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Worship.
Then we read the wondrous story.
All across the same and glory.
Every heart come. Darkest Song.
From.
All the depths of my heart.
So.
Tone and answering.
Free song.
Get the Heart of England, forsake it.
In his face from thy divine.
Face once hard and smitten.
All his glory.
Rise our hearts and bless the Father.
Sees my song.
And must praise an adorable.
To the Father and the Son.
I suggest we start with verse 37. I'm afraid if we reread the other part, that's all we'll talk about, so.
We we need to get down to earth too.
Nine starting at verse 37.
And it came to pass that on the next day, when they were come down from the hill, much people met him.
And behold, the man of the company cried out, saying, Master, I beseech thee, and look upon my son.
For he is my only child, and Lois spirit taketh him, and he suddenly crieth out, and it teareth him that he foameth again.
And bruising him hardly departed from him. And I besought thy disciples to cast him out, and they could not. And Jesus answering, said, Oh, faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you and suffer you bring Thy Son hit her. And as he was yet a coming, the devil threw him down and tear him. And Jesus rebuked the unclean spirit, and healed the child, and delivered him again to his Father. And they were all amazed at the mighty power of God.
But while they wandered, everyone at all, at all things which Jesus did, he said unto his disciples.
Let these sayings sink down into your ears, for the Son of Man shall be delivered into the hands of men. But they understood not the saying, and it was hid from them that they perceived it not, and they feared to ask Him of that saying. Then there arose of reasoning among them which of them should be great as. And Jesus, perceiving the thought of their heart, took a child, and set him by Him, and said unto them, Whosoever shall receive this child in My name receiveth me, and whosoever shall receive me, receiveth him that sent me.
00:05:14
For he that is least among you all the same shall be great. And John answered and said, Master, we saw one casting out devils in thine name.
And we forbade him, because he found was not with us. And Jesus said unto him, Forbid him not, for he that is not against us is for us.
Going to ask a question real quick.
Verse 30.
1St 28 They went up into a mountain.
Verse 37 They came down from the hill.
So how did the mountain get changed to a hill?
Was it the glory of the Lord?
It eclipsed everything naturally.
This we don't have to do a lot on it.
Garbage translation is bound okay, and we're still.
Verse 37.
And it came to pass on the following day when they came down from the mountain.
Big crowd matching.
I think we'd like to connect this.
I'll sit in some reading about.
With a mountain, because it's a high place, that's what a mountain is. It's a high place.
Above the world. And I think that's really where the Lord Jesus led his disciples, that he might.
Displayed His glory.
So we have these mountaintop experiences, don't we? And how wonderful they are and even coming to a conference like this.
We enjoy it.
Ministry. Rich Ministry that.
Feeds our souls and ministers Christ.
Where hearts and it's a wonderful time.
How many times we have referred to these conferences at Mountain top experiences?
But then we do have to return to our homes and to our jobs, to school.
Our everyday life.
But it's wonderful that.
You know, we can take with us the enjoyment of the mountaintop experience.
We come down last month.
In the middle of first 38.
Look upon my son.
It may be that others have done like I have done too often, bring a problem before the Lord and then give them a solution.
This person deliver them by circumstance. He says, look upon my son. So that's nice. We don't know what kind of faith that he had. He knew that the Lord could heal him. But just a reminder to myself and maybe others too that we certainly want the Lord's will done and maybe it isn't to deliver the person from the circumstance or myself from the circumstance.
And the Millennium State is going to be bound for 1000 years that he should no more deceive the nations. The Prince and Power of the air is going to be found and put in the bottomless pit. But it's an old brother used to like to say we're not in the Millennium yet. So we come down from the mountain and it's the sphere of the Prince of power of the Air, and he's active. And that's where we are now. So that scene closes on the mountaintop. It's for another day. But it was to reassure their hearts that it would certainly come and they were going to find it a great.
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Comfort in later times, as we see Peter has already been noted. Writes about it later.
Am I correct in saying that verse 41 where the Lord said this He wasn't necessarily just speaking to His?
Disciples. He was speaking to this man that was in the urgent need. The disciples hadn't been able to cast out the Spirit.
That and in other gospels they questioned why they hadn't. It doesn't present that here. So that was the human side of it.
I'm not sure what the.
What this it's different here?
Verse 37 says much people that is wouldn't have been for all who could hear.
It wasn't it.
It wasn't lack of power that the Lord has called an attention to its lack of faith.
It was not only on the part of the man, but the disciples too seemed to lack.
Ability to cast out that demon. Why?
In verse, the beginning of the chapter and verse.
It says.
And having called together the 12, he gave them power.
And authority over all demons and to heal diseases.
And sent them to proclaim the Kingdom of God and to heal the sick.
This is a statement of the power that's given in the beginning of the chapter.
Through the disciples to deal with.
What they would find in presenting the gospel of the Kingdom that was coming.
And then the Lord takes them up into the mountain, but as we had.
Yesterday the Lord went up there and even as it says in verse 18, he was praying alone.
And then when they go up on the mountain, it says he went.
He went, doesn't say they did, but he went up to pray.
And then afterwards, when they come down, they cannot exercise the power that's given in the beginning of the chapter.
They're unable. The disciples are unable to exercise the power that had been given to them.
For the very purpose of dealing with situations like the man with his child.
And so we can rightly say, why didn't they have that power? They did have the power. Why?
What was the difficulty? And I think that importantly.
We the visions of coming glory.
Are not all that we need to deal with daily life.
We have to learn that the exercise of what God has given to us can only be done with dependence upon Himself, and the prayer gives an expression to that dependence. The Lord Jesus, the very night in which he was going to go to the cross the next morning.
Spends much of the evening in prayer in anticipation of what he was going to face, you might say.
The next day, and so it is, we can come to a conference like this, we can have the enjoyable experience of, you might say, being on the mountaintop for a weekend.
But at the same time, we will find that we have to learn.
That there is the exercise of dependence upon himself or we will not be able to use the experience of the weekend to meet the challenges of tomorrow's life.
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But the Lord was teaching them that, and as so he says.
As it were when it comes down and Mr. Darby. Oh unbelieving and perverted generation.
He brings two things here to pass, and I'm going to suggest in part what happens to us is we go up on the mountaintop, we enjoy the Lord and we enjoy coming glory, and then we go down from the mountain into the world and we apply the world's principles to that day's life.
We stop acting and living in practice in what we learned on the mountain, and we go back to the idea of.
Doing things the same way our neighbor does, who doesn't have faith in the Lord Jesus. And so we live by sight.
Instead of by faith and when we do the dependence, the choice that we have is lost. I'll I'll give this example of it in John's Gospel because I think it's connected the Lord Jesus shortly before he left and John said my peace.
I give unto you.
The Lord.
Once you and I, tomorrow or the next day or whatever day, we go back into the.
Of daily life, He wants us to go into it with the same peace.
That he had in his everyday life.
Not on the mountain.
But down on the earth, if you will, why did he have a peace?
That characterized his life. Did he have fear? No, he didn't.
Lord Jesus.
To go to sleep at night with rest. He had a piece because he lived his life.
In daily dependence upon the Father, and upon the father to give.
Everything that was necessary to meet the experience of that life. The disciples here had not yet learned that truth.
Although I believe they learned it later after the Spirit of God.
Descended and after they had the life of Christ in resurrection to.
Live and they gradually did learn and experienced it. There's something else.
Lord Jesus told two stories about importunity and prayer, the neighbor and the judge.
The story of Abraham going up on the mountain with his son.
I saw a movie clip once, that scene God telling him and in the movie clip they had Abraham pounding on a rock screaming at God. How could you make me do this? That never happened. It's a bald faced lie and we know from Hebrews.
He didn't understand the situation completely, but because he believed God.
He thought he was going to see a resurrection ending. That's what Hebrews tells him. Abraham thought when he took his son up on that mountain, he was going to plunge a knife into him. He was going to die, and then God was going to raise him up because he believed When God said that that boy right there, that boy is going to have children, he knew something had happened.
He didn't understand the situation. He didn't understand how it was going to happen.
He just said, well, I believe God, then I'm going to see a resurrection.
Well, that's not what happened. Well, in a type it was because it says that.
But he believed God. He really did believe what he told him. If he told me my child was going to have a son, then that boy is going to be alive somehow, some way after what happens on this mountain. So when we're faced with something and we're praying.
Why should we give up when something seems to be stopping?
The answer?
Why should we hold back?
I think sometimes we will say in our prayers thy will be done and it's an excuse.
We've given ourselves a way out, or we think we're letting God out of a box or something. That's not faith. Never has been.
If God says something and you stand on that and it's the truth that he has revealed, why wouldn't you keep on? They should have just said, well, he gave us the power, this demon needs to go. What's next? He didn't go the first time, let's keep after it again.
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And again and again. But they didn't.
Do we do that?
Do we do that?
Why shouldn't we keep going in, persevering with importunity and praying until God either says no, no, no, very clearly like he did with Paul, and until he does, just go and go and go until you have no more breath in your body or until He comes. Why should we stop? If he we have His word, we have Him telling us.
When we have in James those words there the effects of fervent prayers of a righteous man availeth much and we have there he says to pray for those that are sick that they might be healed. He doesn't throw in the middle of that, that Oh well thy will be done. Let God decide the outcome. But how about praying that they might be healed? Because he said, isn't it that simple enough? Just do it and keep praying until God decides a different outcome.
Because I think one brother said in a reading meeting not long ago, he said like he's sitting right in front of Maine, that eventually.
That person is going to be healed. It just might not be today or tomorrow. It might be in the rapture. It might be in the resurrection.
But why would we not just press forward with opportunity, if I can say this as reverently as possible?
When I read those two stories about the Lord Jesus, those stories of importunity.
When I read those, it's like God is saying to us.
Pester me about this.
If an unjust judge and a neighbor who is irritated by you will finally give in, how much more?
Your father, all that we have heard, he has given us the gift of his son.
How much more?
When the faith of a dear Saints of God, who is on his face crying in tears about something.
That he's imploring God for maybe the salvation of a child or a brother or sister or something to do with health or whatever it is.
And pouring that out, God sees a spare fall from his death.
He cares about that. Does he not care? Does he not see your tears? Yes, he does. Why would you stop? We know more than these guys did. We know a whole lot more than they do. Why should we stop until there's an absolute no from God in some way, shape or form, we should press on those men and women in Hebrews.
Tell us some things and I love that story of Abraham that he thought in his mind I'm going to see a resurrection even though he was wrong. What a testimony to us and they didn't know what we.
I think there's another.
Point to be considered too, and we mentioned it I think yesterday both in Matthew and Mark in this story.
After they seem powerless to cast out the demon, Lord Jesus said this kind can come forth by nothing, but by prayer and fasting.
And brethren, we live in a world where we cater to our desires, our own desires. Not naturally, not necessarily bad desires.
But we just like to cater to ourselves, and fasting is denying ourselves.
The Lord Jesus said, if any man come after me, let him deny him.
Take up His cross and follow me. You know yourself.
Why should I deny myself? I got money in my pocket, it's at my.
At my fingertips? Why not?
Brethren, that was not the life of the Lord Jesus.
To me, it is so challenging to see how the Lord lived his life.
In such simplicity and never did he use his miraculous powers.
To for his own pleasure, for his own needs.
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Use them for the blessing of others, yes, but we tend to do that in our culture. We're taught and I think it's the current of self pleasing in this culture that robs us of power to meet these situations that come up.
This really searches me. This part, this kind comes forth by nothing.
But by prayer and fasting, the Lord Jesus comes up on the situation, and he has.
The thing in full control, disciples like you say, Don.
We're given that power, but they could not do that work. So it's, it's a challenge, brother. And I, I, I just have felt my own soul that so often we come up to situations and we're powerless. Yes, we should persevere like you say, Sam, but I think there is another point to be considered is that we cater to ourselves and that takes away our power.
It's been commonly taught and I believe.
In Christendom that the Kingdom will be introduced because through the preaching of the gospel by people of our generation, and that will gradually prepare the world so the Lord can come back and reign over it. This these verses that we read here.
Prove that's, prove that's error. The the disciples were looking for that to happen, and indeed I guess it was presented to them to introduce it.
The Kingdom that the Lord would come right at that time.
We've already commented that it was going to be necessary that he go to the cross first, but.
That trial is still being proven here and so.
Peters when he said let's build 3 tabernacles, he was already jumping ahead and wanting to start right then. And of course we know it couldn't. And so here you see developed when you get back down to earth again and you start relying on your testimony to to prepare for the king and give a demonstration by these miracles that he's here and he's he can introduce this Kingdom.
Have him.
They fail in it and the Lord, as it were, has to come in an emergency and rescue the situation.
He's kind of obligated here to do this for his name's sake.
Because the disciples had failed. And of course he does.
And so it's approving that when the Christ introduces his Kingdom, it's going to be all of himself.
And he's going to have to do it and he will do it. Yes, there will be people involved, but they're going to be through regenerated people, born again people. And so that could only take place by his going to the cross and rising again and imparting to us that life. Well, we have that.
Observation and then a question.
Prayer can be done spontaneously.
At the spur of the moment. So I'm thinking of a first in Nehemiah chapter 2 and it says Nehemiah chapter 2 verse four. Then the king said unto me, For what dost thou make request? So I pray to the God of heaven, and said unto the king.
When you're standing in the presence of a king and he has asked you a question, I don't think you wait a long time to answer it. And so that prayer he gets, safe to say was brief, was something that he could do on the spur of the moment. You cannot fast in the spare of the moment.
You're doing spontaneously. It doesn't count. And so the question I have is this, in regards to the disciples, when the Lord tells them this could only come out by prayer and fasting. Is it true that there are challenges that you and I will face today that we are unprepared to meet because of decisions we did or did not make in the past?
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I believe that's true, Michael, and.
Prayer and fasting should be more a character of our lives so that when those situations come up, we are ready.
Like Nehemiah was.
I have a personal involvement in a situation many years ago or it is very verse. These verses not in this book, but the other two gospels.
Facing demons.
Why aren't they responding?
Because this kind goeth not out, but by prayer and fasting.
And the group of us that prayed and fasted overtime found victory.
Over the power of the enemy from these very verses, to be given as the instruction from the Lord.
And counsel from two brothers that are long home now, Ron Reeves and Albert Hagel.
Rather, if the Lord leaves us here much longer, with the way this country is gone and with the way the West is going.
People are embracing the fastest growing religion in America right now is witchcraft, according to some polls.
Some versions of that have to do with the New Age and so forth, but men and women are turning to paganism openly.
If we're here much longer, you think you might face something like this face on.
Some of those that have gone to foreign countries more often than the rest of us have seen some of those things.
The power of the enemy coming in like a flood.
If the Lord leaves us here, persecution begins to come. Our brother mentioned in prayer about persecution and other lands.
It's coming here. If the Lord carries very long, we're going to face it.
Are we ready?
The onslaught of the enemy coming in and the power of the enemy and people who embrace that kind of nonsense, well, we will need.
To understand these things.
And I can.
Understand that.
Used to do is stand up with a sign with the name of Jesus on that.
In a busy corner and you will have one or two cars that go by and say things that are, I'm not going to repeat here about that very thing.
Know that it's here.
Certainly know the power that we have.
Stronger than the Power of faith is so so nice to hear that.
Talking about.
I think the spirit of prayer, of fasting has been laid in verse 23. We didn't really take it up, but we didn't speak about it. He said unto them, If any man will deny, will come after me, let him deny himself, and take him his day across the alien. Follow me for whosoever.
Will save his life shall lose if the loose or lose his life for my sake of saying shall save it. So if the Spirit of God has worked that desire in our soul that we're willing to lay down our lives and this is the work.
The Spirit of God does.
If we have that sense of.
Living in the Lord.
Whatever cost.
Then there will be power.
There will be fasting. There will be no desire to live for ourselves.
There will be more power for all we face.
It says there, doesn't it daily, which shows that it should be the character of our lives and to me it's interesting in the verses that follow immediately the Lord Jesus.
They are amazed at the mighty power of God.
But the Lord Jesus then immediately says, Let these sayings sink down into your ears, for the Son of man shall be delivered into the hands of men.
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But they understood not this saying and it was hid from them.
That they perceived it not, they feared to ask him of this saying.
Lord Jesus was a rejected man in this world, and if we follow a rejected man, what can we expect but that same.
Rejection.
They couldn't understand that.
And you know, the current of this world has such influence in us that it's hard for us to grasp this too. You go over to the 18th chapter, the Lord again mentions this and it's interesting, It really develops it further.
Verse 31 of chapter 18.
Then he took unto him the 12, and said unto them, Behold, we go up to Jerusalem.
All things that are written by the prophets concerning the Son of Man shall be accomplished.
For he shall be delivered unto the Gentiles, and shall be mocked, and spitefully entreated and spitted on. They shall scourge him, and put him to death. The third day he shall rise again.
And they understood none of these sayings, and this saying was hid from them, neither knew they the things which were spoken.
Isn't that incredible?
But I think that happens to us too, brethren, if we don't realize.
Of following the Lord Jesus.
Is a life of self denial. It's taking up the cross to follow him.
Otherwise, there's not going to be any power.
Lord Jesus died and rose again. The life that we now enjoy as a life and resurrection, It's a life beyond.
This natural life.
It's a life beyond death.
I don't know, I was asking Don in the break.
What it means in first Timothy chapter 6? Paul says to Timothy twice in that chapter lay hold on eternal life. What does it mean? Didn't Timothy have eternal life?
Yeah.
But it's one thing to have it, brother, and it's another thing to live.
In the reality of what that life is.
And we live our lives quite often pretty much like.
Anybody in the world lives their lives.
And therefore there is not power.
When we come to these crisis points.
Sometimes we're not aware of the reality of what's in conflict.
In this example here given to us in verse 42, it says while he was yet coming the devil threw him down and then in.
Verse 43 They were all amazed at the mighty power of God.
There are two great powers in conflict with one another. It's the power of Satan and the power of God.
And sometimes we don't realize the nature of that conflict.
And because we don't, we are deceived by Satan.
And we lose in our souls the practical walk.
That gives power to us to be overcomers.
The Lord Jesus had to face that power his in His own life at the time of His baptism. Immediately after Satan comes to him to present himself, and he presents himself to the Lord to have the kingdoms of the world as long as he will give Satan a place.
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In his life. And then he fails and he says he leaves him for a time.
Satan comes back again at the time of the cross to exert all the power that he has to defeat.
The Lord.
And in fact, the wisdom of God, being what it is, was greater than that power, because it tells us in First Corinthians 2.
If Satan had only realized. If man had only realized.
He would not have put Christ to death. Why?
He would have defeated the whole purpose of God if he had withhold himself from putting Christ to death.
And so it says of them, it would not have if they had known.
If Satan had realized what the cross was going to do in defeating his power and delivering man.
From him and bringing him into a new creation, he would have said.
No, I don't want, I don't want the cross. If Satan had defeated him in that way, that heaven would be empty.
There wouldn't be a soul saved accepting. Of course, we know that God's purposes would be fulfilled.
Regardless, but I'm Speaking of it from the suspect of what scripture talks about the conflict between Satan and God. And here we recognize that the Lord Jesus as a man exercised the power of God, independence himself upon God for the power of the Spirit to act rather than himself as a man alone. In John he does act as this divine Son, but in Luke.
He acts as a perfect man. And in such it was as they, the people saw. They didn't say they were amazed at the power of Jesus. They were amazed at the power of God. And sometimes we fail to be able to do because we think that what God has done for us and done with us is the true source of power. But it's not. And consequently, instead of depending on ourselves or what God has even given to us.
We need to have the same spirit that the Lord Jesus had, and that was to recognize that.
Man in himself is no competitor with Satan.
Satan is constantly at work in his effort in our lives to turn us.
To act in the flesh and dishonor the Lord, and to act according to the spirit of the world that He has established to tempt us with and so on. And yet the Lord recognized the faithless and perverted generation and that was at work and He said that doesn't do it. That kind of a generation is no match for Satan.
It requires the power of God and so he acts in that power and the little one who himself had no power and and not even an understanding of what was going on. God cared for the child and delivers him.
Laying full of eternal life.
His brother Bob was talking about.
One of the things the devil wants to do, too, is to keep us from understanding who we really are.
In Christ.
All those truths of who we are.
We're talking a context here of a demon being cast out. Remember the story of the seven sons of Skeva who observed the power of God?
And the Apostle Paul's life. So they decide that.
They're going to use what they see like an incantation to make some money.
To go about and deliver people from demons.
I find it so interesting.
What the demons had to say.
Who said we know who Jesus is? We know who Paul is? Who are you?
The point is, the enemy knows who you are. Do you?
Do you know who you really are? Have you laid hold of all of that? The truth of all of it? Do you know?
If you don't. And many, many, many believers.
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As our brother had mentioned, had been deceived by some of these other ideas about.
The church becoming the Kingdom that takes over the world so Jesus can come back. They miss a whole lot of truth in there. They don't really know who they are. In fact, they're being taught, like Paul says in the Corinthians, you, you reign as kings down. They want to reign now they're being taught Jewish things like they're in the Kingdom. They don't know who they really are in Christ. Do you? If you've laid hold of that and you know who you are in Christ?
The devil knows who you are.
And if you know who you are, there is power in that. There is real power in knowing that.
Knowing the truth.
Those things that Brother Don said read on from where I have just left off.
Knowing those things and laying hold of them.
In Mark's Gospel.
Chapter 13.
There's an interesting comment.
A story the Lord Jesus tells.
Last part of the chapter, verse 34.
For the Son of Man is as a man taking a far journey, who left his house.
And gave authority to his servants, and to every man his work.
And commanded the Porter to watch.
Watch ye therefore, for ye know not when the master of the house cometh at even or at midnight, or at the **** crowing, or in the morning. This coming suddenly he find you sleeping. And what I say unto you I say unto all, Watch but back again, who left his house, and gave authority to his servants?
Do you have authority, brethren?
As he left his house.
Are we still here?
Do you know that?
The smallest child in this room, standing in faith before the enemy, need not tremble in fear.
I mean the littlest child in this room, standing in faith before the enemy need not fear.
Because the power of God.
Is behind that.
Sentence and obedience as a man here and overcame and.
This is what we need to overcome.
It's not focusing on the power.
It's there, but are we in prayer and fasting? Those are the tools of.
Dependence and obedience so we don't to overcome Satan, we don't have to be stronger.
We have to be more obedient.
We have to be dependent on the Lord.
And he stands up for his own and he.
He comes in.
Yes, our faith is tested.
But he's there.
Might be helpful context to what's just been said to go to First Timothy chapter 6 and get what surrounds the lay hold of an eternal life statement.
That gives us some of what we've just been going over and what has just been said with respect to it.
Umm, it starts a week.
First of all, in verse nine it says umm.
The verse lay hold on eternal life is found but before we can get to that verse.
What leads up to that statement is found in verse nine. They that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition. Verse the statement that he's giving to Timothy, as I'll use another example, where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. And so there is that statement, where was the treasure for the disciples? In part, the treasure was their honor and glory in the Kingdom.
00:50:00
And it was a it was a hindrance to them from comprehending what was going on and being able to act according to the Spirit of God at the time and what God was doing. But we can be distracted by having something else that motivates us besides that which the motivated the life of the Lord Jesus.
The rich young ruler had a whole lot going for him.
But when he came to the Lord, it said the Lord loved him outwardly, his life was.
Wonderful.
But the Lord could see what was in his heart, and so he says to him.
Well, you go and sell all you have and then come and follow me.
If you want, he wanted to add eternal life to everything else that he had.
He wasn't going to give up anything he wanted to add to what he had. And so we sometimes set motives for ourselves, what we want to have, and then we want the things the Lord as well. It doesn't always work that way. In fact, it can't in principle work that way. So Paul is saying to Timothy, if you're going to desire certain things, they're going to be a snare and a temptation to you. They are going to rob you of that power to walk on a daily life and to be a blessing to others.
And then he says in verse, the next verse, the love of money.
Is the root of all evil.
The love of money is elsewhere described as idolatry. It's that which displaces God in the soul.
And becomes more important than God. And so that's the work of the enemy to keep us.
From walking in the path of faith. And so then he says to him.
What's the consequence? Heard from the faith, pierced themselves through with many sorrows, And so you get off the path that way, and there's a consequence to it, and so on. So then he says to Timothy, But thou, O man of God, do you know who you are? Timothy? You're a man of God. And if you are, flee these things.
Now that is run.
Don't just turn your back and walk away like you have a certain power.
But recognize the power of these things and the hold they can get over your life and run.
Flee and so on. And when you flee, then you have to be occupied with something else. God doesn't want us occupied with evil, He wants us occupied with good. And so that's part of the walk of faith. He says follow after. And this is in a practical way, righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness. And that's how in verse 12.
You flee, fight, fight. There's conflict. Satan's against it.
The flesh is against that, the world is against it, The three enemies of the believer.
So you have to fight Satan, the world and the flesh. And it says fight the good fight of what? Faith? That's what we had already, the trust, the dependence. Then it says lay hold on eternal life. So all these things are part of how you lay hold and how you can lay hold on eternal life.
And then one more that Doug, not to take more time, but there's more here.
But in verse 14 it says that thou keep that's.
Obedience that thou keep this commandment.
And so faith, dependence, obedience are all characterized in laying hold on eternal life and giving the path of faith that can overcome the enemy or enemies.
In our chapter Mark 9, the enemies Satan particularly, but in our daily life, it's Satan the world.
And the flesh that's in.
US.
Could we go on to the next little section here about the little child in the midst where we.
Close here.
There, there was an environment of striving there.
I think we pretty much know what that's all about in life today. It's all around us and in US striving for greatness.
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And the Lord Jesus puts a little child in the midst.
And.
It is an example of how to enter into the Kingdom.
Why is there this natural?
Tendency in us to be the greatest.
The lack, isn't it?
Really realizing.
Who the Lord Jesus is.
His glory.
Often thanked brother and.
This is kind of an aside that.
The Apostle Paul was caught up into the 3rd heaven.
And.
He saw things. It says. I will come to the revelations, visions and revelations of the Lord. That's things you see.
He heard things.
He doesn't say anything about what he saw.
He only says something about what he heard.
He heard unspeakable words that it is impossible for a man to utter.
But it was so.
Amazingly wonderful and overwhelming.
That he didn't remember. Did I have my body?
Or not, I don't know. He mentions that twice in that chapter.
I think when we get home to the glory.
Is going to be.
The glory of one that's going to.
Rapturous brethren.
Will we recognize others around? Yes, I believe we will.
But that's not our first thought.
To be thinking of which of us are the greatest is because we're thinking about ourselves.
And not him.
So if there is that tendency, it's because.
And this is what our culture does to us. It makes us think about ourselves. It's man centered, the whole.
Advertise advertising industry is concentrated on that to focus on yourselves, what you want, what you like. That's not what it's about.
So in the measure that we are not enraptured with the glory of this person.
That we're called to be in fellowship with.
O brethren, we're going to start this tendency of.
Who's the greatest? Which is the best?
Not, not that at all. That's not what it's about.
There will be no rivalry in heaven as to the Lord's place.
I think in the life of Joseph and his brethren, and.
Perhaps we could look at it as a demonstration of the process.
I'll just suggest this, you know, he was given that coat of many colors and, and it provoked envy on his from his brethren and they hated him and and so on. You know the story, what happened to Joseph, what how they treated him, sold him and so forth. And then he goes down into, he's down into Egypt and the whole process that the Lord puts him through. They're very hard picture of the Lord Jesus and his humiliation, all he went through.
To become the savior.
And then he's brought the brethren, or brought back before him.
And he had seen that vision of all the sheeps bowing down.
And that was prime the only, the only clue that I think we're given of of given to him of what would become of his life in Egypt.
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And so after it's all said and done and they come down and they have to buy from him and so on, he puts him through a hard time to bring him really down to acknowledging what got the grace of God.
And.
They bow down and there's no more rivalry.
Even men of this world.
Story of the Knights of the Round Table in King Richard, These proud men.
Would bow the knee to no one.
But they vowed to need a King Richard because he won their heart. That's just natural, men.
I don't know of anybody in there that heard anything in history that there are any Christians involved in that group.
But even among men in this world, if their heart is won and they respect someone, they may bow the knee to no one else but the man who won their heart.
Well, as someone won our hearts.
Have we not received, as we've been told, the greatest gift that there is and has been pointed out? If our eyes look someplace else, then we get occupied with other things. But we have someone we respect.
That we willingly vowed the need to the moment we were saved. If we get our eyes off of that, well, we look around at all kinds of goofy things and we get all kinds of goofy ideas. But there is one that we willingly bow the knee to.
And that should keep us from this other nonsense.
Is Balani keep our heads under his mighty hand?
That's the best place we can be, and there's real power there too.
Like there's something beautiful here in the child, and the Lord is the teacher, Matthew says. He called the child to him with obedience.
Mark, who takes him up in his arms.
And what does he say? Nothing. The Lord uses it. And I said the Lord is beautiful to see Jerry seating his disciples a lesson. What the picture he's giving them. Someone doesn't say a word was willing to be held, and it's obedient. What a beautiful, useful Lord makes of them. We're enjoying what he taught us today.
James and John come to the Lord, and they ask that he would grant them whatsoever they would ask him.
And he says, well, what do you want? Or to sit on thy right hand and thy left in the Kingdom. He takes this little child in Matthew 18 that says he put him in the midst. But here he sets him by him in that place they would have liked, you know, but he set that little child right by him. I'm just wondering what the difference is in Matthew 18. It's it's a little child in the midst. I think maybe there it's more the thought of that little child is just unaware of all the relationships around. It's, it's selfless in the midst of all these important people, so to speak.
But why there is, umm, humbling oneself as a little child?
And being converted, becoming as little children entering into the Kingdom. But here it's.
Connected with receiving the Lord.
I don't perceive what the difference is. What's the lesson for us in receiving the Lord and receiving this little child?
The root.
Principle of man, it's his.
It's as easy to be proud as it is to breathe.
It's natural to the fallen human heart, and so when?
Satan first. Satan himself is the first one to fall. He falls before man does.
He wanted the place that was God's. He wanted to elevate himself to a position that was.
On the equality with God in his attempt to tempt the Lord Jesus in.
The 4th chapter of this gospel, he goes through the same set of temptations that.
Adam and Eve faced and failed in and they.
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He tempts them to want something that God had not given them that would increase or add to what they had in their own importance, which was the knowledge of good and evil. And when Cain goes out from the presence of the Lord, he established the whole system that we today called the world, in which man is willing to work as long as it adds or elevates himself to a place of importance and prominence.
And the child is in contrast to that in picture form because.
The child doesn't have those characteristics, and so the disciples.
They don't have any in an honest sense, a whole lot of interest mantle. Man will do something for a child if it gives glory to the man that does it. But in the other side of it, children can't elevate the man very much in a natural way. They he wants people that can add to his glory and his honor. When a person's campaigning for a public office, he doesn't campaign to the children.
He campaigns to the people that can give him the place and honor that he seeks for himself.
And.
The glory of the Kingdom that was to be.
Given And the disciples were going to have it, and we're going to have honor and glory.
But one of the things that were the slowest to learn about the Lord Jesus.
And have it applied to our own lives is.
I am meek and lonely, and the reception of the Lord and the way the Lord was to be received was in that meek and lowly spirit that is so unnatural to us that we I when the Lord said, Come unto me, all ye that labor, and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest, Take my yoke upon you and learn of me.
Ryan, meek and lonely in spirit, and ye shall find rest to your hearts. Normally when I read that inside myself, I have to use these words, Come down unto me, come down unto me. Because it is a very, very challenging lesson to be honestly meek and lowly inside, no matter how we appear on the outside.
And it's only coming truly into the presence of God, in the light of God.
That we are brought to into that position of having a self-image of being meek and lowly or it's produced in US.
Just to mention, before we close in verses 49 and 50, there's another.
Thing the Lord seems to address. They say, Master, we saw one casting out devils in thy name, and we forbade him because.
He followed, not us.
US was the.
Point of reference.
Lord Jesus says, forbid him not for he that is not against us is for us.
US is not a proper reference point either.
The Lord, That's right.
And it's easy to confuse that as gathered to his name and we.
Perhaps unconsciously associate us with the Lord in a way to.
Think that that's the testimony.
And.
If it doesn't meet that criteria, then we judge the.
Whatever we're looking at because they don't follow us.
We don't know if they're following the Lord. The Lord knows, and it's never the references that should never be on us as gathered to the Lord's name. It should be always on the Lord.
22 in the back.
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Our Holy One and True.
Our hearts in being confined.
And in a certain.
Time.
We are like.