Open—M. Conley, L. Ludvicek, B. Prost
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OK.
If we look at Psalm 45 for just.
Just a minute.
Well, that's where we'll start.
Psalm 45, verse one.
My heart is indicting a good matter. I speak of the things which I have made touching the king. My tongue is the pen of a ready writer.
Thou art fairer than the children of men.
What I have on my heart.
This afternoon.
Turn to.
1St Corinthians 13.
I did not start this Christian life.
By the will of the flesh.
By any strength of mine own, I don't have any strength for this battle. We're all in a battle. This life is a battle.
As I've said many times, I don't like it here. I don't like this world.
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But God has his purposes in it.
The Lord Jesus is going to be glorified in this world.
And it is a work of grace. It is a work of grace in the hearts of his people.
The Lord loves a cheerful giver.
He does.
But a wonderful thing to be a cheerful giver.
The Lord Jesus said I am the way, the truth and the light.
God wants us to deal with facts.
To truth. He wants us to deal in the truth, because the truth is the only thing that's going to set you free.
It's the truth.
He wants to. He wants.
And and and you shall know the truth.
And the truth shall make you free.
Says in First Corinth or it doesn't matter first or second.
Says you're not narrowed in me, the apostle Paul says. But you are narrowed in your own affections.
Our own ways bring us into *******.
It's the way we are. We bind, that's the way we are.
The Son therefore shall make you free. You shall be free indeed.
There it is. I am calm that they sometimes I say verses and I change the words.
I'm not saying I changed the words to the first inviting, I change it just to make obvious what the Lord is saying. But I have to be very careful.
I want life.
That's what I want. I want life. I want it abundantly.
He promises it.
My life apart from Christ is a worthless thing.
God wants us to deal with the facts.
What does he say about my life?
He says it's a vapor.
I say, well, it's very important to me. God says it's a vapor. Who am I going to believe?
Say, God help me to see my life. It's a vapor.
Well, we don't have that naturally, but God can give it to us. He gives us wisdom in these things, to see things for what they really are.
Now the apostle Paul says, let's go there for justice a minute. Philippians 3.
Philippians 3.
The Apostle Paul. None of us, I think, are going to say that we're in competition with the Apostle Paul for religious zeal. I am certainly not.
Philippians 3.
Verse 7.
But what things were gained to me, those I counted lost for Christ.
Did the Apostle Paul bemoan his loss? No.
Why?
Because he saw things right.
Because he could see, he had vision. Look what it says. He doubtless, and I count all things but lost for the Excellency.
Of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dumb. That is the Apostle Paul's estimation of all the things that he lost.
Dawn, I said to a brother in between meetings, I said. I said, if if I called a big dump truck to come and out on this very nice lawn out here to dump a big load of dung out here, how much would you want in your trunk?
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Well, he said none. Why? Because he could smell it. He'd know what it is.
It says in Hebrews. It says for those that have their senses exercised to discern good and evil.
If we see things for what they really are, we will walk much differently.
But we're blind. It's the way we are. The Lord knows it's OK. You just come to him as you are. You're helpless.
The wonderful thing. But that song is so sweet to me. Just as I am without one plea. That's me. You come just like you are. You know you got problems.
You want the glory of this world as an attraction to you? Well, you can't do anything about it.
Who come to the Lord, say Lord Jesus, and you know Isaiah, Isaiah 58.
You come just as you are, and then you'll have no problems casting that crown down. It is feet.
Isaiah 58. Such a nice chapter.
It says.
Look at this verse 3.
No, well, let's read first one, cry aloud, Fear not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and show My people their transgression in the House of Jacob, their sins. Yet they seek Me daily and delight to know My ways as a nation that did righteousness, and forsook not the ordinance of their God. They asked of me the ordinance of justice. They take delight in approaching to God.
Wherefore have we fasted, say they, and thou see us not? Wherefore have we afflicted our souls? And thou take us no knowledge? Behold, in the day of your fast you find pleasure.
And exact all your laborers. Behold you fast for strife and debate, and to smite with the fist of wickedness. You shall not fast as you do this day.
To make your voice to be heard on high. It's such a fast.
Is it such a fast that I have chosen a day for a man to afflict his soul? Is it to bow down his head as a bull rush, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? We'll call this a fast and an acceptable day to the Lord. Is not this the fact that I have chosen to lose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free?
Says, where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.
You know the Lord wants us to walk as free men. I want to be a freeman.
To walk with the Lord by choice to long to have his company to.
To share common thoughts with him, there is nothing sweeter.
You know, and I don't know, I know, you know, I feel like a child and my wife says I act like one, I think.
But that's OK, you know, I am what I am. It's a wonderful thing to me.
That God has accepted me.
And that's what.
Moves my heart towards him.
And causes me to desire to serve Him.
Because he's taken me just as I am.
Isaiah 58. Look at this, you know.
It's a wonderful thing, the term the fruit of the Spirit, to see that fruit coming.
And I I don't think that the tree, I know that trees.
They don't work hard, but they're in a good environment and they bring forth that fruit and it's so sweet.
But anyway, that's what it says. 7 verse seven, is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry? And that's I'll bring the poor that are cast out of thy house. Wait a minute, That are cast out to thy house, Okay. When thou seest the naked death, thou cover him.
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And look at this last verse, the last part of this verse, and that's I'll hide not thyself from thine own flesh that is spoken to me much.
All things are naked and open to the eyes of whom we have.
The eyes of whom we have to do.
He knows everything about you. Everything. More than you know, More than you'd ever want to know.
And he still loves you. And that's amazing that you can have a love and this is the thing, you have a love you can depend on. Never going to fail.
Nothing that you have to hide from him and think if he knew this, he couldn't accept me.
You don't have to hide anything from the Lord Jesus because He knows it all. Does your heart good to tell Him.
So here we see these wonderful things in this last part of the verse. It says that they'll hide not thyself from thine own flesh.
What that speaks to me of is don't kid yourself.
Don't kid yourself what you really are.
It's not pretty. It's not pretty. It's not pretty what we are inside.
New creations in Christ the Apostle Paul as he went through his ministry.
He went from the least of the apostles to the chief of sinners. That's a downhill. He went downhill, but he went uphill too. He went uphill too.
Let's look at.
I have, I say it again, I have no strength for this Christian walk.
It's very normal to try and carry it on in the energy of the flesh. We got examples in the Word of God of men. Moses tried to carry on in the energy of the flesh. Failed.
Peter, what a nice example to us. Let's try to carry it on in the energy of the flesh. Failed. Well, you're not going to do any better.
There'll be no success.
But we have to learn. We have to learn the flesh. You know? You serve the Lord in whatever capacity you have, right where you're at.
God will reveal these things to you.
You just go with what you got. You come as you are and then.
And serve the Lord now What we are, we are.
And we need, we need to admit we have terrible blindness.
Terrible blindness.
Lord, help me to see see if I saw things. The clearer that I see things according to God's Word, the better I'm going to walk. And I don't mean that I see them up here.
But I mean as the Lord Jesus becomes more and more precious to my heart.
I see the world for what it is.
And I see the assembly more for what it is.
And my children, I see them for what they are, better and better all the time.
And you know what? You act differently then. Why? Because you see differently.
And that's what we need. We gotta see. We gotta see. And I don't mean just Bible knowledge.
But it says they took note of these men, that they had been with Jesus in him, or he had all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
You know, and I am not a great reader. I, I am too, Anthony.
So, you know, and I tell you, the library is not my favorite place. I don't think I've been there for so long unless they had nice pictures up or something.
I am not. I am not a reader.
I'm Anthony, just like my dad. He was antsy. I'm antsy. I like to move around, but what a wonderful thing when I move around, I can think, I can chew the cud and I can sing.
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And it's so precious to think on his love for me. It causes, it causes our hearts to expand because our hearts get very narrow.
My old brother was talking about those old people in the nursing home, you know.
You. You go on in your own strength and in your.
Your own thought.
You're going to end up in a real tight spot.
I don't want that tight spot.
Was the apostle Paul say right before that verse where it says you are narrowed in your own affections? The Apostle Paul says.
I am enlarged. You know, the apostle Paul, what is out of his belly was flowing rivers of living water, wasn't it? Was just gushing and splashing. He had a big heart. Well, I want a big heart, but I don't know. I can't make my heart big.
But God can, and that's that's what we need. We need God's operation.
On our heart, that here in Isaiah 58.
God, it's not for us to go out and start doing this, but it's to go to the Lord Jesus and say, Lord Jesus, you got to work on me. I need an overhaul. I need to be changed. I don't see very good I got. I'm willful. The world's glory is so attractive to me.
You spend time with the Lord Jesus, you think upon him, and you start to get wisdom. It says, what's a verse? I am wiser than all my teachers, for I observe thy testimonies. Something like that. I wouldn't suggest you go and tell your teacher that you just have that quiet to yourself.
That God gives wisdom.
It says he preserves the simple. He gives wisdom to the simple.
Okay.
First Corinthians, Let's just look here for a minute.
Once I had this, once I had this plaque that someone gave to me and it was and it said on it. It said on it.
Love. Love is the sweetest thing.
That's not a scripture, as far as I know, but it certainly is the principle. It certainly is a principle, isn't it? Love makes everything sweet.
If my if my dear wife did all the right things and didn't love me.
You know, we went camping the other last week, my son and I, we went camping. We were gone for six days. And you know what? I wouldn't have been in any hurry to get home if my wife didn't love me. I don't let you know what, I was really ready to get home. I really wanted to go home and see them.
But if I had a wife that did everything perfectly, maybe I should state that differently.
But I mean, if she did everything perfectly, I mean, it's really close right now. Really close.
But.
But she didn't love me.
It wouldn't be very sweet, would it?
You know, you know.
And that's what the Lord Jesus desires is.
Is our affections.
Because when the heart, when the heart is just so attracted, that's why Eve. That's why Eve went into spin.
Because when Satan spoke badly about God.
Saying to Eve, you know he's keeping something from you that would be really good for you. He believes that lie.
If Eve's heart would have been close to the heart of the Lord, she would have said no way. That's not what God's like. He wants everything good for me.
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When she doubted God's love to her fell off into sin, her heart was not in a good place.
Well, First Corinthians 13 verse one, though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels.
And have not loved I am become a sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal. I don't want to be that. I don't want to be a tinkling symbol, I don't want to be that. I have great tendencies to move in that direction, but I don't want to go that way.
Though I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, this guy is really smart. Not me though, I'm not like that.
But that's OK. Some are Apostle Paul. Very bright. Very bright man.
Well, that's not me, but that's OK. God can use me. He's designed me. He could have made me a lot smarter, but he's designed me for a purpose. He's designed you for a purpose. What a wonderful thing not to say. Don't say to yourself. Don't say. Why am I like this?
God's made you like you are for a reason. You shine you you, you can shine a little piece of Him.
A little facet of the Lord Jesus can shine in your life. We all, we all have a little fact that of the Lord Jesus to shine, it's, it's the body, right? The one body. What a wonderful thing to see a body operate in a coordinated fashion, you know.
So anyway, God has made you the way you are for a reason.
Don't question his handiwork.
Just trust him, arrested him, and use what he's given you. But first at the heart. What's most important is that the heart is attached if the heart's not attached.
Then nothing's going to be right.
And it's not going to be worth anything.
That's what it says here to me, verse two. And though I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge.
And though I have all faith so that I could remove mountains and have not love, I am nothing. And and though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor. And though I give my body to be burned.
And have not love it profits me nothing.
Well, love is the sweetest thing. Without it, it just ain't worth going on.
Wonderful thing we have that resource of love in the Lord Jesus.
Never to look at ourselves and try and find it because it just ain't there. But we have a nature, a new nature. Those that know the Lord is their savior that can respond to His love.
And bring forth really wonderful things.
Lovely things.
I'd like to turn to 1St John chapter 4.
In verse 19.
It says we love him because he first loved us.
Or we could say we love because he first loved us.
I would like to tell a story.
That you know, we like to see a young bride. I was, we was recently at a wedding and you like to see a a young bride and groom and the smiles they have for each other and the love they have for each other. Well, it was approximately 6 weeks after a young couple like that had gotten married and the bride.
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She wanted to say something to me apart from everybody else, where nobody could hear.
She wanted to say, I don't know if I should be telling you this, but I don't love my husband.
And before you could see that they were a bright couple, they had, they had. She had had a smile on her face, and now it had gone away.
And.
Began to talk to her. I said well, the object of.
The object of your own heart and wondering how much you have love for your husband is the wrong object.
You shouldn't be looking at yourself, you should be looking at your husband's love for you.
And that's all I told her, you know, And I was really concerned. I prayed about it. And you know what I saw the next time I saw him? They were smiling, they were holding hands. And her whole focus had changed again. And isn't that?
Much like us, if we begin to wonder how much love we have for the Lord Jesus and our focus turns in on ourselves and we look at our own heart, we may not see any love there at all.
But, and if we look at the Lord Jesus and we see His love for us, what does that do? If we have the focus on the one who loved us and gave himself for us, what does that do to our heart?
I was thinking.
In the.
Some of the verses that Mike mentioned and I was thinking in John eight, he made reference to their the Gospel of John.
And.
Verse 31 Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him.
If you continue in my word, then are you my disciples indeed?
And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.
And they answered him, We be Abraham's seed, and were never in ******* to any man.
Well, brother Mike was talking about.
That there are things that we get in narrow ways, we do get in ******* there are things that.
Our hearts can be filled with that cause ******* but the Lord Jesus says, and ye shall know the truth.
And the truth shall make you free in Colossians chapter 3.
And verse 4/4.
It is the part the phrase I wanted was When Christ, who is our life, shall our shall appear.
Then shall we also appear with Him in glory? But the part I wanted to focus on.
As Christ, who is our life.
We have the very life and the very nature of Christ.
We have been given everything that pertains unto life and godliness.
And as I look around.
And I see different ones in this room.
And sometimes someone you might see, someone you might have concern for.
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If they have the life of Christ and they have the Spirit of God dwelling within.
And Mike was talking about he receives this just the way we are as sinners.
And another thing Mike likes to say, and I've heard him say before, he receives us just the way we are, but he loves us too much to leave us that way. And he begins to work in our hearts and our souls and.
Knowing the truth.
And the truth having delivering power, we begin to.
Be changed, as we had before us in another meeting. Be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. And as that begins to take place, things are changed.
And I would like to talk a little bit about the mind.
And we could say, let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.
But I think about our minds and what we allow as we got in Philippians chapter 4.
And maybe I could read that there.
It says in Philippians 4/8.
Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, what sort of things are pure? Whatsoever things are lovely, what sort of things are good? Report. If there be any virtue, if there be any praise, think on these things.
There are things to fill our minds with. They are good things. There are things in this world that would seek to cause us to conform to this world and not to be transformed or not to have liberty to serve the Lord Jesus. There are influences all around us that would influence US1 way or another.
In Proverbs chapter 23.
And.
For seven.
It says.
4S and four.
For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he.
Now, being a parent and having children, we often see the. So is he.
And there's so easy. That's just the behavior.
But there's a route. As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.
There's something behind the behavior. There's something behind your behavior. There's something behind my behavior.
It wasn't that long ago.
I was talking to a lady who had an unfaithful husband.
And her husband? They're both professing Christians.
We've had in Hebrews that in marriage in Hebrews 13.
That in marriage the bed is undefiled.
And we had.
The proper bounds of which God has given.
And this husband was telling his wife.
He said. I thought it wouldn't matter.
He said. I fantasized and had bad thoughts and I just didn't think it would matter and soon.
His behavior became what his thoughts were.
You know what a tragedy.
Where are your thoughts?
Do you know that you are responsible?
To keep your minds pure, Do you know that you cannot have coinciding good thoughts with bad thoughts? Do you know you need to know scripture, and that's why scripture memorization is so helpful? Do you know that you are in an enemy's land?
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Do you know that? Do you know you can never afford to, as it were, lay down in ease in this world?
Scripture needs to be before your mind when you wake up. Scripture needs to be before your mind when you go to sleep. Scripture needs to be before your mind because what will your mind be filled with if it is not?
What will your mind be filled with? If it is not? It won't be things that are true and lovely.
It won't be things that are right.
It needs to be.
Those things that are true and right.
And lovely.
As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.
When my children there's a behavior, you might want to discipline the behavior, but then you might want to go and find out why is the behavior and saying what is he thinking?
And what are our thinking? You could call them thinking heirs, belief errors, or belief systems.
You think about we were reading about our state, struck by First Corinthians 13 and the love being the motive.
A Christian life is not what you would call a tactical life, that we do everything out of tactics.
If I do this, this will be the result. If I do that, that will be the result. It has to be the motive of love.
Love, the love of Christ, constraineth us. It needs to be the love of Christ.
The love of the Lord Jesus needs to be working in all our lives. I would like to go a little bit more in Matthew chapter.
Maybe I'll stop.
Chapter 5 Think.
This may regress a little bit, but I'm going to go on from here.
But it says in Matthew 528.
It's just to talk about thoughts.
But I say unto you, that whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her, hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.
And again, that brings me to the seriousness of.
A case that I not too long ago.
A real tragedy.
And to say the world says it doesn't hurt what you think about, just what you do.
Well, thought is the beginning of the departure of anyone down any course.
In Matthew 16 and verse 16.
Her brother was mentioning something about this in between meetings.
How things were revealed here to Peter is what I'm getting at. Matthew 1616.
And Simon Peter answered and said, well, I best back up, it says.
Verse 13.
It's when the Lord Jesus is asking.
He asked his disciples, saying, Whom do men say that I, the Son of Man, AM?
And they said, some say thou art John the Baptist, some Elias, others Jeremias are one of the prophets.
He saith unto them, But whom do you say that I am? And Simon Peter answered, and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.
And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Borjona, for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father, which is in heaven.
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We can get things that are revealed to us in our thoughts from the Lord Jesus. For things that come to us that way. We did not originate it. It came from God. And that's what the Lord was telling Peter. You did not get this thought yourself, Peter. This came from the Lord.
And later on in the chapter.
In verse 21.
It says, from that time forth began Jesus to show unto his disciples how he must go up to Jerusalem, and to suffer many things of the elders, and the chief priests and scribes, and be killed and raised again. The third day Ben Peter took him and began to rebuke him. Peters rebuking the Lord.
Saying, Be it far from thee, Lord, this shall not be unto thee.
But he turned and said unto Peter, Gifty behind me, Satan, for thou art offense unto me, for thou savours not the things that be of God, those things that be of man.
As if the Lord would say, Peter, this thought you got this time was not of God, it was from the enemy. And that's what I want to say.
Is that your thoughts? You may not know where your thoughts will come from. Mr. Darby had a pamphlet written. It says Thoughts unbidden and unwanted.
And sometimes thoughts come and sometimes when a thought or a wrong thought comes, you are not responsible necessarily for the origination of it, but your dwelling on the thought or what you take up on meditation, you are responsible. That is your choice. If I tell you something wrongly, you can say no I'm not going to listen to that. And if you get a wrong thought you can say no I'm not going to listen to that.
But what you meditate on and what you dwell on?
What what you think on you are responsible for?
You are responsible and if you think.
If you meditate on the things as we have in the Psalms.
Is it psalms one day and night? What will it do? It will preserve you, it will keep you, it will keep your heart and mind. And if you are focused with the love of the Lord Jesus for you, what will it do in your life?
And there are things that are natural.
And there are some things that maybe you can't even talk about.
In a meeting like this that maybe is is for fathers and maybe we have in scripture that the older women are to teach the younger. We have that in scripture too. There would be some things that wouldn't be proper to talk, but there needs to be that care for the young people. There needs to be things that are said and care.
To tell them what is natural and and so they don't get mixed up between what is natural and what is the enemy. And so they don't get things all mixed up. Because Scripture says you shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free. And the enemy is the father of lies and he seeks to deceive and to mix up people and get them going every which way. Helter skelter. But it's the word of God that we need to apply to every situation.
And it always isn't it to do what is.
When I was a young person.
You might say, is this right or is this wrong to do? Is this the black and white? It's not always that it's what's the wisest thing to do. And as we heard, I was a brother. Hey ho, he would talk.
And I think it was young people, we tend to do it more, but we can even do it as older people or as we get a little older. But the story of the man, I'll tell it once more. Many know it.
But there was a man wanting to hire a taxi and it was a horse drawn taxi and they were in the.
Was in a place where there was cliffs and he went around asking each one of the taxi drivers, he says. I want to hire the best taxi driver here. How close can you come to the edge without falling off?
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And each each one had a higher boast how close they could come to the edge.
In fact, one fellow said I could come this close to the edge. Would that be the taxi you'd want to ride with?
And then he came to another man and he said, how close could you come to the edge? He said why, I'd stay as far away from the edge as I could. He said you're hired.
I want to ask the young people in this room, how close can you come to the edge or how close do you want to come?
Are you trying to go, well, there's nothing wrong with this? Are you saying is this the wisest thing to do?
What is the motives of your heart?
Is it the love of the Lord Jesus? Is it the Lord Jesus constraining you?
Are you seeking the wisest path, or are you seeing how close you can come to the edge?
There's a lot of danger out there.
And you live in an enemy's land.
If you're going to live for the Lord Jesus.
You need the purpose in your heart to do something.
Need to be before the Lord in prayer. Have the word of God before you, focusing on His love for you and what He's done for you.
And the Lord can lead you, guide you, deliver you, and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free.
And I have just three words on my heart.
Second Chronicles, I think it's chapter 35.
Second Chronicles, chapter 35.
And verse 20.
Just the 1St 3 words.
After.
All this.
We don't have time to consider the history of the passage that is found in reference to these 3 words, but they concern a man by the name of Josiah.
A man who lived in times that I would like to think correspond to the times morally in which we live.
There had been a partial revival under Josiah great grandfather Hezekiah.
But that had been followed by probably the most wicked rain, and one of the longest rains too in the history of Judah, the reign of a king by the name of Manasseh.
And that then again, followed by a relatively short rain of Josiah father.
And then this man comes to the throne at the tender age, as it tells us in the 34th chapter of eight years, 8 years old.
And his reign had been blessed by a remarkable series of things.
He felt the condition of things amongst the people of God.
They found the book of the Law in the temple.
We don't have time to read all this. You can read it.
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And he sent them to.
A woman by the name of Holder, the Prophetess.
And she gave him the most remarkable answer by the servants that he sent notice in the 34th chapter what she said. We won't read it all, but notice the 27th verse of the 34th chapter.
Because thine heart was tender, and thou didst humble thyself before God.
When thou hearest his words against this place, and against the inhabitants thereof, and humblest thyself before me, and didst rent thy clothes and weep before me, I have even heard thee also, saith the Lord.
Behold, I will gather thee to thy fathers, and thou shalt be gathered to thy grave in peace. Neither shall thine eye see all the evil that I will bring upon this place and upon the inhabitants of the same.
So they brought the king word together.
God didn't say I'm going to turn things around. God didn't say I'm going to take away the judgment against Israel, but he did say to Josiah, you're going to be taken away before it happens.
Could we say that that morally, in your day and mind, corresponds to the hope of the Lords coming?
Could we say that the Lord has given us the promise? Why? But was it in Josiah that particularly impressed the Lord? Oh, that he humbled himself, that he recognized the condition of things?
But he wept.
And simply said, Lord, here I am.
And holy gives through the mouth of his servants, And of course we know what was from the Lord that blessed promise.
And what is the result in Josiah's reign?
Did Josiah sit down and say, well, there's nothing to be done except just.
Wait until I'm taken off the scene.
Notice at the end of that same 34th chapter what happens.
The last verse.
Well, maybe read the 32nd verse.
Or the 3030 first, I'm sorry, 31St verse of the 34th chapter. And the king stood in his place and made a covenant before the Lord, to walk after the Lord, and to keep his commandments and his testimonies and his statutes.
With all his heart and with all his soul to perform the words of the covenant which are written in this book.
And he caused all that were present in Jerusalem and Benjamin to stand to it.
And the inhabitants of Jerusalem did, according to the covenant of God, the God of their fathers.
And Josiah took away all the abominations out of all the countries that pertained to the children of Israel, and made all that were present in Israel to serve, even to serve the Lord their God. And all his days they departed not from following the Lord, the God of their fathers.
Oh, he had a wide influence.
He had a wide influence.
Here he was the king only of those two tribes, the 10 tribes having long since separated themselves and corrupted themselves.
But you'll notice here that it says Jerusalem and Benjamin first of all in verse 32, and then the influence goes, it says all the countries, verse 33, that pertain to the children of Israel and all that were present not only in Judah and Benjamin, but also in Israel.
Oh, there was a wide influence.
Because of the faithfulness.
Because of the humbling of that man.
What else did he do? Notice the first verse of the 31St 5th chapter. We're over. Josiah kept a Passover under the Lord in Jerusalem. And notice what God says about it in verse 18.
And there was number Passover like that kept in Israel.
From the days of Samuel the Prophet.
Neither did all the kings of Israel keep such a Passover as Josiah kept.
And the priests, and the Levites, and all Judah and Israel that were present.
And the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
All her blessed.
On the one hand, a covenant to follow the Lord with all their heart.
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And on the other hand, the keeping of that Passover, so precious to the heart of God, because it looked on to that day when that blessed One whom we remember this morning would be the true Passover.
Our brother read that verse this morning with desire. I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer.
And here God restored it all to that man, while at the same time very clearly telling him that the judgment wasn't going to be taken away.
But that he would be taken away before it came.
And then it says in verse 20.
After all this.
After all this.
Oh, I speak to my own heart more than any other.
Here we find that King so blessed, so signally blessed.
Coming to the throne in his youth and yet having a heart for the Lord.
Turning to the word of God with all his heart, seeing the wonderful blessing that God allowed, spreading outside the boundaries of his own nation, right out to the 10 tribes, and then it says all the countries.
I don't know what all they were, but it says that pertain to the children of Israel.
We know there were many countries over which kings like David and Solomon ruled.
That we're not, in actual fact, part of Israel.
After all this, what happens?
He goes out against the king of Egypt.
I appreciated what our brother Bob said this afternoon. That worldliness begins.
When I think highly of myself, and I don't want to read into this passage what isn't here, but it is often seemed to me that Josiah thought.
Who is this king of Egypt to be going to war as it says here?
In the 30 or in the 20th verse against car chemist by Euphrates, he was crossing right over that land. Those countries that way back, way back in the law, God had promised that land to Israel, but they never got at all because of their failure. Their boundary was the Jordan River on the eastern side.
Should he have?
Shall we say, And if things were proper, should he have been the one to be?
Running the show and looking after things, yes, things were out of place. Things were out of place.
And he wasn't content. He wasn't content.
With that wonderful influence that God had given them.
And he meddled in what didn't belong to him.
I've quoted this before.
To a few brothers privately.
Perhaps it wouldn't hurt to quote it publicly.
There are probably those here who can remember the words that were said.
They were said here in Des Moines over 40 years ago.
Was that a reading meeting? Not at a conference, I don't think. I think it was in the Buchanan St. Hall.
And a brother sounded a warning against Billy Graham, who was just getting off the ground, if I could say it at that time.
And preaching the gospel.
Very, very widely and a brother thank you to give a warning.
Against.
Some of the compromising that he was doing even at that early date.
Brother HE Hayhoe, who was sitting there.
Said something like this, He said, brother, I agree with that warning. I agree with that warning. But then he went on to say this and I think I am quoting it almost word for word.
He said, Brethren, my father used to tell me.
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But in the early days.
All the Gospels in the hands of the Brethren.
And he said when we began to fail.
It was then that God raised up preachers in the camp to reach the masses.
Now we said, brethren, don't be discouraged by that. Don't be depressed by it.
But remember that those men are where they are today.
Because of your failure in mind.
May I suggest that Josiah morally didn't recognize that he didn't recognize?
There had been failure.
But he no longer had the right militarily to go out and interfere in the way that perhaps his predecessor David might have done.
He no longer had the moral power. He no longer had the approval of God.
And when the king of Egypt, it's remarkable, the king of Egypt says here, what does he say?
At the end of verse 21, God commanded me to make haste for bear thee from meddling with God, who is with me, Oh my, with me, the king of Egypt, that country from which Israel had been delivered so many hundreds of years before, That country where God had showed his power and his glory against the Pharaoh at that time, God with him.
Yet it was so. Yet it was so.
And Josiah failed to recognize it. And as a result, he goes out, he interferes. No doubt he had a conscience. No doubt there was something there that said, Josiah, be careful.
Because like.
Ahab of old, he goes out to battle in disguise. He doesn't put on the normal accoutrements and so on that would have clearly identified who he was. He says I'm going to go out, but I'll go in disguise.
But all just as the arrow found its way between the joints of the harness of Ahab's armor.
So the arrow finds its way here to Jehoshaphat and is a relatively young man.
He dies.
Oh, I say to each one of us.
Things are not the way they should be today. Things are not the way they should be in the Christian world.
And it is not intelligent, I believe, for us to expect to turn back the clock.
But oh, how precious to think that what God gave to that godly king morally, he gives to those today who wish to be faithful to His Word.
And Josiah, if we could say it humbly, should have been content.
But there the word of God had gone out, that Passover was kept all. How wonderful. No such Passover since the days of Samuel Prophet. What? Is it possible that God looked upon that Passover with more joy and more favor than that which had occurred in the brightest days of David and Solomon?
Ah, yet it was so. Yet it was so.
But what a lamentation occurs.
Verse 25 and Jeremiah lamented for Josiah.
And all the singing men and the singing women speak of Josiah and their lamentations to this day, and made them an ordinance in Israel.
We didn't read the last clause of verse 24 and all Judah and Jerusalem mourned for Josiah.
And what does it say at the end of that 25th verse? And behold, they are written in the Lamentations.
Did Jeremiah lament in the Book of Lamentations over the condition of Israel? Indeed he did. Did he lament against all about all that had happened to his beloved people? Indeed he did.
But reading this verse, if I may say, it has added a dimension to Lamentations that I at least had not noticed before.
Because I believe in reading through that book. The lamentation, perhaps.
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I don't want to say more than anything else, but it seems to be that this is directly connected with it.
Was the lamentation against that which had started out so brightly.
And ended so sadly, the lamentation about that which had showed such promise in those declining years of Israel's history.
The lamentation against that.
Which had been such a bright spot.
Amidst all of the rule, and because if you read.
The book of Jeremiah, you find out that even in those days of Josiah, the condition generally of the people had not changed. It was not that the whole nation had suddenly turned around, no.
But God had raised up one who must have been such a joy to that godly prophet Jeremiah to see him going from one thing to the next.
But he wasn't content. He wasn't content.
Now does that mean that we sit down on our oars and say yes, I'm content?
All mine know indeed, No, indeed. Oh, I believe if there is a sense in our souls of the solemnity in the days in which we live, it will energize us even more.
Energize us even more.
To serve the Lord, to praise the Lord as we've had brought before us to live for Him.
But to be content, to be content, to be that which God has given us to be. I don't say it exclusively, don't get me wrong. It is a privilege for every believer I trust in the Lord Jesus Christ.
For the Spirit of God to bring these things before us, for our hearts to lay hold of them, and to walk in the good of them.
But let's be content with what God has given us.
And remember that our best testimony, our best testimony.
Is intelligence in the things of God? Our brethren have been bringing before us the importance of seeing things as they really are.
Seeing things as they really are.
And I believe that that's what.
Dear Josiah failed to do.
And he tried to assume a role. He tried to assume a position that God hadn't given him.
And even when he was warned.
Warned by whom? Worn by the man.
The King.
Who he was going out against, he says. Josiah, keep out of this. I haven't got any quarrel with you. It's not you I'm after. He would have left them alone.
But he meddled with it, and as a result, he loses his life. Now you and I may not lose our lives.
But morally, we will lose.
Will lose like Jonathan did.
Who died there on the battlefield of Mount Gilboa? Because there wasn't wholeheartedness for David.
And morally, you and I can be dead on the battlefield, even though we're alive.
Because we want more than what God has given us in the day in which we're living all how precious to enjoy these things that God has given us, to recognize that that testimony that we may bear is not our object, but rather to have Christ and all that he is. And then like Josiah here, he was a testimony. Everything that had to do with what he did according to the mind of the Lord had an influence far beyond.
The little company of people over which he ruled.
But be content with what God has given us and at the same time to remember.
But morally, Josiah was told, Josiah, you're not going to see the evil, It'll happen after your day. How wonderful. But you and I at the same time can look forward, not to death as dear Josiah had to in the Old Testament, but to say the Lord is coming.
And that is going to be the end of what God has given us down here.
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18.
In the 15th chapter of John's Gospel Before we Pray.
John's Gospel 15 and verse 9.
As the Father hath loved me.
So have I loved you.
Continue ye in my love, and then to Romans chapter 8.
Romans 8 and verse 31.
What shall we then say?
To these things.
If God before us, who against us?
He despaired. Not his own son.
But delivered him up for us all.
How shall he not with him also?
Freely give us.
All things shall we. Thank you.