Address—Robert Boulard
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You know, whatever, that's what I need to speak to our souls.
Blood of the Lord.
So he does, grateful Lord, and he fell asleep in his prayer.
Hey, congratulations.
Of the Lord and all the water from the day.
There's no.
Amazing. Uh-huh.
Let's go to sleep and then I'll come through.
I don't know. I don't know how to do anything through.
And.
I think they make this place and then play uh.
And.
Now we rest. Now I have one of their dreams and they're in the president's eyes. And my balls we shall be in.
And.
I'd like to read one verse of scripture, don't need to turn to it, but just before we pray in Joshua 23 and verse 14.
It says they're part way through the verse. Not one thing.
Have failed of all the good things which the Lord your God spake concerning you, all are come to pass unto you.
And not one thing hath sailed thereof. Let's.
Ask the Lord's blessing. Our loving God and our Father, we thank Thee for the truth of this little hymn.
That our Shepherd is the Lord, and we thank thee that thou hast being faithful even unto death, Blessed Savior.
And now it has dealt with our sins according to the righteous demands of the law. And we know that those of us that are here and that we're Gentiles at one time, now are made members of the body of Christ, those that are redeemed with the precious blood of Christ. We thank the Lord Jesus for thy love, even unto death. And now we thank Thee for thy love to provide for us all the way home until we see.
To face in all of my glory, we thank Thee that when we see the blessed Savior.
We'll acknowledge that not one thing hath failed of all those things that thou hast told us of in thy word.
And how those delighted to bless us. So we ask Thee for thankful hearts to thank Thee, and to bless Thee, to praise Thee for all that Thou hast done. And so we ask Thee to bless Thy word as we open it up. Bless our brethren, our beloved brethren, as they travel homeward, some of them, and so give them a happy time as they travel safety. And that there would be fruit for Thee as a result of our having been together here this weekend. So we ask Thee for this. We.
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Amend ourselves to the and the precious name of our Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.
I'd like to read a passage of scripture, a couple of passages of scripture.
In the New Testament.
Primarily in Luke's Gospel. I'd like to read a little passage in Luke's Gospel in chapter 22 That is well known.
And Justice make some very brief comments as we know the.
Luke is really written and has a moral order of things that is not seen in some of the other gospels.
And the Lord Jesus here.
Is presented perhaps as a shepherd. I'd like to just.
Think of how the Lord introduced his disciples to the large upper room.
You know, they were going to be as we had in the book of the Hebrews, they were going to be removed.
From Jerusalem, eventually they were going, Judaism was going to be judged, but God always provides something better. And it was the Lord Jesus himself who loved his disciples that entered that introduced them to that large upper room. And so by the Spirit he made provision. And so let's just read this and draw some little lessons, some types and pictures, but some lessons.
And perhaps to exercise our consciences. Verse 7. Luke 22. Then came the day of unleavened bread, when the Passover must be killed. And he sent Peter and John saying, Go and prepare us the Passover, that we may eat. And they said unto him, Where wilt thou that we prepare? And he said unto them, Behold, when ye are entered into the city, there shall a man meet you bearing a pitcher of water. Follow him into the house, where he entereth in and.
He shall say unto the good men of the House, The Master saith unto thee, Where is the gas chamber?
Where I shall eat the Passover with my disciples, and he shall show you a large upper room furnished.
There make ready. And they went, and found as he had said unto them, And they made ready the Passover. And when the hour was come, he sat down, and the 12 apostles with him. And he said unto them, with desire, I have desired to eat this Passover with you, before I suffer before I say unto you, I will not anymore eat thereof until it be fulfilled in the Kingdom of God. And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and said, Take this, and divide it among yourselves, for I.
I will not eat drink of the fruit of the vine until the Kingdom of God shall come. And he took bread, and gave thanks, and break it, and gave unto them.
Saying this is my body which is given for you. This do in remembrance of Maine.
Likewise also the cup after supper saying this cup is the New Testament in my blood which is shed for you. Well, we'll read a couple of other passages as time permits, but I just wanted to go over this very comforting little passage of Scripture. I find it one of the most encouraging passages of Scripture in the New Testament to read of how the Lord Jesus himself was desiring to bring the.
Disciples into the large upper room and we have a little picture of the Spirit of God.
He's there presented as a man. A man shall meet you in verse 10 bearing a picture of water.
And it's really a picture, that unnamed man, a picture of the Spirit of God working.
And so he was working to provide a place where the Lord could meet with his disciples. And here we have some little expressions used, and I'd like to just go over some of those, perhaps maybe 7 little expressions that we could gain some instruction from.
And should produce a thankful spirit in our hearts. I want to say this.
For myself primarily, we know that we all live in a day and age that is not characterized by thankfulness, but whole. How we should be so thankful to the Lord for His grace in saving us. And we should be very thankful to the Lord for the privilege of being able to remember Him in the circumstances of his death, remember him in his death, in the day that we live in, and we should thank him for that privilege.
I trust that we will not only enjoy the privilege.
Until the Lord comes, I think we have that in the word of God, he says. In Paul's doctrine. It's really a revelation from Paul himself.
He says this due in remembrance of Maine and he says that umm.
I'm not going to quote it right, so I've forgotten that in my mind here, but First Corinthians chapter 21.
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Chapter 11 Verse.
26 It says, Ye do show, For as often as ye eat this bread and drink this cup, ye do show or announce.
The Lord's death till he comes. So I believe we're going to have this privilege of being able to remember the Lord Jesus and his death until he comes.
Do we thank Him for it? Do we come into His presence and thank Him?
Well, it says here in verse nine, and it says they said unto him, where?
Wilt thou that we prepare? And I think that this is this little expression is helpful because, you know, it says that the Lord has the competency and the authority to choose for us. And there are many things that we could allow Him to choose. We sometimes think that we have the competency to choose. Particularly, I must confess, when I was younger, I thought I was very competent to choose for myself in many different areas of life.
But really, if we really were honest with one another, God has made us dependent creatures.
And our brethren this afternoon brought before us the necessity of prayer and dependence upon God in every facet of life, and never more so than in connection with ecclesiastical things, And are coming into the presence of the Lord. They said, Where wilt thou that we prepare? Now have you ever thought, Why did they ask such a question? Well, in the Old Testament they were told.
Specifically, not to choose a place of worship.
They were told specifically, we're not going to refer to it, we're not going to turn to it, but in Deuteronomy chapter 12, a couple of other passages of Scripture as well.
They were not permitted to choose for themselves. I just asked this question. Maybe someone here that isn't at the Lord's table? Perhaps a young person? Perhaps someone older?
Are you willing to let the Lord choose for you in connection with?
The place where you would He would desire you to remember Him in His death. He'll always lead to where Christ is in the midst. The Spirit of God will always lead that way.
And there has to be the desire to let him have his way and to let him choose.
So he says unto them, Behold, when ye are entered into the city, there shall a man meet you bearing a pitcher of water. Follow him.
Into the house. Well, Luke's gospel brings the forest responsibility, and here we have responsibility and obedience. You know, there's dependence that's required if we're going to find ourselves at the Lord's table, dependence. But there's also obedience and obedience to the Word of God. And so the Lord gave them a little bit of instruction. He said follow him.
And sometimes we're not willing to follow. Sometimes we just want we have our own.
Preconceived notions about things and we get off into the wrong path.
You know, when we lived in Ohio, we had umm, Janet had a couple of little dogs and we'd rented a little apartment in Cuyahoga Falls on Cooper Street, or, and.
So Jonathan was living there and Annette was living there when they went to university.
And every now and then I went and I dropped by and the two little dogs were living there and I would drop in and immediately they wanted to go for a walk. They insisted they need to go water the grass somewhere. And so I would clip the.
Leashes onto them and open the door and boom, out the door they'd go, two of them on a leash. And they'd run down the driveway as fast as they couldn't. And they turn left. They go down the sidewalk and then they'd come to the first intersection. They'd stand at the intersection. They didn't know which way to go. And they just kind of want to look at one another and look at me and.
You know, I use that as a little bit of illustration. Sometimes we get running off into a direction that we don't ask the Lord, where wilt thou? And we're not following the directions of the word of God, and we just head out in the direction and then we get to an intersection where we don't know exactly where to turn. And so it's necessary for us to do as these disciples did.
It says.
That they went in verse 13. They obeyed. There was obedience.
Follow him.
Now I just use this little expression in verse 11 I'd like to comment on. It says where is the gas chamber?
The only was mentioned, I think perhaps Brother Jim, maybe someone else in connection with the assembly is just a temporary place on this earth. We're not here permanently.
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And the apostle Paul was used of God, his work. You remember what he did. What did the apostle Paul do with his hands? Do you remember? He was a tent maker. And it's a little picture of him being used of God to raise up little temporary dwelling places for the people of God to dwell in while they waited for the Lord to come. And so Paul was a tent maker. And the gas chamber here, there's a little book that.
GC Willis has.
Put out years ago, it's called hidden treasures. Some of us have read that little a little book hid treasures. And he makes a comment this guest chamber. It's the same word that is used when it's translated the end. And so the end you only go to the end temporary for a temporary stay. We've only we're being in the in in the Comfort Inn or maybe the quality Inn for a couple of nights and and then we're moving on.
And so this is a little picture of the assembly. We're only here temporarily. The assembly is a heavenly Organism.
The body of Christ is a heavenly organ, a living Organism, and belongs in heaven doesn't belong here.
But the Lord Jesus has made a provision for us to live and dwell in his presence while we're here.
And so this is a gas chamber, I think in the French translation. My recollection is it's his lodging place.
In the and Mr. Darby's translation, his lodging place and you know, there's another little expression that Brother Willis uses and he says.
As he follows the traces the line of truth in connection with this guest chamber in Mark's Gospel chapter 14, he says and it's translated this way in the king in the new translation Mark 14 and verse 14.
And says here, where is my guest chamber?
Now in the King James it says where is the guest chamber?
But you know, it's the only place in the New Testament that the Lord Jesus called a place his own.
Where is my guest chamber? And so we come into the presence of the Lord as His assembly. It's not ours. It's not the assembly of the brethren that own the assembly, so to speak. It's his testimony. And we need to be very careful how we conduct ourselves within that that testimony. Well, he says here that he's going to show us in verse 12. He shall show you a large upper room furnished.
I just want to make this comment.
That the Lord Jesus, by the Spirit and the Word of God the Scriptures, is seeking to show us many things. He delights to show us little hid treasures. He delights to communicate with us. If we'll read the Scriptures with a willing heart and allow Him to lead us by His Spirit, he will show us different things. Why?
Is it for our intelligence? Is it so that we would know? Yes. There's that element of truth.
He wants us to know and to be brought into the knowledge of all those things that are ours.
He's given us all things that pertain unto life and godliness. He wants us to know what those things are.
But it's too to enjoy His presence and to enjoy the what He has provided for us. And beloved brethren, you know, we sometimes get thinking of difficulties in the assembly and perhaps difficulties and conflict with one another or whatever it might be. But the fact of the matter is that the Lord has provided the assembly in His grace.
In his kindness, in his love for you and I as the Good Shepherd that lay down his life for his sheep.
He introduced those disciples to that large upper room. He wanted them to be provided for in his absence.
And he's been providing for us in his absence. He's just about to return for us.
But he delights to show us by his Spirit those things that have to do with himself.
Are you willing to be shown the things of God? Are you willing?
To look into the Word of God and to receive instruction to be shown by His Spirit.
What the truth is.
Sometimes, you know, I mentioned in the story of this man that.
Asked me, invited me to his house in Massillon. OH, his name is Jeff. Jeff Sprout and.
I went through and some passages of scripture with him and he knew where the building was 28.2 miles away from Massillon. OH and he said after we went through all this, through the scriptures and discussed things during the evening, he walked me down the end of the side, the end of the driveway.
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And I walked across my house, he the last words that he spoke to me on that evening, he said, well, brother, I was kind of looking. I had a in mind something a little bit more convenient.
Like something that was a little bit closer, perhaps, and he had a preconceived notion. But it's nice to be able to.
Be shown by the Lord and then it says they went and wonderful to think of how it says and he found.
And found as he had said unto them, and they made ready the Passover. Now I know that it's Speaking of the Passover, but we use this.
That, you know, they prepared for the Passover. It was the last Passover, the last one that the Lord would recognize. And then they were going to remember the Lord. He was going to show them how.
It was to be done. You know. The Lord teaches us in different ways, doesn't He?
He teaches us by His word. We can read the Word of God and understand. We can learn by mistakes that others have done.
Have made and learned by those mistakes and not repeat them there are.
Sometimes you know, the way that the Lord teaches oftentimes is by example.
And this is how he taught them how to remember him in his death. He taught them by example. He took a loaf and he broke it, and he gave thanks. And then he took the cup, and he gave thanks, and he passed it to them. He taught them by example.
You and I learn. Apparently the studies show that you and I learn most of what we learn 85% by observation, not by being told something. We learn by observation. And so no man liveth unto himself, and no man dies unto himself. You are being watched, and you as a young person are being watched. You and I as those that are older are being watched.
And the truth of God is being ministered in the actual fact if you're walking with the Lord and communion with the Lord and walking in obedience to the word of God and if you're walking as a worldly minded Christian, you're also speaking others are learning by your example and perhaps not getting the example that they should get. Well, it says they went they found.
Exactly as he had said.
And you're going to find in the instructions in the word of God, you're going to find that things are going to be just like the Lord said, just like He gave instruction. And if you read the epistles and walk in the truth of what the apostle Paul spoke in the epistles and Peter, James and the other writers of the New Testament, I think there's only 8 writers that I remember of the New Testament. In the Old Testament they had more writers, but there are eight that are used of God.
Eight dear brothers, apostles, some of them who wrote the word were used by divine inspiration to give the word. And if you read those epistles and you obey the word.
And walk in communion with the Lord. You'll find it'll be just as He said, and there'll be joy in your soul as you enjoy fellowship with the Lord. Well, it says the 12 apostles. It says when the hour was come in verse 14, he sat down and the 12 apostles with him. You know, I think of this, I used to think that the 12 apostles sat down and then the Lord came and joined them wherever they were, but that's not how it was.
I have enjoyed this. The Lord came and he sat down.
And then those 12 apostles joined him at that table.
Could I just say this, brethren? When? Umm.
I'll preclude my comments by and Jim perhaps will understand.
My statement But I was brought up in a railway family. My dad ran, worked for the railway and brother Sam worked for the railway. And to run a railroad on time was one of the things that was absolutely highly necessary. It was absolutely critical. They didn't have satellites and so on in the day that 55 years ago or whatever that my father was running.
Working on the railway and they needed to be on time or else there was going to be consequences.
And so my father drilled it into me years ago that to be late.
For an event was unacceptable and so we were to be on time and better than that 5 minutes or 10 minutes early. And so, you know he taught us that in connection with going to the assembly meetings. And I have thought of it in this way that the Lord Jesus is found there sitting.
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Now he's not sitting there. In actual fact, he's there spiritually. He is there in our midst. The Spirit of God records that in the Word of God, and we can trust His word. It's soul. I'm told by Mr. Hammer, you know, that he was down in the islands and there was a brother there and he was so taken 1 morning on the Lord's Day morning. He was so taken with the spirit of the assembly meeting and he.
Just felt that the Lord was in the midst and he took a chair.
And he went, and he put it right by the table so that the Lord could sit on that chair, so to speak. They're not nice that that brother had the sense of the Lord's presence. Well, it's the Lord that comes, and may we be there on time.
Well, it says in verse 15 that with desire I have desired to eat this Passover with you. The Lord has a desire, I know it, Speaking of this Passover. But the Lord instituted that feast of remembrance. He had a desire for you to be there.
He has a desire for you to be there, remembering him in his death.
No, I don't like to, uh, you'll express, excuse me for just, uh, making a personal, uh, reference, but umm, and I have said it at different times. I wasn't brought up at the Lord's table. I was brought up in a division among the Lord's people and they had the brother that went out in division he established.
Assemblies in the division that he established, and they had a nice table.
With a white cloth and a loaf on the table and a cup on the table, a little basket for the collection, and so on. And that's what I grew up in.
As a young boy until I was 13 years old. And so it was an imitation of the truth of God. It wasn't the real thing. The man went out in division and he established.
Another system of things.
And so you know.
I just think of how the Lord desired to eat this Passover. He desired to eat.
He desired to be with his disciples. He desires you to remember Him in his death. He says this do in remembrance of Maine.
In verse nineteen of our chapter here. Well, I just say this.
That there are a lot of imitations out in Christendom, and we have spoken quite plainly in Hebrews chapter 13. Let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach. And there are a lot of imitation. So let's be careful and be exercised about being in the presence of the Lord, and giving him the desire of his heart. So he says in verse 19 This do in remembrance of me do we have that desire to do.
What he has asked us to do.
You know the Lord is not going to force us, and so he says.
Let us offer the sacrifice of praise and Thanksgiving to God continually. He says. Let us therefore go unto Him without the camp, bearing His reproach. And so the Lord is just desiring that expression of obedience and to give him his heart's desire. Now let's turn to chapter 24. I just want to make a few comments and we may just read little.
Bits of scripture.
Here we get a little picture of what it is, what causes.
Different ones to leave the divine center, to leave Jerusalem. You know, Jerusalem was still the divine center. The church hadn't been formed yet. When we're reading in Luke's gospel right here. It wasn't formed until we get Acts chapter 2.
But, you know, there are some little principles that we can gain from the Scriptures, and this little passage of Scripture in chapter 24 of Luke tells us some of the things that might cause us to go away.
And what the shepherd does in response to bring us back. And so this little passage of Scripture sweet in connection with how the Lord works with us. So Luke chapter 24, verse 13, behold, two of them went that same day to a village called Emmaus, which was from Jerusalem, about 3 score furlongs, and they talked together of all.
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These things which had happened, it came to pass that while they communed together in reason, Jesus himself drew near and went with them. But their eyes were holding that they should not know Him. And he said unto them, What manner of communications are these, that you have one to another as you walk, and are sad? And one of them, whose name was Cleophus answering, said unto him, Art thou only a stranger in Jerusalem has not known?
The things which are come to pass there in these days.
And he said unto them, what things they said unto him concerning Jesus of Nazareth.
Which was a prophet mighty indeed in Word before God and all the people, and how the chief priests and our rulers delivered them up to be condemned to death, and have crucified Him. But we trusted that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel.
And decide all this, today is the third day since all these things were done. Yeah. And certain women also of our company made us astonish, which were early at the sepulchre.
And when they found not his body, they came saying that they had seen, also seen a vision of angels which had said he was alive.
And certain of them which were went with us, with us went to the sepulchre, and found it Even so, as the women had said. But him they saw not.
Well, there's a little bit of a downward spiral here, you might say, but you know, the Lord Jesus is a shepherd.
And you and I may take a wrong turn.
It never, never changes the love and the faithfulness of our Savior.
How thankful we can be that His heart never changes. You and I know that our love ebbs and flows for our Savior. If we were honest we would say sometimes we come to the meetings and we just don't seem to get what we should have got. Or we get irritated with a brother or whatever it might be.
But you know, the Lord Jesus is faithful. And so it says here in verse 13. I'm going to point out several different things. The first one is it says, behold, two of them went.
That same day to a village called Emmaus, you know, this little expression is that there was two of them. You know, you have very rarely ever find one person going the wrong way and leaving the Lord's table. Seems to be that often times there's more than one. And here it speaks of perhaps I believe it is a husband and a wife.
And I see husbands and wives here, and I see those that are soon going to be husband and wives.
And I'm so thankful to see husbands and wives that want to be in the presence of the Lord.
You know I just say this that it says can two walk together except they be agreed.
And oftentimes we walk in company with those that agree with our viewpoint. Ecclesiastically, they agree with our viewpoint. Perhaps in practical things they agree with us. And so we walk with them. But, you know, if we get disheartened, discouraged, we can influence one another in the wrong way. And so here there was two of them. They walked two of them.
And they perhaps had been discussing this and just didn't seem to make sense.
And they walked to Emmaus. Perhaps they had a home there. And, umm.
I think the town, the city means sincere. They were pretty sincere about how things about their opinion and things. But you know, as we read these few verses of Scripture, we don't have any evidence that they were reading the word of God.
They didn't have a compass, and God has made us so that we absolutely need the compass of the word of God.
In our opinions and our reasonings are not going to cut it. There's not the ability in our minds to sort out what God is doing in our lives. Not in my own life. I can't sort it out, and you can't sort it out your own life. But you can gain confidence by reading the Word of God, being comforted by the Word of God and what He says in different passages of Scriptures. What time am I afraid I will trust in the Lord?
I will trust in the Lord and not be afraid. We can read little passages of Scripture.
And gain comfort. Well, there's two of them. They went away. God measured everything in Judaism.
From Jerusalem in Christianity, if I could put it this way, everything is measured from the assembly.
From the divine center. And God has an ideal, and He presents it to us as that large upper room. And He's made provision that everyone of us could be there. He would like. And it's normal Christianity is being said that all Christians should be there, gathered to the Lord's name. And the Lord will work if he's given liberty, so that all will be there. You know, the man that caused the division was an evangelist with the one that I was brought up in.
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And when he died, he went to be with the Lord in 1962.
And the Spirit of God began to work again. He was the one that was holding the whole thing together. And the bands started to come off by the grace and the mercy of God.
And seven years later.
In Gordon Anstey's home.
There was a couple that came to visit and that home.
One afternoon on a Saturday and in that afternoon they were visiting.
Gordonstein and his wife and little family.
And brother Jim, Uncle Jim Pleasance and his wife.
And they began to discuss this division that had taken place 27 years earlier. And they said, you know, Brother Gordon, he told me this story. He said, you know, I feel a little uneasy about the division that took place. This brother was put under discipline, and he refused to discipline. He went out and he formed a division.
And Gorge says, you know, I'm a little uncomfortable. I, I, I would like to go and talk to somebody in the other on the other side and see what they say. And I've met a fellow at the train station. His name is Gordon Hale, and I met him a couple of times at the train station and so on. I'd like to go and visit with him. And so he said, Jim Pleasant said, you know, I feel the same way.
And they said, well, why don't we pray this afternoon? Just get down on our knees right now and pray and ask the Lord.
To open up the door, give us the money to go and speak to this man and that he'll teach us the truth and speak the truth of what took place during and the principles out layout the principles that took place in that division. And so they got down on their knees and they began to pray that the Lord would open up Gordon's heart to talk to them and that they would have the resources to go and visit him. He said he lived in Ottawa. And while they were praying, there was a knock on the door.
And one of the sisters rose up and went and answered the door.
And it was brother Gordon and he said.
And brother, he says, I just had it heavy on my heart. I was visiting the little assembly in Richmond. He says. I had it heavy on my heart to come and visit you. Would it be all right if I came in the home and Justice read the scriptures for a little bit and visited in the home?
They invited him in and they were. He was there for two hours and went over the principles of what had taken place there.
And how they're being rebellion against the authority of the Lord. And they understood the principles. Well, you know, they went, the next day was Lord's Day and they went and they sat down in the back row.
Brother Gord Anstey and his little family and uncle Jim Pleasants and his wife. And Gord Anstey told me he saw the whole time that he was there. He says I sobbed and I sobbed in the back row. He says 27 years. I thought I was at the Lord's Table and I wasn't.
And then he got out into the parking lot and he said to Jim, he said, you know.
It was the Spirit of God that brought us here to this place this morning.
And he said we shouldn't be calling all the other McDowell brethren and telling them.
What we did and where we went, we'll just come here. And so they did. Next Lord's Day they came and they sat down in the back row again.
And about three or four weeks went by and there was approximately 37 that were in fellowship.
On divine ground, at the Lord's table, sitting.
And there were 36 or 37 sitting in the back rows, and not one of them had called one another. I tell you that there is a work of the Spirit of God. He can gather and He can restore. And if He's allowed the liberty, He will gather Christians to his precious name. And you and I just need to stay out of the way, as it were, and let him have His way. Well, it says that they talk together.
Here of these things and oftentimes we get.
Taken up with circumstances and they get taken up with talking about these things instead of talking about the Lord.
And they reason another thing that they did. They reasoned about things none of us will ever be able to figure out.
What God is doing?
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If I could use the little term.
His ways are unfigure, outable, their past finding out, and you and I will never be able to figure out what goes on in the heart of man and who so trusteth in his own heart is a fool. And so God has made things and ordained things, events in life that may puzzle us, but he's working out things for his own glory and for our good and we just need.
Trust them well, they reason, and there wasn't a 'cause there was a.
Really a consequence in verse 16 their eyes were holding that they should not know him. You know there was a governmental blindness. If you and I are traveling in the wrong direction, not reading the word of God and we got discouraged and disheartened and we turn and go in the wrong direction. The Lord we're not walking in communion with him. He may allow a governmental blindness. Their eyes were holding our time is just about gone so we're not going to have.
Time to turn to different passages of Scripture. The other thing that occurred here in verse 17 is that they were sad.
Going away from the divine center, going away from Jerusalem, they had been told to stay there.
To wait for him.
They were going away. They left the large upper room and the disciples in that large upper room.
And it was the work of the enemy really, to divide the Saints and to scatter them.
Scatter them and so two of them are walking away from the assembly. You and I need one another. We need the.
Brethren, none of us is an island. We need one another. We need the fellowship of our brethren. And so here were two.
Being separated away from the fellowship of their brethren, and then.
It says here that, umm, in verse, uh, eighteen, it says that, uh, art thou only a stranger in Jerusalem is not known the things which are come to pass there in these days. No, brethren, there's some events that take place among the gathered Saints, and we sometimes think that the Lord doesn't know about it.
They said to the Lord Jesus, the Son of God the Creator.
The one who had chosen Jerusalem as his center, They said to him. They said, Art thou only a stranger in Jerusalem?
Have you ever knelt in prayer when there's a situation in the assembly?
Perhaps in your home, but I just applied this to the assembly. Have you ever known with your wife, or if you're a young person, not alone, maybe with one of your friends, and just told the Lord about what's going on and just told them about it and asked him to bring blessing among his. The brethren bring blessing into the situation. They said they really thought that he didn't know.
He was the one who had died for them.
He knew what was going on. He knew more about what went on than they did.
But he drew their hearts out and he said in verse 19, what things?
There he just poked. They just pointed his finger. He just touched. The real issue was that they were occupied with things and the events that had taken place. They weren't occupied with himself. And then in verse 21 it says we trusted that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel.
You know, their confidence broke down.
They didn't have any confidence in the Lord. It just seems they were walking the wrong direction. Two of them.
They were talking about these things, they reason, their eyes were holding. They couldn't see things correctly and straight hadn't had the scriptures. They were sad. They didn't think the Lord knew about this, what had taken place in Jerusalem, and they'd lost their confidence in them.
Oh dear brethren, may we just take this as lesson here as we read this, the Lord had introduced them to that large upper room.
And they left that large upper room. They were going down to Emmaus.
And they had all this, these circumstances before them. May we not have the circumstances before us?
You know, I don't have time to go through the the work of the shepherd here in the last part of this chapter, but he brought the word of God before them.
The prophetic scriptures, he says in Peter's language, he says.
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What is it? The sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow.
Who? He went through all the scriptures. And so I say if there's sadness, if there's disappointment.
Some of the things in the assembly taking place that you don't understand get into the word of God.
And trust the Lord for the circumstances that are taking place, and cry to Him for blessing.
He delights to bless his people. Let's commend ourselves.