Open—R. Thonney, M. Vedder
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Like to go back to.
Revelation 3, where we kind of left off in our readings to tie two thoughts together that I.
Are very important for our day.
We got down, I think, to verse 19 of chapter 3.
I'd like to read the rest of the chapter. Verse 20 on Behold I stand at the door.
And knock if any man.
Hear my voice and open the door. I will come in to him and will Sup with him and he with me. To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame and am set down with my father.
In his throne he that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.
What was brought out in the meetings, I thought was especially.
Something that we need to consider, brethren, overcoming is an individual thing.
And so the word to the overcomer is a word that we, each one of us, need to take to ourselves. Don't point the finger in any other direction. Let the word search our own hearts. And when you get to verse 20, as was mentioned yesterday, the Lord Jesus is on the outside of a closed door. What a sad state of affairs.
In this assembly of Laodicea and he's knocking. What grace to wait. You know, if somebody would put me out of their house and close the door.
I don't know if I'd wait there and keep on knocking, but here he is, still knocking.
And the word is if any man hear my voice and they just want to call attention to the fact that it is individual, He doesn't say if you all inside there can hear my voice. No, he says if any man individual hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to him individual and will Sup with him individual and he.
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Individual with me. So it's a matter of a call to you and I individually to go on in these last days that Christian testimony here in this world is a matter where we must understand that it is individual faith exercised in a living God. Our God hasn't changed. Everything down here is a pretty bleak picture, but our God hasn't changed, brethren.
And faith in Him is the same.
Oh, how important to cultivate fellowship, personal fellowship with the Lord Jesus. And I don't mean to go into verse 20 too much in detail, simply to speak of what overcoming is.
And I want to connect it with something that was spoken about yesterday in Philadelphia in verse 8 of this same chapter.
He says thou hast a little strength and hast kept my word and has not denied my name. Cultivating fellowship with the Lord Jesus that's stepping with him and He with us. What is that? It is letting His word have a real place in our lives and I just want to challenge each heart.
Here this afternoon.
Do you have time to let the word of God?
Have a real place in your life.
You know it says Peter, Paul says to Timothy, Till I come.
Give attendance to reading. Perhaps that's public reading, what it speaks about there, but it's important to read the scriptures. But it's not merely reading the scriptures that it speaks of here. It's keeping His word. In other words, it's something that's valued. That's what it is. It's something that's valued. You know, there's a lot of different ways that it's expressed in different parts of the New Testament.
In Colossians it says, let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom. I love that.
It's not just read the word. Let the word of Christ dwell.
In you richly with all wisdom, brethren, I'm more and more convinced.
That the reading, the meditating on this precious book has tremendously positive consequences. Dear young brother and the Lord, and young sister especially, I want to dress you. Do you have time just to read the scripture and let it soak into your souls? Read it slowly, let it sink in. It's not merely getting a grasp of it with your mind.
But letting it sink down into the heart and the soul. It's what you have in your heart that you treasure. And it's important. Oh, the preciousness, the livingness of the Word of God keeping His Word in. And I'd like to go over to 1St John chapter 2 because there it speaks about this same thing.
It's interesting.
One John chapter 2 and you'll read from verse 3 hereby we do know that we know Him if we keep his commandments. He that saith I know him and keepeth not His commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, but whoso keepeth his word, there we have that same expression.
In him, verily, is the love of God perfected.
Hereby know we that we are in him.
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Now a little later down, he addresses the different categories in the family of God, the fathers, the young men and the little children. And I'd like to draw attention what he says to the young men, verse 14.
Especially does address them in verse 13 as well. Maybe I should read that.
In verse 13 I write unto you, young men, because ye have overcome the wicked one. He doesn't say how they have overcome them.
But they have now. Verse 14 tells how I have written unto you young men.
Because.
Ye are strong and the word of God.
Abideth in you, and you have overcome the wicked one. Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world. The lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes and the pride of light is not of the Father, but is of the world.
And the world passeth away, and the lust there are, but he that doeth the will of God.
Bite it forever.
Oh, how precious this portion is, young men.
Young men are characterized for their strength. The glory of young men is their strength, it says in the book of Proverbs. And it's not.
Along when you're around young men that you notice that they like to show their strength. Sometimes it's their glory. It's natural. But what is it that gives real strength to young men? It is letting the word of God.
Abide in them. It's not merely reading the Word, but letting it be the abiding portion of your heart. You might have a chance to read a few verses in the morning. That's fine. That's a very good practice to establish. But it's not merely that. But as you go out to your work, to be able to carry with you something, it's abiding there. It's your strength. It's your portion. You meditate on it.
You chew the cud and that's what gives you strength to overcome, to be an overcomer. It's important to.
Understand that that if you're going to overcome, it's not just merely because you're in the midst of a bunch of people that love the Lord and that want to please Him. No, that won't work in the day and age.
We live in thank God for Christian fellowship. Don't want to make a little of it in any way It's a great encouragement but the tests of faith are such today that you and I are going to be tested individually and we need to get our.
Our feet set down on the ground of the principles of the precious Word of God. There is no other way. You and I are going to be able to go on.
In the day we live in, if we don't make the Word of God our abiding portion, the Word of God abideth in you. But going back to those first verses we read in this chapter, want to differentiate what He speaks of His commandments in verses three and four and His Word in verses 5. You'll notice in verse 5.
You'll notice in John chapter 14 those two words are used as well. It's interesting for your own meditation you can think about it, but what is the difference between the commandments and the word? I like to think of it in this way. We have commands, very definite commands in scripture.
We have that new commandment that the Lord gave, that ye love one another as I have loved you. Oh, an important thing. He doesn't say. Do it if you feel like it or if you would like to. No, it's a command. It's important that we do it, and he says it for our own good, to love one another as I have loved you.
And if we are truly members of the family of God, as we have presented in the book of.
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First, John, you and I are going to show it by our love one to another, keeping those commandments. There's other commands too. One of them is in Second Corinthians chapter.
4.
Chapter 6 and it says.
The be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers, it's telling us very direct. There's no way to wiggle around that.
Command. It's not the will of God to form yokes with those who are not believers.
It's very clear. But what is His Word? In contrast, I like to think of His Word as something that is the general expression of His mind. And that's what you get from reading the Scriptures. And when you read the scriptures, you understand what the mind of God is about, things upon which perhaps he's given no specific command.
But you understand his desires, his thoughts, his mind, and it's the one in whom the love of God is perfected that keeps his word. You know, we have an illustration in the Old Testament, and I don't want to lengthen this too much, but maybe we should turn to it. Let's turn to it. I, I really enjoy this.
In Second Samuel chapter 23, I think it is.
It's in the list of Davids Mighty men.
And verse 13, Two Samuel 23 and verse 13.
Three of the 30 chief went down and came to David in the harvest time unto The Cave of a dolem. And the troop of the Philistines pitched in the valley of Raphael, And David was then in an hold, And the Garrison of the Philistines was then in Bethlehem. And David longed and said.
Oh, that one would give me drink of the water.
Of the well of Bethlehem, which is by the gate, and the three.
Mighty men breakthrough the host of the Philistines.
And drew water out of the well of Bethlehem that was by the gate, and took it and brought it to David. Nevertheless he would not drink thereof, but poured it out into the Lord. He said, Far be it, far from me, O Lord, that I should do this. It's not this, the blood of the men that went in jeopardy of their lives. Therefore he would not drink it. These things did, these three mighty men.
You might have thought the mighty men were the ones that did tremendous onslaughts and battle, that killed and some were pretty fearful men. Of these mighty men of David, I think 1 Killed 801 Time tremendously mighty men. But what did these three do that they get their names put in the record of Holy Scripture here for us to read so long after?
David had a desire. It was not uttered as a command. It was only a desire.
David had been born and raised in Bethlehem and he knew about that well by the gate, but sad to say, because of the condition in Israel.
Bethlehem was in the power of the Philistines, the enemy of the people of God. And so David gives an utterance to his desire. And there were three of his mighty men, evidently close enough to David.
To hear this desire that he expresses, oh, that one would give me drink of the well of Bethlehem, that is by the gate. These three heard it no command. But these three evidently had a love for the person of David. Oh, this is what it is, the love of God perfected. And they in jeopardy of their lives, went and broke through the hosts of the Philistines.
00:20:02
You can imagine this, the lines of the Philistines guarding that city.
And perhaps two of them fought off the Philistines, while a third drew some water out of that well. And after they had the water secured, they had to break back through the lines of the Philistines to bring the water to David. Is that some tremendous military feat? No, it was just three that understood David's desire, the expression.
Of His desire in His Word. And they made that everything to them. I think that's so extremely beautiful and they are written here. Dear young brother, in the Lord Jesus. Are you into the Word so that you understand God's desire for His people? Are you willing as those three were?
To make his word more important than your own life.
They were, they basically said in effect.
It's not so important that we have our lives. What's important is that David's word is fulfilled and they did it all I think is this extremely beautiful. This is keeping his word. Oh the Lord stir our hearts to do to do just this. I think it is so important and I'd like to speak about yesterday Daniel was spoken about. I'd like to speak about Daniel because Daniel was in.
A real overcomer in the days when there wasn't much to encourage.
In Israel, he was a real overcomer. Let's go back to the book of Daniel.
And I'd like to go to the 9th chapter just to show the way. Daniel was an overcomer.
Verse one in the first year of Darius, the son of a Hazurus, is this Daniel Chapter 9. Verse one of the seed of the Medes, which was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans in the first year of his reign. I Daniel understood by books the number of the years whereof the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah the prophet, that he would accomplish 70 years in the desolation.
Of Jerusalem.
Here we have somebody has said appropriately not so much Daniel the prophet, but Daniel the student of prophecy and Daniel had a book written by Jeremiah the prophet in Jeremiah had given a prophecy 70 years previous that and I suppose Daniel was quite an older, quite an old man at this time because he was a young man when he was taken captive, but that God would allow their.
To be 70 years in the desolations of Jerusalem. So Daniel is meditating on the word of God, and to me this is really precious. You might have said, well man, things are in such outward ruin, what way can there ever be any restoration for God?
But he you know faith is and that's the principle that overcomes faith goes not by outward externals. Faith goes by what God says because however.
Impossible it may appear outwardly to us. Faith says I believe God because God has said this in his word and God through his prophet, Jeremiah said.
There's going to be 70 years in the Desolations of Jerusalem. Daniel was reading that portion and thinking about it, and he started making his calculations of the years, and he says those years are accomplished and he understood. I don't know where Daniel's three friends are here, since he was an older man. Perhaps they had passed on by that time.
We don't really know.
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Daniel, as far as we know, was the only one that understood this. He was a lone man in Babylon, far away from Jerusalem. Still, he was meditating the word of God. And what does he do? And I think this is so beautiful. I set my face unto the Lord God. Isn't this beautiful? Oh, brethren, it doesn't matter how great the ruin may be.
You and I have that privilege to set our faces toward the Lord. I sometimes think that we so often have our faces in other directions. We're looking maybe at brethren. Maybe we think their brethren should act this way, or the brethren should correct this problem.
We're looking in the wrong direction. That's what happened to John in the first Book of Revelation.
1St chapter of Revelation. He was looking in a certain direction and he hears a voice behind him and he has to turn around.
If we're looking at brethren, brethren, we're not looking in the right direction. We need to turn around and look at the Lord. John had to turn around, and when he turned around, he saw the Lord. I think that's so important.
He set his face toward the Lord God. Have you done that? What is your face towards right now?
Brethren, God is dealing with this. We've spoken about that in these meetings.
It's evident in these last days he's allowing trial in tremendous ways, not only here in the United States and Canada, in other parts, to real trial, real problems.
He's speaking to us, he has something to say to us. You'll often notice when a parent speaks to the child, the child doesn't want to hear. He's looking in another direction.
Turn around, set your face to the Lord God to seek by prayer and supplication. Oh, how important to pray, brother.
And what does this word supplication? To me? It's something more intense. It's not merely asking for something. It's getting into the presence of God and pleading. That's what supplication is. Do we know what it means to plead for the people of God, plead for souls? He sought the Lord God by prayer and supplication with.
Fasting.
And sackcloth and ashes. What's fasting?
It's self denial.
Maybe food. It may be a number of other things.
Things that are not wrong in themselves, but when there is this desire to seek the face of the Lord.
Food isn't really that important, and we're willing to leave it off. The Lord help us brethren, to know what it means to fast to deny ourselves. Seems that takes off the edge of our Christian testimony when we spend so much time making ourselves comfortable in this world. Nothing wrong with comfort in itself.
But you remember when the Lord Jesus and those 3 disciples that were with him came off the Mount of Transfiguration?
Tremendous experience that they'd had up there to see the Lord Jesus in his official glory. And they came down and there was a boy that had was possessed by an unclean spirit, grievously tormented. And the disciples couldn't seem to handle the problem. They just didn't seem to have the touch.
And the Lord comes up, and he casts out that spirit and heals that poor boy.
And the disciples come up to him later and say, why couldn't we cast him out? The Lord had given them power over unclean spirits, why couldn't we do it? This kind comes forth by nothing, but by prayer and fasting. The Lord help us that our lives might be characterized by self denial. That is not the culture we live in.
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But is certainly what is going to have to be if we're going to follow the Lord Jesus.
The Lord Jesus said, if anyone will come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross.
And follow me and then it says in sack lot and ashes.
I just like to think that sackcloth is something that was not very comfortable to wear.
And ashes is where the fire had done its work. Everything down here, brethren, is under judgment. The fire is going to burn it all in short order.
That's the way Daniel viewed everything. He was in the midst of tremendous glory in Babylon, but it didn't attract him. It was all ashes as far as he is concerned. And then he prays. And to me, we're not going to take time to read. I want to leave time for somebody else. But it's so beautiful here in his prayer, how he doesn't isolate himself from God's rebellious people.
In his confession, he identifies with them. And I think this is so important, so easy to say, well, those people out there, they don't do it right.
They haven't followed the scriptures in the right way.
Perhaps true.
That, brethren, can we take our position?
Right there with them and confess the departure.
That has taken place as our departure. Notice how he says here verse 3, verse four. And I prayed unto the Lord my God, and made my confession and said, Oh Lord, the great and dreadful God, keeping the covenant and mercy to them that love him to them that keep his commandments. We have sinned any idea that he separate himself out as a faithful witness.
No, he identifies himself with those.
That had sinned. I don't suppose there are many in scripture that live such an exemplar life as Daniel did.
And yet he doesn't separate himself out as a faithful one.
He takes his place with those guilty people and confesses the sin as his own notice further down in.
Verse 20 and whiles I was speaking and praying and confessing.
My sin and the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my supplications before the Lord my God.
Daniel was a real overcomer to me. It's extremely precious.
And the Lord help us, brethren, we're living in the last days. Confusion in every side. It grieves the heart to hear of continued splitting up of God's people wherever it happens, because you know that the enemy is at work trying to discourage and derail people.
Tremendous.
Confusion in the great House of Christendom, of which we are apart.
Can we separate ourselves out and say we're the faithful ones?
I think we have had plenty said in these meetings that that is the spirit perhaps of Laodicea. No, brethren, it is bowing and recognizing.
My sin and the sin of my people, Israel. That's the way Daniel became an overcomer, one of the thing.
That I noticed in this chapter I'd like to draw attention to that I think is so important. Verse seven, He says, Oh Lord, righteousness belongeth unto thee, but unto us confusion of faces as at this day. In other words, he justified God in all that had taken place in amongst the people of Israel, that tremendous ruin.
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He justifies God and sometimes, you know when division or problems come in amongst the people of God.
We have a tendency of saying, well, you know the way it really is, that person or that group of people were really at fault.
Brethren were short sighted. When we look at brethren, it's God that has a controversy with His people. It's He that sees a need amongst His people and allows problems. Have you ever noticed in the book of Leviticus in connection with leprosy in the house? It definitely says when I put the plague of leprosy.
In a house.
That's pretty strong language, He puts it there. Why? Because he wants us. He sees a need for us to be exercised in one way or another. God is always right in what He allows amongst His people.
Some time ago, perhaps I've mentioned this before, but it's so important in my own soul, brethren.
I was talking to a young brother, not in this country, but he felt he wasn't treated properly.
By those in his own home needing he hadn't gotten the right treatment.
And I simply said to him.
I don't know. I don't pretend to judge the situation you're in, whether you've been treated right or wrong. I only want to say one thing to you, that your brethren, they may have been right or they may have been wrong, but God was never wrong in allowing you to be treated that way.
He has a purpose in mind and once you get it sorted out with him.
He is fully able to turn the whole situation around.
Do you have that confidence in our God?
The more I travel around in South America and see the Lord working amongst those people. Brethren, we have a God we can trust in. You can trust Him. He's fully faithful. And the brethren may have making mistakes or they may not have. We can leave that with God.
But to allow the thing to rest in his hands.
To get things straight between US and God is so vital for going to go on. That's what overcoming is.
To keep his word, to know what it means to pray, to supplicate, to confess. I often think of the Lord Jesus. Oh, what an example we have in him, brethren.
And when he was going to start into his public ministry, what did he do?
He came to John the Baptist.
And John the Baptist was baptizing with the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins, and Jesus comes to be baptized of him.
And John the Baptist finds it totally.
Out of order, here comes the Son of God. Does he have any sins to repent of? Absolutely not.
Why does he want to be baptized? He says to John, Suffer it to be so, for thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness. What was he doing and being baptized? He was identifying himself with those people who had repented. Isn't that beautiful? The holy, spotless, sinless Son of God identifies.
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Himself with those people.
That had sinned and had repented of their sins.
Then I think of the Lord Jesus at the cross and one of the prophetic.
Expressions that we have in the 69th Psalm is Thou knowest my sin, and my iniquity is not hid from thee so.
So that He could be the sacrifice for our sins, He confessed our sins as if they were His own.
Brethren, at least before God, I'm not saying that we compromise.
With what is unprincipled behavior? No, I'm not saying that at all. At all.
We must be separate for the Lord's glory, but I'm talking about presenting ourselves as Daniel did before God.
He identified himself fully with these that had sinned in this way, and in that way becomes a real overcomer. The Lord help us, dear brethren, we are living right down close to the end. But to me it is extremely encouraging, as was mentioned in the meeting yesterday, that there is an overcomer even in this.
Assembly of Laodicea, where things were so terribly sad. The situation, the insensibility, the indifference. There was a word to the overcomer, but it's something that's individual.
I'd like to just if I can find it. It's in the book of.
Kings first Kings. I think it is chapter 8.
And.
I just want to point it out before.
I give place to somebody else. First Kings chapter 8 and verse 38. This is Solomon's prayer at the dedication of the temple, and he gives some beautiful expressions that I really believe that Daniel had in mind when he prayed that prayer that we read part of in First Daniel Chapter 9. But notice verse 38.
Solomon says in his prayer. What prayer and supplication?
So ever be made.
By any man.
Or by all thy people, Israel.
Which shall know every man the plague of his own heart.
And spread forth his hands toward this house.
Isn't this beautiful?
Notice the two qualifications there by any man or by all thy people issue. Daniel didn't fold his arms and say, well, this little pier that there's very many other people who really feel things in the right way. I think I'll just have to wait until God does some stirring amongst his people before I can really confess. No, there was one individual man and he had scripture for it. That's what Daniel or what Solomon put in his prayer.
By any man, and I like to think of the restoration that came was in part because of Daniels prayer in this chapter, chapter nine of the book of Daniel. At any rate, he got into the current of God's thoughts about his people, so much so that God could give him then in the end of that 9th chapter, the prophecy of the 70 weeks, which perhaps is one of the greatest keys to understanding the prophetic picture.
In the word of God tremendous. How did he get that from just kind of waiting around No by prayer and humiliation and confession and self denial. That's way Daniel got that precious revelation of the 70 weeks. The Lord help us dear brother in just a few thoughts that I wanted to leave before we ended these meetings. I want to leave some room for somebody else to.
My brother talked about fasting. I've had fasting on my mind for on my heart for a long time.
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I wish we could turn to Isaiah 58.
Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and show my people their transgression, and the House of Jacob their sins.
Yet they seek me daily in delight to know my ways as a nation that did righteousness, and forsook not the ordinances of their God, they ask of me the ordinances of justice. They take delight in the house.
When thou seest the naked, that thou cover him, and that they'll hide not thyself from thine own flesh.
Our normal conception of fasting is a self denial as our brother was saying. And this is true. It's not what we it has nothing to do with ourselves, but it's more than that.
It's a giving of ourselves. It's not when I fast. If we fast, we don't just.
Not eat. It should be taking the food that you're not using and giving it out. It's taking what you're not using, what you're denying yourself and giving to others.
We think of our Lord when he came to the well and sat down as he was.
He was tired, he was thirsty, he was hungry and he asked for some drink of this woman and she comes up and and.
She's she's like, well, what are you asking me for? You know, I, I'm well, you don't deal with me and I'm a woman. I'm a Samaritan. And he's like, well, if you would ask, have asked of me, I would have given you of the living water.
Even in that short amount of time, he had living water to give to her by.
By his his fasting. Let's read on.
Verse 8.
Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thine health shall spring forth speedily, and the righteous, thy righteousness, shall go before thee, and the glory of the Lord shall be thy rearward. Then shalt thou call, and the Lord shall answer. Thou shalt cry, and he shall say, Here I am. If thou shalt take away from the midst of thee the yoke, the putting forth of the finger, and speaking vanity, if thou draw out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul, then shall thy light rise in obscurity.
And thy darkness be as the noonday.
And the Lord shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy drought soul, and drought, and make fat thy bones. And thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose water waters fail not.
We put yokes on ourselves, on our brethren a lot of times.
We have a concept of how we should we each other's Christianity should be run. You know, you, you should wear a tie if you sit in the front row or you know, something something mild like that. And we we afflict each other with these all the time.
And it's, I am as guilty of it as anyone. And it's not a, I'm not trying to point the finger, but I'm just saying this is, this is a thing that we do. This is a, it's a, we are in a Laodicean state. We must admit that. We must, we must start there. We can't say.
Yes, the Laodicean exists and it's all about us and, and we, but it's a good thing we are the Philadelphia because no, no, we are, we are in each of our hearts have to battle with the Laodicean element that makes us want to rise up and and be proud of our Christianity. But we have no pride. We we have no room for pride.
Is it not to deal with thy bread to the hungry?
When we speak in meeting, do do we speak to help each other? Do we do we talk to to do? Are we feeding the people? Are we being shepherds when we speak?
Are we talking amongst the shepherds? Are the shepherds talking to each other? How do we, how do we go about about what we do?
00:50:02
And this is not just among among us and the assembly, this is also deals how our dealings is with the entire world.
Dealing your bread to the hungry. There's many, you know the other other all the denominations and splits and everything that have gone on throughout all of Christendom.
Are.
You know are affecting the heart of God, they they hurt him.
And those people that are not as close to the truth as we hope that we are.
Are hungry.
And we can feed them.
We don't despise them.
We don't cast them out.
Those of our own house.
Who have in recent years departed and gone a separate path.
As her brother was saying, we want to bring them back, we want to restore them, we want to bring them back into our house. Those that are cast out, bring them back.
When thou seest the naked that they'll cover him.
What is the nakedness? The nakedness is.
Going on without knowing that you're not righteous. You're doing things unrighteously without knowing it is love that covers a multitude of sins. We can. We can love our brethren.
And cover them we can, we can.
Close them.
We can forgive them.
That thou hide thyself not from thine own flesh.
I'm a Sinner.
I'm saved by grace, but I am. I am as easily LED away as anyone that I know.
You. You.
Our own flesh is is, you know, you can't judge your brother. You can't say.
You know you, this is what keeps us, keeps the brethren from from keeps us from, from accepting our brothers back in from going out to get them is that we judge them and we're like they've done something that that I would never do. We, we don't do that here. But no, no, given the right opportunity, we would do that in a second. We, we're just weak sheep.
We can't hide from our own flesh. We can't. We can't pretend it doesn't exist. It's there.
In verse 6.
To loose the bands of wickedness. I think of the Lord there with that woman, saying, No, thou hast had five husbands.
And the relief that she feels when he says that it's, you know, she had been wicked and she'd been hiding it for all that time. She had bound herself in with all this wickedness. And he says, he points at it. He's just like, no, you have had five husbands. And it releases her. It's like the he's taking the bands off by just exposing them.
If we fast in verse 8, this is the greatest, then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thine health shall bring forth speedily, and thy righteousness shall go before thee.
Our righteousness, God provides us righteousness and.
As as we're walking, it's like we keep running in to to already being righteous. It's like a.
It's like the things of our life has been provided for us already.
If you're fasting, if you're giving yourself to other people, to your brothers and your.
Following the heart of God.
You know he provides your righteousness. It's like him putting the skins of clothing on on Adam and Eve. It's you you you can't provide your own righteousness, but it it goes before you and the glory of the Lord behind you. It's like anywhere you're looked at you, you are are righteous but.
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It's a.
Does that make us proud? No, we need to be to be humble.
And humbleness is not thinking.
Is is is not not thinking about ourselves, it's thinking.
About others, and that keeps us humble.
If you try to keep yourself humble, you'll be proud of how humble you are.
Verse 12.
And they that shall be of thee shall build the old waste places.
Thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations.
And thou shalt be called repairer of the breach.
The restorer of paths to dwell in.
Is this possible? Is is this possible that that we can repair the breaches that have come among us back since since 20 years after the light it was reestablished with Darby?
That we've been splitting up and splitting up and splitting up.
And I haven't seen any getting back together. That's not possible, is it?
Don't lose hope.
If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath.
From doing thy pleasure on my holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight. The holy of the Lord honorable and shall honor him, not doing things my own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure.
Nor speaking thine own words.
What is the Sabbath to us?
It is our rest.
And what is our rest? It is the finished work of Christ. Christ has done everything for us. We have nothing left to do.
For our salvation, and we can rest in that.
If you try to do your own works to sell it, to save yourself, you're going to start getting proud again. You know, it's like I'm, I'm saving myself, but no.
Christ has done everything for you.
This is our rest.
Then shalt thou delight thyself and the Lord, and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father, for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.
That's a good thing.
To know the Lord.
Where mine does my heart.
Frustrating.
Lazarus.
Clears my fire laundry.
Mind.