Luke 4

Luke 4
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Some of the 1St 10 verses, but I'm sure that we need to go over a little bit of it again. So it might be well to read early in the chapter. Luke's Gospel chapter 4.
And Jesus, being full of the Holy Ghost, returned from Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness.
Being for today's tempted of the devil. And in those days he did eat nothing.
And when they were ended, he afterward hungry.
And the devil said unto him, If thou be the Son of God, command this stone that he made bread.
And Jesus answered him, saying, It is written that man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.
And the devil, taking him up into a high mountain, showed unto him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time.
And the devil said unto him, All this power will I give thee, and the glory of them.
For that is delivered unto me, and to whomsoever I will, I give it.
If thou therefore wilt worship me, all shall be thine.
Jesus answered and said unto him, Get thee behind me, Satan, for it is written.
Thou shalt worship the Lord to thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.
And he brought him to Jerusalem, and set him on the pinnacle of the temple, and said unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down from hence. For it is written, He shall give his angels charge over thee to keep thee, and in their hands they shall bear thee uplift at any time thou dash thy foot against the stone.
And Jesus answering, said unto him, It is said.
Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.
And when the devil had ended all the temptation, he departed from him for a season.
And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee.
There was a theme they went out of theme of him through all the region roundabout and he taught in their synagogues, being glorified of all.
They came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up, and as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the 7th day and stood up for the read, and there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when he'd opened the book, he found the place where it was written. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor.
He has sent me to heal the broken hearted, to preach deliverance to captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them. Let her bruise.
To preach the acceptable year of the Lord. And he closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister in Saddam.
The eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him.
He began to say unto them, This day, is this scripture fulfilled in your ears?
Obeying witness and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth. And they said, it is not this Joseph's son?
He said unto them, You will surely say unto me this proverb, Physician, he thyself.
Whatsoever we have heard done in Capernaum, do also here in thy country.
And he said, verily, I said to you, no prophet is accepted in his own country.
But I tell you the truth, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elias, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, when great famine was throughout all the land. But unto none of them was a lie sense, save unto Surrepta, the city of Sidon, unto a woman that was a widow.
And many lepers were in Israel in the time of Elijah the prophet.
And none of them was cleansed. Saving name and the Syrian.
And all day in the synagogue, when they heard these things were filled with wrath, and rose up and thrust him out of the city, and let him under the brow of the hill where on their city was built, but they might cast him down headlong.
But He, passing through the midst of them, went his way, and came down to Capernaum, the city of Galilee, and taught them on the Sabbath days, And they were astonished at His doctrine, for His word was with power.
00:05:13
There are three forms that temptation to say that the fifth verse shows us the devil's power, which the Lord doesn't challenge. He doesn't take up the challenge.
But the devil offers him all the kingdoms of the world. Now we bear in mind that in the second Psalm God says to the Son, Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession. That is, Christ had consciously the Father's promise that in his time He would receive the Kingdom from the Father.
Now the word of God that we know, the Lord Jesus.
The Word of God was his daily meditation. Now we need to be fortified with the Word of God before the temptation comes. Here the temptation comes. Christ could very well have quoted the second song and said, oh, the day is coming when the Father is going to give me the Kingdom. But we see that the Lord would not receive the Kingdom from Satan. He's waiting for the Father's time. So in the 17th of John, he says, I pray not for the world, but for them. Now it's giving me.
Out of the world. This is not the time for the Lord to pray for the world, but when the 2nd Psalm is fulfilled, he will let me declare the decree. The Lord had said unto me, Thou art my Son, this day ever begotten Thee. So we see the the the Lord Jesus Christ, as dependent upon the Father is waiting another day to take the Kingdom.
See the three forms, then that that the temptations.
Take and isn't it marvelous and wonderful that God has been pleased to give us this picture before our hearts of his own Son coming down into this condition, shall we say?
Where he can be set before us in this way to show our hearts the right path to go so there's no mistaking.
And we find, first of all, that.
The flesh is mentioned and we know that the flesh is opposed to the Spirit.
We get that in the 9th chapter, I mean in the second chapter of the first epistle of John I believe.
And the Father and the world opposed to one another.
And of course.
The devil himself opposed to Christ, but everything that has to do with that which has to do with the glory of God is seen manifested through Christ. Now you will find these three same things mentioned in the 13th of Matthew.
We find that.
They see good seed is sown and it falls into four kinds of ground.
But three that bear no fruit.
And.
We find it falls into Stony ground.
That's the flash.
That's the natural man, his flesh.
As opposed to the Spirit of God and when a man hears the gospel.
Immediately his flesh, I will not. That's the young man that said to his father when he said go work in my vineyard. I will not.
That's the flash.
But later he repented and went. Now the spirit has taken hold.
But then we have also.
The thorns and the thistles.
Not now the Stony ground, but we have where the seed was sown among thorns and thistles. That's the cares of this world.
But the first one that's mentioned is the seed sown by the wayside and the fowls of the air or the fowls of heaven pick it up.
Now that's direct wickedness on the part of Satan. That's what we have here in connection with the.
With the.
Jerusalem and the pinnacle of the temple that's connected with the pride of life.
00:10:04
The pride of life.
So that.
We might say in a younger years one is more or less affected by.
The simple things.
Bread, all that that suggests to us the lusts of the flesh, or put it this way, the desires of the flesh. It's the same meaning, I believe.
But then we get a little older. Perhaps our thoughts are not quite along the same lines.
And the world comes in.
It's not so much in ourselves, but it's now going out and laying hold of what's around us, becoming objects for us. It's the sunny South, as we put it, as we see it, another place of Scripture. It's the pleasant land. It's the things that outwardly attract us.
But oftentimes, you know how we need to be guarded, especially some of us who are older, how these Scriptures should lay hold of our hearts because it's here the enemy brings out the pride of life, the danger of going too far, the danger of allowing the enemy to make a suggestion to us to go beyond Scripture.
To go beyond the spirit of Scripture.
Because in the 4th chapter of the first Epistle of John, try the spirits. That's for the last days, try the spirits. Oh how dangerous when the spirit begins in the wrong path and then the whole being is ruined. So we have these three particular.
Temptations now the Lord Jesus Himself.
Could not be touched by any of these and the right reading here at the end is and when he had ended every temptation. This chapter gives us the whole complete outline of all temptations. I'm Speaking of the outward ones. The Lord knew nothing about what would go on inside the one who had sinned, because he never sinned.
But the outward temptations?
When he had ended.
All Temptations is the real reading. Another thing just to mention here, the Lord does not say I believe in the original. We do not find Get thee behind me Satan. We get that in the 16th chapter of Matthew.
There Peter was being used as a tool of Satan. And so he says to Peter, get back behind me, Satan.
You don't relish the things of God because the Lord is going to the cross, that it was only through the cross.
That you and I would ever have blessing. Peter didn't understand that. But here it's not get the behind me, Satan, because the Lord never asked Satan to get behind him.
No get get the hence Satan is rather the thought. But I don't even think we get that expression in this chapter. We do elsewhere.
Yeah, we might wonder. We might wonder.
Why the last part of that verse is omitted when Satan quotes it in verse 10?
For it is written, He shall give his angels charge over thee to keep thee.
That is omitted. Then in all thy ways comes after that. That's omitted. Then he says, In their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against the stone. Why did Satan omit that? Well, I believe Satan was aware that all of the Lords ways were ways of dependence, ways of pleasing God, so he leaves that out.
And I suppose this is something that we have to be careful of. It's so easy for us to pass over.
Some little portion of scripture.
That, perhaps, is the very thing that we need.
And but the Lord couldn't be deceived.
The Lord was aware of Satan's Wiles and subtleties. That's why it's so wonderful to have Him as our Savior and to have Him as the One who cares for us and keeps us. Because He knows just exactly what Satan is going to do, what He's going to try to do to us, how he's going to tempt us. And if we're cast upon the blessed Lord all the time, I believe it's just like we read.
00:15:11
In in first John chapter 5 where it says he that is born of God.
Keepeth himself. We might just look at that.
First John, chapter 5.
Verse 6.
80 We know that whosoever is born of God sinneth not.
But he that is begotten of God keepeth himself.
And that wicked one touches him not.
Well, he that's born of God has a new life in nature that's altogether.
Dependent upon God. Now if we don't go on independence upon the Lord, if we get independent feelings, where does that come from? That comes from the old nature, the sinful self.
But he that is born of God keepeth himself. That is, if we go on.
In the power of that new life that we have, and we also have the Holy Spirit who is the power of that life. If we go on in that an independence on the Lord as that new life wants to be and is dependent upon the Lord. The wicked one can't touch us, but how often he does touch us because we're going on an independence and pride. We're going on with these three things, the lust of the flesh.
Lust of the eye and the pride of life. Maybe one of them more than others, but I don't suppose there's any of us that's free from any of them at any time, in any measure. We must be careful, because we have in us that to which the things of the world can appeal.
There can appeal an appeal made to the flesh. There can be an appeal made to the eyes.
An appeal can be made to the pride of life in us. It's there. The seed of it is there because we still have the old sinful nation.
And that's why we have to walk with the Lord in communion and in self judgment, reckoning ourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive to God through the Lord Jesus Christ. And as we're going on in communion with the Lord, we get strength, we get power to overcome, just like the Lord. In him there was that divine power to overcome when we have that same life in US.
And we have the Holy Spirit dwelling within us.
And I'm afraid, beloved brethren.
To use a really common expression, we don't use the Lord like we ought to.
We don't go to Him like we ought to, we don't express our dependence upon Him as we should, and we get into all kinds of difficulties. We know that their dear Saints of God getting into all kinds of scrapes and difficulties and problems today.
Why? They are not going on with the law. They are not going on in dependence upon Him. They haven't learned to trust the Lord to sustain them in their troubles and trials. They get discouraged, they say, well, I'm going to give up, and the first thing you know, they're gone. They've left the Lord's table. They've left their brethren, they've left the law.
This is going on all the time and the enemy is busy.
He wants to pull the dear St. She wants to pull us away from the Lord, away from his table.
Away from himself, and the only way we can be kept is to go on independence in the dependence of that new life. He that is begotten of God keepeth himself, and that wicked one touches him. Not if we're trusting the Lord dependent upon him all the time. Satan can't touch us, but when does he touch us? He touches us when the shield of faith is down. When we're not on our guard, we.
Keep up that shield of faith to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one, because we have that to which Satan can appeal. The flesh, the eyes, the pride of life. And we can't trust ourselves either. Trusted in his own heart is a fool.
00:20:01
Satan. How Satan twisted this quotation, he not only left out those four important words.
But he stopped short, and this is an important thing in weighing the truth. Take Psalm 91 and.
Verse 11 is where Satan quotes from.
For he shall give his angels charge over thee to keep thee. Now he left out in all thy ways, because he was trying to get the Lord out of the way. But he goes on. Let's go further. They shall bear thee up in their hands, lest they thou dash thy foot against the stone. But why didn't they quote what's in verse 13?
Thou shalt tread upon the lion and adder, the young lion and the dragon. Shalt thou trample on defeat. Now Satan quotes and misquotes scripture the way false teachers do. They leave out words in all thy ways he leaves out, and then they they quote short. Whenever there's someone trying to bring a false doctrine to get you and me away from the truth, away from the Lord's table, or away from the truth of eternal security, what do they do?
They leave out part of Scripture and then they stop short in the quotation. And so we see the subtlety and divisive Satan in the very way he approached the Lord. There was another thought I'd like to express. Going back to verse six. We see how Satan works there too.
He says all this power will I give thee, and the glory of them.
The glory of them. The glory of what? A world that's under sin and wretchedness.
All the heroes and mighty men of earth who have sought glory, what was it? The glory and rule over a world that was under the dominion of Satan and sin makes the difference. Who at what age it was? The devil doesn't say. And the glory and misery of them. The world was filled with misery.
He says the glory of them and that's what appeals to man and it's going to appeal. Our brother referred earlier to the beast and the Antichrist who are yet to come on the scene. Satan will offer the kingdoms of certain area of the earth to the beast and he'll accept them and he'll have all the glory of it, the honor that comes from it. But what will it be? A miserable, wretched human state of things. But when the Lord takes the Kingdom, all at a different story it'll be.
He cleaned it up before he takes it, doesn't he? Yes, yes indeed. Isaiah 66 gives us that. You mentioned brother of China, important verse in John 17, the high priestly prayer of the Lord Jesus at verse 14. I have given them thy word, and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world.
Even as I am not of the world now in the translation of the of verse 15 into the anchor tongue.
We've added a little word there which is in the original. I pray not that thou should take them out of the world, but that thou should keep them from the evil 1.
Evil 1.
And Mr. Scott used to say, if you could look into that first heaven, you'd see millions of demons there that broke heaven.
Used to say that.
And these are embassies of Satan, and I remember him taking us over to Ephesians and explaining about these powers, these.
Demon, demon power that's manifested. He first of all mentioned that our blessings are in the heavenly place in Christ, and five times these words do appear. Then he mentioned verse 10 of chapter 3.
To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the Church the manifold wisdom of God. Well, he said, Who are they? And he said, These are good angels.
And then I said, well, how is the translation of that in the original, Sir? And he said.
That to the intent, that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church, the many colored wisdom of God. That's how He put it. Then he turned us over to Ephesians 6, four verse 12, chapter 6, verse 12. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood.
00:25:00
But against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places or heavenly places. So he said that first heaven is full of millions of Satan's embassies. And the remedy is given in the same chapter.
Then he took us over to one thing that very touched my soul.
He said the Lord Jesus.
Never sinned, could not sin. He did no sin, but he drew my attention to.
Some shadows that have crossed the pathway of the Son of God and have crossed the pathway, he said of every human being that ever put foot into this scene, and the first one is sorrow.
Sorrow. But I was wondering what he was going to say about that. Then he mentioned think of the sorrow of this world because of the power of Satan in it.
Think of the sorrow of this very City of London.
And then look at all the cities of this land, and then look the cities of the world, the sorrow that's caused in all the cities of where ones heart is broken to think of the sorrow even of this section of this mighty city of Chicago.
Then he drew our attention to that verse, Behold, and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow, which is done unto me, where the Lord hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger. Then he went on, If you don't mind me mentioning this, because they impressed me so much. And he said, The next is Thistle.
Thistles. And he said Thistles really speak of desolation.
And if you read the book of Hosea, you'll find it there. And Thistle shall grow up upon thine altar. Everything is cursed, everything is curved. Then thorns. Well, Bolivia is the land of thorns. And as I mentioned yesterday, it's really according to botanist and a botan branch which never comes to maturity because of the lack of water.
Of rain and excessive heat of the sun.
Turns into a thorn, and you never saw thorns like the Bolivian thought. Then he mentioned the thorns that they pressed upon the brow of that blessed Son of God, and the tears came down his old face and his white beard. I'll never forget as he mentioned that the thorns that were squeezed on the brow of the Son of God. Then he went on to speak.
Of sweat. Sweat, he said, speaks of restlessness.
Restlessness.
Was it possible for the Lord to have restlessness? Father, if thou wilt remove this cup from me, Nevertheless, if thou will but as as I will, but as thou wilt, He thought of you.
And he thought of me at that moment. He thought of this dreadful, ruined.
Creation through satanic intervention and sin. Iniquity and dust. Dust, he mentioned.
Dust. The cheapest thing in the world. Dust.
But we do read that thou has brought me into the dust of death.
There's gone into death. He has beloved and and brought forth life and incorruptibility. I like that word better. We put it into the Inca tongue and incorruptibility to light through the gospel. But to make this a bit shorter, he said these are the things that have crossed the pathway of the eternal sound of the living God.
And what then? I can hear his voice. He's born the mall. He's borne them all for the same. He's born them all.
What a savior we have. And so when we turn back to Luke four, there you have that precious savior.
That blessed man.
Bearing it all.
00:30:00
It is written. It is written. It is written. It is written.
What a wonderful portion this is. It really humbles us, doesn't it? It also encourages us two brothers, doesn't it? I thought too that it was perhaps a little lesson to us to see the blessed Lord Jesus, having presented to him all the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them. None of us will face anything of this kind.
But perhaps we might face just a little corner of this world, just a little corner of its glory.
And we find it quite a test, quite a temptation, but you know, if it's all right to picture the Lord Jesus.
On that exceeding high mountain, having presented to Him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them, and you suddenly say to yourself, But from whence had he come? From the very glory of God's own presence, all to one who had from all eternity dwelt in that glory, to stand on that high mountain, and look at all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them, How must it have appeared in his eyes?
Nothing. Absolutely nothing.
And all my beloved brethren and I speak to my own heart, and perhaps it may speak to yours too, as we pass through this poor, corrupt world, so soon to be judged. Satan tries to do the same to you and me. He tries to put before our eyes, before our hearts, a little little corner of this world, something of its glory. Do we find it rather hard to turn from it? Do we find it quite a test to us? It wouldn't be such a test if we had our.
Fixed upon that wondrous glory. Oh, when I see the blessed Son of God standing there and realize from whence he had come. And then I realized, that's my home too. That's where I belong. Oh, how everything else would fade away in a moment. And then I was thinking too, as I heard rather frequent mention of the omitted words.
In all thy ways Satan purposely omitted them.
To keep thee in all thy ways. Every time we say those words, somehow we think of Proverbs 3.
And if you and I want to be kept, we do well to remember the significance of those very words as they present a challenge to us. In all thy ways, acknowledge Him, and He shall direct Thy paths. You and I want to have our paths directed in a way that would be for the glory of God, for our happiness and blessing along the way.
Oh, let no one for one moment think that God has presented to us a restricting pathway.
In which we're going to be deprived of this or that. Indeed, it's nothing of the kind. It's a pathway filled with the richest blessing of the Lord and the end of it will be by the grace of God if we do acknowledge him in all our ways and abundant entrance and a full reward. So those little words which were omitted here purposely by Satan and misquoting or.
Short quoting the word of God are so applicable, should be so applicable to every one of us.
In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy path back in the Old Testament there.
Is a very lovely chapter which we're all acquainted with, which brings before us in a picture the truth much of what we have here. I refer to David and Goliath, and you remember that scene there so well, how that David was just a stripling, a ready youth.
And this giant, a man of age and age.
Well, the picture is that giant, the enemy of our souls, Satan. And David, of course, is the Lord Jesus. And he goes, David goes with that sling and the pouch full of five stones, A picture, no doubt, of the five books of Moses.
And as has already been said here, David used one stone, the Lord Jesus used one book.
And the giant fell. Let's read in Luke Chapter 11.
A brother referred to Matthew 12 about the binding here. It's put a little different in Luke, but it brings the whole story out.
00:35:10
In Luke 1121, when a strongman armed well, there's Satan keepeth his palace, that's this world, the glory of them. He talks about that. But oh, there's a lot of misery too. But the glory attracts the flesh.
His goods are in peace, but when a stronger than he shall come upon him and overcome him, Here's the Lord Jesus, that's the 4th of Luke. He came upon the strongman, he overcame him with the word of God. That's the giant fell by the stone. But you remember David ran up to that giant.
And he took his own sword and cut off his head.
Now let's read on in the verse Here He taketh from him all his armor, wherein He trusted and divided his spoils. Let's go to Hebrews 2, verse 14. For as much than as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, He didn't take on him the seed of Abraham of angels. He took on him the seed of Abraham. He also himself likewise took part of the same.
That through death he might destroy him that had the power of death.
That is the devil and deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to *******. For verily, He took not on him the nature of angels, but He took on him the seed of Abraham. He passed angels by. He came to us, poor sinners. He went to meet the giant, He met Satan, He overcame him. He went on to the cross. In our chapter, we're coming to the verse. Let's notice it in our chapter.
4.
And verse 13 And when the devil had ended all the temptation, he departed from him.
For a little season. Oh, he returned.
I believe in the garden.
But the Lord Jesus said there the cup which my Father has given me, shall I not drink it?
He took even that cup from the Father. Satan, I believe, pressed it upon him. A shortcut. No, he wouldn't take it. No, he went right down into death. He took that which was the power of the enemy, and he robbed death of a sting, as our brother just quoted, and brought light and incorruptibility to light through the Gospel. Well, this is the great victor, and we share in his victory.
Over putting the same position.
As he is, so are we in this world could behave some thought not Hebrews on James chapter one.
Where we have temptations mentioned.
In verse 2.
Of chapter one my brethren counted all joy when he fall into diverse temptations, knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience, but that patients have their perfect work, that he may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing. Also in verse 12.
Blessed is the man that endureth temptation.
For when he's tried, he shall receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to them. They love him. Let no man say when he is tempted. I am tempted of God. For God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempted thee any man. But every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and entities, then when lust has conceived.
Forth sin and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death. I'm reading these verses because it's wonderful to see how perfectly the Lord Jesus went through the through the temptation we face the same, but to me it almost sounds strange, but be of course far too much Scripture says to consider a joy.
To be tempted and.
It seems to be that there is a difference even here.
In the temptation mentioned in verse 2.
And the temptations mentioned later on in this chapter one has called the temptations in verse 2, the holy temptations connected with our faith, with the enemy seeks to overthrow, but dinner is there in US which was not in our Lord.
00:40:18
The sin, the flesh. And the apostle says blessed is the man that endureth temptation. And so we can learn from the Lord Jesus in the way he meant temptation, and especially when it comes to matters of faith. And there are those things where Satan seems to tempt us.
Not necessarily using the flesh, but undermining our faith. Or others might be able to explain that a little better, but doesn't this fit in here?
Beautifully to encourage us to not when we are tempted, when we are facing difficulties.
Not to be depressed and but really be thankful.
Because He will not only send these temptations, but also help us to go through them for His glory. He's got to see. As you point out, there are two kinds of temptation. Or maybe we better get hold of that well, because in the second verse, these temptations will be connected with joy.
But in the 12Th verse, the temptation is connected with endurance. That would be the trial. And we read God to tempt Abraham. It was a trial.
Of Abraham's faith. But the other temptation that's brought in as you've read, there's temptation with evil verse 13 that is not.
The same temptation as you get in the other two verses. If we're tempted with evil to do evil, why should we rejoice in that? And why should we have to endure it if the if the enemy presents a temptation, I claim the truth of Romans, 6I reckon myself to be dead indeed unto sin.
But alive unto God through Jesus Christ. We have the power by being dead to sin, to refuse it, not to endure it. But suppose you get hit with one trial after another, sickness, a loss of property or one thing or another, Why the danger is to break down. James says it's blessed if you endure that temptation, endure that trial. I think it's good to get hold of the difference between being tempted, as you say, by.
Was it in the one place tempted by trial and tempted by evil? 3 Two different things.
I think we mentioned before you get it in first, John, there's the lust of the flesh in you.
That's very prevalent, of course, lust of the flesh in you, and there's the lust of the eye in middle age.
This is also a very strong temptation, beloved.
And then latterly, last of all is the pride of life which effects we old folks.
We need your prayers.
How many of God's people have gone on well and have used been used of the Lord, and they've forgotten their nothingness and have boasted in their what they have done, and they have become as useless vessels?
The pride of life. This is a very, very grave thing, brethren, and each day God has blessed my little service of 58 years in a real way.
It is true, but brethren, let us ever remember that we are nothing.
And as Mr. Darby said, and I read it as a young man after I was laid out of sectarianism, men called of God into His service go forth from a place of strength, realizing their own nothingness.
All that impressed me. I said, Lord Jesus, may I be just that, Just that.
So we have the pride, the lust of the flesh in you, how strong it seems to be today, and the lust of the eye. You know the Indian I brought from South America below? He made failure because he wanted to live like the American people.
00:45:04
He wants to possess beautiful homes. He'd been used to a very humble home. He was a humble man. He was useful and he wanted to bring his three children home to this country to be college, collegiate.
And he had a he had even a diplomatic passport to do it. The justice gave it to him because of his testimony. You know, the justice had him in his own home to give his testimony in the gospel. Think of it, the justice, he thought so much of poor Francisco. But what happened?
He's lust of the eye. He wanted to be something. He wanted to acquire something. Now this is very common, brethren, in US.
But the pride of life, well, I wrote the justice a little note saying, Justice, please cancel that passport of Francisco here.
Please cancel it. And it was canceled to this day.
Well, he did send his boys to school and some of them have graduated. One is an engineer, another accountant. I don't know what the other does. I think he's a mechanical man. But all what happened, he was a lost dynamic from that very moment because it was the love of money. He saved money to come to this country and live like the American people.
And I warned himself.
That he didn't listen.
That God put him on his back for three years until he said yes, yes.
He's a lost dynamic still, but he's in fellowship.
Brethren, tell me he's in fellowship still. But for a long time he was away, one of the first of the boys to be saved, not the first one of the first to be saved. He's now 72, more or less.
He's a lost dynamic.
Well, may we be very careful.
Oh, do pray for this old Jacob. That's all I am, beloved.
God has been pleased to use of nothing.
He has.
For which our every month fainted. Thanks.
But there are places that in the dust, if we're ever going to be any good for God, we have to be on with on the enough, with our faces in the dust. Before God, we are nothing.
Well, it says, it says concerning Jacob, speaks of Jacob.
But it does add the Lord of hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our refuge. If it had been Abraham, poor Smith would have been a mess in a mess. But it's the God of Jacob is our refuge. The God of Jacob is our refuge. Isn't that sweet?
Mention about the danger of the pride of life and old age. It makes us think of what dear JG Ballot was exercised about. We I'm sure we have some of his writings over here. He's one of the.
Teaches among the gathered Saints more than 100 years ago and his younger days he he felt that the Lord would leave him here to old age.
He wanted his great concern was that he would not dishonor the Lord. And when he reached old age, now that's a word for the young, he was exercised about that, not when he got old, but when he was young. And the law did leave him here to be old, and he didn't get off the path either.
Way that the two expressions, you know that that isn't the same. I don't know Greek and I confess that.
But that one of them is a solicitation to do evil that comes from the flesh. And then the other, of course, is as a trial in order that that which God allows in order to bring out in the soul that which is of God. And you take also there are other places in Scripture. It just reminded one that sometimes.
In our English language, we only have perhaps one word there.
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Which in the Greek there are different words. For example, remember when the Lord restores Peter.
At the end of the Gospel of John, Lovest thou me? And there is what the two words AGAPAO&PHILEO in Greek and they, they're just translated the same way in our English language. But if you saw the Greek, you would see what the Lord, you know, was really saying to Peter about lovest thou me with a deep love. And Peter, he had been chastened in spirit and I liked the Lord, you know, he wouldn't he wouldn't go so far as.
I love thee with that deep love. He had had self-confidence once before. So there's a lesson in the usage of these words. God allowed the Greek language to be at that time for its precise meanings. You taking the Gospel of Matthew in the 20th chapter where the householder goes out and employs those various ones at the several hours to do his work, and then finally he says this word, friend.
He know wrong. I bargained with thee for a penny, and this is what I've given you, friend. And then there's a man who comes into the wedding without a wedding garment on, and the Lord says to him, friend.
Same gospel, the Lord says to Judas, friend in the Greek they're all the same word and they mean acquaintance. That's all just acquaintance. Far different from when the Lord says in John 15, ye are my friends. That's another word altogether which implies intimacy of relationship. And so how, how marvelous are are these words, you know, And what I wanted to say is this.
Lead up to we have in our hands the King James translation, the authorized version, and it is good.
It's fine, and I trust that by the grace of God, we'll continue to use it. And then we have Mr. Darby's translation of the Scriptures that we can use to get these fine shades of distinction. Distinction. And I believe, dear ones, that's all we need. That's all we need.
A brother right here has said that the devil is in the Bible business and many of these translations and I trust by the grace of God, if you've got them on your on your shelves, if you're just using them for reference work to show where the error is, that's one thing. But if you're using them for reading, burn them just like our brother said the other day, burn them. They're wicked they're.
They're transliterations being pawned off on the public as the word of God.
And setting the ground as it were for just doing away with the word of God. I say and I insist we have sufficient in this book. We have before us together with with shades of distinction with Mr. Darbys translation and one other thing before I'm done in verse eight of our chapter. Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only.
Shalt thou serve? I know it's repeating things, dear ones.
But I don't know about you, but I'm a leaky vessel and I have to have things repeated in order to really get them in the in the mind. And how often have we seen these two things together in the Word of God? Worship 1St and then service earlier in this gospel, Luke, we have Anna and she was there in the temple and she was offering up prayers.
Then she went out and spoke.
To all of those that look for redemption in Israel, first there was the holy priesthood going up to God. Then there was the royal priesthood, that which goes out to man. And in acts, we've heard it before, but again, an axe. When they're thrown into that prison, they're exercising their holy priesthood and they're singing praises unto God. But also there's faithfulness, there's the royal priesthood, and others are.
Told of the way of salvation. Oh dear ones, and christened them again. What is it? Get somebody saved and immediately get them ready for the mission field. Get on the all filled with service. And we believe there's a place for service. But service, in order to be effectual for God, should always flow out of communion. Let worship be first and service later.
Those thoughts in mind, should we go on 1St?
Because here we have Jesus before us again, and we have one who has passed through.
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They.
The testings and he's coming now in the power of the Spirit.
Into Galilee.
And then we find that he goes into the synagogue's being glorified all of all.
And we find that he had a custom.
He came to Nazareth where he had been brought up, and as his custom was.
He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day and stood up for to read.
Now I know that we're on Jewish ground in a way here, a transition period, but.
May I just say that we are all creatures of habit?
Now what is our custom?
Have we very fixed definite habits in the things of God?
Read the Word of God. Do we pray?
Someone made a remark the other day.
In speaking to a relative.
In connection with something that had taken place in their life, a young man.
He said I prayed. He said I haven't been praying for a long time, but I prayed and things went well with him.
Now, how much better it would have gone with him if he had continued praying instead of neglecting it. It hadn't been his custom.
Here we have a custom.
And we find in another place of the Lord Jesus that he increased in wisdom.
And stature and favor with God and man.
Now it's the man Christ Jesus that this gospel speaks of.
A man, God as he is, but as a man down here among men, he has a custom, a practice that he follows. It's a good one. And also.
We find the development.
And it was in favor with God and man. God first. Now it wasn't until the Lord Jesus touched the consciences of men.
That he lost that favor with them.
It wasn't until he began to speak, as we see a little later in this chapter.
Now that which would raise the national feeling of Israel, who now are in captivity to it, to the to the Romans.
And give them to feel this captivity. It wasn't until then that they turn against him, but they wonder at his gracious words.
And we find that until the conscience of man is reached and he's seen in his true light, well, you can get along pretty well with most anyone. But the moment you apply Christian truth, that's the truth of Christ dying for the Sinner and the truth of man's moral degradation and sin, the moment you bring in those subjects, you're going to find out that you won't have many friends in this world.
That's right, brother.
When I see this as the customs spoken out here, I'm reminded that twice in chapter two, such customs are spoken of in connection with his beloved mother and Joseph. And I think it's very, very interesting to think that even though he was of course the perfect Son of God, yet there was in his very early infancy and childhood that.
Custom. His parents go to the synagogue. According to the custom of the law, they take their dear son with them.
And I thank God for the memory, if you wish, of such customs when I was a child, to have our earliest memories associated with that which to me at the time was only accustomed. But I thank God for that custom, that prayer meeting night was prayer meeting night. Bible reading night was Bible reading night. It was the pattern of.
And family life, and although I say again, it was only accustomed when I was a child, I thank God for the custom. And when I see it here in this chapter, I'm reminded that it's twice mentioned in the second chapter during the childhood and youth of the Lord Jesus himself. As we were coming to the conference here we were going through.
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Iowa and Illinois passing along the highway.
And there were many cornfields.
On either side of the road.
And most of those corn fields were delightful to look at.
Stocks all grown up, luscious and green and beginning to set ears.
And we were talking about that, how nice they looked, how wonderful it was, what what a wonderful thing to look upon, part of God's creation.
But we were also talking about what we might call a custom in connection with those cornfields.
Having been a farmer, born, raised on the farm, I know something about what is needed to raise corn. And there are certain customs we go through, there are certain habits we follow well, there are certain natural regulations or rules perhaps that we have to follow.
First of all, the soil has to be plowed up and properly prepared.
And then in these days especially, fertilizer is applied that which nourishes the plants.
And then there has to be caretaking, too, that the weeds are removed from that cornfield. Now the farmer might say, well, this is a lot of bother and this is a wearisome thing. I'm going to just forget about this custom, these natural rules. What's going to be the result?
Well, the cornfield is not going to look very good.
If the fertilizer isn't applied, it'll look stunted. If the leaves our weeds are allowed to grow, they'll SAP all the strength and you won't see a nice looking cornfield. The corn won't grow.
Now what is the farmer interested in? He is interested in seeing that corn grow and produce corn.
What are we interested in as Christians? Are we interested in what Peter speaks of, grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ?
Are we interested in what we know the Lord would have us do? Produce fruit for Him for His glory? We know all of this. Yes, we are interested in those things and growing and grace and knowledge and producing fruit for the Lords honor and glory. But we have to remember that there are certain customs and habits we must follow.
And I don't know of any better custom to have than to read the word of God and meditate upon it.
And to spend time in prayer and in judging ourselves. And judging ourselves, we get rid of the weeds.
In reading the Word of God and in keeping in tune with the Lord in prayer, we are feeding our souls. There is going to be fruit.
Are we going to give up the custom? Well, this young man.
That hadn't prayed, had given up the custom of prey. He was losing out in his soul and the Lord was losing out, and the Lord misses that fruit. Oh, how it must delight the Lord to look upon a company of Christians and see them growing. Like we looked upon that field of corn with pleasure and saw it growing.
Think about the Lord's side of it. Does He appreciate it? Does it bring joy to Him? I'm sure it does. And we can be defective and deficient if we're not following this custom of reading the Word, meditating upon it, getting it into our souls, praying, talking to the Lord. We'll miss just what the Lord wants us to have and be for Him.
It's in keeping with the whole ministry.
Of the Lord Jesus here.
Particularly in Luke.
That is, he stops short of judgment as he quotes Isaiah.
Our blessed Savior came down and does not take up the subject of judgment. Now He refers to judgment. But even when the young man came and said, Master, will you tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me? Who made me a judge or a divider over you? The Lord Jesus came in lowly grace.
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With truth but grace, he leaves judgment for another day.
Judgments coming, but He stopped short in that verse in Isaiah, and He brings out all that has to do as far as could be revealed at the time of what was in the heart of God for the blessing of man. The Lord Jesus came in not only lowly grace, but He came in love to man, and He came to manifest that love which is in the heart of God.
For everyone who is in this room this afternoon.
And I wouldn't be a bit surprised if there were those in this room this afternoon who do not yet know the love of God, who do not yet know their sins. All forgiven.
The Lord Jesus came to manifest that love, and here in this first appearance, shall we say.
Of the manifestation of this aspect of things.
Where he is about to be rejected.
Actually in the 9th chapter but he's about to be rejected.
Is about to be set aside as the Messiah. He's already introducing that greater that larger sphere of things when he speaks of name in the Syrian and the woman of Sarepta. Now those are the two ministries of the Lord Jesus. One has to do with the earthly ministry.
And the other has to do with the heavenly ministry through the Apostle Paul, but they're introduced in this chapter and at the time when he stands up on this occasion.
And so that men will know that there's going to be a tremendous change when the Kingdom of God is introduced.
It's a Note 2 of Luke, the character of Luke's Gospel. To see that expression here where he had been brought up. It's a note, shall we say, of human interest. When the Lord came down from the mound of Transfiguration and healed that lunatic sun, only Luke says he he restored him to his Father. Neither Matthew nor Mark say that because we have the human side of things.
The one we just make this statement to, we have Nazareth mentioned. I believe there are four cities.
That have connection with the Blessed Lord's pathway in Bethlehem. He's born of the seed of David. That's the city of His birth. Nazareth is where He was brought up. He went down to Nazareth and was subject unto them. Then as He went out on His ministry, He went and dwelt in Capernaum. But what about Jerusalem? We see two things about that. It was the city of His rejection, the city of his death.
And yet there's a day coming when that will be the city of his power. Bethlehem is the city of David. Jerusalem is the city of David. One is the city of his birth, the other is the city of his power. And so there's a day coming when the glory of the Lord who entered Nazareth as a man here in loneliness, he's going to display his power.