Address—Bill Brockmeier
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.
No.
Oh Jesus, friend unfailing, how dear art thou to me our cares, our fears of sailing, I find my strength in thee. Why should my feet grow weary of this my Pilgrim way? Rough though the path and dreary, it ends in perfect day. This is a lengthy hymn, but it's rich in thought and expression, so I'd like to sing it all. 16 in the appendix.
Oh Jesus, friend Unfaith.
Why shut my feet?
Free.
Harvest.
Not my court as pleasure.
Compared to Christ with thee.
Thy sorrow.
And peace and joy for me.
I lost once more Jesus.
Like Christ?
For me, divine.
But when my blood most precious.
This cannot be.
What fills my heart with?
Wideness.
Tis thine.
Abundant grace.
Where can I look?
Inside.
Jesus.
On my face.
Providing.
My love, can there grow full.
In thee, my rap, you tidings no good.
We hope thou will fall.
Oh, I'll wake you up and Glory.
Your charms are spread in vain.
00:05:37
I gaze on Jesus.
There shall find dwell with God.
For every.
Trivia for distress.
Salvation.
Sure, help and quiet.
No Fear of all.
Prevailing.
Right.
Lord Jesus, we thank Thee that we have heard a sweeter story, that we have found a truer gain.
We thank Thee, blessed Savior, for that great love that brought thee down.
I'll just go all the way to Calvary for us bear our sins and own body on the tree.
To show forth the expression of God's love and all of the sweetness, all of its fullness. Thank you blessed Lord, I was gone into death without arisen from the grave. Our, the glorified one, and thou who hast loved us unto death, now does desire our affection and our response to thy love.
Bless you, Lord, we look up to thee this afternoon with, with uh.
Confidence in that love, and yet knowing that thou would speak to us.
And now it's working each heart, and now it's have a so for thyself, blessed Lord, hear the little time that might be left to us. And as we, our God and Father now would purpose open my precious word, we would do so with reverence and pray that thou is used for our blessing, for our edification, our exhortation and comfort. And so I looked at the Argonne, that indeed Thy word might affectionately work in US that it might not simply.
A little more knowledge or a little bit more of, of, of insight, but that our God now it's uh, use thy word and and blessing this afternoon. So we seek thy help when we ask it all, our Father giving thanks in that worthy name of our Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.
I'd like to read part of a couple of expressions to begin with the 1St in Genesis chapter one.
Genesis chapter one and verse.
5.
And God called the light day.
And the darkness he called night, and the evening and the morning were the first day.
That expression is found five additional times in this first chapter of Genesis. The evening and the morning were the first day. Oh, you say your Jewish reckoning of time, I would suggest is the divine reckoning of time. God orders in the quantifies day as as the evening and the morning gods.
Day. It begins in the evening. It ends in the morning. Now turn over to Proverbs chapter 4, if you would.
00:10:04
Proverbs 4 and verse 14. It references the path of the wicked.
But down in verse 18 it says the path of the just is as the shining light that shineth more and more unto the perfect day for the dead. Darby translation puts it, But the path of the righteous is as the shining light, going on and brightening until the day be fully come.
Again, in verse 19 it speaks of the way of the wicked is His darkness, but in contrast to that way, that path of darkness is the path of the just that goes on and brightens until the day before He comes. We often say, and rightfully so, that the day in which we live is getting darker and darker. Indeed, in Second Timothy we read that evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. Even within the Christian testimony, things are not improving, not getting better.
They are worsening and that's true, but that's only one aspect of the truth. We turn to 1St John. We would find the expression the darkness has passed and the true light now shineth, or rather should be. The darkness is passing, but the true light now shineth. Lee now stand in the light of God revealed. And despite the darkness of this world and and especially the moral and spiritual darkness, we live in the hour.
Of Christ rejection. And so it's night and it's darkness, but that darkness is passing. We look on.
To the coming day of glory we look on. To the day when it's going to be fully come, we look on. To the morning indeed, of the Lord's return and that coming Kingdom.
Been thinking a little bit of late of mornings, you know, years ago when I was a young person.
Thank God for every remembrance. Our dear brother Clarence Lundini said years ago, he says you have a Wollstone's books, Doctor WTP Wolsten. I said that when my parents have them and he said I asked you if you had them. I said, well, no, I don't have a copy. And he said here. And so some of my first books of ministry ever read in a young person. I encourage you, you're not too young to start reading them. They're very understandable. The gospel messages with a lot of substance to them. The first book I read was Seekers for Light.
And the second one was night scenes in Scripture. Very interesting, very instructive. Just nice to sit and read these wonderful, uh, invigorating messages.
And so the night season and the night in Scripture not only would speak of the hour of Christ's rejection, it would speak also of dark times in our life, whether it's matter, regrettably, of sin, and sometimes hours of sadness.
The sorrow suffering its night. Now the psalmist could say that weeping may endure for a night.
But joy cometh in the morning, and so that morning may be the return of our blessed Lord.
And weeping may endure a long time, but joy does come in the morning. And yet you also have the thought of the night or the night seasons in scripture.
As that personal, that very intimate, that very private.
Life and our relationship with the Lord and it's instructive to go through scripture to consider these things in the nice seasons. But I I don't want to pursue the night scenes and scripture this afternoon or the the night seasons. I'd like to focus a little bit more on the morning on the morning.
Before we move into some, what we might speak and suggest is mornings in a typical way that would bring before us a new beginning and a new day. I'd like to read a couple of verses that have reference very specifically to the morning of the day. The 1St is in the 5th Psalm, and again, neither of these two scriptures are unfamiliar to most of us, but it's good to be reminded of them.
As you read, I think Peter's ministry, especially he, he spoke that he would stir up their pure minds by way of remembrance. It wasn't that he was presenting a new line of things necessarily, or a different aspect of things, but he was reminding the believers of something that they knew already that they needed to be stirred up with. And so often where we fail in our life is not that we didn't know something, but we didn't act on what we did know, or we weren't stirred up and exercised, convicted with respect to it. The Psalm 5.
And verse 3.
David says, My voice shalt thou hear in the morning, O Lord, in the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee, and will look up. And then the other verse, companion verse, if you will, Isaiah chapter 50.
00:15:03
Prophetically looking on to the Lord Jesus, that perfect dependent man.
In verse four, the Lord God hath given me the tongue of the learned.
Are the instructed or of the disciple that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary?
He wakeneth morning by warning. He wakeneth mine ear to hear as the learned.
There's two things that should characterize us in the morning. The 1St is that the Lord should hear our voice.
In the morning, in the morning, I will hear my voice and I will look up in the sense of anticipation. And that's how we should begin every day. And the Lord can hear our voices even if we don't audibly speak. A lot is nice to pray audibly as well. But there's something else besides him hearing our voice, and that's us hearing his voice. And we find the Lord Jesus is that perfect example, the one who awakened morning by morning to hear, to hear.
A word in season. Why that he might know how to speak a word to him.
That is weary. Why often is it? Do you not have something to say to someone when something needs to be said?
Because we haven't first heard from the Lord.
And therefore we go. We have nothing but, O our blessed Lord, He heard, He heard is the learned.
So that in the Lord hear our voice, and may we hear His voice. Now turn to First Samuel chapter 2, if you would.
Like to look at several, uh, passages of scripture here, I should say First Samuel chapter 3 that I bring before us the thought of mourning, and I trust that would umm.
Be some lessons or some points for encouragement in our life.
First Samuel chapter 3 verse one. And the child ministered unto the Lord before Eli in the word of the Lord is precious, and that is very rare. In those days there was no open vision.
And umm, verse three. And Aaron, the lamp of God, went out to the temple of the Lord, where the ark of God was.
Samuel was laid down to sleep.
Except time. I'm not going to go through what this passage. Perhaps you're familiar with it. How?
Very sadly, the Lord did not speak through to Eli or through Eli. He was the high Priest, but there was issues with Eli and the Lord was going to move in a different direction.
And the Lord begins to speak to Samuel, one that was nurtured up by his mother and cared for, uh, bringing that code even as he was in in the Eli's under his responsibility.
And the Lord speaks to to Samuel and he doesn't know how to react. He doesn't know how to respond. He thinks it's Eli that's speaking to him and troubles Eli perhaps a bit, waking him from sleep. And finally Eli recognizes it's the Lord that is speaking to this young man and says, Samuel, this is what you say when the Lord speaks to you. And I just say this is a practical word.
That.
Those of us that when we're younger.
Sometimes we don't know how to react, perhaps to different things. The Lord is laid on your heart and and sometimes we say things or act in such a way that we ruffle some feathers.
Because you just don't know how to respond to it. Well, I, I think Eli was perhaps a bit, uh, perhaps even irritated at the third or fourth time when Sammy interrupted him from the night of slumber. And yet he realized the Lord was speaking to this man. And I think it's a nice word for us as a brother in the audience tonight that.
Probably 35 years ago said to me, he said, you know, Bill, the exercises that you have are from the Lord. And so maybe I didn't respond to it in the right way, but you know, when the Lord begins to speak to you, may we be sensitive to it in the night seasons. And it's that which is that intentionally personal relationship between you and the Lord. The Lord is laying things on your heart and convicting you. Well, we find that.
The Lord speaks to Samuel and it's really a message of judgment.
It's a very powerful word. Verse 11 The Lord said to Sam, You behold, I will do a thing in Israel at which both.
The ears of everyone that heareth it shall tingle in that day. I will perform against Eli in all things which I have spoken concerning this house. When I begin, thou also make an end. For I have told him that I will judge his house forever for the iniquity which he knoweth, because his sons made themselves vile, and he restrained them not. And therefore I have sworn into the House of Eli that the iniquity of Eli's house shall not be purged.
00:20:08
With sacrifice nor offering forever. And Samuel has this way on his mind all night long.
But now the morning comes, the night seasons are past, and Samuel lay until the morning and open the doors of the House of the Lord. He did his service, and it says Samuel feared to show Eli the vision. This is a morning of trepidation.
God has given Samuel a word to speak. He's not a.
He's not an old man, he's not a middle-aged man. He's a young man if he's a boy and he has a message of the most solemn consequences that now he's going to have to deliver to an aged man and he's not eager to do it. He's full of fear. But we find that this morning of trepidation becomes the morning of declaration. He doesn't want to deliver the message, but his hand is forced when Eli says in verse 17, what is the thing that the Lord has said unto thee, I pray?
Hide it not from me, God do so to thee, and more also if thou hide anything from me of all things.
That he said unto thee. And Samuel told him every wit, and his nothing from him.
And he said, It is the Lord, let him do what seemeth him good.
So see Eli.
Here is this message from Samuel, and I think it's so, so appropriate of the spirit that Samuel had. He had a very heavy message to deliver to Eli. He wasn't eager to do it. He was fearful, and yet he must make declaration of that. And so I just like to especially encourage you, dear younger ones, that as we start out in the pathway of faith, there is fear in bearing testimony for the Lord. I want to tell you briefly two men that I worked with.
Jim was a client of ours and this goes back a number of years. He was a strong man physically. Hockey player. He was a man of.
Influence a man of piercing eyes and, and, uh, really was a very intimidating figure And I, uh, was my, uh, I worked with him one day and said, well, I'll take, uh, we'll take you out to lunch and is this time to give thanks for the food. I, I, I have never had such a struggle in my life to say, oh, my head and give thanks to the Buddha.
I can't do it now with Jim sitting across the table.
But the Lord gave me grace about my head for a brief moment and I looked up and he's staring at me with his eyes just boring through me. He said did you just give thanks for your food? And I said I did. He smiled and stuck his hand across the table and says thank the Lord. He said I'm a believer but I was too scared to do that.
You know, this man carried himself in such a way in front of the world though. But we immediately had a rapport and a relationship there that there was a situation that came up later on at work and it was not something that I wanted to be involved in. He was, he was involved with it and my boss said I will not, I will not ask him to excuse you from this event. He said you will call him yourself. I said that would be fine.
So, Jim, this is Bill.
Spoke briefly and said that's fine brother, I I understand.
But may the Lord give us grace to have courage.
Uh, to in the smallest way to acknowledge him in that way. But now I want to mention about Joe.
I had umm.
I don't want to give too much background here, but I worked with the man, he professed the Lord and at one point he, umm, he uh.
He had gone to work from a different company and he came back and I had spoken to him before about the things of the Lord.
And so it was after office hours, you can mail back with the company and it's open workstation workspaces and cubicles. And so I went in and said, hey Joe, you're still reading the word.
He looked at me like that and said quiet.
I don't want anybody know that I'm anyone around here to know I'm a Christian, he says. There's some things in my life that just aren't right, so I don't want them to know that I'm a Christian. So don't, don't, don't bring that up to me again.
I felt my my hands were tied, as we say.
And I saw that man make one horrible decision after another.
00:25:00
We never spoke but.
The comments that he made to me.
One e-mail, he said to me, he wrote to me.
There was enmity there towards me.
What can I say? Here is a man professed to be a brother in Christ, and that he was.
Some years went by and I found out that, uh, someone said, well, I just got, well, I was gone on a trip and they came back and said I went to Joe's funeral. 49 years of age. He had, uh, developed into quite the bodybuilder.
HGH nutritional supplements and etcetera. He was, he had become quite a physical specimen and I felt so sick and hard to see the tragedy that his life had become. I was grateful to hear that.
That the Lord had restored him from the message that was given by a brother at his funeral had restored him to himself.
But I just briefly mentioned those two examples of the one who.
Who came out and confessed the Lord needed some encouragement. But here's another who wanted no part, no scripture speaks of the armor of light and what a safeguard it is that we confess Christ, that we in some way identify ourselves with him. Now we sometimes say, well, you don't have to do that with your mouth. You can do that in other ways with your action. And I understand that. But it is a great safeguard to confess the Lord Jesus with our mouth. Well, here it was a morning of trepidation for Samuel, but it was a morning of.
And that we find that that was the beginning of his great work and being used of the Lord. Now let's turn over back to Genesis chapter 32.
Because these mornings are are very real. For Samuel it was the beginning of very marvelous service, a blessing for the people of God.
But now we look at the story of Jacob.
And Jacob is to meet his brother.
Esau They had not left on good terms.
Specifically, you wanted to kill him.
Though we find in verse 24 of chapter 32.
And Jacob was left alone, and the rest of the man with him, until the breaking of the day.
And when he saw that he prevailed not against him, he touched the hollow of his thigh, and the hollow of Jacob's thigh was out of joy.
As he wrestled with him.
And he said, Let me go, for the day breaketh. And he said, I will not let thee go, except thou bless me.
And he said, What is thy name? And he said Jacob.
And he said, Thy name shall be called no more, Jacob, but Israel. For as a Prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed? Jacob asked him, and said, Tell me, I pray thee thy name. And he said, Wherefore is it without us? Ask after my name? And he blessed him there. And Jacob called the name of the place Peniel. For I have seen God face to face in my life is preserved. And as he passed over Penuel, the sun rose upon him, and he halted upon his thigh.
Therefore the children of Israel eat not of the sinew which is at the hollow of the thigh under this day, because he touched the hollow of Jacob's thigh in the sinew that shrank. Hold your place, Sir. I just want to read another verse in the.
Hosea.
Chapter 12.
In reference to Jacob in verse 3.
He took his brother by the heel in the womb, and by his strength he had power with God or and in his strength he wrestled with God.
Yeah, he had power over the Angel and prevailed. He wept and made supplication unto him. He found him in Bethel, and there he spanked with us. Well, here we find it's been noted that it doesn't say that in the Genesis 32 here that he wrestled with a man. A man wrestled with him.
And in our life we recognize that there are times that God and his sovereign grace has come in and begun to work in our life. It wasn't that we it was a fruit of our diligence or of our devotedness or something of the sort. We realize that God has stepped in and began to work with us. As it relates to a certain matter, we find that Jacob had been very resourceful. We made that he is a merchant man. The balances of deceit are in his hands. He loveth to oppress. Jake was marked by.
00:30:01
TV was marked by oppression. He was not a he was not a man that was honorable in that way. He did value the inheritance of God. But now God is going to speak to this man and he wrestles with him. And in Hosea it says in his strength, Jacob's strength, he wrestled with him. But you know he did not prevail in his strength by strength till no man prevailed. How did he prevail against him?
I so enjoyed an article I recently read.
The Christian friend on this subject.
And the writer rings out this thought. What is it that so claims the heart of a mother?
Is it the strongest, most demanding voice of a man?
As I would restore her to response immediately. No, it's the cry of her child.
It's the cry of weakness. He prevailed in weakness. The Lord had wrestled with Jacob, and Jacob wrestled in his strength. He wrestled with the Angel until the man, the Angel of the Lord, touches him and cripples him so that he's going to halt from that day forward.
And so in our lives, there is that which God, if there's gonna be anything for God, he's gonna have to come in some way and cripple us to come in and recognize we are not gonna go through this life standing tall and our own strength and our own energy and our own abilities and our own intellect and stand strong and finish strong. Know we're gonna have to be broken. We're gonna have to be weak. And again, this is a matter of Jacob the Angel wrestling with Jacob.
And he touches him. So how does he prevail then? He said, he says, let me go. He says, I'm not going to let you go. He's going to cling. And we sing in that hymn.
M 316 To him our weakness claims.
Jacob was gonna cling to him. He was not gonna let him go. And so he prevailed, not in his strength, but he prevailed in weakness. There was a lot of lessons for Jacob still to learn, but this great lesson was the breaking of Jacob, was the making of Jacob.
It was the morning of devastation, everything that Jacob would want to honor to build him up, and now?
He walks with a limp.
But this was what would form that man to ultimately be used of God and bless you. And so the sun rises on him when a morning this was and so sometimes those things and whatever it might be.
Some sort trial, some misunderstanding, some slander, something in some way that the Lord allows in our life that just cripples us and lays us low. That's where he can come in to begin the work and blessing. Now let's turn over please to the.
I'd like to turn to mark chapter 15 for the next morning.
Indeed, this is the morning of the crucifixion.
Mark, Chapter 15.
And straight away in the morning the chief resell the consultation with the elders and the scribes, and the whole council, and bound Jesus, and carried them away, and delivered him to Pilate.
And uh, Pilot asked him, Arthel, the king of the Jews, And the answering said unto him, Thou sayest it. And the chief priests accused him of many things, but he answered nothing. And Pilate asked him again, saying, Answerest thou nothing? Behold how many things they witnessed against thee. But Jesus yet answered nothing. So that Pilate marvelled now at that beast to release unto them one prisoner, whomsoever they desired. And there was one named Barabbas, which lay bound with them that had made.
Insurrection with him who had committed murder, and the insurrection in the multitude crying aloud, began to desire him to do as he had ever done unto them.
The pilot answered them, saying, Will you that I release unto you the king of the Jews? For he knew that the chief priests had delivered him for envy, But the chief priests moved the people, that he should rather release Barabbas unto them.
And Pilate answered and said again into them, What will you then, that I shall do unto him whom you call the King of the Jews? And they cried out.
Again crucify him. Then Pilate said unto them, Why, what evil hath he done?
And they cried out the more exceedingly crucified him. And so Pilate willing to content the people.
00:35:04
Released for Alison to them, and delivered Jesus, when he discouraged him to be crucified. And the soldiers led him away into the hall called Praetorium. And they called together the whole band. And they clothed them with purple, and platted a crown of thorns, and put it about his head, and began to salute him. Hail, King of the Jews. And they smote him on the head with a Reed, and it spit upon him. And bowing their knees worshipped him. And when they had mocked him, they took off the purple from him.
And put off, put his own clothes on him and let him out.
To crucify him.
Perhaps we'll stop there. What a morning. This was the darkest morning.
That this world has ever seen, when this world, Jew and Gentile, rich and poor, religious and political, all united as one man to crucify the Lord of glory, the Creator, the one who came to bless and the one who came to say what a morning this was.
You know this morning of accusation, this morning of crucifixion, there was nothing for our blessed Lord to learn, but there's much for us to learn in this go back to chapter 14 just for a moment. This thought is often struck me here in verse 65. Well, let's read from verse 63. Then the high priest rent his clothes and said what need we any further witness? You have heard the blasphemy. What think ye and they all condemned him to be guilty of death and some.
Spit on him, and to cover his face, and to buffet him, and to say unto him prophecy. And the servants did strike him with the palms of their hands. Here it's a religious.
Man, a high priest and the Blessed Lord is spit upon as well as buffeted, hit with a clenched fist and hit with a slap. You know a a slap stings more and is more insulting than a clenched fist. But the blessed Lord Jesus suffered and he was spit upon.
By this religious crowd, but we go into chapter 15 and verse 19. Now it's the Roman praetorian, it's the soldiers, it's the civil side, Jew, Gentile alike, and they spit on the blessed Son of God. You know Paul's desire was to have fellowship with Christ suffering.
Enjoyed a comment recently read where brother put it this way. He said that.
When we realize that everything that happens to us in life is for the purpose of conforming us more to the image of Christ, it resolves a great deal of anxiety.
And so as we read what our blessed Lord, you know, there may be things that happen to us that we don't like, that we don't care for, indeed, some things that are just outright unjust.
But the blessed Lord Jesus, he knew it all before us and with Him there's plenty of things that.
The Lord sees even if no man's eye sees, but with the blessed Lord Jesus He took it all and how we need to familiarize ourselves, and I mean that in the most meaningful sense, familiarize herself in the good way of the sufferings the blessed Lord Jesus went through at the hands of man. We can never enter into what He suffered at the hand of God in the ills, atoning sufferings where his soul was made an offerings for sin.
And where in those hours of darkness, he likewise offered himself as a sacrifice of a sweet smelling savor to God?
Would always consider what the Lord Jesus went through Indiana, every form of injury that man could keep upon him. The ridicule, the disdain, the mockery suggesting everyone against him. So I look for some to take comfort and there was none. And so the blessed Lord Jesus here in this hour of crucifixion, of accusation of cruelty that was rendered to him.
You know, I think it was a little cold, Mr. Darby said. He says love for Jesus.
Puts one to work. I know of no other way. And you know, if there's to be anything in our life, our poor life for the Lord.
It's gonna be a result of affection for Christ. It's not guilt driven.
It's not duty driven.
It's not a spirit of competition.
It's the response of simple love for the one who died for us, and to consider all that he suffered. And as the Lord may in this wisdom allow us to face things that we don't appreciate, may we think back on this Blessed One and to realize that in these things He is conforming us more to His image.
Now if you would go over to John chapter 20.
For if we have this morning of crucifixion here in John 20, we have the morning of resurrection.
00:40:04
John 20 and verse one the first day of the week cometh marrying Magdalene early, when it was yet dark unto the sepulchre, and seeth the stone take taken away from the sepulchre.
And she goes and gets Peter and the disciples, and then.
They come to the grave, the sepulchre, in verse 10. Then the disciples went away again unto their own home.
But Mary stood without the sepulchre weeping, and then she wept. She stooped down, and looked into the sepulchre, and seeth 2 angels in white, sitting, the one at the head, and the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain. And they say unto her, Woman, Why weepest thou?
She Seth into them, because they have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid him. And when she has thus said, she turned herself back, and saw Jesus standing, and knew now that it was Jesus. Jesus hath, and her woman, Why weepest thou whom seekest thou she supposing him to be the garden of Seth and him? Sir, if thou have borne him hence, tell me where thou hast laid him, and I will take him away.
Jesus saith, and her Mary she turned herself and Seth unto him.
Rabona, which is the same Master Jesus hath under, touched me not, for I am not yet ascended to my Father, but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend into my Father, and your father, and to my God and your God. Mary Magdalene came and told the disciples that she had seen the Lord, and that he had spoken these things unto her.
Good morning, good morning of Victory, the first day of the week, the Lord's Day.
This glorious day when the Lord Jesus rose from the dead and we find the disciples there. They'd gone back to their own home and no sense hanging around. They sized the situation up. They loved their Lord, truly. But we have to move on with life despite the sorrow. But there was a woman we find in Mark that the Lord had cast 7 demons out of her.
And she wasn't leaving. She stood without the self of her weeping.
We're familiar with the three Marys. There's more than three Marys. There's several Marys in Scripture, but the three Marys that are prominent in Scripture, Mary the Mother of our Lord and how precious to consider her and the sorrow that thou dear woman went through and prophetically has said a sword shall Pierce through thy own sword. Also to think of Mary the Mother of our Lord to to realize what it was for her to see her first born son so cruelly treated, despised and crucified. What a heart, what a pain for a mother's heart.
Mary, the Mother of our Lord. And then Mary of Bethany, we see affection blended with intelligence who anointed the body of Jesus before the day of His burial. So he was alive and he could appreciate the outpouring of her affection towards Him. Mary of Bethany, what in the wonderful example she is, but here is Mary Magdalene. She did not have the intelligence of Mary of Bethany, but she had this affection. So you said well that was lacking well.
Sometimes the Lord takes what's lacking our own deficiency and turns it into a marvelous blessing. But she wasn't going to go.
She didn't understand the truth of resurrection either, but she stays there. She just wants to be near there.
And weeps.
Well, we do find that the Lord does does address her. Why we face out.
Home seekers style.
Well, why was she weeping?
Because the Lord had died, Lord had crucified.
Whom, who, who, who, whom seek us out. Why are you here? And so she engages in this conversation and we find that devotedness and love. She say, well, if you think him, he's a gardener there. And if you've taken him away, I, I will, I will, as you say here, tell me where that was late him and I will take him away. What? What strength did she have to do that? But such was her devotedness to the Lord. But now we find something so precious here.
At the darkest time in her soul's history here, where it all seemed to be lost.
She hears that word, Mary.
She'd heard that before.
It says in John that he calls his own sheep by name. And she had been having conversation with the Lord, but when he spoke her name she turned herself immediately. She knew who that was, it could be none other. And she says, Rabonae, this is the morning of adoration.
And this is what the Lord desires from our hearts, that we that He transfixes our object. He is the only one worthy of our love and our devotedness, our praise, our honor, our worship. And we see it exemplified here in Mary of Magdalene. One word He says Mary, and she worships him. Rabona.
00:45:15
But now something too is most remarkable as well. If we go through First Corinthians chapter 15, we have those that were publicly saw the Lord and those that gave witness to his resurrection to establish the fact, because the gospel is based on fact, the truth, the fact of the resurrection. But Mary Magdalene wasn't isn't listed. There wasn't her place on the public side, and yet we find this woman.
Is given really the essence of John's ministry and John's writing the wonderful matter of the Father? I ascend unto my Father.
Send to them I ascended to my father and your father and to my God and your God. And Mary delivers this message now to the disciples to think this one, even the revelations always my father. It doesn't bring out the scope that Paul's truth really brings out. But we also have in John's that he is our father. But one final point here before we turn to the last passage. Mary Magdalene comes and speaks to the disciples that she has seen the Lord and that he had spoken these things unto her.
And isn't that what we want from the scripture? It says in Thessalonians Paul writes that the word of God which effectually worked in you that believe.
She wasn't just simply passing on something that hurt. She had heard or something that she had read. It says that He had spoken these things unto her. She got it directly from the Lord.
I'm not saying there's nothing that we haven't got through the Lord through a human instrument, but how we need to take these things is from the Lord.
She, he had spoken these things unto her and the result was we see where this woman lacking perhaps in intelligence, but not lacking in affection, and she is marked by adoration and that's what the Lord desires from us. Now let's turn over to the 21St chapter for the last passage here again, because of time, we.
We won't read it all. We do find that.
Simon Peter says I go fishing and others go with him and they they toil all night but then in verse.
Verse four, it says the morning was now come, but let's drop down in verse.
11 Simon Peter went up and drew the net to land full of great fishes in 153 for all their for so many, yet was not the net broken. Jesus saith unto them, Come and dine. And none of the disciples first asked him, Who art thou, knowing that it was the Lord?
Jesus then cometh and taketh bread and giveth them and fish. Likewise. This is now the third time that Jesus showed himself to his disciples. After that he was risen from the dead.
So when they are dying, Jesus saith the Simon Peter. Simon sent a Jonas lovest thou me more than these He Seth on him. Ye Lord, thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto thee, Feed my lambs. He saith him again the second time. Simon sent the Jonas, Lovest thou me? He saith on the em gay Lord, thou knowest said I love thee, He saith on him Feed my sheep. He saith on him the third time. Simon son of Jonas, lovest thou me? Peter was great because he said unto him The third time, Lovest thou me? And he said unto him.
Thou knowest all things, I know us that I love thee, Jesus saith on him feet my sheep.
This is the MA. This is the morning of restoration, the public restoration of Peter.
There's a beautiful verse, there's a short verse in Luke chapter 24 when the two that come down, Maya said on the way to Emmaus and they come back to Jerusalem and the, uh, the word is given out of the Lord's resurrection. But there's one verse that says there that the Lord is risen indeed and hath appeared unto Simon.
I thought I would so like to know what was said in that conversation.
But then I'm so glad. I don't know, because it was, it was, it is not my business. It was the Lord's business with Peter. And there was that moment of private restoration. Peter had denied his Lord with oaths and curses. He had wept bitterly when the Lord looked on him because he felt the guilt of his sin, the failure to his Lord. He denied his Lord and he felt it deeply and there was no solace.
00:50:02
He failed as Lord, he denied his Lord, He wept bitterly.
But we find that the Lord is going to break Peter and form him for a vessel for his own service. But there is that private.
Exchange between the Lord and Simon. And so there is that important matter with everyone of our souls. You know, says in Revelation as it relates to the overcomer there in Pergamos, that I will give him a whitestone, that stone of approval and a new name written that no man knows saving he that receives it. There are there are rewards, public rewards connected with the Kingdom, but I love to think of that private award and there's a name.
It's not even maybe a Senecilia reward, it's a special name that the Lord has.
It's a secret between the Lord and you forever.
So much is public, so much is in the day, but there is that which is intensely private and there is that with Peter, these intensely private moments, and there are moments that are too sacred.
That are too personal for any man to intrude and such was the case with Simon Peter, but here we have the public restoration of Peter because he had said in well meaning he know all should deny the yet will not I but he's the one that denied the Lord and yet so the Lord says and brings of this official. He says that you have caught. We know is the sovereignty of God that put the fish there and then that but he says come and die.
Now John's gospel begins come and see, and it ends with come and die.
Come and feast with me.
At least three of the overcomers in Revelation, the promises to eat, to eat of the tree of life, to eat of the hidden man, to Sup with me, thou fellowship with the blessed Lord. And so he probes this question that perhaps should have read this in the Darby translation, because it's a little clear when the Lord has Simon the son of Jonas love us, thou me, and he says thou knowest I am attached to thee.
The lesser form.
And when the Lord's answer to that is.
1St it's feed my sheep.
Feed my lambs, shepherd my lamb, she shepherd my sheep, and then feed my sheep.
But the Lord is seeking to bring Peter down to that point.
On the very point where he failed in, but he's going to restore him before them all. And then finally, when the Lord is grieved, because the Lord says it three times.
He was being truthful, He was being honest and he said I've attached to the well in the list is are you even attached to me? And I love this thought. He said, Lord, thou knowest all things and perhaps you, perhaps there's one, perhaps here. I don't impugn anybody. I've been there, but perhaps you've been there and you say maybe there's nothing in my life that would show there's any affection for the Lord Jesus.
And he says, Lord, you know all things. He just commits himself to the omniscience of the Lord.
And since you know all things, you do know that I'm attached to you, he said. Feed my sheep.
Why is that? Because that's the response of one that loves the Lord to feed and to shepherd and care for the sheep. You know David, it says he was a man after God's own heart. And there's many thoughts.
That have been brought out that have been very helpful why that might be so for myself. I like several thoughts, but I I do like the fact that he was a man after God's own heart because he loved the sheep. You know, at the beginning of his reign when David committed adultery with Bathsheba, the wife of Urias. When Nathan the prophet is sent to David.
With a message for God, he uses the parable of of the sheep, the EW lamb, and David's anger burned.
When he considers the concept of this the poor man being robbed, a man by force, resting this sheep and killing it.
David loved the sheep, but you know at the end of his and it brought him to repentance and the end of his days when he sinned in numbering the people. And he says to the Lord, as he sees the effect of what his sin had caused among the people of God, he says, but As for these sheep, what have they done?
This is all on me.
That's for these sheep. What have they done? He loved the sheep, and so he was a man after God's own heart. You know, may the Lord indeed, uh, draw each of our hearts out more to love the Lord's people.
Feed my sheep, shepherd my sheep.
You know it's a umm.
00:55:02
Solemn word that we've heard before in Acts 9. The Lord Jesus could say Saul, Saul by persecutest thou me? He felt it all, though there in the glorious Saul Tarsus, raging anger against the people of God.
The Lord felt it personally, and so may the Lord indeed expand our hearts of affection towards His own people. The Lord loves His own. Although just a few considerations. There's many. There's many mornings in scripture. There's many night seasons, but perhaps there'll be a few, especially those of you that are younger, but perhaps some of us that are older too that have not been.
Adequately courageous and and identifying ourselves with our Lord that even if it's a morning of trepidation that that that it might be a morning of declaration.
That we we come out on whose side that we're on. We belong to Christ. And then those things in our lives, sometimes these devastating things that come in, whether it's a sorrow, whether it's a matter that just fills us with shame. Something of the sort that realized that the Lord is is is working that we might cling to him. You know, I didn't mention I perhaps I should. The children of Israel don't eat of the hollow of the of the thigh to this day.
That is, if you see in me or I see in you a failure.
Perhaps where the Lord has touched you, you have failed. Don't feed on it. Don't feed on it. Yeah.
No, it's to humble us and to bring us to the Lord, but we don't feast on the failures of our brethren and all to realize the Lord is using that for their good and blessing. And then too, if the Lord brings us into those circumstances, not that we could ever taste anything of what our blessed Lord went through and suffering at the hand of man, but perhaps He gives you to see just a little flavor of it. It's an opportunity to have fellowship with His sufferings that we might appreciate Him more, the love that He had for us. And then that morning of adoration.
To realize that all the Lord has done for us and that as we read His Word, our hearts are drawn and affection and adoration to the man Christ Jesus. And then too, if we have wandered from him, or if we've gotten a little too big for our britches or whatever it might be, and the Lord has to humble us and and bring us down, may we be thankful for that, that morning of restoration.
He restoreth my soul.
Well, I think we've got a few minutes. I.
Sure, it'd be nice to sing 77 in the appendix.
Dark, dark within the midnight.
But Dayspring is at hand.
Glory, glory dwelleth in Emmanuel's land.
77 in the appendix.
The sense of time.
Are sinking.
The dawn of heaven.
Breaks.
The.
Summer morning.
Sign for the.
Fair sweet morn awakes.
Dark, dark has been.
The Midnight.
Dayspring is at hand.
And glory, Glory.
Dweller.
Hear any manual's land?
Oh, crisis.
A fountain.
The deep sweet.
World of love.
The streams on Earth.
I tasted more deep.
Altering.
Above.
Thereto an ocean.
Fullness.
Is mirror sea dust expand?
And glory, Glory.
To love.
Any manual's land?
With mercy and.
01:00:04
With judgment.
My.
Work no time evil.
And.
Sorrow.
Werlaster with his love.
Oh, bless the hand that.
Knighted.
Oh bless.
The heart of that land.
I am I beloved.
And might be lost. That's mine.
He brings.
A poor, vile sin.
Ner into his House of wine.
Top on his merit, I know no safer stand.
Nodding where glory dwelleth.
Any manual's land?
The bright eyes, not her garment.
About her dear bridegroom's face.
I will not gaze at.
Glory.
But on my king of grace.
Not that the Crown.
But on his Pearson.
The Lamb.
Is.
All the glory.
Let's pray.
Or Jesus indeed, we see you through a cloud, darkly, then face to face, and we'll know even as we're known. Thank you for that bright morning that awaits indeed that morning without clouds. Blessed Lord, when death will be swallowed up in victory. And blessed Lord will be with thee and see thee face to face. Our hearts will be full, and our lips will be.
And loose to sing thy praise eternally with gratitude. Thanksgiving. We pray that these things might be so even now.
Things how that was worked with us and all the way they always let us indeed with mercy and with judgment. Our web of time thou hast woven and even the dews of sorrow of and luster with thy love. So we pray our God that in these things we might hear thy voice and hear thy voice, blessed Lord, and we might respond to the in greater affection and greater appreciation and Nobel before thee give thanks for this time together.
Commanding our way to Thee now with Thanksgiving, our Father, precious name of the Lord Jesus.
E-mail.