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May it scenes of confusion.
And creature.
Complaints.
How sweet a little soul is described.
Union will Saints.
To find out.
Mercy, there's room.
To play from you.
No love.
Sweet thoughts that you.
Say.
Again was submission.
And straight as the day.
So.
He we shall call.
Grace.
Thyroid, last word and the smiles of my face.
And ground the silver.
I groan.
We wave, bless and Lord.
To join to.
Save glory.
To thy praise.
Blessings save your.
Phone.
To the Lord.
Our gracious, loving God and Father.
When we read of thy word, how?
Comforting and and what peace thou brought thy disciples, when I said, when thou has said, I go away.
To prepare a place for Thee. And if I go away, I shall come again to receive you unto myself, that where I am, thou shalt be also. Oh, accompanying words these were. And we thank thee, our blessed Lord Jesus, for that portion, that position, and that prospect that awaits us, that heavenly home. But we thank thee, our blessed Lord Jesus, for.
That wonderful promise that the Lord himself shall descend from heaven.
And so, Lord, we wait for thee, we know that draws near. And thank You for this Oasis that we have before us, Thy precious Word. And we, Lord, we are needful people. And we just pray that Thou would open up the Scriptures to us for what is needed and that we might glean more of Christ here in this scene. And so, Lord, we look to thee, We pray for liberty of the Spirit for guidance.
We thank You for Thy precious word, and we wait before Thee as we again take up Thy portion that Thou has so graciously brought before us. We thank You for this time.
And give thee the thanks and thy precious name, Lord Jesus, Amen.
But for those that weren't with us yesterday, we started off in the latter part of Luke 12.
And we didn't get very far. Would it be alright to go on with that then?
Sounds good.
Luke's Gospel chapter 12. I think we got down to verse 35. Is that about right?
We started at verse 30. We didn't start at the beginning of the chapter, but.
We got the 1St 35.
Luke's Gospel chapter 12 and starting in verse 35. Let your loins be girded about, and your lights burning, and you yourselves like in the men that wait for their Lord, when he will return from the wedding, that when he cometh and knocketh, they may open it to him immediately. Blessed are those servants whom the Lord when he cometh shall find watching. Verily I say unto you, that he shall gird himself, and make them to sit down to meet, will come forth and serve them. And if he shall come in the second watch or in the third watch.
And find them so. Blessed are those servants. And this know, that if the Goodman of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched, and not have suffered his house to be broken through. Be therefore ready also, for the Son of Man cometh in an hour when you think not. Then Peter said unto him, Lord, speak us out of this parable unto us, or even to all. And the Lord said, Who then is that faithful and wise Stewart, whom his Lord shall make ruler over his household?
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To give them their portion of meat and due season. Blessed is that servant whom is Lord, when he cometh, shall find so doing. Of a truth I say unto you, that he will make him ruler over all that he hath. But if that servant shall say in his heart, My Lord delayeth his coming, and shall begin to beat the men, servants and maidens, and to eat and drink, and to be drunken. The Lord of that servant will come in a day when he looketh not for him, in an hour when he is not aware, and will cut him asunder, and will point him in his portion with the unbelievers.
And that servant which knew his Lord's will, and prepared not Himself, neither did according to His will, shall be beaten with many stripes. But he that knew not, and did commit things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes. For unto whomsoever much is given of Him shall be much required. And to whom men have committed much of him, they will ask The more. I am come to send fire on the earth, and what will I if it be already kindled? But I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how am I straightened till it be accomplished?
Suppose ye that I am come to give peace on earth, I tell you nay, but rather division.
For from henceforth there shall be five in one house divided 3 against two, and two against three.
The father shall be divided against the son, and the son against the father, the mother against the daughter, and the daughter against the mother, the mother-in-law against their daughter-in-law, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And he said also to the people, When you see a cloud rise out of the West straight way, you say there come with a shower, and so it is. And when you see the South wind blow, you say there will be heat, and it cometh to pass. You hypocrites, you can discern the face of the sky and of the earth.
But how is it that you do not discern this time? Yay. And why even of yourselves judging not what is right? When thou goest with thine adversary to the magistrate, as thou art in the way, give diligence that thou mayest be delivered from him, lest he hail thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and the officer caste into prison. I tell thee that thou shalt not depart thence till thou hast paid the very last might.
Without fogging us down or going backwards, I just would like to make a practical comment about verse 34.
Treasure is before the heart. Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
We we know the importance of the heart from many passages of Scripture. I think of the passage in Proverbs. It says keep thy heart above all. All things are all that is kept or out of it are the issues of life.
But we can't really control our affections in a certain way, but we can control our mind.
And so in Colossians 3, I remember years ago the correction a brother gave in a reading to that passage, it says set your affection on things above. And he he corrected me with a better reading and said set your mind on things about.
And we have control over that. You may wake up in the morning and feel grumpy and feel uninspired to get into the scriptures before you rush off to school or work.
But if you, no matter how you feel, you can put, you can control your mind and you can put it on things above and guess what happens? The heart follows. In Psalm 16, there's a beautiful example of that. And no doubt that would speak prophetically of that perfect man that was to come, the Lord Jesus Christ. But let me just read a verse there that I, I, I think of at times, Psalm 16 and verse 8.
I have set the Lord always before me.
You can do that no matter how you feel.
You've got chronic medical conditions. I've lived with those. It can get you, it can't. It can push you to be a little grumpy, but you can still set the Lord before yourself. I have set the Lord before me and knowing what happens, because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved. It gives confidence, doesn't it? And then it flows on verse 9. Therefore my heart is glad and my glory rejoices. My flesh also shall rest in hope. It's a beautiful flow of things, but I just wanted to point that out. I unless I was daydreaming, I didn't think we got on to verse 34 much.
But the treasure is something we we mentally have latched onto in our hearts. Affections follow it, and it's beautiful.
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Perhaps I can make one more remark before we enter into the chapter.
Maybe others have gotten the same feedback, but I got some feedback both yesterday and today that we were sometimes throwing around some terms that.
Our young people didn't totally understand such as covenant theology and dispensational truth and the Kingdom of heaven and so on.
I think they were briefly discussed yesterday and if we get on to a long tangent discussion on them we'll lose what's in the chapter, but I would just suggest that.
If you want to get some enlightenment on those things. And you young people are far more technologically oriented than some of us in my generation.
Go to Bible Truth Publishers website, click on their digital library.
And their whole library is on.
Is online there and you can access it free and quickly. There is a pamphlet on covenant theology there which is fairly short and to the point which will help get you started on what it is. And then if you feel you need to know more about it, there are other more detailed references if you want to know a little bit about dispensational truth.
And others who I'm sure would back me up in this pull up a slightly longer.
Pamphlet or booklet? It was written 60 years ago or more by Paul Wilson, A Defense of Dispensationalism.
Paul Wilson was a young people's man. I remember him very well. And in my generation, we broke our necks to get to a conference if we knew Paul Wilson was going to be there. So it's not written in a highly intellectual way that you can't understand, and it's very well done. Anyone that's read it, I know would back me up a defense of dispensationalism. And you can pull it up online and read it online, or you can order from BTP if you want to know more about the Kingdom of heaven or the Kingdom of God.
Again, pull up the digital library. Punch in that phrase in the search engine, in quotation marks. Not just the words, or you'll get a whole slew of things that just have to do with heaven and Kingdom and so on, but in quotation marks. Plug in that phrase and you will get plenty. You can read on what the Kingdom of heaven is.
And when you do your own research like that, it often tends to stick with you even better than if you.
Here at a Bible conference. So I just make that remark as a bit of a suggestion and if if some somehow you're not clear on some of those.
Well, with regard to verse 35, it has always been interesting to me that the girded loins comes before the light burning or the lights burning. Girding up the loins is something that we don't do quite as much of in this country, but you still see it in the East where men who are working in the fields wear something that is just loose and.
Hanging out, as it were, when they're at home.
When they're going to work, they cinch it up, bring it around their waist, and then they're ready to go out to work. That's where their strength is.
And that's what the Lord wants you and me to be doing down here in this world. We had it yesterday. We are left here in this world to look after Christ's interest. A tremendous privilege, tremendous privilege. Just think, He has gone back there to heaven, but left you and me in this world as ambassadors for Him to look after his interests.
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And the first thing that we are told to do here is to have our loins girded. But then when our loins are girded, it will follow that our lights will be burning. That is, there will be that which exhibits. And we had this yesterday, the Kingdom of God, the character of Christ, the moral character of all that he is.
And it shines out.
It really does shine out if we act for him.
Let me give you an example because sometimes a story carries at home. Many years ago and I knew the brother well, he was dealing with a various companies in his business and he got a rebate from one of those companies for some business he was doing with them.
And one of the representatives of that company who gave him back the rebate said, well, that'll be a nice bonus for you.
And the brother said yes after the government gets its piece of the action referring to income tax.
Oh, the company representative said. You don't. You don't have to declare this on your income tax. You don't have to do that.
It's not on our books in any way that anybody would ever know anything about it. You just put it in your pocket and keep it.
Well, the brother's reply was excellent. And he told me this himself. He said, I told that man, he said, well, I always like to do my books as if the Lord were looking over my shoulder.
Well, nothing more was said. The representative went his way and the brother went on with his business.
Fast forward 10 years.
The representative was seriously ill in the hospital.
Knew that he wasn't going to make it.
Didn't know where he was going when he left this world.
And he still had the brother's phone number. He called him up, he said, referring to him by name. He said, would you come and visit me?
I don't know where I'm going. I'm leaving this world soon, going into eternity, and I think you're someone that ought to be able to tell me something about it and what to do.
And he led him to Christ.
All on the basis of a light that was burning. All on the basis of moral uprightness in this world. Did he preach the gospel to him? No, not on that occasion anyway. He did later, of course. All he did was exhibit the Kingdom of God, and it bore fruit down the road.
Lord.
Was Albert? Hey Hope for anyone who wants to know.
Tell us why you're saying that hurting your loins is what? What did you say? Truth. What? Give us a little more what that means.
Well, girding our loins with truth, of course, is part of the armor, as we get it in Ephesians 6. But I believe here the Lord is using it as a general term. In other words, we're not left here. And I'm quoting a brother whom I've never, whom I never knew, because he went to be with the Lord long before I was born, James B Dunlop. And but he lived and labored in the same area where I live now, and.
He gave an address on a New Year's meeting way back in the early part of the last century, and he said.
Quotation. We are not left in this world simply to lead good, morally upright lives and then to go to heaven at the end, he said. We are to do all of that, but much, much more. We are to be living witnesses to this world of the grace that brought us to Christ, and that means not relaxing in this world and simply doing what is right and going to heaven at the end.
But our loins girded, looking for that work to every man, his work that the Lord has given us to do.
We see a picture of that. You watch a Workman, a Carpenter, when he gets up in the morning, his tool belt he puts on, you know exactly what he set it out to do if he's a Carpenter, if he's a plumber, that's a little bit different. He Gertz it about and anybody who's ever watched Weight Lifters.
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Professional weight lifters or even somebody working in the gym that's working with heavy weights, we talked about this, but it can they put this belt around them, this leather belt that they cinched very tight and it's wide and it helps them have more strength when they do what they do. And as brother Bill pointed out, it also helps them from getting a hernia. But you, when you see them do it, you know what they're about. And other kinds of work may be the same thing. You see them putting up to a belt on or something around their ways to do that.
I was kind of joking with a brother looking at Bibles back there and there's these tiny little Bibles that have Old and New Testament in them and I noticed they're 40 bucks now. Back in when I used to work as a welder, the Christians I worked with, it was like our 6th gun. We put it in our back pocket here every morning and we had other things we had to take as we went to work as welders, but that was one of them. It was in our back, right back pocket ready to go and bring out.
At at work.
So that was our cinching and girting about as we got up in the morning. Does that make any sense?
Yeah, so just some nebulous terms. I'm just saying asking that question because the young people don't know what to mean when you say Gert your loins. Well, what does it mean? You know, does it treating him with truth? You you gave us the scripture in the 6th of.
I believe it means getting before the Lord privately and personally and allowing the Lord to apply the truth to your own personal life.
I believe that's the girding, and in such a way as that the Lord can fit us to be.
Useful to him as our master.
I once had the responsibility for a certain.
Geographical area in the business and I had to hire staff and I had an HR guy assigned to me to help me. It would sort through and do all the advertisements, do all the hard work.
Then he'd bring in certain ones for me to interview if he thought that they were a good candidate. And one evening he brought in a a young man. He seemed bright and all that. And I visited and chatted with him. He had some experience, but I knew when he came in that I wasn't going to hire him. And but we had a courteous conversation and and then he left and my HR guy came in all excited. Well, what did you think? What did you think? I said I'm not hiring him. He said why? I said he didn't have a belt on.
And he thought I was the most ridiculous person in the world. He says, why would you not hire a guy just because he has a doesn't have a belt on? I said because we're in the construction business. That's the best he's ever going to look. And if he's not tightened up when he comes in to see me. I didn't care that he didn't have a tie, but he didn't even have a bell tie. So well, my HR guy, he just walked. He thought I was lost my mind, but I didn't think I lost my mind. I had almost lost my life once because as you say.
Assam.
You see construction workers and they have a vest on, a reflective vest.
And I was a young manager and I was making my rounds and I was up at a height and I was flapping in the breeze like that and, you know, in a hurry. And my vest caught on a piece of handrail or a piece of steel, I can't remember. And it yanked me back off my feet just about. And I almost fell to my death. I never told you that. But but anyway, ever since then, I take it very seriously.
You know all the guys and I even learned how to tell the guys in Spanish tighten up, you know, get that it's supposed to be zipped up, be organized and and and I believe that is one of the principles for us as servants of the Lord. We need to apply the truth to ourselves and it gives a certain spiritual discipline and reality in the inward life and it enables us to be fit for the masters use with this scripture that our brother Bruce was bringing before us.
In the 13th verse of the first chapter.
Of first, Peter, gird up the loins of your mind. That would be a part of it, right?
That's a girding up, you know now that set to your mind that just.
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Wonder and.
Fanciful things girded out. Think about, think on things that are important.
Paul gives us a list of those things and Timothy in Philippians, doesn't he?
We have an example in First Kings chapter 18 verse 46, Speaking of Elijah. The hand of the Lord was on Elijah and he girded up his loins and ran before Ahab to the entrance of Jezreel. I mean, this is just a very simple picture, but we can all picture in our minds in Middle East, they wear flowing garments. You can't run in one of those. Run in one of those. It's not as if they're wearing the wrong garment, but it has to be put in its proper place. Otherwise we can't function. We can't.
Perform our service and the verse that we're looking at is about service and testimony.
Our service and testimony. So it's about putting things in the proper place in perspective. And I like the verse you read there in First Peter because it's not just physical, it's mental, isn't it?
Beat it to death. But I think sometimes we need to explain it so that the young people can know what we're talking about. Amen.
What about the second part of the verse?
Your lights burning.
Reminded me of a verse that had on my heart in the prayer meeting yesterday. I I didn't read it. It wasn't necessarily an exact fit with my thoughts. But in Philippians 2, verse 15 says that you may be blameless and harmless the sons of God without rebuke in the midst of a crooked perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world. And I have a note like the stars in the night sky. And I think Mr. Darby has a.
A footnote regarding that in his translation among whom ye appear as lights in the world. You know, the moral darkness that's descending in this world is really astonishing, the rapidity that the rate at which the darkness is coming upon this well and.
Again, I'd like to hear what other people's thoughts are in terms of practical application. But as that night falls, you know it doesn't take much of a little candle to cast the light.
Part of the Armor of God that we get in chapter 6.
Refers to having your loins dirt about with truth.
And the truth is, what is going to keep us from being defiled by the filth that is in the world? I'm reminded of the.
Of the patient by her brother Dave Mearns the other night at the picnic.
About seeking a high ground.
And there's a lot of.
Of teaching and doctrine and cultural.
Tolerance in this world is not according to truth.
And so if we have our loins gird about with truth, if we're grounded in the Word of God.
And if we are acquainted with what Scripture teaches on some of the current issues that we face today.
Then it will enable us to find that high ground and we will be preserved from the defilement. And I believe a natural outflow of that state is that we will be, our lights will be shining.
In this Dark World that where truth not only is is their apathy, but truth is being positively rejected and cast out. And if we have our loins skirted about with truth in a spiritual sense, we will be shining as lights in this world.
The Bill told is the light here a light shined out and years later it bore fruit. Well, if we use the analogy of a Workman putting his belt on, many of these workmen are getting up before dawn and they need a light to go do their work. Well, I would say that Bill's story about Albert Hayhoe, and he had truth. He acted on it. Something in him shined out.
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That's what happens when you girt about with truth and you go whatever you are called to do in a secular work or wherever you go, there's a light that can shine out. You can dim it. But if you're Gert about with truth and as Bruce was saying, you that every day you you gather that in and you you have your devotions before the Lord and you get ready as before you go out, something will shine.
And it'll shine and people will see it. It will affect them. Even if you don't think it does, it does.
The day in which we live, it doesn't take very much light to make a difference. If you had a candle and you lit it in here, it wouldn't make much light. But you turn all these lights out at midnight, that candle will make a big difference. And we're living in a dark, dark day. All you have to do is maybe tell the truth or something and it and that is an impression on people because things are so dark.
First thing mentioned in Ephesians.
In the whole armor of God that our brother referred to is the loins gird about with truth.
Then it progresses to the feet shod with the gospel of peace. And some have applied that to evangelizing. I don't think it's evangelizing with our words and lips the way we think of evangelizing. It's more the evangelizing with the effect the truth has had in our own lives. So we walk through this world with the spirit of peace.
And so as you say, burn as the world gets darker, a person that just exudes a certain contentment and peace will will stick out, as they say, like a sore thumb. And so it's to say we it's quite a, a harmony and a balance between that which which is for our own preservation and protection and that which also can be a blessing to others.
Well, we probably should move on. We've said quite a bit about loins girded and lights burning, and we won't get through the chapter if we don't, but.
In verse 36 we find something else that's very important, the loins girded and the lights burning.
Are in One Direction, but then.
We are to be like unto men that wait for their Lord, that when He will return from the wedding.
When he will return from the wedding, that when he cometh the knocketh, they may open unto him immediately.
This comes to life in an Eastern wedding.
I don't believe the wedding here has any significance relative to.
You and I being the bride of Christ or something like that. It's rather the thought that in an Eastern wedding, especially a wedding of a wealthy man, he would have a significant number of servants who would be engaged in taking him to his wedding. And they make a big show of weddings in the East. They, they really do. And they, they, they party half the night sometimes, which is fine.
But the point is here that the servants don't get to go into the wedding.
They're the ones that look after the horses or whatever, look after things and they are compelled to stay out there in some kind of a shelter or a building while the wedding is going on. And again, I say I don't have any fault with that. I, I tried to call a brother over there who was getting married and I called him at approximately midnight his time, thinking that I'd get get through to him after the wedding was over.
And I am not exaggerating. The noise was so loud in the background from the festivities that were still going on that I could only.
Say about one sentence or two and then had to hang up because he couldn't hear me and I could hardly hear him. And I don't say that in any way, in a derogatory way. I just say it as a fact. That's the way they go. And you can imagine these servants waiting in some kind of a shelter and as the wedding goes on and the night goes on, they would, in a normal course of things, be tempted to fall asleep.
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And many times that would happen.
But what the bridegroom really appreciated was if he came out and there were those servants waiting and watching, ready to go. And he said, OK, let's go. And they were all ready. Instead of his having to go around and shake this one and shake that one and wake him up and say, come on, let's time, the wedding's over, let's go. And that, that is often what happens. But now when he knocks on the door, if they're awake, they open unto him immediately and they say, master, we're here, we're ready.
And that's what the Lord wants from you and me, doesn't He? He wants those who have not settled down in this world and just relaxed. He wants those who are engaged in His work but at the same time ready to go at a moments notice when He gives the shout.
I.
What's the significance in verse 37?
Of the Lord, that he shall girt himself, girt himself, and make them to sit down, to meet, and will come forth and serve them.
I've read that verse for 50 years.
And I can't wrap my mind around it.
You and I were invited.
And let's use an American illustration.
Suppose we were invited to the White House.
Waited there for a banquet.
And when we get there?
President Biden invites us in and says, you sit down.
I'm going to serve you.
Now that would never happen.
But.
That is really what the Lord is going to do to you and me.
If he's going to say to you and me, you were faithful in the world that rejected me, and now I'm going to make you sit down and serve me.
I don't know, maybe others can comment on it, I just I just can't.
Can't understand it. What do you think, brother Ernie? You've you've read it many times.
What we have in Exodus 21.
And to read it.
Thou buy in Hebrew servant. Six years he shall serve, and in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing. If he came in by himself, he shall go out by himself. If he were married, then his wife shall go out with him. If his master have given him a wife, and she have borne him sons or daughters, the wife and her children shall be her masters, and he shall go out by himself. That this has always struck me as unbelievable that one would do that, leave their wife and their children behind, and go out free.
But it says in verse five, If the servants shall plainly say, I love my master, my wife, and my children, I shall not go out free. Then his master shall bring him unto the judges, and shall bring him to the door, or unto the door post, and his master shall bore his ear through them all, and he shall serve him forever.
Again, when Bill says he can't get his mind around it, it's not the understanding of it intellectually, it's the comprehending that this one that gave himself for us is not willing to go out free.
But He will serve us.
Go ahead, burn. Sorry. I'm sorry. My I have hearing aids. But what is he going to serve us? Heavenly happiness.
Will be happy, that's what he'll service. I believe that's not I've heard somebody say that.
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Will be the happiest that God is able to make us happy.
What was your thought, brother? What do you think?
I, as I say, I can't, I can't wrap my mind or my affections or anything around it because.
Our brother has just brought out Christ is going to be a servant forever.
And what's she going to service? Just what you say. Eternal joy and the fullness of all that He is in himself for all eternity, served up with no hindrances of any kind. No old you and I were talking about it yesterday. No sinful flesh to get in the way. No infirmities of age and weakness or disease. No interference from a contrary world around. Everything perfectly suited.
To that eternal life which He has given us, and then the full display of all His glories which will take us for an eternity. An eternity to will never exhaust them, will we?
Doesn't get any better than that.
Having taken manhood to himself.
Remains a man forever it's.
Can't wrap your head around that. OK, The man forever. There is one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus. Present tense, still a man. You can see that woven through many passages when you stop and think about it. Confirmation. He remains a man forever down here though he were Son.
He took servant to it, to himself as a man. He was the girded 1 here important people. They come into a a tour someplace, you know, a politician or whatever.
They don't worry about girding themselves. No, they're just flowing and matter of fact, really important people. You know, they come in and they don't even want to carry a briefcase. You know, they just come in. You know nothing in their hand. You know their, their, their sidekick has the, even the papers and the briefcase for the, for the work that needs to be done, not the Lord. He gird himself with a towel, laid aside his garments and girded himself with a towel to wash their feet.
And he serves us now on high, as the daughter puts it, with sympathy and love, And he's going to serve forever. It is just as Nick was saying. It's beyond comprehension to serve up the joys of heaven for the likes of us made fit.
Father's house.
Like the picture that we get in Genesis 14 when?
Melchizedek, priests of the Most High God. He comes out with bread and wine and.
In more than one way, the Lord is going to be the one who supplies sustenance and joy to the whole earth when He comes again and reigns over this world. But for you and I, He's going to supply that sustenance and joy for all eternity. And going back to the reference to John 13, where the Lord girded himself and washed the disciples feet, you know, we might be like Peter and say, Lord, thou shalt never wash my feet.
He couldn't bear to see the Lord take that place. That one who he called Lord, he thought this is far below him. How can he do this? And you know, we might sort of have the same thought when we read this chapter and say no, that that can't be for the Lord to gird himself and take that that place.
JG Ballot had such a sweet answer to that from Hebrews Chapter 7 and verse 7.
And without all contradiction, the less is blessed of the better. Yes, He comes forth to bless us, but we're the less that are blessed for the better.
Even now.
We were talking at supper last night at a table. If we allow the Lord to work in US and through us.
He's going to reward us. How do you even get your head around that? We allow him.
The work in US and through us, and then he's going to reward us for that.
00:50:05
Amazing.
And it doesn't mean that we won't serve. In Revelation 22, it says, and his servants shall serve him, and they shall see his face. And so we will have the privilege of serving up there. I'm not sure what kind of service it will be, but there will be a service that we can render up there for the Lord. Maybe someone else has a thought on it, but.
I like that.
What you quoted there from JG ballots ministry, Steve, that's that's beautiful that the less is blessed of the greater and the Lord Jesus will be the center of all up there. He will have the preeminence up there in everything, but then he blesses and he serves.
Another thought to remember, and that is brother Nick referred to Exodus 21. He remains a servant forever. He'll serve us, but he's not our servant.
He's a servant of God. As a man He serves us, but he's not our servant. If he was, we could tell him what to do. No, He tells us what to do. He's God's servant, not ours though. He serves us and need to keep those things in their proper place in our hearts.
He wants to show his kindness.
Who are we to say no, you can't do that?
He wants to glorify himself and he says more blessed to give than to receive. God's a giver.
Where? Who are we to say no, no, you can't be that?
It's amazing that he wants to make us as happy as we're able to be happy.
Fall to His glory.
Still picture.
First Kings, chapter 10.
This gives a little bit more perspective.
On the role of the servant.
Chapter 10.
And verse 5. Verse 4.
First Kings chapter 10, verse 4.
And when the Queen of Sheba had seen all Solomon's wisdom, and the house that he had built, and the meat of his tables, and the sitting.
Of his servants doesn't say the activity of his servants. What repressed her was impressed her was the sitting of his servants and the attendance of his ministers. That's attentiveness and their apparel and his cup bearers and his assent by which he went up to the House of the Lord. There was no more spirit in her, and she looked down to verse 8. Happy are thy men, happy are these thy servants?
Which stand?
Continually before thee, and hear thy wisdom.
We think of service in terms of activity, but what we see here?
Is attitude readiness and of course that's pictured in our our chapter 2 when it speaks to the servants being ready and just like to suggest that.
Heaven is going to be a continual occupation with our Lord Jesus Christ, with His glory, with His wisdom, and we will serve in that respect.
I'd like I'd like to add one more point.
To also send Jude that he is going to present a faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy. And I think of that his joy is it going to exceed?
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Why yours and mine? He is going to be happier to have us there than we are going to be to be there. And you think of it in Luke 15 where the the shepherd brings his sheep home, and he calls his friends and neighbors together, and they says, rejoice with me.
He's got his sheep home.
And you know, sometimes we come to a conference like this and I saw it in in Walla Walla too, with some of the my brethren.
They were so excited to have their brethren there. They were very thrilled to serve them some coffee or serve them some food or do it wasn't anybody.
Commanding them to do it. It was the joy of their hearts. And I see it here too. What a what a welcome we get. But when we get home to heaven, we're going to.
The large Asus is going to be excited to see you.
And not only that, when he had seen you for 10,000 years, he's still going to be. It's not going to fade away.
And that's the kind of savior we have.
What a what a wonderful thing he really is. If you come somewhere and somebody's excited to see you, why, it really makes a difference in how you you feel. Well, you're going to feel that.
More than you've ever felt it here when you see Jesus.
Brother Bill mentioned, imagine going to the White House and having President Biden serve you. I read a story about Lincoln that he used to go visit the troops and he would sit at the bedside and he would personally take a towel in cold water and dab the brow and just hold their hand and speak comfort to them. There's a little picture that I remember.
From reading about it of someone serving a servant.
The President of the United States and those looking on sometimes sought it a bit strange, but the soldiers loved him all the more for him.
Well, the next few verses give us an interesting, at least to me.
Combination of that which is meant spiritually and perhaps.
If we could use the term again without over using it. A moral and spiritual.
Application to ourselves. And yet because of the time in which it was given, it has a Jewish background to it. Verse 38 And if he shall come in the second watch or come in the third watch.
And find them so. Blessed are those servants. The Roman night was broken up into four watches of three hours each. First one started at 6:00 in the evening, went to 9, and then three hours on and on and on and so on. 4 total watches. And it starts off here with the 2nd or the 3rd watch. We know of course in Matthew chapter 14, when the Lord came to His disciples walking on the water, He came in the 4th watch of the night.
That would be from 3:00 AM to 6:00 AM. But it gives us the thought, and it gave those who were listening to the Lord the thought that He could come at any time. He could come at any time. Now, the background is Jewish. It says if the Goodman of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched and would not have suffered his house to be broken through.
Be ye therefore ready also, for the Son of Man cometh at an hour when ye think not.
Now that of course, is spoken in a strict, strict interpretation to the godly Jewish ones who in a coming day during the tribulation period will be looking for the Lord to come and save them from their enemies, looking for the Lord to come. And he comes as a thief in the night to his enemies. He comes unexpected and unwanted.
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But to those who are looking for him, they will be happy to see him.
Well, you and I can apply that I believe to ourselves and say the Lord is coming for us and He doesn't come to us as a thief in the night. Whenever you get that expression, it has to do with His appearing when He comes to judge this world, to set up His Kingdom. But you and I can apply it to ourselves, I believe in this chapter. When is the Lord going to come? We don't know.
But we do know that there is no prophecy that has to be fulfilled before the Lord can come. And how wonderful that is sometimes, you know, we can get a little.
Shall I say it discouraged when the Lord doesn't come?
Allow me to tell a story and I hope it's all right.
When I was over in India several years ago at a conference hosted by the brethren from Bhutan, and they have it on the Indian side of the border because it's much easier for people to come there than to get a visa to Bhutan.
They have a question meeting.
People can put questions into the box and there are plenty of them, and somebody put this question in.
We have been hearing for a long time that the Lord is coming and he doesn't come and he doesn't come and he doesn't come.
Why doesn't the Lord hurry up and come?
How are we going to answer that one?
The questions were handed to different people and that one fell to me and I really had to ask the Lord for an answer for it.
So I said I'd like a show of hands of how many people here have been saved in the last 10 years.
And I'd say a good 50% of the hands went up.
I said OK, now what about the last 20 years? How many here have been saved during the last 20 years?
75% of the hands went up.
Well, I said, you know, I was waiting for the Lord to come well over 20 years ago, well over 20 years ago. But I said, aren't you glad he waited for you?
I'm glad he waited for you and you are too. And if the Lord has more out there that He's.
Willing and happy to save. Can you and I wait a little longer?
And that was that seemed to satisfy them. And you and I have to look at it that way, don't we? We have to look at it that.
Our Lord is long-suffering, and not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. We are to count that the long-suffering of our Lord is salvation.
And it is. And if we look around this world today, the Lord is doing a wonderful work in many lands where the gospel has not gone out before. The Lord is using modern technology in a wonderful way.
He may come in the second watch or the third watch, but if he leaves it till the 4th watch just before the morning.
That's all right, too, and you and I can afford to wait, I believe.
But we can get discouraged wondering when the Lord is going to come. And this is an encouragement to our hearts, isn't it?
The anticipation ought to build.
Participation ought to build just before the verse you quoted.
Bill in second Peter 3.
Where it says the long-suffering of our Lord is salvation.
Verse 14 Wherefore, beloved, seeing that you look for such things, be diligent that you may be following a human peace without spot and blameless.
So while we're waiting, we trust. We're watching.
While we're waiting and watching, we trust that we're occupied with what he would have us do in the meantime and not grow discouraged by the long-suffering.
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Perhaps that's why John when he wrote in his.
Book that we called Revelation, that he spoke of the Kingdom and patience of our Lord Jesus Christ, because He is displaying such patience.
Awaiting that moment that our brother back here was was mentioning.
Moment that will burst upon us and never end.
We patiently wait for it, as does he.
Maybe some other brother has a comment on it, but I have looked at verse 39 as a warning in the Lords day for those who did not believe and verse 40 as an encouragement to those who did. Is that is that a right thought?
Those 2 watches.
What is the 2nd and the 3rd? That's the darkest part of the night.
That's when you're you'll be asleep. You're most likely to be asleep at that time. So it's really a warning.
I've enjoyed the Mr. Harvey's translation of verse 38. It says and if he come in second watch and come in the moon watch.
Find them watching or waiting.
How many of our brethren have?
Look for the Lord to come. Expected Him to come their whole lifetime.
How many of our brethren have looked for the coming of the Lord in their whole lifetime? And then they reached old age and they went home. Well, what about them being watching and waiting when He comes? Just enjoyed this. He comes and he, He watches, He sees. And in the second watch there they are waiting and watching. He comes again in the third watch.
There they are, waiting and watching. Will they know that portion? Yes, they will.
You spoke of your father-in-law, brother Bill, and we probably all heard this story, but he spoke of coming home from work. And I don't know what the layout was, but apparently he would come around the corner and he could look up at his house and they're on the porch. His daughter Gracie would usually always be there.
Watching as soon as he came around the corner, she'd wave. And he said that just helped him get up those last few steps after being weary of work. One day he was tied up and he was quite late. And he said I was really looking forward to coming around the corner and seeing her. And yet he said I looked up and she wasn't there. So he said I went on up the hill, but not with quite the same energy that I usually have. And he said I opened the door and she was there on the floor plane with her brother and sister.
And he said, oh, there you are, Gracie. And she said, oh, Daddy, I just quit watching. Well, isn't there a danger for us now? Right at the end?
To just quit watching if he comes in the 2nd and in the 3rd and finds him watching.
Anybody who's taken their children on a trip where at the end there's some kind of exciting adventure.
Have probably been irritated by their children saying are we there yet, are we there yet, Are we there yet?
Maybe you can think about that a little bit and say there's maybe a lesson in that. Are we there yet? Are you coming yet?
Bill Bruce had said anticipation should build.
And we can choose that. We can choose that. You were mentioning earlier about the mind being set on that and choosing that to continue to anticipate and to build with it because it is closer today than it was yesterday. No matter what you think or where your affections might be. And if you drift a bit, we're closer than we were yesterday. It's closer. And I sometimes hear brethren say that.
We're one day closer. One day closer. That's anticipation.
231.
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Are dwelling as I am.
Creative thinking of pleasant.
Snow bird to a substance but.
Lord Murdoch.
Android.
The.
Host is leading for good. I'm his bride.
With a number of gildsmiths meeting.
Through the ways we roll.
This way to sing together.
Play all my heart from home.
And my name refers my blessing.
Is a finger.
Ever loving.
Father.
Flew well.
On everyone.
We want to meet our brethren from.
Every.
Distance.
You're not one will seem a stranger.
No mercy me more.
Oh Lord my face. See I.
Lord stands restraining time.
On the planet.
Ignore it.
Father, we thy children.
Bless.
Thee or thy love upon us, they blessing me I can see.
Now our father friends are gone.
I promise you.
Since my daughter asked me.
To win everything.
When we see our masters.
Of my soul's dream of the living.
And it's gonna make standing great easy.
Billy, thank him.
My Father, gracious God, we thank thee for portion we've had before us. Thank you for girding the safety that is with girding our loins with truth, and whatever you think thee that thou did, skirt thyself and wash thy disciples feet, and we thank thee.
For the hope we have have thy soon return, and we pray that we would be watching, and we thank thee that.
How it warms thy heart, How it will warm thy heart to see.
Those watching thy servants watching in Jesus name, Amen.