Gospel—D. Nicolet
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Let's say #7.
#7
my hope. And nothing less is built than Jesus and the blood he spilled. I dare not trust the sweetest brain, but holy meaning on his blessed name #7.
915.
Your work a blessing.
Like to look begin with that three very well known scriptures in the word of God.
1St is in John chapter 6.
John Chapter 6.
And reading from verse 66.
John 6 and verse 66 From that time many of his disciples went back and walked no more with him. Then said Jesus under the 12 Will ye also go away?
Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life.
I'd like to have you turn over with me, please, to the second book of Samuel.
Second Samuel.
And chapter 15? We're going to read just a few verses there.
Second Samuel and verse 15.
Or rather, Second Samuel 15. And I'd like to start making parts, versus starting with verse 14. And David said unto All his servants that were with him at Jerusalem, Arise, and let us flee, or we shall not else escape from absent.
00:05:02
And now look at verse.
17.
And the king went forth, and all the people after him, and tarried in a place that was far off. And all his servants passed on beside him, and all the Cherathites, and all the pelophytes, and all the Githites, 600 men which came after him from gas.
Passed on before the king.
Now we'll come back to this place. We'd like to read one last verse and.
I almost find that I think it's not even necessary to turn to this. We could all quote this by heart, but let's look at Matthew 18.
And verse 21.
Matthew 18.
And verse 21.
4 Where two or three are gathered together, and my name, there am I in the midst of them.
A few weeks ago I.
Had the privilege of sharing with my brethren in Des Moines, after this remembrance of the Lord, some thoughts connected with the passages that I've read to you tonight and.
I trust that it's the Lord's will that I take this up in a gospel sense, and perhaps if the Lord will develop a little further from that.
I think that we have some very precious and encouraging thoughts that we could consider tonight from these passages.
But this is a gospel meeting.
And I was impressed, as I always have been in the past, when I've had the privilege of being with my dear bread and here in Pella and being on my knees in the prayer meeting before the gospel, I was impressed with the earnestness of prayer for the souls of people who will be present in this room tonight.
There was very earnest prayer made for your soul tonight. I'm in an advantage in a way that I know many of you related to. Some of you, I don't know you, some of you real well, and I don't know what state of soul or what condition you're in tonight.
So I'm going to find it a little bit easier to speak.
From the Word of God in the Gospel meeting, not knowing and allowing the Lord just to use the word as He will.
But what I want to start out with is to impress upon your heart tonight.
To ask you that question.
And that the Lord Jesus asked his disciples of old Are you going to go away?
You are going to go away from this room tonight. If the Lord leaves us here in less than an hour's time, you'll be probably or perhaps an hours time. You're going to be leaving, going away from the swim.
The great question is not that. The question is, are you in your heart going to be going away from Jesus?
You know, I was impressed with one of the prayers.
And I won't be able to quote the words, but the thought was that tonight in this town and you know, brethren, I think particularly in this part of Iowa, in this particular area of Iowa, there is a tremendous outward expression of religion.
There are very, very deeply religious people that live in this area and the thought expressed in the prayer was that they have religion. Do they have pride?
And I'm not here to in any way a mock or make fun of those who go to.
Buildings, Churches.
But there may be that same kind of need here. But what I'm saying is you and I need to look at our hearts and to see if.
We are going away from the Lord Jesus no matter outwardly what our path was.
If you're here tonight and you're not sure about being saved, if you're not sure you are, or if you know very well you aren't, I would only ask you that question. Are you going to continue to go away to the genius?
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And if you're going to continue to walk with your back, turn to him. Where are you going to go?
Where can you go to find in this world what you can find in the Lord Jesus?
Eternal life. But you know very well, and I speak to especially beloved young people sitting here tonight. You know very well that the world's whole object tonight is to find joy and satisfaction, and if it could, to find some means of guaranteeing life. That's a whole object of this world tonight. This world system is doing some way to try to guarantee at least an extension of a long and happy life.
Now, where are you going to find that?
If you're going to leave the one who is very eternal life, the one who came into this world to bring life, the one who tonight has a gift of life for you, if you're going to walk away from him and leave him tonight, where are you going to go?
Where in this world will you go to find what he's freely offering you tonight? Life. It's what the world is in agony running. Hit her and throw.
Trying to find, to find life, to find a meaning for life. To find an extension of life. To find a satisfaction of life.
And they're running everywhere hard. And bath is turned on the blessed Son of God, very eternal life.
And so, if I'm by chance, perhaps, and wonderful chance, speaking to a room where everyone who can understand what I'm saying knows the Lord Jesus as savior, I would still ask you that question as I would ask my own heart.
Am I tonight going away from the Lord Jesus? Am I like these disciples of all who had followed the Lord Jesus but had become discouraged?
For whatever reason. And finally the time came when the test came and it was a hard test and it was a difficult test.
There was things that they didn't understand.
And because they didn't understand them, they turned their back on him and left him eternal life.
But Peter, by the grace of God, gave us words to 2000 years later, encourage our hearts tonight. Where are we going to go? Lord, Thou hast the words of eternal life, nowhere else. To go and solve all the way may seem rough though it may seem, sometimes, as though we can't understand what the Lord is leading us through. We can't understand perhaps some of the things that it seems that the word of God is speaking to our hearts about.
Let's not leave the one who speaks those words, because if he speaks something that seems a little difficult to understand, do you think tonight you can go somewhere else away from him and find understanding of those things? Is there some place in the world you'll be able to go to find one who can explain the words of eternal life to you if you turn your back on Jesus?
Do you think there's someone in this world tonight who is going to encourage you if you turn your back on the Lord Jesus and discouragement and leave? You know very well the answers to those questions. We can't go away from the Lord. There's no satisfaction or joy apart from you. I speak that sorrowfully in my own case because there have been times in my life when I've done that, I've gotten discouraged and, as it were, turned my back on the Lord. And it's cold and it's worse.
And it's not long before I find I made a mistake. And I need to turn around and come back to the Lord. And he's there with all of his infinite love and goodness to receive him back. But I just want to say tonight to start. Where will you? Where will I go? Where can we go in this world in which we live? Pick the best of it tonight. Pick the best of it. Can you go there?
And receive what you can receive at the feet of Jesus.
Well, you know, there were some who were faced with that choice back in the days of Second Samuel and the days of David the King that we were reading about.
David was the king who was rightfully the king set up by God in Israel. He was a man after God's own heart. He loved the Lord. He made mistakes. He was like us. He failed. But he confessed those failures, and he went on with the Lord, and he loved the Lord, and he was the rightful king in Israel. And I want to look at David tonight, as we often do when we consider his life as a little picture of the Lord Jesus.
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And I hope that it will encourage our hearts as I sit here looking into the face of my dear brother, knowing that you are gathered, as I am, to the name of the Lord Jesus, and that sometimes even that pathway can seem so very, very discouraging. And if you will allow me to love a brother tonight, I would like to tend to.
Give the tenor my words a little bit to the dear young ones here, the younger brothers and sisters, the young families and the young people.
If the Lord leaves us here anytime longer.
Will be responsible before the Lord for this testimony that has been entrusted to your parents and to the older brethren that we've walked in and enjoyed so, so often.
Well, you know, there were people who were followers of David. He was their king. But there came a testing time in their life because there was one who came along to, as it were, overthrow the reign of David and take that Kingdom to himself. And though we won't read it, and though we know the story well, his own son Absalom, it only reminds you of this, It says of Absalom.
That he stole the hearts of the children of Israel. He stole the hearts of the children of Israel.
You can read that in the end of verse six of our chapter. I want to tell you that Absalom is a picture of something tonight. And I just want to say that tonight, for our hearts, Absalom will picture that spirit.
At work increasing them.
And even sad to say among brethren, that spirit, I say not that person, but that spirit which would steal our hearts away from following Christ, so that we would in fact, in discouragement, give up following the Lord and go away seeking for another.
And so Absalom stole the hearts of the children of Israel.
I think tonight you know very well, beloved ones that are here, that the Lord Jesus has not stolen your heart.
Choose one.
He's wanted. He's wanted in his love and his work on Calvary's cross. He didn't steal it. And you belong. If you've accepted him as your Lord and savior, you belong to him. And he has rights and claims over your heart and over mine. And he didn't steal.
But here was one who came on the scene who was going to steal their hearts of the men of Israel away from their rightful king. And you know how he did it. We didn't read that tonight, but it's very, very enlightening. I encourage you to read carefully the 15th chapter of Second Samuel and meditate on it.
Absalom stole the hearts of the children of Israel by greeting them and telling them that he loved them, and telling him that if he was the king, he would set things in their life around. He would make things right for them, that they weren't being treated right by David. But if he were only the king, things would be different. And so he stole their hearts by promising them something new and something different and something better.
And they listen to me.
They listened to Absalom and the time came when it says that the revolt grew. And it tells that as we read there in that verse, that word came to David and he said arise and let us flee. We have to get out of here because there's one who's stolen the hearts and they're going to destroy now when they come.
You know, beloved young people, I would like to you know all the love and grace that I know how to express tonight, to urge you to be careful.
That something in Christendom that appears to be new and better not steal your hearts away from the Lord Jesus in the midst.
The Lord Jesus is rejected in this world, and sad to say, He's rejected and christened them too. He's not allowed to have that place of supreme authority in the midst in professing Christianity. But men have set up their own system of things. They found something new and something better, and something they'd rather have, something that professes to love them and encourage them and do better for them than the Lord Jesus could do. And they've taken up with it. And the Lord Jesus has been set aside in this world.
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And he's been set aside as the gathering center in Christianity. And the great question is now.
Are you? And am I going to go away from you too? Are we going to be caught up and allow our hearts to be stolen away by this spirit so that we no longer will follow the Lord Jesus and His rejection?
That was the test that was facing these people. As David said, let us sleep. They had to make a choice. They had to look at him and say he's being rejected, he's being cast out. He cannot be the king any longer. Am I going to go with him in that rejection or am I going to stay here and take up with the one who's coming in to usurp his authority?
Now I want to tell you something that you very well know beloved young people. There was not a large group of people who went with David in his rejection. It was not a large group at all. And tonight you know well.
That if you have the privilege of remembering the Lord Jesus and his death, that you are not one of a great number in this world.
Very, very insignificant number of people who I believe are truly gathered by the Spirit on the ground of the one body and have the joy and the privilege of the Lord Jesus very presence collectively in their midst.
Very few.
And rejected And cast out too. And not awarded. It's not popular.
But that shouldn't be a discouragement, because if you're gathered to the precious name of the Lord Jesus, and if in your heart and in mind there's a desire to follow David, to follow the Lord Jesus, and to not have our hearts stolen by this spirit, that would come in and set the Lord Jesus and his claims aside.
I want to tell you, if you want to do that, you have a joy and a happiness that nothing out there can satisfy. He has the words of eternal life in thy presence. Is fullness of joy to be where the Lord Jesus is in the midst? Is there anything better than that? Our hearts are cold. We get occupied with problems in the normal course of our life. But is there anything better to our hearts?
As we are in communions, the Lord Jesus, the knowing Lord Jesus, thou art here in the midst of this little group of people. Well, that's what those people had a choice to make. Would they follow David, or would they stay and follow abstinent?
Now what I have on my heart is to look very closely at the three specific groups of people who follow David, and I want to notice three things about them. This was a tremendous encouragement to my heart, because I'm going to be very honest with you these days as one gathered to the name of the Lord.
I'm going to tell you very honestly, can be very, very discouraging.
There are many problems. There are many difficulties. Our numbers are not growing in leasing bounds as we see the numbers in other organizations, Christian organizations growing and there's a great.
Tendency to get discouraged and to give up. And I'm not here to deny that, nor am I here to call somebody wrong for being discouraged. I'm here tonight. I trust, by the grace of God, hopefully to be able to encourage you in the way that the Spirit of God has encouraged me in meditating.
On this passage and what I want to look at now are not only the three groups of people.
Who followed David? But I want to notice the specific order in which they're mentioned. It is absolutely critical. And I I I want to share this. I think this has been said many, many times. So I'm only going to repeat something that I know to be true. And that is the word of God is so very, very perfect, so very, very perfect that even the order in which things are mentioned in the word of God.
Have very strong significance.
There's a reason why Acts comes before Romans, and there's a reason why things are mentioned in the order that they're mentioned. You could go on and on with this thought The Spirit of God saw fit to do it that way, to record these things in that way, and we can learn much by that. And tonight we're going to look at these three and we're going to look at the order, and we trust that it will encourage our hearts as those who know the Lord Jesus and are gathered to His precious name. I want you to look first of all.
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In verse 17.
At this group that I first mentioned, verse 17.
And the king went forth, and all the people after him. And I want you to notice that the people are mentioned first. They aren't servants and they aren't soldiers. They're just people just like you and me. People who loved David and owned him to be their king and who had one desire and one goal in life. And that was to not.
Give up and follow someone else. They had to have David. That was their one characteristic, if I may say. The one thing that marks them out is that they were people who went after David.
Crying, I believe, because they love David and that was their only reason. We're not told that these people did anything for David. We're not told that they provided any services or gave him anything.
All we're told is that they were people who followed David.
I hope tonight that that is the 1St and abiding characteristic of each heart here. Who knows Christ and Savior that we're willing to say Lord Jesus.
If I have you, I have everything. If I'm following you, I need nothing else.
And Lord Jesus, it's not important what I can do or where I can go.
If I have you.
That's what these people were saying.
And we're going to see some other classes, and I want to make sure that you understand before I go any further. I'm not trying to divide this room tonight up into people and service and soldiers. It's not my intention. My intention is to help us see tonight that we're all people and we're all servants and we're all soldiers.
We should be all of those things.
Tremendous comfort to recognize the order in which God recognizes these as being mentioned. You know if they either get tight. He was mentioned last came from gas. Now if I were to play Bible trivia that game that some of us have played with some of you here and I might ask you this question, if they the gift I came from gas, who else do we know in the word of God that came from gas? And no doubt.
Many of you would brighten up with these smiles, and you would say Goliath, Goliath of gas. Is it possible that the most bitter enemy of David, that from the city of the most bitter enemy of David, the one who cursed David, the one who is going to kill David, that from that very place came such a devoted follower of David? Oh yes it is.
And I think that probably tonight this room is filled, if I may say, I hope, of those who answer to if they are.
Of the get type, that is. You and I at one time were under the control of the Goliath in this world. He was the head of that army to which we belong. He was the one who was going to go to that battle and battle. The Lord Jesus. And that mighty battle was fought at Calvary and he was slain.
And now our hearts have been one. We who are constituted as enemies of the Lord Jesus has slain, you might say, the one who was our king.
He's been slain.
Now we have the immense joy and privilege of willingly following the very one who slew our leader. Isn't that precious? But before they are mentioned, the people are mentioned, and before they're mentioned, the servants are mentioned. Did you get those in verse 18? And I wish servants passed on beside him.
And then finally, at the end of that verse, you have the Cherathites, the Pelophytes, the Gittites. Those were the soldiers, the warriors. They passed on before the king. Now, you know very well if you or I were writing this passage, let's be honest with each other. We would, in the normal, natural course of things, say it's AI and the soldiers went first in front of David.
And then the servants decide there. And then the people following the But that's the exact reverse of the order in which they're mentioned here. And you know what that tells me? It tells me how very, very valuable you are tonight if you're here in your heart, following Christ and doing nothing else.
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If you and I are here because we want to follow Jesus.
It means so much to his heart.
That these people are mentioned first.
They follow after David. They can't be out in front fighting. They can't be beside in serving, they can only follow. But there is so important to the spirit of God, the followers, so, so precious to the heart of God, that there are those who love David enough to follow him that they're mentioned first.
And I want to encourage you tonight, but if you're sitting here thinking, you know, I just don't feel like I'm able to do very much for the Lord Jesus. He is so worthy and he's so precious to my heart. And I don't feel like even each day I'm able to really do anything of any significance for him who I feel is so worthy.
Are you following? If you're following in your heart, I believe I can say on the authority of the word of God, you're doing something very, very significant for the Lord Jesus, and you're satisfying his heart. He wants your company and he wants mine. And he said, can't you hear the Lord Jesus turning to his disciples in John, and not with a challenging voice, but perhaps with a tinge of sorrow in his voice saying.
Are you going to leave him too?
All these others that have followed me all this time, that have been so blessed, that I fed, that I've healed, that I've given satisfaction and joy to, they're gone. They've left me. Did that hurt the heart of the Lord Jesus? You know it did. Did that grieving? You know it did.
And then he turns to his disciples, those apostles, and insists, Are you going to lead them to?
What do you think it meant to the heart of the Lord Jesus when Peter said where are we going to go, Lord, we don't have any other place to go. You have what we need. Do you think that made his heart happy? I think it filled him with joy.
Do you think tonight when you say, Lord Jesus, I don't think I can do much for you, I'm going to follow you. You think that builds your heart with joy? You know it does.
It's worth everything I believe. I say this reverently to the heart of the Lord Jesus, to know that there's someone in this world who says Lord Jesus, you're more important than any other object to my heart, and I want to follow this.
Oh, maybe tonight. Follow me.
And then the servants are mentioned.
You know, it's interesting. We're working from the back up to the front and not starting the front and going to the back. The people follow. The servants are on the side. Well, that's a good place for servants to be so that they can serve the one that they're standing beside. It's a wonderful position to be in.
And I hope tonight that we do have a desire to serve him. I'm not here to tell you how to serve him. I don't know how you should serve the Lord. I have questions many times how I should serve the Lord. But I know I want to serve the Lord, and I'd like to stand beside him, as it were that I might somehow serve him.
But I know this too. If I'm not following you, I can't serve you. And I believe that's why those who are following were mentioned first. Because if you and I are not going to wholeheartedly submit our lives to the Lord Jesus the following, how can we then say what we want to serve him?
I don't thank the Lord Jesus can use servants who don't want to follow.
And I believe that's why the servants aren't mentioned first.
Hello, what a wonderful thing to be standing at the side of the Lord Jesus as it were following him and then there decide to serve him and then finally.
The last group, the soldiers, and they're in their proper place too. They're in front since they went on before him. That's the right place for soldiers to protect. The one that there is their leader. They should be in the front.
But as I said before, if we don't first follow and if we don't learn how to serve.
We can't jump out in the front and fight the Lord's battles. He can't use those who don't want to follow him and don't know how to serve him to fight for him.
But he wants us there. And what I'm saying tonight, you and I can do in our lives every day.
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I'm looking at the faces of many beloved sisters here tonight, and I know very well if you are at home or if you were, if you're at home and you feel, Lord, I want to follow you today and you feel, but I don't know that I can serve you.
You know you can serve the Lord if you're submitting to what the Lord wants you to do, And if you're following and submitting to His will for you and His instructions for you that are seen in the word of God, you're serving him. And if that neighbor comes over or goes by and sees you going on and realizes there's a woman who, if I ever saw a Christian, I see one there.
Don't you think that's serving the Lord? Maybe. Maybe you can't say anything, but you can live it. And then my beloved bread in here you go to work and you may not be able to do a lot of talking at work because your employers hired you to do a job. And so you feel constrained, and rightly so, to give an honest, an honest labor and you're not able to say a whole lot of work. But can you work hard and faithfully? You had a loan probably set you apart at work if you're being honest and working hard.
And can someone look and say well?
Think they're enough for working so hard they don't have to work that hard, but.
At least they're what they say they are. They're a religious nut and they act like it because they work hard.
Wonderful thing, but serving the Lord. So I don't think that this serving, though I don't for a minute belittle those who feel called to a larger field of service in a foreign land or in some special way. I don't feel for a minute that we're anything but a room full of serpents tonight if you want to be, and that the service that you have to fulfill tonight is. I believe this with all my heart just as important and precious and necessary to the heart of Christ.
As the service that some missionaries performing in China.
And I don't say that in one sense, belittling the missionary in China. Thank God for him or for him. But if you are tonight because of your love for Christ, seeking to please him by obeying his instructions to you in this book, you're serving the Lord Jesus.
And everyone of us can do that. We can follow him and we can serve him.
And then if that's so, we can fight for it.
We can stand. We can hold fast.
We can refuse to give up to the discouragements. We can take that armor that we see in Ephesians, we can hold that shield up, and we can fight the battles for the Lord. And we can stand firm for the truth of the word of God in an age.
When every single truth in this precious book is called into question, and even called into question by professed believers in the Lord Jesus.
And that takes a real battle. And I want to tell you that if there's a young person here going to school, you love the Lord Jesus and are seeking to follow him and serve him in your life and you go to school. I don't believe for a minute that you're not in a real fierce then.
I think you're in every bit as much of A battle as any other Christian if you're really seeking to walk with the Lord Jesus in your school.
If you're really seeking to walk with the Lord Jesus and be what God presents as a godly Christian woman, I think you're in a real battle.
And if you're seeking to be a godly man ahead of a home, a father, a breadwinner.
One who is taking the lead according to the word of God. I think you're in a real battle.
And I think it's wonderful. And I'll tell you why. Think of it people following David.
People on the side serving David. People in the front, going in front of David. Where was David?
He was in the midst.
And that's where the Lord Jesus is tonight, but those gathered to His precious name is in the midst.
And we need the following, and we need to serve him, and we need to stand for him and fight those battles and to realize with joy he's in the midst.
That's where David was when they went out. Was it worth it to these, the soldiers as they went out and looked behind, David was there. The people who looked forward, David was there. The people on the side to serve him. David was there. He was in their ministry.
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Your Lord Jesus has promised to be in our midst, and I went in just a moment turn to that passage. But it is such a lovely thought to think that this should characterize our lives, and I believe it should characterize our assemblies.
Our assembly should be characterized by following and serving and standing.
I believe that's what the Lord Jesus in the midst would desire morally.
In our lives that there might be that moral.
Living out of what we see here, going on in action that we will refuse to give into this spirit that is going to steal our hearts from David, from the Lord Jesus. We refuse to give into that spirit. We say, Lord Jesus, I would rather have you, I'm going to follow you. You know David tested it, AIA little bit. He tested it and he said ittei you just recently come to you just recently.
Come to take up your sword with your 600 men.
He said and he was testing and he said why don't you go back to your land? Because I don't even know where I'm going to go. I don't even know where I'm going to be in this.
Pathway that I have to follow now.
So what does he he's testing that he's saying today? I'm giving you a choice. You can follow me, but don't you think it'd be easier if you turn back?
Don't seem to be easier if you turn back now. I want to ask you that question tonight for those of you who are here who are really desiring to follow the Lord Jesus.
Don't you think it'd be easier to turn back? You know it would be easier, but look, what if they said?
Verse 21.
And if they answered the king, and said, as the Lord liveth, that's Jehovah, and as my Lord that's David, the king liveth, surely in what place, my Lord the king shall be, whether in death or life, even there also will thy servant be. What do you think that meant today? To start to hear that? To hear him, that soldier, that warrior say, David, even if you die.
I'm going to be with you, even in death. You have won my heart and wherever David you're going to be.
That's where I have to be. Who breathed those words so beautifully in the New Testament, Mary, when she said they've taken away my Lord, and I know not where they put him. Tell me where you've laid him and I'll take him away.
Why is she saying that? Because he was everything to her heart, and without him she had nothing.
And David saw one this gentile's heart, and he was a Gentile had so won this gentile's heart.
That he said, David, I've got to be, even if it means that I've got to be where you are. Well, we all turn. But I want to tell you something later when just think of this. If we suffer with him, we shall also reign with him. Later on, when David is the king restored again in power, he sets up three men, 3 generals to be over his armies, the three top generals in his army. You know who one of those generals were? That's right. If they either get tight, the gentile.
He was rewarded for his faithfulness. There was a time of testing, but his heart was connected with David. And then there came the reigning, the reward. And it's the eye is mentioned as being one of Davis''s three mighty men over his arms.
Again, we won't turn to this, but if I were to mention the name Mephibosheth, most of you who know here would know who I was talking about. The young man, the grandson of Saul, David's enemy, who David had brought back from his hiding, and it brought him into his house and blessed him and given him all of Saul's belongings back and said in the pivashets, they're going to eat at my table now for the rest of your life. The finish up is lame on his feet.
And he had a servant that was a very, very unfaithful servant.
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This servant was a liar. His name was Zaiba.
Zydel was Mephibosheth's servant, and Zeigel wanted Mephibosheth's belongings for himself.
He had no heart for mischievous.
To the shaft.
Sat at David's table as one of Davidde sons in perfect liberty and happiness. There. But you know, Zaida fooled him and he wants to follow David. And Zaida said no, I'll go. You. You aren't able to. He's already gone. You better stay here. You're just not able to follow him.
And he went out. And when he got to David, David said, where's your master? You know what? Zion said, you can read this in chapter 16. He said, oh, he stayed back in Jerusalem because he thinks he's going to get the Kingdom.
But I brought all this food for you, David.
She was lying. What I'm saying is don't be fooled tonight.
Don't be fooled by the world into thinking that you don't need to follow a path of rejection to follow Jesus.
There's plenty of things that look religious in this world that will fool you into thinking.
That you do not need to follow the Lord Jesus in this path of separation. That you can join hands and I can join hands with the systems that men have set up and we can get along and form a strong Christian front and we can make things better in this world. You know what you're going to lose. You're going to lose David's presence. That's what Mephidosheth lost.
He lost the presence of David all the time that David was out because he got fooled.
He listened to an unfaithful servant.
And you know, when David came back, it's interesting. Here's what David asked it AI.
In verse 19 he says, Wherefore goes thou also with us?
Nobody asked me to, Chefs, when you saw him, I don't know, in the.
21St 22nd chapter somewhere in there.
He says.
Why whenst thou not with me?
Why didn't she follow me? Are we going to get home to glory someday? View the presence of the blessed Lord Jesus his face for the first time, and see the joy he has and finally having us home with him only to hear him say to my heart, why didn't she go with me?
Why did she follow the interjection down there?
Oh, let's not give up that reward. It's worth it. It's worth it to follow. Let's not be fooled. Don't let a servant.
Rule your heart.
And do not follow the Lord Jesus.
And I want to say one more thing before we turn over to Matthew.
This was not an easy path.
It was a path that knew what leaping was. It was a path that knew what sorrow was, and it was a path that knew what insults were for. It says that in in their trip, in their journey, there came a time.
When a man named shimmy I.
Who was of Saul's house and he hated David.
He looked at David as not the rightful king of God had set up, but as one who usurped the place that his household should have. And so, as David King got by, it says that shinny I picked up rocks and dust and threw them at David and Kirsten.
And he said, as it were. You're getting, David, just what you deserve. You're a bloody man and you're getting just what you deserve.
Well, what's what's interesting about that?
Verse 13 of chapter 16.
Turn over to chapter 16 and look at verse 13.
And as David and his men went by the way, shiny I went along on the hills side over against him, and cursed as he went, and threw stones at him, and cast dust, and the king and all the people that were within came weary.
And refresh themselves there. What is this?
It's possible to refresh yourself when people are throwing stones and dust on you.
Yeah.
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Don't think for a minute that if you follow the Lord Jesus, you're not going to feel the insults that are directed at him. The people that were beside David, the people that were front and the people were behind those rocks and dust hit them as just as much as they hit David.
They felt those curses. They loved David. Do you think that one of them wanted to go over and chop his head off? He said today. Let me go over and take his hand off. David showed a very wonderful spirit. He said. No, if the Lord please, he'll bring me back, let him curse.
He's been bidding to do that. David humbled himself, and he wouldn't allow that to happen. Oh, beloved Christians here tonight. We're not in this world to fight and set things right. That's not why we're here. We're here to follow a rejected Christ. We're here to feel the dust and the stones that this world throws at the Lord Jesus.
And in the midst of it, what happens? They refreshed themselves. In the very midst of the insults and the persecution that are directed at the blessed Lord Jesus. It can be a time of refreshing for your heart and mind if we're in the company of the Lord Jesus in his rejection.
FIFA, the servants and the soldiers.
Now I'm closing turn over to Matthew 18.
I would like to speak very lovingly and very pointedly now to my beloved friends.
You and I well know that all is not as it should be in these sentence.
There's much in our assemblies that could discourage our hearts.
And we feel oftentimes that we're very, very weak and unable to reach out and be the kind of testimony that we should be to the Lord Jesus because of our great reasons. It's all right to feel that. Notice very carefully what this verse says, where two or three.
Our damage? I've often heard it ministered, and I believe it's right that two is testimony.
You have to You have testimony. 3 is abundant testimony, and so you have that as the smallest possible numbers.
But the Lord Jesus would be able to collectively and be in the midst of He's in the hearts of every individual all the time. I will never leave thee, nor for safety. He's always with me and with You individually, never to leave us, but collectively to be as a divine person in our midst.
Two or three now, that's right.
But what I want to encourage our hearts with is.
If our assemblies are so weak.
That we're getting discouraged. Remember this if 2.
Followers and servants.
Can be there. He's going to be there. They don't have to be soldiers.
For the Lord Jesus to be there.
I believe for the Lord Jesus to be in an assembly, it morally has to have the character.
Of those who love him and desire to serve him. And ever as weak as they might be, so that they could never fight a battle, they could never, they might say, I don't understand the word of God enough to stand against all this wicked documents going on. I wouldn't know how to confront it. That's all right.
Are their followers and servants. That's what the Lord desires.
Where his spirit gathers and I want to be very clean about this, that really is talking about numbers. But the moral character that has been such an encouragement to my heart as I looked around and I said, Lord Jesus, I'm part of failure and weakness and in myself I only can say that I have no ability to withstand this blood of wickedness and evil doctrine that's just overflowing this so-called Christian country I can't stand. I'm not a soldier, I'm weak. And the Lord says, well, if there's two there, I'll be in the midst.
And she want to follow me. And if you want to serve me, I'll be there.
If there's three, if there could be soldiers, that's wonderful. They'll be there at all. Let's take encouragement tonight. But what the Lord is looking for is those who want to follow him and want to serve Him. You know, he sent those disciples out. They said, Lord, where do you want us to prepare? And he said, you go into the city and you find a man bearing the pitcher of water, and you follow it into the house where he enters, and he'll show you a large upper room furnished there. You make it.
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What do they have to do? They had to follow his instructions, and when they got there, they had to serve him by making ready. They had to follow the certain. They didn't have to knock the Roman soldiers out of the way. They didn't have to get in a fight with the Jewish high priests and elders to get to that room. All they had to do was follow the Lord Jesus instructions because they loved him.
And to serving by making ready that room so he could come there and sit down in their midst.
And that's where he sat with me. And may that encourage our hearts tonight, beloved brethren.
Who are we going to go to? Let's not go to somebody else. Let's not let this spirit that's invading and pervading Christianity Today to get our hearts and our eyes occupied. And I want to speak so very carefully here, but let's not let it get our hearts so occupied with service and action and doing things that we forget all about the person who's been rejected and in the middle of some of these most beautiful church buildings and these, these very, very morally nice and upright people.
You know as well as I do that there's no room for our blessed Lord Jesus. There's no room for that wonderful man. There's only room for a beautiful building and tremendous activity and wonderful services. And there's no room for Jesus, the man who had.
Spit running down his face as he hung on the cross. Isn't he worth following tonight?
Who are you going to follow if you don't follow him, or two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them, the followers, the servants, and by the grace of God, even the soldiers gathered around him, and the blessed Lord Jesus in the midst.
Isn't that the way to go home brother? To walk together home with the Lord Jesus in the midst and to see his face and not to have him here, have to hear him say, why didn't you go with me? But the hearings say, well done, good and faithful servant, Wouldn't you like to hear that? Is that possible that someone like me that failed so much could hear the Lord Jesus say that and believe it is? I really believe it is.
That if there's a heart desire to follow him.
In this world, someday I believe we can hear him say, Well done. May it be so with each one of us.