Address—D. Nicolet
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Same love to Jesus drew us.
I'd like to turn for a verse in.
First Corinthians to introduce the subject that I trust the Lord has laid on one's heart.
Turn with me, please, to 1St Corinthians.
And.
Chapter 3 or 4 perhaps?
Corinthians chapter 4.
I'm going to read 2 verses.
Starting with verse 14.
I write not these things to shame you, but as my beloved sons.
I warn you.
For though ye have 10,000 instructors in Christ, yet have ye not many fathers?
Jesus, I have begotten you.
Through the gospel.
My beloved brother and I.
Pondered much.
The.
Roles and the various things that are mentioned in scripture about fathers and mothers.
And I believe that the day in which we live.
The confusion and the darkness of the day. And I really am not now necessarily referring to the world.
In its various day, whatever age it is always, you might say, been a dark place.
Ever since.
It did kind of a horrible thing of casting out the Prince of Peace.
It has sealed its doom, you might say.
As to light and love and peace, it's cast all that out. And so while things are indeed getting increasingly worse, more open, more violent, more corrupt, we recognize that when I talk about darkness and confusion, I'm really talking about the.
Professing testimony of Christianity.
And the things that come among that testimony at large and how those things affect us as those.
Who by the matchless grace of God are gathered to the precious name.
Of the Lord Jesus Christ. Incredible, priceless privilege.
And yet we have an enemy who has ever active to bring discouragement and confusion.
To.
Umm.
That state or condition of things where there will be a weakening and a giving up.
And if he can affect it, a destruction of those.
Who are gathered to the precious name of the Lord Jesus.
In what has occurred to me, and I'm sure to many others, that I marvel, how often I see it throughout Scripture is the encouragement to and the instruction for and the guidance and the principles given to those.
Who are fathers and mothers? Fathers and mothers not only naturally speaking with families.
But those who have the father and Mother's spirit in the assembly.
And I'd like to suggest.
What I'm thinking of in my own soul concerning these things.
You know, Paul talks here about teachers and about fathers.
And I am not here this afternoon to in any way criticize or denigrate in any way those who are gifted as teachers. Thank God.
For good solid teaching.
Because it says in the word of God that all Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable.
For doctrine, it starts there for teaching. That's the foundation, if the.
Teaching. If the doctrine isn't right, nothing else is going to be right. So.
Those things that I have that I trust are from the Lord this afternoon.
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That I want to share with my beloved brethren are not in any way to be taken as a criticism of teaching. But Paul was saying something to the Corinthians. He was telling them that while there were, you might say, an abundance of those who taught, what they needed was fathers, He was their spiritual father. He had begotten them in the gospel.
And I would like to suggest a very simple difference.
Between teaching and fathering.
A teacher in parts. I believe what he knows. A father imparts what he is.
And today, if the assembly is to survive and if our families are to survive.
We need to impart knowledge doctrine. That's true.
But we need vitally to have faithful men and women of God imparting what they are.
Molding.
Those young and those young in the faith.
And so Paul is saying, I want to impart to you what I am. You have plenty of people that are filling your mind, but I want to mold your heart.
After Christ.
You know, a father, as I said, I believe.
Gives the sense of molding character. A mother, a spiritual mother, I believe gives a sense of affection.
Fruitfulness.
Nurturing.
And we need those spiritual characteristics in the assembly. It's not a matter of how dark the day may be spiritually. It's a horribly dark day. We're perhaps just moments before the return of the Lord Jesus. And as Timothy says in in the Mr. Darby's translation, in those last times difficult days shall be there. It's a difficult time, and it's getting increasingly difficult for Christians.
It's becoming increasingly difficult to go on in the assembly, gather to his precious name, and what I want to suggest is desperately needed and called for. And what I want to exercise each of our hearts here this afternoon is to consider, and we might say, desire of the Lord, that there might be found among us that spirit of fathering.
Building and molding a character for the Blessing.
Of the young, and I say again, the young in age or the young in faith, and that there might be that spirit of mothering that nurtures and bears fruit in the assembly. We need them desperately. You know, I'm not, it's not on my heart to go through it, but in the first epistle of John.
The apostle writes, and I believe at least seven times. He refers in the King James translation to.
My little children or little children?
Now, in a better translation, Mr. Darby's translation, or I should perhaps say a more accurate one, you find there's a difference between children.
And little children. So he talks about children as those that he we might say in the words of the apostle. Paul has begotten in the faith and has a care for and a desire for their blessing, and a desire to mold them and ground them in the truth, that they might go on in the truth, he says. I have no greater joy.
Than to hear my children walk in truth. That was the Apostle John's part.
And so when he refers those seven times to my little children or little children, he's really talking to those who are his children in the faith. He also speaks of little children as little children in terms of levels, you might say, in the Christian life, the fathers, the young men and the little children. But the apostle John speaks of little children or his children. And I want to turn back just for a moment to notice that I'll leave it to my beloved brother here to follow that out. But I.
Believe you will find. I think it is 7 times in the first epistle that they're mentioned and I think the principles involved are with great profit, though that is not what the Lord has laid on my heart. But let's turn there just for a moment to notice one or two of them.
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First, John.
In chapter 2.
Opens, I believe, with that first one, the apostle writing, he says first John chapter 2, verse one. My little children, these things write I unto you that ye sin not.
Later in that chapter, verse 12, he says, I write unto you little children, because your sins are forgiven you. Now each of these that I'm reading, you could just say, and I think I'll read the rest of them simply as children.
Verse 28. And now children abide in him and so it goes. I won't read them all, but let's look at the very last verse of the 5th chapter.
Of the Epistle of John.
Verse 21 First John 521. Children, keep yourselves.
From idols, here's a father whose heart is yearning to impart that which he is.
That which he has enjoyed, that which Christ has given him, He's yearning and desiring to impart that to his spiritual children, that they might be blessed and go on in the truth.
So I submit again, beloved brethren, that I would desire my heart, and I trust that your hearts.
Each one of us here might be deeply stirred and exercised to that father characteristic.
You know, in one way.
A father has to be a teacher.
And a teacher, to be effective, has to have a fathering spirit. It seems to me. I don't know that I've learned much in the years that I taught, but I did learn this, that I met a lot of people who had a tremendous amount of knowledge, brilliant people, and they were very poor teachers.
Just brilliant. It well taught people, but they were very poor teachers and beloved brethren. The reason they were poor teachers was because they never took time to find out what the needs of their children were. That is what the needs I should say of their students were. They just simply stood up and imparted knowledge, and they had vast knowledge, but it's vitally important to find out what those to whom.
We're imparting knowledge.
What their needs are, what their level of understanding is, I suppose you might say an application. It's like David.
Who had men who had understanding of the times?
And because they had understanding of the times, they knew what was needed at that particular time.
And they were a great benefit and a blessing to David and to those who followed David and our beloved brethren.
Just make it that simple and encourage all of us.
To as we learn and read and study the word of God, and May God grant we do it 100 times more faithfully than we are.
Can study the scriptures and learn the scriptures and learn the doctrines.
But then, as we impart them to be those who have a spirit of a Father, that has an understanding of the needs and the levels and all that those to whom that knowledge is being imparted are so that it can be received and it can be molded. And may I say along with this, if there is that desire for that fatherly Spirit, brethren, I think it's vital.
You know, we've often heard it ministered that the Lord will have a testimony.
Until he comes, I believe that.
But brother, I am not about to stand up here and tell you that I know I am going to be there.
I want to be there and I want you to be there. And if you have a father's heart and a mother's heart, you want to see those that you know and you love to be there.
But it's not a given.
And what we need is a spirit that so yearns and so loves.
That we as fathers and mothers give ourselves.
That there might be blessing you. Remember David, the Lord came to him through.
The.
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Prophet and told him you're not going to be allowed to build me a house.
And David accepted that. He bowed to that. But what did he do? Oh, he laid up a great store of materials to pass on to his son Solomon, who was going to build the house. Oh beloved brethren, let's do that. Let's, as fathers and mothers, lay up a store of materials that might help and bless and be used in blessing and guide those who are coming on.
That the place that we've been brought through the mercy of God, gathered through the precious name of the Lord Jesus Christ, might indeed.
We might indeed not it be preserved that we might indeed and are.
Children are spiritual children. Our natural children might be preserved in it.
Well, having said that and seeking to.
Simply begin by underscoring what I believe is.
An incredibly important thing today in the assembly.
Is that we develop prayerfully, earnestly.
That the for one of a better word, I'm just going to say the fathering spirit.
And the mothering spirit. I don't believe that's a special gift. I know that there's a gift of shepherding, pastoring, if you will. A gift of teaching. A gift of evangelizing.
But loving.
The Lord Jesus.
And desiring to see those gathered to his precious name be preserved and kept and go on in that path for their blessing, I don't think that's a gift. I think that's a question of heart. Affection, affection for Christ, and affection for what he loves. Christ also loved the assembly, the church, and gave himself for it. And all may our hearts.
Be stirred to have that affection for Christ and affection for one another that we desire to see them molded.
And that that which will be for their blessing and the preserving of the testimony well.
What I want to do before we go back and look at an example that you might say is.
One of the premier examples of failure in the Old Testament, but I think we just learned marvelous lessons in that in those failures. I want to look at a verse in John, in the Gospel of John.
Chapter 4.
I marvel at this verse.
I trust I, along with my brethren here, marvel at the word of God. But this is a verse that I marvel at.
John Chapter 4.
And we know the story of our blessed Lord Jesus.
He must needs go through Samaria and then let's start in verse.
By Ben cometh he Jesus to a city of Samaria, which is called Saikar, near to the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph.
Now Jacob's well was there.
Jesus, therefore, being wearied with his journey, sat thus on the well, and was about.
The 6th hour.
Now I want to skip on rather than reading these verses. He asks as we know this a dear woman for a drink of water, outcast woman, even of the Samaritans, and he asks her for a drink. He who has the living water.
And she says in verse 11 and 12 The woman said unto him, Sir, thou has nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. From whence then hast thou that living water out thou greater than our father Jacob, which gave us the well, and drank thereof himself, and his children, and his cattle?
Well, she had things mixed up, you might say, as a Samaritan claiming to be in the good of the lineage of Jacob. But all did she ever have the principles right?
She knew that that well was deep.
She knew that it was a place that Jacob drank from, and she knew that it was a place that not only Jacob drank from a place, a deep place, but it was a place that he took his children to drink from, and he had his cattle drink from that. Well, everything about Jacob's life and testimony here, thousands of years later, the testimony has been passed on. Jacob drank from his well, and it's a deep well, oh, beloved brethren, if you want to be fathers.
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If you have a heart's desire to be a father, here's a deep well, and you've got to drink from it first, and so do I. But then let's not stop there. Let's see to it that our children, children in the flesh, children spiritually, that they drink. And fine to the depth of this well, you know, sometimes we may only get a few verses in when we read the Bible in the morning.
Life is so rushed and so hurried, but whether it's a short portion, a little bit, or whether it's time for a lie.
Let's not skim over it quickly and say OK, I've read I can go now for the day.
But to drink, to find the depths in this word of God and will never Plumb them, will never come to the bottom of the depths of the word of God. It's a deep well.
So may we be found ever drinking from that and then bringing our children, those that we want to mold and that which we enjoy, that which we found in Christ.
To bring them to that well and mold it and it's so incredibly practical.
Not only our children, but our very lively our livelihood, our lives, our cattle.
The things that we use in this world rightfully to get along to this world, as we said this afternoon, to pride things honest in the sight of all men.
That that too is fed from the same source every aspect of our life, being fed and drinking from this deep well that we drink from, that we give our children to drink from, that our lives find its refreshment from the well that the Lord Jesus sat on the true and living water.
Well, I pass that on because I want you to remember that about Jacob.
I feel it's one of the very bright testimonies to this man that we often identify with because of his failure, not because of his success, how often we've heard it said and and we feel it ourselves. Perhaps I can identify with Jacob.
I feel a sympathy with Jacob. I'm so much like him. I have a little more trouble identifying with Abraham.
Or Joseph. I wish I could, but I don't find that it's a very easy thing to do. But Jacob, unfortunately I find for myself, is quite easy to identify with. But Jacob, the end of his life, was a wonderful victory, a glorious victory, leaning on the top of his staff, blessing Pharaoh and going out from his presence. Have you ever noticed that about Jacob in the end of his life? He wasn't dismissed by Pharaoh.
The less I say an application was blessed of the better. Jacob stands in Pharaoh's presence, and he blesses him and he goes out from his presence. He's not a slave under ******* being ordered around, But he turns and leaves, He blesses and he leaves. Oh, that's a wonderful thing, to be so risen above the things of this world and to move in the calm dignity of the sons of God. And that's what we want to enjoy.
And that's what we want to pass on and need to pass on that there might be preserving and care in the assembly and in our families. And so Jacob had that well and he drank and it was a deep well and his children and his cattle. And now I want to turn back to Jacob's life and we're going to find some things that I think are wonderful principles in his life.
To encourage us.
As fathers.
And we're going to turn Brethren to what I think on the outside. On the surface, I should say looks like some some real failure. And in fact, I suspect there was real failure connected with this episode.
But I want you to know, brethren, that I believe with all my heart that being a father.
Does not depend on my being perfect, because if it did, I was lost a long time ago. There's no such thing.
As a human perfect father. But because I fail doesn't mean I give up.
And Jacob's life of failure didn't mean that he gave up and said why try anymore? I've messed up so bad up to this point. Why keep on? I'm just going to give up. It's not worth it. I'll just mess up again.
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No, he didn't give up, beloved brethren. I don't mean to.
Repeat things that I've said before.
But I stand before you, and I tell you.
That one has known what it is.
Beyond his needs.
Weeping because of failure.
Did you ever say, Lord, can I please go back and do it again?
Failed. He never fails.
And because I failed does not teach me the lesson that it's time to give up because you just can't do it.
Jacob failed. He failed miserably. And even in those places that we're going to read about, we're going to find Jacob failing. But there was something stronger than his failure, and that was his love.
For his God and his love for his family. And he went on.
Those beloved brethren of each of us, I should say, that are sitting here now have that desire to be fathers and mothers. It's not a question of whether you've done it all right. Not one of us has. It's a question of whether or not there's love for Christ and love for those that belong to him, and the desire to fulfill that role and continue in it.
In spite of failure.
I don't excuse self will.
But failing is no excuse to give up.
Genesis.
Chapter.
32.
We will assume a knowledge of the background of Jacob in some respect.
You know we were mentioning earlier talking with talking with a couple brothers earlier today and talking about the account of the Tabernacle.
In scripture and how it starts.
In Exodus 25 and goes through Exodus 40 or so, 15 chapters or so devoted to the Tabernacle. It's quite an important subject.
You know, if you look at the life of Daniel, a life that many of us would not dare to claim that we could live in that kind of.
Faithfulness to the Lord in those circumstances. His life that we have as a record encompasses 6 or 7 chapters and then the prophecies are given. You find the account of others. Very faithful men in scripture don't take very much of scripture. The life of Jacob with all of his failures takes quite a portion of the book of Genesis. I want to say this again brother, because one of the things Satan uses I believe on us individually.
And in the assembly is to beat us over the head with our failures.
Telling us we just as well give up. Nobody's going to listen to you anymore anyway. Look how bad you've done.
That's from Satan. That's not from the Lord. He's intensely interested in us and he loves us. And there is every reason to move ahead in confidence in spite of what's taken place. And the story of Jacob is a beautiful instance of encouragement in that very thing. But I want to turn to chapter 32, and we know that Jacob now, 21 years or more later, is on his way back and he's got some things he's got to face.
Things that he did wrong when he left in the time and the years didn't erase it. One of the things is he's going to have to face the brother that he cheated and deceived.
And he knows that. And we're not going to go, we don't have time to go into all the background that lead up to his exercises, because I want to deal particularly with the fathering spirit that Jacob shows in the midst of this great failure.
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But let's at least go to this much of the background, it says in verse one. Jacob went on his way.
He's on his way home now. Verse 3. Jacob sent messengers before him.
To Esau, his brother verse four, and he Jacob.
He commanded them, saying, Thus shall ye speak unto my Lord Esau. Thy servant Jacob sayeth thus. I have sojourned with Laban, and stayed there until now. And I have oxen and ***** flocks, and men servants, and women servants. And I have sent to tell my Lord that I might find grace in thy sight. So he's seeking for peace.
Is there any peace to the wicked?
You're sick.
Verse 6 The messengers returned to Jacob, saying, We came to thy brother Esau.
And also he cometh to meet thee and 400 men with him. I submit to you that the circumstances don't look very promising. Jacob has no reason to expect or look for or hope for the best. He got a report that the one he announced to that he was returning is coming to meet him. But in those days I'll submit to you that 400 men.
Who no doubt were Warriors. Coming on a company such as Jacob had with very few men who were warriors was not a pleasant thing to look forward to.
And sometimes that happens in our lives and we look for peace and we realize we've.
Gone astray and we want to seek to come back and retrace our steps.
And perhaps the first thing that comes that meets us is this horrible fear. There is all of the accumulated past mistakes coming out to meet you, to destroy you. Did Jacob turn and run and hide? No. I believe this is a wonderful picture that he goes on. He's he goes through tremendous exercises and wrestlings with God, but he goes on.
And in fact, he even starts as Jacob ever does. He starts making plans. Not plans based on faith in God's blessing and preserving care, but plans based on Jacob's ability to somehow figure out a path to worm through all these problems he's caused. So it says Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed and he divided the people verse 8 and said if Esau come to the one company and smite it, then the other company which is left shall escape.
Beloved brethren in the principle of fathering, may I suggest that's not good enough. It's not good enough to lose half of those who are desiring to Father and to nurture and to mold in the things of God. It's not good enough, and it's not a question of failure. It's a question of trust and faith in the God that we've come to know and love, and that we call as our Father.
But Jacob wasn't there yet.
He was still planning and he just figured somehow I'm going to scrape through this and some.
Of my posterity is going to escape.
Beloved brethren, I want to suggest to you, which may seem to you in the circumstances of your life, or may seem to me in the circumstances of my life, that's naturally an impossible thing, and that is, God wants to bless you and yours fully.
He wants to bless. He desires to bless the assembly fully, not just a few, not just some. But what about the mistakes? What about the coldness? What about this? What about that? Let's start.
Our exercise about being fathers with this understanding, God's desire is for full and complete blessing. And may I say, and I have to do it in my life, and I know, brethren, that we do in our lives. May I say, if I have that sense of faith in my God, in your God, our wonderful God and Father that his desire is to fully bless, then I can go in an unhindered spirit, pray for every circumstance, those that seem impossible.
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As well as those that don't seem so bad. But I do it with faith in a realization that God's desire is to fully bless in every way. Brethren, let's act on that. Let's move forward on that. Let's not say let's be willing to give the enemy 50% and try to at least save a little. That's the reasoning of the world. It's not the reasoning of faith. It's not the reasoning and trust in the God of Heaven who loves us. Have we made mistakes? Yes.
Have we done things wrong? Yes, go on and on. Add all of the things and God knows, as the the hymn goes up, I think it is a innumerable more mistakes that we've made. Is that time to give up and and give the enemy what he's after? Absolutely not. Well, we won't go, We won't.
Spend more time in this chapter, except we'll notice that Jacob not only divides, but he decides to appease.
And he's going to go to great expense to, in his own strength, meet this problem.
And what's beautiful to see is he's going to learn he didn't need to do that. You know, sometimes we go to a tremendous efforts and expenses, tremendous expense and tremendous effort to try to make up for and pay for and deal with the mistakes that we've made, the sins that the self will that's come in and cause problems. But it's so beautiful to see that the cast ourselves in the presence of God owning.
What I've done and simply cast oneself on his mercy.
That's a very painful thing to go through, but in one sense it's not a costly thing. Well, Jacob sends all of these presents to appease his brother, and then we have that wonderful account that we won't take time to look at of the wrestling with God. But now let's go to Chapter 33 to finish up, and let's look at some of these principles that so beautifully shine in the midst of Jacob's failure. And on belief, Jacob lifted up his eyes, verse one, and looked and behold, Esau came.
And with him 400 men.
And he divided the children onto Leah, and onto Rachel, and onto the 2 handmaids.
And he put the handmaids and their children foremost, and Lee and her children after, and Rachel and Joseph hind her most.
Well, I'm going to say something that will perhaps sound contradictory because earlier I said when it says in verse seven of the previous chapter that he divided the people, he divided them into two companies. He was going to be willing to give one of those companies up and it sounds like he's going to be willing here, but that's not why he's dividing them up this way and.
There are some very solemn thoughts here, but let me just say this.
He's not willing now any longer to lose these.
But there is an order based on his affection, and I'm not going to say.
As to the rightness of this or not, but in the day in which he lived, and remembering who it was that and won his heart that he served seven years for, and it seemed but a few days for the love he had for her, we can see the affection of his heart at work. And that's the principle. It's the only principle I want to suggest here. Here is a man now that's no longer being guided by profit and loss, if you will, motives.
By the bottom line, by business, like decisions. Here's a man whose heart is now in action, in love. And so he sets Rachel his beloved Rachel and Joseph in the hindermost. And now we know that his heart is set in love. Let me misread verse 3. And he passed over behind them and bowed himself. No, it doesn't say that he goes in front of them. So the love of a father says.
Even if I put them in this order because of love, if there's going to be a Smiting, it's going to get me first.
And he goes in front of them, keeping those he loves behind them. Fathers, may I apply it this way. If you're going to have the desire to be a father in the assembly, you're going to have to take a lead. Now, I don't need a wrong lead or a lead. That's not an appropriate one. I mean, you and I are going to have to act as men. We're going to have to act as men and their responsibility. And it can happen in 1000 ways.
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And I'm going to say this because I saw it happen today, so it won't sound like criticism. Men are going to have to move the chairs and set the tables and see to it that the needs are met. Men are going to have to start the songs. Men are going to have to open the meetings with prayer on and on and on. It's burden after burden after burden. And it's a man in the sense of a man with responsibility that takes that up. Jacob is taking the lead. There's something coming.
A difficulty, a trial, a problem. And Jacob is going out in front of those he loves.
To be the first one to meet that problem. He's not standing back and sitting back and let's set letting someone else go.
He's going first. The conniving is all over. He sent his gifts.
Divided his company up to try to save the prophet and the loss and admit it to to increase the profit. I should say minimize the law. That's all done.
Jacob is acting as a man of God in spite of all of his failures, and he goes before those that he loves.
To me, the one who's coming, as far as he knows, to destroy him. Beloved brethren, I'm speaking to everyone of you here, from the oldest to the youngest, who act in that capacity in the assembly. Do you want to be a father, one that nurtures and preserves?
You're going to have to take the lead. You're going to have to be a leader. You're going to have to set a straight path that those who are behind you can follow it, and so am I. And that's what fathering starts with if we're going to be spiritual fathers.
We're going to have to be in the forefront, not behind. Well, then it goes on.
And we see that Esau runs in, much to no doubt the surprise of Jacob. He runs and falls on his neck, and he kisses him. They weep. Verse five, he asks who the children are, the wives they come to, they are introduced.
He says. What do you mean by all this? Drove that you've sent to me? This is a little rebuke to his lack of faith. But the beautiful thing is that Jacob doesn't stop being a father and say, oh, I messed up again. I didn't trust God. I might as well give up. No, he doesn't. We're going to see that he gets firmer and stronger as he goes on, because Esau becomes more and more subtle in his attempts. He's not coming out with a sword. I said earlier today, and I'll repeat it, he's not coming out of Sparrow to destroy. He's coming out of Sparrow's daughter to nurture. And both are equally dangerous fathers.
And mothers, the world that wants to destroy, we know enough to stay away from and to keep our children away. But we're so foolish about the world that's beckoning. Saying we're going to take I'll take care of you. I'm going to nurture you. I'm going to train you. I'm going to give you a wonderful easy position. And we get sucked into that So easy.
Well, Esau isn't coming with 400 men to destroy. He's coming with 400 men to nurture. And the result of it will be every bit as real a destruction as if he had used the sword. And Jacob as a father, has to stand against that. And so here he is now. And.
Esau says I don't need this stuff you sent to me. What you send that for, that's a little rebuke. But I just mentioned that that rebuke doesn't turn Jacob's side here, Jason to take it. Esau takes it and they go on now.
Verse 12 And he This is Esau speaking. So let me read it that way, Esau said. Let us take our journey and let us go, and I will go before thee.
Jacob has just been expecting to be slaughtered and instead he's covered with kisses.
Jacob is expecting that his gifts will only be the start of Esau's taking and spoiling everything he has.
And instead, Esau offers to give back his gifts.
And says I don't need it. And now Esau comes in with the real subtle one fathers who says.
Jacob, let's go together on our journey.
Let's go on our journey.
And I'll go before.
Let's you and I compromise and let's go on together in friendship and peace. And I'll be the leader and you can be the follower. And where I decide to go, you just follow right along, Jay, because I'm going to take care of you.
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A pretty tough thing to turn down for a conniving.
Scheming, deceitful man like Jacob.
He really said, oh wow, this is going to be so much easier than I thought.
Right here I've got 400 men to protect me now. Esau has lived in this area for 21 years.
People are afraid of him. Why? I can just sail right through here and everything is going to be just fine. He doesn't say that.
Look at how Jacob replies. And Jacob said unto him, My Lord knoweth that the children are tender.
Now it's true, as some have suggested, Jacob was still skiing here. You don't.
Get rid of the effects of self will overnight. But I'm suggesting to you that he wasn't scheming when he said the children are tender. He was telling the truth. He looked well to the state of his flocks, and he knew what the limits of his children were. And he knew that if Esau were to lead them, it would be to their destruction, not to their preservation. All beloved brethren, the children, those who are young in the faith, are tender, and the world is going to come in and OverDrive them.
If we follow with and try to accommodate our families, the assembly, our own lives to the world.
Those very ones that we want to mold.
Into followers of Christ are going to be overdriven. Jacob had a concern and he said no, he saw. I don't want you to leave me because I'm concerned about my children. Not a wonderful thing to be concerned about. I'm concerned about my children and he goes on and the flocks and the herds with younger with me and if the men should OverDrive them, the flock will die. He was concerned about every aspect of his life that he did not want the world.
To be that which was going to lead him because the world had no concept.
Of what a spiritual father wanted for his children and for what belonged to him. Well, let's go on. There's so much more there.
Am I speaking this afternoon to hearts that want to be fathers and mothers? I believe I am.
May I suggest that we learn, all of us, starting with this one, standing up here speaking to you.
That we all learn what it means to lead on softly. I don't need to look the other way when things are being done that it's honoring to the Lord. I mean to learn to have a tender, compassionate spirit toward those that were seeking to mold and help. I'm going to lead on softly. That's a father's spirit of softness. You know, it's so wonderful in the story of the.
Samaritan and the man who was wounded, you know the King James that says he came to where he was.
The Samaritan was going to SAP. He had compassion on him. It's so beautiful to read that in the JND translation it says he came up to where he was. Isn't that beautiful? He went down lower than the one who was in the ditch wounded. And if you and I as fathers and mothers are going to lead on softly, we're going to have to learn what it is to go down, to be lower than to enter in in compassion to the conditions.
That we have to deal with as fathers and mothers and not to drive and as.
It was said there in the day of Solomon's son. You think my dad, I'm going to paraphrase, you think my dad was tough on you. Just wait till I get the whip out and I'll show you what's really tough. That's not the way you're going to be. Or I'm going to be a father that nurtures it's to lead on softly. And I say again, brother, I don't want anyone to get the thought. I'm saying, look the other way and accept that which is honor in Christ. I don't mean that for a minute. And I think you know that.
But there is a spirit in which we do these things that is beautiful to see in Jacob here. Let's go on and finishing.
It says.
According as the cattle that goeth before me and the children be able to endure, I say again what I said earlier. If we're going to be, may I say it this way, successful spiritual fathers and mothers, we have to understand the condition and the abilities of those who are seeking to lead in the Lord.
00:50:22
And I want to say, beloved brother and back there is a bookshelf with ministry. Some of the homes I've been in. In fact, I think every home I've been in on this trip, my beloved wife and I, I have seen libraries with wonderful ministry in it. Thank God for that ministry. But brethren, let's you and I understand the condition of those we want to present that ministry to and find out if they're able to receive it.
And if we find and see and enjoy deep truths of the word of God, let's ask grace.
From God, to present it in a way that those that were seeking to father and mother.
Can endure it. I don't mean to soften it. I don't mean to water it down. I mean to present it in a way that those were seeking to mold for the glory of Christ are going to be able to take in and walk in. What we're presenting I wish today.
That this testimony of Christianity, that the assemblies gathered to his precious name at our homes and families were like they were in 1825.
Let's look at what we are today, and let's take the unchanging truth of God and never change it, but present it in a way that can be endured, and if it can be endured, it preserves.
Let's finish up.
Jacob is still failing until I come to my Lord unto Seer verse 14. You have any intention of going there? The flesh is still acting, but Jacob's not giving up as a father. And then he goes on and he says here. And Esau said, look at this one, Let me now leave with the some of the folk that are with me said, OK, if you don't want to follow me, if you don't want me to be with you and guide you, you don't want to compromise with me. I'll just leave a few of my men.
What was it that characterized the company of the children of Israel when they started longing after the leaks and the onions and the garlics of Egypt? It was a mixed company that fell to lusting. There were those who came out of Egypt who didn't, you might say, belong in among God's company. And they started a great failure by getting God's people to say this manna. We're tired of it. Think of it for Christians to say, because they've let the world come in a little bit of it.
And associate with them to say I'm tired of Christ.
You're awful. That's what the world will do. And Jacob knew that. And he said no. No way. He said it in a nice way, but he said what needed it. I don't want any of your men. I don't want any influence he saw from you or your ways, because any influence you give is going to be a harmful influence. Oh, beloved fathers and mothers, let's be ever so careful.
About what we allow as influences in our lives and in those lives of those that we want to be spiritual fathers and mothers to.
I'm going to close with that.
I just want to close by saying, Beloved brethren, we desperately need, I believe with all my heart a spirit among us, of fathers and mothers to preserve and nurture, and as I say again, not a matter of being.
Without fault or not failing.
It's a matter of love, a matter of desiring at what is precious to the heart of Christ might be preserved. May God grant that we can say not we have 10,000 teachers, but that we can say we have 10,000 fathers. Thank God for teachers, but all brethren, let's be fathers and mothers. Let's pray.
Our blessed God and Father, we thank Thee for thy precious word. We thank Thee for the guidance we have in it for the wonderful principles we find in it.
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And we're God and Father. Thou alone does perfectly know each one of us here in this room, the failures in our lives. And yet, Lord Jesus, thou hast gone to the cross. Alice answers to a holy God.
For each here who believe in Thee, who know thee is Savior, nor God and Father, encourage our hearts in this dark, confusing day.
That we not give up, that we move forward with that spirit that would desire to seek blessing, that would desire to see thy people encouraged and helped, that would above all Lord Jesus.
Would bring thy heart satisfaction. We ask for the preservation Lord.
Of the assemblies gathered to thy precious name.
We ask for the preservation of our families. We ask for the restoration of those that we love that have gone astray. Lord, it's all possible with thee. With God, all things are possible. Help us to pray earnestly and fervently, to keep our eyes on Thee, and to move, Lord, in that sense of thy all sufficiency, an old grant. We pray in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, the joy.
Of seeing if thou dost leave us here for anytime of seeing thy working, and by thy power and spirit and the blessing that comes, help as we pray, Father, And we ask these things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.