Address—Dave Spence
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Could we turn to Exodus again? Chapter 33?
Exodus 33 verse 7.
Today, Lord willing, we are going to speak a little bit about separation.
And this verse brings it clearly before us as to Moses separation.
And it was amidst very sad circumstances. Dear brethren, dear young people.
But Moses, remember, was a man of God. He was faithful. He was not guiding or steering his life according to his own thoughts and ideas. And so often we get caught up with that.
And we become familiar with things around us and places and events and even religious things that are very appealing to us.
And they seem to be that which stimulates our minds and our actions sometimes. Well, Moses was not a man like that, remember?
He was a decided man.
He was a man of decision.
And when we become men and women of decision, we become principled in our walk.
And we don't desire to walk according to the one that we made the decision for.
So let's read verse 7. Moses took the Tabernacle and pitched it without the camp afar off from the camp and called it the Tabernacle of the congregation.
Now this, remember, was probably not the Tabernacle proper that we think of when we say Tabernacle. This was probably Moses own tent. It's not known for sure.
And it came to pass that everyone which sought the Lord went out unto the Tabernacle of the congregation. Interesting statement.
Very interesting statement.
When they sought the Lord, it wasn't seeking him in the camp of Israel. It was outside where Moses was.
Which was without the camp.
And it came to pass, when Moses went out unto the Tabernacle, that all the people rose up, and stood every man at his tent door, and looked after Moses until he was gone into the Tabernacle.
And it came to pass, as Moses entered into the Tabernacle, the cloudy pillar descended and stood at the door of the Tabernacle. In the Lord talked with Moses. And all the people saw the cloudy pillars stand at the Tabernacle door, and all the people rose up and worshiped every man in his tent door. And the Lord spake unto Moses face to face.
As a man speaketh unto his friend, and he turned again into the camp. But his servant Joshua the son of Nun, a young man, departed not out of the Tabernacle. Well, just to make a few comments before we speak on this most wonderful part of the life of Moses. And when I said that we plan to speak about the life of Moses, it was not taking up Moses life from beginning to end in detail.
And trying to bring out what Moses experiences were, that was perhaps a very great part of it.
But the primary thought that I had in mind beloved friends, is this.
Moses life significantly brings before us.
Four points to my own heart that were very valuable to me. And there are many more, of course, and the first one being his decision. He was a decided man, and it may have taken him a long while to become that way. But he did decide, and that's the important issue. Can you say from your heart? I have decided to follow Jesus as a result of being under the sound of the precious word of God here this year?
And if that is your experience, it was worth it all, no matter what it has cost you, perhaps to come.
One brother, and perhaps there are others here. I think there may be two quit their jobs to be here at Lassen this year. Now that is a sacrifice.
That is something that.
Was very heavily upon their hearts to be here with you, dear young people. And they're your age, of course.
To have fellowship together, and to be under the sound of the word, they felt it was important in their life enough to cease with their employment.
And take up with the employment of these precious things.
So the sacrifices you make to be here perhaps will be worth it to you. We trust and pray that will be the case in each one of us, because we're all the benefactors. Moses life changed from that 40 year mark and he never went back. He never went back to Egypt the same way he came out or the same way he left. In Hebrews chapter 12 it says that he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king, but he endured as seen him who was invisible. We mentioned that verse yesterday.
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Now that pertains to his delivering the people out of Egypt.
When the Lord with a strong hand took them out, first of all the sprinkled blood was upon the doorposts and the lentil, Speaking of the death of the Lord Jesus Christ, pertaining to the cleansing of our sins, to deliver us from judgment, the judicial side of things. Then He took them through by the Lord's power, glorious power, and they saw this power manifested all the way through as Moses was communicating with the Lord.
And communing concerning the way that they should be taken care of and the things that should be done. But as they were taken through the Red Sea, they simply went from one sphere to another. They went out of Egypt, or the world, so to speak, into the new position before God and.
God looked down upon them as His own people. Now they were redeemed. So the word redemption brings before us not only to be cleansed from our sins and the payment that has been made for us regarding our sins.
But to be set free from the enslavement of them #2.
And that is one side of the death of Christ, the Red Sea that brings before us. They were set free from Pharaoh and the Egyptians, the power of Satan and the world over them, influencing their lives and holding them in *******.
And there's only one thing that can deliver you from that beloved, and that is the death of the Lord Jesus Christ.
He gave himself for us, yes, to save us from eternal hell. But it says in Galatians 1 to deliver us from this present evil world, He wants to set us free. And thirdly, the word redemption means that we have a new owner, new ownership. We do not belong to ourselves anymore.
We should not be enslaved to our own desires and our own self will and the power of Satan over our lives.
New ownership is in view and that's why they sang on the shores.
Of the Red Sea, they were a redeemed people. They were in triumph and victory, but you follow their pathway as they go along from Exodus 15 and on. It was not a very victorious pathway that they were on. They murmured and complained only three days from the shores of the Red Sea because they could not find water to drink.
And then we know that Moses cast the tree in the water, and the bitter waters were made sweet, beloved young folks, If you were saved here this year, your life will never be the same when you go home again. You may try to drink of the streams of this, of water, of this life, but they will be bitter to your taste.
My son-in-law was here.
Many years ago.
He sat in the meeting just like you're sitting today.
He came up here a very unhappy.
And enslaved young men.
But through the course of the week he heard the word, and little by little that stubborn and hard heart. And he heard the gospel. Many years, dear young folks, many years.
Hours on end, but the word of God came home and broke down the heart.
And he was weeping. At the end of one of the meetings, he walked out and began to speak with. I think it was my wife at that time.
And he said I met Jesus here.
Well, he wasn't the same when he went home.
He went home with the same companions that were waiting for him, the same habits that he had formed prior to his being here. But when he got home, he found that when he did things or said things that were patterned after the old life, that unhappiness bitterness.
Sorrow was a result because he had a new master.
Remember when Martha waited at the sepulchre of Jesus?
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She was searching for her Lord.
And she wanted him because he, of course, he had died, but he wanted to take his body, take it away.
She wanted just to be wherever Jesus was and when the Lord Jesus Christ revealed himself to her heart.
She said. Master or rabona, that is master of my heart.
And if we went home with that kind of a heart, dear young people.
We would be the happiest Christians on the face of the earth.
And that means that we would desire to always be in his company. This was the kind of man Moses was.
And so the decision making in your life brings you to the submission submissive part.
Of the program that God has for your life. And that's where Moses ended up, on the backside of the desert and he learns submission. He was broken down totally, so much so that now he was a yielded vessel. He had no will of his own, so to speak, if we can use that language.
And may we take the word home with us, and say, Lord, I humbly bow, as we were singing together. Have thine own way, Lord.
Have thine own way, thou art the Potter, I am the clay mould me, and make me after thy will, while I am waiting, yielded and still.
And so he was a broken vessel. But his vessel was filled, we might say, with the glory of the Lord as he viewed the burning Bush. And we have this treasure in broken in earthen vessels, I should say they should be broken too. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels. Second Corinthians, chapter Four, that the Excellency of the power may be of God and not of us. Now some have thought that may be the Holy Spirit, and that may well be, but I believe it's.
A little different than that.
It's the glory of God shining in the face of Jesus Christ, and all of us who have been here at Lassen this year have seen the glory of the Lord.
I've seen it in some of your faces.
And that glory is to shine out, and so the vessel has to be broken.
In order for that to happen. And that's what happened to Moses.
It happened in type with Gideon too, you know, with his the the, the pitchers and the lamps inside, and they broke the picture, the pictures and the light shout shone out of the pictures. This is God's process with you and me in order to make us happy. We think of broken vessels as worthless.
Well, it's not so. Not in the things of God. In the things of of this world, a man has to be trained properly.
And influence with all the good things that he has for them to be prepared for service in this life. And that's what Moses had before.
But it couldn't be used in the service of Christ.
It can be used in an occupation, thankfully, and we need that. But here's the occupation. The Lord wants us to diligently be concerned with our occupation. In walking with Him, the time is so short and may there be meaningfulness to our steps from this point forward. Dear young folks, what a lovely hymn we just sang. The bridegroom and the Bride in heaven will be together to forever share that sphere.
And the Lord will share his glory with us, and we will come back with him to be admired in all them by all them here on the earth, because we will have His glory.
He'll share it with us as man. And so the next step was the intercession of Moses. And I brought that out because the spirits power in our lives is so valuable. It's invaluable that we might say we cannot do without it. It's indispensable to us if we're to be guided according to his word, according to the truth, and to walk in it. And what will happen for us today just a little bit, is to be gathered to his precious name. And that's where separation comes.
In and that word, dear young folks. To me, it used to be a hard word to deal with.
But remember, here Moses was a man of God, and at the burning Bush the voice out of the Bush told him who it was. I am the God of thy Father's, the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and so on. And the ground whereon thou standeth is holy ground.
He was a holy man, and if there's going to be service in the things of the Lord, there must be holiness, young people.
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Holiness. Holiness without which no man shall see the Lord. And that's another aspect of our Christianity. If we really want to behold Christ in our lives, to have a single eye for Him, there must be holiness.
There must be.
And Moses after the sin of Israel. And you know what this verse follows, I'm sure.
Was the golden calf that was made.
By Israel, the Children of Israel, and in conjunction with Aaron too, sadly.
When Moses was gone, almost 40 days on the Mount, and the Lord tested them and found out that their hearts were still idolatrous in spite of the influences of the journey thus far, they had witnessed miracles that you and I might say. If I would have seen things like that, I would have, I would have been faithful to the end.
And yet when we see in our own lives miracles, and we see in the lives of others miracles.
And we have. We have had the joy of the Lord in our hearts, a miracle that no person in the world could ever have treasures like we have in our hearts, yet we fail miserably. The only difference is those things that we have are by faith, and there's were much by sight, and yet it took faith in order to be.
Consistent concerning the pathway through the wilderness.
So Moses separates himself from the camp that had been engaged in idolatry.
And it's interesting to think of it this way.
There was to be a feast of the Lord.
And they still called it the feast of the Lord, even when they had made the golden calf.
They didn't change it to the feast of Moloch, or the feast of Ashtaroth or Baal or something like that, because they said they they still wanted to connect the Lord with it. But they said these are the gods that have brought us up out of Egypt. Oh how deceitful the heart is to be turned from the glorious power of the Lord, so wondrously manifested in their lives and in their midst for 3 million people.
And yet.
They made calves and said These are those which have brought us out of the land of Egypt.
So Moses separates himself from that, we might say. Why did he have to be so critical?
Why is he pointing the finger at those people? He wasn't. He was honoring the Lord.
And the glory of the Lord, the cloud, the cloudy pillar, came down upon him to show the Lord's approval.
And those, even in the camp of Israel, look to where he was and recognize that he had made a right step.
You know the golden calf.
Is apparent in many ways in the New Testament. Oh, I know that the golden calf in the work as we speak of it as the work of man's hands, was not seen visibly but insidiously. It worked its way into Christian circles, for example.
With the Galatians. Now if any of you dear young folks have read the Epistle of Galatians, you know very well.
Some of the sorrowful error that came into that assembly.
And it's spoken of like this. Are you so foolish that ye that have begun in the Spirit are made perfect by the flesh?
I do not frustrate the grace of God.
The apostle said, In other words, if if eternal life could come by the works of the law, then the death of Christ.
Is in vain.
And you are now turned to the beggarly elements, where you you observe days, and months and times and years, and so forth.
The golden calf, the idolatry, or the works of man's hands came into the Christian testimony.
Is it all around us today? Is it in Christendom today, which is another word for Christ's Kingdom? And again to say that, are we being critical?
Or are we being faithful if that kind of thing came into the assembly where you are, where the assembly finally decided that a man could be justified by works?
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And not by grace alone would you stay there.
If the idea that Jesus Christ himself could sin.
The assembly supported that idea. Would you stay there?
And yet, dear young people, I am saddened to hear remarks made.
That are like this, we are being critical when we point the finger at some of the things that go on all around us that Christianity is identified with.
That's being critical. No, it's not being critical. It's seeking to guide our young people, our children, in a path as is, according to light and not darkness, in a path that honors the Lord and not our own will, our own ideas.
A brother told me about a man who preaches predominantly on the radio.
And from what I've understood, his ministry seems very clear and very fundamental.
But he was asked if Jesus Christ could sin, and he said this I will have to wait till I get to heaven to find out.
And beloved young people, if you heard this man speak, I'm sure that you would be influenced by his ministry.
There was the golden calf that came into the circle of Colossi.
The Colossian assembly.
And it says there to beware, lest any man spoil you through philosophy or vain deceit.
Through the rudiments of the world and not Christ.
But all the fullness of the Godhead bodily dwelleth in him, the Scripture says.
And they weren't maintaining their union with the Lord Jesus Christ.
It was an external moral code, so that they would live by the letter of certain rules and regulations, and they might walk around all humbled over as though they were very humble people. And they were very they were very disciplined in their lives.
A voluntary humility. A put on humility. Something that wasn't real. You see how that dissects us from the head, which is Christ. They weren't holding the head.
And there was the golden calf, the works of men's hands that came into the circle of the Hebrews, the Jews.
The Jews.
They didn't go along with the fact, perhaps, that the Lord Jesus Christ as the High priest has gone into heavens, and so they came up with all kinds of laws and ceremonies to govern them. There were still identified with the temple worship.
And they had things, objects that they could see, things that look good to their eyes. Very fancy.
Objects connected with worship.
Those things, dear young people, may not appear to be a golden calf to you, but they are the works of men's hands that came into Christian contact and Christian circles.
One more is the Corinthian church where they were giving place to gift and crediting men with gift and and ability.
And the apostle said, I beseech you therefore, brethren, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
That there be no divisions among you. For some say I am of Paul, I am of Apollos, I am of Cephas, and there were others who said I am of Christ, and they were all wrong. Schisms and party spirits came in. Men, so to speak, were looked to to beheading these groups, even though they may not have been.
And they want to follow men. Does that ring a bell as to what we know is so rampant and characteristic with Christendom today?
And we say, well, let's not be too critical.
Let's not be too critical.
Could we turn to Hebrews for a few verses?
Hebrews chapter 13 Hebrews 13, verse 10 We have an altar.
Whereof they have no right to eat. That is the Jews who serve the Temple worship, and that line of things they had no right to eat.
Which served the Tabernacle For that the bodies of those beasts, whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high Priest for sin, are burned without the camp. Wherefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate. Let us go forth therefore unto him.
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Without the camp bearing his reproach. For here we have no continuing city, but we seek one.
To come.
We have an altar beloved young people that says very clearly the Jews possess the altar at one time.
The altar of approach to the presence of God. But they could never bring a person within the veil. There was only one who went in there one time a year within the veil.
What does it say in Hebrews chapter 10? Having boldness, therefore brethren, to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which he have consecrated for us through the veil, that is to say his flesh. We have access to the presence of the Lord, beloved young people, and thus the altar transferred from Judaism, which became a dead system to Christianity. So the altar here is really Christ, or where he is honored.
Where the center the true center is where his table is.
And while the bodies of those beasts in the Old Testament were being burned outside the camp.
The blood of that beast was being sprinkled in the holiest.
And the Lord Jesus in verse 12 it says of him that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, and so he suffered without the gate.
Have you ever looked at the blood of Christ this way? We were speaking this morning and a brother was speaking to us about.
Cost.
How much have we paid for the truth?
What kind of cost is it to us to walk in the truth and buy it and sell it? Not, but here's what it costs Jesus, beloved friends.
It cost him his blood not only to cleanse us from all sin.
But to put us in a sanctified place, that is a place of separation from religion all around us. And I believe from what I've been taught, this is what is meant there.
He sanctified us with his own blood. Now the Jews in this particular period of time were six years away from the destruction of Jerusalem in the Temple, and that is when Titus came in with his armies and leveled the place.
Including the temple. However, he didn't want to burn the temple down, but a drunken soldier happened to cast a firebrand into the temple.
And it burned to the ground. And of course they gathered up all the molten gold and everything they could to take it out of out of there.
So they looked, you might say, forward to just a few years before this awful destruction. 70 AD would come. This was about 64 AD. This was written.
And the beloved apostle.
Is saying to them.
Let us go forth.
Therefore unto him to Jesus without the King, they were continuing in their temple worship. If you read Acts chapter 2, breaking bread from house to house and continuing in the temple, worshipping and praising the Lord at the same time they were living a dual life, walking in two paths in two places, and the Apostle is coming to them through this letter of love and entreaty. And he's saying not commanding because this is privilege.
Dear young folks, we're living in the day of grace, which is privilege. Not just not the legal side, period, but privilege. Let us it's a privilege. There is liberty.
There is encouragement. This is the place of blessing. Let us.
Go forth therefore unto him without the can.
So it is separation from what existed that became dead and God could not recognize anymore at once as a very very appealing and God ordered ceremony where the the the priests in their beautiful gowns and robes.
We're performing the sacrifices, and the singers were likewise robed and singing these glorious psalms.
And songs that they had, it was a glorious affair. And when you read of the Queen of Sheba when she thought all there was number, spirit left in her.
We little realize how glorious this whole thing really was, how appealing it was to the natural eye because it was a service that could be enjoyed by the flesh, music and all of these things that were very influential.
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But that system deteriorated and it was something God could no longer recognize. And finally, in the New Testament, it was simply called the Jews Passover, not the Lords.
But what happened was, and what we see all around us today is from that system of things all around us in Christendom we have evidences that that old system, the old covenant, those things were not set aside totally in fact. Have you ever thought of it this way?
A building, a glamorous structure that has all of the the furniture and the gold and the brass and the rails, the altars and and the curtains. All of those things simply signify they may not mean it this way.
That Christ has not passed into the heavens.
He has not passed into the holy place made with hands, but the Scripture says he has passed into the heavens.
Signifying a finished work. That's Hebrews, Chapter 10, Chapter 9.
It signifies that it's no longer a worldly sanctuary that's needed. We're not looking for a building because Christ has finished the work of which which the building spoke of, so to speak, and all of those sacrifices spoke of.
He's passed into the heavens. We don't need that anymore. And now Christianity.
Is worshipping God in spirit and in truth.
He is not a God that says in Acts 17 that needeth to be worshipped by men's hands.
How are we to worship by an overflowing heart?
If there has been decision in your life and in my life for the Lord Jesus Christ.
If there has been submission affected by being here this year.
In your heart to follow him, regardless of what your own ideas are about the path that you wanted to follow.
And if you found the Holy Spirit's power working in your heart and life?
What should be the next step?
Where two or three are gathered together unto my name, there am I in the midst of them.
Where two or three are gathered means that it is a power outside of those who gather together that gathers them together.
It is the power of the Holy Spirit that gathers together, because that word in the Greek means to be guided together or to lead together. It's like if there were a group of apples laying on the floor and someone picks them up and puts them in a basket. It's a power outside of themselves that gathers to the precious person.
It's not a place any longer like it was in Jerusalem.
It's a person.
Person.
And by 1 Spirit we are all baptized unto 1 body. But what's happening all around us today is.
We're each going our own way and doing our own thing regardless, we've become some have been identified with the assembly they've left, and now they're identified with groups that hold doctrine like we spoke of a little while ago. And I do not know, dear young folks of any churches around me. And I do not speak critically. I'm speaking, I trust, to enlighten our hearts concerning the pathway of His choice, not ours. I know of no.
Systems around me.
That do not hold some error pertaining to the person and work of Christ.
Whether it be baptism and it could be the Eternal sonship issue, and one of the largest groups in our area embraces that doctrine, at least the pastor of the church.
Now we know if we've been in the assembly anytime at all.
Let him that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity. In fact, in Galatians it says a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump. If the assembly that you're connected with embraces evil like that, it becomes a leavened in 11 Condition.
And according to Scripture, you should not continue there.
There would be others, no doubt. As a brother once said, that would be exercised about not continuing thereto, so you have to be careful. But if it's a clear cut issue where evil has come in and it been embraced, whether it's moral or doctrinal, that assembly becomes.
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Evil, 11 Lump, and the moral side of things for in Corinthians.
If moral evil is allowed, it may sound harsh. It may sound very.
Very hard for someone to be put away from the Lord's table for moral evil.
But it has to be that his table, Christ's table, the Lord's table, the glory and the holiness of it might be maintained, and that is the responsibility of the local gathering.
It is a privileged place to walk in, and yet when you see and I'm sure you experience what some of us see. Just before we came here, we were gathered together remembering the Lord, and a dear brother came in and sat down.
We visited with him after the Sunday School and he sat down for the morning meeting to remember. As we sat around to remember the Lord, 5 minutes passed and he was gone.
Why did he leave?
Partly #1, because there is a pattern of things that they expect to see and hear. They come to hear a message. We didn't have a message that morning, so to speak.
Secondly, they have no idea as to what the scriptural.
Pattern is according to First Corinthians chapter 14.
Where not one presides, not one, but there are several.
Or many who may participate. A brother came into the assembly one time and he said, well, who presides here?
And he said, well, we don't have a pastor. The Lord Jesus Christ is in the midst. He presides. And that's the truth. That is not being funny. That is the truth.
Going forth therefore unto him without the camp, when someone asks you what is the name of your your group.
And you say, well, we don't have a name. You don't have a name. You mean you don't have any name at all?
And you say, well, you know, we're brethren. Oh, oh, brethren, Oh, I've heard of brethren.
I've heard of brethren. Or maybe you use the number?
Plymouth Brethren #5.
But what does it say here, beloved young people, going forth therefore unto him without?
The.
Could we just say that we are gathered to the precious name of the Lord Jesus Christ? That is the truth. But there's reproach connected with the truth going forth there unto him without the camp bearing his reproach. Moses esteemed the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt, And when he removed from the camp a far off from the camp, it was perhaps reproachful.
But he bore it for the Lord.
He accepted that place of reproach for the Lord.
Will we, in the day of his rejection, be willing to take that place with him outside of all of man's system of things and organizations and be gathered to his name alone? And that is really beloved young people, not critical. That's not being critical. Organization is a worldly principle. It's a worldly principle in itself.
Any organization of men and of man is a worldly principle.
Godly principles are from this book that show us how to be gathered as we go forth. Therefore unto him it's not according to our own planning.
It's by the Holy Spirit's power, and if the Holy Spirit is operative and power and in power, working in your lives, he can direct you and convince you as to the place if you're not walking in fellowship with the Holy Spirit and with the Lord Jesus Christ.
It could be your mind will be clouded, very clouded as to the truth of that wondrous position.
Because the two disciples who went according to the Lord's instructions, not their own.
To find the place where the Last Supper would be held, they found the man bearing the pitcher of water.
Or I might say, he found them.
And they followed him, So we go forth therefore unto him. And this man took them in the upper room, where Jesus was going to be.
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Make no mistake, if you are willing to submit to the will of God.
And be led by the Holy Spirit. And you say, Lord, I want to know what the truth is. I want to be gathered on the ground of the truth of the word of God. He will show you, make no mistake about it.
A brother called me about two weeks ago, maybe 3 weeks ago.
Who was here probably 10 years ago.
And he introduced himself and I said, well, it's been a long time since I've talked with you and very happy to have you call me. And I said, where are you, what are you doing and what is your line of occupation and.
And then I said.
Are you meeting with any particular group or where you go? I really didn't know.
He said, Well, David, there was one of the reasons I wanted to call you and let you know that I am gathered to the precious name of the Lord Jesus Christ, he said.
Some months ago in my life for I guess it was years ago, three years ago, he said. Three years ago in my life.
I was faced with a decision.
He said I was into music pretty heavily and he said I ordered this real expensive instrument, real expensive guitar.
And he said while it was being shipped to my home, I was under conviction as to whether or not I should take my place at the Lord's table or be taken up.
With a line of work of being a musician that I had planned to do for so long.
He said. When the guitar arrived, he said. I sent it down.
To a friend of mine and I said here you can have this.
I want to take my place at the Lord's table.
There is a cost. There is a price connected with the truth.
He was willing to pay the price by the truth.
And sell it not.
Will this be the exercise of your heart? And leaving the meetings this year to simply answer to the Lord's request, take your place at his table.
To not just be separated from what is of man. That's not the idea. It's who we are separated unto. Going forth. Therefore unto him without the camp, Moses found that his life was taken up with a person, and our lives are taken up with a person beloved young people. And it's the same person that we walk with in our daily life that we are gathered to corporately.
That can satisfy our hearts. And may I say this before I close, I know some of us live from.
Year to year, so to speak.
Thinking about Lassen coming here next year and and that's wonderful and we get our hopes up and we make plans to do that and I hope that if the Lord does not come that you will come back and we'll all be able to be here again.
But I believe that you will have a real victory in your life.
By going home to your assembly and having the truth laid hold of your heart to the extent.
That you will see the Lord Jesus Christ by faith in that little gathering where you are so much so.
That it will satisfy your heart to be where he is. And you know if you're walking with him, truly walking with him, and fellowship with him, you will be dissatisfied everywhere else.
Only Christ can satisfy and when those disciples who?
Followed the man with a pitcher of water that entered into the guest chamber.
It says they found it exactly as he had told them. They were not disappointed. Why? Because he was there.
When the hour was come, he sat down, and his 12 apostles with him.
He is the focus of our hearts. He is the enjoyment of our lives.
He commands our presence, so to speak.
And our eye and our walk and our talk.
And may he be so to our own hearts, to captivate them.
Not just to say I'm going to go down and really live for the Lord Jesus Christ. When we do that, we'll fail. But I'm going to live for him, and I want to be where he is gathered to his precious name. Let's not be critical to those in other places because they're doing a work for God that we perhaps could never do. May we pray for them. May we love them. They're seen in the loaf on the table. They are precious to the heart of Christ. He's bought them with his own blood. But we are responsible for the truth.
00:45:25
That we've been raised with, that we have been taught and we know it, but the problem that we see is so many times when problems come like the late division.
We see so many disappear and we say. Why could we say or ask the question? Is it because that we have not been walking in communion with the Lord and the power of the Spirit? Thus the Spirit cannot communicate the truth with us and our minds are clouded. We lose our discernment. I was standing with about 20 people, primarily family members.
Maybe I shouldn't say this by about 20 people about 3 weeks ago.
And those 20 people?
Comprised 5 different places where they attend worship.
Over two years ago, we were one.
A dear young folks, those are solemn considerations to my own heart. I know the tendencies of my own heart.
To let these precious things slip, I may not be here next year, except it be by the grace of God.
And you may not be either, because you say, well, my gather, my assembly is so small and there's so few there, but may it be that you will see Christ in the midst. Remember when Thomas wasn't in the midst of a few just gathered together? They went to him and they said, we've seen the Lord Thomas. They weren't critical. They didn't slap his hands. They said we've seen the Lord.
They encouraged him that the Lord's presence was real to them, and the next Lord's day he was there, and he got blessed.
He got a blessing, and he worshiped the Lord, He said, My Lord and my God. And when you, when you go home, may you have that spirit that will appreciate the company, the divine presence of the Lord Jesus Christ, and be willing to bear his reproach and name, so to speak.
Being gathered to his name and express that to others, share it with others, May he give us all courage.
And willingness to do that, shall we pray?