Address—R. Thonney
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In heaven, then we can all stand and sing this to get circulation moving a little bit.
Oh Lord, we are the Lord.
Of our first one.
That they must.
Forever.
In heaven.
For the way.
Our God.
Of good Lord.
Our.
Glory.
Our dies.
Weary, weary I blood. Oh God.
We are calm.
Thy Dreyak.
All things are.
In this heaven.
It is like.
Hurting.
I'll grate thighs now.
We blind they we pray.
We bless them, we praise me, we bless thee, we pray.
Thee.
Let's pray gracious God, our Father.
Evolved to 2nd Kings chapter 2.
Second Kings chapter 2.
We're not going to have time to read extensively this afternoon, but my desire is to take.
From a number of portions that speak of having.
Our eyes on the Lord.
I really am convinced, dear young people and dear brethren in general, that when we get discouraged, it's because we have gotten our eyes off the Lord. We might be looking at brethren, perhaps nice brethren, we might be looking at ourselves. But in speaking to souls that have gotten discouraged, it comes to me.
All the time that we have got our eyes off the Lord and the secret of going on in the day that we live in, we're right down here at the end. We're expecting at any moment to hear the shout and be gone into the Lord's presence.
But we have no assurance from the Word that the pathway is going to get any easier. But there is full sufficiency and power, not in ourselves, but in that man that sits in highest glory at God's right hand. And so the secret is to keep our eyes on Him. And here in Second Kings chapter 2, we have the story.
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Of Elijah being taken up into glory.
You remember he was one in the Old Testament who did not die. He was taken up alive.
And the time has come for that. Let's read a few verses here. Verse one.
Came to pass when the Lord would take up Elisha into heaven by a whirlwind.
That Elijah went with Elijah from Gilgal. And Elijah said unto Elijah, Terry, here I pray thee, for the Lord hath sent me to Bethel. And Elisha said unto him, As the Lord liveth, and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee. So they went down to Bethel. Isn't this beautiful to going along together? And I would like to take Elijah in this portion.
As a picture of the Lord Jesus.
Because He was one whom the disciples witnessed going into heaven as well. The disciples knew him as a man down here in this world, and then they witnessed him going up into heaven, just as Elijah is about to do in this chapter. They went on together. Isn't it interesting that Elijah does not put any?
Obligation on Elisha to follow him, he says stay here.
But it was Elijah's own personal decision and commitment.
To follow Elijah.
Continue to read here.
Verse three, The sons of the prophets. Here's another group. There's a lot of these sons of the prophets that know the answers.
But do not follow.
That were at Bethel came forth to Elisha, and said unto him, Knowest thou?
That the Lord will take away thy master from thy head today. And he said, yeah, I know it. Hold ye your peace.
And Elijah said unto him, Tarry ye here, I pray thee, for the Lord hath sent me to Jericho.
And he said, As the Lord liveth, and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee. So they came to Jericho.
The test doesn't come once merely, it comes again and again in our lives. Dear young people, dear old ones, whether we will wholly follow the Lord. The sons of the prophets that were at Jericho came to Elisha. Notice the same group of people are there, those who know the answers, but do not follow and send unto him. Knowest thou that the Lord will take away thy master from thy head today? And he answered.
Yeah, I know it. Hold ye your peace. And Elijah said unto him, Tarry, I pray thee hear.
For the Lord hath sent me to Jordan. And he said, As the Lord liveth, and as thy soul liveth, thy will not leave thee. And they went.
And they too went on.
And 50 men of the sons of the prophets went and stood to view afar off, And they stood. They too stood by Jordan. And Elijah took his mantle, and wrapped it together, and smote the waters. And they were divided, hit her and thither, so that they too went over on dry ground. And it came to pass, when they were gone over, that Elijah said unto Elijah, Ask what I shall do for thee before I be taken away from thee. And Elijah said, I pray thee, let a double portion.
Of thy spirit be upon me. And he said, Thou hast asked a hard thing.
Nevertheless, if thou see me when I am taken from thee, it shall be so unto thee, but if not, it shall not be so.
It came to pass, as they still went on and talked, that behold, there appeared a chariot of fire, and horses of fire, and parted them both asunder. And Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven. And Elijah sighed, and he cried, My father, my father, the chariot of Israel, and the horsemen thereof. And he saw him no more, and he took hold of his own clothes.
And rent them in two pieces. And he took up also the mantle of Elijah that fell from him, and went back and stood by the Bank of Jordan.
And he took the mantle of Elijah that.
That fell from him, and smote the waters, and said, Where is the Lord God of Elijah? And when he also had smitten the waters, they parted, hit her, and thither and Elisha went over. And when the sons of the prophets which were to view at Jericho's sock, and they said, The spirit of Elijah doth rest on Elijah, And they came to meet him, and bowed themselves to the ground before them.
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Before him. Well, that's all the further I want to read in this portion. But my thought here was to draw attention to this fact that as Elijah, Elijah and Elijah crossed the Jordan, then Elijah gave him a special favor to ask what he would, that it would be done to him. And Elisha asks for a double portion of Elijah's spirit and Elijah says it's a hard thing you've asked.
But if you see me go up, it will be so if not.
No. And I just have thought how careful Elijah must have been not to take his eyes off Elijah, not to lose that special portion. You know how easy it is in this world to get distracted. Dear young people, I have to confess that I get distracted a lot. There's so much to occupy our minds.
And unperceptively, many times, things get down into our hearts.
And our hearts embrace them when we don't even realize we're doing it.
And we get our eyes off the Lord. But I'm sure that Elijah was very careful not to get his eyes off of Elijah. And the moment came, and I think it must have been a tremendous blessing to Elisha as he went back to work amongst God's people in Israel.
To that vision that he had, here comes horses and Chariots of fire, and he doesn't go up in the horse and chariot of fire.
That just separated them. And then Elisha, Elijah goes up in a whirlwind into heaven and it says, Elisha, he got the blessing. Oh, how important it is, dear young people, for you to keep your eyes on the Lord.
Oh how important not to get distracted to be single minded in this.
To keep our eyes on one man and I like to apply if I can this afternoon. The double portion was that Elisha could say I knew a man that walked through this world that went up into heaven. And now dear young people, you and I can say the same.
Through the Scriptures, as we read and had exerted yesterday about reading the Gospels, there we have the story of a man who walked through this world and then went up into glory. And there is a real blessing for you and me to keep our eyes on him. What do we mean by keeping our eyes on Him?
You've never seen the Lord physically? I've never seen him physically. What do we mean by keeping our eyes on him? How do we do that?
Through reading the precious word of God, you read through the Gospels and you see him as he walked through this world. Isn't it a precious privilege to fill our souls with that man who was the Son of God, the divine Son of God from heaven?
And walked through this world perfect, always perfect. It thrills me to read the stories how he was put under pressure from so many angles. Never, never did he fail. He was.
Holy, the holy Son of God, He could not sin. And that's the food you and I need to feed upon, dear young people. We need to read that. And it becomes so real in our souls as we read through the Gospels, who this person is. It's as if we were actually seeing him with our eyes. That's what I mean about keeping our eyes on the Lord. Read it.
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Occupy yourself with it. And then not only as he walked through this world, but as he is now.
At God's right hand. To me it is a thrill to think that one of our race.
The Lord Jesus Christ as a man has entered the glory of God and has set himself down at the right end of the majesty on high, far above all principality and power and might and dominion. A man sits there. A real man of flesh and bones sits there.
That thrills my soul.
And if he's there, everyone that belongs to him will be there too.
But to think that He is there for us. Dear young people, keep your eyes on him.
He's there as the head of all principality and power. You're having trouble.
You having problems you don't have the answer to? I can understand that. I've got plenty of those in my own life.
But it's not a matter of Maine trying to figure out my own way. It's a matter of looking.
To the man who's at the pinnacle of all principality and power, I say sometimes to those Christians who get involved in politics, you are really coming down from your high calling because we have far greater.
Influence in political circles by getting down on our knees and praying to God for those in political circles than we do by forming.
Action groups and lobbying certain cause with the government.
Oh dear young people, to understand it, to keep our eyes on Him. Christianity is not what we are. Christianity is what He is.
And I really believe in this, our day. Sometimes we talk about coming outside the camp. The camp is Judaism, and Judaism was a trial of what man was in the flesh.
And when the Lord Jesus was crucified on that cross, that was the end of God's test of man. God in effect said man failed the test. I'm not going to test him any longer. Rather he says, now I'm going to turn the tables and I'm going to show you what I am for you. And so sometimes I put it this way, Judaism.
Is what?
Man was for God. Christianity is what God is for man. It's no longer the focus on what I am, no longer the focus on what you are. That's not the point at all. Focuses on who is our God. Oh, isn't it tremendous to be able to turn from the failure that I so often see in myself? Oh yes, we should judge ourselves. But beyond that?
We have no right to be occupied with ourselves. We have no right to be occupied with ourselves. It's to turn from ourselves to be occupied with God's man.
I'd like to turn to a few other scriptures too that deal with this matter of looking to the Lord, of keeping our eyes on Him. Let's go to Second Chronicles chapter 20 as well.
These are Old Testament scriptures that we were talking about this morning, but they're written for our encouragement.
And we can certainly learn, as we were mentioning between the meetings, some of us were talking a little bit more about it. All Scripture was not written to us, but all scripture was written for us, and so we ought to read it all. It is profitable.
Chapter 20 of Second Chronicles. We have a situation that came up in Judah.
Under the king, under King Jehoshaphat, who was a man of faith, a king that had faith in God, there was an invasion of the children of Moab and the children of Ammon and.
It was a problem that was very serious. But notice verse 3. And Jehoshaphat feared and set himself to seek the Lord and proclaim the fast throughout all Judah. Interesting. He set himself to seek the Lord. And I'd like to apply this more in the collective sense because oftimes.
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In our local gatherings where we gather to the name of the Lord Jesus.
There are problems that come up, serious problems.
What is the first response when those furious problems come up? Brethren, do we look to other brethren? First of all, I love this about Jehoshaphat. He set himself to seek the Lord. He knew that the Lord had the answer. Doesn't mean we won't listen to anybody else. We should listen.
We should consider what our brethren may say. It may be helpful.
But the answer in the end comes not from our brethren, it comes from the Lord. And so he set himself, and notice he proclaimed the fast.
What does that mean?
Fasting is denying ourselves, and I think that's something we really need to consider. Brethren, we live in a country where it doesn't seem necessary to deny ourselves anything. We live in the lap of luxury. Why deny yourself? There's no need to.
But there was a need here, a felt need, and he denied himself whatever it was. But that's simply what it means to deny yourself. The Lord Jesus said to his disciples, if anyone will come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow me. You're going to know what it means to follow the Lord Jesus.
That is one of the requisites to deny yourself. I'm not saying it has to be food, it may be many other things, but it certainly is something that I think we need in our day to consider. Dear brethren, for the Lords sake, to deny ourselves can be a real important spiritual exercise when the Lord allows trouble amongst His people.
And so he set himself to seek the Lord, and then he prays.
And it's beautiful because he quotes Scripture. At least he takes something from Solomon's prayer.
And that's where we're going to get real solid encouragement, dear brethren. And direction is going back to the Scriptures and notice further down. And I love this how he says it, verse 12. Oh our God, wilt thou not judge them? For we have no might against this great company that cometh against us.
Neither know we what to do, but our eyes are upon Thee. Isn't that beautiful? A consciousness of getting into the presence of the Lord collectively. Notice who we're there. Verse 13. All Judas stood before the Lord with their little ones, their wives, and their children. They were all there with that desire to seek the Lord's face about an answer to this terrible problem they had.
Isn't that beautiful? I think it's important that we come to that too, brethren. In verse 12, he says we have no might.
Neither know we what to do if we make ourselves as know it all.
Were doomed to come down, brethren in failure.
But it is owning before the Lord. We don't have might or understanding before the multitude that is arrayed.
Against us and if our eyes can be opened to the spiritual realm this afternoon.
Our eyes are made only to view what is physical and material. That's the way we're made. And if our eyes could be open to the spiritual realm, we would see hosts of the evil one and hosts on the part of God, of his angels and the.
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Warfare is furious, and if you'd see it, you would come to the same conclusion as Jehoshaphat.
We have no might against this great multitude.
Neither know we what to do, but our eyes are upon me. He had touched the fountain of power and of wisdom by looking to the Lord.
Brethren, are these things just something we pair it with our mouths we got to look to the Lord? Or is it something real in our lives, individually or collectively?
Are we looking to the Lord? It's so important. I'd like to go to the book of Psalms for a couple verses.
In connection, perhaps more with the individual side of things, a verse that has been a very.
Helpful verse in my own life, personally in chapter and Psalm 32.
David speaking and he says in verse eight, I will instruct thee, and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go. I will guide thee with mine. I be not as the horse or as the mule, which have no understanding, whose mouth must be held in with bitten bridle as they come near unto thee.
You need guidance in your life as to what the Lord would have you do, perhaps about.
Which direction you need to go in life for a career, perhaps about a life companion. Do you need direction? Here's a promise that has been a great help to me and a blessing. Notice it is a very definite promise.
I will instruct the and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go. I will guide thee.
With mine eye, in other words, it's not talking about our eyes here, It's talking about His eye. Where is his eye? It's on you. He sees your every step. You know, sometimes we're looking so much in other directions we don't realize the Lord's got his eye on us. He sees us.
And if we just turn around to take a little time to be quiet in His presence, to get a sense of the fact that His eye is honest, He has promised I will instruct and teach and guide.
Sometimes you see a father who has a boisterous little boy.
And sometimes that father looks right at that little boy, and that boy is not paying attention to his daddy, and all of a sudden he turns around and sees his daddy's eye on him, and he quietens right down. He knows immediately what his dad wants by the way he looks at him. In that same way, there can be a quietness getting into the presence of the Lord in quietness. We live such busy lives.
That sometimes we don't take time to be quiet when we need those quiet times with the Lord.
To turn our eyes to see him, to be guided by his eye, that's a very definite promise. I'd like to go over to the New Testament.
Now in Matthew's Gospel chapter 14, a little incident that was well known in the life of Peter.
You remember the Lord.
Had told his disciples to go into a ship and go to the other side.
Matthew, 1422.
And then they were out in the.
Midst of the sea, verse 24, tossed with waves for the wind is contrary a real picture of what this life is. There's a lot of contrary forces playing in our lives.
It is not an easy day to be a Christian. It is not anybody tries to give you the idea that being a Christian is easy. He's not giving you a faithful picture. It's the wind was contrary. And there they are, those poor disciples in that boat, and they see Jesus coming. They don't recognize him.
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How often that's the way it is with us as well. And they cried out for fear, thinking it was a spirit. The Lord Jesus verse 27 says, be of good cheer. It is I you're not afraid. And notice Peter answered him and said, Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water. And he said, come.
And when Peter was come down out of the ship, he walked on the water to go to Jesus. But when he saw what?
The wind.
Boisterous he was afraid, and beginning to sink, he cried, saying, Lord, save me. Immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand, and caught him, and said unto him, Oh thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt? And when they were come into the ship, the wind ceased, and they that were in the ship came and worshipped him, saying, Of a truth, Thou art the Son of God.
It's a well known story, you'll know it well, but just to go back over, it is such a blessing. Dear brother and sister and the Lord Jesus. Here's Peter. Peter always seems to be out front. He makes the mistakes.
But I love Peter because he made mistakes that we all make.
And we can sure learn a lot computers and so he says.
Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto Thee on the water.
The Lord gave him one word. Come, that's all.
Remember, young person Faye is always based on the word of God.
Peter had a word from the Lord, and based on that word, he simply did what Jesus told him to do.
Peter didn't stop to reason. Peter was a fisherman. I'm sure he'd been out in those.
Stormy seas many times. He didn't stop the thing. Now wait. I mean it. I don't know how I'm going to step on that wave. I've never done this before. He didn't think about that. He just simply left the boat walk on the water to go to. I love the simplicity of faith and faith is that way. Faith is implicitly obedient. You have a word from God. You may not understand a lot, but Joe on what God.
Tells you to do. It's so important.
So he steps out of the boat and there he is going on the water to Jesus.
And it's all going well until he gets his eyes on the wind. That was boisterous. I must say, dear young people, I'm like Peter. There are times when I get that sinking feeling inside me, and it happens when I start looking at the problems around and I realize that in myself I have no answer to the situation.
Peter began to think.
I don't think he got very far under. He cries, Lord, save me. That's a pretty short prayer. Learn to pray short prayers through young people. You don't have to always be unbended mean. It's nice to bend your knees in the morning, in the evening when you can, but learn to pray short prayers when you're in, during the day, when you're on the street, when you drive in your car.
Learn to pray short prayers. Peter's prayer only had three words. Lord, save me immediately. It says he stretched out his hands.
But it was because he got his eyes off the Lord.
I'm going to ask you very directly.
Have you had sinking feelings inside you this conference?
For maybe certain set of circumstances.
It's because you've got your eyes on problems and not on the Lord. It's simply that.
Turn your eyes back to him that never sinks beneath the way he treads on the sea, and he can hold you up.
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Simply obey His word.
Got a couple other verses I want to turn to before we get to the end of our time. Go over to.
First Corinthians. Excuse me. Second Corinthians, chapter 3.
2nd Corinthians, chapter 3.
Verse 17 and 18.
Now the Lord is that spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.
But we all.
With open face beholding as in a glass, the glory of the Lord are changed into the same image.
From glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.
I think this is so beautiful. What is going to change you and me?
Is it reflection of what I am? No. By reflecting what I am, I may see a lot of the failure that is in this person.
But I'm not going to get any transforming power that way. But it is looking with open unveiled face into the glory of the Lord to the Lord Jesus.
That is transforming. It's a reference to Moses when he was on the mount and he wanted to see. He said show me thy glory. And the Lord said to him, he cannot see my face and live, but there's a place by me, and I'll put you there in the cleft of the rock, and put my hand over you and pass by. And after I'm passed by, I'll take my hand off and you'll see my back part.
The back parts.
Are the revelation of what God was in the Old Testament times under the law.
It was only a partial revelation.
But it was so tremendously glorious with Moses saw.
That unconsciously his face was shining. He came off that mountain and the people are scared of him because his face was shining and he had to take a veil and put it on his face to be able to talk to those people. But when he went into the Tabernacle, he took the veil off and talked to the Lord's face to face. In Christianity, dear young people, we have the full revelation of who God is in the person of the Lord Jesus. There is nothing further to be revealed.
Now it's complete the revelation of God.
And it is our privilege, not just certain ones. Notice what it says at the beginning of verse 18.
We all this belongs to the newest believer in the Lord Jesus, as it does to the oldest.
It belongs to Psalm. We all with open face beholdings.
The glory of the Lord are changed into the same image. The more you are occupied with the Lord Jesus in all His glory, the more it's going to automatically transform your life and character. There's going to be a transformation. You yourself probably won't notice it. Others may.
But it is because you are looking at the Lord Jesus in His glory. Oh, how important it is. It's not looking and criticizing one another. That's going to change a whole lot. No, we need reproof at times. I'm not saying that that's not true. We do need it and love. But what I'm saying what transforms is being filled with the knowledge, the glory of the Lord.
That's what's going to transform. Looking into his face. Are you doing that, dear young person?
You take time seriously, time to read the Word and to pray. I'm amazed as I go into South America and see younger brethren, the real zeal to learn the Scriptures and the doctrine.
And I don't see that awful much of that up here.
We're down in Columbia. This last time a young brother came from Medellin.
City more to the north and Bogota where a lot of the drug cartels.
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Have their seats.
And he came with a notebook full of questions one evening after meeting.
Ended about 8:30. He sat down beside me and said got some questions.
And I'm sure we could easily gone straight through the night, but at 10:00, Brother Pepe Gomez interrupted us and said, brother, I'm sorry, I'm going to have to interrupt.
That we've got to keep our schedule here in the household, otherwise we can't keep on.
I wish you could have seen the disappointed look in that young brother's face as he realized it was going to be curtailed.
You can see why breathing.
My heart is getting up at times.
But a couple hour and a half is almost too much for a lot of people to get into the work.
To see the desire of the earnest longing to know more of the Scriptures.
I don't see that as much as I would like. God grant that there would be a burning desire to get to know better the glorious person of our Lord Jesus, to keep our eyes on him, to learn more of him. Paul at the end of his course in Philippians says that I may know him. Paul, don't you know the Lord? Oh yes.
That the burning desire of my heart is to know Him more and better.
Is that the longing of your heart? One further verse before I close.
Hebrews, chapter 12.
Wherefore seeing we all sort compassed about whistled late great a cloud of witnesses.
Let us lay aside every weight.
And the sin which does so easily beset it. Let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus.
The author and finisher of faith, through for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross.
Despising the shame and is set down at the right end of the throne of God.
To consider him.
That endured such contradiction of sinners against himself lest.
You'd be wearied and faint in your mind. This chapter has to do with the question.
And the verses that follow of discipline, how we have a father who disciplines each one of his children. And in the sense that we have it in this chapter, we're all under discipline. We're all under the discipline of a faithful father, not one. In fact, if there is one that is not under this discipline, there's a question that he is a real believer.
So we're all under discipline, but how important it is in this question of discipline because God uses different instruments?
Sometimes he uses our breathing, sometimes he uses other people.
Not to get our eyes off the Lord and onto the people that He uses His instruments. So important, dear brother and sister in the Lord Jesus.
To keep our eyes on him. And it portrays the Christian pathway as a race.
And it says that we should lay aside.
The weights and the sin that so easily descend. There's weights in the Christian life. There are things.
That in themselves are not wrong.
But they don't let you run as you should the Christian pathway.
And you need to learn to lay aside those weights.
And verse two says looking unto Jesus, and it tells about the contradiction of sinners that he suffered.
Did he ever give up? Did he ever get discouraged?
I think of how he stood before the chief priests and how they sucked false witnesses to put him to death. There's anything that riles me, naturally, it's to be accused of something I didn't do.
That riled me.
What about the Lord Jesus when they accused him of doing things?
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Totally taken out of context.
The lamb is a sheep dung before shears.
No answer.
Beautiful, precious, perfect Savior.
Oh, what an answer for us. What did he do when those soldiers came up and hit him in the face? What did he do when they crowned him with thorns? When they beat him over the head with sticks?
When they scourged him, did he ever come to the point? I can't take any more of this abuse.
I'm not going on any further. Did he ever say that? You know the answer. He went straight on. Nothing turned in his side. And where is he now? The right hand of the majesty. That's the race that is presented to you and me. Go on, dear young people. You got problems.
He had worse problems, far worse. He suffered unto blood. He went all the way. He never turned back.
Don't turn back, young people. Go on. You may feel you're not being treated.
Rightly was he treated rightly You may feel they don't understand me.
Did they understand him?
And that's what it means in verse three when it says consider him. You know, we're so self-centered. We think of ourselves like we were mentioning this morning in the reading.
But the exhortation of Scripture is to take those thoughts that are about ourselves.
And turn them around to think of him.
The Spanish translation. I've mentioned this a number of times. I like it. In the old version it says reduce your thoughts to him.
Reduce your thoughts to him if you have a tendency to think about your own self.
Reduce your thoughts to him, think about him, think about how he was treated and it's a real remedy. It's a real help to your going on in the pathway of.
The pathway may get to be, as someone has said, 10,000 times more difficult than it is already.
But there is ample provision on the part of our God.
So that we can continue straight on.
You may feel weak in yourselves, and I say to you, it's a good thing to feel your own weakness.
Not to be discouraged by it, but to be able to turn from ourselves and turn to that man at God's right hand and be occupied, if the Lord help us to young people to come to the end of these movies and as we go that we haven't got our eyes on brethren.
That we haven't got our eyes on nice people or people that have done us in. Take your eyes off him. Reduce your thoughts.
Take your eyes off of those people. Reduce your thoughts to him.
Gracious God, our Father.