Open—B. Roossinck, R. Thonney
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For thou whose mercy far exceed, all we can do or say is in Thy people, Thou indeed just daily more display. But for our happiness, O God, on us while here below, by virtue of Christ, death and blood, Thy richest blessings flow. 288.
I.
Read my heart.
Sleep.
I know, grateful.
Bob and our lovely father, we forgive me our thanks once again this afternoon. We thank thee that we can sing with him. This touch we can ask preserve thy cloth most graciously within thy sheltering fold. We know that thou are the only one that can preserve us. So we now we now look to the age. We think of many here this afternoon. We thou knowest we have various needs. So we look today knowing that our the one that can fill our needs.
I don't know what to that. Perhaps some dear.
These special health, some here perhaps are discouraged, some here perhaps distracted. But we looked at it, knowing that thou art able. So we commit the following meeting into thy hand.
Pray that through Thy Spirit guide me that we may learn more of our blessed Lord Jesus Christ and that we are reminded once more that with heavenly citizens by birth, so we look to Thee, and we'll commit this meeting in Thy hand, giving Thee our thanks once more in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
00:05:20
I hope it's OK if we have a few comments from somebody on the younger side.
It's open to.
Revelations chapter 2 to begin, please.
Revelations chapter 2 and verse.
Revelation 3. Sorry, verse 2.
Be watchful and strengthen the things which remain.
I this was brought to my mind yesterday.
By a number of different things that were said.
Strengthen the things which remained.
Give me to set up what I have on my heart. I'll tell you a little story.
Couple of years ago.
My wife and I decided that we needed to replace the roof on our house because we live in an old farmhouse and it had about 100 year old metal roof on it that had a lot of pin holes in it. So I contacted an army sky that I know he came out and looked at it.
And he did a very nice job putting a new roof on our house. But in part of that process, he said to me, says, you know.
Some of the boards under there are kind of weak and even though the upside looks good.
You really ought to put some more strength in the Raptors.
And I thought about that and didn't do anything about it.
Unfortunately, everything turned out fine. But as many of you know, we had a winter this year. They had a lot of snow and it was cold.
And roofs begin to collapse.
And thankfully ours didn't, but it reminded me of what he said, Strengthen the things which remain. And my roof is remaining. But I want to talk about that on a spiritual level if I can. And I'd like, I hope it's okay to talk to the families and to your young people. It'd be alright if I talk to you for a few minutes. I don't intend to talk a long time. Strengthening the things which are which remain.
You know, it really is a real blessing to look here and see all of you young people and those of you with young families. I know a lot of young families have left at noon today, but.
It pleases the Lord's heart to see you here seeking to learn more about him. And we're living in a, in a world today that there are a lot of challenges for your young people. There are there's a lot of pressure to conform to this world. There's a lot of pressure to give in to the philosophies of men. And sometimes it's easier not to say anything.
And we can find ourselves. Our silence can almost be a lie sometimes.
And there's a attack against something that we hold dear. Well, I'm just not going to say anything. That's almost a lie.
There's a lot of weight, if you will, that once the enemy wants to crush your roof, so I would like to help you strengthen the things which are remaining.
With a few thoughts that I've enjoyed.
So firstly, let's turn over to.
First Chronicles, 12.
First Chronicles, chapter 12.
Here we have the time when David was going to be made king.
And I just want to point out one.
Group of people that went to make David King. First Chronicles 12, verse 32.
And the children of Issachar, which were men that had understanding of the times.
To know what Israel ought to do.
And then verse 38.
All these men of war that could keep rank came with a perfect heart to make David king over Israel.
And all the rest also of Israel were of one heart to make David king.
00:10:07
As I mentioned a minute ago.
We're living in a time where the enemy has more and more focused and bringing down everything that is.
Dear to the heart of God, the family, the Assembly.
Individual lives, and I don't think any of us have to think very hard to think of loved ones, people that we care about a lot that are under attack.
And so we need in our homes and in our assemblies to have an understanding of the times.
I was I was very much enjoyed Michelle, your message yesterday. It's it very much is an understanding of the times.
And we've spent a a good deal of time at this conference discussing some very beautiful doctrines and some very beautiful thoughts that the Lord has for us in His Word.
I've got a another W for you Michelle and and I often talk about this in our home is to understand.
The why behind the what?
And it's important to spend time carefully.
Delineating what God's thoughts are and the ways of God with us so that that only can we know what to do, but why the Lord wants us to do something so young people and and I guess everybody, let's be mindful of the why behind the what you know, it's it's one thing for me to say to my kids. This is what I want and they say, well, why dad and when they're four or five, I can say because I slept.
Right. And they're. Oh, OK.
Right. Yes, your kids are young people. Remember your parents answered that way because I said.
But you know what? Now my children are teenagers and say.
I want you to do this or that and say, well, why, dad? Because I stand there like, well, why, right? It doesn't work anymore. So it's important to know the why behind the what. So that's my contribution, the shelter W.
Anyway, first of all, I want to talk to young families for a minute. Turn to Mark 10, please.
Here we have the Lord Jesus, and this is a beautiful passage.
Very much enjoy this passage. Mark chapter 10, verse 13.
And they brought little children to him, that he should touch them.
And as disciples rebuked those that brought them.
But when Jesus saw it, he was much displeased, and said unto them, Suffer the little children to come unto me, Forbid them that. For if such is the Kingdom of God, Well, I read this because.
I also have a young family and I remember it's not an easy thing to bring four small kids to a conference like this.
And I want to encourage you, moms and dads.
It's a real joy to see those little faces and when Danny stood up here this morning and talked to the kids, what a joy to see those little people and.
You may sit there and the kids are whining for another coloring book or more crackers or whatever. You know what? And here it says they brought little children unto him. Why? So that they could understand deep doctrine.
Not yet that he might touch them and that's what we want for the little kids that he might touch them. You think of the imagine the Lord Jesus just.
Placing his hand on your head like that, what a blessing. And I know I've mentioned this before, but it's worth saying again.
Many years ago I was staged at a conference like this one.
And I think my mom at the time probably thought, boy, I just wish that we could go home now. But you know what, The Lord Jesus touched my life and heart that day. And so I want to encourage you that the Lord has the good and the blessing of the children in mind. So don't be afraid if your kids are crying and meeting. It's a good noise. And I'll tell you if I love to watch.
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Little kids and the Lord is wanting to just touch them and and he will. So I just want to encourage you young moms and dads.
Bring your children to the Lord and He'll touch them. Bless them.
The other thoughts I had before me, I'm not going to speak a long time.
Umm, I've spoken on this before, but it's very helpful to me and I want to just review it with the young people. Turn over to Deuteronomy with me.
Chapter 22.
Deuteronomy 22.
Verse 8.
Look around, I see some.
A lot of young people here, I see some couples here, I know at least one that purpose to be married soon.
Here's here's some encouragement for you I hope this helps strengthen the things which remain verse 8 when thou build us in the house then thou shall make a battlement for thy roots that they'll bring that blood upon thy house. If any man fall from fence while the literal meaning of this is.
If you go up on the roof, put a fence around it so nobody falls off.
Let's talk about it in a spiritual sense. Young people, the Lord is interested in your home.
And the home that you will establish in the future if he leaves us here.
And you may say, oh, that's a long way to offer me. Maybe it is. But I can tell you from experience that time goes by really quickly.
The Lord is interested in the type of home that you establish.
And by the way, it says in Proverbs, except the Lord build the house.
They linger in vain and build it.
And so as you are advancing into having your own family, or if you are a young family right now, put the Lord at the center of your home.
Except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain. That build it in my own strength or your own strength. We may lay ever spell carefully our plans, but the Lord needs to be building the house, or we laboring vain.
But now here the thought I have in verse eight is safety.
Spiritual safety. Our homes should be a place of spiritual safety. When people come into our homes, when our children especially come home from school or you young people, they come home from work, home from university, that home should be a place of safety. There's a there's boundaries, there's.
Guidelines set in the home and.
It's an exercise to us. It reminds me of.
When Hezekiah had the visitors from Nebuchadnezzar and it says he showed them everything in his house.
And the prophet Isaiah said, what have they seen in thine house? It's a good question for us, whatever, what are what are our young people seeing in our homes?
It's a 13th question, isn't it? And I hope that they stay a home that is filled with love and that is has the desire to honor Christ and has a heart for service and worship. So the Lord is interested in it will now build us in houses now still make a battlement for thy roof. And I just want to encourage all of us that our homes be places.
Of refuge away from the Wiles of the double. It's easy for our homes to become a collection of things that don't honor the Lord, that are maybe not necessarily bad in themselves. But let's just be careful. The question is, what have they seen in thine house?
And I encourage each one of us that what they see in our homes.
Would be for value and benefit and encouragement.
Let's go on verse 9.
Thou shalt not sell thy vineyard with diverse seeds.
Lest the fruit of thy seed which thou is sown.
And the fruit of thy vineyard be defiled.
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Well, we can't help but think of the.
Law of the harvest that we're given in Galatians Sift. I better read it to get it right.
Those of you that know me well know that I work in agriculture and I enjoy very much sewing and harvesting.
Galatians 6.
Be not deceived.
God is not mocked, For whatsoever a man soweth, SLE also reap. He that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption. But he does throw it to the Spirit. So let the Spirit reap everlasting life. Well, this is a very practical thing, young people.
You reap what you sow.
It's true in nature and it's true in spiritual things also. We never find.
Blessing and good.
As a crop of selling to the flesh.
There's a cost to sowing to the flesh.
Umm, being not deceived. Michelle mentioned this yesterday. We look at the ads that were bombarded with and we're told that you could not possibly be happy unless you're drinking this kind of beverage, eating this kind of food, driving in this kind of a vehicle.
Vacationing in this place, right? And we're taught to be discontent and everybody is doing it.
And the enemy wants you to sow seeds in the flesh.
To make decisions, make choices that have a cost and their real costs.
Michelle mentioned seeing what those costs are in lives at recovery houses.
Like we all know people that are reaping serious consequences from reap from sowing to the flesh.
So I'm not here to beat you up, but in faithfulness to the Word of God, the practical reminder that we never, ever find.
Benefit and gain the crop of selling to the flesh.
And the enemy would like to say, do this and nobody will find out. Nobody will know. You'll be able to keep it under control. It never works that way. It doesn't. And I can tell you in my own life instances where I thought I could walk both sides of the fence, if you will, it doesn't work. So like I say, I'm not here to beat you up, but it is a warning. We reap what we sow. If I plant corn seeds.
I get corn plants, we plant soybean seeds. I'm not going to get raspberries.
When I get what I plant, that's the way it is. Now let's go to the encouraging side.
He that soweth to the Spirit, to love the Spirit reap.
Life everlasting.
Somebody had mentioned yesterday about Andrew and Peter.
You know, Andrew was a person that he wasn't flamboyant.
He wasn't at the front.
But he was good at bringing people to Jesus, and one of the people he brought was his own brother Peter.
And what was the result of stowing that seed? What happened on the day of Pentecost?
Peter, who was brought to meet the Lord Jesus by Andrew. A small seed, right? Hey, Peter, I'd met the Messiah. Come with me. And now we have Peter. And I identify with Peter very well. Peter was.
A quite the what the right word is, but I think you know what I mean. Peter was he was all in on stuff, whether it was right or wrong. You know when he stopped, when he when it says he cut off the high priest here, you think he was just trying to trim his whiskers.
No, I think he had to start out and he was going for the whole head and the guy probably ducked him. Got the year right. Peter was all in anyway. Here Andrew brings Peter to the Lord. What happens on the day of Pentecost? Peter is filled with the Spirit says that 3000 people were saved that day.
Where did it start? Andrew sold a little small seed and bringing his brother to the Lord.
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So that's the positive side of it and the encouraging side is the Lord can use you young people to do things for him. That may seem very small, but.
Are have eternal consequences.
I grew up in Newfoundland, as most of you know.
My folks had the gospel tent for 40 years and there were times where I remember my dad saying, you know, I don't think we got through to anybody.
And we took, you know, this, you drive the bus down and there'd be two or three dozen eggs hitting the side of the bus.
And it's disruptive and unruly and laughing and cat calling. You know what, 20 years later, people will come to my folks and say, hey, Remember Me? No, well, I got saved and I wanted to tell you about it. So be encouraged young people to still to the Spirit and the Lord will bless that.
OK, let's move on.
Verse 10. Back in Deuteronomy again, now Deuteronomy 22.
Understand, thou shalt not plow with an ox and an S together.
What do we have in this for us?
Some of you will recall the.
Parameters, if you will.
Of the clean and the unclean animals.
The clean animals had the cloven hooked and they chewed the cud, right? It's a spiritual lesson for us of the cloven hoof. Is is separation from the world and separate to Christ?
Chewing the cud is probably a number of applications to this, but to my own heart, suing the cut is meditating and ingesting the Word of God and then bringing it back up and ruminating on it, if you will, meditating on it and being in the Word of God. And I'll leave it to other people to give other applications about the clean and the unclean, but the unclean didn't have those things.
No cloven hoof that's chewing the cud right here. We have don't plow with an oxygen and ask together.
So here we have the ox and the donkey.
Umm, different sides.
Different gate, one's clean, one's unclean.
They don't work together. One is very loyal and steady, the other one is stubborn.
This is.
Guidance young people in your lives while you're making decisions in your life about.
Relationships about business partnerships on any number of levels.
Thou shalt not plow with an oxen and S together the word of God is giving us.
Umm, there's a sign here that says warning, don't do this.
And again, I'm not up here to beat you up, but I am up here to encourage you to thrust to what the Word of God has in protection for your life.
You may think I can, I can handle dating an unsafe person. And I remember when I was in school, it's not that long ago, you know, you see somebody that they're fun to be around and why don't we go have coke together?
Or whatever. And it's not that serious and things develop and suddenly emotions are involved and the word of God is telling us here, don't do that because you're mixing clean and unclean. That tells us in Corinthians. Turn to that Second Corinthians 6/14.
Be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers.
For what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness, and what communion hath light with darkness?
Well, you may think and I may think.
That maybe we can bring the other person up to our level. It doesn't work that way.
A saved person and an unsaved person.
Generally, the safe person is brought down to the level of the unsaved person. Be careful young people. Like I said, I don't want to beat you up, but I we have to be faithful in the guidance that God gives us in His Word. It's here for our good and blessing.
00:30:16
Now sometimes you might say, well, I know of cases where two people got married and and the Lord saved the other person and the Lord is gracious, but we dare not.
Demand that God make an exception based on a willful act of disobedience.
Sometimes I know of couples that were married in ignorance, not understanding what the Scripture teaches. And the Lord is gracious and loves to bless, but we cannot expect God to.
Bring us into a place of blessing when we have deliberately chosen pathways that the Lord has said this is not for you and it's true in business too. May.
Think, well, I'm going to go into partnership with this person or that person. Be careful about it. The Word of God has your blessing in mind.
I'm reminded of some of you know, brother Sterling Cannon from Newfoundland and Sterling is a is a piece of a brother. He's just a sweet. You can't help but be at Burlington does have a smile on your face, right, Brian?
Anyway, Sterling was fishing together in partnership with his brother-in-law.
And he was exercised about this. The guy's name was Oz, and Oz was not a Christian. And in obedience to the word of God, Brother Sterling told us, I can't be in partnership with you anymore. I'm going to buy you out, but I'm still going to pay you as a shared partner. You know what the Lord blessed A minute again, and the Lord will bless you to walk in obedience to what He's asking you to do.
All right, let's go to verse 11.
Thou shalt not wear a garment of diverse sorts.
As of woolen and linen together.
Well.
Clothing.
To me often speaks of testimony.
We've recently had the Olympics, right? And every country is wearing their own.
Colors, if you will, and when they win, they have their flags over their shoulders.
Because they are.
Proclaiming who they belong to.
And young people, I just want to encourage you in your walk on a day-to-day basis.
Fly the flag of Christianity and the Lord Jesus.
High and early.
And it's not an easy thing to do all the time.
You know.
I think it was Mr. Rule that mentioned this morning.
The man that said, men, I live in the presence of God. That comment, if I am writing this, I think I am, was made by a godly brother, an older brother who was exposed to jokes and other things in his workplace and he made that comment, Man, I live in the presence of God. You know what happened to those, the environment.
They didn't try to bring him into that anymore because of his testimony. He flew the flag. He had his colors up.
And I want to encourage you to do that early. You know, you may be 10 and think, well, you know, that's all fine for you old people. But, you know, I'm just, all I want to do is just go to school and come back, you know, put the name of Christ on your life.
Sometimes I think of the verse that says, If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in thine hearts that God hath raised in from the dead, thou shalt be saved. And I think that applies to the gospel very well, but it also applies to your life. You confess the name of Christ to somebody in your class or in your office.
You'll be staying from a lot of problems, I can tell you that from experience.
Especially you young men, as you're getting jobs, your boss will send you someplace.
00:35:00
On a trip or you're on some project, you're flowing off to some other city to meet with people and.
All right, we're all going to go out to dinner and then we're going here and we're going there. And it's very difficult, if you haven't confessed the name of Christ, to get out of some of that. I remember flying to Denver one time and I knew in my heart of hearts this is the way it was going to go. And it did. And I thank the Lord that He gave me the strength to say I cannot go with you guys. I won't go, and here's why. And you know what? They never asked me again.
So fly.
Your flag early and put it up pie. But now there's something else in this garment. Turn over for a thought in Ezekiel 44.
And I have to confess, I never dreamed that I could minister out of Ezekiel to anybody.
But the 3rd Ezekiel 44.
Verse 18.
They shall have linen bonnets upon their heads, and shall have linen breeches upon their loins.
Hey, so Matt Gerd themselves with anything that caused us swept.
Well, here the instruction was.
Have linen.
And not wool, so not wear a garment of diverse sources, will and linen together. Linen speaks of heavenly things.
Wool speaks of.
Human effort, if you will.
Swept. So if we were to go outside right now and we all had wool sweaters on, maybe we wouldn't sweat. But I think I would, right? And to me, it speaks of human effort.
In striving to achieve what I want to achieve.
They were not to do that. You know, it's tempting for us to, you know, we had the gospel supper last night, right? And we might say, how could we get more people here? Well, let's bring in a nice band and let's do.
A bunch of things like that. I'm not speaking against people that play music well, don't get me wrong, but.
God's work is His Spirit's work, and we're to rely on the Spirit to work in our lives and not insert our own human effort, if you will.
So Steve and I might say, well, we're going to do this project in our own strength. And what happened, Steve?
It doesn't work right when we're doing things in the strength of the Lord.
And the Lord gives the liberty, and the Lord gives the gift and the guidance. Suddenly, though, if the Lords work, it has nothing to do with us. And that's how the Lord wants us to surrender our lives. Say, Lord, it's none of me and it's all of you.
And then the Lord blesses that. So that's all I'll say about that. But remember the testimony and flying the flag early in your garments and also letting the Lord be in control and not me.
Now the last one that we'll talk about, verse 12.
How shall make the fringes upon the four corners of divestiture wherewithal cover us thyself?
Well, here's some instruction about putting a border around their clothing.
I'd like to connect that with numbers 15 for a minute please.
And verse 38.
Speak unto the children of Israel, and bid them that they make them fringes.
In the borders of their garments throughout their generations.
That they put upon the fringe of the border a ribbon, the blue.
Well, if we were to go outside right now and look up, what would we see?
Blue, maybe. I think blue. If there was number clouds, we certainly would see blue. And it's a reminder to us young people to keep our view on heavenly things. It's easy to get our eyes on earthly problems.
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You know, the car broke down or this or that or the other thing. I think everyone of us can think of different earthly things.
That we can get occupied with, probably necessary for our lives, but it's not to be the center focused. So here we have these ribbons of blue on these four corners of the garment.
Reminding us to keep our view.
Heavenward. We're heavenly people. This earth is not our home. We're going up.
We're going out, and it's been helpful for me to think about these four ribbons of blue as our personal lives, keeping the heavenly view, our family lives, our assembly lives, and our work lives.
Four things that we can do and to keep our view and our focus and to gain our strength from drawing from the heavenly.
We're heavenly people.
So I hope that this will help strengthen the things which remain.
I very much.
Want to be speaking in an encouraging way to you young people and to young families?
The Lord values you, the Lord has worked for you to do, The Lord has a plan for your life. And the happy path is to follow the Lorde direction and to follow the Lorde leading, and to take seriously the warnings that Scripture gives us, and also to be encouraged by the encouragements that the Lord gives. They brought little children to him that He might bless them.
And he did. He does. He will So.
Be encouraged. We're almost at the end. We're almost at the end.
The way this world is going right now, as Bob mentioned this last night, we're in a fast downward spiral. See if we throw in the towel and give up. No, let's keep our eyes.
Heavenly things and the Lord will bless.
Like to speak on two things.
That run through scripture side by side.
Bernie's book of one of them in Galatians chapter six, that is.
Very interesting that maybe we could go to just mention these two things. Just the first Peter chapter 5 to begin with.
And then another in chapter 4.
Like to think of these two things.
Like 2 rails of the train that runs side by side.
You look at a straight stretch in the train track. It looks way up there. Maybe they touch, but they really never do. They run side by side. First one, let's look at first Peter chapter 5 and verse 10. The God of all grace, who has called us into unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus. After that you have suffered a while, make you perfect, establish, strengthen, staddle you.
God is a God of grace, of all grace.
Brethren, we could not stand if it were not so. That God is the God of grace, and grace is God's.
Unmerited favor.
There is no other grounds upon which we can stand before God, but on the grounds of His grace.
But look back at Chapter 4 and here we have the other thing I would like to talk about.
Inverse.
17 For the time is come that judgment must begin.
At the House of God.
00:45:01
And if it first begins at us.
What shall the envy of them that obey not the gospel of God?
Here we have the principle of government.
And Bernie mentioned those verses in Galatians chapter 6.
May not deceive, God is not mocked whatsoever. A man slows that shall he also reap. And Bernie mentioned how do you still corn? You're going to get corn. You never get potatoes. And there's another thing you have to recognize. The harvest is always greater than what you saw. At least that's the way it's meant to be, and most of the time it is.
So it's something to think about.
These are principles of government. God has us and his family.
But you know what? The fact that God is the God of government gives me confidence.
Because I know I have a God who loves me, so that if I step out of the line, he's going to say something about it. God is gracious, very definitely so. But God is also a God of government. And those two things run through Scripture as the two rails of the train side by side. And it really is a help to see that as you look into Scripture. David.
Is an example. You remember David Sin? He sinned Seriously.
He took the wife of one of his best lawyers.
And then he had that best lawyer killed by the sword of the enemy so he could have her.
And it seems like David was out of fellowship with the Lord.
For maybe the better part of the year.
And.
He had to be reproved by the Prophet.
When Nathan the prophet said, you're the man David had the courage to say and recognize I have sinned. And immediately the prophet said God also has remitted thy sin. He forgave him on what grounds? He should have been executed on two grounds. Adultery was a sin to be punished by death and murder was another sin to be punished by death.
But God forgave him, but at the same time, he said.
Because thus made the enemies of the Lord to blasphemy.
The sword will never depart from my house. So the rest of his life, David had to walk.
In fear before the Lord, and he lost four of his sons.
Oh, dear David, what a man of God he was. But those two things run through our lives, brethren, and I find it is so beautiful to see if we could understand better the grace of God. I have to confess that in my own soul I find myself reverting again and again to the principle of law.
And grace is completely different.
Completely different. I don't know that I understand it that well. The grace of God.
And I'd like to speak briefly about a man in the Old Testament that experienced these two things in the book of Genesis, talking about Jacob. Jacob.
Was a twin.
And.
When his mother, Rebecca was.
Pregnant with the twins, they were struggling in the sight of her and she went to the Lord. Why am I this way?
And the Lord said to her, Two peoples are in thy womb.
And the elder shall serve the younger.
That's not generally the way it was. It was the first one born that had the birthright, had the privileges. But in this case God said the elder shall serve the younger.
00:50:05
And so.
Esau and Jacob were born. Just an interesting nut. The struggle that started in Rebecca's womb continues to this day.
Over in Israel and the surrounding countries, Esau.
Is to the South.
East of.
Israel.
In that land, the Edomites, some think they the present day are some of the Palestinians. I'm not just sure if that's the case. I've heard that suggested.
But the struggle continues.
That started in Rebecca's womb.
Esha was the Hansen guy of the two. Jacob was a plain man.
Who dwelt in tents? Esau was out there. He was a hunter. Pretty admirable guy.
I suppose handsome.
And too bad. But as happens sometimes in families.
Isaac favored Esau and Rebecca favored Jacob.
And so there was rivalry. It's too bad when it's that way in a home circle.
The Lord grant that those have families, that the parents stand together instead of having favorites in the family.
But there was one thing about Jacob.
He appreciated the things of God even though he was the schemer.
And that made a lot of trouble for him, but.
Didn't value the things of God. One day he comes in from honey terribly hungry.
And faint with hunger.
And there is Jacob fixing a pot of food.
Simple brotherly love.
Offering a plate of food. But Jacob says so many of Earth, right?
And what does Esau say? What good is my birthright to me? I'm just about to die and it's not going to do me any good. Take it. Give me that plate of food. That's why he's called in Hebrews chapter 12A, profane man. Profanity is treating that which is sacred as if it were common.
Dear young people, it's wonderful to have the things of God open to us.
But sometimes, as we're brought up in Christian homes, we just kind of don't take it that seriously.
Be careful about treating as common those things that are sacred.
That's the kind of man you saw was.
And I'd like to go to chapter 28 to begin with because I want to speak.
First of all, about Jacob, when the Lord appeared to him, when he was.
Going towards Peter Neuram.
For his uncles house where he is escaping. You remember what happened? I just briefly mention it.
That the time came when Jay, when Isaac was getting all that he wanted to bless, and I think he must have known that Jacob was the one that God meant to bless.
But Isaac had his favorite and it was Esau. And so he says to Esau, go out and gets them game and fix me that's favoring me that I love and I'll bless you.
But Rebecca heard about it, and she sets Jacob up to doing something.
Go get me one of the kids, one of the young kids of the goats, and I'll fix favorite meat like your father loves and you can take it in.
To give the blessing. And Jacob is kind of fearful and he says.
Maybe my father will feel me, since he wasn't a hairy man like Esau was, and it'll be a curse to me and not a blessing. And so she puts the skins of the goats on his arms, and he goes in, and he deceives his father, and he gets the blessing. And he's just barely gone out when here comes Esau and he fixes the savory meat, and he goes into his father.
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And his father, of course, is disturbed, says who was it that came and took the blessing?
You know, it's interesting.
He then says yay and he shall be blessed.
You know it says in Hebrews Chapter 11 by faith.
Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau concerning things to come. I really think that's where faith triumphed it when he said yay and he shall be blessed. He did give some kind of a blessing to Esther, but Esau wept.
Because he saw that he had lost the blessing, he despised the birthright and he lost the blessing.
Well.
You saw his angry at Jacob and he says time for my father's death is close at hand. Then I'll kill my brother Jacob. And so Rebecca has to get busy since she suggested something.
That was really sowing to the flesh. You know, you always have to patch up what the flesh does. And so ** *** suggests that he escape to her brother Labans in Python, Aram. And that's where we find chapter 28. Jacob is leading his home and he's going towards Peyton, Aram and the Lord appears to him and I, I love this. What happens here? Notice verse 10. We'll read a few verses here.
And Jacob went out from Beersheba, and went toward Heron, and delighted upon a certain place, and tarried there all night, because the sun was set. And he took of the stones of that place and put them for his pillows, and lay down in that place to sleep.
You ever tried sleeping on a stone for a pillow?
Pretty tough, Pretty hard.
You know what when we saw to the flesh it can get.
Pretty hard.
And poor Jacob, that's what he had for a pillow, and he dreamed. And behold, the ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven. And behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it. And behold, the Lord stood above it, and said, I am the Lord God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac. The land wherein thou liest to thee will I give it, and to thy seed, and thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth.
Thou shalt spread abroad to the West, and to the east, and to the north and to the South, and indeed, and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed. And behold, I am with thee, and will keep thee in all the places whither thou goest, and will bring thee again into this land. For I will not leave thee until I have done that which I have spoken to thee. Isn't that beautiful?
What grounds does God have to bless this man who has just deceived his father?
This is pure, unmerited favor, the grace of God.
Oh brethren, we could understand. We were talking these days of the blessings of Ephesians chapter one. It is rich territory.
To meditate on beautiful, beautiful. How much do we enjoy those realities?
Whether you understand them or not, whether you enjoy them or not, they are realities.
And they're meant for us to enjoy.
Here you read this.
Promised the Lord to Jacob. It's totally unconditional blessing.
Promises that he will be with him.
Did Jacob understand it?
You know when we have a bad conscience.
We don't really appreciate the things of God like we need to a bad conscience.
Is a torture and it's so important.
To live.
And keep, be exercised to keep always a conscience void of offense toward God and toward man. I don't think Jacob had that. So notice what he says in reply to the Lord. He wakes up and then he says verse 17, verse 16, at the end he says surely the Lord is in this place. And I knew it not. And he was afraid and said, how dreadful is this place? Why did he say it was a dreadful place?
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Because he had bad conscience.
This is none other but the House of God, and this is the gate of heaven.
Jacob rose up early in the morning, and took the stone which he had put for a pillow, set it up for a pillar, and poured oil on the top of it. And he called the name of that place Bethel. The name of that city was called Luz at the 1St. And Jacob bowed about. Now listen to what he says, Mr. Mia's instructed.
If God will be with me, God has said, I will be with thee. He puts an F in there. He puts it, He makes it conditional. If God will be with me and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat and raiment to put on, so that I come again to my Father's house in peace, then shall the Lord be my God. And this stone which I have set up for a pillar shall be God's house. And of all that out shall give me, I will surely give the 10th. And today. In other words, He makes the contract with God.
He does not understand God's grace.
Brethren, I have to confess for myself how little I understand the wonders of His grace. And it's because we don't understand it, and it's because we make our contracts with God. If I do things right, surely God's going to bless me.
Brethren, God's blessing comes not because we do things right.
It's because of His sovereign grace.
So Jacob makes his contract.
And off he goes. I'd like to go over then to the 32nd chapter. In between these two chapters, he is over with his Uncle Levin. He goes over there and one of the first persons he meets is Rachel.
His uncle's daughter and its love at first sight.
With Rach, he really loved her and.
You remember how it went, he said to his uncle, Give me thy daughter Rachel as wife. I will serve thee 7 years for her. And it says such was his love that seven years seemed like a little time because he loved her so much. I wonder how many young men would be interested if their respective father-in-law said well.
We'll talk about it after seven years.
That might be a little different, since for Jacob it was all right. He loved her so much. That's the proof of real love, isn't it?
And so the time came when he says to Laban, give me my wife where I fulfilled the seven years. And so they make a big feast and.
At the end of the feast, Jacob goes to his tent with his new wife.
Whom we supposed to be Rachel spends the night and in the morning.
What has happened? You gave me Leah.
I work for Rachel.
Jacob, remember?
You sowed deceit with your father.
Now's the harvest time.
Oh well.
The tremendous lesson that had to be learned.
Poor Jacob. I don't know, it must have been terribly delusion thing to wake up and find out that the one that he spent the night with wasn't Rach.
Well, he comes back to his father-in-law and says, what have you done to me?
And so he makes the contract to work another seven years.
And he gets Rachel, too. But brethren, that wasn't the end of the story. There was still some reaping to be done later on when he has his sons who are now adults.
They again deceived poor Jacob. Jacob finally had one son with Rachel Joseph, his favorite son, and he went to see his brothers when he was 17 years old.
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And instead of coming back, the brothers sent back a garment. Was Jacob Joseph's garment stained with blood?
We found this. Is this your son Joseph?
And poor Jacob.
Nobody could console him the sorrow of losing Joseph.
He thought was dead.
Brethren, can you see that when we don't base our lives?
On the grace of God, God.
Works in his government to reduce this to the recognition of the fact that we cannot stand before God on the grounds of our own responsibility. It has to be on the grounds of His sovereign grace. Nothing less, nothing less.
Here in chapter 32, Jacob is on his way back now.
To the promised land, and he sends.
Boost.
To his brother that is coming back and he gets the news.
That here comes Esau with 400 men, and you can imagine what his thoughts were 400 men.
It's going to be.
Heavy businesses, Larissa. He hasn't seen him since he had deceived him and he thought he was coming here just to destroy him completely. Poor Jacob. Well, he has his own ways of putting gifts ahead of him and.
You can seriously wear the juice. Get it ready.
A scheme and they know how to do it pretty successfully.
But I want to just talk a little bit about from verse 24 on the.
The night before.
Jacob meets. He saw his brother, it says. Jacob was left alone.
And they're wrestled a man with him until the breaking of day. And when he saw that he prevailed not against him, he touched the hollow of his thigh, and the hollow of chickens thigh was out of joint as he wrestled with him. And he said, Let me go for the day, break it. And he said, I will not let thee go, except thou bless me. Here's Jacob wrestling with a man says.
In Hosea, it was the Angel. It really was the Lord he was wrestling with.
It's tremendously interesting to think about this, the Lord wrestling with Jacob.
All night.
Night wrestling, wrestling, wrestling. No rest that night.
Wrestling, wrestling, wrestling. And if we're going to live our lives making contracts with God, we're going to be wrestling all our lives long. There will be no rest in it.
Poor Jason. Everything dark.
Wrestling, wrestling, wrestling. But when you think about it, it's the Lord that was wrestling with Jacob.
Couldn't the Lord just?
Finish off the wrestling match.
Why didn't he just finish off the wrestling match?
He could easily.
Take on Jacob and finish him. Why didn't he?
You know why he didn't, brother? Because he wanted Jacob to be the vents of the victor in the wrestling match. And he ended up being that way. He wrestled with God and with man, and he prevailed. And God wants us to be prevailers too. But you can't be prevailers on the grounds that you set up with God. It has to be on the grounds of His grace. And so when he saw, he couldn't.
Get the advantage with Jacob. What does he do? He touches him.
In the.
Hollow of his thigh, I guess it would be the hip and his hip goes on a joint and he couldn't wrestle any longer.
And when he couldn't wrestle any longer, the Angel said to him, let me go for the day breaks.
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Coming to the end of the night.
And Jacob, what does he say to me? This is where Jacob prevailed. I will not let thee go except thou bless me. On what grounds am I going to bless you, Jacob, you schemer, there was only one grounds upon which he could bless him, the grounds of his sovereign graces.
And I love this because Jacob prevailed in that he laid hold on that Angel instead.
I will not let you go until you bless me. And So what does the Angel say? He says, what is thy name?
You know when he went in for the blessing to his father Isaac.
I think you said what is your name?
And he lied.
He said Isha.
But Jacob seems to have come to the end of doing that.
The Lord said, what is your name too? And he says Jacob Schemer.
Supplanter.
And notice what the Lord says in verse 28. And he said, Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel. For as a Princess, thou power with God and with man, and hath prevailed. And Jacob asked him, and said, Tell me, I pray thee thy name.
And he said, Wherefore is it that thou dost ask after my name? And he blessed him there. I love this.
Jacob is given a new name.
Israel, wherever you have that word E name that has El in it.
That's the name of God.
A Prince with God, that schemer.
Of Prince with God, yes, he prevailed.
With God and with man and got the blessing.
Not because of any contract he made with God, but because of God's sovereign graces.
Maybe you feel that you've been in a struggle in your life. It's been all night long. Struggle, wrestle, wrestle, wrestle with one thing and another and you don't seem to get through it.
Why does God allow that?
For us to come to the end of our own resources and being prevailers.
This is the victory that overcomes the world.
Even our faith. And Jacob laid hold of the Angel and said, I will not let you go till you bless me. And he got the blessing. He prevailed.
And oh brethren, I love to think about it. The end of Jacob.
Is bright, you know Isaac. His father never got that far out of the way in the ways.
Of God or the ways of God with him. He never went down into Egypt, He stayed there in the land of Kingdom where he was supposed to stay.
But Isaac died a man that had lost his eyesight, and it's not real bright at the end of his life. But Jacob, where is Jacob at the end of his life?
He's down there in Egypt. What you doing down there in Egypt?
Joseph took him into Pharaoh. What did he do with Pharaoh?
He blessed Pharaoh.
Scripture tells us without contradiction the.
Lesser is blessed by the greater.
Morally speaking, in that moment when he was blessing Pharaoh, he was greater than Pharaoh.
Oh, what a tremendous way that God made him come to grips with the blessing. He was a prevailer there. He was in the Egypt. He ended his days in Egypt and those last chapters of the book of Genesis where he blesses his sons with such foresight shows the tremendous.
Way that Jacob had learned to prevail.
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That's what God is doing in our lives now, brethren. Again, I say, I marvel.
At the ways of God with this. But how much do we understand His graces? That's what's got to prevail in our lives.
His grace and God is going to bless you. He has blessed you with all spiritual blessing in heavenly places in Christ. How much have you laid hold of that? How much are you living in the enjoyment of those blessings? They're realities and yet we go through life.
Cast down, bent over with cares.
May the Lord help us, brethren, to learn to know what it means to be a prevailer like Jacob, that poor scheming man that was brought to the end of his own struggles. One thing perhaps that Jacob had for the rest of his life is he had a bad limp.
He halted on his on his hip that was out of joint and it says.
He leaned on the top of his staff. He had learned not to trust in his own resources. He had learned to trust in something else outside of himself. He learned to trust in his God. Oh, what a lesson it is, brethren. God in his grace is going to bless us. But if we don't believe it, if we go to our own ideas, God has another principle that He employs for our own blessing. It's His government.
And it's not meant to be something that we are scared of, but it's something that should cause confidence in this, that we have a God that loves us and will set the parameters in our lives.
Just sing that little hymn. May the grace of Christ our Savior. I think it's #17.
And the Father's boundless love with the Holy Spirit's favor rest upon us from about #17.
We commend ourselves.
Freezes God Our Father, we look up to heaven at the close of this little meeting we've had together. And we thank thee for the ministry from Thy precious word, our God. And we ask thee that Thou would make it a blessing to each of our souls. We commend those that are traveling to thee and those that perhaps are going now. And we pray about the balance of our time together. And we ask thee for the following reading meeting. And ask thee, Father, for thy own glory, that Thou hast use it in blessing. We give thanks in thy name, Amen.