Open—D. Jaeger, T. Priestap, C. Hendricks
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Brethren, the him we.
Speaks of that lovely word grace.
And surely it is one of the most beautiful words in our language. We use it commonly by saying someone is graceful or someone is gracious.
But when we think of it in connection with the scriptures and we think of our Lord Jesus who came.
The one who brought to us grace and truth.
It really warms our hearts as believers, and I'd like to share with you some thoughts that I've had on Grace recently. I don't think that these are necessarily exhaustive thoughts or definitive thoughts. On such a wonderful subject is Grace, but there are things that I enjoyed and I like to share them with you. The first scripture I like to look at is the last verse of Second Peter's Epistle or the Epistle by Second Peter.
Well known to us.
And it's the one that really caused me to reflect more deeply on this word, grace.
We know we have some definitions which were a little trite.
That grace is unmerited favor. But I think when you all of us feel that something like that is much too simple. Grace is much deeper than that, and we can observe 2 without looking that every epistle practically brings in the salutation 2 Things grace and peace.
Now if we have it that often in God's word.
By those who wrote those epistles, as moved by the Holy Spirit. Grace is an important attribute of our faith. Now here in this 18th first of Second Peter 3.
It says, But grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Him be glory both now and ever, forever. Amen.
And what started me thinking is I can understand easily how I can grow.
And the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
I can have God's Word before me. I can be diligent in the reading of it. I can be diligent in the meditation of it. I can look for those things that can expand my understanding and knowledge of our precious Savior. You might say in some sense that's an intellectual thing, but nevertheless, that's knowledge when we know things.
But how do I grow in grace?
What do I do to grow in grace? And that's what started me thinking about what is the real character of grace as I might find it in the Scriptures. So now let's turn to the first chapter of John's Gospel or John's the Gospel of John, because there we have the very highest expression of grace, our Lord Jesus Christ.
In verse 14 of John one.
It tells us the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory.
As of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.
So in one sense we might say if we are to grow in race, we are to become more Christ like.
We should know more of his character. We should walk in his steps.
We should be a reflection of that blessed one, full of grace and truth.
Then if we look on a few more verses in verse 17.
It makes an interesting contrast. It says, for the law was given by Moses.
But grace and truth came by Jesus Christ, so we know the character of the law.
It's God's perfect standard law made sin exceedingly sinful.
It's the law that's our schoolmaster to bring us to the Lord Jesus because it shows us clearly how failing we are and how needy we are.
But then grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. And so we have grace related to truth twice here. And we know the truth is very hard to define. And perhaps the best way to define truth is it's the nature of God. It is God. It is the Lord Jesus. That's truth, and it's grace and truth that we have here in this wonderful.
Almost the loftiest of thoughts that we have here in this first chapter of John's Gospel.
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Well, in reading of some examples of grace.
In the first Epistle to Timothy, we have an interesting thing that relates to the Apostle Paul.
And his experience, if we turn to the first chapter of First Timothy.
And this is Speaking of Paul's conversion and his background.
As he's writing to these.
To the young man, Timothy, and that we can start.
With verse 11.
Of chapter one, according to the glorious gospel of the blessed God, which was committed to my trust. And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who hath enabled me for that. He counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry.
Who was before a blasphemer, and the persecutor and injurious. But I obtained mercy, because I did it ignorantly, and unbelief.
And the grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant with faith and the love which is in Christ Jesus.
Now we have mercy mentioned here, and mercy is often contrasted with grace in the sense mercy.
Is not getting what I deserve and that the other definition I gave earlier in grace.
Is getting what I didn't deserve, but.
Here we see when Paul was.
Acting in ignorance, he said. I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly in unbelief. We find that God, in dealing with an individual, uses mercy, mercy when there is unbelief.
Mercy is God's sovereign.
Act in dealing.
With a soul to deliver them, you might say from judgment, But it has nothing to do with whether or not they believe.
God says in the Old Testament, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy.
It's his hibernate.
And so here the apostle Paul. He wasn't happy with what he had done.
But he was, you might say, a realist. And he knew that before he was saved, Before he was converted.
When he was a blasphemer and a persecutor and injurious, he did it ignorantly in unbelief. In other words, he wasn't a believer in the Lord Jesus, and he thought at that time that he was acting properly. And so God in mercy struck him down, as we know on the road to Damascus. And a bright light shone, and he recognized because of God's sovereign act to him, because he did nothing to warrant that.
That then he believed and he said Lord, he owned the one Lord Jesus who revealed himself to fall at that episode. But notice verse 14 how it follows on now it says and the grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant with faith and the love which is in Christ Jesus. And this was what was helpful to me, because what I started to discover is that where mercy is God's sovereign act.
To whomsoever he will, whether it's a blasphemer, whether it's an enemy. But God can show mercy. To whom he will show mercy, that when it's grace, it's connected with faith.
And I think we'll see some other illustrations of that which are lovely.
So let's turn to one that's exceedingly well known in Ephesians chapter 2.
Used so often in the gospel, but very meaningful that two verse 8.
And by the way, there are a number of lovely verses which.
Help illustrate this aspect of grace, that grace is connected with faith.
Now we can, I believe almost everyone of us, quote this from memory. For by grace are ye saved?
But it doesn't stop there, Tom.
By faith.
Through faith and that not the of yourselves, it is a gift of God.
Not a works lest any mansion bus we need to go on. But it's grace. By grace are ye saved through faith. They're tied together.
00:10:00
Now.
Let's look at another verse that emphasizes that in Romans chapter 4.
This is speaking in Chapter 4 of Justification by Faith.
And if we look at verse 15, it shows that in contrast to law, and it says because the law worketh wrath or where no law is there is no transgression. And then it says therefore it is of faith that it might be by grace.
So grace is operative where there is faith.
And this is what spoke to my own heart.
And to relate it to the end of second Peter if I want to grow in grace.
I must grow in faith, walking in all the promises of God.
And this is the thought I'd like to share with you, that if we want to have all the blessings of God's grace for us, it's the walk in faith. It's to trust him completely and to put it in words that I might use.
Grace is the power of God for us that we can utilize by faith.
It's the power of God for us all, His power, all His blessing, everything that he wants us to enjoy as His children.
Is grace. But how do we use that? It's by faith. It's by walking.
In full confidence with every promise that he has given us.
So grace is connected with faith.
And this is the Path of Blessing Forest.
And for myself, I really that verse that I gave you in two Peter was given to me early in my Christian past, my brother, he said now as a believer, your event of the school from which you'll never graduate. And he quoted that verse that could grow in grace and the knowledge of our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.
And I covered for myself to walk by faith.
For 12.
Hebrews, chapter 12.
His brother Barry was speaking this afternoon about the end.
Of the path getting down to the days of darkness that we are living in. The thinking of this portion in Hebrews chapter 12, because I suppose the most difficult time in our pathway is when it gets toward the end. The most difficult time in a race is toward the end of the path.
And in Hebrews chapter 12, I believe that the inspired writer here.
In this chapter was looking to encourage the Saints because of the difficulty of the pathway. And if we were to read the entire 11Th chapter of Hebrews, we would find account after account of forerunners, Those who had gone before that had completed the pathway, that had gone all the way to the end. They had completed the pathway in faith and dear brother and I believe that we need encouragement today.
Because there is a perhaps a danger that we might give up just before the end. The Lord Jesus has given us many indications that we are getting toward the end. The days are getting darker. There is giving up. There is compromise. Perhaps we are seeing difficulties come in that we have never seen before. These things would tell us that the.
Race that we have been running is getting to the last most difficult stage of all. And so when we look at the beginning of this chapter, we see a word Wherefore someone says that when you see the word wherefore, you should see what it's there for. And the word wherefore says that we are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses. You see there are those who are looking on that have gone before.
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At the time that this was written, no doubt it referred back to those in the 11Th chapter. But think for a moment, too, of all of those that have gone before you and I, Those of us that are here this afternoon, that have gone all the way down to the end, that have kept the faith. All those that came down through the Dark Ages, that laid down their lives for the gospel. There are those even today in China and Russia and places like that, that have laid down their lives for the gospel.
They have gone down to the end. They are witnesses. They are part of those that are looking on as you and I are going on this pathway, this, this race. I know that some of the young men here this afternoon could relate to this as an athletic event. And I believe that the one who wrote this, and it was probably the Apostle Paul, meant that you would understand this as a race because the Christian pathway is one of endurance. That's what's brought out here. It is a marathon.
It is not a.
100 meter dash, that's something that is over with quickly, but it is one of endurance. And so we find some hindrances here in this chapter, some things that that the writer wants to make sure that we're aware of. So that when these things come along that we would not get discouraged to go ahead and complete this race. You notice that the very first thing that's mentioned here in this first verse.
Our weights.
And sin, which it says death so easily beset us. You know, I remember going to a track meet when I was in high school and a friend of mine went out to run the half mile and everyone was getting their their sweat suits off and they were getting down to the very light garments that they wore to be able to run this race. And I noticed that he didn't take off his sweat suit. In fact, he still had a towel around his neck and so forth. And the race was just about to start.
And they got down on the starting blocks and he still had these weights on him and the the starter gun went off and they took off around the track. And this friend of mine was he was leading in the race, he was out ahead of everyone else and we were all very surprised.
Because we don't. We didn't think you'd ever run this particular race before. And here he was, with all of his sweat, clothes on and so forth and a towel around his neck, and he was leading the the pack, the runners, as they went around the track.
But it was actually 2 laps that you had to complete around this track. And after he completed the first lap and when he got to the point where he was the furthest distance from the track coach, he ran off the track and he headed off toward the woods that afternoon with the track coach in hot pursuit. But he did not complete the race and he didn't take the garments off that he had been wearing these weights that.
Hear them down. And you know, we may look at that as being a little bit on the humerus side, but how many of us this afternoon have brought on weights into our lives? We've added little things, imperceptible perhaps over time, But when you're running a race, you see you can't have weights. Anything that's of any weight at all will cause you to go slower. And so you want the lightest things that you can possibly find in order to run the race effectively.
And sin is something that.
Would just stop you altogether in your tracks because you cannot run the race if you're allowing sin in your life.
I hope that that there's someone here this afternoon that is knowingly allowing sin in your life. I want you to pause and consider this afternoon, do you have a desire to run the race? I want you to notice now that there's an object that is set before all of those who run the race. We're invited to look to the end of this race in verse two. We're not at the end of the race yet, but we're getting a little preview, We could put it that way of what is awaiting us at the end.
Of the race. His brother Barry was speaking at the end of the address this afternoon. It warmed my heart.
I'm sure it warmed many of your hearts to consider the fact that at the end there is going to be the face of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is going to have His arms extended wide to welcome us into His presence for all eternity. You know, if you were a runner and you could look down to the end of the race, you might find there someone waiting with a medal or someone waiting with a trophy, perhaps for the winner.
00:20:07
Of the race. But in this particular race, everyone who completes the race is going to win the prize because the prize it says in verse two is looking unto Jesus. Looking onto Jesus. I believe that word looking there is more than a glance. It is to contemplate the Lord Jesus. Have you ever just sat down in the presence of the Lord Jesus and contemplated that?
Man the man Christ Jesus.
There was a brother, I don't recall. I may not remember his name, but that lived many years. One of our writers and.
And he at the end of his his life as he was lying on his bed.
Looked off into the glory and said, oh yon lovely.
Man, young, lovely man.
That is what our hearts need. You see the racer or the one who runs in a race, he has to have motivation. He has to have the desire because the race is going to be difficult. This is a marathon. I remember a few years ago in the Olympics, some of you may remember this. I saw a picture of a woman who was a marathon runner. Marathon is about 26 miles and as she came into the Olympic Stadium.
She was staggering. She was ready to collapse and everyone in the stadium.
Stood and they began to applaud. For this woman, she was staggering from side to side fairly could make it to the end of the race, but she had gotten some encouragement. Those who were looking on encouraged her, and that's what we need to do for each other, brethren. We need to encourage one another in this race, but oh, what is that? The end is the Lord Jesus Christ and it says the author and finisher or.
In other words, as it says in the margin in my Bible, the beginner and completer.
You see, we not only have the encouragement of those who are looking on, but God gives us His beloved Son.
And he says he has already run this race. He is the beginner and he is the completer. He has finished the race and this one, for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame.
And it's set down on the right hand of the throne of God. He has gone all the way to the end. This is all given to us so that we might be encouraged that he is set down on the right hand of the throne of God. There is nothing that can ever come in and affect the fact that he has finished the work that God gave him to do. He has set down. He has completed it. There was a danger of these Hebrews giving up as part of what is brought out here in the book of Hebrews. They were in danger of going back.
Some of the beggarly things going back to some of those things they've been brought out of and you and I need to be encouraged by looking on to the one who completed that race.
It says in verse three, consider him that endured. Consider him. This is another invitation to.
Look at who it is that we're speaking about this afternoon. Consider him who endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be worried and faint in your minds.
One of the hindrances, in addition to weights and sin, is that there are those around us that are going to try to discourage us on this pathway, on this race. Yet there are those who would like to discourage you, the contradiction of sinners against himself. In John 15, the Lord warned His disciples that if they have hated me, they will hate you. He didn't want them to be taken by surprise. He didn't want them to become discouraged when they went out with the gospel and to live in this world.
That they would come across something that would take them by surprise. We should be.
Recognizing the fact that we live in a world where wrong is right and right is wrong. A world that has cast out the Lord Jesus Christ, a world that hated him. And if we're going to run this pathway, we have to look straight on to the end. We can't look around us and we can't look at those who might try to discourage us, Whether it's a believer that has maybe been running along the side for a while and then has given up. You know, there are those that I know I thought of sometimes a shooting star.
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A shooting star is something that flames brightly for a while.
And then after a while, it fizzles out. And we've seen those who have flamed brightly for a little while, perhaps, but they haven't continued on. Well, may the Lord encourage us to be those that would go on not be discouraged. If someone's running along beside you and suddenly they get discouraged, that's something that happens maybe in the assembly, something in their life, perhaps, but they they give up the race.
They pull off to the side. They stop running. They're discouraged. And he says, you have not yet resisted unto blood striving against sin. You know, the truth is that sometimes a frown in this world can cause us to give up, to become discouraged. Oh, how lightly we are willing to compromise, how lightly sometimes we're willing to to give up the truth of the word of God.
Maybe it's because we're going to miss a promotion. Maybe it's because we don't want our friends at school to look down on us, or to think that we're not with it, or that we're we're just a little bit different because we belong to Christ. And so we camouflage our words. We don't want them to know in any way that we're associated with that little assembly there in that little town or with the Lord Jesus Christ. And so we we adopt A way of getting by without really perhaps going out into positive evil. But we don't want the we don't want our friends around us or the people we associate with to realize that we're in a race.
That we are going along this pathway, we try to camouflage the fact we're in a race. We can't run a race like that. We have to have our eye upon the goal at the end. Well then we come to another little change here in verse 5, because it talks about something else. It says, you have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children. My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him for whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth, and scourges every son whom he receive it.
Heard someone say the other day, You know I can't understand the Lord.
I would think that with all, with as few of people there are that really follow him that that he would want to just encourage everyone and he wouldn't allow anything bad to come into the life if someone is trying to please them. Well, you see this is an imperfect look at the love of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the discipline. You know, if you're going to run a race or if you're going to be involved in any kind of athletic, there's a lot of discipline. The people who watch sporting events only see that one hour or two hours.
Where the athletes have to perform, they don't see the hundreds of hours that have to go into preparation for that event. And so you see, even here we are looking at discipline because of love.
The Lord has to prepare us to go through this world. He has to allow certain things to happen in our lives so that we will be able to go through and to finish the pathway. And he wants to use us in a way so that those around us can see that there is something different about that way that person goes through that trial. I know that this afternoon there are some here that are going through a lot of trials.
I know there are those.
Young sisters here that are single, that have gone on for the Lord. During your life you kept yourself pure, you have tried to follow the Lord and you reach an age where you just don't understand why it is that the Lord hasn't brought someone along in your life. And I know that that is a trial and my heart goes out to each and everyone of you. I know there are some here that have lost a loved one and as a trial it is part of the discipline.
That we go through there was recently we just heard the fact that this conference of a Downs baby, a baby being born with Down syndrome and we can't understand why it happens to one and not to another.
And we don't understand sometimes why God allows this in certain ones lives, but it is part of his love. It's part of his perfect plan for our life.
Some, I know, suffer through misunderstandings from their brethren. Perhaps they're doing something that they feel before the Lord is right and their brethren misunderstand them. They feel very rejected.
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And this is hard for us to take. Maybe you've lost a job. That's part of God's perfect plan for your life.
It's hard to know why sometimes. Maybe you're living in a home.
You're a young person and you don't feel that your parents love you. You don't feel that they understand you or that you can communicate well with them. You don't feel that your parents really can.
Enter into all of the circumstances of your life and it's very difficult for you.
Maybe there are some that are older here that are discouraged because of those of us who are a little younger.
Because they see the declension that has come in. I've been gathered to the Lord's name for 29 years this month and in my short time I have seen much that would discourage me. But you know, we cannot judge our circumstances. We cannot judge God by our circumstances. We need to judge our circumstances by God.
You know, I was, I really was not. Didn't feel that I was going to be able to come to this conference. I felt there were so many things that I had to get done.
And I looked at this list of things I had to do and I thought, there's no way that I'm going to be able to go.
And I was looking at the circumstances and then finally got a loan into the presence of the Lord. Finally. I hate to admit that that was the last thing that I did, but.
Felt at that point that the Lord wanted me to come anyway. And I think sometimes we we look at our circumstances and we judge God by the circumstances. Let's not do that. Let's judge our circumstances by God. Well.
Look on a little bit further in this chapter. And it says, If you endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons. For what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? But if you be without chastisement, where of all our partakers, then are ye ********? And that sons? You see, this is really the proof of love.
The proof of love. You can never go through a trial.
If you never have anything happen to you in your life, no discipline, then this might be an indication of a lack of relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ, because He only chastens those that belong to Him. This is a proof of His love. This is because he loves us. And so it says here in verse nine that we have had fathers of our flesh, which corrected us, and we gave them reverence. Shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits and live? This is the same one.
That.
Our brother was Speaking of Our brother Judge was Speaking of this morning that took the children in his arms and blessed them and loved them. The tender touch of the Lord Jesus. When David had a choice of discipline between falling into the hand of man or falling into the hand of God, what did he choose? He chose to fall into the hand of the Lord because he knows that the Lord has mercy and he knows the tender hand of God and so.
Don't chasten or chafe under the discipline. The first thing that we want to do, and we're going through discipline, is we want to get out of the trial. That that's what it means to despise it, as it says in verse five of earlier in the chapter. To despise it is to want to get away from it, to have it over with, to be done with.
You know, none of us like to go through a trial. We don't ask to go through trials. If we had a choice, we would never want to go through a trial. I'm convinced that the longer I live, that one of the main objectives in our lives is to continuously, in every way do everything we can to insulate ourselves from problems and to make our life easy, whether it's with.
The nice, the nice homes we have, the jobs we have, whatever it might be. We try to insulate ourselves from problems. We don't want to go through discipline. We don't like that the flesh shrinks back from it. It says not to despise it because God has a purpose of blessing, and that is in verse 10 versus verily for a few days chastened us. They verily, for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure, but he for our prophet that we might be partakers of His Holiness.
Partakers of His Holiness, I want to encourage you this afternoon if you're going through any of these things.
That you understand and enter into the fact that God has purpose in your life.
00:35:00
We, my wife and I, in the last year and a half or so, I've gotten to know a young sister that grew up in a home where she experienced a lot of physical abuse, extreme physical abuse and mental abuse.
She would do things like hit her head against the wall.
Until it bless.
She called US1 night when my wife and I were on vacation and she had been hitting herself with a hammer.
Until her head was bleeding.
Because of the treatment that she had gotten when she was growing up, she didn't feel loved.
She didn't understand that God loved her unconditionally and that God had a purpose for her life and even for the sufferings that she had gone through recently. We just got a letter from her. She was rejoicing in the truth that God loves her unconditionally and that there is a purpose in her life. God has a purpose for her life. That is what will keep us going on and we're going through a trial. That is the the fate.
She not only the.
The object before our hearts of the Lord Jesus, as it has in verse 2, but fate.
State You have to have faith. What is faith? It is believing God. Abraham came to a point in his life where he was told to do something that seemed absolutely illogical. He was told to take his son who had waited for who he had trusted God for.
And he had gotten the sun in his old age, and God told him to take that Son and take him up to a mountain and put him to death.
And it didn't seem logical. It didn't seem like this could be possibly right.
But it says Abraham believed God. He had faith. That is what we need when the going gets tough. Faith in a person, faith in the Lord Jesus Christ as the one who loves us because it says.
Here.
That in verse 11 and 12 no chastening for the present seems to be joyous, but grievous nevertheless afterward.
Yet yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them that are exercised thereby. You know it is one thing to endure. It talks about enduring chastening And verse 7. If you're going through a trial, there's two ways you can There's probably three ways at least you can go through a trial. You can chasten, you can chafe under the trial. You can reject it and feel put upon. And you can you can develop a little pity party for yourself and feel sorry for yourself. That's one way you can handle a trial. Another way is you can endure the trial. You can say.
I'm going to go through this trial. I'm not going to give up. I'm going to accept it from the Lord and I'm going to get through this trial. And that is something that is very good. If you can do that, you see there's something even better than that, and that is to learn the purpose of love that God has for you. Now, I said to Dave McNabb many times, and I said to him again last night after that tremendous gospel that we got here in this room that I have enjoyed.
Every time that Dave has talked about that, because I believe that it has been a real blessing to our whole assembly in Toledo. The trial that that Dan McNabb had to go through, the trial that the McNabb family went through, it was for every one of us. It was for our blessing. It was part of the discipline and the love that God has for us unto them which are exercised thereby. Because if we can begin to enter into His love for us and we can see why.
He is allowing us to go through this discipline in our life. Then there's going to be joy. That is why it says here, wherefore when you see it, wherefore you should see what it's there for. Wherefore Lift up the hang the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees. Can you get the actual physical picture here of someone who is with their hands hanging down and their knees bent? That is a picture of discouragement.
A picture of discouragement. There are many that are discouraged today.
You know this, the first part of the chapter says look up.
We have an object before. It hurts now. It says look down, take a look at your knees, take a look at your hands that are hanging down and make straight or level. As for your feet, how do we make level pads? You know what a level path is? It's one that is not up and down. Many of us are up and down in our life. I believe that part of the reason why is we haven't become established on the fact that God is always for us.
00:40:11
No matter what circumstance we go through, God is for us.
That I remember Brother Gordon Hayhoe saying. He's said several times, the secret of happiness is to see God's hand and everything.
The secret of happiness is to see God's hand and everything. Are you going through a trial?
If you see God's hand in it, you can make a level path for your feet. You can go through it with the Lord without going down, under and not necessarily having an uneven path. Up today, down tomorrow. Go to a conference, get encouraged, get up, go home. Confronted with the same problems that were there when you left, you get down.
You get a hold of the Lord Jesus Christ being always for you and that even the trials that you're going through are part of the discipline for this, this race that we are in. Because he wants to bring you down to the end why and how that you may might be partakers of His Holiness. He wants us to not only to get there, not just to finish, but He wants us to finish with our sales full. He wants us to be like the Lord Jesus Christ.
He wants us to walk through this life and go through this race as those who.
Our like his own beloved son.
In Hebrews 13 and verse nine it says it is a good thing for the heart to be established with grace. Our brother spoke on grace. What does it mean to have our heart established with grace? I believe for my own heart. I I couldn't begin to give a good or a full explanation of this verse, but I have just been encouraged with this thought.
That for my heart to be established with grace, is to realize that God is always forming, and that everything that he brings into my life is on the basis of love and grace. Nothing is because of myself. It is all from Him. Every good gift and every perfect gift cometh down from above, from the Father of Lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. He is the one who is always there, and always for us. And if you're discouraged this afternoon.
I urge you to let your heart be established with grace. Let you let your heart know.
Open your heart and let that warm grace pour in through your heart. This afternoon, the love of God.
Because he loves you unconditionally, and he proved it at the cross of Calvary. Well, maybe we just seek each one to keep our eyes upon him. May we pursue, May we go down to the end. As the Apostle Paul said in Philippians chapter 3, as our brother Willis translates in his book on Philippians, Down to the goal, I press down to the goal. I press like to read a verse from Romans 15.
I read 3 verses verse 5.
Now the God of patience.
And consolation.
Grant you to be like minded.
One toward another according to Christ Jesus.
That you may with one mind and one mouth, glorify God, even the Father.
Of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Wherefore receive ye one another?
As Christ also received us.
To the glory of God.
Wherefore receive you one another.
As Christ also received us to the glory of God.
And then turn to Ephesians.
Chapter 4.
Verse one.
I therefore the prisoner of the Lord beseech you.
That you walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called.
With all lowliness and meekness.
With long-suffering.
Forbearing one another in love.
Endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
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There is one body.
And one spirit.
Even as you are called in one hope of your calling.
One Lord, one Faith, one Baptism.
One God and Father of all, who is above all and through all.
And in you all.
There is one body.
He exhorts the Saints here at Ephesus.
To walk worthy of the vocation that calling Orwith they had been called.
And what is that vocation?
These first 16 verses of Chapter 4.
Are the beginning of the practical.
Exhortations in this epistle.
Connected with our walk.
I exhort you to walk worthy of the vocation wherewith you are called.
And what is that vocation? It's a collective 1.
I might just mention before proceeding.
At verse 17 of chapter 4 down through verse.
21 of Chapter 5.
We have another sphere that.
The Apostle brings before us the sphere of the world. We walk in that sphere. We also walk in the sphere of the assembly, which is the first.
16 verses of chapter 4. Then from 417 to 521 we have the sphere of the world.
And then in chapter 522 down through chapter 69.
We have the domestic circle, the domestic sphere. We have wives and husbands and children and parents and servants and masters all connected with the family.
So as we walk through this world, we walk in one of those 3 spheres.
The sphere of the assembly.
The sphere of the world and our business and our relationships.
With other Christians and also with the unbelievers.
And then the third sphere is the family circle.
We walk in that sphere.
And I suppose we need we need grace, probably more.
In that last sphere, the sphere of the family and anywhere else.
What I wanted to speak on just a little bit we had grace brought before us, and then the prophets that.
Come to those that are exercised about the trials through which the Lord passes us.
And the thought of reception?
How do we receive one another?
Well, that verse in Romans 15 brings before us that we're to receive one another as Christ has received us.
We are we are the subjects of God's grace.
We owe everything to the grace of God.
And we're exhorted here in Ephesians connection with this assembly circle.
Well, we rub shoulders with fellow members of the one body.
To walk worthy of the calling wherewith we have been called.
And what is that calling? Well, I believe it involves 2 truths, and you get those in the second chapter. And I'll just.
Recall them to us, the 1St is that we've been called to be members.
Of the body of Christ.
We've been called into a membership, the only membership known in the New Testament. Not membership of a local church, no such thought in the New Testament, but membership of the one body of which Christ is the head in heaven. We've been called to that membership, the members of the one body. Now every believer and the Lord Jesus Christ is a member of that one body.
The other thing we've been called to is to be the habitation of God by the Spirit.
The Saints corporately composing the habitation, the dwelling of God by the Spirit, we've been called to that.
And in our assembly relationships, we are to walk worthy of that calling.
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We cannot be merely individuals any longer. As Christians, we are not simply individuals, so that's a wonderful truth.
That we are each one individually saved and justified by faith. But we've been called into a unity which was formed on the day of Pentecost by the baptism of the Holy Spirit, called into a oneness that is the body of Christ. And every one of us is no longer just an individual, but we are members one of another, and of Christ, the risen glorified head in heaven, now to walk worthy of that calling.
Is to walk in such a way as to give expression to that truth.
That there is one body, there is one body, And to walk worthy of the second part of that collective calling, that we are the habitation of God by the Spirit, is to give expression in our comings together to the truth. That the Spirit of God is sovereign and president and leader in the assembly, to use whomsoever he will in prayer, in praise, in worship.
In ministry, in the administrative affairs of the assembly, the Spirit of God is to be looked to and to be relied upon, and it's not a man's thoughts that have any place in the sphere of the assembly. We have the Spirit of Truth who inhabits the house, and the Saints become the habitation of God by the Spirit now as we look round about us.
In these last days.
Of ruin and departure from the order that God has given us in His word. Where do we find a true expression of the one body? Sometimes we say we're gathered on the ground of the one body. What do we mean by that? There's two ways in which we can.
Falsify that we can make as the ground of reception to the Lord's table.
A circle which is broader than the one body that is. Take for instance, the Church of England.
It's a religious body that admits to its fellowship, those who are not members of the one body.
Englishmen, but not members of the one body. They have a fellowship which is broader than the truth, than the one body. That's one way in which that truth can be denied. Another and far more common way is what we call sectarianism.
Where we make the conditions of reception to the Lord's table narrower than membership in the body of Christ.
Every believer on the Lord Jesus Christ who is a member of the one body, has a place at his table.
If we make the conditions of reception to the table.
Narrower, more restricted than that truth.
We are a sect and the Christian.
World is filled with sectarianism.
Sectarianism is getting interested in a little circle around ourselves, to the exclusion of others who are equally members of the Body of Christ and dear and precious to Him.
If one has to become practically of us in order to be received to the table, we have become a set.
In principle.
Now I'm dealing with principles here because I believe we have, we are in danger in many quarters of being.
Sectarian.
Legal.
Hard. Let me recite a case.
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Happened not too long ago.
A young sister.
Who love the Lord.
I believe she was with the.
Baptist Church at the time.
Very simple.
Did not know church truth.
But you love the Lord.
And she came to the breaking of bread, was visiting some friends.
And no one had talked to her, as we so often do, and say, you won't be able to remember the Lord with us this morning. And as the emblems were passed, it went right by her, and she reached out her hand, and the person passing the emblem shook her head, shook her head no.
And she sat back and said no.
Why not?
I love the Lord. I'm his.
Why can't I?
And she left the meeting in tears.
We were talking about Grace.
And as I read the writings of the early Brethren.
I am impressed.
With how exceedingly gracious.
They were in connection with this matter of receiving.
Al Gracias they were.
The truth of the one body.
Had been discovered afresh.
From the precious book.
And it's so captivated the heart of those early Saints.
That they just met as fellow members of the Body of Christ.
Beloved if we exclude.
Those who are walking godly.
And in obedience to the light that they have from the Word of God.
In contrast to those who are walking disorderly and in disobedience and self will, if we exclude those that are walking godly and scripturally, insofar as their understanding the light that they have is concerned.
We great the Earth.
Because the principle upon which we are gathered is there is one body.
Now in order to.
To guard what I'm saying.
I know the day in which we're living is far more.
Grievous.
With error.
And those roundaboutists among the early Brethren One came from System.
From some denomination of religious body round about, you could be pretty certain.
That they were sound in the faith.
They did not hold anything which was fundamentally in error as to the person or work of Christ. So if one was a member of a certain group, you could be pretty certain that. They could be pretty certain then that they were not guilty of having imbibed anything or being in fellowship with anything which was dishonouring to the person and work of Christ.
Today, that isn't so.
So we have to be more guarded.
I like to say that when it comes to the question of reception to the table.
It's not an open communion.
Where anyone has a place, there no someone walking in disorder, someone harboring evil doctrine, someone in immoral.
A ways does not have a place there, not in their present state at any rate.
Every true believer member of the body of Christ has titled to that.
To a place at the table. Not everyone that has title to that place can occupy it at any point in time because of the way they're going on. That's the question of discipline.
That's another matter. So not everyone who is a true member of the body of Christ.
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Could be received to the table a man in First Corinthians 5 who was guilty of immorality. He had to be put away.
From among them. But then he was restored by grace.
And brought back.
And the object of all Discipline, The object of all Discipline is always, always, always Restoration. Never To keep the disciplined 1 outside. Never.
Keep them outside, but that they be brought back and occupy their place.
At his table, I think the mistake that we have made, and I'm very guilty of it.
Is that we have acted as though it is our table.
Now if it was my table, I would have the right to lay down the conditions of reception to it because it's my table.
But it's not my table, and it's not your table. It's the Lord's table. And because of that, he has laid down the conditions of reception to his table. And the grand fundamental principle to have a place at his table is to be a member of the body of Christ.
And not be excluded because of the principles of the House of God, which is the habitation of God by the Spirit.
Excluded because of a disorderly walk, immorality or bad doctrine or evil associations.
Now I'm talking about fundamental error when I say that.
We know that there are many, many errors in Christendom.
I'm not faulting anyone, but seeking to set before us for our own exercise.
That we keep the truth in proper balance, I believe.
In pressing sometimes the claims of that side of truth, which has to do with the godly order that belongs to the House of God, where he is holiness, becometh thy house, O Lord, forever absolutely essential truth. And that's why discipline is necessary in order to maintain that an assembly without any discipline is an assembly which is open to every kind of wickedness possible.
That would be the greatest dishonor to the name of the Lord we could conceive of. Discipline is absolutely essential.
But have we not?
Are we not in danger of?
Falling in error on the side of requiring something of a simple soul.
That is an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no guile but not intelligent.
As to the assembly, are we not in danger of imposing conditions upon such?
That.
Come very close to being sectarian.
On our part.
Every individual case is just that, an individual case. You cannot lay down one rule that will apply to all cases. So we have these principles. The ground upon which we're gathered is the truth of the one body.
And the fact that the Spirit of God has the Saints have become the habitation of God by the Spirit that he is there, and he's the Holy Spirit and the Spirit of truth. And we're gathered to the Holy One and the true, the name of the Lord Jesus.
We have sought to maintain his honor and glory properly in an evil day.
And we have to be very careful. Sometimes it's questioned some of the young people. They'll read the writings of the early brethren and they'll see how gracious and.
Loving they were in the way of reception to the Lord's table.
And it puzzles many of us, many of the younger especially, that we don't seem to be that way anymore, that we seem to.
Have imposed conditions and requirements of knowledge and understanding on a part of a simple soul that they didn't do in the early days, and I believe that that's a great danger. And so these comments are made in connection with the thought of grace.
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Grace.
I will say this, if I'm going to air, I'd rather air on the side of Grace.
Then on the side of being hard and legal.
Not proposing that we air either way.
But every case has to be examined on its own merits.
Yude says of some. Have compassion, making a difference, and I believe that's a principle that ought to characterize us.
As we.
Go through this scene.
I believe we have done damage. I believe I'm guilty.
The simple souls.
By sectarianism, legality.
And a harshness that I'll becomes us.
Paul said to Timothy. Be strong in the grace.
That is in Christ Jesus.
Grow in grace.
And in the knowledge.
Of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
What is the most stupendous fact about the Blessed Lord as we trace his pathway in the Gospels?
He was the holiest man.
And yet he was the most accessible man.
The most gracious man, the most available man.
Do those roundabouts A bruised Reed? Would he not break in the smoking flax? Would he not quench?
Oh, to be more like him.
Sometimes one gets in his presence in just weeks and shakes one's head and says oh how unlike him.
I am.
Feel that way, beloved.
How unlike him.
We are sometimes.
In our in our ways.
May God give us that grace.
That.
We have discernment to take forth the precious from the vile.
We've just recently had before us in Matthew 18.
Those solemn, solemn words of the Lord Jesus.
To stumble, to offend a little. One that believes in me, that we're better for him, That a millstone were hanged about his neck and he can be cast into the depths of the sea.
Turn aside.
A little.
Who has faith in the Lord Jesus?
Very serious.
May God give us that grace.
Which will maintain holiness.
Will maintain holiness.
But it will, It will exalt and magnify the cardinal virtue of God, who is, we've come to know, as the God of all grace.
God of all grace.
Well, just these few thoughts, beloved.
That we might be kept.
From looseness.
On the one hand.
From legality and sectarianism, on the other, this requires real exercise of soul in the application of the principles of the one body and the principles of the holiness of the House of God.
God give us grace.
Keep these things in proper balance.
Till the Lord comes.