Open—C. Hendricks, J. Hyland, L. Smith
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.
Bernard of the World.
That fadeth away.
For not of the night, but children of day.
Change that once bound us by Jesus or riven were strangers on earth our home.
Is in heaven.
We're not all.
John's Gospel.
Chapter 15.
I don't have a lot to say.
Leave room for others. We'll start with verse 9.
As the Father hath loved me.
So have I loved you.
Continue ye and my love.
If you keep my commandments, she shall abide in my love, even as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in His love.
These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full. This is my commandment, that she loved one another as I have loved you. Greater love hath no man than this, but a man lay down his life for his friends.
Ye are my friends if you do.
Whatsoever I command you.
Henceforth I call you not servants, for the servant knoweth not what his Lord doeth. But I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard of my father I have made known unto me unto you.
You have not chosen me, but I have chosen you.
And ordained you that ye should go and bring forth fruit.
And that's your fruit should remain.
That whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name.
He may give it you.
These things I command you, that she loved one another. Now in these verses that I've read, he's talking to those he calls his friends, those that are, that are in a special place of nearness to himself.
00:10:19
Those that should love one another.
Not the world.
And then he changes the subject in verse 18.
If the world hates you.
You know that it hated me before it hated you.
If he were of the world, the world would love his own.
But because you are not of the world.
But I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.
Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his Lord, if they have persecuted me.
They will also persecute you. If they have kept my saying they will keep yours also.
But all these things will they do unto you for my name's sake, because they know not him that sent me. If I had not come and spoken to them, they had not had sin. But now they have no cloak for their sin.
He that hateth me.
Hated my father also.
If I had not done among them the works which none other man did.
They had not had sin, but now have they both seen and hated both me and my father.
That this cometh to pass, that the word might be fulfilled that is written in their law.
They hated me.
Without a cause, there was a man in this world, a blessed Lord Himself.
That was indwelt by the Holy Spirit.
And he was led by the Spirit of God.
With the Father's directions.
He belonged to another world, not the one that we might want to please.
We don't belong to another world.
We don't belong to this world. Excuse me, We belong to another world.
That world is the one that hated and rejected, despised and cast out of this world.
If you're a friend of his, you will have love to those who are friends of his, but you're not here to please this world.
You're not here to make a name for yourself in this world.
You're not here to spend all your energies and education and every skill that you might have.
To make this world more desirable.
It hates Christ.
We can only get that across. We're not of this world that fadeth away. We're not of the night, but children of day.
We belong to the world that has nailed him to a cross of ignominy and shame and reproach and dishonor.
And said we will not have.
This plan to rule over us.
You belong to that world.
There's two worlds, the one that rejected Christ and the one that.
Belongs to him.
He said.
That.
If he were of this world, he, his servants, would fight.
But because I am not of this world, therefore the.
Let me read it.
Talking to Pilate.
Verse chapter 18 and verse 35. Pilate answered, Am IA Jew. I know nation, and the chief priests have delivered thee unto me. What has thou done?
00:15:01
Jesus answered.
My Kingdom.
Is not of this world.
If My Kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight that I should not be delivered to the Jews? But now is my Kingdom not from hence, Beloved, we belong to another Kingdom, we belong to another world.
The one that hated him wouldn't have him.
If you're true to him.
If you're one of his friends and shows all the offerings this world might give you the education you can get. So you make a name for yourself down here in this world, a world that hates Christ and won't have him.
You're not being true to him.
My Kingdom is not of this world. If my Kingdom were of this world and would my servants.
Fight. We're not here to fight. We're not here to get into the wars of this world.
If we do, we'll be fighting our own brethren sometimes.
How inconsistent that would be.
Turn to the 17th chapter.
Of John.
The Lord is speaking to his father.
And just a few verse or two.
Verse 4.
I have glorified Thee on the earth, Father. I have finished the work which Thou gave us me to do.
And now, O Father, glorify Thou Me with thine own self, with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was.
I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gave us me out of the world, and they were, and thou gave us the may they have kept thy word.
Verse 11 He says, Now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee, Holy Father, keep through thy own name, that though that they may be one, those whom thou has given me, that they may be one as we are one. Well, I was with them in the world. I kept them in my name.
Those that thou gave us, me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of Perdition, that was Judas, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. Now come I to thee, and these things I speak in the world, that they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves. I've given them thy word.
And the world hath hated them, just like it hated him.
Because they're not of the world.
Even as I'm not of the world.
If you learn anything in this conference, I hope you learn that you belong to a different world.
You belong to the the one that gave us all that he might have, you and me.
It's not this world. Don't spend your energies, young man and young woman.
Trying to make this a better world without Christ.
It can't be done.
I've given them thy word and the world that hated them, because they're not of the world, even as I am not of the world.
Praying out that thou shouldst take them out of the world, but that thou should keep them from the evil. He's addressing His Father. They are not of the world.
Even as I'm not of the world, when you get up in the morning, remind yourself I'm not of this world.
I belong to another sphere altogether where he is, where he has gone, they wouldn't have him.
They still won't have him.
Do you want their applause? Are you trying to make a name for yourself and get somewhere down here in a world that has cast him out and hated him and it hates you too, the truer you are to him?
The more you will feel its hatred.
Turn to.
Philippians 3.
00:20:05
Flip in street.
He says in verse 17, Brethren.
Be followers together of me, Mrs. Paul writing.
And mark them which walk so as you have us for an example.
Read the numbers of times he was persecuted because he loved the Lord Jesus.
The Lord said to Ananias, he said, I will show him what great things he hath.
What great things?
He had done such great things.
Against Christ, and now he's going to experience those same things against him because now he's on Christ side. Are you on Christ's side?
You will feel the world's hatred.
And contempt. And rejection.
We were praying for those in Cuba.
What the world thinks of those who are Christians.
Takes them, despises them.
Don't kid yourself because you're in the United States of America. The world hates Christians if they're really true to Him.
Verse 18 it says Paul says many walk of whom I've told you often, and I'll tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things.
You mind earthly things. Is that your purpose for being here? To make a name for yourself in a world that hates and rejected Christ?
Whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame? Who mind earthly things for our conversation, our citizenship, our sphere of living is in heaven.
From whence also we look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall change our body of humiliation, should read that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body, according to the working whereby He is able even to subdue all things unto Himself.
We're his friends.
Where those that he gave his all to win.
We belong to the world that he's the head of.
And when he takes his power and reigns in this scene and subjects everything to him, will be with him then. That's not what we're here for now. We're here to take the reproach and the hatred of this world because it hasn't changed its attitude towards him.
Whose side are you on? Whose side am I on?
Are we here to represent him in a world that cast him up?
Well.
That's all I wanted to say.
They belong to another world.
Be true to him.
Who's the head of that world?
I'd like to re emphasize some of the things that were said in the reading meeting this morning. I'd like to do it by really connecting 3 portions of the word of God. The first one is in the book of Job, Job chapter 24.
I'm sorry, Job Chapter 23.
Job chapter 23 and verse 12.
Neither have I gone back from the commandment of His lips. I have esteemed the words of his mouth more than my necessary food. Just hold your finger here. We'll come right back but a couple of verses in the 119th Psalm.
00:25:02
Psalm 119.
And verse 97.
Oh, how love I thy law.
It is my meditation all the day and then just back up in this same Psalm.
To verse 9. Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way by taking heed thereto, according to thy word. Well, this this afternoon, at some length we spoke about the importance of God's Word. And we spoke of it particularly in connection with the importance of having God's Word before us every day as that which feeds and refreshes our souls. And brethren, I don't believe we can emphasize this enough.
We need the Word of God every day to feed and refresh our souls. Because as we were reminded, it's true. We have divine life. It's a perfect life. It's the very life of Christ. But it is a dependent life. It needs food. If we are going to grow and be healthy, happy, fruitful Christians, then we must feed the new life. And how do we feed the new life, brethren? We feed it with Christ. But we might ask ourselves.
How do we feed on Christ? Well, it's by opening this blessed book and reading it every day.
Because wherever we read in this blessed book, the Bible, God's Word, the subject is always Christ. Every line, every verse brings something before us concerning some aspect of the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, it might be by type and shadow and illustration in the Old Testament.
It might be the life of the Lord Jesus brought before us in the four evangelists, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.
It might be Christ brought before us as to our portion and blessings as a heavenly people in the Epistles. It might be the fruition of things brought before us in the Book of Revelation, and the full exaltation of Christ in a coming day. But the subject, I say, wherever we read in the Scriptures, is always Christ.
And it's a good exercise when we open this blessed book to seek by grace to get something of Christ from this book. And so we read here in the book of Job. Job said, I have esteemed the words of his mouth more than my necessary food. What an exercise. What a desire there was on the part of Joel. Is that truly the exercise and desire of your heart and mind? We were reminded today of how we take such good care to eat 3 good meals a day, sometimes something in between.
And you know, everybody's concerned with health and things that are grown organically and without chemicals and all this kind of thing. And we go to great cost and expense and time to eat healthy, especially in the day in which we live. But all I say again, what about the word of God? What about the sincere milk of the word?
What about the manna that we were Speaking of earlier? And just for a moment, without turning to it, I'd like to go back and fought to the 16th chapter of Exodus, where we find there the children of Israel in the wilderness. And there they were given by God's good hand, the manna to sustain life for every day of the wilderness journey. It's often been said, and rightly so, that a wilderness in Scripture denotes a place where there's nothing to sustain life.
And you and I are in a spiritual wilderness for the children of Israel. They were in a physical wilderness. And I never realized how apartment the illustration is until I had opportunity some months ago to travel across part of the Sinai desert, right where the children of Israel sojourned for some 40 years.
It is a barren place. There is nothing to sustain life and so they had to have physical food and water. But we're in a spiritual wilderness. There's nothing to sustain the new man here in this spiritual wilderness. There's plenty to feed our lusts, plenty to feed the flesh. Just seems you can hardly drive down the highway today or stand in the line at the checkout counter without seeing something to feed our loss.
But if we're going to feed the Newman brethren, we must feed on the bread of heaven, and God's Word leaves us in no doubt as to what the man atypifies. If we were to turn over to John's gospel, the Lord Jesus himself spoke of the bread and himself as that bread that came down from heaven and used that illustration of the manna that had been given to the children of Israel in the wilderness. But there's some very, very practical lessons to be learned from the gathering of the manna.
00:30:08
And I'll just exit trust. But what I say will exercise your soul to go back and to glean some of those practical instructions. We'll just mention a few of them for this afternoon. First of all, we find that the manna was to be gathered every morning.
Because we need fresh food every day. Any of us who've had children know that we don't feed our children a big meal one day of the week and expect it to last them the rest of the week. No, we feed them on good, healthy food, and ourselves too, every day of the week. And So what God teaches us in the gathering of the manna is that we need new, fresh food for the divine life every day. And when were they to gather it? It wasn't in the heat of the day.
It wasn't in the cool of the evening that they were to gather it. No, it was first thing in the morning. In fact, I think it's in Numbers 11. There's a little detail given to us about the manna that we don't get in Exodus 16, and that is that the manna fell on the dew. It fell on the dew, and it's typical.
Of Christ's and the aspect of His separation and so on. But it fell on the dew, and when the dew melted, when the dew was gone, the manna was gone. In other words, they had to go out very early in the morning, and they had to gather it for themselves. Teaching us that before we go out into this spiritual wilderness and a world where there's everything offered for the flesh, we need to satisfy our hunger with the bread of heaven.
We need to satisfy our souls with Christ. Why is it I'm so vulnerable sometimes to the things that are offered to me on every hand? Oh, I say again, it's because I haven't satisfied my soul with Christ in the morning. And I know it takes diligence, it takes energy of faith to get up a little bit earlier in the morning. I know some of us have to be off to work and school very early in the morning. But all I want to encourage you read God's Word. We used to sing a little hymn when we were growing up.
Feed on God's Word in the morning, feed on God's Word at noon, feed on God's Word in the evening to keep your heart in tune. And it's interesting too, if you notice the details with where the manna fell. It didn't fall at their tent door. It says it fell round about the camp.
In other words, they had to go out and it took energy to go out and to gather the manna. God doesn't spoon feed us. God doesn't encourage laziness in any aspect of our lives. And so there they had to go outside the camp to gather it. And I say again, it does take energy and exercise, especially for some of us who aren't so much morning people. It takes energy, it takes discipline. Maybe it takes setting the alarm clock 15 minutes early.
But you say, Jim, I don't always have time to read a whole chapter or portion in the morning. You don't realize the pressures and how quickly I have to get out the door to catch my transit or to fight rush hour traffic. Well, there's a nice little detail added there in Exodus. It says he that gathered much had nothing over. In other words, if you have time in the morning to read a great deal, you'll never have anything over. We can't overeat when it comes to the things of God.
We need all we can get. If you have a time to read a chapter 2, thank God for it. But then it says and he that gathered little had no lack. I, I believe the Spirit of God added that for someone like myself, because I find it hard to get up in the morning, every minute of sleep before breakfast is precious. But it's not the amount they gathered that was important. It's what they did with it. They put it in their Omer and took it with them. And then it says he that gathered little had no lack.
Maybe you say I only have time to read 3 or 4 verses in the morning, but read those verses and take them with you in their your Omer and you'll find you'll be surprised. God knew just what you were going to need for the day. And I believe this brings us to the next verse that we read in the 119th Psalm where the Psalmist speaks of meditation, a love for the Word of God, and meditation. Do we really love His word? Do you love the Word of God?
Is it really your joy and your delight? Thy words were sweet to my taste. It says in another place, do we really have that desire and exercise that joy of reading the word of God? Maybe before I comment on this verse further, I might just say this too. We talked about an appetite this this afternoon and I believe we need to develop an appetite for the word of God. Maybe the first time you few times you set the alarm and get up and read some scripture.
00:35:25
Maybe you have to admit, if you're honest, you really didn't have the appetite that you wished you had. But continue to discipline yourself to read orderly and consistently the Word of God, and you'll be surprised you'll develop an appetite for it. I've often told this little illustration, but I'll repeat it. When I was a boy growing up, my mother never forced me to eat anything at home that I really didn't like.
She always told me that when I was out, I had to eat what was put on my plate. And as I've had the opportunity and privilege of traveling amongst the Lord's people, I found that often they serve the plates. Sometimes there's no choice about what's on your plate to eat. And one thing I particularly abhorred when I was a boy was green peas. I did not like green peas, but I found that often the vegetable that the sister serve is green peas.
But I want to say this about green peas, and that is that having disciplined myself to eat them.
When they are served to me in somebody's home. Over the years I have not just developed an appetite for green peas, I thoroughly enjoy them and will take a second helping at their offered. Why? Because because of discipline and consistency. I've eaten them over the years and now I enjoy them. And you'll find that's the way it is with the Word of God. The more you read it, the more you prayerfully are exercised to get something of Christ out of the pages of this book. All you'll find you'll want more and more.
You'll find maybe you won't even have to set the alarm after a while, because you'll find that your joy is to get up and to read something of the word of God.
But I say it's not what we eat that does us any good. It's what we digest. And that's why I read this verse in the Psalms in connection with meditation, because David spoke of the word, of the psalmist, spoke of the word as his meditation all the day. Because it's not enough, brethren, to read a few verses in the morning, close the book, and never consider what we've read. That's not what's going to do us any good. You remember what I said, The children of Israel.
They not only went out and gathered the manna, but they put it into their Omer a certain measure, and they took it with them.
And they stopped during the day and dipped into their Omer and enjoyed what they had gathered in the morning.
That's meditation that's stopping during the day and considering thinking about what you have read, what you have gathered in the morning.
And I know this again takes discipline, especially in the lifestyle in which we're caught up in the Western world.
The moment you open that door in the morning, you're bombarded with every kind of thought and activity to keep you from considering what you've read from the Word of God.
Oh, maybe years ago a brother could work at his bench with his hands and have his Bible open and read and meditate. Maybe a farmer could go out and follow the plow and think about the scriptures he had read in the morning. But you can't run a computer like that. You can't drive down the freeway like that. It takes everything you've got to get through the work. A day world in which we found we find ourselves. But what is the answer? It's to discipline ourselves to stop during the day and dip into our Omer. To stop for a few moments and consider that verse or two.
Or that little portion that we read in the morning and that's when you're going to find that it will do you good.
That's when you're going to find it will strengthen and feed your soul. He that gathered much had nothing over. He that gathered little had no lack. And so do we stop and consider the word of God during the day. I suppose has been often said that meditation is a lost art today, that we just don't take time. You see people walking down the street, they can't even go out for a walk with something out, something plugged into their ears. It may not be something bad they're listening to.
But we've always got something going, something in the vehicle we're driving, something when we walk, something when we walk into the stores, playing over the intercom or in the office or wherever it is. And so I say more than ever, we need to take time to meditate on God's Word. How?
00:40:06
Well, you'll be repaid a well. You'll find that it does feed and strengthen and encourage your soul. You want to really have something. You've got to not just read God's Word. You've got to meditate on the precious Word of God. And then I read earlier in this same Psalm.
Because here we have something else. We have the cleansing effect of the Word of God. The reason I connected these 3 verses is that I simply want to show how the Word of God, how we need the Word of God all day long, how we need it every day, all day. Not just in the morning, not just during the day. But this brings us to the evening. Because as a brother used to tell us who's with the Lord. Now I grew up in the assembly he was in and he used to tell us that when he came home from the office.
He needed a good wash, and he wasn't talking about soap and water. He was talking about the washing of water by the word because he felt that he came home from a world of defilement at the office. He had heard things and seen things that had defiled him. He felt dirty spiritually and he felt he needed a wash. And how did he get that wash? Well, it wasn't by going to the sink and turning on the tap and using some soap and water. No, it was by opening this book and letting it have its cleansing effect.
I say it's the washing of water by the word. So how shall a young man cleanse his way? And I know you young people particularly, you're defiled. You, you can't help it. You see and hear things every day at school and at work and just walking down the street. All you need to have the refreshment that comes in the evening. By opening this book and reading a portion again in the wilderness, we find there was the labor, and the labor speaks with the water speaks to us.
Of the Word of God and its cleansing effect. You know, it's interesting that the labor is the one piece of furniture that were not given, of larger furniture that were not given the dimensions of Why? Because you can't put dimensions on the Word of God. And there was water there, and that water was for the washing of the hands and feet of the priests. And that's why the Lord Jesus, before he returned to the glory, he gave the illustration of feet washing to his disciples.
He was leaving them in a world where they were going to pick up things every day that would not necessarily be sin, but that would chill the affections and dull the soul. And he said, you need to let me wash your feet and then you need to wash one anothers feet again. It's the washing of water by the word. We can't stress this enough. Let the Word of God have its cleansing effect on your life. And so I just have enjoyed these scriptures. I enjoyed what was taken up in the reading meeting, but these things are very practical.
These things are very real. It's wonderful to come to meetings like this and have the word of God before us and to be washed and to be strengthened and edified and built up and admonished and corrected and so on. But we needed every day. Are we going to be strong, healthy Christians? What made the young men that John wrote to strong?
Was it because they went and worked out at the gym twice a week? Nothing wrong with that, but that wasn't what he was talking about. No, he said he wrote to those young men and they were strong because they had the word of God abiding in them. That was the strength. That was their strength. That was their power. And so I just say again, let's go out every morning, gather something of Christ from this precious book. Let's meditate on it during the day and when we return after a day of being in a world that defiles.
Let's open this book and let it have its cleansing effect. Oh, we're going to enjoy this book for all eternity, but He's given it to us now to enjoy. Let's learn to feed on Christ every day of our Christian pathway through this wilderness world.
Turn with me, please, to Second Chronicles Chapter 29.
Second Chronicles, 29.
Since Hezekiah began to reign being 25 years old.
And he reigned 29 years in Jerusalem.
00:45:01
And his mother's name was Abijah, the daughter of Zachariah. And he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord.
According to all that David his father had done.
What is the setting of this verse?
Israel had turned.
To idolatry.
The nation that was.
Set up in this world to represent the true God.
Had begun to copy the nations around.
And to reverence their gods.
And Hezekiah's father.
Had introduced.
Some of that idolatry.
But here's a young man, 25 years of age, now takes the throne.
As I look upon a company like this, I think of you, dear young people.
And your potential?
Really, it's tremendous.
If you.
Walk in the ways of the Lord. It's a tremendous potential for blessing.
And if you copy the world around you.
Unfortunately, a potential for harm.
The Lord is jealous.
Of his people.
If you know the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior, he is jealous.
Of your heart's affection.
Hezekiah did that which was right in the sight of the Lord. Verse three. He, in the first year of his reign, in the first month opened the doors of the House of the Lord and repaired them.
And he brought in the priest and the Levites.
I don't want to go into a lot of.
These next 2-3 chapters are really worth meditating on.
Verse six. For our fathers have trespassed, undone that which was evil in the eyes of the Lord our God, and have forsaken him, and have turned away their faces from the habitation of the Lord, and turned their backs.
Also they have shut up the doors of the porch, and put out the lamps, and have not burned incense, nor offered burnt offerings in the holy place unto the God of Israel. Wherefore the wrath of the Lord was upon Judah and Jerusalem, and he hath delivered them.
To trouble, to astonishment, and to hissing.
As you see with your eyes.
Below, our fathers have fallen by the sword.
And our sons and our daughters and our wives are in captivity for this.
Now it is in my heart to make a covenant with the Lord God of Israel, that his fierce wrath may turn away from us.
My brother was struck by a word this morning. The word commitment.
Here you have covenant. I know they're technically different.
But I want to ask your heart this afternoon, is their purpose? Is their commitment?
That you want to please the Lord and do that which is right in His sight.
I want to ask you this too.
If the testimony to the Lord's name in the place where you attend.
We're left up to you and your ways.
What would become of the assembly?
00:50:03
Are they ways that please the Lord?
I ask my own heart.
If it were left up to me, what would become of it?
Am I copying the world?
Is that what's going to establish?
A new generation in the ways of God.
Hezekiah rises at 25 years of age and it mentions his mother's name, Abijah.
I think that's daughter of JA.
What's job?
You get it in Jehovah, don't you?
I think it's the ever existing one.
Marvelous.
Her influence on this son, I think, is noted in that verse. Now in verse.
10.
We read that, I guess verse 11 my sons he's speaking to.
Levites.
Verse five My sons, be not now negligent, for the Lord hath chosen you to stand before him. Do you know the Lord Jesus as your Savior?
Think of that favor.
That he's chosen you.
To stand before him.
If you want some authority in your life.
How wonderful when it comes straight from the Lord.
I make this application.
To stand before him, to serve him, and that ye should minister unto him.
How is it in the local assembly?
Young brother.
Doesn't the Spirit of God bring a hymn before your heart from time to time?
Do you seek grace and boldness to give that out in obedience rather than just use a false humility that says, oh, I'm I'm just just a just a young brother.
Listen closely for the voice of the Spirit. Another verse.
I guess we have a little time yet.
Think of this, my sons, be not now negligent, for the Lord hath chosen you to stand before him, to serve Him, and that you should minister unto him, and burn incense.
Further down in the chapter.
They cleanse the house and so forth.
And they bring verse 21.
Notice in verse 20 we've had it mentioned rising early, then Hezekiah the king rose early.
And gathered the rulers of the city, and went up to the House of the Lord, and they brought 7 bullocks, and seven Rams, and seven lambs, and seven he goats.
For a sin offering for the Kingdom, and for the sanctuary, and for Judah.
See it embraced.
All, didn't it?
I'm still trying to find a verse. OK verse 24 And the priest killed them, and they made reconciliation with their blood upon the altar to make an atonement for all Israel.
It's a wonderful thing to say to know in your heart you have authority from the word for what you are following.
In doctrine and in practice, it's very important.
Because you're going to be tested on it. All of us are tested on it.
00:55:01
I love this verse because here is the king. He's a young king. They have the joy of knowing that God's altar is satisfied with the blood of these victims. And he says all Israel may not be here, but this offering is for all Israel.
You may have the privilege of saying yes, I know what it is to be gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
But to embrace the whole truth.
You have to realize that that blessing is for the entire Church of God.
When you look upon that loaf on the table on Lord's Day morning.
That it speaks of the entire body of Christ.
In its oneness.
I'd like to turn to the book of Daniel.
Chapter One.
We are all familiar with this book, I trust.
In verse 8.
Here is a captive.
He is no longer in Israel, he's in Babylon.
But it says Daniel purposed in his heart.
You know what?
Three friends followed.
What's my influence? What's your influence on other young people?
Must have been encouraging to see them follow.
And verse 17 says God gave them.
Knowledge and skill in all learning and wisdom.
He's thankful. Let's look in Chapter 9.
The scene has changed now.
We can say Hezekiah's day has long since passed.
And.
Judah is in captivity in Babylon.
Here's in the early chapters, a teenager and his three friends.
Chapter 9 is an old man.
Daniel.
The three friends were tested without him in a fiery furnace.
Daniel was tested without them in a den of lions.
All their faith proven.
That they really had something.
Here Daniel, we've been speaking about reading the word of God. He's an old man and the verse two says in the first year of his reign that Darius.
I Daniel understood by the books.
The number of the years whereof the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah the prophet that he would accomplish 70 years in the desolations of Jerusalem.
He understood by the books.
How important to read the word of God?
In chapter one we had purpose. In verse three we get and I set my face.
Unto the Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplication, with fasting and sackcloth and ashes.
I highly recommend.
Meditating on this portion.
We don't have time for its details at all, but.
01:00:01
He set his face. Chapter 10.
We had part of a hymn this morning that said.
This afternoon.
Said.
Of him confirming his love to us.
And Daniel, though an old man.
Verse two In those days I, Daniel was mourning.
Three full weeks.
We had a little bit about angelic care.
Because of.
Incident this morning.
And here you get someone appearing to Daniel. We don't always see them.
In their care of us.
Verse 10 And behold, in hand touched me, which set me upon my knees, upon the palms of my hands, and he said unto me, O Daniel, a man greatly beloved.
Understand the words that I speak unto thee, and stand upright, for unto thee am I now sent.
And when he had spoken this word unto me, I stood trembling. Then said he unto me, Fear not, Daniel, for from the first day thou didst what?
Set thine heart to understand.
How committed am I?
How committed are you?
Are we going to set our heart, Lord? I'd like to understand.
I want to really know what's going on. I want God.
And my own soul.
To operate together.
The Lord knows what he's up to.
And he'd like for me to know it, for you to know it.
Here Daniel certainly learns it a little more, and he gets wonderful revelations as to prophecy.
But here it is verse 12 again. Thou did set thine heart.
So another verse further on.
Verse 19.
Verse 18 Then there came again, and touched me one like the appearance of a man, and he strengthened me, and said, Oh, man greatly beloved, fear not, peace be unto thee, be strong. Yeah, be strong.
A man of purpose.
I'd like to look at one other verse in Ezekiel.
Chapter 14.
Chapter 14 and verse 14.
Here again, Israel.
Is.
In an awfully bad state, but it's interesting how God brings this up.
Ezekiel 1414 Though these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, they should deliver but their own souls by their righteousness.
Saith the Lord.
01:05:01
No one was a righteous man.
Job was a righteous man.
But let's look at verse 20.
Or reverse.
Verse 16 Though these three men were in it as I live, saith the Lord God, they shall neither deliver, neither sons nor daughters. They shall only be delivered. But they only shall be delivered, but the land shall be desolate.
Or if I bring a sword upon that land, and say sword go through the land, so that I cut off man and beast from it, though these three men were in it as I live, saith the Lord God.
They shall deliver neither sons nor daughters, but they only shall be delivered themselves.
Or if I send a pestilence into that land, and pour out my fury upon it in blood, to cut off from it man and beast, though Noah, Daniel, and Job are in it as I live, saith the Lord, they shall deliver neither son nor daughter.
But they, they shall but deliver their own souls by their righteousness. How much thus saith the Lord God, How much more when I send my four sword judgments upon Jerusalem, the sword and the famine, and the noisome beast, and the pestilence, to cut off from it man and beast.
I was struck in meditating on this portion. Why put Daniel in there?
Though these three men, they shall deliver neither sons nor daughters.
Daniel didn't have sons or daughters.
God puts him in this verse.
He sandwiches in between two men that had sons and daughters.
Do you have?
Purpose in your heart today.
I know if you know the Lord Jesus, His Spirit wants to stir up purpose in your heart. He wants you to set your face.
And his presence to understand.
He wants to say to you.
Dear fellow Christian.
Oh man, greatly beloved.
Oh, daughter, greatly beloved.
That's the kind of sons and daughters Daniel has.
Those of us.
Who've been encouraged by his life. You know, another little point about Daniel I just mentioned, and that is?
Though he was in captivity many years.
When it comes to understanding these things in his old age.
He's still on Jerusalem's clock.
He says came to pass.
About the time of the evening sacrifice.
That wasn't happening, but that's where his clock was.
May our time be regulated by God and His Word and our purpose and desire.
And the setting of our face be.
That we would seek the Lord with a whole heart so.
Salvation.
Captain and the guy.