Maine Conference: 2010
Table of Contents
Ruth 1
Reading
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Genesis chapter 26.
Verse 32 when I came to pass the same day.
Of Isaac's servants came and told him concerning the well which they had digged, and said unto him, We have found water. We continue to ask the Lord for ourselves.
Brother and I just, uh, while our brother was praying, I was, uh, just brought to remembrance the book of Ruth and how we've had before us, uh, in some of the hymns and scriptures that have been brought before us.
The, uh, dry and a thirsty land in which we live. I wonder if maybe.
We might take up roof chapter one in our readings. I know it's an Old Testament passage. It's not.
That which has to do, particularly with Paul's doctrine, although I think we can bring some of that in.
Ruth, Chapter One.
Now a team could pass in the days when the judges ruled that there was a famine in the land.
A certain man of Bethlehem Judah went to sojourn in the country of Moab, he and his wife and his two sons. And the name of the man was Elimelech, and the name of his wife Naomi, and the name of his two sons Malon, and Chilean appetites of Bethlehem Judah. And they came into the country of Moab and continued there. And Elimolac, Naomi's husband died, and she was left in her two times. And they took them wives of the women of Moab.
The name of one was Orpha, and the name of the other root, and they dwelt there about 10 years. And Melon and Chilean died also both of them. And the women, the woman. The women was lapped up, her two sons and her husband. Then she arose with her daughters in law, that she might return from the country of Moab, For she had heard in the country of Moab how that the Lord had visited his people in giving them bread.
Wherefore she went forth out of the place where she was, and her two daughters in law with her, and they went on the way to return unto the land of Judah.
And I only said unto her, Two daughters in law, go, return each to her mother's house. The Lord deal kindly with you as you have dealt with the dead, and with me the Lord grant you, that you may find rest, each of you, in the House of her husband.
Then she kissed them and they lifted up their voice and wept.
And they said unto her, Surely we will return with thee unto thy people. And Naomi said, Turn again, my daughters, why will you go with me? Are there yet any more sons in my womb, that they may be your husbands?
Turn again, my daughters, go your way, for I am too old to have a husband. If I should say I have hope, If I should have a husband also tonight, and should also bear sons, would you tarry for them till they were grown?
Would you stay for them for having husbands? Nay, my daughters, for agree with me much for your sake, that the hand of the Lord has gone out against me. And they lifted up their voice and wept again, and Orpa kissed her mother-in-law.
A Ruth clave unto her, and she said, Behold, thy sister-in-law has gone back to her people, and unto her gods. Return thou after thy sister-in-law.
And Ruth said, Entreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee.
For whether thou goest, I will go, and where thou largest I will lodge. Thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God. Where thou diest I will die, and there will I be buried. The Lord do so to me, and also more.
If aught but death part thee and me.
When she saw that she was steadfastly minded to go with her, then she left, speaking unto her.
So they too went until they came to Bethlehem. And it came to pass when they were come to Bethlehem, that all the city was moved about them. And they said, Is this Naomi? And she said unto them, Call me not Naomi.
Call me Mara, for the Almighty hath dealt very bitterly with me. I went out full, and the Lord hath brought me home again empty. Why then call ye me Naomi, seeing that the Lord hath testified against me and the Almighty hath afflicted me?
00:05:08
So Naomi returned, and Ruth the Moabite us her daughter-in-law with her, which returned out of the country of Moab, and they came to Bethlehem in the beginning of the barley harvest.
Might be good just to introduce this, uh, book to show how far things had, uh, umm, gone down in the day of, uh, Ruth, It was the day the judges. And if we read in, uh, Deuteronomy chapter 12, there was specific instruction given to the people of God in connection with, uh, what it would be to be dwelling in the land and to.
Enjoy the presence of the Lord in that land.
It says in Deuteronomy chapter 12 and.
Let's read from verse five. I had verse eight in mind, but let's read from verse five. Under the place which the Lord your God shall choose out of all your tribes, to put His name there, even under His habitation, until you seek. And thither shalt thou come, and thither ye shall bring your burnt offerings, and your sacrifices, and your tithe, and your heave offerings of your hand, and your vows, and your free will offerings in the first slings of your herds and of your flocks.
And there shall there you shall eat before the Lord your God, and you shall rejoice, and all that you have put your hand unto ye and your households wherein the Lord thy God hath blessed thee, ye shall not do after all the things that we do here this day. Every man whatsoever is right in his own eyes. And then if you look at uh Judges chapter, uh 21, the very last verse, it says in verse 25, in those days there was no king in Israel. Every man did that which was right.
In his own eyes now, it came and passed in the days when the judges ruled that there was a famine in the land. And so you have this, uh.
Really, uh, sad situation that had developed among the people of God. They dwelled in the land of Israel and it was to be a land that flowed with milk and honey. And it we have in the Old Testament the pictures given to us in Scripture. And here you have a picture of, uh, in the book of Ruth of the grace of God.
And really, if the mercy and the kindness of God, the faith of those that were one, that was a Gentile and how God has overruled in spite of the, uh, sad failure among God's people. And so there was this condition of things that every man did that which was right in his own eyes. That was independence of thought, independent of action of the word of God. And God had intended that the word of God.
Would give them life, would give them instruction as to how to live in this land. And so it is for us. The Word of God gives us life, gives us instructions, and, umm, gives us to have confidence as we come into the presence of the Lord and as we live in the heavenly sphere of things. Not in the earthly sphere, but we should desire to live in the heavenly sphere with our thoughts taken up with heavenly things. But here in the judge, in the time of the judges.
There was a famine in the land and how often we find that because we're taken up with other things, taken up with the, umm, daily necessities of life and all of those things that the enemy seeks to distract us with. How often we find that there's a, a famine in our own souls. Perhaps, uh, we might find that there's a famine where we might think that there's a famine in the assembly, but uh, God is able to provide for his people and we find that, uh.
Here there were those that left that land, and God hadn't changed his mind, hadn't changed his purposes to bless his people. But we have these lessons now in the book of Ruth as to how God intervenes.
For His own glory, and for the blessing of his people. And you and I live in a day and age of great failure among God's people. But how we ought to rejoice in the grace of God, and rejoice as we see faith in one and another.
And how we ought to encourage one another to go on in faith and in obedience to the word of God. Not every man doing that which is right in his own eyes.
But to seek to go back to first principles and to live according to the wisdom of the Word of God.
There was a brother once said that every time you say I think.
You think wrongly, unless your thoughts are under the control of the Holy Spirit. Something to that effect.
00:10:05
And, uh, I think we all know that it's very difficult for someone to come up and say, what, what do you think about this or what do you think about that?
And uh, her brother, uh, her brother Bruce Conrad the other night, uh, in our readings in Palmyra, pointed out that, umm, when people asked the Lord what he thought.
He would quote scripture or he'd say, what does the scripture say? You're asking me. You have the scriptures. There it is. It's, it's already there. It's written and, uh.
Referring to doing what's right in our own eyes, you know, that's that's really the way of the world and.
And it does bring in failure when we start to uh.
We start to trust in our intellects and our opinions as though they're worth something.
Instead of simply submitting to the word of God and simplicity and uh.
When that starts to be the general, uh, way of the people of God, that brings in famine.
The names of these places are very important in these people that are mentioned here. Bethlehem, Judah. Bethlehem, we know, means the House of bread.
Judah means praise. And so here it was in the very place called the House of bread and appraised there was a famine. And, uh, it's a picture to us of the state of things that existed there and, uh, of how, as you say, the independence, the wisdom of man was, uh, brought into the forefront and what ought to have taken place as the famine.
Was in the land was that they ought to have been exercised in the presence of God as to why the famine was allowed.
And to submit to his governmental ways, his governmental dealings with them in the land in a place that was characterized by bread and appraise and, uh, rather than submit to what the Lord had allowed.
Why this man in his own wisdom says umm.
A certain man of Bethlehem, Judah, an individual that was responsible before God, he went to sojourn in the country of Moab, he and his wife and his two sons. So it brings before us here in connection with Moab. Moab, as you know, is really a picture of this world in a slothfulness and ease, a slothful place. The Moabites were a slothful people.
I think you get that at the beginning of the judges. I'll see if I can find it.
Chapter 3 of Judges.
And verse 12.
The children of Israel did evil again in the sight of the Lord, and the Lord strengthened Eglon the king of Moab, against Israel, because they had done evil in the sight of the Lord. And he gathered unto him the children of Ammon and Amalek, and they went and smote Israel, and possessed the city of palm trees. And so here you have Eglon the king of Moab, going up against Israel. What's the city that he wanted?
He wanted the city of Jericho, and Jericho was the city of palm trees. That speaks of ease and the good life in this world. That's what he wanted, MOA. He didn't want any other city in the land of Israel. That's the city he wanted the city of Jericho, the good life, ease and comfort and umm, so here, this is a man of the children of Israel.
Gives his name Elimelech, whose God is king. That's what it means.
And he went into the land of Moab, and he wanted to seek easier circumstances. God had allowed a famine in the land and instead of seeking.
Bread for his family and submitting falling upon his face and recognizing that the world had nothing to offer the child of God. The author of submitted and remained in the land, not gone into Moab and but he didn't do it and he went to soldier.
In the French, surgeon just means just today, he was just going to escape just today, just for a little while. And we find that he was there 10 years. And so you and I need to be continually before the Lord, that we might have bread, the bread of life, the water of life, that we might be fed with Christ and have the man before us every day of our lives. We need refreshment, encouragement, and the food for our souls every day.
00:15:12
And there may be a famine in our soul, but there's no unfaithfulness on the part of God at all. He's made every provision for us that we would be fed, nourished, and that we would remain in the land, that we would remain in His presence.
We read this morning in Deuteronomy.
Read to us from Chapter 8.
How that the Lord LED thy God, The Lord thy God LED thee these 40 years in the wilderness. And then the first thing mentioned is to humble league.
One of the brothers, uh.
Between the meetings was was commenting on this to me, you know if if you said to somebody that you worked with.
You know, you, you, you related to them and experience. And you said, yeah, with those I had a what did you do this weekend? Well, I had this experience and it was very humbling.
And they say, oh, that's not good to themselves. And then they would change the subject. But if you said to a believer, you know, I had this experience that was very humbling, they may want to hear more because.
I think most of us have learned that that's a good thing, a necessary thing, and it's one of the privileges we have as children of God because by virtue of being God's children, we have.
One of the privileges is that we're chasing. We're we're put through the paces, we're schooled.
So the first thing mentioned there in Deuteronomy is to humble thee.
The the the Moabite. There's another picture of of Moab in Jeremiah 48.
That's pretty, uh.
That's quite an illustration of of what they were about.
If your geography is failing you, is is just back across the Jordan, back east of the River Jordan, east of the Salt Sea and so on, and the children of Israel had to come through there.
But here's here's a little window and Jeremiah 48, verse 11. Moab had been at ease from his youth, and he had settled on his lease, and hath not been emptied from vessel to vessel.
I suppose most all of us feel during the course of our Christian life that we're poured from vessel to vessel.
Put through circumstances that teach us by way of humbling us. Neither hath he gone into captivity. Therefore his taste remained remains in him, and his scent is not changed, and so on.
Then down in verse 29.
We have heard the pride of Moab. He is exceeding proud, his loftiness and his arrogance and his pride and the haughtiness of his heart and so on.
Moab I think literally means if I remember right. What father?
So the thought in going to Moab is, is, is that Elimelech has gone to a place where there's no sense anymore of being cared for by a father, and there's a people that are just.
Used to just relaxing and have everything going their way and not poured from vessel to vessel and not being put through the the chastening and the experiences that humble us. You say, well, maybe that sounds pretty good. I mean, you know you.
We would like to avoid humbling experiences, flat tires in our car and a checkbook that has hardly anything in it that we can't pay a bill or for an embarrassing situation in our work life or school or whatever. We would like to avoid all that, but but our Father knows us best and He knows the things that we have need of, and He brings these things intelligently and in love before us for our blessing.
And that's one of our privileges, not something to be avoided.
Just a further thought as to the setting.
Of, of the book, there's, there's 10 famines in the word of God and, uh, each of them, this is the 4th one. Each of them, uh, the characteristic of the family is a little different. And in, in this, umm, in this case, we have, umm, it seems like there's a difficulty with the oversight where it says now it came to pass in a, in a, in a base doesn't say when the, the base, when the judges cared for the people of God or they delivered the people of God.
00:20:18
But rather when they ruled, it's it's interesting that there would be a famine in the House of bread.
The chapter starts with a famine and ends with a harvest, but I was thinking particularly, umm. We don't know exactly when this took place, but if we do the math, umm, perhaps it was during the time of Eglon. Uh, we could maybe turn back the Judges 3 for a moment, just to see, umm, what Eglon's exercise was at that time.
When the problem?
During his his rule in Judges chapter 3.
Without going into the characteristics of egg lawn. And we know that the men that were slain of the Moabites were all, uh, big, big men. In the 29th verse it says they're all lusty, but I've appreciated that. Umm.
Moabites into your hands and they went down after him and took the Fords of Jordan. Now the Fords of Jordan would be that place in the Jordan where the the water was shallow. And the first thing that E Hood did was he took that place so that there would be no more of this going back and forth to Moab that we find took place in the book of Ruth with Elimelech and his family.
That's the first thing that Avon did. You want to take that place that it would be difficult for the people to go back and forth some more. So I just appreciate that connection with looking at the oversight, umm, that we have in the book of Ruth and how that there was a famine at that time. And that when Ehood came along, he knew that there was a difficulty and he knew that there there needs to be the cutting off that's going back and forth to MOA.
And it's found in uh.
Genesis 19.
37 and 38.
As you read through the scriptures, you find a lot about Moab and almond and there always seem to be an opposition to Israel one way or the other.
But here we have lot he's escaped from the burning of Sodom and Gomorrah.
Verse 30 Nine and the 1St born there as son, and called his name Moab, the same as the father of the Moabites on this day.
And the younger, she also bare a son.
And uh, called his name Ben Benhamic, with the same as the father of the children of Ammon unto this day.
We've often heard it said that we should search out and find out the origin of of of things of a church or a group of brethren or whatever. It's important to know the origin of these things.
Deuteronomy chapter 23.
The verse, The third verse, these are very distinct instructions.
Given to the children of Israel. An Ammonite or a Moabite shall not enter into the congregation of the Lord. Even to the 10th generation shall they not enter into the congregation of the Lord forever?
00:25:10
Though it was a very serious situation identifying yourself with the children of island Earth and bull bikes.
The beginning of every, uh, dispensation.
There's a characteristic spin that's, uh, marks what man's failure is going to be through that dispensation. And we first get the principal of the calling of God with Abraham.
Abraham was called out of.
Family, country, and kindred to that land of promise. And he got there and there was a famine. And what did he do? He went down to Egypt.
To, uh, avoid that famine and to escape it's, it's, uh, the need that would come with it. And really that's the characteristic sin that marks man and responsibility when he's been called of God is to return to the world out of which God has called him.
In time, Israel was called as a nation.
And very shortly they said, let's make a captain and go back to Egypt.
Return to the world.
And here in the same way, this family is part of that called people. And the famine comes and the temptation is and he succumbed to it to go back to the world and to be fed there. But in Deuteronomy 8 where we read earlier, the Lord says he suffered them to hunger. And it's God who called for that famine both in.
In, uh, Abram's day, as well as here in Ruth, God was behind all the circumstances, all the scenes, and he's the one who ordered those circumstances. And in Deuteronomy 80 says and suffered thee to hunger. But then it says Unfetti.
With manna, which thou knewest not Now in Egypt there are all kinds of food, and we've heard these thoughts before. They were foods that, uh, had a lot of, uh, uh, strong flavor. Onions, leeks, melons, fish, and foods that imparted, uh, certain character to the one who ate them.
Uh, brother recently pointed out, I kind of enjoyed it when Moses, uh, fled Egypt, uh, and he came into the land of Midian, they said, uh, and uh, he, uh, delivered those, uh, girls from the shepherds and fed their, their, uh, flock. Their father said, who was it? They said, oh, he's an Egyptian. You know, brother said he probably smelled like it because that was the kind of food he would eaten. But, you know, if you had that kind of food, you don't have a taste.
For what's more delicate.
And what, what is, is more fine. And the manna was that kind of a food. And so he couldn't just give the man a straight way. He really had to lead them to a place where they were hungry, where they were really ready to take in what he had for them. Because having just been in Egypt and had Egypt's food to eat, they would not have chosen what God had for them. They would not have chosen the good thing.
They would have wanted more of what they had been being fed with. And it's the same with us. God allows times in our lives where we suffer hunger and He may bring us into circumstances. The temptation in our souls, as those who've been called out of the world, is to go back to it and defeat on what it feeds on and to find our satisfaction and what this world enjoys and eats and where the world seeks to drink.
00:30:02
Dissatisfy the need of its heart because men and women in this world who know not Christ, they have needs, they have longing hearts, and they seek to satisfy it at the fountains of this world and the springs of this world. But they're all corrupt and they all defile. And as believers, if that's where we've been feeding, God may have to bring a famine. He may have to bring a trial in our life. He may have to separate us in some way and bring us into a place where we're hungry.
So then He can give us what He really has for us, what will really sustain that new life that we have of God, spiritual things. And so a famine may come in. It's our place then to wait on Him to realize that He's allowed it. He's suffering us to hunger, but it's because He wants to feed us. It's because He has something for our soul. Something may have come in that He has had to allow us to suffer hunger, to feel the need.
We don't feel the need. We won't want what he has. It's the same with a lost Sinner. He needs to be quickened. He needs to feel his need in the way to sin before he's going to reach out for the salvation that there is in Christ. There's no felt need. He's not. There's no desire. And it's the same with us as believers. God brings us into a place of needing that He might fill us, not to leave us there. But they escaped that.
Trial. They escaped that place of being needy to find satisfaction in the place that they've been called out of because they've called people of God and all the results come out in these next few verses. If they have stayed where God had called them, would He not have sustained them there? He would have sustained them there. When she comes back, she finds out He visited his people with bread. They missed out on the blessing that God had had when they left.
That place where he would feed them. And you know, that can happen in the assembly, that things can come in and be discouraging. And we might think of it as a famine. But you know, we can see that all is from the hand of God. And that he may bring up be bringing us as an assembly into a place where we're hungry. And we really feel the need for what he has for it to stir us up. And we might reach out and take from his hand the good things that he has for us. And if we run away.
To escape that trial, we're going to miss the blessing that he has.
It starts to make one.
Think of the prodigal and how he.
Left his father's house with the thought that in a far country is going to be happier.
The grass looked greener over there in the fire country, but of course we know the story very well.
When he spent all, he began to be in want.
And now he's hungry.
And So what does he do? He joins himself with citizens of the country in order to feed swine. What a terrible, uh, job for a Jew to be doing, feeding pigs.
But you know, you become more than hungry. You begin to starve.
And I think it was when he was starving, he began to think about his father's house. It wasn't so bad after all.
And there's a change of mind and there's repentance. That's what repentance is, You know, it's a change of attitude of mind, heart. And, uh, he's gonna go back out to his father and indicate that he had to sin against heaven and against his Father and so on. Well, we know the story. He makes his way back and the result is the father runs.
Covers him with kisses.
Just welcomes him back with open arms and the shoes are put on his feet, ring on his finger.
And you know, the best role speaks of Christ is placed upon him. But that's not all. It tells us that the fatted calf is killed. There was a calf there that was being prepared for a special occasion, and that occasion had arrived. And so the father and son. Son is perfectly at ease in the father's presence in his house, knows his love for him.
He sits down at the table. They're feeding on this fatty cat.
00:35:01
And, uh, this is a beautiful picture, you know, of the grace of God the Father.
Toward the lost Sinner, but he makes us to feel our hunger and how this world it truly does not satisfy.
Although we're supposed to learn that.
But you know, sooner or later, we're gonna find out.
Wolf and the Lord has brought me home again, empty.
When she left, I don't think she would have said on full no.
Good experience.
It's some, you know, it's not just the world, but.
We've, uh, some been around long enough to see their young ones go out from where the Lord is in the midst seeking.
Seeking spiritual food and fellowship elsewhere.
Only to come back and find it.
You're right, Dad, there isn't anything out there and.
There's a certain sense in which the tone of a believer is characterized by what he aspires to, not by what he has.
So if you turn to Hebrews 11, it it, it's, uh.
As often I found it, I found it touching.
In the middle of that chapter where men and women of faith have been.
Put put forward there Hebrews 11.
And verse 13.
These all died in faith, not having received the promises. They didn't have them, they didn't possess them, but having seen them afar off, that was their aspiration.
And we're persuaded of them and embrace them. The number of steps here.
And then confessed that there were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. They reconciled with what they didn't have, based upon the aspiration they had. For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country.
And this is the interesting part, verse 15. Truly, if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, and it should read, they had had opportunity to have returned.
In other words, they could have gone back, they had an opportunity to go back, they could have returned like a limelight did.
They could have laughed like so many have, young and old.
Continue, and that not doing something here, not turning back, is the bright, bright star in this account of men and women's faith. Then it goes on to say that now they desire a better, that is an heavenly country, wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God for and prepared for them a city. What up, what up, what a thing to.
As if God were saying, you know, I, I can, I'm really happy to be called the God people that have that aspiration, you know?
That's really fellowship with with the father and with the son, so to speak, in the New Testament sense. But that's I often think of that. I remember when I was building my house here, getting to be some years ago, I would come home from work and when I got it all framed in, I had a.
In the winter I would just after dinner, get up and put my tools on and go and, uh, and I would, uh, you know, do the sheetrock and taping and quiet work and pretty tedious. And I had a tape recorder and I put different tapes in. And I remember hearing, uh, Gordon and Albert's father, Harry Halo, I never met. And I remember, I always remembered this. It was an older man and hard of breathing and, and he always had such a simple, down the middle, straightforward message.
00:40:09
And I remember him saying I wouldn't be able to stand before you here today. He must have been, you know, making an address in a conference if I hadn't had to get down on my knees and ask the Lord for help to go on.
And you know, I, it struck me kind of odd. I mean, this man was a giant in the, in the things of God, a giant in faith. And he had to get down on his knees because he was about to give up.
Well.
I don't know if you've ever felt that way.
I'm sure some have. I know I have times for. I just had to just drop down and say oh.
Because you feel like it would be so easy to turn aside or to turn back.
But I think it's uh.
Him saying that and I think that these people in these verses who had opportunity to, to go back and to make it easier, you know, the psalmist in Psalm 73, somebody was mentioning that this morning is one of the coffee pots here. And, uh, you know, the, the, the psalmist, the, the, the, it's probably a young believer there saying, you know, I, I was about to turn aside. I was envious.
At the foolish does it say, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked?
There, you know, let let me just read that. I hate to take too much time here, but Psalm 73.
South 73, verse 2.
But As for me, my feet were almost gone, my steps did well, and I slipped.
I was envious at the foolish when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. There are no bands in their death.
Their strength is firm. These are Moabites he's looking at. He's looking at mobikes.
So to speak, they are not in trouble as other men, not poured from vessel to vessel, neither are they plagued like other men. Therefore pride compass them about as a chain. Verse seven, their eyes stand out with fatness and so on. Well, you know the end of the story. In verse 17. He gets into the sanctuary and he understands their end. And then he says, you know, he sees. Thus. Set them in slippery places. Not me, but them. I'll cast them down to construction.
And then he says, so foolish was I ignorant? And so on. But.
We can get this way too, and it's our wisdom to just cry out to the Lord that we might when we get faith to.
Unto the Lord for grace to stand fast and continue on, and not take opportunity to turn back.
I enjoy the, uh, expectation that Barnabas had to those in Antioch. So if you could turn to it in the look of the ***.
In the book of the Acts, Chapter 11.
It says in the 12:20 second verse of Acts 11. Then tithing the best things came into the ears of the church, which was in Jerusalem, and they sent forth Barnabas. They should go as far as antagon, who, when he was coming and seen the grace of God was the last. Now it just doesn't say exhorted them to Cleveland unto the Lord.
He does that, but he knew that it was not just going to happen.
You know what's interesting in our portions? We see a little lack in a time of famine. He goes to MOA and you see the result of what transpired into himself and to his family. You know, we don't read a Boaz going to Moas. We don't read of that happening. And so here the the word that Barnabas gives to those in Antioch was not tempting to plead to the Lord, but he says that with purpose of heart they would cleave unto the Lord.
It just doesn't happen.
It takes purpose apart.
Well, I appreciate that and and looking at our chapter and find that when they only came back that there was one there who hadn't departed in a time of famine. That was a great blessing to the people of God.
Just sobering to, uh, consider that really it wasn't just the famine.
You know the the roof was before the famine.
00:45:00
God is my king and pleasantness and you know, they named their children can help me. I don't remember the exact translations, but they're not good. Something like bitterness and sickness or sickness and wasting away, you know, and that was before they, they left. So there was already something in that family, umm, that was departing from the Lord. And I think that.
You know, for certainly, uh.
Younger brothers and sisters here.
One of the major, the biggest decision you're going to make.
Does that person have a heart to take that place?
With the Lord in obedience, That's the most important question. And I don't you know, we don't know. We affect one another as husbands and wives. Sometimes we encourage one another and sometimes we discourage one another.
But to have, uh, a spouse that has a heart despite our failures, go on for the Lord.
What a thing you know that is such an important, important thing.
I'd just like to refer to Hebrews Chapter 11 again in connection with having the heart right and with purpose. It says they're just a little simple statement in connection with Moses. In Hebrews Chapter 11 verse 27, it says by faith he forsook Egypt.
You didn't only leave Egypt.
He physically walked out of Egypt. All of the children of Israel walked out of Egypt as well. But uh, here this man Moses.
At the time that Pharaoh was king and that he was at the point of life where he could gain the best advantage for himself, make a name for himself, it says, uh, that he was, uh, learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians. And, umm, he was no doubt well accomplished man at the time that he physically walked out of Egypt. But it says he forsook Egypt, and it means in his heart, I believe, that he forsook every advantage.
That the Egyptians and the Egyptian system in independence of God could present to him and Egypt is a picture of man and the systems of men umm raised up and, as it were, energized by the God and the Prince of this world, so that men might live in a system of independence from God.
And so Moses forsook that in his heart. And so it's not good enough for us just to walk out of Egypt and to be physically apart from it, physically apart from the defilement of this world. But we have to judge what our hearts desires are.
And to desire to forsake all that Egypt has for prospect in this world. The cities of this world are based on unrighteous principles. But the city that Abraham looked for and others of Satan is based upon the righteousness of God, the finished, and the holy work of Christ. But the cross of Calvary just like to refer to one other passage in connection with the famine in Genesis chapter 26. And this is another principle.
In the word of God brought before us in connection with a famine in connection with Isaac. Genesis chapter 26 and verse one. There was a famine in the land beside the first famine.
That was in the days of Abraham. And Isaac went unto king of the Philistines of the And the Lord appeared unto him, and said, Do not go not down into Egypt, Dwell in the land which I shall tell thee of, soldier, and in this land, and I will be with thee, and I will bless thee.
For under thee and unto thy seed I will give all these countries, and I will perform the oath which I swear unto Abram thy father. And then in verse 18 or verse 17.
And Isaac departed thence, and pitched his tent in the valley of Gerar, and dwelt there. And Isaac digged again the wells of water which they had digged in the days of Abraham as father, For the Philistines had stopped them after the death of Abraham, and he called their names after the names.
Which his father had called them. And Isaac's servants digged in the valley, and found there a well of springing water. And the herdmen of Girard did strive with Isaac's herdman saying, the water is ours. And he called the name of the well Isaac.
Because they strolled with him. Well, the principle that we have here in Genesis chapter 26 is that Girar was right on the border and he got as far as close to Egypt as he could get.
00:50:11
While he was in the land without going into the land and it you might say he was walking on the fence and umm, so this was a place that he went and pitched his tent and it says there in verse 20, the herdman and Gerard did strive with Isaac's herdman. And so it was a place of contention. And umm, if you and I that know the Lord Jesus as Savior seek to walk and have.
Umm, mixed, uh, motives in our hearts and have an easier path and try to get the benefit of Egypt living in the east and independence of an Egyptian. Why we mentioned the name of Christ. If we go on in any measure with the people of God, it will cause contention with those that are in this world and that want to have the blessing of God, but without having a relationship with the Lord Jesus. So this is a, a temptation for us. It's a.
Something that is brought before us and the principles of God. And so it's possible for us, instead of justice going into the land of Moab, to go right to the border, right to the border of Egypt, and not to go right into it.
We spoke about walking on the fence.
Somebody called me one time, Satan on the fence. Is that true?
It's a dangerous position to be in.
You know, Satan is so sudden and.
Start dabbling in the world.
Well, we may be drawn into it and.
Hebrews we read the expression hardened through the deceitfulness of sin, and the part of the deceitfulness of sin is it influences us once we take it out.
So we think as we're standing there saying, oh, well, I don't see the harm, maybe just this just a little bit or whatever. But as soon as you succumb to that and, and, and take, take that thing, you are no longer the same person you were before. You are now under the influence of something that you weren't before. And now your mind and your thinking is different and your strength is less. And so you think, well, I can just hop, hop onto the like a little kid. I can hop on to the ice and if I hear a crack, I'll hop off.
And, umm, no, it's not always that easy, is it? As a matter of fact, it never is. And so here with we see it in, uh, in Naomi.
You know, she was not that encouraging to to her daughters in law at all. She just said she was going back. But at this point it wasn't a work of faith that she was consciously saying I made a mistake. I've got to go back because I was wrong to have left what I left. That that would be the fruit of of repentance of of making a a mental U-turn or AU turn in her attitude. She was not there yet. She was under the influence.
Of Moab and she just says you know I have nothing for you. As a matter of fact, if you come back, I can't see anything that's even going to happen. Good if you come back with me just go back and or put kissed her and did go back. But it says Ruth Clave under her and even after as it says later on in the chapter.
Even after they go back, Naomi has to say.
The Almighty hath dealt very bitterly with me.
Well, is that really true?
As the Almighty dealt very bitterly with her.
She had gone through some bitter experiences.
And those experiences would stay with her the rest of her life. She would never forget what she lost in her husband and her boys, her sons. For a parent is to to bury her boys, her children, is something she would never forget. So it was a bitter experience, but it wasn't a bitter thing that the Lord had brought upon her. If you could see the difference, the Almighty had been gracious with her.
And the limelight who perhaps bore the primary responsibility as the head of this family that went out.
We leave that with the Lord. The Lord took his life. He died there in the land of Moab, and the boys did too. But as we see, the Lord was dealing very, very graciously with Naomi and the rest of the book.
00:55:12
Unfold that. And so I think it was uh, a brother used to often quote his first. I think it was brother Albert Houston often quote this first.
The Almighty has dealt the the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me and, and, and now we're used to quarters as to say, is that the way we feel when we're under chastening when the Lord has laid his hand upon us and we say, oh, that, that thing that just happened, that's from the Lord. You know, we have that feeling sometimes and you know.
The.
And and then he, he would quote that verse in Job. Uh, shall we not receive of the Lord good and also evil things? No, that's not the right thing.
Attitude either and then when you when you go to the New Testament, you have situations where the apostles fall in prison with his back bleeding his singing praises under the Lord. And where you see that the the Spirit of God can so empower a man or a woman that in spite of circumstances or in spite evening of the chasing of the Lord, I can lift up their voices.
And and chastened, but not peace and and in a certain sense, happy.
And, and that's where, you know, as we read the, if we read the rest of the book, we would see that the Lord brings Naomi. But just because an experience is hard doesn't mean that we, we don't serve an austere man. God is, is, uh, is gracious and, uh, he remains so, uh, to act fully.
I think that uh is uh, brought out also in Deuteronomy 8.
And verse 16 because it doesn't stop with the humbling and approving.
Humbly, and that he might prove thee to do thee good at thy latter in.
God allows evil. It's not the author of it, but He allows it to accomplish His purposes, and they're for good for the believer. It's so important not to lose sight of the goodness of God, so even the difficult situations are an expression of His love for us.
Brother told me that one time and I.
How can everything in life for the believer be an expression of his love? Some things are so difficult.
Obviously he gave his son. What more could he give to demonstrate his love for you and for me? That is for us.
And all that we have in Christ.
It's a wonderful God, but He just doesn't want us to get hurt and to go our own way and he allows us to do that, but it doesn't end up well.
Naomi later says I went out full.
And as you say, brother, her husband was the responsible head of that home.
And the Lord allowed it that his life was taken.
She doesn't say my husband dragged me out. She says I went out. She owns her responsibility in the in the matter. And perhaps we don't know, but perhaps it was even her instigation. You know, we don't get out of here the boys. I'm going to lose my boys. There's nothing to eat. She lost her boys anyway.
And a much sadder way you know Naomi is left here in the end, a widow and bereft of her children.
And all those relationships that she once knew and enjoyed are gone.
And that's something that happens to us individually as believers when we leave. If we leave in a time of famine, whether it's perceived or real, we leave that place where the Lord has placed His name. We're going to lead and lose relationships that we've known and enjoyed and that have sustained us and been for our hearts blessing. We're going to lose them.
And when they're gone, there's a real bitterness.
Looking back at what's been lost.
And so here she is, a widow. Those old relationships that she had known, they're long gone, never to be restored again. She can't get those boys back. She can't get her husband back. And she is really brought into the place of famine now. She's brought into the place of need. She thought she was in need before, but now she really is in need. And God is going to satisfy that heart. He's going to satisfy that need, and he's going to bring her back to the House of bread.
To make her know you know. It doesn't say they're in Deuteronomy that thou may have believed.
That man shall live by every word of God, every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. But thou mayst know, after a big Turkey dinner at home, I go to the boys on the couch. I say, well, I hope that meal will fill you up. I hope no hoping about it. It did. And there's no telling that it didn't because I know it experientially. And so it's not a matter of faith anymore. If I know I've been filled. And that's where he wants to bring us.
To feed us and so that we know it, we know it. It's not even I know God can feed me, but he did. And to feel that fullness and to know it and enjoy it experientially in the soul. And that's where Naomi is going to be brought back to. But stepping back a little bit, she is a picture to us not only of what we might pass through individually and of warnings and encouragement that we might receive.
But she's a picture of Israel departed from God and will eventually be brought back into blessing in the coming day. And Ruth is brought in there to help fill out that picture because Ruth is a Moabite. This is brought into blessing, not on the ground of any claim of heritage or relationship that on the sovereign mercy of God. She's brought in because as our brother read about the Moabites, they couldn't even enter the congregation.
01:05:12
Unto the 10th generation, that doesn't mean after 10 generations they could. I mean even if 10 generations went by, they still couldn't forever what it means. And so she's brought in and mercy. And in Romans we read that God has concluded all, all Gentile and Jews under sin. Romans proves that out for us, that he might bring all in on the ground of mercy. And so Naomi and Ruth together.
Picture Israel's restoration in the coming day. She old Israel, old relationships gone, forfeited, spoiled, ruined, a widow and Ruth, The picture of how Israel is going to be brought in, not because of anything that she was or anything that she had, but on the ground of sovereign mercy. But now there's another picture as well as we could apply it. This is really prophetic.
These histories of Israel are written by the prophets and their prophetics, but there's an application, you know, the Church of God departed.
In a day of famine, in a day of tremendous persecution under the Roman Empire, UH-10 horrible persecutions, as as well as many other afflictions. And when Constantine made Christianity the religion of the Roman Empire, they were brought under the wing of his protection, so to speak.
And they enjoyed the protection of the state of Rome. And it introduced, they really departed from being under the Lord's protection. This was the day when the judges ruled. God set those judges up. They were there for the people's protection and blessing. God had raised them up.
She leaves that place where she'd be sheltered by God. The church left that place and basically joined hands with this world.
And became a widow. And those relationships that she once had and knew were gone. They're gone forever.
But God in mercy and in time brought a little remnant company back to those first principles, and that we see in Ruth's desire and devotedness as well as Naomi's returning to the land.
And so I think there's two pictures, one prophetic. It's very much the prophetic subject of this book is Israel. But in application we might see the Church of God there as well as an application to ourselves as individuals.
Just a thought in the sixth verse.
She arose with her daughters in law, that she might return from the country of She had heard in the country of Moab how that the Lord had visited his people and giving them bread.
I, I got a sense of this thought this, this verse in my soul this morning at the prayer meeting. For those of you who were not there, our time this morning was such a sweet time as there were brothers here that umm, umm, just made their partition to the Lord. And you got a sense that they were, that there was here those that were laying hold of the blessing that we're going to have this weekend, but we haven't had it yet. And that's what Naomi was doing.
Because if you look at the last verse, it says Naomi returned, and it says that she does. So they came to Bethlehem in the beginning of barley harvest. The barley harvest is the first harvest. And she just didn't come back in the first harvest. She came back in the beginning of the first harvest. So how much bread was there there? But you know, Faith lays a hold of blessings there. There's a crop there in the land. It looks like there's gonna be bread, there's gonna be food. Faith lays a whole of that, even when there isn't a whole pile on the table.
I just enjoy that as I sat here this morning, umm, listening to, umm, the Spirit of God as, as, as, as we anticipated the blessing that we're going to have this week. And when they only did that very thing that, uh, she comes back in the beginning of harvest. She comes back at a time when she'd only just heard, but I just enjoyed too, that she just didn't hear how that, umm, uh, the Lord had given bread, but she'd heard that the Lord had visited his people.
I just wondered if there's perhaps some young folks here today and you can look back and you can hardly think back when it was the last time that the Lord visited you or that you were conscious of it. What the marvellous thing when the Lord paid the visit. He does that on a daily basis to us. But what are really conscious of it and by faith lay hold of it, that the Lord's desire is that we would indeed have bread.
01:10:16
Could we sing 318?
C.
Nsnoise.
Every time.
Fall.
Suzuki South arrives baby. Hello one day.
Nsnoise.
God's Principle of Unity
Solomon
Ruth 2
Gospel 1
Gospel—Wally Dear
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
Let's begin our.
Meeting tonight with number six.
Number six.
I noticed on the program indicating the meetings for today.
That this meeting was labeled not simply gospel meeting, but gospel of God's grace. That's beautiful. Yeah. We've been speaking about grace today. So I thought, let's sing a him that reminds us of the grace of God. Here it is number six. God in mercy sent his Son to a world by sin undone. Jesus Christ was crucified.
Twas for sinners. Jesus died all the glory of the grace.
Shining in the Savior's face, telling sinners from above, God is light and God is love. Could we stand and sing #6?
Nsnoise.
00:05:04
We could turn to the back of our hymn sheets and sing another hymn. This is a children's hymn. But I believe we enjoy singing about the gypsy boy even as grown-ups, because you know, the gypsy boy, he was one who tasted of the grace of God. The gypsy boy, he hadn't heard about Jesus, but when he did.
He accepted him and we know the little gypsy boy was saved by the grace of God and that's the only way anyone gets saved is by the grace of God. You know what grace is. Grace is getting what we don't deserve.
It's been defined as unmerited favor.
And God has shown favor to the very worst.
And what has he done for the worst? He's given him the best.
You know the pasta pool.
He said this is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief.
He said he was the worst of sinners.
But you know what?
The apostle was saved by the grace of God and he could write to the Ephesians and he said, for by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. It's the gift of God.
The apostle, he had a very deep sense of grace in his soul. And you know what? That made him feel like He was the worst Sinner.
And that God was the most wonderful God, the greatest of all.
Well, the gypsy boy hearing this song, he heard news of salvation.
And he listened.
And he accepted.
And we're gonna see the little gypsy boy in the glory, You know, I see there's a verse left off here.
The fourth verse, it goes something like this, smiling.
His side as his last side was spent.
And it goes on to speak of how he says Lord, I believe.
Tell it now to the rest.
He was smiling.
As he was ready to depart this world, he's gonna die. But he was smiling.
While he was dying.
Because he had a hope beyond this life.
Do you have a hope beyond this life?
Where are you going to spend eternity?
No, our brother Cam over here, he, uh, gave me a.
Story and I since got it on ACD but it tells about a man over in Australia.
And you know this man, he had a real heart.
For souls, he had a passion for the lost and he would come out as the people were passing down the street. He would confront them and put a question to them. You see if you were to die tonight.
Would you go to heaven or what? Where would you spend eternity? I forget the exact wording, but he just asked.
This one and that one and you just did this day after day, week after week. And you know many were saved through this man's efforts on George St.
00:10:00
Well, if you were to die today, tonight, where would you spend eternity? Do you have the assurance of salvation?
It's so important. How is it that people can get so involved in anything and everything but that which is most important and that is their eternal destiny?
People that prepare for this life and take no thought for the next. You might say they're wise for a moment.
But they're foolish forever.
And it makes me shudder to think that there are 1,000,000 that are passing into a lost eternity because they've given no thought to their eternal welfare. I hope there's nobody like that in this hall here tonight.
Because you could be.
Here tonight and go on tomorrow.
No lease on life.
No one knows how long his or her time.
Will be. Are you prepared to meet God? This little gypsy boy? He was prepared. Well, we've had quite a little introduction to this song. Let's sing this song #44 about the gypsy boy #44 on the back of our hymn sheet.
Remain seated into the tent.
Nsnoise.
Nsnoise.
Well, the subject tonight is simple. 5 letter word.
GRACE, Grace.
That's wonderful.
To contemplate the grace of God throughout the Bible.
And today we found.
In the Old Testament, a shining example of the grace of God.
God showing favor.
To a Sinner woman.
A heathen woman.
Yes.
What was your name?
I hope everybody was listening in a meeting today.
Her name was.
Somebody tell me.
00:15:12
There's my friend Isaac.
That's why we talked about Rahab.
Now there is a shining example of the grace of God. You know a woman named Rahab. I'm thinking of another woman That starts with the letter R.
Is it Ruth? Very good. And so we've just been enjoying.
So very much the story of Ruth the Moabitess comes into.
The land of Israel, God's land.
And there she is, and she's enjoying the fruit of that land.
And she asked the question, Why me, Lord? Why are you showing grace to a stranger like me? I don't deserve this.
Did you know that what God delights to do is to show favor to those who don't deserve anything?
He finds great satisfaction.
In showing grace.
To those that.
Deserve nothing but.
Death and judgment.
And grace, as we sometimes think it's the sweetest sound that ever reached our ears.
Grace, you know it has a ring to it. It's so beautiful.
God's riches.
That Christ's expense.
Now I was trying to think.
And you don't have to try very hard.
But in the New Testament, we also have stories that bring before us in a very wonderful way.
The grace of God.
And the story that came to mind with respect to saving grace is found in the book of Luke. So could we turn in our Bibles to the book of Luke?
Luke Chapter.
23.
You know, it's a wonderful thing to be able to open up our Bibles.
And to.
Know that God is the author of this book. I don't know of any other book in this whole wide world.
Where it suggested that God is the author of the book. I know there are those that write what supposedly is a revelation that they've received from God, but they don't say God is the author of the book. But we have in our hands.
A unique book. There's no other book like it.
And by the way, this is the best selling book in the world.
And the world has a lot of best sellers.
Some sell thousands of copies in a year, some sell millions, and I understand sometimes a best seller.
Is gonna result in sales of 10 million or more.
What about this book?
This book tops the list of best sellers. 150 million Bibles printed in the world in one year.
That's a big difference.
And I'm told that there's actually 4 billion, 5 billion print in the world in 2000 different languages.
Now, just because it tops the list of best sellers, it doesn't mean necessarily that it's the truth, although we know it is, but the fact that it is.
At the top of the list ought to make you interested in reading it.
Do you have an interest in the Holy Bible?
Given the fact that.
00:20:02
It's the best seller.
I believe that.
Time is short.
The coming of the Lord.
It has drawn night.
And God's desire is to get his Word out to this world.
Because the door of mercy.
It's gonna be shut.
And we sometimes sing grace.
No more will say, yet there is room.
Tonight.
May be your last opportunity to be saved if you're not already saved.
You know, the Word of God speaks about judgment and it speaks about salvation.
Those that are judged are not saved. Those that are saved are not judged.
I ask you tonight, where do you stand?
I believe in this call tonight we've got two classes.
We're gonna read here in this account about two men, and they represent two classes in the world tonight.
Those that are saved and those that are lost, those that are believers and those that are unbelievers.
And it's very sobering to think.
That there are those.
That have heard the way of salvation comes the gospel meetings sat in Sunday schools.
Sat around your kitchen table, heard the word of God presented by your parents, but you've never yet.
Come to Jesus, you never have called upon Him. Put your faith in Him. Perhaps there's somebody like that here tonight. Well, our desire is that you might be saved by the grace of God.
While there is still time because time is short.
Eternity is long. Now this story that I like to read in Luke 23.
It.
Is a most.
Wonderful story of the grace of God.
And perhaps we could start reading from verse.
32.
Luke 2332 and there were also two other malefactors LED with him to be put to death.
And when they were come to the place which is called Calvary, there they crucified him and the malefactors, one on the right hand and the other on the left.
Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them.
For they know not what they do.
They parted his raiment and cast lots.
And the people stood beholding, and the rulers also with them derided him, saying, He saved others, let him save himself, if he be Christ, the chosen of God.
And the soldiers also mocked him, coming to him, offering him vinegar, and saying, If thou be the king of the Jews, save thyself.
And the superscription also was written over him in letters of Greek and Latin and Hebrew this.
Is the king of the Jews.
Now here's the story that I'd like to focus on.
Verse 39 It says, One of the malefactors which were hanged railed on him, saying, If thou be Christ, save thyself and us. But the other answering rebuked him, saying, Dost not thou fear God, seeing thou art in the same condemnation, and we indigestion, for we receive the due reward of our deeds. But this man had done nothing amiss. And he said unto Jesus, Lord, Remember Me when thou comest into thy Kingdom.
And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee today.
Shalt thou be with me in Paradise? And it was about the 6th hour, and there was a darkness over all the earth until the 9th hour. And the sun was darkened, and the veil of the temple was rent in the midst. And when Jesus had cried, with a loud voice he said, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit. And having said thus, he gave up the ghost.
00:25:12
Now when the centurions saw what was done, he glorified God, saying certainly this was a righteous man.
I think it's important to focus.
On the fact that Jesus not only was born into this world.
That he lived in this world, but that he.
Died.
On the cross of Calvary.
If he had left this world.
Without dying.
He would have saved himself.
But you and I.
Wood, Parrish.
Himself.
He could not save how often we do sing that hymn. It's a beautiful hymn himself. He would not save love Stream too deeply float.
His desire was to show mercy and grace and provide.
The means whereby you and I, we go free of judgment. Now recall I said there is judgment.
But those that have accepted the Lord Jesus can say.
He was judged for me on that cross of Calvary. The Lord Jesus suffered for sins, the just, for the unjust to bring us to God. He bore the judgment.
And we also sing a hymn that goes like this. Death and judgment are behind us. Grace and glory are before all the billows rolled over Jesus. There they spent their utmost power.
But something happened while Jesus was hanging on that cross. You know, he was on the middle cross.
End on either side were these malefactors.
And we want to be careful to see in verse 32 There's a comma between the word either and the word malefactors. So important.
The jet comma be there because you know this world and particularly these religious leaders that took.
You might say.
The prominent part in putting Jesus to death.
They would make out that he was a malefactor. It was terrible what they were saying about Jesus. They were going so far as to say, you know this man, he's not of God. In fact, he cast out demons through the Prince of the demons whose fields above.
Well, how low can you get?
It was terrible to see.
How that these?
Priest, these elders, these scribes, these religious Jews.
To see the verbal abuse.
And now we have physical abuse.
Man's religion.
Does not.
Appreciate who Jesus is.
A man's religion is that which exalts the 1St man at the expense.
Of the 2nd man, the Lord from heaven.
So that's why we're not here tonight to preach.
Man's religion. We're here tonight to preach Christianity.
And Christianity makes everything of Christ.
And nothing of ourselves.
And I know.
In this room, there are many.
00:30:00
Who just rejoice in the fact that Christ is everything.
They're willing to admit they're nothing.
And truly.
That's the path of happiness.
Is to exalt.
The name of the Lord Jesus.
God's own dear Son.
But here we find, rather than being exalted, even though he was the king of the Jews, they put their king to death.
And the desire is to make it appear like he's just another malefactor. He's a criminal like these two other.
But don't forget the commas there. The Lord Jesus was the Son of God.
He was holy, he was jest.
And if you read this chapter.
You find out that pilot over and over again.
He declared. I find no fault in this man.
Notice what he says in verse 22. He said unto them the third time.
Why, what evil has he done? I have found no cause of death in him. I will therefore chastise him and let him go. And they were instant, with loud voices, requiring that he might be crucified.
Enmity in the heart of man coming out at the cross.
There's where we see it, what's in the heart of man.
And you know, at the heart of man's problem.
Is the heart of man, it tells us in Jeremiah. The heart of man is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked, as we read as this account.
We realized the truth of Scripture.
Desperate wickedness.
And of course.
Pilot, who was supposed to stand for justice. He was the Roman governor.
What does it tell us?
Well in verse 24 it says Pilate gave sentence that it should be as they required.
It was a pushover.
Money. Public opinion.
Turned his heart.
And the Lord Jesus.
Was sentenced to death. Pilot gave sentence that it should be as they required.
And so.
The blessed Lord is LED out.
To be crucified, and there were also two other malefactors LED with him to be put to death.
It tells us that these other malefactors, they were thieves.
Thieves.
And I think Mr. Darby has in his translation robbers.
Robbers. You know, a thief you might think of as being kind of sneaky.
A sneaky thief.
Trying to stay undercover and so on. But perhaps a robber. He's more bold, he's more aggressive. A robber.
Even set of points that perhaps committing murder.
These were bad men, these criminals.
You know, Barabbas tells us. He was a robber, and he committed murder, too.
Well, these two.
No doubt they deserved.
To be executed.
And so it tells us here.
In verse 33 when they were come to the place which is called Calvary, there they crucified him.
And the malefactors, one on the right hand and the other on the left.
There they are.
Nailed.
Through the hand.
And through the feet.
As far as I know, 3 nails.
You know the Lord Jesus said they pierced my hands and my feet.
That was a prophecy way back in the Old Testament. We have the fulfillment of it here.
It's wonderful to contemplate the prophecies.
00:35:04
Of the Old Testament that find their fulfillment in the new, there's many prophecies.
And of course, this is a test to the fact that this book that we have in our hands.
There's a divine roster. God is the author. Because no man, I don't care who he is, would be able to make these prophecies and then make them all come to pass.
Only God could do that.
And so while we read the Bible, we come to realize this is a unique book. God is the author.
Use men to write it. 40 different men over a period about 1600 years.
Were used by God to write this book. They were holy men of God.
And they wrote as they were led by the Spirit of God.
But God is the author.
By the way.
There's no other book in the world.
That you or I will read where the author is always present.
But that's true of the Word of God.
And you know, God is present here tonight, the author of this book, he's right here tonight.
And his spirit is here.
And.
We must acknowledge.
That apart from?
The Spirit of God working in your soul and mind is not gonna be any fruit for God. Spirit of God.
It's wonderful to contemplate what God is doing.
Now when we come to the story about these two malefactors, we find that God.
Is doing a work.
For a malefactor, and he's doing the work in him.
And that's wonderful to see.
Before we read.
Or speak of the.
Malefactors.
Further, we want to read 34 Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.
What can we say?
The blessed Lord.
It's hanging on those nails.
On that cross.
Can't imagine the pain.
I've had a nail go into my hand.
Never went through my hand but how painful it is.
Even when a nail goes part way into your hand.
But those nails were pounded through his hands.
And through his feet.
And there is hanging.
He'd already been scourged, no doubt his back was bloody.
Criminals that were scourged, they sometimes succumb to the scourging.
There was no opportunity to crucify them because they died in discouraging it was so bad.
The Lord Jesus had been.
Ridiculed.
They spit into his face.
Think of it.
Spit.
I can't say if anybody spit in my face.
I recall in high school.
There used to be.
A uh.
Rather unhappy activity carried on by.
Put a little spit on your finger like that and then you could flick it.
And it could sail right across the room and end up on somebody. And they wonder, where did this come from?
Now I experienced that and when you have those landing on you, it's not a good feeling.
00:40:06
I don't think one ever landed on my face.
But they spit into his blessed face, face of the Son of God.
You know earlier Lord Jesus had.
Been on the mount of Transfiguration and it speaks about how that is faced.
It is shone as the sun.
His face.
But you know that face.
It was marred more than any man.
They smote him in the face.
Tells us how they would.
Blindfolded in any.
Who's Smokey?
This was the abuse that the precious Savior was subjected to.
Discouraging.
The Scorning.
And then they took thorns.
And he made a crown of corns, and they placed it on his head, and they took a Reed that was in his hand.
Yeah, it was supposed to represent a scepter. It was just a read.
As far as the crown, it wasn't gold, it was thorns.
But they were making a mockery of the King of the Jews.
And they took that Reed and they smote him on the head.
And that would drive those thorns into his head.
His face was so marred, more than any man, his face spit running down, his face bruised perhaps beyond recognition. The thorns.
He's hanging on this cross.
We we can't imagine the pain.
The agony that he was in.
What comes out of his lips?
Is it cursing and swearing?
That's what would come out of the lips of the malefactors. But what about Jesus?
He was different.
Father.
Forgive them.
For they know not what they do.
It's so beautiful to contemplate the Lord Jesus.
Well, in verse 39 it says uh.
One of the malefactors which were hanged railed on him, saying, If thou be Christ, save thyself and us.
In another place it tells us that.
Both the malefactors, both these criminals, they railed on Jesus.
However, we find.
There is a change that comes over one of these malefactors.
And in verse 40.
The other answering rebuked him, saying, Dost not thou fear God?
Seeing thou art in the same condemnation.
Now, what made the difference here?
They were both.
Ridiculing the Lord.
Now one changes his tone.
And he's speaking to his partner in crime.
And he says, Don't you fear God?
Is it true that this malefactor?
Is fearing God? Yes, he is.
He heard something that day.
In his ear that changed his thinking. You know what he heard? I believe it. He heard Jesus say, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.
It made an impression on this man.
You know, back in the Psalms.
The question is asked.
If thou shouldst.
Lord, Mark, iniquity, oh Lord, who should stand?
00:45:03
But that little 3 letter word.
Turn darkness to light.
There is forgiveness with thee, that thou mightest be feared.
And I believe that this malefactor, when he heard those words of forgiveness spoken.
Bye the Lord Jesus.
He come to realize that.
This man was Messiah. This man was the Son of God.
Did you know that faith comes by hearing?
It doesn't tell us that faith comes by seeing, but it comes by hearing.
And hearing by the word of God.
And so we see this.
Faith in this?
Repentant Thief.
Yes, it's very beautiful.
And he has a sense, no doubt.
Of the grace of God in his soul. And you know what grace does.
Grace makes us feel how bad.
We really are a true apprehension of grace, but it also gives us to see how lovely and how wonderful God is.
That's what Grace will do.
Grace.
It is a power.
That gives us to see what we are in ourselves, but also gives us to see what God is in himself. It's so important.
If we don't have apprehension of grace in our souls.
We are going to think more of ourselves than we should.
And we're not going to think as much of God as we should.
But where there is grace?
A sense of it in our souls. We realize we need the Savior because we are so bad. I believe that this comes out in this story because notice what the thief he says. We indeed, justly.
In other words, we're getting what we deserve.
He was honest with himself.
You don't hear these words from the other thief.
He probably thought maybe he shouldn't have been on that cross.
I remember being in a prison one time and I went through the prison, talked to different ones in the cells, and they didn't think they ought to be in that prison. They thought they didn't get fair treatment.
How many there are today?
That are of the same impression.
You know they don't think God is treating them fairly.
People want a fair deal.
Well, I'll tell you something.
People are going to get a fair deal.
And those that reject the Savior, they're gonna stand before the great White throne. We read about it in Revelation chapter 20. And they're gonna be judged and they're gonna get a fair deal.
The books are gonna be opened.
And they're gonna be judged out of these books.
According to their works, a record of every word, every action written down in this book.
They're gonna be judged.
Why another book is Open Book of Life?
Whosoever was not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the Lake of Fire.
It's a fair deal. Shall not the judge of all the earth do right?
They had the opportunity to come to Christ. They had the opportunity to be saved. How about you here tonight? Where do you stand with the Lord? I can't look down into your heart. I don't know.
If you have a relationship.
I mean, I know many do through their testimony, their life, it shows that they do.
But I couldn't be sure about everybody.
We need to ask ourselves.
00:50:01
Do we have peace with God? You know we're no better than these criminals that were hanging on the crosses.
You say, well I'm pretty decent person.
I don't think I'm all that bad.
Well, have you ever taken anything that didn't belong to you?
I'll be honest, you don't have to speak out loud, but thinking back in your life, anything at all, it's not a question of the value of the thing, but did you take anything at all?
Did you sneak a candy fire out-of-the-box on the shelf at the store?
Did you take a pencil or a pen that didn't belong to you?
You're steely. You're a thief.
You say, well, I don't think I'm that bad.
I mean.
What's a candy bar? What's a?
Pencil.
You know what? You need to look at things from God's viewpoint.
People talk about lies, talk about a white lie.
You know it's OK to lie as long as you can avoid some embarrassment. It's OK to lie. I tell you something, God's not concerned about colors.
A white lie is as bad as a black lie in the sight of God.
And it won't be tolerated in God's happy home in heaven. It would spoil the place.
You know, sometimes when you're in a store, maybe department store.
And somebody walks out the door.
And all of a sudden the buzzer goes off and everybody's looking toward the door, getting uncomfortable, feeling what happened. Well, maybe they forgot to take the security tag off a shirt or a pair of pants or some electronic device, something like that. It set off alarm.
Nobody feels comfortable until that alarm is shut down. Well, I thought of it this way. If God were to allow an individual into heaven through the gates of heaven with one sin, it would set off such an alarm that it would just spoil the environment of the place immediately. God will not tolerate sin in His holy presence.
Whether it be a white lie or black lie or whatever color or whatever you stole, it's stealing. And we could talk about other things too, you know, what about?
There's a commandment that says thou shalt not commit adultery.
But the Lord Jesus said.
That he that looks upon.
A woman.
And loss.
Has committed adultery.
In his heart.
So you say, well.
Well, that's pretty strong language. I don't know if I'm all that great after all.
Well, I tell you what, if you wanna get to heaven on your own terms, by your own good works, you gotta do it perfect. God is a perfectionist, you say? I don't like perfectionist. They're too critical. You bothered me. But God is a perfectionist.
And you know, God knows that you and I, we could never attain His standard of holiness through our own effort. We've all sinned and come short of the glory of God. That's why God in mercy sent His Son as we sang into Him to a world by sin and time.
God saw you and me in our dire straits.
And he sent his Son Christ. Jesus came in the world to save sinners. This man on the cross, he acknowledges he's a Sinner.
We receive the due reward of our deeds, but this man has done nothing amiss.
What a testimony.
Must have.
How would the Lord Jesus feel when everybody else seemed against him, to have this man on the cross next to Him? You know, all of his pain, agony, stress.
Giving testimony.
To who Jesus is.
No, that's what grace will do for a soul.
And he said unto Jesus, Lord, he acknowledged him as Lord, Remember Me when thou comest into thy Kingdom.
First he acknowledged him as Lord, and then he acknowledged him as.
00:55:03
King, He makes a bold request.
But.
The Lord Jesus appreciates bold request.
You know, without faith it's impossible to please God.
And I would think that this man making this request.
Brought joy to the heart of the Lord Jesus, if that could be so in the circumstances in which he found himself. Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, today shalt thou be with me in paradise. What a beautiful response this man was, De.
Going to depart this life. His legs would be broken.
But that would be the servant to usher him into the very presence and companionship of the Lord Jesus. And you know this thief today he saved by the grace of God.
A thief saved, a Sinner saved, and I believe he's awaiting the rapture.
You got fired more than he asked for.
It's one thing to be remembered by somebody, but it's another thing to be able to spend time with them.
24/7 I could put it that way day in and day out.
And this thief?
As a result of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
He went to paradise to be with Jesus, and so will you if you put your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, the Savior of sinners. We know the Lord Jesus died.
After those hours of darkness we read the account here. And then a soldier with a spear pierced his side. Forth with came their out blood and water. Blood of Jesus Christ cleanse us from all sin. And then he was taken down. He was buried, but he rose again the third day.
And Jesus lives in the glory to date. He's coming again. But will you accept him? Come to Jesus for by grace? Are you saved through faith and not of yourselves? It's the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. Does anybody have any question about anything we said here tonight?
If so, please feel free to confront this. After this meeting, we'd like to talk with you. We don't wanna.
Leave any confusion in your mind as to the way of salvation. Brother prayed in the prayer meeting that the message would be simple.
That's God's way of salvation. It's simple.
Wasn't simple for Jesus it was difficult, but for you and for me it's faith, believing, receiving, taking, Jesus taking.
You too will have peace with God, your sins will be forgiven, you will enjoy a relationship with God as Father. And you're gonna be at the meeting in the air, which could be tonight, The rapture. It's gonna happen one of these days. And we hope we're gonna see you there, everyone in this hall.
At the meeting in the air.
It's gonna happen.
Let's pray.
Being Washed Whiter Than Snow By God's Word
Children—Bry'n Ross
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
Good morning, good morning. Trust everybody had a good sleep and you're all ready to.
Roll into the day with the Lord. So let's start the morning by perhaps singing #40 the first verse, second verse, and the fifth verse.
If somebody could start that in a tomb we could all live with, that'd be great.
Yes. Umm, yeah, she's not close to me.
Yes, she is House of me.
Yes, Jesus loves me. The Bible tells me so.
Genesis loves me. Who died?
Heaven's gate to old grand life, He will wash away my sin.
Let alone.
Some come in.
Yes, Jeep and blows me. Yeah, she's not loudly.
Yeah, let's see. Umm, so I'll see. The Bible tells me so.
Jesus loves me, He will stay close to his body.
All the way.
If I trust him, should I die, he will Take Me Home on time.
Yeah, Jesus, clouds, please.
Just love me.
Yeah, Jesus loves me.
Love my God, help me so.
The Bible tells me so.
What a wonderful word. How many brought your Bibles today? Hold them up.
You brought your Bible. Hold it up.
Because the day I want to introduce you to the most versatile book in the world. And if you don't know what the word versatile means, it means it'll do anything, anytime, anywhere for you. It's a wonderful book. As Wally said last night, it's the most.
Bestseller. I can't say it's the most popular book in the world at this moment, but I know that it is the most versatile book that has ever been written. And today we're going to take a quick look at that. But before we do that, let's sing #45.
If somebody could start that for me please.
Now, before we open this very versatile book, let's give the author some praise and worship and give him thanks. Our God and Father, indeed, we give Thee thanks for this time we can be together thanking Thee especially for the precious gift of Thy word. We pray that each heart here may see it as such a precious gift given from Thy hand that will help Him guide us, form us, mold us, shape us, and in it we can see all Thy glory.
00:05:01
All thy wonder, all the marvellousness of thy grace and mercy towards us, sinners as we are. And we thank thee, our God and Father, that each one hear from the smallest to the oldest, can find in there Thy truth that is so easy to find and not hard.
To dig out. And we thank thee for thy spirit too, that guides us through these things and keeps us and strengthens us.
And and guides us through our lives. So we pray that each heart here might avail themselves of this precious word, and today that we might even see it in a newer and clearer way. In the name of thy dear Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, who's pictured on every page, Amen.
The book of Isaiah chapter 55, verse 11 Says this. So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth. It shall not return unto me void, but shall accomplish that which I please, and shall prosper in the thing wherein I sent it. When the Lord spoke to Peter, he told him the two things He told him to feed his sheep.
And to feed his lambs. As I look around, I see there's a bunch of children here, a lot of young people and a few Gray hairs scattered amongst us. So we're gonna be feeding all of us. We're just not gonna leave it up to the children. Sometimes it's wonderful to see the children. They can be quite entertaining. But tonight, uh, or this morning, maybe some of the parents can entertain their children for a change. I, uh.
As I mentioned, the Word of God is very versatile. We can use it for everything from the smallest to the youngest. If you turn with me to the book of Ephesians.
And the reason it's so versatile is God in his Word.
Has given it.
Many names, he's called it many things, but each one of these things is a very practical thing. It's something that we use probably every day, some of us, or it's something that we can use every day. So I wanna take a look at it in that sense. So we look at the word in a, in a purely practical, uh, being able to use it in our lives point of view from the oldest to the youngest. So if we turn to the book of Ephesians chapter 5, verse 26, it says this Speaking of the Lord Jesus and, and his relationship to the church.
That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of the water by the word, the washing of the water by the word. So I believe that the word comes to us as a picture of water, clean, pure crystal water. And one of the things we do, umm, with water is, uh, we wash with it.
How many of you, as as children and even growing up as your mother, when you come in from playing and you get all dirty, you know, you're all playing in the mud. Umm, I don't know if you're still playing mud. Now, everybody does this and watches things and, but when on my days we played in mud with pinkies and had a great time, But with the first thing we did, as soon as we got in the door, our mother would say, what? What do you think she'd say? Go washer hands because supper's ready or lunch is ready. Anybody ever heard that from their mom? Go wash your hands.
If you have put up your hand, just don't be afraid. Go wash your hands. Well, young people, up we go. Stand up. Turn to Psalm 119. We're going to do some hand washing.
All the young people, if you want to be kind of as a young person, you can stand up to no embarrassment.
Yes, some of us are a bit Psalm 119. I want you to turn to Psalm 119, verse 9.
Psalm 119, verse nine. We'll read it quickly and then we're going to wash our hands to the tune of it or to the words of it. Ready. Psalm 1919 says wherewithal. So a young man cleanse his way by taking heed thereunto according to Thy word. OK, you can put your Bibles down because you can't wash your hands with Bible in your hands unless you want to try. Everybody know how to wash your hands. You know now that they're promoting this everywhere because of the germs and the flus that are happening. So here we're going to do this. Well, I read it. Everybody's going to wash their hands and you're going to remember this verse for the rest of your life. You ready?
Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way by taking heed thereunto according to thy word?
Now, if you're younger than that.
We'll try this out. How many of you are 12 and below? Put up your hand if you're 12 and below.
OK. You guys can stand up.
All right, everybody stand up is 12 and below. Here we go. We're gonna wash our hands in. The verse we're gonna use is a simple verse that says wash me and I will be whiter than snow.
Can you understand? Is that a good verse? Watch me, I should be whiter than snow. Or I guess we're going to get a lot of snow coming. So we're going to get a lot of washing, but we're going to be whiter than snow because the Lord washes us whiter than snow. You ready? OK, ready. Wash me and I shall be whiter than snow.
00:10:02
All right, even she did it all right. OK, thank you very much. You may sit down now another thing that the word of God is called if we turn to the book of first Peter.
First theater.
Chapter One.
First Peter chapter one, verse 23 tells us.
Being born again, not of corruptible speed, but of incorruptible by the word of God. So the word of God is a seed. And when you're, when you receive the Lord Jesus as your savior, that word of God, somehow God puts it in your heart. He plants it in your heart like a little seed and it grows. The more you read the word of God, the more you become like the Lord Jesus, the more you get to find out what he's all about and what he's like. But if we turn to Psalm 119.
Those who have Bibles.
Psalm 119, verse 11.
Tells us why he does this.
Psalm 119, verse 11 Says thy word, Have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee?
Isn't that a wonderful thing? He puts his our word and He asks us to put His word in our heart so that we won't sin against God because sin is an awful thing in the eyes of God. It cost Him the life of his dear Son for you and for me. He shed his blood on Calvary to purchase us back, to buy us back and redeem us to God. And so it's an important thing that we remember that we plant that seed in our heart, that we keep God's word hidden in our hearts so we might not sin because whenever we think about sinning.
We can turn to God's Word. Or maybe perhaps as you're older, you store up God's Word, you memorize it, and you make it a part of you. So when you think about sinning, God's Word will come instantly to your mind and you'll say, well, the lights will go on. You'll say, no, I can't do that because God's Word tells me that I shouldn't do that because it would dishonor God.
In the book of Jeremiah tells us something interesting about the word.
Jeremiah, chapter 15.
This is the one one of the things that it's it's.
Well, I'll, I'll read it. We'll find out. Jeremiah 15 verse 16 says thy words were found.
And I did eat them.
My words were found and I did eat them.
Now I don't know about you, but.
What would you put on this ketchup relish?
Mayonnaise make it taste better, is that what you mean?
Take out a page every morning and instead of re, you read it once. You read it, yeah.
Swallow it to make sure you got it. You think that's what he means? I don't think so. I think what he's trying to say here is that when you're a child, how do you grow? You eat. You eat good food, your parents feed you good food, and you grow and you grow and you grow. One of the wonderful things about coming to conferences is that everybody gets to see everybody, but only like usually once a year, if you go to certain conferences and you look at the young people and you see how they've grown.
And you say, wow, your parents are feeding you pretty well, but you see the difference that that comes from getting older and from eating good food.
Now when your mom bakes, perhaps, I know when I was younger, my mom used to bake and, and uh, one of the things I really like to do was I like to wait until she baked like cookies or something like that. And she had this big bowl of stuff. And what would you, what do you like to do when you could see a big bowl like that that your mom would make? How many you've got fingers and you go.
Like to lick the bowl or the spoon, huh? Is that what you like? I see some guy. That's what I like to do. Isn't that what we like to do? We like to, we like to eat those good things even before they're baked. And then when they're baked, of course we get to eat them in their baked state. You get to eat them. Well, that's what the Bible should be like. The Bible should be something that we read and just like the things that we eat, we take into us to make us grow healthy and strong. The Bible is something that we should read and take into our lives to make us healthy and strong too.
Now there's a song I'd like to sing really quickly.
And you'll have to stand for it.
Gonna get her exercise this morning because and it's a very simple song. I think you all know it. We're just gonna sing the the the first verse. It's read your Bible, pray every day and you'll grow, grow, grow. Are you ready?
00:15:11
Read your Bible. Pray every day, pray every day, pray every day.
Read your Bible, pray every day, and you'll grow and grow.
Rejoin Bible, pray every day and you'll grow, grow, grow.
Thank you. I think it's wonderful that God gives us such a practical book and people take the time to write such practical songs that we did. In these little songs we can get the whole truth of what God wants us.
To appreciate.
Now, along with the aspect of food being eaten.
In first Peter.
Chapter 2.
First Peter, chapter 2.
Verse 2.
It says as newborn babes desire the sincere milk of the Word, that ye may grow thereby, so the word is compared. The Word of God is compared to milk for babies because there's things in the Word of God that are very, very, very hard to understand. But there's also things in the Word of God that are very, very easy and simple to understand. And one of the things that's very simple to understand from the Word of God that we learn is in the first song that we sang. It tells us that Jesus loves me.
That's not a very difficult thing to understand, is it? Or even to say. But the Word of God, that comes from the truth. But then we have other doctrines that are a little bit harder to get our minds around. But the Word of God is like milk to us all. When we're first saved, when we first come to know the Lord Jesus as our Savior, the Lord provides us with what is necessary for us to take it in and to grow just like little babies, and we take this nourishment in. It also tells us in Psalm 119.
Psalm 119.
1St.
100 and.
Three.
Psalm 119103 says, How sweet are thy words unto my taste? Yeah, sweeter than honey.
To my mouth. So the word of God is honey. So we have milk and honey.
Now there's an interesting verse in the book of Psalms, Psalm 34. If you have a Bible, turn to Psalm 34 with me.
And we're gonna, this is one of those other simpler verses that you find in the Scripture, but very practical. You know, there are times in our lives as even the youngest person here, the oldest person here, when life might not be according to what we want it to be. The Lord may have some special plans, some trials, some tribulation that we might have to go through. And sometimes you might not understand that. Or there might be times when we're entering a new phase in our life and we really need some direction or guidance.
Even from the youngest child to the oldest. So there's a scripture verse in Psalm 34.
Verse 8.
And it says, O taste and see that the Lord is good, taste and see that the Lord is good. And one of the ways that we can taste and see that the Lord is good. As we read His word and we find out how he, for example, you look at the children of Israel, how He promised them so many good things. And because of their disobedience, they lost a lot of those things. But His heart was towards his people. His heart is towards you and I, from the youngest to the oldest, to give us what we require in order to live our lives to please Him.
So what I'd like to do is have everybody stand up again. We're going to taste and see that the Lord is good.
Because his word is milk and honey.
So now.
Some of you are younger, don't do this, but I know I have two teenage sons and those parents who have teenage sons and one of the things they like to do, I probably did it as a child or as a teenager. And so did you because they go to the fridge, they open the fridge door, they take the quart of milk, they open the quart of milk, the glass stays in the cupboard and they blub, blub, blub, blub, blub from the court. Then they close it up, put it back in the fridge store and close the door. How many guilty parties do we have in the room today that have done that?
00:20:04
Whatever you had, you don't have to be a young person to do that either, you see? Yes, see.
Now honey is a different kind of thing because honey, you don't want to take too much honey because it's too sweet. But some of us, you know the same thing. You dip your finger and you go.
That's good. So what I'd like to hear is everybody, we're going to practice. I want everybody to take your finger, dip it in the honey or dip it in the word, put it in your mouth and go numb. NUM NUM, NUM, NUM, NUM, NUM.
Come on, 123. Ready. Give it NUM NUM, NUM, NUM NUM. OK, now we're gonna try with the other part. Ready. Glug, glug, glug.
And once you do that, I want you to go Yum Yum.
OK, ready. 123. Yum Yum. All right, so this is how it's going to go. Taste and see. Glug, Glug at the Lord is good. Yum Yum. OK, 123 taste and see. Plug, plug. That's the Lord.
Is good. Yum Yum. All right, you maybe see that you're doing fine.
How are we doing tonight? OK.
Two other things that the Lord has his word for us is in Psalm 119, verse 105, and they come together. It's it's been a delight in my heart and perhaps in others. When you see how the Lord puts two things together, it speaks of something.
Like, uh, we, uh, one of our brothers recently read a, a thing that's like, when you know, righteousness and peace have kissed each other, something like that. When the, when the Lord puts two things together in Scripture, it's, it's something that you want to look at and try to realize why he's done that. And one of these things in Psalm 105 or Psalm 119.
Verse 105 is a verse that perhaps we all know, but it's a very practical verse. It says Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.
I'll lap onto my feet, and a light unto my path, and what the word of God provides for you and I.
Is he he gives us guidance for our lives one step at a time, and it's important that we don't run ahead of God when he has a plan for us. It's important that every morning we open God's word and we try to understand what the plan is for the day. Now sometimes we try to plan our lives and perhaps it becomes something that we have to do to look a bit into the future for for certain things. But God is so willing to give us guidance from his word in those things that he provides light so that we can see sort of that that father the light at the end of the tunnel so we get.
The the guidance that we have, but one of the things that we can do when we read God's Word is we can shine his lights too. And the more we read God's word, the more we become like the Lord Jesus and the more we will shine as lights in the world. So others will look at us and say, why are you so different? What makes you so different?
And that's an important thing, the word. In his own word he says the entrance of thy words give light.
And light in the sense of not like this kind of light, but a light in the sense of, umm, shining through the darkness. Sometimes we speak about the darkness that's in the world. And when you read the word of God, even as the youngest person here, when you read the word of God, it tells us that God has promised to make us wiser than our teachers, wiser than those around us. Because as we read God's Word, his wisdom becomes a part of our lives.
And we begin to see the details of life in a way that those in the world cannot see because they're blinded to the truth that comes from His Word. But if you're a young Christian here, it's a wonderful thing to have God's word that you're able to look into, and God will speak to your heart.
And speak to your mind and speak to your life and give you a channel and guidance for your direction.
So those are two things. The other thing is in Book of Jeremiah.
Jeremiah, chapter 23.
Jeremiah 23.
Burst.
29.
It says it's not my word like as a fire sayeth the Lord and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces. So we have a combination of a fire and a hammer. Now fire and scripter usually speaks of things that purify. We have silver. In the old days they used to melt silver down in in a big pot under the fire and they would remove all the bad things so they would get pure silver and they did the same with gold and fire does the same it it is as a picture of the word of God in your life and mine as we look at.
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Ourselves and we look at the sin that's in our lives or our disobedience, or the way that we we don't please God and we look at how God wants us to be. Sometimes the word shows us that because sometimes we're afraid to admit that we're wrong or we're stubborn and we don't want to admit that we're wrong. But the word of God, when we read it accurately and it tells us that because it's also something else that we'll look at quickly at the end, it also shows us our weaknesses, but it also can give us great strength at the same time.
So it's like a hammer.
And it's like a fire. Well, what does, what do you do with a hammer? I usually hit myself on the thumb. Most of the time that's what I do with it. So I don't think that's a good thing to do. Well, who uses a hammer? I know at least one person in here does. How many of you have used a hammer?
OK, do you use it as a paperweight or you fly throw it? What do you use a hammer for?
What do you use a hammer for?
That's right, banging nails into the wall, you use it to build things. We build things with a hammer, and God's word is something that God has given us as a tool to build ourselves up in our most holy faith. It says so we can build ourselves. We frame a house, we use the nails, we frame it up, then we put the sides on it and we put the gyprock in. How many of you have done that? Remodel the home or yes. Lots of fun, isn't it? It doesn't happen overnight. It's hard work.
It takes time, and God gives us this hammer to use to do that.
And because of that, we're going to sing another song. So if we could all stand up, we're gonna sing a song that everybody knows. It's based in the book of Matthew, Chapter 7. Because this is what the Lord wants to do in the in the book, he talks about a wise man and a foolish man and they both build houses. But the bottom line is that God says the one that hears my word and does it is like a wise man who builds his house the right way.
So we're going to sing that song and remind ourselves that God's word is like a hammer that gives us a hammer to build a wise as a wise man, We build a good house for him where he can come and reside and, and we can, uh, be an example in a testimony those around us. OK, you ready? You all know this song, OK. The wise man built his house upon the rock. The wise man built his house upon the rock, the wise man.
Built his house upon the rock, and the rains came tumbling down.
The rains came down as the floods came up. The rains came down as the floods came up. The rains came down as the floods came up. And the house on the rock stood firm. The foolish man built his house upon the sand. The foolish man built his house upon the sand. The foolish man built his house upon the sand.
When the rains came tumbling down, the rains came down as the floods came up. The rains came down as the floods came up. The rains came down as the floods came up, and the house on the sand fell flat.
What a difference, huh, between one and the other?
I know there's a last burst of that, but some people sing one version, some people sing another, so I didn't wanna inspire confusion at this moment. One of the last things that, uh, God tells us that his word is, is in the book of Ephesians chapter 6.
Ephesians chapter 6.
Verse 14.
Or pardon me, verse, uh.
MMM.
Verse 17 says then take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. The word of God is compared to a sword because it cuts down our enemies. You know, many times people might give you an argument or try to argue with you about this or that or the other thing and it's always been my experience and perhaps others can to testify to this at the best experience to do or the best answer to that is to tell them the word of God says this.
And just leave it at that. Don't try to reason with them, don't try to argue with them. Just give them God's word. And it's, I think it's based on that promise that I first read in Isaiah 55. He says my word will do and it'll accomplish what I have set it out to do. And his word accomplishes that because it convicts people in their heart. The word of God is, is special in that it can convict people in their heart. And when you, uh, approach people with the word of God as your defense, they have no defense against it.
00:30:29
And it will change their lives, I'm sure, in that way. So the sword does that for others, but for you and I also, the book of Hebrews chapter 4 tells us what the sword can do for you and me.
In the book of Hebrews, chapter 4, verse 12.
It says for the Word of God is quick and powerful and sharper than any two edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit.
And of the joints and marrow. And is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. The Word of God shows you and me who we really are. Many times we don't wanna show who we really are. We might put up a front or umm, try to pretend that we're something else. But the Word of God shows us as we truly are.
You know the importance of the word of God just to finish off quickly was shown when the Lord Jesus himself was tempted by Satan. And throughout your lives you'll be tempted by Satan. And the best defense once again is the word of God because he has no defense against it because it stands. It's the author that has written this word and he stands behind his word. Every word he's written, God stands behind it. And when the Lord was tempted by Satan in the garden, the Lord used.
The Word of God. And he always answered that Satan, whatever he tempted him with by saying it, is written. And that was a powerful thing for him to do because as I say, Satan has no defense against the Word of God because of the author who wrote it.
The final thing that the word of God has, it's something that I trust that if you remember it, nothing else in the book of James.
James chapter one, verse 23. It's my hope that there's been a little bit of, uh, enjoyment in this message, a little bit of wisdom perhaps, uh, that we can take with us realizing how God's word is so versatile and powerful for you and for I. But in the book of James chapter one, it tells us this.
Verse 23. For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man, beholding his natural face in a glass, For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man.
He was.
I think there's nothing sadder than to watch people, Christians, young or old, who know the word of God, who know God's love for them and care for them, and yet willingly turn away from it.
When they read the word of God and they see things in their lives that need to be changed, they turn away from it. They hide for by whatever excuse they can come up with. The Lord delights in his people. The Lord delights in his word, and he's given it to us to use to show us what we are not, but to show us what we can become in Christ. And that's a wonderful gift that he's given us, a wonderful tool that he's given us. And I trust that each one here will use it, and I trust people have been using it. But even if you remember anything of this message.
That is that the Word of God is versatile and that it will in any situation be a guide for you and for me, no matter how old you are. Take time to read it every day, to enjoy it, to let the Lord speak to your heart through it, and you will grow.
Grow, grow. Let's pray.
Paul's Ministry and John's Ministry
Ruth and the Royal Line
Ruth 3 4
Open Mtg. 2
Open—S. Stewart, R. Boulard
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
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We open to.
First Corinthians, chapter 14.
First Corinthians chapter 14, verse 29.
Let the prophets stay two or three.
Let the other judge.
First Peter, chapter 4.
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Verse 11.
Fannie Vance speak. Let him speak.
As the oracles of God.
Minister, let him do it as of the ability of God-given.
That God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ.
Whom be praised and dominion forever and ever. And John Chapter 7.
Stop.
He thus speaketh from. He thus speaketh from himself.
Speaketh his own worries.
So we asked what's wrong?
Just hesitate a little to uh.
To take up this subject to touch on it.
Once before recently and it some ways maybe doesn't seem in my mind exactly to go along with what we've we've, uh, had before us.
Earlier today, but perhaps there are those here who, who are, uh.
Seeking from the Word of God to understand better the truth of God and the principles upon which God acts.
And which he orders things and to walk in them and embrace them and understand them from his word. And there is a a principle of things perhaps too, that I'd like to touch on that I feel is needed in the day that we live in and I'd like to.
First, go to Genesis.
And look at a verse there. The subject that I'd really like to look at is, uh, unity.
And the principle upon which God.
Produces unity and.
The power and energy in which he.
Brings that unity about.
And I'd like to look at Genesis chapter one for perhaps the first expression that, uh, that I'm aware of in the Word of God, where we might see unity.
And.
In verse 26.
Of Genesis one we read and God said let us make man in our image.
After our likeness.
And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fall of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him.
Every.
Verse previous to this I believe we get the plain, uh simple fiats of God, let there be light and let the earth spring forth. But when it comes to man, he says let us because man was the.
Object of the divine Council and the Godhead. And so when it comes to making man, he said, let us.
There's the Godhead, and they are at one in their purpose in creating man.
That one in their purpose to put this man at the center of what he had just created.
And he was to be there at that center in God's image and God's likeness. He was God's representative at the center of all that he created. And God was uniting everything that he created.
As it were in a cohesive unit, by putting Himself, God at the center, represented there by that man, and it was the object of eternal counsels. The Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost were one and their counsel to put man there.
And God has purposed if we could just turn over to Ephesians chapter one.
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For he was looking beyond.
The earthly.
Creation.
Yeah, we get in Genesis we could turn to Ephesians chapter one and see what he was looking beyond to.
Ephesians one, and verse 10, That in the dispensation of the administration of the fullness of times, he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven.
And which are on earth, even in him in whom also we have obtained an inheritance. And so God has purposed in a man to to unify everything that he has created, both in heaven and earth. And everything that he is doing is centered in one man, the man Christ Jesus. And he's going to manifest that in the coming day, in that day of the administration of the fullness of times, He's going to bring forth the man Christ Jesus.
And everything is going to be headed up in one man. God is going to unify everything under one man, the man Christ Jesus. And Adam was just a little or a certain sense of foretaste of that, a sample of that. And he was the first man. And we know that this book that we have in our hands, the Word of God, is the history of those two men, the 1St man Adam, whom God placed in that garden in the center of everything that he created, and the 2nd man, the Lord from heaven.
Whom he will eventually take up everything in heaven and earth and put under his feet.
Now if we look over a little bit further in Genesis, we see another unity.
Genesis Chapter 11.
In verse three and they said one to another, go to let us make brick and burn them thoroughly. And they had brick for stone and slime they had for mortar. And they said go to let us build us a city.
And a tower whose top may reach unto heaven. And let us make us a name.
Lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth. And so there was a unity there as well, a unity of man's will and rebellion against God to set up his own name, to glorify himself on this earth, to accomplish his own purposes and his own objects contrary to God's will. And God had to come down and scatter that. He had to divide it. He had to take that unity and break it.
And scatter it, lest man accomplish that purpose that he had before him.
And I'd like to take that subject up of unity, for God has purposed the unity in the Lord Jesus Christ. In the coming day, He's going to manifest him in this world. And every unity that God forms or creates, He puts himself at the center. And it must be that way. And so in that early creation, he put man there in his image and likeness as his representative. But God, really.
In that way, it was at the center of that creation.
And God is going to take up everything in a coming day, and he is going to be at the center in the person of the man Christ Jesus.
But God is holy.
God is light. We started our little hymn that way. God is light.
And God cannot have anything that is contrary to the light in union with Himself.
He cannot be associated in any way with evil. He is holy.
And he abhors that which is evil. He delights in that which is good, and evil comes in and it spoils the delight and good, it interrupts it. It's contrary to it, and he cannot have any association with it.
And so when he takes up Christ to place him as head over all things in heaven and earth.
In the coming day, and God is going to be the center of all things and everything will be unified around him in that center. He's first going to take some steps.
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We turn over to the Gospel of Matthew we can look at.
Some of what he is going to do.
Matthew, Chapter 24.
Verse 36 But of that day an hour knoweth no man.
Know not the angels of heaven, but my Father only.
But as the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming.
Of the Son of Man be. For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, till the day that Noah entered in the ark, and knew not until the flood came and took them all away, so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be. Then shall to be in the field. One shall be taken, the other left. Two women shall be grinding at the mill. One shall be taken and the other.
Left.
And so he's going to take and send his mighty angels, and he is going to remove from this world all things that offend. And these ones that are taken away, they're taken away like the flood took away those in Noah's day. They were taken away in judgment. This isn't taken away to be with Christ and glory. It's taken away in judgment. And he's going to clear his Kingdom of everything that is contrary to himself.
And judicial power in that day, because when God forms that unity of which Christ, he and Christ is the center, it's going to be holy.
Because God's principle of unity.
His separation from evil.
And that principle carries on today. And it's been a burden on my heart that perhaps.
We're letting that slip in our thoughts.
I'd like to look at.
The Gospel of John.
In the 17th chapter.
And we see there a unity.
Which God has formed?
And which we are brought into.
John, Chapter 17.
And let's read from uh.
Verse.
Nine, I pray for them. I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me. For they are thine and all thine. All mine are thine, and thine are mine, and I am glorified in them. And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world. And I come to thee, Holy Father, keep through Thine own name those whom thou hast given me.
That they may be one as we are.
They may be one as we are.
We looked at that verse in Genesis where perhaps we get the very first.
Expression of what the Lord is Speaking of here. They may be one as we are. Well, we as believers cannot be one as they are in the Godhead, in their divinity.
Three persons in the Godhead, and yet one God.
Blasphemous thought to even think that we could be one in such a way.
So what is this oneness?
What is this unity that the scripture is Speaking of here?
It's the same thought we get in Genesis. They were one in their counsel and in their purpose and in their aim in creating man and putting him at the center of that creation as representing God.
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And so the Lord is praying for a unity here, a oneness here, in that same way, in thought and in counsel and in purpose, that they may be one as we are one. The Father and the Son walk through the scene. There was never a divergent thought on the part of the sun from the Father. They were one in all their thoughts and in their counsel perfectly won and the Spirit of God.
With him. And now he's praying that the apostles really specifically would be one in the same way.
One in their thought and aim and purpose in the counsels of God.
And so he speaks.
Of them and praise for them in this way, that they may be one as we are. And this is really the unity of the apostles.
And then down a little further.
He says neither. Verse 20 Pray I for these alone, but for them also, which shall believe on me through their word, So the apostles would go out.
And that, oneness and this, and the purpose and fellowship and aim in carrying the gospel out.
And declaring what they had seen and heard, as the apostle says in the first Epistle of John.
And there would be those who would believe.
Those who would believe on Christ through their word.
And the Lord prays now for them, that they all may be one.
As thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in US.
And that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.
That they also may be one in US, the Father in the Son, the Son in the Father. Again, this is not a unity of in divinity.
But of interest in.
The father's interests were in the son. The son's interests were in the father.
There was a mutual enjoyment of fellowship between the father and the son.
In their interest in one another, so to speak. And now he's praying that they also may be one in US.
That we too might be brought into fellowship with them, and common interests and enjoyment of the father.
And the sun, that they may be one in US, that the world may believe. And so as the believers would go out, and there would be that common fellowship and enjoyment and interest in the Father and the Son, there would be a testimony rendered to this world that the world would believe in the display of that unity of which the Father and the Son were the center.
A unity that first we see the apostles brought into, and thought and aim and purpose, and now one in fellowship that the world may believe. And then he goes on to say.
First, well, let's just keep reading from verse 22 and the glory which thou gavest me. I have given them that they may be one, even as we are one.
I and them and thou and me, that they may be made perfect in one and that the world may know that thou hast sent me and has loved them as thou hast loved me. This is future. This is oneness and display and glory and coming glory with the Lord Jesus. And now it's not a exactly a question of may believe.
But it may know the world is going to see imperfection.
That unity that the Lord Jesus is praying that His own would be displayed in here in this world in his absence. It will be displayed in perfect, uh, glory and unity in the coming day when the Lord Jesus appears.
Now the Apostle John takes this up in the first epistle.
Let's turn over the first Epistle of John, chapter one.
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Verse one. That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the word of life. For the life was manifested, and we have seen it.
And bear witness, and show unto you that eternal life which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us, that which we have seen and heard. Declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us, and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. And these things right we unto you, that your joy may be full.
What they had seen and heard in Christ, now in the oneness of Apostolic unity they went out, and they declared to us.
What they had seen and heard. Why, that we might be brought into the unity of that fellowship of common interests in the Father and the Son, and the enjoyment of them, and to know.
Thus, Father, and to know Jesus Christ, whom he has sent his eternal life.
And to be brought into that circle of divine fellowship and common interest is our portion of those as those who have believed and receive Christ as Savior.
And there's a fullness of joy.
In that.
Interest and occupation with Christ and with God the Father.
Verse five. This then is the message which we have heard of him. And declare unto you that God is light.
And in him is no darkness at all.
The Father and the Son are the center of that unity that you and I have been brought into. But He can have no fellowship with darkness. In Him is no darkness at all.
If we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness, we lie.
And do not the truth.
But if we walk in the light as he is in the light, what measure is that as he is in the light? We can't put a measure to it.
We have fellowship one with another.
In the blood of Jesus Christ, his Son cleanseth cleanseth us from all sin.
The fellowship that we have been called to.
That we have been brought into whether with the Father and the Son, or whether with one another.
And common interest in the father and the son has to be separate from.
Sin separate from darkness. The principle upon which God forms that unity is in separation from evil. And it must be, for He is at the center of that unity.
And he can have no fellowship with evil.
And so God has purposed a unity for blessing, and that our joy may be full, but it is on the principle of separation.
From evil separation from this world and all its wickedness and all its ways that are contrary to God. And if we're going to walk in and enjoy that fellowship, it must be in a personal way in our lives.
And separation from all that would dishonor him. And collectively, in separation from all that would dishonor him, it must be so. It must be so, for God is light.
Now there is another unity that he has formed.
And it's connected with what we've read in John. And I'd like to turn to Ephesians chapter 4.
The unity that we read in John.
Is a unity of those who are one in life and nature with His Son, those who are possessors of eternal life. It's one in common interest in the Father and the Son. It's one in fellowship with one another.
00:30:04
In those interests, but it's not the unity of the body of Christ. It's a different thought in John, but now in Ephesians we come to chapter 4.
Verse One. I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation, wherewith ye are called, with all lowliness and meekness, and long-suffering, forbearing one another in love, endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit.
In the bond of peace there is one body and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling. 1 Lord, 1 Faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all.
And in you all.
There is one body, the Spirit of God's descent on the day of Pentecost.
United those believers into one body, and dwelling each one of them, and uniting them to a risen Christ and glory. And he formed that one body. And there was to be a display of oneness in this scene where Christ had been bodily cast out. But now there in the day of Pentecost, He who had been cast out of the scene bodily, so to speak, His bodies there again.
But now in his members.
And as the head in heaven, and giving directions to that body, Christ was to be displayed in this world in that unity that He had formed of all those members, uniting them together by 1 Spirit to Christ in heaven. And the apostle Paul comes to this point in Ephesians, and he tells us where to endeavor to keep the unity of the Spirit and the uniting bond of peace.
And dear ones, we may wonder why. And this is perhaps the burden coming to what was on my heart. Why?
Foretold to endeavor to keep the unity of the Spirit in the uniting bond of peace at such a small company.
That we find ourselves gathered with in unity.
Why it isn't that we should? Why we should not be embracing, so to speak, and welcoming in every member of the body of Christ to come in and break bread? You know the principal.
That we see in the loaf on the Lord's Table is that every member of the bodies represented there, and every member of the body has a place at that table.
Why isn't every member there?
Because there's another principle.
God's principle of unity is separation from evil, and if we're going to go on in that unity, it has to be.
And separation from all that would defile or would dishonor him.
It must be What if evil came in?
And the entire thing became corrupted. Then what?
Recur to the first principle.
Separation from evil is God's principle of unity, even if it's just one.
Going on there in the unity which the Spirit of God has formed.
And so for us to endeavor to keep the unity of the Spirit is to seek.
To realize that unity which he has formed of all the members of the Body of Christ, united to Christ in heaven. To seek to realize that in a practical way here below.
But it must be in separation from all that would dishonor him.
Our hearts could get wrapped up with that.
In such a way that it might not be profitable. We could get anxious, we could get, uh, restless about it.
Because those separation from evil is God's principle of unity. It's not the center of that unity.
Crisis.
It's not the power, the attractive power of that unity. It's himself, God and Christ in the midst that is the attractive power.
And so to lay hold of by faith that the Lord Jesus Christ is in the midst of two or three gathered to His name.
In an expression of that unity that the Spirit of God has formed, the members united to Christ in glory. To lay hold of that by faith is what keeps my soul.
00:35:03
It may be I need to be separate, and it is requisite that I'd be separate from evil to walk in that path and fellowship with him and with fellow believers.
And keeping that unity it must be. But that in itself won't keep my soul. It has to be laying hold of the fact that he's there by faith. It's not a warm fuzzy feeling or anything like that. That he's there in the midst of slaying hold of it by faith. That he said he is there. And that's what will keep your soul and my soul when troubles and difficulties come in and when we may have to act on that principle of separation from evil.
Rather than it wearying us and wearing us out and maybe bringing us to the point where we give up and say I'm just tired of fighting that battle, of being in a separate place.
The occupation with himself and seeing him in the midst will keep us.
Because, you know, God is light and he's holy, but God was holy before sin ever came in the scene.
Before there ever was sin, God was holy, and holiness is a delighting in that which is good.
And when what is not good, evil comes in, then it disrupts holiness. Delight in what's good, and it spoils it. And so holiness abhors what's evil because it ruins what's good.
And so the very first principle of holiness is really occupation with what's good, and that's really what it's going to take to keep you and I going on together and fellowship one with another at the Lord's table. Yes, it must be in separation from evil, necessary principle. It must be in that sense the first principle. But it's not what keeps us. It's the attractive power of Christ. Let's turn back to John 12.
John 12.
In verse 31, now is the judgment of this world. Now shall the Prince of this world be cast out.
And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.
I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me. It's Christ lifted up on Calvary's cross, Christ and death, giving himself for God's glory and for our eternal blessing. That is the attractive thing to our heart. To see that One who gave Himself in the midst is what will keep us through all difficulties that we might pass through in the assembly, and that alone.
That's what will keep our souls.
Is to see him there It's a.
It's been a challenge thing of late.
For those who would take up the truth that the Lord Jesus Christ is the gathering center and He is in one place.
But it is that very truth in laying hold of it by faith, that will keep us there.
He is the attractive center.
He's the one that God has placed in, in the midst. And as we break bread and as we partake of that loaf, we do show forth the Lord's death till He come, and we give expression to that unity that we are part of. But the very center of it is Christ lifted up. Lifted up above this earth, not in heaven yet, but above this earth without contact with this earth, the one who gave himself for us, and now made higher than the heavens.
The object of the believer's heart, that one in whom the father is interested in common interests with the father and his son.
I'd like to just turn to 1St Kings chapter 3. Read a few verses there.
First Kings chapter 3 and verse one and Solomon made affinity with Pharaoh king of Egypt.
And took Pharaoh's daughter and brought her into the city of David until he had made an end of building his own house.
And the House of the Lord.
And the wall of Jerusalem round about, only the people sacrificed in high places, because there was no house built under the name of the Lord until those days.
00:40:03
And Solomon loved the Lord, walking in the statutes of David his father, only he sacrificed and burnt incense in high places.
And the king went to Gibeon to sacrifice there, for that was the great high place.
1000 bird offerings did Solomon offer upon that altar?
In Gibeon the Lord appeared to Solomon in dream by night, and God said, Ask what I shall give thee?
And Solomon said, Thou hast showed unto thy servant David, my father, great mercy, according as he walked before thee in truth and in righteousness, and in uprightness of heart with thee, and thou hast kept him for this great kindness.
And thou hast given him a son to sit on his throne, as it is this day. And now, O Lord my God, thou hast made thy servant king instead of David my father. And I am but a little child. I know not how to go out.
Where to come in? And Thy servant is in the midst of thy people, which thou hast chosen, a great people that cannot be numbered or nor counted for multitude. Give therefore Thy servant an understanding heart to judge Thy people, that I may discern between good and bad.
For who is able to judge this thy so great a people? And the speech pleased the Lord, that Solomon had asked this thing. And God said unto him, Because thou hast asked this thing, and hast not asked for thyself long life, neither hast riches for thyself.
Nor has asked the life of thine enemies, but has asked for thyself understanding to discern judgment. Behold, I have done according to thy words. Lo, I have given thee a wise and an understanding heart, so that there was none like thee before thee.
Neither after thee shall any arise like unto thee.
And I have also given the that which thou hast not asked, both riches and honour, so that there shall not be any among the kings like unto thee all thy days. And if thou wilt walk in my ways, to keep my statutes, and to keep my and my commandments, as thy father David did walk, then I will lengthen thy days. And Solomon awoke, and behold, it was a dream. And he came to Jerusalem, and stood before the ark of the covenant of the Lord.
And offered up burnt offerings and offered peace offerings and made a feast to all his servants. And then just a little bit further on in the first Kings, I think it's Chapter 11.
Chapter 10 and verse 28.
And Solomon had horses brought out of Egypt.
And linen yarn. The King's merchants received the linen yarn at a price.
And a chariot came up and went out of Egypt for 600 shekels of silver, and a horse for 150. And so for all the kings of the Hittites, and for the kings of Syria did they bring them out of by their means.
But King Solomon loved many strange women, together with the daughter of Pharaoh women of the Moabites.
Ammonites, Edomites, Zidonian, and Hittites of the nations, concerning which the Lord had said unto the children of Israel, You shall not go in unto them, neither shall they come in unto you, for surely they will turn away your heart after their God. Solomon clave to these.
In love.
Well, we don't have time to look at other passages, but you know, this, uh, little portion of scripture that I have on my heart this Mor, this, uh, evening, this afternoon really brings before us Solomon in all of his glory. And how at the beginning of his reign, it says in the second chapter that the Kingdom was established in the hand of Solomon. And so it was established by judgment. And God is going to.
Establish.
The Kingdom, the Lord Jesus is going to have his Kingdom in this world and it will be established and the world will be cleansed by judgment. But here I just want to take this up in connection with Solomon as a man. He was David's son or umm, David's son. And here he was, uh, the great, great grandson, I believe, of Ruth.
A grandson and Ruth knew what it was to come out of the land of Moab. She knew what it was to leave idolatry. She knew what it was to leave her father and her mother, her kindred.
The nation that she had grown up in, and she knew what it was to leave what she had been comfortable with, and to go out unto the Lord into the Lord's land. And we find here that Solomon perhaps.
00:45:03
Forgot where he came from, forgot his heritage, forgot the price that was paid.
If we read a little bit earlier in the book of Joshua, we would find that.
Boaz.
Had a relation. His mother, grandmother I believe was Rahab.
Rehab, the harlot. And she'd been one of the Gentiles and had come out of that city that was judged by God, the city of the curse, Jericho. And she paid a price to come out of that city. She'd been spared of the judgment and had come among the people of God. And there was a godly man, I think his name was Salman, and he married that woman, Boaz, That Boaz's mother, I believe it was his mother.
Rahab and now we find here that Solomon very one of the very first things that it says in chapter 3 here is that Solomon made affinity with Pharaoh, king of Egypt. He made an agreement. He made a pact. The king of God's country made a pact with a foreign nation, the king of Egypt, Pharaoh and that's what you know, sometimes we wonder at the beginning of our lives how the life will turn out. How are are as young people, perhaps we make these decisions in life and.
We form friendships and we enter into arrangements that are not easily broken. And the very first thing that Solomon's recorded in Solomon's reign here is that he made an agreement with king of Pharaoh of Egypt, something that had attracted his heart in umm, Egypt. Now, I know prophetically that, uh, Egypt shall be one of those countries that is blessed along with Israel. That's not really the prophetic part that we want to take a look at here.
This evening. But Farrell had a little part of that Kingdom, as it were. He had a little entrance. And the world is so, uh, deceitful. Your heart and mind, just a little corner of the world just to make a little agreement and to have something that the world has attachment to in our lives. And that's really what took Solomon down because it says he took Pharaoh's daughter and brought her into the city of David.
And so you know.
This unity that our brother has been bringing before us, the Lord, in His desire for our blessing, has purchased us with His own precious blood, and He's desired to have us for himself entirely without any strings attached.
With any, without any defilement, without anything to do with Egypt. And as we talk about separation from evil, it's something in us that, umm, it sounds like something that is very exclusive, but it is exclusive. We are separated by the blood of Christ and by the cross of Christ from this world.
And no agreement can be made with this world, No agreement, no compromise, because we are heavenly citizens and we belong to Christ.
And we need to be careful as to what we espouse in our lives. And so Pharaoh here has a daughter. She comes to live in the city of David. And it says that Solomon did many things. He built his own house.
And he built the House of the Lord, and he built the wall of Jerusalem round about. That speaks of separation. The wall and Scripture always speaks of separation.
Only the people sacrificed in high places because there was no house built under the name of the Lord until those days.
And Solomon loved the Lord. Isn't that nice? God gives a commendation where he can give a commendation.
And he speaks of how Solomon built his house. He built the House of the Lord, He built the wall of Jerusalem. And he speaks of how Solomon loved the Lord. And it's a wonderful beginning at the beginning of the Kingdom of Solomon of glory. And the Lord spoke of the glory of that Solomon's Kingdom. And yet here.
We find that there was a little root, just a little thing.
Solomon might have thought it was just a little thing.
But he married Pharaoh's daughter.
And it was the ruin of his Kingdom.
You know, the Lord here brings before us that in verse five that he had communication with Solomon and the Lord appeared to Solomon. I believe it's three times and this is the first time that he appears to Solomon in Gibeon. And if you we looked at some other scriptures, we would find that in Gibeon it says in verse four that that was the great high place and that's where they had pitched the Tabernacle. The ark wasn't there, but the Tabernacle was there.
00:50:24
In Gibeon.
And that's where the children of Israel.
Says they felt that that was the great high place. They had a lot of high places.
They had a lot of places where they could worship.
But the ark wasn't there. The presence of the Lord wasn't there. Remember, David had brought the ark to Jerusalem. We don't have time to look at it, but in First Chronicles chapter 21, there's a little picture there of how David had purchased that threshing floor from Oren and the Jebusite. He paid a price for it, and God had desired that his people would come into his presence to.
Offer the sacrifices that they would offer him.
And umm, there was a distraction here and it looked like the real place. It looked like there would be something that God would accept here. And it says that Solomon burnt 1000 burnt offerings upon that altar. And God saw that Solomon's heart was right in that way. God wanted. Solomon loved the Lord and made these offerings. And God delights to bless where he can bless and to honor and to.
Just respond.
To us, where we're at.
We're all in a different place as far as our spiritual growth and God looks to bless us each one. And so here it says that Solomon, he asked Solomon in this dream by night verse five, ask what I shall give thee.
And Solomon took a low place, and he spoke.
Today to Solomon he gave him instruction, and Solomon asked in verse 9, Give thy servant. Give therefore thy servant an understanding heart to judge thy people, that I may discern between good and bad.
For who is able to judge this so great that I so great a people in the speech pleased the Lord Solomon had asked this thing. And so it's possible for us to have some little attachment to Egypt.
And still ask the right thing. Still have a little discernment and ask the right thing.
But you know Solomon.
During his lifetime.
History doesn't tell us or the scriptures don't tell us exactly how old he was when he began to reign, but approximately 18 years old and he reigned for 40 years and God said here in umm.
Verse 14 that if he would walk according to the ways of God, keep my statutes and my commandments as thy father David did walk, then I will lengthen my days. Well if we did the math, he died really a relatively young man. He was 58 years old.
But why? Was it because he didn't keep those statutes, the commandments, as David thy father did? Walk. Then I will lengthen the days, thy days.
Solomon awoke.
Then he came to Jerusalem, stood before the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and offered up burnt offerings, and offered peace offerings, and made a feast to all his servants. So you know, after Solomon had offered these offerings, had this dream.
He came back to where the ark of the Lord was in that place in Jerusalem, and in the presence of the Lord he offered burnt offerings.
And he offered sacrifices of peace offerings and that speaks to us of communion.
With the Lord, he had common thoughts with God.
He made a feast to all his servants.
Well, you know that little attachment to Egypt, the little attachment, little defilement.
Something had come in to divide his heart with the Lord, and in disobedience, direct disobedience to the word of God, he married one that he should never have married.
He disobeyed God, and perhaps he thought as sometimes you and I think.
If we sin against God, God is going to make an exception just for me.
God does not make exceptions to His Word.
And Solomon had married someone that he should never have married. And so he conducted himself in Chapter 11 or chapter 10 and verse 28. He conducted himself as the course went on in his Kingdom. He conducted himself as the other kings of the earth conducted themselves. And he had horses brought out of Egypt.
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And he bought linen yarn at a price. He did exactly what they did as far as buying Chariots for 600 shekels of silver and a horse.
For 150.
So the kings of the Hittites, the kings of Syria.
King Solomon loved many strange women together with the daughter of Pharaoh.
Well, I just bring these portions of Scripture before us, you know, because it's possible for us to have a divided heart.
Something.
That would be left unjudged.
Something that would rob us of communion with Christ. Communion can be broken so easily.
But how much more serious in our youth as we lay the foundations in youth and in any way make an alliance with Egypt?
It was a ruin of Solomon.
There could have been some fruit.
In the Kingdom. But what we find is that because of that little link with Egypt.
The Kingdom was divided.
And that's what divides the Saints, that's what divides in the home, that's what divides in this world. Sin. Just a little sin, just a little bit of Egypt. May God give us the grace to recognize any part of Egypt that we've assimilated unto ourselves, to judge it for what it is, a sin in the sight of God.
And that we might not bring it into the assembly, that we might not tolerate it in our homes.
That we might recognize it is a part of Egypt.
Some things cannot be broken easily, and perhaps this relationship that Solomon had with Pharaoh's daughter was one that he wasn't able to easily break even if he had wanted to. We know that the Lord spoke to him.
And I'm just referring to one other verse here in chapter First Kings chapter 12.
Let's read in first uh First Kings Chapter 11 First First Kings Chapter 11 verse 6. Solomon did evil in the sight of the Lord and went not fully after the Lord, as did David his father. Then did Solomon built in high place for Ki Mosh.
The abomination of Moab in the hill that is before Jerusalem.
And for Moloch, the abomination of the children of Ammon.
What a wicked thing this was for Solomon to build a high place for this idle who is great great grandmother had left and forsaken in the land of.
Moab and he come to live among the people of God.
You value the heritage that God has given you to be gathered to the Lord's name.
You know, every one of us comes and we'll find ourselves in the assembly here in Palmyra.
And we've come in a different way, each one of us. Some of us are gathered to the Lord's name. Some of us haven't taken our place at the Lord's table. Perhaps in this company it's a mixed company. Some may not be saved.
But I was brought up in a division among the Lord's people called the McDonald Division.
And everyone here has a different story, but by grace, we can tell a story, every one of us, in a different way.
My daddy was saved as out of Roman Catholicism.
And, umm.
Saved by grace.
And then he came among the McDowell brethren, and that.
Approximately.
When I was 13 years old.
There was a work of the Spirit of God.
And that's at McDowell division. The Spirit of God sought to gather out those that were gathered into that division. Mr. McDowell done a wicked thing, set up a table that looked just like the Lord's table, set up a fellowship of Christians that was an imitation of the truth.
01:00:08
And by grace, God was working behind the scenes, and after Mr. McDowell was gone, He was the glue that kept that thing together.
And when he was gone?
Then the Spirit of God gathered out those that were in that system.
That imitation that they might be brought back.
I remember the day that I first came into the assembly meeting.
The first time in Ottawa that we walked up the steps to that place.
Where the Saints gathered on the fine ground and opened up the big doors to that place and saw a couple 100 people sitting there.
And terror in my heart because I'd only been used to a handful of people in a small farm house. I came into that place and I saw some of the older men weeping with tears in their eyes as they saw a young family come in and walk into that room. They knew why we're where we were coming from. We're coming out of division.
We are coming, and my father and mother were soon gathered to the precious name of the Lord Jesus.
But they came back. The place was moved.
And I value what it is to be gathered to the precious name of the Lord Jesus. But I say, dear brethren, here there are many imitations, many high places. We might say that there are many, even great high places, but God is desiring to gather His people.
Into the presence of his Son, to magnify his Son, that we might be found in the presence of the Lord Jesus.
Might be a good thing to ask your parents, young people, if you've never asked your parents where you came from, what's the route?
Where do we come from?
How come we're here? How come we're found in this little company of those that are gathered to the Lord's name and seek to go on in separation from that which is evil ecclesiastically?
Be a good thing to ask and to know what your Christian heritage is and to thank God for it, to value it.
Mr. John Brayton is a young man. I remember him quoting this verse of Scripture in Galatians oftentimes. I thought it was his favorite verse, he said.
If I build again the things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor.
Solomon made himself a transgressor. He built again those things that his great grandmother had torn down and broken up.
Never build those things again.
It's a wonderful thing to come out of all that which is confusion and Christianity and to be gathered to the precious name of the Lord Jesus and to thank Him not only for your salvation, but thank Him for what it is to be gathered to His precious name. May God give us the grace to judge those things that would come in and divide our hearts, divide our homes, or divide the assembly. Let's not allow any portion of Egypt within our homes or within our hearts.
Open Mtg. 6
Open—B. Conrad, D. Mossman
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Ephesians chapter 3.
Before we start in there.
My exercise this afternoon.
Is to speak a little bit about the ministry.
And I guess I'd call it the minister, the ministry given to the Apostle Paul.
And then the ministry given to the apostle John.
And I'll come back to this maybe, Lord willing, a little later, but.
Some years ago I was reading One Snowy Day in uh.
A collection of letters.
In a elderly brother who had served the Lord very remarkably during his life was in his last days, and someone wrote to him and said.
What are you thinking about? Uh, do you have anything else you'd like to say to us all?
00:05:07
And he said a few things. And one of the things that he said or wrote was.
Oh yes.
Said I should not like to see the brethren forget John's ministry in their zeal for Paul.
Now I hope that makes more sense after we go through a few scriptures together.
I'm sure it makes sense to some here again, he said. I I should not like to see the brethren lose sight of John's ministry in their zeal for Paul, he said. The one gives meaning, Paul.
The dispensation in which the display is the other, meaning John, that which is displayed.
Now another umm, introductory comment I'd like to make. Is this that our member sitting in a prayer meeting like we had here yesterday?
And as we are accustomed to doing, there was some discussion about praying for this one and that.
And one brother said, well, I ran into this Christian at the airport or the train station, and he said, I presented the truth to him. And, uh, you know, I don't know how well he received it, but you might pray for this brother. And I'm sitting there in my chair saying, how do you present the truth to somebody like that in this? I don't know whether he had 10 minutes or 15 or a half. And I mean, I just sat in my seat thinking.
What are you talking about? How, How, How?
How do you do that? How do I think, you know, there's an hour and 10 minutes left in this meeting. I hope to not take it all, but could any of us? And we're gonna present the truth.
Now I think what the brother meant was that he told this other believer.
To some extent about being gathered to the Lord's name.
And about the position that most of us in this room have been privileged to occupy or to take up. But that's not the the truth.
And I and I have feared lately that we sometimes communicate to others or think in our own minds that it is.
Uh, if just as, uh, a caution.
I really value being gathered to the Lord's name.
And since the Lord saved me when I was in my early 20s.
The Lord just kind of picked me up.
And placed me, you know, in a, in a wonderful place where I don't know how many seven or eight or nine or ten of us.
Where they were meeting in simplicity just and I and I went in, was brought to this place in a farmhouse and I sat there and I said I had read the scriptures now for maybe for a few weeks. And I said of course.
This, this is just so obvious, the way it should be. And I have felt that way ever since and I am indebted to my brethren and I'm so thankful I.
I have never by the grace of God had doubts that that isn't the plain brethren in the 1St century after the Lord came till now.
But it's not everything. And I and I'm a little concerned that we're all of us getting a little bit spiritually lazy or simplistic and.
As if. As if to think that just being in the right place is so so much of A of a of a thing that nothing else matters.
I I remember once when I was working in.
In New York City area.
East, maybe it was Boston on the East Coast and we had some construction difficulty and I had to fly to San Francisco because our attorney and engineer.
You know, we had to meet and prepare for this problem. And one of the attorneys that was in our group also flew with us. And it's a long way to fly out there and get into your hotel and then finally show up to get some work done. And this attorney showed up the next morning and.
He's immediately trying to figure out his flight back and I made a comment to him like, you know, we just got here. We got like a couple days of work to go here. And he said something like, well.
00:10:04
You know, half a life is just showing up.
And I thought, man.
I may, he may have used a different percentage. Maybe it's not half, maybe it was 80%. But it really irked me. I thought, you know, if, if, if I was his boss, I would, I'd find him another place to work because that's just, that's just the wrong attitude. You know, the company had spent so much money to fly him out there and put him up for a couple of days to get we had some serious problems we had to take. Well, I hope we don't have that same attitude spiritually that it's just.
That is just good enough to show up. There's more than that, we all know that.
It is a wonderful thing to be with the Lord wants you to be.
You know, it says in John 12, right after the Lord raised Lazarus from the dead, it says there they made him a supper and Martha serve, but Lazarus was one of them that sat at the table with him. And there's many times that I've come into the meeting on Lord's Day and sat there as the meeting is about to begin. And I just feel like I'm in such a wonderful place just to be here is a great, great thing that the Lord would die for me and afford me this privilege like.
Like Lazarus, just to be there is a testimony to the power and love of God to send His Son to die for us. So it is a wonderful thing to be in the place where the Lord wants you to be.
In every facet of life, and so much so at the table of the Lord, at the Lord's table. But that's part of our Christian life, not the whole Christian life.
And, and that's my point, I hope I'm not.
I hope I'm being clear enough and so I I would like and, and I don't pretend to be able to be confident to do this very well, but I'd like to touch on a few things that are.
Unique and special to us as believers that were communicated to the church through the apostle Paul and spend a few minutes on that and then spend a few minutes on what is unique as far as I can comprehend it to what the Lord gave to the apostle John. And then we'll maybe think again about that statement that older brother made. The one Paul's doctrine is the dispensation or the structure, if you will.
And John's ministry is that which that structure has been put in place to display. And so without further comment, Ephesians 3, we'll start. And I just want to read 4 passages primarily to kind of, uh, outline a little bit of Paul's doctrine. Now, he was one who could say my gospel because he was given a unique responsibility.
A a unique charge, and if we pick it up in Ephesians three, I think we start to see that, uh, first one of Ephesians 3 for this 'cause I, Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ, for you Gentiles, if ye have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God, which has given me to you Word, not us, but me.
How that by revelation he may know unto me the mystery?
As I wrote a foreign few words.
Whereby when you read, you may understand my knowledge and the mystery of Christ.
Which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit. And here's what it is, that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs, and of the same body.
And partakers of his promise in Christ, by the gospel whereof I was made a minister.
And then verse nine. And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hidden. God, who created all things by Jesus Christ, 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, Paul by the Holy Spirit was not.
Forgetting to sound humble when he uses the first person singular and says me because if you recall in the book of Acts, I think it's Chapter 9, when Ananias was sent to minister to this one who had just been struck down on the road. Ananias was rightfully fearful to enter the presence of one who has been hauling Christians off, most likely to their death.
00:15:04
And the Lord said to Ananias, Go thy way, He is a chosen vessel unto me.
And so Saul of Tarsus was a chosen vessel. He was chosen to uniquely be one.
Who would receive a revelation from God from the ascended Lord Jesus Christ?
To receive that and to turn around and to deliver it to the rest of us.
And he was the unique vessel to do that. And so God ordered his whole life, the history, his personal history. And that's why I think it's in early chapter of Colossians. He could say that in, if I could find that really quickly, I think it's in Colossians.
Chapter.
Yeah, I don't find it there. He speaks of himself as a pattern.
Maybe somebody can help me?
Sorry, first Timothy chapter one. I'll just read the verse.
He speaks of himself there as the chief of sinners.
Verse 16 Howbeit for this 'cause I obtain mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might show forth all long-suffering for a pattern to them, which should hereafter believe on Him to life everlasting.
He was a pattern of God's long-suffering in his own personal career, and he was a chosen vessel to communicate a body of truth which he calls the Mystery or my Gospel, which had never been revealed before.
And when he revealed that truth to the rest of the Saints through the Holy Spirit, it completed the Scriptures, the revelation of God to man.
And that's why it says in uh.
Colossians, Chapter One.
Find that verse.
Later on in Colossians chapter one.
In verse 25 whereof I am made a minister, he is referring again to.
The truth of the church, whereof I am made a minister according to the dispensation of God, which is given to me for you.
To fulfill or complete the Word of God.
You say, well isn't the Book of Revelation come later in the Bible? Yes, it does. But the Book of Revelation largely unfolds in detail, a character of things that was also revealed by the Old Testament prophets.
The Old Testament prophet said God is going to send one, an anointed 1A, one who was his own fellow, who was going to do a mighty work, who was going to represent him and display him here on the earth.
Who was going to die and to suffer for his people? And who was going to come again in glory?
And set up a glorious, wonderful Kingdom on this earth.
All of that I believe we could learn if we were had our eyes open in the Old Testament prophets. That's not new. I remember as a young brother about the age of these guys here. I used to be the guy that the older brothers would single out and ask hard questions to, to put on the spot. And Ralph Reeb, senior, he would look across the room at me over his glasses and he'd say, Brother Bruce. He'd say, what would we know of the Lord's coming?
For us, if we did not have the ministry of the apostle Paul and being saved under nine months or 12 months or 15 months, I didn't have ready answers for him. But it made an impression upon me that the ministry given to us by the apostle Paul is very unique. And I started to think about that, and I thought about it for a number of years. I still think about it occasionally. And you wouldn't have.
Most of what is proper to the church if you didn't have the ministry of the apostle Paul because it was a special ministry given to him at a special time. And before we move into the next verse in a in a on Paul, just to reiterate what we read in Ephesians 3. What is that mystery verse 6 Gentiles, people of the nations should be joint heirs, joint body.
Partakers of this promise in Christ by the Gospel.
00:20:01
And again, this was a truth that was not known. It was hidden.
Before we go to the next one, I just want to amplify this thought. Go to the last chapter of Romans, Romans 16.
And Paul is ending the epistle and giving kind of a salutation in verse 25. Now to him that is of power to establish you.
Romans 1625 according to my gospel.
And the preaching of Jesus Christ according to the revelation of the mystery which we just read about.
Which was kept secret since the world began, but now is made manifest, and by the prophets of by the scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the everlasting God, made known to all nations for the obedience of faith.
When you read the word now in the book of Romans, you need to pay attention because it's usually something that should be emphasized. But now it's in contrast to then and so again this verse also.
Illustrates to us that this which Paul called my gospel, this mystery, was something which was not made known before and now was being made known by him. And so the first aspect of it I'm going to read for basic passages. The first aspect we had in Ephesians 3.
It's just the existence of the Church as being one body, as being joint heirs with Christ, as being joined to Him, and as being associated with these, with the promises.
It says there partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel.
You can't find that in the Old Testament. You can't find it in the words of Isaiah or Jeremiah or in the first five books.
I know when Steven and I were much younger and we heard brothers speak about this, it confused us for a while because we said, well, what about, you know, Genesis 24 and what about Genesis two and three and what about this picture and that type? And, and a brother read from Genesis 22 This morning. It was very helpful when a brother said a picture is a picture of nothing unless you know.
The revelation of the thing itself.
And so if there is no, if you didn't know the truth of the church that we're members of his body and also his bride, you're going to read Genesis 1-2 and three over and over again and nothing would click because you didn't know the thing itself. Once you know the thing itself, you go back and you see all the pictures over different picture and different books over and over again, and you can't escape because it's there in picture, because it is indeed.
And eternal purpose. It's an eternal purpose, but it was revealed at a certain special time which we don't have time to go into. So now we have the existence of the church in Ephesians three was a mystery given to Paul by revelation. Now let's go to 1St Corinthians Chapter 11.
Here's another thing that Paul received as an individual. 1St Corinthians 11.
Verse 23 For I received of the Lord, not we, I.
That which also I delivered unto you, that the Lord Jesus, the same night in which he was betrayed, took bread.
When he had given thanks, he'd break it and said take, eat. This is my body which is broken for you. This do in remembrance of me, and so on. In the previous chapter he spoke. He wrote about the cup of blessing, He wrote about the bread which we break.
The Lord's Table, The Lord's Supper.
Now, you could, you could easily raise the question and say, Paul, where do you get off on saying that this is a revelation to you? Peter and John could say that you weren't even there. We were there. We were there the night he instituted the feast. And you say it's a revelation that you've been given.
Well, in the character that the Lord's Supper took on.
It was revealed to Paul.
And you know when the Lord instituted that, it had a certain character with those, uh, believing disciples.
But.
The truth of being one with Christ in glory, the truth of being united together by one given Holy Spirit not known at that time, the character of the Lord's Supper as the expression of this thing that no one knew was going to exist is what Paul was given in first that he describes in First Corinthians 11.
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And so there is that aspect which the Lord himself instituted, but the other aspect which we enjoy as being, looking at that loaf, as a brother would say, if you call somebody a long distance on a Lord's Day morning to say hello like I used to with Brother Roy, she said, well, I'll see in the loaf, you know, because that's what we see. We see all the believers represented there because we're all partakers of that one loaf, that character of things.
In first Corinthians 11 was also something communicated by the apostle Paul. So we had in Ephesians 3 the existence of this church, this body of Christ, and now that which is the characteristic expression of it, the Lord's Supper, because it's on the Lord's table and that which all the practical side flows from that which is not my exercise to take up. Maybe someone else some other time. So thirdly, now let's go to umm.
1St Corinthians 15.
And here's another.
Here is another aspect of the revelation.
We have now the existence of this this entity which.
Was not known before. We have the characteristic expression of it. Fellowship of it in First Corinthians 11.
And now what's next? What's what's her destiny? 1St Corinthians 15.
Verse 50 Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God, neither doth corruption inheriting corruption behold.
I show you a mystery.
Each one of these is is introduced with that kind of language. I'm going to show you something.
That was not known.
Behold, I show you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed.
In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump with the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.
So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass a saying that is written, death is swallowed up in victory.
The raising up of those that are asleep in Jesus.
Connecting it with the introduction of the time of blessing on the earth.
Which is where that passage is quoted from in the prophet Isaiah.
The fact that that not all will sleep, but all will be changed. This was a revelation given to the Apostle Paul. Men and women of faith could could look, as the hymn writer puts it, look beyond the long dark night and hail the coming day.
And Job had a sense in his soul that he would stand before God. And men and women in ancient times had a sense of the mystery that out of death would come life, the principle of resurrection life being on the other side of death. But life and immortality were really brought to light through the Gospel, that which was the object of faith, which was enjoyed in some measure and aspired to.
Now we took on a bright, clear relief.
And that was part of the truth communicated through the apostle Paul that there would be a selective resurrection. The Lord said in, I think it's in John chapter five, he, he speaks there, umm, umm.
They that have done find that.
Umm, John 5 and 28.
The hour is coming into which all that are in the grave shall hear His voice, and shall come forth. They that have done good unto the resurrection of life, they that have done evil unto the resurrection of judgment or damnation, and so on.
So there's different kinds of resurrection, the resurrection of the just and the unjust as as it's described when Paul is before Festus, I think. But this selective resurrection and out resurrection from among the rest of the dead as the destiny of those who have fallen asleep in Jesus is an additional part of the gospel given to the apostle Paul.
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And out resurrection, if you will, Christ the first fruits has already been raised out from among the rest of the dead and.
Gone into the presence of God and found full acceptance as a man. That's the first installment. The 2nd installment could happen today. If the Father gives his son the word, he'll arise and and give that shout.
And the dead in Christ shall be raised, and we which are alive and remain shall be changed. Which is the 4th one? Let's go to that real quick. First Thessalonians 4.
Again, same language.
Verse 13 of First Thessalonians 4 I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, Even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. For this we say unto you, by the word of the Lord, it's a revelation.
That we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord, shall not prevent or go before them which are asleep. For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the Archangel, with the trump of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise first.
Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord, the destiny.
Of every individual that has been blessed to become part of the Church of God revealed here in clear bold light of of day, so to speak, for the first time.
In John 5 there's a resurrection, but are those two? Do they happen on the same day?
Are all the dead raised and some gold to blessing and some go to judgment? Is it a day apart, a week apart, or 1000 years apart, which I believe is the case from other scriptures. That's not revealed there, but they are raised. And here in chapter four, First Thessalonians, the destiny is to be caught up, whether sleeping or living, to be changed and to be with the Lord forever. And so we have her existence.
Her characteristic fellowship here on the earth while we wait.
For the Lord's coming we have the hope of the resurrection, which we don't talk about enough probably, and we have the destiny to be forever with the Lord, whether sleeping or or or waking. This is in a.
Imperfect outline.
Much of what Paul's doctrine is centered around. Is there a practical application? Yes. We didn't read that, but when it comes to the table of the Lord, let a man judge himself, and so let him eat.
There are aspects of suitability and unsuitability. There are aspects of behavior that is proper to us. And, uh, as being part of this fellowship, there are all kinds of practical things that flow from this. But what we've just reviewed in the Scriptures is really the characteristic and unique aspect of the church in this present age, this strange, strange time we live in between the sufferings of Christ.
And the glory that should follow. You can probably drive along through Arizona and look way out in the distance and not see the Grand Canyon.
But as you get closer and closer and you get to the very edge, you can look down and say, wow, I looked past this, but I never knew this was here. And so has been the revelation of God and by God and the Scriptures.
That there is a long, long view to Christ's coming glory on earth, but no revelation of what would happen before that time.
That it would please God during the interlude when his people rejected him. Come, uh, meek and lowly on Anassis Colt.
And the second time, when he would come in glory a White Horse, and so on, that in that strange interlude, it would please God, during the time of his Son's rejection, to gather out of Jew and Gentile a people for his name.
The church.
So I.
No, those are just a few scriptures, but it took a while. But it's just, we're just scratching the surface. So when we say we bring the truth before somebody, it's there's, we're all like children, but.
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My exercise would be to kind of open our minds up a little broader.
To what we're part of the glory and the joy of it and the responsibility of it.
And what a privilege it is to in some way be consistent to it.
And taking our place, Lord, say, by Lord's Day at the Lord's table.
You know, and, and, and now I want to move for a few minutes to speak a little bit about what the Scriptures revealed to the Apostle John.
But.
Before I do so, let's let's turn to a passage in Deuteronomy, if I can find it. I think it's around chapter 12.
Deuteronomy chapter 12.
In verse 9.
Deuteronomy 12 and verse 9. For ye are not as yet come to the rest, and to the inheritance which the Lord your God giveth you.
But when ye go over Jordan.
And dwell in the land which the Lord your God giveth you to inherit. And when he giveth you rest from all your enemies round about, so that you dwell in safety, then there shall be a place which the Lord your God shall choose to cause his name to dwell there.
And so if we're going to speak about the place, the beautiful truth that the Lord has always desired to have His people around Himself in a place of His appointment.
If we're gonna do that while somebody is scrambling for food and nervous about making it over Jordan, who does not have.
Rest from their enemies roundabout. They're not dwelling in safety. They're not over into the good of the land.
It's debatable whether that person is receptive or prepared by their circumstances to receive and act upon that. Matter of fact, they can act upon it. Can they really?
And so I sometimes think, just before we leave the subject of Paul's doctrine, that it's a little bit, umm, uh.
Too fast for us when we meet a believer just at school or at work or somewhere to start right in with Matthew 18 and 20.
And particulars about finding one's way in the midst of all of the cacophony of Christendom today. They say, oh, this is the path.
An interesting thing that I reflect on once in a while is that when Brian and Jonathan and I met at lunch in college here in in May, in Orno, right up the road.
And then we started to, uh, have meetings on a Friday night. We just took a public room and got permission to use a public room in the student union. I started to have meetings there.
And I was part of the work. Uh, I had my part and Jonathan and Brian had their part. And, but the thing was that my exercise was that it wasn't going to be. I, I, I did it with the fellowship. We did it with the fellowship of our local brethren 40 miles away.
They knew that we were having these meetings.
Umm, they weren't wild about it, but they knew about it. And, you know, it wasn't, you know, OK, but, umm, the exercise wasn't to be a kind of a recruiting agency for, for those of us that were gathered to the Lord's name in, uh, in Detroit or Palmyra, ME.
The exercise was, we just felt like these, those leprous men at the gate of, of uh, Samaria. It's like, you know, uh, we have been so blessed. We're so rich and everybody around us is so poor and, uh.
We just got it, you know, share this, you know, that's what the, the, the leprous men, they went out into the host of the series, right? And, and, uh, this is a day of, uh, of, of good tidings. We're glad tidings and we hold our peace. So that was the exercise and we just went out and we just took up.
The the truths of the gospel, the stories that these children have heard since they were little and a lot of the young people, the Christian young people or or some of them were unsaved that came.
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I had never heard. And so it, that's what we did for a year or two or when Jonathan graduated, it kind of stopped. But umm, but we did that and we never spoke ever.
About we never took up. I just, never the Lord, I used to just go to, uh, to the men's room and say, Lord, there's 30 people in there. I have no idea what we're gonna do or say. So I would pray earnestly help, uh, provide something for these people. And I trust the Lord was the one who, uh, guided us what to take up. But I don't feel he ever, I can remember ever guided us to take the subject up of the ground gathering. But we took up all these wonderful Christian truths.
And I feel looking back on it now, you know, we were all young, but these young people weren't over Jordan. They really didn't enter into the fullness of Christian maturity to know that they they didn't have full assurance of faith as Paul speaks about it. They didn't have real peace to know that they possessed the forgiveness of sins as a present possession. They didn't know they had eternal life. They didn't know the difference between their standing and their state.
There, there's just a whole.
Fearful of things that seemed like needed to be that we could take up. When you go over Jordan, dwell in the land.
When he gives you rest. So we took up that which would give them rest. We took up, we trust, that which would help them realize their position, their standing as those that were seated in the heavenlies in Christ, which is what crossing the Jordan really speaks of, of, of believers practical understanding that they are one of the risen ones with Christ.
You know, but as as time went on and after those meetings sometimes and when the meeting would get done and we'd be chatting, I can remember different ones.
Saying, by the way, where do you guys go to church? And so we say, well, you know this, I can, I don't know how the others answered, but the way I answered it was I live like way out there and I go to a meeting there that I feel the Lord would have me to go to. And I feel the Lord led me there and I can go there with a good conscience in accordance with the Scriptures. And you're welcome to come and see. And, and some of them took us up on it and they came and saw and.
Most all of them are still in and out amongst us today, but I think the point of it is, is that there's a moral, uh.
Growth or preparedness for some of these practical things that, yes, we would all like to see. And eventually, uh, these different young ladies, young sisters, young men taking their place. It has settled their life down. It established them as believers. And then rather than just listening to these young brothers, they got to the assembly where the Lord was in the midst and they heard whomever the Lord raised up the older brothers from our own assembly, our older brothers from.
Lauren Villa or Montreal or New Jersey or wherever, and their normal Christian life, uh, unfolded as, as we kind of read a little bit in Ephesians 3. So I, I hope you, uh, understand my point there. I, I just suggest that, that sometimes we're kind of jumping to the answer and a little impatient about seeing a soul develop until being where the Lord is is really something that means something to them.
And that they wanna participate in.
Well, let's turn just briefly to John chapter one.
John, Chapter one.
Verse 18.
No man hath seen God at any time.
The only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him.
And then back in the beginning of the chapter.
First verse in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God.
And the Word was God, verse 14.
And the Word was made, or became flesh, and dwelt among us.
We beheld His glory, the glories of an only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.
And so to repeat that expression, Paul, the dispensation in which the display is John, that which is displayed and what is displayed.
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Here we have in John's ministry, he starts right out without introducing anything or anybody or even himself. Goes all the way back to the.
Beginning of beginnings, if you could put it that way. In the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, and the Word was God, and then He.
Unfolds the essence of the history of God's manifesting himself to man in the person of His Son.
And as you flip through the chapters in John, you have these passages that are so well known in so many languages that are just these all inspiring passages that communicate that everything that God is.
In light and in love and in wisdom, he has been pleased to communicate in the person of his son. Nothing left out.
No, no mortal being could communicate all that they are.
In a million words.
Or in a painting or a poem or picture or a building or anything that they could express themselves through. But God can, and He has.
And so you flip a few pages more and the disciple says, show us the Father.
And Philip, have I been so long with you? He that hath seen me hath seen the Father.
I mean, you can feel the hair stand up on your head when you read verses like that.
They're looking at.
God manifest in flesh the Son of the Father Himself.
And yet the reality of it is, as John presented in his gospel, he says in him was life.
In the first couple verses we didn't read verse four. In him was life, and the life was the light of men.
But the kind of sad part of it is there is that it was in him exclusively.
In him was life all others dead in trespasses and sins.
The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness comprehends it not.
And so in John's ministry you have that which is displayed.
In his gospel, it's primarily it's displayed in the person of the Son of God.
His wisdom.
His power, his love, his compassion.
Every virtue.
Brother at the Lord's table once. I will always remember this. He stood up there in our little meeting.
And I forget his exact words, but he basically was saying to the Lord, I'm like a priest and I when I consider you and all that you are, it's like, umm, my hands are in this fine, fine flower.
Just per per perfectness.
A man, Christ Jesus, displaying all that God is in perfection, nothing left out. We tend to be specialists. I can look at the faces of some brothers and sisters I know in here and I can tell you.
They are so much like Christ. I don't. I've never met anybody that shows that virtue like that brother that sister does. But you know, we know each other. We got some warts and freckles too, and we got some weaknesses. But in Christ no blemish everything there in fullest measure. When the occasion called for for, for reproof and for being firm, He did it and didn't go overboard. He did it perfectly when it called for gentleness, when it called for graciousness.
He was that always the perfect virtue at the perfect time and in the perfect measure because of who he is and was always. But in him was life.
And then we read as we get through.
The wonders of the Cross.
And he's risen in John 20.
And he communicates, breathes on them, communicates life. Well, what is that all about? And then for the sake of time, let's go to John's epistle, his first epistle.
And the rest of the story starts to become more unfolded.
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Let's go to First John chapter 2.
And verse 8.
Well, let's read verse 7 as well. Brethren, I write no new commandment unto you, John writes, but an old commandment which we had, which he had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word which ye have heard from the beginning.
Again, a new commandment I write unto you, which thing is true in him and in you?
Because the darkness is past, are passing, and the true light already shines.
We're in a new, new situation here. No longer in him was life.
All others in darkness it says which thing is true in him and in you, except the corner. We fall into the ground and die. It abideth alone, but if it die, it beareth or bringeth forth much fruit.
And so you see that life, that wonderful pristine life which John calls eternal life, You see that now reproduced in others. You see the characters of that life now produced not just in him, but you see it, albeit in earthen vessels.
In.
Earthen vessels. You see it displayed in others. Which thing is true in him and in you? What are those things? If you go down through the 1St Epistle of John, you read about what the characters of this life are.
It it, it loves, it loves its brethren.
It is holy. I love the definition given yesterday by our brother about what About holiness. God being holy before sin was even in the world. God was holy because that's his nature. It delights in that which is good and pure.
And of God and abhors evil. That's what that new nature does.
It obeys as we go down through these verses, we could read that that that the new nature, it not only obeys because you could obey grudgingly. It obeys from the heart, happily.
Commandments are not grievous to the new nature it obeys.
Umm, you could pluck different aspects out of it and, and I don't want to go on too long, but this is the part, this is when the brother said I should not like to see the brethren lose sight of John. It's the reproduction in a practical way of this life in our in, in, in you and me, in our everyday life that I think we get a little bit LAX about.
As if, like my lawyer colleague there, it's like, well, we're here, you know, I can just be, you know, schlopping and schlep out and whatever. I'm here. I'm not involved with anything bad. No, that's not it.
You know what it's like sometimes you have an indication when we have a problem, and in the last 10 or so years, 15, maybe a brother would suggest a reading in John 17 or John 15 or somewhere, and boom, we plow right into Paul's doctrine.
We've become almost specialists in Paul's doctrine. I hope you don't, you know, uh, I hope I'm not being offensive. And I think we enjoy Paul's doctrine. What would we have? We did, we missed so much without it. But as the brother said, it's not loose sighted. John, the display of that life, you and me, you know, sometimes ask myself when I'm alone, what could I have done differently to be a better?
Brother.
To my brethren in the assemblies I've lived in, what could I have done differently to been a better testimony or more of a light in the places I've worked? What could I have done better to have been a better father, a better husband, a better example or leader in my own family, to my own children?
And one of the things that I think about is that I need to change more.
If you, if you read through the book of Proverbs, I did this once, I didn't get all the way through. But if you, if you put a mark in your Bible with a pencil so you can erase it. If you want to put a mark by every verse that talks about changing about you or me changing God, changing us, your Bible and book of Proverbs is going to be sprinkled with these marks.
Because of what we are by nature and of what Our Calling is. And so, you know, it really does, I suppose, discourage younger ones when we who have obviously been in the fellowship of God's people and reading the Word and praying for a lot of years and we don't show the change in our lives practically that we should. You know, it makes me feel sad because.
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It's there's nothing wrong with the Scriptures. There's nothing lacking in the Holy Spirit.
The, the, the weakness in the recipe is me. And so it's an exercise. Well, I've spoken long enough and, and, uh, I hope nothing I've said is, is, uh, discouraged you from anything that's good and positive, but I, my exercise really has been, uh, these ought you to, to have done and not to leave the other undone that the Lord is, uh, he's the gardener in our hearts. Our practical lives are the garden.
And he's looking to see growth in you and me, whether we're 84 or 14. And let's not just God forbid that we would settle down into a place where where we're in the right place and everything is outwardly orthodox. It would be a horrible testimony if the Lord would have to say about you and me. You know, all things that that Bruce bids you do that observe and do you know describes and Pharisees sit in Moses seat.
In other words, they're in the right position and they're telling you to do the right things and do it, but do not according to their ways, right? That's the way the Pharisees have become. It was all an outward thing. So may the Lord exercise us to be more yielding that the Spirit of God would form in US, reproduce, show out in US more practically that wonderful display of eternal life that we now have.
Like to for a few moments, take a look at the Book of Ruth.
We've been going through that book in the readings.
And like to recount maybe a few things that I've already been said, but like to extend them, perhaps with the Lord's help.
Had before me particularly.
Naomi herself.
We know that the book is about Ruth and the grace of God and how that one who was a Gentile.
Had no claim on the promises given to Israel and so on. It's brought in by grace.
But.
I was thinking of how, beginning in the first chapter, we read about Elimelech and Naomi and two sons who depart from, we might say, the place of God's appointment.
They went from Bethlehem and into the country of Moab.
And that was a bad decision.
You know, it's kind of interesting as an aside that Boaz stayed in the land, didn't he? And it says that.
At the beginning of chapter 2, it says that Boaz was a mighty man of wealth.
Wasn't there a famine in the land?
Now it says that Boaz, he remained there. He was a mighty man of wealth.
But what about, uh, the adventures of Elimelech and his family?
Well, we don't know exactly who might have been the leader in this decision.
But, uh, by whatever means, they end up in the country of Moab.
And there Naomi loses her husband, and then she loses her two sons.
And I was thinking.
That what she said at the end of chapter one has a bearing on, uh, that fact when she said in verse 21, I went out full and the Lord had brought me home again empty.
What I'm thinking about is the promise that was given back way in the beginning of Genesis, how that the woman seed would bruise the serpent's head.
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The woman.
And if we follow that through a little bit, we find in the 22nd chapter that the promise to Abraham was that in thy seed Christ shall all the nations of the earth be blessed.
So we find that's going to be through Abraham's seed.
If we go to the end of Genesis, we find Jacob's prophecy concerning Judah. It says the scepter will not depart from Judah.
So we find that the promised One was going to come not only through Abraham and Jacob, but through Judah specifically.
And we know after the account of Ruth that the promise was once again given to David, and the Messiah was called the Son of David and so on, but that wasn't known in Ruth's day. However, it's quite possible that Naomi and those in Judah realized this fact.
And Naomi was in a good position, you might say. Wasn't she of the tribe of Judah? She was a descendant of Abraham and so on. And she had two sons.
So it was likely quite probable that.
The promised one could come through her seat.
Or through her family.
But when she went into the land of Moab.
She lost her husband and her two sons.
So what she had as a hope was lost.
I went away full her two sons. You know, there's the possibility that I could be in that line, uh, that led up to the promised one. But when her two sons were gone without children, it appears.
Then all hope was lost.
She had no hope.
And, I suppose, the women of Israel.
If they were barren, didn't have children, and so on, they bore a lot of reproach.
Because of that promise that was given.
It was the desire of each one of them that they would be in that royal line, so to speak.
And that's why I suppose we have the example of Jeff's daughter who bewailed her virginity because there was no possibility that she could be in that line as an example.
We have the example too of how Hannah was ridiculed by.
Uh.
Well, by Elkanah's other wife, because she was born.
And caused her to fret.
Well, why? Why so? Because if they were barren, they could not be in that line.
And so Naomi, if I look at it at least from that point of view, whether this was what was in Naomi's mind or not, I'm not sure exactly, but she does say I went out full, but the Lord had brought me home empty. And let's go back earlier in chapter one.
Where it says, uh, verse 11.
She's on her way back to Bethlehem with the two daughters at this moment, and she says, turn again, my daughters, why will you go with me? Are there yet any more sons in my womb that they may be your husband's? Turn again, my daughters. Go your way, for I am too old to have a husband.
It was hopeless for her. She had come to the point where, because of decisions that had been made, she left the place where God had had blessed his people and so on. And as a result of that, she had lost, at least in her mind, everything. And she had no, no hope, no hope left.
Said I'm too old to have a husband. I can't have any more sons and so.
In her mind, she was left out, you might say.
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However, to her credit, she returned.
To Bethlehem.
And she came with roof in tow. And it's been pointed out in our meetings how that as time goes on, uh, we see a change in Naomi. She says at the beginning when she arrives, don't call me Naomi, call me Mara, because the Lord has dealt bitterly with me.
And so she was at the bottom, you might say.
But as time went on, we find that Ruth goes out to glean and she goes into Boaz's field.
And this was pointed out when she took what she gleaned back to her mother-in-law in verse 19. Her mother-in-law said unto her, Where hast thou gleaned today?
But at the end of the verse, and she showed that Ruth showed her mother-in-law with whom she had wrought.
And it's, it's interesting, isn't it? It was not necessarily a place. It was a person that came, started to come forward, uh, in the account.
And Naomi, I believe, begins to start to take a little bit of courage at this point. Notice in verse 20, Naomi said unto her daughter-in-law, Blessed be he of the Lord, who hath not left off his kindness to the living and to the dead.
Begins to a little flicker of light, you might say, which was hidden is kind of coming rekindled.
And, uh, this also was remarked upon in verses 21 and 22 how that, umm, she says that is Ruth says, uh.
How that Boaz had told her, Thou shalt keep fast by my young men. Actually, that's not what he had said. If you would go back to the eighth verse, you would see that he said, Abide here fast by my maidens, not by my young men.
But Naomi, she wasn't there to hear that, but she had good advice.
I think that some of the discernment that she had lost started to rekindle.
And so she says, It is good, my daughter, that thou go out with his maidens.
And it's to the credit of Ruth that she did so.
So we see here that, uh, there's a little bit of light shining in here, it seems. Into, umm, into Naomi's heart, perhaps a little hope.
Well, Chapter 3 we have not considered or Chapter 4, umm, and in chapter 3, uh, I sure do not intend to go through the details there. In fact, uh, I could not explain the customs that, uh, are involved there, but just with this one thought.
Naomi advised Ruth as to what to do.
You might say that she told Ruth how things go in the assembly.
If we can put it in those terms.
Here was one that was new, who was, shall we say, recently saved.
And she needed instruction. She had to know what to do.
And I believe Naomi was here taking the part that we read written by the apostle Paul to Titus. He says let the agent men teach the younger.
Aged women, I should say, teach the younger women to be discreet and so on.
And so here we have just exactly that in the proper order, don't we?
So we have that in chapter 3, and then of course we have what happens in chapter 4, how Boaz is determined to take Ruth for his wife, he was the next kinsman and so on. But I just like to go down to verse nine of that chapter.
Boaz is speaking to the elders there and he says this.
What I said unto the elders, unto all the people, Ye are witnesses this day that I have brought. All that was a little X, and all that was chillions.
01:10:06
And melons of the hand of Naomi.
Oh, it's interesting. I think that is put that way.
It goes on to say in verse 10. Moreover, Ruth the Moabite is the wife of Malon. Have I purchased to be my wife to raise up the name of the dead upon his inheritance?
You know, uh, as we go on a little further, we find in verse 13, so Boaz took Ruth and she was his wife. And when he went in on to her, the Lord gave her conception and she bare his son. It's been remarked, and I'll just repeat, uh, up to this point, every time Ruth's name is mentioned is Ruth the Mobitus. But when she becomes the bride of Boaz, it's Ruth.
It's dropped, you know, it's like.
Uh, another example that occurs, uh, in this manner is, uh, concerning rehab. Every time she's mentioned in, uh, the book of Joshua, it's Rahab the harlot. Rahab the harlot. But if you go over to Matthew's Gospel where the genealogy is there in the first chapter, it just calls her rehab.
And it calls roof roof.
Those things, those things have been detached.
Because they are brought in by the grace of God. No doubt we could say, I could say myself the Sinner.
Saved by grace, I'm a Saint of God. Now different.
At any rate, umm, just wanna go on to, uh, first 14.
And the women said unto Naomi, Blessed be the Lord, which hath not left thee this day without a kinsman.
That his name may be famous in Israel.
Verse 16. Naomi took the child and laid it in her bosom, and became a nurse unto it. And the women, her neighbors, gave it a name, saying, This is a son. There is a son born to Naomi.
And they called his name all the There's a son born on to Naomi.
And whether Naomi herself appreciated this or not.
I cannot say, but we know that that sun.
Through Ruth, of course, and Boaz. But credit it, we might say, to Naomi here.
Was the one that was found in the very royal line of the Lord Jesus Christ.
If Naomi had stayed with her husband Elimelech in the land of of Israel, perhaps all these circumstances, these things may not have happened.
But in a sense, she would have missed out on something because Elimelech was not in the royal line, Boaz was.
And it wasn't until she was restored.
That she was brought into this blessing.
It reminds me of the story of Job who passed through all those trials and tribulations.
But as James put it in his book, he says, consider the end of the Lord. What did the Lord do after all that job had passed through? He blessed him with twice as much as he had before.
So.
I guess the.
The point of what I wanted to bring out was this.
Sometimes there are those who become discontented, perhaps in the assembly, maybe those even who leave the assembly out of fellowship or something of that nature.
But as we see here in the case of Naomi, when she, shall we say, came to herself like the prodigal son, she came back to the right place, and the Lord worked with her, and she received that instruction little by little, and in the end she had a greater blessing.
01:15:02
Then when she left.
I want that simply to be an encouragement to anyone of us.
Who either may be in that situation or may be inclined to consider that situation.
Of going elsewhere, leaving where the Lord is in the midst.
Thoughts of that sort?
An encouragement, if one is away and cold, that they might be warmed and brought back and realize that there's a great blessing in being restored.
Ruth 3-4