Open—D. Andersen, E. Smith, C. Lunden
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General Meetings. Wheaton, August 1974. Open meeting.
Might return to Acts chapter 20.
We were singing in our hymn.
Preserved ice block.
Most graciously within my sheltering fold.
Move them from every harm away.
And in thy safeguard hold.
Kill, thou shalt fully have obtained in us the fruits of grace.
And we enjoy that. Never end shall see thee face to face.
Isn't this something that everyone of us covets?
But we might be preserved.
Until the Lord comes.
I believe here in Acts chapter 20.
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We have something that has been given to us to that end.
And.
We might read a few of these verses here in chapter 20.
Starting with verse 17.
Acts Chapter 20.
And from my leaders he sent to Ephesus and called the elders of the church.
And when they were come to him, he said unto them, Ye know from the first day that I came into Asia.
After what manner I've been with you at all seasons, serving the Lord with all humility of mind, and with many tears and temptations, which befell me by the lying in wait of the Jews, and now. And how I kept back nothing that was profitable unto you, but have showed you and have taught you publicly and from house to house, testifying both to the Jews and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God.
And faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. And now behold, I go bound in the Spirit unto Jerusalem, not knowing the things that shall befall me there. Say that the Holy Ghost witnesses in every city, saying that bonds and afflictions abide me. But none of these things move me, neither can't I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy and the ministry which I've received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God.
And now, behold, I know that ye all, among whom I have gone preaching the Kingdom of God, shall see my face no more.
Wherefore I take you to record this day, that I am pure from the blood of all men. For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God. Take thee therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock over which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the Church of God, which He has purchased with his own blood, or the blood of his own. For I know this, that after my departing.
Shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock also of your own selves? Shall men arise speaking perverse things?
To draw away disciples after them, Therefore watch and remember that by the space of three years.
I ceased not to warn everyone night and day with tears.
And now, brethren, I commend you to God and to the word of His grace, which is able to build you up.
And to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified.
I believe we have something here that is very important and very important for us in these last days.
And I believe we are aware.
That there there's not long until the Lord comes. We certainly are in the last days.
And I believe we need to take to ourselves this warning that the apostle Paul gives us.
He says, Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock over which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers.
To feed the Church of God, which he has purchased with his own blood.
Take heed to yourselves. We certainly need that exhortation, don't we?
It's so easy.
In a day when there's prosperity.
And things are going quite easily for us.
We seem to be making a living and getting along quite well.
And we need to take heed to ourselves.
Watch and pray that you enter not into temptation.
But he also warns us about the grievous wolves entering in among us, not sparing the flock.
There have been those.
That didn't seem to have a heart for the flock, for the sheep of God.
And it didn't seem to matter to them how they acted, or how they behaved themselves, or how they carried on or what they stood for.
And if they had some pet teaching that they wanted to put out, the the continued to harp on that thing, and even though their brethren exhorted them not to, they continued.
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And one.
Years ago said.
I'm going to continue on those smashes, brethren, to pieces.
Well, that wasn't the heart of a shepherd, was it?
That wasn't the kind of heart that the Apostle Paul wanted these elders at Ephesus to have.
Oh, that we might have a heart for the assembly, everyone of us.
Christ loved the church, the assembly, and gave himself for it, and we know a little bit about what that means, how he gave himself for the assembly.
Gave himself his whole being. That's an example for us.
We can't give ourselves in the same way as the Lord did, but certainly it's an example for us.
To give ourselves for the assembly in some way, to sacrifice in some way.
For the sake of the Assembly of God, and I believe if everyone of us had this spirit of sacrifice.
We would see a great change, a great difference.
We would all act differently.
But now he says in verse 30, Of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse or perverted things.
To draw away disciples after them. We've seen something of this too.
And we must be on our guard against all of these things. Again, I say, as the Lord exhorted, watch and pray that you enter not into temptation.
We can't keep ourselves. We must trust the Lord. We must look to him. And I believe this is what we get then and what the apostle Paul?
Says in verse 32.
He says in verse 31, watch. But now in verse 32 he says, now brethren, I commend you to God and to the word of His grace.
Why commanded to God, and why commended to the word of His grace?
To God for what, and to His Word for what?
To have implicit confidence in God.
And in his word.
Do we have confidence in God?
Do we have confidence in the Lord Jesus Christ who is in the midst of the assembly?
Or do we think we have to take things in our own hands and do things according to our ideas and opinions?
I'm afraid very often.
Were LED astray this way that we're not really trusting the Lord to take care of His assembly.
And we're not trusting his word that it's enough for the guidance of the assembly.
But this is very simple. I commend you to God and to the word of His grace. Now why doesn't it say the word of His law? You know, it's the word of His grace.
We need to be under the influence of grace. It's so easy to get in under the influence of law, legality.
Sometimes.
We don't have the right.
Thought about the grace of God, everyone of us, myself included. We get some strange ideas sometimes which are not thoughts of grace at all.
Their thoughts of legality.
But it says about this which is able to build you up and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified.
It's God who builds us up, and he does it by means of the Word.
And that's why it's showing so important and it's so good to have meetings like this where we're over the word of God because we do need to be built up.
There are worldly, fleshly influences around us all the time.
And we have the old fleshly nature in us, to which the world.
And the things of the world can appeal.
And it's easy to feed the flesh and build up the flesh. And sometimes we get so built up in the flesh.
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But there's not much spirituality left in US.
But how good it is to sit under the ministry of the Word, and to be built up in our souls.
Spiritually built up all how we need it in a day like this when there seems to be so much that's tearing us down.
I don't suppose we're aware of how cold we're getting in our souls.
It's not good to get occupied with how we're doing.
Whether I'm spiritual or not, no, that wouldn't be a good thing. But we are getting cold in our souls and how far we are away from the Lord, we don't know. I don't believe we're aware of it.
That's why we need to get close to the Lord, spend time in His presence.
Because the more time we spend in His presence, the more aware we become that we're away from Him, that we're cold in our souls and we bewail the fact of how weak we are spiritually.
Well, God in His Word, His word of grace, are able to build us up and to give us an inheritance among all them which are sanctified.
This is what what the Apostle Paul.
Told these Ephesian elders.
This is what He's telling us all. I commend you to God and to the word of His grace.
Is there anything better than that? Nothing better than that.
To have confidence in God, to have confidence in his Word.
Now I'd like to turn to a parallel passage over in Deuteronomy.
Chapter 31.
And you have a similar circumstance here now and connected in connection with Moses.
Paul was about to leave the scene.
And he commended these to God through the word of His grace. He warned them two of the dangers.
Here we have Moses in chapter 31 of Deuteronomy.
Calling the elders Together, verse 28.
He says, Gather unto me all the elders of your tribes and your officers, that I may speak these words in their ears, and call heaven and earth to record against them. For I know that after my death you will utterly corrupt yourselves and turn aside from the way which I have commanded you. And evil will befall you in the latter days, because you will do evil in the sight of the Lord, to provoke him to anger through the work of your hands.
And Moses spake in the ears of all the congregation of Israel the words of this song until they were ended.
You notice the similarity.
Why is this? Why do we get something like this in the New Testament?
Why did Paul have to speak as he did? It's similar to what Moses said. Why? Because man's heart is the same.
Whether in the Old Testament economy or a New Testament times, the heart of man is the same.
The heart of God's people is the same, and we God's people have always been prone to get away from God and, as it says here, to corrupt themselves and turn aside from the way which God has commanded.
We know how how Israel did this. Turned aside, corrupted themselves, got away from God.
And it turned out badly for them.
The government of God rested upon them.
And to this day, 10 tribes are still scattered and we don't know where they are. The 2 tribes, Benjamin and Judah.
They're having great difficulties.
Sometimes we really feel sorry for them there in the land of Palestine. But why is all of this coming upon them? Because they corrupted themselves and turned away, turned aside from the way which God had commanded them.
And he said, And evil will befall you in the latter days because they turned aside from God.
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This was all according to God's Word.
It all came to pass. What we've read in Acts 20 has come to pass to.
A sad history. The Church's history, I suppose we can say, is sadder.
Than Israel's history from the standpoint that more grace has been ministered to the church than to Israel.
This is the age of grace in which the Church is living Israel. We're living under the law.
We have a great responsibility.
And I suppose the failure is proportionate to the responsibility.
All of these things, as we meditate upon them and let them go through our minds and get into our hearts, what does it do to us?
Doesn't it make us feel that we just want to be close to the Lord?
We want to have more confidence in Him, more confidence in his word. Not confidence in man, not confidence in leaders, not confidence in the opinions and ideas of men, but confidence in God, confidence in his word. All to be simple.
Now, what's the remedy that's given us here?
After Moses says what he does to these responsible ones of Israel.
Well, in chapter 32, we get a song. It's a song of Moses that we get here, and we get a lot of good things brought out in this song, and we might touch on just a few of these.
First of all.
I want you to notice in verse four of chapter 32 of Deuteronomy.
That part of this song says he is all wrong. His work is perfect.
Is that the idea we have of God? Is that the thought we have of Him? Do we feel that way about God, that He is our rock? He's the solid one upon whom we can rest. We can have full confidence in Him, and it says His work is perfect. Do we trust his work perfectly, Completely. Oh yes, you say I trust the work of salvation that the Lord Jesus Christ has done.
But there's other work, work that God is doing right now. He's working in the assembly.
He's working in our hearts to will and to do of His good pleasure. Do we believe that God's work is perfect?
That he is doing just exactly what ought to be done.
Oh, let us trust him. Let us rest upon Him. The Rock.
Notice in verse 30 and verse 6.
Do he thus requite the Lord, or foolish people? And unwise? Is not he thy Father that hath bought thee?
Hath he not made thee and established thee?
Well, we can say that about our God, our Father.
They call God their father in the sense of a benefactor. They didn't know God as their father in the sense of relationship, because you have to have the Holy Spirit dwelling in your heart to know God is your father. That is to have a sense of it in your soul, that is to have God as your father in relationship. But they thought of God as a father who was taking care of them, a benefactor, but they didn't even.
Think of that. They'd forgotten that, that he was the one that took care of them.
And that he's the one that bought them.
They'd forgotten that they were redeemed in Egypt. They'd been under the shelter of the blood God had bought them, and he'd brought them out of Egypt to be his special people.
Well, it's so easy for us to forget what God has done for us.
To forget what the Lord Jesus Christ has done for us. That's why it's good for us to have the remembrance feast, the breaking of bread.
Every large state, because it brings to mind again what the Lord has done for us, that we've been redeemed by his precious blood.
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Notice what he says in verse 9. The Lords portion Is his people the Lords portion.
The Lords portion.
There's a lot of emphasis put on the Christians portion, the believers portion.
The church's portion, Well, it's all right to think about that, what our portion is. But in thinking about what our portion is, what our blessings are, so often we forget about what the Lord's portion is. And what is the Lord's portion? What is it He has delight in? The Lord's portion is His people.
Doesn't this touch our hearts? We are the portion that belong to the Lord.
We are what? Delight. The Lord's heart. Did you ever think about that? That we are a delight to Him?
Oh, of course we are. He loves us. He loved the church and gave himself for.
And He's looking forward to have it, having it with Himself in the glory. He's going to present it to Himself, a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, and whose joy and whose delight is going to be the greater there in the glory. I believe we look upon His face, and we see His great delight to have us gathered around Himself there.
It's his delight to have us gathered around himself here.
We are his people, we belong to him, we're his portion, we're his delight. And for him to have us around himself, what a joy it will be for him then, but it's a joy to him now.
And he is going to lift up his hand, as it were, and he is going to say, behold.
I and the children which God hath given me.
I believe when we think of that, that draws us to him.
That causes us to delight in him more.
Find out really what our blessing is.
Now it says in verse 10, he found him in a desert land and in the waste howling wilderness. He led him about, He instructed him, He kept him as the apple of his eye. A little bit of history in this verse. Where was he found? In a desert land. Where were we found?
In a far off place, in a desert place, away from God, without God and without hope in this world.
In the waste howling wilderness we were found down here where there's nothing to seek or to choose.
And after having become the Lord's, this world has become a wilderness.
But sometimes it doesn't look like it. Sometimes it looks like we're trying to make an Eden out of this world.
But it can never be anything to the true child of God by the wilderness. And it's a place that we're passing through. We're not going to stay here. And sometimes we we back down as though we're going to stay here forever.
But we're not. We're just passing through. Peter speaks of us as strangers. Yes, we're strangers down here in pilgrims, pilgrims on the way home, the glory. We're not going to stay here.
And he led him about. That's what the Lord is doing to us, leading us about. He leads you one way, He leads me another. We we go on different paths, but it's the Lord leading us.
And should we worry about the past when it's the Lord leading us?
It doesn't help to worry about it, does it?
Because you'll still be faithful and lead us. Oh, that we might trust his faithfulness more, even though we're not faithful yet here by this faithful He cannot deny himself. He'll lead us about in the way that we should go.
He instructed him.
You know anything about getting instruction from the Lord?
It's good for us to be instructed by him.
But all how we need ears and hearts ready to receive the instruction. Sometimes we rebel against it and we don't like the instruction.
But He'll give it to us nevertheless, and when we get home to Glory, we'll thank Him for it all.
He kept him as the apple of his eye.
You notice how the apple of the eye is protected.
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Marvels how that eye is protected.
God keeps his children in that way. He guards them. He keeps them.
Do we appreciate it? Very often we don't. We don't appreciate how he's keeping us.
But Jude says now unto him, who is able to keep you from falling, and present you faultless before the presence of his glory, with exceeding joy.
It's his desire to keep her. She wants to keep it. He's willing to keep us. And in spite of ourselves, he's keeping us.
Or we might get into bypass, get on the wrong track sometimes.
But the Lord is watching us, and he'll bring us back to himself. He's keeping us.
As the apple of his eye.
Well, then, we get this about the eagle stirring up her nest, fluttering over her young, spreading abroad her wings, taking them, bearing them on her wings.
That's the way of the eagle, when the eagle, the mother eagle.
Sees its time or has a sense, the intuition that it's time for those Eaglets to get out of the nest and to learn to fly. She'll pull all the packing and all the things in the nest that have made it a soft place for the little Eaglets and leave only the the rock branches and thorns in the nest. Well, it's not a very delightful place for those Eaglets to nest anymore, and they begin to crawl out.
Of the place and get up on the edge of the nest.
But they won't. They won't leave the nest. They won't get away from there. They may have wings so they can begin to fly, but they don't want to leave. So the mother eagle rises up.
Flies around and with the tip of one wing she knocks one of those Eaglets off the side of that nest, way up there, the top of that precipice and the little eagle, it starts tumbling down. The mother Eagles floats down under that eaglet.
And bears up that eaglet on her wings.
But she's teaching that egret to fly. This is what the Lord is doing for us.
Ah, we don't like to get out away from our comfortable places. We don't like a little more exercise.
A little more venturing forth for the Lord's sake. We like it where we are. We stay comfortable.
But the Lord allows things to come. Makes it a little rough for us.
And then?
He teaches us the lesson that we have to trust in Him completely.
He may knock us over, as it were, and we may start to tumble.
But we'll find that the Lord is there to bears up on eagle's wings, as it were.
Oh how the Lord deals with us. And I'm sure this is put in the word of God because we need it and then it says so The Lord alone did lead him and I was no strange God with him. The Lord alone did lead him. How much do we know about that?
The Lord alone leading us.
No strange God with us.
Oh, it's so easy for us to depend on strange gods, this little thing and that circumstance or this other thing. And we like to be guided by circumstances rather than being guided by his eye.
But you know, to be guided by the eye of the blessed Lord, we have to be close to Him.
And sometimes we don't like to stay close to the Lord. We like to have a little leeway, a little rope. We want to.
Give in to our passions and our loss, and we want to satisfy the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life. We want to have a little leeway.
We don't like to stay quite that close to the Lord that we can be led by His eye.
But I believe we're missing something if we're not that close to the Lord, so we can be led by His eye.
I wish I knew more of it being led by his eye rather than by circumstances. The Lord alone did lead him, and there was no strange God with him.
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Well, there's more in this chapter, but I'm going to leave it. You can read it over.
And you'll see the remedy.
That's presented.
After Moses warns the children of Israel.
How are we going to be kept?
Well, by these things that are brought out in principle here in this chapter.
Just trusting God.
Just trusting his word.
May we read a verse from First Timothy?
First Timothy.
Chapter 3.
And verse 15.
That's First Timothy 3, verse 15.
But if I tarry long.
That thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself.
The House of God.
Which is the Church of the living God?
The pillar and ground of the truth.
Our brother has spoken from the 20th of Acts. The ruin was very great there as it is today.
And it would seem that he, the Apostle, couldn't commend.
Those few disciples around him to anyone, but he could commend them to God.
And to the word of his grace.
Now I'd like to follow on very briefly.
Some thoughts concerning the assembly.
We notice here.
That the word to Timothy is the question of behavior.
In the House of God.
We know that godly behavior is so essential in these days of dissension and the last declension.
One asked me if the assembly was the truth.
And I said, brother, I couldn't say that the assembly is the truth. The word of God is the truth.
But the assembly is the pillar or support the ground of the truth.
Sometimes we forget this, beloved.
And we fail to recognize that truth is only understood.
It is couched in the language of God.
That the assembly therefore is not the truth.
The Word of God is the truth.
And so the apostle speaks to Timothy.
In explicit language.
Concerning the need to behave there for the assembly is the pillar or the support the ground of the truth.
Let it be known, beloved, that the Assembly doesn't teach.
As some might believe, it is taught.
The assembly is taught. What is it being taught, beloved?
This is the point. This is the matter that exercises the hearts of those who are bishops or overseers, those who care for the little flock.
We repeat that because it's so urgent. It seems in my.
Experience as the servant of the Lord for so many years.
The assembly does not teach.
We repeat it is taught. What is it being taught?
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In these days.
The assembly here is recognized as the House of God.
Beloved, the Assembly is the House of the living God.
Which sometimes forget that.
It is the House of God, the living Gods.
I suppose that declension comes because we fail to recognize one important truth.
And that is the authority of the Lord Jesus in the midst.
Wherever the authority of the Lord Jesus is recognized in the assembly, there you have peace.
There you have spiritual progress.
And happiness.
Wherever the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ in the assembly is not recognized, you have dissension.
And.
Susan.
Which of course, in simple language is mere heresy. We sometimes think of heresy as the denying of the fundamentals of the faith, and that could be so.
But heresy is really forming of a party beloved.
That's heresy in its essence, the forming of a party. And this is something you will pardon me as an old servant, an old man.
This is something we have to be very careful to God against the forming of scissors, lest there be schism in the body.
Now no parental affection must influence you who are elders in the assembly.
If it is a question of sin, that has to be not only recognized.
Judged and put out.
Yes, the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ is everything in the assembly.
And a decision taken there, whether we like this truth or not.
And I say it humbly.
A decision made there must be held.
All you say, we don't go along with it.
But leave it with the Lord, beloved.
And do you know these 59 years that I'm trying to serve my blessed Lord?
In different languages and among different people of different.
Makeup.
I've never found it yet to fail.
That.
Where the authority of the Lord Jesus is maintained, irrespective of parental affection or anything else, God will arrange that problem and he will do it permanently and.
He will do it gloriously.
I have had many experiences to this effect.
Here is a brother. An assembly can form a wrong decision.
But who am I to intervene with my poor little thoughts about him?
An assembly may make a decision and may cause you to doubt.
But there's one thing we must do, beloved, and I say it with all my heart. Leave it with the Lord. Here is a brother who is put away for immorality.
1St Corinthians 5 is duly applied to him, and he is put away as a wicked person. The brother sits back for one year and a half.
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Until one afternoon in the reading of First Corinthians 5A, brother suddenly gets up.
And putting his heart, his hand over his heart, and tears running down his face, he says, brethren, I am the guilty man. That brother is not guilty.
Now there comes occasion of this kind. What did that brother do?
I'll never forget he's with the Lord now, a most gracious Latin brother.
And sometimes they're not so gracious.
He never said one word. He sat back with his wife and his four children one year and a half.
He was duly and reinstated to his place at the table.
He never complained one word against that meeting and he never had a word.
Of scolding against his brother. He loved his brother just the same. What grace?
What happened? The Lord arranged that.
And beloved, that has remained to this day. And that's 30 years ago.
30 long years ago.
What happened to that assembly?
It's the happiest assembly in Bolivia and that's where they've been having their all day readings. Some 400 odd Saints gathered to the precious name of Christ have been for four rather five days together over the word of God.
Well.
It is something it is a bit difficult to deal with these things, but you'll bear with me. I'm not going to say very much more.
But I would remark this.
That.
Assembly.
Is composed, of course, of born again souls.
The authority there is the Lord Jesus in the in the midst.
The Word of God, by the power of the Holy Spirit is the guide there.
And the practice of the assembly is holiness.
And when we speak of holiness?
We mean just simply, as Mr. Darby saw a very nicely puts it, it is the exclusion of everything beloved from our life and testimony, which would be contrary to God's mind and to God's nature.
Those are not my words. They missed the Dobbies words that he wrote many years ago.
This is what he calls perfecting holiness in the fear of God, the putting away of your life and mine, beloved.
Everything that is contrary to God's mind.
And to God's nature.
If I tarry long that thou mayst know how thou art to behave thyself.
In the House of God.
This is only one aspect of it. There's no time to go beyond this, which is the Church of the Living God, the pillar and ground of the Truth.
So we open our Bibles to John 12 reverse the.
Verse 26.
John 1226. If any man served me, let him follow me.
And where I am, there shall also my servant be. If any man served me, him will my father honor.
Hebrews, the 11Th chapter.
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Verse.
33.
The last clause.
Stopped.
Mouths of lions.
Now turn with me to the first chapter of Daniel, please.
In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, came Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, unto Jerusalem, and besieged it.
And the Lord gave Jehovah, King of Judah into his hand with part of the vessels of the House of God.
Which he carried into the land of Shinar to the House of his God.
And he brought the vessels into the treasure House of his God, and the king spake unto Ashkenaz, the master of his eunuchs.
That he should bring certain of the children of Israel, and of the King's seed, and of the Princess.
Children it should read youths, youth in whom was number blemish, but well favored and skillful in all wisdom, cunning, and knowledge, and understanding science, and such as had ability in them to stand in the King's palace, and whom they might teach the learning and the tongue of the Chaldeans. And the king appointed them the daily provision of the King's meat and of the wine which he drank.
So nourishing them three years, that at the end thereof they might stand before the king.
Now among these were of the children of Judah Daniel.
Hananiah, Michelle and Azariah, under whom the Prince of the eunuchs gave names.
For he gave unto Daniel the name of Belgie Shazer, and to Hananiah the of Shadrach, and to Michelle of Misha, and to Azariah of Abednego.
Or Abednego. But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with a portion of the King's meat, nor with the wine which he drank. Therefore he requested of the Prince of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself.
Now God had brought Daniel into favor and tender love with the Prince of the eunuchs.
And the Prince of the eunuch said unto Daniel, I fear, my Lord the king who hath appointed your meat in your drink, For why should he see your faces worse liking than the children which are of your sort? Then shall you make me endanger my head to the game. Then said Daniel, Till Melzar, whom the Prince of the eunuchs have set over, Daniel, Hannah, and I, Michelle and Azariah, prove thy servants, I beseech thee 10 days.
And let them give us pulse to eat, and water to drink. Then let our countenance be looked upon before thee, and the Countess of the children that eat of the portion of the King's meat. And as thou seest deal with thy servants, so he consented to them in this matter, and proved them 10 days. And at the end of 10 days their countenances were appeared fairer and fatter in flesh than all the children which did eat of the portion of the King's meat.
Thus Belzar took away the portion of their meat.
And the wine that they should drink and gave them pulse. As for these four youths, God gave them knowledge and skill and all learning and wisdom.
And Daniel had understanding in all visions and dreams now at the end of the days, that the king had said he should bring them in. Then the Prince of the eunuchs brought them in before Nebuchadnezzar, and the king communed with them. And among them all was found none like Daniel Hananiah, Michel Nazariah.
Therefore stood there before the king, and in all matters of wisdom and understanding that the king inquired of them, he found them 10 times better than all the magicians and astrologers that were in all his realm.
And Daniel continued even until the first year of King Cyrus.
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Now we've heard some lovely things this afternoon and this morning in the Sunday School about vessels and so on.
And I just like to call attention to some things that have to do with the personal walk of the believer.
As well as what has been given to us in a general way, which is so precious because there are certain principles that should govern the life of the believer, and we have them set before us, I believe, at least in part, in this chapter.
Now we noticed in the New Testament, in the 12Th chapter, where we were reading in our readings.
That if any man served me, let him follow me, and where I am there shall also my servant be. This would suggest communion, would it not?
And that's one of the first things that we noticed that if we're going to be.
To the glory of God, in connection with that testimony of His in this world, there will have to be communion.
Now in the chapter that we've read, we find a king. He's the king of Babylon.
We find today that the professing churches is like it's enclosed in the great octopus.
Babylon.
That would rob us of everything that we cherish.
Now we find a man here, set up by God.
And his life is given us.
For an example, individually how we might walk, and we'll try to point out at least seven things here.
In this first chapter, that should be of help to each of us as his people.
In the midst of a scene of confusion, Babylon, you hear people say, Well.
I don't know what to do. I don't know where to go, I don't know what to believe.
But we find that there was a playing path for Daniel.
And his three companions.
And we find, too, that.
It was not a complicated, it was not a difficult path.
Because.
The whole thing depended on following as we have in the New Testament.
The first thing we have mentioned here.
Is that?
When the children of Israel were taken captivity, there was a selection made of certain ones.
Who were to carry on a testimony, shall we say, in the midst of ruin, right in the midst of babbling? Is God able? Oh, indeed He is.
May I ask where has the church been cradled for the last 2000 years? If it hasn't been in the very midst of that Babylon, That empire of Babylon that is.
The very empire that slew our precious savior, the gates of hell.
Shall not prevail against that which God has formed, and the gates of hell cannot prevail against the individual believer.
Who walks in the path that God has set up?
And so.
We find then that there was a selection made, and among these.
Was Daniel and his companions Now? I don't recall, but I believe Daniel means beloved of God or something to that effect. Loved of God or beloved of God?
And you know, it's a wonderful thing to have the consciousness of this, is it not? As our brother was bringing out.
That we're beloved of God.
This must be then we can follow.
And.
It says here that there were certain qualifications for these men in their selection.
The first was.
Children in whom was number no blemish.
No blemish.
That is.
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There were those who were now to perform a task. Daniel didn't know what was before him, but God knew.
And he had to have one in whom was number blemish.
Now this is very necessary, you know, and we might refer especially to the young people.
That if they're starting out to serve the Lord, this is a very important thing so that you can't look back and say, well.
I should have done this or I should have done that?
I just gave way to the flesh here. I gave way to the flesh there, No.
Who we find here with Daniel and his companions. They were without blemish. Now, that doesn't mean they were perfect.
But it doesn't mean that they probably had the will of God before them as to the instruction that He had given in his law.
And can we use the word blameless? Not perfect, but blameless. Their heart was set to follow.
To walk in the path.
So that's the first thing.
Now the apostle Paul, you know, said.
As he gives his spiritual credentials as an apostle.
Whom have I defrauded?
And so on. That's the 7th chapter of Second Corinthians.
Moral credentials necessary.
For one to be used of God in the way Daniel was.
And we might look at these three with Daniel as the little testimony of that day.
A picture of it.
So we have the next thing then.
Well favored and skillful in all wisdom.
Now this requires being in the presence of God, because we have no wisdom of our own.
If any man lack wisdom, let him ask of God, who giveth to all men liberally, and appraiseth not, and it shall be given in.
So we have then used with no blemish, well favored and skillful in wisdom.
Cunning and knowledge.
Now this. This wouldn't go with a lazy person, would it?
It's one who has his studious.
One who applies himself to the word of God. I know there are special applications here to young people because we have the youths mentioned, but it's good for us all. But there's a special thing I might say in this connection that.
It's very difficult when you get older.
And you begin to realize more than necessity of these things to apply yourself.
In the way you might apply yourself when you're young.
Oh, how good it would be to be in the position like Daniel.
That when he was called, he was ready. He had these qualifications.
So that God could use him, and he used him mightily, as we see.
Then we have next understanding of science.
Understanding of science.
Well, this is.
Comparing spiritual things with spiritual, isn't it?
We use the application that we have in Corinthians.
Learning to choose the things which are more excellent.
Because in this beginning, in this chapter, we find that which compares to what we notice in Mark's gospel. First the blade, then the ear, and then the full cord in the ear. Here we have the blade for me.
Pretty soon the air. And finally in that verse that we read in Hebrews.
Just one little short expression. It's all set of Daniel and his faith stopped the mouths of lions. He didn't do that in the first chapter. No, that's the full corn in the air. They all blossomed out, but here there was.
The discerning the mind of God.
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I suppose that there was much that Daniel had to learn for this world.
In connection with the position he was in.
A position that you and I would not be called upon as Christians today.
To be a president of Babylon.
But still he was faithful in his trust, and there was a reason. Now it says also and such as had ability in them to stand in the King's palace. Now this ability to stand in the King's palace was not simply that he was a cultured man and courteous and had good manners.
No, this had to do with his position as a servant of God.
Now there were times when Daniel stood in the presence of the king as one who had wisdom and would interpret dreams.
But we learned later that there was a time when Daniel stood in the presence of the king, and we find that he was condemned to the den of lions.
But we're not speaking only of Daniel. We're Speaking of the three companions. If you read the history in the third chapter, I believe you will see.
That when they were told to bow down to other gods, they told Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer thee in this matter. Think of it. That's the ability to stand before kings, isn't it?
Oh yes.
Now, how do we apply this today?
Do we not have that king of Babylon who's pressuring us continually? Are we able to stand before the king of Babylon now? How was he able to do this? How could he stand before that throne?
When he knew that there might be a sentence of death.
Well, you see.
Daniel had learned to stand before another throne, and that's how he got the ability to stand before the king.
He could stand before the throne of grace.
Is like our brother said with David.
He didn't need to sword then. No, there was another who was fighting for him.
You know how lovely the picture we have in Daniel's life. One thing after another unfolds as a result of what we have in this first chapter.
First, no blemish, because a little later we find that they tried to find fault with Daniel.
Oh, how they would have loved to point it at something in his life way back and say, well, Daniel, you were guilty of this.
They couldn't find it. And you know what they found against Daniel? The only thing they found was that which.
Was in relation to his God because they worship teeth in God's.
That it were good if it were so with us, that those who would point to us.
Would find only that which had to do with the testimony of our God as a little remnant today.
Seeking to walk in the power of the precious truth that God has given us.
To find no fault. Oh how we should be careful, especially dear young people that we set our course, like Daniel.
If God is pleased to use you for some special reason like Daniel.
He might use you.
Now we have the two pictures, of course, we have the individual path in Daniel, and then we have the collective path in the three others here and we find they're both beautiful pictures for us.
And so then we've noticed also in this.
End of the fourth verse.
It's all in this verse. You know four things.
That they might teach the learning and the tongue of the Chaldeans.
Well, this was readiness to learn.
You think it would be? It was an easy thing for Daniel to settle down to learn the tongue of Babylon, no.
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But this was the path that He has placed in and obedience was required and He was ready for it.
If you read the 137th Psalm, which we haven't timed right now.
You will find that the little remnant.
Sat down by the waters of Babylon and wept.
They said how can we sing the songs of Zion in a strange land?
And here they are, captive.
Captive Daniel wasn't ready to learn this tongue of the Chaldeans.
Except in obedience to the word of God, God had placed him in this position.
God was going to use him, and so he was ready for whatever it meant. He was ready.
Now this was the result. I say what we had in the previous verses. This election was made according to these qualifications.
On Daniel his companions.
But then in the next verse, in the fifth verse.
We find.
An appeal to good flesh, if you please.
Or you'll say, what is there good about the flesh? Well, nothing of course, but there is about the flesh, this that.
There are certain things that appeal to us.
Glamour glory.
Things that look nice, things that appeal to us, naturally we say, well, there's nothing wrong really with it.
No, Daniel saw the trap because he was the one who stood before God. He was before that throne so that he might have ability to stand before the throne of Babylon to the glory of God.
So.
He makes a request.
The king was going to appoint him the very same food that he ate.
Oh, how easy it is, you know, dear fellow believer, to fall to the level of this world and to eat the food, I mean spiritually that this world eats. But Daniel would not do that.
But Daniel doesn't say no. What does he do? He makes requests.
He makes requests.
He takes a humble place.
I'm sure all this time he was praying, but he made a request.
To the one over him. And God showed favor to Daniel in this.
And so we find they were proved for for 10 days.
Daniel is companions.
In regard to the eating.
Of this pulse that they had chosen rather than the King's meat.
Now this makes us think you know what the Lord said about fasting.
In the 9th chapter of Luke, you will recall also in mark the 9th chapter, I believe we have the transfiguration.
And we have the disciples, at least four of them, going up to the mount.
Three or four, and they beheld that glory.
That scene of glory.
At the beginning of the chapter of the 9th of Luke, the Lord had given them power and authority to cast out demons, but they couldn't do it when they came down from the mountain. Why couldn't they?
This kind can come forth by nothing but prayer and fasting.
Had they not been given power to do this? Yes, but they couldn't exercise the power except independence.
Because there's no strength, beloved, in you or me whatsoever.
And so in order to exercise the power that is given, and by the way, Ephesians One shows us that you and I have all power, but we can't exercise it. I mean to walk the path of faith. We cannot exercise it without dependence.
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This is necessary.
This kind can come forth by nothing but prayer and fasting.
Oh, it isn't a question of whether this is sin or that is sin. It's a question, beloved, if you and I are going to walk in this testimony of the last days that we've been hearing about.
Precious truth.
Remember, there'll have to be a sacrifice, and it won't be a sacrifice in the sense that we speak of it.
If we follow Him, we follow Him in communion, there will be the joy of walking in the same path that our Savior walked in, not in the measure.
But the same path to follow in his steps as we have in Peter.
How lovely this is. You and I have this privilege.
So in the eighth verse then?
But Daniel purposed in his heart.
Well, we hear that expression once in a while, you know, purpose of heart. Well, here we have it, purpose of heart.
We will recall these again.
First of all, the fourth verse children are youth, and with in whom was no blemish, skillful in all wisdom, cunning in knowledge, understanding science, and such as had ability in them to stand in the King's palace, to whom they might teach the learning in the tongue of the Chaldeans, and then requesting that he might.
Not eat of the King's meat.
The next thing is he purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with a portion of the King's meat. Two things.
He makes a request, but also he purposes in his heart.
Under no circumstances would Daniel do this.
But yet he approaches the one who is over him in humility, and he asks his favor in regard to it. That lovely.
It makes us think of the Spirit of Christ.
The meekness and the gentleness of Christ.
These traits, these characteristics come out in the man of God here because truly he was a man of God.
As his life afterwards proved.
What is the man of God?
Is it not one who manifests the characteristics that was seen in the Lord Jesus here in a practical way, not in measure, but in kind?
And so.
He purposed in his heart.
The ninth verse God comes in.
God had brought Daniel into favor and tender love with the Prince of the eunuchs.
And now he proves them for 10 days. That's the test period.
You know, we might say that we're going to do something.
And not be able to do it.
Daniel purposed in his heart, and so we find that there's a test period that he passes through.
To prove what he had said.
Daniel isn't ready for the next step we get in the next chapter till he passes through all of this. First the blade, then the air and then the full corn in the air.
We were hearing something this morning about the the vessel, you know.
And.
Some years ago I was privileged to work in a pottery.
To in our being a Carpenter, I was doing work there in connection with the building remodeling of the pottery and I got to know a little bit about the operation of the pottery and how pottery was made.
And we find that there were certain processes that the clay must go through, but when they start out, they start out with nothing but play. Nothing but play.
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And let's remind our hearts of this beloved that we are nothing but play in ourselves.
There are certain things introduced, hardening agents, water and other things measured in proper quantities.
And this is called slip and it goes into the molds or into the on the pottery wheel.
And finally.
It's formed and dried and then it goes through the fire comes out bisque.
Then it has to be sanded.
Smooth.
And then there has to be the application.
Of the final.
Coat that. That would bring out the beauty of the pottery, but still it has to go through the fire again.
Twice it goes through the fire.
Until it comes out of vessel, as the scripture says for the finer.
According to the way that the one who.
Was making it as we have in the second chapter of John.
6 vessels.
Stone vessels containing two or three firkins apiece. That is the capacity, just as he wanted to make it, to hold the water he was going to turn into wine.
Well, I just use that as an illustration of what we had this morning.
The vessels were brought before us.
How the vessels are formed and how they have to pass through the fire. And then you think, oh, I trust it's all over now that I don't have to go through that again.
I know a man that was saved said to me his name was God be and I heard him confess Christ as his savior and I saw him a year later.
And he was He had fallen and hurt his back. He had lost his job, he said. Is this what Christianity is?
Is this Christianity?
Well, you see.
There are different processes in the forming of the vessel, but when we remember that if any man serve me, let him follow me, and where I am, there shall my servant be. How simple it becomes, you know the Christian will lose nothing.
And in that day, we're going to be completely satisfied.
Completely satisfied.
Oh, what a wonderful thing it is to be in the hands of the Potter himself, consciously in the enjoyment of communion with him as we go through these periods of trial and testing, as Daniel did.
Now, in closing, just to mention, you recall the story of the lion's den.
Daniel was told that he couldn't pray to his God anymore, and he went right out three times a day and prayed just as he did beforehand.
Thrown in the Dion's den.
Was his God able to keep him?
But of course he was.
Of course he was able to keep him.
And the king goes out mourning in the morning because the king didn't want him to be put in the lions den. He was tricked into it.
And he said, Daniel, is your God able to deliver you?
Daniel says God has stopped the mouths of the lions.
He sent his Angel.
Scripture says.
He stopped the mouths of the lions. Oh how lovely. How God.
Honors faith. In the 11Th chapter of Hebrews, he honors that faith of Daniel. Stop the mouths of lions, the king of beasts, the strength, the strongest in beasts. That was Daniel. But what did it? The grace of God that followed him all the way through. This is the individual path of the one who had maintained seek to maintain a testimony to the name of the Lord Jesus down here.
In these last days.
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