Open—P. Jennings, S. Rule
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Can we also save 166 one 6/6?
Board, the vow has drawn us after thee. Now let us run Endeavour in 166.
I didn't come to the conference here.
Thinking that.
I would be speaking, but it did come to the conference with a burden.
And it's, there's some thoughts that have been generated through the, uh, uh, the, the direction of the Spirit of God in the reading meetings regarding the gifts.
My exercise of late has been.
The Spirit in the spirit of the words of the Lord Jesus.
Them that thou hast given me, I have lost none.
And it has been my exercise.
Regarding.
Those that the Lord has brought across my path.
That.
I would lose, as it were, none.
My exercise this afternoon for a few minutes is regarding spiritual fathers.
I don't know much about the subject.
But I know that the Word of God does give instruction regarding spiritual fathers, and it gives examples of spiritual fathers.
I wonder if we could turn to I think it's Isaiah Chapter 9 and as I speak.
It's going to be evident that I don't have a complete, clear understanding of the Word of God.
But if we are going to.
Be occupied with.
Fathers, I believe we have the supreme example in the Lord Jesus.
Isaiah.
Chapter 9.
And verse 6.
It says, For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called. Wonderful counselor, the mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace.
Was asked.
Over a year ago in a reading meeting that I was at What is what does that mean? We know the distinction between God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit and the Lord Jesus is God the Son, and there wasn't necessarily a clear definition or.
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Explanation regarding.
The everlasting Father. But this is Speaking of the Lord Jesus.
And I'm sure there's someone here that could give maybe a very clear distinct.
Explanation. But what came to me in that meeting was.
The spirit of one John, the apostle John, if we turned to that.
I believe is the spirit of Christ.
And I would like.
To emphasize.
This is the Spirit.
Of a spiritual father.
Says many times.
My little children.
Other times.
I believe he speaks of them.
As his beloved.
My dear children.
This was the spirit of the apostle John.
He had the spirit of a Father.
This is the Spirit of the Lord Jesus.
He is the everlasting Father.
And we will.
Be learning for eternity.
What is meant by everlasting Father in the person of the Lord Jesus? But we have the spirit of it.
And one of God's servants who wanted the Saints of God to be further enlightened as to in John's case, in first John it was what is the nature of God. But in addressing those children.
Those that he loved and considered as it were to be his own spiritual children, he addressed them with affection. He addressed them as though he was in a relationship with them of affection.
And.
That is so important if we're going to be.
In the position of being a spiritual father.
Let's turn over to 1St Corinthians.
Chapter 4.
One of the uh.
Spiritual fathers that I have come to love and appreciate is the Apostle Paul.
There's no greater example other than the Lord Jesus of a Father.
Then the apostle Paul.
Here he says.
And verse 15 of First Corinthians 4 for though ye have 10,000 instructors in Christ.
Yet have ye not many fathers?
For I in Christ Jesus. For in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel. I have begotten you through the gospel.
You know the the Corinthians had a lot of.
They had a lot of instructors.
They had a lot of teachers.
But he says here that there was something that was desperately lacking.
You said, he said you don't have many fathers.
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Here is one who begat them.
In the Gospel.
The Apostle Paul knew that if he was going to have healthy spiritual children.
He would have to give them a firm.
Umm, grounding.
And what the work of Christ had done, and where it had brought them. If you want to know how he begot them in the gospel.
Turn to the book of Romans and read the 1St 8 chapters. I won't go into it.
But.
When the apostle Paul was begetting children as a father, a spiritual father.
He would lay out the value of the cross.
And he did that very distinctly in the first eight chapters.
Of Romans he begat them in the Gospel.
That's a very important thing to ground souls and the truths of the cross.
And that's what a father will do, a spiritual father.
In begetting, his children will make sure that they're grounded.
In the Gospel.
But that's not all that the Apostle Paul did.
For the children, his children.
Let's turn over to Colossians.
Before I do.
Realized I wanted to make another point regarding you.
You have many teachers.
But you don't have many fathers.
You know.
It sometimes makes me wonder.
What is wrong?
When we have assemblies.
With large measures.
Of gift.
Large measures of gift.
And we've had this this weekend, the importance of each member and how important each member is for the function of the body of Christ.
And then some assemblies. There is a great measure of gift in certain ones.
But there ends up to be.
Few sheep.
A great amount of gift in certain ones.
But very few.
Sheep.
It seems like sometimes our assemblies seem to disintegrate.
We had before us this weekend the importance of each member and the function that God has given each one, particularly to perform, to demonstrate, to manifest the Spirit.
But if there are no members.
Then we're not going to be able to enjoy.
A benefit?
Of the body of Christ.
There was recently, uh, I recently had a conversation with a brother who had visited an assembly that where there was a lot of gifts.
And he said I left the assembly.
With the sense.
That there were no fathers.
There were no fathers.
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There was a lot of gift. There was number Father's.
And it wasn't long.
And there wasn't many sheep.
That burdens my heart. It saddens my heart.
Because.
Where there are fathers.
There is a process.
That takes place.
By which the sheep?
Are nurtured.
The sheep are ministered to.
The sheep are encouraged.
The sheep are protected.
And sometimes.
That comes.
At a price to the fathers.
Sometimes.
In order to minister to the needs of the sheep.
It can be messy.
And sometimes.
The fathers have to bear their brunt.
In order to protect.
And provide safety nurse nurturing, nurturing and caring to the sheep to cause the sheep to want to be.
Where the food is.
Uh, Colossians chapter 2.
Excuse me, Colossians, chapter one.
This is the example of a father, a spiritual father in the apostle Paul.
Verse 24 Who re who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh?
And for his body's sake, which is the Church.
The Apostle Paul.
Cared so much.
For the body of Christ.
That he was willing to take the afflictions that the enemy had to afflict.
Upon himself.
In his body.
He.
He filled up that which was behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh.
For his body's sake, which is the church. So the apostle Paul actually took physically in his body the afflictions that the enemy would direct at the church. He absorbed them in his body.
Let's turn to 1St John Chapter 3.
We have an example of the Lord Jesus.
Here, Speaking of the characteristics of divine love.
A spiritual father is gonna display the characteristics of divine love.
Says hereby in verse 16 of first John 3 hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us.
And we ought to lay down our lives for our brethren. Let's turn over to Luke Chapter 9.
Verse 23.
And he said unto them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it.
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And whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall find it.
You know, as we're seeking the health.
And the blessing?
And the happiness.
Of those that God has possibly put under our trust.
We're gonna. We're gonna find.
That we're going to have to accept some abuse.
Couple of weeks ago.
I was.
Seeking to encourage someone that was very deep in depression and it was real, the real stuff, the stuff that I don't understand.
And a lot of times, if we're going to seek the blessing of others, we're not going to understand what they're going through.
We're just going to need to be there with them. But as I was eating dinner with an individual who was very deep in depression and it was questioning whether.
The assembly was really the right place.
I had to listen to about 20 minutes of what was wrong or what we what the assembly didn't didn't really do right.
There wasn't a whole lot of fun.
To.
Listen to everything that we do wrong.
The said the most painful part about it was I had to recognize that a lot of it was true.
And so I had to acknowledge that.
Some of the criticism was legitimate.
But.
That didn't last the whole conversation.
In fact, after a while we were able to get on a little bit more solid footing together.
And.
He.
Decided things weren't quite as bad and he was actually encouraged by the time we got through.
There are there are going to be times if an if, if an individual is valuable enough to us.
Is there a father in this room? A natural father?
That has one child that really isn't valuable enough.
To give it everything you've got for their blessing.
Is there one of your children that's a scoundrel and you come to the point where you say, well, it's just not worth the effort that it's taking?
To maintain their health and happiness.
I know you all as parents and fathers would say no, everything that I have to put into that child is worth it because of my desire for their blessing.
And, you know, as spiritual fathers.
Sometime we're gonna have to take some of the enemies arrows.
The reason one of the reasons why I'm up here speaking is not because I know about being a spiritual father.
Not because I know I'm a spiritual father. One of the reasons why I'm up here speaking is because I know a spiritual father.
We've talked about the Apostle Paul and we could just go on and on. If you want to know about Paul and what a spiritual father is, read Romans chapter 16.
Where he goes down the list and he is able to quote, he's able to give the names of each one of the individuals that he knew and the value of each one of those individuals. How he gives a list of all of the things that he valued about the different Saints.
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A spiritual father knows their children.
He spends time with them.
He's looking out for their benefit.
But as I was saying.
One of the reasons why I wanna share these thoughts.
One of the reasons why is because I value every single child of God that God brings across my path.
And.
I want to see each one no matter what state they're in.
No matter what spiritual condition they're in.
I don't want to lose.
Any of them.
But I wanted to share with you about the spiritual Father the Lord has placed in the in my life and excuse the personal.
Reference. There won't be any names, but the Lord has.
Without a doubt.
Place the spiritual Father in my life.
The only reason I really know.
The only reason why I really know I have a spiritual father is because the Lord has shown me.
The Lord has brought it to my attention.
This is a a brother.
Who I can go to at any time about a question from the word of God.
He's a brother that has wisdom.
I could go to him about a question about practically anything. He'd sit down and he'd share with me what the Lord has given him regarding.
Though that particular subject.
I value that.
I've carried many of the answers that I've gotten from him.
Through my life.
I've.
I've seen this brother.
Come to my defense.
I was talking with a brother here.
Umm, the conference. He was saying what a grief it was when a certain brother left the assembly. Because this brother.
Had come to his defense when the enemy was at work.
And he had stuck up for him. May not have been real popular for him to do that. He'd come to his defense.
With my spiritual Father, the one that the Lord has brought to my attention, that has a special concern.
That what God has given me.
Won't end up.
Being lost.
Whatever he's given me.
It's his concern, it's that brother's concern that whatever's been given me.
The enemy won't come in and destroy me so that the blessing could could flow forth, whatever that is.
There was a time when.
I was confronted in a situation that was kind of shocking to me. It was a very, very difficult situation.
And.
I didn't know what to do. I was shock, shocked, probably deserved it, but I didn't know what to do. But I watched this. This brother didn't see, didn't say. He's never said anything, none of never said anything. These things to me. I watched this brother come to my defense.
And he didn't just come to my defense at the moment.
But I have AI have a sense.
That he followed up without me knowing it to make sure that in the future I wasn't going to suffer from that situation that happened.
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He had my back.
For the Lord's glory, that I wouldn't be stumbled.
And the value of what the Spirit of God, as we've had in these meetings, has chosen to impart to me wouldn't be lost.
By the work of the enemy.
You know.
The enemy is busy.
And he is going to try.
In one way or another, I think one of the things that I'm concerned about most.
Is the attempt.
Of trying to.
Mold the consciences of the Saints to a certain line of thinking.
A certain line of maybe exercise.
And so if I stand up here and present something that I feel the Saints ought to be exercised about, maybe it's a matter of personal faith.
There's a real.
Likelihood that there's someone in the room that's not ready to walk in the faith that I'm presenting. I'll just give one more little story that happened last week. I was sitting at a lunch table with another brother in our assembly.
It is my desire now that I'm retired, to be able to.
No, my brethren.
Kind of know where they are to kind of know what they're going through and just to just to sit down and let them, let them know that I love them. We were speaking about how.
Encouraged we all we were by what is taking place in our assembly and how there's so much to be thankful for and the blessing that the Lord is providing and we were we were talking about how we could guard.
How we could guard the assembly against?
The.
Umm, efforts of Satan to disturb.
Thankfully, at the moment the assembly is for is peaceful.
And it it's our desire that it would remain that way. And we were speaking and.
We we were speaking about a certain situation that had come up.
And a brother had shared a, a, a, a meeting with us. And in that meeting there had been some pretty.
Distinct things that he was trying to impress upon the Saints.
And there were things that I wouldn't say shouldn't be, we shouldn't be exercised about.
But I would say that.
Those are areas that we need to be very careful about trying to mold.
Our brethren's conscience is about and there was a sister that left that meeting.
And she spoke to her husband and she said, you know, if that is what is required.
I don't know.
If I can.
If if if I can.
Handle that.
And.
She was assured over a period of time that no, that wasn't what was required.
But what concerned me was with that conversation that I had with this brother last week was there was one soul.
That came very close to wondering whether the whether the Assembly was the place where they could fellowship.
We need to be careful.
We need to be careful to know our sheep.
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And to know what will be healthy for them and what will be harmful for them.
We don't want to lose.
1.
We had in our reading this weekend the value of 1.
The value of 1.
They have a gift.
That has been administered by the Spirit of God.
And that gift is needed.
In the body of Christ.
And then we need to consider each one.
Worth stepping in, maybe taking a few arrows. Maybe the enemy is going to make a concerted effort on one of the sheep.
But maybe the father can step in.
And take.
The like the apostle Paul would suffer in his body for the church and we need to step in.
And and protect.
So that we don't lose 1 sheep.
Couple very I trust practical suggestions for our hearts and minds as we're heading home. Umm, if you turn with me to Acts Chapter 18.
Like to connect up with something that our brother Phil just mentioned.
Just read the 1St 3 verses Acts chapter 18 verses one to three. After these things Paul departed from Athens and came to Corinth and found a certain Jew named Aquila born in Pontus. What is this?
Lately come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because that Claudius had commanded all Jews to depart from Rome, and came unto them, and because he was of the same craft, he abode with them, and wrought, for by their occupation they were tent makers. Now notice this brother Phil referred to the end of Romans Romans 16, where all those personal greetings and the heart of.
The Apostle Paul is a father for those ones in Rome.
And I agree, uh, that was the heart of the Apostle Paul. Was the the father's heart there? Where did he learn about those ones in Rome?
He hadn't been there yet.
I just suggest to you that here is where I learned it. It says Aquila and Priscilla were recently come from Rome and here they are in Corinth. And we've been reading in the Epistle and the readings to Corinth, and there are so many things that were out of order in Corinth. There were so many things that were wrong there that needed correction.
And here's the apostle Paul. And he had a right to be fed by the wealthy Corinthians. He had a right to be receiving from those wealthy ones. The.
Support so that he could have more time available to umm minister. And yet he was there making tents with Aquila and Priscilla so that there could be not the slightest hint of impropriety and him receiving money from them, the slightest hint from them that he had, uh, come to feed off them. And so here he is and he seated with Priscilla and Aquila and what surrounds him are just.
A pile of problems and here he is having to work with his hands.
When he could be out sharing the gospel more freely and the truth of God more freely.
And they're seated together. What are they talking about? Are they talking about the failures of their brethren? They talking about this problem and that problem and feeding on it. I'll just suggest to you that perhaps with the Apostle Paul and equivalent Priscilla were feeding on where those lovely ones in Rome and the care. And it was fostering the love and the Apostle Paul's heart for the ones there with the desire to go and visit them. And perhaps if there was a discussion of what the difficulties were there in Corinth.
Them to feed on a dead thing, but rather to feed on what was for the good of these different ones there. So in a couple of minutes that are left I'd like to turn back. But before we do I'd like to make a suggestion on our way home and in our life from day-to-day, if there's a difficulty that comes up and there's a problem and there's something that clearly isn't right and there's behavior.
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That perhaps that affects us. That's clearly not right. The unclean animal, the.
Vulture, etcetera, feeds on a dead thing. And so if we take that evil or wrong and we feed on it, we think about it, we turn it over in our mind, it's going back and forth in our head. That's what's going through. We are like that unclean thing feeding on the wrong, but we're encouraged to feed on what's good. This in this sense, I think the Apostle Paul and his care for those in Rome, his care for all the children of God was feeding on what was good with that proper care.
And his heart was bonded in affection for those ones he'd never met and had such a desire to meet. So we can feed on if we just turned for a couple brief thoughts. The Leviticus chapter 2 The the meal offering.
And before we do read just a a, not an exposition by any means of the meal offering just a couple of practical thoughts from it. I would suggest this. Suppose somebody has spoken to you in an angry way and it hurt.
And perhaps there's a need to go to that person, but I'm talking about in our thoughts regarding that person, you find a place in the life of our Lord where he was met with anger.
Feed on that.
Feed on his character in that circumstance. Is there another brother or sister in the Prides? At least we think The pride seems to be oozing out and the desire for prominence and pushing forward. Did the Lord ever face ones that had pride and a push for prominence? Absolutely. And what was his character in the face of it? We have a choice. We can feed on the conduct of our brother that perhaps is wrong.
And that's like.
Feeding on that dead thing. Or we can turn and look at the life of Christ in that circumstance and feed on that instead. So just a couple very simple things from Leviticus chapter 2. It's the meal offering. I'll just read the first few verses, but only comment on a couple of things. Reading from verse one. And when any will offer a meat offering unto the Lord, his offering shall be of fine flower, and he shall pour oil upon it and put frankincense there on.
They shall bring it to Aaron's sons the priest, and he shall take there out his handful of the flower thereof, and the oil thereof, and all the frankincense thereof, and the priest shall burn the memorial of it upon the altar, to be an offering made by fire of a sweet savour unto the Lord. Just pause here for a moment. And Hebrews 10/1 Says, sacrifice and offering, and off and burnt offerings, and offerings for sin.
The sacrifice word there is a broad one that covers the whole category.
The offerings is the word I understand in the Greek that accords with this offering here. The meat or meal offering, the two words are a line in the Greek and in the Hebrew here. And so the offering there in Hebrews 10, that's referred to as this right here that we're reading about and it's of a sweet savor. It's what delights the heart of God. That's the kind of thing that you and I want to feed on. You'll see there's they aren't in the sons. They get their portion here.
And so that's the kind of thing that our heart and our mind as we're headed home today, you're driving home in the car, you're flying home and you talk over the conference. There are things that were said perhaps in between the meetings, perhaps in the meetings, perhaps at the hotel or whatever that were encouraging and they're of the Lord. And there are feeding on this meal offering here. That is what the God our Father is feeding on as a sweet savour. That's what he's eating.
And that's what we should eat too. That's what we should share together. Together with him, Aaron and the sons have their portion here.
It shouldn't be. Maybe there's a spiritual concern and it has its place, but it's not what we feed on. And verse three and the remnant of the meat offering shall be errands and his sons. There it is. It is a thing most holy of the offering of the Lord made by fire after bringing ablation of a meat offering. Now notice there are three circumstances and there's different ways to apply them. I'll just give one here. It says bacon in an oven. So there's an oven listed in verse 4.
And verse five it says.
Bacon in a pan and verse six. I'm sorry in verse 7.
It says bacon in the frying pan. I want to apply those three things here and the life of our Lord, and you'll have to extend it to your own life. There is bacon in the oven. I've visualized that as though you had this big oven like they had in the Middle Ages in a big long stick and a loaf of bread on it, and you're shoving it into that oven, not what it is.
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I guess the the kind of oven they're using there was like a large.
Stone pot that came up on the outside like that. And inside you would put coals and the fire would be on the inside. The coals would be on the inside. And then you'd flatten out the bread for some here, I guess if you're familiar with it. But for most of us, the tortilla is a little bit easier way to visualize it. And that would be put on the outside. But here's the thing, the fire was on the inside. It burned on the inside. And you know, there are some trials, some circumstances, some situations.
Lord's life that he went through, and in our lives that we go through to where the trial isn't evidence, the burning fire isn't evident on the outside, but there's that care, that burden that's on the inside. Others don't necessarily see it, but as it heats up that fine flower, a type of the perfection of the Lord and his life and his evenness and his character, what happens is you get.
A sweet savour to the Lord. And perhaps you have that fiery trial that you're going through personally, but it's on the inside. It's that care and that concern that others don't see.
But we have the life of Christ that ought to show on the outside, but well, I'm sorry, it should bring out the character it should. It caused that fine flower to ascend as a sweet savour to the Lord, the life of Christ. Here is really the thought the the sacrifices, that life of Christ, but you'll make the application to your own life. That's the oven. But there's a the next one is the pan.
In verse uh five, a pan is like a.
Like a griddle, it's just a little metal sheet almost and it's a griddle or like a frying pan or something that heats up very quickly. And so the fire there perhaps is is visible. It's not the hot coals on the inside, it's the fire that's on the outside and you've got that griddle on top of it and it heats up quickly. There may be circumstances in your life, you may come across a situation where all of a sudden boom and it's there and there's the fire there.
What does it bring out?
What does it bring out in the life of the Lord that brought out a sweet savour to God?
The person that cuts you off on the road, the person in the store that's rude. The difficulty that comes up just flares up and it's there. It heats up quickly and it draws out. And the life of the Lord, perfection, a sweet savour to God.
And then there's the 3rd and the 3rd is the frying pan in verse seven. I believe that that's more like a cauldron. Uh, yes, Mr. Darby puts cauldron there. That's as I understand it, it's like an earthenware pot. It's got the, unlike a griddle, it's not just flat, but the sides come up a little bit and it's for the, they can maybe made out of metal too. I understand. And they're normally for the stewing of meat.
That's something that would sit in there and the fire would be underneath for a whole lot longer.
And it would sit and it would Stew. The meat would Stew in the pan, but they could bake the bread in it. And that's what's used here.
And so there may be a fire in your life, and it may be something that's outward that others can see.
And it's not just that quick heat, that quick moment. It's the thing that goes on and on and on. It cooks and it cooks and it cooks and it cooks. What did it bring out in the life of the Lord? The rejection, All those things that he went through over and over and over and over and over again. What did it bring out? It brought out a sweet savour to God. And so when we're placed in those same circumstances and we tend to want to sit there and Stew.
It'd be better to take our thoughts and bring them to here, to Christ.
To that meal offering. And as that fire burns underneath the cauldron, we can have our thoughts on the one that was a sweet savour to God, a replacement for all these offerings here, the one that was the perfect fulfillment of them. And really, as we meditate on Him, as we enjoy Him, and that character is going to be replicated without our seeing it in our own lives.