Montreal Conference: 2008
Table of Contents
2 Peter 1:1-7
Reading
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I wonder, brethren, if it be the Lord's mind to consider Second Peter chapter one?
Brother Doug read from this morning.
It deals with the.
View of the coming Kingdom, and we're getting close to times when there will be major changes in this world that we live in.
Of course we are looking forward to our heavenly portion, but it has to do with a lot of practical matters.
That, uh, concern our living down here in view of that coming Kingdom.
There's something else I'd be glad to submit to something else too, but I suggest that.
Second Peter, chapter one.
Simon Peter, a servant of an apostle and apostle of Jesus Christ to them that have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Savior Jesus Christ, Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, according as His divine power has given unto us.
All things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him that has called us to glory and virtue, whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises, that by these uh ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. And besides this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, and to virtue knowledge.
And the knowledge temperance and the temperance patience.
And to patience godliness, and to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness cherish. For if these things be in you and abound, they make you, that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful.
And the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see a far off, and is forgotten that he was purged from his old sins. Wherefore the rather brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure. Where if you do these things, he shall never fail. I never fall. Where soul and entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting Kingdom.
Of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Wherefore I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things, though ye know them and be established in the present truth. Yeah, I think it means as long as I am in the Tabernacle, to stir you up by putting you in remembrance, knowing that shortly I must put off this my Tabernacle, even as our Lord Jesus Christ has showed me moreover.
I will endeavor that he may be able, after my decease, to have these things always in remembrance, For we have not followed, uh, cunningly devised fables. We mean no one unto you, the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
But were eyewitnesses of His Majesty, for He received from God the Father honor and glory, when there came such a voice to Him from the excellent glory. This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. And this voice which came from heaven, we heard when we were with Him in the holy mountain. We have also a more sure word of prophecy. Where unto ye do well, that ye take He.
As unto a light that shines in a dark place until the day dawn and the day star arise in your hearts. Knowing this first, no prophecy of the Scripture is of any private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man, but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.
It's helpful to remember as we consider what, uh, Peter has written, that he deals more with the side of the Kingdom.
Or the government of God.
And in first Peter, it has been mentioned at times deals with government of God in the House of God.
Whereas in second Peter you have the government of God in the world. And so in the third chapter of second Peter, you have what is called the day of the Lord, when the Lord Jesus is going to be introduced into power and glory in this world. And we have a preview of that day in the end of this first chapter. The third chapter also speaks of the day of God.
00:05:17
Which is that eternal day.
So God has something to say not only in his house, but he has something to say in this world.
And it's interesting to kind of get that perspective. When you have Paul's ministry, it's more directed and about the church, which is the body of Christ or the House of God. When you have John's ministry, it's more the family of God in view. But here we have the Kingdom of God and God.
Authority.
Exercised in this world today, in His house and in First Peter, Chapter 4 is perhaps a key verse to First Peter and verse 17 it says the time is come that judgment must begin.
At the House of God.
And if it first begin at us, because we are his house, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?
Well, in the end of Second Peter, we have what's going to be the end of this present order of things that we know today. So God is going to intervene in the affairs of this world as well, directly and very severely. And we're getting close to those days, brethren, and we should be aware of where we are.
And walk accordingly.
2nd epistles usually denoted declension, and certainly we have that character here portrayed in the in this epistle.
But, umm, I think that we need to, uh, recognize that the Kingdom of God is, uh, in scripture presented in two different ways. It is, uh, going to be manifestation of all the glory of Christ in that coming day when, uh, the Kingdom will be established in its outward.
Form and character in the Millennium, but now, before that day.
God would have us to display the moral qualities of the Kingdom. The Kingdom of heaven is not meat and drink, but righteousness, uh, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost in Romans chapter 14. So umm.
The Kingdom of God is not ceremony, it is godliness, and that is a character that should be manifest here and now in our pathway. Paul preached to the Kingdom of God in that character, in its moral character.
And that's what we have developed here in this first chapter. All these beautiful qualities, we all have them, but they're not developed in many of us. But we have the capacity, we have the divine nature, we have the power in the Holy Spirit. Why aren't we manifesting, uh, some of these beautiful characteristics, uh, that are, uh, enumerated here for us by the apostle? Well, we have the old nature which must be kept in the place of death.
But it's beautiful to recognize that the Kingdom of God is not now in in outward manifestation, but it is in the believer, and it should be displayed in our walk and conduct in our ways. Is that right, brother?
The first chapter of Revelation, John speaks of himself in the Kingdom and patience, tribulation and patience. Kingdom, patience and tribulation are connected together, and that's the characteristic of the Kingdom, now isn't it?
If you confess the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ, you are not appreciated in the world where fasting through.
But in the coming day, it will be the Kingdom will be in power and glory.
00:10:10
Lukes gospel I believe it is when the Lord Jesus was here he said the Kingdom of they asked him when it was coming, when is this Kingdom going to come and he answered them, the Kingdom of God is among you. It was present then in his person. He is the head of the Kingdom of God and he being here on earth.
In his person, the Kingdom was here.
But not yet established in a more formal way until the Lord Jesus went back to the glory.
And so the Kingdom of God does exist today in the world.
And everyone in this room that belongs to the Lord Jesus Christ belongs to the Kingdom.
We are in the Kingdom of God. We don't take it up very much, but the last verse of the Acts, the apostle Paul in the very last recorded historical things about him in that epistle, not a pistol, but in the account of the ACT, it says preaching the Kingdom of God. And so we are in this room in the Kingdom of God.
And that's one side of Peter's ministry, but Bob already mentioned, and that we have to sort of see the two of them together at the other side. Peter presents to us the thought that we are in the wilderness on our way home to the glory. And consequently we have the two things brought mixed together and commingled in what he has to say to us. And so right here in the very beginning.
Peter likes the word precious and he talks about precious faith and then he talks about precious promises.
Because we don't participate yet in the Kingdom and its power and glory character, which won't happen until the Lord Jesus comes back to reign. And then we will see the Kingdom in in its outward manifestation. That's already been said. And as a result, it takes faith to walk today in the Kingdom in the way that honors God. And as Peter calls it, it's it's a precious thing to have that faith to walk.
Because faith has to lay hold of things that can't be outwardly seen. The day will come when man will see outwardly the display of the glory of God in the Lord Jesus reigning. And he won't need faith to lay hold of it. It'll be publicly displayed. But we need faith today to walk in it. And, and it's a precious thing. And yet at the same time we have to lay hold of that which is now only in a promise to us.
And so he calls it precious promises to encourage our hearts to look on beyond the present.
To see that which is ahead of us. But the other side that Bob mentioned too is brought in. It's the government of God. Why? Because God is presently dealing in his governmental ways with all that belong to the Kingdom. The government of God is not that which is eternal. It's connected with time. And so he brings us into it and he says, I'm going to deal in your lives.
According to the character of what is pleasing to me in the Kingdom and in my nature being manifested in it. And so we come under the government of God in our daily lives. If we do not live according to the principles of the Kingdom, if we don't live it out, then God puts His hand upon us. And because we are the most responsible, as as we had in first Peter 4.
It begins with the House of God, and so it is for us to recognize that we have established the grace of God that is everything to our blessing, but at the same time in responsibility we also are being dealt with by God governmentally in our individual and collective lives, and so we need to live with that as a serious matter.
To display what Peter exhorts us in this chapter. To live out that which would glorify God rather than have him have to bring his governmental ways upon us.
Perhaps it would be helpful to read those verses in Luke 19 where the Lord speaks a parable.
00:15:05
Uh, in Luke's Gospel chapter 19, we'll read verses 11 and 12.
And as they heard these things, he added and spake a parable.
Because he was nigh to Jerusalem, and because they thought that the Kingdom of God should immediately appear.
He said therefore a certain nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself.
A Kingdom and two return.
The thought when the Lord Jesus was here was that he was going to establish a Kingdom.
Then and there on earth.
And the Lord is telling them it's going to be different.
He's going to go into a far country and receive a Kingdom, and then he's coming back. Well, that far country is heaven, and that's where the Lord is gone, and he's there forming a Kingdom now. And the Kingdom is forming right now here on earth. And we enter into that Kingdom when we believe.
And on his authority, we're still left here to display that and continue the preaching of it.
By how we live and so on.
Then he's going to receive that Kingdom in the far country heaven, and he's going to come back with his Kingdom already formed to govern on earth. So that it that helps us to understand the different characters that the Kingdom takes. And our part of the Kingdom with association with the Lord is to be on him as he is in heaven and be a part of the heavenly side of it.
Faith is a precious thing, brethren.
It says in 2nd Thessalonians 3 that all men have not faith.
It also says in Romans 10, faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
It's beautiful to see those who have a hearing here. Sometimes you speak the word to somebody you notice they are not predisposed to here.
Too bad.
But there has to be a hearing here.
The hour is coming and now is the Lord Jesus said, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live. So true blessing comes through hearing.
Because faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. So how precious it is to have that faith that lays hold on those things that are not seen. Sometimes people say, well, I live in the real world. I only believe what I see.
There's a lot of things that you don't see that you believe.
Can't you trust God when he speaks?
Because God is true.
You can call and question what I say. You can call and question what anybody else may say in this room. But when God speaks, God cannot lie.
And you need to listen to what God has to say.
And through that means, faith is received.
It's the gift of God as well. God gives that faith to the hearing here. Oh, how precious it is to have that faith. And it's interesting how he puts it here, like precious faith, because once we have that faith, we find others that have that same faith. We notice that it's not a matter of social distinctions or nationalities.
Wherever you travel in this world, you find those who have that light, precious faith. When the name of the Lord Jesus Christ is mentioned, there's an immediate, warm response.
00:20:05
How? How beautiful.
The the list of packages that Peter mentioned here in the first chapter.
This is, uh, very similar, uh, enumeration also in relation spoken by Paul in chapter 5 on the starting at verse 22. And we know these things, uh, are referred to often as the fruit of the Spirit. And I think, uh.
Things that, uh, are that concern us all and that we're all very, uh, interested in, uh, in, uh, manifesting in our lives. And, umm, I, I, I just, I, I just refer back to John chapter 15 where Jesus speaks about, uh, abiding in him, abiding in the vine that, uh, I accept you abide in me. You cannot produce any truth apart from you cannot do anything. Uh, I really think that there's a real link there. And, and, uh.
A bird comes to mind and says not only are they here.
Uh, not the period, but the viewers that, that are flat. And, uh, I see the, uh, the commandment that Jesus is saying in order to produce this fruit in John 15. It's very clear that.
Yes, we abide in the vine and we but we do that by keeping this demand. And he makes it very clear that keeping his demand is loving each other as he has loved us.
A lot of people say, well, brother, that's, you know, what are you implying? Are you saying that we should just go out and love other people? I mean, you know, as an act of the will. That sounds legalistic. The point is it's not legalistic. It is a deliberate out of the world. It's not legalistic. Legalism is when we apply oil in, uh, accordance to a, a, a rule that is, that is, uh, that is stated in order to receive a benefit, the doer receive the benefit in this case.
The team, we see a lot of things that, I mean, I, I know that's uh, either things, uh, I believe we all, we all know about, we all really desire, umm, we will uh, glorify the father by producing fruit. It says, umm.
It says that His joy will will be full in us. His joy we will make His joyful. It says our joy will be full. Uh, there's all kinds of promises in here, and it's in these 17 verses from 1 to 17 in John 15.
Guarantee, benefit our promotion either. This is something that I think is very key in in all of our lives as as Christians and in our desire to please the Lord.
Says through verse one, through the righteousness of God and our Savior Jesus Christ. I think it's worth going back just to put our eyes upon it. The verse that John quoted a little bit earlier in Romans chapter 14.
Connects itself with this chapter in Romans 14 and verse 17. It says the Kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. The Kingdom is brought out in different aspects, and we've been talking about different aspects of the IT and really bringing them, sort of mixing them together, which is fine.
In Matthew's Gospel when it speaks of the Kingdom of heaven.
For the Kingdom of the heavens, it's the same Kingdom, but it is that which is looked upon as the King himself being absent, and so he's in heaven and his subjects are on earth. In Colossians chapter one, it speaks about the Kingdom of the Son, of his love, Speaking of the Lord Jesus. And when it's the sun that is the center thought, then we have what we've talked about of His coming glory and his reigning.
Over the earth. And so he is going to come back and he we will have an official public Kingdom over which he reigns for the 1000 years of the Millennium and so on. But when it's the Kingdom of God, it's a different aspect of the Kingdom. It's already been commented on, but it's so central to what's here in first Peter.
00:25:19
The Kingdom of God is that which brings out a Kingdom which reflects the nature of God. So it's moral. So we have it here in Romans 14. It's not meat and drink, it's not some outward thing among men or even in official thoughts of glory, as it will be in the Kingdom of the Son of his love. It's the same Kingdom, but it's a different aspect of it. It is.
As Peter says, we have been made in this chapter. We've been made partakers of the divine nature. If we had not, we could not reflect the nature of God.
And what he's saying to us and adding to your virtues and so on, is the thought is to bring out in our lives that which reflects the very nature of God, as love, as light, as holiness, and so on that are seen in Him are to be seen in US. And so God wants a Kingdom in which his subjects are morally.
Just like he is.
And that's God's intent with us, that he worked for us and in US.
To produce in US subjects for himself which reflect his own nature. And that's really the emphasis of this first chapter. So he says by precious faith through the righteousness of God. If you didn't have the righteousness of God involved in it, then it would not be that which is according to God as a Kingdom. We all live. Most of us probably at least live in the United States or Canada and.
Outwardly and so on. We are citizens of these countries and it doesn't really matter what we are inside.
We're citizens anyways, regardless of the character of our lives, we are citizens of the, those, some country or another. Uh, outwardly, yes, we belong to that realm, that Kingdom, if you will. But with God, that's not the thought. He wants what's inward, and he is working in us to produce that which will be consistent with himself. And that's the only thing that God can rest in.
He will never rest in anything less than that which is consistent with his own nature.
You are going to read that verse in Romans. Righteousness come first.
There's no true ground of peace without righteousness.
And there's no true ground of joy without righteousness and peace. I think there is a an important order to those 3 expressions. But God has to save us.
And make us righteous before himself, or there cannot be peace.
Between ourselves and God, and God cannot find peace in anything less.
Then that which is consistent with his own righteousness. And if you don't have righteousness, you can't have peace and you won't have joy. At least you you might have pleasure in sin, but you'll never find your joy in God. As it says in Romans 5, we joy in our God. Why?
Because we have hearts that He has given to us through new birth, which find our pleasure in the same things that He finds His pleasure in, and consequently we find ourselves joying in God Himself.
Isaiah 32 and verse.
17 And the work of righteousness shall be peace, and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance forever. So this is what I believe describes the coming Kingdom of the Lord Jesus, when he will reign in righteousness.
The effect of it will be peace.
And what a glorious day it will be for this world when he reigns.
00:30:06
What is righteousness?
Is it doing that? Which is right?
Is that a good definition?
That too simple.
But as long as you add to it, if you did everything right, nothing would be right unless the motive was right. And so true righteousness is acting in consistency with what God is. But it to act consistently with God according to Himself must not only be the ACT itself, but everything with God is also. What motivates that act is equally essential.
And so.
There are many instances of people doing things outwardly right.
Right.
Who are not approved of God because the motivation for what is done is not consistent with what God is.
Our brother Dawn before was commenting on the fact that.
Outwardly, many of us are citizens of the United States and Canada and from a natural standpoint, uh, it doesn't uh, make any difference, uh, what we are inside. I was just thinking of some questions that were put to Jonah in the first chapter of Jonah, and I believe that this portion shows us that the position and the walk go together.
In the eighth verse of the first chapter of Jonah, it says.
Then said they unto him, Tell us, we pray thee, for whose 'cause this evil is upon us.
And there were some pointed questions that were asked.
What is my occupation?
Whence comest thou?
What is thy country?
And of what people are thou? So the walk had to be in accordance with the position, didn't it? And in this case it didn't seem to be the case. In connection with Jonah, we often sing the lines of that hymn called from above. And heavenly men by birth, who once were but the citizens of earth. As pilgrims. Here we seek a heavenly home, our portion.
In the ages to come. So that has to agree, doesn't it?
The walk comes in very prominently here, doesn't it?
The Apostle.
He tells us what we possess in Christ, a divine nature.
And we have a full revelation of God. No longer is it, uh, hidden, uh, Christ has, is the full manifestation of the very nature and character of God. And we possess that life, that divine life, that eternal life now in Christianity is the life of Christ. So we can't excuse ourselves as not having the capacity.
Because we do have uh.
The divine nature and we also have the knowledge of God revealed in Christ and uh.
Expounded to us in the Word of God in the scriptures so we don't have an excuse for failure.
But we should have an exercise to manifest these beautiful qualities, which were, of course, fully exhibited in all their splendor, uh, come fullness in the person of Christ. But we do have that nature, brethren, and that's the abundant entrance, I think that we have in the 11Th verse. It's often referred to, uh, in relation to the end of the pathway.
And one has no objection to that. But doesn't God want us now to have that abundant entrance into the everlasting Kingdom of our Lord and Savior? Something for the present pathway, something in our lives down here.
It's beautiful in that second verse, John, that the knowledge of God is mentioned. I've enjoyed it.
00:35:03
There's two mathematical terms that you have in this chapter. One is in verse, two is multiplication and in verse.
Five, it's addition.
Multiplication is what God does for us.
Addition is what we are to do and our responsibility.
But how do we get grace and peace multiplied? It's through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.
And that's what Christianity really is.
It's the knowledge of God we have been brought to know God. Tremendous blessing.
In the Old Testament times there was a knowledge of God, but we can say partial, but it's when the Lord Jesus came.
As the sun into this world that we have.
The complete revelation of all that God is.
And now, in the measure that we get to know him more, brethren, the focus is on our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Sometimes like to think of it in Judaism the focus was more on what man was.
Could he perform?
Could he do those commandments that were given in the law?
And man was manifested to be a complete failure.
Now in this present age, God has turned around and he said I'm not going to deal with what man is any longer. Now I want to show you who I am and we have the complete revelation of all that God is in the person of the Lord Jesus. Think of it when man did his worst in nailing the Son of God to that Christ.
God takes that awful crime.
In human history and turns around and says now this is what I'm going to use to bring blessing in calculated blessing that you cannot fully comprehend. And he opens his heart. He shows who he is. Yes, God is righteous and from the darkness of those three hours of darkness of Calvary we see as in no other point of time.
The truth that God is light and God is love. Tremendous to think about it, but in the measure that you and I get to know more who our God is, brethren, it's not who we are, brethren. The more you start looking at brethren, the more you're going to see failure. It's turning around to see and to understand who our God is. Who is he, What is he like? And in the person of the Lord Jesus, we see the full.
Revelation of who God is, and the more you get to know that, the more grace.
And peace will be multiplied to you. Do you ever need of more grace in your life?
You feel the lack of peace. Get to know your God better and you will find grace and peace multiplied. Notice how he mentions further down in the chapter the knowledge of God as well. Notice in verse 3.
According as His divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain into life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us by glory and virtue. Then in verse 8, These things be in you and abound. They make you, that ye shall be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
The end of this second epistle, the very last verse, is grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Oh, may the Lord give us a desire to know Him better.
That was the desire of the Apostle Paul, that I may know him, Brethren, every.
00:40:02
Little bit of knowledge of him.
Awakens a desire to know him even more.
This is why grace comes before peace, does it not? I'm not aware that any other epistle we have the order reversed.
I believe in order to enjoy peace with God and the peace of God.
We first of all have to appreciate His grace.
Which is God showing favor to us who deserve nothing but judgment.
But you know, God, in his grace he shows the very best to the very worst. That's what's taking place now. Under the law, there was no peace.
Because, of course, the law looked for some good in math.
And it wasn't there. A man strives to attain God's holiness through his own effort.
Absolutely futile and no peace in that whatsoever. But if we enjoy in our souls the fact that we're saved by grace, it brings in before us the sacrifice of Calvary that he was delivered. Lord Jesus, God's Son was sent. He was delivered.
For our offenses, but raised again for our justification, therefore.
Being justified by faith, we have peace with God.
And with respect to our circumstances, sometimes we seem to trust God to deal with our sins, but we seem to be upset about the difficulties that come into our lives as though He's not.
Able to deal with those as well. But you know, the fact is, as we contemplate His favor toward us, we realize that God is for us and that whatever the difficulty is that He allows, it's designed for our good.
All things work together for good for those who love God and are called according to His purpose.
Of course, in four.
We do have.
That which I believe is required in to enjoy the peace of God, and that is that there be prayer and supplication with Thanksgiving.
So I speak to myself, if I find that I'm uptight about my situation, well, has there been that prayer, supplication and Thanksgiving connected with it? Because.
You know God has showered us with.
Blessings untold infinitely.
And we always have so much to give and thanks for. But where there's prayer and supplication with Thanksgiving, I believe the peace of God comes in and keeps our hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. This is what we need today, but it's all a result of this grace.
I suggest that's why grace dispersed and then peace.
We live in a culture today where it's sometimes we use the word humanistic.
It's centered on man.
And right over here, there's a Burger King.
And it says have it your way.
You can do it the way you want to get it. You know, young people, it's this tremendous challenge. I, I find a lot of young people not happy in their Christian lives.
And I really believe it's because we've come under the influence of the culture we're passing through and we're introverted. We're looking at ourselves. And I have to confess, too, that I went through a time when I was very unhappy as a Christian. And I, I remember when the Lord brought it to my attention that I was just looking at it myself. Even as a Christian, you can do that. That's not Christianity.
Christianity is to turn around.
And to get to know who God is. Oh, what a wonderful thing it is to leave what we are behind and to be occupied with who our God is. That's what Christianity is. That's what will multiply grace and peace in your lives. So how important it is, this knowledge of God. Verse 3. John has been speaking about it too. His divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain into life and godliness.
00:45:13
Like you say Wally, we get up tight at times.
Why do we get uptight? Because we thought we were in control of things, and things are not under control like we want them to be, so we get up tight. Yeah, that happens to us all. I don't think anybody can claim exemption from that. But if we can step back and realize that God is for us in every single circumstance of life that He allows, He has something to teach us, and it's an opportunity.
Somebody has said difficulties are a platform upon which we display the sufficiency of our God in every situation. I like that. May the Lord help us, brethren.
He's supplied us all things that pertain into life and godliness. He has not left us here in this world to fend for ourselves.
No, He supplied us not only with that divine nature.
But He has given us all things that pertain unto light.
Wonderful.
Another place we read.
Knowledge. Puff it up.
And this world is full of knowledge, and the rate at which knowledge is increasing is phenomenal.
And.
Man is greatly puffed up by the knowledge that he has been able to acquire and is acquiring.
Not recognizing that the very capacity to to gain it comes from God in the way he's been made. But nonetheless he takes great pride in what he knows.
And naturally speaking, if we're talking about what we are in Adam, so do we. Our knowledge puffs this up. And it's important in light of that to see what's said here about the knowledge of God, because it's not that kind of knowledge.
It is not a knowledge which puffs down. The knowledge which puffs up is connects itself with an learning of facts and information. And we can be puffed up by that. We can say I know this fact and I know that fact and I know this doctrine. And we can have a lot of religious or spiritual knowledge and find ourselves when we think of what we know more than someone else.
Be quite puffed up about it, but the true knowledge of God cannot be known apart from having received the divine nature. If I picked up in my hand this morning an Ant, and I put this Ant in my hand, and I look at it and it looks at me, the Ant is no doubt conscious of me and my existence.
But it does not know me. It is incapable of knowing me because it does not have a life. It does not have a nature with a capacity to know me.
But our God has chosen in His counsels of a past eternity, that He would have us as creatures before Him who have that capacity to know Him.
To have the knowledge of himself and consequently he has worked.
Righteously, as we have in verse one, through faith as we have in verse one.
To make us capable by new birth, of having a life in which we may know God.
That how God thinks, how God feels, what is holy to God, becomes in us the same, because we have obtained that same character of life in Christ.
That we may know God and the consequence of it is in US is.
Human knowledge puffs up, but the true knowledge of God humbles. You can't have the true knowledge of God and find any pride in His presence. Job is an example of it. Job said after his trial or at the end of his trial. I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear.
00:50:15
You might say Job knew about God, but he didn't know at that point he was learning a lesson.
That would bring him into the true knowledge of God. And he says, But now mine seeth thee.
And what was the consequence in him? Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes. And that is the true knowledge of God. And so we have it perfectly in this chapter, brought out before us. The true knowledge of God is perfectly expressed in the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ.
God is God, we see, not we. He exists beyond time and space and created things and so on. But in order that we might know Him and have the knowledge of Himself, He has done it in a way that gives us the the capacity to know Him, because God has manifested himself in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And when we see him, we see God in man. And so the Lord here in John's gospel, he that hath seen me hath seen the Father. And the nature of God is perfectly expressed in manhood in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so when we put our eyes on the Lord Jesus, when we, as the verse says, see no man save Jesus only.
We are gaining the true knowledge of God by the occupation with that perfect revelation of Himself.
And I might say, to reveal what God is to us.
Reveals to us what we are, what we are in the flesh, and that makes us say I don't want that and turn away from ourselves because goodness resides good in its essence, resides in God alone, not in a creature. And So what we are is the reflection of what God is in us in our new nature, we'll never be good.
Independent of God.
We're only good as what God is in US.
The 17th chapter of Acts we see the Apostle Paul in Athens, which was the center, perhaps of the apex of human learning.
He's found there at Mars Hill, and he encounters the philosophers there, the Epicureans and the Stoics, all having their reputations and.
In verse 21 it says for all the Athenians and strangers which were there spent their time in nothing else but either to tell or to hear some new things.
And the apostle Paul.
Takes the opportunity to reveal.
The true God to them.
In the midst of all of the human learning. And so in verse 22 it says, Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars Hill, and said, Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious. For as he passed by and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription to the unknown God, whom therefore ye ignorantly worship him.
Require I unto you. And so the first thing that he reveals unto them is the fact that God was the one that gave each one breath.
God was the Creator, and so the Apostle Paul takes that opportunity to reveal who that unknown God was. And we are living, as has been mentioned today, in a culture where there is little knowledge as to who God is and what He has done and what has been accomplished for each one of us. So may we have the boldness to declare that.
To those roundabouts, just as the Apostle Paul has done on in this particular case.
00:55:02
I'd like to suggest that in the first couple of verses that perhaps the thought more is connected to, uh, our salvation and what God has done for us in Christ and the cross, and then in the 3rd and the 4th verse and onward.
It is how to live in the enjoyment of these things, and above the world around us. Notice how it says in the third verse and the 4th that it says, According to his divine power, hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him that hath called us by glory and virtue. I was thinking about the children of Israel.
When they first went into the wilderness, that the Lord gave them manna, which was food from heaven, which was Christ, which was to sustain them in their wilderness path, to give them the energy to go on. And so it says here that in order to live this.
Christian life, the power that is needed for it.
It speaks of through the knowledge of Him and one finds in my own life.
That if I don't stay close to the Lord through the reading of the word of God.
And, and, uh, umm, you know, to get from that word a portion for my soul for the day that, umm, when, when uh, the interacting of things in the world, uh, take place, they affect me as to how I go on. And so, uh, to me, it is a game. It's like the mana. And it seems to me that Peter is bringing before them here.
That it is the through the knowledge of him and how do we get it? Is it not in this blessed book? It's wonderful to know Christ as our circumstances as our Savior, but to arrive to rise above the things in this world is constant communion with him. I wonder if that is what we have, uh, brought before us because he goes on in the fourth verse to say by the she might be partakers.
Of the divine nature having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.
The partakers of the divine nature is really the manifestation down here of that divine nature.
And we are exhorted here to, uh, use diligence, giving all diligence, add to your faith, virtue and so on. Moral courage and the glory to which we are called should motivate us and, uh, energize us. We think of the glory that is before the child of God. Umm, it should give us that moral courage to press on.
The little while that might remain to us and another thing I was thinking of, brethren, is the need for self judgment because we all.
Know that there is that old nature militating against us continually, uh, seeking to, uh, draw us back into the world and our old sins. We need that constant diligence to, uh, keep the old nature in the place of death where God has put it. God doesn't even try to improve it. And none of these, uh.
Beautiful qualities can come from the old nature. It's impossible. But we do have that capacity and we have the.
We have the provision that God has made to us, as our brother mentioned in the precious revelation that we we have in our hands.
This book is full of exceeding great and precious promises.
Oh brethren, like Brother Dave was mentioning how important to be reading the Scriptures. God means us to take His Word seriously. It is the living and abiding Word of God. There is nothing, no publication up to date as this book in today's world to read it to lay hold of those.
01:00:06
Exceeding.
Great and precious promises. This book is full of them. God means this to to lay hold of them, and it says that by these you might be partakers of the divine nature. In other words, live in the enjoyment of it, that life that we have in Christ, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.
But then John was mentioning verse five and we want to get on a bit more, says beside this giving all diligence.
What's that mean?
It means that we need to put it on the priority list.
All diligence.
These are important things, brethren. This world is coming down to the time when the whole world system is going to be changed. I really don't think we grasp it as we ought to.
We live in a democratic government. We're thankful for the liberty we enjoy here.
But this is going to be replaced and not too far in the future.
Are we ready for this? Are we giving diligence?
In our Christian lives to these things.
Or are we just?
If we have time, we read the word. If we don't have time, well, it'll have to be another day. Brethren, we need to be diligent. He mentions it in verse 10 as well. Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence.
Let's be serious in our profession of Christianity.
Let's let God's Word mandate in our souls.
Not so much a matter of our human wills, it's a matter of obedience to him and his Kingdom. So the more we read, the more we obey, there's going to be the proper Christian attitudes in our lives. So we are to give diligence to add now.
And to the faith that we profess.
In verse one, it's called precious faith. But now here in verse five, he says add to your faith. And there are 7 qualities that are mentioned in this list that we are to give diligence to add to our faith.
The first is.
Virtue.
Moral courage.
Don't just talk about having faith.
Let it be evident in your life.
James says faith without works is dead. If you say you have faith, let it be evident. Don't just talk about it. Let it be evident in your life, the way you live.
And so on.
In this list.
Nice to think of this coming from Peter.
We all know what Peter was like. You made a lot of blunders, didn't he? And, and he, uh, he hadn't found out, uh, what it was to have an object outside of himself, to look at the knowledge of God that he's writing about here. Peter was Peter. Peter looked within and he had his own, his confidence in himself.
I like to think of this.
Him writing these things here is fulfilling what the Lord told him to do after he was restored. The Lord told him, when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren. And that's what he's doing here. He's strengthening us. He's telling us how to walk on water.
Peter walked on water for a while, and then he got his eye off the Lord. What was that? He forgot faith.
He looked on the waves, and then he began to sink.
So here he's telling us how to walk on water in that sense, to walk by faith.
01:05:01
He's telling us how to have moral courage.
He when that made.
Suggested that he was one of the disciples. He denied that with oaths and cursing. He did not have moral courage to stand up for his Master, his Lord.
He then converted and now he's telling us how to do it.
And so on.
Uh, isn't that wonderful that the Lord can take a Peter and write a book like this for us?
And then that virtue, that moral courage, needs to be tempered with knowledge.
There are people that speak of faith, but it's not the faith of God because it's not the faith that acts in view of the revelation that we have in the Word of God. So we need knowledge, brethren. That's why we have meetings.
To have knowledge as well, but knowledge isn't it any everything either. And so we're to add to knowledge temperance.
And to temperance patience.
But maybe you can be so patient that you've sacrificed godliness. And so, he says, add to patience godliness.
And then you can be so godly that there's no show of brotherly kindness in you.
So add to your godliness, brotherly kindness.
And a brotherly kindness. The last one is charity or love. That's the agape love. Brotherly love is the file.
Those are important distinctions in the Scriptures.
And sometimes I hear people say, well, there's no love in this place.
My brother don't show me any love.
Do you realize that the love that it speaks about here at the end of this list is a love that loves when there's nothing lovable?
So if nobody else is showing love, you better start. Don't point your finger at anybody else. You start showing love. It's a love that loves because of who God is. It's not a love that loves because who the object is. And if you realize that it really helps. Sometimes there's a brotherly love that's the mutual appreciation one of another. And there ought to be that brotherly love. In fact, it says the first verse of.
Hebrews 13 Let brotherly love continue. Yeah, there should be.
But sometimes it appears to be lacking. In that case, what are you going to do?
Add love, add that agape love, that love, that loves in spite of all that love, that loves, because God is love. Oh, how important to add these things, brethren, to our faith, to give diligence to go over these lists, this list from time to time to examine our lives. Is this true in US? We profess the faith.
But let's be evident by these characteristics.
May we sing 297.
297.
Transported with the View I've Lost and Wonder, Love and Praise 297.
Nsnoise.
God's Blessings
YP Address—D. Buchanan
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.
Perhaps we could open the meeting with him #9.
Him #9.
Bother we thy children, Bless thee for thy love on us bestowed.
Source of blessing we confess thee now, our Father and our God. Wondrous was thy love in giving Jesus.
For our sins to die. Wondrous was his grace in leaving for our sakes the heavens on high #9.
10-4.
Three.
10-4 hours and so on that 10-4 oh, 10-4 oh oh oh, oh, oh oh oh oh oh. 10-4 oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh, oh.
Nsnoise.
Well, we've been on my third Spanish.
Now it's now when I'm in the world today, I'm getting a good evening.
Nsnoise.
Shall we look to the Lord in prayer?
I would like to speak this afternoon.
But the Lord's help on the subject of blessing.
Yesterday we had before us.
About that gap.
Between the truth that is known and the truth that is practiced in our lives.
And we, most of us, would have to admit yes.
Our intelligence is far ahead of our feet.
In the things of God and this can cause its problems.
00:05:00
Because we do not walk in all the good.
Of what the Lord has made known to us. Brethren, we are a very favored people here to have.
As it were spoon fed to us from our youth up many of us.
The.
Of the New Testament, more so than any other group of Christians, I sincerely believe.
There may be some new new ones here too. And there are something special about that too, that first love that's so ardent when you get saved. And usually those first days and weeks and months as a believer that love alone is enough to lead us on and keep us in the path.
But as time grows old.
Like the Lord warned the Church of Ephesus that He had one thing against them, and that was that they had left their first love, they were continuing outwardly with all the right things.
It's so easy to do that as a Christian.
I'm not sure because it's of our pride that we like to show the best front always.
Many reasons perhaps.
But.
Occupation with Christ was also presented to us yesterday. That object and how that we need something outside of ourselves.
The look to and the Lord has indeed given us that. He's given us a perfect example of the Christian path.
The Lord Jesus.
Came here and lived as a man subjected to all the things that were subjected to, and he proved that it can be done.
And he left us an example.
And that example took him up into glory.
And that's what we're waiting for, too.
In the meanwhile.
How do we put our PRI Christianity into practice?
The blessings that God has given us.
How do we rightly enjoy them?
When I first thought about this subject, I thought about giving it a title. Blessings. How to get them?
But then that didn't sound right.
Brethren, we have em. They're ours.
Let's open our Bibles to Ephesians 1.
Verse 3.
Blessed be the God and Father of.
Our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places.
In Christ Jesus.
I believe in this verse we have a real secret.
Blessings.
You haven't spoken.
All blessings.
How can God take a people here and all their failures and bless them?
As Jesus Christ has done for us.
No limitations.
No qualifications.
No, if you go back to the Old Testament.
It's interesting to trace the blessings that the Lord gave to different ones.
You don't have to get very far in the Bible to find out the Lord blessing the very first chapter of the Bible.
But it's interesting that it wasn't until the 5th, 6th and 7th days.
00:10:04
Of the creation of the world, that blessing is mentioned.
And it's those days that he created the living creatures.
And on the 6th day it was May, and it included man.
When he divided the light from darkness, when he set the order upon the face of the earth, it doesn't say blessed.
But when it came to the creatures who were capable of having a relationship with their God.
And even the animals are included.
Though not, of course, to the extent that you and I as humans.
Who are brought into a much nearer and closer relationship made in the image and likeness of God. We have the capability of knowing God having a relationship with our Creator.
And God made us for that purpose to have relationship with Him.
Sometimes.
We hear a prayer like this.
Lord bless me, my family, my brother and his family, my father and mother, and my dog too.
Now, what's wrong with that prayer?
Have you ever prayed a prayer like that?
Or leave the dog off. Have you prayed that prayer without including the dog?
You know God is interested in the animals too. There's nothing wrong with praying.
For the animals.
The very last verse of the book of Job. Anybody remember what it says?
Much cattle.
God is interested in the livestock.
In everything he created, and he's especially interested in you and me.
And in blessing us.
And he has blessed us.
First of all in the creation.
What a wonderful creation he made. It's partly ruined by sin now, and we don't see the total beauty of it because of sin and it's degradation and death that brings its ruin in.
But still, it was wonderful, the creation.
New creation even more so.
God wants to bless.
That little prayer.
Fall short.
It's a dead end St.
It's a one way Ave. Blessing coming down.
Is that what God created us for? To go out and justice, bless us and bless us and bless us?
And never anything in return.
This is a great secret to discover.
You know Solomon.
Let's look at the case of Solomon.
God gave him riches. He gave him everything you could possibly think of and.
Solomon set his heart on to find the good of it and he, I dare say he did a good job of it. Anybody has many wives as he had certainly tried out a lot.
And all the other things of wealth and of wisdom.
And a pleasure.
And what does he say?
About it after he tried it all.
00:15:01
Yes, he had a narrow mind.
When he was examining it.
It says everything under the sun.
He forgot.
Maybe he didn't forget, but he did not.
Occupy himself.
With going back to the source and given a word of thanks like the.
One leper who, after he had been healed, returned to give God the praise.
God bless those 10.
But only one satisfied the craving of that blesser by going back and giving prey.
Now, this is a secret to blessing that we have here in this verse, but we're still talking about Solomon.
Solomon got involved with all the blessings.
But occupation with the blessing alone will not bring happiness and joy.
Young people were living in a world that is taken up with earthly blessings if you please, and there are many pleasures and good things without having to go over on the.
Dirty side of the Broad Rd. There are many wholesome things that can take up your time.
Of the things of this world that God created.
And if you set your heart on those things, but leave the Lord Jesus.
And your heavenly Father out.
You will find.
A lack of happiness in your life.
Happiness and blessing are often synonymous in the Bible.
Solomon was occupied.
With the blessings without.
Going back beyond the sun and seeing and giving God praise for those things. And so I believe he is an example for us of one who.
Was occupied with the blessing itself.
Without identifying it with the blesser.
Our verse in in in Ephesians is a secret here. Let's read it again.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places? I'd like to ask a question now.
Who is the Apostle Paul speaking to here when he says this?
Just think about this a little bit. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places.
Now I see 2 answers.
I see the Ephesians, the Saints that he was writing to as the ones.
He was speaking to.
But I also see him speaking to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ at the same time.
This is a great secret.
When Paul would speak to the Ephesians and he would speak to us because his Fort recorded for us too.
At the same time.
As he is communicating to the Ephesians, he is blessing God.
It was real with him.
He wasn't only occupied with the blessings, he was giving praise.
To the God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ who gave the blessing.
This is a secret, young people. Not just the young, not just the blessing.
00:20:05
The joy, the happiness, the blessing is not just in the thing itself.
The blessing is in the thing as it is connected.
With its source.
Our Father.
Our Creator God, our Lord Jesus Christ, who is the one who brought it in a way that we could receive it.
I believe this is the longest sentence in the Bible.
I would like it if sometimes someone would check that out for me to prove it for sure.
I counted 269 words in this sentence. Now in our King James Version, there are two periods in there, but in Mr. Darby's and I've checked it in the original and the Greek and it doesn't show that it has those periods in there. This is what the English teacher would call a run on sentence.
I find this so wonderful that when God would speak about His blessings.
He needs a run on sentence and a long sentence to communicate it.
It goes from verse three to the end of verse 14.
And we're not gonna read the, the, the, the the whole sentence, but it is there is a period in our King James version after 6:00 and 12:00, but in other translations that that is a more like a Co, a colon.
And the connection flows all the way through.
Argonne is a God of blessing and the blessing that he has for us.
Is large.
And he wants us to enjoy it.
With himself. And that's what makes it so wonderful. And this we find this all through the Bible. We had a little bit about the prodigal son and we had about the lost sheep this morning. And in that chapter you have it told out that son that received from his father the goods that pertained to him. The biggest problem with the sun was not asking for the goods. The father willingly gave out the goods.
But the biggest problem was the way he wanted to enjoy it.
He wanted to enjoy an absence from the giver.
He wanted to enjoy it where he could enjoy it on his terms with his people.
The way he wanted to and he found out it was a mistake.
Young people.
If you want to be happy.
God has the best plan for your life.
And don't try to live it, and don't try to take those blessings that He would give you and then run off and enjoy them by yourself. And you don't have to necessarily leave home or leave meeting or leave the Lord's people to try to do that. Many of us are guilty of doing it right while we sit in our chairs.
And we have certain reservations where we say no to the Lord.
Recently I've been enjoying.
The company.
Of a young man.
Who lived many years the way he pleased to live.
And the Lord turned him around.
And I'm amazed that now every free moment.
His Bible is open and he's reading his Bible.
It's a joy. It's a blessing to me to see it. It's a motive for me to get my Bible open, too.
He's getting it back from the source.
Another prodigal that learned.
Hard way.
And there's a lot of baggage to carry.
00:25:03
Blessed be.
The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Apostle Paul, when he was writing these words.
He couldn't help but just.
Right not right. A exhortation. Now you Ephesians, I want you to be occupied with your heavenly blessings. That's not the way he communicated it to it.
No, his soul was reveling in the blessing itself. He was walking in a path in accordance with what he knew. There was not that gap between what he knew.
And what he practiced and it comes out in his speech and how he communicates the blessing.
The end of the chapter is a prayer too, where it is, yes, directly speaking and giving thanks to the God and Father.
And, uh, he, he prays that their eyes would be open.
Well, I would like to go back now.
And look at another example, maybe more than one, but an example of.
Those who sought the blessing.
Let's look at Jacob.
Is a good example for us back in Genesis chapter 27.
I believe most all of us here.
Have that desire for the Lord's blessing.
And I believe it's sincere.
And I believe it was sincere with Jacob, his desire for blessing.
But he made a lot of mistakes along the way.
And if we could go back in history a little bit, we'll remember that God, first of all chose Abraham.
And blessed him, and he gave him a promise that he would bless him and his seed.
And not only would he bless him, but he would bless those that blessed them.
But he would curse those that cursed them. Now that's a pretty big blanket policy.
You can improve on that kind of a policy. Unconditional blessing.
Some blessings are conditional.
But those were unconditional.
Oh God, how can God give an unconditional blessing?
Well, I'll tell you how what it cost him to do that.
It cost him to have to give his Son the Lord Jesus Christ so that the blessings would be fulfilled.
And that's the basis upon which God will fulfill all blessing.
And that's the basis upon which you and I can receive blessing right now, unconditionally. All blessings In the Old Testament, the blessings were earthly. What we read in Ephesians is heavenly. We have a higher sphere of blessing. The Lord Jesus as a risen man entered into the glory, and he promises to take us there. That's our sphere of blessing, and that's where he's going to make us a testimony.
For all eternity of His love and grace, and even now.
It's his desire that be a witness, that we be a witness.
Of those who receive that blessing.
Will Jacob then?
His was an earthly blessing and he looked for it. Abraham had received it when he was a long ways away from the land. And then Isaac comes along and he receives the blessing. And then we're going to start where Isaac then wants to bless his children. Now let's read a little bit from Genesis chapter 27.
Verse One. And it came to pass, when Isaac was old, and his eyes were dim, so that he could not see, he called Esau his eldest son, and said unto him, My son.
00:30:05
And he said unto him, Behold here my And he said, Behold, now I am old. I know not the day of my death. Now therefore take, I pray thee, thy weapons, thy quiver, and thy bow, and go out to the field, and take me some venison, and make me savory meat such as I love, and bring it to me that I may eat, that my soul may bless thee before I die. And Rebecca heard, when I expect to Esau his son.
And Esau went to the field to hunt for venison, and to bring it. And Rebecca spake unto Jacob her son, saying, Behold, I heard thy father speak unto. He saw thy brother saying, Bring me venison, and make me savoury meat, that I may eat, and bless thee before the Lord before my death.
Now therefore, my son, obey my voice according to that which I command thee. Go now to the flock and fetch me. Thence 2 good kids of the goats, and I will make them savory meat.
For thy father such as he loveth, and thou shalt bring it to thy father, that he may eat, and that he may bless thee before his death. And Jacob said to Rebecca his mother, Behold, he saw my brother as a hairy man, and I am a smooth man. My father prevention will feel me, and I shall seem to him as a deceiver, and I shall bring a curse upon me, and not a blessing.
And his mother said unto him, Upon me be thy curse, my son.
Only a boy my voice, and go fetch me them. And he went and fetched and brought them to his mother. And his mother made savour meat such as his father loved. And Rebecca took goodly raiment of her eldest son. He saw which were with her in the home, and put them upon Jacob, her youngest son. And she put the skins of the kids of the goats upon his hands, and upon the smooth of his neck, and she gave the savory meat.
And the bread which she had prepared unto the hand of her son Jacob. And he came unto his father, and said, My father. And he said, Here am I, Who art thou my son?
And Jacob said unto his father, I am Esau, thy first born. I have done, according as thou Bates me. Arise, I pray thee sit and eat of my venison, that my soul may bless me.
And Isaac said.
Unto his son. How is it that thou hast found it so quickly, my son?
And he said, Because the Lord thy God brought it me. And Isaac said unto Jacob, Come near, I pray thee, that I may feel thee my son, whether thou be my very son Esau or not.
And Jacob went near unto Isaac his father, and he felt him, and said, The voice is Jacob's voice, but the hands are the hands of Esau.
And he discerned him not, because his hands were hairy, and his brother Esau's hands as his brother Esau's hand, So he blessed him. And he said, Art thou my very son Esau? And he said, I am. And he said, Bring it near to me, and I will eat of my son's venison, that my soul may bless thee. And he brought it near to him, and he did eat, and he brought him wine, and he drank.
And his father Isaac said unto him, Come near now, and kiss me, my son. And he came near and kissed him. And he smelled the smell of his raiment, and blessed him, and said, See, the smell of my son is as the smell of the field which the Lord hath blessed. Therefore God give thee of the dew of heaven, and the fatness of the earth, and plenty of corn and wine.
Let people serve the nations, Bow down to thee, be Lord over my brethren, and let thy mother sons bow down to thee. Curse be everyone that curseth thee, and blessed be he that blesseth thee.
And it came to pass, as soon as Isaac had made an end of blessing Jacob, and Jacob was yet scarce gone out of the presence of Isaac his father, that he saw his brother came in from his hunting.
00:35:02
And he also had made savory meat, and brought it unto his father, and said to his father.
Let my father arise in eat of his sons venison, that thy soul may bless me. And Isaac his father said unto him, Who art thou? And he said, I am thy son, thy first born, Esau.
An Isaac trembled very exceedingly, and said, Who? Where is he that hath taken venison, and brought it me, and I have eaten of all before thou camest and have blessed him. Yeah, and he shall be blessed.
When Esau heard the words of his father, he cried with a a great and exceeding bitter cry, and said unto his father, Bless me, even me also my father.
And he said, Thy brother came with subtlety, and hath taken away thy blessing.
And he said, is not he rightly named Jacob? For he has supplanted me these two times. He took away my birthright. And behold, now he has taken away my blessing. And he said, Hast thou not preserved a blessing for me?
An Isaac answered and said unto Esau, Behold, I have made him thy Lord, and all his brethren have I given to him for servants, and with corn and wine have I sustained him. And what shall I do now unto thee, my son? And Esau said unto his father, Ask thou but one blessing my father bless me, even me also, Oh my father.
And he saw, lifted up his voice, and wept.
And he saw, and Isaac his father answered, and said unto him, Behold, thy dwelling shall be as the fatness of the earth, and as the dew of heaven from above, and by thy sword shalt thou live, and shalt serve thy brother.
And it shall come to pass, when thou shalt have the dominion, thou shalt break his yoke from off thy neck.
And Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing wherewith his father blessed him. And Esau said in his heart the day of mourning for my father.
Are at hand, then will I slay my brother. And these words of Esau her elder son, were told to Rebecca. And she sent and called Jacob her younger son, and said unto him, Behold thy brother.
As touch touching thee, doth comfort himself, proposing to kill thee now, therefore, my son, obey my voice, arise and flee.
Thou to laben my brother and Heron. Well, I went ahead and read all of this because I find it most interesting. We're not going to be able to comment on very much of it. We have two boys here, the two sons of Isaac, and the blessing is involved. Both of them wish blessing.
Neither of them understand the true path of blessing.
But I think there's something to learn from these boys, these two.
Jacob.
The the supplier, the one who had previously.
Spoken to his brother to sell his birthright, now is proceeding to do a similar even a more.
Deceiving.
Thing yes, he was helped by his mother.
But I want to I want to make a comment 1St about Isaac here.
Now Isaac, of course, did not know.
Ephesians 1/3.
But he should have known what Abraham had been promised, that he and his seeds.
There seems to be here.
A feebleness of apprehension of the blessing that what we were talking about yesterday, that gap.
Not walking in the truth leads to impoverishment.
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An understanding of the blessing.
This has happened over and over in the history when the children of Israel were bought into the land of Canaan. Later on, God promised to give the whole land to them, but they were poor.
In taking possession of it, there were enemies there that would seek to.
Hinder their taking that possession of what was promised to them. And that's what the enemy of our souls would seek to do, would seek to put obstacles.
To hinder us.
From the enjoyment of our blessings.
The enemy cannot take the blessings away.
But he can take away from us the walk in them and the enjoyment of them.
And that's where the attack comes in.
Because of this, I believe you have Isaac here.
In contemplation of his death.
And he needs.
Savory meat.
How many of us, as we look around at the needs around us, we see souls needing blessing. We know we have blessing in our souls. We read our Bibles. We understand how to get saved. We know what to tell a Sinner when he feels convicted of his sins.
In theory, at least.
But we miss the opportunities.
Impoverishment.
The blessing is not vividly enjoyed at the moment.
And the opportunity slipped.
Isaac here.
Looked.
At the benefactor.
To give him savory meat in order that his soul might bless his son. He had the cart before the horse. He had the order reversed. His soul should have been occupied with what had been promised through Abraham, and he would not have needed savory meat.
For his soul to feel like blessing his son.
And so a course of events is started here.
And a Jacob comes along.
Instigated by a mother where there had not been harmony in the home before.
Each one had their favorite and each one was seeking for the best blessing of the favorite son.
Impoverishment of blessing.
Brethren.
We have all blessings.
We have everything to give.
Both to God.
And to our fellow man, it's ours.
There's a price to pay to walk in and to keep enjoying it, yes, to have it down in your soul and so that gap.
Between truth known and truth practiced is there, the remedy is to return to the Blesser.
Because Jacob was a little better instigator.
Then he took advantage of the situation here.
But really, did this get him the blessing?
It tells us yes, that he would be blessed.
Oh, I don't believe this is this is the basis upon Miss Jacob was really blessed. Oh yes, the words were pronounced and they were fulfilled.
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But instead of hastening the blessing to Jacob, the very thing that happens is he has to run away, he has to become a fugitive. And so the separation between his father and mother and he.
Begins and he has to go off on a course on a path.
And God dealt with Jacob many years.
And he continued that path. He wrestled with the angels, and he worked with his father-in-law to get the blessings all along the way serving.
God graciously allowed him to get certain things in spite of those things, but it didn't really make Jacob's life what God wanted it to be. How many Christians are that way?
I'm gonna, I'm gonna tell a little story, a personal story in my life.
How the Lord brought this vividly to my attention soon after I was married.
As most of you may know, I am a farmer and after I was married, a farm came up for sale in my community.
And my brother and I ended up purchasing this farm. I'd just been married a year or two.
And I was all enthused with making a livelihood by farming.
I was very thankful for this purchase, it was a good buy.
There were there are a few details to be worked out, including a tenant who lived on this farm in the house who was going to disoccupy the house.
And so we had to make certain arrangements about his leaving and our taking over the farm.
And one day I went out to talk to the man.
Mr. was his name.
And we got into discussion about some fence posts.
And I had looked into the laws of the state of Illinois and property that was buried in the ground was considered a part of the real estate, and he said those fence posts belonged to him.
Blessings. Material things.
We were not in agreement about those fence posts.
And you may laugh about this, but it it was real to me.
As I was discussing the matter.
With the tenant.
He keeled over dead in front of me.
I did not know what to do. I went up to the house and knocked on their door and there was nobody home.
The Lord was dealing with my soul.
Called an ambulance, had to find a telephone in the house.
Called an ambulance and one of my high school friends came out in the ambulance.
Took a look at him and said I'm afraid it's over with him.
Took the man in.
And then I had to tell the family that night.
What had happened?
Now let me tell you, what do you think my attitude was about those fence posts?
You think I wanted those fence posts?
Blessings.
That wasn't the way to get those fence posts.
That's not the way to get blessing.
And its true and spiritual things too.
Jacob.
That was his way, too.
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I'm thankful the Lord, in a measure, taught me in one day.
Something. Hope I won't forget it.
The bless the the things without the Creator, the Giver without the Redeemer, they don't have the same value.
Our Savior God wants our fellowship with those blessings.
He wants our communion with those things and he wants to hear a thank you now and then.
He wants to hear a word of thanks, a word of praise.
Because.
Everything that we have.
Is only ours because of what the Lord Jesus has done.
You read this first, that first chapter of Ephesians, and it says over and over again in him, in him, in the Beloved. And that's true of all heavenly blessings. And it could be said of earthly things too, the material necessities of life along the way. And God is interested in those things too, even though they are not the in final end of what the Christian has promised. They are only temporal things along the way.
Just like those fence posts.
Now our time is about up. I'm going to go on.
And mention briefly one other man whose name was King David.
Let's turn over to Second Samuel, Chapter 7.
In this chapter we have King David.
He is a remarkable case of a man.
Who had that right relationship with his God?
And he wanted to give God praise and thanks, and he worked at bringing that ark up.
And he carried Israel.
To a high point in their life, in their history of worship to God.
Way beyond what Moses and the priesthood was first instituted in in the preparing of a temple.
And David laid up in store, and it was his desire to build a house for the Lord.
And he wanted to build a house for the Lord, and the Lord told him.
No.
I wanna build a house for you.
The beauty of the story is.
They end up both being the same house.
The Lord Jesus Christ.
Who would build the House of temple, the place of worship, the place of giving praise and worship to God, the place where God and man, the blesser and the blessed could meet together?
And the Lord Jesus Christ, David's Son, is the one who's built that house.
Now we are a part of that house today.
And we're getting out onto a lot of tangents here, but it's a wonderful thing to see that because of the Lord Jesus Christ.
The table He has given us where we can approach to God and worship, where this morning we could answer to His request. This due in remembrance of me.
I believe is the.
Highest thing that a Christian can do.
To return and give God thanks for his blessing.
In fellowship with Jesus Christ.
The center.
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David prayed about this.
And God told him.
That instead of David building a house for the Lord, the Lord would build a house for him.
Two people with the same idea.
And they get together.
And God works with him, and David submits to that. I'm just going to read the latter part of the chapter here, the few verses.
And in verse 25 notice David's language after God told him through the prophet that the Lord would build him a house instead of he building the house. Verse 25 says, And And now, O Lord God, the word that thou has spoken concerning thy servant and concerning his house, establish it forever. And do as thou hast said, and let thy name be magnified forever, saying, The Lord of hosts is the God over Israel, and let the House of thy servant David be established before thee.
For thou, O Lord of hosts, God of Israel, has revealed to thy servant, saying, I will build thee a house.
Therefore hath thy servant found in his heart to pray this prayer unto thee. And now, O Lord God, thou art that God and thy words be true, and thou hast promised this goodness unto thy servant. Therefore now let it please thee to bless the House of thy servant, that it may continue forever before thee. For thou, O Lord God, has spoken it. And with thy blessing, let the House of thy servant be blessed for ever.
Well, it was partially fulfilled in Solomon, but the real fulfillment was when Jesus Christ came and the house has been built and we.
As the Lord's people brought into the house a spiritual house to offer praise to God.
So the blessing has a full circuit, the blesser and the blessed together.
Appreciating the same.
Common thing, and it's all focused in Jesus Christ, that son of David who is our Lord and Savior, who brought the blessing to us. Young people, it is easy to get taken up with what you can do for the Lord, and I'm not against doing things for the Lord.
But we have to come to this.
It has to be according to God's way of blessing.
David had a plan, but God stopped him.
And changed it.
And David accepted that plan and therefore it had a blessed in and a fulfill. It's so important that as we set out on life, young people, that we remember God has that plan. Be sure you're following his plans. Don't make up your own life. Don't live like Jacob and try to do it your way. Incidentally.
The end of the story of Jacob is good, and with this we'll close.
I just will read you the verse. Uh, he blessed Pharaoh and uh.
It's in chapter 49.
I think this is so lovely that the end of his life he did.
Jake, I'm reading Genesis 49, verse 26. The blessings of thy Father, that's Jacob, have prevailed above the blessings of my progenitors unto the utmost bound of the everlasting hills. They shall be on the head of Joseph, and on the crown of the head of him that was separate from his brethren, who is a picture of the Lord Jesus.
Jacob, in spite of all his ways, in the end he could say, because I, I believe he learned the lessons and I believe he, he did, he did appreciate the blessings that God had planned for his life and he worshipped leaning on his staff. And so he could say that the blessings that came to him were beyond his father's.
It's progenitors, you know. Yesterday our brother spoke about the generations, you know, one generation enjoying the truth. And then gradually things can degenerate until there's a departure that need not be. Jacob did recover, and he got more blessing than even had been promised. There is hope for us young people. Even though there's been a departure, there's been a life lived for ourselves. There is a way back.
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And God can still bless us, even if we're like a Jacob.
Let's close with prayer.
Open Mtg. 3
Open—R. Thonney, B. Christensen, D. Rule
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
Let's go back to second Peter again.
Perhaps we can go to the third chapter.
Have a few thoughts that I.
Have become very real to my own soul and like to share them.
Let's.
Start with verse one. This second epistle. Beloved, I now write unto you in both which I stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance, that ye may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandments of us, the apostles of the Lord and Savior, knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers walking after their own lusts, insane.
Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.
For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water, and in the water whereby the world that then was.
Being overflowed with water perished, but the heavens and the earth, which are now.
By the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.
But beloved?
Be not ignorant of this one thing that one day is with the Lord as 1000 years.
And 1000 years as one day the Lord is not flat concerning his promises. Some men count slackness, but is long-suffering to us. We're not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night in which in the which the heavens shall pass away.
With a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat. The earth also in the works that are therein, shall be burned up.
Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved.
What manner of persons ought you to be in all holy conversation and godliness?
Looking for and hastening unto the coming of the day of God.
Wherein the heavens, being on fire, shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat.
Nevertheless, we, according to his promise, look for.
New heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.
Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for such things?
Be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace, without spot and blameless. We just read that far.
Really enjoyed brethren in this chapter to see that there are three worlds drawn attention to just to go over them once more. Verse six, the world that then was. That's the world before the flood.
It evidently was in certain ways different than the world we now live in, because it says in verse 7 the heavens.
And the earth, which are now. So there was a different.
Order of things in the pre diluvian world than there is in the world that we now know. But then it speaks of the passing away of this whole world system in which we live. It's going to melt with fervent heat. It's going to be dissolved, remember.
Remember Brother Jimmy Smith speaking about this?
00:05:03
He says what it speaks of here sounds like an atomic explosion.
Only this is the end of the whole world system.
That we now live in. Incredible to think about it. It's all coming to an end.
Oh, how important to have God's perspective on things like was mentioned in the address, It's not but what I am or who you are. It's God's texture that we want to get. You're fitting that picture. You're a believer in the Lord Jesus. You do, and that's what makes it so meaningful, but it's not centered in US. God's eternal purpose was.
That the Lord Jesus was going to occupy the central position.
In heaven and in earth, and that cannot be frustrated at eternal purpose.
Thank God for it, but the order that we sometimes spend so much of our time.
In it and I don't say it's wrong to have a decent job to provide for your family. That's very clear in scripture were to do that. But sometimes our efforts go quite a bit beyond that and brother, we need to be reminded that we were not made for this world system. We're made for something that is coming.
Something that is extremely glorious.
And then the third.
World that is mentioned is in verse.
13.
Nevertheless, we, according to His promise, look for a new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.
Talking there about what is called.
In verse.
12:00 The day of God.
It's that eternal day. It's when God is going to make new heavens and a new earth. You have it in the first verses of Revelation chapter 21. Tremendous to think about it or to try to think about it. We are so limited in our thinking processes.
To understand it, and I suppose that's why Scripture speaks so little.
Of eternity is because we think in the realm of time, and if that's about all that way, we can think. But God has a purpose in our being here in this present world.
God made the first original world and verse five seems to refer to Genesis chapter one.
You remember that it says that?
Waters covered the face of the earth and so then God gave a commandment. Let the waters come into one place and let the dry land appear. Seems to be what?
By the word of the Lord, the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water.
And in the water.
But verse six seems to refer to the flood.
Of Noah's day, the world that then was being overflowed with water perished. So the world that that was is fast. But in verse 7, the heavens and the earth, which are now interesting.
To know something of the heavens and the earth that are now.
Wonderful creation that God has created incredible size of the heavens. I I just thrill and I learned something more about the tremendous size of creation. There's no way we can.
Really conceive of it, but we can talk in figures and they say, remember I was talking out West that a young people sing one time and I mentioned that in the Milky Way universe there were approximately 100 billion stars.
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The young man came up afterwards and he says, you know what, it's closer to 200 billion.
Wowie.
And on top of that, they say, according to what scientists can determine from their knowledge, now, there's at least another 100 billion galaxies in the universe.
Just totally, completely.
Leaves our minds behind as to the heavens and the earth that are now and we are living in this world. This is where God has placed us and He has a purpose for our existence here and now. But let's not forget brethren, that it's all destined to be burned up. It's going to dissolve.
And we are getting down to the time when there's going to be major changes in this world, seeing we're going to see a change in governments.
It is really fascinating to me to see what's taking place in our world, the financial meltdown. It just doesn't seem like anybody really understands it properly.
It's all kind of cheatering and they're hoping that it'll stay together.
And if we don't have the right perspective, we'll be troubled about it all, brethren. But our perspective should be set beyond anything that is material. The Lord help us to think properly in the days in which we live. And he says the verse 10, the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night in which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise.
And the elements shall melt with fervent heat. The earth also in the works that are therein, shall be burned up.
Day of the Lord, as I understand it, begins at the end.
Of the Tribulation period, when the Lord Jesus comes out of heaven.
With his Saints to reign supreme in this world.
And that day extends the whole millennial period 1000 years.
That day of the Lord. And so when you read verse 10, I'd like to explain it as I understand it. It says the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night. Semi colon. Stop there.
We know that when the day of the Lord comes as a thief in the night, it will be because this world does not want him to come and is not expecting him to come.
That's the way a thief comes. We who are believers know that he's not going to come for us as a thief. He's going to come for us as our heavenly bridegroom. We're going to a wedding on that side. Wonderful to think about.
Glorious, tremendously glorious. But at the end of the tribulation, he's coming as a thief for this world that does not want him to come.
And who is not waiting for him? But then notice what comes after that in the witch in this day of the Lord. It's really at the very end of the day of the Lord that this next part is true. The heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat. The earth also, in the works that are therein, shall be burned up.
Interesting to hear about the works that they are planning today.
I've heard, uh, it's interesting. The other day in Spain I was with.
One of the rules, one of Don's nephews in southern Spain, he was talking about some of the projects. He's an architect.
The tremendous plans they have for new buildings, higher, much higher than they have even now. The works are going to be burned up.
No, we have to be occupied with things here, brethren. But the fact that they're going to be burned up, doesn't that challenge you and me to live for things that remain? Everything that is here, tangible, visible, is going to pass away. That which we have by faith in Christ is forever. And shouldn't we live?
00:15:24
In view of those realities.
In fact, it's interesting the way the Apostle Paul puts it in Second Corinthians chapter four, he says.
The things which are seen are temporal. The things which are not seen are eternal. So much of our lives.
Are occupied with things that are seen, tangible, visible. We live in a culture that cultivates desire for things that are visible. This book is what encourages us.
To live by faith, and faith looks beyond.
The material veneer to those things that are eternal, those things that are spiritual. May the Lord help us to live our lives in a way that we when that day comes of glory, we will have that which remains. I'd like to speak a little bit about this day of the Lord. So I don't think we.
Grasp properly.
The tremendous glory it will be when Jesus comes again with his Saints to reign.
In fact, I really believe that it's going to be perhaps the most.
Glorious display of power that there will ever be in this world's history, ever was or ever will be.
When God introduces his man into the realms of power in this world, and he's going to put down his enemies and he's going to reign from sea to sea.
It's beautiful to read. In fact, I'd like to go back to the book of Isaiah and just read a few verses in connection with that day of the Lord.
Go to Isaiah chapter 2.
Verse two. And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established.
In the top of the mountains.
And they and shall be exalted above the hills, and all nations shall flow into it.
Jerusalem will be the center of this world's government, and many people shall go and say, Come ye, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the House of the God of Jacob, and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths. For out of Zion shall go forth the law and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people.
And they shall beat their swords into plowshares.
And there Spears into pruning hooks. Nations shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.
In this tremendously beautiful to think of a day when they're not going to teach war anymore.
Verse 50 House of Jacob, come here, let us walk.
In the light of the Lord a little further down verse.
10.
Enter into the rock and hide thee in the dust, for the fear of the Lord, and for the glory of His Majesty. The lofty looks of man.
Shall be humbled, and the haughtiness of men shall be bowed down. Oh, what a difference from the world that we now live in.
Haughtiness and loftiness are encouraged. Pride, that which is so hateful to God, is spoken of as something positive.
00:20:09
Verse 12 For the day of the Lord of hosts shall be upon everyone that is proud and lofty, and upon everyone that is lifted up, and he shall be brought low, and upon all the Cedars of Lebanon that are high and lifted up.
And upon all the oaks ofation different figures of lofty.
Persons in this world, and upon all the high mountains, and upon all the hills that are lifted up.
And upon every high tower, and upon every fenced wall, and upon all the ships of Tarsus, And upon the pleasant pictures.
And the loftiness of man shall be bowed down, and the haughtiness of men shall be made low, and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day. Oh, does not rejoice your heart, brethren, the day of the Lord, when He alone shall be exalted. If there is any desire on the part of anyone to lift himself up in that day, they're going to be put down.
And should not this be an encouragement amongst ourselves? Brethren, who are we?
Nothing. Sometimes I like to say we're just a bunch of zeros.
You put the Lord Jesus as #1 in front of a bunch of zeros. That one gives all the value to the zeros. But the Lord help us, brethren, if there's any desire on any of our parts to make a name for ourselves. Lord isn't glorified in that. The Lord alone shall be exalted in that day. The idols He shall utterly abolish, and they shall go into the holes of the rocks and into the caves of the earth, for the fear of the Lord.
And for the glory of His Majesty, when he arises to shake terribly the earth.
And then when I see the idols.
There's sports people that are idols, There's idols in other areas of life too.
Sometimes we are embracing idols in one way or another. What's the cure for idols is to get your eyes on the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ.
In that day a man shall cast his idols of silver and idols of gold, which they made each one for himself to worship, to the moles and to the bats.
To go into the cliffs of the rocks and into the tops of the ragged rocks, for fear of the Lord.
For the glory of His Majesty, when he arises to shake terribly the earth.
Cease, yeah, from man whose breath and is in his nostrils, for wherein is He to be accounted of? Oh, brethren, we need to glory in the Lord. There's so much to understand about His glorious person, and the more we understand of His greatness, His glory.
The more it will make us cease to be thinking about ourselves and what we are. Thank God our position is an association with Him and when He comes back in that day of the Lord to reign supreme, we are coming with Him.
You know, I've often asked who was the person that first knew about the coming of the Lord in the Bible. Perhaps it was Enoch even before the flood.
He knew about it, God must have told him about it, and Enoch prophesied. Behold.
The Lord cometh with the myriads of his Saints. Think of the glory of that moment when.
Heaven rips open and outcomes a horse, a White Horse with a rider on it. The Lord of Glory and the armies of Heaven come after him. We know we won't have to fight in that war. The sword of his mouth will lay one army after another in the dust.
We are going to be eyewitnesses when Jesus comes back again. Wonderful, wonderful things are just ahead. And are we asleep, brethren? Are we awakened as to where we are and how important it is to take whatever means the Lord has put into our hands and to use them in view of the glory of that day when Jesus will reign supreme?
00:25:25
There is so much to be done in this world. I see you, dear young people.
Sure, thankful to see you here. Sure thankful to see you interested in the scriptures.
I want to encourage you with all my heart, but I want to say to you, don't get short sighted in viewing this present world. Live for what's coming. Live in a way so that when this is all dissolved, you will have.
What remains for that eternal day?
The Lord, the day of the Lord, The Lord is going to reign supreme, and it does speak in Scripture that we are going to reign with Him.
Yes.
You know what, according to the faithfulness you show with what's put into your hands now, so will be your place in that coming Kingdom. You remember in Luke's Gospel, the parable of the talents is given a little bit different than in the in the book of Matthew.
In the Matthew he gave them according to their several.
Ability. And there are those who have more ability than others, but in Matthew's Gospel, you'll find that the rewards were all the same.
To the one who had the five talents and the one that had the two.
But when you get to Luke's gospel, he gives them all one talent and one comes back and he's gained 10 talents. And accordingly the Lord says be thou over 10 cities, and another one gained 5 talents. Well, he had worked too, not quite as diligently as the first one. The Lord said be thou over 5 cities.
What do you take from that?
They take for it that according to our faithfulness with what God puts in our hands now, so will be the our position in the coming Kingdom.
When the Lord Jesus reigns, are you interested in life here and now? You're interested in having a big bank account now? Not saying there's anything wrong with having a bank account.
But I say, is that your purpose to mask fortunes down here when it loses its value so fast, as we saw these last few couple weeks? Is that your interest or are you going to be interested in something that will last for that Kingdom day, the day of the Lord?
But there's another day mentioned here in Second Peter, and that's what I want to mention too, before we get placed to somebody else. Verse 10.
I'm sorry, it's verse 12 looking for.
And hastening the coming of the day of God, we're in the heavens. Being on fire shall be dissolved, the elements shall melt with fervent heat. Nevertheless, we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness, when it's talking about the millennial day.
In Isaiah it says.
A king shall reign in righteousness, and Princess and judgment.
When there's raining, it means that there's something to be controlled, and so in the millennial day there will still be sin.
It will not be open as it is today. Those that sin will be cut off.
Next morning.
And people will realize people get so used to sin in the world that we live in today.
Get so used to it that.
They make excuses for it. They draw out court cases and try to beat justice. And sometimes they do.
But in that day it will be different. There will be no court system of that sort.
00:30:04
Somebody sins one day, the next day they're gone. No appeals there. That's it. They're cut off.
And they will learn fairly fast, I would imagine that we cannot play around with this government.
So some will yield perhaps feigned obedience.
Others in reality will submit themselves. That's the day of the Lord, the day of God. Notice the difference. It says righteousness dwells. Why? Because there is no longer any sin, not even a suggestion of sin. No trace of it forever. Oh, what a day it's going to be. It's hard for us to even conceive.
Of a world that's such, but that's.
In the future for God's people to look forward with.
Too. But now just notice the exhortation that he gives at verse 14. Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for such things?
Be diligent. There's that word diligent again.
The diligent soul shall be made fact.
Oh, the Lord give us diligence in the things of God, dear brother and sister.
In Christ, let's not be slothful, sloppy about the things of God, diligent that you may be found of Him in peace, without spot and blameless.
Nsnoise.
00:35:16
Might we just for a very few moments, turn to a scripture in the 41St chapter of Isaiah?
A week or so ago, the verse that I intend to read appeared.
On one of the Christian calendars and I was very impressed with the verse and it led to a line of meditation.
I'd like to read the sixth verse of Isaiah chapter 41.
Says they helped everyone. His neighbor.
And everyone said to his brother.
Be of good courage.
We'll just stop there for a moment. Think of that expression, his neighbor. Where do we see it occurring? We see it occurring in Luke's gospel in in connection with the certain Samaritan.
And we see that there were two individuals that passed by, but there was one that came who not only gave encouragement, but one that provided for that one that was in great need. And so that parallel parable would really bring before us who our neighbor is. And then in the next verse of that chapter.
It says, so the Carpenter encouraged the Goldsmith, and he that smootheth with the hammer, him that smote the anvil, saying it is ready for the soldering, and he fastened it with nails, that it should not be moved. So we see a chain reaction here. We see one encouraging the other, and I think we've seen something of this in a very practical way here.
This very day speaking to our brother between meetings before and we spoke about how the fact that we were refreshed by being present at the meetings, being free from our work environment, being free from perhaps the school environment. And so we see that the Lord does make provision for our needs and does encourage we have that provision brought before us in connection with Elam. We have the wells and the palm trees. And so the Lord.
Does encourage his own and how thankful we can be. Now let's just turn over for just a few moments to 2nd Corinthians rather Second Chronicles chapter 31.
For another verse.
In verse four it says, Moreover, he commanded the people that.
Dwelled in Jerusalem to give the portion of the priest and the Levites.
And then it says that they might be encouraged in the law of the Lord. And so we've had the word of God before us today. We were talking this morning about human knowledge, human learning. But what are we we to be encouraged in? It's the law of the Lord. And so we're reminded of Psalm 119, which brings before us the word of God.
In so many different aspects. And so our encouragement today can be in the law of the Lord. Now let's just turn to another verse. In Second Chronicles chapter 35, we see another case where the word encouraged is used. The second verse of Second Chronicles chapter 35. And it says, and he set the priest in their charges and encouraged them to the service.
Of the House of the Lord. So we have them in the 31St chapter.
Encouraged in the law of the Lord, and now we have an encouragement and service and how important that is too. Let's just look at a practical manifestation or a practical carrying out of what we have had brought before us in these few verses. Briefly, we'll just turn to the 4th chapter of the book of Nehemiah.
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It's actually the 3rd and 4th chapters of the short book of Nehemiah.
We have brought before us those that build it on the wall, and I believe that we have answering to this in the New Testament that which we have brought before us in the small book of Jude. There were those that had the sword in one hand, and they were to earnestly contend for the faith. But it also brings before us the need in the end of that short epistle.
The need to be built up and so we see that those that worked on the wall here in Nehemiah.
Had a sword in one hand, but they had a trowel and the other. And so while they were holding that sword, they were also holding a trowel. And if we read through this third and 4th chapter of the book of Nehemiah, we would read about various individuals, various families that worked on the wall. And we see in some cases that there was failure on the part of some to build a portion or a part of the wall.
That was before them, but it's encouraging to see also.
That there were those that not only fulfilled a certain requirement to build a section of the wall, but at least three places. In this third chapter, it brings before us that they repaired another piece. And so sometimes we have to sort of speak, pick up the slack. And I was just thinking earlier, what was going through the minds of some that were building on the wall. Perhaps some were feeling weariness.
Perhaps some were discouraged, and we see that there was much discouragement here. We see in the book of Nehemiah the enemy so active to discourage. We see that there were those that were aligned against the children of Israel and tried to prevent them from constructing that wall. And so perhaps there was much discouragement. And I can just picture those working on the wall and they were probably working in close proximity to one another.
And one might say to the other, it's not much more that we have to build. Let's just try to finish this section. And perhaps there was another, uh, next to him that turned around and tried to encourage another one working on the wall, perhaps not using the same words, but expressing the same need. And So what, what is before my heart today is the fact that we need.
To encourage one another. And how do we do that? It's through.
His precious word, another word that could be expanded on, and it's not my intention to expand on that today, is the word strengthen. And they go together, don't they? Encourage. Strengthen. And we read in First Timothy of the household of Vanessa for us, and it says that they OFT refreshed the apostle Paul. So these 3 words go together, don't they? Encouraging.
Strengthening, refreshing, and in connection with Anessa Forest, it says that he was not ashamed of my chains, and so there was perhaps a certain amount of rebuke.
Connected with associating with the apostle Paul but here was one that visited the apostle Paul while he was in house prison and I'm sure.
When he visited the Apostle Paul, he brought him a word of encouragement. He refreshed the soul of the Apostle Paul. May we desire to encourage, May we desire to strengthen, May we desire to refresh one another.
Let us turn again to the last verse of the address that we had this afternoon.
2nd Corinthians, chapter 3.
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2nd Corinthians chapter 3 and verse 18.
But we all with open face, beholding us in a glass, the glory of the Lord.
Are changed into the same image from glory to glory.
Even as by the Spirit of the Lord.
Let's also go over to Galatians chapter 2.
Galatians chapter 2 and verse 20.
I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me, and the life which I now live in the flesh. I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me.
And gave himself for me.
Now back to.
Second Peter chapter one that we've had in the reading meetings.
The 1St 4 verses.
Of Second Peter chapter one.
Set the stage. Give us the doctrinal foundation, if you will, for the practical carrying out of the truth that is given in the verses which follow in verses 5.
And following through verse 9.
The verse in Second Corinthians chapter 3 is the key.
To the practical application.
Well, these verses in.
First, second Peter 2 about adding to your faith, virtue and virtue knowledge, and so on.
And I would like to speak about the practical application of it in US.
That we might be helped to fulfill what Peter is exhorting of us in what is said to us.
2nd Corinthians chapter 3 We all with open face, beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image as by the Spirit of our God.
The truth of that verse is this.
We have to be occupied with an object outside of ourselves.
And that object that God has placed before us is the Lord Jesus Christ.
And as we are occupied with that object.
God by the Spirit changes us.
To be like the object.
And there is absolutely no other mechanism given of God to accomplish that.
It's very important to fully appreciate that.
That God, I'm going to repeat it and then expand on it again and again in the time before us.
We have to have an object outside of ourselves, and God has given to us that object, His own Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, and as we behold him, the Spirit of God.
Changes us to be like the object.
That we are occupied with. It's true even in natural things if a man is occupied with money.
He will become avarice if he is occupied with power. He will become ambitious.
And so on. That is, what a man occupies himself is that which that man or woman or child becomes.
The same principle, the same truth, is illustrated and given to us in Galatians 2 and 20, where it says, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. That is.
I live by that faith which has as its object.
The Son of God.
And it immediately presents the object in a little bit to my heart, who loved me and gave himself for me.
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That is the Christian faith, the faith which has the Lord Jesus Christ.
As its object.
And it's a satisfying It's a complete object for the heart. God has so made us that nothing else will fully satisfy us.
Than that. And so he presents it to us. And he says as Paul enjoyed it in his own soul, when he thought of the object before him, that he was to live in faith, occupied with that object. He says, Who loved me.
And gave himself for me. And as Paul was taken up with the love of the Lord Jesus for himself.
He was changed.
In a practical way, until he could say, for me to live is Christ.
And to die is gain, he said in Galatians 2 and 20, Who loved me and gave himself for me.
So when he takes it up in Philippians chapter 3 and he says for me to live as Christ, he goes on to as it were practically say.
He died.
He died for me.
And if dying, going through the experience of death will enable me to know him better.
Then I want to go through that too.
I want to experience anything and everything that God would allow me to experience.
That would help me to know him better as the object of my heart.
We naturally avoid pain and suffering.
But the apostle Paul had so learned Christ that he embraced.
Pain and suffering.
Because he said, the Lord Jesus, the object of my life, passed through that, and I willingly will pass through it myself, as that which will enable me practically to lay hold of Him, the object of my heart and my life.
So we have here in second Peter chapter one those things that are given first.
Are those things that are essential in order for the exhortation to be meaningful or beneficial to us in our lives? He says. I'm just going to go over it. We've gone over it already in the reading, but to bring back the thoughts to us in verse one, precious faith through the righteousness of God.
I want you to notice as we go over them, that the source of everyone of them.
Is not in US.
The source of every one of these things that are brought before us first is from God.
Because if you disconnect.
Ourselves from the source, you, you lose everything practically. And we'll go back to the Gospel of Luke to see that by example. But here he says.
Like precious, Well, how it says have obtained, have obtained, like precious faith, where's the source of it?
It's in God himself.
Through the righteousness of God, it is that faith which connects us with God, the source of it.
And himself as righteousness.
Verse two. Through the knowledge of God and our Savior Jesus Christ.
Where is the source of that knowledge of God and the Savior Jesus Christ? It's from God himself.
God has chosen to make himself known to us.
And so that we might know him.
If God had not chosen to make himself in the knowledge of Himself, to reveal it to us, it would be impossible.
To know him.
We could not, and yet it's the very knowledge of God that changes us.
And transforms us to be like himself.
Verse three according to his divine.
Power.
It is His divine power according to the love and goodness of his own heart.
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So these chosen to put us as an object of His love, and to reproduce His beloved Son in US practically. But the power of it, the source of it, the goodness of it, is not now and ever will be in US.
It's from himself, it's maintained from himself and the moment again we disconnect it.
We lose the communion with himself. We turn upon ourselves.
And there's sad results that come from it, as we'll see in a few minutes, verse 4, whereby are given unto us. The source of all that's promised that's given to us is not in US. It doesn't start with us and it doesn't end with us. It begins with God and it ends with God.
And he fulfills his own desires and purpose through us to his own glory.
But it is.
Given to us great and precious promises.
The verses which follow.
Our practical exhortations to us.
To carry out.
When we look at them, we see them perfectly expressed in the Lord Jesus.
Everyone of these virtues is seen in perfection in the person and life.
Of the Lord Jesus.
And as they are expressed in US.
We get to know him better. That's why it says in verse 9.
Umm, or verse 8.
That ye be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ.
That's him.
Displayed to us in loving kindness and knowledge and love and so on. And as those things are real in us, our knowledge, our fruitfulness of himself increases.
It's not complete yet.
But the key of it.
You and I cannot.
We do not have the power to accomplish these exhortations in any manner.
In which we are self occupied.
The only way in which they will be realized in our lives is in the measure in which we turn away from ourselves and focus our thoughts, our hearts, upon himself.
And God has so given the Lord Jesus to us.
I want to go back to the hymn that we sang at the beginning of this meeting, it says.
Bread of Heaven, feed us now and evermore.
I live by the faith of the Son of God.
But he says before that.
I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.
That is when I put my trust and when you put your trust in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Christ himself became in you.
Your life.
And practically when your eye is gazing upon him.
Objectively, as a person in the word of God in heaven.
In every manner in which we occupy ourselves with him.
He is the food of the life that is in US.
And that's the only way that the life we have can be fed.
We cannot feed it by something within ourselves. We cannot sustain it by something within ourselves. When we get to heaven, as the poet and the hymn said, feed us now and evermore, and when we get to the glory, the Lord Jesus will continue as we gaze upon Him face to face, to be the actual food that sustains that eternal life which is within us.
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And it has to be sustained.
It has to be sustained.
We cannot.
Sustain ourselves. We are dependent creatures. Turn with me to Luke's Gospel, chapter 18.
This is what we're gonna say is not the primary purpose of Luke 18, I don't believe.
But I think we can properly apply some of the principles of it.
We won't read the chapter, there's not time to do that, but we'll find in this. I wanna comment on three, the beginning and the end. In the middle of the chapter we have things connected with faith. And then between those 3 instances, after the first one, the first message of faith, we have what?
This happens when we turn on ourselves, then we have faith brought before us again, and then we see what happens when we turn back on ourselves, and then the chapter ends with faith again.
In the beginning of the chapter, there's a poor widowed woman and she's insistent that the judge Avenger and the Lord ends up by saying, when the Son of Man cometh, shall he find faith in the earth? This woman illustrates a faith that the Son will have in the tribulation period in the previous 17th chapter where it starts the message. But the point is she that I want to bring out here, she had faith.
Even in this case.
In the principle of it in a man that was unjust, but he he said, well, I'm tired of her bugging me and I'll do what she wants. In the middle of the chapter, there's faith. It's not mentioned exactly, but it speaks with the little children. And we know what characterized the little child in its simplicity of its faith. It doesn't. It wouldn't even know what the word faith. The little children don't even know what the word means. Maybe we don't either very well, but but a child expresses it, it lives it.
You see a little child get hurt and you know where his faith is.
It's immediately expressed I want Mama or daddy. And it goes to them with all simplicity. In the end of the chapter, there's the blind man on his way to Jericho and or the Lord's on his way to Jericho and.
Lord stops and he says, What do you want? He says, that I may see.
Lord says see.
My faith has made thee whole.
I want to comment on faith because faith itself.
Has to have an object that it's emphasized and the murmur. You turn faith back on itself. The moment you start looking at the faith that's in you, you're going to have doubts.
I want to illustrate it briefly when I was a boy.
And I sat in meetings like this and locally where I lived, and I heard the message of the gospel. There came a time in my childhood life when I believed it.
But I did not have peace or confidence for a number of years after I first in my heart said, I believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. And I found myself over and over again going back and saying at times, Lord, if I don't believe, I believe now.
What was my difficulty? The day came in my life when my thoughts turned from my faith.
To thinking about if God is satisfied with the work of the Lord Jesus for me.
Then I can be satisfied as well, and from that day to this, I've had peace in my soul.
But the point is, I turn from occupation, from myself and my faith.
To God and his satisfaction in his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.
John Kaiser, whom I go to a detention center each week with, often speaks to the kids.
01:05:01
Or at least occasionally about his own, where he came to have peace in his soul and he was the opposite. But the principle is the same, John said for a long time, I know, I believe.
But I'm not sure whether God is going to accept me.
In principle, John and I were the same, although it manifested itself in a different way.
He was saying.
I have faith. He looked within himself and he had confidence that there was faith there.
But then when he turned to God, he wasn't sure. And the problem was.
He was self self occupied.
He went to his father, and he told his father eventually of his problem, that his father gave him the verse in John 6. Him that cometh to me I will in no ice cast out. And he got peace, because he turned from his own sense of his own faith, And he put it in to Him that cometh to me I will in no ice cast out. And we find illustrated in this chapter in each case, and in the last case it was.
A faith that was not self occupied.
But it was a faith that dwelt upon its object, and brethren, that is essential, that is key to living a life of faith.
Some ways it seems harder to live it than it did to accept it as to the salvation of our souls.
But to try to live it out in our lives is often more distressing to us.
Than even our original work of faith to save us. Now let's look briefly at the man. That's the parable in verse nine. He spake this parable unto certain that trusted in themselves that they were righteous. Notice trusted in themselves that they were righteous and despised others, whereas Mr. Darby translates it made nothing of the rest of men.
Two men went up into the temple to pray, 1A Pharisee, and the other a public, and the Pharisee stood and prayed to us with himself. God, I thank Thee that I am not as other men are extortioners and just adulterers, or even as this public and I fast twice in the week. I give ties of all that I possess. And the public in standing afar off, would not lift so much of his eyes into heaven, but smote upon his breasts, saying, God be merciful to me, a Sinner.
I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other. For everyone that exalteth himself shall be abased, and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted. This is generally applied in the Gospel to people and getting saved, but I want to apply it. It applies to us, brethren, and I'm going to apply it to myself and illustrate it through myself.
Every so often where I work.
One of the staff will come into my office and say Thomas is here to see you.
That's all they have to say. Thomas is here to see you. And so I go out to see Thomas, who will be waiting for me.
And I will talk to Thomas.
And inevitably, in the course of the conversation, it will come out that Thomas needs money.
And I will open my wallet and I will look in my wallet and I will see what I have and I will share it with Thomas.
Thomas is a believer.
Now, isn't that?
A demonstration in my life.
That's something of the brotherly love that is said in Second Peter. One is true in me.
Here's a brother. He comes to me. He's in need. I open my wallet.
And I see what's there and I share it with him.
Remember, on one occasion I opened, it was empty and I said I'm sorry, Thomas, it's empty.
That was Friday. He came back Monday.
But the point, brethren, is this.
It is extremely easy for me to say I'm not like Thomas.
I'm not like Thomas.
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I don't go to somebody else's place of work.
And say I need money.
But it's easy when there's confidence in one's own goodness and in self. And in fact, in this Pharisee there is evidence that he was something that man would call good.
The fact that he did not do those things that he said he didn't do, we have no reason to doubt. And he is, from man's standpoint, virtuous.
And he was aware of it. God had produced in him what he was.
And he turned in on himself, and he thought about himself and what he was.
And it produced because of turning away from his object. That should have been his object at least. And the moral of it he.
Trusted in himself.
And it led to self exaltation.
Which is a form of pride.
If you, if I become improperly occupied with the grace of God that has worked in our souls to make us grow to the extent that we may have grown in our Christian life up to this point. The moment you turn away from the only holy and true true object and source of what you are and occupy yourself with what God has done in you.
It will turn to self exaltation.
And that is true collectively as well as individually.
And it will bring the government of God into the light and this man.
Had that problem, and brethren, it's easy to have that problem.
You must, I must be done with even the workings of the goodness of God in US.
Or we will struggle our whole lives with the problem of indwelling sin.
Quickly, while there's a moment or two, we'll just go to the high point of it, but the next example is the man that's given to us, the rich young man.
Umm. In.
Umm, see if I can find it here. Verse 19 A certain ruler asked him, saying, Good master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good? There is none good save one that is God. That's all. We'll have time to take up on this.
God alone is good.
God alone is inherently good, and the goodness that is found in anyone of us is Christ and His life in US. It is not in US separately from that the Lord Jesus prophetically in the Psalms could even say of Himself, My goodness extendeth not to thee when addressing God.
And yet this rich young man had virtue as we see it. Who of us could say we lived a life like he did?
And yet.
When he addressed the Lord as good, he was addressing him as someone who him and said as it were, what else do I have to do? I suppose he may have thought he had done enough, that he was going to inherit eternal life. And the moment we turn in on ourselves and even the work of God that has been working in us, we disconnect ourselves from the source of the good.
And it leads again to taking us back on self and defeat too, eventually in doing so.
I live.
Christ liveth in me.
That's the life that we have and Christ living in me.
Has to be lived out, not with self occupation.
Not with a check up on my progress. Not with a desire to say I've got so far in life and I'm making good progress and I'm growing. Let God decide how far you've grown.
Just simply.
Find in the perfection of God.
01:15:01
That which satisfies will satisfy, because God will make it satisfy your heart.
Just one last comment, I hope you don't find it unnecessarily amusing.
But it illustrates something that's important.
What we've had before us says in another words that's been said many times to some of us in this room.
Don't try to love the Lord more than you do.
Just be occupied with His love for you.
That's the truth of what we've been talking about.
Don't try to produce from within yourself a love for the Lord Jesus.
God will produce it in you when you are occupied with Himself in His perfection.
But the other side says, well, doesn't John's epistle tell us hereby know we we have passed from death unto life because we love the brethren? Isn't that the perfect life seen in US? And so there's a tendency to to think about ourselves and perhaps that we love our brethren and so on. Let me take that statement and say it a different way.
If you think that the truth of it is the same in us as it is in him.
Don't try to love your brethren more than you do. Just be occupied with their love for you.
Do any of us think that we're getting from our brethren?
That perfect love that is manifested in the Lord Jesus.
No, we realize it, and if we see it in them, we see it in ourselves. Or at least we should.
And so there is not even in others anything that we can see as a satisfying object.
So we don't say, we don't try to apply. It's not a correct statement to say don't try to love your brethren more than you do.
Although in truth, don't try to love your brethren more than you do.
You be occupied with the Lord Jesus Christ, and God will work in you so that you do love your brethren more than you do.
And on the other side of it, just be occupied with their love for you.
The self occupation and is doomed to fail on the other side because you'll say my brethren don't love me like they should.
They're failing me. And there again, your eye is off the object.
Whether it's your love for them or their love for you, your eye has lost its object.
And it will not produce the end result in practice in your life. The only result is occupation with himself. Our time is up, so let's pray.
Gospel 4
Gospel—D. Hayhoe
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
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Call 5 10-4 32 10-4 0 10-4 0 10-4 10-4 4.
10-4 blah blah blah blah blah.
Let's sing another hymn together #14.
Have you been to Jesus?
For the cleansing power, are you washed in the blood of the lamb hymn #14? Have you been?
In the blood.
And his brain says about her body, and her body's gone on to his mouth by God for life.
Nsnoise.
00:05:13
How are you are you are in the world?
In the world.
For your God, I am done at the hospital, so I'm good for you, I think. It's not like you know.
I'd like to turn first of all friends to a couple of verses.
In John's Gospel Chapter 7.
I'm sure everyone knows this book.
That I have in my hand the Bible.
Which is the precious word of God.
John 7.
And verse 37.
In the last day, that great day of the feast.
Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink.
He that believeth on me, as the scripture has said, out of his belly.
Shall flow rivers of living water, but.
To speak He of the Spirit, which they that believed on Him should receive. For the Holy Ghost was not yet given, because that Jesus was not yet glorified.
You notice here that it starts out by saying in the last day, the great day of the feast. I understand that this was a feast that lasted 8 days.
Jesus had gone up to the feast of the Jews, been there, and he'd walked among these men. It doesn't tell us during those days what he did. I've often thought to myself about that blessed man, the Son of God, as he walked at this feast and intermingled among people.
Mostly unrecognized by everyone who was there.
Very God revealed in mankind there as people go about at a feast. You know what people do at a feast?
They're there to have a good time. They wanna have a nice time. And this was a religious feast and blend together, perhaps natural and spiritual things. And Jesus waits until the very last day of that feast, and he cries out to the people, If any man thirst, let him come unto me.
Why did he wait till the last day of that feast?
Or friends. He knew the human heart. He knew how it is with people. And let's face it with all of us, that sometimes there are things that we like to do. There are places where we like to go, where we feel we can have a good time. And maybe it is a a good time in a good sense.
And uh, umm, to enjoy some recreation or maybe some religious thing, or uh, giving money to some something that is good.
But why is it that Jesus waited till the last day of the feast?
Because he knew that all those various things that men and women get occupied with and boys and girls in this world.
That it doesn't satisfy the human heart and God has made your heart and mind.
So that there's only one person who can satisfy it. Sometimes we sing a hymn together that says I tried the broken cistern's Lord, but all the waters failed een. As I stooped to drink, they fled and mocked me as I wailed. And so people try to drink of the well of education. People try to drink from the well of prosperity. People try to drink from the well of sports.
Of entertainment, of the Internet, of all the various things that are in the world.
But it doesn't satisfy the human heart, and Jesus waits until the last day of the feast.
Here we've had a 2 day conference. Maybe you have been here. God knows your heart. God knows my heart. Dear friends, let me ask you in all sincerity, you dear young people that are here in this room tonight, perhaps you're somebody who is older. Perhaps you have been sitting in these meetings for two days.
00:10:16
But inside your heart.
You know that you are not satisfied.
How is it with you tonight? So Jesus cries at the end of the two days and says if any man thirst.
What do you do when you're thirsty?
What do you do, friend?
You get a drink, don't you?
There is a soul thirst that only Christ can satisfy.
Now I brought something with me tonight.
A week or two ago, I was.
Rummaging through a dresser drawer that I have and I found something I'd be looking for for years.
I wonder where I put this thing.
Air was at the back of one of my drawers.
And I got it here and I wanna show it to you.
I got this many years ago.
You know what it is?
Paul.
Well, they may. I don't know. Maybe.
Yeah.
This is supposed to be a replica of a Roman nail used 2000 years ago in the crucifixions.
You know a man who is crucified 2000 years ago.
You do, don't you?
I want to read some scriptures tonight.
In connection with the man that had these put through his hands and his feet.
Turn with me please to.
Luke's Gospel, chapter 24.
Luke 24 and.
Verse 36.
And as they thus speak.
Jesus himself stood in the midst of them, saith unto them, Peace be unto you.
But they were terrified and affrighted, and supposed that they had seen a spirit.
And he said unto them, Why are you troubled, and why do thoughts arise in your hearts?
Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself handle me and see, for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have.
And when He had thus spoken, he showed them his hands and his feet, And while they yet believed not for joy, and wondered, he said unto them, Have ye any meat? And they gave him a piece of a broiled fish, and of a honeycomb.
And he took it, and did eat before them. He said unto them, These are the words which I speak unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses.
And in the prophets, and in the Psalms concerning me then hope and he their understanding, that they might understand the Scriptures, and said unto them, Thus it is written, And thus it behold Christ to suffer to rise from the dead the third day. The repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.
And ye are witnesses of these things, And behold, I send the promise of my Father unto you.
But tarry ye and the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from an high. And he led them out as far as to Bethany, and he lifted up his hands and blessed them. And it came to pass, while he blessed them, he was kept. He was parted from them and carried up into heaven. And they worshipped him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and were continually in the temple.
Praising and blessing God.
Well, I'm sure everyone here gets a picture.
00:15:04
Here we are, uh, we've read together this part about Jesus had just died on the cross.
He was buried.
Laid in the tomb for three days.
And God raised them from the dead.
And the disciples?
We're in this room.
And Jesus comes to them.
You know, the last that the world ever saw Jesus was when he was hanging on the cross. When I say the world, I'm Speaking of people in general in the world. Not those who believed on him, just in general, everybody else.
The last sight they had of him was that man dying on the cross. It would appear from scripture that after Jesus rose from the dead that the only people that ever saw him again.
Before he went back to heaven were those who were believers in him.
So here he is. There are at least seven occasions.
Where he appeared to his own after the resurrection. There may be a couple more than that, but anyway.
Uh, Jesus here appears to his own. Why does he appear to his own? Because he loved them. Because he just died for them. Did he die for all mankind? Yes, he did. Jesus died for all mankind and Jesus died for me.
So here he is, he comes in the room and they didn't know that he was raised from the dead.
And he comes in and they think it's a spirit.
And there he is, Jesus, the Son of God, the man who just died on the cross.
So what's it say?
They were terrified, verse 37 verse 36 and as they speak, Jesus himself stood in the midst of them, and set them to them. Peace be unto you. But they were terrified and affrighted in a supposed that they'd seen a spirit.
So then it goes on to say.
Verse 39. Verse 38. He said unto them, Why are you troubled? Why do thoughts arise in your, in your hearts? Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself.
Can you imagine?
Can you imagine friends there? They were in that room, terrifying, frightened.
And they it begins to dawn on them that it's Jesus that had just died on the cross.
Nearest his hands.
With the marks in his hands.
And he says, look at my hands and look at my feet.
You know.
Turn back with me just a page to Luke 23.
Loop 23 and verse.
33.
Oh, this is when they came to Calvary. This is three days before.
And when they were come to the place which is called Calvary, there they crucified him.
And the malefactors.
One on the right hand.
And the other on the left.
I don't want to speculate too much.
I trust it won't be speculating.
But I have wondered about this. I've heard some talk about this in connection with the Savior being crucified.
It says he, bearing his cross, went forth to a place called the Place of a Skull. He carried his own cross. He went to Calvary.
And they pierced his hands and feet to that cross.
I take it that they laid the cross on the ground.
And Jesus lay down there.
And then they took.
Those spikes put them through his hands and his feet.
I've often wondered to myself, what do you think hurt most? His hands or his feet?
00:20:06
Personally, I think the feet would hurt more than the hands.
So sensitive, the feet.
It says here they pierced my hands and my feet. But anyway.
They they umm.
Put him on the cross and then I take it that they stand it up and put it into the ground.
Thud.
There he is, friends.
God's beloved Son.
You know who he was thinking about.
On that day.
He was thinking about you.
Yes, it's true. He was thinking about you and me.
You believe it?
Because he died for you.
Jesus died for you.
Oh, you say he died for everybody. Yes, that's true. But Jesus died for you.
What's it mean to you?
That Jesus died for you.
Someday I will read the verse a little bit later.
It tells us about every eye shall see him and they also that pierced him. You know you're going to look into the face of the man.
That has the holes in his hands and his feet.
You're going to see him.
You belong to him.
What do I mean?
When he died on the cross.
He died that sinners might be saved. Do you know why he had to die?
Because the wages of sin is death.
And the price of sin is death.
And it's either he died for my sins, or I die and land in a lost eternity in hell forever. And that's the way it is for everyone in the whole universe.
This is not a message that is proclaimed loud and clear in this world today.
But dear friends, it doesn't go get any simpler than that in this blessed book that we hold in our hands.
Jesus died for you and he died for me.
And everyone else in the whole world the.
Question is.
Do you belong to Him? Have you received Him as your Lord?
And Savior.
I'd like to.
Look at the next verse here it says in verse 34 verse we read that one and we came to the place called Calvary and then the next verse says then said Jesus father forgive them for they know not what they do.
They had just taken.
And nailed the hands of the Lord Jesus to the cross and his feet. And there he was, suspended between heaven and earth, rejected by this world. You know why they put him there? They were basically saying we don't want him.
We don't want them.
They put them between 2 Thieves.
So the Bible says recorded at least 5 or 600 years earlier that he was numbered with the transgressors.
God told the story many many years before that Jesus would be numbered with the transgressors, those that had sinned, so He was taken and put out of this world as someone.
Who was not fit to live here that we don't want them.
Between 2 Thieves.
I wanna talk tonight about two people.
The Jesus talked to in this world, and one of them was this thief, one of these thieves that was on the cross.
And one was a very religious man. I don't know which one to take up first.
00:25:05
Well, seeing that we are right here on the 23rd of Luke, let's let's look at it Luke 23 and verse 39.
Now there were two malefactors.
Thieves.
Not wanted.
They didn't put him in jail for six months and then let him out of jail like the society does today.
No, they put them on, a cross said. We don't want them anymore.
They were murdered. She won them.
Well.
Verse 39 And one of the malefactors which were hanged railed on him. You know what railing is?
Reeling is AI don't, I'm not very good at definitions, but it's really a it's, it's kind of a bitterness. It's a, a gnashing of teeth sort of thing.
Umm, he railed. Oh my.
One of the malefactors which were hanged railed on Jesus.
What a serious thing to do.
Saying, If thou be Christ, save thyself and us.
We're in the same predicament as you are, and if you are really who you claim to be.
Get me down from the cross.
But the other answering rebuked him, saying, Dost thou fear God, seeing thou art in the same condemnation, and we indeed justly, for we receive the due reward of our deeds.
You know, friends.
If you're not saved tonight, maybe you come from a.
From a a home.
From a situation where most of your friends aren't really saved at all, who aren't really the Lords. They're not Christians, they don't believe in Christ.
It takes a lot to separate yourself from these other people and come to Christ.
But this man who was dying on the cross, in that position, he separated himself from the other thief. Here he is hanging there and Jesus is in the middle and this other man is on the other side. And as there were, he would take and, and, and lean across to the other man. He said, don't you fear God seeing we are in the same condemnation, we're getting the same judgment, but he hasn't done anything.
Don't you fear him?
Then what's it say?
We indeed justly, for we receive the due reward of our deeds. Verse 41.
But this man hath done nothing amiss. You know I just love those words. This man had done nothing amiss.
This doesn't really relate to the gospel, but I'll tell you a little story that was told to me by a brother named Albert Heyho many years ago.
They had trouble in a meeting.
And he wasn't going to meet him.
And he was out plowing in his field one day.
And behind this horse.
And he thought of this verse.
This man has done nothing amiss.
You know what happened the next week he went back to meeting.
This man here it is the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God hanging on the cross, and this thief.
I don't think he knew him ahead of time or knew him before at all.
But he he had a sense in his soul that this man was Jesus, the Son of God. He'd done nothing amiss, and God revealed himself to him.
Do you want God to reveal himself to you?
You want the God of the universe in your life.
And as we step along in this, we see how God revealed himself.
So it says.
It's really remarkable, you know, we said unto Jesus, Lord, Remember Me when thou comest into thy Kingdom. He called him Lord.
This man, this thief was rejected by this world. They didn't want him. And he turns to Jesus and he says, will you take me?
00:30:12
Will you just give me a little place inside the door of paradise in heaven?
Lord, Remember Me when thou comest into thy Kingdom.
Dear friends, that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
Do you wanna be saved tonight?
You want to have Christ as your Lord and your Savior.
There's only one way.
Jesus, the Son of God, wants you.
In the glory and by the Spirit of God he works.
In the lives of men and women.
So he says here.
Lord, Remember Me when thou comest into Thy Kingdom. He realized that he was going to have a Kingdom someday, and he wanted to be where Jesus was.
At the very closing hours of his life here in this world.
He turns to Jesus. Lord, Remember Me when thou comest into thy Kingdom.
And so Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee.
Today.
You're not going to have to wait.
Until my Kingdom today shalt thou be with me in Paradise.
It's a wonderful thing I remember searching in the Bible.
For the number of occasions or try to find out the number of of times where the Bible speaks of what happens to a person when they leave this world, to a person who believes in Christ. The moment that they leave this world of where they are. And frankly, I was a little surprised. There were so few references that I could find anyway. But this was one of them. Today shalt thou be with me.
In paradise.
You know what another verse is?
Absent from the body, present with the Lord.
Another scripture is in.
In Luke's Gospel chapter 16 and tells us about Lazarus.
There how he died and it says that the umm he was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom. I thought of it this way. If you accept Christ as your savior and you were to die tonight.
It seems to me it's just like this that God dispatches 2 angels, at least two because it says about Lazarus that he was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom. So with a very 2nd that the that the spirit and soul leaves the body of a person who believes in Christ, that they are taken to the glory of God.
You want to be a Christian tonight. You want to have Christ as your Savior.
Would you rather have this world?
Lord, Remember Me when thou comest into thy Kingdom. Today shalt thou be with me in paradise. And then it goes on to say, it was about the 6th hour, and there was a darkness over all the earth, and.
Until the 9th hour, and the sun was dark, and the veil of the temple was rent in the midst. And when Jesus had cried, with a loud voice he said, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit. And having said thus, he gave up the ghost.
It's easy for me to stand up here and to quote these verses and say to you that if you believe in Jesus.
If you accept him as your Lord and Savior, that you're going to be with him in the glory of God. But what do you think it cost him?
Well, right after he said this to this man, this thief on the cross, it says that there were those hours of darkness and dear friends, I always think of a man that some of us knew here. I remember him standing up and breaking the bread and and giving thanks for the cup in the meeting room in Pine Grove years ago. And his name was Mr. Baylor. And and then when he got up to.
00:35:11
Give thanks for the cup. He quoted this little poem that many of us will recognize. None of the ransom ever knew how deep were the waters crossed, nor how dark was the night that the Lord passed through. There he found his sheep that was lost. Do you know what it cost Jesus to be able to say, today shalt thou be with me in paradise? He had to enter into those hours of darkness.
Turn back with me, please, to the scripture that has been on my heart for some time now and Isaiah chapter 52.
Isaiah chapter 52 and verse 13.
Behold, my servant shall deal prudently, shall be exalted and extolled, and be very high.
As many were astonished at thee, his visage was so marred. More than any man in his form, more than the sons of men, so shall he sprinkle many nations. The king shall shut their mouths at him, For thou, which had not been told him shall they see.
And that which they had not heard shall they consider that 14th verse, as many were astonished at thee. His visage was so marred. More than any man is for more than the sons of men.
Do you know when that took place?
I think I'm right in this scripture doesn't tell us exactly, but I believe it says that his visit, that's his face was so marred more than any man. Now there were other people that were crucified, There were other people that were ill treated in this world and they were marred in many different ways, the same as Jesus was. But this verse tells us that his face was so marred more than any man's.
And his form more than the sons of man.
I believe actually I got this thought from one of the early writers.
Umm. And I, I, I think his thought is right.
He said the face of Jesus was marred more than any man during those hours of darkness when he suffered for the sins.
Of you and I on the cross.
The awful suffering that Jesus passed through.
God would not allow the sun to shine and for man to see.
But he is recorded here in his word that his visage was so marked.
More than any man's in his form, more than the sons of men.
You and I are going to look someday into the face of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
And you're either going to see him as your savior or as your judge.
You're going to look at the man that has the holes in his hands and feet.
And the spear mark in his side.
Oh, the rejoicing for the believer.
To look into the face of him, the man that died in my place.
On the cross.
Can you say that he died for me? Have you accepted him as your Lord and Savior?
Would you leave this room without Christ tonight?
Would you chance it?
Well, this man, this thief.
Was one of the, I suppose the worst people.
This world regarded, as you know, we don't want these kind of people, we're gonna get rid of them. We're gonna nail them to the cross. And Jesus was numbered with the transgressors. But the Lord Jesus saved that man and took him to glory, wasn't wanted by this world.
But God wanted him, and it says him that cometh to me.
I will in no wise cast out.
The best One of the best specimens of humanity is John 3.
And we'll just take a few minutes to talk about that.
00:40:03
In the third chapter of John.
About Nicodemus.
Not going to read the whole account.
But I love this story.
John's Gospel chapter 3 it tells us at the end of chapter 2 That.
Jesus in verse 24 He did not commit himself unto them, because He knew all men and needed not that any should testify of man, for He knew what was in man. He knew what the sinful nature was that man had.
He didn't do many miracles there.
Because external, uh, miracles do not produce faith in the soul.
Then it says, there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, the ruler of the Jews. The scene came to Jesus by night, and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God, for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with them. Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot.
He cannot see the Kingdom of God.
I'd like to think of this Nicodemus as the ruler of the Jews, as a member of the Jewish Sanhedrin, as a religious man, the best specimen perhaps that the Jewish people had, and he wasn't satisfied.
In his heart and he came to Jesus by night. Religion won't satisfy you.
There's only one who can satisfy. Giving money to the church will not do in the presence of God. You can't hold on to religion for going to heaven. Christ said ye must be born again.
That's what he said to Nicodemus. He's basically saying to him, Nicodemus, everything you have in connection with your religion is no good. It won't fit you for having Ye must be born again.
So the whole chapter.
Starts off from there and I like the way it starts. It says there's a man. It starts with one man and we go down to verse 16 and what do you see for God so loved the world. Oh, you know, the very heart of God. Here's this one man standing in front of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And he's telling him the story of the love of God that extends out to the whole world.
Not just to the Jews.
For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son. What a revelation.
To this man.
Nicodemus.
That whosoever believeth in him should not perish.
But have her lasting life Did Nicodemus believe?
Oh yes, he did. When did you believe? I don't know.
I don't know.
But the seed was dropped in the ground in this chapter, and sometime between chapter 3 and chapter 19, Nicodemus was born again.
Don't you wait.
Don't you wait because.
You're not guaranteed three years like perhaps Nicodemus had.
Jesus is coming soon.
What a world you and I are in. This is the last day of the feast, the last day for this conference. You leave this conference today and you go back to your homes, to the world.
And if you don't settle this question of your soul salvation now I.
Want to tell you that the devil is going to be there to try to pluck the seed out and get you so your mind to be so involved in other things in this world that you forget about the message and eternity and the welfare of your precious soul.
Don't leave it, friend.
Our time.
Is up, I'm not going to, uh, speak any longer tonight. Umm, there is a, there is a couple of verses that I was going to turn to and I just quoted the one in, uh, revelation chapter one. Every eye shall see him and they also that pierced him. But there, there is one other portion I'd just like to turn to allow me, please. And, and John's gospel chapter 20 about the Lord when he.
00:45:23
When he.
Rose from the dead.
You most here will remember this beautiful story. Here the first day of the week in verse 19, same day at evening, being the first day of the week when the doors were shut, where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you. And when he had so said, he showed unto them his hands in his side, than were the disciples glad.
When they saw the Lord.
The peace that the Lord Jesus gives is based on the work that he did on the cross. Therefore, it being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Justified by his blood. Justified by faith.
And so it says here, that when Jesus came, he said, peace be unto you, and when he had so said, he showed unto them his hands in his side. The basis for you and I to have peace about the question of sin is what Jesus did when He died for us on the cross.
Have you ever seen him as the one who died for you? Have you ever accepted him as your Lord and Savior?
Peace be unto you.
Now look at verse 26. After eight days again his disciples were within, and Thomas with them. Then came Jesus adores being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, Peace be unto you.
Then saith he to Thomas, Reach hit her thy finger, and behold my hands, and Reach hit her thy hand, and thrust it into my side.
And be not faithless, but believing.
Reach thither thy fingers, behold my hands.
You notice that this this.
Replica here is pretty large and I take it that the holes in the hands of the Lord Jesus, if this is perhaps close to what it was, that it would have made very large hole in the hand.
Someday, friends, you're going to look and you're going to see the hands and the feet of that blessed man.
And the only marks of sin.
I think I am right in saying this. The only marks of sin that will exist throughout all eternity in heaven.
Are the marks of Calfree of the Lord Jesus, His hands and his feet and his side, and I believe the scripture presents it in such a way that it will be as fresh when we see him.
As the day he died.
Stood a Lamb as it had been slain.
He's going to say, the people are going to say in that coming day, what are these wounds in thy hands? Not scars. What are these wounds in thy hands? All friends, you're going to meet him. Is he your Savior? Or is it last look that you're going to see? Is it going to be that man of war, Jesus Christ, with the marks in his hands and feet inside, and to be cast into outer darkness forever?
May God grant there won't be one person who would leave this room.
Without accepting the Lord Jesus as their Savior, let's bow in prayer.
There No Fear In Love - God's Love
Children—P. Hadley
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.
All right, I hope some kids can come up front. Yeah, good. And we'll start with, uh.
Let's start with #27.
#27.
My God, I have found the thrice.
Weather forecast restaurant.
Dial 0 10-4 544 Eleven.
03 10-4 5 Football OverDrive. Oh man, tomorrow again.
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I AM.
And then I found my Lord saw Mr. crying.
Now let's be before we go on. Let's pray.
Our God and Father, we thank you that we can.
Bring to each of these children and each of us, the story of thy love.
And we pray for each soul that we might.
Be blessed as we hear again of our Lord Jesus Christ who loved.
Austin gave himself for us. We asked these ask for these each of these children adult.
00:05:08
Bless them in their lives ahead.
Each young person.
I'll guide them and help them help us each to be wise unto salvation while we're young and wise as winners of souls. We ask it the name, and for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.
Who has one they'd like to sing?
23.
Behold, behold, the Lamb of God. Is that the one?
All right #23.
DLF Restaurant.
Dial Bryce Mulvey.
Well, I appreciate your time for me and I'll never go out and have a look at the product. Eight o'clock 8:00.
I'm on my way.
Dial 0100 and 31631.
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All right, we will sing another one in a few minutes, but.
Who has memorized the verse for this week?
Can anybody tell me what this week's purse is?
MMM.
You look like you might have the answer. Do you know? No. OK.
All right.
What is it?
00:10:00
Let's see. So let's see, does it start out something like?
All right, all things or something. Is that the one?
No, yes, that's the one, isn't it?
Is that right?
Does she know it?
Ah, finally. Thank you, Dave.
Do we know that verse?
All things are naked and open to the eyes of him with whom we have to do.
You know, it's interesting, I think, uh, all the kids learn their verses all the time. Separate conference weekend.
All right, Well, that's in the Hebrews, isn't it?
Chapter 4 or something like that.
And.
No, that's.
Yeah, here it is.
All right, so since nobody knows it, let's all sing it together. Say it together.
Hebrews 413.
All things are naked and open under the eyes of him with whom we have to do.
Now that verse kind of scares me a little bit. Or it used to when I didn't understand something about it.
Because.
You know that last part of that verse says talks about the one with whom we have to do.
That always seemed a little bit scary to me. So it seems scary to you, the one with whom we have to do.
Now suppose I was going, I was taking you someplace and I said I'm going to take you to a place and you're going to have to go into that room.
And you'll find somebody in that room and that somebody is going to either hug you or beat you up.
That would make you pretty nervous, wouldn't you think you'd be nervous about that? I.
I think I would be too. Now suppose when you open the door and you looked in that into the room that you saw your grandma there.
Would that change your mind about whether you're afraid or not? I think it would, wouldn't it? You think it would change your mind?
There's a verse that I'll read you and.
In first John.
And it's in chapter 4.
And it goes like this.
Verse 18 There is No Fear in love.
So if you saw your grandma there and you know your grandma loves you, you wouldn't be afraid, would you? You wouldn't say, I wonder if she's going to beat me up or not.
No, you wouldn't say that, would you?
Uh, there's No Fear and love.
But perfect love casts out fear.
So the more Somebody Loves You, the more you know that you don't have to be afraid of them.
Perfect love casts out fear.
And then it goes on to say that he that because.
Because fear has torment, there's some people that want us to think that that, uh, God is waiting for something to happen so he can, he can beat up on us.
And we have to be afraid of God because if we make a mistake, he's going to punish us. And that doesn't mean that God doesn't punish sin. I I don't mean to say that.
But instead, what I want to bring to you is that.
God loves you and if he loves you.
He doesn't want you to be afraid of him.
Doesn't want you to be afraid of him. It casts out torment.
He that feareth is not made perfect in love, it says. We love him because he first loved us.
And that used to be my favorite verse when I was a little kid your age.
Because I knew that I didn't.
I always liked people that liked me.
00:15:04
And then to realize that God loves me.
So that's the first thing I want you to remember that.
God loves you and when it says the one that you have to do with.
It doesn't mean you need to be afraid.
Except if you don't come to him, of course. That's a different story. But.
Let's sing another song now. Which one of your kids has a song for us to sing?
Which what do you number six? Good number six?
Number six.
God in the.
Middle of 92 hours, we're going to see it.
Good to see you in Florida.
Have a great day and.
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Oh well, I'll come back again.
Is there anything you're blah, blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah anything.
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Another thing I used to like when I was a kid your age.
Is the story about.
The Lord Jesus as the Good Shepherd who would go out onto the mountains and find a lost sheep.
00:20:04
You know when you lose something?
It really makes you feel sad.
I can remember a long time ago when we were planning a trip to, uh, the shore.
And my children saved up their money so they could have a good time when they got to the shore and they had things that they wanted to do and all that. And, uh.
I think pretty early on in our vacation, might have been even the first day, I don't remember exactly.
But my little girl.
Lost her bag of money.
And I felt so sad for her. She'd saved up so, so long for it and so hard. And it might have been $3.18 in it, I don't know, something like that.
But I felt so sad she lost her little bag of money.
You know how sad you feel when you lose something?
And uh.
Then sometimes.
You find things.
And sometimes you feel so happy when you find.
Something, some money or a treasure if you ever found a treasure.
Never found something.
Find I was just, you know, I see kids sometimes going in the coin and the telephone thing looking for money. They find something.
Fine, isn't it, If you find something?
Makes you so happy to find something, it makes you so sad to lose it.
You know, we have a seeking Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. He's a, he's a what we call a seeking savior. That means he's looking for you and looking for a little lamb that have gone astray. And so that's why I used to like that story so much of the of the Lord Jesus going out onto the mountains to find the, the one lost sheep.
So two things that I want you to remember then.
1.
Is that there's No Fear in love and.
When you come to the Lord Jesus, it's like coming into the room where your grandma is or your grandpa.
And you don't need to be afraid to come to the Lord Jesus. And the other thing that the second thing I want you to remember is that the Lord Jesus is looking for you.
Who else has another song?
Ben, you have one, one thing.
Jesus loves me OK now.
Where's Jesus Backpage now we're just going to sing the first and last verse because I #40 number 41St and last verse. Jesus loves me.
Jesus loves me.
And he didn't see anything together from yes. He didn't even decide to plot the spirit.
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There's a story in the Gospel of Luke that I'll read. It's in chapter 15 and it says.
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Either what woman having ten pieces of silver if she lose one piece?
Does not light a candle and sweep the house, and seek diligently till she find it.
Oh, and my little girl had lost her.
Her bag of money we searched all over the place, we never did find it.
But this woman, she, this woman, she had lost her piece of silver and she, uh.
She swept her house out and cleaned it and finally she found it and then it says that when she found it.
She called all her friends and her neighbors together, saying, Rejoice with me, for I found the peace which I have lost.
And then it says, likewise I send you there's joy in the presence of the angels of God over one Sinner that repents, just to think that if there's a Sinner in this room today that repents and comes to the Lord Jesus to think that.
There's an announcement in heaven.
That name is announced. They've come and everybody said yay, Hooray, that's great.
You found them, we found her and he, she's come back.
You know, when I came into this room, I had.
Ten pieces of silver in my pocket.
It was in this pocket. My note was in this pocket.
My pocket is empty, I.
I guess you could say I've lost my 10 pieces of silver.
Has anybody found?
Any pieces of silver?
He found Let me just see that.
Whose silver is this?
I don't know what I found on the carpet. I think that means it's yours. Well.
I'm so glad you found this silver.
But it's yours.
But I'd like to buy it from you.
Did you find one? Oh, wait a minute, I'm going to buy this from you.
I have here.
My script. Do you know what a script is?
The shepherd's bag, that's what David had. He had a script, a shepherd's bag, and in David's bag.
He put five smooth stones, but.
I want to buy.
Back.
The silver that belongs to you because you found it and then you found I want to buy it back from you and you've got one. I'd like to buy it back.
This belongs to you, right? Because you found, but you found it, so it's yours. But I bought it back, so now it's mine, isn't it? Yeah.
But it's mine now. I bought it back. You've got one. Can I buy it back?
Oh, you've got one.
Can I buy it back?
Ah, wonderful, you've got one. I'll buy it back.
You have one, I'll buy it back.
Will you accept that as payment for your for the silver? I've got 123-4567. I had ten. Oh, there's 8.
I'm missing 2.
I'm missing 2. I'd like to buy back two more.
I'd like to buy back two more.
You know, there's lost souls out there that want to be brought back.
OK, I brought back eight of them.
And I can't.
Find anymore.
But I've got my 8 back.
When lost souls get lost, what buys them back?
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Blood. Do you know a verse that tells us that?
I bet you do.
Yeah, we're not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold, but with the precious blood of Christ. Yeah, that's good. That's in first Peter 118.
Oh I'm so glad I was able to buy back some of those. I was worried nobody would find them, but glad they did.
I noticed when you said, what did you say when you when I bought your quarter?
She said a dollar for $0.25 a dollar. Yeah, I bought it back with a *****.
Is that a pretty good deal?
You know what?
Some people might say that I paid too much.
And that's what I think about the Lord Jesus, you know, when I think about.
The Lord Jesus dying on the cross for me.
He paid too much.
He paid too much.
There's a.
Verse in in Matthew that that about.
Kingdom of Heaven and it speaks of.
Speaks of a merchant man who's looking for good pearls.
And he went and sold everything that he had to buy the Pearl.
He finally found one that was really good and he sold everything that he had so that he could buy it.
And that story is really illustrating something about the Lord Jesus that he sold everything that he had so he could buy you and me.
Everything.
Think of the Lord Jesus back before he was a man.
The one that says that He is the Word, the eternal Word, the Son of God.
There in the glories of heaven.
And the angels must bow down to him.
And he could speak a word.
And worlds would come into existence.
He could have anything and everything that he wanted to.
All power and all wealth, everything belonged to him.
And then he came.
Down into this world, it became a little baby.
And he was born into a poor family.
Poor mother and father.
He sold everything that he had.
Oh, he sold everything that he had.
And came into this world to die for you and for me.
You know what? He paid too much.
He paid too much for me, just like I paid too much for those quarters. But that's only a small illustration.
Then there's a verse that we sometimes memorize.
That though he was rich, yet for our sakes he became poor. That we through his poverty, might be rich.
Some people are a little bit richer this morning than they were when they came in.
I'm a little bit poorer.
Not very much.
But you know, in that verse, there's something very interesting it says.
You know.
Sometimes you forget things when you need to remember them. I just quoted it and now it's gone from me. That is rich. Yet for our sakes, he became poor.
I don't know Greek, and I don't think very many people here do, but I do have the ability to look up what Greek words mean. And so I did look up what the Greek word means when it says he became poor. And it turns out there's different words for poor.
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There is a word that means poor like a common laborer.
So maybe there's somebody here that.
Isn't very rich at all. They've got a job, they're working.
In McDonald's or something and they're making minimum wage and.
They, they don't have a house, they're renting a, a small apartment or, and they, they don't, they don't have enough, they don't make enough money to make a, to buy a car or anything. They're poor. They're poor like a common laborer.
But that's not what this verse means. It doesn't mean though he was rich, yet he became poor like a common laborer.
There's another word in the Greek language that means poor is a beggar.
Poor as a beggar, somebody who doesn't even have a job, like as a common laborer. And so though he was rich.
For our sakes, he became.
Poor as a beggar.
What would you think of me if I?
Met somebody here and said I want to give you.
All my money.
I want to give you my house. I want to give you my car.
I want to give you everything except for the clothes that I have on.
And furthermore, I'm going to give you my job, so I don't have a job anymore.
Oh, he was rich. Yeah, for our sakes. He became poor as a beggar because if I gave away my job, I'd have to go begging.
What would you think of that?
Sounds like a pretty good deal, doesn't it?
That's what the Lord Jesus has done for you and for me. He became poor as a beggar so that we might be rich.
I was speaking to some older folks last week and we recorded the verse. Uh, there's one thing more that I, I could have given you that I didn't give you to, you know what it could be.
What? No.
There's one If I had loved you a whole lot, I might give you all those things.
But there's a verse that says greater love hath no man than this.
What? There's one thing I didn't give you.
What?
Excellent, excellent.
There's one thing I didn't give away. When I offered, I didn't offer.
I said I I supposed I didn't give away my life. The Lord Jesus became poor as a beggar, and then he did one more thing than that.
Greater love hath no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.
And then it says also that.
For some people a good man would die, but others you know.
For a good man, some would even dare to die.
Last week, when I asked the folks at the Inner Center what's greater than than that? Greater love has no man. This that.
Man laid out like for his friends. Nobody could figure out the one thing greater than even than that, that is.
Die for your enemy.
Right.
You know.
There's another thing about.
What I'd like to bring out.
That is in John chapter two, First John chapter 2, there's a verse that.
He is the propitiation for our sins for John 22, and not for ours only, but also for the sins, for the for the whole world. I should read it.
Now suppose I had gone to the candy store and say, well, I have 100 friends here and Mr. Candy store owner, I'm gonna give you, uh, this amount of money so that each one of them can come in and have a treat.
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And then I say to all my friends, I've paid for it all and I want you to go and and help yourself. And so ten of them go and.
And get the treat. Have you ever paid for something that you didn't get?
This verse speaks of the Lord Jesus who paid for the sins of the paid for. I read it wrong. I should, I should have paid for the whole world, but he only got me and you, some of you, I hope all of you.
I remember going to to a coin machine and putting money in.
And nothing came out. I felt like kicking the machine.
The Lord Jesus has paid for you, and you and you and you and you paid for each one of you.
But has he got you yet?
He wants to now. It's running out of time, but I want to tell you a story about a.
A man who had a terrible accident.
And tons of gravel were dumped on them at a construction site. And he was dying. And the foreman came to him and said to him.
Told him that he was dying and that he asked him if there's anything he could do for him.
And the man said yes.
I'm about to face Almighty God.
What do I do? What do you know?
And the foreman didn't know and he stood up and he says, can anybody tell the man what he needs to know? And.
Somebody volunteered to pray for him.
But the man said, well, what do you know? What do you know?
And finally, a young man.
Step forward, or else it kind of stepped back.
The young man stepped forward and says I can tell him what he needs to know, Boss.
And the boss said, but what? What do you know?
I know what it took to save my soul, and mine was wicked. And he knelt down by the man and he told them, remember this.
You have to go before I'm done.
Remember this that Jesus says him that cometh to me I will no wise cast out.
Do you have it?
And the man was going fast.
And the young man who was telling him about it realized that he had just a second or two to tell him about the way of salvation.
And he said he's reaching out his arms to you, the arms that were spread on the cross for you.
Go into a man and he did.
And he, he died with the name of Jesus on his lips and thanks to God, But that's as simple as it is. Remember I told you that it's, it's, uh, how that there's No Fear and love, you're going into arms of, of God that loves you.
You have a seeking Savior that's looking for you, go into them. Do you understand this? To him that cometh to me Jesus says I will no wise cast out.
That means if you come to the Lord Jesus today, he's not going to tell you no. Go into his arms. We have just we don't have another minute. It's all over. Time's up.
Go into the arms of Jesus.
Let's pray. Our God and Father, we thank thee that we have a seeking Savior, a loving God.
Pray that they'll open the hearts of each child, each adult, to go into the arms of the Savior this very minute if they have not done so yet.
That's getting the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.
Gap Between What We Know and What We Truly Believe
YP Address—R. Hiebert
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We sing together #174.
So, Holy Lord.
On the that with thy beauty occupied, we elsewhere none may see #174.
Just ask for the Lord's help.
Wonder if we could just start by looking at a verse first of all in the Gospel of John.
Gospel of John, chapter 18.
And verse.
37.
Pilate therefore said unto him, Art thou a king then?
Jesus answered, Thou sayest that I am a king.
To this cause, to this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world that I should bear witness unto the truth. Everyone that is of the truth heareth my voice. Pilate saith unto him, What is truth?
This morning.
Somebody expressed in a prayer.
They desired that the things that we would be occupied with this weekend would not merely be doctrine, a body of knowledge that we hold, but that it would rather be a reality in our hearts.
I guess that's what's very much a burden to me this afternoon.
I guess it was a burden to me this afternoon is that gap between what we know and what we truly believe, the doctrine that we know and that we traffic in so effortlessly and what we really, really believe.
In these in these verses that we just read, the Lord Jesus Christ said that he had come into the world to bear witness to the truth, to which Pilate replied, What is?
Truth.
What is truth? We talk about it a lot. We refer to it many, many times. What is it?
I'd like to suggest if I can, and you can correct me later if you disagree, but I'd like to suggest that in its simplest form, truth is that which is real.
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Truth is reality. Truth is what really is.
And if I know what really is, and if you know what really is, then you can act upon it with confidence. If I know it is real, I can act on what I know to be real with confidence.
But if I don't act with confidence on something, you could question quite properly whether I really believe it's the truth. It's real. Isn't that true? Let me give an example. I'm sure that most everybody here would accept and believe in the omnipresence.
Of God, that God is everywhere at.
Every time we would accept that. I don't think there would be too many here that would disagree with that.
So that's a drop. That's a doctrine. That's something that we say we believe. But do I really believe I believe that if I believe that, if you believe that.
Would we do the things we do? Would we say the things that we say? Would we go to the places we go? Would we look at the things we look at? And I guess this is what's very much in my heart. And that is that gap, that gap between what we say we believe and what we truly believe. And I'd like to talk about it with the Lord's help from three different perspectives. First of all, what is the cause of that gap?
Why is it there if it's there?
In my heart and in yours, Where did that come from? What are the consequences of that gap? What are the consequences of there being a gap between what I hold and what I truly what I say I hold and what I truly believe? And then finally, how can that gap be closed?
But you know, I have to say before we go any further that I cannot stand here as one.
That has that is doing any more than learning about these things. This is a a meeting particularly for the young people and these are things that I speak of as one that struggles with them every day, things that the Lord is showing me. So I don't take the perspective that I have in any way.
Resolve these things personally, but these are an exercise to me, and I believe that in considering them, with the Lord's help, they can help us.
To close that gap in our lives, I'd like to turn then to first of all to 2nd Kings.
Second Kings chapter 6.
Here we find an obscure story, one that I'm sure most of us have heard before.
Let's just read it Second Kings chapter 6 and verse one.
And the sons of the prophets said unto Elisha, Behold now the place where we dwell with thee is too straight for us, or too small. Let us go, we pray thee unto Jordan, and take thence every man of beam.
And let us make a place there where we may dwell. And he answered, Go ye, and once said, Be content, I pray thee, and go with thy servants. And he answered, I will go. So he went with them. And when they came to Jordan, they cut down wood. But as one was felling a beam, the axe heads fell into the water. And he cried and said, Alas, master for it.
Was borrowed Well, I guess the story is pretty straightforward there was we have Elijah and we have the sons of the prophets. Elijah we know is a man of God a prophet mightily used to the go of of God in so many ways he's a picture of of the Lord Jesus Christ to us and his gracious ways. He was a man that could traffic with generals and kings, but he was a man that was content to dwell as as a Pilgrim and in obscurity and then we have.
Throughout Second Kings, as we read about the life of Elijah, we often hear references to the sons of the prophets. And these I guess to be simple about it, were those that were learning, those that were learning perhaps about being men of God, those that perhaps sat under the instruction of Elijah. And perhaps it was we don't read this, but perhaps it was that the works that the that Elijah had done by the power of God.
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Resulted in there being more and more more that wanted to sit under his under his teaching. And so the place where they were was too small they needed a bigger place. And so they said to Elisha, we wanna go down to the Jordan and we wanna everyone cut down a a beam and we wanna make a place there that's larger. And Elijah says go. And they said well come with us and he says I'll go and so they go and there is.
The story then centers in on one particular individual, and I picture him again. I have a bit of a vivid imagination, but I picture him as a young person, a strapping, powerful, impressive young person. And he walks onto that scene with an axe over his shoulder. And everybody looks at this person with an axe. And then he starts going at the trees and he starts felling those trees, and wood chips are flying and trees are falling. And it's an impressive.
An impressive demonstration of youth and power and vigor.
Until all of a sudden.
That axe head comes off, flies through the air and lands in the Jordan. I take it it was the Jordan? That's where they were building. Doesn't tell us that.
And this man says, alas, it was.
You know, a couple of years ago. Umm.
There was, there's a, a number of men that, that their fathers in the school where my children go to, or at least my youngest 2GO to. And we are, uh, for we're fortunate to have that school on 14 acres of wooded land. And we were, some of us were looking around and we saw a, a big hill and we thought, you know, this hill would make a wonderful place for tobogganing. And so one Saturday we all got together with our chainsaws and we started cutting down trees in order to clear this land so that our kids could go toboggan.
And you know, it's really interesting when you get a lot of men together with chainsaws and, umm, it was, uh, people that maybe you didn't say much or didn't, weren't that, uh, obvious. Suddenly they arrived on the scene with a big chainsaw and everybody makes way for them. And you know, it was, uh, it was a hair raising experience to clear that land. And, uh, we learned very quickly that just because a person had a chainsaw didn't mean they knew how to run a chainsaw.
But here was a man.
Who looked like, for all the world, like he could handle an axe. He said, well, what does all this have to do with what we started talking, talking about? What does all this axes have to do with what we hold, what we say we hold versus what we really believe?
You know, I guess I would look at it this way. Somebody said this morning, I can't remember who, that you know all the difficulties and you can correct me later if I'm misquoting, but all the difficulties that come up in our lives are a platform for God to demonstrate his all sufficiency. I believe I'm getting that somewhat right.
And you know, sometimes as we go through life, whether it is in our assemblies at home, whether it's in our school work, whether it's in our jobs, whatever it is, we come up against obstacles like trees, things that need to be removed, things that need to be got out of the way. They're difficulties, they're challenges, they're problems, they're stuff that we have to work through hard things. And the Lord, if we'll allow him to, can demonstrate through that.
His all sufficiency he can demonstrate through those circumstances something more of his nature.
You know, it's interesting to me.
That Abraham never called God Jehovah Jireh, or that the Lord will provide until God provided a ram in the place of his son.
Was God always Jehovah Jireh? Yes, he was. But Abraham never learned him as such until he needed a provision. And so God sometimes allows difficulties in our lives so that we can learn something of him. Isn't that what this life is all about? In so many ways? God's purposes all center around his Son. They don't center around you or me. We are brought into them. We are brought into those things. But all God's purposes center around his Son. And God's eternal desire is to make us like Christ.
And everything that he brings into our lives is designed to make us like Christ. All the difficulties, all the difficulties that come in.
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And you know, sometimes we want to look at.
Sometimes we ask the question, what is God's will for my life? What is God's will for my life?
You know, we talked a little bit this morning about humanism. We talked about sort of a me centric view of the world where I start with myself and I say, how does all that I'm reading here benefit me? I look at life through the filter of how does it benefit me? What do I get out of it? And so sometimes we'll go for long stretches in our lives as young people saying what is the Lord's will in my life? And we fail to recognize that there's a bit of a problem in that question.
Because God's purposes don't start with me. If I would know God's will for my life, it can't start with me. It has to start with the Lord Jesus Christ. It has to start with Him. You know, most of us here would not imbibe a liberal theology. But you know something? When we start to interpret Scripture with me as the focus, we get to that. That's what happens over time. When we start to look at Scripture through a filter of me first, I get to a liberal interpretation of things.
But anyway, going back to these trees and felling these trees, difficulties come into our lives and when we have those difficulties we have a choice. I can do one of two things.
I can.
Get an axe and start chopping away at that.
And by an axe, what I mean is I can take what I have bought from Scripture. I can take those things that I have grappled with on my knees. I can take those things that have been taught to me from the earliest years and those things that the Lord has has shown me. And I can study, I can believe, and I can study the Word of God and I can look to the Lord for an answer. I can get on my knees and I can say, Lord, show me, what can I? What should I do in this circumstance?
And you know, sometimes the Lord doesn't give the answer all right away all at once. Sometimes we have to wait. Sometimes we have to persevere in prayer. And that's difficult.
So that's one choice. You know, the other choice is we can borrow an axe from somebody else. And what do I mean by that? We can just go ask somebody else, what do you think I should do? And we can keep asking until we get the answer that we want. I've done that. I think maybe we've all done that. Sometimes we could just ask somebody else. Or we can just take the things that others have said about the Lord. We can just take the body of doctrine that we've learned and accumulated and just apply it.
And just apply it. Well, I, I mean, I know, I know that what people tend to say in these circumstances is this. And I know that this is what we've always done. So that's what I'm going to do. And it might even be the right thing.
But you know, when we proceed in that way, when we proceed in that way, bypassing the need to get before the Lord about the thing, about the difficulty that He has brought into my life, and instead I just stand on the shoulders of others.
And just say, well, brother, so and so, as always said this. And when I look at that family over there, they do it this way. So I guess that must be the right thing to do.
What can happen is our accent can slip off.
And we can get into a place where we don't know where to go, because if you start chopping down a tree with an axe and then lose the axe head, you're really lost. And that when we try to act on truth that we have never really bought for ourselves, we get into trouble.
Remember when the children of Israel had to go through the Red Sea? It was a path of faith and they had to walk that path in faith. Remember when Egypt, when the, the, uh, Egyptians, when Pharaoh came roaring up behind them, he tried to walk the path of faith in the power of the flesh. And what happened? He got a certain way, didn't he? He got a certain way. And then the chariot wheels stuck fast and they were in a terrible situation. You remember Peter?
Remember Peter, how that he loved the Lord so much, but when he should have been praying?
He was sleeping when he should have been humble and dependent. He was confident and yet he followed the Lord. He followed the Lord into the high priest's house and he warmed himself by the fire of the high priest. And we know what happened. He got into a situation that he could not handle.
And so the question that we have to ask ourselves is.
Are we borrowing somebody else's axe? Do we really believe the things that we say we believe? Do we really believe that when somebody says something, do we just take it or are we like the Bereans? Do we open the word of God always concerns me a little bit when we sit in a in a meeting and you see somebody and they just got their Bible closed and they're just sort of taking it in and taking and, and I don't I'm not critical of that, I suppose. And yet I really believe that we need to hear it from the Lord, even write things, even good things that are taught to us unless we really take it.
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And make it our own. We're not going to be able to function with it. So we've talked about what is the cause for this gap. And sometimes, and I'm sure there's other reasons as well, but sometimes the cause for that gap is an unwillingness to let the Lord take me through difficulties and to get on my knees before Him about the difficulties that He's allowed me to go through.
You know, I think the thing that is sometimes concerning is that it's not obvious that we're doing that. Let's just look for a moment. In Revelation Chapter 2, I want to look just briefly at.
The church in Ephesus.
A church where the apostle Paul spent a significant amount of time. And let's just look at the things that characterized those in emphasis.
Verse 2.
The Lord speaking, I know thy works, and thy labour works labour, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil, and how thou hast tried them, which say they are apostles and are not, and has found them liars. And thou is born and has patience, for my name's sake has labored, and now it's not fainted.
Look at all these qualities. Look at all these characteristics. You would, would you not look at a place like this? Would you not look at a place like Ephesus and say, ah, this is a model assembly. Look at the things they have here, there. They labor, they're involved in, in work for the Lord. They're patient, they're enduring. You know, they're not, they're, they're dealing decisively with evil. These are good things. They haven't fainted. But what does the Lord said?
Verse 4. Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love.
And, you know, I think the thing that is a burden to me is that it's easy to fake it, isn't it? It's easy to fake it for a period of time. It's easy to act like everything's all together. It's easy to say the right right things to to become really good in trafficking in the right circles and to saying the right things at the right time without really having the reality deep down in my heart, without it really being there.
And it's not obvious. And you know, what's a burden to me is that sometimes.
It isn't obvious that that is happening until the third generation. Let me explain what I mean by that. We look at Abraham and we see Abraham who is a man of godliness. He was a man of faith. He was a man that loved God and his whole life was characterized by faith.
And we look at Isaac. What do we see in Isaac? We see a man who was mediocre. He sort of had it all. Wealthy, very wealthy, he had it all. And he was somewhat indulgent. When he should have been giving a blessing, he put a condition on the blessing. Who do we see in Esau?
A profane man, An infidel.
What happened? Look at David. We look at David, a man of passion and godliness, the sweet psalmist of Israel, the man who loved God so intensely despite his failures.
All right, look at Solomon.
Started well, mediocre, had it all, had everything. And he turned his back. Look at ribbon.
How does that happen?
There's a there's an author by the name of Arnold Tormbi, and he made this comment. These aren't his exact words, but he said, you know, when we went to.
When a civilization is built, it says when a civilization is built on values and then you go and try to institutionalized those values, it becomes the fall of that civilization.
When you try to institutionalized the values that make a nation great, that's what becomes its fall. What do you mean by that? You know, there is a passion that some of our grandparents thought out had for the scriptures. A passion. They saw things in the scripture. They saw things that were meaningful to them. They saw things that matter. They saw truth. It was a reality in their lives and they acted on it. It meant something to them. But it's very easy and I'm not saying this is the case with anyone here.
It's very easy to follow the form without following, without having the passion to just follow an empty form, to say when things are right. This is what it looks like. Therefore, rather than looking at the heart, I'll look at the form and just try to mimic that in my life.
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And the next generation throws it overboard because they don't see the point. Because they don't see the point.
Could that be young person?
What's happened in your life? Could that be where you are? You know, can work the other way too. If we were, we don't have the time, but if we were to look at second, uh, second Kings chapter 22, we would read about, I believe it's let's actually look quickly because I may be wrong.
Yes, SE 2nd Kings 22, we read about a man, Josiah.
Aman Josiah. And what does it say in verse two? He did that which was right in the sight of the Lord.
In all the way of David, his father, he turned not aside to the right hand or to the left.
Who was his father?
Ammon.
A wicked man. And who was his grandfather? Manasseh, one of the wickedest men. But God put his hand on that man and said, I'm going to use him. And he had a sensitive heart. And I can't help but notice for the young ladies that his mother's name was Jedediah. I can't help but believe that she had something to do with that. Don't think it doesn't matter. Don't think it doesn't matter.
How you live because it can make a difference on the next generation. It'll make a huge difference on the next generation. There are people that are watching all the time and ladies, young ladies.
It matters so much that you spend time in the word too, if I can say that humbly. It matters so much that you understand, even though you, you are, it is not your place to get up in the assembly and preach these things and, and to share and to teach. It is so important for the young ladies to understand these things as well. This morning I was sitting in the lounge upstairs in the hotel and I saw a couple and I won't embarrass them, but I saw them coming into the lobby and they had their Bibles. I just thought that was so nice. Like what a what a great foundation for a relationship to make the word of God prominent.
In our lives. And it isn't just for the young men, it's for the young ladies too.
Well, back to, uh, Second Kings Chapter 6, we talked about this gap and we talked about the cause of it. One of the causes of it.
An unwillingness to grapple with the difficulties that the Lord sends in my into my life, and unwillingness to work through those issues and instead just to borrow somebody else's axe.
But let's talk about something else. Let's talk about how that gap is closed. You know what?
I we were just saying how that sometimes it's not obvious. It's not obvious that in my life I have not actually got my own axe. But you know something?
In the least expected times, something comes up that makes us realize where we really are. You know, David did not know the day that he went out to take care of his father's sheep. He didn't know the particular day.
When a bear would come tromping out of those woods and take one of the lambs, he didn't know the morning that he got up, that when he went out to tend the sheep, that some lion would come out and take one of the lambs. And he didn't know the day that he set out to bring his brothers.
Food.
At the battle that he would face Goliath. But you know he was ready. He was ready. Why was he ready? Because I believe, as he did the monotonous job of tending sheep on the hillsides of Judea, that he learned the God of Israel.
And he learned the reality, and he learned that he could trust him. He learned God there.
And, you know, the same is true of us. Somebody mentioned this morning that we need to be conscious of the times that we're living in. And you young people are living in a world that is in a very, very precarious time. And this world needs, needs people that have really come to know the Lord and that are walking with the Lord. I heard of a young man.
Two years back, a man by the name of Ben Strong. Ben Strong was a young man that went to high school in Paducah, KY and.
He was responsible for a small Bible study.
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Some kids in his class would or or in his school would get together, there's about 35 of them and they would get together for a Bible study every Monday morning.
And he said, you know, he said, I, I used to think that it was kind of no big deal. Sometimes it was a little discouraging. Not too many people would show up. And sometimes on Monday morning wasn't really the thing that you particularly wanted to do. But he would go every Monday morning and he would leave this little Bible study on his campus at his high school.
But one particular Monday morning after the last.
Amen was said a 14 year old boy pulled out a 22 automatic.
Pistol and started shooting.
And eight people fell, three were killed, one was paralyzed, and then saw this happen before his eyes. And with the courage he didn't know he had, he walked up to that boy who still had a loaded revolver.
And he stood in front of him and he said, Michael, why are you doing this? And he put his arms around him, and the boy dropped the gun and broke into tears.
You just don't know. You just don't know what the Lord is going to ask you to go through. And you've got to be ready because when that starts happening, it's too late to find an axe. It's too late to find where you stand on things. And so we need to walk with the Lord. You know, most of our lives as young people aren't lived in that kind of circumstance. Most of our lives tend to be fairly mundane, fairly monotonous. We get up, we go to school, we come home, we do our homework. We, we, we, we live fairly consistently lives.
But we just don't know the times when we're going to be called upon to stand for the Lord, and it's so important that we be walking with Him.
Well, let's go on and talk just a little bit about how about closing, about closing this gap and what can be done.
We stopped, uh, we were eating second in second King 6 and umm.
We read verse 5, alas, for it was bore, but let's go on. And the man of God said, where fell it? And he showed him the place, and he cut down a stick, and cast it in thither, And the iron did swim. Therefore said he, take it up to thee, and he put it out, and he put out his hand and took it.
Just keep your finger there. And I want to go back to the address to emphasis in Revelation 2 and I want to look.
In parallel with what the Lord says to the Church at Ephesus.
Revelation chapter 2.
And verse 4.
Nevertheless, I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love.
Remember therefore from whence thou are fallen, and repent and do the 1St works.
3 words there. Remember, repent.
Undo, remember, repent and do. What do we do when we find that there's that gap in our lives? What do we do when we find that what we have held, what we have claimed, what we have said we believe, maybe there isn't, we really haven't bought it ourselves. Well, there's three things that we can do and I, I think we see those and what happens here? The first thing is to remember the man had to acknowledge, The man had to acknowledge first of all, that the axe was borrowed.
He had to acknowledge the reality of the situation. He had to say this is the truth. This is where it is. This is truly where I'm at. It wasn't mine. It was borrowed. Can you do that? Can I do that? Can I acknowledge the truth?
In my life, it's so easy to pretend, it's so easy to masquerade. But we need to acknowledge the truth about where we really are before the Lord.
I want to turn to lots of places, but if you'll allow me, you know the story in Luke 24 about the two on the on the road to Emmaus. Remember how discouraged they were? They were, they were going along that road and they were so down and they were talking about the things that had happened. And the Lord, you know the story. Well, he sort of walks out of the shadows and he goes along with them and remember what he does. He asks them a question.
In verse 17 he says what manner of communications are these, that you have one to another as you walk and are sad?
He asked them a question.
And one of them, whose name was Cleophus answering, said unto him, Art thou only a stranger in Jerusalem, and hast not known the things which are come to pass there in these days? And he said unto them, What things? What's the Lord doing here? What is he doing? He's trying to get them to acknowledge where they're really at. A lot of times, you know, we're so, we're so overcome by our circumstances. We're so overcome by the situation that we're in.
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That we can't even, we can't even, we don't even know the truth of it ourselves. And sometimes we need just to acknowledge the truth. The Lord gets them to talk. He gets them to acknowledge where they were really at. And what did they say was a confession really, although they didn't intend it to be, they said concerning Jesus of Nazareth, which was a prophet, mighty indeed and word before God and all the people, and how the chief peace priests and our rulers delivered him to be condemned to death.
And have crucified him, but we trusted that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel. And besides all this today and so on. They acknowledged that it was all about them. They acknowledged that the problem really was that they were looking at the thing as we talked about before from their own perspective. That was what was the most important thing. It was all me centered. It was about me and how I feel and what I want and how I like things to go. And the Lord has to say, ought not Christ.
To have suffered these things and to enter into His glory. Would it be better for Christ not to have suffered these things so that you could have your petty dreams fulfilled? Is that really what you wanted did? Was it all about you? It starts with an acknowledgement of the truth of our situation, acknowledging where we really are. And the next thing that was required was repentance. I hope I'm not pushing this story too much, but this man had to say Elijah asked him whe. Where did he go in exactly? Show me. And he has to go sit like right there.
Went in right there. What does that speak to you? So I'll tell you what it speaks to me of. We need to be specific in our repentance to the Lord. When I've walked away, when I've grown cold in my heart, when I've come into difficulties because I haven't been with the Lord, I need to acknowledge specifically what went wrong in my life.
You know, we found it important as parents, my wife and I, to sometimes make our children say I was wrong in this thing, in this specific thing, I was wrong. It's a hard thing to do sometimes. You know, it's a very hard thing to do, but it's the key. It's the start to getting things right is to acknowledge the reality of where I am and to acknowledge where I've gone wrong.
And then what's the last thing that happens?
He showed him the place, and he cut down a stick and cast it in thither, and the iron did swim.
Pretty simple, pretty unimpressive. Cut off a stick.
And he threw it in the water and moved up to the surface. It came, and the man reached down and he picked it up.
I'm not sure that this is the right thought, but I'll share what I've enjoyed about this. You know, when we were cutting down those trees on that toboggan hill, what was impressive was that the big trees falling down, but there were some people that were gathering sticks. They were just sort of picking up the sticks and it wasn't that impressive. Nobody was watching them. Nobody was that impressed with sticks. You don't need an any great equipment to break off a stick. It's not that impressive.
It's not that big of a deal, but I'll tell you, when I slid down that hill, I was really glad that somebody had picked up those sticks.
You know, I think that sometimes we need to start with just simple things in our lives as Christians. We need to, as young people, be willing to grapple with the fundamental truth of Scripture, Paul said to Timothy. Continue in those things that you have been assured of, that you have learned, that you have been assured of. Sometimes we have to get right back to basics, and sometimes the basics may not seem that impressive, but sometimes we just need to get back to basics.
Sometimes we just have to deal with one stick at a time and that's not that cool in our generation. We live in a fast food generation. We live in a generation where everything is sort of now it's like I'm hungry. So I go to a drive through and I've got a burger and a tap done before I leave the driveway. Right? It's, it's right. It's, it's, it's MSN and it's, it's texting and it's abbreviations and it's fast and it's quick and it's now.
But that isn't how we grow as believers. It doesn't come like that.
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We can look just for a second and I won't be much longer. Isaiah 28 what does it say?
Isaiah 28 and verse 10.
For precepts must be upon precept.
Precept upon precept.
Line upon line, line upon line, dear little there a little.
I appreciate.
The energy of youth, then I appreciate the idealism of youth and I think it's great. And I would not want to be the one to to squash it. And sometimes we have big powerful dreams about the things that we're gonna do. But you know, the Lord is gonna work in us before he works through us. And sometimes the Lord has to work inside before he can use us in big public ways. If you just step back from this story a little bit.
And you look at Elisha. Isn't it kind of interesting to you that a man who, again, could traffic with generals, he could get favors from generals if he wanted to, for a widow, a man who had an immediate audience if he wanted, with kings, look where he was. He's on the Jordan picking up sticks.
Cutting down trees. But that's just what needed to be done. That's just what needed to be done. And sometimes we just need to help somebody move. Sometimes we just need to bake a casserole for somebody. Sometimes we just need to listen to somebody without having a whole lot to say. Sometimes life is just like that. Sometimes it's just a basic truth that I get in my own soul and I get on my knees and I quietly share it in communion with the Lord.
Just one stick at a time, just one at a time, and that's all it is. It's not impressive, but you know something, that's what's enduring. And you know, if I can say this, young people, if I could go back and be 14 or 15 or 16 or 17, I would do that more. By the grace of God, I would do that more. I encourage you never to let a morning go by where you don't open the Word of God.
And just bask in it. Just read a little bit. And I encourage you to take a a next step. Write down one little thing, one little thing in a little journal that the Lord showed you. May not be much, may be very simple. Nobody else needs to see it. Just you. And over the period of weeks and months and years and decades if we're left here.
It will be something wonderful. It will be something wonderful. We always appreciate it when someone can come up and share from their hearts something that the Lord has given them. And it just seems to really fit with where we're at. But you know something?
Those men of God, they learned quietly in monotony, often in loneliness. They endured in, in seeking out what the Lord had for him line upon line, precept upon precept. Let's be willing to do that. And if I can say so very humbly to those of us, to those that are older, you know, sometimes we just need to take it down a little bit. Sometimes we just need to take it to a level.
That's just a stick, just a little foundational thing that someone can grasp and, and really hit that home. Sometimes we we want to be novel. Sometimes we want to get some new thought, something that's really fresh. And it's good to have that which is fresh. But we so much need to speak to the state of the assembly. And sometimes our young people are just somewhere else just not getting it. And that's no excuse for us as young people if we're not getting it, because we need to get it, we need to write it down. We need to ask at home, We need to take out the good written ministry. It's not borrowing somebody else's acts to pick up a good book of written ministry.
That's not, it's not picking up somebody up, boring someone else's axe to listen to, uh, a tape. But if that's all I do, it can become that. And if all I can do is parrot those things, then it can become that. So line upon line, precept upon precept. Let me just share one other thing and we'll close Deuteronomy Chapter 7 and verse 22. And it just sort of bears this, this thought out again, I believe.
Instructions.
Moses gave For when they came into the land, verse 22 And the Lord thy God will put out those nations before thee by little and little thou mayest not consume them at once, lest the beasts of the field increase upon thee.
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Is the principal there. You know, when the the children of Israel came into the land, it was theirs. It was all, it was theirs. But they had to possess it, and they could only take and possess that which they could occupy. If they couldn't occupy it, they couldn't take it. They had to occupy it.
Isn't that important? You see the point?
You need to really make a truth your own before it really is yours. You know, somebody spoke this morning about the word of God being a treasure chest of blessings that are ours. They're all ours. They're all ours in Christ. But you really don't enjoy it. It's really not yours until you open it up and you take it and you live it. I need to do that. I say there's so much more to me than anybody else here. We need to live it because.
Each thing the Lord shows us is going to result in a crisis in our life where the Lord is going to test us to say, OK, do you really believe that? Is that truth? You say that's truth. But if it's truth, that means it's a reality. And if it's a reality, then you're willing to act on it constantly. Are you willing to act on it constantly? And I assure you, and I've done this many times in my life, as in the Lord will say, OK, then I'll give you an opportunity to act on it confidently. And when you do, the Lord will bring rich blessing.
And then, sorry, this will indeed be the final verse. Second Corinthians.
Chapter 3.
And verse 18.
But we all with open or unveiled face, beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord are changed, and the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.
You know, that's what the Lord wants to do to us as young people and to all of us.
Today.
This weekend and for the rest of our lives, he wants us to look with an unveiled face. You know, the veil was a picture of unbelief. It was a picture of unbelief. He wants us to believe and to look at the Lord Jesus Christ. You know I don't have to. Nobody here has to try to attract you to the Lord Jesus Christ. All you need to do is look. All you need to do is look and believe. Believe that what He says is true.
And act on it. I need to do that. We all need to do that. And it will change us so that we can never be the same, that we can never be the same. That that gap between what we say we believe, that body of knowledge that we claim to have, and that what we truly do have and walk in will be closed. Let's just ask for God's blessing.
2 Peter 2:8-
Reading
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Shall we consider the continue the chapter we began, brethren, I suggest we got down to the end of verse seven. We could read from there, but.
Second Peter 7. Second Peter one verse 8.
Where these things be in you and abound, they make you that he shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off.
And it's forgotten that he was heard from his old sins.
Wherefore the rather brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure. For if you do these things, he shall never fail. Fall so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting Kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Wherever I will not be negligent to put you all within remembrance of these things, though ye know them and be established in the present truth. Yeah, yeah, I think it meet as long as I am in this Tabernacle to stir you up by putting you in remembrance, knowing that shortly I must put off this my Tabernacle, even as our Lord Jesus Christ has showed me. Moreover I will endeavor that He may be able, after my decease, to have these things.
Follow us in remembrance, for we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we make known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
But we're eyewitnesses of His Majesty, where He received from God the Father honor and glory, when there came such a voice to Him from the excellent glory. This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.
And this voice which came from heaven, we heard when we were with them in the holy mountain. We have also a more sure word of prophecy. Where unto ye do well? That ye take heed is unto a light that shine up in a dark place until the day dawn.
And the day start, arise in your hearts, knowing this first, that no prophecy of the Scripture is of any private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man, but holy man of God spake as they were moved.
Last, uh, meeting we were talking about that like precious faith that's mentioned in verse one.
And in verse five, we are told to give all diligence to add to that faith, and there are seven things that we are to be diligent to manifest in connection with our faith in that list.
Virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, godliness, brotherly kindness and charity or love, Divine love.
Now you'll notice in the verses that follow a little expression.
These things I think I counted 5 as her brother was reading these verses. Notice in verse 8 For if these things be in you and abound.
Verse nine. He that lacketh these things.
At the end of verse 10 for if you do these things.
Verse 12 Wherefore I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things.
Verse 15 Moreover, I will endeavor that you may be able after mighty cease to have these things always in remembrance. So that refers back to that list of characteristics that we need to add to our faith.
How important it is to pay attention to be diligent in the Christian pathway?
And to go back to verse eight, we find that if there is that diligence.
These things be in you and abound. They make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. God wants us to be fruitful.
Rather, the last reading mentioned fruitfulness and mentioned John 15. And it is true, there should be fruitfulness. It is beautiful to see it in young ones and older ones. Fruitfulness for God. That's proper. But it's the result of being diligent in adding these things to our faith.
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These seven things.
Express the life of the Lord Jesus.
As a man here on earth.
And if we want to know him and not be barren or unfruitful in the knowledge of himself.
Then we have to have that same care, these same things practically lived out in our own lives.
You can learn a lot of facts about a person without knowing that person's harder nature at all.
But God has given to us the life of the Lord Jesus, so that when practically that life is lived out in us, then we by that common life with himself can know our Lord Jesus, we can know His heart, we can know that which is holy.
That which is true as it is lived out and experienced in our lives. And so he wants us to know Lord Jesus wants us to know Him.
Not just as somebody we read about who lived a long time ago and did something wonderful for us so that someday we can go to heaven, but the Lord Jesus wants us to know Him personally.
Individually, so that when we see Him for the first time face to face, we're not meeting a stranger at all. We're meeting someone that we have known for a lifetime and whose heart and our hearts are in unison. As to these characteristics that are found perfectly in Him and by the life He has given to us are to be diligently lived in our own lives as well.
But just to go back and make a comment that's been made multiple times, you can't produce that in yourself. I cannot by force of my own will, make myself like the Lord Jesus in these seven things.
But God has said that if I occupy myself with him, and read of Himself, and have himself revealed to me in the word of God, then God says, by my spirit I will change you to be like that, because I will work upon that life of Christ that is in you. So that it is carried out in daily living to be an expression of Himself, and in so doing.
We can say we have the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
If we look at that verse eight in the in the uh, Darby translation.
It reads, uh, the if is left out.
And it says these things existing and abounding in you. And I believe that goes with what our brother John has just said, that we have that new life of Christ in US and we have the Spirit of God indwelling us and.
These seven things are really, we could say, the fruit of the Spirit, the fruits of the Spirit.
So if we allow that look to be active in us, that new life and allow the Spirit of God to work in us, we shouldn't even have to try to produce those things from our old life. We can't anyway.
But they're they're in it if we allow them to come out.
That's what fruit is, isn't it? It's not. Sometimes I think we think of fruit as being the results of some effort of our own.
And, uh, I suppose there is that maybe sense of it in certain scriptures, but really fruit is that which is produced through fellowship with the Lord Jesus. It's the, uh, vine connected with the main trunk of the vine that produces fruit.
An apple tree doesn't have to wave its branches around to produce fruit. Just got to make sure that that where that blossom is remains connected to the main tree and that fruit will automatically be produced.
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It's not exactly the result of effort. And that's why in the fruits of the spirit that are mentioned in, in uh, Galatians 5, they're not any of them active things. They're all passive, Lovejoy, peace, long-suffering. They're not active things. They may be manifested in actions, but they are not act actions in themselves. It's the fruit of the spirit, beautiful.
3D how how things are done. Isn't it too?
Because this word here, Baron, I, I believe in some of the Bibles in margin in Darby, it's really idol.
So the work of the Spirit of God in us is to make us like the Lord Jesus.
Not to put us on display and share she will come and see us and then you can watch us. We're sitting on chairs and we look like the Lord, but he's left us in the world has his representatives so that in our activity in the world. This is who we are manifesting and how we work and how we perform at school and how we behave in society in our homes and how we behave Of course, and if anyone's involved in ministry and and teaching, but the character of the Lord Jesus carried out and it says here if these things be in you and abound, they will make that you shall not be idle.
And prove this. So if if we have just had knowledge and somebody was we spoke about being having that gap. Well, if these things are really enough, they won't be that sort of a gap because that's what's gonna happen in our life. There's gonna be activity rather than island activity commanded by the Spirit of God and submission to the Lord doing those things that he set before us when he went from place to place, the Lord, he, he preached the word and so were the disciples. They were active in their lives. They were active in the power of the Spirit of God, but they were not not either idle or unfruitful.
So it's a character to be carried out in Activity, isn't it?
Just think of the word again, diligence. Yesterday a brother referred to that scripture about the diligent soul shall be made fat. I think we have an example of this in the life of Ruth. And if we just turn to the second chapter of that short book.
It says in verse 17.
So she gleaned in the field until even and beat out that which she had gleaned.
Then it gives us a specific amount that she had gleaned and that says and it was about an ephah of barley.
And if we go back to the 16th chapter of Exodus, we would read what the daily portion of Manna was, and that was an Omer.
And uh, there were 10 Ulmers that comprised or made-up in IFA. So she certainly was diligent. But I think one of the key things to note in this chapter is to see where she had gleaned. And that's brought before us in the 19th verse. It says, and her mother-in-law said unto her, where hast thou gleaned today and where wroughtest thou? So that's, that's the key, isn't it? She was gleaning in the right field.
And then her diligence is further brought out by looking at the last verse of that chapter. Not only did she do this once and but she seemed to continue with what she had started in verse 23, it says. And she kept fast by the maidens of Boaz to glean until the end of the barley harvest and the wheat harvest.
And so there was a continuation, wasn't there? And so that's nice to see. And we're reminded of that virtuous woman, woman in in Proverbs that says she eateth not the bread of idleness. And so how important it is for us to be diligent in the things of the Lord.
Drift away from the Lord's things, be unfruitful, and maybe even those old propensities of the flesh will be revived, because it says here that he was purged from his old sins, and the Christian is.
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Forgotten that he was purged from his old sins.
And they'll soon manifest themselves that be revived, if we are careless. So we should be exercised to walk in the proof of judgment, and reckon that all nature to be dead reckoned with God, or, as our brother Bob has explained it to me, think the same thoughts as God does about that old nature which we still have.
You're the word of God. Seeing or blindness.
Is very often connected with faith or unbelief.
Justice hearing in the Word of God is often connected with the will.
Having a willingness to hear either half an ear to hear, let him hear. And so hearing is often connected with our wills and scripture and when God uses it and seeing our blindness is often connected with faith. And you have a wonderful chapter in John nine that brings the whole panorama of that truth out. But here in our chapter, what purged us?
How did we re purge from our sins?
Do we forget?
That that purging took place by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ as the one who could put away those sins. And it is quite easy for us to start out in the pathway with God. The beginning of it requires that faith which we see that precious faith in the beginning of the chapter, which really comes from God himself.
That turns us away from ourselves and what we can do for ourselves, and puts us onto the mercy and grace and love of God and the work that He accomplished through His Son. And when we accept that in our hearts as a true report of what God has done for us, we receive salvation and we have the sense of our sins having been put away from us. But if we start through life and we lose the same walk of faith.
That continually relies upon God as the object and the Lord Jesus as the object of that faith. Go back again to Galatians 2, the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me as the object of our faith.
Then these things are, it says we become blind or short sighted, we lose the vision of that which really transforms us because we get separated from looking upon the Lord Jesus. So as we have in 2nd Corinthians 3, we all with unveiled face looking upon the glory of the Lord are changed under the same image, even as by the Spirit of our God. But if our eyes are taken off the Lord Jesus.
And taken up with something else. And if they are, then it's going to be a disconnect in us to live by faith and the consequences, blindness. It's very easy in our Christian lives to become short sighted, or can I say in the life of faith to become blind. And the only answer to it is to go back to the one that God has given us.
Eyesight for.
And that's to gaze upon his son.
In Hebrews 2 we have therefore we ought to give more earnest heed to the things which he have heard less than any time we should let them slip. Now we read Mr. Derbyshire translation of the the the margin there it says run out as leaking vessels. It's not slip on a banana skin and crash If you have a bucket full and then all of a sudden you look at your bucket and it's only half full. And this really is the warning there that if I didn't pay more heed to that which the apostle had taught the glory of the person of the Lord Jesus.
Then instead of growing in their Christian lives, they would regress. And so we find that situation here where where umm, they're blind and they cannot see you far off. What does that mean? We can't get the Lords view on something and we end up being guided by our circumstances and we take guidance from circumstances instead of from the law. We don't have that the Lord's vision of, of where we are in our Christian lives and where he would have us go. We're just guided by our circumstances.
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That's so important, isn't that to?
In the world that we live in, the way things are going today is to have perception as to what is around us, have God's view of it. We are living in a culture that conditions us, that teaches us to respond to material circumstances.
You know it says in second Corinthians chapter 5 we walk by faith, not by sight doesn't mean that we close our eyes when we walk we're we realize what's going on around us but what should guide the Christian is not those things that are seen, but those things that are eternal, those things that are spiritual the.
Precious word of God, how important, especially dear brother. And when we're getting down to the end of this present age, we're looking for the Lord to come at any moment. And let me tell you, talk about confusion around us, how we're gonna get through these times. It's having God's view of things, be diligent in the things of God, have his understanding.
And we can only do that in the measure that we walk in fellowship with the Lord Jesus otherwise.
We're blind, cannot see, a far off, no depth of perception. What's going on in this world?
And it is so important in the day we live in.
Forgotten that purification over the purging of our sins in connection with one whose blind and wouldn't just bring before us this, this fundamental relationship with the Lord Jesus as our Savior, that that's how our sins were cleaned, were purged by this one dying on the cross. And if your Christianity is priceless, we're blind. We're just religious people and taking his name on our lips and we have no love for him and no assurance as to where we're going. We're really blind.
And being blind. And seems to me as the scriptures read, it seems that there's two things being blind.
And then not seeing a far off, you would think that's the same thing. It's not the same thing because if you're blind, then you can't see a far off. But what did we see a far off this weekend? We were here this morning and we went back in a moment 2000 years ago, and we were seeing that one hanging on that cross. Who was that? The Lord Jesus, the one that died to bring us close to God. Our brother yesterday was standing on a plan for me. We read from Isaiah chapter 2, and we were looking down in time and seeing the Lord of glory reign in majesty.
We can see afar off.
And talking about the circumstances of this world, well, if you look with our eyes, we might be troubled, but what's on the horizon for us here? Ones the coming of the Lord Jesus momentarily. Oh, God has given us faith now through his word to see these things and to enjoy them.
So instead of that, we have in verse 11 or verse 10. Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure, for if you do these things, you shall never fall.
There's a recipe for not falling in the Christian pathway. How often we stumble in our Christian pathways. It's because of a lack of putting these things into practice. Lord help us. It's not that we are the ones that have our election in our own hands, but it's just that we confirm our own election by walking in this way.
It also brings out the practicality of our.
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Practice. This has been emphasized to us by our Lord Himself these last two days. And if we are living in appreciation, understanding and appreciation, living in Thanksgiving for what the Lord has done for us, do we believe what He's done for us? It's very clear what He's done for us. Do we consider it seriously? Do we live it out, the appreciation of what He's done for us? They will be a response. We will by faith seek His faith we will.
Desire fellowship with Him. We will open His word and depend on Him to provide for us for each day. Is that easy to do? I know how important it is for me to do it every morning when I get up. Do I spend the time I need to spend with Him? It's a battle. It's a battle. And this is where they're getting all diligence to live out our faith, to put it into practice, to be disciplined about it, to make a routine of it, to make good habits of it. This is our lifeline that we've got to hang on, to hold on to and maintain.
Living moment by moment, never forgetting the worst of our Lord Jesus Christ, what he accomplished on the cross, knowing full well that if there was anything else you could have given, he would have given it. But he gave everything. And also at the same time, I'd like to say that, uh, recognizing our other other in and of ourselves, our utter unworthiness.
When compared to the Lord help a prayer binding day. The Lord thank you for loving me a crumb because I'm a Crump. I'm nothing and you gave everything for me and for all of us crumbs who are willing to put our faith in you, simply believing in you and receiving you and at this incredible gift and the chasm that is between our under in our understanding between who we are and what he is and what he's done for us.
And how that generates.
Naturally, praise and Thanksgiving is managed and we can't help it. It's just a natural, organic manifestation of that inability to cross that custom between what we are and who He is and what He's done for us. And in the same vein.
Umm, I I The only way I can express my Thanksgiving to Him is in a practical sense, is with obedience. And so does reiterate a little bit of what I spoke of yesterday morning.
Uh, the Lord has asked us clearly to love one another. To what? To what extent the extent that he loved us and.
And, umm, there's a verse that says do not love. And I'm, I'm just paraphrasing because I'm not great with Bible verses, but he says do not love in Word nor in tongue, but in these and in truth. And the love, the truth of what love is, as Jesus expresses in one re respect was given. He gave everything he had. He, he was more than happy to live the life, uh, on the, on the level of a Baker.
To give everything just to keep giving. And it says that, that the books of the world cannot contain everything that he, that he, that all the good work that he's done and all the, the, the getting that he did of himself. And, uh, as he is our standard, uh, I think that, you know, umm, that's something we need to consider. How, how are we living out this love? Is it with words and, and, and with tongue, or is it indeed. And in truth. And as we meditate on that, uh, and as we.
Make steps for fulfilling that commandment to love other people in the way that Jesus loves us. Of course, in in a small degree in the beginning because we don't have the full revelation. But as we step out and faith and do that deliberate act of the will for our fellow man and there is no exception and enemies included that the Lord will come in and he will start to talk to us. He said you are my disciples indeed, if you if you keep my commandments. There's all these prompts precious promises in John 15, which we spoke with us today.
Which I spoke up and it's something that we can grasp intellectually. It's something he has to do in obedience. And we see the fruit of it as we walk in it. Now he's called us sheep. Some people say, well, a lot, a lot of unbelievers don't like that, that, that, that name because, well, sheep are dumb animals, right? They're just animals. But he also called himself the Lamb of God. And so he's, he's associated with us and we associate with him. And what did she do? They follow the shepherd. All they know is that they know his voice and they trust that that shepherd is going to protect them and lead him to green pastures so they can just keep feeding.
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And, and just be happy and peace knowing that he's got a staff in his hand. We don't have to concern ourselves. The sheep don't have to concern himself with what the wolf is up to, you know, all his tactics and setting off his, you know, I used to study politics, trying to learn the devil's, uh, wild, you know, I mean, really that's what it was. And that brought me nothing but grief when I learned that the Lord spoke to me about that and said, listen, put your trust in me and you'll have your peace again. And it's been a, it's, it's been a walk with the Lord and, and all these things we're talking about getting diligent, yes.
Give intelligence, follow the Lord in such a way. This is the way we express our love for the Lord. Yes, we, we, we know who He is. We give him all the reverence, we give him all the praise, and the praise will be helping us organically.
We don't have to muster it up. They will come out of us. We will. It's like a fountain full of water. We will not, we will not be able to stop it. We will have a living relationship with Him, and this is the desire of all our hearts. We all want an intimate relationship with the Lord and He has made it available to all of us.
And it doesn't ask us to figure it all out. We don't have to beat ourselves trying to understand what people mean. They, they, they will be revealed to us as we walk in faith to what is the simple things. Let us do follow my voice. I'm do what I'm telling you to do. And everything is closed naturally from the.
I think verse 11 we have talks about an abundant entrance into the everlasting Kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
There have been kingdoms in the world and they have come and they have gone.
But when the Lord Jesus reigns, it is the Kingdom that will never be replaced by another. There will be no other kingdoms. And in that sense it's everlasting. It's the last and full one in which the Lord Jesus reigns. We know there's something in eternity beyond that, as we have in First Corinthians 15, when the sun delivers up the Kingdom to the Father, that God may be All in all and.
In, uh, Revelation 21 when?
God dwells with man that goes even beyond this verse, but here we have an abundant entrance into the Kingdom. You and I will be in the heavenly part of it when we the rapture takes place, and many others will be on earth.
What about the abundant entrance? I believe we see it in this way.
The measure of the abundance of the entrance for us will be seen in the measure in which we change at the time of the Rapture and if we are walking fully in the truth of what's brought before us here practically.
Morally, we won't have to change at all.
What motivates us now? What animates our lives now? What is important to us now if it is?
Live not short sightedly, but in view of the fact that we are already in the Kingdom of God.
Manifesting the nature of God, Then we're not going to have to change.
We're not going to have to change and it'll be an abundant entrance because yes, the circumstances will be different. Our bodies will be changed, the location where we live will be changed, but our lives won't have to change. Well, I think most of us would say, well, I think there's going to be a little change with me or maybe a big change with me. Because what's going to have to change is all those things that are presently.
Living out in our lives which are inconsistent.
With the truth of that which is to characterize God's Kingdom and the Kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ, which is that Kingdom which displays the nature of God as light and love. And so if Christ is practically speaking, being lived out in us now, then there's no need for change. But if Christ is not our All in all now, then when we enter into the display of it that Peter is.
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Bringing out here in the in the time of it and it's displaying glory, then yes, to that measure we will have to change. But may the Lord have his way with us, brethren, that our entrance would be in abundance.
Bob talks about the view of the world and what its interests are and so on. Well, those this world's interests are not consistent with the Kingdom of God.
This world doesn't live with an interest of displaying the glory of God and to whatever measure were attached to that, then we're going to give it up and we are going to have to be changed significantly, practically speaking, in order to.
As Doug Buchanan's father often is said, and it's a wonderful thought, he says the Lord Jesus, God's Son, is in heaven and he's so pleased with what he is that he's going to fill people. He wants the heaven filled with people. They're just like him. And that will be the end result, that God is going to have a heaven that is filled with people that are just like his Son.
And yet God's working in us that we've just like His Son. He's doing a progressive work in us practically, that we will be like His Son when He takes us to glory.
We're passing through a world that is directly contrary to God and His purposes. And it becomes evident the more we live in this world how it is contrary. But brethren would exercise as my heart is, how much we are affected by the world we are passing through. And I have to say that traveling around through South America and North America, what's come to my own soul is that.
Our democratic way of thinking has done tremendous damage to the Christian testimony.
We think we have our rights. We think our brethren should understand us and listen to us.
And we think that we should have certain kind of treatment especially.
From our brethren.
Brethren.
That is not.
The thinking of a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ. That is the thinking that has been instilled in us by our democratic way of living. And I think, brethren, I cannot say how much I've been affected, but I think we need to put ourselves in the Lord's presence and ask Him to manifest what is not an agreement with Him, because what I see is the decline of the Christian testimony.
In this country, and it's because we have become man centered instead of Christ centered. Christ is not the living reality in our souls like He should be. And that's what they're talking about. In the Kingdom of heaven, who is supreme there? We read it yesterday in Isaiah 2. The Lord alone shall be exalted in that day. Every high hill will be brought low.
All the Cedars of Lebanon will be brought low.
Is there any desire of my heart?
That, brethren, should treat me in a certain way, and if they don't, I'm out of here.
So, brethren, that is too much the case. We need to thank God's thoughts. Things are going to dramatically change in this world and they should be different for us now we're passing through this world and I for one, have to can't point the finger at anybody else here. I have to say, I know I've been affected by that way of thinking, but I need to judge it in the Lord's presence.
That we might see as we have in that text on the wall.
Man save Jesus only.
May the Lord help us, brethren.
I think we have the, uh, the thought, uh.
Perhaps also that the day of manifestation is coming for every one of us.
Not every Christian finishes their course with joy. The Apostle Paul did. We, uh, read in the book of Acts. His desire was to finish his course with joy. It's not how you start out in the Christian life.
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We know that there are many Christian life is a conflict in the beginning arrayed against us world, the flesh, the devil. But we have a wonderful provision.
That we all know the history of Lot. He goes to save soul. Some might even wonder would Lot be in heaven? Yes, he's going to be in heaven. He's a righteous man who vexed his soul every day and godless Sodom.
But he's not going to have.
Saved life, a saved soul and a lost life. We don't want to end our course like that. We want to end it for the glory of God. Remember that every little act in your life and mine.
Not that it is the motive, but it's an incentive. Every little act of faithfulness will have its reward in that day. It's recorded in the book of Remembrance that our brother brought before us yesterday. There it's recorded. And it will all be.
Reckoned and and manifest and rewarded by the Blessed Lord, though it's all the fruit of the is grace in our souls.
It's so important that you said I will not be negligent, to put you always in remembrance of these things. You know, in our society today, we seem to be enchanted with a new thing or a different way of presenting things. Let's not be afraid of going over the same things again and again. That's what Peter says here. I will not be negligent.
To put you always in remembrance of these things, though ye know them, and be established in the present truth.
And he said, yeah, I think it meet as long as I am in this Tabernacle to stir you up by putting you.
In remembrance.
That word remembrance comes up quite a few times, remember?
Then he says, knowing that shortly I must put off this my Tabernacle, even as our Lord Jesus Christ hath showed me. Moreover, I will endeavor that ye may be able after my deceased, to have these things always in remembrance. And here we are 2008 having these things in remembrance again.
May the Lord help us brethren to remember.
God sees the need that some things be.
Refreshed in our souls and the importance of it that God sees, I'm sure far exceeds any apprehension we have of it. And so the Lord Jesus.
Instituted for us a time every week. Well, at least we do it every week as often.
It's commonly done on the Lord's Day, as we did this morning, that we had a time with the Lord of remembrance, that we might go back to the cross and remember Him. And it stirs in our souls the affection that God has placed there, and the praise and the worship. And so we see in Revelation chapter 5.
Thou was slain, and it says there the sense of it as a Lamb freshly slain.
When we get to glory, we are going to have brought to our perpetual remembrance the work of the cross in such a way that it will always and forever be as as if it took place that day. It will be forever fresh and a present thought in the Saints of God in the heavenly company, and will as a result produce a continual worship and praise to the Lamb that will last for eternity.
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And so that same principle is seen in this chapter there the truth, the present truth that God has for us to live out in our lives today needs continual remembrance of it and it has to stay fresh in the soul. And the the moment we turn to the ideas Bob just mentioned to hear or tell of some new thing, we're in trouble because what it suggests is.
When we say that, we're really saying the Lord Jesus doesn't satisfy me completely anymore. So what new thing can you give me in addition to that? So the children of Israel had a diet of the manna that was given to them day by day to last them through the whole of the desert journey until they got to the land. But after a while some of them despised it. It, it wasn't enough to them. They they said, no, we like what we had in Egypt, why can't we go back and have that diet?
And when these things lose their sense of that it's Christ himself that we're actually to feed on, then we can despise it. And then if we despise it, we cease to care about it and we lose it in practice and.
How many of us in this room have sung most every week for 50 years, some here more. Jesus loves me, this I know. But what a loss if if we ever came to a point in our lives where we said, I've heard that.
The danger is a lot of us can sing it without paying attention to the words. It's so ingrained in our minds and it's so much a part of us in the memory of it. That's a thing that we have to concentrate on is that our mind be where our words are because it's very easy for us to say. Not many of us. Jesus loves me and be thinking about what we're gonna do later or something, as we say 1,000,000 miles away. But may the Lord truly bring things to our remembrance in a way that they become ever fresh in our souls.
I had this special privilege this summer to be in the very room where that Him, Jesus loves me was composed some time ago.
I was in a Christian bookstore and I picked up a little book. It was the story behind the well known children's book Jesus Loves Me. And uh, I read through that book and I was thrilled reading the story of Anna Warner and her sister who lived on a little island called Constitution Island.
Uh, right off the Hudson River from the West Point Military Academy.
At the end of the book it mentioned that.
There were tours through the house, designated times during the summer months. And so I called the number that was at the end of the book. And I had the privilege of driving up the West Point and I had to be admitted into the Military Academy. And there I went down to the dock and I got a a boat over to the house. And there were those that took visitors through the house. And it was a real thrill.
To be in that very room where that hymn was composed. And another thing that I found very thrilling was that they sought to reach others, too. As soon as you got on the porch, there were piles of mats.
That they passed out to the cadets when they came over to visit the house and and a Warner and her sister had a a ministry amongst the cadets and for 40 years they had Bible studies with the cadets.
And they passed out these mats to put on the lawn so that they wouldn't get their white uniform pants stained with the grass. And so it was a real thrill. And then I learned while I was there that Anna Warner and her sister were the first civilians to be buried in the West Point Military Cemetery. So I was able to get directions from somebody there on the Academy. And I took a walk through the cemetery. And there in the corner of that cemetery, there's a.
A stone for Anna Warner and her sister, and there was a plaque on the ground.
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Hannah Warner, author of the beloved children's hymn Jesus Loves Me. And then it had the first verse of Jesus Loves Me right there in stone for everyone to see that visits that. What a thrill it was.
But getting along with what was said concerning.
Remembering.
A lot of what we want to remember.
Really goes along with what we value, doesn't it?
And I was just thinking of that verse that is often quoted, March, day, morning, and red, and lamentations. Is that nothing to you all ye that pass by, behold, and see if there be any sorrow like unto our sorrow. Our brother Dawn mentioned that it's easy to despise things to things do not have the same after a period of time the same fresh.
Freshness in our lives. And I understand the first part of that verse and Lamentations is on a War Memorial in the city of Seattle, WA. So anyone that walks by that memorial sees those words. Is it nothing to you that passed by? Well, later on in Lamentations we're we're told to remember mine. Affliction and my misery, the Wormwood and the gall.
So it's again putting him in remembrance, isn't it?
Since this I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope. And then the previous verse it says, My soul hath them still in remembrance, and is humbled in me.
I just remember that.
Actually the need and remembrance is in some sense connected with our limitations as human beings, that the mind has to be refreshed or it eventually pages and the memory goes away of something. God doesn't have that limitation.
God isn't one who has any limitation of the passage of time changing his memory about anything. He in himself knows anything in all things. But wonderful be our God. He has chosen not to bring to His mind a certain thing forever.
He could only do it by an exercise of his own will, otherwise it would remain before him forever.
But God has said their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. Blessed be our God, that He by an act of his own will, has chosen that he will never bring back to mind and mem remembrance our sins and iniquities that have been purged by the precious blood of Christ of the Cross.
I enjoyed on that. In the way it's put it says I will remember.
No more.
It seems to indicate that all our sins and iniquities were remembered once when Jesus was hanging on that cross and those three hours of darkness and laid upon him. And now he says, I will remember them no more.
About doctrine and.
Little emphasis put on doctrine generally.
Uh, we hear them say it doesn't matter what you believe, we are all, uh, one in Christ and, uh, let's uh, go on together. Well, that's, uh, true, but there is the present truth and, uh, we should, uh, value the revelation that God has given to us.
In his word for the present dispensation, the truth of the, the church and our justification and these wonderful aspects of truth, we need to be established in them, our eternal security, our heavenly calling, the position of the believer in the world today. Uh, alas, we do not find these, uh, truths ministered in Christendom. So, uh, we should be so thankful.
Only by the grace of God that we are gathered to the name of the Lord, where all the truth and sound doctrine is, uh, is uh, presented and uh, seek to be established in the present proof that God has, uh, left to us.
00:55:14
In our reading at home, we've been through Lamentations, we've been reading Mr. Davis comments in the synopsis, and there's a passage here that perhaps I'd like to read from the second of Lamentations and the starting of verse five. The Lord was as an enemy.
He has swallowed up Israel, He has swallowed up all her palaces, He had destroyed his strongholds, He had increased in the daughter of Judah Morna, and mourning and lamentation, and He had violently taken away his cabinet as if it were of a garden. He had destroyed his palaces of the assembly. The Lord has caused the solemn feasts and the Sabbath to be forgotten in Zion and the despised.
In the indignation of his anger, the King and the priest, the Lord has cast off his altar, He hath a board, His sanctuary. He have given up into the hand of the enemy the walls and her palaces. Now Mr. Darby makes a comment on that. He said it's a solemn, solemn thing when the Lord destroys that which He set up.
And he said the reason the Lord did it was because it no longer represented him. And so we have the apostles concerned here. I believe that though they have the present truth, though you know them and be established in the present truth, and all those things that John has mentioned about a very, very precious person may be valuable.
And I mean, we've got to admit.
That the Lord has dealt with us. There are places where there was a testimony those gathered to the Lords name a few years ago and we can no longer say that that's still true.
But as as as individuals, but also of course as those locally gathered to the Lords name, do we reflect?
The greatest of the Lord are shown in those seven qualities that we've been discussing.
Because it got to the stage in Israel where they were going through the motions. They had the temple, they had the altar, and the Lord said it was my altar, but He destroyed it because it no longer represented him.
Just comment on that umm.
The principle or that point, that's what is brought before us in Revelation. True with respect to Ephesus.
God placed the church in the world as a light bearer to express himself to the world. God is light as it says in Ephesians chapter 5. Ye are the light of the world. God is love and God has placed the church.
As a light bearer in this world to express what he is as love.
What was being said to Ephesus was if you do not.
And you have lost it in yourselves if you do not express what I am to this world as love, and you can't express it if it's not practiced in you, if it's not yourselves as love in the Lord, then you can't express it to others. And if you don't express it to others, then your purpose as a light bearer.
Is gone and I will remove you as a Candlestick.
And that is going to happen. It happens to the individual assembly of Ephesus, and it is going to happen with the church as a whole in the earth that the day comes when the church is removed completely from the earth as a responsible witness for God as to what He is. And it's a humbling thing, brethren, that it is to be so.
Because the Church and as God sees it, he doesn't look at denominations and those gathered to the Lord's name and this and that as we tend to, but he looks at it as a whole and he says, no, it does not represent me and I will remove it. And so if it is not a reality in our souls, even individually, we cannot.
01:00:21
Represent God.
As we're taught in Ephesians 5 as light and love.
And so it ought to be something that would humble us, and to make us, if you will, diligent to call these things to remembrance that we might.
At least, while imperfectly, it may be more nearly.
And more in practice, honor what God is and what the Lord Jesus is to our fellow man and to one another.
And especially in view of what's coming, brethren, uh, verse 16.
Forwards speaks of the Mount Transfiguration experience that we have in.
Uh, three of the Gospels and it says we have not followed cunningly devised fables when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of His Majesty. These are not fables we're talking about. These are historical realities. This actually happened. He said we were eyewitnesses, notice.
Not only were the eyewitnesses, but it says in verse 18, this voice which came from heaven, we heard. It's the same as the Apostle John says in his first epistle chapter one and verse three, that which we have seen and heard declare we unto you interesting through those two means.
God has given witness to that future.
Kingdom that is going to enter into this world in power and glory, as we mentioned yesterday.
To today, the Kingdom is in tribulation and patience. Those that recognize and seek to own the authority of the Lord Jesus are persecuted, are killed in many parts of the world. But the Kingdom is coming in power and glory, and the apostles had a preview of it. Peter, James and John that is.
Taken up into the Mount of Transfiguration, a preview of the Kingdom. And like Don says, there's different.
Parts of the Kingdom. Jesus was transfigured. His face shone.
As the Son, the supreme authority in that future Kingdom.
Then there were those heavenly occupants of the Kingdom, Moses and Elias.
Appeared in glory. It's interesting. They were talking with Jesus. What were they talking about? Not talking about the glories of heaven.
They were talking about something that was extremely more glorious, his decease that he should accomplish at Jerusalem. Tremendous to try to think about that. Tremendous.
And it's interesting to me as I think of that amount of transfiguration. We know that Peter, James and John were quite odd at seeing Moses and Elijah. Of course, they've never seen them before. First time they see these two figures that were so well known in Israelite history.
But it doesn't seem in looking at the story in the three gospels that Moses and Elijah.
Recognize the presence.
Peter, James and John, they were the earthly side of the Kingdom, representative of the earthly side of the Kingdom.
Why didn't? Why didn't it seem like they recognized their presence?
They were in the presence of Jesus when we get there.
Oh brother, what is it going to be to be face to face with him?
I don't think our bodies are capable of even taking that in right now. To see him is going to transform us not only morally and spiritually, but physically gonna be transformed into His image.
What a day it's gonna be.
Let me see him.
#168.
01:05:12
I'd like to make a comment on the glories here in verses 16 and 17. We'll keep your hymn in mind, brother. That's a wonderful ham. But we got a wonderful subject here before us too. The glory and that Transfiguration mount was.
Uh, preview of the earthly Kingdom, I believe here on earth. And I'd just like to point out, I, I trust I'm right in this, uh, uh, two different kinds of glory that were there that these verses speak of. First of all, in verse 16, we have the, uh, the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and they were eyewitnesses of His Majesty. That is, he was transfigured there before them on earth. And I take that as a picture.
Of the glory with which the Lord Jesus will come to earth in his Kingdom.
When he establishes order here on earth. But after Peter made that, those infamous comments about building making tabernacles and spoiled it.
There came out of another glory here. It calls that the excellent glory, and Peter comments on this and he calls it the excellent glory. I don't believe he was talking about the glory with which the Lord was transfigured before them.
He was talking now about where that voice came from. This is my well beloved son. Hear him?
That was from the Father, and I believe it represents the heavenly glory.
Uh, and I've got in God's presence and which really is the place that we are called to as the bride of Christ. And Peter seems to get a hold of that here and he calls it the, the excellent glory.
Am I right in that brother?
Nice and in John 17.
Father I will that they be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory.
Tells us that in connection with that excellent glory, there are things that the Lord Jesus was saying to the Father in John 17. Father, I want to bring them here where you and I are.
Because there are glories to be seen here that cannot be seen on the earth. And so it's only when we are brought in and will be brought into His presence and be with Him where He is, according to John 17, that we are going to behold glories that we now do not see and are not able to see. There are those things which belong to the family of God, to the bride of Christ.
Which can only be enjoyed and entered into when we are in that very scene of the excellent glory. So we have a lot to look forward to. Peter got a glimpse of the source of it, but even what he saw as a source of it, it still remains for anyone to be able to enter into it. And but yet we will when we are there.
It's a wonderful thing.
Uh, to realize too that the Lord had acquired glories to, didn't he think of that scripture and, uh, Genesis 45 where?
Joseph is giving instruction to his brother, and he says in the 11Th or uh, the 13th verse of that chapter. And you shall tell my father of all my glory. Earlier in the code of many colors we had.
We really cannot fully enter into that, but in the 45th chapter there were those things that he acquired as and Joseph, of course, being typical of the Lord Jesus that were acquired in the land of Egypt. And I think we'll enter into some of that more fully too, won't we?
We will always be creatures, and in First Timothy chapter 6 we are told that God dwells in light which no man can approach unto. Simply mention that to say that there are absolute glories in God that we as creatures will never grasp. We will never be even exposed to them that God is so.
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Great in Himself and His own glory, that He does dwell in light which no man can or ever will approach unto, and both the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit have within themselves, and that which they are, those essential glories of their being that will always be beyond us, the creature. But God has come out in the greatness of His own.
Self to display Himself in glory in a way that we as creatures are going to and can now lay hold of, or they can lay hold of us. And that is that God has come out in the person of a man and all that we could ever enter into. He has come down from himself in the person of the Lord Jesus to display Himself.
And his glory in its greatness in the person of the Lord Jesus, and so that we might enjoy it for all eternity. The Lord Jesus has made perhaps the greatest decision of his being was as given to us in Exodus 21. I love my Master, my wife and my children. I will not go out free. And so the Lord Jesus.
The Son of God has chosen to remain in the place of manhood for eternity so that God's glory might forever be in display to us in a way that we could view it. And the Lord Jesus has chosen to remain that as a servant. That's a servant's place for him to remain a man. And yet he says I'll remain in the servant's place forever.
That in love to my Father, I may display His glory to man. He has chosen to remain in that place because He says to us.
I'll never separate myself.
From you I have set my love upon you. I will never separate myself from you by going back into that place of essential glory that you cannot come. And so he says, I'll take the place of service and love to you because I love you. And he when it says the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me, it separates the giving and the love in that sense that the Lord Jesus.
Including his love. I don't know that I can make the thought clear, but it's a precious thought. The Lord Jesus invested himself in US completely to the full extent of his love. Meaning that if you're not happy, he can't be happy.
You know, if you love somebody and they're not happy, you yourself are affected by that love that you have for that person. And if I could speak reverently, because he loves us to the extent that his own personal joy and satisfaction now is dependent in one sense upon us. And so his work is that which will ensure that in the coming glory he can rest in his love.
And he will do everything and has done everything necessary to the satisfaction of the Father, the glory of God, but also taking us the extent of himself that loved me is all the way. It's it's even beyond the sense of the love that took him to the cross. It is a love that totally connects him with us.
In a way, brethren, that we'll never perhaps ever fathom the fullness of it, but when we when we're there and we we see it, you know, when we met, when we see the face of the Lord Jesus according to Psalm 16, it says.
Thy countenance, Mr. Garvey's translation. Thy countenance is fullness of joy. When you and I behold the countenance of the Lord Jesus face to face, we're going to know what fullness of joy is, because we're going to see it in His face.
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You are going to look upon the face of the Lord Jesus, and you're going to look upon a face the countenance of which is the fullness of joy, and it's all Himself in his satisfaction and the joy of His heart, that you are with Him now forever.
I was thinking, uh, before we, I know I find it's nearly gone, but it might be, uh, aptitude to just comment, uh, very briefly on verse 19. Uh, we also have a more sure word of prophecy.
Uh, whereunto ye do well, that ye take heed as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn and the daystar arise in your hearts. We've been Speaking of the Transfiguration scene, which is a preview of the Millennium. Really. That is the dawning of the day for this world, when all oppression and uh, all the results of sin and the rebellion will be obliterated, and Christ will have His rightful place.
He rejoiced to look forward to that time because he's rejected now. But then the daystar rising in our hearts is a little different thought. We know that the daystar appears long before the dawn. I suppose it's the planet Venus, perhaps very early in the morning. It appears there on the horizon long before the actual day breaks. And that day star, is the hope of the Lord's coming and it.
Should arise in our hearts. Now, we're not exactly, uh, looking for the establishment of the Kingdom, although we're going to rejoice when, uh, it is accomplished and the Lord has his rightful place. But the daystar is the Morning Star, and that should be arising in our hearts right now. Like I will give unto him the morning star, the Church of Thyatira. That's the hope of the Lord's coming. We're not looking for a better world.
We're not down here to improve the world, but our hope is the Lord's return. How often I speak for myself. We forget this and settle down to the things of time and sense. But that daystar has arisen in our hearts. The bright prospect that even before this day is over, the Lord could come. Well, may the Lord keep us in the enjoyment.
Gospel 8
Gospel—D. Mearns
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I'd like to welcome.
Everyone tonight to the Gospel meeting.
So a lot of people here.
Perhaps.
You've never been in a gospel meeting before.
And it's a wonderful privilege to be able to present the gospel of the grace of God.
Maybe you've been in many gospels before and we can't look into the heart, but God knows exactly what's in your heart. He knows whether you've turned to Him or not. And we trust that our little time this evening would be for profit for the soul of every one of us here. So I wonder if we could open our meeting this evening by singing him #11 on our little hymn sheet.
We have an anchor that keeps the sole.
Steadfast.
Ensure while the billows rule, fasten to the rock which cannot move. Grounded, firm and deep in the Savior's love. I wonder if we could stand and sing hymn #11.
Oh well, your anchor.
Where your heart goes down on the green and landing.
Nsnoise.
All right, so I'm going. Well, I don't think so. Yeah, I'm going to be happy. We're going to be afraid. And you're far followed and go.
My name is. I'm not connected to you.
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Nsnoise.
I'd like to sing one more hymn #3.
On Christ the solid rock I stand. All other ground is sinking sand. He could remain seated and sing hymn #3.
Nsnoise.
And yesterday's all right. Now I'm going to be in bed.
And I'll hold on to him and get him down there, one of them.
Nsnoise.
Before we ask the Lord for his help.
I'd like to ask you a question this evening.
On what do you rest your soul's salvation?
I'd like to ask that question tonight as we start this gospel meeting. We've just sung these two hymns together.
I can stand here a happy man.
One that has peace with God.
Because my soul salvation rests on a solid rock.
I'm so thankful.
For the shed blood of my blessed Savior, the Lord Jesus.
Who has given me to realize that my sins are gone and I can stand here with joy tonight.
With a message to proclaim tonight, a message of joy, the gospel message. And it's a wonderful thing to be able to present the gospel of the grace of God. But on the other hand, tonight, the responsibility.
Of being the messenger of God tonight.
The responsibility.
Of being put in a position.
Where tonight I have the responsibility of being the mouthpiece of our Almighty God.
The responsibility of that is staggering tonight.
And tonight, as we take up this precious book.
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We trust that everyone here in this room.
Would believe that which we have to proclaim tonight.
As I stand here tonight.
And look, on this audience, it matters not how much faith you have.
But what matters is what is your faith attached to at the other end?
Could we ask the Lord for His help?
Turn with me, please, to Mark's Gospel. Mark's Gospel 11Th chapter.
Mark's Gospel, the 11Th chapter.
And we'll read the first few verses.
And when they came lying to Jerusalem unto Beth Faji and Bethany at the Mount of Olives, he sendeth forth two of his disciples, and saith unto them, Go your way into the village over against you, and as soon as he be entered into it, ye shall find a coal tide, whereon never man sad. Lose him and bring him. And if any man say unto you, Why do ye this? Say ye that the Lord hath need of him, and straightway he shall send him. Hit her.
And they went their way and found the colt tied by the door without in a place where two ways met and they loose him.
Tonight, as we read this scripture and as I look over this audience, I can't help but feel that there is someone here tonight and you're in a place where 2 two ways meet.
You're in a place in your soul where two ways meet.
And perhaps tonight you don't know which way to go.
What we trust tonight is we open the word of God, that if you're in that place where two ways meet, perhaps you've never heard the gospel before. Perhaps you've heard of God, but you're not just too sure as to who He is, as to what He's done. Perhaps you've sat in these meetings all day today. Perhaps you've sat in them many, many times. You two in our place where two ways meet, you know the way, but you're not sure which way you want to go.
Oh, tonight.
The work of the soul is the work of God.
And I have confidence tonight that God is speaking to your soul.
That you would be saved tonight.
The matter of your sins before a holy God.
I'm so thankful that the matter of my sins was dealt with at Calvary. And for you too, if you would simply believe, oh, we trust tonight, that if you're in that place where two ways meet.
There's a voice that's saying to you, Come unto me, all ye that labor, and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
And there's another one that's saying, whispering to you. Don't bother. Don't listen to the message tonight. Oh, we trust that you will listen to what we have to say tonight from the word of God, and that you would turn to the Lord Jesus tonight and you would be saved. Turn with me, please, to the book of Proverbs.
Proverbs, the 14th chapter.
Proverbs, the 14th chapter.
And verse 12.
There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.
Then turn over to the 16th chapter.
Now we read this in verse 25.
There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.
I want to take up the little subject this evening.
Of the phrase we find in the word of God is called the right way.
The right way. And there are seven of them.
Every one of us here makes decisions. We make decisions in our in our every day of our lives. Get this morning. You decide what you're gonna put on.
Some decisions.
The consequences aren't as great as others.
But we read, we've just been reading 2 scriptures in the book of Proverbs, that there's a way that seemeth right unto a man, the end thereof of the ways of death. We had something happen in our.
On our property this, umm, this spring, it's interesting, we live in a wooded area and there's lots of birds that make umm, make nests. We had a Robin that uh.
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Was very wise.
It shows a place.
Uh, to build this nest where it couldn't be seen. It was a secluded place. It could not be seen. And so if you were to look down from, it couldn't be seen. If you don't look at it from the side, it couldn't be seen. Anywhere you looked, you could not see the place where this Robin was building its nest.
And you know, when you, when you think of that, we've got a lot of predators on our property as well and.
We have Hawks, we have owls, we have crows, we have a lot of four footed predators. And you know to in in this bird's little brain, it thought it had chosen a place that was just perfect to build its nest because it couldn't be seen anywhere.
The place that that bird had chosen to build its nest was on the top of the tire of our van.
You couldn't see it from anywhere. It's in the wheel well.
Not a very good place to build a nest, even though it seemed.
Like such a good place.
Well, you know, our van goes in and out of the driveway several times a day.
This bird sought to build its nest several times a day. Couldn't stop it. In its mind, this was the way. This was the place to build its nest. Dr. into the driveway. Come back.
We saw the completion of the nest a number of times. It was persistent. This was the place to build a nest. You know what's interesting? It doesn't say in the scripture that we that we've been reading, there is a way that seemeth right unto a Robin.
But it says there is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death. And we would like to look at that little expression the right way tonight and trust.
That you would choose the right way as to the salvation of your soul. You know we thank tonight on Christ the solid rock I stand. All of their ground is sinking sand. Is that true about you? Tonight as you sit there in your chair at a place where two ways meet, is that true of you?
Let's turn to the first one in the book of Hosea.
The Book of Hosea.
Hosea, Chapter 14.
And verse 9.
Who is wise?
And he shall understand these things.
Prudent, and he shall know them for the ways.
Of the Lord are right.
And the just shall walk in them, but transgressors shall fall therein.
Where do we find the ways of the Lord? Because we find here in this portion that the ways of the Lord are right ways. They're right ways.
I had the opportunity this this week to work in a building.
Was an apartment building and James House and I were working there. My son Ron was working there. Actually Tammy House was working there too. There was an overseas working in this apartment building and part of my responsibility was to get into every apartment. There was 29 of them where we had some work to do.
And there's one apartment where there's a lady that I spoke to her.
Previously about her soul, actually a number of times.
The time came when we were in her apartment and I don't preach at her all the time. We we visit now and again when I'm there. But I asked her, uh, earlier this week. I said I called her by name and I said umm.
Are you ready to go when your time comes?
And she flip and sees, she says, Yep, I've been ready forever, I'm ready to go and that's not a problem, I said. So on what do you base that?
Well, I base it on the fact that I've been a good girl all my life. She's an older lady, been a good girl all my life and uh, you know, it just doesn't pay not to be a good girl. I've been a good girl all my life.
And she changed the conversation, went at the door.
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You know the ways of the Lord are right, and they're found in the Word of God.
You know, later that day.
She.
She came into her apartment when we were working there.
And she said, you know, umm, she has a corner apartment which overlooks, umm, a lot of Smith Falls. She has a good friend that lives, uh, just a short piece away. And, uh, she told me earlier that her good friend had just, uh, had an operation and she came upstairs and she was, umm, she was, uh, very worried because she had just seen the ambulance turn up at that apartment or at that house and, and, and driveway. And she knew the person lived there alone and she didn't know, uh, what the situation was.
And, uh, she was very worried and, uh.
You know, her whole demeanor had changed and, uh, didn't say anything. We, uh, visited and then later that day she comes up and she says, you know, I found out that she's in the hospital and umm, uh, this operation that she had, uh, she got some blood poisoning. It's gone right through her body. She's an intensive in intensive care and she's hovering between life and death.
And you know what the flip and see as to what she based her salvation on was all gone.
She says, you know, you just never know. You just never know as to where you're going to be. And I thought, you know what a marvelous thing tonight that we can read in this portion of the word of God that the ways of the Lord are right ways and they're found in the word of God. And I would like to ask you tonight on what do you base?
Your soul salvation, what do you base it on?
As I mentioned earlier, no, we had in the last meeting our brother talked to to us about faith and I mentioned it doesn't matter how much faith we have, but what is that faith attached to at the other end? You know what we sang on Christ the solid rock. I stand. I'm thankful to stand here, a happy, joyful believer, knowing that when I step over that line or if the Lord Jesus comes, I'm going to be with him to see his blessed face.
What about you tonight?
You know if your soul is not saved.
If you don't know God is your Father, you don't know the Lord Jesus as your Savior. Tonight we plead with you.
That you would come to the Savior. Let's turn over to the Psalms, Psalm 107.
We find another mention there.
Of the right way.
Psalm 107 And it starts off, We'll give thanks unto the Lord, for He is good, for His mercy endureth forever. Let the redeem that the Lord say so, whom He hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy. And gathered them out of the hands from the east, and from the West, from the north and from the South. They wanted in the wilderness in a solitary way. They found no city to dwell in. Hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted in them. Then they cried unto the Lord in their trouble.
And he delivered them out of their distresses.
Here's our subject. And he led them forth by the right way, that they might go to a city of habitation. He led them forth by the right way. As I was thinking of this portion.
You know it says in the sixth verse. Then they cried unto the Lord in their trouble.
Had something happen a couple weeks ago.
It was actually two weeks ago today that I was working with my boys and James. We were doing a roof.
And umm, James and Ron were working on one side of the roof and I was working with Craig on this side of the roof. And while we're working, all of a sudden down the street.
We hear this crying for help.
Well, umm, it was a number of houses down the road and umm, I broke into a run. I, I ran down the street as to where this noise was coming from. And here there was a man who was working under his car. He had his car jacked up and, uh, it was on a bit of an incline and the car rolled off the jacks and it pinned his hand in between one of the blocks and the frame of the car. Here's his hand and it's just squashed and he's screaming for help. He's screaming for help.
Umm.
You know, arrived at the scene and his wife was there and his wife didn't know what to do and there was a Jack there and she didn't know how to use it. And I'm not a paramedic.
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Umm, but to, to, to seek to Jack up this car when there's a man right beside you that's just screaming in pain. Uh, it, it was a little interesting for me. We got, we got the, the car jacked up and, uh.
His, his fingers looked like, looked like toonies. Uh, they, they were, they were just fast. But I was just impressed that this man was in need of help and he expressed it.
You know, I'm thankful for the time in my life.
Where I came to realize.
There was a need.
As to my soul salvation.
And I cried to the Lord for help. Remember Peter when he stepped out in the water and he took those steps with such confidence. And then he started to think, you know, Peter said, Lord, save me. Lord save me. You know, I prayed that prayer, and the Lord saved me.
I know that there's many here in this room who have prayed that prayer and the Lord has saved them, but what about you tonight?
Do you realize your need? So this man, he realized he needed help and he needed it badly and he needed it now. You know, I didn't, I didn't give the gospel to him. I'm sure if I was John Kemp that the man would have had the gospel while he was screaming. That's not my way.
The man, he needed help and I was able to give him some help and we got his hand free. You know, I'll tell the rest of the story a little bit later, but I was impressed here, it says.
They cried unto the Lord in their trouble, and He delivered them out of their distresses, and He led them forth by the right way. There is no.
Way that we can assure you that you'll go the right way without crying to the Lord for help. As to your sole salvation, you know everyone of us have sinned. The Word of God says all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.
Do you believe that? Do you believe that you're accountable to God for that which has transpired in your life, that someday you're going to stand before a holy God and you're given a going to give an account as to that which you've done?
Just go through that thought process of standing before a holy.
And having to give account.
For everything that you've done, everything that you've thought, everything that you've said.
Wouldn't you like to clear that matter up now?
And if we cry to the Lord now.
And ask him to save our souls. He'll do that very thing we find here in this chapter. There are those that cried to the Lord. He heard them and they were spared and he led them forth by the right way. Let's turn over to second Peter.
Second Peter.
Chapter 2.
Second Peter, chapter 2.
It speaks here.
About the unjust speaks about the godly and the unjust the Lord in the verse 9. The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations.
And to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished. But chiefly they them that walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness, and despise government. Presumptuous are they self willed. They're not afraid to speak evil of dignities that speaks of those that have.
No appreciation for authority and we find that it's the same in connection with God. In verse 15 it says which have forsaken the right way and are gone astray, following the way of Balaam, the son of Beastaur, who loved the wages of unrighteousness. You know, Balaam was a man who lived for the present.
Without a care for God, live for the present, even though we recognize the delivered God's message.
But it speaks here in this passage of those that have no appreciation for authority.
You know, the one with whom we speak, of whom we speak tonight, every one of us is going to have to do. You know, we read in the book of Exodus concerning Pharaoh and he said, who is the Lord? That I should obey this voice. You know what to speak of God in such a way, it's, it makes me shudder. But what are your thoughts tonight in connection with God?
What are your thoughts as to God?
You know, I had something happen, uh, a little while ago.
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I have her some nails for a living and in the course of my work.
I need to buy a tool and I went to Ottawa to Lee Valley Tools and maybe there's some here to today who have purchased tools from Lee Valley. It's a firm that has a number of uh outlets in, in Ontario. Maybe there's some here in Quebec, I don't know. Anyway, I left this morning early and got there for 7:00 when they opened and uh.
What I needed was a router bit and I went to the door and found that they open at 8:00. Here I am it's actually before 7. It's 6:50. I, I'm there in my car. Umm, had a few other things to do in the city before I went back and I needed this rotor bit. Well, I've got to wait for an hour. After a few minutes, the car pulls up and umm, gentleman comes over to the side of the car and says, may I help you? I said, well, uh, I came to pick up the umm, a rather bit my senior, uh, your open at 8:00, not 7.
He said that come on in and I'll try to help you. So I followed the man in and he asked me what I wanted and I pointed out in the catalog what I what I wanted and he thought he may be able to find it. So he went into the back and he came back out with a piece and he, he said, you know, I'll try to, I don't work with these machines, but I'll see if I can get the, get the cash opened up. And he spent some time and anyway, we, we made a transaction and.
I, you know, I was thankful for his trouble and I reached into my pocket and I, I handed him a 20. I said, you know, I thank this for your trouble. Umm.
Umm, why don't you just take this? He kind of looked at me and he said, umm.
Umm, I think you can, umm, I think you can keep the 20, umm, I own Lee Valley Tools and uh, you know, it was an embarrassment for me to to be spending time with this man, thinking he was the clerk and trying to help him as to, as to his job. And then to realize just in the presence of whom I was standing, it was very humbling. But you know, there may be you tonight sitting there in your chair.
And we speak about God, and you hear, you hear God being spoken of.
But just as to who he is.
That connection hasn't been made. You know, my attitude changed immediately as to this gentleman that has been helping me. You know what? I'm, I'm standing there looking at this 20. Uh, it was embarrassing for me. And I'll tell another little story. Danny Weeks remembers this too, that umm, we're on a boat trip together. We took a trip from UMM, from Fort Lauderdale to the Bahamas. There were seven of us. It was before we were married and umm, we were, we were on a boat that had two Chrysler Sixes and we were running by power and we ran out of gas.
And uh.
When we, the time that we run out of gas, we was when we were headed into, into Nassau. And so we were under Sale and we arrived in Nassau on a Saturday evening and umm, I'm not sure the evening. It wasn't a Saturday evening. We arrived in the evening anyway, just as the Marina shut down.
And, uh, you know, we, we, we needed gas. There was a couple of people on the boat that, uh, we were actually towards the end of our trip, we were headed, headed back for Florida and we needed to, uh, a couple of the, the fellows needed to get flights and, uh, we needed gas and we didn't need it tomorrow. We needed it today. And there was someone that thought they could help us. And so he went rent, went and got somebody. After about 45 minutes, there was a, there was a gentleman came and he.
He chatted with us and he pumped us up with gas and, and one of the, one of the fellows that was with us when it was all done, he also handed the man A20. And, uh, the man, you know, was, was dressed casually and, uh, he thought that we could keep the 22 because he informed us that he owned the Marina. And, you know, again, our attitude changed completely as to.
Who we were talking with all this time and all of a sudden realizing who he was.
We know there are those in this chapter that speak evil of dignity, dignities. There are those that have no use for authority and to go through your life.
And to treat the one.
Who puts the very breast in your nostrils?
Holds our heartbeat in your hand, in his hand.
To think of who that one is.
And to realize that tonight, he is speaking to your heart.
You know, my dad told me before he passed away, David, we need to read the word of God with our ears, not just with our eyes. And tonight I trust that you can do that. That as we read these verses and we hear the Word of God being spoken of, that you would hear the voice of the Lord And as to just who he is.
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And that we have to do with that one.
Let's turn now to another portion in the book of Acts.
Acts Chapter 13.
Here we find Barnabas and Saul.
And it says in the fourth verse. So they, being sent forth by the Holy Ghost, departed unto Seleucia, and from fence they sailed to Cyprus. And when they were at Salamas, they preached the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews, and they had John to their minister. And when they had gone through the aisle, and to pay for us, they found a certain sorcerer, a false prophet, a Jew whose name was Bar Jesus, which with the deputy of the country, Sergius Paulus, a prudent man.
Who called for Barnabas and Saul, and desired to hear the word of God. But alignments the sorcerer forso his name by interpretation withstood them, seeking to turn away the deputy from the faith. Then Saul, who also has called Paul, being filled with the Holy Ghost, set his eyes on him and said, Oh, full of all subtlety and mischief, Thou child of the devil, thou enemy of all righteousness, wilt thou not cease to pervert? Here's our subject now the right ways of the Lord. And now, behold, the hand of the Lord is upon thee, and thou shalt be blind, not seeing the sun for a season. And immediately there fell on him.
A mist and a darkness, and he went about seeking some to lead him by the hand. Then the deputy, when he saw what was done, believed being astonished at the doctrine of the Lord. And when Paul and his company loosed from Pape, Austin came to Purga in Pamphylia, and John departed from from them, returned to Jerusalem. We find here the story of two people, we find Sergius Paulus, we find alignments, the sorcerer. You know, it's interesting. I've never been to Cyprus, but there's a museum there. And in it there is currency with the inscription of surges Paulus on it, his image.
And it's wonderful to be able to pick up the word of God and to way back then realize that there was such a man and that we can we can see currency with him on it today.
And here was a man that says that. Umm.
In the 12Th verse it says then the deputy, when he saw what was done, believed being astonished at the doctrine of the Lord.
The right ways of the Lord There was a man here who was seeking to pervert the right ways of the Lord.
I was speaking to a man, umm, some time ago. It was right after the Twin Towers came down. And I'm mentioning this because, uh, well, you'll see why.
Right after the Twin Towers came down and it was, it was a gentleman that was a very wise man.
Umm and, and I had never spoken to him about his soul. He was umm, he was the president of uh, one of the associations in, in Perth. And I asked him, I said, you know, umm, call him by name. And I said, if you happen to, to have been on one of those planes that crashed into the towers, I said where would you be?
And he looked at me and he said, well, you know, I don't know. I don't know.
And it gave me an opportunity to give him the gospel, which I did. And at the end of it he listened very politely. He said to me, you know, David.
I can appreciate that you the faith that that you have and what you're telling me, but I'm going to rest on the things that I've done in this life.
I'm going to rest on the things that I've done in this life.
You know, time went on and.
Less than a year ago.
A man came to me.
Uh, a believer and he's saying that he, that he was speaking to this man.
And he, he sought to give him the gospel.
And he brought to this man the conversation that I had with him years ago in in, in asking if he happened to be sitting on one of those planes that crashed into the tower where he would be. He goes through this whole conversation with this believer.
And, umm.
You know, the believer told me and he said, you know, you need to drop in and see this man again. And I said, yeah, you know, I need to do that. And.
Just a short while ago, I visited him again and I said, you know, I need to drop in on this, on this man. And he said, you know, it's too late now. He's gone. He just died two weeks ago. You know, he was a man.
Who was seeking and I don't know where he is because I don't know what happened at the end, but the time that I was visiting with him, he was resting on what he was doing. You know, I'm thankful here that we find there was a man that was seeking to turn the gospel away from the surgeon's pause. But you know, he listened to the right way, didn't he? And we find that here because we find concerning surges pause. It says he believed. Oh, we trust that tonight that you would believe. Well, let's turn now to the book of Ezra.
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The book of Ezra in chapter 8.
Ezra chapter 8 and verse 21. Then I proclaim the fast there at the river of Ahava, that we might afflict ourselves before our gods, to seek of Him a right way for us, and for our little ones, and for all our substance. A right way for us and for our little ones, and for all our substance.
I had occasion in this apartment building that I was working in this week to speak with a man and, uh.
He's a man I've never been able to.
To, uh, present the gospel to.
He's, he's always has, always has a joke. He always turns whatever you say, uh, uh, into, into something frivolous And, uh, you know, he came in to his apartment when I was working there and he was very sober. Never seen this about him before.
He said you know a lady across the hall and.
They found her son dead in his truck last night.
And, uh, it really shook them up. And I, you know, I, I mentioned, I mentioned this man because his name was Porches and the only other Porches I ever knew was here in Montreal, lady by the name of Sophie Porches and her husband Hector. And I, I've never known any other Porches. Well, you know, I had occasion to speak with the lady herself and just to, umm, I was after work hours, I, I went to her apartment and I just, uh, said I was sorry to hear about her son. She said, you know.
It's been a horrible thing because of all my family, I never knew, I would never have guessed it would have been, it would have been my son that, that died. He was a pitcher of health. He was a runner. He was one that was, uh, was very active. He was one that exercised all the time. He was one that was, was very careful with his diet concerning fatty foods and whatnot. He was very careful and he dropped dead of a heart attack, you know, and this woman, she doesn't know where she's going and she didn't know where he was going.
Well, when I was talking to this other man in his apartment.
I said it's good to know where we it's good to know where, uh, where we're gonna go, isn't it? He said. You know it is, and I don't know where I'm going, he said. How do you know?
You know.
This woman, she was distraught because she didn't know the way for herself and she didn't know the way for her little ones. And maybe there's someone here tonight and you can't present the way to your little ones. You can't present the way to your children. You can't present the way to your your relatives because you don't know the way yourself. Well, here we find Ezra. What a marvelous thing it says here. I proclaim the fast there at the river of Ahava that we might afflict ourselves all we trust that that would be the portion of someone who's lost tonight, that you'd be found afflicting yourself.
Before our God to seek of Him a right way for us.
And for our little ones, and for all our substance.
Let's turn over to Genesis chapter 24. You know we're running out of time, so let's go to second First Samuel chapter 12.
First Samuel chapter 12 and verse 23 moreover.
That's for me, God forbid.
So I should sin against the Lord?
In ceasing to pray for you.
But I will teach you the good and the right way.
Only fear the Lord and serve Him in truth with all your heart, for consider how great things He has done for you. I mentioned two weeks ago today that I was doing some roofing and I heard this man screaming down the road. In the last two weeks I've been thinking about that man, and as I said, if I'd have been John, he would have had the gospel on the spot.
I tend to need to think about things a little bit.
And the Lord laid it on my heart to.
Drop in and see him.
Which I did the day before yesterday.
It's interesting the way the Lord works.
I rapped on the door.
00:45:00
It's two weeks later.
As White comes to the door, recognizes me, bites me in.
I start visiting with the man. His fingers are not.
Flat any more? They're like big thick sausages. And I asked them how his fingers were doing and he said, well, you know, he's got movement in them and he's thankful. And, you know, he thanked me again so much for, for helping him. And if there was anything that he could do for me at any time, he'd be so happy. He didn't get my name when, when, when I helped him. And he was so glad that I dropped by to, to visit with him again. And I said, Paul, umm, I'd like to ask you a question.
He said, oh, what's that?
I said, you know, I've, I've heard of people that a number of people who have been working under cars and they slip off the blocks and they've been caught under the car and it's killed them.
I said, you know, that may have happened to you, but it didn't. I said if it had happened to you, where would you be right now?
You know, he was visiting with me with a big happy smiling face and looking me in the eye and all of a sudden that all ended and he looked down and, uh, you know, it's interesting the way the Lord works. Umm, I'll interject this. A number of years ago, umm, I sat in the doctor's office and was told that I had a malignancy. And that was quite a long time ago. The Lord has given us some more time, been very thankful and, uh.
Anyway, I asked this. I asked this man this question.
As to where he'd be?
If he'd have been under that car when the car came down and he answered this way.
He said well.
I went to the doctor a few weeks ago and.
Well, like a Long story short, yesterday I got the results back from a CAT scan and I got a spot on my lung.
Uh, this is an intelligent man. I asked him where he'd be, umm, if he'd left his scene, and this is the way he answers me.
So I, I, I, I gave him the floor. I didn't say anything. I just left it. And, uh, he took a deep breath and he said, umm, you know, umm, it's interesting. The Lord's timing, isn't it? He took a deep breath and he said, uh, I'm a nuclear scientist. I've worked up in Chalk River for a number of years. And, uh, he said some of my job was to do calculations and some of the calculations I did, they were not pages thick, they were books thick.
And he said I'm smart enough to realize that there's enough order in the universe. Everything runs so perfectly in order to realize that it just didn't happen. It just didn't happen. But as to where I'm going, I don't know. I've had lots of people tell me different things. I don't know where I'm going.
You know, it's interesting, the timing.
That I arrived there to ask him this question the day after he gets this message from the doctor that he's it's the result of his CAT scan.
And he doesn't know the way. If it had been two days earlier, he wouldn't have had the results.
You know.
I gave him a little bit of my history and being on the same side of the fence, people are very obliging to discuss these matters under those circumstances.
And I thought, you know, the last thing I said to the man when I left here, because he has not peace. He has a, he has a clear gospel and he's reaching out for something that's real. You know, we sang earlier.
As to our soul salvation and having a solid rock, a solid anchor to stand on, this man doesn't happen, but he's reaching for it. And he's at a point in his life where he realizing he needs it. You know, two weeks before he realized he needed help because it was his hand, but now his need is much greater. But what about you tonight?
What about you? Tonight as you sit there in your in your seat, do you realize that you have a need?
Do you realize that your need is a desperate need, like everyone here in this room? But many of us had realized that need, and we turned to the Lord Jesus.
Do you realize your need tonight?
You know, if I could step down, if I knew where you sat and I could step off of this platform and go to your chair and take you by the lapels and make you believe, I would. But I can't do that. That's not something that I can do. It's God himself tonight that is speaking to your soul as to the salvation of your soul.
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And the decision?
As to you standing at a place where two ways meet.
It's gonna be made tonight by you as to which way you take.
Are you gonna take the way that seemeth right unto a man the end thereof, which are the ways of death?
Or are you going to choose the right way tonight, the way of life?
The way of receiving God's offer of salvation in the person of his beloved son here we have up on the wall here this this sign that I've been sitting over there in my feet and and facing this direction. They saw an old man say Jesus only.
What a marvelous thing.
To be able to stand here tonight and my sole salvation rests on that blessed one, the Lord Jesus Christ. This man, when I left his house, it was it was a burden to me because we find in Corinthians there are many voices in this world and it says none of them were are without signification. Which voice are you listening to? Which Rd. are you going to take tonight as you stand there at a place where two ways meet? Oh, tonight we trust.
That you will turn to the Lord Jesus, and you would be saved. Here we sing.
Another hymn in closing #9.
First three says yes, Jesus is the truth the way.
Only trust Him, only trust him, only trust him now. He will save you, He will save you, He will save you now #9.
Uh, really thought I'd say something like that.
In my head blah blah blah blah blah blah blah.
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Phone 0744500 and 32.
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9 1.
69 All right, all.
We pray.