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Is not our resting place #9.
What are we looking children?
Blessing.
All.
So, so, so blessing. We can dance.
Now our Father and our love.
No, no.
Single one has.
Created us.
Hasting awkward to us.
Cruel desert.
With thy gloss and favor.
Spirit God.
Still wants to go.
And with daily strength, grow up.
Resting.
Please.
Show me all the way.
When we see our masters.
No, sorry, now and disappear.
So our souls rejoice.
And it is promise.
Waiting.
Soon shall hear his voice.
I believe there are a few helpful thoughts still left at the end of Luke 21, but on the other hand, if some other brother has something else for us.
I want them to know that I would be very happy with that too, so we don't have to go on with Luke 21. And what is the mind of the brethren? I'd like to suggest that we read those verses.
And then perhaps go over to 1St Thessalonians 5, which has some of the same exhortations, and it has a lot of practical exhortations too. If we put that together. I don't know if we'll get through it all, but we can read it anyhow. Is that all right? Sounds good. Bob Woodward verses, would you read in First Thessalonians 5 or the whole chapter? The whole chapter, OK.
Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. So to hear it.
As a blessing, right?
Even we don't get through it all.
Starting at which worse?
In Luke 21, I would suggest we read from verse 33.
To the end of the chapter and then Bob suggesting the whole of First Thessalonians 5.
That's the way and take yourselves.
Cares of this life until that day come upon you unawares as a snare shall it come on on all them to dwell on the face of the whole world. Watch you therefore, and pray always, that you may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man. And then, and then the daytime he was teaching in the temple, and at night he went out and abode in the mount that was called the Mount of Olives.
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And all the people came early in the morning.
To him in the temple for to hear him.
First Thessalonians, chapter 5.
But of the times and the seasons, brethren, you have no need that I write unto you, for yourselves Know perfectly that the day of the world.
For the night, for when they shall say peace and safety, then sudden destruction cometh upon them as travail upon a woman with child, and they shall not escape. But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief. You're all the children of life and the children of the day. We are not of the night nor darkness. Therefore let us not sleep as do others, but let us watch and be sober to me. For they that sleep, sleep in the night, and they.
Be drunken, or drunken in the night, that let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and for an helmet the hope of salvation. For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that whether we wait for sleep, we should live together with him.
Wherefore comfort yourself together, and edify one another, even as also you do. And we beseech you, brethren, to know them which labor among you, and are over you in the Lord, and admonish you, and to esteem them very, very highly in love for their work sake, and to be at peace among yourselves. Now we exhort you, brethren, warn them that are unruly. Comfort in the people minded, support the weak, Be patient with all men.
See that none render evil for evil unto any man, but ever follow that which is good, both among yourselves and to all men.
Rejoice evermore, pray without ceasing in everything, give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. Quench not the Spirit, the spy is not prophesied. Prove all things, hold fast that which is good, Abstain from all appearance of evil, and the very God of peace sanctify you wholly. And I pray God, your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless under the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it.
President, pray for us. Greet all the brethren within. Holy kids, I charge you by the Lord that this epistle be read unto all the holy brethren. Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen.
While in verse 32 at the last Reading Media, we considered what it meant.
About a generation that would not pass away until everything that the Lord has spoken here would be fulfilled. And it was mentioned that the character of the nation would not change, even though it would be a matter of a long time before all these things would be fulfilled.
But I would suggest the thought with in connection with verse 33.
There's something else that won't pass away either, and that is the Word of God.
And it's both an encouragement, but also a warning.
Those.
Who were to be the godly ones and those who followed the Lord?
Could recognize what it says.
Going back in our chapter to verse 31, they could recognize when they saw these things that the Kingdom of God was nigh at hand.
You and I can recognize that too, in a slightly different way.
You and I can recognize that the Lord is coming soon, and shortly after that, at the end of the tribulation, He will set up that glorious millennial Kingdom. On the other hand, what an awful thought to be involved with some of these things that are spoken of here, men's hearts failing them for fear.
The powers of heaven being shaken by the advanced wickedness that this world will experience.
It's a very solemn warning, isn't it?
And God assures us that His Word will never pass away. Men would like to discount it. They'd like to carry on this world as if it were going on forever.
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They talk about what might happen and what could happen and what probably will happen in their eyes in 2050, and what shape the world will be in in 2100 and so on. All these things as if the world were just going to go on and on the way it is today.
No, God has his plans and purposes, and His Word will never pass away.
And I've quoted this before, but it has often impressed me.
Giving credit where credit is due. It's a quotation, not word for word, but approximate from JN Darby's ministry.
He said do not be concerned about all the purposes and movements of man.
They will only accomplish gods in the end and the rest will fall to the ground. And how true that is. God is working through all the maze and interplay of forces in this world to accomplish His purposes and anything that doesn't further that will fall to the ground. But God's word will prevail.
That's why it's so important, isn't it? To have our souls resting on the Word of God?
I say as I go around that people express their concerns and their feelings and they're very real. You can't deny that.
A Brethren, we don't base our faith on concerns and feelings.
Base it on the Word of God.
Remember, our young sisters said to me one time.
The Lord has left me.
I say, where did you come on that? I just feel like he's left me alone.
I say, do your feelings ever change? Yeah, they say. Does the word of God change?
No.
Then what should you believe?
Well, the word, the word says I will never leave thee, nor for safety.
And so sometimes, brethren, our feelings are very strong, and I don't deny that we have them. But don't base your faith on feelings.
Base your faith on the Word of God. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. So how important that is. Heaven and earth will pass away. My words shall not pass away.
Important to have on our own.
Daily schedule.
Time to read the scriptures. And I say, don't just skip around. Sometimes people go over here for one day and go over the other side another day. Pick up a book and read it through and we'll start with John's Gospel. It's a good place to start. Read a chapter and mark it and go back to the next day or whenever you have another time, I say.
Try to do it daily and continue to read through the scriptures. It's so important.
Last year I was having a conversation with a dear sister at the kitchen table, and I made the remark that she was kind of an emotional person and talking about her feelings and in a negative way. And I said, you know, sister feelings aren't fat.
What do you mean they're real? No, that's not what I meant. Of course they're real. That's why they're a problem. But I said they aren't facts, and you need to find out if the feelings you're having are based on some facts. Well, the Word of God is one of the ways to discern that well. And as soon as you find out that how you're feeling is based on maybe a lie or a misapprehension.
Your feelings change, and the wonderful thing about the word of God is.
It produces feelings that follow on after different kinds and stable feelings. And this was a total new concept. We had a wonderful conversation just visiting about it and how that both men and women, I think women are more guilty than others, often have a sense of kind of an overall shadow of guilt.
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And maybe about their children. Or I could have been a better mother. Could have been this could have been that. Could have, would have, should have.
And men do it too. Well, OK, there may have been things like that. And we were talking earlier about judging oneself and you can do that and it's OK. I don't think there's a parent in here that would say they were perfect and they have some regrets and have learned things when they got older. They wish they had known when they were younger. Well, that's just fine to to examine yourself and look at those things and then.
By the word of God, put them in their place.
You know, back home, brother Carl McCoy, when he got older, said he would say.
I know things now that I wish I had known as a young father, I would have done it differently. And he was gracious in his communications with some of the young families in our assembly to tell him, don't do what I once did. But he had a wisdom that had come to him by experience and then bringing it under the word of God.
The verses that follow in our chapter. Here we have some of the practical.
Exhortations, take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with Serpentine and drunkenness, and the care cares of this life, so that that day come upon you unawares, for as a snare shall it come upon you that.
All them that dwell on the face of the whole earth. Watch ye therefore, and pray always, and impress brethren so many places in the scripture that it speaks about.
Watching and being sober, Watching in contrast with sleeping and being sober in contrast with drunkenness. Drunkenness not so much not merely with alcohol, but drunkenness under the influence of the affairs of this life. It says here in verse 34, the cares of this life. Every one of us have cares in this life.
But do you get under the influence of that? Is that what dominates your life?
That's drunkenness in the spiritual sense of the word. And so we're exhorted not to give place to that, to be alert, awake. And somebody was mentioning that verse awake thou that sleepest with you, Bruce, I think it was and.
And that that's in Ephesians 5, right? And.
So it's it's a being asleep is not being alert.
Yeah, you're there in the meetings, but you're not really alert.
Awake, the Scripture says we're living right on the edge of the time. The most awful judgment of this world is going to fall, brethren, and are we asleep? Are we aware where we are? That's so important, these two things. I know there's others, but there's drunkenness and verse 36, it says watching.
That's in contrast with sleeping. So in in First Thessalonians 5 where we read, we have those same two things in verse six. It's speaking about us. Therefore not let us not sleep as do others, but let us watch and be sober, for they that sleep sleep in the night and they that be drunken are drunken in the night.
So it's a real call to us to.
Be exercised, brethren, that were not asleep and not drunk.
Maybe.
Maybe everyone doesn't know what the word surfeiting means.
It may have varied origins, but I like to take it from the French here in French means on, and the French word for a feast or a festival is fete, FETE, and so this is derived from that and it has to do with enjoying the good life, feasting, enjoying good food.
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And generally living it up. And it's a real voice, may I suggest, and I speak to my own heart.
To some of us here in countries like Canada and the United States where we don't lack for food and generally, even though sometimes things can be more difficult than they used to be, I don't discount that, but we can become occupied with those things. And so it's mentioning that here and it's very interesting and I like the way you brought it out, Bob.
The cares of this life are mentioned 2nd.
In this verse.
First of all, it's surfeiting and drunkenness.
And then the cares of this life.
We go back to Matthew 13 and we don't need to turn to it. The cares of this life are mentioned first in connection with the thorns and the thistles that grow up, and they are a very real thing. But here I believe they're mentioned second because there can be a tendency on the part of some, and our own hearts are not immune to it.
To be just having it a little too good down here.
I remember while talking to one of my neighbors, I went to high school with him. I knew him well.
And he was a believer, and I brought up the subject of the Lord's coming to him.
And I was so disappointed in his reaction. He said, well, Bill, that's that's all true, he said, but I got a good many things I need to do here in this life yet before the Lord comes. And so I don't want him to come too quickly. Oh dear. What a what a reaction. And he meant it too. He really meant it.
Well, you and I are to be expecting the Lord to come and as Bob has been bringing out.
The Lord wants our full and undivided attention, especially at a time like this.
I've learned a little bit, recognize the practical aspect of this chapter and the things that you're saying and the warning.
The encouragement that you mentioned across in verse 33.
And it takes me back even further to verse 26, men's hearts failing them for fear. And I would consider that to be a man of the world, one that's lost in their sins. But in reality, there are even those that belong to the Lord Jesus Christ that you can say their hearts are failing them and it's because they're caught up with the cares of this world.
And not to say it in judgment, but it's so easy to be interested in the news and, and all the things that are on there and the world politics and different things. And before long you can convince yourself that you're not interested in these things anymore because you're so overwhelmed with all the other. And so the encouragement in being taken up with God's Word and reading it and knowing it, as Brother Conrad brought out in his meeting, that communion, that word, how important it is that we have it.
Is such that we can be reminded that you know, the Lord said to Joshua.
As I was with Moses, so will I be with Thee. I will never leave thee nor forsake Thee. And so we have that encouragement as we're here in this world. And we don't have to be having our hearts failing and we don't have to be in fear of all these things because we can trust in the Lord. We can trust in Him for all that He tells us in His Word. The warning now comes in these next few verses and what was mentioned in First Thessalonians 5. And so therefore, we do need to be watchful. We do need to be in prayer before Him.
Surely we can get taken up quickly things in the world and it's no fun anymore being a believer like that.
I was thinking how that during the tribulation.
Those people who come to Christ.
First, probably through the preaching of the 144,000.
What they would think as they read these verses.
You're a saved person. The gospel preached to you was what we hear, plus a Kingdom flavor like was before the cross, but after the cross, and part of it will be I can. I've thought about if I were there and I hadn't gotten saved, now, what would I be thinking as I thought to share the gospel? I would say you remember when all those people disappeared. Let me show you that and turn to Thessalonians and turn to portions like this.
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They look those who went before, they didn't know when the Lord was coming, the first part or the part one of His second coming.
But we do, and here's where we're at. The Saints during that time who read the scriptures will be able to.
So it's seven years, it's six, it's five, it's four, it's three, and count it right down. And the exhortation will be hang in there, brothers, sisters, if you endure to the end, you'll be safe in the Millennium. You'll get in there. And we know that it will. It will cost a great deal to those who come to Christ during the tribulation. Many of them will die and be killed for their faith. But I believe what we see is.
Millions will come to Christ during that time if it's true that there are about 700 million real Christians on this planet right now.
It's a sad thought to think that there are almost 7 1/2 billion people that are not saved.
Are close to that.
But we know that during this terrible time, that's called the time of Jacob's trouble, and trouble I've never seen.
We know that God's grace still reaches out. We don't call it the day of grace because it's not. But his grace is as real as it's ever been. And those who preach the Gospel 144,000 the two witnesses and all those that are converted, they will know that it probably will cost them their life. And when they read these, they will take it very personally and.
To be awake, stay awake.
And to be conscious of what is going on and what's each step that's marching down to the end of that time. But they will know that they only have to hang in there, stay alive, be faithful for whatever period of time is yet in front of them.
You're talking about the preaching of the Gospel of the Kingdom, isn't it? That will be during that great tribulation period.
Yeah, it will be based on that, but I say it's it's interesting that it's like the Lord Jesus preached at the beginning of his ministry and also John the Baptist repent, get ready, the King is coming and the axe is going to be late at the root of the trees and so.
It's going to be some real preaching, but it should be clear too. I think that those who have heard the gospel and have refused it during this time are going to be deceived. It's very clear in Second Thessalonians chapter 2 That they won't have another chance, and I say God is the judge of whether that is the case.
But I say.
Those that have never had a real chance, they will be, I think in many parts of the world like China and those parts of the world that there's going to be many that come to faith in Christ.
And this makes you comments about the fact that in its context, a little bit of what this chapter is emphasizing.
Lord Jesus.
Was at the end of his life here and the Lord Jesus now had followers.
There were those who had accepted Him and become His followers as disciples, and the Lord is preparing them, a moral generation, as we had already, as to how they were to go on when He was separated from them.
And during that period of time, that period of time we've already had, is called the Kingdom of God.
And the emphasis of taking heed to yourself here is it's not talking about the rapture, it's not the presentation of the gospel to souls in the day of grace and so on. That's not that's all true. But that's not what this chapter is bringing about when it is exhorting. Take heed to yourselves.
It is those who were followers of the Lord Jesus, and now He prepares them, for He's not going to be with them anymore.
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But they are going to continue on in that which began with his time here concerning what we call the Kingdom of God. And the Kingdom of God was a character of life that was to be lived with God's acknowledgement as we I think had another meeting.
It was characterized by righteousness and peace.
And joy in the spirit. And he's exhorting his own.
That while I'm not here, I want you to continue on and and I'm going to use the words this way, the lifestyle that I have introduced to you as following me.
And so they were to follow on in a character of life that had been like.
His character of life while here he had lived in a certain way among men and they had become his followers. And he's telling them, I want you to go on and continue to live in that character of life that you have seen in me.
But I'm not going to be physically here with you to follow me in that way, and yet you are to follow in it. So, he says, take heed to yourselves.
That you walk in that way, and it looks on beyond the rapture and so on to what he says to him in his exhortation to them.
Watch.
In verse 36, that ye be accounted worthy.
Worthy. Worthy what?
He was going to come back.
And when he came back, they were going to have to in that sense.
Before the Son of Man, and when they stood before the Son of man, that moral generation.
Were they going to? Was he going to be saying to them, you have walked in a way that is worthy of me while I was not here? And morally we should apply these things to our own lives. Is our character of life the same?
Moral character that these people.
We're being exhorted. Are we walking as a moral generation?
That will be accounted in this sense of the word, of a responsibility, accounted worthy when we see the Son of Man come back to this earth in his glory. Or in contrast, will we have become like the earth dwellers that are taken up with everything but himself and not worthy?
The world's not worthy of his coming, even though he will come.
And so he presents it to us that way that we, if I'll summarize it all this way.
If we're walking worthy as presented in these exhortations.
If the Lord were to come back to earth tonight.
We would not need to have a lifestyle change.
We would not need to change the objectives or the character or the moral behavior of our lives.
If we have to, it means we're not walking in a way that is consistent with being a follower of the Lord Jesus in the Kingdom of God.
Sometimes when I hear a story of a dear St.
Who's?
Displayed remarkable faith in their Savior and sacrifice.
The kind of stories you hear that stir you and make bring tears to your eyes and maybe a lump in your throat.
And I've been driving long before, maybe listening to the radio, and I hear a story like that.
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And I just go, Lord, you're worthy of such a servant.
That servant.
Is living the life.
That Don just spoke of, because it you can just see and rejoice in something like it. Lord, you are worthy that such a servant should serve thee in this way.
And glorify you.
I suggest we go on over to 1St Thessalonians 5, if that's all right. If there's more to say, why, that's fine too, But could I just make one? Go ahead.
It's interesting that verse 37 is tucked in here and we don't need to spend much time on it, but it shows us, I believe.
By example, the character of that life that Dawn has been talking about. There is a time to be out in the public eye, to be out before the world, and there's a time to be alone with the Lord.
You and I are not called to be recluses. We're not called to be isolated from this world, but we are called to be separated from it. But separation does not mean isolation.
The Lord Jesus was not isolated from this world. He was right out there.
Mingling with the crowds, mingling with the people, preaching to them, interacting with them. Sometimes in large groups, sometimes in small groups, sometimes one-on-one.
Whatever the Lord.
The Lord leads. That's what we should be doing. But equally true.
There has to be a time alone with the Lord, and if the Lord Jesus could not get it, we speak with all reverence.
If he couldn't get it any other way, he went out to the Mount of Olives.
Spent the night there. It's always been interesting to me that up in the Sea of Galilee area.
If the crowds knew where the Lord Jesus went, they would follow Him, even if they had to run around the shore of the lake while He went across in a ship.
But it doesn't seem, at least not that I can find, that the crowds ever followed him to the Mount of Olives. It was a secluded place. It was a place of olive Groves. It was a place where there were burials carried out. It was a place of peacefulness and rest. It would seem that the Lord and I I think this is probably quite reasonable to assume.
That there were nights that he spent the whole night there.
In the Mount of Olives, to be alone with his father, have time of prayer.
To be apart from the crowds and we need both. I just mentioned that it's a wonderful example for us.
Go ahead, lark.
OK. I was thinking of that very thing the other day before the prayer meeting on Saturday. I was thinking of, I think it was Jim Highland used to read that verse quite a bit.
Come out apart to a desert place and rest a while. I think it's in Mark.
And I thought of how he would take his disciples or those ones that were with him, that desert place, and how he suggests same for you and I today. But that's a different place than when he would go into the Mount of Olives. That was a place that he would go by himself, that he would get before his father and pray. Is that correct? Yes.
And when he went out like that to come apart and rest a while, there's no record that they ever got it.
Because the followed them.
And the Lord had compassion on them and he served them. And there is no record. The only rest he got was.
Later on or falling asleep in the ship or that something like that. But when he went to the Mount of Olives, it seems there was, if I could use the term he was guaranteed to be.
Either alone or with those that he specifically took with him.
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1St Thessalonians 5 Then we have mentioned in verse 2 The day of the Lord. We know that is the day when the Lord Jesus will come back in power and glory to reign, and it is. It will come as a thief in the night. In other words, that's not the way He's coming for us, brother.
And even the night you don't want him to come and you don't expect him, I trust that we all want the Lord to come.
And we expect them at any moment. So he's not going to come for us as a thief in the night says very clearly.
Verse four. Ye brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief. You're all the children of light and the children of the day. We are not of the night nor of the darkness. Therefore let us not sleep as do others, but let us watch and be sober. I just wanted to mention in verse one.
Says at the times and the seasons, brethren, you have no need that I write unto you.
When it's a question of the Lord's coming in power and glory, there are times and seasons connected with it and I like to connect it with the 1St chapter of the book of Acts where the Lord Jesus in his resurrection is talking to his disciples and they asked him in verse 6.
When therefore they therefore were come together, they asked of him, saying, Lord.
Wilt thou at this time restore thee again the Kingdom to Israel? And he said unto them, It is not for you to know the times.
Or the seasons. There's that same expression, the times of the seasons, which the Father has put in his own power. So his coming as a thief at the end of the Great Tribulation is connected with times and seasons, the Rapture. There is no outward signs, times and seasons that we can designate when it will happen. It's going to happen at any moment.
And so I think it is interesting to connect that.
With these verses in First Thessalonians, Five Day of the Lord is connected with times and seasons, but we as the Church are looking for the Lord from heaven. When is that going to take place?
Let's be ready at any moment, even the Apostle Paul in talking about the rapture in the end of chapter Thessalonians chapter 4.
We which are alive and remain till the coming of the Lord.
Was the Apostle Paul mistaken?
Been centuries since he died.
No, he was not mistaken. It's always presented as the present hope of the believer through all ages, and we should wait as if it would take place at any moment now. Oh, how important that is. Brethren, think of that moment. I try, sometimes I stop and try to think of the glory of that moment.
The trumpet shall sound. He will give a shout.
And we are going to be instantaneously.
Transformed and the dead in Christ are going to be raised, and that's in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye like you mentioned the other day. But then we will all be caught up together.
Oh, the glory of that moment. What are you going to do the first moment you see Jesus?
Ever thought about Everest?
Yep. What do you say about that?
I don't say much, I just think about it.
A good thought.
I'd like to add this though, that since we're switching from, we've moved from a Gospel passage into the epistles. I think it's a common idea we can have when we're young Christians that we want to read like the more easy to understand passages of the word of God. And so we think, let's go to the Gospels.
And and the epistles seem more complex at first, but as as many of us in this room have been reading the scriptures for a long time, and for myself, I feel it's just the opposite. When I read in the epistles or in the latter part of the book of Acts, I know that it's in general, it's written to me. It's all for me.
00:45:15
Some of it is directly to me, and so as you go through Chapter 5, you see us.
Or the Paul writes ye and they. It's pretty clear we are the ye and the unbelievers are the they. And that's not hard. But when you're in the Gospels, I've been on a reading for about two years with youngish brothers working their way through the Gospel of Matthew, and it's not easy to discern. Just as as as Dawn helped us with the tail end of Luke 21. It's not easy.
To determine which aspect of the Lord's coming is being referred to which group of people.
Which unbelievers, is it the Jewish nation? Unbelievers, is that the the the men and women of faith in Israel? Is it the Gentiles? It takes it takes some time. And as we read through Matthew, the the younger brothers just always wanted to run right to the church and everything had to do with the church and I kept they mocked me after a while, I kept saying, brothers, keep your powder dry.
Wait, we're not there yet. This is a presentation to Israel. There are moral principles that are always true.
For us, wherever we read in the word of God, but when you're trying to understand the interpretation of it, it, the Gospels, the what we call the synoptic gospels, Matthew, Mark and Luke, it takes time to sort out what's what and when's when and who is being spoken to. So again, I if you're if you feel a little bit lost by the comments about which aspect of the coming, you're not alone. We've all been there.
The epistles are are are are clearer to get an outline.
In my opinion.
You're all the children of the light and the children of the day.
We are not of the night nor of darkness. Therefore let us not sleep as do others, but let us watch.
And be sober.
And I would like, brethren, that we could reflect a bit on the point of watching.
It means to be alert.
A person that's asleep as life, but he's not alert. You talk to him, he's not going to answer you.
And so often when it comes down to the Lord's things, we're not alert there. It's of our own interests and possessions. Ooh, we're right there. Take care of him at the Lords things, brethren. The Lord help us to be alert, awake. We are not of the night, nor of the darkness. In other words, there's a distinct difference between.
The people of the day and the people of the night.
Somebody has said.
Give this illustration one time they were talking about that verse in Ephesians that we talked about. Awake thou that sleepest and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give him the light. Employee of the hospital wants to take a nap at the middle of the day, middle of his shift. And so down in the morgue is a nice cool spot to take a nap. And so there he goes down there and.
There's several corpses laying out there.
And so he lays down there and goes to sleep. Another person comes along.
It looks like there's four corpses here.
But if you watch as close, you see some movement in that one.
And there's just not a lot of difference between a person that's asleep and a person that's dead. And if that's the case with me, brother, and if there's not that much difference between me and the world around, it's probably because I'm asleep.
Lord help us, brethren, if there's ever a time when we need to be awake, it's now.
00:50:19
And then the other one, brethren, is drunkenness.
May that be drunken or drunken in the night, but let us who are of the day.
Be sober. In other words, have your wits about you.
Be in your full capacity to discern things that come along A person that's drunk.
Is alive, Yeah, he's alive, but he's under the influence and you can tell it by the way he talks and by the way he walks. You can tell it.
Oh brethren, the Lord help us to be with it.
And not under the influence. I just fear rather than that our.
Materialistic.
Humanistic.
View of things here in the United States has affected us a lot more than we realize.
ABBA rights, don't judge me. I have as much rights as you do, so keep your distance rather than it's not about my rights, it's about the rights of that man who sits at God's right hand. That's the one. I need to be aware of his interests and to give him his place in life. There's so many things.
That dull our apprehension of what is due to him.
When I hear, brethren have.
Brethren over in other parts of the world that are suffering severe persecution for the Lord's sake.
And we don't suffer. They have to say for myself, we don't suffer hardly at all.
Brethren.
We need to be awakened. We need to be sober as never before. These things are practical in our lives. The Lord help us to give the Lord Jesus His place as Lord in our lives.
The word Terry is very long. We may see some of that.
This next election that happens, there are a lot of people warning you better have supplies on hand.
As of what may happen.
And those kinds of things could come here, and it doesn't take long. We've talked before and certainly thought about it, that that in the late 30s in Germany, we see a lot of parallels with what's going on in the West. You know, the Lord's in charge. But after this next election, whoever wins, there's a lot of people that are afraid of what's coming and what might happen.
We are encouraged here to be sober while we watch with expectation.
Expectation of the Lord coming for us whenever you read of the Lord coming as a thief in the night.
It's not for you if you're a believer.
Nobody wants a thief to come, let alone at night. Nobody wants to be suddenly awakened.
By someone who wants to do them harm. And so that figure is always the Lord coming for people who do not want him, didn't want him before and certainly won't want him to be coming in power to set things right. And so for the believer, it's it's yes, we're sober, we're hopefully watching and waiting, but it's the expectation of the consummation of all our hopes to be forever with the Lord.
And so in verse verse nine, God hath not appointed us to wrath. Wrath is coming upon this world. It's it's due.
And this upside down world is going to be rapidly turned right side up when the Lord comes in power and glory. But the believer is has been promised that before that day of wrath falls righteously upon this world, we will be taken from it. This is one of those passages that if you work or go to school with believers that have been taught that they're to expect the tribulation or to go.
00:55:05
Through it and all of that kind of thing. This is one of those passages that can be helpful to them. God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ. The word salvation takes on a different context in different places. Sometimes it refers to the salvation of our soul, which we presently have, but in other places it refers to the deliverance that's going to come when the Lord takes us out.
And we're not saved in that way yet.
There's the older brothers used to say we're only partly saved, we have the salvation of our souls, but he's going to come for the purchased possession. He purchased us. And when he comes into the clouds of heaven, he's going to take us to be with himself. He's already bought us with his own precious blood, and he has a right and a desire to take us to be with himself. That's our appointment not to wrap.
I'd like to emphasize that as Paul presents it.
From the first chapter where he uses those words first. So go back to First Thessalonians 1.
And back to what was said earlier as well.
These are group of people.
Perhaps that only heard the name Jesus Christ for the first time for a month, they didn't. To get the picture in its context. These were Gentiles. They didn't live near Jerusalem. Probably the ones he's addressing had never been.
Or most of them had never even been to what we call Israel and where the Lord had lived and died and so on. But the message had gone forth, and in Thessalonica, this Gentile place, it was looked at as people living in darkness. And so he says.
Paul in his comments to them and as he starts his letter he says in verse 9.
For they themselves show of us what manner of entering in we had unto you. And here's the three things that they had learned in a matter of weeks.
They lived in darkness, it says. You turn to God from idols. That's the first thing.
The heathen world was a world of idolatry, and that meant that anything but God was the controlling, important thing in life, and that they weren't always physical idols, although they sometimes had them. But it was whatever was controlling their life, and they lived in that darkness, that spiritual, moral darkness.
Of being a follower of an idol.
And so, he says, he turned to God.
From idols, prior to that they lived for the idol.
The and then he says to serve the living and true God.
Imagine hearing a month ago the name the Lord Jesus Christ for the first time in your life and having a message presented to you that you turn from the darkness of an idol to what now? What's your life?
To serve the living.
And true God, an idol, is not a living being.
It's not a true, it's a false thing. And so he's putting before them what they had turned from to what they now had a relationship.
With the true God.
A living God and then what connects with what has just been said, and to wait.
Or his son from heaven.
Ah, that was now the daily expectation and anticipation of these people Thessalonians each day they could get up in the morning with the anticipation of.
Waiting.
Or his son, God's Son from heaven.
And connected with it to know that he was the one that had been raised.
01:00:00
From the dead, that is, They had a hope that was beyond this life.
And beyond death.
Prior to this, they had no such hopes, no such thoughts. And further than that, he says even Jesus, and I'm going to quote it in the way it's in the new translation which delivers us from the wrath to come. They recognize that God was going to judge.
And when God came, or when the Lord came, it was going to be a day of judgment.
And fear. And that's how our fifth chapter starts as he explains more to them what's going on and amplifies on what he had started out with in the first chapter, he says.
You know perfectly well that the day of the Lord people aren't anticipating it. You didn't anticipate it. You lived in your darkness, but now that you have been brought into the light of day.
You recognize that for the West of people around you, what's going to come as a as a thief in the night, an unexpected person is going to be in the night because they live in the night. They're they're people of the night. And yet he says rather than that's not going to overtake you.
And so on. And so he brings it before them. And I'll just add one more word. It's a won't go back, but it's first introduced in chapter one, and it's repeated here as an exhortation in verse.
9 verse 8.
Putting on the breastplate of faith and love and foreign helmet the hope of salvation.
To simple new believers, these were the three pillars of Christian life.
Faith, hope and love, and they still are the three pillars of your daily life and mine in their simplicity.
Our faith, hope and love. And he remarks on the change that had taken place in them in chapter one that had given them faith.
Urban them to enter in for the first time truly the love of God.
And as a consequence as well, they had been introduced to a hope.
That they had never had before. And that becomes the three characteristics of Christian life. And if if I'm not living today and simplicity of faith and relationship to the Lord Jesus, I'm not living a Christian life the way God wants it for me. If I didn't have today the hope of even this evening seeing the Lord Jesus.
And I'm not living in normal Christian life. And if I'm here this afternoon with any uncertainty as to the love that God has in his heart toward me, then I'm not living in a relationship with God.
That is normal Christianity.
One thing I might mention in connection with what our brother Bob has been emphasizing about watching.
And I believe Brother Sam, you alluded a bit to it as well as to.
Keeping our eyes on what's going on in the world and what's happening here and what's happening there and so on, I only suggest that it is getting more and more difficult because life is busy now Yes, we sometimes make life busy for ourselves and I read something a while ago where a man who.
Was not a believer by any stretch of the imagination, but he lived in the secular world.
And one time he decided he needed to take some time out to, as we would say in common language, recharge his batteries. So he moved down to Cape Cod for three months, shut off his cell phone, there was no Wi-Fi there, told everybody he was going to be out of range for a while.
And just read books.
01:05:02
Took walks, did all kinds of things. Sadly nothing from a spiritual side.
But then when he got back to civilization a few weeks after, well, it was a week after the three months came to an end.
He turned on his computer and he found how few emails there were waiting for him. And he said, you know, emails, bigot emails and text, bigot texts. And these things multiply. The more we do them, the more we encourage them and the more other people do them back to us. And pretty soon our life is full and complicated and our lives are complicated. Today, to some extent, you can't get away from it.
About a couple of years ago, I finally succumbed and got a cell phone. There was number way out. I had to get one. I couldn't manage things without it. Sometimes I wish I'd never gotten it, but that's another story. But the point is, life is more difficult today and it takes real exercise before the Lord.
This morning we sung part of a hymn #227 that was written by a brother in Switzerland, a French brother, Doctor HL Rossier, a Rossier as we would pronounce it, and I remember reading how that he wrote much of his written ministry.
While he was riding in his carriage, visiting his patients, going from patient to patient and he had someone that drove the carriage for him. I don't know how he managed to write with the bumps and bangs. It must have gone with it. But he did it. And I thought many times I would as a doctor of have been glad to have that luxury. But I never had it and I went from A to BI, had to drive a car.
And I had to have my full attention on the road. I couldn't just sit back and let the chauffeur drive it or something like that.
Life is more complicated today and it takes real effort.
And a real allotting of our time in order to have time to spend on the Lord's things.
To read our written ministry that Bruce was emphasizing in the address. To pray, to come apart as the Lord did on the Mount of Olives. It's much harder than it used to be, but it can be done.
One more little story, just to show you how it can be done. My father never had to cope with any of those things. He was a farm laborer.
But I remember when I worked with him and he never took more than 1/2 hour for lunch. He could have taken an hour, but he didn't. He took 1/2 hour.
But when I was with him, he always ate in 15 minutes and then out of his lunch box he pulled a book of ministry. When I wasn't with him, I imagine he read it to himself. When I was there, he read it out loud so I would get the benefit too. I never forgot it.
He used the time he had available even though he worked 10 hour days most of the time and it was hard physical work and when he got home he was often tired and it was difficult.
To sit up in evenings and read because your eyes would tend to droop and it was difficult.
But he managed to do it, and with only a grade school education. When I started reading Jay and Darby when I was in my early 20s, I ran into things I couldn't understand. And I would ask him. Like I said, I can't understand this. Without a moment's hesitation. He would tell me what it all meant, with all the three or four or five negatives in the sense that Bruce was mentioning.
How did he get it? Because he said.
Through himself. It's worth going after, and that's what we need, don't we?
It's harder today than it used to be.
But it's well worth the time spent.
I'll make a practical example as well.
Most here have probably cell phones and laptops and all the rest, and it only takes one button to get to Google. Get to Google News or some other news service. Sometimes before you press that button, it's well worth saying to the Lord. Do I need to know this? Lord Jesus, to please you today and do your will.
And then it'll have its right priority and perspective if you are willing to personally, individually say to the Lord Jesus before you press that button.
Lord Jesus, do I need to know what I will see.
01:10:04
In order to please you today, can I ask a question practically, Don?
Is there an answer? But you can ask the question.
Is there a balance between being an intelligent observer of what's going on in this world and being so much immersed in it that it eclipses what we ought to be spending time on?
Yes, there is, but at the other side of it, I'm going to offer an alternative thought and that is some of us are not competent to be intelligent observers. God has established some who have that capacity and can be used of the Lord in that way.
In my youth, and known to the older ones, here was a man named Paul Wilson.
And Paul Wilson was given of God a capacity to be an observer of what was happening in the world and give a spiritual interpretation of it. And the Lord used him for the blessing and benefit of many of us of a different generation, however.
We can also be of a character where we are really ourselves, do not have from the Lord a capacity.
To evaluate current events and what happens and come to a useful.
Understanding of it and in our case we are better.
To follow after righteousness and peace and joy, and be occupied in the positive.
Simplicity of daily life rather than being unnecessarily occupied with what we're not going to understand anyways.
Thank you.
Would you call them men of Issachar?
Hey Donnie, my brother was pitching another question at you.
Would you call them Manavisicar? There are, yes. I think that's a very scriptural example. There are those that are called of the Lord that do occupy themselves in a way that the Lord uses them to help their brethren to understand how to go in a as Bill said and increasingly.
Complicated and out of order world.
But at the same time, there is the Thessalonians.
And the Thessalonians?
Lived in the daylight of following the Lord Jesus.
And another example where I'll say it's this is a balanced matter. And that is when the Lord called the disciples in the Gospels and he chose the 12 in Mark's Gospel where we have them presented to us as serving him in the world. It says the very beginning.
That they might be with him. That was the beginning.
And direction of their service, that they might be with him. And they walked with him for months or a year or more, and then it says, and he sent them forth. And so the preparation for serving God, the number one preparation is to be in the conscious daily fellowship.
Himself that they might be with Him. And you can't substitute that for anything. There is no substitute for the daily personal relationship with the Lord Jesus. And if that is there, then as He chooses, He sends you forth to do something for Him.
And then what did they do? They went back to be at his presence again.
So whenever he's given a work to do, it's to be done. If it's to visit somebody in the hospital, it's to visit them in the hospital or whatever it is. But there's always the returning into his presence to be at his feet until he sends forth again to do something else.
I wanted to.
01:15:02
Say what Bruce mentioned earlier in verse 9, brethren, is one of the clearest verses in the New Testament that shows that we will not go through the great Tribulation. It is a day of wrath and God has not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ.
Many people who think that the church will go through the tribulation.
If it's true that the church will go through the tribulation, we really don't wait for the Lord from heaven.
Because the Antichrist will be manifested in the great tribulation. And so they wait for the Antichrist. Really not for the Christ, but for the Antichrist. And scripture is very clear that we wait for the Lord from heaven. So God has not appointed us to wrath. Look at Revelation chapter 6 and.
This is the chapter where the seal judgments begin.
And the 6th seal.
Here the.
Verse 15. The kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondsman, every freeman, hid themselves in the dens, and in the rocks of the mountains, and said to the mountains and rocks, fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb. For the great day of his wrath is come, and who shall be able to stand?
So that's the day of wrath, that great tribulation period, and God has not appointed us to wrap. This is very clear, I trust, and I think it's it's well worth taking notice of because there's so many that don't have clear teaching about this. And perhaps we can be a help to them. I can give you one more verse that I find is very clear as to the fact that we will not go through the great tribulation.
Revelation chapter 3 and verse 10 what he says to.
The church at Philadelphia, he says, Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation which shall come upon all the world to try them that dwell upon the earth. There's another verse that is very clear that.
We will not go through that hour of temptation which shall come upon all the world to try them of which dwell upon the earth. And so, our wonderful brethren, that Scripture is clear about this, and so it says in verse in our chapter.
Verse 11 wherefore comfort yourselves together and edify one another even as also you do. And then he begins with a list of exhortations that I find very helpful. Brethren, we don't have too much time left now, but it talks about.
Those that minister that are over you and the Lord, I take it that's over you and the Lord in a local sense.
And to esteem them very highly in love for their work's sake, and be at peace among yourselves.
And then he exhorts them in verse 1415. Then we have these short little exhortations, verse 16. Rejoice evermore. I'd like to hear what you have to say on that because of what you spoke upon Brother Bruce. But to me, it's interesting that there's two verses in the Bible that have two words in them. The other one is Jesus.
And this is rejoice evermore. Put those two together. Oh what a wealth you can get from that rather than these are exhortations, rather than these are really commands of the Lord Jesus.
You always obey that command, Brother Bruce. No.
To me, it's interesting that it's it's what's to be characteristic of the Christian life, isn't it?
And then comes pray without ceasing. Prayer is a characteristic of the Christian life.
And then verse 18 in everything give thanks and things go wrong, you give thanks for it. And then I found this is a tremendously helpful thing. I found it when something goes wrong, sometimes there's things that go wrong, very difficult in the life.
01:20:16
We don't understand what is going on here. I don't understand.
Yeah, you don't have to understand.
I still remember what a brother said to me when I had a particularly difficult trial come into my life.
Each walked up to me and said, Bob, everything that happens in the life of the believer comes directly from that man on the throne above. It was like a sledgehammer that hit me. I went home and got on my knees.
And it was tremendous, brethren, to realize that even in those.
Difficult trials we can give. Thanks.
Because God is so great and He has set us in such a position of favor in the Lord Jesus that even those things that are bad, even the mistakes we make, if we can recognize it and confess it, he takes that and turns it for blessing for us. That's how great our God is.
So in everything, in fact, what a tremendous thing it is.
Head over all things to the church, including not so pleasant ones.
Running out of time. I feel bad if we didn't at least touch on 1920 years quenched not the spirit. How do I do that? Or how do I avoid it and despise not prophesize?
Bruce Anstey has made this comment I found very helpful.
There's another exhortation in Ephesians 4 that says.
Grieve not the Spirit.
He said we grieve the Spirit of God when we do those things he tells us not to do. We quench the Spirit of God when we don't do the things that the Spirit tells us to do. So it's kind of a helpful comment.
But this?
Despise not prophesied. I must stay rather than my youth.
I travel around with Clem Buchanan quite a bit and he was kind of a spiritual father to me and some of the lessons I learned from him I treasure and one of them was after a particular conference years ago, there was a certain brother that had spoken in an open meeting that.
His life didn't exactly correspond with his ministry exactly, and so I mentioned to Columbia, Canada after the meeting with that brother, speaks a.
Can't hardly listen to him because of his life. Lamb looks at me and says despise nonprofit science. You may not like the brother, but maybe the Lord is using him to say something to you that you need to hear. Listen. That has been a tremendous help to me, brethren, he says.
God even used the donkey to reprove a disobedient prophet.
And he really, that disobedient prophet didn't listen to the donkey, did he? He talked back to him. I I don't think I would talk back to a donkey.
Prophesying is speaking to men, to edification, to exhortation, to comfort.
Quem could have answered you with the next verse. Prove all things hold fast that which is exactly.
Because not everything is said is profitable always. And so you prove it by the Word of God and the Spirit of God. John wrote to even the babes. He said you have an unction from the Holy One. You know all things. So the Spirit of God gives gives even the young believer, the babe in Christ a certain discernment. And with the Word of God we can prove things and separate the wheat from the child.
And the hold fast that which is good.
Yes, because that's why we all have our Bibles open and we're listening. And I hope we're comparing it with what we're talking about here because we can make mistakes. And that's why it says the prophets speak two or three. Let the others judge, Not judge persons, but judge. What's sad is that straight according to the Scripture.
01:25:20
In that sense.
Can't remember the exact verse but it spoke of the character of the Bereans and the part we always remember is they search the scriptures to see if these things were so. But it's not the first thing. Who said the Greens was something more along the lines of help me out here receive these things willingly. In other words I would suggest had a good spirit about.
What they're hearing and we're open to searching it out rather than despising them and just chucking them out because they didn't like the speaker.
So there's good attitude to at least be ready to hear it and then search it out.
They received the word with all readiness of mind and search the scriptures daily whether these things were so good.
Blood to save us. It is my God, we might live.
Me, I live.
Alone and go near you and boring.