Open—B. Conrad, D. Mossman
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Ephesians chapter 3.
Before we start in there.
My exercise this afternoon.
Is to speak a little bit about the ministry.
And I guess I'd call it the minister, the ministry given to the Apostle Paul.
And then the ministry given to the apostle John.
And I'll come back to this maybe, Lord willing, a little later, but.
Some years ago I was reading One Snowy Day in uh.
A collection of letters.
In a elderly brother who had served the Lord very remarkably during his life was in his last days, and someone wrote to him and said.
What are you thinking about? Uh, do you have anything else you'd like to say to us all?
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And he said a few things. And one of the things that he said or wrote was.
Oh yes.
Said I should not like to see the brethren forget John's ministry in their zeal for Paul.
Now I hope that makes more sense after we go through a few scriptures together.
I'm sure it makes sense to some here again, he said. I I should not like to see the brethren lose sight of John's ministry in their zeal for Paul, he said. The one gives meaning, Paul.
The dispensation in which the display is the other, meaning John, that which is displayed.
Now another umm, introductory comment I'd like to make. Is this that our member sitting in a prayer meeting like we had here yesterday?
And as we are accustomed to doing, there was some discussion about praying for this one and that.
And one brother said, well, I ran into this Christian at the airport or the train station, and he said, I presented the truth to him. And, uh, you know, I don't know how well he received it, but you might pray for this brother. And I'm sitting there in my chair saying, how do you present the truth to somebody like that in this? I don't know whether he had 10 minutes or 15 or a half. And I mean, I just sat in my seat thinking.
What are you talking about? How, How, How?
How do you do that? How do I think, you know, there's an hour and 10 minutes left in this meeting. I hope to not take it all, but could any of us? And we're gonna present the truth.
Now I think what the brother meant was that he told this other believer.
To some extent about being gathered to the Lord's name.
And about the position that most of us in this room have been privileged to occupy or to take up. But that's not the the truth.
And I and I have feared lately that we sometimes communicate to others or think in our own minds that it is.
Uh, if just as, uh, a caution.
I really value being gathered to the Lord's name.
And since the Lord saved me when I was in my early 20s.
The Lord just kind of picked me up.
And placed me, you know, in a, in a wonderful place where I don't know how many seven or eight or nine or ten of us.
Where they were meeting in simplicity just and I and I went in, was brought to this place in a farmhouse and I sat there and I said I had read the scriptures now for maybe for a few weeks. And I said of course.
This, this is just so obvious, the way it should be. And I have felt that way ever since and I am indebted to my brethren and I'm so thankful I.
I have never by the grace of God had doubts that that isn't the plain brethren in the 1St century after the Lord came till now.
But it's not everything. And I and I'm a little concerned that we're all of us getting a little bit spiritually lazy or simplistic and.
As if. As if to think that just being in the right place is so so much of A of a of a thing that nothing else matters.
I I remember once when I was working in.
In New York City area.
East, maybe it was Boston on the East Coast and we had some construction difficulty and I had to fly to San Francisco because our attorney and engineer.
You know, we had to meet and prepare for this problem. And one of the attorneys that was in our group also flew with us. And it's a long way to fly out there and get into your hotel and then finally show up to get some work done. And this attorney showed up the next morning and.
He's immediately trying to figure out his flight back and I made a comment to him like, you know, we just got here. We got like a couple days of work to go here. And he said something like, well.
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You know, half a life is just showing up.
And I thought, man.
I may, he may have used a different percentage. Maybe it's not half, maybe it was 80%. But it really irked me. I thought, you know, if, if, if I was his boss, I would, I'd find him another place to work because that's just, that's just the wrong attitude. You know, the company had spent so much money to fly him out there and put him up for a couple of days to get we had some serious problems we had to take. Well, I hope we don't have that same attitude spiritually that it's just.
That is just good enough to show up. There's more than that, we all know that.
It is a wonderful thing to be with the Lord wants you to be.
You know, it says in John 12, right after the Lord raised Lazarus from the dead, it says there they made him a supper and Martha serve, but Lazarus was one of them that sat at the table with him. And there's many times that I've come into the meeting on Lord's Day and sat there as the meeting is about to begin. And I just feel like I'm in such a wonderful place just to be here is a great, great thing that the Lord would die for me and afford me this privilege like.
Like Lazarus, just to be there is a testimony to the power and love of God to send His Son to die for us. So it is a wonderful thing to be in the place where the Lord wants you to be.
In every facet of life, and so much so at the table of the Lord, at the Lord's table. But that's part of our Christian life, not the whole Christian life.
And, and that's my point, I hope I'm not.
I hope I'm being clear enough and so I I would like and, and I don't pretend to be able to be confident to do this very well, but I'd like to touch on a few things that are.
Unique and special to us as believers that were communicated to the church through the apostle Paul and spend a few minutes on that and then spend a few minutes on what is unique as far as I can comprehend it to what the Lord gave to the apostle John. And then we'll maybe think again about that statement that older brother made. The one Paul's doctrine is the dispensation or the structure, if you will.
And John's ministry is that which that structure has been put in place to display. And so without further comment, Ephesians 3, we'll start. And I just want to read 4 passages primarily to kind of, uh, outline a little bit of Paul's doctrine. Now, he was one who could say my gospel because he was given a unique responsibility.
A a unique charge, and if we pick it up in Ephesians three, I think we start to see that, uh, first one of Ephesians 3 for this 'cause I, Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ, for you Gentiles, if ye have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God, which has given me to you Word, not us, but me.
How that by revelation he may know unto me the mystery?
As I wrote a foreign few words.
Whereby when you read, you may understand my knowledge and the mystery of Christ.
Which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit. And here's what it is, that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs, and of the same body.
And partakers of his promise in Christ, by the gospel whereof I was made a minister.
And then verse nine. And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hidden. God, who created all things by Jesus Christ, to the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places, might be known by the Church, the manifold wisdom of God.
Well, Paul by the Holy Spirit was not.
Forgetting to sound humble when he uses the first person singular and says me because if you recall in the book of Acts, I think it's Chapter 9, when Ananias was sent to minister to this one who had just been struck down on the road. Ananias was rightfully fearful to enter the presence of one who has been hauling Christians off, most likely to their death.
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And the Lord said to Ananias, Go thy way, He is a chosen vessel unto me.
And so Saul of Tarsus was a chosen vessel. He was chosen to uniquely be one.
Who would receive a revelation from God from the ascended Lord Jesus Christ?
To receive that and to turn around and to deliver it to the rest of us.
And he was the unique vessel to do that. And so God ordered his whole life, the history, his personal history. And that's why I think it's in early chapter of Colossians. He could say that in, if I could find that really quickly, I think it's in Colossians.
Chapter.
Yeah, I don't find it there. He speaks of himself as a pattern.
Maybe somebody can help me?
Sorry, first Timothy chapter one. I'll just read the verse.
He speaks of himself there as the chief of sinners.
Verse 16 Howbeit for this 'cause I obtain mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might show forth all long-suffering for a pattern to them, which should hereafter believe on Him to life everlasting.
He was a pattern of God's long-suffering in his own personal career, and he was a chosen vessel to communicate a body of truth which he calls the Mystery or my Gospel, which had never been revealed before.
And when he revealed that truth to the rest of the Saints through the Holy Spirit, it completed the Scriptures, the revelation of God to man.
And that's why it says in uh.
Colossians, Chapter One.
Find that verse.
Later on in Colossians chapter one.
In verse 25 whereof I am made a minister, he is referring again to.
The truth of the church, whereof I am made a minister according to the dispensation of God, which is given to me for you.
To fulfill or complete the Word of God.
You say, well isn't the Book of Revelation come later in the Bible? Yes, it does. But the Book of Revelation largely unfolds in detail, a character of things that was also revealed by the Old Testament prophets.
The Old Testament prophet said God is going to send one, an anointed 1A, one who was his own fellow, who was going to do a mighty work, who was going to represent him and display him here on the earth.
Who was going to die and to suffer for his people? And who was going to come again in glory?
And set up a glorious, wonderful Kingdom on this earth.
All of that I believe we could learn if we were had our eyes open in the Old Testament prophets. That's not new. I remember as a young brother about the age of these guys here. I used to be the guy that the older brothers would single out and ask hard questions to, to put on the spot. And Ralph Reeb, senior, he would look across the room at me over his glasses and he'd say, Brother Bruce. He'd say, what would we know of the Lord's coming?
For us, if we did not have the ministry of the apostle Paul and being saved under nine months or 12 months or 15 months, I didn't have ready answers for him. But it made an impression upon me that the ministry given to us by the apostle Paul is very unique. And I started to think about that, and I thought about it for a number of years. I still think about it occasionally. And you wouldn't have.
Most of what is proper to the church if you didn't have the ministry of the apostle Paul because it was a special ministry given to him at a special time. And before we move into the next verse in a in a on Paul, just to reiterate what we read in Ephesians 3. What is that mystery verse 6 Gentiles, people of the nations should be joint heirs, joint body.
Partakers of this promise in Christ by the Gospel.
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And again, this was a truth that was not known. It was hidden.
Before we go to the next one, I just want to amplify this thought. Go to the last chapter of Romans, Romans 16.
And Paul is ending the epistle and giving kind of a salutation in verse 25. Now to him that is of power to establish you.
Romans 1625 according to my gospel.
And the preaching of Jesus Christ according to the revelation of the mystery which we just read about.
Which was kept secret since the world began, but now is made manifest, and by the prophets of by the scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the everlasting God, made known to all nations for the obedience of faith.
When you read the word now in the book of Romans, you need to pay attention because it's usually something that should be emphasized. But now it's in contrast to then and so again this verse also.
Illustrates to us that this which Paul called my gospel, this mystery, was something which was not made known before and now was being made known by him. And so the first aspect of it I'm going to read for basic passages. The first aspect we had in Ephesians 3.
It's just the existence of the Church as being one body, as being joint heirs with Christ, as being joined to Him, and as being associated with these, with the promises.
It says there partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel.
You can't find that in the Old Testament. You can't find it in the words of Isaiah or Jeremiah or in the first five books.
I know when Steven and I were much younger and we heard brothers speak about this, it confused us for a while because we said, well, what about, you know, Genesis 24 and what about Genesis two and three and what about this picture and that type? And, and a brother read from Genesis 22 This morning. It was very helpful when a brother said a picture is a picture of nothing unless you know.
The revelation of the thing itself.
And so if there is no, if you didn't know the truth of the church that we're members of his body and also his bride, you're going to read Genesis 1-2 and three over and over again and nothing would click because you didn't know the thing itself. Once you know the thing itself, you go back and you see all the pictures over different picture and different books over and over again, and you can't escape because it's there in picture, because it is indeed.
And eternal purpose. It's an eternal purpose, but it was revealed at a certain special time which we don't have time to go into. So now we have the existence of the church in Ephesians three was a mystery given to Paul by revelation. Now let's go to 1St Corinthians Chapter 11.
Here's another thing that Paul received as an individual. 1St Corinthians 11.
Verse 23 For I received of the Lord, not we, I.
That which also I delivered unto you, that the Lord Jesus, the same night in which he was betrayed, took bread.
When he had given thanks, he'd break it and said take, eat. This is my body which is broken for you. This do in remembrance of me, and so on. In the previous chapter he spoke. He wrote about the cup of blessing, He wrote about the bread which we break.
The Lord's Table, The Lord's Supper.
Now, you could, you could easily raise the question and say, Paul, where do you get off on saying that this is a revelation to you? Peter and John could say that you weren't even there. We were there. We were there the night he instituted the feast. And you say it's a revelation that you've been given.
Well, in the character that the Lord's Supper took on.
It was revealed to Paul.
And you know when the Lord instituted that, it had a certain character with those, uh, believing disciples.
But.
The truth of being one with Christ in glory, the truth of being united together by one given Holy Spirit not known at that time, the character of the Lord's Supper as the expression of this thing that no one knew was going to exist is what Paul was given in first that he describes in First Corinthians 11.
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And so there is that aspect which the Lord himself instituted, but the other aspect which we enjoy as being, looking at that loaf, as a brother would say, if you call somebody a long distance on a Lord's Day morning to say hello like I used to with Brother Roy, she said, well, I'll see in the loaf, you know, because that's what we see. We see all the believers represented there because we're all partakers of that one loaf, that character of things.
In first Corinthians 11 was also something communicated by the apostle Paul. So we had in Ephesians 3 the existence of this church, this body of Christ, and now that which is the characteristic expression of it, the Lord's Supper, because it's on the Lord's table and that which all the practical side flows from that which is not my exercise to take up. Maybe someone else some other time. So thirdly, now let's go to umm.
1St Corinthians 15.
And here's another.
Here is another aspect of the revelation.
We have now the existence of this this entity which.
Was not known before. We have the characteristic expression of it. Fellowship of it in First Corinthians 11.
And now what's next? What's what's her destiny? 1St Corinthians 15.
Verse 50 Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God, neither doth corruption inheriting corruption behold.
I show you a mystery.
Each one of these is is introduced with that kind of language. I'm going to show you something.
That was not known.
Behold, I show you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed.
In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump with the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.
So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass a saying that is written, death is swallowed up in victory.
The raising up of those that are asleep in Jesus.
Connecting it with the introduction of the time of blessing on the earth.
Which is where that passage is quoted from in the prophet Isaiah.
The fact that that not all will sleep, but all will be changed. This was a revelation given to the Apostle Paul. Men and women of faith could could look, as the hymn writer puts it, look beyond the long dark night and hail the coming day.
And Job had a sense in his soul that he would stand before God. And men and women in ancient times had a sense of the mystery that out of death would come life, the principle of resurrection life being on the other side of death. But life and immortality were really brought to light through the Gospel, that which was the object of faith, which was enjoyed in some measure and aspired to.
Now we took on a bright, clear relief.
And that was part of the truth communicated through the apostle Paul that there would be a selective resurrection. The Lord said in, I think it's in John chapter five, he, he speaks there, umm, umm.
They that have done find that.
Umm, John 5 and 28.
The hour is coming into which all that are in the grave shall hear His voice, and shall come forth. They that have done good unto the resurrection of life, they that have done evil unto the resurrection of judgment or damnation, and so on.
So there's different kinds of resurrection, the resurrection of the just and the unjust as as it's described when Paul is before Festus, I think. But this selective resurrection and out resurrection from among the rest of the dead as the destiny of those who have fallen asleep in Jesus is an additional part of the gospel given to the apostle Paul.
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And out resurrection, if you will, Christ the first fruits has already been raised out from among the rest of the dead and.
Gone into the presence of God and found full acceptance as a man. That's the first installment. The 2nd installment could happen today. If the Father gives his son the word, he'll arise and and give that shout.
And the dead in Christ shall be raised, and we which are alive and remain shall be changed. Which is the 4th one? Let's go to that real quick. First Thessalonians 4.
Again, same language.
Verse 13 of First Thessalonians 4 I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, Even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. For this we say unto you, by the word of the Lord, it's a revelation.
That we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord, shall not prevent or go before them which are asleep. For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the Archangel, with the trump of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise first.
Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord, the destiny.
Of every individual that has been blessed to become part of the Church of God revealed here in clear bold light of of day, so to speak, for the first time.
In John 5 there's a resurrection, but are those two? Do they happen on the same day?
Are all the dead raised and some gold to blessing and some go to judgment? Is it a day apart, a week apart, or 1000 years apart, which I believe is the case from other scriptures. That's not revealed there, but they are raised. And here in chapter four, First Thessalonians, the destiny is to be caught up, whether sleeping or living, to be changed and to be with the Lord forever. And so we have her existence.
Her characteristic fellowship here on the earth while we wait.
For the Lord's coming we have the hope of the resurrection, which we don't talk about enough probably, and we have the destiny to be forever with the Lord, whether sleeping or or or waking. This is in a.
Imperfect outline.
Much of what Paul's doctrine is centered around. Is there a practical application? Yes. We didn't read that, but when it comes to the table of the Lord, let a man judge himself, and so let him eat.
There are aspects of suitability and unsuitability. There are aspects of behavior that is proper to us. And, uh, as being part of this fellowship, there are all kinds of practical things that flow from this. But what we've just reviewed in the Scriptures is really the characteristic and unique aspect of the church in this present age, this strange, strange time we live in between the sufferings of Christ.
And the glory that should follow. You can probably drive along through Arizona and look way out in the distance and not see the Grand Canyon.
But as you get closer and closer and you get to the very edge, you can look down and say, wow, I looked past this, but I never knew this was here. And so has been the revelation of God and by God and the Scriptures.
That there is a long, long view to Christ's coming glory on earth, but no revelation of what would happen before that time.
That it would please God during the interlude when his people rejected him. Come, uh, meek and lowly on Anassis Colt.
And the second time, when he would come in glory a White Horse, and so on, that in that strange interlude, it would please God, during the time of his Son's rejection, to gather out of Jew and Gentile a people for his name.
The church.
So I.
No, those are just a few scriptures, but it took a while. But it's just, we're just scratching the surface. So when we say we bring the truth before somebody, it's there's, we're all like children, but.
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My exercise would be to kind of open our minds up a little broader.
To what we're part of the glory and the joy of it and the responsibility of it.
And what a privilege it is to in some way be consistent to it.
And taking our place, Lord, say, by Lord's Day at the Lord's table.
You know, and, and, and now I want to move for a few minutes to speak a little bit about what the Scriptures revealed to the Apostle John.
But.
Before I do so, let's let's turn to a passage in Deuteronomy, if I can find it. I think it's around chapter 12.
Deuteronomy chapter 12.
In verse 9.
Deuteronomy 12 and verse 9. For ye are not as yet come to the rest, and to the inheritance which the Lord your God giveth you.
But when ye go over Jordan.
And dwell in the land which the Lord your God giveth you to inherit. And when he giveth you rest from all your enemies round about, so that you dwell in safety, then there shall be a place which the Lord your God shall choose to cause his name to dwell there.
And so if we're going to speak about the place, the beautiful truth that the Lord has always desired to have His people around Himself in a place of His appointment.
If we're gonna do that while somebody is scrambling for food and nervous about making it over Jordan, who does not have.
Rest from their enemies roundabout. They're not dwelling in safety. They're not over into the good of the land.
It's debatable whether that person is receptive or prepared by their circumstances to receive and act upon that. Matter of fact, they can act upon it. Can they really?
And so I sometimes think, just before we leave the subject of Paul's doctrine, that it's a little bit, umm, uh.
Too fast for us when we meet a believer just at school or at work or somewhere to start right in with Matthew 18 and 20.
And particulars about finding one's way in the midst of all of the cacophony of Christendom today. They say, oh, this is the path.
An interesting thing that I reflect on once in a while is that when Brian and Jonathan and I met at lunch in college here in in May, in Orno, right up the road.
And then we started to, uh, have meetings on a Friday night. We just took a public room and got permission to use a public room in the student union. I started to have meetings there.
And I was part of the work. Uh, I had my part and Jonathan and Brian had their part. And, but the thing was that my exercise was that it wasn't going to be. I, I, I did it with the fellowship. We did it with the fellowship of our local brethren 40 miles away.
They knew that we were having these meetings.
Umm, they weren't wild about it, but they knew about it. And, you know, it wasn't, you know, OK, but, umm, the exercise wasn't to be a kind of a recruiting agency for, for those of us that were gathered to the Lord's name in, uh, in Detroit or Palmyra, ME.
The exercise was, we just felt like these, those leprous men at the gate of, of uh, Samaria. It's like, you know, uh, we have been so blessed. We're so rich and everybody around us is so poor and, uh.
We just got it, you know, share this, you know, that's what the, the, the leprous men, they went out into the host of the series, right? And, and, uh, this is a day of, uh, of, of good tidings. We're glad tidings and we hold our peace. So that was the exercise and we just went out and we just took up.
The the truths of the gospel, the stories that these children have heard since they were little and a lot of the young people, the Christian young people or or some of them were unsaved that came.
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I had never heard. And so it, that's what we did for a year or two or when Jonathan graduated, it kind of stopped. But umm, but we did that and we never spoke ever.
About we never took up. I just, never the Lord, I used to just go to, uh, to the men's room and say, Lord, there's 30 people in there. I have no idea what we're gonna do or say. So I would pray earnestly help, uh, provide something for these people. And I trust the Lord was the one who, uh, guided us what to take up. But I don't feel he ever, I can remember ever guided us to take the subject up of the ground gathering. But we took up all these wonderful Christian truths.
And I feel looking back on it now, you know, we were all young, but these young people weren't over Jordan. They really didn't enter into the fullness of Christian maturity to know that they they didn't have full assurance of faith as Paul speaks about it. They didn't have real peace to know that they possessed the forgiveness of sins as a present possession. They didn't know they had eternal life. They didn't know the difference between their standing and their state.
There, there's just a whole.
Fearful of things that seemed like needed to be that we could take up. When you go over Jordan, dwell in the land.
When he gives you rest. So we took up that which would give them rest. We took up, we trust, that which would help them realize their position, their standing as those that were seated in the heavenlies in Christ, which is what crossing the Jordan really speaks of, of, of believers practical understanding that they are one of the risen ones with Christ.
You know, but as as time went on and after those meetings sometimes and when the meeting would get done and we'd be chatting, I can remember different ones.
Saying, by the way, where do you guys go to church? And so we say, well, you know this, I can, I don't know how the others answered, but the way I answered it was I live like way out there and I go to a meeting there that I feel the Lord would have me to go to. And I feel the Lord led me there and I can go there with a good conscience in accordance with the Scriptures. And you're welcome to come and see. And, and some of them took us up on it and they came and saw and.
Most all of them are still in and out amongst us today, but I think the point of it is, is that there's a moral, uh.
Growth or preparedness for some of these practical things that, yes, we would all like to see. And eventually, uh, these different young ladies, young sisters, young men taking their place. It has settled their life down. It established them as believers. And then rather than just listening to these young brothers, they got to the assembly where the Lord was in the midst and they heard whomever the Lord raised up the older brothers from our own assembly, our older brothers from.
Lauren Villa or Montreal or New Jersey or wherever, and their normal Christian life, uh, unfolded as, as we kind of read a little bit in Ephesians 3. So I, I hope you, uh, understand my point there. I, I just suggest that, that sometimes we're kind of jumping to the answer and a little impatient about seeing a soul develop until being where the Lord is is really something that means something to them.
And that they wanna participate in.
Well, let's turn just briefly to John chapter one.
John, Chapter one.
Verse 18.
No man hath seen God at any time.
The only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him.
And then back in the beginning of the chapter.
First verse in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God.
And the Word was God, verse 14.
And the Word was made, or became flesh, and dwelt among us.
We beheld His glory, the glories of an only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.
And so to repeat that expression, Paul, the dispensation in which the display is John, that which is displayed and what is displayed.
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Here we have in John's ministry, he starts right out without introducing anything or anybody or even himself. Goes all the way back to the.
Beginning of beginnings, if you could put it that way. In the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, and the Word was God, and then He.
Unfolds the essence of the history of God's manifesting himself to man in the person of His Son.
And as you flip through the chapters in John, you have these passages that are so well known in so many languages that are just these all inspiring passages that communicate that everything that God is.
In light and in love and in wisdom, he has been pleased to communicate in the person of his son. Nothing left out.
No, no mortal being could communicate all that they are.
In a million words.
Or in a painting or a poem or picture or a building or anything that they could express themselves through. But God can, and He has.
And so you flip a few pages more and the disciple says, show us the Father.
And Philip, have I been so long with you? He that hath seen me hath seen the Father.
I mean, you can feel the hair stand up on your head when you read verses like that.
They're looking at.
God manifest in flesh the Son of the Father Himself.
And yet the reality of it is, as John presented in his gospel, he says in him was life.
In the first couple verses we didn't read verse four. In him was life, and the life was the light of men.
But the kind of sad part of it is there is that it was in him exclusively.
In him was life all others dead in trespasses and sins.
The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness comprehends it not.
And so in John's ministry you have that which is displayed.
In his gospel, it's primarily it's displayed in the person of the Son of God.
His wisdom.
His power, his love, his compassion.
Every virtue.
Brother at the Lord's table once. I will always remember this. He stood up there in our little meeting.
And I forget his exact words, but he basically was saying to the Lord, I'm like a priest and I when I consider you and all that you are, it's like, umm, my hands are in this fine, fine flower.
Just per per perfectness.
A man, Christ Jesus, displaying all that God is in perfection, nothing left out. We tend to be specialists. I can look at the faces of some brothers and sisters I know in here and I can tell you.
They are so much like Christ. I don't. I've never met anybody that shows that virtue like that brother that sister does. But you know, we know each other. We got some warts and freckles too, and we got some weaknesses. But in Christ no blemish everything there in fullest measure. When the occasion called for for, for reproof and for being firm, He did it and didn't go overboard. He did it perfectly when it called for gentleness, when it called for graciousness.
He was that always the perfect virtue at the perfect time and in the perfect measure because of who he is and was always. But in him was life.
And then we read as we get through.
The wonders of the Cross.
And he's risen in John 20.
And he communicates, breathes on them, communicates life. Well, what is that all about? And then for the sake of time, let's go to John's epistle, his first epistle.
And the rest of the story starts to become more unfolded.
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Let's go to First John chapter 2.
And verse 8.
Well, let's read verse 7 as well. Brethren, I write no new commandment unto you, John writes, but an old commandment which we had, which he had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word which ye have heard from the beginning.
Again, a new commandment I write unto you, which thing is true in him and in you?
Because the darkness is past, are passing, and the true light already shines.
We're in a new, new situation here. No longer in him was life.
All others in darkness it says which thing is true in him and in you, except the corner. We fall into the ground and die. It abideth alone, but if it die, it beareth or bringeth forth much fruit.
And so you see that life, that wonderful pristine life which John calls eternal life, You see that now reproduced in others. You see the characters of that life now produced not just in him, but you see it, albeit in earthen vessels.
In.
Earthen vessels. You see it displayed in others. Which thing is true in him and in you? What are those things? If you go down through the 1St Epistle of John, you read about what the characters of this life are.
It it, it loves, it loves its brethren.
It is holy. I love the definition given yesterday by our brother about what About holiness. God being holy before sin was even in the world. God was holy because that's his nature. It delights in that which is good and pure.
And of God and abhors evil. That's what that new nature does.
It obeys as we go down through these verses, we could read that that that the new nature, it not only obeys because you could obey grudgingly. It obeys from the heart, happily.
Commandments are not grievous to the new nature it obeys.
Umm, you could pluck different aspects out of it and, and I don't want to go on too long, but this is the part, this is when the brother said I should not like to see the brethren lose sight of John. It's the reproduction in a practical way of this life in our in, in, in you and me, in our everyday life that I think we get a little bit LAX about.
As if, like my lawyer colleague there, it's like, well, we're here, you know, I can just be, you know, schlopping and schlep out and whatever. I'm here. I'm not involved with anything bad. No, that's not it.
You know what it's like sometimes you have an indication when we have a problem, and in the last 10 or so years, 15, maybe a brother would suggest a reading in John 17 or John 15 or somewhere, and boom, we plow right into Paul's doctrine.
We've become almost specialists in Paul's doctrine. I hope you don't, you know, uh, I hope I'm not being offensive. And I think we enjoy Paul's doctrine. What would we have? We did, we missed so much without it. But as the brother said, it's not loose sighted. John, the display of that life, you and me, you know, sometimes ask myself when I'm alone, what could I have done differently to be a better?
Brother.
To my brethren in the assemblies I've lived in, what could I have done differently to been a better testimony or more of a light in the places I've worked? What could I have done better to have been a better father, a better husband, a better example or leader in my own family, to my own children?
And one of the things that I think about is that I need to change more.
If you, if you read through the book of Proverbs, I did this once, I didn't get all the way through. But if you, if you put a mark in your Bible with a pencil so you can erase it. If you want to put a mark by every verse that talks about changing about you or me changing God, changing us, your Bible and book of Proverbs is going to be sprinkled with these marks.
Because of what we are by nature and of what Our Calling is. And so, you know, it really does, I suppose, discourage younger ones when we who have obviously been in the fellowship of God's people and reading the Word and praying for a lot of years and we don't show the change in our lives practically that we should. You know, it makes me feel sad because.
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It's there's nothing wrong with the Scriptures. There's nothing lacking in the Holy Spirit.
The, the, the weakness in the recipe is me. And so it's an exercise. Well, I've spoken long enough and, and, uh, I hope nothing I've said is, is, uh, discouraged you from anything that's good and positive, but I, my exercise really has been, uh, these ought you to, to have done and not to leave the other undone that the Lord is, uh, he's the gardener in our hearts. Our practical lives are the garden.
And he's looking to see growth in you and me, whether we're 84 or 14. And let's not just God forbid that we would settle down into a place where where we're in the right place and everything is outwardly orthodox. It would be a horrible testimony if the Lord would have to say about you and me. You know, all things that that Bruce bids you do that observe and do you know describes and Pharisees sit in Moses seat.
In other words, they're in the right position and they're telling you to do the right things and do it, but do not according to their ways, right? That's the way the Pharisees have become. It was all an outward thing. So may the Lord exercise us to be more yielding that the Spirit of God would form in US, reproduce, show out in US more practically that wonderful display of eternal life that we now have.
Like to for a few moments, take a look at the Book of Ruth.
We've been going through that book in the readings.
And like to recount maybe a few things that I've already been said, but like to extend them, perhaps with the Lord's help.
Had before me particularly.
Naomi herself.
We know that the book is about Ruth and the grace of God and how that one who was a Gentile.
Had no claim on the promises given to Israel and so on. It's brought in by grace.
But.
I was thinking of how, beginning in the first chapter, we read about Elimelech and Naomi and two sons who depart from, we might say, the place of God's appointment.
They went from Bethlehem and into the country of Moab.
And that was a bad decision.
You know, it's kind of interesting as an aside that Boaz stayed in the land, didn't he? And it says that.
At the beginning of chapter 2, it says that Boaz was a mighty man of wealth.
Wasn't there a famine in the land?
Now it says that Boaz, he remained there. He was a mighty man of wealth.
But what about, uh, the adventures of Elimelech and his family?
Well, we don't know exactly who might have been the leader in this decision.
But, uh, by whatever means, they end up in the country of Moab.
And there Naomi loses her husband, and then she loses her two sons.
And I was thinking.
That what she said at the end of chapter one has a bearing on, uh, that fact when she said in verse 21, I went out full and the Lord had brought me home again empty.
What I'm thinking about is the promise that was given back way in the beginning of Genesis, how that the woman seed would bruise the serpent's head.
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The woman.
And if we follow that through a little bit, we find in the 22nd chapter that the promise to Abraham was that in thy seed Christ shall all the nations of the earth be blessed.
So we find that's going to be through Abraham's seed.
If we go to the end of Genesis, we find Jacob's prophecy concerning Judah. It says the scepter will not depart from Judah.
So we find that the promised One was going to come not only through Abraham and Jacob, but through Judah specifically.
And we know after the account of Ruth that the promise was once again given to David, and the Messiah was called the Son of David and so on, but that wasn't known in Ruth's day. However, it's quite possible that Naomi and those in Judah realized this fact.
And Naomi was in a good position, you might say. Wasn't she of the tribe of Judah? She was a descendant of Abraham and so on. And she had two sons.
So it was likely quite probable that.
The promised one could come through her seat.
Or through her family.
But when she went into the land of Moab.
She lost her husband and her two sons.
So what she had as a hope was lost.
I went away full her two sons. You know, there's the possibility that I could be in that line, uh, that led up to the promised one. But when her two sons were gone without children, it appears.
Then all hope was lost.
She had no hope.
And, I suppose, the women of Israel.
If they were barren, didn't have children, and so on, they bore a lot of reproach.
Because of that promise that was given.
It was the desire of each one of them that they would be in that royal line, so to speak.
And that's why I suppose we have the example of Jeff's daughter who bewailed her virginity because there was no possibility that she could be in that line as an example.
We have the example too of how Hannah was ridiculed by.
Uh.
Well, by Elkanah's other wife, because she was born.
And caused her to fret.
Well, why? Why so? Because if they were barren, they could not be in that line.
And so Naomi, if I look at it at least from that point of view, whether this was what was in Naomi's mind or not, I'm not sure exactly, but she does say I went out full, but the Lord had brought me home empty. And let's go back earlier in chapter one.
Where it says, uh, verse 11.
She's on her way back to Bethlehem with the two daughters at this moment, and she says, turn again, my daughters, why will you go with me? Are there yet any more sons in my womb that they may be your husband's? Turn again, my daughters. Go your way, for I am too old to have a husband.
It was hopeless for her. She had come to the point where, because of decisions that had been made, she left the place where God had had blessed his people and so on. And as a result of that, she had lost, at least in her mind, everything. And she had no, no hope, no hope left.
Said I'm too old to have a husband. I can't have any more sons and so.
In her mind, she was left out, you might say.
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However, to her credit, she returned.
To Bethlehem.
And she came with roof in tow. And it's been pointed out in our meetings how that as time goes on, uh, we see a change in Naomi. She says at the beginning when she arrives, don't call me Naomi, call me Mara, because the Lord has dealt bitterly with me.
And so she was at the bottom, you might say.
But as time went on, we find that Ruth goes out to glean and she goes into Boaz's field.
And this was pointed out when she took what she gleaned back to her mother-in-law in verse 19. Her mother-in-law said unto her, Where hast thou gleaned today?
But at the end of the verse, and she showed that Ruth showed her mother-in-law with whom she had wrought.
And it's, it's interesting, isn't it? It was not necessarily a place. It was a person that came, started to come forward, uh, in the account.
And Naomi, I believe, begins to start to take a little bit of courage at this point. Notice in verse 20, Naomi said unto her daughter-in-law, Blessed be he of the Lord, who hath not left off his kindness to the living and to the dead.
Begins to a little flicker of light, you might say, which was hidden is kind of coming rekindled.
And, uh, this also was remarked upon in verses 21 and 22 how that, umm, she says that is Ruth says, uh.
How that Boaz had told her, Thou shalt keep fast by my young men. Actually, that's not what he had said. If you would go back to the eighth verse, you would see that he said, Abide here fast by my maidens, not by my young men.
But Naomi, she wasn't there to hear that, but she had good advice.
I think that some of the discernment that she had lost started to rekindle.
And so she says, It is good, my daughter, that thou go out with his maidens.
And it's to the credit of Ruth that she did so.
So we see here that, uh, there's a little bit of light shining in here, it seems. Into, umm, into Naomi's heart, perhaps a little hope.
Well, Chapter 3 we have not considered or Chapter 4, umm, and in chapter 3, uh, I sure do not intend to go through the details there. In fact, uh, I could not explain the customs that, uh, are involved there, but just with this one thought.
Naomi advised Ruth as to what to do.
You might say that she told Ruth how things go in the assembly.
If we can put it in those terms.
Here was one that was new, who was, shall we say, recently saved.
And she needed instruction. She had to know what to do.
And I believe Naomi was here taking the part that we read written by the apostle Paul to Titus. He says let the agent men teach the younger.
Aged women, I should say, teach the younger women to be discreet and so on.
And so here we have just exactly that in the proper order, don't we?
So we have that in chapter 3, and then of course we have what happens in chapter 4, how Boaz is determined to take Ruth for his wife, he was the next kinsman and so on. But I just like to go down to verse nine of that chapter.
Boaz is speaking to the elders there and he says this.
What I said unto the elders, unto all the people, Ye are witnesses this day that I have brought. All that was a little X, and all that was chillions.
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And melons of the hand of Naomi.
Oh, it's interesting. I think that is put that way.
It goes on to say in verse 10. Moreover, Ruth the Moabite is the wife of Malon. Have I purchased to be my wife to raise up the name of the dead upon his inheritance?
You know, uh, as we go on a little further, we find in verse 13, so Boaz took Ruth and she was his wife. And when he went in on to her, the Lord gave her conception and she bare his son. It's been remarked, and I'll just repeat, uh, up to this point, every time Ruth's name is mentioned is Ruth the Mobitus. But when she becomes the bride of Boaz, it's Ruth.
It's dropped, you know, it's like.
Uh, another example that occurs, uh, in this manner is, uh, concerning rehab. Every time she's mentioned in, uh, the book of Joshua, it's Rahab the harlot. Rahab the harlot. But if you go over to Matthew's Gospel where the genealogy is there in the first chapter, it just calls her rehab.
And it calls roof roof.
Those things, those things have been detached.
Because they are brought in by the grace of God. No doubt we could say, I could say myself the Sinner.
Saved by grace, I'm a Saint of God. Now different.
At any rate, umm, just wanna go on to, uh, first 14.
And the women said unto Naomi, Blessed be the Lord, which hath not left thee this day without a kinsman.
That his name may be famous in Israel.
Verse 16. Naomi took the child and laid it in her bosom, and became a nurse unto it. And the women, her neighbors, gave it a name, saying, This is a son. There is a son born to Naomi.
And they called his name all the There's a son born on to Naomi.
And whether Naomi herself appreciated this or not.
I cannot say, but we know that that sun.
Through Ruth, of course, and Boaz. But credit it, we might say, to Naomi here.
Was the one that was found in the very royal line of the Lord Jesus Christ.
If Naomi had stayed with her husband Elimelech in the land of of Israel, perhaps all these circumstances, these things may not have happened.
But in a sense, she would have missed out on something because Elimelech was not in the royal line, Boaz was.
And it wasn't until she was restored.
That she was brought into this blessing.
It reminds me of the story of Job who passed through all those trials and tribulations.
But as James put it in his book, he says, consider the end of the Lord. What did the Lord do after all that job had passed through? He blessed him with twice as much as he had before.
So.
I guess the.
The point of what I wanted to bring out was this.
Sometimes there are those who become discontented, perhaps in the assembly, maybe those even who leave the assembly out of fellowship or something of that nature.
But as we see here in the case of Naomi, when she, shall we say, came to herself like the prodigal son, she came back to the right place, and the Lord worked with her, and she received that instruction little by little, and in the end she had a greater blessing.
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Then when she left.
I want that simply to be an encouragement to anyone of us.
Who either may be in that situation or may be inclined to consider that situation.
Of going elsewhere, leaving where the Lord is in the midst.
Thoughts of that sort?
An encouragement, if one is away and cold, that they might be warmed and brought back and realize that there's a great blessing in being restored.