Maine Conference: 2022
Table of Contents
1 Thessalonians 4:1-14
Reading
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Our presence.
I love.
Oh God.
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Three, loving God and our Father, we give thee thanks.
Again this morning, for my great love to us, so fully known, displayed in the giving of Thy beloved Son, His precious bloodshed for us, His body given on that cross. And we thank the our God and our Father, that having glorified thee there without its reason from the dead, in a straight way glorified Him. Lord Jesus, we look to Thee, we think of how thou just leave this earth, Thy hands up lifted and blessing upon Thy own.
And now thou art interceding for us on high, thy hands uplifted there.
Intercession ever effectual for thy Saints, and we would lean upon thee this morning.
Into or Jesus as head of the church.
Is thy body.
That thou just guide and direct us to a portion that would be suitable for each member here.
And that why those?
Joints of supply those bands that.
That what's in thy grace?
Be thy people through that thou give a portion and direct and help us to be.
Subject and waiting on the leading of the Holy Spirit where we know about us guiding direct through him and so we look to the Lord Jesus or portion this morning in the readings that would we're left here through this weekend would carry us through the readings and be for profit and blessing for our soul and Lord Jesus that the result might be.
That our hearts would be drawn near and closer to the Atlantic. Might walk more of that to a good way.
Workout before SO.
We ask this Lord Jesus, as we look to thee, to thee, our God and Father, knowing every good gift and every perfect gift cometh down from thee, the Father of lights, and thou art unchangeable, and thy goodness and my grace, the precious name of our Lord Jesus Christ, Amen, Amen. Amen.
And the Digging Brethren of First Thessalonians, chapter four and five.
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The readings if it if it would be the mind of the brethren, I want to impose my.
Will in the matter.
Been on my heartbeat passages in view of the.
Imminent return of the Lord.
Resident.
So it sounds good.
Three chapter 4. Did you want to read all both of them through at one time, brother?
Chapter 4. Today this reading.
First Thessalonians chapter 4. Furthermore, then, we beseech you, brethren, and exhort you by the Lord Jesus, that as you have received of us how you ought to walk and to please God, so you would abound more and more. For you know what commandments we gave you by the Lord Jesus. For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that you should abstain from fornication, that everyone of you should know how to possess his vessel.
In his vessel and sanctification and honor, not in the lust of concupiscence, even as the Gentiles, which know not God, that no man go beyond and defraud his brother in any manner, because that the Lord is the avenger of all such as we also have forewarned you, and testified. For God has not called us unto uncleanliness, but unto holiness. He therefore that despises, despiseth not man, but God.
Who hath also given unto us His Holy Spirit? But as touching brotherly love, you need not that I write unto you. For ye yourselves are taught of God to love one another, And indeed you do it toward all the brethren which are in all Macedonia. But we beseech you, brethren, that you increase more and more.
And then you study to be quiet, and to do your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you, that you might walk honestly towards them that are without, and that you might have lack of nothing. But I would not have you be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep that you sorrow not even as others which have no hope, or if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, Even so them also would sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.
For this we say unto you, by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive, and remain unto the coming of the Lord, shall not prevent them which are asleep.
For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout with the voice of the Archangel, and 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. So shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words.
Well, we know the apostle was only with the Thessalonians for about 3 weeks.
Because of the fierceness of the persecution, that rage in that area, that's the Lanika. We read it in Acts chapter 17.
He was forced to to leave them and move on, but we had them upon his heart and.
Praying for them, and He was exhorting them as a father.
Have a great deal of dispensational doctrine in the epistle.
But there was the work of faith, there was a labor of love, and there was the patience of hope in the Thessalonians, though they were.
Babes converted out of even them likely where they were serving idols now they were serving the and they went back in the first chapter verse nine. They themselves show of us what manner of entering in we had them to you.
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And how he turned to God.
From idols, not from idols to God to God, from idols to serve the living and the true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come.
Numbers, but they had the hope of the Lord's coming, however.
Wrong doctrine came in later and they they really lost the freshness of that hope and that's why the apostle is writing to them to confirm the coming of the Lord and what it would mean for us.
Their fellow believers would pass through the article of death. Would they miss the Kingdom entirely, as the Thessalonians thought? And so Paul unfolds the truth of the rapture so clearly, the revelation that he had received from the Lord in glory.
It wasn't very long ago, I think we took this up in Stellarton, Nova Scotia and.
We referred all these little scribbles I have on my page here, but you've probably heard this referred to as the Enoch chapter.
And so from the beginning of chapter 4 down to about the end of verse 11 of chapter 5, it speaks of our personal lives and view of Lords, of the Lords coming and in connection with it. Enochs chapter, You see that verse in Hebrews Chapter 11, don't you?
Verse Five. Become quite fond of this verse.
Hebrews 11 and five. It says by faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death, and was not found because God had translated him. For before his translation he had this testimony that he pleased God, and that would be there should be the desire of our hearts as believers to walk before God, waiting for his return, that we might please him.
That's good Jonathan and if you look in first John chapter 3 talking about the Lords coming and seeing the Lord Jesus and how it would relate to our our personal lives here before the Lord comes into the live our lives in purity. He says in first John 3. Let's start at verse two. Beloved. Now are we the sons of God and it does not yet appear what we shall be what we know that when he shall appear.
We shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. Now look at verse 3. Every man that hath this hope in him purifies himself, even as he is pure. And so our chapter here in First Thessalonians 4 looking forward to the coming of the Lord. It tells us how we conduct ourselves before the Lord comes in light. He that has his hope in him purifies himself. And so it's it. It talks about possessing your vessels and sanctification.
Having a pure sexual life in in.
In honor of the Lord Jesus. Now why did he have to tell these people this in Thessalonica? Because it was common in the in their society. It's common in our society today too, to have sexual impurity on all levels. And so it's, it's important for us to be able to possess our vessels in sanctification. Our vessel would be our bodies.
Keep our abilities and sanctification along.
I was just noticing in that chapter first John 3.
That the apostle John says in verse 21 The love if our heart condemned us not, then have we confidence for God and what's what we asked we receive of him.
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Why? Because we keep His commandments and do those things that are pleasing in His sight so as believers today.
It is our desire to do that which is pleasing to the Lord, and if we're not doing that which is pleasing to Him.
I believe it's going to affect our confidence in the Lord.
And we're going to be unhappy.
Christians and that's not good because it affects our testimony of God in this world. You know, if the world sees that we are happy and appraising people.
That says so much for our Savior. It's a powerful witness for Christ, but if we're going on in that which is not pleasing to Him.
It's just the opposite. It brings desire on the board. And I just noticed that you refer to that chapter, Tim, and I was just thinking about that chapter.
Here it tells us in the first verse of our chapter we just read.
You ought to walk and to please come.
They were familiar with the habits of even them or immorality was rampant.
And idolatry, you know, Satan is behind me. All the idolatry that we see.
In the world today, Satan is the God.
Of this world religiously.
And the Prince of it political. So we're really in Satan's world.
And it can lead the child of God into immorality.
He has achieved his purpose.
The sanctification here is not positional. That is brought out in the book of Hebrews. Positional sanctification, absolutely, but here it is.
The practical side, the progressive side of sanctification, we should be more sanctified this year than we were last year.
So sanctification is really separation.
Unto the Lord.
Separation from.
Worldliness.
And from all the.
Root of the old nature which we have.
Please, the Lord, thank you.
Jesus do.
As you can see, we always.
Remarkable statement I do always.
Those things, that things, really.
When we look at.
69.
We consider.
The kind of man and the kind of walk that he had.
In Psalm 69, just starting at verse 7.
Because for thy sake I have borne reproach.
Shane has covered my face.
I have become a stranger unto my brethren, and nearly unto my mother's children. His walk made him different.
Strange or misunderstood?
The zeal of thine house that heating me up.
And the reproaches of them that reproach thee.
Perform upon me.
And Paul refers to this in Romans chapter 15.
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He says, for even Christ please, not himself.
But the reproaches of them, that reproach these fell on me.
His walk was such. We heard that Enoch please God. Well, if our walk is pleasing to God from the unpleasant command.
The Lord Jesus said it, Woe be unto you when all men speak well of you.
In other words, all men are not going to speak well of you if you learn.
Walking with God, at least to some degree.
So it's just striking that Paul associates pleasing him.
Praising God with suffering and reproach.
We know the Lord Jesus ever and always please God.
And I was just thinking of that picture we get in Matthew.
It's so striking. The Lord Jesus was here to please God.
And in Matthew 16, we all know the passage well, I'm sure.
And he reveals to his disciples how that he must go into Jerusalem.
Matthew.
1621 From that time forth again Jesus to show unto his disciples how that he must go unto the region.
And suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed and raised again the third day.
Then Peter took him and began to rebuke him.
Saying, He is far from me more. This shall not be unto thee.
But he turned and said unto Peter.
Thou art an offense unto me.
Thou Savior, is not the things that be of God, but those that be of men.
Peter would spare the flesh.
But this time, naturally, he thought he was doing something good, something right, defending his this wonderful man, but the Lord Jesus.
The indication is that the Lord did savor the things that be of God. He wanted to please God. He wanted to die to God's glory. He wanted death, the only man ever born to die.
And so he had to say to Peter, Thou outer in the fence unto me, they'll save her as not the things that fear of God. It's so striking.
This coming suffering and death, God would save you.
And it certainly speaks to us of the savory burnt offering.
You know Christ, please, not himself.
He offered himself up.
I'm offering a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savour during TV 5.
And that's what he wanted. That's all he cared about.
In his life as the meal offering, as ascending, as a sweet saver, and in his death.
Ascending as a sweet saver pleasing God.
So it's striking to see.
We're pleasing God, they mean to us.
This has a little side rather that word saverist. So remarkable that it comes in again in Philippians 3.
Of those that mind earthly things, who are enemies of the cross, that word mind is the same as savorist. They savor earthly things and they're enemies of the cross. Just stay in connection with pleasing the Father. That's really the context of the previous chapter, the joy of the path that the apostle was concerned about them, that they would have been tempted and turned aside and rejoiced the claim that they had not.
And he says.
Verse eight of chapter 3 Now we live, if he stands fast in the Lord, and what is his thought? He's looking forward to a coming day and desires. Verse 12 That the Lord would make them to increase and abound and love 1 towards another, towards all men, and that he may establish your hearts unblameable and holiness before God, even our Father. It's the same thought to be pleasing to the Father.
That was His desire, that they would be pleasing to the Father now in their lives. In the same way he hoped that they would be presented to God the Father in the coming day by the Lord Jesus Christ that is appearing. So that desire for holiness now in the life, that it would correspond to that coming day of the presentation of His own to the Father.
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And now our chapter comes in and he says, here's the things that are going to rob you of that.
These things will rob you of present joy.
Right now they will rob you of.
Enjoyment of what he had hoped for them and and desired for them. Pray for them in the previous chapter. Just like to touch on one verse in Hebrews 12.
Verse 16.
Lest there be any fornicator or profane person, as he saw over one morsel of meat, sold his birthright.
Sold as birth price.
As believers, we have a birthright.
We have those things that are our privileges as belonging to Christ as children of God.
Movement for vacation can come in and we can sell our birthright, and we can lose privileges that belong to us as believers here in this world.
And there are some that are no longer at the Lord's table of privilege of every child and God.
Because they sold their birthright for a very little short period of pleasure.
The Apostle had been a wonderful example to them as the outlines in Chopster 2. The Thistle.
He has worked with his own hands.
You know, labored fervently and prayer and ministry and all the time was only about 3 weeks.
They were babes like.
All of his workers, I guess.
Address here and they work with their hands. They were a testimony not only by what they said, but by what they did.
As an example of these Thessalonians.
That they could see the.
Sacrifice.
The fervent sea of the Apostles, Life and death.
And labor for these these young Congress.
It's remarkable too, isn't it? That says the Lord Jesus in verse one, and then in the second verse the Lord Jesus again, and in the sixth verse the Lord. So it's very important, isn't it, to acknowledge the Lordship.
In His Lordship in our lives and to acknowledge that we have a responsibility to walk in obedience to His words. Striking that it mentioned Lord here three times.
I think Stanley the Lordship of Christ mentioned more in this these officials than in any other of Pauls writings. I forget the exact figure 2030 times the warship of Christ is referred to.
That's important to to practical acknowledgement.
We are not our own. We belong to the Lord and.
You own this authority.
In our lives with everything that we do.
We have to be subject to him, to his voice.
I believe, Brother Stan, you mentioned responsibility, and we see that clearly here in this chapter, don't we?
Tim, you mentioned that you know this is back in Thessalonica, but today we live in the same situation. And so in verse one.
It beseeches them, he says, rather than I exhort you.
By the Lord Jesus, that is, ye have received of us. So that's something that they had told them. They've instructed the minute and they knew and you and I have been instructed in these things too. We know he says you have received of us how you ought to walk and to please God.
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And then he tells him of the blessing.
So you would abound more and more.
They continue these as free know what commandments we gave you by the Lord Jesus and tells of his will, the will of God, your sanctification that you should abstain from fornication that every one of you should know how to possess.
This vessel and sanctification and honor. And so it's very clear that we have great responsibility in these things. You know, he spoke to the Thessalonians here, but in Timothy.
We've given Timothy a similar charge, didn't he? And he said that thou oughtest to know how to behave thyself in the House of God. And so surely individually we have this responsibility, and collectively too, and so that we might abound more and more. And we see further on in the chapter it brings that out with loving one another in the assembly effect too.
He says you have received the loss how he ought to walk. In other words, I believe the Apostle Paul had instructed them the importance of walking in self denial, you know, in paganism.
There was the worship of the goddess of luck and connected to that was fornication. But now they have to realize that those things are not pleasing to the Lord and theirs is necessary to walk a life of self denial.
A judge in the flesh and not allow it to creep its head up.
I think it's important to see here how practical this, these verses really are for those Thessalonians and, and not only for them, but for us, because as someone has said, we're living in days very similar to what it was like then.
How can I abound more and more?
If I'm giving up pleasure in this world, I'm giving up success. What does it mean to abound?
Our understanding of the word of God in the.
The character of God was there.
The verse in Matthew 6.
Might apply to it. Matthew 622.
The light of the body is the eye.
Therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light, and if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness.
So he says that.
He would desire that they would abound. They have heard been taught how to walk.
It says.
Do you have a single eye?
Do you desire to know the will of God in order to do it?
You'll abound more and more. You'll be full of light, but if your eye isn't single, you'd like to know what God says, but without a desire to do it. Or I'll decide maybe later whether to do it or not. It suits me before the darkness. So when the eye is single and there's a desire to do His will, when it is made known to us, you just abound more and more. The bodies whole of life. It just keeps going. And he'll show you more and he'll show you more.
As soon as you say no, don't want to walk in that one.
That's the end of the light coming in. We had He stops right there with us. So I just enjoyed that verse in connection with it. I don't know if that helps too.
This abounding is connected with walking and pleasing God.
When you love someone, is there any limit to what you'll do to please them?
When the love of God is spread abroad in our hearts.
There should be no limit to what we'll do, please.
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I appreciate connecting with the previous chapter when it says in abounding there I was just thinking at the end of the third chapter it's the Lord working in US. And then in the start of the 4th chapter here it's more responsibility. It says there at the end in chapter 3 verse 12 Says the Lord make you to increase and abound in love one toward another, toward all men, even as we do toward you.
To the end, you may establish your hearts unbelievable and holiness before God.
Even the Father at the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ with all those things, so he's working in us for this abounding.
Nancy in love, one toward another and toward all men, even as we do towards you. I don't know if it's the exact same abounding is it what it's referring to in the start of Chapter 4, but it's interesting.
In chapter 4 and verse one to eight, it's it's power to perhaps the bound towards God and then eight and nine towards other Christians and then in verse 11 and 12 towards unbelievers. And you know, there's an aspect where.
The Lord is working in us, which is absolutely incredible. You think he's doing that until he comes to bring fruit for the Lord's glory. And as we see that through the Lord Jesus, we have the opportunity to abandon. What does it start with? It's.
Just appreciate what you said about love. And that's what the Lord working at us and that's what we should seek to abound towards others as well. And you know, there's a longing for care in this world where things become more fragmented and through screen and those types of things and even here being together, you know, naturally.
Sometimes we don't want to go out of our way, perhaps towards other people. We should be seeking to show love in a very practical way towards other people, and that's what the Lord is working on.
Under the law, we find that.
Thou shalt not lust, and so fornication is certainly forbidden, and it was a sin. And God's moral ways don't change from dispensation to dispensation. He's not different today. It still is. But you know, it's not just the negative. Now when it comes to Christianity, you get the negative in verse three. You might say the prohibition, but you get the positive in verse 4.
Because we have the indwelling Spirit of God.
We have the power where there's dependence on him, to possess our vessels, not to be carried away by them. That's how the world is, but to possess our vessels and and.
In sanctification and honor.
2nd Corinthians, Structure 7.
Working on the floor like it could be reminded verse one Second Corinthians 7.
Having therefore these promises here available.
Cleanses ourselves. There's the practical sanctuary.
All filthiness of the flex and spirit.
Perfect thing with Holiness.
We have a holy nature.
The divine nature which before that holy.
Our boards. Our boards see him.
And.
That divine nature will be.
Should be cultivated and manifest in our practical walk and waves, we're also saying.
And you know when the Thessalonians epistles, we have the Lord's coming mentioned in every chapter, I believe.
The apostle was careful to present to them.
The end of the journey.
And we have we have the coming of the Lord.
We probably are aware within two parts is the rapture and there's the appearing and so the apostle refers to both of those. For instance, at the end of chapter 3 we're looking at here. In the end, he may establish your hearts unblameable importance before God, even our Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. We're all the Saints. So that is not the rapture.
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That is the appearing of the law, so we need to be clear about those two.
Plumbing, you might say. They're all part of one.
One minute character, but they take place at different times and they have different connotations. So the rapture which the apostle is is taking up in more detail in our chapter is.
Does not have the question of responsibility as the appearing, the appearing when we come with the law and all these Saints. Revelation 19.
Then our lives will be manifest.
The judge will see the price will have taken place and we will come and be admired and returned to the.
The second Thistle here.
2nd Thessalonians.
When He shot in verse 10 the 1St chapter, when he shall come to be glorified in His Saints, and to be admired to all them that believe, because our testimony among you will believe in that way. That is the appearing there when?
He will be glorified. It will be the public.
Of our.
Our sanctifications directly connected with our Lord, isn't it?
Where he is now.
And he prayed for us.
John 17.
He tells us more than once they are not of the world.
Even as I.
He was never in any way of the world.
The Eternal 1.
Now he has brought us into a position where we can say we are not of the world, even as he is not of the world.
So he prays for our sanctification.
Sanctify them through Thy truth. Thy word is truth on 17/17.
And then this very special.
Verse.
So they're serious. I sanctify myself, but they also might be sanctified through the truth.
He sets himself apart in glory.
He he. He is above us.
As if it's Paul, as Paul tells us in Hebrews, looking off unto Jesus.
The author and finisher of our faith and so on. He turns 12. But just that thought looking. And I think Mr. Darby and other clearer translations have it looking off and away unto Jesus because we know where he is. He has set himself apart that we might want to be with Him.
You know, kind of like we've all seen this.
We've all seen this outside in springtime. There's a mother Robin hovering above the nest. You see the little heads.
The little necks in the head stretching up out of the nest.
As the mother hovers over the net.
And that's what the Lord would love to have us like our desire, our eyes glued on Him above, desiring to be with Him. The result being that we were set apart unto Him.
There's there's greater and greater sanctification in the life and that that which.
That which really takes root in US.
Is what sanctifies us, sets us apart. But just to point that out, especially that it's his hearts desire.
He wants us sanctified, set apart unto Himself.
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The young people, I'm sure you've heard people my age and older, you know, make comments about how bad the world is getting. And it's, it's so bad. It's just getting worse. And I think we can all understand why, why people say that.
But I just just to put it.
Very. It's been mentioned here already, but the world that these people lived in was a world in which someone such as myself was thought OK if I visited a prostitute, it was thought OK if I had a lover. This was the world they lived in. They didn't think that was harmful. They didn't see that as they just thought it was normal behavior. So the world here in this time was.
Scary.
Immoral, but people didn't really see it as such, they just thought it was normal. So he's telling.
These believers in Thessalonica that this was not OK in God's eyes and it was a big deal for them to have to abstain from these things in a world in which it was just, it was just normal behavior, it was thought that not harm anyone.
Which is the way it is for for us today. It's not thought to be harmful. As long as you're not harming anybody, it's not a big deal. And that's the the world, these guys.
Think of the verses in First Corinthians 6 when you say that Paul. Maybe you just read those First Corinthians 6.
Excuse me, verse 15 it says, know ye not?
That your bodies are the members of Christ. Shall I then take the members of Christ that make them the members of harlot?
God forbid.
Says what Know ye not that he which is joined to an harlot is one body?
For Tuesday he shall be one flesh.
Verse 18 Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the blood.
But he that committeth fornication sentence against his own body.
What know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, which is in you, which you have of God, and you're not your own. You're bought with a price. Therefore glorify God in your body.
And your spirit, which are gods and.
Singing of what?
Steven said earlier and the ending to that or the opposite to it is we mentioned the world and how they react to these things and we have that in verse five, don't we? It says not in the better reverse Board that every one of you should know how to possess his vessels and sanctification and honor just like we read not in the lust of competence, even as the Gentiles which know not God. So because they're that way doesn't give us the excuse to be that way. We know better. We have that responsibility.
And just for any that don't know, I can remember hearing that word growing up many times and never knowing what it meant. So I wrote down in just a little definition and I'll just tell you.
It says selfish human desire for an Object, person or experience. You and I know that anything that involves.
Self or selfishness most assuredly does not have our eyes on him. Singleness of pop and that is the desire of a believer to have singleness of ideas with.
So the love that he had brought up, which is.
Mentioned a couple times in chapter 3 verse 12 for one another is really the development of by nature and the believer we have that love that we never had before for one another. There was no Capacity for it fairly human life. It's not divine love, but yet in those intimate relationships among one another as believers and we go on pretty closely. We know all about each other. We know about our kids, we know about our grandkids. We know about all our circumstances.
We rub elbows pretty closely, and so there's a danger of slipping into the world's ways and those close relationships. And so that development of the divine nature and a holy love needs to be guarded by holiness. And so he goes on to take this up. It's not just.
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With someone out in the world.
Within the sphere of the assembly, within the Christian circle that no man go beyond and defraud his brother.
And so the scripture sets hedges for us, guards, carefulness. It's good for a man not to touch a woman, we read in Corinthians. There are guards that are set in the scripture to keep us from slipping out of a holy love and relationship that should be growing and is encouraged to grow into something that is unholy and has disastrous consequences in the believers life.
God has not called us to uncleanness.
Unto holiness in the society we lived in. It's it's getting worse, as has been mentioned, and we live in a society surrounded with all these evil practices.
And I I read a statistic, there's hope. I can't remember the number but it's over 50% of evangelical Christians believe it's OK to cohabit. There's a verse in Hebrews chapter 13.
Hebrews chapter 13 and verse four. Marriage is honorable in all and a bed undefiled, but ************ and adulterers God will judge.
One thing we need to realize.
Every one of us in this room, we have an effect on other people. And what I do will affect others. If I do good, it will affect others, perhaps for good. If I do bad, it will discourage, disappoint other people.
There's a man in Malawi, a brother in the assembly there. He had he had been visiting assemblies and encouraging them for many years. He had a motorcycle and he would drive up into the mountains and back into the remote villages on his motorcycle and teach and preach and encourage the Saints. One day his he wasn't using his motorcycle and another his his relative was using it for a motorcycle taxi. The motor as he was driving along, he got flagged down by he thought was customers.
And they hacked him to death with machetes and killed him and stole the motorcycle. Well, the brother lost his motorcycle. He couldn't go to the assemblies anymore. So he started walking to the assemblies. He was devoted. He was abounding, you might say more and more. But then he got his eyes off Christ and he took a second wife.
Just like we've been Speaking of here, he did not know how to possess his body and sanctification.
Maybe different circumstances in your life will get you discouraged.
And you'll think it's not worth it to live your life for Christ to to walk through please God. The more you walk to serve God, the more you believe and have faith, the more troubles and sorrows and difficulties you have. How do you, how do you react when difficult times come into your life? It's going to affect not only you, but others around you who look up to you and they see you, that you've been a help and encouragement to them. And now you're off doing something like this man had done.
And it's discouraging to everybody around. It's discouraging to your family, discouraging to the assembly, discouraging to your friends. Your friends don't want to give up on you. They still want to have contact with you. But in First Corinthians chapter 5, we find that if you fall into fornication and other, other things, it's, it's a dishonor to the Lord. And, and not only are you not able to be at the Lord's table and fellowship, you can't even eat with you or, or visit with you.
Until there's the repentance.
I think her brother.
John wanted to talk about the coming of the Lord. Where do you want to go to from here, John?
Well, I think that.
You can distinguish the character of the coming.
Here.
They were.
Ignorant.
Of the of the of the Rapture, they they really didn't understand the true character of the coming of rewards as.
As the rapture or the appearing, they thought, now here are some of our loved ones that pass through the article of death and that Paul is speaking about the Kingdom being established and we're part of it as what will happen to our loved ones.
01:00:17
They're gone, are they? Are we going to see them again? Are we? Are they going to have heart in the Kingdom? So that's why the apostle writes the epistle, to explain these things, to enlighten them.
They were actually being affected by wrong doctrines. We will find that although the hope at the beginning was bright, the hope begins to dim and you don't get the word hope mentioned in the second epistle or even later in the first epistle.
Something had come into dim that hope of the Lord's imminent return that right that Steve, I think that is what took place in between the epistles, especially the apostle had laid out as we have in our chapter, the rapture, the any moment expectation of the Lord's coming and the hope of the believer. And then they had gotten an epistle supposedly from the apostle Paul that it wasn't.
And.
Really denying that through telling them that they were in the tribulation now and they were in the time of the wrath of God following on this world and so on. Instead of being delivered from the raft to come as was read in chapter one and verse 10, they were under it while that threw them into confusion and so on. The second epistle, as you say, you don't get it mentioned in the same way here. Hope because that had that bad doctrine that come in and dulled their hope and they needed to be revived as to that.
But here they're giving it freshly. It's a new revelation. The apostle hadn't had time to unfold this aspect of the Lord's coming to the Saints, but now he does. There's an opportunity to. It was in connection with the fact that some had died. They were waiting for the Lord to come. Some had died. Well, they're going to miss out now on the Lord's coming. No, they're not, Because there's some details I hadn't told you, and I don't know. It's a good time to tell you now about them. He lays them out here.
In verse 14, does that refer to the appearing because it speaks about?
Those which sleep in Jesus when God bring with him. So the appearing is when we come back with the water, He's coming with us at that time. But as we read on him, there's 14.
And on he's coming for us. So that'd be the rapture. Is that the right thing? Interpretation. That's right.
So how many comings of Christ are there?
22.
Three right, Two ones already taking place. You came once.
The second coming is still going to take place. It's still ahead of us, but it has two aspects, or you might say two installments, but there is only one second coming of Christ.
Not to just one and in that second coming, he's going to bring these things with him. But this tells us how the Saints are going to get there to be with him to begin with when he comes with a sense.
And that's why we refer to those as the Rapture from the interior.
Just thinking of the difference between those two, just in the context or a doctor here at the end of Chapter 3, as John mentioned, it's referring to the appointment and at that point in time.
It will be after the judge, after we're caught up in heaven and we our body is changed and you have the very top of the Lamb and the.
Doesn't see the price, then we come down and at that point in time we will be.
It talks here at the end of chapter 3. It says the enemy may establish your heart is unblameable and holiness before God, even the Father is becoming our Lord Jesus Christ. That's when the Lord will set up his Kingdom and we'll have a perfect government and.
It, it'll, it's when the Lord will have his rightful place as King of kings, the Lord of Lords. That is what we're looking for. And that I think is what the Thessalonians were thinking about, but they had a problem. They didn't understand it. It was, they were living in a completely corrupt society that abandoned God in every way.
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And they were lived, there was immorality around them and people were cheating one another and even the Christians weren't even treating each other well. And Paul here explains in chapter four, he says, and I like the way this, and I don't mean to go backwards. I like the way this chapter starts. He tells him about his coming with his things. But then he says, he says, furthermore, we beseech you brethren, and exhort you by the Lord Jesus. And then he goes on to tell him, he says.
He tells them how these doctors God towards other believers and towards unbelievers and how he's going to the Lord is going to descend from heaven with a shout and call them up to heaven, which is going to prepare for that coming with his Saints. And it's a very important for us to consider today and it's very easy for us to get discouraged as we look around and see everything sort of crumbling around us.
We need to look forward to that future day, the Lord coming with this date when, when all of the things that this world is trying to correct now will be corrected. The, the, the, the total falling apart of politics, the falling apart of the world from a, from an environmental point of view to the fighting everywhere, the little come back and correct all that. And this tells us what our responsibility is here and now as we Array, we that shout will be caught up to be prepared for that thing. And to me, it's beautiful in that context because we are very, very similar as I've been mentioned, where the immorality around us is horrible. And I, I was just, I mean, it says they're, as Tim mentioned, he said God is not called us an uncleanness, but in the holiness he's called us and the holiness because of that future day when we come with him.
And.
And we need to be cognizant of that now as we await this out to be caught up to be with him, neither not explaining that well, but even I, I was thinking even if that's the only as they were confused because these people had died and they didn't know how that Fit into the Lord's coming. And so Paul, as you said, Steve is explaining, Steven is explaining to them what's happening here. And I think there's a practical teaching that we have in this chapter between verse four and verse 16.
Is very, very relevant today as we await his return in that first installment.
If I could just add what you said, Mark, and just under score how the Lord's coming with us and him coming into his Kingdom is, is like the big day. That's what it's all looking forward to. And him having his Kingdom and having his rightful place is what everything that God is doing is going forward.
It's Christ having his day. It's his great celebration.
And you know, it's interesting that the Lord is going to share that day with us over coheirs with Christ. But I was thinking of a few verses.
I think the more we understand that that the day of manifestation, the day of Christ coming into his Kingdom is what God is looking for is what Christ is looking forward to. It's what his Saints are rightfully looking forward to. In Luke chapter 22, you speaking to specifically to the 12 There, but he said in verse 28 year they which have continued with me in my temptations and I appoint them to you a Kingdom as my father hath appointed unto me.
That ye may eat and drink at my table in my Kingdom, and sit on Thrones judging the 12 tribes of Israel. The Lord is going to have his celebration.
And he was so happy to be able to tell the 12 I'm going to invite you to sit at my table and to celebrate with me.
Earlier when he ate the Passover, verse 14 And when the hour was coming, he sat down, and this wall of apostles with him, he said unto them, with desire, I have desire to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. For I say unto you, I will not eat anymore thereof until it be fulfilled.
The Kingdom of God. And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and said, Take this and divide it among yourselves, For I say unto you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the Kingdom of God shall come. The.
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The cup, the wine that was being served on that Passover night, the Lord said. I'm not going to drink.
Anymore, until I drink with you in the Kingdom, He's saying my celebration is future. I am not going to celebrate until that day comes and I'm going to share that celebration with you again. It's a great time for the Lord. It's his day, He's going to share it with us. It's what His Kingdom is brought into and we're all looking forward to that. The Lord went to the cross, He died, He rose again.
Acts chapter one. The disciples are there with him at the Mount of Olives, and what are they thinking about?
Verse 6 And when they therefore will come together, they asked of him, saying, more, Wilt thou at this time restore again the Kingdom to Israel? It was so natural, and you might even say right for them to be thinking about this. This is His day. He conquered death, He rose from the grave, and is this the time?
The Lord doesn't say it's not going to happen, He just says it is not for you to know the times or the seasons where which the Father had put in his own power, but He shall receive power after the Holy Ghost has come upon you. He shall be witnesses and soul.
So not to belabor the point, but it is very right for us to be looking forward to the time when Christ has his day, when he has his celebration, when when all of his rights are vindicated here in this world. And he says, I am not going to begin celebration until I can do it with you. He didn't go back to heaven, you might say, and start the party. He did not do that. I am not going to touch this cup until I can teach it with you and the Kingdom.
And he is waiting until he can enter that Kingdom with us and sit down with us and.
So as Mark said is was mentioned earlier, the question is what about those who have died? Are they going to miss it? Are they going to miss Christ coming into his day? Are they going to miss sitting down, not just in spirit but in body? Are they going to miss being there at this table when he for the first time lifts that cup that he said I won't touch again for the first time and when he celebrates with all of his own and the joy of his Kingdom, will they miss out on that? And the wonderful answer, Paul can say no.
Something is going to take place first such that they we all together.
The togetherness of that time will all come into it, into the joy of that together.
You should always remember as first age that brings before us He left when it despised it. Despise it despise it's not mad, but God blessed also gives him to us.
Holy Spirit, so that.
The Spirit of God is a divine person, not just an influence.
And he is abiding in.
We don't have two divine persons within us.
We have the life of Christ, but we we don't have Christ physically abiding in us, but we do have a divine person, the Holy Spirit of God. And it says in Ephesians 4 grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby we are sealed unto the day of redemption. I thought we had our redemption already. Yes, the redemption of our souls and not the redemption of our bodies.
So the Spirit of God will not leave you. If I sin and belong with these practices mentioned here, fear of God does not leave me.
But he is grieved.
And of course.
Of course communion is broken. So a Christian has been said we can, we should be the happiest people on the earth. Sometimes we are not.
But we could also be the most miserable people.
Because if I'm not walking in obedience, I'm grieving the Holy Spirit of God. I can't enjoy the world as I did before. It's spoiled for me, and I can't enjoy the Lord.
01:15:03
By motive communion. So I'm miserable until I judge that matter, whatever it may be. Maybe, maybe could be uncleanness in the light, but it could be.
Bitter feelings for certain brethren, that I refuse to judge. Communion is as sensitive as a delicate threat.
It can easily be broken, so we need to be careful in our walk. Is that not right to extend?
So how do we know when we come to a portion of Scripture? Let the Lord's coming, whether it's talking about.
Is appearing in the Kingdom or the Rapture?
So the Rapture comes before the tribulation period. In that sense, we know that.
The difference of the two countries.
We always come in for us and before the judgement falls upon the world. Is that what you had in mind? Well, there's a lot of places where the Lords coming is referred to in Scripture, but how do we know with that particular?
One is Speaking of is coming and appearing, establishing the Kingdom or coming for us?
I think perhaps you have an answer to that.
But I've wondered about that in relation to the safe Titus chapter 2 where it speaks about looking for the lesson hope and the glorious appearance of the great God that Savior. Well, some would lump all that together and say, you know the blessing hope isn't is really you're feeling it. The Lord established his Kingdom. But I've always thought it was connection with the rapture as being the blessed hope and then.
The glorious appearance.
Stadium. That would be when he appears to establish his key.
I think that's correct.
I think.
Context is really what shows us what is being spoken of, and it just puts an emphasis on the importance of the context in Scripture in which a verse is found. We can't isolate it by itself and come up with an interpretation and meaning and ignore the other verses around it, ignore its chapter, it's book, and so on. Scripture is interpreted in the light of all the rest of Scripture, and so we always need the context, and that's really what helps us.
In Second Thessalonians.
To.
Verse 8.
Then shall that wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming, that word brightness.
Really could be translated appearing or shining out.
And there the word coming is used in Scripture, whether it's Speaking of is coming for his Saints or coming with the Saints, it's that same word is used.
But when it's the appearing of his coming?
It's specifically talking about his visible appearing in this world. I think coming and I, I don't know Greek, but I think the word is harassia.
Appearing is epiphany or bright shining out, at least those are kind of the root words. It's the epiphany of this piracy. It's it's right shining out of his coming that is his appearing. And so it may just say coming and we just need to look at the context to understand is it Speaking of his coming and establishing the Kingdom is appearing or is it is coming for us? Or sometimes it includes both.
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Most of the references to the Lord's coming in the New Testament are his appeared His name.
Coming visible appearing in this world.
That word coming means simply this presence.
His presence that the epiphany of his presence, the brightness of his presence, is his appearing. But when he comes for us, he's coming. It's his presence.
World may not necessarily is not going to see it, but we will will be caught up to be in this presence. It's his presence is coming. He's present, but the appearing of his presence the world's going to see that's when he establishes.
So the rapture then is the private meeting? I believe so the Lord.
Every eye will see him.
Will be associated with him.
There are signs, definitely there are signs before the Lord's appearing yet.
And the award develops this in Matthew 24 and all of the discourse. There are definitely signs.
Kingdom, but there is no sign.
Necessary before the Rapture, the Thessalonians were told to.
Expect the Lord's return at any moment.
2000 years have passed by. The war hasn't gone.
So it's a present hope.
Not dependent upon.
Developments in this world.
Although we see things shaping up like the illustration that has been given, you passed by a cycle. You see that there's excavation taking place and materials are being put down on the ground. You say to your wife, well, it looks as if there's going to be a building for up here. Things are being brought into place and so we can see.
The Lord behind all the scenes, moving the scenes that he is behind. You can see the development of things, but the Rapture is a is a present hope for the Marine.
I remember John, Mr. Hayhoe saying that the first time the Lord's coming for his Saints that we get in Scripture in John 14, where he says I will come again and receive you unto myself. That's the first time the rapture is mentioned in its proper Christian characters. Is that correct? Yes.
Develop the the how of it there, but that is a reference to it I believe.
I was noticing too here that Paul says to the Thessalonians studied to be quiet and do your own business and to work with your own hands as we have commanded you. There seems to be a tendency to not go on with their regular employment. Maybe they were expecting what the Lord's going to come. What's the point?
In working.
But I was thinking that a leader can be a dangerous thing for the Christian candidate.
If we just sit around and are doing nothing, we know they're off and says that the devil finds things the parietal hands to do. So we're going to be careful. And I think there's a tendency today in in the world too to.
Not put much importance on working and we find they want to shorten the work week to four days now and there's more emphasis on leisure all the time.
But we have to be careful, don't we? The Lord have us to carry on, occupy till he comes.
I'm going to get that in the first chapter of this book.
In the last two verses of the first chapter.
This is a wonderful summer purchase of Christian life in a nutshell.
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How you turn from how you turn to God from idols.
To serve.
The living in true God and to wait for his Son from the heaven.
So while we're waiting, there is serving.
So those two, you can't have just the waiting, you've got to be serving while we're waiting.
Just bring in another thought recently. Just.
Is the Lord. Those were creatures of activity and.
And we do need to be busy.
But when it comes to the time, maybe that we say, you know.
I like to serve the Lord, like to do something for the Lord with that extra time I have.
It's like when the children of Israel said through Moses to Pharaoh, we're going to go out in the wilderness, three days journey and we're going to serve the Lord. What did he do? Says you're going to work more hours and take away the straw. Yeah, an 8 hour day anymore.
You got more responsibilities now, young man. You're going to work 12 hour days. Sorry about your family, sorry about the assembly. You're going to serve the board. And Satan is clever in his way to come in and lay upon, especially young brother, way more responsibilities when it comes to a time where he could be useful and raising his little family useful in the assembly to load him up with.
Long hours and long days.
And pursuing a career.
And we need to be careful on that side of things. We don't want the leisure time that plays into the enemy's hands that way. But you know that time comes to serve the Lord, and Satan will try and load you up with ours and just make it seem like it's a priority of my life. I gotta do this. Watch out for that.
There's a verse in Second Timothy chapter 4.
Second Timothy 4 and verse 8.
Henceforth there is a laid up for me, a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day, and not to me only, but to all them that also love His appearing. So there's a a crown for those who love his appearance. We look forward to the rapture when the Lord comes to take us to heaven.
Just verse is saying those it's a special blessing to love is appearing. That's when the Lord comes and he's glorified before all the world with all the Saints now in our in just before we close in our just one difference between the the rapture and the appearance in verse 1617 of our chapter.
1St Thessalonians 4 we which are alive and remain, shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. See, we're the Lord not coming back to earth at the rapture. He's coming to meet us in the air. But let's, let's look over in Zechariah chapter 14 and we'll see what's going to happen at the appearance.
The Lord is not coming back to earth at the rapture. He's going to call us up with the trumpet.
If we're already dead, then we're going to hear a chef. The Old Testament Saints will hear the will hear the voice of the arcing is that.
Archangel is connected with Israel, but in Zechariah chapter 14 and verse 35 will read.
And his feet, this is when the Lord comes back at the appearing, His feet shall stand in that day upon the mouth of elves, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and on the Mount of Olives. Show, plead in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the West. And there shall be a very great valley, and half the mountain shall remove towards the north, and half of it toward the South. And you shall flee to the valley of the mountains, for the valley of the mountains shall reach unto Hazel.
Yeah, ye shall plead like as he fled from before the earthquake in the days of Isaiah, king of Judah.
Now listen to this.
And the Lord my God shall come, and all the Saints with him. And so there's the Saints of God. That's you and and, and I, we're going to come back with the Lord on this day when his feet touched him out of always and throughout a time. But there's more verses that show the glory of that day.
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Maybe we could sing 100 and 71170.
Below he comes from handy Sandy once, for they were listeners playing by all the sins by all the same time.
12 triumphs.
All the way through the old.
Hallelujah, Jesus runs and comes to reign.
Jesus comes and comes to reign.
Sing a song of God.
Again.
Passion blowing glory.
Show me that's all that Let's say it's a long day, Sailor Nation to his friends.
Jesus, Lord, I.
Glory to remain in heaven and to take my people home.
All creation.
All creation.
Trusts are still That's the Last of Us.
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Our loving God and Father, we thank you for the sweet time we've had together this morning over Thy Word.
Thank Thee for those thoughts of our Lord's coming for us being with Him.
And all those things that brought out these things that are needful or are to be brought before us that we might have our thoughts on him. And so we just.
Amend ourself.
Again, and we think of any who may still be on the road traveling.
Pray for them. We thank thank thee for each one who is safely arrived, and we think of some who perhaps have not been able to.
Come and be here with us this weekend. We pray for them as well. And we ask this now, the name of our blessed Savior, Lord Jesus Christ.
1 Thessalonians 4:9-18
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Preserve thy walk most graciously within my sheltering board. 288 some brother.
Oh, thou good mercies.
Mercy all raining calendar.
Say I just can't like you fall down within the standing more this way.
From the state.
They blame the sun till.
Every day towards Jesus Christ.
Of God.
I am.
00:05:22
Let's break our God and our loving Father.
Have surely worked some words that are so true thy mercies.
Exceed more than we can begin to say. We thank Thee for opening the scriptures to us this morning, for the instruction, the comfort that has been given to us or.
All this Father, we, it makes us look forward to this time as we again open by word. We pray that Thou by thy spirit will minister.
More of Thy beloved Son to us. For our encouragement along our pathway homeward we ask in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, Amen. Amen. Amen, Amen.
And I suggest, brethren, if it's mind of the.
Assembly that we spend a little more time in.
The First Thessalonians chapter 4 the we do cover a good part of the earlier part of the of the chapter, but.
I also believe from.
And there's.
11 to the end of the chapter of first, maybe verse 10 to the end of the chapter.
First Thessalonians, chapter 4.
Starting with verse 10.
And indeed you do it toward all brethren, which are in all Macedonia.
But when you see your brethren, that you increase more and more.
And then you study to be quiet, and to do your own business, and to do and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you, that you may walk honestly towards them that are without, and that you may have lack of nothing. But I would not have you be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that you sorrow not even as others will have no hole. Or if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, Even so them also would sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.
But this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord, shall not prevent your sleep. But the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shallow, with the voice of the Archangel, and with the trump of God. And the dead in Christ shall rise 1St And we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air. So shall we ever be with the Lord.
We're for comfort one another.
Wonderful, the testimony that this.
Young assembly exhibited.
They were known throughout that whole region.
For their right testimony.
And the Word of God has come in power toward them and.
They had sounded out to the Word of the Lord, chapter one, not only in Macedonia and the Kaya, but also in every place your faith to God. Word is spread abroad. So they were.
Energetic in there.
Spreading of the good news, I would say. And there was a testimony.
To all their.
The region where props were still steeped in idolatry, here was a group of.
Believers that exhibited that.
That divine life in the.
In their walk and waves, in their love, one toward another, this was quite evident.
00:10:01
The apostle says that we ourselves are talking dog to love one another, and indeed you do it toward all the brethren which are in all Macedonia.
But we beseech your brethren, that you increase more and more. How easy it is for Satan to get an inroad between brethren, and to stir up.
Hard feelings or what? What grudges or or bitterness?
That has a wide effect. It affects the whole assembly. But with the Thessalonians, their fervent love toward each other was was manifest. It was the the work, the work of God in their souls. And we, we covet this for for ourselves, I'm sure.
I.
There were some comments I made on verse 11 in the last meeting and.
What to read the way that the new translation has it?
It says seek earnestly to be quiet.
To mind your own affairs.
And work with your own hands.
Would this be the opposite of being a busy body?
And always involving yourself with others affairs.
I think that's right. So the.
Connected with working with their own hands is that.
That time that they should have been working was being used to.
Involve themselves in an unscriptural way.
And other folks affairs and causing difficulty in the assembly. You know there is a sphere of pastoral work and it it can get early deep into intimate details and and lives but that's a healthy work and a scriptural work that's not what's being taken up here at all it's.
Involving oneself and another affairs in this way. It should say a busy body, but it's it comes from two things. Comes from the assumption of a superiority as to my own walk and a superiority as to my own knowledge. I know more and I'm better. Therefore I am entitled to involve myself in so and so's affairs and it's not the right assumption.
But it was connected with that, the idleness.
And.
As it says in the scripture and connection on busy bodies going from house to house.
Last point out very clearly in the second epistle, chapter 311.
Were spent for even when we were with you.
This we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat. We hear that there are some who walk among the disorderly, working not at all. But our busy bodies now them that are such we command and exhort by our Lord Jesus Christ, that will quietly they work to meet their own brand.
Well, this was a neatful exhortation. The Greeks looked down upon manual labor, you know, and.
They were philosophers, but.
The apostle was concerned that.
Their outward testimony among the unbelievers did not bring reproach upon the name of Christ.
And he gave his own example, working day and night, that he might not be chargeable to any of them. He didn't take any of their money or funds. He worked.
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As a tent maker during the day and preach the gospel at night.
What are you marvelous servant of the Lord, but he had gave an example of what he of what he was teaching here.
I don't want to belabor the point and get us off, but just.
First, Peter chapter 4 just seems to indicate the seriousness of being.
Involved in other people's affairs? See that as something minor, but look at what it's listed with in verse 15, First Peter chapter 4 and verse 15.
But none of you suffer as a murderer that's terrible, or as a thief, or as an evildoer.
Whereas a busy body and other men's matters, Mr. Darby has an overseer.
Of others affairs.
Is listed with these three things murdered, theft, and evil?
Back in our chapter, verse 12 That he may walk honestly.
With them that are without.
That he may have lack of nothing as a brother said this possible follow the great example of that.
New translation instead of lack of nothing has need of no one.
And it's really the thought of not being in debt.
To anyone have in need of going.
To be careful that we don't.
Comment to anyone back in that way and it's a hindrance to the flourishing of love and the assembly just.
As much as my name getting involved in another's affairs, just as much as defrauding a brother, all of those things hinder the outflow of love and the holy and healthy way in the assembly.
We live in a dishonest world, don't we? And.
Honestly, is that a premium any day?
Easy for us to be affected by the.
Lack of uprightness in the world today, and we're exhorted to have on the breastplate of righteousness. I believe that's practical righteousness there.
We have the divine righteousness.
Before God through the work of Christ, but.
The world is very quick to pick up.
On any inconsistency in the believers life, when he's made a profession of Christ, they connect his conduct, his conduct with his profession. Rightly so. If we are, if we're making a profession, then there should be consistency in our in our walk before the world and before our brethren.
So uprightness and honesty is is what the Lord expects us to to manifest.
The word asleep here.
00:20:01
Probably we know this already because reiterate, it's never applied to an unsaved person.
The body was of the spirit is dead. That's the simplest definition of death, that you could have the body without the spirit, but.
For an unsaved person.
The body is separated from the spirit, that is true, but there's no such a thing as soul sleep or the unsaved. Their their soul and their spirit are conscious under the judgment of God. They are never spoken of as being asleep, but the believer who passes through the article of death.
If the Lord doesn't come, they are spoken of as asleep. It's in reference to their body, not their soul and their spirit. Their soul and their spirit are consciously in the enjoyment of the Lord. Not in a glorified state of course.
They await that. We await that too. But.
As to the body, it is asleep and.
When the show is given.
That body, that body of humiliation that went into death.
Will be raised.
And changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, into a body of glory. Not a new body. Let us be careful there. Not a new body that really is would deny resurrection. It's the body that went down into death, raised by the power of the Lord's Word, and changed instantaneously into the body of glory.
Just like Christ's mother. Well, we know that in lithium.
Philippians three were familiar with the verse. This wild body is not a it gives them a misinterpretation. The body is not looked upon vile. It can be used for vile purposes, but the body itself is not violent or God wouldn't tell us to present our bodies as a living sacrifice to God.
The thought is diverse, as we probably all know, is a body of humiliation.
Because.
We still are connected with this groaning creation.
And we have infirmities. Infirmities are not sins per SE, but they can lead to sin. Another thing that we should be clear about, the Lord did not have infirmity.
In Burma, Jesus, part of the groaning creation, we all have them in some way or other, and as we get older we feel them more.
And it's a it's a body of humiliation. It's always humbling us, but that body of humiliation will be transformed into the body of glory. So these infirmities that we have, as I again I say, they are not sin, but they can lead to sin. If I don't watch and be careful in self judgment, I can begin to complain and.
And be dissatisfied with the.
The sufferings of this human frame.
But the Lord does sympathize with our infirmities, doesn't say He removes the Spirit of God, doesn't remove the infirmities, but He gives us power.
To overcome and to to keep keep the whole nature in the place of death.
Maybe you should turn to that verse in Romans chapter. I'm not quoting it exactly. Romans chapter 8.
Verse 26 Likewise, the Spirit also helped with our infirmities, doesn't say He removes them, but He gives us grace to endure them and to keep from complaining to receive them from the Lord. But the Lord does simplify with our infirmities. I think that's beautiful as our great high priest, though himself not having infirmities in his earthly pathway, he can enter into and sympathize.
Support.
Strengthen us when we have, when we encounter these.
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Bermudas that we we all have. Is that right, Steve? I think that's right.
That you sorrow not even as others which have no hope.
I don't believe this is saying that we don't sorrow when we lose 1.
But we don't sorrow as those who have no hope.
That's the difference.
They're not gone forever.
Don't like to hear people speak of Saints as having passed away.
They have not passed away.
They have passed on their spirit.
Their spirit, their soul has passed on to be with the Lord, and their body is asleep, but they have not passed away.
Don't want to make some of the offender for a worry but.
Saints that have died have not passed away.
A lot of this verse couple weeks ago our daughter Brynn had been babysitting a little boy.
He was 20 months old. Since August, three days a week.
Salvation and Satisfaction Psalm 62 & 63
Open—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.
Salvation.
And satisfaction.
I've been thinking about these two subjects.
And I've enjoyed how that these two are put together in two Psalms, Psalm 62 Salvation and Psalm 63 satisfaction. So I'd like to turn to.
Psalm 62.
It tells us here.
In this Psalm.
There are 6.
Only now we may not.
C6 only is here but.
This word truly.
And this word surely, truly in the first verse, surely in the ninth verse.
I understand they mean only.
Four of the onlys referred to confidence.
In God.
Two of the only refer to the failure in man.
So this song starts out truly my soul waits.
Upon God.
From him comes my salvation.
You know I believe in this Psalm. We find out the source of salvation.
It's God.
God and I believe this Psalm also gives us.
If we're questioning our salvation.
It can give us assurance of salvation.
Here, David, he says.
Truly my soul waits upon God. From him cometh.
My salvation.
Now I really enjoyed how Mr. Darby put this first verse.
And I didn't bring my.
J&D Bible to the front does anybody have?
A JND Bible I might be OK, thank you very much.
OK. Thank you very much, Josh. Now I'd like to read this.
In Jay and Darby translation.
Psalm 63 because 62 It's beautiful.
And here's how he puts this.
Upon God alone.
Doth my soul rest peacefully?
From Him is my salvation.
I ask you here this afternoon.
Is your soul resting peacefully?
Are you at peace in your soul?
If you are not, what are you resting your soul upon?
Because when we rest our soul upon God, as the psalmist says here.
We rest peacefully.
And you know, we live in a troubled world.
It's only getting worse.
But you and I, we can enjoy peace in a troubled world.
Peace is not the absence of trouble, but it is.
The absence of fear.
Faith is the absence of fear.
And for those that rest.
Upon God for their salvation.
They have nothing.
To fear it could be at peace therefore.
Being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
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We have peace in our souls.
We can enjoy peace.
And the Apostle Paul, in writing to the Philippians, he said be anxious for nothing.
In other words, don't worry.
Be careful for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with Thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God.
And the peace of God that passes all understanding shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
And then it goes on to speak of how the God of peace will be with you. Well, peace is a wonderful subject.
And we notice how many of the epistles they begin with grace and peace.
Peace follows grace because grace makes everything of God.
It makes everything of Christ and nothing of ourselves.
But when we introduce ourselves.
Into salvation.
That's why we got a big problem.
That's where our peace gets shattered.
But as I read through this Psalm, I find out that.
The psalmist is resting upon God. His confidence is not divided.
In verse 2.
Truly my soul waits upon God. From Him comes my salvation. He only is my rock and my salvation.
There it is again, He only is my rock in my salvation.
He is my defense. I shall not be greatly moved.
How long will you imagine mischief against a man? Ye shall be slain, all of you. As a bowing wall shall you be, and as a tottering fence. They only consult to cast him down from His Excellency. They delight in lies, They bless with their mouth, but they curse inwardly.
Cela, my soul wait thou only upon God from my expectation is from Him. He only is my rock and my salvation. He is my defense. I shall not be moved, and God is my salvation and my glory. The rock of my strength and my refuge is.
In God, I'll just read that far.
And so we find.
That David gets onto the rock. Now if we go to the previous Psalm, we find that he's not on the rock.
Any citizens in Psalm 61 verse one, hear my cry, O God, attend unto my prayer from the end of the earth will I cry unto Thee? When my heart is overwhelmed, lead me to the rock that is higher than I.
You ever get overwhelmed?
Because of circumstances in your life, they just bear down upon you and you get discouraged, you get depressed. There doesn't seem to be any way out.
Well, there is a way out and that is to get on the rock because when we try in our own effort.
To solve the problem.
And leave God out. We're only going to be making matters worse. We dig ourselves deeper into a hole.
We need to get on the rock.
And so we find that in Psalm 61.
David, he is being led to the rock.
In Psalm 62, he's on the rock, and he says I shall not be greatly moved now.
Inverse.
6.
We have.
Almost the same words.
There's one word that's added here in verse two. I shall not be greatly moved, but when we come to verse 6.
I shall not be moved. So we see that in verse 2. There's still some uncertainty, there's some uneasiness.
00:10:04
There's some discomfort.
And.
Why is this?
Is it because?
We begin to bring ourselves into the picture.
Instead of resting.
And God and him alone.
We begin to.
Look to ourselves.
To be part of.
The Deliverance.
But God wants us to realize.
That deliverance, it comes through.
Himself.
And trusting in him.
And you know, God appreciates when we give him our trust.
You know it tells us in Proverbs three, trust in the Lord with all thine heart. Yeah, all thine heart, and lean not unto thy own understanding.
But sometimes we don't do that. You know, we.
Allow our own thoughts.
Our own feelings.
And it disturbs our peace.
And we might be moved. Maybe not a lot, but there is a movement.
But when we.
Put our trust.
In the Lord.
With all our heart.
Then there is.
Confidence and.
I often think of what it tells us in Proverbs 16 verse 20.
I believe.
It was in the year 1620 that the Pilgrims landed here on this continent. 1620 we learn about that. We go down and visit Plymouth, MA.
Do you know what it tells us in Proverbs 1620? The first part of the verse is good.
He that hindered handless the matter wisely shall find good. But the last part of the verse says, Whoso puts his trust in the Lord.
Happy as he.
Happy is he?
So I question sometimes when I might get kind of down.
Kind of discouraged, kind of unhappy. What's the problem here?
There's a problem with God.
No.
The problem is right here.
It's a matter of trust. It's a matter of believing.
Like was brought out to hear this this afternoon. It's in believing that we have hope, that we have confidence.
Yeah, we have joy. Peace.
It's in believing.
And.
The Lord Jesus and speaking with Jarius.
He said some beautiful words.
When he learned that his daughter had died.
Be not afraid, only believe. There it is again.
The word only.
Only believe.
And I like what's added in Mark's Gospel chapter 5.
It says as soon as.
The message was relayed to.
Dryas as soon as.
The Lord spoke, and He said those words for.
For driest comfort, you know the Lord knows when we need comfort.
And we here today.
So many bad reports.
And there's a verse over here. I don't know if I can put my finger on it right away, but.
OK, Psalm 112.
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I know you spoken on this first, brother Bill and I, I really appreciate it, enjoyed it.
Here in Psalm 112.
It speaks about.
A man that has faith. A good man.
And.
Here it says in verse 5. This is Psalm 112, verse five. A good man showeth favor and lendeth. He will guide his affairs with discretion. Surely he shall not be moved forever. The righteous shall be an everlasting remembrance. He shall not be afraid of evil tidings. His heart is fixed.
Trusting in the Lord.
His heart is established.
He shall not be afraid.
Here's one who's on the rock?
He hears evil tidings, but he's not afraid the evil tidings.
Don't.
Caused discouragement or depression. Why? Because he's trusting in the Lord, and the Lord is in control of all our circumstances and he knows what's very best and so.
I just really appreciate the Lord's love for you and for me, and He gives us what we need in the way of comfort. It tells us that heaviness in the heart of man makes it stupid.
I wonder if there any heavy hearts here today?
Are you stooping down, stooping over because of the weight of difficulties? Maybe in the assembly, maybe in your family, in a relationship, maybe at school, at work?
Difficulties.
Well, you know, a good word can make that kind of heart glad.
We've had a storm recently and in our area.
And in this area to no doubt many of the trees about bowed right over because of heavy snow load a wet snow.
It just brings those trees right over 1000 down.
Well, you know.
We can get bowed down with heavy load too, but the Lord wants it to release us from the Lord. He wants to take away the load of our sins, and He will, but He's just as interested in removing our cares as He is removing our sins.
You don't want us to be careful.
I think Martha, you know, she found fault with her sister.
And I believe she found fault with the Lord and she says.
Lord, tell my sister to help me.
Don't you care?
That I'm left here to do this alone. Don't you care? Well, you know what, Martha, She didn't know much about the story that went just before in that chapter. Did she not know about what took place with the Samaritan? You know that Samaritan, when he saw.
That poor man that had been wounded and left half dead on the side of the road, What did the Samaritan do? Did he pass by on the other side like the Levi?
The priest? No, It tells us that he had compassion.
On demand. And that's a beautiful word, compassion. And in the Psalms we read over and over how the Lord is full of compassion. We read about it in the Gospels and compassion is to have.
A sincere.
Concern and pity for somebody with an earnest desire to help that person out in that Samaritan. When he saw that man, he had compassion on him and he went to where he was.
And he had just what was required to meet the need of that man. He takes the oil and the wine. He pours it into his wounds. He binds up his wounds. And then what does he do next? Does he just leave him there? No, he takes and he trades place with the man on his animal, whatever animal it was. A donkey maybe.
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And so he puts the man on the donkey, that poor wounded man, and.
The Samaritan, he walks.
They go to the inn.
And the Samaritan man says.
To the innkeeper.
Take care of him.
Take care of him.
And.
I'm going away, but when I return, I'll repay you.
Whatever it is that I owe you. But here you see, I believe in the Samaritan. A picture of the Lord Jesus.
You know how he cares for you and I in our.
Fallen state as sinners.
And as I look around this hall here today, I see many, many who the Lord has picked up. He saved your soul. He's cleansed your heart.
And you're being cared for.
The inn has often been spoken of as the assembly.
Well, the innkeeper was there and he took care of this man.
And you know, I believe Martha.
She didn't know about that.
Now, do you think that the Lord doesn't have a care for you and for me?
When he went to the cross of Calvary and laid down his life and he shed his own precious blood on that cruel cross, he did it for you and for me. And we think about what transpired at the cross, his suffering, how he suffered for sin, that just for the unjust to bring us to God.
You don't think that the Lord isn't going to care for you? Of course he is. And so the Apostle Peter, he could speak about this, you know, he said, casting all your care upon him, not just some of your care.
Paul says be careful for nothing. Peter says cast all your care upon him.
For he careth for you.
He cares for you.
Well, there's much more that could be said about this portion here. You know the.
Verse four it says.
They only consult to cast him down from His Excellency. They delight in lies. Here's man after the flesh. This is a man without God. This is a man that trusts in himself. And you know the Scripture says he that trust in his own heart is a fool.
They bless with their mouth, but they curse inwardly. Selah. That means stop and think about this. What's being said here?
You know the Pharisees.
I must say for the most part they fall into this category.
The Lord had to say about them. They draw near to me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.
And the Lord said beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. Hypocrisy is being something.
Different on the outside than we are on the inside. God does not appreciate that.
So when we think about what man is after the flesh, we need to realize.
We need to look outside ourselves.
Because we've all been born with the flesh and that's why we need to be born again. We need a brand new life. And the Lord Jesus is the head of a new creation. And when we put our faith in him, we get a brand new life, which is Christ himself. And that life is empowered by the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit. And this is what we need. Because apart from this.
There's no hope. There's no salvation. We are all as an unclean thing. All our righteousnesses are as filthy routes.
So the psalmist recognizes this and he says in verse five, My soul, wait thou only upon God, for my expectation is from him.
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He only is my rock and my salvation. He is my defense. I shall not be moved.
You notice this word only only only.
You know Peter.
He failed and he said, you know, even though everybody else.
Now he says, Lord, I'm not going to deny you.
But Peters expectation was from himself. I don't think he realized that, but his expectation was from this old corrupt nature that we have and it was self-confidence and he didn't realize that. And sometimes it takes a while to learn what the flesh is. But the Apostle Paul he could say he came to realize.
This.
I know.
That in me that is in my flesh dwells no good thing.
The Lord Jesus said the flesh profits nothing.
The flesh is worthless. There's nothing in the flesh in this corrupt nation nature that can produce fruit for God.
And that's why we need God.
Only. Only.
Verse seven And God is my salvation and my glory. The rock of my strength and my refuge is in God.
Trust in Him at all times. Ye people, pour out your heart before Him. God is a refuge for us. Selah.
There's a beautiful word, sea lion, that means to stop and meditate and consider what has been said.
But we live in a time in a world where there's not a lot of time for meditation. And I think the enemy of our souls tries to inundate us with the cares of this life and pleasures, you know, of other things and riches. But as we read on here.
We really need to consider what God is telling us, because if we don't.
Think about God in His Word.
We could easily go off the rails, and we will. First, Nine says. Surely men of low degree are vanity and men of high degree are a lie to be laid in the balance. They are all together lighter.
Than vanity. Here we find in this verse deceit. We saw it.
In verse four, those are delighting lies. And here we have deceit. We have lies. Is this not what characterizes the day in which we live?
Lies. What Can you believe?
You pick up the newspaper, you hear a news feed, and depending on the source of the news feed, one says one thing and one says another. And maybe it's about the same story. But I believe we live in a day when the enemy, the God of this world, is a master.
At the seat.
And he is deceiving. It tells us that evil men and seducers are going to wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. And that's the day in which we live. And so thank God that we have this book, We have the truth in our hands here today, and thy word is truth.
The written truth in our hands, but we have also the living truth. That's Christ. And you know, my Father used to say that.
There is a place where the truth is, and there's a place where the truth will put you.
And really, it's the same place.
The question is, do we want the truth?
Pilot he had a question for the Lord. He said, what is truth?
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And he was right in the presence of the living truth.
Jesus, Jesus said I am the truth. But Pilate he didn't stick around to hear.
He didn't want to know. People don't want the truth, but the truth is that which will bring joy and peace in your soul.
The Lord Jesus said you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.
And how thankful we can be to have the truth of God in our hands today.
Jay and Darby, he wrote lines like this. Low at thy feet. Lord Jesus, this is the place for me. Here have I learned deep lessons, truths that have set me free. Free from myself, Lord Jesus, free from the ways of men, chains of thought that once bound me, never shall bind me again.
Not but thy love Lord Jesus conquered this wayward will, but for thy love constraining, I had been wayward still.
Do you want the truth? Do you want to be guided by the truth?
The Lord Jesus is the truth, and by the way, He's the center.
Of the assembly. Christ is the center of his assembly. He's in the midst.
We read through a scripture, we find reference to the fact many times Jesus was in the midst. He was in the midst of the doctors.
Asking and answering questions.
He was in the midst of two thieves at the cross.
And when he visited the disciples after he had risen from the dead, it tells us that he came and Jesus was in the midst. And a week later the same thing. Jesus was in the midst. And when we come to Revelation, we find there.
A lamb.
As it had been slain, where is it? Where is he? In the midst of the elders?
He will be the center of attraction in glory.
And as it is in heaven, so be it on earth. It's a wonderful privilege to be gathered simply.
To the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And to be in a place where the Spirit of God has liberty to exalt Christ and nobody else.
And that's what the Spirit of God wants to do. He wants to glorify Christ. And this brings joy into our souls.
Well, in Psalm 63.
We have satisfaction.
Because really?
And this might come as a surprise to some.
But I don't think salvation is an end in itself.
People, they talk about being saved.
They're not going to hell, they're going to go to heaven, and so on and so forth. But you know what? Salvation.
Is a means to an end, and that is satisfaction.
Because God.
Wants to be possessed of us.
But he also wants us to be possessed of him.
In other words, He wants us to find our joy in our satisfaction.
In God himself.
And.
I know somebody often.
And I don't mean to find fault.
But they pray.
We thank you most of all for our salvation.
Well, what about the Savior? What about the Savior?
We need salvation to meet our needs, but we need the Savior to meet the longing of our heart.
And in Psalm 63, Psalm of David.
O God, thou art my God. Early will I seek thee. My soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee. In a dry and thirsty land, where no water is. Here we find David in a wilderness, the wilderness of Judah.
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But what is he crying out for? Food and water? No.
He's crying out for God. He says early while I see thee. And you know, we have young people here today. And it's so good to see those young people whose desire is to live for their Savior, to live for the Lord and to seek him.
Early in life.
Now I think too, sometimes we try to work things out.
In our own strength.
And.
It doesn't workout.
So then.
Finally we say, well, let's pray about this. Let's look to the Lord about this.
It would have been better to look to the Lord at the beginning of the problem.
Well, early will I seek thee. My soul thirst for Thee. My flesh longs for Thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is. What for? He wants God because he wants to see His power. He wants to see His glory.
David had been in the sanctuary.
And I believe it's in Psalm 96, perhaps it speaks about how that.
Honor and majesty are in thy presence, and strength and beauty.
Are in our sanctuary.
And David really thrived on being in the presence of the Lord.
And we know in Psalm 27, I believe it is, He could say one thing if I desired of the Lord, and that will I seek after.
That I may dwell in the House of the Lord.
All the days of my life to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in His holy temple. This is really what satisfied David's soul.
And I believe.
It's the Lord who can satisfy your soul and mine, because.
He satisfies the longing soul and He fills the hungry soul with goodness, and that's really what we want, And this is what God can do.
And David says here they loving kindness is better than life. My lips shall praise thee. Thus will I bless thee. While I live, I will lift up my hands in thy name, my soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness, and my mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips.
Well, if David came to know the Lord in this way, how much more?
Do we know him better?
Now that the Lord Jesus has come and he's lived here, God has revealed himself and the person of his Son. Now we have a New Testament, we have the word of God and.
You and I.
We can like marry a Bethany, sit at Jesus feet, hear his word.
And it's the good part and.
The Lord wasn't going to take away that good part from Mary.
Because the good part was really Christ himself. And so the Lord appreciates when we desire Him in order.
To satisfy our hearts. And Mary, of course, worships the Lord.
Anoints him and the Lord says wherever the gospel is preached this that Mary is done in anointing him is going to be told because that represented worship and that's what God wants. He's seeking worshippers and.
Well, I think I'm.
Verse eight My soul followeth hard after thee. Thy right hand upholdeth me. My soul followeth heart. That means.
David was close to the Lord, and may we too follow the Lord with purpose of heart. We live in a world that is seeking to divide our hearts with Christ, but may his efforts be frustrated.
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And may we?
Follow him.
And live for him.
And.
We're going to find that.
He not only saves.
But he satisfies.
The Righteousness of God, Daniel in the Lions? Den
Open—Steve Stewart
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.
I see your boys all sitting here in a row being really patient.
And it's encouraging to me sitting there quietly. You know, this meeting is an hour and a half. I was asked to take a meeting out in Tacoma, WA.
And time came for the meeting, but I was mixed up and I didn't realize. And I set my seat and set my seat, set my seat when I realized I was supposed to be talking.
And I got up and had the meeting and at the end it's a little family sitting there with boys. Boy about your size.
And he still said me. That was the longest meeting I ever sat through in my life.
And I said.
I know what you mean.
There's a verse.
Couple of verses, first one is in.
2nd Corinthians.
2nd Corinthians, chapter 5.
And this is speaking about the Lord Jesus and God.
Says, For he that is God hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him, that is in Christ.
That might be a hard verse to understand. Let me read one more with it too, back in Romans.
Book of Romans.
In chapter 3.
In verse 21.
But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets, even the righteousness of God, which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all, and upon all them that believe.
When you were saved.
God says you were made the righteousness of God, but what does that mean? What is the righteousness of God mean? I'm sure you've heard that.
Many times in meetings, the righteousness of God. What does it mean? Well, you know, there's a story in the Old Testament that you're very familiar with that helps us understand what that means, and that is in the book of Daniel.
Daniel.
Went through something in his life and it's a story you have heard from the earliest time you can remember.
That's the story of Daniel.
In the lions den.
Daniel, Chapter 6.
And I think we know the story, but we'll go through it. I always enjoy this chapter very much. I've never gotten tired of it. I heard it read to me since earliest days I can remember.
Says in chapter 6 it pleased Darius who is the king, to set over the Kingdom 120 Princess which should be over the whole Kingdom and over these 3 presidents of whom Daniel was first, that the Princess might give accounts unto them and the king should have no damage. Then this Daniel was preferred above the presidents and Princess because an excellent spirit was in him and the king.
Thought to set him over the whole realm and so Daniel had been taken captive from the land of Israel and carried the faraway land of Babylon and God prospered him he was faithful to God while he was there and God put him in a very important place in the Kingdom and he was faithful there it says he was put in that place as well as some others that.
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Should have no damage. That means he would watch and make sure no one was cheating the king in connection with the King's business in the realm. That no one was not paying their taxes or no one was trying to do something to undermine the King's purposes. He wanted to make sure the king didn't have any damage. That's what that means.
And he did a very good job, and so he was preferred above all these other presidents.
Well, they were envious.
They were envious of Daniel and you know, I think there's a reason why. It's because they were men who would have liked to.
Maybe taken a little of what the king had, but Daniel was doing a good job watching over everything and they weren't going to get away with a thing and they didn't like Daniel in that place.
So what do they do? It says in verse four, the presidents and Princess sought to find occasion against Daniel concerning the Kingdom, but they could find none occasion nor fault. For as much as he was faithful, neither was there any error or fault found in him. Who does that remind you of?
Well, it reminds us of the Lord Jesus, doesn't it?
The Lord Jesus knew no sin.
Knew no sin.
And he was, above all, faithful to God.
And you know, when he passed through this world is men and women in this world looked upon him, they hated him, Scripture says without a cause.
Because he was faithful to God and there was no fault in him and it just shed a light on them and showed them up for what they were.
And so they hated him.
While these men said, we're not going to find any occasion against this Daniel verse five, except we find it against him concerning the law of his God.
Then these presidents and Princess assembled together to the king, and they make a plea to the king.
But they have a plan.
And it's not a very good one. They have a plan when they come to the king, and they say thus to the king. King Darius live forever all the presidents of the Kingdom.
And the governors and the Princess, and the counselors, the captains, have consulted together to establish a royal statute and to make a firm decree that whosoever shall ask any petition of any God or man for 30 days save of thee, O King, he shall be cast into the den of lions.
Now okay, establish the decree and sign the writing that it be not changed according to the law of the Medes and Persians which altereth not. Wherefore King Darius signed the writing and the decree. Now they lied because they said all the presidents of the Kingdom, but Daniel was one of them.
He wasn't in agreement with what they had to say.
So they came to the king, and they lie.
And they got him and their clever ways to sign this law that if anyone prayed to anyone else other than the king, rest a petition, a favor of anyone other than the king, they would have to suffer the penalty of being cast into a den of lies.
And the king, in his vanity and his own pride, he signed that decree.
Well, now what are those men going to do?
What is Daniel going to do?
Daniel verse 10 knew that the writing was signed. He went into his house, his windows being opened in the chamber toward Jerusalem, kneeled upon his knees three times a day, and prayed and gave thanks before his gone as he did a four time.
These men Then these men assembled and found Daniel praying and making supplication before his gone. Then they came near and spake before the king. Concerning the King's decree past, thou not signed a decree that every man that shall ask a petition of any God or man within 30 days, save of the O King, shall be cast into the den of lions.
00:10:05
The king answered and said The thing is true according to the law of the Medes and Persians, which altereth not.
Then answered they, and said before the king, That Daniel, which is of the children of the captivity of Judah, regardeth not the O king, nor the decree that thou has signed, will make it this petition three times a day, That is, he prayed three times a day to God.
Then the king, when he heard these words, was sore displeased with himself, and set his heart on Daniel to deliver him. And he labored till the going down of the sun to deliver him. And these men assembled unto the king, and said unto the king, No, O king, that the law of the Medes and Persians is that no decree or statute which the king establisheth may be changed.
They got the king in a trap.
In those days in the Kingdom of the Medes and Persians, when a king signed something into law.
He even he couldn't change it.
Even he couldn't change it. Once he signed it into law, that was it.
He was not allowed to change.
And he had signed that decree into law and it could not be changed.
And when those men found Daniel praying, and they came to the king and said, we found Daniel praying, and you know what the law said? You have to cast him into the den of life.
And the king realized he was in a trap.
And he would like to change that law.
And he was not happy with himself. And he labored, it says, till the going down of the sun. He worked all day to try and figure out how he could get around that law, but he couldn't.
You couldn't.
He could not.
Break that wall.
And still be the king.
He could not change that law and still be the king.
And God has said, the soul that sinneth it shall die.
And that's unchangeable.
God cannot ignore sin.
And still be God.
God is righteous.
God is holy, He can't ignore sin. That would be inconsistent.
With His Holiness.
And he can't be inconsistent with himself.
That would make him unrighteous.
And God is not unrighteous. God is righteous.
And the scripture says the soul that sinneth it shall die.
And you could labor all day till they're going down to the sun to try and figure a way around that and you can't.
The king could not still be the king. He couldn't be righteous and not carry out the just penalty of that law.
It must be carried out.
And he didn't want to.
But he had to.
Then these men assembled unto the King, and said unto the king, No, O king, that the law of the Medes and Persians is that no decree in our statute which the King establisheth may be changed.
That's it.
And so he had to.
The king commanded, and they brought Daniel and cast him into the den of life.
Now the king spake, and said unto Daniel, Thy God, whom else service continually he will deliver thee. And a stone was brought and laid upon the mouth of the den, And the king sealed it with his own signet, with a signet of his Lords, that the purpose might not be changed concerning.
00:15:16
Dan.
And the king went to his palace, passed the night fasting. Neither were instruments of music brought before him, and his sleep went from him.
Then the king rose very early in the morning, and went in haste unto the den of lions.
And when he came to the den, he cried with a lamentable voice unto Daniel. And the king spake, and said to Daniel, Oh, Daniel, servant of the living God.
Is thy God, whom thou service, continually able to deliver thee from the Alliance?
I want to turn to some verses, think about Daniel and think of what the king called him. He called him the servant of the living God.
He said he served him continually and he asked the question, was he able to save him?
From the Lions.
You know, in the book of Isaiah.
It says about the Lord Jesus.
God says about him.
In Isaiah chapter 42.
And verse one, Behold, my servant.
Whom I uphold, mine elect, and whom I sold, aligned.
I put my Spirit upon him. He shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles, and so on verse four. He shall not fail nor be discouraged till he has set judgment in the earth. And so the Lord Jesus.
Came into this world, became a man, and he was here as the servant of the living God.
And he went to Calvary's cross.
Because God's holiness demanded that your sin require that you must die.
And be cast into a lost eternity.
And the Lord Jesus went to the cross.
And he gave his life there, and he suffered there the just for the unjust. He was made sin who knew no sin.
That we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
He went and bore the penalty that our sins deserved and that God's justice and holiness demanded. God couldn't sweep your sins under the rug and still be gone. He could not do that and still be holy. No, He is consistent with himself. He's holding. He's.
Can't have anything to do with Sam. That's what righteousness means. It means you're consistent with what you are, who you are. God is the light and holy, and he's consistent with who he is.
And so the Lord Jesus was judged on that cross.
And did he die?
Yes, he did.
He went into death. That was the penalty of sin.
It says in Psalm 22, this is the words of the Lord Jesus from his heart in Calvary's cross when he was suffering.
He cried out. Verse 21 Psalm 22. Save me from the lion's mouth.
Saved me from the lion's mouth.
Was he heard?
God hear him on the cross when he cried that.
Yes, but he couldn't answer him right away.
He couldn't answer him right away.
Because he had to go into death for you and I.
And the king went to the lion's den, and he cries out.
His expectation was Daniel was no doubt eaten by those lions.
Now what was the law?
00:20:00
That had been made. The law was that anyone who prayed to any other God or asked anything of any God or man other than the king would be cast into the lion's den.
So the penalty of breaking that law was to be cast into the lions den. Was the penalty of that law carried out?
Was it?
He was cast into the lion's den, who was carried out.
What did the law say? He had to stay in the lion's den.
No, just said he had to be casted. Did it say the lions had to kill him? Farida, no.
He said he had to be cast into the lion's den.
The justice penalty of that law?
Was carried out and he was cast into the lion's den.
And they even rolled a stone on the door of that depth.
Does that remind you of something else? Reminds me of something else.
Turn over the Gospel, Matthew.
We'll hold our placement, Daniel.
Gospel of Matthew.
You know, the Lord Jesus paid that penalty and he went into death.
And he laid his life down on that cross, and then they took him down from the cross.
And they in chapter 27.
Put them in a new tomb, verse 60.
And then says he, that's Joseph of Arimathea, rolled a great stone to the door of the sepulchre and departed. Well, those who had delivered the Lord Jesus to be put to death, they came to pilot the Roman governor who had given the order that he was to be crucified, and they.
Come to him and they say, Sir, verse 63, you remember that, Deceiver said, while he's yet alive, After three days I will rise again. Command, therefore, that the sepulchre be made sure.
Until the third day, lest his disciples come by night and seal them away, and say unto the people, he has risen from the dead. So the last error shall be worse than the first. Pilot said of them, You have a watch, go your way, make it as sure as you can. So they went and made the sepulchre, sealing the stone and setting a watch, just like that stone was sealed.
On the mouth of that lion's den.
Well, what happened?
What happened at that grave? Well, the next chapter gives us the wonderful story.
It says in verse 2.
It was the dawn towards the first day of the week. It was even just before the dawn says there was a great earthquake. For the Angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door and sat upon it.
And his countenance was like lightning, and his raiment white as snow. And for fear of him the keepers did shake, and became as dead men. And the Angel answered and said unto the woman, Fear ye not, for I know that you see Jesus, which was crucified. He is not here, for he is risen.
All that stone was rolled away.
And the Lord Jesus wasn't there.
All the wages of sin is death, and he went into death, but it doesn't say he had to stay there.
Because he knew no sin.
And he bore the penalty of yours and mine on the cross, but he himself personally was spotless.
And God raised him from the dead. God was righteous. Was God being inconsistent with what He is in His Holiness to raise the Lord Jesus from the dead? Was that right or was that wrong? It was the right thing to do. It was the the righteous thing to do. God was perfectly consistent with who He was.
Who he is and raising the Lord Jesus from the dead, He was righteous.
And the king comes to the den of lions, and he has the stone rolled away, and he calls into that den, and Daniel answers him.
Daniel answers him from that den.
00:25:01
O King, live forever. My God, his son is Angel, and I shut the lion's mouth.
That they have not hurt me for as much as before Him. Innocence, He was found in me and also before the O King of I don't know her. Oh, just like the Lord Jesus, there was innocence He found in Him. He was the spotless sinless one though He bore our sins and it's just penalty of the cross.
And Darius commanded. And what did they? He was successful. He was exceeding glad for him. Commanded. They should take Daniel up out of the den. And did anybody say, Oh, you can't do that, The law says he has to stay in the dead? No, that's not what the law said. It said he had to be cast into it, and he was.
And King Darius was righteous and taking Daniel up out of that den where he had been cast.
And God saved him.
Camilla Hinds mouth.
And in that same way, God save the Lord Jesus from the lions mouth and raised him from the dead.
An answer to his crime.
God is righteous in what He's done.
That's what righteousness is.
Darius was righteous in taking Daniel up out of that depth.
When you believed in the Lord Jesus Christ.
We read the Scripture. You've been made the righteousness of God.
In him.
God looks down and he sees you, and he sees me, and he sees his own righteousness in saving your soul, because the Lord Jesus paid the penalty and satisfied his holy claims.
Against your sin.
And he raised the Lord Jesus from the dead, righteously, having paid that penalty that was yours. And God can save you on a righteous basis. God is right if you put your trust in the Lord Jesus, He's just and justifying you.
These righteous And so when he looks at you, he says, I see my righteousness.
Because he has been righteous in saving your soul.
Well, I hope that helps you understand that very big work righteousness.
You know, I was 26 years old.
And I sat in a Sunday school class.
And excuse me, an old brother.
Name Break Jackson, Read this account.
And he explained the righteousness of God.
I think I understood it for the first time.
At least in a fuller sense.
So I hope it helps you too.
Together #35.
And #35.
Brights my soul.
00:30:06
I want drinking ice, singing now. Make glory, Satan.
When I say no more can rise.
As I told to be there.
All I sins were laid upon Him, Jesus.
Lord and one of the dream.
God, you didn't let him play them on him and.
Be breathing our free.
Forever. Yeah, forever.
It's my word.
Nothing has no ransom server.
90 by now.
Openings
Gospel—John Kemp
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Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls.
This is a gospel meeting tonight.
And.
We have a wonderful message to tell you.
But first of all, we're going to sing a hymn that is well known.
#5 on our hymn sheets.
Happy day that fix my choice and be my savior and my God some brothers started please.
Oh Happy Day, I face my choice.
I'll be my savior and my God.
What may this world make our free choice and tell its friends all abroad?
Happy days, happy days.
For Jesus was my sins are my sins are away.
Away.
Great transaction son. I am my Lord.
Dearest life, he drew me out and I followed. Why? To come back from one divine?
Happy day. Happy day.
When Jesus was Christ.
He told me.
To watch and pray and every choice sing every day.
I happy day and happy day when Jesus was my sins away.
Now rest my love denied in heart. Thanks on this class and center. Rest nor everyone thy Lord give life.
Every good person.
Happy day.
When Jesus?
My Saints away.
He told me.
To watch and pray.
For every choice, sing every day.
Happy day. Happy day when Jesus was.
My sins away.
Now we're going to have a word of prayer. We'll bow our heads. Our gods and our Father, look up to thee tonight with Thanksgiving.
For that unspeakable gift, the Lord Jesus, thy beloved Son.
And may He be glorified tonight as we seek to proclaim the message of pardon through His precious blood. We pray for any soul in the audience.
Unsaved who has never had that happy day in their lives, whether they be young or old, we are still in the day of grace. So help us Lord and guide us. Bless Thy freshest word abundantly tonight.
Where it made the last opportunity, We ask Thy help. We commit the meeting to the Thanksgiving in the worthy name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Amen. Turn with me also to #9 in yourself.
From every soul, by sin oppressed, and brotherhood started.
Come every soul by sin, oh grass says, blessing with the Lord.
00:05:44
Your Jesus strength is precious. What a great blessings to be strong.
Bloodstone to the grandson fun. That was just why it had so.
Only trust him.
We trust him, only trust him now.
He will save you. He will save you.
He will save you.
Enjoy the soul, me back then, the closing of gold in the morning.
In my hand here I have a cup of water.
We don't.
Realized often how wonderful it is to have clean, fresh water at our disposal.
I often visit India.
And there.
It's difficult to get fresh water.
In fact, in the slums they can hardly get wood.
In order to boil the water.
With your friends tonight, I want you to understand that God is offering you living water.
We're going to look at a verse in Proverbs 25.
Verse 25 that's easy to understand, to remember fabrics 25 verse 25 as cold waters.
Through a thirsty soul so.
Is good news from a far country and tonight.
God has good news for you. It comes from a far country. It comes from the Lord of glory there in heaven.
We are still in the day of grace. Although we're going to end this year in a few days, it is still the acceptable year of the Lord.
It is still an opportunity for you to accept Christ, to take that living water that is flowing from the heart of God this evening.
Who desires your eternal blessing? Salvation?
Cold waters to a thirsty soul. Men and women are trying to quench their thirst with the pleasures of sin.
And this world and money and.
All sorts of entertainments to drown the thought that they must meet God about their sin, that there is a judgment before them. It is appointed unto men wants to die. But after this the judgment not the end of your existence, my friend.
00:10:06
After death.
There will be, there won't be one drop of water to quench your thirst.
Because you have a spiritual thirst far greater than a physical thirst.
You need salvation, you need forgiveness of sins, You need to know not something about the Lord Jesus. You may have some historical idea of his life and so on, but He wants to be your Savior, your Redeemer.
Wants to fill your heart with a sense of the peace of God.
To have the assurance beyond a shadow of a doubt that your sins are forgiven, that you are ready to meet God tonight if you are called into eternity.
Life is uncertain.
I come from Canada.
Just about a week ago in the Toronto area.
A man who is 73 years of age took a gun. He lived in a Congo, a Congo. But he was dissatisfied with the administration. They wouldn't do what he wanted. So he took the gun and he killed 5 people. Some of them were members of the condo corporation. Five people went into eternity.
About one week ago, they didn't expect that.
They were looking forward, I suppose, to the holiday being with their friends, but they're gone into the next World. I don't know anything about their eternal destiny. It's too late. Nothing can be changed now. Life is real and life is earnest, and the grave is not its goal. Dost thou art, and unto dust thou returnest. Was not spoken of this old.
Your soul is eternal.
Your soul is the most valuable part of your being.
Your soul is stained with sin.
Polluted. Corrupt.
Need a Savior? You need forgiveness and salvation.
I lived in London for four years and taught school in the City of London, England, the London and Canada. This is London, England. I think our brothers Stan will remember those days that we were in England.
But in 1854.
That's a long time ago. There was an epidemic. We just had an epidemic, haven't we? The coronavirus started in Wuhan, China, at 11 million people.
They tried to quarantine, keep people from going in and out, but they couldn't control the epidemic. You know that Well, it got out of Wuhan and spread all over the world.
And we're just getting out of it now.
Coming back to my story.
In 1854.
There was a terrible epidemic in London, so who square?
People were dying like flies.
They knew the name of the disease, cholera. That's an awesome disease, whether boys and girls.
Your body fluids just come out. It's a painful death, but people were dying with this, this terrible melody, cholera, which is common in India.
And when an outbreak occurs.
There's danger of death. But anyway, in those days, the doctors, they didn't know the cause of cholera.
Was it some vapors that came?
The water and the contaminated people that Or was it just?
Some mysterious disease that would have run its course and then it would be all over and it would disappear. But it didn't disappear.
And the medical profession got together and they discussed it and they said, well, we don't know where it comes from, we don't know what to do.
There was one doctor.
Doctor John Snow, he says. I'm going to get to the bottom of this.
So he took a big map of of London.
00:15:04
And he went into the homes where people had this disease, cholera, and were dying. And he interviewed them. Where where did you get your water? This one over here.
Beside on Broad Street or Lexington, there's a pump there, so he marked on the map.
All the people that had cholera or had within the family, he marked it on this big map.
And he found out that in every case where there was death, they had got their water from a pump that was there in their area with a long handle on it, and in every case where there was a death.
The people had drunk from that well.
So Doctor John Snow, he said to the authorities, he said, cap that. Well, stop it. Don't let people go there anymore.
Because this is the cause.
While in those days there were over open sewers and slaughter houses and cow sheds of the Thames River, the water came from the Thames River and it was polluted when it came from from that famous river and the people were drinking it. They were drinking this contaminated water.
They were getting cholera, dying, he says. Cap that well.
So that no one will use it again and they did that and what happened?
The epidemic stopped it. There was no more cases of cholera.
So it was a contaminated water that had caused the death of those people. So, dear friends this evening.
Men and women are trying to get their refreshment from wells that are contaminated with sin.
And unclean living and vile dispositions and evil immorality. That's where they're getting their water.
That's where they're drinking polluted water and they think that God will forget about their sins and let them into heaven if they do the best they can.
But God demands a punishment for sin, and he demands another, another.
Essential.
Repentance toward God Repentance is taking sides with God against yourself.
Repentance is the teardrop in the eye of faith, and God now commandeth all men everywhere to repent because.
The day is coming, He has appointed a day in the which He will judge this world in righteousness by that man, the man of Calvary, the one that they nailed to the cross. The Lord of life and glory was put there on the cross by the hatred of man.
And they said, Away with him, crucify him, the one who had displayed in fullness the heart of God.
Healing the sick, cleansing the leper, opening the eyes of the blind, raising the dead, beating the multitude. The Lord Jesus was God manifest in the black.
He was gone and the person of the manhood.
Took a man body like yours and mine.
But one important difference.
He had a body and He had a soul, and He had a spirit. Constitutionally He was like us. But there was one great difference. There was no evil nature in the Lord. He knew no sin. He did no sin. In him was no sin perfect, spotless.
Holy Son of God conceived.
Naturally.
00:20:00
Through the Virgin Mary he came into the world that his hands had made, and they rejected him.
The great leaders of religion in Jerusalem were completely ignorant of who had come into the world, the Creator of the universe.
The angels announced His coming, and for the first time the angels looked out and they saw their Creator. That vague in Bethlehem's Manger was God manifest in flesh at that very moment. He was upholding all things by the word of His power.
The eternal Son of God. Think of the humiliation.
That he would humble himself.
Unto death, even the death of the cross, made in the likeness of sinful flesh, the likeness of sinful flesh, but no sinful flesh within him.
He was the image of God. When he speaks of the image of God, it refers to the Lord representing God.
Man is is is still created in the image of God, but sin has martyred. He spoiled the image.
But the Lord Jesus was the perfect representation of God.
But it doesn't say that he was made in the likeness of God, no.
Because that would infer that he was inferior to God. He was just resembling God. No, no, he was God in the person of the Lord Jesus, in spotless humanity.
And I just want to look at a few verses.
About openings, we won't have time to look at all of them, but we're going to look at a few here. Matthew's Gospel, chapter 3.
You know, we have a lot of.
Divine openings in the scriptures.
And this is the first one I'm going to refer to in Matthew chapter 3.
Familiar to us.
We're 16 and Jesus when he was baptized.
Went up straightway out of the water, and lo, the heavens were opened unto him. He saw this, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him. And low a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved son.
In whom I am well pleased.
Now this is a remarkable scene. The Lord was just stepping into His public ministry at 30 years of age. He had been baptized by John, and as he came up out of the water, the Spirit of God alighted upon that perfect man. He was just going to step into his public ministry and God.
Attested his perfection by sending the Spirit of God.
Down as a dove, a lighting upon the Lord.
And the voice of God the Father from heaven, proclaiming this is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. What a wonderful scene this was. This had never happened in earth before. For 4000 years the dove had been looking for some place to alight.
Some place to come down and there was nothing but corruption.
And sin everywhere.
And.
Here the Spirit of God.
Gives testimony to the perfection of the Lord Jesus Christ and He.
Abides on him. Notice that it is without redemption the Spirit of God.
Indwells each believer in this room this evening. We've spoken of that in the meeting of The only reason the Spirit of God can dwell in your body is because.
The blood of Christ has cleansed your sins away, but the Lord had no sin to be cleansed.
00:25:02
So the Spirit of God came down, people say.
The Trinity is not found in the Bible, but is found right here. Here is the Trinity right here. Spirit of God coming down on the Person of the Lord Jesus the Father's voice from heaven.
Declaring his pleasure in that man, could he say that of you? And the eye of God looks down in this room, and he sees you as you are tonight.
He could not say that.
He could not make that remark that you are pleasing to God. Our lives have been.
In rebellion against God.
And we are sinners by nature and by practice. And.
We are far from God and.
We don't want the knowledge of God in our lives. We want to have our own will and please ourselves. But your friend the Lord Jesus took the place of that lowly man.
And he walked through the land of Palestine. I think he visited every little town in that land of Palestine, proclaiming the gospel.
Healing the sick.
Winding up the broken hearted, delivering the captives under the power of Satan, because if we're not saved, we are under the power of the enemy of our souls. Satan is a strong man and he's armed. Luke Chapter 11, He's armed with all the pleasures of this world.
To keep man in a false peace.
In a false security, not knowing where he's going to spend eternity. Well this is 1 opening here, a divine opening and.
It was at the beginning of the Lord's.
Public Ministry, but let's look over at Luke chapter 4 to see another opening here.
Here we find the Lord returning to.
Nazareth, where he had been brought up.
Nazareth was quite a dirty city with a bad reputation, but that's where the Lord grew up as a boy in the city of Nazareth, and his custom was to be in the synagogue. Whenever there was a meeting, he was there in the synagogue and he returns to his home.
Home city here, and we read in verse 17. And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Isaiah.
And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. He hath sent me to heal the broken hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to them, to the blind, to set at liberty.
Them that are bruised. What a wonderful message this was.
That the Lord referred to the book of Isaiah and you notice that he does not quote the whole verse in the book of Isaiah.
He stops before he mentions the day of vengeance of our God. He did not use those words. You look in the quotation from the book of Isaiah and you'll see it speaks of the day of vengeance of our God. But the Lord did not come to judge. He came to save. So we are still today in the acceptable year of the Lord.
We wonder at the long-suffering mercy of God that has extended the day of grace over 2000 years, but the time is coming when the door will be closed and other books will be opened there at the judgment seat of Christ at the great White Throne.
00:30:06
The whole history of your life.
You're unsaved. The books will be opened, and there every thought and every word and every deed is recorded. But if you're not saved?
Whosoever was not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the Lake of Fire.
The last invitation of the Bible is this. Whosoever will let him come and take the water of life. Really.
I guess this story is a little threadbare, but I heard it from our late brother or I heard our late brother Gordon Hale tell the story of a.
Of a young man who was given a.
A New Testament When he went into the war, he was a soldier, and he was.
Going to be in the battle on the front lines.
And so you received the New Testament, but he really was not interested to read it. He put it in his coat, in his tuning pocket here, and he went into battle.
And he was right in the fire. He was right in the front lines.
You know, a bullet hit him, it went through the New Testament and it stopped a few millimeters from his heart.
And he pulled out, he kept that book which he had not read, and he showed it to our brother Gordon. And he said here, this saved my life.
If that New Testament had not been there, I would have been gone. But you know he had not accepted Christ. And you know where the bullets stopped and stopped at that verse. Whosoever will let him take the water of life, created the last invitation from the heart of God.
Are you going to refuse it tonight, my friend? Are you going to close your heart? The one who loved you and died for you and gave everything that love could give? If the Lord hasn't won your heart, what more could He do to win it? He gave everything for your eternal blessing and salvation.
There's a poem that's often quoted.
I, I didn't memorize it, but it's a well known poem and it speaks of the poor. You know, in London where I live, these blacks there apartments just filled with poor people. Some of them, they hardly have enough money to buy fuel to keep warm. They're like scourge. Scourge. You aren't, but.
The poem that is about a poor woman in London.
She had very little of this world's goods. She lived in one of those bleak apartments. Probably she had enough to eat. That was about all. In the heart of London City, midst the dwelling of the poor, these bright golden words were uttered. I have Christ, what want I more?
He who heard them ran to fetch her something from the world's great store. It was needless.
Died she saved. I have Christ. What one I more than that wasn't that wasn't that a wonderful testimony from that poor soul? And I want you to know this evening, my friends, that the Lord has a deep interest in your eternal blessing.
And if you accept Christ tonight, your name will be put in the book of life.
Boys and girls know what rubbers are erasers. There's no Angel or devil that can ever take your name out of the book of Life. And when you die, the Lord will open up that book in there if your name is there. December the 24th, is it due?
1022 Her name is there. It will be there for all returns. Rejoice that your names are written in heaven. Boys and girls, are you trusting the Lord as your Savior? Have you put your faith in Him? Have you repented of your sins and asked Him to save you?
I've been to Bombay, India many times.
00:35:00
In Bombay.
Mumbai. I walked the streets of Bombay many times. It's a huge city, I suppose 11 million or probably more now. The slums of Bombay are the worst in the world. They're indescribable, the condition of people there.
But sometimes.
The apartments become so.
Deteriorated that they put a sign on the on the apartment.
Uh, unfit for human habitation. Uhhh, unfit for human habitation. In other words, the authorities are saying get out and you can't, you can't live in this apartment anymore. It's not fit for you.
And moving in the monsoon, you know what the monsoon is in India that comes in about our summertime about.
May. June.
Downpours every day, the water just filling the streets. Having to move in the monsoon is a difficult thing.
But you know that apartment was condemned by the authorities. But you, if you're unsaved, you're condemned already. You're condemned within the sight of God, you're.
You're unfit for the eternal glory. You can't make yourself fit for that place. Your good works cannot put away your sins or give you a title to eternal glory. But if you receive the Lord Jesus.
You can put fuu fit for heavenly habitation. If you take the Lord, you can put those those letters.
FUUF.
Visit for heavenly habitation. So the Lord wants to have your company. He wants to have your company, boys and girls. And he died not only to have your company for a few years, but for all eternity. He wants to fill your heart with peace and joy.
And satisfaction, as our brother mentioned this afternoon.
But you know, there's lots of poor in the world and as you go to India, as our a number of our brothers here have been there, like our brother Howard, you find great poverty but.
It's among those four that you receive an open ear for the gospel. As I preach the gospel in the villages of India, it's basically among the poor, the upper class, Hindu.
In in the upper, the upper castes very seldom comes to hear the gospel but the poor and India is filled with poor people everywhere. They have an open ear to hear the gospel of God's grace. So deliverance to the captives. How wonderful that the Lord can deliver man from all those.
Evil, unclean habits and addictions.
With all sorts of.
Sorts of.
Alcohol or drugs or whatever it might be that they try to drown the convictions, but the Lord can fill your heart, Deliver.
Deliver you from the captivity of sin and Satan and recovering of sight, opening your eyes spiritually setting at liberty them that are bruised.
This world is filled with broken hearted people.
There was a man in a preacher in London, he said.
Forget his name now, but when he spoke to the young men that were going to be pastors or evangelists, he said.
You'll always have an audience if you speak to broken hearted people and there's no man.
In this world that can heal a broken heart, it's only the Lord Jesus that can do that. He can heal the broken heart with the bomb of His love and grace, some people think.
00:40:04
That God needed to be reconciled to us.
They think that God was against us. They have wrong thoughts about God. God did not need to be reconciled to us. His heart was always full of love and grace and compassion for man. We are the ones that needed to be reconciled to God and that is by believing in the love of God.
Giving the dearest object of heaven to die on the cross for you.
You know.
The Lord bore his cross up to the hill of Calvary, and as they looked upon that man bearing his cross, they thought he's going to die.
He's so weak.
Remember the Garden of Gethsemane, when he sweat, as it were great drops of blood, when he looked onto the cross, where he would be forsaken of God, They said he's going to die.
And so they said, Simon, come over here, you take the cross and bear it up to the hill of Calgary. You know why they did that is they have compassion on the Lord. Not at all. They did that because they wanted to have the pleasure of crucifying the Lord. They wanted to do that. Such was the hatred in the heart of man. Just think of it.
And the Lord submitted to all that ignominy and shame.
And it was our sins that nailed him to the cross.
We won't elaborate. We know the scene of Calvary. There were the sufferings from the hand of man which were terrible. He was scourged. The Roman scourge. Men died under the Roman scourge, and the Lord was Scourge, an innocent man, Pilot said three times. I find no fault in this matter.
Scourge spit upon isn't that awful to think of?
Buffeted, mocked and.
Nailed to the cross, the Son of God.
There, but that wasn't the worst of all. Is it nothing to you? All ye that pass by, behold, and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow, which is done unto me, wherewith the Lord has afflicted me. In the day of His fierce anger. At 12 noon it became dark.
And your sins and mine were placed upon the war. Some people say confess your sins and come to God. I can't do that. My sins are too many. I've forgotten. They were like the hairs of my head. I've forgotten many of them. But when the Lord.
Was on that cross. God took all my sins so great, so many, and he placed them on the head of His Son, and then the judgment came down in all its terror.
God's wrath.
Storm of judgment that broke upon the Lord.
We cannot measure the sufferings that he endured to save my soul from a lost eternity from hell. Are you going to turn your back upon such love as that?
And go on with your sins when the Lord is giving you an invitation to come to Him. There's another little poem that I found as I was.
As I was doing a little preparation.
I can find it. I thought it was very good. You've carried your burdens. You've carried it long. Or bring it to Jesus. He's loving and strong. He will take it away and your sorrow shall cease. He will send you rejoicing with His heavenly peace.
Well, it doesn't mean that the Lord is going to open all the prison doors and penitentiaries in Bangor and let people out, but He'll deliver you from the the unclean living, from those evil tempers and those vile dispositions.
00:45:03
God is looking in grace upon poor sinners. It's the day.
Of God's grace and mercy, the acceptable year of the Lord, dear friends.
We're coming to a close of our gospel meeting, but we do trust that you have heard the voice of the Son of God.
There's one track that I use probably more than any other as I move around.
I use this track with young people all the time.
You may know it.
It was written by a dear brother, well known to some dear. His name was Berwick Highland.
I've used that track among young people. It's opened the door for conversations more than any any other track that I've given out. The name of it is the rest of his time.
And if you don't know it, I hope you can get a copy of it and read it. It's about the oldest son of Berwick Island.
His name was Jeff and he was 20 years of age. And I say to people as I give this out to the young people, how old are you, 1718? Some say I'm twenty. Well, I said, here is a message from from a man that loves you. And he wrote this track with tears for you. And I'll tell you he didn't send Jeff out to die.
He said goodbye, Jeff, we'll see you for supper tonight.
He saw him struggling in the civic hospital in Ottawa that we know well, struggling for his life, and before the end of the day it was gone.
New Creatures
Children—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.
Good morning boys and girls.
I'm so happy.
That you're here today.
I saw somebody. At first I thought it was a.
A doll.
You know, one of these ones that's not real.
But then I saw it. It's a real doll, but she just handed her off so.
You know, it's nice to realize that the Lord Jesus.
He loves the little ones as well as the older ones. And it tells us about how the mothers they brought, even to infants, like that little doll, that real doll, Jesus. And he took them in his arms because he loved them so very much. And he also.
Loves the little children and the young children because it tells us he took them in his arms as well.
So I see here today.
Infants, I see little children, I see young children, and we're so happy you're here today, and the Lord Jesus is happy too.
And he's with us here today, and he sees you as you sit in your seat.
And he knows you like to play catch.
I noticed that almost seemed like a little bit of catch going on here today, but what we're going to do?
We're going to sing some songs and maybe you can play catch later.
We like to start with singing.
And.
We'll take some time for the verses.
And you don't have to say the verse.
But if you really know the verse and you know it well, we don't want to disappoint you so you'll have opportunity to say the verse.
And then I got something to show you.
I got something underneath the table.
And I got something on the table.
And that's one reason that we're sitting here in this Oval, so we can all see the table.
Who has a number? We're going to sing some songs off this hymn sheet here.
#14.
Now I'm going to suggest that we sing the first and last verses.
So there's opportunity for more to give out a song.
Because our time to sing is limited, but we'll start with #14 first and last verse.
Have you picked?
Are you?
In the blood. In the soul cleansing blood.
Fire.
This Sunday by the snow, are you watching the blood on the land?
Good numbers start with who else has a number.
Yes.
Four, let's sing #4 That's on the.
Front of our hymn sheet number four. First and last, Christ is the Savior.
00:05:07
Since darkness.
Nobody is grace. I am free.
Save your sinners. Save.
Like me shining his life for my grandson, this is a savior for me.
Good Lord, give love that's unchanging, blessed with all blessings, so free. How shall I tell them to pray? Says this is the Savior for me.
Very good. This is good seating.
Is there somebody else? Yes, Sam, 3939.
What a friend.
Everything to God.
Beats me up in for a day.
Take me to the Lord in prayer.
We'll find a soul, is there?
Beautiful, yes.
Thank you, Paul #11.
Will your anchor hold in the storms of life when the clouds unfold?
There brings us stride. When the strong tides lift and the cables straight, will your anchor drift or turn remains?
We have an actor that keeps us souls.
Steadfast and sure while the pillows.
Into the rock bridge and I moved rounded, fermenting in the Savior's love.
Will your eyes be all through the morning?
Light the city of gold and the harbor. Rise where you anger. Stay by the heavenly show when light storms are passed forever more.
We have an actor that keeps the soul steadfast and sure while.
Passing to the rock which and I grew in the same character's love.
00:10:08
We haven't even sung the swung off the Backpage and it tells me on the Backpage children's hymns and courses, but they're all good.
All these 47 Swans in this hymn sheet are wonderful songs. Does anybody have a number off the back? Yes.
What number would you like?
Or can you tell me the name of this song?
Jesus loves me. OK, that's number 40 #40 Jesus loves me.
This I know how many here.
Can sign.
Jesus loves me. Okay, I see some adults that can do it. How about the children? Do you know how to do the signs? You know?
You can do a little Joey. OK Anybody else?
All right, Joy, do you mind standing up where you're and you do just as many signs as you can. Would that be OK?
No, all right.
All right, well, I know Mr. Allen knows Mrs. Allen, so let's pay attention, okay? Actually, my wife too, you know the okay, all right, so I do know the course, but that's about all I know, so let's think first and last #40.
Jesus loves me this side.
Bible tells me so. Let's go on to bring me long.
They are we parties.
Yes, Jesus loves me. Yes, Jesus loves me. Yes, Jesus loves me. The Bible tells me so.
Jesus loves me.
All the way. If I trust him, should I die, he will Take Me Home. My heart. Yes, Jesus loves me. Yes, Jesus loves me.
Yes, Jesus loves me. Love, I tell me so.
Very good. Well, perhaps that'll be a good note to end on. Jesus loves me this. I know. We're going to set these hymn sheets aside.
And we're going to take time to pray. You know what we're saying about what a friend we have in Jesus.
All our sins increased there. What a privilege to take everything to God in prayer. Everything, including this Sunday school today. And so we're going to take time to pray. So let's just close our eyes and bow our heads while we pray.
Our God and Father, we just want to thank thee for each dear boy and girl sitting on these seats here today. And we thank you for that love for each one. We thank Lord Jesus of how the doubt is take the infants, the little babies in dying arms and also the little children and the young children. And we think this morning.
Of how much doubt It's love each and everyone, and thy desire is that they might be saved, and that they might be happy that they might.
Not only be saved, but enjoy it. And we thank you, Lord Jesus, that Thou art the one who can fill our hearts with happiness and joy and peace. And so we ask not for Thy help as we continue this little sunny school here today. We seek Thy blessing on each dear boy and girl and older one here as well. And we pray this giving thanks in thy worthy name, Lord Jesus, Amen. Amen.
So.
We're going to take time for verses now.
Can somebody tell me where is the verse found today?
Anybody tell me where the verse is found in the Bible?
You know the verse, but you don't know where it's found.
You know, I'm so thankful that in the Bible.
We have books and we have chapters and we have verses.
And if we know the book?
00:15:01
And we know the chapter and we know the verse. We can go right to that verse and find it in the Bible. But if we didn't have chapters?
And verses.
Wouldn't it be hard to find?
Where we want to read.
But that's how it used to be. But thankfully we got chapters and verses as well as books so nobody knows where this is. Found this verse today.
Maybe we should just skip the verse.
Does anybody know the verse?
They would like to say it.
Sorry this is kind of intimidating but.
Nobody's going to say the verse today.
Is that 2?
OK.
Yes.
Any.
The reference.
2nd Corinthians 517 if any man be.
In Christ he is a new creature.
All things have passed away, but all things have become new.
Very good. Thank you very much. It was excellent. Anybody else?
No more volunteers.
It's a wonderful verse.
So Joe, you want to try it, OK.
I had to stand up.
OK, just say the verse, if any man commit be in Christ, he is a new creature, old thing or passed away. Behold, all things are become new.
Very good. Second Corinthians, 5/17.
How about anybody over on this side here?
That side of the room is out doing you.
You got nobody here that's going to say the verse.
All right, well, this is a wonderful verse.
If any man be in Christ now, that takes in.
Women and ethics in boys and girls is talking about mankind so if anyone be in Christ, he or she is a new.
Creation, All things passed away. Behold, all things have become new.
Now I said I had something under the table I wanted to show you.
And you know.
I'm so thankful.
That in the word of God.
We read how we can become a new creation. We can become a new creature. We can become born again.
And get a brand new life because you know, we are born with a nature.
That it's not good. It's referred to as the old nature. It's corrupt, it's bad and you know it, David, he said.
I was shaping in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceived me.
Is it true that even a baby could be born with something that's bad?
Is that possible?
Well, I something underneath the table.
I saw this at the store and I thought about it.
Put this on.
What's everybody laughing about?
Is it really that funny?
This baby doesn't think it's very funny.
Is this baby mad?
Or is this baby sad?
How many think the baby sat?
00:20:00
How many think the baby's mad?
OK, how many are not sure.
They don't know.
Well, you know what?
Ladies, they can be sad.
You know.
If they're hungry.
And they want something to eat.
Or maybe they have a pain.
Or you know, they have tummy ache.
And they're sad, but sometimes babies, they get mad.
Because they don't get what they want. And you know, I thought to myself.
Even a page.
May have in its hand something that might be sharp.
Might grab maybe a scissors and a knife and the mother comes to take it away because the mother loves the baby, doesn't want to see the baby get hurt and the baby begins to get really mad.
And doesn't like what the mother is doing. Well, you know, boys and girls, that shows that when we are born into this world.
We are born with nature. That's bad and.
As we grow up, we get older, we find.
That that nature doesn't improve. In fact it only gets worse. And that's why we need a brand new nature. We need a brand new life in the Lord. Jesus told Nicodemus, except a man be born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God.
We need to be born again, we need to become new creatures, we need to become a new creation in Christ. And it's wonderful to realize that God has made it possible whereby we can.
Receive a brand new life. It well that life cannot sin. We still got the old nature, but you know, we have to reckon ourselves to be dead to that old nature, to sin. Well, this is what came to mind with this verse that we have. If any man, woman, boy or girl be in Christ, he or she is a new creation, new creature.
And sometimes, you know, even though.
Born again. We might get mad and it's not good, but that's only I believe.
The fruit of that old nature we still have.
But I think God sees us in Christ when we receive the Lord Jesus, and it's a wonderful position to be in, in Christ now.
I'm going to ask.
If somebody can help to.
Lift this cover off here.
And we're going to reveal what's underneath the.
Cover. So is there anybody that's nice and tall that might be able to help us on this?
Maybe I'll call on an adult. Josh. I see. You're right sitting right there. Do you mind just taking that? And then we'll we'll just slip this up. It's like a tent and then we take it off. OK. Thank you.
OK.
All right, here we got Jeff's Catering.
What do we got here? Oh, here?
We've got something interesting.
All right.
Got some bullets?
And they're floating around.
On the lake.
And over here we have a pile of.
Dirt. Sand.
And this is going to be a shovel, OK?
Now we're going to do something here.
I got in this little container.
00:25:02
What we're going to call people, OK?
And you've got different people.
And some of the people are.
Tall.
Some are short.
OK, tall people. So just pretend they're people, OK?
And uh.
We're going to set these people up.
And we'll see if they'll stand up on here. Oh, good, okay.
I'm going to put these people here and there.
We got quite a few people here actually.
How many people do we have here in Jeff's Catering? Does anybody have any idea how many people we got here? What do you think, 120?
You know what? I don't have 120 people in this container.
But it's very good guess and you might be right, but I'm going to put some people in here and.
Here they are.
And they're at the conference.
Yeah, some are tall.
Some are small.
Yeah, some are short.
And here they are.
And maybe.
One of these people is you.
OK, so I'm going to put some more people in here.
See if I can get these.
People on they're not sitting down. Actually, they're standing up, but that's OK.
All right, so we're going to have some more people out here. Oh, here's these boats. All right, let's put.
Here that follow there he's.
On the water in his boat.
Here's a little person here. We'll put this person here.
In that boat.
Let's see, what else? Oh, oh, we got people here too.
We've got people and more people, so we'll put these people over here.
OK.
Yeah, good. OK.
Whoop lost that piece in there.
This person over here, there's a person over here.
People here, people all over the place.
And this fella here.
He's got somebody else in the boat with him.
Put that in there.
OK, now.
I'm sorry to say, but there are people that have actually drowned.
And.
They're in the water and they're down at the bottom of the ocean or maybe the bottom of the lake, and these people are there. I don't have any idea how many people have actually drowned.
In the late and haven't been found, but there's many, many many. So we're going to put some of these people here and put these people over here.
OK, now.
Had people all over.
Yeah, I got to watch my time here because.
That.
OK.
See all those people?
Yeah.
I got more people here.
There's more people here.
Let's see, what are we going to do here? OK, We got those people there, maybe some more people here in Jeff's catering.
It's so nice that you boys and girls have come to this conference and I know it was your dad and mom that bring you and they love you and they really want the very best for you and you know.
They bring it to this conference.
So that you can.
00:30:00
Learn about the Lord Jesus and so you can meet friends and you can meet others that love the Lord Jesus.
And that's such a wonderful thing, to be able to come together in this way and to find our friends at a conference like this and to be with friends that we've already met so.
I don't know. I just feel like I need to put up all these people. I don't like to leave anybody out on this here, OK.
Put that one there.
OK.
I just emptied out that.
Does anybody have any idea where I should put more people?
Where?
Over on this side.
Occasion. All right.
I got one more person where they put him.
Anybody have any? Yeah.
You want him on the boat? OK, let's do that.
So I'm going to put him on this boat.
Maybe could go on front of the boat.
OK.
He's out there on the front of the boat.
All right, so that's it.
More people.
All right, so put these down here.
Boys and girls.
All these people.
Are standing.
Right. And they're alive.
And just like you're alive here today, but you're sitting.
But there's a difference.
Between some of these people and the rest of the people.
And I'm going to show you the difference here. You know, in the board of God we find that.
There's a verse.
And this verse comes to mind. It's in John chapter 3.
John chapter 3 and verse 36.
John chapter 3 and verse 36 and somebody has said that this verse has a top and a bottom but it doesn't have any middle, so I'm going to read this first. He that believeth on the Son has everlasting life. This is the top.
As I look around, boys and girls.
I have to ask, how many of you really believe?
On the Lord Jesus Christ.
Have you put your trust in him? Have you ever asked him to save you?
He wants to save you. We started this Sunday school. Have you been to Jesus?
For the cleansing power.
Boys and girls, have you ever come to Jesus?
Have you ever talked to the Lord Jesus?
He's ready to hear.
And listen to what you have to say. He wants you to talk with him.
Just like we talked with him.
When we prayed, and that's how we talked with the Lord Jesus, we pray and we talk with him. But have you ever told him that you're a Sinner and that you want to be saved, that you want to go?
To his happy home to be with him.
Now the Lord Jesus.
Has made it possible.
That boys and girls, and older ones too.
Can go to be with him in his happy home because.
On the cross, the Lord Jesus died.
And he gave him his life, He shed his precious blood, and we understand that he made peace through the blood of his cross, because we are all.
00:35:04
Enemies of God.
And, you know, little babies.
He couldn't really consider them to be an enemy of God, or they don't even know when they do something bad because they're just little. But you know, as the baby grows.
And you, boys and girls, are growing.
You come to realize when you've done something that's not right, when your mother perhaps asks you to do something and you don't do it, and there's something in you that says this is not right, it's a sin, it's wrong. Now, I do believe at that point, boys and girls.
You need to turn to the Lord Jesus for salvation.
The age of responsibility.
And so that age, it varies, but you know, the Lord Jesus on the cross, he shed his precious blood and we sang in the song. A question, have you been to Jesus for the cleansing power? Are you washed? I washed in the blood of the Lamb. Well, we're going to set this up over here.
Remember, this is like a.
Shovel.
All right, so this represents Calgary.
And I think this is going to stand up here.
Hopefully it'll stand up.
OK.
Now that happened.
Almost 2000 years ago.
Son of God loved me.
And he was willing to give himself.
On that cruel cross of Calvary for me and for you too, if you trust him. On the cross for me, on the cross for me. Dying there in agony. Jesus paid the price himself, the sacrifice on the cross for me. Now you know the Lord Jesus is not on the cross today.
Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, and he was buried, but he rose again the third day according to the scriptures, and I am so.
Thankful that he rose again.
You know, that gives me great joy in my soul to realize that Jesus is not on the cross. Often we see a cross and Jesus is still on the cross.
It's like a little what it's called a crucifix, but the fact is Jesus is living and he's a real man and he's up in heaven.
And.
I'm so thankful Jesus was.
We don't know exactly.
When he was born. But he was born.
Because how could he die for your sins and mine if he wasn't born?
So we're thankful for his birth.
But the Lord Jesus, he didn't go back to heaven about dying on the cross, and he shed his precious blood and.
He rose again the third day.
First day of the week, which is what this day is, the resurrection day. Well, this verse here says he that believeth on the Son has everlasting life. That's the top. Those that believe on the sun, they're going to go to be with him in heaven, but he that believes not the Son shall not see life, and that's the bottom.
So the question is, where are you today?
Are you at the top or you at the bottom? There's no middle ground.
You're either saved.
Because you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
Or you're in your sins.
Because you have not accepted and put your trust in him.
And furthermore, it says here the wrath of God abides on him or her.
You know, people die.
00:40:01
And here's this man. Here he dies.
And he's put in a grave, OK.
And dirt is.
Put.
Over him, he's covered up with dirt.
Here's somebody else that dies.
There's people dying, in fact, every couple seconds.
People die.
And so we're going to put some dirt cover up.
When people die.
They don't.
Want to remain people, don't want them to remain insight.
So put up a.
And.
There's people that have already died during bottom of the lake or the bottom of the ocean.
Here's somebody else that's.
Died. It's buried, OK.
Yeah, buried.
The body is buried, but like we heard yesterday, the spirit.
And the soul are very much alive.
And go to a place of torment or a place of unspeakable bliss and.
Some don't have tombstones, but these folks do.
Now, boys and girls, what did we hear yesterday?
We were reading in.
First Thessalonians, chapter 4.
And we read how that the Lord himself is going to descend from heaven with a shout.
And with the voice of the Archangel and the trump of God and the dead in Christ are going to rise first. Well, we have somebody buried over here so.
The Lord Jesus descends. What about this person?
Whoa, looking right up out of the grave, did you see that?
Instantly the dead in Christ rise first.
What about we had somebody buried over here?
Whoa, there they are.
Come right up out of the grave. The graves are opened. It happens in a moment, a twinkling of an eye, just a very short time. Somebody is buried over here, right?
Whoa.
What's wrong?
That person stays in the grave.
And then it says the dead in Christ, they rise 1St and then we which are alive and remain caught up together with them, with those that have died in Christ to meet the Lord of the air. So let's see what happens here. Oh, that person goes.
Oh, what's happening?
What?
These people aren't going.
They're not being caught up. What about this person?
No, no. Oh, there we are.
All these people.
These people have put their faith in the Lord Jesus. They trust him. You're somebody else.
Here they go. Where they going? They're going to be with the Lord. You're going to meet him on the cloud, and then he's going to take him to his happy home.
OK, well what about those people in the boat?
Whoa, there's people here. They're staying behind. How about this person over here? People in the boat?
Oh, there that one person went, OK.
Oh, it was a person.
Well, good, good, good, good.
All right, man, some of those people aren't falling up.
This one went well. That's good. Hey, what about Jeff's catering?
Let's check this out.
Jeff's Catering.
Here we are. There's a conference going on here.
Whoa.
00:45:00
This is interesting.
There's quite a few people represented by these nails.
And you're going to be with Jesus when he comes. It's going to happen. He's going to come. We don't know exactly when. It's not a question of if, it's a question of when.
So.
Now.
I'm going to set these people here.
How come these people are all left behind?
You see the difference?
You see a difference?
Whoops.
Ask you if you see a difference.
OK.
Here we go.
Do you see a difference between those two nails? What's the difference?
What's the difference?
Yeah, what's the difference?
Yeah, once red and ones Gray, you see the difference, OK.
OK, see that there's a difference.
See What's the difference, Jack?
You see a color difference.
OK, once you had once Gray, see the difference?
Now, boys and girls.
All these that are left behind.
They have not put their faith in the Lord Jesus in his precious blood. They're not washed in the blood of the Lamb.
Like we sang the Lord Jesus is the Lamb of God takes away the sin of the world and so all of these here.
They're going.
Be with the Lord Jesus forever. I wonder, is there anybody left behind at Jeff's Catering here? Let's see.
I hate to do it to even suggest this.
But I'm going to take the top off here, take away the building. Look at that.
There's two that were left behind.
They didn't go.
Could that be one of you boys and girls here today if the Lord Jesus were to come in the next?
Half hour.
Would you be left behind like these two people here at Jeff's Catering?
It's awful to think about. You'd be left behind for judgment.
But the Lord Jesus wants to save you. He don't want you to be judged for your sins.
He doesn't want you to go to hell. He loves you so much that, as we said, he was willing to die for you. Cross. And so today.
If there's anybody like these two here that would be left behind when Jesus comes, come to Jesus today and put your trust in Him. He wants to save you. He loves you and.
There's one little song come and go with me. I like to sing it and I think many know it. And then we're going to pray and we'll be done.
Come and go with me.
To my father's house.
Joy, joy, joy. Jesus is the way to my Father's house, to my Father's house, to my father's house.
Jesus is the way to my Father's house, where the joy, joy, joy.
In my father's house. In my father's house, In my father's house.
Will I see you there in my Father's house, when your joy, joy, joy, joy.
Our Godfather, we want to thank thee this morning for the message of the gospel. We thank Thee for sending thy Son to be the Savior. And we thank you for each dear boy and girl here today who has put his or her trust in the Lord Jesus and is ready to meet thee in the air.
00:50:14
Father, we do pray very specially. Lord Jesus, we pray for any boy, any girl sitting on these seats here today who is not ready to meet Jesus when he comes. We pray that here and now they might ask the Lord Jesus for salvation, that they might put their faith and trust indeed, that we might be able to see each and every.
One of these boys and girls not only in this Jeff Catering building.
But we're going to see him around the throne of glory in heaven.
Crazy worshiping the Lord Jesus, the one who loved us and watched us from our sins in his own blood we ask thy blessing upon thy precious words, giving thanks thy worthy name, Lord Jesus, Amen.
We have some.
Little treats here too.
Thank you.
So come right on up.
Thank you. You're welcome. Let's start with one.
This is right there.
Did you get one?
I'm all set.
Yeah.
Hold Fast Paul's Doctrine
Open—Stan Allan
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.
I was wondering if we could look at Second Timothy chapter one. I know we often go there, but I have a burden, particularly for those who are younger, here this afternoon.
It has been a concern of mine for a little bit now that.
It's easy to give up the truth that we have been given.
And I was thinking of what the apostle Paul here says in Second Timothy. I just want to read a couple of verses.
Verse 13 of the first chapter it says, Hold fast the form of sound words which thou hast heard of me in faith and love, which is in Christ Jesus.
That good thing which was committed onto the Keep by the Holy Ghost which dwelleth in US.
And then down in the second chapter and verse 2, the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful man, who shall be able to teach others also.
And then in the third chapter.
In the 14th verse it says But continue thou.
In the things which thou hast learned, and been assured of knowing of whom thou hast learned them. Maybe we should mention or look at another verse two a little further up.
Verse 10. But thou hast fully known my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, long-suffering, charity, patience, and so on.
So we find here that the apostle at the very end of his life, just before he was going to be.
Martyred by Nero. He writes this letter to Timothy and he was living in a day that was very difficult. You'll notice what he says there in verse 15 of the first chapter. This thou knowest that all day which are in Asia be turned away from me, of whom are fajitas and homogeneous.
And so there was a condition, you know, if you remember, that Asia was that area where Ephesus was, and Colossi and these two assemblies had received, I suppose you could say, the very highest truth that we find in the Word of God. And yet it says here.
That all they that are in Asia have turned away from me. And so it was a very sad time for the apostle Paul and he was encouraging Timothy.
As an individual to keep on, and I want to say that this afternoon that there's a lot of young families here. You're bringing up young children and I know you want them to continue on in the path of faith, but you're going to find that as they become teenagers, that's going to become much more difficult and it's going to be very easy perhaps to give up.
The truth that you have known, but you'll notice here the apostle makes it very plain, he says.
And to Timothy, hold fast the form of sound words. That's the beginning. You know, someone has said that you could actually translate that word possess possess the form of the sound words. You know, you can't keep something unless you possess it. And the way you possess it is to study it. And you know, I think that all of us need to make it our responsibility in these days to.
The Word of God to meditate on it and it's so important. And then of course he goes on and says in the next verse, though that which is committed under the keep by the Holy Ghost. And again that word keep, I think could be translated guard, guard.
By the Holy Ghost. In other words, it's only the Holy Ghost that can help us to guard.
What has been committed to us? And so it says, Guard by the Holy Ghost, which dwelleth in us, that which you have been given. And then, of course, as you go down into the second chapter, there's a word to those of us who are older, because it says the things that thou has heard of me among many witnesses.
00:05:17
The same commit thou to faithful man. In other words, we have a responsibility what the Lord has given us.
To pass on to the next generation. And it's often been said here that in this second verse we really have.
4 generations that says, my son, be strong in the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. And then it mentions what you've heard of me among many witness the same commit to faithful man. So there's another.
Generation, you might say and.
They will teach others also. So it's to be handed down from generation to generation. And so the word there is commit, commit.
Without a faithful man, which you have heard, and then finally.
In the 14th verse of the third chapter, we're told to continue. You know, we often read those verses in Acts chapter 2 where it says they continued steadfastly.
In the apostles, doctrine and fellowship and breaking of bread and prayers. And I think it's such an important word for us in these last days to continue and not give up. And so we have those expressions given to us. The question is, what are we to commit? What are we to guard? What are we to continue in?
Well.
There's many ways we could look at this I suppose, but.
It's interesting to me that it says in the 13th verse about holding fast. It says the form of sound words which thou hast heard of me.
And then you'll notice when it comes to the next verse, oh, not so much the next verse, but well, yes, that good thing which was committed unto thee. Now what was committed unto Timothy, it was what Paul had given him. And then in the second chapter again it says the things which thou hast heard of me.
And then in the third chapter.
He says, but thou hast fully known my doctrine. My doctrine. That's verse 10. And then in the 14th verse, what he had learned from the apostle, he was to continue in. In other words, the apostle is saying, what you have heard Timothy from me. That's what I want you to continue in. And the question is, what's he referring to? Well, I believe he's referring to.
Paul's Doctrine, you know, there's a little booklet that I would suggest you might read. It's written by, I think it's FG Patterson. It's called Paul's Doctrine and.
I think this is what Paul is particularly talking about when he's talking to Timothy. He wants Timothy to remember what he had instructed him in. Well, what was it that Paul had been instructed in? Well, we could look very briefly.
And Ephesians chapter 3.
Because in in Ephesians chapter three, I think we have a little hint of what Paul's doctrine consists of.
It says there in verse three of chapter 3, how that by revelation he made known unto me the mystery. In other words, the mystery was committed to the apostle Paul.
And then he goes on and says in the fifth verse, which in other ages was not known unto the sons of man. So this was not known back in Old Old Testament times, but it was revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit. So it seemed to me that God actually revealed this mystery of the church to the apostle Paul, and then he revealed that.
To the other apostles and prophets. It wasn't a private interpretation of the Apostle Paul himself. It was given to the apostles and prophets. And what was the mystery? Well, we have it there in the sixth verse, that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs of the same body and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel.
00:10:11
Whereof I have been made a minister according to the gift of grace of God-given unto me. So here was what Paul.
Wanted Timothy to remember the truth of the Church, and of course we get that in the instructions for this in his epistles.
And we get it. And you notice when you.
Come to the First Timothy. There I just referred to it briefly, but in First Timothy it mentions in the third chapter. In the 15th verse it says that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself.
In the House of God. And so we find in first Timothy the house in order the way things should be carried out in the early days when the when the truth was first given. But then when you come to the second epistle, we all know what it says there in the 20th verse of the second chapter. It talks not about the house. It talks about the great house, the in the great house.
Vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and of earth, and some to honor and some to dishonor. So there's a mix there of what is of God and that which is of man and what is honoring to God and what is not dishonouring to God. And that's the way things are today. We're living in the great house. It's the great House of profession and.
And so this is what has happened. People have the Christians have given up the truth of Paul's doctrine.
And, and Paul had to say of those in Asia, they had forsaken him and they turned away from him. Well, I believe he was talking about the apostle, the apostles doctrine. Well, you know, if we go back to the Old Testament and we read the story, at least the history of Ezra and Nehemiah.
You would find there that the Israel had been taken away captive for.
70 years. And the reason why they had been taking capital is because they gave up the truth that they had been given. They turned to idolatry and there they found themselves in Babylon for those 70 years. But you know, the wonderful thing is that God came in and brought restoration, and the result was that Ezra.
Went back to the land of Israel and so did Nehemiah. They both sent back large numbers.
To the land of Israel, I understand that there was about 42,000 that went back from.
42,000 That went back from Babylon to Israel, and that was really a fairly small number. I understand at one time there were a million Jews living in Alexandria, which was in Egypt. So out of all the Jews that had been scattered.
Only a reasonably small number had gone back to Israel, about 42,000. But you know what's interesting to see what characterized them if you went there to the 8th chapter of Nehemiah. We don't have time to go through it. Well, maybe we can just look at it for a moment. Nehemiah chapter 8.
Nehemiah, chapter 8.
It says there in the first verse.
All the people gathered themselves together as one man into the street that was before the Watergate, And they speak unto Ezra the scribe, to bring the book of the law of Moses, which the Lord had commanded to Israel. And it says in the third verse, he read therein before the street that was before the Watergate.
From the morning until the midday before the men and women and those that could understand.
And the ears of all the people were attentive under the book of the Law. So we find that there was restoration and restoration concerning the word of God. They were very concerned what the book of Moses had to say, and they recognized that they would have to submit themselves to what the word of God had to say. And then we find 2. If we went to the third chapter of Nehemiah, that they.
00:15:07
Built the wall and you know the wall speaks of separation and the two things that I think that this would instruct us in the importance of the word of God and and acting according to the word of God and then the importance to of separation from that which is evil. And so this is what characterized Ezra Nehemiah and I just want to say that.
This is a little picture of what began to happen.
In the history of the world.
A little later on I I hope I can make it plain, but.
We know that during the dark ages, that would be a time maybe from 600 AD up to 1011 hundred AD, the world was at least the Christian world was in darkness. The Pope's ruled people who are not encouraged to read the word of God. In fact, they were actually told.
Not to read the word of God. And it was a time of great darkness. But you know, the wonderful thing is that God began to move and he brought in the reformers. And you all know that Martin Luther was raised up of God and he restored the truth of justification by faith. And that was a very important, very important step.
Not only that, but God also raised up a man.
To invent the printing press. And with that printing press, the book that he he printed was the Word of God. And for the first time in many, many hundreds of years, people had the word of God in their own language. They could read it for themselves. Before that, the church had discouraged people from not reading the word of God.
But now they had the word of God, and not only that, but they, they reformers, taught the people the importance of the authority of the word of God, not going by the what the Pope had to say, but what the word of God had to say. And so that was restored to them. And I think it was a very important step in the history of Christianity.
But you know.
That's as far as it went. Another great reformer at that time was John Calvin. John Calvin, and he understood what Luther had done and he certainly put a lot of emphasis on the on the gospel, and that's very, very important. But that's as far as they went.
Now you'll notice a verse in Revelation again.
If you just go to the Book of Revelation.
When you go to the third chapter and I I can't go into all the details with all the time, but in the third chapter and in the second verse, we have a description of the period following the rest of the following the the the.
My mind, my mind is going from here.
The Reformation, that's what I want to say. It says here, this follows the Reformation. Be watchful and strengthen the things which remain that are ready to die. For I have not found thy works perfect before God. I understand that that word perfect there really is complete. You can read it this way. I have not found thy works complete.
Before God, in other words, during the Reformation, they restored the truth of salvation by faith, justification by faith. They did. They restored the importance of the Word of God. They put it in the language of the people and they talked about the authority of the Word of God. All very important. But as I said before, they didn't go any further. Their works were not complete before God. Now you'll notice there's another verse.
In Colossians. Colossians chapter.
One Colossians. Chapter one.
And verse.
25 Paul says there I am made a minister according to the dispensation of God, which is given to me for you to fulfill the word of God. Now I understand that word fulfill is exactly the same word as in Revelation chapter 3 verse 2 where it says perfect so we can read it this way.
00:20:24
The dispensation of God, which is given to me for you to complete the word of God. Now that doesn't mean that Paul wrote the last book in the in the New Testament. We know that's not true. The last book in the New Testament was written by the apostle John. But the truth that God had for his people.
Was the was Paul's nostril, which would have been communicated to Paul and that truth completed.
God's revelation to man. And so it says there that it was given to Paul to complete the word of God. And yet when you come to the third chapter of Revelation in connection with Sardis, which is a picture of, of Protestantism, it says that their works were not complete before God. In other words, they did not teach.
Paul's doctrine. Paul's doctrine. And So what I wanted to say was this.
That in second Timothy when Paul says.
Hold fast the the form of sound words and keep that which has been committed unto you, Timothy, he says. It was Paul's doctrine that was so important, and it's very easy to give up Paul's doctrine. I'm very thankful we've been brought up.
Well, first of all, I didn't quite finish what I was going to say.
In 1830 or so, God raised up John Nelson Darby, and I'm not trying to make him anybody special, but I believe that God gave him the responsibility of revealing the truth or reviving the truth of Paul's doctrine and.
We can be very thankful for it and we have a lot of ministry that we had on the table there yesterday.
And many of us have in our libraries. It's really the truth of the post often that was revived by those dear brethren in the early 1800s. And it's what's being given up today. It's very easy for us to say, you know, we're, we're small in numbers. There's not many of us. Why don't we just quit and go to a church?
Well, you know, if you go to those churches, and I want to say this, that I love my dear brother and in these churches.
I know many of them.
And I can have limited fellowship with them, but they don't know Paul's doctrine. They, they, they're clear on the gospel. And in fact, in many ways they put us to shame because they really are are energetic and giving out the gospel. And that's very important. But, oh, Paul says.
Hold fast that what you have, that no man takes your crown.
And I want to say today how important it is to hold fast the truth that God has given us. You know, the Lord is coming very, very soon and.
We don't know just when it's going to be, but it's it's in the very near future. And the Lord just wants us to hold fast what he has given us like a treasure, something that we value. Do we really value the truth that was restored at the beginning of the 1800s?
Well, if we do, I think we need to get into the word and study it and learn it. And that's really what I have before me today. I would say to those who are younger here and have children, value the truth, go on in it, continue in it, committed to others.
And treated as a treasure that God has given, and he will keep us.
We cannot keep ourselves, we need to depend on the Lord. But my thought is how important it is to value the truth that God has restored to us and that we to a large extent is not taught in the churches around us. In fact, we were noticing just that the noon hour that a lot of Christians don't make a distinction between.
The the the earthly blessings of Israel.
00:25:02
And the heavenly blessings of the church, they put it all together. And it's very easy to fall into these traps, but may the Lord keep us going on for him till he comes.
The Moral Condition that Goes with the Recovered Truth
Open—Bob Hutchins
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.
I appreciate my brother's word.
His encouragement?
I just thought we'd continue along those lines, but considering.
A little bit different aspect and that is.
The moral condition.
It goes with.
Receiving that truth and holding that truth.
And that's critical.
If that condition doesn't go with it, we don't really have it.
It's just doctrine.
It's just teaching.
In the essence of the truth.
Is Christ himself?
And to have Christ.
In our hearts, in our lives, in our prayer closets, in our midst.
But again, there's a moral condition that goes with that.
And we see it in some places in Scripture. He just referred to the recovery years of Israel.
They needed a moral condition to go with their recovery.
So I have no time to get in trouble.
I had to be raised up in Zechariah and Malachi.
Address their decline.
Malachi, especially in Hagei.
But I thought we'd look at.
Our beautiful brother Ezra.
And his exercise is to start off with in Ezra Chapter 9.
Ezra was part of that recovery.
Part of the returned captives.
And there was trouble. Didn't take long. Our hearts depart so readily. I mean, if we have any honesty at all and have any desire after Christ, we learned that quickly.
How quickly we let things slip for Mr. As Mr. Darby puts it, we slip away.
You know, we were talking, Steve and I and some of us, about how.
The Lord refers in the Gospels. I think we often tend to attribute this to seeds of the Gospel, but seeds of the Word to the cares of this life, the deceitfulness of riches, the pleasures of this world choke the Word.
And I believe it can choke it without us even perceiving it.
Departure of heart, especially from his presence, is so subtle.
And takes place so easily and we have to be so careful.
About the cares of this life.
They can really keep us at a distance without her even knowing it, you know?
But in Ezra Chapter 9.
They had. Well, we'll just read.
Verse one.
Now when these things were done, the Princess came to me, saying, The people of Israel and the priests and the Levites have not separated themselves from the people of the lands, doing according to their abominations, even of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the parasites, the Jebusites, the Ammonites, the Moabites, the Egyptians and the Amorites.
For they have taken of their daughters, for themselves and for their sons, so that so that the holy seed have mingled themselves with the people of those lands.
The hand of the Princess and rulers have been chief in this process.
You know when the when the children of Israel made their way through the wilderness.
They had to confront Amalek.
And they we see that picture and is it exit of 16 and 17?
Where Joshua successfully overcomes Amalek, but it says Moses is interceding.
And as they get closer to the land, they have to confront Zion and Auge.
The kings that would oppose them keep them from entering in the land, keep them from realizing the truth. The picture for us.
Keep us from realizing Christ in glory, realizing Him, having Him where He is. Be a reality with us in our hearts, in our lives.
And the very last opposition was Balaam Social.
00:05:00
Social opposition. Very subtle social opposition.
You have a friend. An old friend maybe.
Wants to hook up.
Once they get together, well, you have to guard your language, you have to guard what comes up and so on. You have to guard yourself all the time and it's nothing legal. It's just you're taking care of your treasure.
You know, it's been said that.
His treasure is on earth, the treasure in the field. Our treasure is in heaven.
We have to guard the treasure.
Well, the people of the land succumbed to this tactic of Balaam, the mix.
Even in very subtle, seemingly harmless ways, you're still mixing, and it affects you in the very important holy seed.
The Holy Seed.
We are of God, we are of Christ, except the corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, and abideth alone. But if a diet bringeth forth much fruit.
We are of the same Colonel and stock as he is the Holy One.
And he wants us like him. He wants us going on in his life, in his nature, his character. So it's so important to take care of the holy seed. So in verse six, we get some of Ezra's exercises and said, Oh my God, I am ashamed and blush to lift up my face to thee, my God. For our iniquities are increased over our head, and our trespass is grown up.
Unto the heavens.
Since the you know, answer is so appreciative of what God has done, he's letting them return. And now they've messed up. They failed. He's so ashamed. He's so ashamed because he appreciated it so much. He appreciated the return to the truth.
And now he's ashamed. Since the days of our fathers have we been in a great trespass unto this day.
And for our iniquities have we, our kings and our priests been delivered into the hand of the kings of the lands, to the sword, to captivity and to a spoil and to confusion of face as it is this day now that that was the state of the church, and it's rapidly becoming the state of the church too. We were talking about the dark ages at dinner time, and I joked and said, yeah, today.
Feels like that times we're going back into the dark ages.
And this verse is so precious. It's such a picture of the recovery of the truth. The church had gotten into this dismal condition. And as a brother was pointing out, God was gradually restoring truth to the church, the great reformers, and so on. And eventually Darby and Bellet and all those early brethren, Mueller and.
It was precious the way the Holy Spirit came in and restored truth to the Church. And I believe we see it in this verse 8. We can say the same thing. And now for a little space grace.
Have been showed from the Lord our God.
Sorry.
To leave us a remnant to escape.
And to give us a nail in his holy place.
That our God may lighten our eyes.
And give us a little reviving in their *******.
For we have we were bonds men, and yet our God have not forsaken us in our ******* but have extended mercy unto us.
In the sight of the kings of Persia, to give us a reviving, to set up the House of our God, and to repair the desolations thereof, and to give us a wall in Judah and in Jerusalem.
And now, oh our God, what shall we say after this? But we have forsaken thy commandments, and so on.
But this verse is so precious. Now for a little space grace, the 1820s.
Now for a little space. Grace have been showed from the Lord our God.
To leave us a remnant, a few a remnant to escape, and to give us a nail.
00:10:03
That's the Son of God.
On him we'll hang all the glory.
Let's just look at Isaiah 22 for a minute.
Just to for the sake of time, we'll just look at the few verses that I'm interested in. It shall come to pass. Verse 20, that I will call my servant Eliakim, the son of Hilkiah, and he's serving as a little, as a pitcher of Christ here. And I will clothe him with thy robe and strengthen him with thy girdle. And I will commit thy government into his hand. And he should be a father to the in heavens of Jerusalem into the House of Judah and the key of the House of David, while I lay upon his shoulder.
So he shall open, and none shall shut, and he shall shut, and none shall open.
And I will fasten him as a nail in a short place He should be for a glorious throne to his Father's house, and they shall hang upon him all the glory of his Father's house, and so on. But it's precious. Verse 25. In that day, saith the Lord of hosts, shall the nail that is fastened in the shore. Well, that's the other nail. I'm sorry, that's the false.
But Christ is the nail in the.
In the Holy place.
He's our nail in our verse too, in in Ezra.
To give us a nail in His holy place, that our God may lighten our eyes and give us a little reviving in our *******.
It's so precious to realize the nail in His holy place again. It's the Son of God.
Stan was talking about Paul's doctrine. You know, we like to say that John's doctrine is the Son of God down here. I mean, that's very great summary, but and Paul's doctrine is the Son of God up there.
And we know him in both spheres and enjoy him in both spheres. But he especially wants us to know him and enjoy him.
In that sphere.
You know, when he said to his disciples, he was down here in humiliation, He said, For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.
And it's easy to envision the humbled Christ saying those words to his disciples.
And kind of thinking of coming together in his name to this humbled Christ. But when he said the words, he was thinking of the future. He's the glorified Christ now.
He's the holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, made higher than the heavens. That's who it is. Whose name were gathered to and in, that's who it is.
Whose presence we come into.
You know I don't. I certainly wouldn't.
Be dogmatic on this and I know that Revelation is a primarily it's a book of judgment, but you just consider that picture of the Lord Jesus in Revelation chapter one. We'll just read read those few verses what John saw, he heard the voice.
In turn to see.
The voice was so real, it had such life.
That he turned to see.
Revelation One Verse 12. I turn to see the boys to speak with me, and being turned, I saw 7 golden candlesticks, and in the midst of the seven candlesticks one like unto the Son of Man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, gird about the paps with a golden girdle. His head and hairs were white like wool, as white as snow.
And his eyes were as a flame of fire.
In his feet like undefined brass, as if they burned in a furnace.
In his voice as the sound of many waters.
And he had in his right hand seven stars, and out of his mouth when a sharp 2 edged sword, And his countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength. And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead.
00:15:11
And he laid his right hand upon me, saying unto me, Fear not, I am the 1St and the last.
Well, this is quite a picture of our Lords. This isn't the humbled Christ anymore moving here meek and lowly. This is the glorified Christ. And what a picture to consider him like this. And I wondered if we can't just envision him as this now. This is his glorified person. Now we know that the eyes is a flame of fire and feet is fine brasser because he's walking amidst the candlesticks he's he's inspecting.
He's looking to. He's a fruit inspector. He's looking to see.
How his people have done.
But my point in reading it is just to see the character of man that He is and what he is now when we say He comes into our midst.
And he lays his right hand upon us and says, fear not such a such a vision could easily cause fear. But he wouldn't have that. He loves us. We know he loves us.
But I'm just trying to point out that that's the one.
Whom we call upon, that's the one who we desire to have come in our midst.
Is he still the meek and lowly one? Yes, he is. Remember when John later on when John wept much because no man was found to open the book and to lose the seals there, and no man was worthy.
To bring in judgment, you know.
Let me just look at that.
Verse 4I wept much because no man, this is chapter five, was found worthy to open and to read the book, neither to look thereon.
One of the elders saith unto me, Weep not, Behold the lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David, hath prevailed to open the book, and to lose the seals thereof. And I beheld, And lo, in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders stood a lamb as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent forth into all the earth.
Well, he said, behold the lion, and when John beheld it was a lamb, and we know him as both, we might say he's a lion.
In Revelation chapter one, in the sense of bringing judgment. But he's still our lamb. He still loves us. He would lay his right hand upon us and tell us, fear not. So for us, he's he's a lion and a lamb.
And King James says, hath prevailed, the word is overcome.
And just as a side note, it's precious to to realize him as the lion, the overcomer, to see him as that.
Then in chapter 3.
I'd like to read a little bit about from the letter to Philadelphia.
Chapter 3. Verse 7.
And to the Angel of the church in Philadelphia write these things, saith He that is holy, he that is true, He that had the key of David, He that openeth. And no man shut us. And shut us, and no man open us.
I know thy works. Behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it, for thou hast a little strength, and has kept my word, and it's not denied my name.
That's all I'll read. I wanted mainly this introduction.
He's the holy and the true.
That's how he reveals himself to the Church in the last days, the holy and the truth. That's how he revealed himself in those recovery years.
That's how he wanted them to recognize him, them to give place to him.
They were seeking to be gathered to his name, the holy and the true, His nature, his character. He that had the key of David, he that opened his no man shutteth and shutteth and no man openeth. The authority. It's his nature, his character, his authority. That's what they were gathered in. That's whose name they're gathered in.
And that's very key.
He was re establishing a place on earth for himself. He wanted that. It has to be suitable to him though the holy and the true, the one who has the power and the authority.
It's a sweet thought. It's such a sweet thought. I forget where I read it once, but someone suggested that the Lord Jesus often resorted to Bethany.
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Because he felt at home there.
He felt at home there.
Now, I don't know how true that is, but it's a sweet thought. It's a precious thought. Imagine if all our assemblies.
Were such a character, such a nature, that he felt at home there. He's in the glory.
His face is shining above the brightness of the sun still.
Would you feel at home in our assemblies?
It's a precious, precious privilege where I see.
Ezra appreciated their recovery.
Those early brethren appreciated, appreciated their recovery, which is our recovery.
But it's such a privilege to have him in the midst and to have the assembly suitable to him.
He's the holy and the true.
And he has set before that an open door that no man can shut. It's his intention that that go on. And I think that was a major part of Stan's point that he said before them, an open door, no man can shut it. He wants it to go on, but it has to go on in the right character, in the right nature, and there has to be that moral.
Those that moral exercise that goes with it.
Like we read, we read about Ezra. I am ashamed and blushed. To lift up my face to thee, my God, for our iniquities are increased over our head.
And so on.
It's humbling. He wants us humbled and appreciative for what he's doing, what he has done.
And what he is doing.
I just want to read those verses. Daniel had similar exercises.
Daniel was in the captivity.
And Daniel had similar exercises. We're all, most of us are familiar with those. We'll just read a couple of verses in Daniel Chapter 9. This is verse 7.
Oh Lord, righteousness belongeth unto thee, but unto us confusion of face as at this day to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and unto all Israel that are near and that are far off, through all the countries, whether thou hast driven them because of their trespass, and they have trespass against the O Lord, to us belongs can be longest confusion of face to our kings, to our Princess, to our fathers.
Because we have sinned against the.
But thank God, verse 9 to the Lord our God belong mercies and forgiveness, though we have rebelled against him.
But here again, there's another man with the proper exercises and attitude for receiving God's truth, His blessing.
And I'd like to look at Matthew chapter 19 for a minute.
A couple of familiar verses to us on a different subject, but containing a principle.
19 Verse 5. For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife, and they tween shall be one flesh, wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together? Let not man put us under.
Of course, this is about marriage.
But we know that we are united to Christ in glory. We are one with Him.
And one of the things those early brethren realized was that person we've been considering this glorified person.
And that they were one with him.
And it's easy to say the words, but to really express the truth of it.
We have to meditate on it, we have to seek to give place to it. But.
It's not like this.
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It's not Bob and Jesus.
I'm one with him, one.
We can all say that.
And think of that. Dwell on that. You're one with the glorified Son of God.
Just to realize that gives you such a new perspective on things and to enjoy him there.
When we enjoy him in his presence, there isn't there isn't a speck of flesh involved. It's out of the picture.
His love is there, the peace is there, the awesome sense of His presence is there, and you know nothing else is more important. And in the believers life there's nothing else more important. You want to read your Bible every day? That's great, seek Him.
Seek him, Seek to realize him. Be in his presence.
You go on the strength of that meal for days and you may not always have a sense of His presence, but when you do, it makes such a difference. And when those who are realizing His presence come together.
They realize what it is to have him in the midst.
But like I say this.
This verse back in Ezra is so precious. Now for a little space. In other words, God was working.
There's this little opportunity.
And we might put it this way. I mean, the Holy Spirit was behind it. He was, I believe he was raising up those vessels.
You know, in John 17.
In our Lord's Prayer.
The Lord was doing a work.
With those men.
John, Chapter 17.
And this is critical. It shows that it's a moral exercise.
We'll read verse six and John 17. I have manifested thy name.
Unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world.
Thine they were, and thou gave us to me, and they have kept thy word.
You know the Lord Jesus in Psalm 22, we're coming back to this, but in Psalm 22, it's hard to believe there's a more solemn chapter in the Bible.
To be taken up on your knees, so to speak.
We get his sufferings in the first half, but then his resurrection.
In the second-half and the first desire of his heart.
The first desire of his heart I will declare thy name unto my brethren. He wants to bring us into the Father's name. He wants us to get to know God. His name is who He is, what He is, His nature, His character, His authority. It's touching and it's.
It's very significant. That's the first thing, first words out of his mouth upon resurrection.
I will declare thy name unto unto.
My brethren, in the midst of the congregation, will I praise thee? It's the first thing he wanted to do.
Is declare his name, bring us into his name.
And that's what he says here. I have manifested thy name to those that thou gave us Me. They have kept thy words. He's doing the work with them. He's bringing them into His name. They're realizing who He is, what's due to him. That is essential to realize what to do to this person.
Verse eight. I have given unto them the words which thou gave us me, and they have received them, and have known surely, that I came out from thee, and they have believed the Thou did send me.
I pray for them, I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me. For they are thine, and all mine are thine, and mine 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.
He says these following words in connection with the Holy Father.
Keep through thine own name. There it is. There's the idea again. They have to be kept. They have to be kept in His name. Keep through thine own name. Those who now has given me that they may be one as we are.
While I was with them in the world, I kept them in Thy name. So it's an exercise, it's a reality. It's something that, again, first desire is hot. Upon resurrection, I will declare Thy name unto my brethren. I want them to get to know You, Father. I want them to realize who you are.
00:30:15
So he was doing the work with these disciples because he was going away.
And he didn't work with those early brethren. That's what I was getting at. There was a work going on in the hearts and souls of Ballot and Darby and.
Mueller and Macintosh we know. We know the names.
And they were being fitted to receive his name and have a place suitable on earth again for himself.
In other words, it's so easy for us to just think of the truth.
As the gospel and the gospel outreach. But it's more than that. It's a place where he is.
And a place is suitable to him, a place where he can come and feel at home, home to him.
Is light and glory and love and warmth.
Trying to remember the name. I'm trying to remember the words of that hymn but I can't think of it right now but.
That's what home is to him.
And that's one of the precious things of the recovery he was making. He was seeking to set up a place where he's wanted. Who he is, who and what He is, is wanted. Yes, you, holy one, You, the light of the world, You, the holy God. We want you in our midst. You come here, you be with us. We want you.
You know.
I know that may sound extreme or strange, but I believe it's it's true.
That he wanted a place where he, the way he is, could have things according to his mind. It's his universe, not only his planet, and it's his house.
That was mentioned here to set up the House of our God. That was what took place in the recovery. The the house was rebuilt, so to speak, and.
The truth of the body was established again.
And His grace for a little space grace has been showed from the Lord our God to leave us a remnant again. It was just a few.
And they give us a nail in his holy place. And that's why I read Matthew 19 and five. He's the nail in the holy place, and we're one with him there. Precious, precious privilege. And that's who wants to come into the midst. And He wants to come into the midst of a suitable place, suitable to himself. He wants to see that we want it the way he wants it.
Naturally, this wasn't well thought out. It's just thoughts that came to mind because Dan.
Presented what he did, but that's my main thought the the moral exercises that go with appreciating the recovery of the truth and maintaining it.
Can't maintain it without maintaining that humility and that appreciation.
That humbleness being ready to say to us belong with confusion of face.
Just maintaining that state which was able to receive the truth which which I might say recovery forefathers had.
And seek to maintain the same way.
The Judgment Seat of Christ, 1 Corinthians 3
Open—Tim Roach
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We've heard about holding the knowledge of the truth, holding fast at which we have.
We've been in.
Admonished to guard the truth with the moral exercise, with our moral condition and the way we live our lives in it, with a godly life.
I want to look at First Corinthians chapter 3.
In back in second Timothy chapter one.
Those Stan read that verse about continuing the things which you have learned.
And we are asked to walk into practice in Paul's doctrine. And in First Corinthians 3 we have the judgment seat of Christ, an aspect of this judgment seat.
The judgment seat is where we receive rewards for how faithfully we walked.
In Paul's doctrine, that's First Corinthians 3.
And the rewards that we receive will be used.
We we we talked about the appearing at the at the Reading meeting. The appearing is when the Lord comes and takes his rightful place here on earth. He destroys the enemies, He sets up His Kingdom and then He uses you and I.
He uses us to to serve him. That we we read that parable about the servants that went out and they when they came back they received the rewards. One would have the authority over 10 cities, 1 / 5 cities. Well that's referring to you and me as we are going to receive our rewards at the judgment seat and you're going to be able to use your rewards at that time during the reign of Christ.
And these these rewards will be used for serving Christ during the Kingdom reign of Christ. And so we need to be encouraged to be faithful, be a faithful servant now. And so you have perhaps more responsibility in for your faithfulness in the Kingdom. And so we'll notice in these verses that it's also possible for us to lose our reward as we get down in the verses.
It's possible for us to lose our reward that the Lord has reserved for us for our faithfulness to Him. But first you have to be faithful, and if you're not faithful, we can lose that reward. So in First Corinthians chapter 3.
And verse 6.
Paul's rating Here he says, I have planted Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. So then neither is he that planteth anything, neither he that watereth but God that gives the increase. Now he that plants, and he that waters are one and every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labor, so.
When you preach the gospel.
Or you teach the doctrines of Scripture. You will never know the full results.
Of what you the work you have done. You'll never know the full results until the review of our life's work at the judgment seat of Christ. You know when a farmer, he, he plants well. Now they use equipment, but and I know in Malawi, they take a little seed, they dig a little hole with their finger, they put it in, they put a little bit of fertilizer, they cover it over and then they go plant the next one. Well, when a farmer plants this crop, he puts the seed into the ground. Then he needs to irrigate it with water.
Then he needs to let God allow God to make it grow into food that we can eat.
God alone can make the seed go through the process of increase into food.
God will not reward you for how many people get saved.
Or how many people you preach to God's going to give you a reward for your labor of planting and watering with the word of God.
Now listen to this.
It's it's very important to God that when you are planting or watering that you preach truth.
If you preach a false gospel, perhaps telling people you need to do good works in order to get to heaven.
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There will be no reward for your laborers. You may serve the Lord night and day, but if you have the wrong message, there can't be a reward. And if you preach that a believer should go to the Church of his choice or you mix in Judaism into the worship.
And you're preaching this. You will not receive a reward for that.
Because you're building with wood, hay and stubble. And the picture that the Lord gives us is that when our work, he's going to judge our works and they will go through the fire. The person won't go through the fire, but the works will go through the fire. And anything done with wood, hay and stubble that's not done according to the to the word of God, it's going to get burned up. So we need to build with gold, silver and precious stones. And so when we teach the principles of God's Word.
About how Christians should.
Meet together for worship. You need to be accurate.
You must preach truth.
And your teaching must agree with the apostles doctrine. And if you mix in a little bit of error with the truth, there can't be a reward for your teaching.
And you may feel shame in your soul as you see your work of teaching being burned in the fire because you have wasted that part of your life and your energies.
By teaching the error and and you will suffer loss. And we need we need to make sure that our teaching and our preaching agrees with the apostles doctrine now in.
1St Corinthians 14.
In verse 36.
And he says, What came the word of God out from you? Or came it unto you? Only in these verses The Apostle Paul is admonishing the Corinthians because they they were perhaps changing the teachings as if they had invented God's order, and they were telling everybody what to do. But no God's word came from the Spirit of God, through Paul and.
So we know the Word of God did not come through the false teachers we, you and me. We did not invent the teachings of God's word. The Word of God was inspired by the Holy Spirit, and the Word of God came to the apostles who wrote down the teachings. And that's what we have in the word of God. And we cannot change God's teachings to suit our own beliefs or our own desires to fit our own situation. So we must agree with.
Then we must practice the apostles doctrine about the gospel and about church order.
Let's read verse 37.
If any man think himself to be a prophet or spiritual, let him acknowledge that the things that I write unto you are the commandments of the Lord.
If you are teaching the word of God.
You must agree that the teaching of the Apostle Paul is truth and that he received it from God. Read verse 38. If any man be ignorant, let him be ignorant.
If you do not know the teachings of Paul's doctrine, or if you don't agree with certain aspects of Paul's teaching, or you don't practice according to his teachings.
This verse says you are ignorant.
And if you are ignorant.
You are to remain ignorant, and that means you should not be a preacher or a teacher of God's word.
If you continue to preach into practice ignorance and error, you're going to lose out when the rewards are given out at the judgment seat of Christ.
As we practice these teachings, the doctrines of the Apostle Paul, we're going to meet up with a lot of.
Of people trying to pull us into their way of church practice.
And we're going to have to give up a little bit of something of Paul's doctrine and able to practice according to what some people from a church will tell you, that their way is right. Or maybe you like their entertainment, you like the way they preach, you like their choir, you like this, you like that.
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It's going to pull you away from Paul's doctrine. And when you pull away from Paul's doctrine, it's going, you're going to have to give up things, you know, I lived in in.
Nebraska for a while and there's an assembly there. And the assembly kind of dissolved and one brother went to the Baptist Church. Others families, they tried to stay together for a while and then they disbanded. And so my wife and I, we moved to.
Out of Nebraska to Minnesota, to another assembly. And there's an old brother who an old neighbor. He was a Christian man. And he looked at me and he says, why do you have to move all the way up to Minnesota just to have Christian fellowship? You can go to the Baptist Church. You don't have to give up any truth in order to do that. And he says, look at this brother, he went to the Baptist Church. No, he doesn't have to give up truth to do that.
I visited this older brother a year later and he said to me, you know, I was wrong.
That brother who went to the Baptist Church, he had to give up so much in order for him to stay there at that church, if you're going to be affiliated with other Christians.
We can have fellowship with them like our brother said.
And it's helpful to have fellowship with them.
But if you start imbibing their teachings and their practices, they're going to pull you away and you're going to be enjoying things that please the flesh. And when you start doing things that please the flesh and entertainment in the churches, it's going to start pulling you into the world. And then you're going to look for your entertainment in the world and it's going to draw you away from the Lord.
The next verses that we'll look at are concerning the aspect of how we function as the body of Christ for assembly, worship and meetings.
And the reward here is given. This is back in First Corinthians 3.
The reward here is given or withheld based on our adherence to the word of God. First Corinthians 3 verse 9. For we are laborers together with God. You are God's husbandry. You are God's building according to the grace of God, which is given unto me as a wise master builder. I, that's Paul have laid the foundation and another builds there on. Let every man take heed how he builds there on.
Paul is the one who wrote the main teachings for the operation of the local assembly.
And how the assemblies interact with each other and with with other assemblies who are also gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus. And in verse 11 he says for other foundation can no man lay than that is laid which is Christ Jesus. See Paul got his teachings directly from the Lord Jesus Christ when he is in heaven. Jesus Christ is the foundation of the church and Paul his teachings are based on Jesus Christ.
And so the foundation Paul laid is the teaching that he wrote for the function of the assembly, the function of the Church, 1St Corinthians 1.
And verse 10.
Says now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.
This is what we are building on the foundation. The speak the same thing, perfectly joined together, same mind, same judgment. We're building these things on the foundation and we will be reviewed for this aspect of the judgment. Seat of Christ in in this this chapter in verse 12.
1St Corinthians 3 verse 12. Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble, every man's work shall be made manifest, for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire, and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is. If any man's work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. If any man's work shall be burned, if that's the that's the things that you've done for yourself or for your own desire or anything is in error that does not agree with the apostles doctrine.
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If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss, but he himself shall be saved, yet so is by fire.
You want to be more than just saved and get into heaven. You want your life to count for something, for the Kingdom of God, for the Lord Jesus to get. And it's not for our own glory that we live our lives to please God. It's to give honor to God, to give him honor and glory. And this is very important that we understand that the apostles doctrine, that we understand the apostles doctrine so that we can teach it.
And we can practice it more accurately. And so as you build on the foundation, we want you to receive a full reward for your laborers, for the Lord Jesus Christ. And so I just say these few things because I don't want you to suffer loss. But our our time is up, so we'll we'll stop for now.
1 Thessalonians 5
Reading
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#76.
#76.
Praise my soul by God I say, stranger hands on the Board in me, 'cause I don't wanna do this and protect me. Strengthen hides the counter free.
There is.
No desert God will teach me what a goddess. Love has come. They shine, gracious, powerful, holy.
All his pray shall hear of the ground.
On your game and rest so landing in my 171 shall reign.
Serve and grace from thy descending thou shalt say some verses spring.
Broadly through.
Shall pray, shots of triumph swelling.
Zion songs in Christ to sing.
There's no stranger. God shall make the stranger.
And stretch shallow breathing things crazy without well known love.
Our God and Father, we thank Thee for how let us love us.
For how that is carry us through this journey down here, waiting to be called to be with thee for all eternity.
We thank thee the most blessed weekend we've had together here.
We thank Thee for my most holy word.
00:05:02
That has gone forth this afternoon.
Guidance and direction for our lives while we're here.
The Lord.
Recognize this last reading meeting before us now, and pray once again for.
My help.
And does that us lead us, or by thy spirit?
That we would be willing to take heed to these things.
How far, Hertz?
Prepared our ears open or that we might take in all that that all that that was have for us.
To show us the way that we might be like thy son.
And so we just pray that that would help us in this thing and in bringing glory and honor to Thee, thanking thee and praising thee, thy name, Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.
Do your brethren want to learn?
Continuous chapter five of First Thessalonians.
That was the original exercise. I had more than.
Probably chapter 4, but it was good to.
Jacob, chapter four, I think. And is it the mind of the brethren to go on with chapter 5?
I think that would be good, Brother John.
Quite a long chapter for one hour, but.
We just finished chapter four. We did finish chapter 4.
Yeah, First Thessalonians, chapter 5.
But of the times and the seasons, brethren, you have no need that I write unto you, for you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord shall come into the thief in the night.
But when they shall say peace and safety, then sudden destruction cometh upon them as travail upon a woman with child, and they shall unscathed. But you, brethren, are not in darkness, that the day shall open overtake you, as the here are all the children of life and the children of the day.
We are not of the night nor the darkness. Therefore let us not sleep as do others, but let us watch and be sober, for they that sleep, sleep in the night, and they that be drunk in our drunken in the night.
So let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation. The God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with Him. Wherefore comfort yourselves together, and edify one another, even as also you do. And we beseech you, brethren, to know them which labor among them.
And that are over you in the Lord, and admonish you, and to esteem them very highly in love for their work day, and be at peace among yourselves. Now we exhort you, brethren, warn them that are unruly, comfort the feeble minded, support the weak, be patient towards all men, See that none render evil for evil unto any man, but ever follow that which is good both among yourselves and to all men.
Enjoy sever more play without ceasing.
And everything give thanks, but this is the will of God in Christ Jesus. Concerned with once not the Spirit, despise not prophesying, prove all things, hold fast that which is good, abstain from all appearance of evil. And the very God of peace sanctify you holdings. And I pray God, your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved, blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it.
Brethren, pray for us. Greet all the brethren with the holy kiss. I charge you by the Lord that this epistle be read unto all the holy bread. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen.
Get out of here.
Speaking of the rapture, and that's the rapture of God's heavenly people to take them up, but times and seasons have to do with the earth.
00:10:03
So it's going on to a different subject now. As you said, this is concerning the awards open coming to the Earth to judge the earth.
Because of the time I wanted to get the comments for the right away. I was thinking that.
The Lords coming when it's open up as a thief in the night is never is never the rapture wherever you find the expression.
The Lord's coming as a thief. In the various places where you find it in the Gospels, it's always referring to the Lord's coming as the Son of Man in judgment.
So the apostle here is bringing before them the fact that.
The day of the Lord.
Is something that they're not going to, they're not going to.
Experience the judgments that precede the establishment of the Day of the Lord. They have the Lord begins from the time the Lord appears right through the whole millennial period to the end of the of that of that time. That's all the Day of the Lord.
And it has to do with the Lord as as judge as as establishing his Kingdom in righteousness and judgment. There will be no evil allowed but.
The condition of things when the Lord comes in the night.
Which will be the end of the tribulation?
Things will be.
Will be in a state of apostasy will be the apostasy of Christendom and they'll be the apostasy of of the of the nation of Israel and the Antichrist and the Roman beast will be ruling.
In Jerusalem and.
There'll be no believers.
There will be no gospel of the grace of God going forth at that time. It will be the gospel of the Kingdom that will be preached so.
There will be such a a turmoil that they're going to give their allegiance to the Antichrist and the Roman beast, the little horn of Daniel 7, and they're going to look, they're going to say, now we have.
Peace and safety because we're our confidence is in these men and then the Lord is going to appear and.
And come in judgment upon that whole system of things, because much of the nation of Israel will be in a state of apostasy, and there'll be a godly remnant among the nation that will be looking for the return of the Messiah, and there will be certain signs that will show them.
That the Messiah is coming to set up his Kingdom.
And.
The Spirit of God will no longer be dwelling on the earth as he does now in.
House of God.
The Spirit of God will go with the church, but there will be.
It's all described in Second Thessalonians, chapter two. He that letteth will let until he be taken out of the way. So that refers to the Spirit of God being raptured with the church, and then lawlessness will increase to a tremendous extent in the in the earth. Is that right? Stan? Yes, it is.
This isn't a change of subject when we get to chapter 5.
That began with verse 13 of chapter 4.
00:15:04
And he speaks in verse 14 that those that sleep in Jesus, God will bring with him when when he comes back to establish his Kingdom, that his coming will introduce the day of the Lord. He's going to come with his Saints in the introduction of that day. And then there's a little parentheses, verse 15 to the end of verse 18 to explain how his Saints will be with him. And then he resumes the subject again.
So this is all.
Still the same subject going on that goes right on down to to.
Verse 11, verse 13 of chapter 4 down to verse 11 of chapter 5 is all one inclusive.
Teaching of the Apostle on this subject.
Just emphasize what you were saying, brother Steve, from verse 15 to the end of verse 18 is really a parenthesis. Is that correct? So as you say, when it talks about the appearing in the 14th verse of the 4th chapter, then he goes right on in the 5th to continue that subject.
He says they're in the second verse for yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord cometh of the season, the night the Old Testament brings out the the day of the Lord, doesn't it? I was thinking of Joel chapter 2 where it says in the first verse below ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound and alarm in my holy mountain, let all the inhabitants of the land tremble, for the day of the Lord cometh.
For it is nigh at hand, the day of darkness and of gloominess, and of day of clouds and of thick darkness. So it's very plain, isn't it, in the Old Testament, the day of the Lord? But did you say it has to do with the earth, has to do with Israel?
Not with the church at all.
You know we had much before us in the last meeting of the recovery of the truth.
And that work of the Spirit of God.
To bring that which we call false often back back into practice, back amongst, you know, to be rediscovered, so to speak for the New Deal. But as I understand and I if I'm wrong, please correct me, but I understand that one of the first things that surfaced and and became.
A reason why?
Got together to dig into it deeper. Was was a new understanding. Not that the Lord was coming back in judgment that really wasn't lost, but that He was coming back for his own.
And it's coming back to take his church and as they began to.
Dig into the Word. They began to understand again that heavenly calling church.
And.
This teaching is so under attack today, especially, you know, amongst evangelicals as well. And it's so important that we really do understand this and we don't apologize for it. This is the truth of God that God has.
He has his heavenly people. He has his.
He has his his purpose upon votes and that's really what this, this subject is about. God will have His purpose upon earth and His purpose is to reign upon the earth. The first there has to be judgment and you have to be so clear that the Church is not going through that judgment.
Should not be apologetic. It's not something that we have to debate and compromise on. It's the truth of God. Verse 9 brings that up clearly doesn't that.
Also reference to the day of the Lord and Isaiah chapter 2. It speaks here in verse 11 how the lofty looks of man shall be humbled.
And the haughtiness of men shall be bowed down, and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day.
The day of the Lord of hosts shall be upon everyone that is proud, lofty upon everyone who has lifted up. He shall be brought both and speaks of it again in verse 17. And the loftiness of man shall be bowed down. The haughtiness of men shall be made love. The Lord alone shall be exalted in that day. Well, it certainly isn't what characterizes the present day. This is the day of man, and man exalts himself. But what a contrast.
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When the Lord alone will be absorbed.
The lofty looks of man brought along.
God will punish this world. I'm just noticing one more verse in Isaiah 13 and 11. I will punish the world for their evil and the wicked.
For their iniquity, and I will cause the arrogance here of the crowd deceased and will lay low the haughtiness of the terror, but I will punish the world for their evil. That's what is ahead and.
But he's not going to punish the bride.
What will be the thought that that would ever occur? Brides taken out?
Sorry.
The Day of Christ. Isn't that the time when the heavenly glory of Christ will be revealed?
Through the Church of God in its administrative characters and that the day of Christ isn't the same period as the day of the Lord.
Having somebody said, Brother John, that the Deus place is the heavenly aspect of the day of the Lord, would that be correct? Yes, I will, I will say.
Sorry, was.
Going to say something. I was just going to ask you a question.
So God as a heavenly people and earthly people, we're not heavenly people and we have a heavenly portion. Why is He telling us about this earthly thing? What's his purpose? Why is he telling us? Why is it important to know?
And that is without I would ask why? Why is he Speaking of it? Not if he's speaking to.
The heavenly people in the University of the first part, chapter 5 saying you're not.
The darkness of the day should always take the complete, but they're not going to be.
Why is he saying that?
We're watching and waiting.
In darkness, we have the expectation.
So we don't know. We'll be taken out of here before that. Congress still has been waiting.
Prophecy is always given in a day of failure.
And it's given to God's people to show them what He is going to judge, that they would be separate from it now and walk here in a holy way for Him. And so he brings us in, and there's another reason as well. He brings us in that we might see now what He's going to judge and that we would walk his life in this world and be separate from what He is going to bring under judgment. The second thing is.
The Spirit of Prophecy.
Is the testimony of Jesus. It has to do with his Son. And he confides to us all his purpose and counsel and his Son, and it's his delight to do that. And so there's two reasons, and perhaps the second ones, the best one.
It's that it's about the Lord Jesus Christ and he wants us to know everything connected with him. And so our portion is like Abraham, right when God was going to judge Sodom, he said shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do, he's my friend and he tells it had nothing to do with Abraham. Wasn't judgment that Abraham was going to do? He was up on the mountain, but he unfolded. What was the result? Abraham and her seed.
For those down in that plane.
Beautiful.
A lot was not separated from average dogs.
For the judge, but still taking out before this judge.
So another question in verse 15 of the prior chapter, we which are alive entertainments are coming up over the coming of the Lord.
Is the the secret coming which we call the Rapture that is overcoming bothered in that term becoming a rule?
I think so.
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We don't need to question.
Verse in John 15 and 15 that I appreciate on this subject, says, Henceforth I call you not servants, for the servant knoweth not what his Lord doeth. But I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard of my father I have made known unto you.
There's many things in the Scripture that are not about us, but God has revealed His plans and because we're connected with Him and appreciate Him, we can enter into them as well. I think we experienced that. Maybe our friend here at the conference tells us something about their life. Do we say, well, it's not about me, so I don't care? No, it's about our friends, so we care, right? And so there's many things that are not about us in God's Word, but we can appreciate them because God has taken the time.
Reveal them to us.
It's wonderful that God would communicate with you and me what His future plans are.
And I think of how tells us in Psalm 103 and verse seven, God the Lord made known his ways unto Moses, but his acts under the children of Israel. So that which was outward children of Israel saw. But I believe Moses, he was close to the Lord, and he learned why things were taking place, the ways of the Lord.
And this is our privilege to know what his ways are.
And of course, the thief is that which.
He's unexpected and he's unwanted.
Well, certainly that isn't what characterizes.
The church, we want the Lord to return and we expected how many times we say, you know, the Lord's coming is at hand, you could come today, so.
Don't believe that this refers to his coming.
In the church, some under that impression.
The robbery is a secret removal of the church. It's not a time of judgment, is it? It is the snatching away of of the.
Church of God and that is the believers hope. But there is a word of warning here in verse six. Therefore let us not sleep as do others, but let us watch and be sober.
Now sleep is used in probably three different ways in these passages here, but in verse six, it would bring before us the danger of becoming careless, occupied with the world and the cares of this life and the hope of the Lord's coming becomes dim in our souls and we we have it as a doctrine, but we don't practice it.
Mr. Darby mentions the the danger of that you hold the doctrine, but it should be something practical in our lives that we are.
We don't drift into the ways of the world and.
Adopt to their their their whole manner of life. We are children of the day, we belong to the Lord and we are to manifest the life of Christ down here. Is that right?
You see a person that sleep and a person that is dead. How can you tell which which condition they are in? They both look the same.
And so the believer is not looked upon as in the company that we have in verse 7 here.
That is the unbeliever.
He is unawakened to his danger and his need of salvation.
He's sleeping in his sins, but we should not have that character. We should be alert and.
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As we say, tiptoe, tiptoe expectancy for the Lord to come at any moment, is that right?
2nd Thessalonians 2.
That when the Lord comes.
It says that.
Verse 8.
Speaking of Antichrist, that wicked will be revealed when the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth.
It is the power of His word.
And shall destroy with the brightness of his coming.
We're children of life. We're children of that which is going to judge the wicked one in this world.
Because light makes all things matter.
And so in light, he's going to judge this world, and the brightness of that light is going to be the destruction of that wicked one. Well, we're children of light.
For children like.
And so our walk through this world says one thing to the world, if we walk faithfully this world under judgment.
And there's a message to this world. We're not of the night, nor of darkness.
And so that light is going to be our character for all eternities and New Jerusalem that descends out of God from heaven as the light of the glory of God. And we rejoice in hope of the glory of God, looking forward to that day.
Presently were children of life.
So the Lord had delivered us from the power of darkness. We were in darkness, weren't we, immorally and spiritually and.
We've been delivered from that tyranny and that.
Bonding children of sin and sacred serious power.
So verse 11 is different than verse 18, but verse 18 is comfort one another with these words because those words were directly applied to us, right?
And verse 11 is is our chapter here. Comfort yourself together and then as a general.
It's not comfort one another with these.
Telling us about what's going to happen.
It wasn't far the comfort we needed as we see the the what's going on in the world and all the all the disturbing things that happened that are happening around us all the time. Knowing that what's coming, you can comfort one another with the fact that we.
We are not to be concerned about the things that are going on at times and seasons going on around us because we're going to be taken out. We weren't, we're not.
Going to be part of what's going to happen.
There's a comfort and edifier and build one another option. I appreciate how he he absorbs and.
And also commenced at the same time. So he says do this, but you're already doing it, keep doing it. And you know, we need that. We need encouragement and what we do, do the right things that we do.
And we really need it all the time. At least I know I do. I think we're all.
We need, we need that encouragement to go on. We need to do it. And we, we have such an effect on one another, you know.
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Encourage my brother here that I can build them off or I can rip them down at any moment. They need that.
Interact a lot.
Sometimes I'm surprised talking with brothers that get going on so well with no stress. How often?
What's in the game play?
Sometimes you talk to brothers, you hear it going on so well, and they'll tell you how many times they just wanted to throw in the towel and give up.
The breastplate of faith and love was that being before us, protection for our hearts and what what our affections go after and what we think about and pursue after as an object controls our lives.
We know that thing.
Natural things, what we, what we think about is going to affect our conduct. Sooner or later it's going to come out. So we need the helmet of of the helmet, the hope of salvation.
Salvation here I think is referring to the ultimate aspect when.
The Lord returns and we have the salvation of our bodies. It says there in Ephesians 4. Dream not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed until you fail. No, the Spirit of God will not leave you, so don't grieve Him whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption. I thought you had your redemption already. But that is the redemption of the body, the culmination when we are.
Body, soul and spirit with the Lord. And that's the hope of salvation, is it not here?
To be glorified with Christ.
Is that right?
Just say the the breastplate covering the breast speaks of the heart and affections. Well, the believer has affections for Christ, doesn't he? But they need to be guarded. They need to be protected as they have before us earlier. If they're not, there's going to be disastrous consequences in our life. So those affections, you know, in Song of Solomon says we have a little sister, she has no breasts. What shall we do?
In other words, her affections weren't developed yet. What shall we do? Well, we're going to enclosure with boards. We're going to protect her.
We're going to protect her while those affections develop, and that's really the breastplate here, protecting affection for Christ.
That couldn't be damaged and so we need that carefully in place. Well, helmets on the head.
So their brother brought out what we think too, you know, and bad doctrine can affect our practice. What is our hope? As he said, it's salvation. It's to be completely delivered from the scene. Completely delivered. What's what would be a wrong hope? All things are going to get better down here. We just got to work hard, pull it together. We'll convert the world and we'll bring in the Kingdom of Christ. That's not the hope of salvation.
That's the wrong hope, and that would leave our thoughts unprotected. If our thoughts are unprotected, those are the kind of thoughts that can get in and that affects our practice and walk here in this world.
Wouldn't you say that?
They lost the helmet, you might say, because in the second, in Second Thessalonians, they had thought they were going to go through the day of the judgment. And so they had. They lost that hope of salvation that they should have had.
The affections for Christ, how important. And the Lord Jesus, I believe, is very sensitive to our affection for him.
Of course, the word to the Ephesians assembly there in Revelation I have against the Dallas left I first loved and I was thinking to it. And the song is solid. There's reference.
To the bride's appreciation.
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Of the affections of the bridegroom.
And she says.
I love is better than wine, but when it comes to.
Bridegroom Speaking of the affections of the bride.
Something is added.
Thy love is much better than one.
So we see how the Lord He looks on the heart.
And we can be doing things right, outwardly speaking. But what about the heart? Is our hearts? Are they really warmed up to Christ? This is what he looks at.
And if there is that heart affection for Christ, it's going to be manifest in doing that, which is pleasing.
To him.
I think Sober is in connection with the fact that he has revealed these things to us. He's revealed what he's going to judge and he wants us to walk separately from it. He wants us to have a sound right moral judgment of this world and all the things around us. And.
So, so that's what sobriety is. Someone's not sober. They're imperceptible of their surroundings. And he goes on to say that they that be drunk and they're drunken in the night, they don't know what's going on. So Brian is the opposite of that. We know what's going on. We see clearly, we understand clearly.
Someone is inebriated does not until it's too late.
So to be sober, would that be to acknowledge those things if we come in contact maybe with somebody in our daily walk with our work or whatever it might be. And, and they have that, that opposite hope what you said a few minutes ago. And they think that the world is going to get better and they're going to pull it all together. And, and we just sort of chuckle with them and go along our merry way and don't set them straight. Is that part of being sober? Show them that.
That part of being a light as opposed to, isn't it?
Yeah, I would say both, but just the whole moral condition of this world we get can easily get dulled to it and have light thoughts about the seriousness of the moral condition of this world. You know, we get we do get dull to it and so we're exorbitant to be sober.
How can we go along with the entertainment world and everything that's safe? You know, it's Satans world really that we are in.
It's it's as old as the days of Cain. That's when the world began. Cain went out from the presence of the Lord. Indeed.
He developed agriculture and science and entertainment and pleasure and built a city and called the city after the name of his son. It was all to make himself comfortable outside of the presence of the Lord.
And he had murdered his brother. Well, this is the character of the world in which we live. So we are here not to isolate ourselves from the world, brethren, No, but to.
To give the message to be reconciled to God, we have that privilege of pointing souls through the way of escape from this rock. I guess this is probably referring to the tribulation period. Like at the chapter one wait for his son from heaven which whom he raised from the dead. Even Jesus which delivered us from the wrath to come, but not the tribulation. Yet I believe it is.
We get a 2IN Romans chapter 5 verse nine. It says much more than being now justified by His blood. We shall be saved from wrath through Him. I think these are good verses to show that the church will not go through the tribulation. We often refer to Revelation chapter 3 verse 10 but these are others that back that up again as you say. So salvation in this ninth verse that you're referring to brother John.
Is really the ultimate salvation like you were saying, Body, soul and spirit.
It's what's mentioned in Romans 13 too. Now is our salvation here.
Thinking about the culmination.
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The Lord Jesus Christ bore the wrath of God for us on Calvary Cross and to say that the church will go through the wrath of God is really casting a slight on the finished work of Christ. There is no there remaineth no more, wrath remaineth no more.
It was all taken care of at the cross. To say the church would pass through is a slight to the work of Christ.
What also changes the Lorde character?
Which is most disturbing?
Right. I mean the apostle spoke of another Jesus. He said, you know, if they preach another Jesus, they come to you Speaking of another Jesus. That means that Jesus that is not the one that is presented to us in the Scripture, but one that they have added attributes or removed after these from a miscarriage. It would not be the Lord's character to punish his bra.
That that doesn't fit his character.
It's another Jesus is what it is.
That's what's most troubling those who believe those things is what do they? What is it saying about him?
That is not the Jesus that's been presented with blessing the script.
There's another doctrine that has come in.
Over the years, but it's gained some traction. I just mentioned it, and that is that yes, the church will be saved from wrath, but the wrath is only the last 3 1/2 years of the tribulation. And there are scriptures that show that that time is specifically called the time of God's wrath, the pouring out of the breath. And they point to those scriptures and say, you see, we're going to go through the 1St 3 1/2 years of the tribulation, but just before the wrath of God is poured out in the last three.
Will be raptured and so they hold what's called a mid tribulation rapture and that may present some difficulty to answer.
Because they point to the very verses we've just taken up. Saved from coming raft, you see. Yes, the last 3 1/2 years of the tribulation.
The Revelation Four and Five hold the key to that. They teach, generally speaking, the church is raptured under the 6th seal just before the last 3 1/2 years unfold. But in Revelation Four and five, who do we see? And I'm not going to. I'm only going to briefly mention it. You can go look yourself. You find in the heavenly company 4 and 20 elders.
They're all complete and they're very well identifiable as you go through Revelation as the as the rapture, Heavenly Saints. They are Saints. There's not one missing. There's 24 Thrones and there's 24 of them. They're all there. They're all complete and they are there worshipping and praising. Before 1 seal is open, that whole company is there.
Before 1 seal is OK, they're all there.
They're not waiting half of them and waiting for the rest to be caught up, you know, under the 6th deal halfway through the Tribulation. I just give you that. But that's the key to that, that doctrine that would take the very verses we're looking at, but twist them and sort of make a difficulty is to know how to answer. While the key is Revelation 4:00 and 5:00.
The 24 elders would be everyone that has pardoned the first resurrection apart from the martyred Saints of the Tribulation.
In chapter 6, is that the 1St 3 1/2 years of the tribulation period? The seals, is that correct? So it mentions about rap there in chapter 6. The left would prove that document is an error too, wouldn't it?
The mid tribulation perhaps? Or is that right to you? Well I think they use that.
I don't want to go too far down that road, but.
In in chapter 6 of Revelation, it's.
Turn to it.
When you get down to the 6th seal, that's when they say we're 17, the great day of His wrath has come. Oh, you see, that's when the wrath comes. So we're raptured under the 6th seal. So they use that. What you're saying not to disprove it, but they use it to prove it. Like I said, the key is not chapter 6. The key is Revelation 4 and five, seeing who the elders are.
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Before 1 seal is open.
There's a little hint, too, of the Lord's coming. When the Lord says come up, hit her.
So really, he's concluding in verse 10.
Difficulty that had come up.
With the Saints in Thessalonica as to those who had died.
And they're concerned that they would miss out.
Have been brought before us, so he says who died for us that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him. Whether alive and remaining till is coming or whether asleep in Jesus all are going to be caught up and whether wake or sleep we're going to live with him.
And then he concludes where for comfort yourselves and identify. It is edifying, isn't it, when we bring the whole thing together, not only the the rapture of the Saints to answer that question, but his coming.
And our reigning with him. And it's an edifying subject. And here was this young assembly and they were being taught those things right early on. The prophecy isn't something that, oh, you push off the way down the road, yeah, there may be things that need to be taken up maybe first. And a young believer's life needs to be addressed first. But a prophetic outline, the hope of the Lord's coming and our reigning with him, that's all.
Very important part of of a new believers instruction.
They could give just one comment about Rath again.
Wrath is not so much against sin as it is against the Sinner, It's against the person. And so the Lord Jesus took our sin upon himself. He took the wrath of God against himself. And so the wrath of God will never come against the believer. Wrath is against the person, not against the sin. So we are free from that wrath because the Lord Jesus took that wrath for us. And so we will never experience the wrath of the tribulation.
And the judgments of the tribulation, the first half, second-half is against the Senate.
I know this has been alluded to, but approximate implication of this whole topic is tremendous when you look around it, you live with their whole bin. A few thousand votes being more on one side than the other side is because.
They're hoping that the tide will be reversed. And maybe they're they're hoping for the Kingdom that he's had up down here. Or maybe when you look at what's happening in North America and throughout the whole world, it puts you into a state of panic just considering where's this going to end up for our kids? Where's this going to end up for us? What's it going to mean for jobs?
All of those things, but to realize that the Lord is not appointed this will happen here is a tremendous to realize it doesn't matter.
Whether the Supreme Court overturns the vote in a certain area is a tremendous thing. To realize that we can go to bed at night and know that we're not putting our accounts, our hope on one side versus another side is an incredibly profitable thing.
I think even as we talk to other believers, we're seeing this attack not only.
The truth of this in terms of the rapture and it could be 1000 years from now. He's also attacked getting the rapture mixed up with the the, the coming, the appearing of the Lord and he's attacked has been mentioned. Well, maybe Lord will come halfway through the privilege and we'll go through wrap. All of these things are a tremendous comfort if we consider them in the light of what is happening every single day.
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I know for myself that you've been wonderful just to think about it, because all of these.
Problems that we see as we read and talk to people every day are answering in the very thing that we've been considering everything that this world is struggling with right now. When the Lord comes and is appearing will be when he sets up his opinion will be set right. You'll have perfect government. You'll have perfect rule against the sin in this world. The the environmental issues will be cleared up all of these things and will be with him. And so it is as it says here it says.
Comfort yourself together to edify one another, I think even as leaders.
It's something that we can share not in a we're better than you type of attitude just to consider these things because.
From from the start of the Bible, the end of the Bible, we see that the Lord takes his people out away from that. It's not even just a good one is a tremendous verse than to have in your back up and say what I was going to write a very good verse to learn and to know to answer if somebody says how do you know the word 24 relationship. Having a few of these verses in your back pocket. As you say this is what is giving me peace in this topic.
Is very, very helpful. And so it is it's.
Nice to know these things in theory, but they're possible right now are probably more important than they ever have that. I appreciate what you said, Steve, was the two reasons.
The Lord has given us these things so that we know how to think and act in the very situations we face everywhere.
Just really enjoyed brother Mark. The end of Philippians 3.
Verse 20 for our conversation or the root is of that word the same route as politics and translated, I think Commonwealth citizenship, but our conversation, our citizenship is in heaven from whence also we look for the Savior. We're not looking for any savior in this world don't matter who he is.
We're not looking for any savior in this world.
The Lord Jesus Christ, who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body, according to the working whereby He is able to what? Even to subdue all things unto himself. That's the one we're looking for, the one that will subdue all things unto himself, and nobody else is going to.
The first is June of the recently.
I'm thinking of Jonah the man, not the type that we.
We take out in regards to Christ, but he says, When my soul painted within me, I remember the Lord, and my prayer came in unto thee into thine homely council. And here's the verse. They that observed lying vanities forsake their own mercy.
The world is.
Not real.
The world is the enemy's dominion.
He's the father of lies, deception.
He would lead us down past that.
We are full of bread, full of fear, or we buy into what he has to offer, which seems to be wonderful, whatever it might be. He's got a a portion for every heart. He would like to fill every heart with his offers. But they're lying vanities and they that observe blinding vanities for safety and all mercy. So you end up laundering around just like the world is.
Acting the way the ones in darkness act in fear and red.
Like to add one more thought. I know we're right at the end of our time.
Going back to something I've rather mentioned in the open meeting connection with going on in the truth of being gathered to the Lord's name, that this is something the Lord wants to continue.
01:00:12
And going back to the address to the church in Philadelphia, Revelation 3.
To the Angel of the Church of Philadelphia, right these things say, if he that is holy, he that is true, he that hath the key of David, he that openeth, and no man shut it and shut it, and no man open it. All governmental power in key of David rests on his shoulders. And when he opens the door, you don't have to worry about the politics of this world shutting it.
That we would not be able to go on in the recovered truth. It's not going to happen.
Please open the door and he holds those that key.
We can trust them.
We say #40 in the appendix. 40 in the appendix.
Hail to the Lords. Anointing. Great dangerous, great turn the time of morning.
The rolling years shall come.
He comes straight, no pressure.
To set the counter free.
Take away transgression.
And rolling equity.
The children's here of him getting counseling, and Roy's inquiry shall breathe in.
Anything for him.
Shall be surrender of God.
And righteousness in those days, ground hills to wildly flow.
He shuffle down before again and go again. Sainsbury's.
All the nation shall afford him.
His grace of people saying.
And stretch his wife Dominican over everything.
Father, we thank you so much for this time. Thank you for every answered prayer that we enjoyed sitting in these meetings. Thank you for what has thrilled our hearts over and over again, and each time so freshly as you think of the Lord Jesus, as we think of the promise of being snatched up out of this world.
With to the great surprise of this world.
To be with our Savior, the Lord Jesus, the one who completely.
01:05:06
For the wrath of God.
And we think of the sweetness of thinking of great David's greater son appearing.
Before all the earth, before all the world.
And for the promise that we will be with him.
And seen with him.
So undeservingly, and yet so fittingly due to his work.
They think of the expectation of two seeing all creation with sin set in.
Proper place, if we could say and.
Seeing all things in in their proper order and.
We look forward to seeing as we just pray that these these truths as we've been encouraged, we would not let go of and not only would we hold on to them, but we would work to understand them and to share them. We give thanks for all these things in Jesus name, Amen.