Lassen Pines Family Camp: 2006
Table of Contents
Christian Perfection in Three Ways
Address—Bruce Anstey
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I'd like to speak the subject of perfection, Christian perfection, and look at the way in which God works to make believers perfect. So let's turn first of all in Hebrews chapter 10.
Verse one for the law. That's the law of Moses having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers. Thereunto. Perfect verse 10 By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all, and every priest standing daily, ministering, and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices.
Which can never take away sins. But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins, forever, sat down on the right hand of God from henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool. For by one offering he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified, whereof the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us. For after that he had said before, This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws in their hearts, and in their minds will I write them, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember.
No more.
As I said, I'd like to speak about perfection. And this is where God begins, by perfecting the conscience of a believer. And since this is a gospel meeting, we are going to speak about what the Lord Jesus Christ did at the cross in order that people can be saved. And the whole theme of these two chapters, chapters 9 and 10 bring before us the idea, the thought, the teaching that the law.
And law keeping could never make a person perfect before God. It could never perfect the conscience, but the offering of the Lord Jesus Christ could. And so you find here, as I have read to you, that all the Old Testament sacrifices that were made, they could never take away sins in a judicial way. And so the sacrifice of Christ comes in, in order that God may be able to clear sins away once and for all and forever.
And so it's a beautiful chapter to read to see how that God has glorified himself over the question of sin.
It was at the cross that God took up the question of sin, and he has settled it once and for all and forever.
There the Lord Jesus Christ became the sin bearer, and he bore the sins of all who would believe. And there in that one sacrifice, God's claims of divine justice were satisfied once and for all and forever. And I don't suppose there's anyone here in this room that is a stranger to this message.
I can't imagine there's anybody here that does not know that God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. But yet what a privilege we have here this evening to tell forth the message of that redeeming grace once more.
That one sacrifice, how precious it was to the heart of God and how valuable it is to every believer. And it through it, it is how God has begins the process of perfection. It's first the perfecting of the conscience. We find here that God starts with the perfecting of the conscience of the believer. If you have believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, if you have received him as your Savior God.
Has perfected your conscience with regard to the question of sin and guilt.
How beautiful this is to be able to say that you can have your conscience cleared forever through resting in faith in the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Look what it says here. For by one offering verse 14 he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. It doesn't say perfect until next time they send. No, it says perfected forever. And so that is the work that God does in the conscience.
Of every person who would put their faith and their trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now we hope that every person here knows what I'm talking about, knows the Lord Jesus Christ as their own personal Savior, and knows what it is to have a purged conscience, as it is also called in this chapter. That means that the conscience is not aroused with regard to judgment of sin and standing before God. But if you're not a Christian, you're not a believer. You haven't received the Christ as your Savior.
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Your conscience is alive and well tonight. It is that still small voice that speaks that we were reading about a couple of days ago in First Kings 19. And God does use the conscience to address the fact that we are sinners before Him. And if there's someone here that still has the the burden of the guilt of their sins, that they can look up to the Lord Jesus this very hour and ask him to save them, and he will wash their sins away and give them the joy and the knowledge of sins.
Forgiven. Look what it says here too, Whereof the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us.
Yes, the spirit of God bears witness of the fact that Christ worked in one application by faith to the conscience of the believer perfects the child of God before God in his sight. And how beautiful it is to see that the Spirit of God would come to work as a witness. It is not a witness in US. Notice it says He's a witness to us. How is he witness to us, you might ask? He's a witness to us and what he has written in the Holy Scriptures.
And wherever a Bible could be found, which is everywhere in North America, and you could open a Bible and find the witness of the Spirit of God to us and what he has written.
About the believer and his standing before God as being perfected forever. And so there's no need for any Christian, every any believer to have any doubt about their salvation because the assurance it can be found in the witness of the Spirit of God and what he has written. And he quotes from an Old Testament passage here of how the Spirit of God witnesses and he witnesses throughout the scripture of this blessed fact He fastens on. I believe Jeremiah 31.
And he speaks about how that the Spirit of God has borne witness and the great fact that their sins and their iniquities of every believer will not be remembered anymore. This means that God deletes them from the divine record that he has kept. You know, God has records, He has books. He has kept a record of every life that has ever been lived in this world. That means that he has a record of your life. He knows all your sins.
Everything you've ever done, everything you've ever thought that has been a sin, your attitude and everything like that, has been kept, as in an unabridged record before the eye of God, and with his eye resting upon that he can from the authority of the work of Christ and in the power of His blood.
Wash that record clean and set the believer before him with a perfected conscience. God wants us to be perfect and this is where he begins by perfecting the conscience.
You know I.
Read a story one time of a an Englishman who was, I would suspect wealthy because he owned a Rolls Royce and he went touring on the continent and I believe he was in France somewhere enjoying his little holiday. And what happened was his car broke down. Actually what happened was the car broke an axle and so he got to a place where he could make this known and he I don't know how he contacted England, but he got to the Rolls Royce factory and let them know about this, that he had a breakdown.
And they said, we'll take care of it. And what happened was the very next day, two men showed up with an axle and all the tools that would be necessary to fix it. And they fixed it as fast as possible. And they sent them on their way. He sent him on their way, his way. And he said, well, just bill me and send it to my office. When I get back to England after my holiday, I'll take care of the bill. Well, what happened was several weeks passed and he hadn't got any bills from them.
And so being a prudent man, he called up the Rolls Royce factory and said, I just want to take care of that bill about the the problem that I had with my car when I was in France and the breaking of my axle and I still haven't received a bill for it. So I would like to take care of that. And the person that looked after him on the phone told him that they have looked over the records and can't find anywhere where there has been a record of.
Him.
Having an axle repaired and he thought, well, perhaps they have.
Just been behind on their bookkeeping a little bit and billing and so on. And so he thought he waited a little longer. So he had a few more weeks passed by and it was about another month and thought he would call him up again because he wanted to settle this bill that he owed. And he called them again and they told him, Sir, was that serial number was that particular automobile that we built in the Rolls Royce factory. We have no record at all that there was ever a broken axle. In fact, Sir, we have never had any of our Rolls Royces ever, at any time have a broken axle.
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You understand what was going on. They wanted to take no part in the fact that that automobile could be connected with such a malfunction.
You know very well what they did. They got rid of that bill as fast as possible. They didn't want anybody to know that such an automobile was such a reputation, could have such a thing attached to it. They deleted it from their records. And I just like to think of that with regard to God as he looks down at the believer who in simple faith trust the Lord Jesus Christ as his Savior. God deletes every sin and iniquity from the divine record.
Sins are a little different from iniquities. As I understand it, iniquity is the evil intent behind the sin. The sin is the act. God looks after everything from the beginning to the end, and it's all taken care of under the blood of Christ. I've heard people say that God forgets sins. The Bible doesn't teach that, friends. I've heard little fancy little expressions say forgiven, forgotten forever. Well, that's nice, but the Bible doesn't teach that because forgiveness, rather forgetfulness.
Is.
A human weakness. Just like I might forget my keys, somewhere I lost them, I made a mistake and I can't find them and then all of a sudden I find them somewhere. We would never want to attach such a weakness to a divine person as we are speaking, God himself, No, God doesn't forget sins. He.
Deletes sins from the divine record of every believer and he doesn't on a righteous basis.
That one sacrifice that I was speaking about that the Lord Jesus made, and so friends.
The Lord Jesus would like to delete your record. God would like to delete your record. And if you were to turn in the records of God in heaven tonight and come to where my name is, you would find an absolutely blank page. Because the blood of Jesus Christ his Son, cleanses us from all sin. And God has given that assurance to me. And I can stand here on the authority of this book that I read from the word of God, that my conscience.
Has been perfected. As far as the judgment of my sins are concerned, there's a little hymn that goes now in the glory he waits to impart peace to the conscience and joy to the heart. Friends, do you know anything about that? I hope that every one of you can say yes, I know the Lord Jesus Christ as my Savior, and I know that I'm on my way to heaven. And I know that my sins are gone on the authority of what God's word says.
The great witness of the Holy Spirit has made it known in the word of God. Isn't that a wonderful thing to be able to rest our faith on for eternity? What better beginning could we have in the Christian pathway? But you know this is only the beginning. How wonderful that is. God would desire to perfect us not only as far as our conscience is concerned, but as to our state and to our final condition.
And I'd like to speak a little bit about that tonight, because I believe it or it is connected with those things that accompany salvation. So let's turn to a Second Corinthians chapter 13.
2nd Corinthians chapter 13.
Verse 9 For we are glad when we are weak.
And ye are strong. And this also we wish or should read, where we pray.
Even for your perfection. And then also another passage in Colossians chapter one.
And verse 28 the end of verse 27 says, Christ in you the hope of glory, whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus, where unto I also labor and striving or should read, and combating according to his working, which worketh in me.
Mightily.
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Now we find here that the apostle not only prayed, but he labored in Word and doctrine that those who had received the Lord Jesus Christ would be perfect. Now what does he mean by this? Because we just had in Hebrews 10 that those who trust the Lord Jesus as their Savior are perfect before God as far as their standing is concerned, as far as their conscience is concerned.
Yet he is praying that these believers would come to perfection. Well, you know, the word perfect has the idea, and sometimes you'll read it in the margin of your Bible, the thought of maturity or full growth. And sometimes it's translated that way, as we'll see as we go along here.
And so we find that what the Apostle was seeking to do was to not only preach that every man might be saved, but he sought to teach them that they might arrive at full Christian growth because he was interested in not having his converts just crossed the line of salvation, and then leave them as they as they are. His great desire is that he might present them before God in Christ as full grown and mature Christians.
And I believe this is very important, that God wants us to go on in the Christian path. There's an exhortation we'll read later. And it says let us go on to perfection. And God wants us to go on to perfection. We'll never reach perfection here in this world. It is a work in progress.
Very surely. But there will be a one one day when the Lord comes.
We will reach that full perfection before him in that day and so.
Perfection. Christian perfection, in this sense, is a moral and practical thing that God is seeking to accomplish in our lives.
And you know, we're told in Second Chronicles chapter 12. I think it is about Jeroboam no rehoboam. It says of him that he did evil.
Because he applied, not his heart, to seek the Lord. And what we learned from that is that if we don't go on in our Christian path after we get saved, we're going to go backwards. Because there's no such thing as being static as far as our Christian state is concerned. And so that means we need to apply ourselves in the things of God and get serious about the things of the Lord, that we might grow and we might go on to perfection.
It's very important. There was a little boy that was sleeping at night one time and he fell out of his bed and there was a thud on the floor. His parents came running, want to know what it was and he sat there in a daze in the middle of the night and he said what happened? He said I stayed too close to the getting inside.
And you know, that's a real problem that we Christians have too.
Is that we stay too close to the getting inside as far as salvation is concerned. I'm not saying for a moment that you can fall out of your salvation that you have in Christ. We just read about it being perfected forever. But there is such a thing as falling, going backwards in our Christian pathway and not making progress. And you know, 1/2 or more of our problems as Christians comes from the fact that we do not go on to perfection. We don't have an exercise to go on.
And grow in the things of God. Paul's great desire was that they would go on to perfection. And it should be our desire to every one of us that we would please the Lord. You know, if you're Christian and you're saved, you know the great thing that you find that what the perfecting of the conscience does is that it makes us thankful. I didn't read it because I'm trying to cut corners here tonight, but you'll find there in Hebrews chapter 10 that he says that having therefore boldness.
We can enter the holiest as purged worshippers because the great effect of knowing that your conscience.
Has been purged and has been cleansed and perfected Is that it makes us thankful. It makes us worshippers.
You know, but God wants us to go on to Christian perfection, as these verses tell us. So let's look at some of the areas where He would seek to bring us to Christian perfection. Turn now to one page back in your Bible to Philippians chapter 3.
Verse.
13 Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended, but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth to those things which are before I press toward the mark or the goal for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
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Let us therefore as many as be perfect, be thus minded, And if any of, if any in anything, be the otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you. Nevertheless, where until we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us mind the same thing. Brethren, be followers together of me, and mark them which walk so as you have for us an example for many walk, of whom I have told you often.
Tell you even weeping, that they are enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things.
And so we find here that God is seeking to work perfection with regard to the focus of our hearts, the perfecting of the focus.
Of our hearts.
He works first of all in perfecting the conscience. But as I said, that's just the beginning. Then he would seek to go on to perfect the focus of our hearts. And the apostle here speaks of his own history and he talks about how that when God picked him up, there was a great radical change in his life. And how this happened was that he got a glimpse of Christ in glory and it changed the whole.
A course of his life, and he became interested in a whole new set of things and values. It was Christ that was before him. And I believe that this is how God would bring us to perfection in this way the perfecting of the focus of our hearts. And that is that he would set Christ before us and the attractiveness of Christ. And what happens is there is a transforming process.
Press that goes on in our lives.
Isn't that beautiful?
You know when we get saved?
There's usually numerous things that we have as far as ambitions and goals and pursuits in our life. Things that have been that have held us in the in pursuing those things, when the Lord picks us up and saves us, He wants to perfect the focus of our hearts intention and get us to the point where you find the apartment here. When he says there's one thing I do that is to pursue after Christ was Christ in glory and that prize that was there with him.
And this is what God is seeking to do with everyone of us, to perfect the focus of our hearts, and to give us to shed those things that may have captured our attention in times past, and to give us to have one singular and soul.
Object in our life.
You know.
It's so easy to get taken up with so much in this world. There's so many good things to do that are natural, that are things that are not necessarily evil, but things that capture our attention. And we all have ambitions and so on. But these things can get in the way of running after Christ and pursuing Christ in glory.
And one of the things that God would do is to set before us the attractiveness of Christ in such a way is that we would start letting go of some of these things to devote ourselves to Christ and His things. You see, the perfecting of our hearts, what it does is it makes us devoted Christians. It makes us devoted. If the first one makes us thankful Christians, the second one that I'm Speaking of now makes us devoted Christians.
You see, how does it happen? Well, I believe it happens like this when we spend time with the Lord Jesus.
What happens is that he becomes more precious to our hearts. We had in this thing last night. I believe it was.
That we need to take time to be with the Lord Jesus, spend time with Him, and the more we spend time with him, the more attractive we are to His person and the beauty that there is in Him and His love. Dear young person and older person. For that matter, do we take time in our life to be with the Lord Jesus?
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If we do, it'll happen is that our hearts affections will become perfected and focused on the one singular object that really leads us to Christian perfection and maturity. You know when you get saved you need to establish a quiet time in your life. Every one of us should have a quiet time in their life when you can be alone with the Lord Jesus, with your Bible open and just to enjoy his company and to speak to him because it's in these times.
That God works to bring before us our hearts, the attractiveness of Christ. And when we have Christ before our hearts as being the attractive one, what happens is that those things that were once very important to us fall by the way, and we become like the apostle. He had great ambitions, you know. He wanted to be a top dog in the Jewish religion. You may not have had those kind of ambitions. Maybe you want to be top dog in some field of sport or music or something else in this world.
But you know Christ and the power of that person before the soul can transform your life and make you perfect. As he's speaking here now, as I said, it was definitely a work in progress, and the apostle here would not venture to say that he had already reached that. But nevertheless, he said there's one thing that he did do was to pursue without any distraction after Christ and reached forth to those things that were before.
And he was pressing towards a mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. The mark of the goal, as I understand it, is Christ in glory himself. The prize is to be like Christ in glory. How wonderful. This is what he was pursuing after, and it changed his life entirely. And he says there in verse 15, Let us therefore as many as be perfect to be thus minded.
That is to be just like him.
And so Christian perfection in this sense with regard to our hearts affections and the object for our heart is to be like the Apostle Paul and to have one thing in his life. There was only one thing that he had in his life, and that is the mark of Christian perfection. Now as I read a little further here, you'll find that there are three minds in these verses. There are those who are thus minded, there are those who are otherwise minded, and there are those who are earthly minded. And each one of us are in either one or the other of these three states.
Right here as we sit in this room as Christians, we are the thus minded and we pursue after Christ with nothing else in our life. He's everything Now we may be otherwise minded and may have a few things that we still kind of keep going on the back burner. A few irons in the fire, so to speak, and we have Christ too. It's lively to see here that the apostle has patience with those, and he speaks about how that nevertheless, wherever you have advocated to in your life walk by that he's much as saying walk up to the light that you do have.
And continue following after Christ, and those things will have their find their proper place and he put them aside. But then he speaks about another class, and that is those who are earthly minded and the 8th in a bracket. It's in a parenthesis because he's really talking about those who are mere professors, who are not, have no divine life. Their conscience has not been purged and perfected, they're not believers, and they mind only this.
The things of this world and they were bringing imperfections in amongst the people of God and influencing other and Christians to take up with earthly things. But even though those people were only mere professors, it's possible for a true believer to get caught up in the earthly mindedness and so he becomes an earthly minded Christian. Some of us may be that way here, just minding the things of this world and.
Christ is not everything to you. I would just say that, you know, we could beat this podium around, we could sing to you, we could plead with you, whatever. None of that is going to change, but what will change you and transform your life is.
Having a quiet time with the Lord every day to spend time with him. It is the power of His person that is going to do it all. The preaching in the world will never transform anybody. It's the power of Christ, person before the soul by the Spirit that will change our hearts and lead us on to perfection. And let me say again, if we have no heart to go on to perfection, we're going to go backwards into sin. And you're going to.
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Reap the what you sow. If you go back into sin, there's really only One Direction to go as a Christian, as one who has started on the Christian pathway, and that is to go on to perfection.
Well.
The devil you know, he's trying as hard as he can to bring things into our life, to hinder the process of us going on, to have a singular object. I remember hearing a story one time happened in in Iowa where they have those huge farms and at that certain time of the year when the harvest is going, I understand that they try to round up as many hand harvest. Those were farmers here know more about this than I do. At any rate they would run up as many people as they can. They brought them to town.
I brought them to the farm and on this one occasion there was this mentally handicapped young man that was brought along to help and he became the object of ridicule, sad to say, of the other workers. And they had great fun poking fun at this man. That was a terrible thing, sad to say. And anyway, this young man, he, he had these huge pair of pants on with enormous pockets.
And what they would do through the day, the other workers asked to keep themselves entertained as they go and throw their arm around him and say hi, I don't know his name, Don, let's say hi, Donnie, how you doing? And while they're putting their armor on him, they slip a stone into one of his pockets. Another guy would come up and do that and slip another stone into his pocket. And through the course of the day he had a they got both pockets as full as they possibly get. And he never caught a whiff of the fact what they were doing.
And he was walking around with about 10 lbs of rocks in his pocket and it was getting awful difficult for him to carry on his work until finding near mid afternoon. One of them would say, hey Donnie, what's that in your pocket? And he would go on and he would find out and then he would empty his pockets and sad to say, they do it all over again the next day and he never caught up to what they were doing.
It's sad, isn't it? But you know what? We have an enemy that's doing exactly the same thing. Trying to slip things into our life when we're not aware of it. And to bring in those things that are weights that are only going to tie us down. And to get us occupied with different things in this world so that we do not have Christ as our sole object and we become earthly minded. Let's be careful that we don't allow our lives.
To be affected by the enemy of our souls, and I believe that the maintenance of our souls is done.
By keeping short accounts with God and keeping in the presence of our Lord Jesus, let's move on now to 1St Corinthians 14 verse 20. Brethren be not children in understanding how be it in malice be children or babes, but in understanding be men or should be translated, as the margin puts it, be perfect.
Be perfect. Now let's read Hebrews.
Chapter.
5 Hebrews chapter 5 verse 13.
For everyone that uses milk is unskillful in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. But strong meat belongs to them that are full of full age, or them that are perfect, even to those who by reason of use, have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil. Therefore, leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on to perfection. Here we have another aspect of the Lord's working.
To perfect the child of God the Christian.
Not only is he seeking to perfect the focus of our our hearts, which would make us devoted Christians, He's seeking to perfect our understanding. Here we have the perfecting of our understanding, and this makes us intelligent Christians. One makes us devoted Christians. This one will make us intelligent Christians.
And we're told from Proverbs 19 that is not good, that the soul will be without knowledge.
And how does that take place? Well, as I read there in Hebrews chapter 5, it is through handling and by reason of use, the word of God, the word of righteousness.
God would have us to be intelligent Christians. He wants us to be knowledgeable, to know his will and to know the the truth of God. And it's a great privilege to have a Bible and to be able to search the Scriptures and to learn the truth.
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And how are we going to have our understanding perfected by spending time in the word of God if our hearts affections are going to be perfected by spending time with the Lord Jesus?
Our understanding will be perfected by spending time in the scriptures. Dear young person is the scriptures.
Your food every day.
The reading of the word of God, is it something that is a great part of your life or is it just an addendum to your life? You know, it says here that those that use milk are unskillful in the word of righteousness, for they're just babes. If we stay just with the simple things of scripture, the elementary things, we're not going to grow and go on to perfection. But then he says that those that are are perfect or full age or mature.
Why? They take strong meat. And that would bring before us the idea of those full those things that pertain to the full revelation of Christian truth. God would have us to take up with and to learn the truth of God. The Christian revelation has been given to us, and God would have us to know these things so that we may order our lives a right. You know, there are a lot of people that tell us the doctrine is not important.
What is important is that we live right now. There's no truth to that at all, because doctrine forms our walk. God cares about what we believe because it affects our walk. You know, we I could turn you to some scriptures in Timothy that tell us that if we have bad doctrine, it's going to lead to ungodliness. But if we have sound doctrine, it will lead to godliness. And so it is important what we hold as far as doctrine is concerned, and we need to be careful about these things.
And it's beautiful because when you read the scriptures and learn the truth, and the doctrines of Scripture brings before us none other than the person of the Lord Jesus, wouldn't you want to know more about him?
And his the great blessings that belong to us. And yet there are Christians that are telling us that doctrine is not important.
Well, it is important, and if we don't pay attention to doctrine, we could get into some error and we may be tested on it sometime and we could be LED away. For doctrine actually saves us as far as getting away from the path of faith we're told in First Timothy Chapter 4 and do keep.
In getting established in sound doctrine, he says you have saved yourself and others that hear thee and so it has a place, the 6th chapter and verse one that I read here. Well, let's read the end of verse 14. He says even to those who by reason of use have their senses exercised. You may say I can't understand the scriptures. Well that may be true because we have to start off as as a babe. That can take the simple things and maybe the deeper things the scripture there are more difficult.
But it says here that even to those who by reason of use, they'll have their senses exercised and they're going to grow to discern both good and evil. What I see here that he's saying is that even if you don't understand these things, if you spend time in the scriptures and by reason of use, comparing this passage with that passage and so on, you're going to grow. And there's going to be a development in your soul as to understanding and comparing those things and knowing those things that differ.
But it's going to take getting involved with the Word of God in a serious way in our lives. Therefore, leaving the first principles of the doctrine of Christ. Let us go on to perfection, he says. And that's important. What he's talking to here, as far as the Hebrew Christians are concerned, is that the principles of the doctrine of Christ, or could be the word of the beginning of Christ, is really the sum total of the truth that came out in the life and ministry of the Lord Jesus.
And while he was here in this world, and these Hebrew Christians were staying with that. And that's all they knew. And they weren't really going on and getting established in Christian truth of what we have in the Epistles. And the exhortation here is to not stay there where they were, but to go on to perfection, which is full understanding of what belongs to us as Christians. It's kind of like the Old Testament and the New Testament and the.
Gospels where the Lord ministered those things that we might call the.
Word of the beginning of Christ, which is essentially to do with.
00:40:02
How one could be a good subject in the Kingdom doesn't really bring before us in the Gospels, full Christian ground. You have to get that, as I've been saying on Epistles. Nevertheless, what he's saying here, to make it simple, is that they're on a bridge like the Gospels or like a bridge from the Old Testament into the New Testament to the epistles, and they're on a bridge. And he's like he's saying well.
Get off the bridge. Go on, go on into what we would have in the Epistles.
Don't go back to the Old Testament laying a foundation of repentance and all those things that would stand for Old Testament ground of things, but to go on. And God wants us to go on too. Now let's turn to Ephesians chapter 4 and we'll find that he has given us much help. Ephesians chapter 4, verse 11 and 12 and 13.
And he gave some apostles and some prophets and some evangelists, some pastors, some teachers, for the perfecting of the Saints.
For the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man unto the measure of the statue of the fullness of Christ. That we henceforth be no more children or babes, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of man, and by the cunning craftiness whereby they lie in wait to deceive. Now here we find that God anticipated that we would say, well, we don't really understand the scriptures, some of those deeper things that Paul brought out even.
Peter said they're hard to be understood.
So God says I'm going to give you gifts and helps things that would aid you to understand the word of God. And we're thankful for the gift that God has given the apostles and the prophets that he mentions here have passed off the scene. But we still have their benefit in the fact that they have written scriptures and they have, they're recorded for us here and we get the benefit in that way of the apostles and prophets. But we also have today evangelists, pastors and teachers, and we're thankful for them.
They can help us build us up in the most holy faith, and they can teach us.
And it says here for the perfecting of the Saints. And then it goes on. If you read the other translation, Mr. Darby's translation, it says.
With a view to the work of the ministry, with a view to the edifying of the body of Christ. You know what he's talking about here. He's saying that these gifts are operating for the perfecting of the Saints, with a view that they would be able to work in the work of ministry and to be able to help in the edifying of the body of Christ. You see, God wants every one of us to get established in the truth and reach some Christian perfection whereby we can also be a help in the work of the ministry.
In the edifying of the body of Christ, he doesn't want us to be tossed to and fro with all the wind of doctrine that is out there today.
No. He wants us to be established in the most Holy Faith, and that happens by taking heed to the word of God, spending time in the scriptures, and allowing ourselves availing ourselves of the gifts that God has given in teaching and ministering and so on. We have it in books of ministry, in tape ministry, and through oral ministries we have at this Alaskan Pines retreat here. And so we should avail ourselves of it. And when they teach us these things, we should receive it.
Thankful to tell you here that most of the things that I have learned, I have learned because others have taught me.
For us thou that thou hast not received, People have taught me these things. I've learned them. I've sought to be a student in some measure to to capture them and to learn these things. And this is what we need to do if we're going to get the benefit of the gifts. We don't want to be like those people. To say, I don't need that, I've got the scriptures and I got the spirit of God. That's all I need.
No, God would not give you an avalanche of the gifts if we didn't need it. And so we're thankful for those who would help us in doctrine. You know we need to have willing hearts to receive from them and to You know there's no better time than when you're young, because you young people can learn better than us older ones. In fact, the older you get, the more difficult it is to learn, especially if you have certain ideas in your mind.
With regard to things, it's harder to unlearn them when you get older. I used to say it's almost impossible to teach someone who's over 50. I don't say that anymore.
But it is very difficult as older we get. And I was telling a brother today that as far as the cross section of the of the the Saints of God, whether young and were the middle-aged and ones who are are serving the Lord, laboring and so on.
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The most difficult ones generally are that are to correct or to help with regards to the truth of God as we speak. Now perfecting of our understanding is laboring brothers, administering brother. Now I'm not picking on them, what I'm just saying is it's because they're you're generally older and the older we get the more difficult it is to to be able to accept correction. But when you're young it's much easier to help a person that's younger. I could take a person that's 20 and sit them down into adjust their doctrine on something and they receive it, try it on someone who's 60 and find out what you get.
It's more difficult because those things become lodged in our hearts now. I'm not picking on the older brother here. I love my older brother. That's not what I'm talking about. What I'm saying is, the time to get the truth is now, to learn these things and get your doctrine straight now.
I can be thankful for some of my brother who have adjusted and corrected me. I'm thinking now one particular occasion when I had something wrong with regard to the the judgment seat of Christ.
An old brother, Vern Clark helped me. I was had this idea.
Why are you laughing?
Well, yeah. Anyway.
As far as the the judgment seat of Christ was concerned, I had learned mistakenly that the judgment seat of Christ would be a public exposure when we get to heaven before all the Saints of God, we would be perfected at the time of all nature be gone. So you wouldn't be too embarrassed but.
There we would be. And I had taught that because I had understood that. And he came to me and he said, well, where do you get that idea? Scripture never teaches that. Well, you know, what happened was he took some books and ministry off my shelf and he showed me one by one. And the clincher was Jan Darby, that it was not a public exposure but a a between the individual and the Lord. And I'll tell you, you know, it wasn't easy for him to convince me. I mean, it was easy for him to convince me because.
You think of that particular subject of, you know, having your life flash up before all the Saints of God. But generally speaking, we are we're hard to correct, we're hard to adjust, and we need the help of the Lord to really get the benefit of the gifts that he's given to us. Now let's look at one other passage, Second Corinthians.
I'm thinking of.
Corinthians chapter 6.
Now I want to speak of another aspect of the work of God and perfecting us.
Of course. 11 O ye Corinthians, our mouth is open to you. Our heart is enlarged. You're not straightened, That means narrowed or restricted in us, But ye are straightened or restricted in your bowels, bowels, or your affections. Your heart now for recompense in the same I speak unto my children, Be ye also enlarged, Be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? And what communion hath light with darkness?
And what concord had Christ with Belial? Or what part hath he that believeth was an infidel? And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? For ye are this temple of the living God, as God hath said, I will dwell with them, and will walk with them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Wherefore come out from among them, and be separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing.
And I will receive you.
And I will be a father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty. Chapter 7, verse one really belongs with the subject, and Chapter 7 would better be started at verse two. I read that verse. Now having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness or pollution of the flesh and the spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.
And so here we have another area where God would work to bring us to perfection. And that is the perfecting of holiness. Not only the perfecting of our conscience, not only the perfecting of.
Affecting of our understanding. But here the perfecting of holiness in our lives. This is what makes us Holy Christians. And we find here that the context is connected with separation. And we find in this passage as I have read that there are two parts to perfecting holiness. That is the outward and there is the inward. You see he talks about separating from unbelievers, but then he also talks about in Chapter 7 verse one the fact that we need to deal with those things that are unpure and pollution.
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Pollutions that are within our own hearts. So you have the outward and you have the inward. And that's important because you know it's possible to separate from the world and the world still be in us. You know, we can we can come out of the world, but the world doesn't necessarily come out of us. We can carry a lot of the world in our hearts. And so to have the one without the other is really just hypocrisy. To walk in separation from the world, but to be full of the world in our hearts is really not what he has in mind.
And it's not perfecting holiness in the sight of God. And so he brings out here how that there is the need for separation. He speaks about how that the Corinthians hearts were restricted or narrowed, their affections were narrowed, and that's one of the great effects of worldliness and the lack of separation. And that is that our hearts affection for Christ and his people become restricted and become.
Narrowed. And surely that's something that we shouldn't want in our Christian lives, and so it's important that we take care of this.
And he speaks about be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers. And I can't remember where I got this from. But someone said there's perhaps five different spheres of yokes. I'll mention them to you. There is the social sphere, that is we may join clubs and and.
Teams and all this kind of thing. Or just have companionship with people that are not the Lords. Then there is the business yoke.
Then there is also the ecclesiastical yoke. That would be our church fellowship with those with whom we walk and break bread. And then there would be the.
The matrimonial yoke that would be to do with marriage. It's possible to marry, marry an unbeliever, and then we have the political yo to get involved with the political parties and political causes and so on. These are various jokes that the Christian is to keep themselves separate from. If he is going to perfect holiness in his life, you know it's impossible to maintain holiness apart from separation.
It's not a popular subject, I realized. People don't like to be told that those things are worldly and they're only going to pull a person down and to hinder them from going on after Christ. But nevertheless, this is what the word of God teaches and we are to seek to perfect holiness in our lives. Notice in both of these verses, verse 14 and then Chapter 7, verse one. It's a responsibility that we have. It says be ye, not unequally yoked together with unbelievers. And then chapter 71 Says let us.
Cleanse ourselves. And so it's our responsibility to pass judgment on those things that would only hinder us from developing and going on. You know what's going to bring a bad testimony on the Lord, too. Alexander the Great, I had heard, was, as you know, a great commander, the great army and all this. Anyway, at one point in the time of his his power, there was a soldier and who had been named of all things.
Alexander and he was a very poor soldier. He was disobedient, and he did all kinds of things that weren't right. And so one day they called him up, and Alexander brought him before him, and he said to him soldier.
Correct your ways or change your name.
He didn't want to be associated with that soldier who had was bearing the same name as the emperor and the leader of the army, the general of the army himself, he said. He said change your ways or change your name.
And I just thought about that. You know, we bear the very same name as the Lord Jesus Christ. We're called Christians. That's Christ's name there. It really means Christ ones. And so we bear the name of Christ in this world. And it's possible by our bad behavior and walking in unholiness that we can dishonor that name. And so the word that God would have for us is.
Change your ways. We can't change our name, but we can change our ways through self judgment. And it's important that we do that. I don't have time to look at it because the time is passing by, but there are a number of reasons why separation is important in the Christian's life. I'll just rattle them off here. Restricts our affections and our hearts for Christ. We've already read that. Another thing is it takes away our appetite for divine things. Numbers Chapter 11. The Children of Israel were lusting after Egypt's food. Egypt's the type of this world, you know that.
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And when they did that, what happened is that their appetite for the manna, which is type of Christ in the word of God, became withered. They said our soul is dried and they had no appetite to eat it. They tried all kinds of things to make it palatable, but still they were miserable and they were weeping in their tents. And so we find here that it takes away the appetite for divine things. Another thing, third thing, we become corrupted and defiled. Is that a serious thing?
You know it says in First Corinthians chapter 15 Be not deceived, evil communications.
Corrupt good manners, and we can be corrupted by and defiled by the morals and the ways of this world.
Should be enough to frighten us. There was a bunch of schoolgirls that were in north of Scotland and they were going to go on a tour that they had. The tour was then out of a coal mine and there was an old miner there that was guest supposed to lead them into the mine. And this girl showed up in a nice white frock dress and she said, excuse me Sir, just make it a mind of a beat. Anything hindering me from wearing this white dress into the mind, he said. Laddie lasted rather, you know.
There's nothing from keeping you to wear this white dress into the mind, but there's considerable from keeping you from wearing that white dress out of the mind.
And you know, we can get awful dirty in this world if we don't practice separation and the Perfecting Holiness, not only outwardly but also in our hearts. Another thing is, if we don't break fellowship and stuff, we don't walk in separation. We could turn us away from fellowship with the Lord, you know, tells us in Deuteronomy that if they were to make the children of Israel, were to make links with the nations of the lands around them, what would happen?
It that's what Scripture teaches, Hosea 7 tells us that it will also hinder our development.
Our progress, our process of perfection that we're speaking about here tonight, you understand the word says there in Hosea Chapter 7 says Ephraim hath mixed himself with the peoples world. That means the nations around, not the people of Israel born as plural peoples. It's always the nations around, so they mix themselves with the nations around. And then it says he's like a cake, not turn. See. What's that? Well, that's an undone bit of bakery, isn't it? It's one that has not been completed.
It's you got to start it, but you didn't finish the thing. And so we find here that it hinders a person's development.
And that's a serious thing. We're not ever going to go on to perfection if we maintain links with this world. Hosea 7, the next verse, tells us that we're going to lose discernment.
Says that there are his enemies of devoured. His strength and Gray hairs are upon his head, and he knoweth it not. He lacks the sermon, doesn't even recognize the fact that there's been spiritual decay and decline. Why? Because he was mixing himself with the nations of this world. And so there's a number of reasons why. You see, I just don't think I can do it. You just don't realize that my friends have such a claim. Or I'm sure hope it's not true. But maybe there's someone here that's so immersed.
With people that are, they should not be that they. They just don't feel they have the power to do it. Well, the very pastors that I've read in Second Corinthians chapter 6 tells us that the Lord is going to stand up and he's going to help us. And there's a fourfold promise. He says I will dwell with them, I will be their God, I will receive you and I'll be a father unto you. And then he mentioned speaks of himself as being the Lord Almighty because he all powers at his hand and he'll help you to do that. Well, I'm going to read one last passage. This goes on to another aspect of perfection before we close, and that's in Hebrews Chapter 11.
Last verse of Hebrews Chapter 11. It's time to close.
Verse 40 God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect. They without us should not be made purposely. What is He speaking about? Context is important here. He's talking about all the Old Testament Saints. That's what the chapters about. And he's saying there's a day coming when they're going to be made perfect, but they're not going to be made perfect without us. We're going to be made perfect together. And this points us to the coming of Christ.
01:00:05
The coming of Christ.
When the Lord Jesus comes, there is going to be perfection in another sense. That is the final condition of the believer. There's going to be the perfecting of the body and the soul and the spirit in the sense that the fallen nature will be eradicated.
And we are going to be made like Christ and glorified in that day. That is what lies ahead for every believer with whom who has the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior. This is what lies ahead for me. But friend, I get back to where we were at the beginning. If there's anybody that is in this audience that is still not received Christ as a Savior, what lies ahead for you, may I ask?
Are you going to someday reach that complete perfection of the final condition? No, you're not. You're going to pass into a lost eternity to stand before God and all your sins, to be judged in your sins, and to be cast into an everlasting lake of fire to bear your sins because you would not receive the Lord Jesus. I just entreat you take this seriously and to realize that you need Christ.
As your savior.
Let's thank God.
Christian Consecration
Address—Bruce Anstey
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I want to speak on the subject of the consecration of the Christians life. Let's turn first of all to.
Psalm 116.
Verse 12 What shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits toward me?
2nd Corinthians chapter 5.
2nd Corinthians chapter 5, verse 14.
For the love of Christ constraineth us, because we thus judge that if one died for all, then all are dead, and that he died for all that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again.
And now for our text for this afternoon in Romans 12.
We'll begin reading for sake of context.
In the end of the 11Th chapter.
Verse 33.
All the depth of the riches, both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God, how searchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out. For who hath known the mind of the Lord, Or who hath been his counselor, Or who hath given first given to him, and it shall be recompense unto him again.
Of him and through him and to him are all things to whom be glory forever. Amen. Chapter 12. I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service, and be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you might prove that what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God?
For I say through the grace given unto me to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly according, as God hath dealt to every man the measure or a measure of faith. For as we have many members in one body, and all members have not the same office or function, it could read, we may being many.
Our one body in Christ and everyone members of another, having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us. Whether prophecy let us prophecy according to the proportion of faith or ministry that is weighed on our ministering, or he that teaches on teaching, or he that exhorteth on exhortation. He that giveth let him do it with simplicity, and he that ruleth with diligence, he that showeth mercy.
With cheerfulness.
I'd like to answer the question that has often been asked by young people and that is what should I do with my life? And I believe that the verses that I have read here would tell us what we should do with our lives. And that is most simply to give them to the Lord, to give our lives to the Lord and let him make our lives a blessing.
You know, life is like a coin.
You can spend it any way you want.
But once you spend it, it can't be spent again. And I believe that the theme of the Scriptures throughout the Old Testament and the New Testament would beg of us that we would use our life and our time wisely because of that very fact. You know, we read in Psalm 90, teach us to number our days and to apply our hearts unto wisdom. And so the Lord would beseech us that we would be careful what we do with the precious thing of time and our lives that He puts into our hands.
And so life is like a coin. We can spend it any way we want, but after we spend it, it cannot be spent again. And we're here this afternoon to encourage every one of us that we make right decisions in our life, that we would use our life for the glory of God and for the blessing of His people. It is truly the happy, fruitful Christian life we read in there in Psalm 116. What shall I do to?
To the Lord, where he is all the benefits that he's bestowed upon me. And we have also read there in Second Corinthians chapter 5 the fact that our lives could be lived unto ourselves.
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Unto him.
And it's a choice that each one of us have to make, and we trust that you'll make it.
In your youth to live your life for the Lord Jesus Christ and what we have before us here in this chapter in Romans chapter 12 is the subject of the consecration of the Christians life to the service of God.
The consecration of the Christian's life to the service of God.
But you'll notice as I began reading in the end of the 11Th chapter that it doesn't begin with consecration.
It begins with something else that would precede consecration and that is appreciation. Appreciation.
We find the apostle breaking forth in a doxology of praise in the last four verses of the chapter before he is exalting in what there is, as far as blessing is concerned, provided by God. And through the opening 11 Chapters of the Epistle to the Romans, he recounts what the grace of God has secured for the believer. He shows that the mercy of God and the grace of God, the compassion of God, and the love of God has secured salvation.
And assurance of salvation and many associated blessings that belong to the believer.
And now he exalts with his heart, full of praise for the.
The grace of God, and the riches of God, and the wisdom, and so on, as he recounts there. And I believe that this is where consecration in the Christian's life begins. It must begin with the heart been taken up with appreciation for what the Lord has done for us. And I believe that the more we spend time with the Lord, as we had yesterday.
Going over his word in a quiet time with him, that our appreciation for him and what he has done is going to grow until our hearts are going to well up in praise like the Apostle Paul and it's going to respond and wanting to consecrate our lives under the service of the Lord.
Isn't that beautiful? And so there is to be a an exercise on the heart of every person.
That mercy has reached through the gospel of God's grace. Have you taken time to be alone with the Lord in your life in a regular way? And does your heart just well up in praise and appreciation for what the Lord has done for you? I believe if you just dwell on that, there's going to be a tremendous transformation that is going to take place in your Christian life. And how important it is that we would take time every day of our life to thank the Lord for what He's done for us.
And to take time to think of what a sacrifice He made for us. It will cause a response in our hearts, and that's what we have open to us in the 12Th chapter, when he says, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of the compassions of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice.
Holy and acceptable unto God. The first thing I would point out here is that this is not a command.
He doesn't say. Now I command you, brethren. No, he beseeches them based on the mercies and the compassions of God, that there would be a logical surrender of our lives to the cause of Christ in this world. Another thing I would point out is that this presenting of our bodies is an individual thing. It is not a group exercise, but something that each one of us.
Needs to get before the Lord about and to seriously surrender the.
Captaincy of our life to the Lord, and So what we have in verse one.
Is what we might call dedication. Now, some people confuse this with consecration, but there's a big difference. Verse one is not consecration, verse one is dedication.
Dedication is putting something into the Lord's hand. It's giving something to the Lord. And what we can give to the Lord is our life.
But consecration is the Lord putting something in our hand, and that's what He does when we dedicate our life to Him. He consecrates our life to His service by giving us something to do. Let me say that again then. Dedication is where we give. We put something in His hand.
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Consecration is when he puts something in our hand.
See, consecration means to fill the hands. And when we dedicate our life to the Lord, he then will put something into our hands. He'll fill our hands with a service to do for him. And as I said, this chapter has in view the service of God and the consecration of the Christians life to that service. But it doesn't begin with consecration, it begins with appreciation, which will lead to dedication.
And so the presenting of our bodies to the Lord, and it says bodies because it's really Speaking of the whole person.
To the Lord is something that should come on the heels of a heart that's filled up with appreciation for what the Lord has done for us. Now. I've noticed also that the word present here is in the heiress tense in the original Greek. Now, I don't mean to get into too much of the technical side of this with a address to young people, but the errors 10 simply means having done it once for all. It's a once for all thing. It's and that is what.
Dedication should be.
In the life of a believer it should be a one time thing. In normal Christian life where we come to a point in our lives where we surrender our life to the cause of Christ once and for all and forever. And it should be based on the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ and the compassions of God. You see the logic of the cross of Christ should take us down a one way St.
To the end that we see nothing else but to surrender our lives entirely.
To the cause of Christ. That is normal Christianity. And this usually takes place sometimes after someone takes Christ as their Savior, when they come to realize and the impact of what Christ has done in sacrificing himself for the for the glory of God and for our salvation, that there's this response that wants to do something for the Lord.
And so we find here that there should be a presenting of our bodies as a living sacrifice. This is in contrast, of course, to the Old Testament Saints.
Bring to the Jewish altar dead sacrifices, but God would tell us to bring our lives.
As a living sacrifice to him. Now you may say well.
I'm not just so sure that God would really want my life. After all, I don't have any special ability. I don't have any special gift. I don't really have anything that I could give to Him. But friends, you're looking at yourself and you're getting the object all wrong. You know the Lord is not asking you about your ability or your inability. What He's asking you about is your availability. Will you make yourself available to him? He will do the rest, as we'll find in this chapter.
A tremendous process of transformation will take place in your life, and he will make you what he wants as a vessel for his service and for his glory and for his praise. But the question here is that of the will. And so the first verse is all to do with a decision of the will, you know. It tells us in Matthew 16 that if we lose our life, we shall find it. But he that hangs on to his life is going to lose it, he said. What on earth does that mean?
Let's go over that. He that keepeth his life is going to lose it. That is, if you retain your life for your own interests and for your own ambitions and for your own goals in life and for your own pleasures and so on. Even though you're a Christian, you're going to lose it. You're going to lose your life when it comes to eternity, because those things that are not for Christ will all be lost, but he that will lose it, on the other hand, that is to give it up and surrender to the Lord is going to find it, you say. What do you mean by find it? That is, you're going to find the real meaning of life.
You're going to find what it really means to live in this world. And there's only one way to live, friends, and that is to live 100% for Christ and Him alone. If we hold back anything, it is going to spoil our joy and our consecration will not be complete.
Now notice here it says we're to put our bodies on the sacrifice here and surrender to the Lord. But he mentions also that it should be holy. And that would tell us that God is looking for a life that is one is true with sin. And then it goes on to say acceptable unto God. This is an acceptable gift that we can give to the Lord. What has he given to us so much? What can we give to him? Well, not much, but we can give our lives.
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And that's the starting point, and that's what we want to address here this afternoon, the surrender of our life to God. It is your reasonable service, he says.
Reasonable could be intelligent. The idea here is that it's an understandable or an service that we can understand why we're doing what we do in our Christian life. It's in contrast to the Old Testament Saints. You see, when Moses and the Levites, the servants of the Tabernacle, would do their sacrifices and carry out their work they didn't were doing. In fact some of them may have come to Moses and said, well Moses, why do we have to cut the sacrifices up in such a way? Why do we have to keep moving the temple around or the Tabernacle around and why do we have to set that up this way and that way?
And Moses would have to say, well, I really don't know, I don't know. But the Lord told us to do it. We'd better do it just the way, he said.
But in Christianity, there's a tremendous contrast. He not only saves us, but he gives U.S. intelligence in our service that we would know why we do what we do. We know why we preach the gospel to the lost. We know why we baptize those that are saved. We know what we believe and why we do what we do. And so he gives us to have an intelligence connected with our service for the Lord. Then he goes on and brings up another great principle in this chain that we might speak of, that would speak of how the process through which a soul, an exercise of a soul, would go to reach the consecrated Christian life.
Which is what God would bring us to. And that is verse 2 be not conformed to this world. Now here we have another thing. Separation. Separation. First we've had appreciation in the latter verses of Chapter 11. Then in verse one or chapter 12 we have had dedication and now we have separation. Separation is important in the process of reaching the Christian of the consecrated Christian life.
And the reason for it is because the world and all that it stands for, stands in the way of one really having a surrendered life to the Lord.
Before a person is saved, he has all kinds of ambitions, he has all kinds of pursuits in life and goals. And these things are often connected with worldly desires of putting self first, because that is the root principle of the world, is to think of self and to promote self. And so the Lord would show us here that there needs to be.
The setting aside of the world in separation so that we might indeed have a life that would be truly dedicated to the Lord. And more than that, that we might discern His mind and will as that verse two goes on to tell us. And so this world, you know, wants to do our thinking for us. It wants to tell us what kind of clothes we should wear and what names we should have on our hats and our clothes and all this. And you know, it beats its drum. And He wants us to move to that beat.
And those who are more given to that, you can tell that they're under the control and influence of it, though they don't like me saying that.
Nevertheless, that is true. And someone who's perhaps marching along the road characterized by that as being conformed to the world, it goes on to speak about being transformed. And that would just show us that either we are being Cong. Formed or we're being transformed. Because there's no such thing as being static as far as our state is concerned in the things of God. But what he's showing us here in these opening verses.
Is that the there is a new motive that's been brought into the life of the believer that completely changes his object in life and his goal, and he's willing to surrender those ambitions that he once had for the cause of Christ. And now we find in verse two that there's a new cause and a new use for our bodies. Our bodies were once the vehicle of our own will to do our own thing for our own pleasure, for our own self.
And that's what characterizes the world, as it says in Second Timothy chapter 3.
It says they are lovers of self, but now our bodies are to be put on the altar of sacrifice, and they are to be used for an entirely new purpose for the glory of God and for the furthering of the cause of Christ in this world. And what a happy privilege that is that we can have part in glorifying the Lord Jesus Christ while we live in this world that is so opposed to him.
So he goes on, and he says, Be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind.
So here we have another thing, Transformation we've had, appreciation we've had.
Dedication. We've had separation. Now we have transformation. This is a process that begins on the inside. Transformation is the work that goes on within. As he says here in the mind, God will transform our lives when he picks us up and saves us. And we go through these exercises of lead that lead to the consecrated Christian life. And it begins with a.
00:20:19
With our hearts being lifted up in praise. But it also has worked out through the transforming of our minds. Our minds run down the paths that are really connected with the world, naturally speaking, but God would have our minds to be transformed.
Into thinking his thoughts, the world would tell us to think for ourself.
But God's thoughts are to think for the glory of his Son, and so we find here.
That the renewing of our minds is the next thing in the process of the work of God in the life of the Christian. And what will hinder the transformation process is the world. And so that's why separation would precede transformation in the mind. As I say, even after we're saved, our minds keep running down certain paths that usually have self as the object and motive, and we need to get our minds fastened on what God thinks about. And so when we saturate ourselves with the word of God.
We will think God's thoughts. Remember listening to a tape many years ago and I'm reading, meaning I don't know if it was Chapter Brown or if it was Paul Wilson. One of the other was saying to on the tape in the meeting that we may have to renew our minds 50 times in a day if our minds keep running off onto those things that only pertain to the the flesh.
And the earth. And so we find here that the great result of having our minds fastened on the things that God is interested in. And God is seeking, which is the glory of his own Son. That what happens is that we prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. And so here we come to another thing, and that is the realization of the will of God for our life. Not only is there transformation there, it will lead to the realization.
Of the will of God for our lives. Isn't that wonderful? Now it says that you may prove. You would think it would say that you might know what is the good and acceptable perfect will of God. No, it says what would prove Now Why? Because prove goes away beyond knowing. Of course He wants us to know what his will is, But he doesn't want us to know us, just to know it. He wants us to prove it by walking in it and living in it, and to finding out that it is good and it's acceptable.
And it's perfect, just like me saying that. Do you know the road to Salem OR? Yes, I know the road to Salem OR. But I can say I not only know it, but I have proved it to be a great Rd. from here to Salem OR because I've been over that road, I've proved it. I've tried it myself. That's the point of proving here. We prove it by trying it, by living in it. And so God doesn't want you just to know his will. Everybody wants to know the future and you know these kind of things.
He's looking for persons that are willing to lay down their lives, that they would walk in his will. If any man shall do his will, he shall know of his of the doctrine. And so that's the great principle that God would seek to affect in our life, the proving of his will in our life. So God has a plan for your life, dear young person.
It will be slightly different than each one of us, because each one of us have a different place to fill in the body of Christ, as he goes on to say in the following verses. But there will be certain similarities in all of our lives, and that is that he wants us to live for the glory of God and for the glory of Christ. All that he has for us as far as our plan for our life will always be subservient to that one great.
Objective that God has and that is to live for the glory of Christ. God has only one objective in his life before him, and that is that his Son may be glorified in this world.
And all of the various details in our life are only to lead to that one objective, the car you buy, the place you live, the person you marry. All these things here really are only subservient to the fact that God wants you to live in those things for His own glory. Now that goes on here in verse 3. And He speaks here of another thing, and that is that that every man that is among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think.
00:25:02
But to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man a measure of faith, what we have in this verse is humiliation.
OK, the idea of one being humbled at the fact that God would use us to learn his will.
And that he actually to learn that he actually has some service for us to carry out for his glory and for the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. When we discern his will rightly before the hymn in prayer. It should take the pride right out of us and make us humble Christians as we see that God has something for us to do. And so I would beseech of you as you lay your life on the altar of sacrifice that you would.
And discern his will for you and your life, that you would then have that state of thinking low thoughts of self, that we would go forward.
In in humility and seek to carry that out for his glory without trying to make a big bit of fanfare about it. Like we were saying at the conference in Walla Walla about that man Jihu, who said come see my zeal for the Lord. He was going to do something for God. He wanted everybody to see it.
No, that's not thinking soberly. We must not think ourselves more highly than we ought. That is, that we can get into our minds certain fleshly and worldly ideas of putting ourselves forward and imagine that God is calling us to certain things that He may not have called us to do at all. And really, it's just the flesh and the things of God, which is a dangerous thing. But if we're sufficiently in His presence, it will humble us, because no flesh in God's sight can ever be puffed up. And so when we see someone.
Who is boasting in their service for the Lord? I'm going to do this. I'm going to do that and this kind of thing. It makes you wonder if they're sufficiently been living in the presence of the Lord himself. But when I see a Christian going about doing something humbly for the glory of God and not trying to make a big bit of fanfare about it, I see that there has been some secret time, secret history in that person's soul between them and the Lord, and it's beautiful to see.
So this leads us to another thing, and that is, in verse 4 through 8 we find that the Lord now places in the hand of those who have surrendered their life to the Lord.
Something to do, verse six, he goes on to say. He tells us we all have something to do. We all have member we're all members of the body and have a different function, not office, but should read function. And then he says we all have a gift. Some of us tell us that we don't have a gift, but that's not true. The Bible teaches this, that we do all have a gift. And Jan Darby said if there was more devotion, there would be more gift among us.
If there was more devotion among us, there would be more gift among us. He wasn't meaning. That gift comes by devotion. But what he meant was is that as a person is devoted to the Lord, it will become apparent. It'll come to the surface, that person's gift, and he'll know and it'll become distinctive in his life. The problem is there's a lack of devotion and dedication in our life. And we all know what I'm talking about here. And that's why sometimes in our lives there isn't much.
Discerning what the will of God is as far as our service for the for His glory is concerned in this world.
And so if there was more devotion, there would be more gift evident amongst us. He goes on here, and he speaks in verses 6 through eight of seven different functions or exercises of gift that we can be involved in. And not all of them, you'll see, is public ministry necessarily. He doesn't call everybody to be a preacher.
Or a teacher. And so there are many functions that God would have.
In the body and this in these verses 6 through 8 are what is properly consecration when he fills our hands with something to do and to carry out for his service. Now if you were to go back to Exodus 29, where you get the consecration of the priests, you'll see it immediately. They were brought into the presence of the Lord. They were there was a sacrifice that was made at the altar, and in the sight of that very sacrifice they were to be consecrated, and Moses was to place into the hands of the priest.
And the Levites, various things. A loaves of bread, I think it was there was the wave shoulder and all these things. There were 10 things.
Into their hands. He was filling their hands with those things that speak of Christ, that they were to carry out and be busy around the Tabernacle and that sanctuary for the service of God. And that is really what God wants to do. He wants to fill your life with that which is of Christ, and fill your life for the service of God and the service of Christ in this world. But it begins, dear young person, with the dedication of our life.
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To the Lord, and that is only going to happen when there is.
Appreciation of what he's done for us. I've seen a bumper sticker say Jesus is my copilot. Jesus is my copilot. But you know, friends, he doesn't want to be your copilot. He wants to be the captain of your life.
Someone told when I told somebody that, he said, you know, I saw a bumper sticker and you and it said if Jesus is your copilot, you're in the wrong seat. I thought that was pretty good. Jesus is your copilot, you're in the wrong seat.
And that's true.
And so here we have.
What is properly consecration? God may give you a work that He will give you a work to do. It may be teaching it, may be shepherding, exhorting, even giving with simplicity and showing mercy. You say. What's the gift of showing mercy? I don't understand that.
Brother told me one time that the gift of mercy would be ones who seemed to have a special.
Gift from God to be able to comfort the broken hearted and to help those who are sick and infirm. You see them going to hospitals, They just have a gift for it. An ability to just be able to say the right word and to know what to do. I mean, we should all have a heart for the afflicted and we should all have, you know, the shepherd's heart too. But there are some that seem to have.
Quite a ministry of showing mercy to them that need it. And notice what he says. You're showing mercy with cheerfulness, and that's what people need when they are cast down or are hurt in some way. You know, as I said, we only have one life we can live in any way we want. The only happy and fruitful life that can really have any meaning to us at all is to have a surrendered life, as we've been saying. And I was just thinking about.
Armistead, Barry.
I heard this story years ago. It's affected me deeply.
When he was a teenager.
He was a dedicated and devoted young man, thank God, and he worked with his father on the farm, and their farm was set up in such a way as that, just outside where the house was going up the road they had to go up a steep bluff of a hill, a very steep hill to where their their their fields were where they kept the cattle. And after a long day's work, one day more Armistead was working with his father. They came down out of that field, down that steep Rd. made to the bottom. His father was tired.
When he got to the bottom of the hill, he turned around and he noticed that they left the gate open and Armistead turned. I mean, Mr. Barry, the senior father, turned and said, oh, we left the gate open and he started to go up the hill and Armistead said, oh Dad, I'll get it. And he said to Armistead, Armistead, you always do things that please me.
So Armistead took off up the hill. He climbed up steep hill and he closed that gate. And when he came back down to the bottom, his father was laying on the ground. He passed away with a massive heart attack and the last words that boy heard. Armistead, you always do things that please me. Isn't that beautiful? He said that there was something that encouraged him in his life and service thereafter, that he knew at least he had pleased his father.
Those of us who know that man know that he pleased God his father as well, because he lived a life of devotion and service to the Lord. But you know, I just was thinking about this dear young person here. If your father or your mother was to fall dead on the floor here today, and passed into eternity to be with the Lord in heaven, would they be able to go into heaven with the thought that they are reasonably sure?
That you were one that really had the desire to please the Lord in your life, or would they pass out of this world into the presence of the Lord with a question mark? I wonder how my son or my daughter are going now. We have no assurance. But that man, Mr. Barry Senior, left the scene with reasonable assurance that his son was one who really had the Lord before him and wanted to please not only his father.
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But God too. And so it starts there, dear young person, in the presence of the Lord, appreciating what He has done for us.
You know, I don't like to.
Make personal references.
And when people do it, I I shrink from it. And I know because the scripture says he to speak of himself, speak of his own glory. I'm going to depart from that rule here for a minute to try and press on the point that I am trying to make to you.
When I was younger.
There was a brother, Wayne Coleman, that he and I sought to follow the Lord with these young persons. We were both 20 years of age.
And we got interested and more interested and more interested in the Scriptures. And I would just say this to you as I pause here for a minute, It is really good to have another young person that you can walk with and who wants to please the Lord. You can confide in one another and you can encourage one another. But nevertheless, as we got more interested in the things of Scripture, we got this notion that we should get together every night, since he only lived a few blocks from me. And we would pray.
We would pray to the Lord.
And we talked and we talked and we talked a lot. Every night we would get together and we prayed. This went on. And as our talks went, we talked about the mediocracy that we saw in Christians life. And we thought it was nauseous. And then we thought about ourselves, well, we're much any better. And if at all.
And he used to speak of that verse so often. He said the thing that chills me the most. Is that what Samson said when he said if I lose my Nazarite ship, I'll be as any other man.
That's what I fear more than anything is to just be an average.
Mediocre.
Christian that has one foot in the world and one foot in the things of the Lord. And as we spoke about these things, we talked about how really the Scriptures only present Christianity. One way I can remember us talking about how that we need to.
Go all the way or not at all, because that's the only happy path and we would pray about it.
I remember one night we we talked for a long time. Before we prayed, we said, you know what we should be doing is consecrating or dedicating rather our lives to the Lord entirely. I mean total surrender.
Said. Yeah, I know, but you know what that cost? Yeah, I know what it cost.
We were serious young men. I look back on it now and that our dedication to the Lord was filled with so much imperfection. It's embarrassing. But nevertheless we were real and we were serious about this, what we were talking about.
He said, You know, we need to pray about this and tell the Lord that we're going to give our lives entirely to him.
It's going to mean everything. Yeah, I know. OK.
In my bedroom, we cut down. He prayed first.
And we talked and told the Lord, and I don't say that we need to do this in a group thing. I just already said it's an individual thing. But we were praying together. At any rate. He prayed that. And I prayed. And we talked for a long time after that again. And we said, you know, if we're going to go all the way, I mean all the way, we better clean up things, take care of things. Well, he had a Jag Jaguar. I mean one of those Ex K ES with the long nose on it.
Said. I can't serve all over that. I better get rid of it.
I don't know where we got some of these ideas from, but anyway.
I had a grand.
Piano. Beautiful black piano. I like to play the piano, I said. I better get rid of it.
Why? We were serious. We were really serious. And that's the point. I'm trying to get home here. I sold that piano and the Lord allowed me to sell it for every penny, I think within $100 of what I paid for, which is amazing. And he got every penny he got out of his car. The Lord seemed to honor that. So we got rid of those things.
And as we talked right around that time, because we came together every night, he said, well, we need to learn the truth. If we're going to go all the way, we're going to have to learn the truth. Well, what had happened just before that an old brother in our meeting had died and I was given, oh, about maybe 2 rows or three rows of books of ministry because they gave it to some young brother. I said, I'll take it. I didn't know what they're for.
You know, various. I had to read them or anything, but we had them there. So we're going to learn the truth. We're going to read these books. Well, then he had some books too.
00:40:07
So we said, well, if we're going to learn the truth, we went out and bought a bunch of pamphlets in BTP. In fact, we bought every pamphlet that they had on the subject of learning the scriptures, not gospel things and so on. And when we got to that, we talked about it the next after we got them, we said, well, you know, this is not going all the way, what about all the books and industry they have? So we went back and it's embarrassing. We bought every single book that they had in BTPI mean we were serious with our wallets. We were getting serious. And some of those books I still have on my shelf and I still haven't read them.
But we were serious. That's my point. And then we said well.
We could. We should be sharing the gospel. We got to share the gospel. We just got to do this. OK, We got to do it. And so we found tracks, and some of the tracks were at the meeting, were so outdated. And we just, you know, for our generation, they scoffed at us. We used to think for passing our tracks. One of them was called the Two Rabbits. Have you ever seen it? I don't know if you have, but it was just so outdated that we just can't pass that on.
We found a track that Gordon Hayhoe wrote that wasn't antiquated, but we thought it was an erring someone.
20 year old brothers, we thought it was airing somewhat that Mister Hayward wrote, so we rewrote it. Don't ever tell him this, will you? We rewrote it a little bit just to change a few things and we printed them. We printed thousands of them. We printed hundreds of thousands. I'm not bragging him. And we passed them out downtown and we would get down there and we passed them out to these people. After 2-3 hours our legs were hurting.
We look at each other. Well, it's time to quit. Yeah. And then we'd, he'd say, well, but if we're really dedicated, we just keep on because Paul would. OK, We keep on. And we were driving one another with this. I mean, I see it was so filled with imperfection. Then we went back, We pray about things. We say, well, we got to preach. Preach. Yeah. I don't know how to preach. Well, how are we going to do it?
Will get tapes. Who's a good preacher? Well, Gordon Hale is a good preacher, so I bought every tape I could from Mr. Smith, and some sister was telling me it was. Martha was telling me about how that she'd heard that. I don't know how she heard that. I bought every tape. In fact, when Will Hayhoe bought the the collection from Mr. Smith, I said I got them all.
I was not exactly true, but I had a lot of them. In fact, we dedicate or devoted them to the meeting room. There's over 4000 of those tapes. We were serious.
And we collected many takes by Mr. Wakefield too, and tried to imitate him, even wrote out what he said and so on. I'm telling you we were serious. But it's embarrassing, as I stand here to tell you, but I'm trying to get across to you that what God is looking for is serious young men and women. If there's some imperfections and some whatever, He worked those things out.
Process of transformation. And so we got to the Gospel Meeting and some of our brethren were beginning to wonder what was going on. A couple of guys like John the Baptist running around. But anyway, what happened was.
I can still remember Mr. Coleman saying, would you like to preach the gospel? We knew that was coming, so Wayne said no. This is interesting. I want to tell you, Wayne was a man that stuttered, stuttered in school, stuttered.
Mr. Coleman said to him. Would you like to preach the gospel tonight? We know your boys are working.
He said sure, sure, sure, sure. He got up and he preached and he never stumbled once, and he's never stumbled since.
The power of God to transform a life is amazing.
Now this is really going to be embarrassing.
I got all the way through school into my late teens and I could barely read. I was not a good student.
And here I am with all these books from Bible truth publishers.
And even after that happened, in the next couple of years I would pray about the Lord helping me to read so I could read them books. And I asked the Lord if He would help me to have a memory that would remember scripture.
And I'll tell you something.
He gave me right at that time the power to remember Scripture.
Used to call me The Walking until I asked and don't do that anymore because that's putting puffing. A personnel person would say quote a scripture anyway, tell him that's Romans 410 or whatever. I don't know where it came from. I'm not talking about miracles here, but we had so completely thrown our lives into the cause of Christ that there were things happening and they were all good. We were happy. And when John Kemp heard about it, he came out and said, well, we'll take you boy St. preacher. Oh, here we go. So we went out on the street.
And we got preaching, and we had thought preaching. That's for the old days. You can't do that today. We're living in the hippie era and so on, you know, back then. And so we started. And you know what happened? A crowd gathered. John was surprised, really. He was the crowd. And we were preaching. We were choking out verses and stuff. And there were people that were actually interested. We couldn't believe it. There were people who were heckling us too. And I'm telling you right now that reproach of Christ that we felt.
00:45:29
I'm telling you this, we felt like Christians ought to feel. We felt the reproach of Christ, but we were happy. And I'll tell you this, I wouldn't trade places when anybody in this world for what the joy we had of standing there passing out tracks, calling out verses in the middle of the downtown of Vancouver. God helped us. And it was a wonderful time and I do not regret it one single bit. And so we're going to learn how to preach. And the Lord helped us with that too.
Our concept, our dedication to the Lord got so out of control that on the basis of Jeremiah 16, we were not going to marry. We said, look, if we're going to go all the way, I mean all the way, we're going to be like the apostle. And So what happened was on basis of Jeremiah 16, we said we're not, we're not going to get married. Thankfully, I'm here to tell you that someone talked us out of that.
And I hope my consecration to the Lord is a little more.
Balanced.
But I'm telling you, those were happy days, full of a few failures and imperfections, but they were happy days.
And I'm here this afternoon to just say to you young people, is your one young brother or young sister that is willing to put your life in the hands of the Lord like that and just say, OK, Lord, have it all, none of this. A little bit and a little bit and a little bit. Have it all. He'll make your life a blessing and you will not believe the joy that you'll have in your Christian life. And more than that, you don't want. You'll make him.
Happy. Don't you want to make the Lord happy? You know, Mr. Hagel used to tell us. And I know I have the tapes.
He used to tell us that everyone of us are making a present that someday we're going to give to the Lord Jesus. Your life is like a present. And every day you're making something beautiful for him. That when we come to the coming day, when he at the judgment seat, we're going to stand there when my name is called and I'm going to give him my present and he's going to look at it and he's going to open it and I'm going to look at his face when he opens that.
What if he opens it?
And all there is is wood, hay and stubble. In our life, we've lived it for ourselves. We don't care what people say. We hear preachers talking like this all the time. It'll wear off. It's just like a man pulling up his socks, you know what I mean? She's back down a couple days later.
Are we going to give a present of our life to the Lord Jesus at the judgment seat? And there's going to be very little there for him. We'll all get the smile of his approval because it says then shall every man have praise of God? He will praise this even for the smallest little things.
But wouldn't you like to bring joy to the Lord Jesus by surrendering your life? I mean, totally.
My worry in talking about this and I have really gone back and forth, though I had to confide with Brother Ed's tags about this going back and forth because I don't want to get up here and beat a drum and have sort of like a pep rally and I have really agonized over taking up this subject.
This afternoon I don't want to be like the old man that was. I read this report of an old man that sat at a railway station or some 100 yards off from the railroad station.
And he saw a newspaper laying on the railroad tracks or nest to the next to the railroad tracks. Somebody had thrown it down. And a train, he heard it off in the whistle coming along. And he said all that train and that train came through town blasting away. It didn't stop. It was it was like a whistle stop. Wasn't a real railroad station anyway. It just came right through town. And as it got near that newspaper, the wind just ripped that newspaper up and it was flying in the air around like you've seen the air paper going in the air.
That train went on down the way and disappeared on the site. The newspaper started to go down, down, down, and it fell down onto the track where it was before the train came. And that's my fear here this afternoon that we can talk about these things, about consecration to Christ. You can get all excited for a day or two or a week and go back home and there's no effect. You know, you've got to get into the presence of the Lord if this exercise is going to be sustained. Another verse that Wayne used to always quote, and he still does, really.
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It really disturbed him, and that is in Acts 27, it says. And when the past when the fast was passed, sailing became difficult when the fast was passed. The fast is a time of exercise before to God, God may give you an exercise. I pray that he would do that here today. But don't let the fast past, Don't let it pass out of your life. Hang on to it and be serious about these things with the Lord.
Because there's a time and an enemy that's going to try to take it all away, you know, and justice. Now in closing, I just want to mention how that in First Samuel, where Doug was speaking, first Kings Chapter 20, you will read, you don't need to turn to it, but you'll read that Ben Haydad, who's a type, as he was saying, of our enemy, of our souls, and you find that that enemy comes up into the land of the children of Israel. And what is it that he is after? He says.
Your household mind and all your possessions and your children, even the goodliest they are mine. He put a claim on them. And Satan, the enemy of our souls, is seeking to put a claim on the young people, and the goodliest, especially that is those who have some talent or ability or whatever that he wants them, especially for his system.
The dialogue went back and forth between Ahab and the messengers of Ben. Hey Dad. And anyway, what happened? Later in the chapters, Doug read to us that a prophet comes to Ahab and says to him, we're going to take care of that enemy, he's going to be defeated. Ahab says How? And the prophet says by the young men, Isn't that something, the very ones that the enemy was putting a claim on, God was preparing to use for the deliverance of Israel?
And you know, if the Saints of God gathered to the Lord's name are going to be delivered.
And further the testimony be furthered. It's going to be through the young man, the next generation. It's you, dear young people, that are going to further the cause of Christ and the truth of being gathered to the Lord's name, not only in principle but in practice. But the enemy is after your soul, and he wants to take you into other things, so that you will be useless in the things of God, May God give you.
That exercise this very day.
To dedicate your life to the cause of Christ and prove the happy joy of living for him. And you can't go too far in the things of God. You may run across people that will tell you, oh, you're getting a little crazy now you're getting a little fanatical, but you know.
It's the happy path, and I just want to leave that with you, now that you might be exercised About that, let me read you a little poem. When I stand at the judgment seat of Christ and he shows me his plan for me, the plan of my life as it might have been had he had his way. And I see how I blocked him here and checked him there, I would not yield my will. Will there be grief in my Saviour's eyes? Grief, though he loves me still?
Would he have me rich? But I stand there poor.
Rob of all but his grace, while my memory runs like a haunted thing down the path, I cannot retrace Lord of the years that are left to me. I give them into Thy hand, take me, break me, and move me to the pattern Thou has planned.
Let's pray.
Grace Overcoming #1: The Call of Elisha
Grace Overcoming #2: The Smitten Prophet
Grace Overcoming #3: Naboth's Vineyard
Upper Room Ministry #1: Overview
Upper Room Ministry #2: Foot Washing
Upper Room Ministry #3: Divine Relationships
Upper Room Ministry #4: Divine Resources
Knowing The Will of God
The Fragrance of Christ to God
Address—Michel Peyette
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
What I had before me this week.
Is the thought of.
Fragrance.
There's a verse in the Second Corinthians.
Chapter 2.
Verse 14 Second Corinthians 214 now thanks Beyoncé God.
Which always causes us to triumph in Christ and make it manifest the Savior of His knowledge by us in every place. Or the odor, the fragrance, if I may say, it's not to savor with the mouth, it's the odor with the nose. For we are unto God a sweet savour or fragrance or perfume of Christ.
Our brother John Bilasali in the Walla Walla spoke to us of Egypt there in one of the talks and he.
Remarked how there was a stench in Egypt.
When the judgment of God came upon it there and you know.
This creation is characterized by that.
Remember when I was in school?
And closed classrooms now they've got improved ventilation, but if you put a 30 or 35 people in one room for an hour or two and you come back in that room after, you'll see it's not very pleasant, the odor that comes from there.
We keep washing our bodies because if we don't.
The fragrance of them isn't very nice.
Well, here is something that is a delight.
Or God.
The sweet savour.
Of Christ when Noah came out of the ark.
He offered a burnt offering, and the Lord smelt the sweet savour.
Was reminding him of that one who would be the fulfillment of all these types in the Old Testament, of all these sacrifices which could never take away sin.
The beloved Lord Jesus, his beloved Son, who would come and satisfy his righteousness.
And make known.
His character of late and love.
Well, you know, in the Gospel of John, you're familiar with that Mary, she wrote that vessel. She had Alabaster Box and.
The house was filled.
With the odor of the perfume.
And I think of that, you know, as when we come together in the Spirit of God produces worship.
The very House of God in the presence of God. He can smell that.
And how pleasant to him to have that fragrance of Christ.
Well, I just like to turn to the 133rd Psalm first of all. Then we spend a few moments in Exodus.
Verse One. Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity.
It's like the precious ointment upon the head that ran down upon the beard, even the Aaron's beard that went down to the skirts of his garment, as the Jew of Herman and as the Jew that descended upon the mountains of Zion. For there the Lord commanded the blessing, even life forevermore.
Well, you know, we had this in the meetings yesterday that were acceptable.
We have our acceptable in the will of God, which is a good, acceptable and perfect will of God that was acceptable. Really is is pleasant, agreeable, Something that's pleasant, that's nice.
And it says here how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity.
I'd like to just suggest this thought here. It is always good for brethren to dwell together.
But it is not always pleasant.
But it is always good.
And it is good and pleasant when they dwell together in unity. And it's what God would have us dwell together in unity. You know, if you're going to the dentist, it's a good thing, but it's not a pleasant thing.
And it's good for us to dwell together because we need each other. We need each other to grow, and we need each other to set us straight, you might say, to realign our course. We fix our vision on the Lord. We need each other.
And it is the Lord's desire that we would go on together in that which is good and pleasant. It's not only pleasant for us, it is pleasant for Him.
This is something that is impressed upon my soul and I know I bring it often when I speak to others that you know the Lord Jesus died.
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For me.
And this is just beyond me when we sit together around the Lord Jesus and I were brought in a measure each one to consider the sufferings of the Lord Jesus.
And it is individually for each one of us, and that's what we say.
When we partake of the emblems, don't we? We are showing the Lord's death, each one of us, and we're showing it for us.
And I know, dear young people, we've been speaking about knowing the will of the Lord and for your life, and we had these verses on sanctification yesterday.
But I believe, dear ones, that if you know the Lord Jesus your Savior, I believe it is the desire of the Lord.
That you would remember him in death.
That what He has done for you would be fresh to your soul moment by moment. And I know it isn't for me. We get occupied and distracted by this robot from week to week. I can tell you what precious moments for our souls when we're brought back to consider what the Lord Jesus done for the Father's glory, but personally for you.
But you know.
He also died to gather into one the children of God, which were dispersed.
He also.
We could be selfish and just think for ourselves, but this is part of the work of the Lord Jesus and giving himself that He might gather us in one to have us together.
How good and unpleasant to dwell together in unity. And yet we dwell together.
We can warm ourselves up.
You can warm yourself up and enjoying the Lord together. Sometimes we get warmed up by friction, and that's a good thing, not a pleasant thing. Friction is not a pleasant thing, but it's a good thing because it can bring us to a greater measure of likeness to the Lord Jesus. And you can help me that way, and I trust I can help you that way. And as the Father sees us grow in the likeness of his sons.
We're perfect in him and as he looks at us in Christ, we're perfect and he looks at us practically. He would say, oh.
They give me special delight.
Additional delight in walking in practically in what they have in my son. Well, here I would just like to use this illustration because oppression press appointment comes from the head and runs down upon the beard and the skirts of the garment. And this is priesthood, you know. And this precious ointment will be looking at that. That had a fragrance. That had a fragrance. And this is it. It came from the head, but then it went down right to the hems of the garment. And I think that speaks of testimony the garment speaks of.
And isn't it wonderful that we could be, even at this late hour, the hem of the garment just before the Lord comes?
That the Father could look down and see a reflection in your life and mine and his Son, and see and smell the sweetness of Christ in your life and mine, and that also He would have brought to his nostrils when we're together.
That fragrance that there was in the sanctuary where everything literally was anointed with the same oil. And let's just look at that now. And that's in Exodus chapter 30.
22.
Exodus 30, verse 22. Moreover, the Lord spake unto Moses, saying.
Thou also unto the.
Principal spices. I have it in my French Darby, the most excellent spices.
There are none more excellent. Take thou also unto thee the more excellent spices of pure myrrh, free flowing myrrh 500 shekels, and of sweet cinnamon half so much even 250 shekels, and of sweet calamus 250 shekels, and of cassia 500 shekels, after the shekel of the sanctuary and.
Of oil olive and hen, and thou shalt make it an oil of hope.
Holy ointment, anointment compound after the art of the apothecary or the perfumer, it shall be an oily holy anointing oil. And thou shalt anoint the Tabernacle of the congregation therewith, and the ark of the testimony, and the table, and all these vessels, and the Candlestick and his vessels, and the altar of incense, and the altar of burnt offering, with all his vessels, and the labor on his foot.
And thou shalt sanctify them, that they may be most holy. Whatsoever toucheth them shall be holy, and thou shalt anoint.
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Aaron and his sons, and consecrate them, that they may minister unto me in the priest's office, and I shall speak unto the children of Israel, saying, This shall be an holy anointing oil unto me throughout your generation. Upon man's flesh shall it not be poured, neither shall ye make any other like it. After the composition of it. It is holy, and it shall be holy unto you, whosoever composite and you like it, or whosoever put it, any of it upon a stranger.
Be cut off from his people.
Well, here is given to us by the Spirit of God, the composition of that holy anointing oil that we have brought before us in 133rd Psalm.
Now these measures 500 shekels, that's about 15 lbs. So half 250 shekels is 7 1/2 lbs or something. And a hint of olive oil or olive oil is about a gallon, close to a gallon, so.
I just think that this brings before us.
Human measure, you might say human measures, and you know what this speaks of.
As you walked into the sanctuary.
Maybe outside and that's an altar of burnt offerings. It was anointed with that President didn't feel as much the fragrance of once he got into the holy place that was a closed place there you would have smelt that you said.
Now he's brought up in the Catholic Church, and we used to go to church. We would enter into this building and they would burn incense there. And it was a fragrance there. And I remember, you know, as a young man, they're going in there. In the first few years perhaps, where there was still a reverence for God, there was ignorance there, but there was reverence for God. And it was a quiet place. When you went into church, it had a different smell.
And it was a place where there was the fear of God, and you walked quietly, you didn't talk and.
It's no longer like that anymore. I've been to on other occasions to for funerals and stuff and you know, the behaviour has changed a lot. But this is the sanctuary of God.
Didn't know that when I was in the Catholic Church, but I've been brought into this now and so have you. I type in the Old Testament of where they entered the holy place and as you can just see from these verses themselves, have been anointed with that for the anointing oil and everything else in there. They had a smell.
Everything smelled the same.
You know, sometimes you, you smell something and it's, it's sweet, but it's too sweet.
Sometimes my girls, they get the ball of perfume and.
Put that on. Smell good, daddy? Yeah.
For my wife.
She'll put someone in the car when the windows are closed.
And these things are made to smell for hours and hours, miles of a distance. You know, it says that too much. No, no. But I just used that illustration here because this perfume is different.
There's never too much of it.
And you never have enough of it. God put it on everything.
Was for his nostrils.
The sweetness for him, the fragrance of Christ.
I don't know much about it, but I enjoy a little bit.
Here it was a composition of it.
It was excellent spices, the most excellent spices. So nobody can be compared with our Lord and no, we're going to be made perfectly like Him. God finds his delight in us now through Him.
There's this one, the most excellent one. One was perfect in every way, every thought, every movement of his soul, of his body, a delight for the heart of the Father.
Well, the first one is pure myrrh or free flowing myrrh. Myrrh you get from.
A little shrub and it's like resin, I believe. And it just comes out like you would have pine resin on pine trees. And this is how you get murdered. But the way they get murdered is they make little Nicks on the on the shrub and that opens it up and then so the SAP comes out the resin comes out and that's how they gather it. But this is.
Free flowing.
It's just poured out by itself. The Lord Jesus came into the world to suffer.
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We suffer in this. We don't come into the world to suffer, but we suffer. But the Lord just came into the world to suffer.
Offering himself.
Free flowing mern.
That's what I have in my heart as I consider that. And these are not exclusive thoughts, you know, there are many other thoughts I'm sure you can enjoy. But then and it says sweet cinnamon half so much even 250 shackles and sweet calamus are aromatic Reed.
It's our reason. French Bible. There's there's that 250 suggests to me that this was their combined measure to get 500 like the other. It's a combination of things, you know, you know, in our lives as believers, this is something we need and This is why we need our brethren so much too. One thing that we need is is balance is balance. God is light and God is love.
There's righteousness and there's grace there's and sometimes we're over here and sometimes we're over there and sometimes we're. We got 200 of that and we're missing all the rest.
Jesus 250 shekels of each cinnamon I think you got from the bark of a tree which speaks up is outward testimony. And this week calamus or the aromatic readings before me like John the Baptist was spoken of as a read in the desert tossed by the wind of the words of the Lord Jesus as the prophet of God. And you know the Lord they asked the Lord Jesus to who he was. He says absolutely that which I say unto you.
His perfect balance, everything, he said.
He was.
Everything he said, he was.
I can tell you I will confess this before you, dear brethren, I say a lot more than what I am practically.
But I seek by the Lord's help to be more.
Practically what the Lord has given me to enjoy in my heart, but the Lord Jesus perfect in every way.
The things which he did and thought thought were perfect. Perfect balance, not one discrepancy.
And then it says the last one was Cassia.
500 shekels, and I've had the dog Cassia there as it brings before us in the 45th Psalm, also part of his garments.
The thought of beauty.
Moral Beauty.
Here's this young boy of 12. Anybody here 12?
The Father could see him in the temple there.
About his business. About his father's business when he was 12.
This Blessed One who could order the universe into being by his word. He could come the sea and The Tempest by one word.
Spends the night in prayer before he chooses his disciples.
He's bowed down in the Garden of Gethsemane, Father. Not my will, but down thine be done.
Moral beauty as a man before his God, perfect in every way. Oh, God could look down, couldn't he? From his birth right up to Mount Calvary there and find the light in every moment.
Of the life of the Lord Jesus.
So that's and then it was shall be with the anointing orality all the voice speaks to us of you know the Holy Spirit here's the Lord Jesus.
Perfect man and perfect God.
When does he start his public ministry?
Well, after the baptism of John and the power of the Spirit of God.
When an example for you and me.
If one.
Was self-sufficient.
There was a man who was God manifest in flesh.
And he goes forth in the power of the Spirit. Can you do without that?
Can you do without dependence? Oh, let us consider the beauty of our Lord Jesus and seek by God's grace to be more like Him. Well, you see.
This was put.
On everything in the sanctuary. And it was put on Aaron and his son, so they ministered before the Lord. This is the very life that you and I have. This is the fragrance that God has given us before himself. A sweet that the sweet savour of Christ, not only to this world.
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But to the father, what a privilege.
But then.
Since they weren't to make anything like that.
This was.
Perfume fragrances. It was put on things there.
To be enjoyed by the Lord.
And surely when we come to our Father.
And we speak to him of the Lord Jesus.
As we enjoy this about the Lord, or that about the Lord, as we consider His life down here, as we share thoughts of Himself with one another, this is the fragrance.
Of this beautiful one.
According to the art of the perfumer, I believe the Spirit of God does that to us, doesn't He takes this precious book and He opens our understanding and He shows us Christ from the very beginning, right right to the end, in one way or another, to enjoy it when fellowship with the heart of the Father.
Well then we get to verse 34.
And the Lord said unto Moses, Take unto thee sweet spices.
Stacked it and Annika and galbanum these sweet spices with pure frankincense of each. Shall there be a lightweight?
And thou shalt make it a perfume, a confection after the art of the apothecary or perfumer.
Tempered together, pure and holy, and thou shalt beat some of it very small.
And put it before the testimony in the Tabernacle of the congregation, where I will meet with thee, and it shall be unto you most holy. And As for the the incense, really As for the perfume, the incest which thou shalt make, ye shall not make to yourselves, according to the composition thereof. It shall be unto thee holy to the Lord, Whosoever shall make like unto that the smell thereto shall even be cut off from His people.
The Lord repeats this, the exclusivity, if I may use the word of this, not only the holy ointment.
But this?
Incense it was and which says perfume here, but I believe it's incense. That's what it says in my French Darby and I believe this is what was burnt on the altar of incense.
You know what strikes me here?
When it refers to the holy ointment, there were measures 500 shekels of this, 250 shekels of that, one hint of olive oil.
But when you get here to the holy incense.
How much of it was there?
I don't know.
And you know I will never know.
I will never know how much there was.
I believe.
Holy ointment speaks to us.
Primarily of the life of the Lord Jesus.
And I.
This only instance.
Speaks to us of the dead.
Of the Lord Jesus.
And This is why I believe in connection with redemption.
Just like the weeds of Nebraska not be found out.
I cannot measure.
These things that are typified, I believe, in the elements that were used to make the compound.
These things were brought together.
Could be holy incense.
So which was the first one? There were sweet spices and they said what they were stacked it.
As far as I understand, stacked is really merged.
But if you took a drop of myrrh, a drop of that resin, you probably would find that the outside was a bit.
Not sick, but it would have a certain rigidity to it. But if you cut it open you would find inside the liquid form of it.
No contact, you might say, with the outside air that kind of dries the resin, but the inside was still soft.
And it brings before me.
The hidden suffering in the Lord Jesus.
Perhaps we can see in our minds, you know, as head crowned with thorns, and what it would have been like to have his hands pierced to his side and his feet had his backs courage and to be beaten with fists and unspit upon. We can maybe relate to that because.
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We have physical bodies and we suffer in our bodies, you know.
And we could say maybe appreciate in the measure.
And though we can't get to that, but we can relate. We have a body that can suffer.
But his soul's distress.
We have suffering in our souls, but his soul's distress.
Who committed?
Who can measure what it meant to the Lord?
To go through that.
To have contact which?
To be that very witch which he hated by nature.
I can't understand.
The Father understands, and this fragrance of that holy insect was burned in a Tabernacle.
God could appreciate that and he could bear, couldn't he, with this people that were so stubborn? He could bear with them because.
He could have the fragrance of Christ in that Tabernacle until he came.
Well, the other one is on the Co.
And I read Onika.
Is something that comes from seashells.
That's how it's made.
Comes from the depths of the seams.
You know, they look, I think it's the Pacific Ocean, probably has got the deepest abysses and some of them are perhaps they haven't measured, you know, probably deeper in contrast with Mount Hedris. And probably some of the abysses in the sea are so deep. You know, it's just dark in there. And you have some creatures down there don't have eyes even they don't need eyes. They can't see anything. It's so dark.
Pretty deep, you know.
It's not very.
Psalm 69.
You know these verses first one.
Save me, O God.
For the waters.
I come in.
Unto my soul.
Genesis chapter one.
That the waters gather in one place and that the dry land appear.
Doesn't make sense to my mind.
To gather the water in one place, you're going to be a lake.
And there it's going to be around me.
The waters were gathered in one place.
And they went into.
Is so it doesn't say waters have come in into my soul and it doesn't say waters, it says the waters.
Can you measure the water in the Atlantic, Pacific, Arctic, Indian Ocean? Can you measure that? That's nothing.
The waters have come into moisture.
Verse two, I think indeed mire where there's no standing, I'm calm into deep waters where the floods overflow me. Look at that little note.
Verse six, it doesn't see the deep waters. It says the depth.
Of the waters, is there a difference? Oh yes, there's a difference.
You could probably measure the depth of the waters in the Pacific Ocean.
But the depths of these waters you cannot measure and water whatever the depth was.
He says I am coming to the depth.
Of the waters, can you measure that, dear one? Can you measure the waters that came into his soul? Can you measure the depth of the waters to which?
And I don't believe in eternity. I will be able to measure that.
But I can tell you I'm going to appreciate it even more than I am now.
We're going to appreciate it forever as we see the blessed Lord Jesus and enjoy the glories of His person. How great thou art. And to think that this great person, this Almighty 1.
Went there and he took that upon himself.
Praise the Lord ye who know Him well. This is what Annika speaks to me about.
The depths of the waters that he went into.
And then the next verse, the next one is called I believe.
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Galbanum.
And this one I read, apparently Abigail Banham.
Doesn't smell.
It smells nice when it's compounded with other elements, but by itself?
It doesn't have.
A pleasant odor.
You know.
The disciples said.
That doesn't have a. He doesn't have a good order. We better go this way.
And Peter said that's not a very good order. I don't know him.
And Judas said that's not a very good order. Give me 30 pieces of silver.
And the people of Israel said that's not very good. Over Away with him. Crucify him.
And then when he's on the cross.
Made sin.
He cried. My God, My God.
Why hast thou forsaken me?
And he's abandoned there.
Because he was made soon for us.
So I think.
Galbanum speaks of his rejection, denial, betrayal, forsaking, abandonment.
And then and they mix these spices with George frankincense.
And each shall be.
A lightweight.
You know.
Will be around the Lord in a few moments and we'll be going back to Calgary together and.
Perhaps we we don't know what the sprue I'll bring before us. Perhaps some of the depths that he went through, perhaps.
Perhaps a rejection?
Perhaps the sufferings of his soul, Perhaps a mixture of deeds.
Perhaps a fire, because this is how this perfume.
This incense brought its fragrance when he was consumed on the altar of it was burned.
I know, the Lord said in the Lamentations prophetically, the fire had come into his bones.
Psalm 22 also has thoughts there about fire reduced to ashes and.
I don't know what it's going to be, you know, but.
I know last week, week before, the week before, and for the past 30 years in some of you would tell me for 50 years, for 60 years we've been coming together around the Lord in the first day of the week and the Spirit of God has touched our hearts with this and that about the same person.
In Fellowship.
With the heart of the Father.
Who has a full appreciation of all the fragrances of Christ of his life?
And have his death.
But you know.
Here's poor little meat.
Brought into this.
What is that?
What grace from our God and Father to take us.
What can I? I was going to say the words pinky. I don't like this word stinking, but it'll smell these sinners.
If that's a proper word.
And he just washes us.
And how does he wash us?
Through this one.
Of which he fully appreciates.
The fullness of its character, the beauty of his person.
And not his work and he says.
I want you.
I want you in my sanctuary.
This is what the measures were, was the shackle of the sanctuary, was God's appreciation of the work of Christ. Dear ones, this morning, it's not your appreciation of the work of Christ accounts. It's the appreciation of the Father. And he is delighted.
And he is going to be delighted forever. He is satisfied forever. But you know.
He's going to be delighted this morning.
He's going to be delighted this morning in the Seed, in the very scene where we spit upon this Blessed One and hidden with our fists and we hated them with all the cost in this very scene. Here we are.
Men of the very same nature that did this to the blessed Savior, here we are.
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With hearts touched and mouths open.
Sing his praises to thank the Father, to appreciate in a measure, because a small measure.
Some of this beauty and the light.
Of our Father's heart.
Well, it says then.
Thou shalt make it a perfume, a confession after the art, or an instance was composed incense after the art of the apothecary of perfumer, tempered together, pure and holy, and thou shalt beat some of it.
Very small and put it on before the testimony of the congregation.
Very small.
The heavens cannot continue.
The heavens cannot continue.
There he is.
There never was a smaller man.
You want to be big. You want to be important.
We want to be chief men among the brethren.
Yet that is greater among you. Let him be the smallest.
It was beaten very small. It was already small. It was the smallest.
But he went down, and he went down, and he went down.
To the death of the Cross.
So nothing was to be made like it.
Was not to be put.
Yeah, the ointment wasn't to be put on flesh, and I trust dear ones.
That as we consider the beauty of this person, those things that the Lord has given us in the Scriptures.
That we are made.
Were made quiet in his presence.
You know.
You figure the sufferings of job.
Surely a man that was afflicted greatly and we can have real sympathy with Job for what he went through. Nothing to be compared with what the Lord went through.
But his friends, when they came, you know, and they saw his affliction, you know what they said?
You know what they said?
They didn't say anything for seven days.
They just sat there.
And we're quiet.
And you know, I believe that sometimes.
The beautiful worship Him there are.
You know, sometimes I believe the Spirit of God can so grip our souls.
With the Lord's presence and the glory of His person and His work that we really have.
What words could we use to describe to express?
And if jobs affliction.
LED these ones to be quiet in his presence.
All fitting for us.
To be quiet in the Lord's presence. I'm not suggesting that we shouldn't sing pray at all, but the disposition of our spirits to be quiet. And I believe that if we're quiet, the Spirit of God himself, God himself by his Spirit, will move us.
Will touch us.
Will bring thoughts to us as he does. I'm sure this is the way it is. I just like to remind ourselves of that.
Versus and produce this collective worship.
To this blessed One, in the presence of our God and Father and the Lord Jesus.
You enjoying this in a measure of dear ones?
Are we enjoying this, dear ones, in a measure?
You know when we speak of.
Being gathered to the Lord's name.
There are many things we need to learn, and we'll learn them on the way. But I can tell you, dear young people, when I was gathered to the Lord's name, I didn't know I was being gathered to the Lord's name. I didn't know that, but I knew that this blessed One loved me so much that He died for me.
And at least this blessed one who loved me so much to die for me told me.
I Remember Me.
And by God's grace, I was found in the company of those that wanted to give the Lord the desire of His heart, and I asked not to take my place at the Lord's table.
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I don't. I don't want to make an issue out of this, but I asked to remember the Lord.
I asked to remember the Lord.
And by God's grace, that was received in fellowship, and a little while later I was remembering the Lord.
In this company.
And then I grew and later found out about the wondrous truth.
That's why the Lord was drawing me, because He was present.
He was working in my heart and I could feel the spirit drawing me, but I didn't know what it was.
But I knew I loved him in the measure I loved him back. But what he's done for me?
You know the Lord Jesus your Savior.
Do you remember him?
Like he's asked you to do.
It's not joining something.
We're not joining anything.
The whole subject is a person. It's a person. Do you know that person? And that person says to you, Remember Me?
You can't do that by yourself. You need to be too determined with the Lord. And you know this is a wonderful thing because here's 2 just two believers, and you want to remember the Lord. And here they are, two believers and they remember the Lord in death.
And they think when they take the bread and they take the wine, they take the best body given for me.
And then that cup of wine, that sip of wine, his precious blood for me. Thank you, Lord Jesus. My brother hears it. Oh, thank you, Lord Jesus. Thank you, Lord Jesus. We're thankful personally for the Lord Jesus. But you know, in doing this together.
Maybe we don't know it.
Because there's this one loaf there. And actually when we remember the Lord in the Catholic Church, they had wafers, you know?
And it was really terrible, but.
There's one love, and then when you take that loaf and you break it, the Lord Jesus tells us in Corinthians this loaf is a picture of his body.
And it's also a picture of His spiritual body. We being many, are one body. 1 Lord. And even if we don't know it, because we've been drawn to Him because of His love and what He's done for us by coming together to remember Him, we're expressing that truth that we are one in Him. It's precious to see it. We don't come to express that we are one in Him. We do that.
But we come to remember him, and when our affections are drawn to him, we're drawn to one another.
And we're so happy when we realize the Lord says he's thinking of me, He's thinking of me, they're thinking of me. And there are one with me. I died that there would be one. And there they are, all of them, one thought, one object. What a delight to the heart of the Father to have this, to have the company of these ones redeemed with a precious blood of the Lord Jesus brought to oneness. How are they brought to oneness?
By the Lord Jesus Himself is he precious to your heart this morning?
Are you going to get him this morning? The desire of his heart. What I trust you will just a few more minutes just to look at Second Samuel chapter 23.
David's mighty men.
That are they coming when the true David, the Lord Jesus.
Is going to give us true appreciation what was done for him.
And these mighty men are brought out here as to their feet what they did for David.
Strong men.
Vanquishing the enemy.
I just like to read in verse 14 And David was then on hold, and the Garrison of the Philistine was in Bethlehem. And David longed and said, oh, that one would give me drink of the water of the well of Bethlehem, which is by the gate.
And three mighty men breakthrough the host of the foolish times, and drew water all the well at Bethlehem that was by the gate, and took it, and brought it to David. Nevertheless he would not drink thereof, but poured it out unto the Lord. And he said, Be it far from your Lord, that I should this do this. Is not this the blood of the men that went in jeopardy of their lives? Therefore they would not drink it. These things did these three.
Mighty men.
Do you know the names of these three mighty men?
I don't.
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Three men unknown.
Three unknown men. What did they do?
Well, they risk their lives.
To give David.
A drink of water.
They could have said.
There's water in the well over there. I've got water right here in my bag, and there's another stream right there. What do you want, this water there?
What's so special about the water of the well that's by the gate in Bethlehem?
Well, I believe it's a little lesson for us.
This was David's desire concerning the place of his.
Might have drunk of that well with his young man he just.
Had maybe had a special taste.
For the greater than David.
Has expressed a desire not in connection with the place of his birth.
But the place of his death?
It's water from a well.
How deep? The well? The woman said to the Lord. The well is deep. Are you going to draw?
I don't know how deep it is.
But you can get to water pretty quick.
Some water.
Did they get water from the top of the well? From the bottom? They got water from the well and they brought it to David. It was by the gate. Speaks of entrance, you know.
What can we say? We read these verses, we share these thoughts like we open it or say, look at that.
Can I measure the ocean?
Too fast for me.
But you and I have a measure, a little measure. How much water did they bring? I don't know.
But they brought some from that well. And this morning, dear ones, maybe you're just here to say thank you, Lord, for dying for me places. That's water from the will.
That's why they gate in Michigan. That's water from that time when I was alone, forsaken, and no heart could answer to mine.
And we've been given by his grease now to have heart that can have certificates and drink some water.
Bumper.
Psalm 144
Address—Steve Bambauer
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
I thought to look at a few.
Words from the 144th Psalm. And while you're turning there and reading that first verse, I'll just introduce this fellow named Augustine. Augustine, sometimes called Bishop of Hippo. Hippo around 410 AD.
One of the last.
Ones whom they so-called church. Early church fathers.
To give you some idea of perhaps what people were thinking about then, it's not very far from what we're thinking about now. I hope it isn't.
But thou, O Lord, whoever liveth, and in whom nothing dies, since before the world was, and indeed before all that can be called, before thou existed and art the God and Lord of all creatures, and with thee fixedly abide the causes of all unstable things, and the source of all things changeable, and the eternal reason.
Of all things reasoning and temporal.
Did you get all that?
Well, simply stated, he's saying that there is a first 'cause to all things caused and here we are.
This flies in the face of a lot of what you're going to hear today.
From those guys with letters after your name that stands up, that stand up on the podium even at the secondary level and at the university level.
To them, it's what they would call metaphysical naturalism or scientism or or particle ISM. That is meta is the grand story of something. Physics is atoms, the space between them, the laws of nature. And what then makes them dance? And here is our present expression goes all the way back, all the way out. We'll go all the way forward.
Metaphysical Naturalism.
They deny a first 'cause it doesn't fit in. And all of these other big words are only used to satisfy their desire to not have to deal with God.
And all these other big words that they use.
Or what they hide behind to deny first 'cause when we speak of first, 'cause here we see the creation of all things. The Greeks had four steps for something to come into being.
That formal cause, efficient cause, material cause, and final cause.
The formal cause is that it's in the idea of somebody's mind. Somebody's going to make a Greek tribe. Greeks did that.
These were ships. They were used for war.
They were there.
Instruments of warfare.
They had hoped that this tribe would be more effective than the Persian tribe.
We do things like that today, only the scale is different.
We develop weapons, we develop cars, whatever it is, somebody, Henry T they, he had this in his mind.
That's the formal 'cause it sends somebody's mind. We'll call that an intelligent designer of something.
The material causes what it's made out of.
Plastic, tin, wood, whatever it might be, the efficient cause is how the mechanic or the Carpenter or the designer puts the thing together with his hammer and his nails and his saw and his chisel and his drill press and this blowtorch or whatever it is that he needs for the job.
But the final cause is what is this thing for?
What are we going to do with this?
What is its purpose?
I know that some things that are made may not have a final cause.
But they all have a formal cause and efficient cause.
And a material cause.
But if you're going to do away with the first, 'cause.
You have no designer? Well, it just happened.
In the first verse of our 144th Psalm.
We're going to address the first 'cause if you will pardon me for.
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Using that.
Statement in reference to the God that is.
And I will tell you, by the way, that nothing in the whole history of everything that is.
Has just occurred without a first 'cause.
Efficient cause. Material cause.
And in God's case, final cause nothing ever just happened out of nothing. The odds of that happening are 00. Never has happened, never has been observed, never has been duplicated, replicated, or observed.
You know that if you program things back if you look at a couple of frames.
Scientific procedure of how things are going study if you raise and you program back to matter.
And the laws of physics at a point of singularity. And they label that The Big Bang.
Where it all started?
I say a point of singularity. All the laws of physics have broken down at that point. They don't work.
There is nothing material there. There is an intense concentration of energy. This is the theory.
God spoke.
And he said.
In Genesis 11 in the beginning.
God, the intelligent designer, the first 'cause.
He created out of nothing ex. Nilo out of nothing. All that is.
The heavens, space and all that's in them, and the earth, this little place where we live that is designed.
For our shelter, for our livelihood, for our existence, it's suitable for us.
It's miraculous everything is so fine-tuned to get us to this point.
The distance between the planets, the elliptical orbit of the planets around the sun, the distance of the earth from the sun, the distance of the moon from the earth, the orbit of the moon around the earth. All of these things have to be.
In perfect perfect numerical order for the whole show to work.
Evidence, I might say, of an intelligent designer, a first causer.
Bless it, be the Lord my strength.
Now David, he just in one sweep is the Psalm of David. David lived in the 11Th century BC, some around 10:40. Perhaps he began to rain.
That dates on this very a little bit. I'm not going to quibble about it, but I just want to give you some historical perspective because the scriptures.
Apart from, all contenders of inspired work have an historical background and take us on a timeline down through history.
They do that other pretenders came out of somebody's hip pocket while he was riding on the ground in some kind of utterance and some immanuances was copying down what he was writing, what he what he was saying when he was writing around there and they call it an inspired word. Not only is this.
Following an historical timeline, all of the events are coordinated.
So that in Leviticus 26, I think it's 10 or 11, you may eat the old store and bring forth the old store because of the new.
And so we look at the Old Testament and we see all these historical events and these activities that are happening and these ceremonies and these sacrifices, and then we get to the New Testament and we see how all of these things are fit together.
And it's written by 40 authors over 1500 years who didn't collaborate with each other.
Well, these are evidences and so David doesn't spend the 1St 10 minutes of his address here.
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Giving the evidence.
He accepts it and there are things that we do accept.
Intuitively.
Blessed be the Lord, my strength, now this God.
That I have just conclusively proven to exist.
As first 'cause.
It's personal.
Blessed be the Lord, my strength.
Which teaches my hands to war and my fingers to fight.
The weapons of our warfare.
2nd Corinthians 10/5.
Are not of the flesh.
They're not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds. Now get this, because a lot of what we're going to talk about in this 144th Psalm is in verse five. You're casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalted exalted itself against the knowledge of God.
And bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.
We really need that.
This isn't nebulous. This isn't just, this is what we need. This is very practical. We need the Word of God, the Spirit of God.
To teach us, or we'll come up with all kinds of harebrained ideas.
And chase them right down to their end, which is the Pit.
These are the weapons of our warfare, typically in the Old Testament.
He teacheth my hands to war and my fingers to fight.
These little.
Opposable digital things we have at the end of our arms. They're clever. You button your shirt with it. Chimps can't do that.
You write letters with that, you invent things with those clever little things that you got.
Fingers and thumbs, these opposable digits. Chimps can't do it.
We speak to each other here. I am just bringing out these abstract thoughts. And you're capable of understanding these things. I don't know that I am, but you are. This is another feature of **** sapien.
Foreign to chimpanzees, they they tell me that chimps have 99% the same genomes as we do our species. You ever thought about how much you get out of that 100th genome? Here we are articulating gripping things, speaking to each other, dealing in these ideas.
More than that, chimps are not moral creatures.
But we are so that if God speaks to us, he's going to bore right down into our conscience. Can do that with a chance.
So what we read a lot of times in the Old Testament, we transpose to what is revealed in the new and make application of it. The weapons of our warfare are not carnal, they're spiritual. And we need, we have some strongholds that we need to pull down.
Verse to my goodness, Oh my goodness.
And my fortress there is such a thing as good.
Metaphysical naturalism has no definition of good and therefore has no definition of evil, so there's no use there complaining about anything that happens. World Trade tower events, Columbine events, Katrina events, gratuitous evil things that happen out of nature. The whole world convulses because.
Of sin.
There is such a thing as good.
If you're going to take God out of the formula.
You're going to lose.
The ability to solve the unknowns in the equation.
And one of them we have here is good and evil.
No use even including it in your vocabulary.
Another one is purpose.
Another one is judgment.
You think about that? He is my fortress. Not just a fortress. My fortress. That's protection. My high tower. What a view.
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What a view of reality and truth we have.
In Christ, our high tower, giving us a perspective of what is reality.
Nowhere else. That's why David makes it all personal here.
My deliverer. We need a deliverer. We're in a hostile scene. The enemy came in and overthrew, and it's still being overthrown.
And God allows it to be overthrown, overthrown, overthrown, till it shall be no more, and he shall give it to him who's right it is.
Ezekiel, I think it's 2127.
There is an end to this.
But rather than clean up and people ask why God allows evil, the answer is He has not come yet in judgment, but He will. And you can be thankful he hasn't, that there is still evil here because it gives us opportunity.
We have another day of grace in the midst of this evil to make something out of our lives by accepting the provision that God has given in love.
Hightower What a perspective. My deliverer. We need to deliver my shield. We need a shield. We have the fiery darts of the wicked one when we need a shield. Here is Davidde, armor of faith, he in whom I trust he.
Person in whom I David.
Not the God in whom man puts his trust. More personal than that. He in whom I trust, who subdue with my people under me. Lord, what is man? David asked that question. And probably three or four different places in the Scripture.
It's been asked since.
Some have tried to engineer an answer. The English poet Alexander Pope. He said Know thyself, think not God to scan the proper study of mankind as man.
He got it wrong.
But there's something else that Pope said. This fellow lived. He was a Catholic in Protestant England, Reformation England in the early, late 17th, early 18th century.
Another thing that he said.
An honest man.
Buddy know it.
Is the noblest work of God.
That's true.
We're not going to set about ourselves to make ourselves honest and clever, perceptive, embracing truth.
We're going to have to pass through this article of repentance.
Repentance toward God.
That's the work that it takes to make an honest man repentance.
That's a hard work. In fact, it's too hard for us.
Spurgeon said be alright to quote Spurgeon here, Spurgeon said.
It is impossible for you to repent.
And the knowledge of that ought to cause you to repent.
Well, God is always sovereign, but in His sovereignty.
And every work of His sovereignty puts us in the place of responsibility.
I'll give you 2 examples, one in the old, one in the new. How did? How did we get?
A message from God in Deuteronomy 30.
We'll start at verse 11.
For this commandment which I command thee this day, it is not hidden from thee, neither is it far off. God gave the word, What's the prophet of being a Jew much in every way to them, or given the oracles of God?
And it wasn't that they sought it out.
Or ask for it is that God gave it.
One of the historians, I.
Had studied under, said the Jews were a brilliant people here. Over in the Greeks you had polytheism, they had a lot of gods. Over here in the Hindus they had pantheism. Everything was God and the and the Jewish thought.
In their genius.
Gave us a sovereign, single God.
I don't think he got it right. The Jews didn't get that by inquiry, they got it by revelation.
00:20:06
God gave it to them, they didn't get it from their own mind.
God is sovereign in revealing Himself.
Verse seven. That thou should say, Who shall go up to for us to heaven? Nobody did that. And bring it unto us that we may hear it and do it. Neither is it beyond the sea that we should. That thou should say, Who shall go over the sea for us, and bring it unto us, that we may hear it and do it? Nobody has done that. Nobody could do that. We cannot part the heavens and discover God.
He reveals himself to.
Hagar in a heap.
Realize that when God met her in her distress, just as He meets each one of us in our distress, and we come to Him in our distress, in our need, in our want.
And in Genesis 16, she is out there with child cast out of the home.
Sarah is envious. Cast her out of the home.
And God presents himself to her. And her final statement is, thou art the God that reveals thyself. You may have learned that thou art.
Thou God seest me, the new translation says. Thou art the God that reveals thyself. This is vital.
Hagar wasn't even out there beseeching God, but God presented himself to her just as He does to each one of us. In our need. Not our philosophy, not our mind, but in our need.
And Hagar laid hold of it.
So see, I have set before thee now the word isn't very nigh unto thee in thy mouth and in thy heart, that thou mayest do it. This isn't just here to contemplate.
That's here and it puts us in a place of responsibility.
God gives the Word.
Very detailed and intricate the way he goes about it over these many those many years.
Perhaps 1500 years of time, 40 different authors or so.
Beginning, perhaps, with Moses.
And here we have in our hand what a precious deposit.
And he puts them in the place of responsibility. That's what he says. See.
I have set before thee this day life and good. There's that word good again. Death and evil. There's that word evil again.
In that I command thee this day to love the Lord thy God, to walk in his ways and keep His commandments, statutes, judgments that don't. May us live and multiply, and the Lord thy God shall bless thee in the land where the digestible asset.
Verse 19.
I call heaven and earth to record this day against you that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing. Therefore choose life.
That both thou and thy seed may live, and that is that you know I can do that for you.
Moms and pops can't do that for you.
Your brother and sister can do that for you.
This is directed to individuals.
Choose Life.
So they were put in a place of responsibility because of the sovereignty of God. Now go to the New Testament. You get the same quote in Romans 10, but it's a little different.
And it's right that it should be a little different after all.
The author of the book has liberty.
To take his paintbrush.
Just as my wife does as an artist. And maybe.
Add a few strokes.
To a painting that she's already done. I don't have the right to do that. To my wife's paintings. She does. She's the artist. And we're dealing with the artist of this book. And this is an artistic work, a very intricate and artistic work. You ought to read it sometimes and you'll find out that that's so, and I'm sure you do.
In Romans 10.
In verse 6, the righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this wise.
Don't you be saying in your heart.
Shall ascend into heaven.
This looked familiar to Deuteronomy 30. Who shall ascend into heaven, that is to bring Christ down, because the whole Old Testament is pointing to that one.
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From above we didn't ask for him. He came. The Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world, for God so loved the world he gave.
And the son willingly came.
And this isn't a reactive thing, it's a proactive thing. This is, this is, this is the councils of God. Before a stone was set into place, he knew what he was doing and what it would cost.
God is never caught by surprise.
Who shall ascend into heaven, that is to bring Christ down from above, Or who shall descend into the deep, that is to bring up Christ again from the dead?
God raised him from the dead, Jesus said. I lay down my life. I take it up again. He is quickened by the Spirit.
The Trinity involved God in three persons involved in the resurrection of Christ.
What's the responsibility here now then?
If there was a responsibility in Deuteronomy 30, certainly there is one here. When we get Christ, God manifest in flesh.
The word is nigh thee, continuing the quotation, even in thy mouth and in thy heart.
That is the Word of Faith. We receive it by faith.
As it is preached.
In the heart.
Not just the mind, although the mind is engaged. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, mind, soul and strength.
You don't check your mind at the door and you come into a gospel meeting.
You don't have to do that. Don't let anybody ever tell you that you do.
Here is the responsibility now.
We're not going to get off free for nothing.
If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed. You're never going to be ashamed.
And that face which is that either the terror.
Of the whole world or the unspeakable joy of the redeemed is going to appear in one form or the other, depending on how you're going to deal with the responsibility that you have.
As a responsible human being before gone.
It says.
The mouth confession is made unto salvation.
Now we're the only ones that can communicate.
At least in the intricate way that we do. I know that animals have limited capability. I I saw where they were doing an experiment with, I was a neighbor, a chimp and they they were teaching at sign language and in some measure they could communicate with it.
But we're talking about totally different level here.
A gap that can't be breached.
The mouth confession is made unto salvation. Look down at this book. You're just this book you're holding in front of you at that verse right there. And what you'll notice is a whole bunch of little figures in definite order there. We call them letters of the alphabet. We have 26 of them. Some of them do double duty.
We have a complexity of figures to work with.
This is just going to be a brief explanation of communication just for the reason to give you. The only reason is to give you.
An impression of the complexity of what we're doing here and what you do, what you learn and do. Second nature. You will notice too that where it says for the Scripture saith verse 11.
The alphabet are put in an aperiodic sequence.
That is not just like periodic sequence like the periodic table is always the same might be BABABABA Bah Bah Bah Bah and from that we get Baba LON.
Confusion of speech doesn't say anything.
So it won't do to just put these down in a periodic way, but in a periodic way. And the letters weren't just taken in a handful and thrown on there.
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Complexity, and certainly.
Random.
But they have to be put down in a specified sequence as well.
For us to be able to read.
The scripture saith and all that it's saying in these many pages.
And then we.
To speak before we learn to write and read, and we take these sounds and we represent them by these letters of the alphabet.
And out come these words and these things that we're assimilating.
That we've been doing for 35 minutes.
With I hope.
Some integrity and meaning.
This is a marvelous thing. No wonder, David says. I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Let's see, I was back in Psalm 144.
Man is like to vanity in verse 4.
Maybe an answer to his question in verse 3.
And man by himself is that way is empty. And Solomon recognized this vanity and vexation of spirit. Emptiness, no purpose, no end. His days are as a shadow that passeth away. And if he is without God, he is that way.
Bow thy heavens, O Lord, and come down. Touch the mountains, and they shall smoke. And he did.
And he came down right to Calvary's cross, and the earth did quake, and the rocks were ramped. Touch the mountains and they shall smoke. This is the coming of Christ into the world. He has come down.
He goes to the cross, verse 7.
Send thine hand from above, rid me and deliver me out of great waters and.
How beautifully we had this morning that he entered into those great waters.
And now leads us by still waters. He calmed the waters.
Great waters to mold.
Tossed seeds.
From the hand of strange children.
They opposed him, you know.
Everything. How would you like it if you got up in the morning every single step you took?
The whole world was opposed to everything you said and everything you did.
That's the way he was here.
But he delivers us out of great waters.
All the waves and billows float over him.
Man whose mouth speak at vanity in the right hand is the right hand of falsehood.
Then he redeems us, the sovereign work.
We respond, Do we?
It's our response ability. He gives us all the tools.
By His divine power, giving us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who has called us by glory and virtue all those things that we have need of, we're not short changed.
We're singing a new song, the old song, vanity, shadows passing away, vexation of spirit, sorrow, grief. We're singing a new song and we're singing it unto thee, unto God. We did that this morning. Oh God, upon a psaltery and an instrument of 10 strings will I sing praises unto thee.
What a delight, what a privilege, what an invitation.
To remember the Lord in his death, in the breaking of bread, is praise and worship.
It's a salt tree. It's an instrument of 10 strings.
I remember a brother coming to meeting once with a guitar doing the Sunday school and he was played the guitar.
Al up in John Dahey.
He showed us that the I don't know how many strings, how many strings on the guitar, 5 strings, so they got to be in tune.
You strung that thing and if they're not in tune, it's not a very good sound.
And we're that way.
Our life has to be in tune.
Well, we happen to have a tuning fork.
This be it.
This tells us the mind of God and how to be in tune, how to please Him.
00:35:04
He gives salvation to kings. He delivers David as servant from the hurtful sword. Then David says again, as he said in verse 11/7.
I just mentioned in that.
Psaltery, this instrument of 10 strings. I mentioned it before, it's in Mark 1230. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, soul, mind and strength.
How are we going to come up and answer to that? Well, it's a command. It's the epitome of all the law.
It's the love of God that's going to capture our heart.
We are the subjective.
It's the wonder of God that will embrace our soul. Chimpanzees don't enjoy sunsets, by the way, or Beethoven's symphonies, or Mozart's sonatas. They don't do that.
I've gone out at the edge of the lawn and watched the moon.
Come up over the Sacramento River. This is a tremendous sight.
I've done this. We moved there when I was five years old. I've been doing it a long time.
I had a dog named Gus.
I take Gus outs. A good friend of mine, sit her down there. She perched beside me and I would say look at that guys. Look at that, Gus.
Could careless.
Oh, it's the wonder of God, why asketh thou my name, saying it is wonderful. Not just wonder, full of wonder.
All that our soul could wish. How about the mind?
One of the.
Unknowns in the equation that I have mentioned, if God is not on the right side of the equal sign, all the unknowns on the left cannot be answered is true.
You'll have no definition of truth. People run around chanting their mantra. Truth is relative. Oh, is that a true, absolutely true statement?
Does it meet itself going the other way?
Is that statement inclusive or exclusive? It's is it inclusive? It meets itself going the other way. You cannot use an absolute statement to prove a relative position. Truth is, is an absolute premise. Relative is a subjective.
Conclusion.
People say you can't.
There's there's not anything that you can know really. Do you know that for sure?
The truth of God will embrace the mind.
And we can take it, as they say, to the bank.
Strength.
Our will.
We're very intricate.
Instrument.
Heart, mind, soul, strength.
Able to articulate.
People who love, people who hate.
What about our will?
If the imagination gets into controversy with the will, the imagination usually wins.
Unless.
The purpose of God has captured the will.
If you really think about the purpose of God for your life.
What do you? What am I?
And I have to answer this thing. I have to answer this question.
You know, like the guy says. Is it pointing out three are coming back? Damn.
The purpose of God for me picked me up and redeemed me.
Do the strokes count?
What am I thinking I'm going to get away with? Maybe God won't notice.
What about the purpose of God? Is everything I do line up with that? And if it doesn't?
Does it matter?
Does it really matter?
What we're doing that doesn't count.
Verse 11 Rid me and deliver me from the hand of strange children. These are the guys with the letters after your name. They oppose you now.
The opposed Christ who went through the deep waters, there they were.
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In verse seven and now.
If I can apply it this way the same verse.
Same statement in verse 11 as verse seven, with the exception of the waters.
He went through those waters for us, but here we are now to represent Him and God has formed us or made us in His likeness and image. Likeness to communicate all this little intricate stuff I was talking about. God is a communicating God.
The Lord Jesus Christ is introduced in John chapter one as the Word is always the Word. He didn't become the Word in incarnation. He is always the Word because God in Trinity is a communicating being.
God is love. The Father loves the Son.
So rid me and deliver me from the hand of strange children whose mouth speaketh vanity in the right hand is the right hand of falsehood. But you know that these guys when they present this with their grade book in one hand and all their all their epaulets and stuff on their epaulets on the on their shoulders.
They're very intimidating. Why? They hold your life in the balance. This great book is going to determine your income, eh?
And so they are intimidating. And besides, they've been around the block and they know answers. They have answers that they have formulated.
What if we come to today because God is not in the right hand of the equation, on the right hand of the equal sign, and He's the only being there on that right side of the equal sign. Turn around on this side.
Right side.
What do we lose? What have we come to? What are our resources? Secularism. No Religion.
We want to talk about God.
Will do away with the idea of God or God being just an idea. Will settle for that.
That's secularism.
That will be the abandonment of all morality.
You have nothing left on which to hinge moral action.
Pluralism.
All religions are the same. They only differ in their definitions of God, Christ, salvation, heaven, hell, redemption. Otherwise they're all the same. Pluralism will just put them all the same.
This is an abandonment of all reason. Secularism is the abandonment of morality. Pluralism is the abandonment of reason once you settle for that.
That all religions are the same. You've lost the ability to reason.
Because the truth is such that it cannot accommodate what opposes it. It cannot.
Succumb to the laws of non contradiction.
I don't know if you followed that.
That cannot accommodate what opposes it. If we understand this, we understand this.
In John 14, six, I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No man cometh unto the Father, but by me. That is an extremely exclusive statement.
So there's no use saying in pluralism. Well, yeah, you know, I But, you know, here's the way we get to.
And all that stuff.
Whatever objections. Well, here's people that sincerely believe over in India and here are some people that sincerely believe something else and we don't want to ruffle anybody.
You just throw all reason out the window.
And the third thing that characterizes.
A life in 20th century man, 21St century man without God and we can't live without God is individualism. Families have broken down for the most part.
Our kids have had friends come over. We all sat down at the table and had a meal. They wondered what was going on. They said we never do this.
It's every man for himself.
Husband and wife apart, she does her thing, he does his thing. It's the breakdown of relationship. Individualism is the tragic breakdown of all relationship when it's taken to the end of its course.
This is what we're going to sacrifice. Morality, reason and relationships absolutely sacrifice when we take God out of our lives. That's why David says blessed be the Lord and my strength. He says, my God.
00:45:13
We're going to have to, a brother said. Give up the lie if you expect to embrace the truth.
You will have to sacrifice the law. You cannot have it your own lost, fallen, degenerate way.
And still embrace the truth. And as children of God, you know that.
This is what you had to come to grips with to get in. It's called repentance.
Now the positive, the 11Th is the negative and you may have to go through certain occasions at school.
Maybe with your coat pulled up and your hat pulled down.
And it may not be your job description to stand up and challenge these people with the letters after their names.
Some people have the ability for that.
Their whole worldview paradigm way of looking at how things are is 180 out from reality.
But then verse 11, the defense, verse 12, the offense, the positive that our sons may be as plants grown up in their youth, that our daughters may be as cornerstones polished after the similitude of a palace, plants grown up in their youth. A plant is productive, it may be, a flowering plant it may be.
A food plant.
It is serviceable for God and man.
To be a worshiper of God and a help to our brother.
Plants growing up beginning in their youth don't let it go and think you can put it off until.
You've chased around the block a few times in your hot rod.
Our daughters may be as cornerstones, polished after the similitude of a palace. I went through San Simeon Castle. It's been.
Over 40 years ago, went through with the guide. It's down there on the coast north of LA.
Randolph Hearst built it. He brought stuff over from Europe. It's beautiful and some of you may have been through it. It's really beautiful and a guide took us through it. And sometimes you'll notice a sign says no spitting and the guide will. He may enforce that unless you do it behind his back. Then you see the beauty of all these polished stones in this castle.
Cornerstones polished after the similitude of a palace.
I think that if you had a chance to go see this artwork, we'll call it the Mona Lisa, it's a classic.
If they hung that up.
In the latrine, at the football stadium or in the subways of New York.
People would come along and they would probably write their graffiti on it.
And this is not what we want, for our daughters to be exposed in such a way to this world that they will come along and write their graffiti all over you, or spit upon you or degrade you or take you down. You are precious, polished.
After the similitude of a palace. What a beautiful analogy.
That our oxen may be strong to labor. That there may be no breaking in or going out. One who breaks in steals, and one who goes out leaves it there.
I'll let you think about that and I'll not elaborate on it.
No breaking in.
No going out.
We locked the doors because we have our valuables in there.
That there be no complaining in our streets.
You know, for all we have, and I'm guilty sometimes.
Will complain, maybe to my wife, to the brethren, to one another.
Whoever we think is gullible enough to listen.
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We'll have our complaints and we'll think they're valid.
No complaining in our streets.
Our streets.
Fellowship.
Now we come to this thing that.
Aristotle.
Aristotle called. It's a Greek word.
It's the first word of verse 15.
And it's an attraction.
But you know, Aristotle, he was trying to figure out how you get to there.
We'd like to be happy. We would prefer to be happy than sad.
And so he proposed this course to get to it, and it's kind of intricate and it always seemed to be something that pursue was just carried on a stick. It was out there.
Happy will that people be.
Is.
We have no right to be unhappy.
Is that people you don't find the word very often in scripture. This is one of the few places.
Where Paul and Silas?
Dependent on circumstances for their joy and happiness. Could they sing in prison after having been beaten with stripes? Yes, they could. So this is not going to be dependent on circumstances. It's going to be dependent on our state of soul. And I hope that where we've got from verse one through verse 14 will be some tools that we can use to get us there happy as that people.
That follow Aristotle's plan, no.
That who have given up all truth.
And God and relationship. Oh no, no.
And you only have to look around to see the proof of that.
We don't have to prove this one with a formula. This is what works itself out in the experience of life.
Happy is that people? Who is in such a case? What case?
Verse one through 14.
You can go back over that.
Yeah, I say again, happy is that people?
Who's God?
Is the Lord Jesus?
Christ.
Hymn #192.
Knowing the Will of God
Sing
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Ask Seek Knock
One with Christ YP
Passover & Red Sea
We Are Lied To
Going Against the Current
With Me
Five Words From the Lord
Amazing Grace
Your body for God's Glory
Prayer for Others
Sweet Savour
Grace
Forbearance
The Inheritance
Discerning the Will of God
Hold fast
The Word of God
God the First Cause