb of God to die.
Lamb of God, when we behold thee lowly in the man tree laid.
Wandering as a homeless stranger.
In the world thy hands have made.
When we see thee in the garden.
In thine agony of blood.
At thy grace we are confounded.
Holy spotless Lamb of God.
When we see the earth, the victim.
To the accursed tree for our guilt and folly stricken.
All our judgment formed by thee.
Lord, we own with hearts adoring.
Thou has washed us in thy blood.
Glory, glory, everlasting be to thee, thou Lamb of God.
1St Hymn 39 Look at that. 39 On his Father's throne is seated Christ the Lord, the living One, all his toil on earth completed, all his work for sinners done.
In the glory see him God's eternal Son. Every knee shall bow before him, every tongue confess his name ransom. Myriads shall adore him.
Who endured the Sinner shame from the glory God death now his worth proclaim.
Man the cross to him awarded. Man, the Savior crucified. This world's judgment stands recorded. God's own justice satisfied.
By the glory Christ was claimed on earth. Who died?
Son of Man, his incarnation, opened first the tale of grace.
Son of Man in new creation, leader of a chosen race, well may glory crown him in the ordered place. And 40 O thou great all gracious Shepherd, shedding for us thy life's blood unto shame and death, delivered all to bring us nigh to God. Now our willing hearts adore thee. Now we taste thy dying love.
While by faith we come before thee, faith which lifts our souls above as our surety, we behold thee.
Ransoming our souls from death as the willing victim view thee, yielding up to God thy breath.
In this broken bread we own thee bruised for us and put to shame. And this cup, O Lord, we thank Thee, speaks our pardon through thy name.
Let his past and Lord we hail thee ground with glory on the throne. Meet it is thy St. Should bless thee for the place thy death hath won. One for us that in full measure we should have our part with thee. Taste the river of Thy pleasure. Share in all thy victory.
00:35:07
Look at 71.
You think somebody could be saved reading these hymns? I think they could.
71 Oh Jesus, everlasting God, who did for sinners shed thy blood on the accursed tree, and finishing redemptions toiled its win for us the happy spoil all praise we give to thee. Fain would we think upon thy pain, would find in Thee our life, and gain, and firmly fix our heart upon thy grief and dying love.
Nor evermore from thee remove, but from all rest.
From all else we part, the more through grace ourselves we know, the more rejoiced we are to bow and glory in Thy cross, to trust in thine atoning blood, and look to Thee for every good, and count all else.
But dross.
77.
You might see something here that just might fit what the Lord will have before us in the meeting next.
Jesus own name divinely sweet. How soothing is the sound, What joyful news, what heavenly power. In that blessed name is found our souls as guilty and condemned. In hopeless fetters lay our souls with countless sins, defiled of death and hell. The prey Jesus to purge away our guilt, A willing victim fell, and on his cross triumphant.
The bands of death and hell.
84.
We hear the words of love, we gaze upon the blood, we see the mighty sacrifice. We have peace with God.
His everlasting peace, sure as Jehovah's name tis stable as his steadfast throne, forevermore the same.
Our love is OFT times low, our joy still ebbs and flows, but peace with Him remains the same.
No change. Jehovah knows we change. He changes not. Our Christ can never die, His love not ours. The resting place we on his truth rely. The cross still stands unchanged, though heaven is now his home. The mighty stone is rolled away, but Yonder is his tomb, and Yonder is our peace.
The grave of all our woes.
We know the Son of God has come. We know he died and rose. We know he liveth now at end above. We know the throne on which he sits.
We know his truth and love 98.
We all know.
Now there we read the wondrous story of the Cross, its shame and woe, every mark of dark dishonour heaped upon the thorn crowned brow, all the depths of thy heart's sorrow told in answering glory. Now on that Cross alone, forsaken, where no pitying eye was found.
Now to God's right hand, exalted with thy praise, the heavens resound.
Did thy God in them forsake thee, Hide his face from thy deep need? In thy face once marred and smitten all his glory, now we read, gazing on it. We adore thee, blessed, precious holy Lord. Thou the Lamb alone aren't worthy.
This be earth, earths and heavens accord. Rise our hearts and bless the Father.
Ceaseless song, even here begun endless praise and adoration to the Father and the Son.
Let's see, let's just.
Sing a couple of these. How about?
119.
Oh, head once fall, our bruises awful heart pain and scorn.
Middle.
Storm Business.
00:40:02
Heartbreaker.
Tree.
Thou.
Countenance.
And sand and thou light beating sparks.
To the world.
Let's play.
It come on.
Facebook.
Until.
2:40.
137 None will quit him 137.
Oh Christ.
What burdens fell right?
Our own must lay.
I'm Dee.
The stars.
Sin.
And we can tell how much we owe him.
Let us render to the.
Lord Jesus is that charms us before conflict Christmas.
And nothing harms us while we trust in him. Trust in him.
Forever.
Be as faithful changing.
Neither force more God is better.
Because he does, strongly.
Keep my squares deep threshold and still believe me.
As we start, glorious.
Savior Shine.
To the God and Christ, our grace is praying.
The song is which my heavens, my heavens, my heaven will bring.
Praises for grace divine.
00:50:01
Praises for grace.
In precious.
Life.
To come with her mother who won't kill.
I said again, start on.
Birthdays with those righteousness.
In the transformation stress.
In the Saints have ever stood.
Yes, St. Saturn.
And make it for it's known.
And make it for a small.
As to my.
Face to face.
Then when I say good morning friend.
The one broken.
They will spend.
They will save.
Joy.
00:55:20
And it was 24 in the appendix, is that right?
Nothing but Christ, that's all we dread.
I get done. Christ, gossip, baby breath.
Let's of our heads and ask.
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Then He Restored That Which He Took Not Away

Talk—Steve Bambauer
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.
Cube and I don't know if some of you that are 20 years old or less.
Remember the Rubik's Cube?
Most of you know what a Rubik's Cube is. You ever see one of these or play with a Rubik's Cube that's a square?
Movable parts and the different sides are, they have the different colors on them. And when you mix the thing up, then you're supposed to get it back together. I, I took one once and it was all in order. And I thought, well, I'll give this thing six turns, try to remember how I got there and then see if I can't get back. And I gave it six turns and I was hopelessly lost. I, there's no way I could get back.
And the more I turned that thing out, the the worst shape I was in.
I never could figure those out. I think that they had advertised that a person with average intelligence could figure it out in a few weeks and I that was 10 years ago. I never figured that thing out.
Brother Linnea from Brazil, I watched him work it in. His hands were just a blurring. Bingo. All the sides were the right color. I don't know how he did that. I think it was luck.
You know the reason why I'm I'm not talking about Rubik's cubes exactly tell you all about Rubik's cubes, but what we have here in the Rubik's Cube is a little analogy.
Things have gotten out of order. They weren't always out of order.
Everything is upside down, inside out, topsy turvy. This poor world is in a shambles.
And who can sort it out? Who can get it back to the beginning?
I can't, man can't. He would like to try. He's working at it. So he develops programs and governments and politics and organizations with the idea that.
He will come to the point where perhaps man can govern himself.
And he will be able to live happily and peacefully ever after. He's still working on it.
It can't be done and so if we want to see how we got to where we are.
Where everything is at sixes and sevens, and everything is out of order, and the whole creation groaneth. As it says in Romans 8. We have to go back to the beginning and in Genesis chapter.
One, we see that every time. God.
Had made something he beheld verse 31, and it was good.
Evening and the morning were the 6th day every time. It was good. So things didn't start out the way we see them now.
And then in the second chapter, God makes man and he puts them. He puts him in the garden. There's just Adam. Eve has not been taken from his rib yet.
And so God tells Adam in the 16th verse of the second chapter. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it. For in the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die.
And you might speculate as to what that tree was and so on and so on. But God speaks to us in a language of accommodation. And what this means simply is that God had placed his creature, man, in that place of submission and obedience. And that's what he wanted from this man Adam, that he might have fellowship with this man Adam, for that was why he was created. And that's why you and I are here too.
And he put him in that place of submission and obedience to this simple command. And Adam didn't have to refrain from eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in order to in order to gain life, because he already had it. The law was to give life that man had lost.
But he couldn't keep it. Adam was under command not to gain life, but to retain what he already had.
The last Adam, the 2nd man came into a world that was cursed by sin and nothing was perfect like what we see here where God could pronounce upon it. It was good. The 2nd man came into a world that was cursed by sin.
And full of tears and sorrow and temptations, and really under the hand of the Prince and power of the air, and he lived perfectly before God.
In every step that he took in a place that was adverse.
So then in the third, in the end of the second chapter.
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The Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept, And he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof. And the rib which the Lord God had taken from man made he a woman, and brought her unto the man. And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman, because she was taken out of man. Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall leave unto his wife, and they shall be one flesh. And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.
Now Gaughan had told Adam about this command, about the Tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil before Eve was formed. But now in the third chapter we have another character come up on the scene.
Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made.
It was more subtle. Who is this that takes the form of a serpent in the Garden of Eden there?
And approaches Eve has something to offer.
The serpent What do we know about this serpent? Who is that serpent?
What's happening here?
And the serpent is more subtle.
We're no match.
And there is the common idea, especially in what we have experienced.
Of the democratic experiment, that man has this.
Right to free choice, free will. That he is the master of his own destiny, and he certainly is a responsible moral agent.
But he's not a free moral agent.
But man has the idea that he will make his own course. Does this sound familiar?
Do you have in mind that you will make your decisions as just to what you're going to do and you're going to lay your life out before you and this is what you're going to accomplish in order for you to attain satisfaction in your soul or to get what you think life is all about?
The serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field.
And he said unto the woman, Yeah, hath God said, And this is the first thing that the serpent does, is call into question the word of God.
And he is still effective in that way. He is still working in the same way, his technique is the same.
To call into question the word of God. If this can be destroyed as the word of God, man is without revelation and therefore without responsibility to God. But the fact that God has come out in revelation to man and shown Himself puts us all into that place of responsibility to him. Had he not revealed or shown Himself, we wouldn't be responsible.
And that verse, and I think it's Genesis 15 or 16 where Hagar is out in the desert there and God approaches her.
And provides for her that verse you all learned in Sunday school at one time or another that says.
Thou God seest me. And the other translation that says Thou art the God that revealeth thyself.
It could be rendered that way. God had revealed himself to Haggard out there in the desert.
And now he is revealing Himself to each one of us in this desert, and He has revealed Himself to us in the person of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, For no man hath seen God at any time.
The only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared him, so that we know who God is by the revelation of His Son Jesus Christ. God, who at sundry times, in various places, I've spoken to the prophets.
Different ways, dreams, visions, appearances, now in these last days speaks to us by His Son, it says in Hebrews by the sun. The full revelation of God who He is is given to us in the person of His Son, and we find that that revelation of Himself, His introduction of Himself to us, is on a moral basis, not an empirical basis.
It's not something that you're going to see or feel or touch or run through a formula and get an answer.
God has created man as a moral being. He didn't create the dog that way. Dog does not have moral consciousness before God, but you do and I do, and God thus has revealed himself to man on that basis, a moral basis. Would you change the rules and ask for a miracle so that you can believe? Do you want some other evidence than a moral?
Introduction of God to man.
That the Lord Jesus when he met man as a man and spoke with man.
Here on this earth, it was always to man's conscience.
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He did not form a debating society or a Mensa or anything else. He approached every man.
On a moral basis. And that puts us all on the same level. Now if we're going to reject that, it's all over. There's no hope.
There is no reconstruction of your life. The Rubik's Cube is hopeless.
We have to settle for that. Why? Because God sensed the rules and when he told man Adam here that in the day that thou eatest thereof.
Thou shalt surely die. God has put this on a moral basis. He has formed the rules, just as He has in the natural creation with gravity. If I drop this book off the end of this shelf, gravity takes that at a certain particular speed.
And it reaches, perhaps if it's dropped, tying off a terminal velocity, and it hits the ground and there is a certain impact. It works every time. God has established the rules. And so also in moral things. In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. He didn't leave it in a nebulous form. He spelled it out exactly the way it would happen.
And so the book is full of these moral ordinances or precepts.
That if we think that we can break, we are going to have to suffer the consequences. It always works that way. If you go out tomorrow on the baseball field and hit a ball left field and run the first base and back home.
John Iwaki will be on 3rd and he's going to go like this and he does it with professional acumen. I like the way he officiates a baseball game.
And you're going to be out and you might say, but I didn't want to go all the way around there.
But you have to. And if you do it any other way, Doubleday is going to have something to say about it because he wrote the rules of the game and you got to play according to the rules. And so when God lays down these rules for us, for our lives, it's for a purpose. And if we break the rules, we're going to suffer the consequences. And it happens every time.
Now Satan comes in and he says you can break the rules.
That's exactly what he says, and that's what he's telling you today at school and at work and from your neighbor, and everybody around is singing the same song. You can break the rules. God doesn't see it. God doesn't care. God isn't there. God is dead, whatever they have to say about it.
Not so.
And that's why this world is like a Rubik's Cube. And when, when Adam, when Eve and Adam sinned here as we go on with this, well, that was the first twist of the Rubik's Cube, but there's no getting back. And now we see things compounded and geometrically.
Progressing into further chaos and disorder because of sin.
And every sin is another twist of the Rubik's Cube. And there may be somebody here that can master a Rubik's Cube, but if you put 1000 numbers on a side, it's out of our realm. And that's where the world is. It's out of our realm to correct it. But what is God doing? Well, the enemy comes in and does his work.
Thou shalt.
Yeah, hath God said, ye shall not eat every tree of the garden? The woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden, but the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, Goddess said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest you die. And I said already that this instruction was given to Adam before Eve was taken from his rib. So you know that Adam passed this on to Eve, gave her this instruction, He gave her the answer.
And now she is being tested on the answer.
We're always tested on the answers. It's not the questions. You can get the questions in the philosophy classes at college, but you'll never get the answers. God gives us the answers and then he tests us on the answers.
And Eve had the answer, and now she's under the test. Did you ever flunk a test where you already have the answer?
How about before God? You know the answers.
You know that God is holy and God is righteous. Have we ever flunked the test?
But the fruit of the tree, which is in verse four. And the serpent said unto the woman, the.
He said. Come on Eve, you don't believe that, do you?
Ye shall not surely die, take it from me.
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He's subtle. He knows just how to get in there. We're no match. We are not free moral agents, and the only safety that we have is independence upon the one who is greater than this one.
Dependence upon the Lord Jesus, submission to Him.
For ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. And if Christ therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.
And there's no other freedom.
We are not free moral agents. Left to ourselves, our only freedom is in Christ, and we are to stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ.
Have made us free and there is no other alternative.
There's no other way out.
Serpent says Ye shall not surely die, for God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened.
The eyes you shall be as gods.
Knowing good and evil. And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, the lust of the flesh, and it was pleasant to the eyes. The lust of the eyes. And a tree to be desired, to make one wise the pride of life.
And the enemy is still working in that way. And so he did with the Lord Jesus in the wilderness when he tempted him. And so he does on the billboards today and through the medias, the advertising.
Techniques uses these same 3 techniques.
For when she saw that.
Free moral agent. She was better off than we were, or she was in that place of innocency. She didn't have a fallen nature.
She took of the fruit thereof and did eat, and gave also under her husband with her, and he did eat. And it doesn't say anything about a dialogue between Satan the serpent.
And Adam?
There's no dialogue there.
She gave also unto her husband with her, and he did eat. Why?
While he knew the answer.
And he knew exactly what was going to happen.
That he was going to die.
You know the Lord Jesus came down and the only way that he could redeem us.
From death is to go into death himself.
That's his heart toward us, and that's why he came.
I'm just going to suggest that in this, and I'm not going to be dogmatic and limited to this, but Adam loved Eve.
You can imagine it. She was a helpmate. He could commune with her, he could talk to her. He loved her.
Well, the eyes of both of them were opened and they knew that they were naked.
They knew that they were naked and the last verse of the last chapter, they were both naked and they weren't not they were not ashamed. And if we have a good conscience before God, we're not ashamed. But if we have a bad conscience, we're naked because neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight. We're all laid naked and bare before the eyes of him with whom we have to do, and it's embarrassing.
For an offender to get into the presence of God when he's not at peace with God, listen, it's hard, it's embarrassing.
Henness and Henna's prayer in Samuel she says the wicked shall be silent in darkness.
You know why they're silent? This is outer darkness.
Cast out.
Because they have nothing to say. They have no rebuttal, the arguments over Mantle argued today. But in Outer Darkness, there's nothing, there's nothing to say.
It's like.
Probably happened to you, but when my children did something wrong, it's been a long time ago. It may happen again.
And I said, no, why did you do that? They were probably four or five years old. And, and they stood there on one foot and the other and they were looking down at the ground. I said, why did you do that? Did you hear me? I said, why did you do that? And they didn't answer. They look at the ground. I don't know what was so intriguing about their toes, but they wouldn't look up, couldn't look at me, you know?
And they had nothing to say.
And I've done the same thing.
And so do the wicked.
In darkness, silence. Nothing to answer.
They were naked, they were embarrassed, so they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves aprons.
Well, I want to talk a little more about this serpent. What do we know about the serpent?
In First Timothy three, I think it's the sixth verse, it says not a novice.
Lest being puffed up, they fall into the same condemnation of the devil.
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But a window for us to look into and see something about what happened to this created being the serpent.
Where he went wrong?
Being lifted up, he falls into condemnation.
Turning to Ezekiel chapter 28 and we will look in on a conversation.
That God is having with Satan.
And he is having this conversation with with Satan.
By speaking to him through the King of Tyre.
Ezekiel 28, verse 11.
And we'll see what happened here. I don't know when Satan was created. He's a created being.
And perhaps it was the beginning of the creation of the universe. I just suggest that doesn't say as far as I know.
Moreover, the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Son of man, take up a lamentation upon the king of Tyrus.
We are listening in now to a conversation that God is having with Satan.
Through the King of Tyre.
Thou shalt die the deaths of the uncircumcised by the hand of strangers. For have spoken it, saith the Lord God. Moreover, the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Son of Man, take up a lamentation upon the king of Tyrus. This is verse 12. And say unto him, Thus saith the Lord God, thou sealest up the sun, full of wisdom, and perfect and beauty, a high creation. Thou hast been in Eden, the garden of God.
We've been reading about that every precious stone was like covering the Sardis, the Topaz, the diamond, the barrel, the Onyx, the Jasper, the sapphire, the emerald and the carbuncle and gold the workmanship of thy.
Tablets and of thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou wast created.
Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth, and I have set thee soul. God put him in this place of authority.
God has established him there.
I have set thee so. Thou wast upon the holy mountain of God, Thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire. Thou was perfect, and by ways from the day that thou was created, till iniquity was found in the And what was that iniquity? I believe it's that that I mentioned there in first Timothy three. I think it's the sixth verse.
Till pride was found in him.
Puffed up and now under condemnation.
By the multitude of thy merchandise they have filled the midst of thee with violence, and thou hast sinned. Therefore I will cast thee as a as profane out of the mountain of God, and I will destroy the old covering cherub. From the midst of the stones of fire thine heart was lifted up. Because of thy beauty, thy heart was lifted up. We saw that in Timothy.
Thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness. I will cast thee to the ground. I will lay thee before kings, that they may behold thee. Thou hast defiled thy sanctuaries by the in multitude of thine iniquities, by the iniquity of thy traffic. He was sent there over this creation of God as gods. You might say, Priest, to intercede to, to take up God's affairs in creation here.
Traffic to buy and to sell to do merchandise.
There was a certain amount of traffic which was committed.
To Satan.
On God's behalf, God sets one's in authority, sets principalities and powers in place.
Therefore will I bring forth a fire from the midst of thee, it shall devour thee, and I will bring thee to ashes upon the earth, in the sight of all them that behold thee.
In Revelation.
Look at Revelation 12, verse 7.
And we are dealing now in a sphere, in a realm in a dimension that we can't enter into.
We don't function there.
We deal in the dimensions of height, width, breadth, time and space, and that's as far as we can go, and that's all we know.
But God speaking to us in language of accommodation that we can learn.
Is telling us of that dimension in which He dwells and things that are happening there. And so in Revelation 12 and verse seven, and there was war in heaven and we understand war on earth.
00:25:09
Nations fight, people die some of us were talking last night about the Geneva Convention and rules of warfare and so on and so on made the comment war is not romantic and it's not we know a little bit about war as man well, there was war in heaven Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon fought and his angels and prevailed not neither was their place found anymore in heaven and the.
Dragon was cast out, that old serpent called the Devil and Satan which deceiveth, he's still deceiving the whole world. This whole world is a lie, a deceptive.
Attractive.
Lie, it's Satan's world. He was cast out into the earth and his angels were cast out with him. Now in Revelation chapter 20.
And I saw an Angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. We understand bottomless, we understand pit, we understand chain.
You might ask, how do angels fight?
There is Michael with his angels, and there is Satan with his angels.
And Satan is cast out of heaven. There's no room for him there. How does this happen?
Are angels slain like we understand warfare in the natural among men. When a person, when a soldier is slain in battle, he's neutralized. He's no longer a contestant. His will, therefore, is no longer active or engaged in the combat. We understand that.
We have a bottomless pit and a great chain, and he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the devil and Satan, and bound him 1000 years. This is before the Millennium, before the.
Messianic Kingdom, the thousand year reign of Christ on earth. And he takes the devil and bounds and binds him. 1000 years we understand binding, and cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him that he should deceive the nations no more. So we have a bottomless, a pit, a great a chain.
Shut up. Set a seal upon him.
We understand these things and beyond that, I can't tell you exactly what's going on there, but I know this by this description that Satan is put in that place where he is no longer able to deceive. He is taken out of the battle, so to speak. He is removed. How does how does that happen?
He was not shocked. There was not a bomb, there were not the natural, the what we understand is weapons of warfare. There was authority, exercise.
And that's how that happened.
And he is bound here for this thousand years and then?
When we go to the end of the chapter in verse 11.
Well, start with verse seven. And when the 1000 years were expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison. He shall go out to deceive. He never changes. He was the same in the Garden of Eden. He was the same in the wilderness when he tempted the Lord. And he's the same today, the deceiver offering something that God hasn't offered. And Eve thought she was getting something better than what she had. And every time we deviate from God's order, we have the idea that we're getting something.
In some way that we can bless ourselves with, in a better way than God can do it.
And every time we deviate from God's order, we have the idea that we're getting something in some way that we can bless ourselves with in a better way than God can do it.
And if we realize that we don't get away at setting our will and pitting our will against God, we cannot get away with it. He has established the rules. Just like I said in the natural scene, we so we reap if we realize that we do not get away with pitting our wills against God.
And we realized what the consequences of such an action is. We'd be less apartment to try it.
But that enemy is more subtle than any beast of the field, and we are not a free moral agent, and our only safety is independence upon the Lord Jesus Christ.
00:30:02
So Satan is loosed. He's up to his same operation.
Verse 10 The devil that deceived them was now he's taken again. Fire came down from God out of heaven and devoured them. The end of verse nine. There wasn't a general rebellion at the end of this thousand year period that Satan leads again.
God comes in in judgment. The devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone. We understand fire. We understand brimstone, We understand lake. Lake has boundaries, it has perimeters. It is a confinement. We understand fire and brimstone. It's judgment. And I can't tell you any more than that. That's as far as God goes in this language of accommodation to us, speaking to us in terms that we do understand.
To tell us something about what is, what his purposes are, what is going to happen, and these are warnings.
Was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are and shall be tormented day and night, forever and ever, forever and ever, forever and ever. Everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels. And God did not purpose that man would be there. He had purposed man for blessing.
And I saw a great white throne in him that sat on it. A great white throne. It's great. It's all-encompassing. Nobody escapes it. It's white, it's spotless, it's pure. It's a throne. It speaks of judgment.
And him that sat on it, who is sitting there? There is a judge there that has an all discerning eye.
And the lawyers, the best that man can produce, are down in Los Angeles, playing their games, trying to persuade, trying to.
Turn judgments to their favor concerning the case that's going on down there.
And people don't know for sure.
And in the court system, you establish a jury and a judge and lawyers, and they present their cases and you do the best you can because you don't know all the facts for sure. But here we're dealing with a great white throne and everything is known.
And nothing escapes.
And him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heavens fled away, and there was found no place for them.
And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God. And these are those who are there without Christ and without hope.
The righteous are not there at the Great White Throne. Judgment. We do not come into judgment. Verily, verily, I send to you. He that heareth my words and believeth on him that sent me shall not come into judgment. No judgment. This is for those who are standing.
There to be judged for all that they've done. And how do we know what was done? The books were opened. We understand books. Information is in books.
And the books are open now. It's information is going to be revealed. It's an open book.
And another book was opened, which was the book of life, and the dead were judged out of those things were which were written in the books according to their works what they had done. Would you like to stand before Christ at the great white throne, in view of everything that you have ever done?
And the sea gave up the dead which were in it.
When I was in Vietnam flying over there, I lost a number of comrades and some of them went into the ocean and they were never recovered.
And I'm sure that if you went there to where they crashed and started looking for them, I doubt if you would find a thing even if you knew where to look. But the sea gives up its death.
All are returned here.
And death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them, and they were judged every man according to their works.
This is the end. Now the final.
Judgment in which Satan is bound and all those who have not received Christ as Savior. And what a solemn thing because we're talking about forever and ever. And I didn't mention that several times because I was stuttering. I'm trying to impress you that this is forever and ever, and it is to the conscious soul.
Now we'll go back.
To Genesis 3.
We have seen here.
The creation purged.
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The Rubik's Cube is put back together there in the end.
Of revelation. Things are put back together in a new heaven and a new earth, and all is purged. Every sin in this earth is gone. As John the Baptist said, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. He's taken away our sins on the cross. Every sin that has ever been committed must be taken away by some form of judgment.
And so the Lord Jesus bore the judgment of the believers sins.
Stands on Calvary's tree. Those sins are judged and put away. God is holy to judge them. He would not be holy if he didn't judge sin, if he swept them under the rug. If I could speak that way. God and mercy has saved us not by sweeping our sins under the rug, but by judging the perfect substitute in our place. And all those sins are gone. But the sins of the world that continue in rebellion against God will be.
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