Lassen Pines Family Camp: 1995
Table of Contents
God's Eternal Counsels #1: The Bride
Address—Dave Spence
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Could we open our Bibles to?
Chapter that was opened to by our brother Doug this morning. Ephesians chapter one. And for the next three days, Lord willing, I would just like to look at Ephesians in the light of.
The bride of Christ.
When we mention the word bride, it's it sounds a chord in our hearts. It is in this book that we have the doctrine of the bride of Christ.
In the Old Testament book of Song of Solomon, it is really the musings and the communications of the bride and the bridegroom. It's there, the literal experience they have. So if you want to put the two books together, you can.
Here we have the doctrine, but we're going to have some we trust, some very practical things that would.
Enrich our lives and encourage our hearts.
In the first chapter of the book of Ephesians, it's speaking to you and me very simply of God's counsels.
Concerning a bride for his son.
Ponder that just a little bit in your own hearts.
God's counsels concerning Christ and a bride for His Son.
In the second chapter, it's the way that God took to form this bride.
That will go on through time and eternity. That is the Church.
The bride of Christ.
In the third chapter, it's the way that the Lord showed this blessed truth, the instrument that he chose the Apostle Paul to deliver such marvelous truth to attract the hearts of his people.
And in chapter four we have the.
Very practical side, that is, how to walk consistently, connecting ourselves with such rich and precious doctrine.
Knowing that we are the bride of Christ, and that goes on through chapter 6 of this blessed book.
Let's just read the first few verses and then we'll make a few comments. Ephesians chapter one verse one Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God to the Saints which are at Ephesus and to the faithful in Christ Jesus.
Grace be to you, and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. 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 according to 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 his good pleasure, which he hath purposed in himself. Now I asked you, beloved friends and dear young people, what world you are living in today.
Because there is a world that has an influence over all of our lives.
And it's a world that has and exerts power, attractiveness, it allures our hearts, and sometimes it forms our thinking and the direction for our lives and the choice even of a bride.
Or of one that would be your groom.
And we need to have our thoughts and hearts purified by the word of God so that we have God's thoughts concerning our pathway, relationships and objectives for this life. We need to have these things clearly before us because the moment that we divert, as our brother spoke about Peter following afar off last night, we often become.
Disillusioned and we lose discernment for our direction and.
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We lose that purpose of life.
And purpose of heart.
And the thought that we lose the sense of his claim upon our lives.
There were many the Lord Jesus Christ met with who lived in a world of delusion and despair and darkness, if you please.
One of them was a leper, And he came to Jesus, and he said, If thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. Was his world changed?
Yes, it was, because Jesus said I will be thou clean.
Here is a man who went home.
A cleansed leper. Think of how his family must have felt when they saw him walk in the door.
Another one, who was carried by 4 and let down through the tiling in the roof, into the presence of the Lord in this House.
He was healed, and he picked up his bed, and he carried it home.
Think of what he was met with at the door step.
The astonishment of his parents.
And the thrill that went through their hearts. And his too, of course.
Because here was a man who was lame and now was walking the man who sat at the temple.
We read in Acts early chapters of Acts, Acts chapter 3. Perhaps here he was laying and sitting at the the temple and he was healed.
And he sprang up and leaping and jumping, praising God. Think about this, beloved, the healing touch of the Lord through Peter and John. Think of what his parents must have saw, felt when he walked up the doorstep into the house.
And we could even talk about the wise men who journeyed all of that distance to find.
Not the Lord Jesus Christ in the Manger, but Jesus when he was in the house in Matthew chapter 2.
And they gave him gifts of gold and frankincense and myrrh. And then it says, they returned and went home another way. Their lives had been totally changed by the impact of that blessed one upon their hearts. How will we go home, beloved friends?
How will we go home from these meetings together?
Suppose that you were to approach your doorstep and.
You begin to knock on the door. Your mom comes to the door and you say to her.
Mom.
I am a bride.
Going to be a bright.
I just thought I'd better tell you now, What kind of an impact would that have upon your mother?
Or you guys, What kind of an impact would it have on your parents if you said?
I've met. I've met a young lady that's going to be a bride, my bride.
I'm sure it would. They'd be quite astonished.
And they want to hear all about it. But you know, beloved, you and I who belong to the Lord Jesus Christ.
Can go home and say because of the claim of love that is upon us, we are part of the bride of Christ. I walked into the bathroom this morning and the first voice that I heard was something like this.
Now I belong to Jesus.
Jesus belongs to me.
Now, some of you might be able to guess who that was, but he's a dear brother here, sitting on the other side of the room, Bob Brimelow and I appreciated that him. It really, it really spoke to my heart, because we should have the sense of belonging, beloved, belonging.
Do we belong to this world?
We're not of the world that fadeth away. We're not of the night, but children of day.
Now there were councils concerning Rebecca by Abraham to his servant Eliezer. If you read Genesis chapter 24, that was referred to Lord's Day Morning.
And they talked about a bride for Isaac. And it was very necessary that Isaac have a bride, but he was not to be chosen. She was not to be chosen of the daughters of the Canaanites.
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And the father told the servant very clearly, go down into Mesopotamia and take one of my own kindred and bring her here, so that my son can have a bride. And he did that. Rebecca had no knowledge of these wonderful councils concerning that which was going to take place in her life. No knowledge whatsoever. But it all took place, because there was divine councils above that guided the whole thing.
And when the servant got down into Mesopotamia, remember the dependence and the prayer of this dear man as he stood by the well. And he said, Lord.
Be merciful to me, so to speak, that the first one that comes and I ask a drink of and she gives me a drink, and my animals drink that that would be the one that would be the bride.
For my master son, and it came to pass. It happened just exactly as he desired it after having traveled those hundreds of miles.
He wanted to make sure he made no mistake and beloved. There have been councils.
Plans for a bride for God's son that you and I had nothing to do with. Secret counsels in a past eternity that we read of right here. Are these things profound or be beyond our ability to take in In a measure they are, but they're very simple. Look at the story of Rebecca and put yourself in her place. She knew nothing about those wonderful councils, but God saw to it by a hand of divine wisdom and love.
He guided her all the way back into that land of Canaan.
And she became the wife of Rebecca. Now there are some lessons to learn, I believe, from this wonderful story in Genesis chapter 24. And that is sisters.
Wait on the Lord?
And again I say, wait, I don't know that Rebecca was out shopping. Doesn't say that she was.
But it makes it very clear that there was one bride for Rebecca.
And this servant was so careful and so selective that he might bring the right one home for his masters son.
And he made no mistake. God is so careful that he's going to bring home the exact and select chosen bride for his son that he has counseled and predestined in a past eternity.
I believe there is one partner for you for life. It doesn't mean that if we make a mistake, God can't overrule and.
Give give blessing to our lives. That He does, and we have seen it over and over again. But I believe the important thing is waiting on the Lord in these issues.
Waiting on the Lord, and you won't be disappointed. You set your heart on Christ and His will, and in His time for you it says, the Scripture says, And he will bring it to pass. He will bring it to pass. Unquestionably so.
But we must hurry on, instead of talking about real, practical things, to think concerning God's desire for a bride for his Son.
Chosen in him before the foundations of the world, that we might be holy without blame before him in love.
When we look at our lives and the position that we are in as children of God, marked out because of this wonderful fact of God choosing us and we having no choice in the matter, it makes our hearts.
Just rejoice with Thanksgiving that he loved us so much.
Chosen in him the Lord Jesus told his own Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, that you should bring forth fruit unto life eternal.
Chosen in him. But the problem was this. There was a barrier between our lives and and Christ and God, and that was the barrier of sin. We could be chosen, but we're chosen not in our own standing, or in our own person, or because of our own merit, but we're chosen in Him, in Christ, before the foundations of the world. At what great cost has God gone to beloved friends to display to you?
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The magnificence of His love, his wisdom.
And his Grace.
Make no mistake about it, if you're if you are a child of God, no matter what happens in your life, you are going to be there as the bride of Christ, and you'll be at the marriage supper of the lamb that we have in Revelation chapter 19. You will be there.
But the problem is, along the way God has over abounded to us, super abounded to us in all wisdom and prudence, so to speak, that we might know what He has done.
Now I believe this was part of the discussion that Rebecca and the servant had as they wound their way home.
Back to the land of Canaan, where she would meet her bridegroom, and it was told of course to the family members, as they gathered together what the councils of Abraham and the servant were concerning the son of Abraham.
Would not that have made Rebecca's heart filled with such joy?
And blessing and Thanksgiving to God, so to speak.
Because she had nothing to do with it whatsoever, nothing whatsoever to do with it. All she had to say was, I will go. This was planned in a secret council that she knew nothing of. Now friends, let's just drop that right into our laps. Shut out the world that you've been operating in and that's been influencing you and change over into the world that God wants you to step into this afternoon and live in the rest of your life.
While we wait for the coming of the blessed bridegroom.
Do you really wish, beloved, to live in that world of joy and love and peace?
A world that can thrill your heart and fill your heart to overflowing.
So that you won't have to say, well, should I choose this allurement or this to go the way of this temptation, your heart will be so filled with Christ that you will not want anything but him.
Chosen in him before the foundation of the world.
That we might be holy and without blame before Him in love without holding. That we might be holy and without blame before Him in love. Holiness would refer to the nature that God has given to us because of all that His Son has done at the cross, we did not have a nature. We were by nature the children of wrath. Even as others we have a nature naturally speaking, that is at enmity.
And alienated towards God.
By wicked works a nature that does not love God.
I remember my.
Family member saying of her granddaughter that she had a granddaughter that would always love God and later on in her life she found that that granddaughter drifted far from God and was at enmity, did not even believe in God, much less God's son.
We are born dead in trespasses and sins. That's the second chapter.
But to be holy without.
Blame. That's our standing, and we have a new nature in Christ, a new life in Christ.
But we have a new standing too. We stand in the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ.
How wonderful. God has provided it all. And now He's talking in these first few verses about His counsels concerning you and me. And He wants us to be to recognize the great place of blessing that we occupy as the bride of Christ.
The careful selection.
And the diligence that he has gone to, if we may so say, concerning choosing you for himself. And he did not choose you or me, because he saw anything in US.
In one sense.
But he chose us because of what he is, and God is love.
And the second thing he's predestinated us according to the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself.
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The adoption of children, that means that we were not children naturally.
I have 3 adopted children as grandchildren.
They are truly loved, beloved. Some of you may be adopted, I don't know, but there is a very unique love towards those that that have been brought into a family, not by blood, but by adoption.
We've been adopted by Jesus Christ unto himself that brings in relationship.
We're going to be holy without blame before him in love.
We can love God now and have that free exchange of love because we have his nature.
But we have relationship privilege as children in his presence.
And the bride of Christ will occupy that place of relationship forever.
The closest, we may say, to the heart of the Lord Jesus Christ for eternity.
None closer than the bride. Oh, there will be other families in heaven. John the Baptist, in John chapter three, said he that hath the bride is the bridegroom. But the friend of the bridegroom heareth his voice, and rejoiceth greatly. So he classifieds himself as the friend of the bridegroom.
But he heard and recognized the Lord Jesus Christ as the bridegroom for the Church, one who had come to purchase a wife, a bride, for eternity.
Have we recognized? I know we talk about Jesus as Lord, and that's wonderful if we need that.
But if you ever recognize, have I ever come to that place of blessed relationship to own him as my bridegroom?
My beloved is mine, it says in the Song of Solomon, And his desire is towards me. The bridegroom's desire is towards the bride.
Behold, I stand at the door and knock. That's the bridegroom knocking at the door of the brides heart.
His desire is towards us. What does he want, beloved? He wants.
Our hearts.
And it's according to the good pleasure of his will.
God is ordering all of these things to satisfy his own heart. Have you ever thought about your Christianity in that light?
We think about we're saved and we're gathered perhaps through the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's wonderful. And we think about how to get through every day, read some scriptures and we pray and that's that's very wonderful. But have we ever looked at the other side of the spectrum? God is working to bring satisfaction and joy to his own heart by giving his Son the gift of a bride.
The work of of God in supplying this wonderful gift to his Son and seeing in the end of this chapter, it's the fullness of him that filleth. All in all, it's his final work. It's his complete work, we might say. It's his crowning work.
But it's through redemption.
Verse 7 In whom we have redemption through his blood.
It's blessed to think of God's heart just flowing out to you and me right now.
He's abounded to us in all wisdom and prudence. He wants us to know his secrets, his counsel, that he's not only going to give you joy and happiness and you're going to occupy that most intimate place as the bride of Christ, but he's saying.
I'm bringing joy to my own heart. Remember dear young person.
He's bringing joy to his own heart. Are we giving him that joy? Are we in the circle of his love? Are we worshippers? Or are we just floating through life, disregarding who we really belong to? That now I really do belong to Jesus.
We have redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins. I would have put that at the first of the chapter, but God was so.
Intent, we might say, to let us know how he is abounding towards us, he says. The first thing is you are chosen before the foundation of the world.
And before sin ever came in, God had the remedy. How different it is in the world when a disease strikes the world.
We look for a remedy. Science looks for something to take care of it. But God had the remedy before it ever happened. That sin came in. Why? Because his counsels were concerning having a bride for his son.
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Oh, the perfection of his ways. The wisdom of his heart marvelous when we just sit in the sunshine of that world that he's called us into. We can sit there today. We can go home living in the world, so to speak, of heaven that he's called us to. The Saints at Ephesus were a class of people that were going on in the worst kinds of of wickedness and idolatry that this world has ever seen, even the worship of the human body.
Awful, degrading, immoral. And we see this nation going that way itself.
They worship the image that had fallen down from Jupiter.
And then, of course, the center of that world's worship was right there. There was the temple of Diana, but there were many that were saved as a result of Paul's preaching at Ephesus in Acts chapter 1819. Perhaps, but they were so intent on.
Making sure they got rid of Paul and those that were preaching, they chanted for two hours. Great as the goddess of Diana of the Ephesians, Great is the goddess Diana of the Ephesians for two solid hours. And friends. That's the kinds. That's the kind of power Satan holds over this world. And the rulers of the darkness of this world hold that kind of captivity over their captives.
But those who were saved and delivered from that idolatrous way, it says they piled all of their treasures together and it amounted to 50,000 pieces of silver. And immediately they just bounced up into this world that we're talking about today that we should be living in. We who have not been degraded, so to speak, in that kind of lifestyle and idolatry, We hear most of us, most of us have been raised in Christian homes.
They saw the filth, the emptiness, the sorrow of living such a life, the vanity of it all. And the whole world had gone after that idolatry worshipping Diana, the whole world in that day.
And they turned against that world, and many preached in that day, and they turned the world upside down.
Completely, because they had been delivered out of such a sphere of darkness. And now the problem is the world turns us upside down and we get we really get stuck in a rut and inhabits and in friendships that lead to marriage that can be ruinous to a life that Christ has sanctified, so to speak, and set apart for himself and even set positionally in a heavenly sphere.
And we're living way, way, way below our privileges. Way below our privileges.
There was a little boy who was adopted into a.
A wealthy family, the family of a king.
And he was seen holding up his rags that he used to wear.
As he looked into the mirror in his bedroom.
And shedding tears of joy.
For use, he thought of what he used to be and the way he used to live.
Tears of joy.
He'd been delivered from it all. He'd been adopted into this wealthy family. Think of the family, beloved, that we have been adopted into.
Are we going back to the filthy rags and the things of this life?
That are garments of pleasures, of sin for a season.
Think of the world that Moses left in his day, The world that he left.
World of charm. But as a world of opportunity, he was going to inherit the throne of glory.
But the scripture says that when he was 40 years of age, he refused to be called the son of Pharaohs daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, esteeming the reproach of Christ, greater riches, greater riches than the treasures of Egypt. Here was one in a position of opportunity, a position of wealth and favor, and in line for the throne. And he left it all for a greater inheritance, we might say, not the inheritance that we'll have, which is the highest with Christ.
But the inheritance of faith, we might say.
And yet, we as Christians, we sink down into a way of life.
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That as we look back on our life, we say, I want to go back, I want to go back, I want to leave this world of joy that I was once in, that doesn't seem to be quite so illuminated and find something in the world that's exactly what the children of Israel wanted to do. In their hearts. They remembered the leeks, the onions, the melons, the garlics, the cucumbers and the fish.
And it attracted their hearts, their natural hearts.
And now we have verse 9. Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, What is the mystery of his will? It's that in the dispensation of the fullness of time, God is going to gather in one all things together, in one, in Christ.
Both which are in heaven and both which are in earth.
God is going to gather all things together in notice, friends, the Christ. The Christ.
One Corinthians chapter 12 verse 12 Says this for as the body is 1 and hath many members.
And all the members of that body, being many, are one. So also is the Christ.
You know what God calls you if you're a Christian? In the counsels of God, he calls the members of the body of Christ.
Notice the Christ, the Christ. Brother Bob and I were fellowshipping on that this morning. Wonderful. He calls you the Christ. And we go out in the world, and we think that we are our own. We can do what we please, and we can in a certain sense. But do you want to, beloved?
Do you want to?
We are members of his body, of his flesh and of his bones.
For this cause a man should leave his father and mother in Cleveland to his wife, and they shall be 1 flesh. We are one with Jesus. Just remember that. May we all remember that when we're tempted to go the wrong direction.
God calls us the very name of his beloved Son.
In view of the marriage day, in fact we are one with him. Now what? Know ye not that you're bought with a price. Therefore, glorify God in your body and in your spirits, which are His.
The next blessed thing, friends, is verse 11. We see that not only are we chosen, we are predestinated. We are accepted in the Beloved One in all that He is. We are actually in heaven now as far as God sees us. But in spirit is another thing. We have redemption through His blood, that even the forgiveness of sins. He's abounded to us in all wisdom and prudence made known unto us the mystery of His will, that he's going to gather together all things in the Christ, and that means you and I together with Him, we're going to reign with Him.
The bride will be the closest to him throughout eternity, but in the Millennium we will reign with him.
This world will look up and see a spectacle.
In the sky, I truly believe Christ and His bride.
And here we find the bride has an inheritance.
Did Rebecca have an inheritance when she got back to the land of Canaan?
Oh, she sure did.
Her heart was so filled, too, I'm sure, but by the time she had trials along the way, that was hundreds of miles that she rode that camel. Now you can think that that was not like riding in a Cadillac or a Jaguar.
It was a rough trip.
But her heart was so full of Isaac. When she got off, she covered her head. Got off the camel. She covered her head because she recognized her head, Isaac. And you know, friends, when our hearts are filled with the Lord Jesus Christ.
We'll want to make much of Christ and nothing of ourselves.
As his bride.
We have an inheritance and then we read where the Gentiles came in. In verse 13 and verse 14, it's the end of verse 13. It says you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise. God has put his seal upon the work of Christ to guarantee the Holy Spirit that is given to you and me, to indwell our bodies, that he's going to finish that work. It's going to be, he's going to carry you all the way. It's an official stamp, a divine stamp, we might say, because.
The work of Christ is complete. It's done nothing to be added to it.
We have the Holy Spirit living within us, which is the earnest of our inheritance, until the redemption of the purchased possession were purchased by blood.
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And in the New Testament Greek, there's a very touching word. It's a kind of a bridle word.
And it's this. Beloved. Now, girls, you think about this.
The earnest means and engagement ring.
How the Holy Spirit would woo our hearts, beloved.
We have been espoused unto Christ as unto A chaste virgin.
In Christ.
But as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety, Even so our heart should be corrupted, and they are very easily corrupted from the simplicity or the single eye for Christ.
We've been engaged. We've received an engagement ring. My wife always gets upset because I lose my ring all the time and I had to buy a new one recently. But you know, that engagement ring will will never, never lose.
And it's a signal of eternal love. And it's like earnest money that's been given.
Let's say towards a house, Oregon, the purchase of some property. Let's say the property is worth $50,000 and the one who's going to purchase the property pays 100,000 for it.
Just as security to make sure it doesn't slip away.
That's the kind of earnest money that's been given to you and me, the Holy Spirit, the third person of the the Godhead to indwell us.
To make sure that we are taken home to glory because we are part of the purchased possession. We are the bride, part of the bride of Christ. That's the claim he puts upon us. That's the importance he wants you to feel.
You feel depressed about your life and your circumstances. Do you feel discouraged? Look on, beloved.
You can enjoy what you're going to step into right now, and the Holy Spirit will just flood your soul with joy.
Joy, unspeakable and full of glory. Now in the few verses that follow, it's just a prayer. And Paul is saying that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the verse right here, the Father of glory, may give unto you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him we've learned about.
What's going to happen to you and me? We're chosen in him before the foundations of the world, and we might be holy without blame before him in love.
We've been predestinated, we're accepted in the Beloved and all of those things. And now he gives us the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the Knowledge.
Not of ourselves, but of Him of Christ, in whom are hid all of the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. And that verse even takes in the church too. Now here's the prayer he prays. We're just going to read it and make little comment, and then we'll be finished. The eyes of your understanding, being enlightened. And that simply means that the eyes of your heart.
Might be open.
This wonderful knowledge we've been reading about, talking about Beloved, Have you ever thanked the Lord for it?
For his secret counsels. I'm sure when Rebecca got back, she got on her knees.
And thanked.
Her God.
For those councils that brought her into such a wealth of blessing.
May the eyes of our hearts be opened. You notice it does not say minds, it affects the heart. Any truth that does not affect the heart can be dangerous or lost.
This is a truth that should affect the heart.
And the scripture says to keep our hearts with all diligence or.
Guarded above anything that is to be guarded because that's where Christ dwells.
That we might know what the hope of his calling is. That is that.
We have been called up like a beggar out of the Dunghill, to be set among the Princess to inherit the throne of Glory.
That's the calling that is ours, and that we might know what the riches of the glory.
Of his inheritance is in the Saints, and that means that Christ is going to come and take His bride first. That's the moment we're waiting for, beloved.
He's going to take us first with him and then in Revelation chapter 19, it says we're going to come back with him.
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And that's when he's going to claim his inheritance with his bride. But he's not going to claim it without her. Because we are one. We are one with him.
Which he wrought in Christ. This is the power, verse 19 And to know the exceeding greatness of his power toward us who believe according to the working of his mighty power, which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality.
And power, and light, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come, and have put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church. To the Church, what is Christ to your heart?
What is he to mine looking unto Jesus?
The author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy the Church.
Yes, that was part of it. That was set before him, endured the cross. And now what is he to the church? He should be everything. Is he everything to you and me? He wants to be. He's available and he's accessible. Which is the body. His body, the fullness of him, that filleth. All in all, the Bible says that in a coming day, very soon, perhaps seven years from today, approximately.
He will come to be glorified in his Saints and admired in all of them that believe. Perhaps we don't give him that place of glory now.
But when we come back with him, the world will see glory because of the Church's compliment. In that sense, it's his glory.
We are one with him and he'll be admired in all of his Saints. His glory will be seen in all of his people and we're to know what is that great power to us Word who believe were to know it.
And that's beloved. What we need to pray for is that we might know these blessed truths. He's going to bring it to pass. All of these things are going to happen, but now are we in the enjoyment of them While we live in the world that we're in, we can change worlds and enter into His sphere and enjoy these blessed things today and make them our own. And it can only be through communion with Him.
By the power of the Holy Spirit, shall we just pray together.
God's Eternal Counsels #2: The Bride's Heart and Head
Address—Dave Spence
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 to turn to Ephesians Chapter 3?
Ephesians chapter 3 and verse 8.
Unto me who am less than the least of All Saints, is this grace given.
That I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ.
And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery which from the beginning of the world hath been hidden, God, who created all things by Jesus Christ.
To the intent that now under the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the Church, the manifold wisdom of God, according to the eternal purpose which He purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord.
In whom we have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of him. Wherefore I desire that ye faint not at my tribulations for you which is your glory. For this 'cause I bow my knees under the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his spirit in the inner man.
That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith.
That he, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with All Saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height, and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge.
That you might be filled with all the fullness of God.
Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask, or think according to the power that worketh in us, unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus, throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.
I therefore the prisoner of the Lord beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation, wherewith ye are called, with all lowliness and meekness, with long-suffering, forbearing one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace. There is one body and one spirit, even as you are called in one hope of your calling.
We had before us yesterday, beloved and I.
I know we rushed over some of those verses in the first chapter, but it had to do with the counsels of God in Christ concerning a bride for his Son, the purpose and counsels of God concerning a bride for his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.
They are councils that he has made known to you, as we mentioned, and it says in the first chapter that he has abounded toward us in all wisdom.
Having made known the mystery of his will, and when it speaks of the mystery in Scripture, it's not something mysterious.
Necessarily it's something as we've had before us in the third chapter, that was hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ, but through the instrumentality of Paul, this mystery concerning Christ and his church or bride.
It's been made known because the Lord committed the preaching of it to the beloved apostle Paul. He was the channel, the instrumentality that God used to present such a a beautiful and a marvelous truth.
And fact, if you please, concerning what he plans.
And has planned to do in an eternity past.
This involves you and me, and as we've read together this afternoon, it's something that involves, not just.
Facts and doctrine, but it attaches itself and should, to our hearts.
We had in the first chapter the many spiritual blessings and there are 8 if you'd like to count them verses one through 13.
You can search that over in your own private time and there discover approximately 8. You might find some more, I don't know, but I have enjoyed 8 spiritual blessings that do not depend upon wealth or health or nationality or whatever your background is. Your abilities, your intelligence to be blessed by them because they are given to you by the God of all, grace.
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And the God who is love because his desire is to dispense upon you, you who believe those wonderful spiritual blessings that are not material blessings. We look for materialistic things in the world all around us. And with Israel it was a material kind of blessing. They could look at the beautiful temple and all of the the order and ritualism that went with it.
And it was very, very beautiful and sensational to the heart.
But it was of God.
But today we worship God in spirit and in truth. Our blessings are not in the world. Although the Lord may bless us with things that He entrusts to us our blessings, we know very well and we've heard many times our heavenly blessings, and our brother reminded us of them this morning.
Our Calling is a heavenly calling, and you know that heavenly calling.
That we've been called to.
We may be fully in the enjoyment of it by the time this day is over.
Is it something that is important for us to consider to get hold of?
Yes.
How would it be if I told you the story yesterday about this little boy who had been adopted into a very wealthy sovereigns family, and he used to hold up his rags over his beautiful suit that he wore once he had been adopted into this family. And he shed tears of joy thinking of the riches that were now his.
But how would it have been if we look at the other side of it, if his adoptive father would sit down with him?
And tell him all that he had planned to do for him a long time ago, to adopt him into his family and to bless him with all of the riches, and he'd have all the food that he'd ever want, and the clothing and the relationships in a kingly family.
And he got up and said.
Well, is that all? Can I go out and play now?
You know how that strikes.
The heart of our Father, which is in heaven. When we are disinterested, we may have said attentively and listen, but really in heart we're disinterested in all of the planning and the councils that He has made concerning you and me, that we might be the closest ones to his Son in heaven. And that's what the bride is, the very closest one, we might say, the very closest partner. In fact, she is one with her husband, with the bridegroom.
And in Ephesians chapter 5 it says that for this cause, verse 31, a man should leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they shall be 1 flesh.
This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the Church. Now there are two verses that show you.
That the Church is going to be the bride of Christ and our brother referred to another verse in Revelation chapter 21. I believe it was this morning that speaks of the lamb's wife and the bride in one verse.
The wife or the bride is considered to be one with her bridegroom, to be a companion with him, to share in all of his interests.
And wealth, activities, pleasures and joys.
All of those things. And beloved, this is the aspect of the bride.
Today we're going to be occupied a little bit for justice, a few moments with the heart of the bride.
And her head or headship we have in Chapter 4.
And some of you, I don't know, may be engaged. I don't know that, but I know that there have been some here that have been engaged in years past and we have spoke to them concerning her engagement or their engagement.
It's very difficult to talk about other subjects to one who's engaged to one whose heart is taken up with her bridegroom. Not true. And sometimes you get a little bit perturbed, maybe because they can't talk about other things. It's just difficult to get them on other subjects that might be of an interest to you because their heart is truly involved and taken up.
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With love.
In the first chapter we ended with a prayer of the Apostle Paul.
Who prayed that we might?
Know the things that God is going to give us and by way of the inheritance.
That we might know these things, and he doesn't necessarily pray. That we might have them, because we all will have them. They are ours. And we heard again this morning that because of the ceiling of the Spirit and the fact that we are already a purchased possession because of the redemptive work of Christ, we've been brought into the family, and we are just as good as having been delivered to heaven already.
You see, So what we need is the power.
So to speak, to to enjoy what God has given us by way of an inheritance and a heavenly calling, a position that we have, that we might know what the hope of Our Calling is. To be with Christ in glory, and that we might know what the riches of the glory of His inheritance is in the Saints. He is going to take his inheritance with his bride.
And in chapter 2, he's occupied with the work that he has gone to with an envied believer to bring them into the church, Jew and Gentile alike, to break down the middle wall of partition so there could be one body.
One body. And now the practice of that, where the body is considered to be a habitation of God by the Spirit. As our brother mentioned this morning, the Spirit of God dwells corporately or collectively in the assembly, not just in what we consider to be the assembly, but the whole body of Christ on the earth. But in chapter 4 it's the practice of that.
There is one body by the Holy Spirit that can never be broken.
But do we keep the unity of the spirit, Beloved?
Is it a desire that there might be a oneness of Christ in his church maintained, and if so, how important is that to each one of us?
Is it important that there is a oneness maintained in a marriage relationship?
Or should there be divided pathways?
It is something that the Bride should be concerned with owning the headship.
That is in the home as our brother brought before us again this morning.
That is what it means, very simply, to keep the unity of the spirit.
The body has a head in heaven and we are going to speak a little bit more about that later and we will close with that, but right now we are occupied with the most blessed subject and it is wonderful to consider.
In thinking about the mystery, it was hid in God before.
The church age, but revealed through the apostle Paul, as we have in verse 3, how that by revelation he made known unto me the mystery. And because of Paul's preaching of the mystery which was Jews and Gentiles being brought into one body, it brought awful persecution to the beloved Apostle Paul, so he says.
The first verse for this cause I Paul the prisoner of Jesus Christ. He does not say I am the prisoner of those officials in Jerusalem or in Rome.
I am the prisoner of Jesus Christ. He took his circumstances from the Lord, and through those circumstances we are able to hold in our hands a volume today of his letters that are so rich with the inspiration.
Of God, because they speak to us today as well as to the beloved Saints and a day gone by.
But now we have read a prayer in this chapter that does not, so to speak.
Show us the power that will be exercised towards us in a coming day, that we might inherit all things, all created things with the bridegroom, but here it's that we might be.
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In the enjoyment of his love.
You know, if we just read the first chapter and we didn't have this chapter, which is really a parenthesis between chapter two and four.
It would go right into our heads, it would be knowledge that would be very wonderful.
But we really would not have perhaps the right balance.
Upon the subject of the inheritance that we consider in the first chapter, and that all things will be gathered together in Christ, in the Christ. And remember that's.
The Lord Jesus Christ, the Bridegroom, and the Church His Bride spoken of there.
Chapter 10 of the first chapter or verse 10 of the first chapter.
But what we need, beloved, is what Paul prays for here. And it says in verse 16 that he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his spirit in the inner man, and wherever he speaks of the riches of his glory. It's not so much the thought of meeting our need as sinners. Now we have that. I believe it was in verse 6, verse seven of the first chapter, when it speaks in whom we have redemption through his blood.
Even the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of His grace, that's meeting our need. The riches of His glory have to do with our association with Him in the inheritance that's coming.
I read a story of a girl who was in the Midwest and she'd been separated from her family. She had run away and become very unhappy and had not contacted her family that was very wealthy for many years and her parents died and they left an inheritance for her. An only child and her parents were multi millionaires. They looked for her for months and months and months and they finally found her.
And told her of all that she had of all of her possessions.
And all of this greatness that was hers.
She didn't even know.
That she was entitled to such an inheritance. She wasn't in the enjoyment of all of these riches and the blessings of these material things.
Oh, she took them very gladly. But I wonder if our hearts are a lot like her concerning the spiritual.
Element The spiritual inheritance.
That we should be in the enjoyment of.
And This is why we need to be strengthened, strengthened with might by His spirit and the inner man. We have food, and we've just enjoyed it for strengthening our bodies.
But may the Lord direct our hearts into the love of God through the Scriptures and by the Holy Spirit that we have before us this morning to connect our hearts and communion with the Lord Jesus Christ.
That we might be strengthened in the inner man.
And notice what the next verse says, that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith, that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with All Saints, and so forth.
You see, what happens is, as our brother mentioned this morning in John Chapter 16, the Spirit of God has come to guide us into all truth.
He will not speak of himself. He would show you things to come.
But he would glorify none other than the Lord Jesus Christ.
Do you ever read the scripture just for information or knowledge or because it's the thing to do? There's no nothing wrong with reading the scriptures.
But may we read the word of God so that the Spirit of God can take the word of God?
And set Christ before us in such a way that our hearts are raptured with His love.
2nd Corinthians chapter 3, verse 17, As a brother stated once is one of the most wonderful verses in scripture. We all with open face or unveiled face beholding the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.
This is how we truly prosper in reading the Scriptures having Christ before us. Whether it's in a prophetic way, whether it's in practical ministry, or whether it's in doctrine, Christ is always preeminently, so to speak, by the Spirit set before our hearts.
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And when this happens.
What does the Spirit of God affect within us?
Love.
Love.
When Mary sat at the feet of Jesus.
What happened to her heart, beloved?
We had before us this morning in the prayer meeting with some of the brothers and sisters, how that Abraham sat in his tent door, no doubt meditating on the things of the Lord.
And it created an effect in his heart, because when he saw these messengers come.
And one of them was the Lord himself.
He ran to meet them.
It created a spontaneity of.
Desire to be in the presence of the Lord. And that's exactly what happened to Mary when she sat at Jesus feet at the end of Luke chapter 10.
We found that her sister was a little bit agitated because she said.
Of something to the Lord about her sister helping her. And Jesus said to Martha, Thou art troubled about many things.
But Mary has chosen that good part that shall not be taken away from her now that preceded John Chapter 12, where she opened up that alabaster box of ointment, and poured it upon the head of Jesus. Now she had no doubt saved that for her bridegroom.
She had probably spent a lot of money about a year's wages, they say, on a box that was of that size.
But she found her bridegroom beloved.
And he was filling her heart.
Sometimes a sister may feel that because she is not married, she's not a complete woman.
And some of you feel that way. Have you ever felt that way that if you end up maybe being single the rest of your life, you will not be a complete woman? Let me ask you a question. Was Mary a complete woman?
Was the Apostle Paul a complete man?
I believe sometimes the enemy can speak words to you that you may feel deprived of a blessing.
Because you haven't met anyone yet.
For marriage partner.
Whether a young man or a young lady.
And in First Corinthians Chapter 7, it says there that the married man careth for the things of his wife how he may please her.
And it's a little bit of a deterrent in his service to the Lord, undoubtedly, is a thought.
But he that is unmarried careth for the things of the Lord, how she may serve him, or he may serve him.
Have you ever put yourself dear young man, dear young lady, brother or sister?
In that chapter, and Justice looked up and thanked the Lord for the relationship you have with him.
That makes you a complete person, complete, blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ. There it all is. The problem is.
We wax wanton against Christ. Now that's Speaking of the widows, the younger widows and Timothy, where after their husbands died or passed away for whatever reason, they waxed wanton against Christ, and it says there that they married.
In other words, there was something that came in to hinder the feeling and joy that should have been theirs as the bride of Christ that would cause them to be in the complete joy of a relationship with Him, recognizing they are a complete person in Christ.
If Christ is dwelling in our hearts, we will have the same response as Mary had, who sat at the feet of Jesus. And then she just poured that ointment that she had saved for her earthly bridegroom. We might say she had saved it for that occasion, meeting that one that would win her heart and take her heart away, and she would marry this one.
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She found one that whose love far surpassed any love she could find in a human relationship.
May the Lord so bless each one of you in that regard.
That's what we might call bridal affections.
She was lost in wonder, love and praise, and so much so that when the others spoke against her for wasting this ointment, she didn't say a word.
But the Lord Jesus did. He defended her.
He said that will be spoken in the Gospels in the ages, in the in the time to come, the act that this woman has done upon me.
What really counts in our lives? Beloved young friends.
Having those bridal affections was the apostle Paul or Mary?
Two special instruments that were so unique that they had this, this joy and this communion in their lives that no one else can have.
If you read verse 20 of this chapter, it makes it very clear that is not true.
Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask, or think, according to the power that worketh in US.
In other words, there is a power through the Holy Spirit if the Spirit of God is ungrieved in our lives.
If there is no hindrance between our souls and the Lord Jesus Christ, nothing between my soul and the Savior, as the little hymn says.
And we are seeking him as David sought the Lord, because he was a man.
After the Lord's own heart, and though David stumbled and fell, and he had faults.
The Lord speaks of him as one who sought him in his life.
And he loved the Lord, and he sat before the Lord in his presence.
And when we get that word sitting, that simply means get into a position or a posture.
In your home, Oregon, whoever it might be, where you can.
Sit before the Lord in complacency, that is.
To put all other things, responsibilities, demands upon your mind and time out of your mind so that you can just enjoy the Lord Jesus Christ.
The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want He maketh me to lie down.
In green pastures.
Lying down in green pastures is not just a hurried verse.
Or a hurried chapter. It's spending time.
With one that loves you far above anyone else in this world.
And that you may be able to comprehend with All Saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height.
I know the hymn that we sang together and oftentimes we are applying this verse to the love of God and I would not want to destroy that thought.
But here I believe that it's once we are so overwhelmed with this relationship we have with the Bridegroom himself and our hearts are in love. Because for eternity we will before be before him in love, as we had in the first chapter, holy without blame before him in love, and our song even will be unto him that loved us and gave himself for us.
But that's preparatory to this verse.
So that we might be able to comprehend, in other words, when our hearts are bursting with joy and Thanksgiving and praise and communion.
As it says in the Song of Solomon, for I am sick of love, that means here is one who is really in love.
Then we can be occupied with this marvelous inheritance that has been given to us, and this is what the Spirit of God is strengthening our hearts for.
Not just that Christ might dwell in our hearts. That's marvelous, and that's perhaps the greatest blessing. And then he brings in the other that we might know the breadth and length and depth and height.
And then it says. And then to know the love of Christ.
The breadth might bring in all of the Saints.
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All of the Saints.
And the.
The length from the ages to ages, and the depth he picked us up from the miry clay, so to speak, and the height he's raised us to sit as Princess to inherit the throne of glory.
And all of creation.
Everything has been created by him and for him. Without him was nothing that was created, that was created. He will inherit it all, but he wants our hearts first of all to be filled with this marvelous love the person is brought before us to indwell us, to fill us.
And then he speaks of the breadth and length and depth and height, and then to know the love of Christ.
So we have the person first of all in the 17th verse brought before us.
And being rooted and grounded in love.
Then the ability to take in the property that's going to be ours with Christ.
And then the love emphasized a love that passes knowledge in verse 19, that you might be filled with all of the fullness of God. And it is the desire, I believe, of all of our hearts to want the best out of life.
In John chapter one it says that you might be of his fullness. Have we all received and grace upon grace?
And that is when the riches of Christ himself, the person and his love fill our hearts.
We will let go of anything here that is a deterrent to our following Christ.
Mary had let go of everything because she had found one that had won her heart.
Completely, completely.
When you come to that, when we come to that point in our lives, and we trust that each one of us will be influenced in that direction through these meetings this year.
We're coming to the fullness of God.
There can't be anymore.
There cannot be anything in this world that could ever satisfy us. We know that because.
When we try them, we want more. And it's the same with every activity that we take up in this world or a relationship that we might take up. It's dissatisfying in the end.
And in John chapter four we find a woman who was dissatisfied with five men that she had had a relationship with until she found Jesus. And then she found one that so filled her heart she even forgot her water pot and ran back into the city and said come and see a man that told me all things that ever I did Is this not the Christ?
As our brother mentioned, are we healing out broken cisterns? Are we starting to go down a pathway that can take us away from the Lord Jesus Christ, the one who is the fullness of God because he is the one who manifested the love of God in perfection?
And the fullness of God no doubt has to do with that divine love, the quality of of love. It's divine.
But now unto him that is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think.
The Spirit of God is the one that has been sent down as we have before us in John Chapter 14. I will not leave you comfortless, I will come to you.
The world seeth me no more, but ye see me. How do we see the Lord today? By faith, yes, but by the Spirit of God.
And if the Spirit of God is grieved in our lives, we cannot effectively.
Be in the enjoyment of Hebrews chapter 12, verse two. And you know what that verse is beloved perhaps?
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 set down on the right hand of the throne of God.
We must have our vision clear. He must fill our vision if anyone else or anything else does, if it gets in the way of him.
It's going to rob us.
Of the joy of the Lord and Him dwelling in our hearts, not just for a visit. He doesn't want just a visit, He wants to dwell in our hearts.
Will you and I seek the Lord that way being?
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A part of his bride.
What should our hearts be as the bride of Christ? Who should be filling our hearts as the bride of Christ? Who should be filling your heart if you're engaged to 1 to be married? Who was filling Rebecca's heart as she followed the servant? Who is a picture of the Spirit of God?
Across that desert to meet her bridegroom, who was filling her heartless. The servant no doubt saw to it that it was Isaac that was filling her heart.
And she was leaving everything behind in just a moment, she says. I will go with this man.
Have you said that I will go with the Lord Jesus Christ? You are saved and you're delivered from the penalty of your sins. So that's wonderful, But that's just being inside the door. Have you ever said, I will go with this man, and then, forgetting the things which are behind you, press towards the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ, with Christ as the goal before your heart?
You pressed on. You've looked unto Jesus. You're following him. You're running after him.
As Abraham did from his tent door.
The Spirit of God would pour into your heart the fresh testimonies of the moral excellencies of the Lord Jesus Christ, all of his beauties and glories he sets before you. And he says here this is enough for you.
The one who loved you and gave himself for you.
The bride and the Song of Solomon said, Let him kiss me.
Let him kiss me.
You see, she had been assured of a relationship with him, and maybe you are assured of a relationship with Jesus.
But have you ever said that in a spiritual way? Have I ever let him?
Kiss me.
For thy love is better than any earthly joy, or better than wine.
He is beloved.
What is our Christianity? Is it just following rules?
Falling following a regimented way of living that is a good exterior.
You have a good external moral code of living, and you follow the New Testament.
Prescriptions.
For your life.
The two that were on the road to Emmaus were discouraged. Maybe you're discouraged. Maybe you've fallen into the trap of some sin.
But by the time the Lord Jesus Christ had revealed himself to them.
They had turned around and started to go back to Jerusalem.
To the believers there. And they said, Did not our heart burn within us as he spoke to us, by the way?
He will give you a burning heart. He can.
Mary and the Apostle Paul, They have no corner on the truth as to who Christ was and what he could do for them.
And all of the others who have shown such bridal affections, so to speak.
As the centuries have gone by, we're living in days of Laodicean history, we might say, in the church, where it's the people's rights and Christ has been dethroned from my heart.
From our hearts.
Where in Philadelphia Jesus was on the throne.
And self was displaced.
And how much influence everything around us has to that extent to dethrone the Lord Jesus Christ, the bridegroom?
From our hearts.
And at the end of Revelation Chapter 3, in the end of Laodicea, just before he comes for us, and it could be tonight, we find the bridegroom knocking at the door of the hearts of his own.
He wants to fill your heart, beloved. Nothing else can. Just to mention a little bit about the first couple 3 verses of Chapter 3 and we're finished.
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The end of chapter three, we have the occupation of the heart.
The heart being filled with the person and the love of Christ, which is all the fullness of God.
That precedes.
The practice of keeping the unity of the spirit.
We heard the this morning the Holy Spirit has come down into the world to join together all believers into one body.
And we see in the early chapters of Acts how they functioned as one body.
There was 1 spirit.
And they worship together as one, they work together as one, so that there was a tremendous impact in the community.
And the Lord Jesus Christ prayed for that. Now if he prayed for that, isn't it important beloved young people?
That we carry it out. I know that we say, well, the important thing is evangelism. That's very important, very important.
But Jesus prayed that they would all be one.
Even as I, Father, are in thee, and thou in me, that they may be one in us, that the world may know that thou hast sent me.
He prayed that they would be.
11 Well, you say we are one body.
And every believer in the world is part of that one body. It says so, right?
This chapter that we read together, There is one body. Yes, there is one body.
But how do we practice the unity of the spirit?
By answering the prayer of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Owning that, there is one head.
Owning that we are members one of another.
I do not have the right, nor am I entitled, to disconnect myself from the head. The body will always be one. There is nothing that can ruin the unity of the body. Nothing can destroy that. But the Church has failed miserably since the early days, miserably. And today it's in ruin.
That is the owning.
Of the.
The head of the body.
By the church.
If I had a paralyzed limb on my body, it would still be part of my body, would it not?
But it would not own the healthy articulation of my body. It would not receive instructions from the head. It was still be part of my body.
But it no longer would function according to the direction of the head.
Is it too late to practice that in the Church's history before Jesus comes? No.
It is not.
The scripture never gives us an alternative path to go down.
Thinking that, well, there's no use because of the failure that we see, even in the Assembly where this is sought to be carried out in some measure.
But we can practice it according to scripture that is separate from evil.
Two Timothy 2 clearly tells us, Let him that nameth the name of the Lord, depart from iniquity.
Separating from moral evil, doctrinal evil, division, and all of those things that break the unity of the Spirit is what we are enjoying to do. And I have seen and heard testimonies, and I know you have two of those who have had to stand alone with the Holy Spirit. They've had to stand alone. There has been no others to be associated with, gathered with, so to speak, around the person of Christ.
But eventually the Lord has led many.
To be gathered with others unto the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
I will tell just a short story in closing and I trust my brother Paul over here won't mind. We were talking about it just a few moments ago, but I remember his father and the story that was told him who was a preacher of the gospel. He was a minister of a a very prominent church in the Orange County area, Southern California.
And he began having reading meetings in the church basement of Calvary Church of Placentia.
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And as they begin to have reading meetings, they found that the complexion of things changed. He was not in command, so to speak. He had been directing things before, as as presiding over the the group. There he found that the Spirit of God began to work in and through the lives of others, and ministering to the needs of the Saints.
And he was displaced as presiding over this group. And they came to this conclusion. To make Long story short, the church held a board meeting, and Paul told me this just a little while ago, he said. They held a board meeting.
And they said either we have to get rid of you.
Or you're going to have to leave us.
If this is what you want for.
They gave him a rocking chair, retired him, and he was gathered to the precious name of the Lord Jesus Christ in Fullerton.
He took a backseat and owned Christ as the gathering center. Shall we pray?
God's Eternal Counsels #3: The Bride's Conflicts
Address—Dave Spence
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 have spoken in times past concerning the councils of God, concerning Christ and His Bride, for which he died.
Gave his life.
And yesterday we spoke a little bit concerning the.
Heart of the bride, and that's you and me, beloved, what should characterize our hearts as belonging to the bridegroom?
Today we hope to speak a little bit about the conflict of the Bride of Christ. The conflict. So let's turn to Ephesians 6.
And start with verse 10.
Finally, my brethren.
Be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might.
Put on the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to stand against the.
Of the devil.
For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
Wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all to stand.
Stand therefore, having your loins gird about with truth.
And having on the breastplate of righteousness, and your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace, above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.
And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for All Saints. And for me, that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in bonds.
That therein I may speak boldly as I ought to speak.
Before we speak about this beloved friends, the question was raised yesterday after the meeting by a young brother who came to me and he said what is the difference between the Spirit of God?
That is, in the assembly, or we might say the body of Christ as our brother brought before us this morning. For the assembly is a habitation of God through the Spirit, as we had in Ephesians Chapter 2.
And the Spirit of God.
Indwelling or in the assembly as we know it, gathered to the precious name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now, this may be a question that is upon the hearts of many of you, and I don't pretend to be able to answer that question adequately.
But I do believe it is an honest question and an honest desire to know on the part of each of you.
Because there is a difference. There is truly a difference.
And we we see around us the ruins today, as our brother brought before us this morning in man's responsibility in building. There has been failure, but nevertheless the spirit of God remains, not only joining believers together into one body.
But the spirit of God joining us to our head in heaven, just like a husband and wife.
Inseparable. In that sense they are one flesh and we are one with Christ. But could we say there is the inappropriate practice today concerning us? Or we might say a certain group who are believers in the Lord Jesus Christ who come together?
And they are ministered unto there is the.
Inappropriate practice, we might say.
Of recognizing who is the head of the body.
Who is the Lord Jesus Christ? Now that's in practice, of course, that can't change.
In position because every believer is.
00:05:00
Bound together in one body by the Holy Spirit and united to Christ in heaven. But it is the practice again. It's as we tried to point out yesterday, it's like a paralyzed limb on our on our bodies. It does not respond to the direction of the head. And so the vocation that Paul speaks of in chapter 4 of Ephesians, he beseeches us to walk worthy of the vocation wherewith we are called.
And I'd just like to impress upon our hearts the urgency of Paul's desire.
And of course, it is the Lord's desire to that we walk worthy of that vocation.
Or with we are called and what is it?
Endeavoring to keep the unity of the spirit.
As we said before, and it said often, the Spirit of God is that which keeps the unity of the body. We are sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession.
That remains fixed, unchanged, and guaranteed delivery of the bride to the bridegroom. The body of Christ will all make it home safely. But how wonderful, Beloved, while we're here to make this an answer to the Lord's Prayer in John 17, because as we spoke yesterday, he prayed.
That we would be 1 even as he is with the Father and the Father in him.
That the world may know that the Father had sent him into the world.
So the importance not only to the heart of God, but to the Lord Jesus Christ Himself who gave himself for his church.
Desires that we walk worthy of this vocation, beloved, keeping the unity of the Spirit and wherever there is truth.
That is sought to be carried out in diligence and the energy of the spirit of God. There is going to be conflict, and that's what we'll address a little bit later in Chapter 6. There's going to be difficulties and warfare struggles, problems because the enemy is intent upon, we might say, paralyzing the body of Christ, paralyzing the body of Christ so it does not recognize its head.
In heaven.
Our brother spoke of Matthew 1820, which all of us should be able to quote by heart, and I'm sure that we could.
For where two or three are gathered together unto my name, there am I in the midst of them. First of all, that verse supposes the absence.
Of the Lord because it does not save, or where two or three are gathered together unto me.
He says, Where two or three are gathered together unto my name, there am I in the midst of them. So first of all it supposes his absence. And when he went back to heaven, our brother again brought before us the truth that the Holy Spirit came down to unite all the body of Christ together and to its head in heaven. And now it can function. But what has happened? We have spoiled it. Man has spoiled it, we might say.
And we could spoil it and we see it all around us.
So that the body of Christ does not function in practice.
In a practical way, in keeping the unity of the Spirit, which is simply, again, recognizing the direction, the guidance of the head in heaven, and the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ in the midst of His own. And the assembly is simply a local expression of the body of Christ, wherever it is, wherever it's located.
Now there is another word in the In that verse Matthew 1820 are gathered together, are gathered.
That means, in the Greek, to be LED together or to be guided together.
That is a power outside of ourselves and I would just like to address the problem this way.
About knowing where the Lord Jesus Christ is in the midst of his own.
Or is in keeping with this truth that we have in Chapter 4?
And that is that you might pray to this end that you would be gathered by the Holy Spirit.
Unto the precious name of the Lord Jesus Christ, who is our coming Bridegroom, and who truly is the head of his body, the Church. He deserves that place, Beloved, that in all things he might have the preeminence.
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Because he is the head of his body, the church.
It seems, perhaps to you of little significance than it did to me when I was younger. When I I used to make the practice of going to church with my grandmother and was very, very attracted by certain things that I saw.
Lots of attractions, but I noticed in that particular gathering it was so different.
Than where I went in Des Moines, to the little meeting hall where there were brethren that were gathered around, and simply reading the word of God, and and enjoying the presence of the Lord, and rejoicing in the Word, and feeding the Saints.
And justice. Sitting, so to speak, as our brother chapter Brown used to say, sitting at the feet of Jesus. And that was one of the things that convinced him that something was wrong where he went.
And I knew even though I was attracted by things that I saw, I knew those things were out of keeping with the word of God. We don't have to know too much of the Scriptures really concerning the ground of gathering to know that something is wrong and out of order when we go someplace and see things that are not in keeping with what we've been taught.
Now some of the earmarks, perhaps of that place in Scripture would bear this out, and we won't take the time to go into that.
Might be is there a rival name connected with the place where you are going?
There was with my grandmother.
They did not pretend to be gathered simply to the precious name.
Of the Lord Jesus Christ, dear Christians, happy believers in the Lord, evangelistically minded.
And energetic in their service for the Lord wonderful Christians, and it was very heartwarming to be with them.
We don't discount that.
But the name they chose was not the name that we read of in Matthew 1820.
Another thing that we could point to is, is there someone that presides, that displaces the guidance of the head who is Christ?
Very simple.
And as I sat there many times, I knew that this was wrong.
And I didn't know, I say again very much.
But I knew that.
For one person to take that place of presiding and pretending, so to speak, to have all the gifts.
That that particular group needed was wrong.
Absolutely wrong.
Another thing is of course the.
Error, Whether moral doctrine or moral evil or doctrinal evil, those two things allowed in various places where there is what we call.
No disciplinary action to take care of these problems because it says he that nameth the name of Christ. Let him depart from iniquity. Now I'd just like to mention one more thing, and perhaps there are others.
And the brother and I were talking before the last meeting about some who have left us and set up independent fellowships.
Not seeking to be connected, as far as we know, with any other.
Groups.
And especially, and most importantly, perhaps, those gathered.
To the precious name of the Lord Jesus Christ on the right ground.
I remember a brother saying once they went to visit some dear brethren in a certain locality where they seemed to have the truth.
Thought that they might want to take the right hand of fellowship and and recognize the ground upon which we are gathered according to Scripture, recognizing our head in heaven and Christ in the midst, there is one table of the Lord. And when they discussed the the doctrines of Scripture and some of the various things that were important to talk about, that is moral evil and doctrinal evil, these things seem to be no problem whatsoever.
And when they spoke then of this particular group of believers.
Identifying with those gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. They said no, we we have no interest in that and that's why I mentioned that because independence though they is wrong. Though they may be right in in their doctrine and separated from moral doctrinal evil, independence can be one of the factors that would signal us something is wrong with that particular group that is not keeping.
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The unity of the spirit.
In the bond of peace and justice, to mention this too I would encourage.
Each of you to read First Corinthians chapter 14, because in that chapter Paul writes to them about several things, several problems, and one of the things was this he said to them when you come together you all have have a a a doctrine, a song and interpretation and so forth.
And he was telling them that this was confusion, that they needed to.
Let the Prophet speak two or three, and let the others judge.
Now you tell me, beloved, where is that carried out in Christendom today?
Let the Prophet speak two or three, and let the other judge.
Scripture is so clear in some of these areas. In fact, further on us it speaks about.
That ye all may prophecy, and even in Ephesians chapter 4, if we note it here for a moment. When the Lord Jesus ascended up on high, he gave, so to speak, the gift of the church to the Father, and then gifts were given to him to give unto men. And those gifts were for verse 12, the perfecting of the Saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till all come in the unity of the faith, and the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man.
The apostle labored to present everyone perfect, every believer perfect in Christ.
There were to be no distractions on that particular point. Everyone Perfect in Christ, in other words.
Christ is everything. He is everything. We don't need anything more. And of course all the truth that's connected with this person.
But then in verse 15 it says But speaking the truth in love may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ.
The Colossians were not holding the head. They lost sight of the head. They were taken up with philosophies and vain deceit.
Voluntary humilities and things that looked attractive on the outside and external.
Moral code of things that were very attractive, even worshipping of angels, which the Old Testament Saints were taken up with.
But they weren't holding the head. They'd lost sight of the head.
And here now in verse 16 it says from whom the whole body note this beloved young people, from whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint, every joint supplier, every joint.
There is not to be one that presides, but it's what every joint supplied, whether it was in the perhaps the edification of the Saints in what we would call an open meeting.
Or as they came together to break bread, the order was the same. They were assembly meetings, Christ in the midst and Him ministering to the Saints in the open meeting perhaps to edify the body.
And as they remembered him in his death, the Lord Jesus Christ in his death, the Spirit of God working through not just one, but several.
In praise and in reading the scriptures, giving out a hymn.
And we find suggestions to that in One Corinthians chapter 14 also. So it was what every joint could supply according to the effectual working in the measure of every part maketh increase of the body under the edifying of itself in love. Now suppose on Lords day when we were here gathered together, we decided that it would be better and maybe a little bit more encouraging and stimulating for us to.
Set the chairs like they are here and have our brother Bob Brimlow give us.
A good, stimulating word that would reach our hearts.
And then we would say, we said we would pass the loaf in the cup later and we would remember the Lord that way. Now I would like to ask you.
Would you feel comfortable with that young people?
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And yet we are attracted by those things to a degree because, humanly speaking, we gravitate to organization. We gravitate from the Organism, the body of church, to the body of Christ, which is the church to organization.
Would the Spirit of God minister to our needs as our brother would stand up and deliver a word to us from the word of God?
To encourage our hearts, I'm sure the Spirit of God would. The Spirit of God is.
Is indwelling the assembly.
And ministers to his people wherever they are. But remember the differences the Spirit of God gathers to Christ its head in heaven.
Gathered to the name, because the person is gone, we gather to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
We receive direction from the head.
And the authority of the Lord is in the midst. And when our brother brought before us this morning that verse in Matthew 18.
Whatsoever things are bound on earth, are bound in heaven. So ever things are loosed on earth, are loosed in heaven, the we act in the assembly humbly.
In the fear of God, that the decisions that are made are made for the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ, so we act in His authority. It's His authority, but by His word we act.
And now to consider just the balance of the time, what we've had before us.
In the 6th chapter and I would just like to say the.
Emphasis is truly upon the 10th verse that we read first, concerning the precious volume of truth that has preceded the 6th chapter.
Now of course, in the 4th chapter we did talk about the.
Privileges that we have in the assembly and that is up through about the 16th verse. From the 17th verse to the 21St verse. In chapter 4, it's talking about the conduct of the believer in this world. A godly walk should characterize us as having this treasure in our hearts.
The treasure of the inheritance by faith, the treasure of this high calling that we have been called to.
And as we said before in chapter one and read that, that scripture, Paul prays that the eyes of our hearts might be open, that you might know what is the hope of your calling. We have it. We have it. We possess it. We're going to get it, so to speak. We have it now, but we're going to share.
With Christ, he's going to share with us that inheritance in a coming day. But.
The point is.
Let's get in on the enjoyment of it now in our hearts, because He's given it. He's told us all these things. He's abounded to us in all wisdom and prudence concerning His choosing us in Christ before the foundations of the world predestinated us according to the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself. He's redeemed us through the precious blood of Christ.
And of course we are one with him, because in the counsels of God the church is called the Christ.
The Christ, What a blessed thing. What a blessed thing. And then, of course the inheritance spoken of in the 12Th verse of Ephesians One and the sealing of the Spirit. There are about 8 things. Eight spiritual blessings that are not connected with any material blessing. They're far removed from all of that element because they're from heaven. Heavenly or spiritual blessings concerning our place in heaven.
Now you'll find when a person gets saved.
Many times their hearts are removed from this world.
Immediately it seems like they are living in another sphere and if you speak to them or their hearts are truly on fire, especially those that have been saved out of a life of sin and depravity.
And I spoke to a brother who was saved not out of a life and sin and depravity, but he was saved by the grace of God.
In a normal family way of life we might say he had a job and he had children and he worked hard and so on and so forth. But he said when he got saved he was living in heaven.
00:25:01
Now, if any of you think that these things are so far out of touch and out of your grasp.
They are not.
They are really not. What is the problem? Our hearts.
Our hearts.
There are other things that are filling our hearts. We read yesterday that Christ may dwell in our hearts by faith, that ye being rooted and grounded in love and so forth, our hearts need to be filled with Christ to displace everything else. And you know what that would do? If Christ is dwelling in our hearts, we would be dwelling in heaven.
We would be.
I have seen young people say that boys, homes and penal institutions.
Older people.
Who got saved? And they were just living out of that institution. They were living in heaven.
And so the common ailment among believers today is not so much that they don't know the doctrine. It's wonderful to know the councils and purposes of God in Christ concerning His bride, but the problem is our hearts.
And what we're taken up with.
Mary Magdalene stood at the grave of Jesus, unintelligent as Peter and John were, who came to the grave, and they looked in and they went home.
In fact, they even went into the grave. Here were two who were intelligent, we might say, concerning the resurrection of Christ because Jesus told them that it was going to happen.
But their hearts were not like the heart of Mary Magdalene.
Mary Magdalene stood at the sepulchre, looking and seeing the angels there, and they said, Why weepest thou? She said, Because they have taken away my Lord, I know not where they have laid him. And then Jesus came, and she's supposing him to be the gardener. You know the story. She turned and looked, and she said, if you have borne him hence, show me where you've laid him, and I will take him away. And Jesus said, Mary.
He calleth his own sheep by name.
And she said.
Rabbonae or master of my heart?
Here is one who knew the conflicts of this spiritual wickedness that we rid of in Chapter 6. She was oppressed. Not only oppressed but indwelt by 7 demons, and she knew the powers of darkness. And yet we play around with some of these things that are very powerful and very influential in our lives, such that they take us, they can take the heart captive. You've seen it happen with Christians, even those gathered to the precious name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Having the privileges that we have, He takes them down the path into the world. And sometimes.
Sometimes they're never recovered.
I knew a brother who used to stand on the street corner and preach the gospel.
And he missed the path. Somehow. I don't remember all the details. He left the assembly. He got into the institutions of man's learning.
And he was swept into philosophies.
Psychology.
And he gave up the faith.
This warfare that we have, beloved is very subtle. In fact, it speaks here about the Wiles of the devil. That's why we need to be strong in the Lord. And to be strong in the Lord simply means that we need that nearness to Christ. Like Mary Magdalene had. There was one who was indwelling her heart though the Holy Spirit hadn't come yet. We have the Holy Spirit even to communicate to our hearts and to fill our hearts with Christ and to attach us to our head in heaven.
But one was filling her heart such that without him, that is Jesus.
She didn't have a home in this world.
He was His presence was her home. And that's why a believer who is on fire for Christ and knows a little bit about first love, having been saved out of of a path of sin.
Knows something of the blessedness of nearness to him.
Forgiveness. Eternal life, peace.
And a relationship with one who loves that one.
00:30:00
We need to be strong in the Lord near Christ, Joseph said to his brethren, Come near unto me, I pray thee. And that is the pleadings of the Holy Spirit, in fact, the Lord Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit to you and me. And it says in Hebrews chapter 10, is it LED us drawn here.
Let us what's holding us back and we wonder why we fail and say the wrong things and do the wrong things, and I'm guilty. It's because we're not strong in the Lord, in the power of His might. We have no strength in ourselves. That's one of the hardest lessons to learn. Some of us were speaking together this morning in the prayer meeting, One of the hardest lessons to learn.
Is that we do not have any strength in ourselves.
But we can, through communion with the Lord and only through communion with the Lord, stand in the evil day. We're living in an evil day, beloved. So we see three things in the verses that we read, and we're not going to go into great detail but just briefly go over them. Number one is we need to be strong in the Lord and the power of His might. Communion with Christ the Lord Jesus Christ filling our hearts strengthened.
With might by his Spirit in the inner man, walking in the power of the Spirit, living in the power of the Holy Spirit, that is, living in company with Jesus. And when you live in communion with him, you want to be with him where He is, and so your heart is taken out of the world.
Soon we're going to be taken out as the Bride of Christ. Physically, the redemption of our bodies draws very near, the scripture says.
But now we have the privilege of making our home where he is just a preparatory blessing before we actually get there and have our bodies of glory that go along with.
That blessing.
The second thing is the character of the enemy, the Wiles of the devil, and he will set before you Wiles. That is things that are very attractive. They look very good on the outside, but it's leading you to departure.
From Christ and eventually disobedience it could be.
A job that looks very glamorous to you or a relationship.
And it could of course apply to the doctrinal elements any way the Lord or the Devil can get you from.
Living close to the Lord Jesus Christ and feeding on him.
Any way he can, Things look very attractive, Very, very attractive.
That's a while.
But he leads you out of communion.
Out of communion in your heart feels the distance, like Peter who followed Jesus afar off.
And the last thing is the armor. That's the third thing. And these are the.
The important things that we must consider as Christians, and it so happens as we said before.
This subject of the armor does not come at the end of Romans or some other book. It comes at the end of Ephesians because here were a group of Saints who were walking in the joy of first love and communion with the Lord Jesus Christ.
And the Lord so valued that walk they had with him, He dispensed to them this heavenly truth that we've had before us. And really, Ephesians, is what Christ is to the church. By the way, what Christ is to the church or what the church is to Christ. Excuse me.
What the Church is to Christ.
And so he would protect his own with the armor that we have here in the 6th chapter.
He would protect them from the influences of the enemy, from the spiritual.
Forces that come against us, the spiritual wickedness, the rulers of the darkness of this world.
But there is a spiritual wickedness against the believer. He tries to get inside the armor and how successful he is to do that. He knows us far better than we know ourselves. He knows exactly what to use against you and use against me. He knows your weakness.
And the weights and sins which do so easily beset you.
Wherefore in verse 13 it says, take unto you the whole armor of God, that you might be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all.
00:35:00
To stand.
Stand therefore, having your loins gird about with truth.
Truth is never ours until we we have our affections and thoughts in order.
By the truth, it adjusts our thinking.
The truth should make corrections in our hearts and our minds.
We're taking up with so many things.
And so it says set your mind on things above and the enemy first of all gets inside.
Your mind. And that affects the heart. As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.
You are what you think about in your heart, and so am I.
The breastplate of righteousness Is there. Unjudged evil, beloved in your life, unjudged sin.
You see, the first important, the one of most importance, is the loins. Gerda Brentbought with truth, because that keeps the affections and the thoughts held in and saved or reserved for Christ alone. He deserves them. He deserves all of our hearts, does he not?
And so how can we walk in a way that would be pleasing to him? How can there be conduct in our lives that would?
Glorify him.
If there is not the heart that is attached to him.
In communion, unjudged evil, if there is in your life, if there's a bad conscience. And the Spirit of God cannot occupy you with Christ and his glory and his love.
There is something that needs to be confessed, and it could be not only to the Lord but to your brethren.
To your brethren.
Being in the assembly, we are responsible.
To not just the Lord, but to our brethren.
And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace.
Proper conduct and living for Christ in an outward way will lead you to live a life of peace. The way of peace the Scripture says they have not known, but the Christian knows the way of peace.
And the scripture says in Romans chapter 14, as much as lieth within you live peaceably with all men.
And then he tells us, Avenge not yourselves, but rather give place to wrath, for vengeance is mine, saith the Lord.
There was a man who was just a very dear Christian. He loved to give out the word, and he met one who was a a high priest in a cult.
And he did everything he could do to convince this dear man that he needed Christ.
He'd shine his shoes, he'd make his bed, he's hanging his clothes up, do all kinds of things to convince him that there was a better way of life and a happy way of life to live happier than he had.
And one day this man got His name was Mike. He got so upset with this Christian tormenting him with the gospel and all of his little kindnesses.
He hit him and he knocked him down and he hit him real hard.
And he lay there in a pool of blood.
That wasn't the end of the story. And you know it wasn't the end of the story.
Did this Christian get up? And later when he?
He received some strength back. Come back and retaliate and exercise vengeance upon this.
Dear man, walking in the darkness of sin and delusion, No.
He did the same thing all over again.
He sought to win him.
By the life of Christ, so to speak, shining through him.
And he did. This dear man was saved and delivered from.
This cult where he was.
One of the top men.
And he became a very, very energetic Christian in giving out the gospel himself to others just like him.
And he received the same persecution and the same reproach. And he knew a little bit about what he gave to that dear man that sought to win his heart.
Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye may be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.
Do you know, dear friends, about discouragement?
00:40:06
That's the first dart the enemy throws at you when things do not go the way you expect them to go, and tragedy strikes.
Discouragement.
When David should have been discouraged, naturally, when the city of Ziglag was burned with fire.
And his family was taken away, and his men were ready to stone him. He encouraged himself in the Lord.
He didn't allow the fiery dart of discouragement to strike through the armor.
The armor of faith.
The shield of faith.
No matter what someone says to you or does to you, or no matter what tragedy.
May strike in your life.
Hold the shield of faith, because first of all, it's discouragement.
Then it is despondency, and then it is despair.
And we've even heard of some who have taken their lives.
That's exactly what can happen to a Christian, because the enemy works on the Christian. He has the unbeliever in his hand, but he works upon the heart and mind of the Christian. Why? To destroy the testimony of Christ and the joy of the believer. To rob the believer of his portion in Christ, the high calling, the inheritance, and the indwelling of the Lord Jesus Christ in communion with him. He knows exactly how to do it.
And to bring shame and dishonor upon the name of Christ.
I know a lady who lost, practically lost her life in a fire.
She had a little baby girl likewise that was practically burned to death.
Now they were she was a Christian. This mother was a Christian. The daddy came home one night, saw the the disaster and the ambulance taking his wife and little daughter away. And for months that little girl was on the brink of death.
But burn beyond recognition.
Now how would you feel?
How would I feel?
Discouraged.
Naturally.
But the father held up the shield of faith and the mother, when she recovered sufficiently, she was able to.
To believe somehow that this was from God.
But she said there was one problem I had. I couldn't rejoice in tribulation as it says in Romans chapter 5.
But as time went on, she saw how the grace of God and the power of the Lord was using this.
As a means of blessing, giving her a greater capacity.
In her own life and her husband's.
For the joy of the Lord in communion with him, and reaching out to others with the gospel, she finally came to the moment in her life, the day in her life, when she said.
I rejoice.
I rejoice in the tribulation.
That's come into our lives.
All things work together for good to those who are the called, to those that love God, to those who are called according to his purpose. Everything beloved and I know things are hard, and some here have been through things that have have been harder than that.
That little girl lived, but she was scarred for life, scarred for life, and hardly distinguish any features on her face.
Someone said that.
Trials come and problems and unsolvable things. A loved one taken out of our lives that God might become the more abundant source of joy. And we look to naturally relationships to be that. We look to things in the world to be the source of joy. And there's nothing wrong with having a good time, but they displace sometimes the true source, who is Christ.
And take the helmet of salvation.
The Scripture says, and I believe it's Hebrews Chapter 7, that we are saved unto the uttermost that come unto God by Christ to the uttermost. Then it says working out your own salvation. In other words, recognizing the trial has come into your life. And now working through the trial, through the problem, the helmet of salvation, not only the security in Christ that we have, but working through the problems, working out your own salvation with fear and trembling.
00:45:17
We have been saved from the penalty of sin. We are being saved every day from.
The difficulties, the problems of this life.
And we're going to be saved, that is, our bodies, at any moment when Christ comes.
To take us, the bride needs to have the armor in place for that blessed relationship.
That we have with him as we await his return and it says put on.
The whole armor, first of all, put it on and it has to be every part of the armor.
Everyone that we've read so far and there are 7, including prayer, they must be in place.
If anyone is out of place, the enemy knows how to get in and take the advantage and the sword of the spirit. Now, I don't know about you young folks, but I know that in my own life I have tried to use the word of God against the enemy.
And I say this somewhat cautiously, but I say it as a confession to you.
It hasn't worked for me.
And I'll tell you why it hasn't worked for me.
Because it says the sword of the spirit.
The Spirit.
The sword of the Spirit, in other words, the heart and communion with the Lord Jesus. And Scripture assumes this, the believer in communion with Christ. And we are warned about the sins in chapter 4 lying and and.
Being angry and all those things that come in, they are to guard us against severing communion with our blessed bridegroom.
Not to gain communion, but to sever communion.
And so the sword of the Word must be used by the Spirit. The power of the Spirit within. Applying the Word of God to the problems through the enemies advances on you, to the temptations in your life. And if your heart is in communion, you'll feel a loss of power.
And strength.
Now you can get back in communion. Think God for that.
He restoreth my soul in the life of Peter as a beautiful example of that.
And David likewise, who had a bad conscience Speaking of the breastplate of righteousness he did, and it was hiding the sin in his life. And you may be hiding a sin in your life, I don't know.
I have before.
But the sin was pointed out because the Lord knew about it, and when it was pointed out in his life, David confessed it.
And he was restored.
He had some difficult days ahead of him.
But he was restored, he owned his failure, and he got right with the Lord.
Then the last one is praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit.
None of the armor will function, as our brother said this morning when he was reading this to us. None of the armor will function properly without prayer.
Praying always with all prayer, not once in a while, but being in the attitude of prayer that is your heart. So taken up with the Lord Jesus Christ, you don't want anything to come into your life to disrupt the joy of His presence.
Therefore, you're praying always and not just for yourself, but for others.
And Speaking of the Lord answering prayer for Lynn Saint Vincent.
The doctors marveled that it wasn't a 15 hour surgery after all. It was.
Only nine hours.
Now we say, well, that was just an accident.
Well, it's important that we're watching. We're watching for results. In Acts chapter 12, there were those that were praying for Peter, who was in prison. And when Peter King was released from prison, the Lord answered the prayer of the Saints, prayers of the Saints. Peter came and knocked on the gate and Rhoda went to the gate and she went back in the house. She said Peter's here and in the house they all said, no, you're mad. They weren't watching.
We need to be watching.
For the Lord's gracious hand in answering our prayers, that He's the one that's going to work in our lives and solve the problems that we come in, we that come into our lives praying always with all prayer may not always to pray and not to faint. And when Jesus came to his own in the Garden of Gethsemane, when he needed, so to speak their companionship the most, when he was facing the most tragic moment in his life when they would be taken from Him, we say tragic.
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But the work of the cross and all the agony.
Associated with it, he came to his own.
And he said, What? Could ye not watch with me one hour?
Pray that ye in or not.
Into temptation.
Shall we pray?
God's Eternal Counsels #4: The Bride's Hope
Address—Dave Spence
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.
Could we turn to a few verses in Luke chapter 10? I'm sorry, Luke chapter 12.
Today, Lord willing, will.
Make a few remarks about.
The hope of the bride.
And that should certainly be the response of our hearts, for He is our hope, and that expression is used once in the New Testament.
First Timothy one, chapter one and verse one. But here we'll read Luke chapter 12.
And verse 34 For where your treasure is, there will your heart.
Be also let your loins be girded about and your lights burning.
And ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their Lord.
When he will return from the wedding.
That when he cometh and knocketh.
There may they may open unto him immediately. Blessed are those servants whom the Lord, when he cometh, shall find watching. Verily I say unto you, that he shall gird himself, and make them to sit down, to meet, and will come forth and serve them.
Also Revelation Chapter 2.
Revelation 2 and verse one.
Unto the Angel of the Church of Ephesus right these things, saith he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand.
Who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks? I know thy works, and thy labor, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil. And thou hast tried them, which say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars, and has born, and has patience. And for my namesake has labored, and has not fainted. Nevertheless I have somewhat against the.
Because thou hast left thy first love.
Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the 1St works, or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy Candlestick out of his place, except thou repent.
Now also in Revelation chapter 22.
Revelation 22 and verse 16.
I, Jesus, have sent mine Angel to testify unto you these things in the churches.
I am the root and offspring of David and the bright and morning star.
And the Spirit and the bride say Come.
And let him that heareth say, Come.
And let him that is a thirst come, and whosoever will, let him take of the water of life.
Freely.
For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, if any man shall add unto these words.
God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book.
If any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life and out of the holy City.
And from the things which are written in this book.
He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen.
Even so come Lord Jesus.
Well, here we find the.
The bride says come in answer to what the Lord Jesus Christ is to.
Her.
And what is the Lord Jesus Christ to the bride? As we've read together here, beloved young friends, the bright and morning star. We were singing of him as that bright and morning star shine forth. Oh Lord, thou bright and morning star, come quickly. Come thy people waiting are.
Here we find the Spirit of God has worked in the hearts, so to speak, of the bride, or the Lorde people who make up the bride.
And causes that same response of the spirit which is come.
Now we wonder why the problems and trials in our life and the things that seem to add up to difficulties and problems, trials and tribulations, the things that try our faith and test us.
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But it is really to deplete us of all of our natural strength that it might truly be abated, that we might might be emptied of ourselves, and that we might find ourselves beloved more at the feet of Jesus, as we've spoken of Mary in times past.
She had found everything in him and needed not.
Anything of this world that would attract her naturally to fill her heart.
And we find with the Saints at Ephesus who had such a wonderful beginning.
And we've talked about them a little bit and Justice reading the book, we know that they were in such a spiritual state of soul that they could receive.
Such ministry that touched on the heavenly calling.
And was indeed concerning the heavenly calling and the inheritance that would be theirs.
With their Bridegroom, the Lord Jesus Christ.
And in the book of Ephesians we find the in the first chapter, as we've mentioned before, the sealing of the Spirit.
That was given a mark, so to speak, on each believer and the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit.
To secure us.
And to make sure that we would be delivered safe to the bridegroom.
And the Holy Spirit has also spoken there of the earnest of.
The earnest of the Spirit which is the.
The down payment, so to speak, of the purchased possession.
But in the second chapter we also have a mention of the Spirit, the Spirit by which we have access to the Father and the Spirit of God that indwells the assembly.
Of course we know the Lord Jesus Christ is the one the Spirit of God gathers to, and that's even.
In a sense, a more wonderful truth.
Because he does not come to speak of himself, he came to glorify the Lord Jesus Christ and attach us to him, and in a corporate sense too.
And in chapter 3 it speaks of keeping the unity of the Spirit.
In the uniting bond of peace.
And later on in chapter or chapter 4, that was the end of chapter 4 it speaks about.
Not grieving the spirit and chapter 5 speaks about be not drunk with wine, wherein success but be filled.
With the Spirit and the last chapter, chapter six, we spoke of yesterday concerning the armor.
Has to do with the Sword of the Spirit, and that is the only offensive weapon that the believer has included in that list of seven points of of the armor.
So that the believer is to be guided, led by the Holy Spirit, filled with the Holy Spirit. We have access to the Father by the Holy Spirit, and we have the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit, which is really not the same as being filled with the Spirit. And I must say I do not know too much about being filled with the Spirit.
But since the Scripture speaks of it as truth and as a potential for the Christian life.
Certainly it is something that God has for us.
And wants to bring us into the good of and we'll find simply as we read the precious Word of God and as we are occupied with the One who is the theme of Scripture, our Lord Jesus Christ, we will be filled to overflowing.
Little by little, it doesn't happen all at once. There are some who would pray now, Phyllis, Lord with the Holy Spirit, as though it is a one time experience in their lives. Some call it the Second Blessing.
But we find that.
It may happen a little at a time and sometimes we are maybe partly filled.
But he would have us to be filled with the Spirit, and that displaces things in our hearts and lives that.
Preoccupy us with this world and lead our hearts away many times in the book of Proverbs, chapter 4, it talks about what we say with our lips.
And where we go with our feet and what we look at with our eyes.
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But you'll find before those three things, beloved friends, it says to guard your heart above everything that is guarded.
The heart is that which is the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit, which is in fact.
Communicating to us or bringing to us the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Would not that place where he dwells be sacred above all things? Should it not be sanctified? Because the Scripture says, sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and be ready to give an answer to every man that asketh you of the hope which lieth within you with meekness and fear?
We find with the Ephesians that were so happy for many years perhaps.
Approximately 20 to 25 years of some, as some have fought, they were living in the joy of first love. Perhaps we could say so. The Apostle Paul communicated to them these wonderful heavenly truths that they'd been blessed with all spiritual blessings in the heavenly places in Christ.
But we read in Revelation chapter 2.
That they were a fallen church or a fallen assembly.
The Holy Spirit no doubt making us aware of.
The fact that though once we've been once happy in the state of first love and the joy of that wonderful state.
We have the danger of slipping away.
And falling from that blessed elevated state of soul.
But here we find in Revelation chapter 2 where we read that they had done many things that were.
Very commendable, and the Lord does commend them for it. And the Lord would commend everything in your life that answers to holiness and righteousness.
Outwardly speaking.
He says that I have observed your works and your labor and your patience, and how you cannot bear them, which are evil.
And which have tried them that have said they were apostles but found them to be liars?
And you've borne, and have had patience, and you've labored, and so forth. The Lord commended them on every point that he could.
But he said nevertheless, I have against thee.
Nevertheless, I have against thee. He could not close the 2nd Epistle to them. We might call it The First Epistle is is Ephesians. The 2nd Epistle to the Ephesians is Revelation, chapter 2, starting with verse one.
And in a certain sense it's sad to read of them in that fallen state. But he said, Remember from whence thou hast fallen.
And repent.
I would like to ask you, beloved, as well as my own heart, as we come to a close here this week at Lassen. Are you content with your Christian life the way it is?
And with with the state of soul that you've experienced in the past days, weeks, months or years.
Are all of us satisfied with the state of soul that?
Maybe he has come out in different ways in our lives and our thoughts and our actions. Are we satisfied with that? Just to go on?
The Lord would never have us to be content with something that.
Leaves us in a lower state or condition.
Then we have the potential for by the power of the Holy Spirit.
In our Christian lives.
Nevertheless, I have somewhat against thee.
For thou hast left thy first love.
Now we've seen leanings of that in two Timothy Chapter 2 and I think that was mentioned by our brother Bill last night where?
Paul was writing to Timothy and he said all they in Asia have turned against me and that included no doubt.
This assembly at Ephesus.
For he said they were ashamed of my chain.
But he said, may the Lord have mercy on the House of in this forest.
Because he OFT refreshed me and sought me out diligently when I was in Rome, for he was not ashamed of my chain.
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There is a reproach connected with being gathered to the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
And we read of that in Hebrews 1313, going forth therefore unto him without the camp bearing his reproach, and whenever you don't take a name, and whenever you don't have a pastor or a preacher.
Or a building that looks glamorous or attractive. Or a membership. There is a reproach connected with that.
But I believe that there is a reproach we might speak of.
That goes deeper than that.
Perhaps it was the beginning of their falling from the state of first love.
They were ashamed of the apostles chain.
That secured him to that centurion guard there in Rome. They were ashamed of him.
Are we ashamed of the apostles doctrine? And if we are, perhaps it's because they are.
Is that loss or lack of first love in our lives? Or maybe we've never had it before?
It was many years in my Christian life before I ever knew or tasted anything close to that.
But we're convinced, as the Scripture says, he that hath begun a good work in you will complete it unto the day of Jesus Christ.
But are we going to be indolent?
Indifferent Christians pertaining to our heavenly calling and the claim that the bridegroom has upon our hearts and lives.
We never read that this assembly ever recovered.
That is, from that state from whence they had fallen.
Perhaps there were individuals there that did, I don't know.
And we know that we are living, according to Second Timothy, in the Day of the faithfulness of individuals, because the corporate.
State of things is not what it was in First Timothy when the church was in its first love, we might say.
But there is always the possibility and potential with each one of us.
To have that place of blessedness, of communion with Christ regained.
And what does that take, beloved?
Says in Revelation chapter 2.
To repent.
Repent.
Nevertheless, I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love.
Remember from whence thou art called and repent.
If you've ever tasted anything of the love of Christ in your hearts, and if you're a believer, you have tasted something of that love and you've lost the sense of it.
It can be regained if you repent.
Peter fell before the Lord and he said.
O Lord, I am a sinful man, depart from me.
David confessed his sin to the Lord and was very graciously restored.
Godly sorrow, the scripture says, which worketh repentance not to be repented of.
And may the Lord Jesus Christ, by the power of the Holy Spirit, draw you this afternoon into His presence.
To give you that sense of.
Brokenness of heart and spirit.
The investment that he has made in each one of us as his part of His bride is very great, beloved, very great. No greater price was ever paid for anything or anyone, and the price that He has paid for you and me.
The Scripture in Matthew chapter 13 speaks of the Lord Jesus Christ as the merchant man seeking goodly pearls, and when he had found one Pearl of great price, that is, the Church or the bride, he sold all that he had and bought it.
We spoke of the Spirit of God always leading us to that place of communion and relationship with Christ.
And we saw that pictured before us with Rebecca.
As she wrote on her camels with her damsels of the maidens, and they followed the man, followed the man, no doubt Speaking of the Holy Spirit, pouring in the fresh testimonies, the moral excellencies in type of Christ.
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Into the heart of the bride.
He no doubt speaking to her all that long journey home of Isaac, to whom she would be married.
I remember.
Hearing about a bridegroom that was ready to be married and the day of his wedding.
The bride called it off.
I don't know that any of you would ever like to be in a position like that, the sisters here or the brothers.
There was a realization in her heart that she was not in love with the man that she was about to marry.
Now no matter what happens to us as believers, because we have the seal of the Holy Spirit.
Which is the earnest of our inheritance to the redemption of the purchased possession.
Remember, we are going to be delivered home safe to the bridegroom.
And no matter how our love wanes or because it.
We feel it isn't what it should be as being a part of his bride.
We're going to.
To be at that marriage supper of the Lamb.
In all of the brightness.
Of that fine linen garment.
Which are the righteousnesses of the Saints will be there. There will never be any.
Staying seen, never any waning of love in that day.
But in the day that we live, beloved, when we are going home.
The sad part is to lose that sense of bridle affections that state to to lower ourselves from that state of first love because we make the choices.
When Rebecca was near the place.
That was going to be her home. It says there that, umm.
Isaac went from the well of Lahiri.
Which means the living one seeth me.
And then it says that he went out in the field at Eventide to meditate.
Reminding us, evidently beloved, of the desire and the heart of Christ.
To have you.
For himself. He sees you, He knows you, he loves you, and he wants you. He died to redeem you.
I go to prepare a place for you. And when I go, and if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself, that where I am, there ye may be also.
The waiting for the coming of Christ was something that the early Church experienced.
It was part of their daily joy and expectation that Jesus was coming again.
With the very young converts at Thessalonica, it says of them that they turn to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for his Son from from heaven.
Whom He raised from the dead, even Jesus, who delivered us from the wrath to come.
Wonderful.
There was the expectation, the longing, the hope within their hearts.
And when we speak of the hope.
That the bride of Christ has that the believer has within the heart.
It is connected with first love.
When we lose the sense or the character of first love, we lose the sense.
And the freshness of the hope of his return.
We find as Rebecca wrote upon the camels.
She saw Isaac, and she lit off the camels. She covered herself, and when it was no doubt from that point on taken up with her blessed bridegroom. But first of all it tells us about Isaac, who went out in the field to meditate, his desire no doubt greater than his than hers.
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But there was a preoccupation with him throughout that long trip.
That she had taken journeying to that place of her home.
To meet her bridegroom.
Thus she was ready. She had the hope, the joy within her heart.
The expectancy of meeting him finally, after hearing so much about him on that long journey she had taken.
And perhaps as we read about the Spirit and the bride, that say come.
Speaking of the bright and morning star.
It should remind us, beloved, that that bright and morning star is that which arises just before the sun comes up.
Each day it is not the bright and morning star that wakes us up in the morning, it's usually the sun that arises does so.
But the bright and morning star precedes it.
And the Lord Jesus here speaks. After the angels have spoken about the heavenly city, the Millennium, and the judgments that were coming upon the earth, the Lord Jesus speaks and he says, I Jesus setting himself, so to speak, before the Bride in all of his loveliness.
As the bright and morning stars well as the root and offspring of David.
The Bright and Morning Star.
Has the bright and morning star arisen in your hearts like it speaks of Indiana Two, Peter Chapter One?
Is there that hope and the expectancy of the return of your bridegroom, that thrills your heart with joy?
And gladness.
Someone said looking to Jesus will change our lives.
Looking.
At him.
Will change our lives. Looking for him will thrill our hearts.
And we look to him, he'll supply our needs.
Remember, the Spirit of God lives within our hearts.
And if he is ungrieved, he will take the precious things of Christ.
Show them to us. Unite our hearts with our bridegroom soon to come.
So that that hope will burn brightly within our hearts.
In Luke chapter 12, we read just a few verses there. Where your treasure is, there will your hearts be also.
And if your treasure is in heaven, that is your heavenly calling. The joy of your heavenly calling, your heart will follow where your treasure is.
Then it says let your loins be gird about and your lights burning. We spoke about the loins yesterday and the need for guarding.
Our hearts.
Above everything that is guarded.
Guarding our hearts and our thoughts and our affections with the truth of God and keeping them in order.
But how many times we work on the outward?
And there is a place for the breastplate of righteousness, which is our conduct.
But oftentimes we emphasize that more than we do the state of our hearts, but if the state of our hearts.
Are right, is right, The outside will be right.
And the Lord Jesus says in the language of the Old Testament, my son, give me thine heart.
The little time that we have left, I wondered if we could just look at a few verses in the Song of Solomon.
And Chapter 5.
What is the state of the Church today in general, Beloved?
It's a sleeping church. A fallen church.
Is the Lord Jesus Christ worthy of his Church, his bride being awake?
Of having that hope burning brightly within the hearts of each one, yes, indeed he is. Is he going to come and find many of us sleeping?
Perhaps so. And he warned the Ephesians, awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead.
And Christ shall shine upon thee.
The languages of Luke. It says if thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light.
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May he give us that single eye.
And we spoke of the Lord Jesus Christ coming to his own sleeping.
In the Garden of Gethsemane, they were sleeping in the presence of his glory in Luke Chapter 9, but they were sleeping in the presence of his suffering in Luke chapter 22.
And if we're sleeping in the present, so to speak, of his sufferings, that is, his sufferings do not touch or awaken our hearts anymore.
We will likewise be sleeping concerning the glory of that Blessed One and the glory that we will share with him as well.
Here we find in the Song of Solomon, chapter 5, The Bride.
Asleep.
Verse two of chapter 5I sleep but my heart waketh.
The believer in Christ will never be satisfied.
While asleep.
Because once the heart has been affected.
By the love of Christ, it will never be satisfied with anything in this world, and that's what causes us to go to sleep. Beloved, the cares of this life choke the word and we become unfruitful.
How many things that take up our time and our hearts occupations put us to sleep. We find the bride here going to sleep in chapter 2. She was resting there by night upon my bed. I sought him whom my soul loveth. She had called him her beloved in chapter one, but now she says him whom my soul loveth.
And she sought him.
But couldn't find him in that place of Recline and we like.
Comforts of this life. We don't like to get up early and read the scriptures.
Or maybe stay up at night and read the word of God and spend time with Jesus.
Those things can be the things that.
Normally. Umm.
We like the comforts of this life do put us to sleep.
Then she rises and goes about the streets of the city she'll never find, so to speak. Her bridegroom in the world will never find Christ linked with the world and the Watchmen that go about the city.
Bad companionship. You'll never find the Lord Jesus.
You'll never find communion with him as long as those links are maintained in your life. But here in chapter 5, she's sleeping. I sleep, but my heart waketh.
It is the voice of my beloved that knocketh saying, open to me, my sister, my love.
My dove, my undefiled.
Now with language from the king speaking to the bridegroom like that beloved.
We know that it's not just a story in the Old Testament, and you know that as well as I do.
But he uses the tenderest language he possibly can to awaken the heart of the bride.
My sister, my love, my dove, My undefiled.
For my head is filled with dew and my locks with the drops of the night. Now he reminds her of his suffering.
And that is the thing that will restore your heart and mind if we've gotten into a state of lethargy and complacency or indifference. Or perhaps there is unjudged sin in our lives.
We must go to the cross, for he suffered and died for us.
Remember Gethsemane, where he sweat, as it were, great drops of blood falling down to the ground.
Remember that night in Gethsemane where he suffered the agony anticipating the cross?
He reminds us of these things when we go to sleep.
Then he says I have put off my She says I have put off my coat. How shall I put it on? Now? She tries to make outward adjustments and how oftentimes we try to do that, we try to change our conduct.
Nothing wrong with that, but that will never restore us.
To our bridegroom.
I have washed my feet. How shall I defile them? My beloved put his in his hand by the whole of the door, and my bowels were moved for him.
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When he puts his hand through the hole in the door.
She no doubt observes the wounds, the marks of the nails.
Now of course, this is a picture.
Of our Lord Jesus and his bride.
And how he seeks by his grace to awaken us through his suffering.
To bring to our minds and memory what he went through for us.
And then, she says, my bowels were moved for him.
That touched her heart. Remember the little girl That when her mother was putting her to bed one night, she said. Mommy.
Why are your hands so scarred?
And her mother answered. Because I saved you. One night, our home caught on fire.
And the only way I could save you is to gather you up in that fire and run out of the house. But I burned my hands in doing so. And she said, Mommy, I love those hands.
Our names are written on the poems of those hands that were pierced, beloved.
Let's not ever forget what he has suffered for us.
I wrote rose up to open to my beloved and my hands dropped with myrrh and my fingers with sweet smelling myrrh upon the handles of the lock.
Myrrh speaks of his sufferings on the cross.
His death for you and me. It was an ointment, a ball that was used in burial. And oh, he went in to death and suffered the agonies of the judgment of God to deliver you and Me, not only from the wrath to come to make, but to make us His bride. And now He simply wants to unite us, to make US1 in union with him by the Holy Spirit, in practice in our everyday life. And it can only be as we walk in communion.
With Him as Christ dwells in our hearts, and we're strengthened with might by His Spirit and the inner man.
I opened to my beloved.
But my beloved have withdrawn himself and was gone. My soul failed. When he spake, I sought him, but I could not find him. I called him, but he gave me no answer.
First of all, he had been a seeker. He sought her. And now?
He makes her the Seeker.
As those two on the way to Emmaus.
The Lord Jesus had spoken to them concerning all the Himself in all the scriptures.
And as they approached Emmaus, where they lived, he made as though he would go further, but they constrained him to abide.
With them.
And then he revealed himself. And of course, then he vanished out of their presence.
And they went back to Jerusalem. He made them a seeker for himself, created that longing. And in fact Emmaus means earnest longing, created that longing in their hearts.
To be with him or to be with their own company?
And their hearts were burning within them.
The Watchmen that went about the city found me, They smoked me with they wounded me, and the keepers of the walls took away my veil from me. Sometimes we have to pass through difficult circumstances, and as our hearts are being prepared for the return of the bridegroom, is there not that one blessed, wonderful fact that overrides every trial and suffering that we might have to go through. He is preparing our hearts.
For his return.
We've seen so many things among us, beloved, that have taken place.
Suffering of the deepest sort.
Sorrows that touch all of our hearts and sicknesses.
That have affected us and should affect each one of us. And we can't point the finger at anyone else but right here, there for us to revive us. And what is true revival? It's giving Christ his rightful place in the heart that he deserves. We speak about about revivals in this country, but what the Lord wants is a revival in our own hearts.
And that's giving him the true place He deserves in our hearts to enthrone him. May we leave this meeting having prayed that he might be enthroned upon the throne of our hearts.
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Well, later on we well, a little further down she finds that she's rejoicing now in this one whom she seeks, and she says he is altogether lovely at the end of the chapter and the next chapter, and verse 4, verse three, she says, I am my beloveds, and my beloved is mine. He feedeth among the lilies. Then the groom answers, Thou art beautiful, no criticism when she finds him.
There is no I'll remarks.
When you seek after the Lord Jesus Christ, no matter how far you've drifted away, no matter how far you have followed him, no matter what you've done.
There will be no criticisms, beloved young people.
He will say, Thou art beautiful.
You are part of his bride.
Part of that Pearl of great price.
In all that, we would walk in a beautiful way, and that our hearts would be maintained in a beauty that he can look down upon and feed.
Upon the fragrance.
As it says here, he feedeth among the lilies the fragrance of worship that he is so deserving of. Remember Mary when she poured the ointment upon Jesus. The whole odor filled the house.
And no doubt that fragrance that was poured out upon him was carried all the way to Calvary.
And it reminded her, or reminded him, of what she had done.
And the love that she had bestowed upon him. I know we're not to be occupied with our love, because the love of Christ constrains us.
But he wants us to love him.
He wants us to love him. We love because he first loved us and any measure that we're taken up and consumed with his wonderful love.
We will find that our hearts respond to him.
If the sin is judged in our lives.
Just back to Revelation 22 and we'll close.
Revelation 22.
Notice it says in verse 20 he which testifieth these things sayeth surely. I come quickly and he says this three times over in this chapter, and we've read this before. I know, beloved friends, but just to remind our hearts once again, the first time is in verse 7, but he speaks of it in conjunction with service.
In verse 12 he repeats it again. Behold, I come quickly.
And my reward is with me.
Connected with reward. But here, at the end of the chapter, he simply sets himself as the bridegroom before our hearts.
And, he says, surely I come quickly.
Without any other thought connected with it than the thought that he is the one that should be elevated in our hearts affections to long for him, not for rewards or anything connected with our lives here, so to speak, but to only be thinking of him.
And when that happens, the response of the bride is even, so come.
Lord Jesus.
We can all have that hope, the hope of the bride within our hearts.
In the measure that we have him before us, and we are occupied with him, and we find that there is no other source of true joy in this life like the the Bride and the Song of Solomon found out. Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth.
For his joy.
Or that wine is better than any earthly joy. His love is better than than any earthly joy.
And we'll find that out. Open up your hearts and throw him on your hearts.
You can have all that we've read about, all that we've talked about, all that you hope to be.
As a Christian and as part of the Bride of Christ, you can have it.
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It can be yours.
And he stands before you right now, not just as the one that's coming, but as the one that can fill and satisfy your heart's desire. Could we sing just a couple verses of #78?
In the appendix of the Little Flock.
So.
Recovered Truths #1: Our Heavenly Calling
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 have a burden this morning for these meetings.
To bring before our hearts consciences.
Some of the truths that Satan opposes.
But that have God in his mercy and grace has recovered in the last few 100 years.
Many souls have dug out these truths and they've passed it on to us.
You might say we've got it kind of easy, easily.
And because of that, I believe we can also easily let them slip.
We can easily let things come in to rob us of what is really ours.
I'd like to begin with a few verses in second Peter, one as introduction, verse 3.
According as His divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness through the knowledge of Him.
That hath called us to glory and virtue.
Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises, that by these you might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.
Exceeding great and precious promises.
Young people.
This is ours.
We need to lay hold of it.
We need to be reminded of it, we need to evaluate and, as the brother said, get back to basics.
And I hope that these meetings are plain and simple enough and yet have enough depth to feed our souls.
Because I see.
Feeding on the World.
I see among us.
Poverty.
Of enjoyment.
And the things of this world.
And that's not the best part. That's not what God intends for us.
Our souls need to lay hold of what God has given to us.
Notice down a little farther in the chapter.
Verse 10.
Wherefore the rather brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure.
I'll state right here now.
What I hope to develop in brief.
Our Calling. The heavenly calling.
Is one of the great truths that has been recovered in the late years.
Which Satan during the course of the church history?
Succeeded in obscuring from Christendom in general.
And Christendom had lost the hope of heavenly thanks.
And it's in danger now.
Will go on with verse 10.
For if ye do these things, ye shall never fail.
Foresaw, an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly in the everlasting Kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Wherefore I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things, though ye know them, and be established in the present truth. Yeah, I think it me or fit, as long as I am in this Tabernacle or this body.
To stir you up by putting you in remembrance.
Present truth is mentioned here, and I believe the heavenly calling.
The people of God.
Is one of those present truths.
That's ours. Present truth is a truth that is particularly applicable to us at this time.
All Scripture is profitable the Old Testament, and we're going to turn to the Old Testament.
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Has many types and lessons, pictures, shadows, and so on. Wonderful, beautiful, but it's not really developed and it's not really written to us, written to the Jews. It isn't exactly present truth. We have to turn over the New Testament to get to present truth.
Now I'd like to go back to the Old Testament.
Book of Chronicles.
First Chronicles, Chapter 11.
And I'm going to read some of the verses out of this chapter of Davidde, Mighty Men.
Those who made the honor roll.
And as I read it, I would like you to try to look particularly at what it was that distinguished.
These mighty men, what it was that King David.
Noted and appreciated of them. First Chronicles, Chapter 11.
Beginning with verse 4.
And David and all Israel went up to Jerusalem, which is Jebus.
Where the Jebusites were the inhabitants of the land, and the inhabitants of Jebus said to David.
Thou shalt not come hit her.
Nevertheless, David took the castle of Zion, which is the city of David. David said Whosoever smideth the Jebusites first shall be chief and captain.
So Joab, the son of Zeruaya, went up first and was chief.
And David dwelt in the castle, therefore they call it the City of David. And he built the city round about even from Milo roundabout, and Joab repaired the rest of the city. So David waxed greater and greater, for the Lord of Hosts was with him.
This is the first one.
I'd like to call attention to It's interesting that Joab is a really omitted from the list of mighty men in Samuel.
I have my thoughts about it.
Uh, but here he.
Is mentioned for one particular thing.
I'd like to ask one of the young brothers tell me.
What it was that David appreciated about Joette, Tim.
Initiative, initiative, initiative. OK, great. That's good. First.
And he went up and he fought, and he conquered Jerusalem.
Now there's a lot could be developed on that. Jerusalem was the city that God had his eye on.
The center of Israel.
Isn't it amazing that it was still in the hands of your Jebusites? And this is what we're going to notice here from the Old Testament, how the enemy seeks to rob the people of God of their present possession.
What God intended them to have.
To whom did God intend to give Jerusalem?
The Jebusites? No, He had promised to give it to Abraham and his seed.
And they were sent into the land to conquer it and take it and possess it. And that's a picture for you and me.
We've been given another land, and it's ours to possess it, to make it good, to walk in it. And we really only enjoy that which we walk in. And that's why we have meetings like this, to exhort ourselves to bring these things before our souls, that we may lay hold of them, make them our own.
That's something notable about Joab though he had his faults later on.
And the end he had to be.
Taken away in judgment, but there's something good about him here.
Maybe his motive wasn't right in so doing, but at least he was valiant in what he went forth to do, and he did it, and it was characteristic of him the rest of his life. So I think there's something to be learned even in Joab. We'll go on now and read a little farther down.
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Verse 10.
These also are the chief of the mighty men whom David had, who strengthened themselves.
With him in his Kingdom, and with all Israel, to make him king, according to the word of the Lord concerning Israel. And this is the number of the mighty men whom David had Desha Beam, the Hackmanite, the chief of the captains. He lifted up his spear against 300 slain by him at one time.
What would you say was notable about him?
Dave.
Pardon, Valiant. Valiant. 300 men to slay 300 men is valiant. That's more than all of this room, I'm sure.
David appreciated that. Now we know in the New Testament it says the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, that sword and spear, bombs and rifles.
No, and we fight against a spiritual host of wickedness we learn in Ephesians.
All these verses up here on the bottom row here are out of the book of Ephesians, and we're going to be in Ephesians some this morning, at least in theme.
Heavenly truth.
And in Ephesians.
Chapter 6 we have.
The enemy.
And he's not just a hypothetical enemy.
And you can't see him in this room either. You may feel him, but he's here. Many of them.
Heavenly Host.
Why are they fighting against us?
Because we are the ones to inherit with Christ His Kingdom.
He's going to give it to us. And if you'll notice in nearly all of these verses here on the wall, the word in him or in whom or the Lord's name is there.
Everything that we have.
Of eternal wealth and blessing is ours because of Him, and in Him, separate from Him, we have nothing.
Nothing more than the natural man or anybody else in this world that is destined to death and judgment.
But thank God that I believe most of you know the Lord Jesus as your Savior.
And have a desire to go on for him.
And these times, you know, when our conversations get turned to the weak and beggarly things and the base things of this world, I trust it's not the real.
I that's saying them.
It's not the real you.
All right, let's go on to the next one, verse 12. And after him was Eliezer, the son of Dodo the Hoheight, who was one of the three mighties.
He was with David.
And there the Philistines were gathered together to battle, where was a parcel of ground full of barley, And the people fled from before the Philistines, and they set themselves in the midst of that.
Parcel, and delivered it, and slew the Philistines, and the Lord saved them.
By a great deliverance.
What was it?
That was esteemed of value with this man of valor.
I hope the questions are getting easier.
Somebody in the back corner back there.
That what was it?
That was esteemed of value. I'm not talking about the spiritual significance, I'm talking about the literal item.
Ernie.
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I'm a farmer. I know what it is. Barley. Did I hear barley? I think I heard barley. Barley.
Is a field of barley worth risking your life over?
Why would a field of barley be worth risking your life?
We could find another one surely somewhere, or we could go buy some from someone else.
Oh, this man valued a field of barley. Doesn't tell us why, but David.
Noted that and he recorded him as one of his most valued men because of it.
Young people, it's the little things. Maybe a field of Varley isn't just a little thing that it could be.
It's the victory in the little things.
That are really great.
Just getting your conversation in the right theme, for example, might be a great victory for you.
Just resisting laughing at a dirty joke might be.
As good as a field of barley.
Just saying no to an invitation to some worldly event.
Might be a field of barley and we could go on and on. You know them very well.
We'll go on to the next one, verse 15.
Now three of the 30 captains went down to the rock, to David, into The Cave of Adalam, and the host of the Philistines encamped in the valley of Riffian. And David was then in the hold, and the Philistines Garrison was then at Bethlehem. And David longed and said, oh, that one would give me drink.
In the water of the water of the well of Bethlehem that is at the gate.
And the three breakthrough, the host of the Philistines, and drew water out of the well of Bethlehem that was by the gate, and took it and brought it to David. But David would not drink of it, but poured it out to the Lord, and said, My God forbid it me that I should do this thing. Shall I take drink the blood of these men that have put their lives in jeopardy?
For with the jeopardy of their lies, they brought it.
He would not drink it. These things did, these three mighty.
In Samuel it says he poured it out to the Lord. That's beautiful too, showing us that really David wasn't the ultimate object to receive it, but his great son, their greater son, the Lord Jesus. And I believe Dave is going to get a reward too for that. Now here we have something different, not a field of barley.
A cup of cold water.
Water from the well of Bethlehem.
Why did David long for?
Water from Bethlehem.
David was in rejection.
He was not allowed what was rightly his.
He couldn't roam about freely, he couldn't reign over the Kingdom that God had given him because somebody else was ready to relinquish it and give it to him. King Saul.
A picture of our Lord Jesus at this time too, who is in rejection.
The world wouldn't have him when he came, they said away with him.
Where has he gone?
Where we were singing about in heaven, Where is inheritance to be in heaven?
What did David long for?
Oh, he longed for that water that would prove his.
Ability to reign over it all, to be accepted by all. Do you think our Lord Jesus doesn't long for the day when He can come back and have? Rightfully He is.
Did he go through all that rejection and suffering without any feeling?
Oh, he felt it very much, and he's able to sympathize and help us too, as we go through this world.
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And in the measure that we turn our back on what Satan would offer to us and all his hosts.
Because he has his counterfeit, you know.
The Lord Jesus can minister to our hearts and.
He appreciates what you and I.
Give to him of refreshment and encouragement.
Acknowledging his rights now and risking our lives.
To do something just to please him.
It wasn't just the intrinsic value of water.
It was where the water came from and what it signified that made it noteworthy.
And made David appreciate it.
I sometimes applied this to.
Our great privilege of worshipping the Lord. My brother was speaking the other day about where he used to be, that they only come together once in every quarterly or so.
To break bread. To remember the Lord in his death.
It isn't. Oftentimes, you see, it isn't esteemed of much value because the gospel isn't going forth, or because souls aren't being brought in, or because there's no ministry to man or fill them in.
Because really, worship is giving God, giving our Lord Jesus his part.
And so when these men gave David that, you know, he really appreciated that water, it was something just for him.
And because of it, the three are recorded here and it doesn't tell which three they are.
This, says three of the mighty That wasn't the important thing. The important thing was who the water was for and what it signified.
Don't forget young people, the Lord appreciates it when you give him something.
As it even says in the New Testament, a cup of cold water. That can be a literal cup of water too. But I believe it can be much more than that. Pouring out your heart and worship to Him.
Something the Lord appreciates, something that will be rewarded in the coming day.
Where we have mentioned others, here we have a Bishi, I, the brother of Joab and then we have Benyaya.
It's interesting. I'll just leave for your meditation sometime when you read the chapter.
What Benny I did, he slew 2 Moabites, he slew a lion and also an Egyptian, and I believe those three are pictures of three of our great enemies.
The flesh, Satan, and the world.
In that order.
It's an interesting meditation, but I don't want to dwell too long on this part because we want to go on over to the New Testament now and speak a little about.
What is our inheritance or what is Our Calling?
Let's just turn to Ephesians 1 to start.
Verse 3.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who have 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.
I'm not going to read anymore of the chapter.
But the book of Ephesians develops the heavenly calling.
That is what is our portion, young people.
And we live in view of that, and we're marching as pilgrims as we sang, until that day when the Lord reigns and has his Kingdom.
I'm not. I'm going to go back now to John's Gospel chapter 14, and we're going to look at justice, a few scriptures.
I'd like to just try to bring before you a general order of how the Lord introduces this, starting in John's Gospel chapter 14.
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I know that most of you have heard these truths. I want to just simply go over them because I think we need as Peter said.
John 14.
Verse 2.
In my Father's house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you. This is the Lord Jesus speaking just before He went up to the cross. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself, that where I am, there ye may be also.
And whither I go, ye know, and the way ye know.
Thomas said unto him, Lord, we know not whither thou goest, and how can we know the way? Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth and the life. No man cometh unto the Father, but by me.
If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also, and from Hinch ye know him and have seen him. The Lord Jesus here had been with his disciples. He was ministering to them in the upper room, and He was preparing them for his departure. They didn't understand what was going on. They thought the Lord was going to set up His Kingdom here and got a reign in righteousness. But God had a better plan.
And that plan was to introduce and open up.
Heaven for men.
And that's why he says, I go to prepare a place for you. And that's where he went. After he rose again, it was caught up into heaven. The disciples saw him go up.
It's well testified to his resurrection and his ascension.
Apostle Paul saw him in glory, and when he saw him, he bowed down and he said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?
Same man.
Good example.
This is Our Calling, This is why we preach the gospel, and this is our destiny.
Wonderful.
Higher than a heart could ever dream of.
Whoever dreamed of going to heaven?
Before God opened it up by his Son the Lord Jesus, the highest our hearts would aspire to, I believe.
Oh I know they have the space games and everything, but you know that doesn't near nearly nearly reach it.
God wants you and me, dear young people, to be with Him. He loves us. He chose the human race to redeem them. We are those He died to save us. He sent back the Holy Spirit to help us, to get the to get there, to carry us along the way.
And that's going to be one of the other themes that we'll speak of, Lord willing.
The action of the Holy Spirit here.
This purpose and so on, it all works together, part of God's plan for us.
And we need to lay hold of it. But to lay hold of it, there are those enemies.
The spiritual hosts of wickedness in heavenly places, they're there and they're fighting against us young people, and this warfare is going on. Who's winning the battle?
We have the example of Moses, you know.
When the children of Israel were fighting in Amalekites and then Moses had to lift up his hands, and as long as he they kept his hands lifted up, the Israelites were winning, winning. But when they got tired and fell down, they were losing. And so they had two helpers there to help him and.
Israel prevailed picture of the high priestly work and the.
Advocacy of the Lord Jesus. He's interceding for us.
But are you praying? Do you pray each day?
Your Your Christian life won't be a successful, victorious one if you don't. It's our only way. The enemy is too great.
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Those Jebusites wouldn't let go of Jerusalem and the Lord.
By His grace has recovered a ground of gathering today too.
The One Body Truth has been revived and made known to our hearts to be gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus simply and only as members of the Body of Christ without human system and other creeds and additions that man brings into.
It has been made note to us.
Very precious, but the enemy will seek to rob from us.
Now let's go on to the 18th chapter, John.
We're just hitting a few verses here from John to show the heavenly aspect of the ministry of Christ. John. John 18.
No, Pardon me, Let's go back to the 17th chapter first.
John 17, verse four. I have glorified Thee on the earth. I have finished the work which Thou gavest me to do. And now, O Father, glorify thou may with Thy known self, with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was, I have manifested Thy name unto the men which thou gavest me. That was the disciples out of the world. Notice out of the world.
Thine they were.
Thou gavest them me, and they have kept Thy word. Now let's drop down to the 14th verse. I have given them thy word, and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. I pray not that Thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them.
From the evil they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.
Sanctify them through thy truth. Thy word is truth.
And then he sends them back into the world. And it's a tremendous principle there in these verses.
That avoids compromise, even though we go back into the world. And if you're not sanctified, young people, you better not go into the world because it'll overcome you. The sanctification comes first, the word of God in your heart.
The Lord has left us His word. We need to read it every day. It has a sanctifying effect. And the Lord is also sanctifying us from heaven. Well, you get here, the Lord praying to the Father about His disciples, and we learn from His purpose. They're not of the world.
Young people, if you go out and try to have Christ and the world.
You're going to find out it doesn't work, you can't have it, and God won't let you unless in his government he gives you up.
To a bitter life of learning it the hard way. And that's sad.
Sometimes he does allow us to have a piece of it, to learn the emptiness of it.
Better to learn it.
The vanity of it.
The emptiness of it.
It stressed up beautiful young people. It looks attractive.
And I believe to a certain extent, we all learn it the hard way by bitter tasting of it.
I want to go back to Jeremiah if I can find the verse. Just do before we close here the 1St chapter Jeremiah.
Interesting verse there that.
I believe gives us the key to Jeremiah chapter 2. It is this is talking about Israel, but I believe the principle of it would apply to us today.
Jeremiah 213 For my people have committed 2 evils.
They have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out. Cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold no water. Here you have two things.
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Why do people go into the world? Why do they get swept away with things? Christians, those who know the Lord.
They turn away from the Lord first.
We need to have the Lord before us, Dear young people. It's in him that all all these things we have.
Apart from him.
Nothing. If we aren't feeding on the Lord from the Word, if we don't have the Lord before us, our hearts are too big and they start craving things, searching for something. And that's what a lot of the youth of the world is out. They're out to find something, to discover themselves, their own heart, or discover the pleasures of all different kinds of things.
Why would a Christian who has.
All the inheritance as his.
Wants something like that to satisfy him.
Those are the empty cisterns that have been carved out and that we can look to to supplement what we haven't been gleaning in our own souls and feeding on the Lord Himself.
And.
I speak to my own heart in this and it's the need to have the Lord before you. You see, Christianity isn't just a bunch of rules and regulations to keep us all together and make us have a fun time or to be a one mind about certain things. Christianity is bringing a person before our souls.
And if he's not enough?
What else would be He's the fountain of living waters. Don't give him up.
As before, your souls.
If you do, you'll start carving out cisterns.
False sources of refreshment, and you'll have to find out that they don't satisfy. And there's older brethren here and those who have passed through bitter experiences.
Among us that can testify, and if dear young people, some of you are contemplating something that you know is disobedience to the word of God.
Talk to someone who's been down that road before you go it.
Save yourself a bitter experience.
Our time is up. That's close.
Recovered Truths #2: The Holy Spirit
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.
Yesterday we looked a little at the.
Old Testament Some pictures of victories and fightings.
And we looked at the New Testament, some scriptures about our heavenly calling, how that the Lord Jesus came down to earth to redeem a people, not to leave them here, but that he went back to heaven.
And how He has called us, destined us, for there that our blessings are there in heavenly places.
Not here on Earth, but we're still here on Earth.
And we have opportunities while we're here.
Perhaps we could sum it up with a couple of verses in Philippians chapter 3.
And verses 20 and 21.
For our conversation or the margin says in my Bible citizenship.
Our citizenship is in heaven, from whence also we look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body, according to the working, whereby He is able even to subdue all things.
Unto himself.
Our citizenship is in heaven.
Wonderful angels never will receive.
The same place in heaven.
Because the Lord Jesus became a man.
Everything we have.
Is only because of Christ.
How wonderful. Therefore, it's very important for us to maintain a link with Christ.
Quite a distance from him and us.
Today I'd like to look at some scriptures about how the Lord takes care of us while He's there and we're down here.
And that's where the Holy Spirit comes into play.
The Holy Spirit.
Member of the Godhead.
God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit, the Holy Spirit.
He sent him down into this world to take care of us.
All that time until we're caught up at the Rapture.
When the graves are opened and the bodies of the Saints are raised up.
The Lord's coming, that's all part of the heavenly calling. We're not going to have time to go much into that. The Lord's coming, there are two parts to it. The rapture and then when he comes back again with His Saints, it's all it's called. The appearing, the glorious appearing, the manifestation time, the time of rewards when he comes back, that's all part of that.
We might just look at a couple of verses to.
To tie that last part up in Revelation, the last book of the Bible.
Chapter 17.
I'm not going to read any of it, but I'm just going to point it out to you.
In the first verse it says, Come, hit her. I will show unto thee the judgment of the Great War.
And then we have the judgment of.
Babylon the Great, the Harlot. And she's judged.
Chapter 18 we have.
More about it Babylon the Great, the more the commercial side of it.
Then in chapter 19.
We have a heavenly scene.
And we have the marriage of the lamb.
Who's that?
That's the Bride of Christ. It's mentioned there. The Bride hath made herself ready in verse seven. That's the church.
The Saints of God that are taken up into heaven at the rapture.
That takes place after the judgment of the false bride, the heart, the horde.
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She's judged first. Now we're living at a time when that is developing here. And Christendom, the false church.
But God has the true church, the true people of God.
They're all out here mixed together to the apparent eye, but God knows every true believer.
And so when you read the Book of Revelation, it's solemn because it shows first the judgment of the false. Those who make a profession of being the Lords but are not real, it's very solemn.
But the True are going to be gathered into heaven.
One thing that characterizes the false is that it is earthly minded.
Beware, young people of earthly mindedness. Little by little we can slip down from our high calling and become earthly minded, and we see the judgment of that in those two chapters.
We see the beauty and the glory that Christ is going to get His true church in heaven in spite of everything else.
In chapter 19, the marriage of the lamb. Chapter 21 also.
Speaks about it.
And I'll just read the second verse and I John saw the holy city, New Jerusalem coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband and and so on. And it it goes on more there in that chapter. Now we don't have time to go into into detail about that, but I kind of wanted to connect it all together so we can see that destinies.
Here. And what's before the ending of it all? Isn't it wonderful that God has shown to us how things are going to turn out?
Now let's go back to John's Gospel again and begin our subject about the Holy Spirit.
We're going to go back to where the Lord before he left this world, how he made preparations and told his disciples about this John chapter 14.
Verse 12.
Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that believeth on me.
The works that I do shall He do also, and greater works than these shall he do because I go unto my Father.
And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye shall ask anything in my name, I will do it. It's a blank check.
With one qualification in the name of the Lord.
Verse 15 If he loved me, keep my commandments, and I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another comforter, that he may abide with you forever. Even the spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth Him not, neither knoweth him, but ye know Him, for he dwelleth with you.
And shall be in you. I will not leave you.
Comfortless, I will come to you.
I like that last expression. The Lord says. I will come to you.
In other words, the Holy Spirit is as good as Christ Himself.
And that's what is left with this dear young people. We're not left alone. He said this to the disciples that had known Him while he was here on earth. And they'd known a relationship, had known a relationship with the Lord here on earth. They could see Him and touch Him and feel Him and hear Him speak and so on. But He was going away and He was preparing them for that time when He was going to be away.
And the preparation was that he was going to send.
The Holy Spirit, the comforter he's called, There's different names. I believe the name Comforter is probably the same in the original as Advocate, also used in John John's epistle later on. It's one who takes care of all people's affairs for them. Well, the Holy Spirit.
Is God himself?
And.
What better person no other one but God himself could.
Do that perfectly. God knew that He would be needed.
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And this time while we're left here.
And he's home in heaven, and that's why.
Young people, we know it's difficult to walk the Christian pathway. We're tested and tried and tempted and so on.
The Lord knew all about that and He saw to it that we would have everything we need.
For our whole lifetime.
And there's no excuse for sin, ever, because we have the resources.
That we need. We're not left to walk alone.
He sent the Holy Spirit down to dwell with us, he said. Notice that expression, it says.
Hebrew in verse 17. He dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.
And a little bit later we're going to develop that the two ways in the Holy Spirit dwells with us. He dwells with us in a collective sense and the whole, the whole House of God, the whole church, and he also individually is in US.
To secure us.
Now I guess they.
Yes, it is right here.
Verse verse on the wall in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise. There's the ceiling of the Holy Spirit. It's God's approval and verification of the reality of such a one.
And preserves it, makes it genuine, so that he was going to send the Holy Spirit for that purpose.
Those who think that they can lose their salvation do not rightly understand the work of God in this, because when God doesn't work and when he puts his seal upon it, it's got to be good.
And it says also He will remain with you forever. That's true of the Holy Spirit. Once a soul believes in the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior, whom after that ye believed ye were sealed. Once a soul is sealed with the Spirit of God.
Nothing can change it, nor can that person lose. Is there her salvation? That's wonderful. It doesn't mean we cannot fail or it does not mean that we can cannot grieve him or quench the Spirit. The Word of God warns us about that.
But he we can't grieve him away, so he leaves us. Oh, He may let us go off in a path where we have to learn some things, but the Spirit of God.
Is with that person or in that person?
So the Lord here is introducing that.
The subject of the Holy Spirit here. I'd like to like to say just a little bit more about this.
It says in the first verse we read.
The works that I do, He shall He do also, and greater works than these shall He do, because I go unto my Father. So here we see one of the characteristics of the Holy Spirit is that it gives us ability to do the works of God.
The Lord had done many miracles when He was here, and those miracles didn't necessarily stop.
After the Lord went back to heaven, they continued with the early apostles.
And even greater works. It says and so you see the apostles doing it.
That was a testimony to prove to those early disciples that God was still with them.
That he had not abandoned them, and he's still with us today, even though we live nearly 2000 years later.
He will remain with us forever.
Another another part of the work of the Holy Spirit we see in verse.
Now, I guess it's later in the 16th chapter. Let's turn over to the 16th chapter.
Well, let's just read from the seventh verse, John 16, verse 7.
Nevertheless, I tell you the truth, it is expedient for you that I go away, For if I go not away, the comforter will not come unto you, but if I depart, I will send him unto you, and when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin.
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And of righteousness and of judgment of sin because.
They believe not in on me of righteousness, because I go to my Father, and you see me no more of judgment, because the Prince of this world is judged. I have yet many things to say unto you, but you cannot bear them now. Howbeit, when He the Spirit of truth is come, He will guide you into all truth.
For he shall not speak of himself.
Or from Himself. But whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak, and he will show you things to come. He shall glorify me, for he shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you. All things that the Father hath are mine. Therefore said I, that He shall take of mine, and shall show it unto you.
Now we have a developed a little bit more.
Part of the purposes of the Spirit of God coming down.
It was necessary that the Lord go away.
Why? Because God was opening up heaven.
The disciples didn't like to see that none of us liked to lose a loved one.
But because of the work of redemption, when a Saint of God passes away and it's never spoken of his death in death.
As death in the word of God, for scene of God, it's called sleep because it's temporary and so it's only a temporary departure. And in the case of the Lord here he is opening up as we had the many mansions in heaven.
So it was necessary for him to go away. As much as the disciples may have been disappointed about that, the comforter couldn't come down and link us to Christ in heaven if the Lord didn't go there.
Then that's the purpose. I believe one of the main purposes of the Holy Spirit coming down is.
To maintain that vital link between Christ and us. That's really what the baptism of the Holy Spirit is in Acts 2.
We'll read maybe just a few verses there in a few minutes. The baptism of the Holy Spirit is uniting many different people together in one body, the Church that is the bride of Christ.
And if it was left up just to us to maintain that link, what would have happened to it? Oh, it would have fallen apart years and years ago, but God saw fit and made a way to maintain it all through all the years, all the time that that the people of God, the Church of God are left here in this world.
Until the rapture, and at the rapture, when the Saints of God are caught up into heaven.
I believe the Holy Spirit also, the Spirit and the Bride say come, that's right at the end of the Bible, and that's really what we're looking for. That's the vision that's before us, the Lords coming and it'll be wonderful.
Some of the side benefits will be deliverance from all the elements of sin around us. We'll never have to contend with them anymore. We do now. And because of that, we need the Spirit of God and we need to be subject to the Spirit of God. We need to obey Him and follow his guidance, and He always guides according to this book.
God cannot contradict Himself, and He never will. And so, dear young people, if there's something you're contemplating, and it is plainly stated in the Word of God that it is.
Contrary, it's not the Spirit of God, so we have to prove things.
And the Spirit of God would direct us, and we notice there the perfect unity here in these verses between the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
And every great event in the word of God. I believe those 3.
Members of the Godhead, if we may speak with of such a holy person in that way.
Are always there, active together. Wonderful.
How wonderful it is that we have God with us.
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And in.
Now it develops. Here a few of the reasons, the things about the spirit.
He's going to convince, reprove the world of sin, of righteousness and judgment. These are three basic things that the Spirit of God is actively doing here on earth. Whenever we preach the gospel, we we preach.
Convincing against sin.
God abhor sin.
Sometimes we don't abhor it.
It's because we aren't in the presence of God.
I remember a story about a a man one time.
Who was a common laborer?
If I'm not mistaken, he worked an elevator. They didn't have push button.
Digital readouts and so on in those days. And they had a man to maintain an elevator in the building, and I believe that was this man's work. And so he was a lot in the public and he had to listen to a lot of filthy conversation and dirty jokes and so on.
In the course of time, but people knew that he was a believer and one day in this elevator, one of the men told a joke, and this brother in Christ didn't laugh.
And one of the other.
Men there noticed it and he said, well, you didn't laugh. Why?
And he simply said, man, men, I live in the presence of God.
Nobody told any more jokes.
It was quiet.
Young people, we live in the presence of God.
He's with us, he's in US.
Don't grieve you. Don't quench the spirit.
If we want to have a happy time here at Lassen Pines.
It's necessary not to quench the spirit, and we can do that in many ways.
We can grieve him and make him mourn over us and grieve over us.
And how he feels it when we walk in disobedience and sin.
We can quench him also in a sense of hindering others around us.
No man liveth unto himself, nor dies unto himself. We affect those we're around.
And we can quench the Spirit of God, that the liberty in them too to work.
For blessing.
I'm sure there would be much more blessing if we were more submissive.
To the work of the Spirit of God in and among us. Well that's something for us to to look to to do in our Christian pathway honoring to the Lord of righteousness that says because I go unto his Father, it was righteous that when the world reject him, God receive him in heaven. God defended the cause of the Lord Jesus and all the injustice that was done there at Calvary.
And he raised him into heaven, a man in glory.
That's righteousness.
It didn't look that way on Calvary's night when they insulted him and they gathered all the whole band.
And had a mock trial. There never was a more wicked trial and more injustice in this world than that night when the Lord was delivered over to be crucified. But righteousness is convinced from God by the Spirit of God. And when we preach the gospel, that's what we announced too, of judgment.
Oh, there's judgment too. It's a part of the work of the Spirit, not that the judgment is being necessarily executed now.
But it's pronounced now, and it's as sure as finished because God says it.
Whatsoever man soweth that shall he also reap, will never be.
Challenged or fall?
There is judgment.
For the believer, it's past our sins. There is no judgment or condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus.
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Verse 13 Albeit when the spirit of truth is come, He will guide you into all truth.
Oh, how are we going to get a hold of the truth of God?
The Spirit of God is going to make it known to us, and that's why.
We must give liberty to the Spirit of God to work at all times, especially in our assembly. That's why, for example, we don't have pastors to direct or take charge of the services as many congregations do in assembly meetings, because that limits the Spirit of God and who He uses.
It's a joy to my heart to hear young Brothers brothers pray here this morning.
And there's we need to give opportunity like that for the Spirit of God to use and speak through whomever he may choose.
That's how we get a hold of the truth, but when we bind, as it were, the Spirit of God.
And limit him in who he can use. We hinder blessing.
We don't want to hinder blessing, we want to let the Spirit of God have all the liberty He needs to feed and care for us this whole time here.
Then in verse 14 it says He shall glorify me.
For he shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you.
Oh, this is another occupation of the Spirit of God to make Christ known to us.
Oh, all these glories of the Lord Jesus has put place in heaven the work of salvation. How do we enter into it and understand the Spirit of God makes it known to us and reveals it to us. It's not my by my.
Known by power, but my by my spirit, saith the Lord of hosts.
It's not through human intelligence or it's not through good speakers.
Or convincing leaders.
No, that's all humanistic. That's all of man, the 1St man, that of man and his race.
No, it's the Spirit of God that reveals these things to us.
Flesh and blood shall not inherit the Kingdom of God, it says.
And it's not by natural means. We also read there in Corinthians that we understand, but it says comparing spiritual with spiritual.
And I believe that's what the way the Spirit of God teaches us and makes things known to us.
For example, we have spoken of the bride of Christ in the church. Well, everybody here, I believe that's been to a wedding knows a little bit what it's a bride is. It's somebody that's getting married.
United together in marriage to her husband. So it's it's probably I think naturally the the best day of a of a person's lifetime here in the world. Wonderful experience.
And I know many of you young people long for that. And I believe that God has prepared for us the best path and the best life.
But what would we know about heaven if God only spoke of it in heavenly language that we don't and couldn't understand?
So God has taken natural relationships, like marriage for example, and he's he has presented the church as the bride.
Well, we understand that a little bit better there, and you'll understand it a little better yet when you're in the marriage relationship.
He also speaks about fathers and children.
Well, all of us are here, our children of someone.
And we understand a little bit about that. Well, God speaks to us in those terms, so we can understand it plainly.
Wonderful how God by his Spirit can unfold thanks to us.
And may he do so during our time here.
All times.
So he's to glorify Christ. The cause of Christ has not been left untaken care of. The Spirit of God here is seen to it.
And I I think it's a simple test to truth and error in the world.
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To test everything you hear with just this thing. Does it glorify Christ or does it glorify man or someone else?
If it glorifies man, I do not believe that it's of God or the truth.
The whole truth, but if it glorifies Christ because God is going to unite all things in Christ. That's in the Ephesians 1 here where these verses are from. That's part of the purpose of God to gather all in Christ and just like in him is in every one of these verses. That's the way it is in God's plan in Christ.
And if we're not in Christ, and if that link between Christ and us is not maintained by the Spirit of God.
We're in bad shape.
And I believe every bride.
Longs to know her husband, her bridegroom, and to be with him, to learn to know what he's like, to live with him, to share life together. And that is also the response of our hearts. If we love him, we keep his commandments. We want to please him.
That's a, that's a, that's more than a rule. Oh, that's a, that's a, that's love acting in response to God's love towards us. And that's the measure.
We should respond to, I know that we have to have rules and regulations here in a camp like this and they're necessary because of our actions and our temperament and our things that we tend to do a lot. And I was telling the boys in my cabin, you know, and I'm thankful for those boys in there. Every bad bunk is filled in there and I'm glad. It really does my heart to good to see young people coming here.
Oh, we we've had a few little problems up there.
But I'm thankful for him and I'm, I know the Lord is too, and I want to commend him for that. You know, I picked on him the other day and asking him some questions. I probably won't do that today, but I might tomorrow. I can't predict the future.
The Lord loves us.
And our hearts response would please him. If we love him, we will keep his commandments.
I was telling the boys that, you know, if we all acted like we should as Christians, we wouldn't have to have any rules and regulations.
I don't believe there will be any rules and regulations in heaven.
No, everybody's going to have that new heart.
The old flash is going to be gone. There won't be any problems, but everyone of us has that flesh in.
And the flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit lusteth against the flesh we have in Galatians, and then we contend with that.
Who's gonna be the winner? Well, in a practical way, whoever we feed the most is going to be the winner.
So we need to feed on the Word. Let the Spirit direct our lives, not just do our own wills.
Sometimes it's hard to sort that out, isn't it? What is the will of the Spirit of God and what is my will? They're both in here.
Well, the outcome is going to be secure in the end the sealed are all going to be preserved but in a practical way. We we learn things the hard way and sometimes we have to pass through different trials and temptation Spirit of God may allow.
To teach us.
Now I'd like to turn over to Acts chapter. Acts chapter one.
Just the.
Eighth verse.
This is a historical event here, the Spirit of God coming down.
Or the Lord telling of it. But ye shall receive power. This is the Lord Jesus after he died and rose again.
During those 40 days He was with His disciples. He spoke to them again in resurrection, but not in ascension. And he said, But ye shall receive power after the Holy Ghost, Holy Spirit, it's the same word, His come upon you, and ye shall be witnesses unto me, both in Jerusalem and all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the Lassen Pines.
This is the promise of the Lord.
And it's thank God it's come to hear way over in America's nearly 2000 years.
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Now we'll go over to the second chapter and continue the progress here.
Verse one.
And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place, and suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting.
And there appeared unto them cloven tongues, like as a fire, and it sat upon each of them, and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them. Utterance, utterance.
This is the day of Pentecost, 50 days after the Passover, after the Lord had been crucified.
And it, it fulfilled prophetically what the Jewish feast the past of the day of Pentecost spoke of, came to pass on the very day here. Oh, it's an interesting study, the seven feast of Jehovah. So anybody wants to get into it. You learn about the feast of Pentecost, and that's particularly when the church was formed.
That's the day that the Spirit of God came down and baptized.
In one body, a church. Before that time it had been.
There had been the divisions of the nations and also Israel, and God only dealt with Israel.
The people of Abraham were the only ones that really had relationship with Jehovah, the God of Israel.
Now God was going to not just in Israel, but of all nations.
Form into one body, and so you get tokens of it here in the descent of the Holy Spirit. And notice again the two forms in which the Spirit of God dwells here, the collective and the individual. It says, and it filled all the house where they were sitting.
That's a demonstration of the collective dwelling of the Spirit of God in the house, and he's in the House of God. And the House of God includes other Christians out there that aren't gathered to the Lords name as we believe to be.
He's the Spirit of God is there too. We mustn't, we mustn't limit this to just a special privilege to us.
It's to all believers. Oh, the house has been all chopped up and divided and it's in ruins and pieces.
But the Spirit of God is still there all around, and he works.
And there's blessing in all parts where the Spirit of God is.
The second again is the individual. It sat upon them, and as it says here.
Cloven tongues like as a fire, and it sat on each of them. Every one of them had that sign there. You see, the Spirit of God is not something tangible we can look at and touch like the Lord was here. And that's why the world doesn't know. The world doesn't see this secret of God, this mystery of God that's taking place now, the formation of the church. They don't see that God is getting.
Here on earth and going to take it to heaven because they don't see the Spirit of God, but he's just as much here and he's just as much active as the Lord Jesus was when he was here and the same greater works continued, not necessarily the the outward sign gifts of miracles and tongues that were necessary to introduce this great event and make it plain and evident.
That has been well substantiated and the miracles don't need to go on.
But just because the miracle sees does not mean that the Spirit of God has left, or that he's more limited, or that he's less powerful now than he was at in the beginning. Oh no.
A brother once said it's yet to be demonstrated what a servant and God can do.
By the power of the Spirit.
And so we do not need to be timid in our Christian faith. We are rejected people and it's we are cowards, like, you know, one of the younger brothers say. And I feel that in my own heart too, that I'm often times a coward.
But God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of power and love and of the sound mind, the the Spirit of God. When we really act in obedience and dependence on Him, we are brave souls. And it's amazing what some of you young people have done.
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And little children, even.
A simple word guided by the Spirit of God.
Now I would like to.
Turn to a couple more verses to substantiate the collective and the individual aspect.
First Corinthians, chapter 3.
Just briefly touch on this First Corinthians chapter 3 and verse 16.
Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy, for the temple of God is holy. Which temple ye are. Listen the chap. This is in the chapter where Paul speaks of being the the the builder of the House of God, the temple of God that grows. And you have here viewed the Church of God, the.
God, you can take those terms as synonymous for right now. I know there are shades of difference in their meanings, but it's all refers to the church here, the bride of Christ in different aspects. And there's not time to speak in detail about that. But you have the formation of the Church of God in the hands of people here, the hands of man, and Sophia comes in.
The Spirit of God works, but men introduce error and they bring in false disciples too.
And what's going to happen to them? They're going to be destroyed like we read in verse 17.
But the Spirit of God doesn't give up and abandoned the house. No, he's still there. Says know ye not that ye are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you. That's the collective dwelling of the Spirit of God among us or in US in the house. Now turn over to the fifth chapter, 6th chapter. I'm sorry.
Verse 15.
Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ?
No, I'm sorry. Well, we'll continue. Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them the members of an harlot? God forbid.
Verse 17.
But he that is joined unto the Lord is 1 Spirit flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body, but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body. What know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own for your bought with the price, Therefore glorify God in your.
Body and in your spirit, which are gods.
Here we have the individual indwelling of the Spirit of God. Our bodies are the temple or the dwelling place of the Spirit of God. Every Christian has the Spirit of God dwelling in him. We must respect that.
God is not the author of the Spirit of God is not the author.
Of fornication or any other sin.
And so the Corinthians needed to be reminded of that.
And I would like to say a word to you young believers, that be careful of this sin and of tendencies to talk about subjects that lead toward this sin. Flee it.
Prayer meeting over there for the Gospel, but one of the brothers said Holy Father.
I really think it would be well that we use that term more often because.
We're accustomed to much to sin. We need to have the holiness of God more impressed upon us. And that's what the Spirit of God would remind us of. Our bodies. These bodies aren't given to us just to use as we feel like, like the animal Kingdom does.
Especially those of us that are believers.
But even the unbelievers ought not to, but those of us that are believers.
The Spirit of God dwells there. What confusion?
When there's disorder now.
Our time is really up, but I'd like to refer to.
Three other.
Three other subjects of the way. The Spirit of God is just in, in passing. The Word of God speaks of the sealing of the Spirit. We've already spoken about it. Sealing is for security. The Word of God also speaks of the anointing of the Spirit or the unction of the Spirit. In first John chapter 2, you have an unction from the Holy One. That's the anointing of the Holy One, the Spirit of God.
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And know all things it says that's for power. Whenever the word of God says the unction, the anointing, it's the power of the Spirit of God. Whenever it's the ceiling, it's for security, the genuineness of of, of the act of God upon it, the earnest of the Spirit. Our brother spoke of it to yesterday in Ephesians 1.
And I believe he explained it so well.
How that God put a down payment, a deposit that's worth even more than the object he's buying. He's given us the Spirit as the earnest.
Down payment of what's yet coming because we don't have.
All that's going to be ours until the Lord comes. Oh, it's ours, but we enjoy it only by faith, and the earnest of the Spirit helps us to enjoy that before we get there. It's ours. It's the guarantee. And the deposit is so valuable, and it makes us capacitate us to enjoy those things.
So you have those 3 aspects and there's the baptism of the Spirit that I already mentioned is another, and I believe it's the collective. So if we can keep those things in mind, I think it'll help us in understanding the Spirit of God and His work. Well, may the Lord bless it to our hearts. Let's close with prayer.
Recovered Truths #3: God's Appointed Place
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 have looked at two of the truths that were recovered the heavenly calling of the church, the hope of the Lord's coming that we are a heavenly people. We've also considered how God sent the Holy Spirit down to unite us to Christ in heaven.
Where He is entered and where He's going to take us and how the Holy Spirit ministers to us.
Shows us the glories of Christ.
Convinces the world of sin.
Different aspects of the work of the Spirit. The baptism of the Spirit collectively uniting us, the sealing of the Spirit of God, individually sealing us for his.
His guarantee?
The anointing or the unction, the power given to us to walk the Christian pathway. We don't depend on ourselves and also the earnest for the enjoyment that we need because we live in a wilderness, wild, as the hymn says. And this morning I would like to continue now with the thoughts of.
The place of the Lord's appointment, the House of God, where God dwells here on earth amongst His believers.
And to do this, I'm going to go back to the Old Testament, and as quickly as I can, I'm going to read through a series of scriptures without too much comment.
Tracing the way that the Lord worked.
To make his people find the place where he had appointed.
The people of Israel to gather together.
So I'm going to give the citation of these verses and read them. If you care to follow along, that's fine, or if you just want to write down the reference, that's fine too. The 1St is in Joshua chapter 15 and verse 8.
And the border went up by the valley of the Son of Hinnom unto the South side of the Jebusite. The same is Jerusalem. And the border went up to the top of the mountain that lieth before the valley of Hinnom westward, which is at the end of the valley of the Giants northward.
Verse 63 of Joshua 15 As for the Jebusites, the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the children of Judah could not drive them out. But the Jebusites dwell with the children of Judah at Jerusalem unto this day.
Judges, Chapter one, verse 21.
And the children of Benjamin did not drive out the Jebusites that inhabited Jerusalem.
But the Jebusites dwell with the children of Benjamin in Jerusalem unto this day.
First Chronicles 11, verse 4.
And David and all Israel went to Jerusalem, which is which is Jebus, where the Jebusites were the inhabitants of the land.
And the inhabitants of Jebus said to David, Thou shalt not come hit her. Nevertheless, David took the castle of Zion, which is the city of David. And we already read the succeeding verses of how Joab went up and conquered it, and I want to tie that in.
Chapter 21 and verse 13.
And David said to Gad, I am in a great Strait, let me fall now into the hand of the Lord, for very great are his mercies, but let me not fall into the hand of men. So the Lord sent pestilence upon Israel, and there fell of Israel 70,000 men. And God sent an Angel unto Jerusalem to destroy it, And as he was destroying, the Lord beheld.
And he repented him of the evil, and said to the Angel that destroyed.
It is enough.
Stay now, thine hand and the Angel of the Lord stood.
By the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.
Chapter 22, verse one.
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I'm going to go back and read from the 29th verse of chapter 21. For the Tabernacle of the Lord, which Moses made in the wilderness, and the altar of the burnt offering were at that season in the high place at Gibeon. But David could not go before it to inquire of God, for he was afraid because of the sword of the Angel of the Lord. Then David said, This is the House of the Lord God, and this is the altar of the burnt offering.
For Israel and David commanded to gather together the strangers that were in the land of Israel.
And he sent Masons to Hugh, wrought stones to build the House of God.
Second Chronicles, chapter 6, verse 4.
This is Solomon.
And he said, Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, who hath.
With his hands fulfilled that which he spake with his mouth to my father David, saying, Since the day that I brought forth my people out of the land of Egypt, I chose no city among all the tribes of Israel to build and house in.
That my name might be there. Neither chose I any man.
To be a ruler.
Over my people Israel, but I have chosen.
Jerusalem that my name might be there and have chosen David.
To be over my people, Israel.
Now it was in the heart of David my father to build and house for the name of the Lord God of Israel. But the Lord said to David my father, For as much as it was in thine heart to build an house for my name, thou didst well in that it was in thy heart, notwithstanding thou shalt not build the house, but thy son, which shall come forth out of thy loins, he shall build the house.
For my name.
Chapter 7.
Verse one.
Now when Solomon had made an end of praying, the fire came down from heaven.
And consumed the burnt offering, and the sacrifices, and the glory of the Lord filled the house.
And the priests could not enter into the House of the Lord, because the glory of the Lord.
Had filled the Lord's house, and when all the children of Israel saw how the fire came down, and the glory of the Lord, and the glory of the Lord upon the house, they bowed themselves with their faces to the ground upon the pavement.
And worshiped and praised the Lord, saying, for he is good.
For his mercy endureth forever.
Nehemiah, chapter one.
Verse 3.
And they said unto me, The remnant that are left of the captivity there in the province are in great affliction and reproach.
The wall of Jerusalem also is broken down, and they gauged thereof are burned with fire.
Verse 8 Remember, I beseech thee.
The word that thou commandest thy servant Moses, saying, If ye transgress, I will scatter you abroad among the nations. But if you turn unto me and keep my commandments, and do them, though there were of you cast out into the uttermost part of the heaven, yet will I gather them from thence, and will bring them unto the place that I have chosen to set my name there.
Wonderful, isn't it, how God worked with Israel over a long, long span of time?
We started out these theories speaking about the enemies of the truth of God.
The spiritual hosts of wickedness, and we have seen a practical demonstration of that here.
In the history of Israel, laying hold of the truth.
That God had intended, I believe, since the foundation of the world, it says in Romans.
That Jerusalem would be the place where he would dwell amongst His people, because that is one of the desires of God's heart to dwell with His people.
There it was, dwelling with them here on earth.
God delights to dwell with us too, and.
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Today there is a spiritual house that is being built up, and we're going to look then shortly at the New Testament and see, I trust from the Word God's desire and God's place of appointment for us today. And God has done it both in the Old Testament and in the New Testament in such a way that.
The souls of men were used.
To lay hold of God's thoughts.
To lay the foundation.
Build the house to make a dwelling place for God to be monks amongst his people.
In the Old Testament it was a physical house, and it was a physical demonstration too. The glory of the Lord came down and filled that house.
After many battles, and that house was built with the gold and the silver and the precious stones that they had taken from the Jebusites, the Amorites, the Philistines, and so on. They had.
Gain 1 victory after another and David had heaped up that mountain of gold.
Amazing amount, I don't know how many $1,000,000 it would have been worth.
Glory and honor to be used to God's name that was going to be dwelling among them.
And today, God is also building a house.
It is being built here today on Earth.
A spiritual house.
And we have already noticed some verses that bring that out, but we're going to turn to them.
And so we see a parallel the way God did it in the Old Testament on earth.
And I believe the same history has repeated itself in the New Testament.
Just like Israel was later after many years.
It was destroyed. All that glory to God's name.
Wasn't esteemed of enough value and they let it slip. They didn't defend it from the enemies of the land. So in the church history, since the Lord has opened up a heavenly ministry, since the Holy Spirit has come down here to baptize us.
And the foundation of the House of God has been laid.
Failure has come in.
And we're going to notice the House of God being built in two different aspects, as God builds it and as man builds it, and both go on simultaneously, God overseas. And when he builds it, it's good material, but when it's entrusted to man's hands, we see that we fail. And just like Israel failed and the walls were broken down.
And Nehemiah had to go back and rebuild those walls with exactly the same stones.
And there was a there was a measure of restoration and blessing.
So we too today live in a time when in these last few 100 years.
Many truths have been restored. The foundation they've got, we've got.
By the grace of God, we've been able to get back to the basic truths of Christianity.
And put our faith on them, walk in over that basis that Gods has built by His Spirit at this time. We know the house today has grown to be a huge house. That wasn't God's intention in man's building.
It's too bad. What are we going to do, go out and destroy that?
We're going to go out and tell everybody what they're doing wrong and tell them to how they get back to where we see the Lord would have us to do where he dwells. No, brethren, no, we have to leave that with the Lord. Like the parable of the tares and the wheat. We don't go up pulling up the tares. The angels are going to do that at the end of the dispensation. No, in that aspect.
We just leave them, Thank God where the gospel is preached. Oh praise God.
We're thankful for everywhere the gospel is preached and justice because somebody doesn't walk according to the faith that we see.
That we have doesn't mean they're all wrong. We'll let the Lord take care of what's right and wrong about it.
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But we must have our own faith, dear young people.
And I want to instill in our hearts a personal, individual faith.
And what you believe we have a demonstration in Joab who?
Was challenged and he went out and he took a hold of that city of the Jebusites.
They conquered it at great cost.
That's what we need to do.
Conquered by faith. The weapons of our warfare are not carnal. No, not like.
Not like Joab, but spiritual. And the house is a spiritual house too.
That's being built up. It's not a physical house like walls like this.
And I want to say another make another point here too. Sometimes, you know, we think that there is the House of God and that we live in it or that we dwell in it. That's that's backwards. We are the house, we are the stones. God is the one that dwells in it.
Just the opposite maybe as oftentimes we think people talk about going to church and that that's the temple of God as if.
No, that's that's not the way it really is. It's not a physical building either. He dwells in US collectively and that's why you have the collective descent of the Holy Spirit, or that he unites collectively in one and also individual. It all ties together.
The Lord in heaven, the Holy Spirit down here and the building going on and the church being formed, it's called, we've, we've touched on it as the bride of Christ. That's one aspect of the church we're speaking now, the church as the House of God and when it's the House of God.
The thought is it's the dwelling place, or it's the place of administration and authority or discipline as is necessary at times.
That's always in connection with the House of God. You never find discipline, for example, in connection with the bride of Christ.
Never. That would that would spoil the picture, wouldn't it? It takes many types for God to convey His great thoughts towards us.
And we need to enjoy these different thoughts or.
Representations that God gives us, such as a bride.
And it was brought out last night, many of the virtues and names that the bride has, those are God's thoughts toward the bride. Wonderful. And we understand that being in a relationship or seeing the relationship of a husband and wife, it's, and it's been called the closest relationship, the nearest relationship that any people of God will have or could have with God.
With the Lord Jesus, who is the Bridegroom.
Now there is also the church as the body of Christ, and if the Lord will, maybe we could touch on that tomorrow or whenever the Lord gives opportunity. Now let's turn to the New Testament for some scriptures about this. Matthew 16, verse 13.
When Jesus came into the coast of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, Whom do men say that I, the Son of Man, AM?
And they said, Some say that thou art John the Baptist, some Elias, and others Jeremias or one of the prophets. He saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am? Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. Jesus answered him, Blessed art thou Simon Barjona.
For flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father, which is in heaven.
And I say also unto thee, that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it, and I will give unto thee the keys of the Kingdom of heaven. And whatsoever whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.
This is the first mention in the New Testament of the Church, the Assembly.
The language here is future I will build.
Because the Church did not begin until the Lord had gone back to heaven and the Holy Spirit had come down to form it.
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It couldn't form. You can't have a body without a head. And how could we have a head until he had gone there in heaven to be our head? That's the Lord. But he's telling. He's telling his disciples about it because this was a new thing.
And what is the foundation of it? The foundation is the confession that Peter made. Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.
Have you believed that? Have you accepted Him, the Christ, the Son of the living God?
Is he your Lord and Savior?
If so, then you have put your trust in him, the cornerstone of the church, the foundation.
Of the church.
That's how you become a member of this church.
And we must be simple about it.
Confusion has been made of this.
In putting up and building church rolls and memberships.
And certain creeds have been added, and names of doctrines have been added to.
And names of countries and all kinds of elegant languages used to describe memberships to certain systems and organizations. You don't see anything about that in the Word of God. And that's why in all the confusion that's about us, we need to get back to the beginning. We need to go back at this at this day.
When?
The Outward.
View of the House of God here on earth has been all messed up.
And broken down and divided up in pieces. And the testimony to the Lord's name is not united.
There isn't just one church in quotes.
Her denomination.
In this world identified the name.
Christ, the Son of the living God publicly. Now we know before God there is only one church there. There always will only be. But the public demonstration in our hands isn't hasn't stayed that way. So what do we do? The same thing that Nehemiah and Ezra did. Go back to those original get those original stones and put them on top of each other where they're supposed to be, and then you'll have another temple.
Or the same temple, really. And so today.
We go back to the original doctrine that the apostles received from the Lord Jesus.
And that same faith and it's for us today individually to do that.
And you young people are at an age when you need to be thinking about these things.
When you need to be deciding in your soul, where is the House of the Lord?
Where does He want me to worship Him?
Let's go on to Matthew chapter 18.
Verse 17. And if he shall neglect to hear them, tell it to the church. This is the second mention of the church in the New Testament. But if he neglected here the church, let him be unto thee as a heathen man in a public land. Verily I say unto you.
Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.
Again I say unto you, that if two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything, that they shall ask.
It shall be done for them of my Father, which is in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them, just like in the Old Testament.
The glory of the Lord came down and filled the house. Now that happened on Pentecost.
Two, God, the Spirit came down and dwelt there. He hasn't. He hasn't exited the house since then. The old house has been all broken up, but there still is a House of God.
In two ways. There's a house as seen by man's building, and there's the house that God recognizes and has building.
The house that man builds includes false material as well as genuine.
The house that God sees.
Where he dwells.
Is the real, is the true, though there are many faults among in in the house.
Making professions. Now you have the binding and the losing here just as in in.
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In the 16th chapter, and I believe that shows us the administration that was given.
Authority House is a place where there is an authority. There is a head of the house.
Her father and the mother.
And so on.
And.
There are many headships and that God has given.
And so whenever we talk of such things as binding and losing or putting away or receiving and things like this.
Administrative things that must take place.
It's always in connection with the House of God.
Not the body you don't find in the in the Scriptures that a cutting off of a member of the body of Christ. That's that's another subject. You can't mix them up. They don't go good together, but each fits as God has intended. The thought when the body of Christ is union with Christ one they're made one.
And so it's necessary in this case where there's a disagreement, the church is the last word, the highest authority, the highest Court of Appeal in this case. And within this realm, now I know there are there are civil governments and authorities too, and the.
The Corinthians were getting those two mixed up and they were going to the civil when they had a disagreement with somebody in the church, and that was wrong.
And when you've got a problem in your family, you don't go over to the neighbors to settle it.
No, there's a headship right there that God established. Let's take care of the matter right there and then when it's in the House of God, then let's take care of it right there. Well, I think that's plain. Now let's go on over to Ephesians chapter.
Two Ephesians 2, verse 18.
For through him that is Christ.
The one who preached peace.
Broadest and I.
We, both Jew and Gentile, have access by 1 spirit.
The Spirit of God that came down and formed the church unto the Father.
Now, therefore, you are no more strangers and foreigners. He's talking about Gentile peoples that never knew any relationship with God, but fellow citizens with the Saints and of the household of God.
We have the House of God, household of God.
And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ.
Himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom all the building fitly framed.
Together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord.
In whom ye also are builded together for inhabitation of God.
Through the Spirit.
Well, here we have the continuation of the work of God in the building, the house, the dwelling place, habitation of God through the Spirit. God the Spirit dwells in the house.
He hasn't left.
And we don't. We ought not to need.
The demonstrations of the presence of the Spirit of God that were given at Pentecost.
The signed gifts, for example, healings and miracles and tongues, those were given in the beginning to testify of it. Once that is established, just like once the glory of the Lord came down and filled the house in Solomon's day, it ought not to be necessary for that glory to outwardly, visibly be displaying itself every day.
You know we walk by faith and the Spirit of God is not a tangible or something you can see and touch.
The world would take him and abuse him if they saw him.
That's what they did to Christ.
And that's why he has come down in the Spirit.
To work. But we see them. I trust we do.
Do we recognize Him? Do we submit to the Spirit of God when He brings things before us by the Word?
We ought to If we do, the house will start building will become.
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There will be edification or building. It will grow.
There will be blessing.
If we do not, if we grieve the Spirit, maybe some stones will tumble down and.
Maybe there will be some truth given up.
Maybe the Jebusites will come and get it back again.
The enemies.
The heavenly hosts will rob us, and you know how they do it.
Hudson Hudson Taylor had the accustom of reading his Bible early in the morning and he he made this comment I believe he said, you know the enemy of our soul can use such a trivial thing as adjusting the blind to keep us from reading the scriptures.
You know you sit down and open up your Bible and 1001 Things can pop into your mind to go do immediately.
The Jebusites are Robin.
Or you think about asking for your place at the Lord's table.
And the Jebusites will come and they'll make something. Maybe somebody will insult you.
Or somebody will say something, or something happens in the assembly 1001 Things can come. Who's doing that? The spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places, because they oppose the work of Christ.
That's the battle that's going on.
We felt it. We feel it in the assemblies.
Oh, there's an easier path. You can kind of coast along with the general trend of things and go, as they say, to the Church of your choice. That's the easy way. Is that the way of God? Was it the way in the Old Testament? No, it wasn't. They really had to work hard to get that city of Jerusalem, and they had to go over and over again. It took years for them totally to get control of that city.
And then they lost it again.
They really don't have it totally back again yet.
The Jews? Well, this is what's going on, young people.
So let's get back to basics.
Search out these foundation truths, these foundations stones that the apostles and prophets laid.
Our brother read that verse in Acts 2 before us this morning. And that that's a beautiful demonstration for it. I believe those are probably the four main, main stones there that the that the that they laid in the beginning.
The Apostles doctrine.
Apostles Fellowship, the breaking of bread and prayers.
And I think our meetings and assembly ought to be characterized with meetings that would cater to those four things.
Doctrine is necessary in teaching.
It isn't left us to choose what kind of a congregation we want to meet with the apostles. Doctrine is the basis, the only basis. If everybody got back to it, we'd all be together. So here we see in Ephesians.
The House of God, as he built it, builds it fitly framed, so the two are going on simultaneously.
God's side, man's side, and as it said in.
In Matthew 16, the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. You see, the gates of hell are that spiritual hosts of wickedness.
That seeks to destroy it and tear it down.
But God is going to see.
That it's done and it's finished and it's going to be. And so the basis for our faith is there. Just because there's confusion out out there visibly to us doesn't mean that there is a true foundation to put your faith in.
There is, but you got to get back to the epistles here to find it.
You won't get it. Listen to the radio. You might get some little truths, but you're going to get a lot more air than truth.
And the ministry, the written ministry, is good too. We've got people that have dug into these things.
At great expense.
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We might as well take advantage of it. It will save yourself a lot of trouble.
Take advantage of some of the ministry that some godly Saints have have have spent long hours over the Word digging into to recover.
Just like they had to do in Nehemiah's time, they had to go back and dig in all that filth and dirt, find each stone, put it back where it belonged. Because if you get one stone out of place, then the others don't fit right. But God's house is fitly framed. You know, I down in Peru there there's, there's some ruins of the Incas.
Built way back.
Nearly a couple thousand years ago, I believe, before cement had ever been invented or discovered or whatever.
Have stones there that are huge. Some of them were probably, I'd say 14 feet square and maybe three or four feet thick, huge stones. And they're not just square, but they're, they've got every kind of angle and corner and curvature you can think of. And they take those stones and they fit them together. So you can't get a knife blade between them.
Without any mortar.
A lot of work went into those stones.
And that's the way it was with Solomon's temple, too. It's interesting, it says when Solomon built that temple, there wasn't heard the sound of the hammer or the carpenter's tool there in Jerusalem. Where did all that take place? It took place way back over in the quarry or way back over where they hewed the lumber and they prepared every piece.
To perfectly fit and when they brought it in there, they set it in place and it worked.
That's God's way of building, and that's the way he's building the church. And he knew you before the foundation of the world.
And he prepared you, and he made you what you are, and you fit in God's church if you're one of his disciples, if you've owned the Lord Jesus as your Savior.
And you need to occupy that place. You need to praise God in whatever way He gave you to praise Him. And there are many ways to do that.
Now there's one more scripture we want to turn to turn to before we close. And in First Corinthians 3 verse nine. First Corinthians 3 verse nine. For we are laborers together with God. Ye are God's husbandry, ye are God's building according to the grace of God, which is given unto me as a wise master builder. I have laid the foundation and another, another buildeth thereon, but let every man take heed how he buildeth thereon. For other foundation can no man lay.
Then that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
Here we have the building in the hands of man, and if we'd read the whole chapter, we'd see how failure comes in and the responsibility comes in. And so we have responsibility here.
There's responsibility to us here at Lassen Pines in the way we conduct things, and that's why there are certain rules and regulations and and so on, because it's the desire.
It's our desire to build right material and we have to give an account and you have to give it count of how you build too.
Paul by the grace of God laid a good foundation God in his mercy preserved so that the failure didn't enter into the apostles work because if it had of.
I'm afraid we wouldn't have got to put the rest of it together that they've messed up on, but God saw fit to preserve the apostles.
Paul especially, he says I've laid the foundation, that is, he was the principal one that God used.
To bring these truths out to us.
Now the balls in our court, young people, the buildings in our court, how are we going to evangelize? How are we going to conduct our meetings?
Who's going to be allowed to break breath?
All these things are for us to seek out.
Put our faith in. You see, it's a two way St. If God is going to dwell with his people, we have to be together on this.
And who's boss?
The Lord God is and so the whole thought of worshipping where you please.
Is totally foreign to the scriptures. We've got to get to where God's thoughts are.
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Oh, we can build a church and we can build all kinds of things and have all kinds of creeds, and we can make it look real, whole lot like God's church. But that won't make it what makes it God's church.
His dwelling there.
And that's where we need to go. Where two or three are gathered into my name, there am I in the midst of them.
A little over 160 years ago, brethren discovered that verse.
And they put their faith in that verse, and they separated from all the confusion and air that was around them.
And they started breaking bread.
In obedience or in faith on that verse and it's been going on.
Ever since.
And I can say for myself, I have seen where I believe the Lord Jesus is in the midst, and that's where I worship Him. That's where I break the bread and remember Him together, because the breaking of bread is the expression of that unity. They are the one body and of the remembrance of the Lord and the recognition of His presence there in the loaf, in the cup. But I can't say that for you. You have to see that for yourself.
Otherwise you would be following me.
And just be a disciple of mine or some other brother.
Deciphering.
Followers of the Lord.
May the Lord make that clear to you, each one of you and your souls. Shall we close with prayer?
Recovered Truths #4: The Body of Christ
Address—Doug Buchanan
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Ephesians 4 Four has been read. There is one body.
One spirit, even as ye are called, in one hope of your calling.
And so we hope to touch briefly on the first of those three. We have taken them up in reverse order.
And if the Lord give time, I would like to give a few thoughts as to our behavior in the day of ruin.
Applying some of these principles and the resource and the mode of action today when things are in disorder outwardly now, I'd like to go back again to the Old Testament for the first example of the one body in Genesis chapter 2.
A type, and I believe it's probably the most complete type in the Old Testament.
We had before us Rebecca and the unnamed servant and how that was a picture of the bride of Christ and how the unnamed servant was the Holy Spirit. Beautiful example. And there are many other women that are pictures too of the bride of Christ. I believe in the Old Testament but the first is Eve.
Genesis 2, verse 18.
And the Lord God said it is not good that the man should be alone.
I will make him and help me for him.
Verse 21.
And 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 Adam 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 cleave unto his wife, and they shall be one flesh.
It's nice to see here that this was in the thought of God.
Before.
This thought was God's thought before sin came into the world. The man should not be alone, because Adam at that point was alone.
All by himself to rule and reign over the Kingdom that God had given him.
The picture is of Christ, the 2nd or the 2nd, the last Adam, the 2nd man.
Who is also the head of another Kingdom, and who is also to have his bride, the Church?
Which is his body.
For many years.
And oftentimes we have this truth brought before us at weddings.
And isn't it wonderful when God gives us that privilege to share a relationship like that husband and wife?
And so it's often spoken of in that way. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife.
And they shall be one flesh. And so the oneness begins at that time of marriage.
But we see something different here.
And this is the only woman, the only bride.
Besides the church that came into existence that way.
Where did Eve get her existence from the rib of Adam?
I have enjoyed it as seeing a picture of the Lord.
Suffering on the cross, and his side was opened up there with the spear.
And blood and water came forth.
That redeemed us. That brought us into existence.
In in Spanish there is an expression commonly used for ones girlfriend or ones wife too My rib.
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Nicostia.
Kind of like that expression.
It really expresses what we have here.
I noticed that you boys and girls that have attraction for each other like to sit close to each other.
God has prepared a way and a means for that for us in order.
But it must be according to God's thoughts.
Wonderful God instituted marriage.
It's holy. Matrimony is holy, we read in the New Testament.
And by it does wonderful, wonderful to be able to learn of Christ and the Church. So it says here, the rib which the Lord God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man.
Now I'd like to turn over to the fifth chapter and read a couple verses.
For an additional thought.
In Genesis 5 verse one, this is the book of the generations of Adam in the day that God created man in the likeness of God, made he him male and female, created he them and blessed them, and called their name Adam and Eve.
Do I see some eyebrows?
What did I read wrong?
Called their name Adam.
They shall be one. What happens to a girl when she gets married?
She takes on the name of her husband.
That's a good I'm thankful for that cultural practice that has carried on, I believe, since Genesis.
We have had that before us, the Christ.
And it refers to Christ and his church.
We are his body. Now let's turn over to the New Testament for that.
Something of this oneness and how we.
First Corinthians, Chapter 11.
And verse eight for the man is not of the woman.
But the woman of the man.
Everyone of us here was born of a woman.
Eve was not born.
She was created.
She was made from Adam.
And so the woman is of the man.
The church is of Christ.
And that's why it's so important that the Holy Spirit be sent down to unite us, that vital link, if we might say, when we're at such a distance still.
And so the church.
What isn't just made one with Christ at the marriage of the Lamb.
Already that link exists.
We are one in Christ.
The oneness that is ours then.
Nothing can touch it, nothing can ever break that union. It is sad when marriage relationships are broken and they are not of God.
God in His mercy allows under certain circumstances.
But it does not give a right expression to God's thoughts and what God does.
And God will never have to divorce something that he unites together in one wonderful the security that we have in Christ being members of his body. Now there are other expressions, there are other thoughts that the one body would bring before us. I'm going to be brief.
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On this subject this morning.
Let's.
Let's turn over to Ephesians 5 now.
Verse 23.
For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church, and he is the Savior of the body.
Verse 28.
So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife, loveth himself.
For no, no man ever yet hated his own flesh, but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord, the Church. For we are members of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother.
And shall be joined unto his wife, and they too shall be one flesh. This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the Church.
So I believe we have here reinforced what we have expressed about Eve having her existence from Adam being taken from his side. So the Church is one body.
In Christ, and that is the reason that a man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife.
To practically live together and give expression of that truth. And it is wonderful, the truths of God that can be expressed practically in our relationship.
In marriage, and we have in this chapter the two.
Main things that are enjoined on the husbands and the wives.
That is, the husbands ought to love their wives.
As their own bodies, each husband ought to love his wife.
Because Christ loved the church.
Oh dear young people, may that get into your soul and mine.
How much he loved us, you know, as you go along life.
And maybe you have some hard experiences and fail the Lord.
And I'm in a marriage relationship. This comes along too, you know, it doesn't take very long in a marriage relationship where you have to.
You know, work at the love little things come in to so that just the pure natural affection isn't enough to maintain what God instituted. We have to go to the Lord.
Where divine love comes from.
To fulfill our role that God gave us as husbands to love our wives.
Not only when they're lovable, but at all times.
Likewise the wives.
Submission.
And when we see our sisters in submission to their husbands.
It helps us as members of the Church of God, the Bride of Christ, by his body.
To be submissive.
Why is it, young people that we have and insist on certain rules and regulations up here?
Part of it is to teach you to be submissive to Christ.
And it hurts our souls when we see resistance to that.
It's not a personal thing between US and you.
It is that we long to see Christ formed in you.
And you submissive to him.
And the rest of us here too. I long to be that way.
And I learned something of that from my wife.
So we see here in the one body relationship that we have.
The expression of love and expressions of submission.
Two great secrets.
I'll just comment briefly now on a couple of others.
In Ephesians chapter 2, go back a couple chapters.
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And there are perhaps many more, but it might be helpful to just enlarge a little bit.
Ephesians chapter 2, verse 14. Verse 13.
But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off, are made nigh by the blood of Christ. For He is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us, having abolished in His flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances.
For to make in himself of Twain 1 Newman, so making peace.
And that he might reconcile both unto God in one body, by the cross having slain the enmity thereby.
Here we see the one body.
Truth broadened out to include a little bit more, and it's thought we have here.
Especially for the Jewish mind, the bringing together of Jew and Gentile in one body.
Because the Jew at that time to whom the oracles of God had been given.
Were the only ones that had that relationship with God, Jehovah. But now God was opening the doors for the Gentiles too. And he didn't intend that there be two churches, two bodies. No, only one. And so they went through a rather transitional or a learning stage there.
To accommodate the Gentiles.
And so the thought of the one body is expressed there too.
In First Corinthians chapter 12, we have another.
Thought.
Verse 12.
For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body being many, are one body, so also is Christ in the Church.
Christ.
Here we have the thought of many individuals.
All united together in one.
This is also truth.
The one body.
Not so much that we're just connected with Christ, which of course is the principal thing, but we're united together in one and there are many members.
And each member has a different function and you have that.
The Spirit here giving out the gifts, diversity of gifts in this chapter and it's developed.
For the growth and the building up of the body. And so it is important for each one of us to realize.
Whatever member we might be of the body, some members are good at one thing and other members are good at another thing.
I can remember, I'll say this for the sake of some of the little children here, something that happened a long time ago.
And I don't remember too many stories about my youth, but I remember this one.
That we went away on a vacation down to Florida, to the beach my parents took me. I must have been maybe 8 or 10 years old the most, and we rented an apartment there along the beach.
And we're in enjoying ourselves, going swimming every day.
One day we all went down to the beach and we were so occupied in what we were doing that somebody went off and locked the keys to the apartment in the side. And so we came back and knocked on the office and nobody was home at the.
That the apartments there where we were staying and so my dad walked around to the back of the.
Building and sure enough there was a window open there in the back.
But the window was up about this high, and it was only about that big square.
And so my dad turns to me and says, can you crawl through that window?
I said yeah, yeah.
So he hoisted me up and I went and climbed through that window and got the keys and opened the door.
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I thought I was pretty big. Oops, I guess I was really small, wasn't I?
You see, you don't have to be big or important to do something for the Lord.
Sometimes it's better to be small.
If you want to get something out of the top of an old glass Coke can, you can't stick your biggest finger in there. To get it out, you have to use your littlest finger.
Well, that's just an illustration of.
How the Lord in his body gives different gifts. There's different things that are of importance and you don't have to be, as it were, the best and the biggest to be useful.
Oftentimes, I think it's the other way around.
Now I'd like to pass on and speak a little bit of the.
Something that I have enjoyed in my soul concerning how to function in the church in these last days of ruin when there is so much chaos and doctrines are thrown overboard.
And it's the church is in a state kind of like the vessel that Paul was shipwrecked on when it was all broken up in pieces.
And every man kind of had to fend for themselves to get to shore. And I believe that's a picture historically of what's happened down through this church period.
And we're living young people at the last time, just before the Lord's coming, to call his bride home to glory.
How are we gonna get to shore?
Well, Paul promised that everyone would, and they did.
How did they do it? By obeying Paul's word.
And how are we going to do it? By obeying Paul's doctrine.
Back to basics, first principles, building our faith on those original foundation stones of the Church.
Maintaining our link with Christ in glory.
Not following men.
When everything is going in order, you can follow men and you will stay in the path perhaps.
But in a time like this, it's impossible.
That's why I want to encourage you young people to search the scriptures about these things. Consider some of these points that have been brought out. Weigh them in your own soul. Don't just accept them because brother, so and so says them.
Put your own faith in what God says and walk in it.
Stand on it firm.
And he'll get you to. It'll get you to shore.
Now I'd like to read a couple stories in the Gospels to illustrate how the Lord is in control.
Matthew Chapter 17 Now at first this may appear to not have any connection and.
But bear with me a little and we'll get into it.
Verse 24.
And when they were come to Capernaum, they that received tribute money came to Peter and said.
Doth not your master pay tribute? He saith. Yes.
And when he was come into the house, Jesus prevented, and that word means went before.
Prevented him saying, What thinkest thou, Simon?
Of whom do the kings of the earth take custom or tribute of their own children, or of strangers? Peter saith unto him, Of strangers Jesus said unto him, Then are the children free, notwithstanding lest we should offend them? Go thou to the sea, and cast, and hook, and take up the fish that first cometh up, and when thou hast opened his mouth thou shalt find.
Of money that take and give unto them for me.
And thee now I'd like to give a little background history here of the situation.
The Romans were ruling at this time.
The Jews.
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Were given only a limited amount of liberty and had to pay taxes.
Apparently the Romans did not.
And so the Jews.
Were under the dominion of the Gentile, the Roman Empire.
And that was very irksome to them.
That was a testimony constantly to the failure of their fathers.
And of the ruin of Jerusalem.
Where God had committed to them the government of the earth.
And paying tribute.
You know, money, money really gets to the heart that to the if you want to, if you want to really irk somebody, get in their pocketbook.
I'm not suggesting that, I'm just saying that's true of our nature.
And so when these publicans went around the tax gatherers.
They were listed with the sinners because they were looked at as traitors.
To the Jewish cause.
They were looked at as those who identified with the Romans and were not loyal Jewish citizens. So this was a very touchy point.
Now they come and ask Peter, doth your master pay?
Now I ask you, does God have an obligation to pay taxes?
Peter said yes.
He said yes without asking the Lord, and the Lord knew it. It doesn't say here that the Lord heard him. He may have, but I tend to think that the Lord.
Was telling Peter, Peter, I'm God and I know what you told them out there even though it wasn't there.
As man.
And then Peter, I think, had second thoughts. Did he answer right?
Well, the Lord is very gracious to Peter and He shows Peter something here.
And he gives the illustration here of the children.
And they were the children.
They were disciples of the Lord of the God the Father, walking with him, sharing in his rejection and all that the Lord went through.
And so the Lord makes it very clear.
That really in the Kingdom that the Lord was going to set up.
They wouldn't need to pay taxes.
But the time hadn't come to make that known yet to the world. And so.
He says not to offend.
Because we're to be as it says in Romans, Obey them that have the rule over you.
And we're to pay tribute to whom tribute is due.
That you was even though under the Kingdom.
That would not be necessary.
But the Lord left the hand of discipline upon them to keep them in remembrance of their failure. And I say to you at this time, in the time of failure of the church, you know, we have to suffer a lot of things that aren't just and right.
But remember, there's a lot of things that we haven't suffered for that we really are guilty of. Therefore, let us be humble and accept all those circumstances from the Lord, recognizing it's His hand upon us, just as His hand was upon that Jewish nation for their failure. And He didn't. Just when they said the first time that they said, yes, Lord, He didn't immediately come out and set the whole Kingdom.
And put everything out in order immediately.
No, that will have to wait till the right time.
He gives this little example of the fish, the hook, and the fish to Peter. Peter was a fisherman and the Lord took up an example that he knew Peter would understand.
So he tells Peter to go out, cast in the hook and take up the first fish.
Open its mouth, take the money out and go pay.
Now that was a miracle, wasn't it, Brother Brimley? Have you ever had that happen?
Never. No I I'd be surprised if it's ever happened since.
What it is a testimony is that.
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God.
Who doesn't need to pay taxes is still in control.
Over the creation, the Lord hasn't lost what Adam lost.
Yeah, and sometimes we think we don't have you all in control up here either, but the Lord does.
And you'll never get away with anything.
Neither will you miss any blessing that He intends for you.
He's in control. He was in control there and he had that fish there take up the money and it was the exact amount to pay for the two.
A testimony.
From creation, that Christ is still the head of the creation and in control.
Now let's turn over to Luke 22, verse seven. Then came the day of unleavened bread, when the Passover must be killed. And he sent Peter and John saying, Go and prepare us the Passover, that we may eat. And they said unto him, Where wilt thou that we prepare?
And he said unto them, Behold, when ye are entered into the city, there shall a man meet you bearing a pitcher of water. Follow him into the house where he entereth in, and ye shall say unto the good men of the house.
The Master saith unto thee, Where is the guest chamber, where I shall eat the Passover with my disciples, and he shall show you a large upper room furnished. There make ready. And they went and found as He had said unto them, and they made ready the Passover. When the hour was come, he sat down, and the 12 apostles with him.
Will this stop there? Because I think you're well familiar with.
Passage that follows.
I believe here we have another demonstration of the control that the Lord has in a different in a different aspect.
The fish and the money would portray to us the Lord's control in the creation and in the civil governments and how He is able. Here we have more the religious side or the spiritual side.
The approach to God.
And the place of the Lord's appointment and how to find it.
Because it's different here in Luke than it is in Mark.
In Mark.
If I'm not mistaken, it's there.
Now in Mark we don't have the first expression. Go and prepare us.
It's just that the disciples ask, Where wilt thou that we prepare?
Interesting. Here we get God's point of view of of this the Lord gave the word first go and prepare.
Now we'll go back and get a little more background again to this situation.
This was the night that the Lord was to be betrayed the Jewish nation, or at least the elders and the scribes and the rulers of the people.
Were already conniving how to get rid of the Lord Jesus.
He was rejected. He was about to be crucified. The city was in a certain turmoil over this.
And the disciples were following a man that was about to be executed.
Where in the city could such a company be safe and secure to eat the Passover? Could they go into the temple?
Where properly it was to be celebrated.
No.
Did these disciples have homes to do it? I don't know.
Probably they were poor. Most of them were from Galilee.
And I doubt really they had a place there in Jerusalem.
Where could this be done?
The Lord shows He's in control here.
And that he is able to provide that place in a difficult time.
And I think if we visualize it true and truly in its setting, we would have to admit it really was a true difficulty where the disciples could celebrate the Passover.
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So the Lord gives these instructions.
Go into the city, and there shall meet you a man bearing a printer of water. And many times I know we've heard this and and it's I've enjoyed it in my own soul of an example to us of finding the Lord's place of appointment.
But what I particularly want to bring out, and I don't know that has been brought out too often.
This side of it is how that it is a testimony from the Lord Himself.
That he is in control.
To find in finding the place you have to go into, they had to go into the city.
He didn't say who, what man this was. He just said a man bearing. Now I know it's often said that it wasn't common for men to wear bear pitchers of water because the women did it. That may be true.
But to me, that wouldn't be I still if I had been in their shoes with my weak faith.
I tend to think that when I saw that man, I would kind of have a second thought. Am I sure this is the man? What if I got the wrong man?
Well, the disciples obey.
To find the place, they had to obey the obedience of faith.
They walked. They didn't know where they were going to end up when they started.
It's good, brethren, that we don't preconceive where we want to go to worship.
Are you really willing to put this question into the Lord's hand and let Him guide you? If you do, I believe He will show you plainly as He did these disciples the place, and you can be just as sure that you're in the right place as these disciples were.
I can say in my own soul, he has made it abundantly clear.
But I cannot say that for you.
If you follow the Lord's guidance, He will show you.
That he is in control. And this I am saying now in a time when.
There is much confusion.
Much fogginess.
Much failure.
And if we look at the failure.
We may not see clearly the Lord's guiding hand.
The disciples had to, and there were two of them that did this. The disciples had to just explicitly obey the Lorde command and follow that man that was bearing the pitcher of water. And I know it's been compared to the Holy Spirit, but for our purpose this tonight, I just want to suggest that it is obedience to the Lord.
And whatever he tells us to do.
And when you do it, he confirms to you that it's the right thing.
And when they got to the place and then they'll eventually, the Lord must have come along a little later.
They were confirmed of the being at the right place, no doubts.
Very plain and simple. Well, I know the Lord was physically there, and He's not in the physical sense with us.
But I believe, and I've enjoyed comparing these two, the fish as the example of the Lord's control and power over the civil authorities and whatever disorder, and here how the Lord by His Spirit is able to guide us.
In the thoughts of our heart as to.
The Lords place for us and so I just commend that to you to meditate and all these thoughts that we've had and I believe if we act in faith in the Lord.
And if it helps to put your finger on a verse and read it and then act on it, we'll do that. Whatever is necessary, If it helps to say it out loud, read the verse out loud.
Tell it to the Lord out loud in prayer to make sure that your soul is convinced of what ground you are standing on.
And then take the step and go into the city and find the man bearing the pitcher of water.
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And it will be clear to you.
And when trouble comes along, you won't need have any doubts.
Because you've acted in faith in the Lord from heaven.
Let's close with prayer.
That Which is Real: Gain or Loss?
The Lord's Day
Talk—Al Cantrell
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 was thinking this morning of days and pacifically 2 days that's mentioned in Scripture, but I'm thinking of the verse first of all in I believe in the Psalms. This is the day that the Lord hath made. Let us be glad and rejoice there in.
That's talking basically about the Millennium, but I think in our lives we can apply it in each day of our life. And this morning I got up and I didn't think I woke anyone up, but they said they I got up at 4:00. But when I got up this morning, the birds were singing, just as beautiful as it could be. Everything was quiet and peaceful.
There was still a glimmer of some stars and you know, it's wonderful to look around.
And see God's handiwork, God's creation, what he has done down here, and it makes us just well up in our hearts and praise. There's a song that I often think of in the morning when morning gills the skies, my heart awakening cries.
May Jesus Christ be praised because was my Savior that created all these things that we see by Him. Were all things created that are created.
And so it really causes my my heart to lift up to him each morning when I look out and see a sunrise and see a beautiful day.
And I this morning, if we could open up our scriptures, the Word of God to Genesis, the 1St chapter, and we're going to read.
Some verses here.
I always feel that it's more of the word of God is more important than what I can say about it or that anyone can say about it. So let's listen to the Word of God as we would read it here, and we'll just begin at the first verse. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth, and the earth was without form and void and darkness upon the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
And God said, let there be light, and there was light.
And God saw the light that it was good. Now notice this, and I think we'll see it each time as we go through here. Each day of the creation. God saw the light, and it was good. It was good. And God divided the light from the darkness. And God called the light day, and the darkness he called night. And the evening and the morning were the first day. And God said, let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let the divide the waters.
From the waters. And God made the firmament, and divided the waters from under the firmament, from the waters which were above the firmament that were so. And God called Ephraim of heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day. And God said, Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together in one place, and let the dry land of here, And it was so. And God called the dry land earth, and the gathering together of the waters called.
As he sees.
And God saw that it was good. And God said, Let the sea bring forth grass, and the herb yielding seed, and the fruit trees yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself upon the earth. And it was so. And the earth brought forth grass and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the three yielding fruit whose seed was in itself after his kind. And God saw that it was good, and the evening and the morning.
Were the third day and God said let there be lights and from them to heaven to divide the day from the night.
And let them be for signs, and for season, and for days, and for years, and yet them, And let them be for lights in the firmament of heavens, to give light upon the earth. And it was so. And God made two great lights, the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night, And he made the stars also.
And God set them in the firmament of heaven to give light upon the earth, and the rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good, and the evening and the morning were the 4th day. And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowls that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven.
And God created the great whales and every living creature that moveth.
Which the waters brought forth abundantly after their kind, and every wing foul after his kind. And God saw that it was good. And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the sea, and let the fowls multiply in the earth. And the evening and the morning were the 5th day. And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creatures after his kind cattle and creeping things.
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Beasts of the Earth after his kind. And it was so.
And God made the beasts of the earth after his kind, and the cattle after their kind, and everything that creepeth upon the earth after his kind. And God saw it was good. And God said, Let us make man in our image after our likeness. Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him.
Male and female created he them and God bless them and said unto them, Be fruitful.
And multiply and replenish the earth, and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the fowl of the air.
And over every living thing that moveth upon the face of the earth, upon the earth. And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree in which is a fruit of the tree yielding seed to you it shall be for meat. And to every beast of the earth, into every fowl of the air, into everything that creepeth upon the earth, therein there there is life.
I have given every greener for meat. And it was so. And God saw everything that he hath made, and behold, it was good, and the evening and the morning.
Were the 6th day. Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and the host of them. And on the 7th day God ended his word which He hath made, and he rested on the 7th day from all His work which He hath made. And God blessed the 7th day, and sanctified it, because that in it.
He hath rested from all his work which God had made.
Well, this is one of the days I'm going to mention the 7th day.
This is this day that that God rested from all his work of creation and as we've noted through here every day.
He said it is good. His whole creation was good. It was good until the time that sin came in, and then sin ruined that goodness, and then God had to work again to the begin the work of redemption which He accomplished.
The Lord Jesus accomplished on Calvary's cross.
But here we have a day and we have it in another portion in Exodus. It calls it the Sabbath. Now many people have this day mixed up with today and many people out in the world and many believers say, well, the Sabbath that's.
The stay here.
But is it now? No, it's not. It's the 7th day of the week.
The last day of the week that the Lord rested during that day, and I think as a child.
I grew up.
In a in a gas station, you might say that we lived in our residence was in the back part of the gas station and my dad worked 363 days of the year.
He only observed 2 days and that was Thanksgiving and Christmas. That's the only days he ever closed the gas station. So as a child.
For the first four years that we lived in that gas station.
Sunday was a day that we got the Sunday school, we got the funny papers and I could read the funny papers and I didn't have to go to school that day.
But then there came a day that one of my friends asked me to go to Sunday school with him and I was on on Sunday. And so that day become a little bit more special to me because it was a day that I would go to Sunday school.
And as I learn more about the Bible and about God and his love to me and and the things of the Lord, I found out that.
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There was a day that Christians met together to worship God.
They met together in the church that I went to. They met together to preach the gospel, to have Sunday school.
And that's more right. And so it was a, it became a special day to me, but it wasn't the Sabbath day. It wasn't a Sabbath day because the Sabbath day was of another dispensation, another dispensation completely than what we're in. We're in the dispensation of grace.
The Sabbath day would give you restrictions.
The day that we have today, the first day of the week, or we call the world, calls it Sunday, but we would prefer to call it the Lords day.
It has privilege.
The Sabbath day.
They caught a man that was gathering sticks.
He was doing work during the Sabbath day and he was not, it tells us in the law.
Well, maybe we could turn to Exodus.
This is the 20th chapter.
And this is what the law tells you about the Sabbath.
20th chapter and the eighth verse. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days shall thou lay, six days shall thou labor, and do all thy work. But in the 7th day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God. In it thou shalt do, shall not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughters, nor thy maidservant, nor thy.
Manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor are they cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gate, for in six days.
The Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them is and rested the 7th day. Wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it. Well, there was a man later on the Exodus, he was caught gathering 6 on the Sabbath day. And what was to be done with him? He would just be stoned. He was to be stoned.
That's sad, isn't it? That's what the law would bring before us, but the Lord say would bring before us grace. We have the privilege of gathering here this morning.
And worshiping the Lord and Christians in many places have the privilege of gathering and worshipping the Lord on the Lord's day. Now why do we do it on the first day of the week? Why don't we do it on the South Dakota? Well, one of the things we find an axe. The 20th chapter. There are some foreigners here today and I remember.
Mr. Fournier, Mr. George Fournier, that was in our meeting for years.
He used to very often he would get up on Lord's Day morning and he would read this verse in Acts chapter 20 and the seventh verse and upon the first day of the week when the disciples came to break bread.
On the first day of the week, when the disciples came to break bread, Paul preached unto them, and ready to depart on the Morrow, and continued his speech on to midnight. And so we have from the Scriptures here what was the practice of the early disciples. They gathered together on the Lord's Day, the first day of the week.
And.
And so they gathered what here it says to break bread, to remember the Lord Jesus and his death. What a privilege that is. And there's always two things that and we're going to talk about those two things about the Lord's Day, the breaking of bread this morning and also his resurrection, because that's the two things that the first day of the week.
Reminds me of is we remember the Lord and his death on the first day of the week.
We should also remind us about His resurrection because it was the first day of the week that the Lord rose from the grave.
In system I was in a Baptist Church.
And like I had mentioned earlier, the Lord's Day was the day.
To preach the gospel, to have Sunday school and how fellowship one with another. But we never broke Britain, the Lord said. But the practice of the early disciples was to remember the Lord on the Lord's day and the breaking of bread.
We would break bread, maybe.
Once every quarter. Once every three months.
00:15:00
When all the disciples here apparently.
Came together to remember the Lord each day, each Lord's day. Now people would say in the world, they would say, well, well, then it becomes too common. It becomes too much of A practice.
Instead of something very special.
But even once every three months, it can become just common, our practice, unless our heart is really into it.
Now we turn to let's turn to a verse in Revelation.
Revelation on the 1St chapter and we'll find another mention of the Lord's Day chapter one and verse 10. And this is the the apostle John.
And maybe we could read the nine first just to get the thought here. I, John, who also am your brother and companion, and tribulation in the Kingdom and the patience of the Lord of Jesus Christ was in the island that is called Patnist for the word of God and for the testimony of Jesus Christ. And I was in the Spirit on the Lord's Day.
And heard behind me a great voice, as it was a trumpet. And then he received this prophecy. But what was he? He was in the Spirit on the Lords day.
Now you know, when we come together to remember the Lord Jesus and His death, do we come together in the Spirit?
Are are we coming together in the flesh? Are we just coming?
You know, this is something that we should, you know, ask ourselves before we sit down to remember the Lord.
And we should prepare ourselves because it's a very special time because we turn back to the Gospel of Luke. Let's turn to the gospel of Luke and we'll see what the Lord Jesus.
Thinks about.
This remembrance that we remember each Lords Day morning.
22nd chapter.
And we could begin at the 14th verse. And when the hour was come, he sat down, and the 12 apostles with him. And he said unto them with desire.
This was the Lord's desire with desire have I desired to eat this Passover with you, before I suffer. For I say unto you, I will not anymore eat thereof until be fulfilled in the Kingdom of God. And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and said, Take this, and divide it among yourselves, by saying to you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the Kingdom of God shall come. And he took the bread, and gave thanks, and break it, and gave it unto them, saying.
This is my body which is given for you. This do in remembrance of Maine also likewise also the cup after supper saying this cup is a New Testament in my blood which is shed for you. And so the Lord Jesus, there was desire that he had.
To.
Eat of this bread and drink of this cup.
He said with desire, have I desired. And so I often ask my question myself. This question.
Am I just going to the breaking of bread because it's habit?
Or is there a real desire because when we go there.
We find here that in this chapter the Lord was with His disciples. When we go there to remember the Lord and His death, He has promised that where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them. And so the Lord is here when we remember Him and His death on Lord's Day morning. So there should be a desire.
There should be a real desire of our hearts.
Of my heart to remember each large day morning. And I should be like the apostle John. I should be in the Spirit on the Lord's day.
So I can lift up my voice with praise and worship to Him that deserves all our worship and praise. He deserves it because He's the Creator. But He deserves it how much more because He's our Redeemer.
Because the Lord Jesus.
He who created all things came down and became a man like you and I.
00:20:02
In all ways, yet without sin. And he went to Calvary's cross and suffered for our sins, and died there for us.
And what does he asked us to do?
He says Remember Me, Remember Me.
Do in remembrance of me.
A very simple act.
He asks of you and I.
He doesn't say don't do this, don't do that. No, he's not saying that. It's just a simple act of remembering the Lord Jesus in his death and Lord say morning.
Was his desire and should be our desire. Let's turn to another familiar scripture and 1St Corinthians 11Th chapter oftimes. This is read at the breaking of bread like this one in in Luke 11Th chapter of First Corinthians.
And the 23rd verse, the apostle Paul, he says, For I have received of the Lord, that which I which also I delivered unto you, that the Lord Jesus the same night.
In which he was betrayed tuck bread and when he had given thanks he break it and said take eat, this is my body.
Which is broken for you, This do in remembrance of Maine. After the same manner also he tucked the cup, and when he had sucked, saying, This cup is the New Testament in my blood. This do ye as often as you drink it in remembrance of Me.
For as often she eat this bread and drink this cup, ye do show the Lords death till he come.
Therefore, whosoever shall eat this bread and drink this cup of the Lord unworthily shall be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord. But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread and drink of that cup. But here again, this is what the apostle Paul had received of the Lord.
It wasn't of the apostle Paul, but it was of the Lord. The Lord gave him this.
Take E.
This is my body, you know, and it causes to think. When we see that loaf and see it broken, how the Lord Jesus died on Calvary Cross, we think there of his suffering.
His sufferings under the hand of man and they were really terrible sufferings, but how much more they were under the hands of God when he suffered for your sins and for mine? Because just think of it, my sins would have sent me to to an eternal hell and he suffered there in those three hours.
Of agony for an eternity.
Of punishment for my sins, and for yours. And so when we see that blood, that loaf broken, it would cause us to remember him and his death.
And we would thank to how that he was obedient to his Father and all things.
How he pleased his father and all well in all ways.
The father said this is my beloved son.
And so again may I say, our hearts should well up and praise and worship to Him on large day morning. And then we see here the cup.
It says this cup.
Is a New Testament in my blood. This do as often you drink it in remembrance of me. Without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sin. And the Lord Jesus, he shed his precious blood.
For you and for me.
And so.
Ought we not stop one day of the week, 1 morning and be in the spirit as John was in the spirit on the Lord's day and do the simple thing of remembering him? Because we get so busy with the things of this life through the week and sometimes we forget. Sometimes we forget all that the Lord has done for us. And so it's it's nice that the Lord.
An hour that we can sit down and remember him very simply. Now I'd like to turn to, I said. The Lords day reminds me of two things.
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Remembering in his death in the morning.
On Lord's Day morning, although we don't know in the olden days whether it was in the morning or not because.
Some of these believers were were slaves. It might have been in the evening, it might have been whenever they could have got off.
Their work.
Because you know, we usually work a 40 hour week when we do. I don't work anymore. I'm retired so I don't worship 40 hour week. Although some some weeks I work more than a 40 hour week. But that's for myself. But we're busy almost every minute of the day. But still it's not all work. But people years ago they had to work seven days a week a lot of the times.
Even to put food on the table.
To be able to eat. And so I'm sure these early Christians, maybe it wasn't Lord's Day morning, maybe they had to work for their master and Lord say morning.
But there was a time provided the Lord provided the time for them that they might remember him. And it's a wonderful thing in this country that we live and in other countries that the Lord has saw fit to set aside the Lords day as a non working day in most cases.
And so there's nothing as far as work that would hinder us, and most of the things that would hinder us from doing it would be things that we would seek for our own pleasure. The Lord Jesus never sought his own pleasure. Do we seek our own pleasure? One?
One hour of the week.
But anyway to go on, our time is rapidly going by.
Umm, resurrection. It causes me to think about the Lord's resurrection because it's the first day of the week.
That's when the Lord rose from the dead.
And maybe we could look in the Gospels.
Just briefly of some of the scriptures here that tells us about the Lord's resurrection.
Matthew, let's just begin and justice quickly look at in all four Gospels.
Because each one that's a little bit different tells us a little bit different things.
28th chapter of Matthew The last chapter of Matthew in the end of the Sabbath as it began to dawn towards the first day of the week. Again, it's talking about the first day of the week.
The Lord say came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulchre, and behold there was a great earthquake. For the Angel Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and set upon it. And his countenance was like lightning, and his raiment white as snow. And for fear of him the keepers did shake, and became as dead men. And the Angel answered and said unto the women, Fear not he, for I know that ye seek Jesus, which was crucified. He is not here, for he is risen as he said.
Come see the place where the Lord lay. OK, and let's go on to Mark.
Mark the 16th chapter.
First verse.
And when the Sabbath was passed, Mary Magdalene and Mary the Mother of Jesus, Mary of James and Salome, had brought sweet spices, that they might come and annoy him. And very early in the morning, the first day of the week, they came to the sepulchre at the rising of the sun. And they said among themselves, Who shall roll away the stone from the door of the sepulchre? And when they looked, they saw the stone was rolled away for this very great And entering into the sepulchre they saw.
Man sitting on the right hand, clothed in the long white garment. And they were frightened. And he said unto them, Be not frightened. Ye seek Jesus of Nazareth, which was crucified. He is risen, He is not here. Behold the place where they lay him. But go your way, and tell His disciples and Peter that He goeth before you into Galilee, and there shall ye see him, as He said unto you. And they went out quickly, and fled from the sepulchre. For.
Trembled and were amazed. Neither said they anything, did he man, for they were afraid. Now let's go to Luke, and we'll see a little bit.
Different perspective on the Lords resurrection.
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Luke 24 now upon the first day of the week, very early in the morning, and each each case now emphasizes it. It's the first day of the week. It's not the Sabbath, but it's the first day of the week.
Very early in the morning they came unto the sepulchre, bringing the spices which they had prepared, and certain others with them. And they found the stone rolled away from the sepulchre, and they entered in, and found not the body of the Lord Jesus. And that came to pass, as they were perplexed thereabout. Behold, two men stood by them, and shining garments, And they were afraid, and bowed themselves, bowed down their faces to the earth. And they said unto them.
Seek ye the living among the dead. He is not here.
He is risen. Remember how they spake unto you when he was yet in Galilee, saying, The Son of Man must be delivered in the hands of sinful men, and be crucified. And the third day rise again. And remember, the Lord came down and became a man, and how did he raise from the dead? He rose as a man, and He's in heaven now as a man.
At God's right hand.
And let's look down in this chapter to confirm that he was a real man when he rose.
33rd verse. This tells us more proofs of the Lord's resurrection.
33rd verse of the 24th chapter. Luke. And they rose up the same hour, and returned to Jerusalem, and found the 11 gathered together, and then that were with them, saying, The Lord is risen deed, and hath appeared to Simon. And they told them what things were done in the way, and how he was known of them in the breaking of bread. This is talking about the two that went to Emmaus, and the Lord appeared to them on the in the way, and as.
He thus spake Jesus himself stood in the midst of them, and said unto them, Peace.
Be unto you. That's a wonderful message, a wonderful thought that we could expound on, but we don't have time this morning. That message is to you too, this day. But they were terrified in the terrified, terrified and frightened. And suppose that they had seen the spirit. And that's what some people say, Oh, he just rose as the spirit just rose.
But no, he bodily arose from the dead. Death could not hold him.
It tells us in the Scripture that the Father raised him, the Spirit raised him, and He raised Himself.
And he said unto them, Why are ye troubled, And why do thoughts rise up in your hearts? Behold my hands and my feet. It is I myself Handle me and see. For His Spirit hath not flesh and bone, as you see me have. And when He had thus spoken, He showed them his hands and his feet, and while they.
Yet and while and they yet believe not, for joy and wonder he said unto them.
Have you hear any meat? And they gave him a piece of boiled fish and a honeycomb, and he took it, and then eat before before them, and so they they could touch him and feel him.
And he ate this fish and honeycomb before them. He was a real man that rose from the dead.
My Savior, he overcame the grave. He overcame death. Now let's turn on to to Luke. I need to John. Excuse me, John. The 20th chapter. Now, this morning I told you, I got up at 4:00. I think it was probably 4:00 that Mary got up. At least it was before daylight.
Might have been earlier than that because her heart.
Was there with the Lord, she wanted to be with the one she loved, and that was the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's a wonderful thing. On Lords Day morning I quoted that verse where two or three are gathered together in my name. There am I in the midst.
You know, Mary had the love to be with her Savior, to be with the Lord. She wanted to be there. And so she came there while it was still dark early in the morning, which you know.
It's sometimes kind of hard for me to get up all day in the morning, but but there was nothing going to keep her in bed if she went to bed that night.
She was there.
Very early in the morning, while Yojet dart unto the sepulchre and see if the stone taken away. And then we we know how that she came back to Simon and told him that they've taken the Lord out of the sepulchre. We know not where they've laid him. And then Simon and the other disciple, who was probably John, they come back to the sepulchre, and they find exactly as as Mary had told them.
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Now the 11Th verse. But Mary stood without at the sepulchre weeping. And as she wept, she stooped down and looked into the sepulchre, and seeing 2 angels in white setting, one at the head and the other at the feet, were the body of Jesus had laid. And they say unto her, woman, Why weep the sound? And she saith unto them, Because they have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid him. And when she had.
Thus said, she turned herself back and saw Jesus standing.
And knew not that it was Jesus. And Jesus saith under her woman, Why weep a sound whom seek a sow? And she's supposing him to be the gardener, saith unto him, Sir, if thou hast borne them hence, tell me where thou hast laid him, and I will take him away. And Jesus said unto her, Mary, And she turned herself.
And said unto him, Saith unto him, Raboni, which is the same master, Jesus said unto her, Touch me not, for I'm not yet ascended my Father, but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend.
Unto my Father, and your Father, and to my God and your God.
And so.
He appeared here to marry. She had that desire to be with her Lord.
And she got a message that the other disciples didn't get this wonderful message that tells them and tells you and tells me that.
The Father of the Lord Jesus.
God the Father is now my Father.
And Lord Jesus says here to my God.
And So what a relationship were brought into, were brought into and this is a new day and a new relationship that we've been brought in to the Lord.
And so this morning as we remember the Lord and his death.
I would hope that each one here that knows the Lord Jesus as her Savior.
Would have that desire to remember him this morning. And if you haven't asked for your place that the Lord at the table, why haven't you?
The Lord desired.
To eat that Passover.
He's here in the midst. He desires for you to remember Him.
Is it your desire?
I would hope that if each one of our desires could we sing a song as we close.
245.
Are You Going Up or Going Down?
Friday AM Message
Address—D. Brimlow
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.
And I trust the Lord has something for us. Let's look to him for his health.
Our gracious God and our Father, we thank you that we can sing these songs, songs of heavenly note and heavenly interest and interest in Thee, Lord Jesus, the one that went to the cross there and gave thyself for us. And so we just asked Thee for Thy help, for the little time that's left that we might be encouraged and built up in our most holy faith. And we pray for these dear young people as they come down from the mountaintop.
To the valley below the valley.
Oftentimes fraught with tears and pain and Lord, we feel for each one of them.
When asked thy blessing for them and thy mercies upon them, as we come from this place, and we give thee thanks and praise, knowing that thou art able to to lift us above the trials and difficulties of this life, and very soon to the heavenly land with the Lord Jesus. And so would commend this little time into thy hand, asking thy blessing and thy precious worthy name, Lord Jesus. Amen.
The Apostle Paul could say, God forbid, that I should glory save in the cross.
Of all our Jesus Christ by which I'm crucified to this world, and this world is crucified to me.
The hymn writer says lifted up. Was he to die?
It is finished with his cry now in heaven, exalted high Hallelujah. What a savior. And I want to ask the question this morning, is he your Savior today? Is he your Savior right now? Because it's a day of judgment coming. The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness.
And very soon it's going to be consummated. But before that time, beloved is going to be the cry Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away. The Lord Jesus is going to come and he's going to call all the redeemed to heaven. But I want to go back to the 27th chapter of Matthew for a few thoughts.
I hope my remarks can be simple and yet to the point. And yet we have so many wonderful, profound things in the word of God, and with the Lord's help, I hope to open up a few of them this morning so I may skip around a little bit. Matthew 27.
We find the Lord Jesus here crucified.
Verse 39 They the pass by reviled him, wagging their heads, and saying, Thou that destroys the temple. Verse 40 In three days.
And build it in three days. Save thyself. If thou be the Son of God, come down from the cross.
Verse 44 The thieves also which were crucified with him, cast the same in his teeth. Now we come to the to the point that I wanted to bring before you. Now from the 6th hour there was a darkness over all the land until the 9th hour. And about the 9th hour Jesus cried with a loud voice saying Eli Eli, lama Sabachthani, that is to say, my God, my God, why?
Why hast thou forsaken me?
Go down to verse 50. Jesus, when he had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost. And behold, the veil of the temple was run and twained from the top to the bottom, and the earth did quake and the rocks rent.
This is the scene of the cross. I want to take you back to the 22nd Psalm where you found out a little bit more about what happened on that cross.
And if there's only one point that I ever want to make, it's the answer to the Why. Why hast thou forsaken me? Let's read it in the 22nd Psalm. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Why art thou so far from helping me and from the words of my roaring? Oh my God, I cry in the daytime, but thou hearest not and in the night season, and I'm not silent.
But thou art holy.
But thou art holy.
But thou art holy.
There's to be no sin in heaven. Sin is lawlessness against the majesty of the heavens.
It says by one man's disobedience death is passed upon all men.
And then Paul says in that third chapter, Romans, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. There's only one way that poor sinners could be companions with the Lord Jesus.
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And that was to have him come all the way down from heaven to put those sins away. And that's when he did it on the cross.
On the cross. And you know what the answer is? When he said, why forsaken me? The answer is 1 little word, and I can say it for myself. And I hope everyone in this room this morning can say it for yourself, me, me. That's the answer to that cry. Why hast thou forsaken me? And I can say by the grace of God.
He died for me. In the apostle Paul could say, the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for who.
Me John. 316 says, whosoever it says. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
There's the answer, another answer. It's a broad answer. It goes to the whole world. It says whosoever.
And then we come to another one. It's in the it's in the 25th verse of the 5th chapter of Ephesians, and it says there Christ also loved the church.
He loved the church and gave himself for.
But I just want to, I want to get this one point across about to me and I'd like you to. I like to sing, you know I like to sing a lot. Sometimes I disturb people of my singing. But I want to, I want you to sing a chorus with me. It's a very simple when the some of you hear that know it and some of it that maybe you don't know it.
But I'm going to sing it for you on the cross for me.
On the cross for me, dying there in agony.
Jesus paid the price himself, the sacrifice.
On the cross for me. Now let's all sing it together. But when you come to the me, I want you to point like this. OK, so you get the point. On the cross for me. On the cross for me.
Dying there in agony, Jesus paid the price himself, The sacrifice.
On the cross for me. I hope you can take that home with you. That's one of my favorite courses. I want to take you to another picture. I want to read a few more verses in this 22nd Psalm.
Thou art holy, O thou that inhabit us the praises of Israel, verse 3.
Our fathers trusted, indeed they trusted not us. Deliver them, they cried unto thee, and were delivered. They trusted in thee, and were not confounded. But I am a worm.
Or no man or reproach of men and despise of the people. What did we just read over there in Matthew's Gospel?
All they that see me laughing to scorn, they shoot out lip, they shake their heads, saying he trusted in the Lord that he would deliver him, Let him deliver him now, seeing that he delighted in him.
And I want to come down.
A little further.
Verse 17.
Oh no. Verse 16 of Psalm 22 for dogs have compassed me.
The assembly of the wicked have enclosed me.
They pierced my hands and my feet.
They pierced my hands and my feet.
Oh, what a cry.
And you know, the blessed Savior repairs those marks in his hands and his feet now in the glory, and he'll have them there for all eternity.
And.
Apostle Paul sums it up. Son of God, who loved me, gave himself for me.
Jesus paid the price Himself, the sacrifice on the cross for who?
Me all of our sins so great, so many.
With his blood are washed away.
And John says it so eloquently in the third, in the first epistle of John in the first chapter he says the blood of Jesus Christ his son cleanseth us from all sin, all sin.
I want to. I want to make it a little more emphatic. You know, I used to go to the prison over there in Washington, and for several years I went to the woman's prison.
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Then I got to go to the men's prison. You know, I enjoy going to the prisons because, you know, in a way you and I are all prisoners in this world.
We're all prisoners in this world.
And very soon we're going to leave it. And there's two destinies. And the question is, where are you going when you leave? You know, there's three questions that they never gave me the answer to when I was in high school and I never read it in the newspaper. Where did I come from?
What am I here for and where am I going? And I'd like to address that question to anyone here this morning. Where are you going?
When you leave this world, Are you ready? Are you ready to leave this world and meet God?
There's only two ways you meet God when you leave this world, either in your sins or in Christ.
Anyway, there was a big black man come into the Bible study class at the men's prison, and he had a great big Bible under his arm.
You know, some people like to carry a big Bible to impress people with.
Thank God there's a lot of people carry a Bible because it's told them about Christ and they love it.
The psalmist could say thy word of thy head in my heart, that I might not sin against thee. And that's for the pathway all the way to the glory, isn't it?
So I looked at the Bible and I said, that's a nice Bible you got there. Yes Sir. This fellow, he was a big, big, stronger. He probably played basketball sometime rather he was that big, you know, and.
I said, you know, there's a wonderful verse in the Bible that says the blood of Jesus Christ his son cleanseth us from half of our sins. And he said wait a minute.
What do you mean? Wait a minute?
All, he yelled at me. I said, thank God. That's what I wanted to hear. Can you say that this morning?
All.
The hemorrhages has all of our sins so great, so many, and his blood are washed away.
All on the way up here, I met a Catholic priest. I loaded my bag down. And where was it? San Francisco.
And I took this little airplane that comes up here to reading.
So I had this bag. It was a little heavier than normal. I had some stuff in it that I don't usually carry. You know, iron and steel. We use some of it over here in our boat building shop. Anyway. Oh, I had, I had it on the wheels and I was getting to the point I had to oh, I got to carry out, take it apart and carry it off the wheels into the airplane. And the lady comes over she's, I'll take your bag for you.
And oh, oh, boy. I thought, well, oh, thank you very much. And she stuck it in the back of the airplane, the baggage compartment. And I thought, oh, what a relief. And just as I turned around, here's the Catholic priest. He's standing in line with the other people. I said, oh, what a relief, what a, what a burden. Lifted. I said that was a that was a heavy bag. And he says he looked down. You know, he's a great big tall guy. You know, I meet all these big tall guys anyway, you know, I always have fun with tall guys, you know.
So I I said to them, oh, what a load lifted. And then I thought of the big load that was lifted. And I said to me, you know, thank God there was a greater load than that bag. It was my sins. And they're all lifted at the cross of Christ. And he looked at me with a kind of a condescending look and he said yes, well, yes, but. And he started, he started telling me some stuff about having to go to confession. He says, well.
Have you, have you sinned since? And I said, Oh yes, I've sinned since, but I said, I just take my, my, I just confess my sins to the Lord.
And I said, you know, there's a wonderful verse in the Bible about that. It says the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from half of our sins.
And you know what he said? He said Yes, that's right, I had them.
Had them. You know how to tell the difference between a beat and a radish?
You cut it.
You know, my communist friends taught me that, he says. And he said over in Poland, he says during the war.
Yeah, he said. You could tell a communist There's two kinds of communist is the the radish type and the beat type.
He says you know how we told him apart? And I said tell me. So we cut him.
What are you on the inside this morning? Are you a radish Christian or are you a beat Christian?
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If you're a beat Christian, you're all out for Christ. You're in Christ. You're a new creation. The apostle Paul says if any man be in Christ, he's a new creation. All things have passed away. They all, all things have become new, a new life in Christ. I wonder how it is with you this morning.
You know what it says down here, I want to read down in the end of this 23rd, 22nd Psalm.
I will declare my name the verse 22 I will declare my name unto my brethren. In the midst of the congregation will I praise thee.
We've had some of that praise this past week, haven't we, beloved? Praise to the Lord, Jesus, singing his praises, singing his glory. And very soon we're going to be in the heavenly choir. You know, I want to give you a little tip. I like to talk to people about the Lord, and sometimes I don't know how to do it, So I asked the Lord to help me.
And here's one. Here's one little way I've found you. Meet somebody and you say I'd like to ask you a question.
If the Lord was to come this afternoon, would you go up?
I'd like to ask that question this morning. If the Lord Jesus was to come right now, would you go up?
And how do you know the new Heart yet Awakened 1?
So then he says to me, always says I need some counsel. He says, my wife, I'd love to for 25 years and I've been very cruel and mean to her. Now she finally left me and I need some counseling. I said, are you saved yet? And he says no. I said listen, you get saved.
And then you'll have the same counselor that I got, and that's one of his titles as counselor. But you got to know him as your savior first. I'd like to ask you the question this morning.
Do you know him as your savior? You can't know him as your counselor until you know him as your savior. And so anyway, I gave him a little pamphlet. I had other business to do besides talk to him. You know, he kind of talked to me and I talked to him, but I had a job to do there at the prison. I had to leave him. I gave a safety, certainty and enjoyment. I commend that book to anyone here that's not saved.
Let's go back to the middle of this 21St chapter, Deuteronomy.
From you nowhere is he.
He went.
And women. And boys and girls.
Here I want to see how you fit into the picture.
Verse 10 When thou goes forth to war against thine enemies, and the Lord thy God hath delivered them into thine hands, and thou hast taken them captive, you know, there's a song that we sing his Be the victor's name who fought the fight alone. Triumphant Saints, no honor, claim the glory, was his own. This mighty warrior Jesus, he went to the cross, and there he won the mighty victory against sin and death and hell.
And now he's resting, and he's in the glory. And he invites men and women and boys and girls.
And he wants you to know him as not only as your savior, but as your companion for all eternity. And so this is a little glimpse, a little picture of this is a little picture of what we get told to us in in Ephesians chapter 5. What does it say? That Christ loved the Church?
And gave himself for it. When did he give himself for it? We sang about it on the cross. On the cross for who? Me. Oh, I love it. Put your name right in there on the cross for me.
Dying there in agony, Jesus paid the price himself, the sacrifice on the cross from you know, where is he? He's ascended. He went. The apostle says Christ died for our sins and he was buried. He died for our sins according to the scriptures and he was buried and he rose again the 3rd day according to the scriptures.
And then we read that for 40 days he was seen of over 500 brethren in the first chapter of Acts. And then he went back to the glory. And that's where he is now. He's in the glory.
What do we see here? We see this.
This man that he's one the the Israeli warrior, I like to call him in this verse.
When thou goest forth to war against Son enemies, and the Lord, thy God hath delivered them into thine hands, and thou hast taken them captive, and seest among the captives a beautiful woman. You know, there's a verse in Second Corinthians.
This is for you know, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that he through his poverty might be rich.
Here's the picture, one of those little glimpses of the Old Testament to tell us something a beautiful woman.
00:20:05
A beautiful home. That's the way he sees you as a member of the body of Christ, the bride of Christ. You know, the Apostle Paul says it was a mystery that was hidden from the foundation of the world. And he opened up that Christ and the Church are one. And our brother was bringing before us this past week through the book of Ephesians, that those beautiful truths that Christ and the Church are one. It's called the Christ, the Christ.
Here's a picture of it.
Thou seest among the captives a beautiful woman, and has to desire unto her that thou was hammered to be thy wife. Then thou shalt bring her home to thine house.
The house. That's the household of faith.
That's where you've been brought. Are you in the enjoyment of it? I hope that these words were to give you to be more in the enjoyment of it.
But look at what happens here and she shall shave her head.
What? Shave her head? The Apostle Paul talks about that.
The Apostle Paul says a woman that would pray or.
Prophecy with her head uncovered.
If she won't cover her head when she's in the presence of the Lord, let her be shaved. Where did he ever get that idea? Here's where he got it, I believe from the word of God.
Let him be shaved.
You know this is the law.
And the law would give us things that are very stringent. This tool, this do, and thou shalt live. That's the idea of the law. But you know, it says, the law came by Moses, but grace and grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. And the Lord wants to draw you and me by his grace. And Ephesians to us is far. By grace are you saved?
Through faith.
And where did you get it? Where did you get the faith? Not of yourselves? That is a gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast.
We are His workmanship, created unto good works, which Goddess be bore ordained that we should walk in them.
Are you going to do anything for the Lord? It has to be of the Lord first, not for the Lord. It's of Christ. If any man be in Christ, it's an he's a new creation. That first verse of Ephesians 2 Says you had the quickened who are dead in trespass and in sins when in time past you walked according to the course of what this world. Let's read about it here. She is the captive. She's brought it in the house. She shall shave her head and pair her nails. Oh.
This is interesting. You know your nails there, There's something. They're part of you this dead.
You know, there's some parts of you and me that are dead.
They were dead. If any man be in Christ, he's what? A new creationist new life?
You know we had a baptism last night and it was so, so wonderful. This dear young sister. She put on the new uniform. You know, we know we know what kind of a a uniform she wears now. She wears the robe of Christ as she goes through this world and everyone has been baptized. We wear the robe of Christ. We're called Christians. Christians. That's the word. Christians. And we're identified with the Lord Jesus and death and in resurrection life, newness of life that we should walk a newness of is something like that with the nails. She's.
Cutting the nails off all the time. And they're they're more attractive that way. You know, when you and I, we cut off the old things that are dead to to this world, dead to God. Why, it glorifies God. Let's read on.
And she shall put the raiment of her captivity from off of her.
The raiment, the old robe, all of our sins, all of the ways of the world. You know, it's a progressive thing.
If any man be in Christ the new creation, the old things have passed away, but I got a low a lot of old things and hang on to me.
Like the leaves in the tree, they don't all come off in one day, do they?
And so the apostle says, grow in grace and then the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. The more I learn of him, the more all of those leaves of the flesh of the old ways of my life, the garments of my what? My captivity. You and I have garments of captivity. But now we're free in Christ. When the liberty of the believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, what's she doing? She's putting off the clothing, the character of the world.
00:25:01
The world behind me. The cross before me. No turning back, no turning back. I was enjoying that song this morning in the shower. Just come back to mine.
She's got the world behind it. She's got Christ before. She's learning in the House of who this wonderful Hebrew warrior that won the victory. You want it at the cross his be the victor's name. We sing sometimes fought the fight alone. Let's go on and see something else that happened. She's learning about this is a picture beloved of you and me in the house. And who who are we in the house to learn about the mighty Israeli warrior that won the the victory at the cross.
Of course, it's way back in the Old Testament. I wouldn't know what this was about unless I had Ephesians 525.
Really, I wouldn't, one brother says to me, don't tell anybody about that unless you connect it with the New Testament, brother, OK, I'm trying to do that. And look what else it says. And she'll remain in thine house.
I want to turn you to a verse in Ecclesiastes.
You know, sometimes we get discouraged. I don't suppose we've got anybody here that ever gets discouraged. I never get discouraged. Liar.
You never get discouraged, huh? Tell me another tale that's wrong. I want to turn you. I want you to turn the Ecclesiastes. You know, Ecclesiastes gives us the stuff that has to do with the dirt and the rubber meets the road. If I could use that. I say that with reverence, the word of God that tells you and me how to make it in the path as we go through this world. I think it's the 10th chapter.
The 10th chapter, Ecclesiastes, I'm going to tell you a story about this verse. A brother comes up to be one day and he says, oh brother Bob, I'm going to leave. I'm going to leave. I'm so discouraged. I said, brother, don't leave. So where would you go?
You know, when the Lord was here with the disciples, some of them the Lord told him a hard saying. He says unless you eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Son of God, you have no life in you.
That Catholic priest was trying to get me under that thing. You know, that's a doctrine. You've got to eat the wafer and you've got this doctrine of transubstantiation. You'd be surprised what he tried to pour on to me real quick. I said I don't agree with you. I don't agree with you. You know, it's funny.
It's funny that I should have this encounter with the priest because I I got on the plane. Thankfully I sat in a different seat than the next to him. I get off the airplane and and I meet him in the terminal and he comes up to me, says well, it was no, it was nice visiting with, you know, from way up here. See, I said yeah, it was.
He starts in about the doctrine of transubstantiation. You know we have to eat the 8:00.
The Mass, you know, I said. I don't agree with you.
I'll tell you what I said, the parting shot. I said, you know, it's a wonderful saving that I have. And I said, you know, it's a wonderful hope.
And when I mentioned something about the Kingdom, I said, what do you know about the Kingdom of God? He says, you know the Kingdom of God was started with Constantine in 312.
I said real.
I said that's not the one I'm looking for.
The Lord himself is going to descend from heaven with a shot. I'm looking for the Lord's coming. And he looked at me and he said, well, he tried to get me back into this idea. You know, you got to go to the mass, You got to confess to somebody. I said, look, I want to leave you with one thought, the Lord's Prayer. On the 17th of John I said, This to me is such a blessed thing. The Lord Jesus can say, Father, I will, that they whom thou hast given me be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory. I said, That's what I'm looking forward to, and I hope you will too.
And then I get out of there, you know?
You see, when you catch fish, you put out the bait.
And the idea is that you wiggle the baits. Sometimes we take a herring and we cut it. We cut his head off, so he'll wiggle like this. And we pull it through the water and the herring goes around and the salmon sees it. He's lunch. And the salmon sees that bait wiggling, and he gets it into his mouth. And sometimes we let him take it a little bit and then we set the hook and the line, the rod goes like this and the salmon jumps way up out there, out of the water, and we say, wow, he's on.
And you don't pull them too hard, you let them run they.
I got the hook in his mouth and the fishers mouth. It's OK, Lord, you catch him. Paul plants Apollo's waters. Who gives the increase? God gives the increase. You know I want to get back.
00:30:12
This brother was discouraged. He wanted to leave the place. He wanted to leave the house. What was it? I just read there? I want to make that point. It's so important.
Thou and shall remain in thine house, the middle of verse 13 in Deuteronomy 21. And remain in thine house. The house is where the blessing is. You can go out into the world and what you would find you wouldn't be in the household of faith in the world because the world says away with them. Crucify him. That would be how you took sides with the world. You're going to do such a thing. Please don't. Please don't. But here's the verse this brother. So I'm discouraged. I'm going to give up.
Brother, let me read your verse if the spirit of the rule will rise up against thee.
Does the spirit of the ruler, who's the ruler in the assembly? Who's the ruler in the household of God? It's the Lord Jesus Christ. You see what two or three are gathered together unto my name? There are mine in the midst of them.
You mean you're going to go away from the Lord Jesus Christ? Peter says, Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of life.
Thank God Peter didn't go away. Some others, they got discouraged. They went away.
Leave not thy place.
If the spirit of the ruler rise up against thee, leave not thy place.
For yielding pacifier, the great offenses, you and I have been offensive to the Lord. You say that brother was offensive, never mind the brother.
There's an old ***** song taped. My brother Tate, my sister, It's me.
Oh, Lord, that's where the trouble is, me yielding. Yielding, what does yielding means? That means that you don't fight for your own rights. You know, the women in the prison, they they they they always had this thing going about their rights, their rights. Oh, I said, I want to ask you one question, ladies.
What rights did the Lord Jesus have here in this world? He was the one that made it. He had every right in this world. And yet what happened to him? He yielded himself even to the death of the cross.
And then we get the Christians Bill of Rights. You want to hear them? They're in Romans chapter 8.
I love this.
We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.
Pretty good, huh? For thy sake, we're what killed all the day long. That's your rights, beloved, if you follow Christ.
The Lord Jesus says the servant is not greater than the master. You're going to follow. You're going to follow a rejected Christ. That's the way you'll find it in this world.
You can shine a little for him.
Sometimes it don't take much to tell which way the wind is blowing. You know, 1 feather in the breeze. And the world has heard that guy. He's a Jew.
Some of us, you know, we lost a job. I lost a couple of jobs that way, You know, the guy found out I was a Christian, he says. One day after I had a wonderful job when I was a young man in New York. I came originally from New York. Maybe you can tell. And I used to work in Manhattan on that. Fixing elevators that went up and down, you know, with the cables. The cables would hold up little car and they would pull you up into the sky and then they would drop you down and sometimes, you know, quite a drop. I worked on that. I loved it.
And I was working with mechanics. I was a mechanics helper.
And I met a man one time in the building, and I heard him talking about the Lord. So I thought, oh, I know how I'll get a connection. So I started whistling. You know how you know how you whistle.
And these two men are standing over the corner. They were the Superintendent for this great big tall building.
And they stopped the conversation and one of them walks over to me and he says.
What was our tune that you were whispering?
Was that there was a tune about my savior, he says. I'm a Christian, too. You must be a brother.
And this guy I'm working with, he looks, you know.
You know.
How come?
You see, we had a secret connection. Wonderful to have a secret connection. Every believer in the Lord Jesus Christ has a secret connection. 2 weeks later when the paycheck time came, the the bosses to me. Bob, we're going to have to let you go.
I says really always just like that, you know?
Is my work satisfactory? Yeah, you just don't fit in with the men.
The Lord always gave me a better job. He'll always give you a better job if somehow you let it be known that you're Christian.
00:35:06
Leave not thy place, for yielding pacifieth great offenses.
If there's trouble in the assembly, God allows it.
Court allows it.
The Apostle Paul could say if there be divisions, there must needs be there be divisions among you, that they that are approved may be made manifest.
May be made manifest. Let's go back to Deuteronomy 21. We see that she stays in the house. What else does she do?
Bewail her father and her mother.
Some people, when they tell their mother and father they got saved, the mother and father don't have anything more to do with them. They say out we don't want any Jesus freak in our house. That's the attitude. Sometimes it's more gentle. They say, oh, why why don't you be? Why don't you just go to church and we'll go come to the Church of our choice and all that stuff. No mother, I've decided to fight. I have two friends over in Tacoma. They says you can go anywhere, but not with the brethren.
Because the brother and don't go along with their doctrine, you know they have the doctrine of.
The doctrine of the Nickel ends. They got their doctrine.
What's that? Pay the preacher. Pay the preacher? Pay the preacher 10%.
Pay the preacher, pay the, you know, that just come to my mind, pay the preacher 10%. And so the brother, and they don't have that doctrine. How come? Because the word of God doesn't tell me to have a man that I'm going to pay him 10% or whatever percent. They'll get more than 10% to say, look, we got a problem, we want to build a bigger church, so we need your mortgage, your house, and give us more money. That's the doctrine of the Nicolaitans.
There's a man wants to rule over the people and when someone comes along and they get saved in the congregation.
And they meet one of the brethren that wants to go along and follow a rejected Christ. It causes this problem. And so we have trouble.
Trouble. You know what the Lord said in the last verse of 16th chapter of John?
He says to his disciples. In the world you'll have tribulation.
Fibrillation. Not the great tribulation, I hope? No, just trouble.
Count on it. If you go, it gets back to whether you're real down inside or whether you're just a radish Christian on the outside until it starts to cut.
For thy sake, we are killed all the day long. That's the attitude of the world, and that's the attitude of the religious world.
And they told these two at this one young man, he got saved and he was gathered to the Lord's name. His parents didn't find out about it until the pastor heard about this chief pastor. He says any don't let him go to the brethren. They have a different Christ. I wonder what Christ he has. Thank God we have the Christ of God that's rejected in this world. Believe not thy place.
Mourn thy waters that we had there.
But the mother and the father.
Bewail a mother and a father a full month, and after that that shall go in on tour and be her husband, and she should be thy wife. The nuptial day is coming, beloved. Let's look at it. Revelation 19.
Before I read Revelation 19, I want to read that verse in Ephesians chapter 5 because that was a lovely theme that we had through the week and I got off on some of these stories and I didn't cover my subject the way I should have, but you get the idea. I hope if if you just carry away one thought about being faithful to Christ, that's what I'm here to tell you about old Brother Beg from Brooklyn. I went back to see him. He was over 90 years old in the New Jersey back in 1970.
We'd had some trouble way out West, where I come from, where I live now, and he took me by the hand, he said. Brother Bob, I just want to leave a few words with you.
You know, I hear I'm going to hear this the way this deer, I've met three brothers that were that died that year. They're all up in the 90s.
And I listened to what they had to say. How does an old brother die? Well, this is wonderful to behold. He had the the closer he got, the brighter he got. In his soul he said these words to me, be faithful to Christ. 4 words with his understanding. Thank God. It's just what I needed from my heart. Because we'd had trouble. Somebody says you should do this, you should do that, and you should do the other thing. Somebody's going to tell you. You should do this. You should do that. You should do something else. Be faithful to Christ.
That's the bottom line.
Let me read it in Ephesians 5, what we're here for.
00:40:01
What am I here for? Let's read it.
In verse 25, the middle of the verse, Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it. That's the picture.
That he might sanctify it and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word. That's what we're here for, to learn how to walk with the Lord Jesus, To learn about His glories.
About his love to me. Yes, his love to me, His love to you too. But his love first I got to I got to learn it experimentally as I got through this world.
My brother went off in a path of division.
He said, well brother, how are you? I said Brother Amber, very sad to hear about your going away in division. And he started to give me a big argument and I just had to listen. I had to hold the phone out here. It was too painful. Finally I says, well, brother, you know.
God has one center. Our brother was bringing it before us this past week, brethren, we've had a feast. We've been on the mountaintop. We're going back now to the valley. You know what the psalmist could say about the valley? It's so precious, he says. Yeah, though, I'll walk through the valley.
Do I walk through the valley, you and I going back to the valley, the valley of the shadow of death. How old. Fear no evil for who thou art with me.
I rot and thy staff they comfort me. Let's see what happens in Ephesians 5. Christ loved the Church and gave himself for it. What did He give himself for?
He looked down from a past eternally into time, and he saw, he saw the church, He saw this beautiful woman, he says to his father, oh, I love. I want her to be with me. It's like any young man he sees. He sees the object of his heart. And so I love her. I want to have her to be something like husbands loving the wives. Like the verse tells us, you know, you and I could get our eyes off of Christ in the world. It's got a lot of glitter, like when we catch the fish, you know one. I'll tell you that story some other time.
The guy comes out from the Middle East, Midwest, and I put a lead jig on the fishing line. He says you're not going to catch fish with that. He said anybody knows a fish wouldn't bite a piece of lead. So I said, really it was a buzz bomb. You know, one of the famous lures we used to catch all kinds of fish out West, The bottom fish, the top fish, Everything bites the buzz bomb because it looks so real in the water, the wiggles just like the real thing, and the salmon sees it. And he says moon lunch.
And he grabs and we catch him. Even the bottom fish says that looks like a nice piece of lunch. And this fellow from the Midwest, he says, anybody knows that the fish wouldn't bite a piece of lead. Really. I says, well, I don't know, let's try it out. We dropped it down. And you know, I'm going to hand him the rod. I just jig it up and down here I said, here, take it and tell me what's on the other end. He pulls it up. It's a fit that he might set it apart, cleanse it with the washing of water by the word that he might present it to himself a glorious church not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that it should be holding without blemish.
Revelation 19.
Verse seven, Let us be glad and rejoice, give honor to him, for the marriage of the Lamb is common. His wife had made herself ready. How did she make herself ready? She went through the difficulties, the difficulties of the valley. Now she's.