Address—R. Klassen
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.
Our meeting by singing number 57.
On the Lamb, our souls are resting.
57.
Yeah, yeah.
I.
Let's turn to a verse in the 11Th chapter of Hebrews to introduce the subject of meditation.
Hebrews, Chapter 11.
And verse 32.
And what shall I say more, for the time would fail me.
To tell, let's drop down in the verse to David also and Samuel.
David also and Samuel.
In this verse we have 5 judges and one king that are in the listing here.
And we noticed with interest how that the successor is mentioned before the mentor, if you allow me to put it that way.
And why is that? We have a barrack before we have a Gideon?
And we have a Jephthah before we have a Samson. And we have a Samuel before we have a David.
And so the wonderful commitment of the truth has gone on, passing from one generation to another.
And so for a few moments we might look together about the life of Samuel and bringing David into it just a little bit.
And we'll first turn to First Samuel Chapter 8.
00:05:12
First Samuel, chapter 8.
Begin by reading verse one.
And it came to pass when Samuel was old, that he made his sons judges over Israel. Now the name of his first born was Joel, and the name of his second abaya, and they were judges in Beersheba. And his sons walked not in his ways, but turned aside after lucre, and took bribes and perverted judgment. Then all the elders of Israel gathered themselves together and came to Samuel unto Rama.
And they said unto him, Behold, thou art old, and thy sons walk not in thy ways. Now make us our king, to judge us like all the nations.
And the thing displeased there was evil in the eyes of Samuel, when they said, Give us a king to judge us. And Samuel prayed unto the Lord. And the Lord said unto Samuel, Hearken unto the voice of the people in all that they say unto thee, For they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them.
Well, what a history.
We all have a history.
And we can't hold our heads up.
As this history is in review.
But there's kind of a line of divide here, and that's why I read this and I want to look on both sides of the line of divide.
So as we look on this side of the line, we go back to his mother and we might turn to the second chapter.
Without reading, I have to make a few comments to seek to cover what is on my heart.
His mother, Hannah.
The Lord closed her womb so that she couldn't have children.
A very difficult situation that is. But why did he do it? He wanted to lead Hannah's thoughts further than just to have children for pleasure. It's wonderful to, to hold your first born. I, I can still feel that little girl in my hands and I've held other little babies, but this one was bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh.
But Hannah.
Didn't have that privilege until she came to a certain point, and that point was not to bear a son in the light of her enjoyment only, but to bear a son in the light of the need of God's people.
I believe there are many that have been through this exercise. It's a wonderful exercise to have.
And how deep are the plowings of God go and the soul, so that somebody looking on gets a totally wrong impression of of what they see? And it was in this case with Hannah that the priest thought she was drunk.
Well, the Lord blessed her with a son, and she named him Samuel, which means ask for.
And she had come to the point where she was willing to lend him to the Lord to serve his people. Very unusual.
Privilege at a very young age. I don't know what the age was.
But in Hannah's prayer, I believe we get the heritage that his mother gave him.
You know, it was a heritage that isn't just right here, it's the heritage that looks on.
And we read.
In verse 8 for an example.
Think of this little boy beginning to mature and to apprehend a little bit, to hear his mother say he raises up the poor out of the dust, lift up the beggar from the dunghill, to set them among princes and make them inherit the throne of glory.
00:10:06
Isn't that a beautiful?
Living in view of the future, to have a vision of glory before your soul.
Going to keep you from many a football and snares because you're looking beyond that's not natural to us. We want to get everything right now. The prodigal son his spear was give me. He wanted things right here in his hands. But we want to live dear young people, in view of the coming glory that we're going to enter in for many in this room. It's not going to be you're not going to be very old.
When we hear the shout and we all go together right into the presence of the Lord Jesus.
Well, this is a prayer. One thing I've enjoyed about it. If you must by mistake, call it a song. I believe that you're right on key. I've never checked this out, but I'm just conscious of the fact that this prayer is scattered through the Psalms bits and pieces here. Someday I'd like to check it out and see if all the parts can be put together. They went into the Psalms for song. How wonderful it is when our prayers.
Lead to songs.
Of praise and joy, Well, the day comes.
When she takes this boy.
To the Tabernacle.
Our brother Dave described that to us in the morning reading, taking him to the divine center and to see such a loathsome.
Situation there when it should have been the brightest spot on earth. I believe he said it was the saddest. I don't take issue with that, but by faith she takes him there.
And lends him to the Lord as long as he lives.
All mothers, is that the issue with your heart, with your children? It can be. It's a wonderful desire to lend your children to the Lord.
Heard about the wild little donkey, the master says I have need of him.
And for parents to experience to see this operation going on in the heart, you see, the master has made his claim.
And so Samuel grew, and it tells us in the third chapter, and the Lord verse 19 was with him and did let none of his words fall to the ground. And all Israel from Dan even to Beersheba knew that Samuel was established to be a prophet of the Lord.
You know, that's kind of thrilling to read that. And we may say, oh, what a wonderful era we're coming into.
We've got a profit that's going to give us the mind of God, and it hasn't been that way. It's been failure and so on. And so are hopes rise up and we're looking forward to a reign of blessing.
How does it go?
Samuel was there in the Tabernacle opening the doors for the people to come with their offerings. Saw some pretty sad situations.
And he wore the linen ephod to show that his heart was in tune with the mind of God as to how things were to be done.
And then one day, there's a sudden convulsion.
It's a shattering thing. War has broke out.
On the front and they go for the ark of God.
Think of you are standing there and to see these two boys.
Wicked, unclean, dirty hands and heart go behind the curtain and pull out the ark of God to take it out on the battlefield. And you say, what are you doing this for? Never mind, we got scripture for doing what we're doing. What do you mean? Let's turn to Numbers chapter 10.
Numbers.
00:15:00
Chapter 10 I believe it is.
One verse, verse 35.
And it came to pass, when the ark set forward, that Moses said, Rise up, Lord, and let thine enemies be scattered, and let them that hate thee flee before thee.
You know, that's a wonderful verse.
You can count on it.
But not under these conditions.
The Ark of God is not a good luck charm out on the battlefield.
It won't work.
We have here that them that honor me, I will honor. He would be glad to undertake for his people, but.
They're caught up in idolatry.
They must be.
As he allows his government to take its course.
And so the Ark of God is captured.
They didn't put the the travel dress on the ark as it should have been to think of the veil being laid over the ark, everything being so careful. Why? They're just a boldness.
And to think of taking it out there with no covering on it, there to see the cherubim looking down on the mercy seat.
And it's taken by the enemy.
It's in that land for seven months.
Going from place to place.
They are being smitten as that art goes by.
Hemorrhoids, you know, they never figured out what caused the plagues.
Never figured it out.
And they hook up milk cows to the cart, put the ark on it, send it away.
You know, farmers who have dealt with animals say this is different. They've got calves.
Now, what were the Philistines doing? Perhaps I'm assuming too much, but I think they realize they had something on their hands that they better get off.
For we find that all the time that the ark of God is in that land, we learn a lesson that God ever and always maintains his own glory.
I believe they hooked those milk kind up to that cart to put the ark on it, figuring that they would kick it to pieces.
In other words, there's any damage the animal Kingdom did it. Is that anything new in this world? No.
Those cows go right on course.
The best Sheamus.
And they're the men of Bashimus. You're out harvesting weed.
You can check this out. They're reaping the goodness of God. Oh, what a day the harvest is for the farmer. That's his paycheck and that's his food. He banks on it.
And if it isn't there, it's like a nightmare. You heard of the Farmers nightmare?
Well, imagine these men looking up and seeing as sight.
And they could say there's the Ark of God.
And they could say, oh, it's wonderful to have the Ark back. Let's quickly get it to Shiloh back in the Tabernacle where it belongs.
Didn't seem to cross anybody's mind to do that.
Furthermore.
Think of it, dear ones.
As they approached the Ark, they took the mercy seat off of the Ark.
What were they doing? They were setting aside the blood of the atonement that was there on the mercy seat to look in to see the tablets. 2 stones of the law.
And I believe that careful reading will give us to know that 70 men died.
We have a number of 50,000 involved there. No doubt this was no small matter.
00:20:02
For these men to look in there and dropping over dead and they probably couldn't figure out what was happening, 70 of them had to perish before somebody got the mercy seat back on the ark.
Oh, how important the blood is. How I enjoy the words of the hymn writer when he says that precious blood will never lose its power.
Till every ransom St. of God be saved to sin no more.
Well, the Arkansas.
Did not go back to the Tabernacle.
And the psalmist tells us why in Psalm 78. We'll just look at that.
Because we might wonder why it didn't go back.
It tells us in verse 60.
So that he forsook the Tabernacle of Shiloh the tent.
Which he placed among men.
You know, there was nothing to go back to. It was just a shell. Those that have the responsibility were dead.
Oh how man, how we fail in our responsibility.
And so Shiloh was forsaken. Ephraim.
And we read in verse 67. Moreover, he refused the Tabernacle of Joseph, and chose not the tribe of Ephraim, but chose the tribe of Judah, the Mount Zion, which he loved.
Oh, there is God's divine center. That's the place that the Lord Jesus is coming back.
From glory to assert his rights in the earth. The Mount Zion that he loves. Isn't that wonderful?
And so it didn't go back to the Tabernacle.
And we read.
In Chapter 7.
And verse two, perhaps verse one, And the men of Kerja Jurian came and fetched up the ark of the Lord, and brought it into the House of Abinadab in the hill, and sanctified Eliezer his son to keep the ark of the Lord.
And it came to pass, while the ark abode incurred gesture. I am that the time was long, for it was 20 years, and all the House of Israel lamented after the Lord.
Think of the heart of Samuel.
They take the ark and it goes into a hidden place. It's not accessible to the people. Oh, those are hard years. Those are years that we say the bottom dropped out of everything.
Samuel seems to disappear out of view.
Perhaps he redeemed those 20 years by taking a wife, having two sons.
We don't know anything about his wife, don't even know her name, but he had two sons.
Perhaps he used those difficult years as we ought to use them, redeeming the time, the care of the family.
The nurturing and the admonition, it's not lost time, but it was a difficult time.
We have the privilege of.
Going with two sisters, widows.
That it invited us to come to.
Be with our brethren in England. We have another sister.
Like to say of her that she was a ray of sunshine even when it rained in England.
And our purpose was to go to visit the Brethren. 10 testimonies, and we touched in with all of them.
00:25:03
And my desire was is to catch the heartbeat.
We look at England, we say the bottom has dropped out of it. Here is just a little handful here and there, gathered to the Lord's precious name.
And as I went from one to the other, I didn't hear, oh, we're ready to give up. It's just so weak here. And we're ashamed of things. You know, I found the spirit of Caleb.
The Spirit of Christ that was in Caleb says we be well able.
All to redeem the time when the bottom is dropped out. No, it's a valuable thing and I want to be a little bit vivid now to give you an example of what I'm speaking about. We had the privilege of going to the Isle of Wight.
We are going to visit a sister there and we have this much information about her and that is that her name was Deborah Biddlecombe.
And that she had had a hip operation in the month of March.
And that was about it.
So he went and knocked on the door.
We were warmly welcomed in.
To decide where we were going to eat.
And she says I haven't been downtown since my operation, but I'd like to go. She took two canes and down the sidewalk we went for six blocks.
And we hear this story. She's 65 years of age.
She's a retired foot doctor. She took out a retirement.
February and had this hip operation so there'd be no pressure on her.
And then she tells us about the testimony in the Isle of Wight back in the early 80s.
There were ten of them in fellowship, two brothers, eight sisters.
And she said.
And over the years, one by one, they went home.
And the last one went home this last January.
Here I am listening now what is going to come? I'm the only one left.
Pretty doldrum around here.
And I'm in isolation.
No, no.
She wasn't isn't alone. The Lord is with her.
Oh, it just lifted up my heart.
Never mind the canes that she had to walk on.
Spirit of Caleb, we be well able and we suggested to her, why don't you come?
And pay us a visit and with a smile says don't be surprised.
Well.
Samuel did something else.
Instead of having the people come to him.
In the holy priesthood character, he takes on the royal priesthood and he goes out and he has a yearly circuit.
I would have loved to have been on that circuit, I mean to Ben a house on that circuit, to have this dear servant drop in and cheer our hearts, tune them to the Lord Jesus Christ.
We get that in the 7th chapter.
I want to read verse 15.
And Samuel judged, I'm going to use the word served.
Israel all the days of his life.
Isn't that a marvelous commendation?
Is there a message to your heart and to mine in that?
Friday afternoon I watched our brother gorgeous come up here.
Staff in hand, leaning on it.
Hangs it on the stand here and ministers the word of God, the.
I thought to myself, I guess he doesn't believe in retirement and would to God that he would not retire.
00:30:09
We may take a lower profile.
And our public.
Exercises as grace is given. Nothing, no matter with that.
But we don't retire.
There's always something to do and serve until we take our last breath on earth, my dear father.
Taught his son how to die.
Is that a service? It's a wonderful service.
To look into the face of a man.
No Fear.
Nothing coming out of his mouth.
Strange. No thrashing around.
Laying there, waiting.
To come home.
Well, we find Samuel on this circuit.
And it's interrupted.
There is a council to be held.
And it amounts to Samuel. We thank you for your service, but it's time for you to retire.
He's neither feeble nor senile.
When this comes about.
Terrific blow.
And they wanted a king as much as to say, well.
The Lord and you are just not a good enough combination for our safety.
And so the Lord tells him, he said, you do everything that the people tell you to do. You give them a king.
And you just check out the details.
Of the nobility.
Of this prophet Samuel.
To anoint a king.
According to the desires of the people.
Wouldn't you recoil at that? What do you say? I'm not going to do that. That's totally dishonouring thing.
We've never had this before.
Does the servant's heart get tested?
Supremely.
Think of it.
To anoint a king according to the people's desire.
Democracy.
It's fatal.
There's only one thing we recognize, and that is theocracy. God rules and reigns.
What a wonderful thing to have that one who is overall. God bless it forever.
Reigning in our lives for eternal blessing.
You know the prophet Hosea.
Born many years later goes back over the review here and let's see how he evaluated this situation. Hosea.
Chapter.
13 Hosea.
Chapter 13.
Verse 9.
Oh Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself.
For in me is thine hell. I will be thy king.
Where is any other.
That may save thee in all thy cities, and thy judges, of whom thou says, Give me a king and Princess. I gave them a king in my anger, and took him away in my wrath.
You know, this is a view that we don't see immediately doing We're troubled.
00:35:05
And don't want to carry out the word of the Lord.
Now we get a real view here.
It's an awful thing when the Lord gives us our own way. We're going to suffer and suffer and suffer if we get it. In fact, the word here is they self destruct.
Is that easy to do?
It's very easy to self destruct when our wills are set and we're not going to bend to the will of God.
Self destruct.
Well, the nobility.
Of Samuel goes on, he not only anointed him.
But he stood by him. He sought to instruct him.
Until.
You feel embarrassed.
And he sends them off.
His army to do war with Amalek.
Told him to utterly destroy Amalek.
He didn't do it. He saved the best.
And when Samuel heard that?
He wept all night.
You know, there's something about an old man weeping that gets through to me.
To know what the glory of God is.
And should be maintained.
And it's not that important.
We decide on our own what we what's his glory and what isn't.
Oh, what a scene this is.
That Samuel had to face.
Verse 32 of the 15th chapter.
You know, even though.
Samuel, as it were, was set aside from public responsibility.
He served the Lord all the days of his life.
And he does two things.
To save the Kingdom of Israel.
And this is one of them in verse 32. Then said Samuel, bring me, bring ye hit her to me, a guide the king of the Amalekites. And a gag came unto him delicately.
And Agag said, Surely the bitterness of death is passed. And Samuel said, As thy sword hath made women childless, so shall thy mother be childless among women.
And Samuel hewed a gag in pieces before the Lord in Gilgal.
These meetings we've had quite a bit about righteousness.
I visualize that.
It was said to Saul, here's the king of Agag, you take care of him.
He knew what he was supposed to do. Utterly destroyed.
And a gag got around him.
Had some saying that just struck him.
Where he said, well, you know, he's not too bad of a guy really when it comes right down to it. I think we can work with him and get him straightened around so he thinks, right.
That's an extremely dangerous thing.
I mentioned brother John and sister Grace Simpson.
They understand this principle here.
They understand the devastation that it does among the Lord's people.
And to see them with sober faces saying the meeting rooms here in England are being shut, locked, let the dust and the cobwebs collect.
00:40:07
Let evil come ahead.
It'll do its work.
And here he comes now into the presence of Samuel, and I don't think that he could have chosen a way, the very way he walked and carried himself and what he said.
That if the Spirit of Christ had not been in Samuel, he couldn't have taken it either.
The Spirit of Christ is jealous for the glory of God.
He takes that sword and he hews that man to pieces.
Let's stop and ask what would have happened if he had enough.
His empire was destroyed.
He can build an empire right there in Israel.
You can always find sympathetic hearts flesh to flesh, that's no problem.
Get a bill and make Kingdom right there. The outcome?
Divided and scattered.
Oh, let us have a face of Flint when it comes to evil.
And interfering with the truth of God and the glory of Christ.
I wish I could pass this on to the young man. I'm going to try.
One has a horror.
Of touching the infinite perfection of the Lord Jesus.
To make a statement that may not be true about him.
I shudder.
And to dissect his work.
The Godhead. It cannot be dissected. It cannot be pulled apart.
Would that we mark our words closely and to hold the truth dear to our hearts.
If we don't.
We'll have a situation like this among us.
One's heart is filled with sorrow this afternoon.
To see the enemy lined up.
To put down the interest of Christ among his people.
All may we gird ourselves.
And to be careful, walk softly and humbly with our God.
Oh, what an act Samuel did.
An example that goes right on we live in the favored dispensation of God's grace, but the principles of God have not changed one atom.
Now what's the other thing?
Chapter 16.
Verse 13 Then Samuel took the horn of oil.
And anointed David in the midst of his brethren. And the Spirit of the Lord came upon David from that day forward.
So Samuel rose up and went to Reina.
I believe that I'm safe and sane, that if Samuel would have recoiled and said I'm not going to anoint that man.
He wouldn't have got to anoint this man either.
You know when he anointed Saul.
King David wasn't born till 10 years later.
Here he is a young shepherd boy.
And Samuel goes to the household of Jesse there in Bethlehem, and he has seven of his sons passed before him, and and Samuels bewildered.
I believe that when he wept all night before the Lord, and he had no more to do with Saul after that.
Our gracious Lord, it gives us impressions that it isn't all over with.
Just continue on impatient continuance. And now the the man after God's own heart is before him, but he has to be called out of the field from the sheep, and there he anoints him, the future king of Israel. And what a king King David was, a man after God's own heart.
00:45:20
Oh, those are things that we can do. It's not in the sense that we.
Have successors and that we appoint successors among us, but we certainly do encourage one another in the Lord to go on. Don't give up. I know things are difficult, but how are we going to treat the difficulty? I'll just turn it into a blessing before God.
Learn, Cease to do evil.
Learn to do good.
Almost ask the question this morning or our brother Dave when I was speaking about good and evil, which one is the strongest?
My mind, it appears like evil is the strongest as we look out throughout the world.
No good is. It can put down evil easily. Try it. Overcome evil with good.
Well.
Like to close?
With the blessing that came to Samuel in First Chronicles chapter 6.
I.
It's an awful thing for us as parents.
To see our failures with our children, how hard of a thing it was for Samuel to say, well, they had to say, Samuel, we, we don't have any charge against you. He could give an account of his stewardship and they had to agree with him. But your sons, they're a whole different lot.
And we just bow to what Scripture says about them.
That is at the end of the story, let's notice in chapter six of First Chronicles.
Verse 33.
And these are they that waited with their children.
Of the sons of the Goethites, Human, a singer, the son of Joel, the son of Samuel.
Oh, mark that in your Bibles.
Joe was the first born.
He had taken bribes. They had a case against these boys of his.
But him and a singer.
See if I can find the.
Maybe someone knows here in the first Chronicles?
Where his name is brought up again? Yes, in the 15th chapter.
Lovely.
The First Chronicles, 15.
And verse 16.
And David spake to the chief of the Levites to appoint their brethren to be singers, with instruments of music, sultries, hearts, symbols, sounding by lifting up the voice with joy. So the Levites appointed human the son of Joel, let me add, the son of Samuel.
I believe there was an exercise.
The beginning of these meetings.
As.
To grandfathers and grandmothers.
And their role?
Toward their family.
And the family of God.
What an important role grandfathers and grandmothers have. We don't realize it.
That the ministry would touch our hearts. We sometimes focus on the young people and hope they get a blessing, but I think we better come.
00:50:05
To where it really begins, the grandfathers and the grandmothers.
And then on to the fathers and mothers.
The responsibility that they have toward their dear children.
Only have them for a few days. Just was speaking with the mother before the meeting, he says. I just.
Ken Harley Bear thinking of my children leaving and yet here they are ready to go. What have you given them?
What have you put into their hearts? What values do they have? They're going to carry them out.
And if our values are right.
Children are going to be blessed.
I enjoy this little poem. Blessed are the children.
Who and their parents see the Father love of God, and find their way to thee?
May the prayers of our dear brethren.
The exercise they pass through to have us.
And to give us this Elam at such a cost to themselves.
May something drift back to them?
Of the blessing that we have secured in our hearts, young and old alike.
And may they have the smile of his approval. While they wait, let's sing the rest of the story in hymn #95.
Pray for them.
Sing a song.
Waking.
Every dawn.
To praise the praise, the praise the praise, the praise the same.
Yes, my love Glory.
Say.
Shall we hear?
And say.
Yeah, Ransom.
Children.
'S and souls.
00:55:32
Aren't we going to be interested to have a little visit with Human?
To find out.
What they learned in the school of adversity.
Caused him to be the chief of Sing the chief singer.
In the courts of David.
How wonderful to think of being singers now.
Day is going to come when we're going to fill heaven. Songs of the Redeem.
Very soon at hand may we be found looking up, quietly pressing on to glory and the victor's crown.