Pella Conference: 1994
Table of Contents
Responsibility of Being Gathered to the Lord's Name
Address—H. Short
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We sing that our little gym.
And it's #203.
Oh, Jesus 2030 Jesus, Lamb of God.
To us to save from loss.
It's taste the bitter cup of death upon the cross. Verse 3.
Thou wilt our souls sustain our guide and strength will be until when, Glory Lord, above thy face we see #203.
I breathe.
Our Savior.
Shall.
Never hear the modern law.
I don't believe anything about.
Until.
Ignore ignore.
Every grace.
I would like to open first to a verse or two in the book of Acts.
Chapter 20 The first one.
I have on my heart to talk to us is those.
A few Saints of God that God in his grades has.
Seem fair to gather through the precious name of the Lord Jesus, and I would like for each one of us to be exercised in our soul as to our responsibility and that we have having been brought into that favorite place. You know, most of the believers in the world not only are not gathered to the Lord's name, they wouldn't know what you were talking about.
If you talk to them about it in.
It's a It's a good deposit, and God has brought us into and we want to keep.
And that's what's on my heart, to stir up our hearts, to value what the Lord in His grace has brought us into that we not lose it, brethren, because of carelessness in our ways. And so in Acts Chapter 20, I want to just we know the story. How tall had called the elders of Ephesus out to him and had spoken to them and told them.
That they should see his face no more. And he had said that he was going to be going to Jerusalem and that it says in verse 23.
And well, verse 22, he says to those elders, Acts chapter 20, verse 22. And now, behold, I go bound in the Spirit unto Jerusalem, not knowing the things that shall befall me. They're saved.
That the Holy Ghost witnesseth in every city, saying that bonds and afflictions abide me.
00:05:04
Then he tells them that they should see his face no more and then down in verse 36.
And when he had and thus spoken, he kneeled down and prayed with them all, and they all wept sore, and fell on Paul's neck, and kissed him.
Sorrowing most of all, for the words which he state that they should see his face no more, and they accompanied him unto the ship. In the verse that I want to call our attention to is verse one of chapter 21.
And it came to pass that after we were gotten from them.
That expression now, what is the setting of this year is that these elders had come out to fall.
At his at his desire. And he had told them that what lay ahead of him was in the Old Testament language. We would say captivity, Paul was going to go into prison, and that they would not be able to see this space no more.
Now the effect of that message, and we don't get it in our translation so much, but it says in verse one of chapter 21 it came to pass. After that we were gotten from them.
There is a note in the new translation that lets us know that that could almost be translated in this way after we had torn ourselves away.
So what I want to point out is this, that when the elders knew that Paul was going to be taken from them, it stirred up their affections for him in such a way that they went and they grabbed hold of him and he had to actually tear himself away from their embrace.
Then in chapter 21 a similar thing takes place as he travels on verse four. And finding disciples, we carried their seven days who said to Paul through the Spirit that he should not go up to Jerusalem. And when he had accomplished those days, we departed and went our way, and they all brought us on our way. Now notice this with wives and children.
Till we were out of the city, and we kneeled down on the shore and prayed. And when we had taken our leaves, one of another, that expression taken our leave, could be translated when we had embraced.
One another when we have embraced one another again, when Paul delivers the message and they prophesied that he shouldn't go to Jerusalem because they're going to lose Paul, he's going to go into captivity.
It worked a work in their heart that when they heard and feared that they were going to lose Paul, they embraced him. They claimed to him.
They did not want to let him go and read him. What's on my heart is to issue us alone.
We are greatly in danger of losing what God has graciously given us.
We're greatly endangered of not valuing what I could refer to as Paul and letting it slip.
Paul could write to Timothy and say keep through the Holy Ghost that your deposit which has been given unto thee and the assembly at Philadelphia, was to hold fast less than others. Hate thy crown, we rather we know it or not.
Have been brought into a tremendously favored place before our God.
Unknown, virtually unknown to all of the Church of God. They wouldn't know what we were talking about, or what I'm talking about this afternoon. But the Lord has gathered your need to His precious name, and if we do not cleave in our hearts, if we do not embrace Paul is going to go into captivity. We're going to lose this favorite portion in what is on my heart, is to turn back.
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With this thought in mind.
Taking our leave, which could be translated, having embraced. Embraced is the word that is on my heart, that you and I might embrace the truth of God that has been committed to us. And I want to go back now to the little brook of Habakkuk in the Old Testament and the reason I want to go back there.
Is that is what his name means Habakkuk means?
Embrace to embrace and it's Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Abaca and Zephaniah. But the little book of Habakkuk Lord has open this little book to my soul and a major in the last few days.
As an exercise to my heart, if I could write over this little book, this is what I would write over it.
The Lord has taken the closet door, Habakkuk's closet door.
Off and let us look inside of this man of God who lived in the days just before Judah was going to be carried away into captivity into ******* like Paul was going to be taken into *******. Judah was carried off by the Talcaldians into captivity.
And this is the exercise of a man of God who lived in those days a remarkable thing about this man.
We don't actually read that he prophesied anything to the people, though. We're told by God, and the Spirit of God tells us what he was to write for the sake of the people. But actually what we see here is God, as it were, opening the closet door of Habakkuk and saying to us this afternoon, I want you to look at this man of God and see the exercises and the values that he had in a day.
When things were being brought to a close in Israel's dispute, when Judah was just about to be taken away into Babylon and the doors closed in Israel.
These are the exercises of the man of God, and rather than by the grace of God, we should cover this man's exercises. And it opens with the burden which Habakkuk the prophet, did see if we're going to take an interest in the testimony of the Lord gathered to the Lord's precious name.
In a serious interest in IT, our lives are going to be full of learnings.
Why? Is it because this favored place, there's no joy in it? No, it's because of our condition in this favorite place. We're so indifferent to the Lord that one who goes to God about the Lord sings, gathered to his precious name is going to have a life of one burden after another. And so it opens in this way, the burden which the back of the prophet did see.
Oh Lord, he said.
I'm going to say too, I haven't noticed that through the Psalms when the Lord is crafted side of prophetically, many, many times you read of him suffering in silence, even an expression like this. I withheld my voice even from good. That is, he had good words to say when he was here on earth, but because of the condition of the people of God that he found himself in the midst of.
He had to withhold even from for good. He hasn't remained in silence. And now Habakkuk looks at the children of God, and he prays to the Lord. Oh Lord, how long shall I cry? And will thou not hear even cry out unto thee?
Of the violence and thou wilt not save. Why dost thou show me iniquity and cause me to behold? He labored under this burden. Wherever he looked around amongst the people of God, he saw disorder and confusion and departure from God. Everything was out of order. And he said, Why have you shown me that anyone who has the desire to go on with the Lord is going to be sensitive to the true condition?
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Of God's people. You know, we have a misconcept of the Lord Jesus. When he was a man here on earth, he was so sensitive to the condition of God's people, he knew. He knew that when one didn't give him water to wash his feet, nobody else may have noticed it.
He noticed it.
He was that kind of a sensitive man, and he knew when one poor soul has been over as the effects of sin have ravaged her life and just touched his garment. He was so sympathetic. He knew of her condition. He knew it. Others went that sensitive and sold them. This dear man of God, he sees all of this condition of God's people spoiling and violence are before me.
And inverse the end of verse 3 and there.
Are that raise up strife and contention as they sound familiar does this are part of what we've come to know in the gathering Strife and Contention?
Why would anyone want to cast in their lot where there was strife and contention? Why wouldn't you? I remember a brother telling me once, just before he left the Lord's table. I just want to rest.
I guess I'm tired of the conflict.
And we're all tired of the conflict. Why do you cast in your lot with the people that's marked by strife and convention? It's because the Lord is there. If the Lord that's there, and that's what's going to keep our souls. We're not going to keep one another. Our souls are going to cleave to the Lord Jesus in spite of who he has there. And you're going to have to go on with me and I'll go on with you.
But we're going to have to do so clearly to the Lord. And so Habakkuk is praying, though he isn't talking to anyone but his Lord about the condition of God's people.
Verse four. Therefore the law is slack, for it could be translated and is translated in the new translation. The law is powerless. What does that mean? It means the Lord's people were in such a state of soul, the word of God had no effect in their life. And so if Habakkuk administered the word of God to their soul, he didn't see a response to it.
The law was powerless. There was no order. There was no government for him.
Word of God, it was not regarded. It had no authority over their lives, does it? Over your life and my life?
And does the Word of God have authority in our lives?
Well then, he says.
Therefore, wrong judgment proceeded.
Now that is prayer.
Now God answers his prayer.
Habakkuk, they said, What are we going to do about this condition of things amongst the people of God? In the solemn answer comes, behold ye among the heathen, look around, look around amongst the nations.
What was he going to see?
In regards and wonder marvelously for I will work in work in your days.
Which you will not believe, though it be told you. For lo, I will raise up the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation which shall March through the breath of the land, to possess the dwelling places.
That are not theirs.
Let us hold fast.
Less than others, peace, are calm. This is not the answer that Habakkuk wanted to hear. No one who is walking in any way with God wants to hear of the judgment of God's people, no matter what their condition may be.
00:20:15
But the people of God had gone to a state described as without remedy.
And God, says Habathis, look at the nations.
There is a nation out there who is going to come in and take this people into captivity.
Do we think that dragon? Do we really think that we can go on in different lukewarm conditions, state of our souls, and not have a governmental act of God come in?
We can't divide with.
I would like to look at these Chaldeans now a little bit, not so much as a people, but.
As seeking to see principles that form this people and brethren. When we take up with false principles, those principles lead us into the governmental ways of God with us, and may find ourselves removed from the Lord's presence.
In God and his government and brother. When that happens, if I am removed from the Lord's presence, it's to go into confusion. Now that's what Babylon means. Chaldeans were the Babylonians, and Babel was confusing. And so we see here first of all, that they take that.
In that dwelling place that is not theirs.
That is that principle of taking things that did not belong to them. They are terrible in verse 7 and dreadful. Their judgment and their dignity shall proceed of themselves. That is, they are going to do their own boasting. They are going to proclaim their own glory. They are going to set themselves forward. Are we the center of our lives?
Am I? I was thinking of it yesterday and we we would be taught.
From our our birth, if we have not been raised.
In Christian home.
I wouldn't know how many times I've heard it in my upbringing.
You don't take care of yourself, Henry. No one else is going through.
Am I number one in my life? Habakkuk was not number one in his life.
Number one in his life was the Saints of God. He had a deep concern. We're going to see his response to God's answer to his. If we could say it, it wasn't a complaint to God about the people of God, but it was an honest observation of their condition in the presence of God. And God had seen that condition and this was going to be his.
Discipline upon them.
And they were a people who took that which was not their own and who boasted of themselves.
Verse 8 Their horses also are swifter than the leopards, and are more fierce than the evening wolves. And their horsemen shall spread themselves, and their horsemen shall come from far, and they shall fly as the eagle that hasteth to eat. Here is a demonstration of natural power and strength that cannot be resisted. And rather than when we get careless in our ways, get away from our soul, where do we look? We look around this perhaps to the camp, or to other Christians who who can demonstrate.
That they've got some power, they've got some strength come to meeting and there's nothing there for me, but over here there's everything.
That Chaldeans had everything. They had a very, very strong display of power and force and that which would attract the natural man. That's what will take us into captivity. We don't value the Lord Jesus in our midst, and we're on our way out. Good.
We get to looking at one another, you know?
Solomon's day. The Queen of Sheba could look at the servants of Solomon, and her heart was attracted to Solomon. But we do not in Solomon's day. We're in these days, and when we look at one another, we're certainly going to be discouraged. What is there going to be to attract the soul? What attracts the first man or the natural man?
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Ray of power is not among the goddesses.
But that will take us away. If that's what we value, it will take us away. Better creatures, more activity, stronger gospel outreaches. Here was a great, great display of great power.
And all inverse.
10 And they shall scoff at the kings, and the Princess shall be a scorned unto them, and they shall derive every stronghold, for they shall heat dust and take it.
Here is another mark, a disrespect for the Princess.
How is it in our souls? Do we want, rule and order in our lives? Do we despise in the Assembly of God those whom God has said over us in the assembly? We despise them. The Chaldeans did. They didn't regard Princess, they didn't regard those who.
Should have been in a place of authority and have rule they've brought them to ashes.
All the living is a solemn thing for us, isn't it? To be in an assembly gathered to the Lord's name? Because Christ is there, and he can look right down in this heart of mine. And he knows what I think of the authority, and not only of the Lord in the midst, but the Lord has in his assembly. He has elders, He has those he accept.
As as it were, as Princess those who take the leave, do we despise them?
They meant nothing to them. They had a force. They could stand up against these, Princess. They could stand up against these kings and run right over them. And we can do that, and we can.
You may come and entreat me, and you may plead with my soul about something that's on your heart, and I can scoff at you, and I can walk right over here.
Have no authority the power to stop me from doing it, but if I do it, it's going to be to judge me.
We're going to see this rod or these principles that took the children of Israel into captivity.
Were punished by God through their ways.
Well, this refers to the first time the Babylon came against Israel.
And so in verse 11 Then shall his mind change, and he shall pass over and offend.
Imputing this is power unto his God as they had come against Israel. And then I report they left his Judah, but they didn't stay away. Then they came back again and took you to totally into captivity. And we've just gone through and are still probably still going through.
A captivity.
A division where souls have been taken away into confusion. And there was that here, and they went away and left them. But the children of Judah were not exercised about it, and God had to bring them back a second time.
And finish that work that he did not want to do. But they would not repent of their condition, brethren, every one of us.
Have plenty to eat and everyone of us have plenty to hang.
Our heads and shame about in our own lives and our own lukewarmness, our own indifference to Christ. But they didn't use this opportunity.
Judah didn't.
Now record talking to God again when he learned of this governmental act of God upon His people.
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Do you see him now saying, oh, I'm glad, Lord, they deserve, they deserve this. That's not the heart of a man of God. He weeps the closet door back. Its closet door is removed. And we see this man's heart broken when he learns what God is going to do because of the condition of God's people. And he says to the Lord, art thou not from everlasting? Oh Lord, my God.
My holy one, we shall not die. O Lord, thou hast ordained them for judgment, and almighty God, thou hast established them for correction.
He doesn't want this to come on the Lord's people, we shall not die. Thou art of pure eyes than to be whole, evil, and can't not look on iniquity. Wherefore thou upon them that deal treacherously and hold us thy tongue, when the wicked devour is a man that is more righteous than he? What is he saying? He's saying, Lord, you're bringing against my people your people.
Someone who is more wicked than they are.
Someone who is worse than God's people were the Chaldeans. The Babylonians were no they were not better than the children of Judah. And it breaks Habakkuk's heart to see the children of Judah fall into the hands of those who had abused them so much.
Does it do that to our hearts? When we see someone going astray down a path that we know is going to lead to a governmental act of God in our life, do we step back and say they together?
I hope not, I hope we say to the Lord, Lord.
Don't let them die. Don't let them be consumed by this, these principles, these influences, these things that are really worse than thy people are.
Then he says.
And how he He tells about how the Chaldeans made men as fishes of the sea and creeping things that have no ruler over them. They take up all of them with the angle and catch them, these creeping things that have no ruler over them. Do you have a ruler over you in your life? I'm not just talking about the Lord.
Do we submit rule and authority in the assembly?
Or do we say my will is going to be done? I am said all to do my will. These will take you captive. These Talians took these kind of people captive in their Nets. And then it says in verse 15, they take up all them with the angle. They catch them in their net and gather them in their drag. Therefore they rejoice and are glad.
Submission to authority.
A submission to authority is something that the Lord is going to bring into the life of every believer gathered to the Lord's name, who is there to exercise his soul.
Some I believe are brought into the assembly who haven't any idea of what they're there for or why they're there for. But if you have an exercise as to why you're gathered to the Lords name, submission to authority is one of the things God is going to test you and me on. And if we have no ruler over us, like these creatures of the sea who had no ruler over them.
We're going to be taken into captivity by the principle of this Chaldean army. And so they gather these up who have no ruler, and it says they shall.
Converse.
16 Therefore they sacrifice unto their neck, and burn him sin unto their drag, because by him their portion is fast and their needs plenteous. Shall they therefore empty their net, and not spare continually to spray the nation? That is, the Italians said it's by our strength. And they were their God.
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In Jehovah was not their God. They didn't attribute to God the giving up of His people. To them, they said we have done it and they worship their Nets, their clever ideas, rather than we can get that way too. We can be our God, we can make our own decisions, we can decide what we're going to do, but we're not going to laugh in a condition like that. We're going to submit to the Lord and His ways with us, or we're going to be carried away into captivity.
Well, he prayed this prayer to the Lord, and then verse one He said, I will stand upon my watch and set me upon the tower, and will watch and see what he will say unto me. And what shall I answer when I am reproved?
He has delivered his heart and soul to God and he says now I'm going to wait for his answer When I am reproved, he's taking it personally. And he realizes this exercise of soul brought him into the presence of his God. And he says I'm just going to wait before the Lord Jesus.
To see what you're going to answer me concerning these exercises of my heart, regarding thy dear beloved people whom I do not want to see go into captivity to such a cruel capture. And rather than we may think the Lord's table is a burden to us, we may think there's ******* here. We may think there's burden here, We may think there's all kinds of ill here. It doesn't compare.
To what the alternative?
For you will be.
If you go away from the Lord in the midst of his two or three, it is a tragic, tragic thing ahead of you. And so that burden tobacco can now the Lord comes in.
To comfort this dear servant of his and he says in verse 3. For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak and not lie.
Though it tarry, wait for it because it will surely come, it will not carry whether there are roads that lead to places if we take the road.
Isaiah, oftentimes if you take the road to Chicago, you're going to end up in Chicago.
And this road that Judah had taken was a road to captivity and the government of God, a God of government, taking them up in their ways. And it's going to come, the Lord says to Habakkuk.
And he says, wait for it, I will not. Cherry behold, his soul, which is lifted up, is not upright in him, but the just shall live by his faith.
The Lord tells of accurate I know what you've told me about the Chaldeans dispute. I know they're worse than the children of Judah, and I'm going to judge them. But you're going to have to wait. And the job shall live by faith. Do we rather live by faith? Can we see the Lord in the midst of the two or three gathered to His name? It's the only thing.
That's going to sustain our souls as we grow weaker and weaker in our vault to be carried away. And so he has given this precious word that Josh shall live by faith, and they also because he transgressed us by wine. Now God is describing the Chaldeans, and that could be translated. The wine is treacherous. The wine is treacherous, the wine of the Talians.
Is treacherous.
What's that mean? It means brethren, why when you drink wine?
You lose your senses.
You lose your discernment and you're vulnerable and you're susceptible to being carried away. And don't be deceived. It speaks of joy. Don't be deceived by what you see around you. You meet believers every day.
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That are happy in the Lord and probably have more energy than all of us put together here in this room, but you have something they don't have.
You have the privilege of being gathered around the Lord Jesus that we had this very morning. Don't be deceived by things that look better on the other side. The wine can deceive us. And this company, these Chaldeans, they were victims of the wine that was treacherous.
And then it says, neither keepeth at home, who enlarges his desire as hell and as death, and cannot be satisfied.
Is that condition in her heart? Keep us not at home. We think of the scripture that the older women were to teach the younger women to be keepers at home and we say, Will that pertain to the women? No, it pertains to each of us. Do we keep at home? Do we? Are we concerned about our own homes? Are we addressing the conditions in our own homes? Caldians didn't. They were out.
As, as we sometimes say, the grass was greener on the other side. They always wanted to enlarge their borders and they did not keep at home. They did not take care of that country that God had placed it. And God it is, who divided the nations in relationship to Israel. And then the millennial ring which is referred to here, they're going to be sent back to their borders. They're not going to be this enlarging.
That babbling did. They're going to be sent back to their nation. But these didn't keep at home, they enlarged their desire, and they were never satisfied. And down in verse six shall not all these take up a parable against him, and a taunting proverb against him, and say, woe to him that increases that which is not his how long, And to him that Ladeth himself was thick clay.
I like to read this as it could be translated because it's a moral principle that's destroying the people of God, and we don't know it because of our desire to have more than what God has given us. We follow this pattern and it could be read this way. Woe to him that increases that which is not his. How long. And to him they laid himself with pledges for we would call loans.
Showing up shall they not rise up, and suddenly shall exact usury of them?
That is, the interest on these loans that they took out so they could get what God hadn't given them to them would become a tremendous burden on them.
Is a picture of the credit world that we've become so accustomed to living in. And because, and now I wanted to say plainly in the scriptures, there is plainly the teaching of need, borrowing. We may have needs in our lives that we can't meet, and we need to borrow to meet those needs. But this is want borrowing. This wants to be bigger than what God intended me to be.
I'm not going to buy it at home. I'm not going to take the portion from God that God has given me. I'm going to enlarge it, and I'll need to borrow it to do it. I'll need to borrow to do it. That's what the sons of the prophets did in the days of Elijah. They said this place is too straight where we dwell with thee. And so they went out and borrowed and acted, and it caused him great trouble.
Rather than the place where we dwell with the Lord is a small place, but let's not go outside of this place.
And borrowed the principles that others Christians may work with and may get by with, but that are not of God. We can, if we do that, the results are going to bite us. And here they took these loans out, the interest ate them up, as we say, Because thou has spoiled many nations, And verse 8 remnant of thy people shall spoil thee, God is going to judge those that had carried or were going to carry his people.
Into captivity.
Now down in.
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The Lord says.
What profiteth?
You're saying what propheteth graven image. I'm going to hasten on now that the Maker's Earl hath graven it, and the molding image, and a teacher of lies, that the maker of his work trust that therein to make dumb idols. Woe unto him that saith to the wood awake to the dumb stone. Arise, it shall teach. Behold, it is laid over this gold and silver, and there's no breath at all in the midst of it. That is, brethren, when we get away from the Lord.
We make something in our life that we trust in instead of the Lord. These made idols in which I haven't made any idols. For I'm saying this if you're away from the Lord, and by that I mean you don't know what it means to trust the Lord for the circumstances of your life and for the sustenance of your life. You're going to be making something to secure yourself and make you feel comfortable in this world.
And the Lord is saying, it isn't going to do it. It isn't going to do it. This is Laodicea, Laodicea said, God said to them, thou art rich and increased with good. Thou sayest thou art rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing. I said recently, that's what every one of us want to be able to say. That's our hearts exposed right to us.
Which of us wouldn't like to be able to say I am rich and I am increased with God of goods and I don't need anything? How many of us achieve when when we want something and we can't buy it, we don't have the means to take care of it? And why is the lottery? Why are they growing every day and foolish people pursuing them? They think this is going to meet their needs. They think if somebody gave them a million or 2 million or $3,000,000.
They're going to be OK the rest of their life, and some of us might labor to that end to secure ourselves, the Lord says. If not going toward Those are just idols covered with silver and gold, and they don't have any bricks. A wonderful thing to know, a living God. God is alive, and we may be dead in our soul, but God is alive and we can trust Him.
For everything in our lives we can.
Trust him. He's trustable. We can have our confidence. That is, do you not think he knows every need that you think you have? He does. And not only that, He knows every need that you do have. Because sometimes, better than we think, we have need of things that will destroy us if we get them. And so God says the Lord in verse 20 is whole in His holy temple.
That all the earth keeps before him the other morning when I was walking.
Thought of this principle, brother. His storms were raging in my Buddhism and he said the Lord Jesus, it's all calm up there, it's all calm up there.
The Lord is assuring of the Attic soul, who is in great distress and turmoil as to what's going to come upon God's beloved people. The Lord says I'm on the throne.
That all the earth keep silent before him rather than he can sit at his presence in silence. There's no storm where the Lord is, and there may be storms all around us, but we don't need to be upset and disturbed by the storms around us. The Lord is in His holy temple. Everything is under His control. We don't need to think something. This happened in our lives that the Lord has not allowed to happen.
I don't know what I would do.
I don't know what I would do if I had to say, Howard, that you could do something to me that the Lord didn't allow you to do.
I would just feel frustrated, disturbed, man. You know, everything in our lives comes into our lives by the end of an all eyes and all loving God. And so we can rest here nowadays, that little message that just shall live by faith in verse four. And the Lord is in His holy temple.
00:50:17
Let all the earth keep silence before him.
Lack of praise and it says a prayer Habakkuk the Prophet upon.
My sigil.
That word I understand.
Its roots go back, and it means a mournful song. Did this make Habakkuk a happy man? No, but it did bring him into the presence of God. Your sorrow didn't leave, and our sorrow will never leave down here, brethren, as long as.
We're in this valley of tears and veiled tears. But now he prays this prayer.
And he says God, and he tells in verse 2O Lord, I have heard thy speech.
And I was afraid. Have we been resting to the Lord bread? And can you and I say to the Lord, Lord Jesus, I've heard thy speech.
And I was afraid, O Lord defies thy work in the midst of the years, in the midst of the years they've gone in wrath. Remember mercy. He doesn't say Lord take away the wrath, but he just says remember mercy. And now he's come to rest in the Lord himself. And he says, remember mercy and revive the work. I like to think of what Paul told him of the rekindle.
Rekindle. And that's what we need, brethren. You need it, and I need it. We need our starter, our heart rekindled.
Revised You know, they they use that word, revival. And that's what we need. We need our souls revived to value what the Lord has done for us. Not just what he's going to do for us, but what he has done for us. And then let's go down, he recalls to the Lord what he had done for his people before and how he had taken care of them before. And then let's go down and.
I must have spent time on it.
Let's go down to verse 17.
Now he's returning to his thoughts about the Lord's people.
And of all the fig tree, there is Israel, you know, when the Lord was here.
He saw that fig tree, and it didn't bear fruit, and the Lord cursed it, and it was withered and dried up. OK, although the fig tree shall not blossom.
Neither Shall fruit be in divine and delayed Doesn't sound like the assembly to heaven.
We we Let's put it this way. When we say the assembly is like a fig tree that's full of fruit and the vines are full and the labor of the olive is abundant, no, that wasn't the condition of God's people. The fig tree was not blossoming. It was not bearing fruit. There was no fruit on the vine. The labor of the olive shall fail and the field shall yield no meat.
The flock shall be cut off in the fold, and there shall be no.
Heard in the stalls. Would you like to be in in the land of Judah and those conditions?
It's like Hannah and taking Samuel at the Shiloh. Would you like to go on up there in those conditions that existed at Shiloh? Yeah, because that's where the Lord was. And I would rather be in this field. I would rather be under this fig tree. I would rather be in this vine with the Lord.
Than the most prosperous place on earth without the Lord. And so he describes this tragic condition of God's people.
Then he says in verse 18, Yes, I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation.
That's where we're going to have to come to him. We can joy in the God of our salvation. We always have the Lord.
00:55:05
And brethren, let's not lose sight of the Lord. And then in verse 19, the Lord God is my strength and he will make my feet like Hinds. Feet. Does that sound like bonding? You take behind. That's a deer. You you've seen them. That beautiful animal. You know what a a deer. I my my dog that I walk most every morning.
Watch him. He sleeps on the back porch, and at 6:00 he begins whining.
And when I come to the door, there he is looking at the door. What does he want? And I come off, put my washing shoes on and start dumping around, going from me to the door and pulling what he wants. He wants to be set loose. He wants to go and run. And when we go, he runs like behind he's fed free bread. And that's where we are in our soul. If we have the Lord's portion, if not ******* in the assembly, there's nothing to.
Depressing and us in our souls relationship with God we can be like Habakkuk. If we have the faith of this man of God and can trust and see him and take things from him and trust him that all is in his hand and joy in him and the God of our salvation, then we are brought into this liberty. That's the liberty that James speaks of.
The perfect law of liberty, that is, we have a divine nation that not only does the will of God, it delights to do the will of God. It isn't that I feel like I have to do this for the Lord if I get to do it for the Lord. This is what I want to do. That's the law of liberty. That's where Habakkuk was brought in his soul by this faith that had been given him by God.
To wait upon the Lord. And he says this Make our God is my strength, and He will make my feet like hindsight, and He will make me to walk upon high places. Are we going to be robbed of our spiritual portion? Not if we walk with our God. Israel may not have had the fruit on their fig trees to soften their barnyards. They may have been deprived of everything because of their disobedience.
But, brethren, we can walk as men and women of God and not suffer in our soul relationship with our Lord. Are we enjoying the Lord today? Are we content in our circumstances? Or do we think the only way that I can have happiness?
Is to change my circumstances of life. Listen, nothing had changed. God hadn't said. I'm not going to bring the Chaldeans.
He says, I'm going to bring you none of the circumstances that 'cause these burdens and have acted life were going to be taken away. But he believed the Lord and he came to rest his soul on what the Lord had said and trusted the God of his salvation. And then it says.
He will cause me to walk upon my high places rather than we can go as high as we want to go with the Lord. We can enter into the Ephesian truth or whatever. We can go as high as we want to go with the Lord. And then it says this to the chief singer on my string instrument. While the song was a mournful song, Brandon, it was a song according to the mind of God well.
May our hearts be exercised without our own individual faith of soul.
Because it is that alone. It is that alone that determines.
My joy in my Christian life, you can't take it from there and I can't take it from you. It's my own relationship with the Lord that determines the joy I have in him, said the Prince.
Gospel
Gospel—L. Smith
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There's a voice that is falling to be and it played with it.
They proved all drastically.
And whisper to give us now come.
Forever and obey.
There's a savior now waiting for me.
With his heart and his eyes glowing blood.
Where we come into judgment it freeze in the light will want Calvary God.
Can we ask God's question?
Blessed God, we look up to thee tonight. Thanking thee this hour to God of all.
I was thinking a little tonight of voices.
No, just.
Couple weekends ago we went to a wedding.
And the groom's tents. And both beds.
For many of their friends instead. So during the wedding there was an interpreter listening.
To the work that we're being said and signing.
What was being said? Sign language.
Because they could not hear with the natural ears, you could not hear a voice.
00:05:05
Some here had the privilege of being at that wedding.
And it was touching, quite touching to hear them say words out loud as well as see the signs that met with the words said. But I was thinking her voice I think most everyone in this room can hear.
Some of us probably used to hear better than we do now, but most everyone here can hear.
We sang. There's a voice that is calling.
Lots of voices.
Classical.
So we look at a few.
I was thinking of the voice of the Son of God.
The voice of Hell.
This is quite a contrast, don't they?
And the voice in the wilderness.
Let's look first at the voice and the wilderness.
John's Gospel chapter one.
Verse 6.
There was a man sent from God.
His name is John.
He came for a witness to bear witness of the light.
That all men through him.
My belief.
In verse 22, they asked.
John, who art thou?
That we may give an answer to them that sent us. What sayest thou thyself? He said, I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness makes straight the way of the Lord.
I said the prophet Isaiah.
Why was he out in the wilderness?
Saying something like this.
You know, because men's hearts are fallen and sinful.
Man likes to have glory.
Apart from God.
This afternoon we heard a little bit from the book of Abacus.
About.
The Chaldeans.
Babylon.
There was an ancient Babylon.
And that city was not to be built again.
There is a part of the Babylon.
But Babylon never has a good connotation with God.
Let's look at Revelation.
Chapter 18.
After these things, I saw another Angel come down from heaven having great power, and the earth was lightened with his glory.
And he cried mightily, with a strong voice.
Saying, Babylon, the greatest fallen is fallen, and has become the habitation of devils in the whole, of every foul spirit and cage, of every unclean and faithful bird. For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her. And the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of their delicacies. And they heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. For her sins have reached up unto heaven, and God has remembered.
00:10:03
Fermi Curtains.
Reward her even as she rewarded you, and double under her, Double according to her words. Then the cup which she has filled filled with her double how much she has glorified herself.
And lived deliciously. So much torment and sorrow gives her what she sayeth in her heart. I should be clean in the no widow, and I shall see no sorrow. Therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death and mourning and famine. And she shall be utterly burned with fire. For strong as the Lord God who judges her.
Powerful words, aren't they? Voices of angels, A voice from heaven, it says come out of her. Come out of her.
Awesome.
It goes on to list her merchandise in verse 12.
And 13 and the end of verse 13 reads and slaves and souls.
Of land.
She glorified herself.
She looked delicious.
False.
Glory without God.
This world says come on boys, play ball with us. You're really good. Go to the top of the team.
Play at school.
Raise the school name. Go to college, play at college. Raise the college name.
You see all these?
Academic Academy of the teachers riding on this approaches getting a name for themselves off of the strength of many young.
People.
.4.
Who is your voice that it's calling you?
Progen Taylor Swift.
Please don't rest.
This voice is going to come out of heaven in a day yet to come.
Babylon.
Fossil, isn't it?
Let's look at A voice from Hell, Isaiah chapter 14.
A Day, Chapter 14.
Now this world wants its own glory, and they want its apart from God.
And they want your soul. They will sell your soul.
And if you give it, you can have it glory, but its glory is short lived.
There was John in the wilderness.
He didn't have normal clothes.
He had a voice that was ringing for God.
That voice called for repentance of the night. God calls for repentance.
Praise the Lord for everyone in this room who's repented before God and forsaken their sins and trusted in our Jesus.
But think of this verse 4. Thou shalt take up this proverb against the king of Babylon, and say, How hath the oppressor cease, the golden city cease?
You see, ancient Babylon came to him. It had a glory.
We read something about it this afternoon.
How it just devours nation?
Remember reading in history about Alexander the Great?
It was he that sat down and cried that there were no more countries to concrete.
Died very young.
Short floor.
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Short clothes.
Verse five. The Lord have broken the staff of the wicked and the scepter of the rulers. He who smote the people in wrath with a continual stroke. He that ruled the nations in anger is persecuted and none injured. I brought down ancient Babylon. He's going to bring down modern Babylon.
The whole earth is at rest, and it's quiet. They break forth into singing a The fir trees rejoice at thee and the Cedars of Lebanon, saying, Since thouart laid down, no feller has come up against us.
Hell from beneath his move for thee to meet thee at thy coming.
See how falling, babbling it even moves? Hell.
Even all the chief ones of the earth. It stirred up the dead for the even all the chief ones of the earth.
See, all these men were kings on earth.
They had a temporary glory, and now the king of Babylon is going there too. What does it say?
Incredible. Just that much.
It was a handwriting on the wall Mimi Mimi takeover.
Wade, Wade numbered and divided.
Daniel comes in.
He's not at their party. This world says, come to our party, we're going to have glass. Daniel wasn't a fifth party. Bill Shazer called for those golden vessels of the House of the Lord. He said Freeman will praise him God with silver and gold and wood and earth and stone. But that's nice, Nice finger on the wall.
Nobody. There's an implicit but the Queen Mother. She isn't at the party either.
He hears about it and he says there's somebody in your Kingdom that can interpret that. We have to call for Daniel. He comes in, he says.
Numbered numbered weight and divided your weight in the balances and found one.
Say that night.
They entered this city and took the city.
And the slave?
King of Babylon here, what's it say? The whole earth is at rest. Not trouble in the nations anymore.
Even the trees are rejoicing.
But hell from beneath is moved, and all the dead former glorying men in the earth, even all the cheap ones of the earth, Verse nine. It has raised them up from their Thrones. All the kings of the nations, all they shall speak and say unto thee, Ark thou also become weak because we art. Thou become like unto us. Thy pomp is brought down to the grave, and the noise of thy vials. The worm is spread under thee, and the worms covered in.
Our fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning, how art thou cut down to the ground which gets weakened in nations?
How long did the glory last? Pretty short.
You know, God used Babylon as a scourge against his people. Israel. He used to Syria the same way, but he held them accountable for how they treated those people.
And God is going to hold this world accountable for how it treats His people.
Trusted Increases Thanks for getting by with something their merchandise.
It's a slave soldier.
You want to be identified with that.
Here's a voice from hell that says to these men that had former earthly glory, are you become like this?
And into the same grade.
Believing in the judgment of God.
Awesome, awesome.
Just a moment close.
Then wait, eternal. Yes, you don't want that.
You don't.
So there's the voice of angels in Revelation Speaking of the Babylon that's in our day, this world and its glory, the false church to the mother of hearts, unfaithfulness to Christ.
In Heaven's voice.
Speaks out against.
John's voice speaks. Repent that King is coming.
Some in Israel.
00:20:03
Tonight it's this scene before God. Repent.
What about those things?
God requires that which is test.
Scripture tells us.
The soul that sineth it shall God.
Anyone here that can say I have never seen?
Can you say that before God?
You cannot say that.
You know you have sinned before God.
But oh, there's another voice.
Let's look in John chapter 12.
Well, first let's look in Luke 23.
We had this verse before us. Chapter 23, verse 39. This is the scene of Calvary Cross.
The blessed man that was sent down by God, the Lord Jesus.
He's hanging there on the cross.
Your debt and my debt were so great before God.
We could never bow alone soon.
We too impure, loss, guilty, in need of repentance, in need of a substitute. Here the Lord Jesus lifted up on that cross.
But on either side hangs the malefactor who's 39, And one of the malefactors which were hanged railed on him, saying, If thou be Christ, pay thyself in US. But the other answering rebuilt him saying.
Dost not thou fear God?
Seem thou art in the same condemnation, and we indeed justly.
But we receive the due reward of our deeds.
This man has done nothing to miss.
Dost not thou fear God? Don't you fear God?
Here's the Son of God lifted up between these two men and on either side, and we're talking across.
Here is a voice.
Of the conscience.
The one man's conscience seems to be hardened.
Unreachable.
But the other man's conscience tells him something.
I deserve this.
I deserve this.
But that man in the middle?
Who doesn't consider?
The voice of the conscience.
We indeed justly.
So we receive the due reward of our deeds, but this man has done nothing amiss. And he said unto Jesus, Lord, Remember Me, when thou comest in thy into thy Kingdom.
Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, Today shalt thou be with me in paradise.
When would you like to be hanging on a cross?
The conscience telling you I deserve this.
But then there's a man in the middle.
If your conscience tells you.
He has never done anything wrong.
And then your ear hears him say.
I say to thee today that thou be with me in Paradise.
Oh, what a voice that is. A voice that answers the voice of the conscience.
00:25:04
Have you said before God I have sinned?
You know, the prodigal and returning said.
Father, I have sinned before heaven and against sleep.
I'm no more worthy to be called thyself.
He got no further.
Father's heart burst open.
I've always felt about it.
Bring forth the best robe and put it on us. Ring on his hand, sandals on his feet. Kill the fatted cat. Let it sneak. Mary, walk.
Constance had been at work.
The confession had been made.
And the father could display time.
Let's look at John Chapter 11.
Here we are at Lazarus Grave.
There in that grave, with a stone rolled to the door.
Lies a man all wrapped up in cloth.
He's totally wrapped up. He's embalmed.
And he'd been in there for four days.
That how often?
We read about the king of Babylon, about the worms beneath him and the worms in him.
That's what happens when you die.
Fixing dead animals from the wounds crawling in the you know, this whole flesh don't last long enough to die.
But the most important thing is we're not animals.
We have an external.
Immortal Soul.
That soul will live forever and ever.
And it will either spend eternity in heaven with the blessed Lord Jesus.
In the glory of God or we will spend eternity.
Hell.
Jesus comes after Lazarus has died.
Verse 20 And then Martha, as soon as he heard that Jesus was coming, went and met him, but Mary sat still in the house.
Prince said Mark unto Jesus, Lord, if I'd been here, my brother had not died. But I know that even now let's river thou will ask of God, God will give it to you. Jesus saith unto her, Thy brother shall rise again.
Martha saith unto him, I know he shall rise again in the resurrection of the last stage. Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and delight. He that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet doesn't live. Whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believeth thou this?
Who saith unto him, Yeah, Lord, I believe that thou art the Christ. The Son of God is becoming to the world.
Oh, what a wonderful thing to find out that Jesus is the resurrection in the love.
What a wonderful thing to have to find my.
What a comfort to those of us who have laid our loved ones in the grave and we know that they have trusted in Jesus.
Because.
They shall hear the voice of the Son of God.
The graves not going to hold them, but then there is.
This fact that if you're lost in your sins, you're standing and you need to hear his voice.
There's 34.
00:30:07
So there's 33 when Jesus therefore saw her weeping.
And the Jews also weeping, which came with her. He'd groaned in the spirit and was troubled and said.
Are you lifeless before God?
Goodnight, good, trespasses and sins.
Maybe you're a parent and you have reason to believe that about you.
Where have you laid here?
You have to bring him there, don't you?
They said unto the Lord, Come and see.
Jesus wet.
We read in What did we read in John. One in him was life, and the life was the lightest man.
Where's the one in whom is life?
Standing at the grave of a dead man.
In him his life.
Since that grave can hold him.
In him is life.
Wonderful friend, the day of Jesus is in him is life.
Oh, what a person came into our world.
My income that they might have life.
Have it more fun.
Jesus wept.
Full of life and life.
He is surrounded by weeping people under the power of death.
Just like a deep dark cloud hanging over there.
Because life is society and their stings.
One in whom is life marvelous.
Voice discombobistry.
The Jew said, Behold how he loved him, and others said, could not this man which opened the eyes that blind have caused it? Even this man should not have died.
Jesus, therefore, again groaning in himself, comes to the grave, and it was a cave.
And stonely upon it.
There's something between this soul.
And the Lord.
Maybe you cried to the Lord as a parent and you say, oh Lord, I want my little boy, my little girl.
The study seems to be hindering.
Would like to hear a clear confession maybe, but.
Verse 39 Jesus said take ye away with stone.
Well, that takes dependence.
Wisdom from God, doesn't it? Whatever some dreams, it's our responsibility.
Martha, the sister of him that was dead, saith unto him, Lord, by this time he stinketh. We'd been there bended 4 days. Jesus saith unto her.
Said I not unto thee, that if thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God.
God is still glorifying Himself today in saving their souls.
From a lost eternity.
And they took away the stone from the place where the dead was laid, and Jesus.
Lifted up his eyes and said, Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me.
And I knew that thou hearest me always, but.
00:35:01
Because of the people which stand by, I said it.
They may believe that it's sensitive.
Isn't that a marvelous word?
Because of the people that stand by.
Oh, this is one who came to bring us life, who is light, who is the word of God.
Who brought grace and truth?
He wants the people to know the Father fears him as he says it out loud. What he could have said just to Miss Soul.
When he had thus spoken, he cried with a loud voice.
Lazarus, come forth.
Imagine a dead man responding to their voice.
Of anyone.
Kind of beyond us, and here is God's account.
The voice of the Son of God.
And he that was dead came forth bound.
Walk out of there.
He just came out of it. Why?
The Creator stood before the grave.
He can call up fishes with coins in their mouth.
He can fill nests on the right side of the ship.
OK. Thank you.
And there he stands.
Dead come forth found hand and put with grave clothes, and his face was bound about with a napkin in Jesus set under the evolution.
And let him go.
What a story it is.
Think of the voice stood at that day.
Maybe you say, well, I'll see you pretty live tonight. You don't feel any worms crawling inside?
But if you don't know Jesus.
Do know who you are? A wonderful idea.
You've heard his voice. They hear the voice of the Son of God. Shall fear. Isn't that marvelous?
Oh, you couldn't have a better life than the light you get from God. New life through Christ.
What a voice is the voice of the Son of God.
Loose in.
And let him go.
Well, we've had before this morning also.
In Revelation chapter 4.
First one.
And after this I looked, and behold, the door was opened in heaven, And the first voice which I heard was, as it were of a trumpet talking with me, which said, Come up, hit her, and I will show these things which must be hereafter.
A marvelous vision. A voice that's calling a man on earth. Because I'm going to show you something.
Then we went to the verse that speaks verse 6.
The stood of Lamb as it had been slain.
We turn to Zechariah and he says, what are these wounds in my heart?
You know there's a reason for all that. Careful words of Scripture.
Is a very great reason.
Get this hot.
Doesn't say. What are these scars in your hands?
This doesn't say it says a Lamb, as it had been slain fresh.
Scars are healed wounds.
Womb from our scars.
A day with the Lord. This is 1000 years and 1000 years it's a day.
Two days ago, Jesus was crucified as far as God concerned.
00:40:01
Pretty fresh.
The issues between what this world wants and its glory.
And what God is going to have to his glory.
Are very diverse.
Diametrically opposed this world says Come young man, I want to take your strength, your brain, your glory, and glorify myself without God. God said my son.
Give me thy heart.
You don't want to be someone.
That rises in the glory of this world.
And then your glorious chopped off.
And Hill says, are you come to be like us?
Awful, isn't it?
Mr. Nixon died recently.
I don't know whether the man knew the Lord. I'm thankful I can trust God about that.
Shall not the judge of all the earth do right? But I do know that that man wants to in one of the greatest political positions of the earth, one of them.
As hell opened its mouth now and the kings that are dead saying are you come to be like us?
How short is this glory?
The Earth. We've been here about 2000 years.
Christ, it's going to be another thousand year reign. That's three thousand. There were 4000 years before that. That's 7000. That's 7000 years.
If you're 70 years old.
What's that mean?
What's 70 * 100?
7000 isn't it?
Everything you've been here, some of you older ones. One 100th of the Earths history with man on it, 1100.
Yet in that brief span we call life, there are all kinds of voices.
But there's one voice. You dare nothing.
There's a voice that it's calling to you and it's pleased in its tendency.
Center here and obey is the voice of the Spirit of Christ.
While he strives, yield to him. Do not quench the convictions that rise.
Babylon will holler out its glory.
Men will build, they will do all kinds of things, right up to the pregnant moment like they did in Noah today, right up to the judgment moment, like they did in last day.
Don't let the word.
All these other voices to prevent you from hearing their voice.
Son of God.
That voice.
If you're here 70 years or more.
That little span called life prepares you for an eternity somewhere.
And the one who created you.
Brought you into this world. Gave you breath. Sustain these breast.
It's called Wisdom Cries out for the simple, commonly simple ones.
The fear of the Lord is the big skinny of wisdom.
Like John, the faithful prophet says, repent.
Make straight the path of the Lord. He wanted to prepare a people for the Lord to come and set up the Kingdom.
God is now calling out of people to the name of the Lord Jesus.
One man to die for the people.
That the whole nation perished not.
In Genesis it says unto him, Shall the gathering of the peoples be?
00:45:01
Marvelous one man, God delights to talk. And that man, as they hung in the cross he sighted, hung a man who heard the voice of conscience. My ways have got me into this.
I deserve.
But he looked.
There was a list.
The man didn't do this.
I said Lord, Remember Me when thou cometh from my Kingdom, and tonight if you realize you're a lost singer.
That you deserve judgment.
Look to that man on that center cross.
Realize you did give judgment that we didn't afford.
He's there as a substitute for you.
He suffers at the hands of God, at the wrath of God.
For my sin.
Can you take in and say, Oh Lord Jesus?
There on the cross now I suffered from my sin.
I take.
Oh.
It's fresh, it's gone. Two days ago, Jesus was slain.
The wounds are fresh.
And Mary, haven't he beckons you?
Saul of Tarsus on the road, he's falling down in that great light, he said.
Who art thou, Lone? I am Jesus.
A voice coming out of heaven.
From the ascended one. And that voice calls tonight come unto me live.
Let's look at Revelation chapter 22.
Behold, I come quickly. Blessed is he to keep at the stains of the prophecy of this book.
The cold fight comes.
Quickly.
The Lord Jesus comes tonight. Are you ready?
Have you heard his voice?
And say, yes, he hung there on the cross in my place, my sins were bore him, borrowed by him on Calvary's cross, and therefore I go through.
Verse 17.
The Spirit and the Bride say come.
For there's the voice of the Son of God, there's the voice of the Spirit, there's the voice of the church.
All speaking.
Let him let here if they come.
Him. It is a first come.
Whosoever will let him take.
A water of life.
Freedom.
Oh, just a big dead world.
It's glorious. Shortly, there's many worried about economic situation, how it can last another two years.
I have a cure.
The Mark of the Beast is coming soon.
But sooner still.
The Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout.
A voice.
And if you've got divine light within, you're going to hear it even if you're stoned at.
Because the heart can hear that woman.
Marvelous voice of the Son of God.
00:50:02
But mean time these voices spin. Come, come.
Drink it's free.
You know when the earth gives you a little glory to make you pay for every bit of it?
You don't pay for it with money, you'll pay for it with your soul.
Verse 20 He which testifies these things says, Surely I come quickly.
Back a few chapters we get this wonderful verse that says the testimony of Jesus is the Spirit of Prophecy or the Spirit of Prophecy of the testimony of Jesus.
This says he which testified these things here. Surely I come quickly.
Two days ago, he was crucified.
He's not in a hurry.
We got a few years in this earth. Doesn't it make you rejoice that you're prepared for heaven?
In just a short time, those of us that have life, don't we just rejoice?
We're going to hear that shout and we're going to be gone.
Know the strength of this church that can go through that is going to be terrible. Terrible such as has never seen before. Hailstones that weigh 64 lbs of peace.
Back in the Old Testament there was a time when the enemies of Israel were taking them, and the Lord was fighting for Israel out of heaven, and He put hail on them.
And he killed more than Israel still.
You know when God sends direct judgments on the earth, it's going to be terrible, but all that gets judged by those judgments have yet after that.
To be cast into the lake of fire forever. How awful if you and I seek the glory of this world.
And listen to its voices.
And hear hell saying, Art thou come to be like?
Awful. Dreadful.
When you've had that sweet voice of mercy sounding in your feet, come.
Drink, take freely.
Behold, I come quickly.
Amen. Even so, come Lord Jesus.
To see your Lord tonight.
Thou art confessed with thy mouth, the Lord Jesus.
And believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead.
Thou shalt be safe.
Oh, what a wonderful simple word to do.
May we hear his voice?
There's no voice like you.
Except something else out of him when I was thinking everything in here.
49 Thank you.
For the Savior that he died for me.
From finally wisdom he had made me great.
He must be able from the sun that day. However I sing life.
Behavior.
Merrily, merrily.
00:55:06
Never do.
He must believe us from the sun.
Forever, I think life.
All my inequities on him were laid.
All my indexes next by him one day.
All the name on him the Lord has said.
Everlasting life.
Very verily, verily unto you.
I can trust my.
Word the we can simple I believe.
Is word.
All that method every time.
Ever lasting love.
New show.
Everlasting.
Life.
Verily, verily unto you.
Verily, verily mercy never used.
Hear that believer from the sun gives you.
Close. Let the God our Father.
Beginnings & Endings, Haggai & Zechariah Pt.3
Address—D. Bilisoly
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
Beautiful hamlet.
Breathe, as it were, the longings of our spirits.
148.
So for the Roman War.
To walk with Christian life.
Oh Lord and glorious.
Growing.
Hill a day without almighty.
We were gonna make our train.
Or change ourselves to christening like him a quick way.
What joy to bring everything.
God, save your face to your friends.
God is for joy and.
That place.
Jesus talking.
To glory.
Wisdom shout out that day.
Insane thy God.
Glory thing.
Thou our souls What?
Enter.
Thou holy as God.
Night.
Have God's right hand and glory.
Kill. Perfect.
The story.
Stand or the white?
Creation.
By power will stretch.
Your arms.
Take your from all time to.
Free from all humans.
Now let's ask the Lord Let's turn back again to Ezra.
The Book of Ezra.
Chapter 6.
Rather.
Rather Ezra chapter 5, just to get on a bearing.
Well, back up to chapter 4 and verse 23.
Now when the copy of King Arthur's letter was read before 3, whom and Shimshaya described and their companions, they went in haste to Jerusalem unto the Jews, and made them deceived by force and power then ceased the work of the House of God, which is at gruesome. So it ceased unto the second year of the reign of Darius.
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Now I mentioned the other day that actually the work had ceased before this King's injunction came.
So you might say that there was a twofold reason why the work seats.
It sees first of all because they were losing interest in it, they were losing parts and I believe we'll see shortly what was the problem behind it.
And then on top of their losing heart in the matter and slacking off from the work, here comes this injunction against this.
And so you would pay.
What's the use? It's all over.
That's when these two prophets came into the picture, chapter 5 and verse one. Then the prophet Haggai and the prophet and Zechariah the son of Idil, prophesied under the Jews that were in Judah and Jerusalem in the name of the God of Israel even unto them then rose up Derubable, the son of Shelfield and Joshua the son of Joseph, death, and began to build the House of God which is at Jerusalem and with them.
Were the prophets of God helping them?
Well, brethren, I thought tonight perhaps we should take a little look into what those tropics had to say for them, because there is some instruction for us. We well know that the things that are written before time are written for our learning, and I believe we can learn by what those prophets have to say to them because their message was a message to a small.
Weak remnant that had come back.
To rebuild the temple, and they came of their own free will. But in doing that, they were in a place, you might say, of renewed responsibility. It was a privilege to be identified with that testimony and identified with that work.
But with privilege always goes responsibility. And so we we see, we'll see how that was put upon them as responsibility. First of all, let's take a look at what Haggai has to say about the matter. We are already glanced a little bit of Zachariah, but perhaps we'll go a little further with it. So go to the end of the.
The prophets here.
And get to the book of Haggai, third from the last book of the Old Testament.
And now we'll see exactly what they had to say for the people.
I might just mention this first of all, that Haggai Haggai is very short. It's not a lengthy prophecy and actually it's more directed to the people immediately in the problem. But we see Zechariah.
Goes much, much further, and the exact Riot considers things that are definitely of a very future nature.
And so Zachariah brings out some marvelous things. But as we read these two passages, Hagia and Zach Brown keep in mind that this is exactly what those two prophets were bringing before the people. No?
Zechariah didn't bring everything he has to say in his book before them at once. It was spread out over a little time. But there were things he did have to say to him immediately, as we noticed in that 5th chapter of Ezra. But all who goes so much further. But let's see what Hagia has to say.
We'll just read through a little of this in chapter one, verse one in the second year of Darius.
The King in the sixth month, in the first day of the month, came the word of the Lord by Haggai, the prophet unto Derubable, the son of Chiotil, governor of Judah, and Joshua the son of Jos, Deck the high priest, saying first. Now these men, as we already know, were the more responsible leaders of the people, and the word is directly to them, but it is to the people also.
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All the people bore a certain responsibility.
Thus speaketh the Lord verse two of Hope. Saying this, people say the time has not come, the time that the Lord's house should be built.
There's the giveaway right there.
They're as much as saying.
Things are too difficult. There just seems to be no way possible that this work can go on. It just is not the time, you know. And it's easy to say that it's easy to take a look at the present state of things and say, well, we're so weak they can fit the state of ruin. There's so much failure, there's been so much departure. How can we continue on? You know, that's exactly what the enemy would like for us to say. And to do it, we would like to have us to lose hearts.
Well, you know, discouragement is a great tool of the enemy. A great tool. He works on all of us in that way. If he can, we ought to recognize his taxes. We shouldn't be surprised.
But we can be very thankful for all the encouragement that the Lord gives. And this is 1 very good reason why we need each other. We need the assembly, we need the fellowship, We need the ministry of the word of God. And it's an extra benefit to have the large conference times together, larger collective testimony. It seems like the Lord often uses those special meetings.
In a in a way that would reach our heart and conscience well.
We've often heard, you know, that the Ministry at a conference can come out in such a way that no one can save. Oh well, they were aiming at me or they, and the Lord uses that indeed.
So we can see what the problem was. The time has not come, The time that the Lord's house should be built. Well, who? Whose judgment was that? That was not the Lord's mind. The Lord wanted that testimony. He moved the heart of that king to proclaim that it should be done. And this was their opinion, not the Lord's.
Verse 3 Then came the word of the Lord by Haggai the prophet, saying, Is it time for you, O ye.
To dwell in your sealed houses, in this house life. Wait, what's he saying? Well, he touched on a point of conscience here. Because.
When they first came back to Jerusalem with the rubble, you remember that they set about to establish themselves to make provision for their own needs. And they were continuing to go about this when they were losing heart in the construction of the temple. And so they have reached the point where they had put ceilings on their houses.
I believe that's what the thought is, and I believe that this tells us that here the House of God was yet without a ceiling. It was incomplete.
It was in a state of of neglect.
And we put that to their conscience.
Verse 5 Now therefore, thus saith the Lord of hosts, consider your way. That's good advice for us. Is it not threatened? We really need to consider our ways. Do you have the right attitude toward the testimony to the truth of the one body, the divine gathering center, where the Lord Jesus is the center? In the midst of those truly gathered for the spirit of jobs unto His name? What is our consideration of this truth?
I trust that each one of us here tonight really have a value for this truth, and I am hiding them trying to believe that you do it.
But we do need to consider our ways that.
That we build in any way feel a discouragement towards that testimony. Now look how the Lord was speaking to them in verse six. She had so much in bringing little ye eat, but she had not enough. You drink, but she are not filled with drink. He clothes you, but there's none warm. And he that earnest wages, earnest wages to put into a bag with holes.
Well, that was kind of.
Clear cut, wasn't it? The Lord was shaking them up in there domestic matters, things that were very important to them and that should have been a signal from Him.
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That things weren't right. And that's good, isn't it? Is it good always to be exercised by things yesterday? Yes, it is. Now there is, of course, what we all experience is the common lot of men. You know, we all have to bear certain burdens. We all have difficulties and trials in this life. But there are times when the Lord will speak to us. And so in verse seven it says Thus saith the Lord of hosts.
Consider your ways. Go up to the mountain and bring wood and build the house, and I will take pleasure in it, and I will be glorified, saith the Lord. Oh, I think that eighth verse is excellent to consider.
He says go up to the mountain. Does that not suggest to us that we need to get into a higher elevation, that is, we need to get our thoughts as it were elevated?
Closer to the Lord, as it were.
And bring wood now the wood. But that not perhaps suggests to us his humanity. Perhaps we could even think of the cross. But he went as a man to the cross of Calvary, like Isaac, that carried the wood, as it were, on his back. And he said, bring wood and build the house.
A simple exhortation.
And I will take pleasure in it, and I will be glorified, saith the Lord. Now that ought to encourage our hearts, because that tells us that his estimation of the work is what counts, not ours. And how do we understand that and know that?
By the Word of God, as we lay hold of this truth and the divine principles involved.
Then we realized that there is nothing that is of greater importance than his thoughts about a thing, and we get that from the word of God.
Their thoughts were faulty and it's always so with us. If we begin to to judge things by our own thoughts, we're sure to go astray. But we see that.
He, the prophet of the Spirit of God, wanted them to know that God would take pleasure in this work and be glorified by this.
He had ever sold a small, insignificant, and I believe that was one of the principal things that troubled him. And then he goes on to to reach their conscience with the way in which he was speaking to them about this problem.
And what happens? Do we see a resistance? Do we see a bad feeling on the part of Zerubbabel and the others for the way in which the Prophet was speaking?
No. Just as we had back in Ezra chapter 5 there, verse 12 of our chapter here shows immediate submission to the word of the Lord. They took it directly as from the Lord and Derubable verse 12.
Shell feel and Joshua the son of Joseph the high priest with all the remnant of the people, obeyed the voice of the Lord their God and the words of Haggai the prophet as the Lord their God hath sent him. And the people did fear before the Lord. All this is extra. Oh brother, you know if there is truly with us the fear of the Lord that we don't want to do anything that would dishonor him. Oh how excellent that is how we need that. It's not a training. Abject fear.
There's No Fear and love. It isn't not that kind of fear, but it's a reverential fear that recognizes what is due to him as to his claims. And they fear this is excellent.
And what do we have then in verse 13? Then spiked Haggai, the Lord's messenger in the Lord's message unto the people, saying, I am with you, saith the Lord, Oh, don't you delight read that the Lord is immediately gives them encouragement. And brethren, if we have as our first motive the glory of God, he is so ready to encourage our hearts and to assure us that he is with us. He'll give us that sense.
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Of his approval. And is there anything that can equal that or anything that can replace that? Absolutely not. It's a little bit like when David had a right motive, you know, to bring the art back to Jerusalem, but he followed the example of the Philistines and tried to bring it on a new cart. God doesn't want any new tarts. We need to follow the word of God in the direction of the word of God in these things. And so God would not honor that, and it caused the death of Yusuf.
So David was very troubled, and he didn't know quite what to do until a little later. The Lord encouraged him to go ahead with this, and then he recognized that it had to be done according to the due order. Our God is a God of due order. And so we see that the ark was then brought to Jerusalem on the shoulders of the priests, and it says, and the Lord helped them. Well, that's good, isn't it? The Lord is always so ready.
To help us, if we give him the 1St place, and if we recognize what is due to him, and seek to do all for the glory of God, and do all in the fear of God, he is so ready to help we want to bless them. Verse 14 And the Lord stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel, the son of Shellfield, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua, the son of Josiah, the high priest, and the spirit of all the remnants of the people. And they came and did work in the House of the Lord of Hosts.
Their God in the four and 20th day of the sixth month, in the second year of Dorias the King.
Now this isn't the end of it. I believe that the prophet by the spirit of God would go further and help them to.
Realize what the real problem was and the way in which to reinforce our own hearts and consciences in these matters whereby we might become discouraged.
So in chapter 2 and verse one in the seventh month.
In the one and 20th day of the month came the word of the Lord for the prophet Haggai saying, you know, there's something else to notice here, and that is that we have an exact timing as to when this prophecy comes. God is a God of Kindness, his timetable is accurate, and he knows what exactly is necessary at the right time.
To seek now and his Irubble the son of Shellfield, governor of Judah, and Joshua the son of Jos, Deck the high priest, and to the residue of the people saying, Who is left among you that solve this house in her first glory.
And how do you see it now? What was its first glory? Well, it was Solomon's temple that was all destroyed, that the Solomon Temple was glorious. You know, when you consider the details that we have there in first kings of the construction of Solomon's temple, it was glorious.
And that's what he's bringing before them. There were a few of the older ones.
Who is left among you that saw this house in her first glory, and how do you see it now?
Is it not in your eyes? In comparison, as nothing. There's the problem, there's the problem.
And that's of course, what could get us into trouble. You know, when I read in the first part of the book of Acts, and I read it, 3000 people being saved at one time, next preaching, 2000 people so that it began to be 5000 people. Oh, such blessing is that. And the vast multitude gathered to the Lord's name. Everybody was gathered to the Lord's name at that time.
If you start thinking about that and make comparison with the present testimony, you could very well get discouraged or even let's go back 160 years and consider the freshness of those early brother, how that the testimony was so strong.
In England in the early days that it was drawing a good deal of attention, even in Plymouth, England alone, and there was such a work of grace.
And the heart of the people was so devoted to the Lord that the collections were overflowing. They were put jewelry and things in the collection, and they hardly knew what to do with all those selections. They were displacing poverty in the community. And finally the authorities had to recognize it and lower the tax base. Oh, no wonder the enemy made such an attack against the freshness of that testimony.
00:25:28
In Plymouth, England.
So if we make comparisons like that and say well.
Things were nothing like they were in the early days of those present. And by the way, I'll say this, I'm very thankful.
That God put it in the heart of those early brothers to put into print the truth that they were laying hold out. Because it doesn't seem as though we're making such progress like that today. And I'm very thankful to be able to go to that good old written ministry. And let me tell you, just cannot find anything modern on the shelves to equal it. Not unless the person has been under the sound of the truth and has.
Appreciated and valued the writings of the old brother. But let's just put it this way, that I believe that most of what we have now is as a result of the writings of those early threatens. If you didn't get it for yourself, you got it through your forefathers who perhaps got it from these writings. And if they, if not directly, maybe they got it through their forefathers. But that's very scriptural in this order, and I'm so thankful.
That those brethren were reading the writings of the old brother because in effect, I more or less grew up in the assembly at Denver and the ministry I heard I appreciate it. And that those that were giving out that ministry, they appreciated the writings of the old brothers. So let's not despise these things. Let's consider the heritage that God has given us, and let's recognize how favored we are to have.
The truth, and even Christendom as a whole, benefited from the truth of those early drivers and I can remember.
John Russen was listening to a certain radio creature that was good and he he said he was started and he said as he listened he said what else J&D and he checked it out and sure enough it was JMD synopsis.
Verbatim. So you see, I believe the benefit of those writings have spread all over Christendom. But are they retaining them? Are they keeping them? Well, we can see how busy Satan is to try and offset the the result of that valuable ministry and to bring back in the old errors that people were steeped in back in the early days. Like Covenant Theology for one thing, and that line of things that.
That was not clear back in the days of the reformers and even before them, but thank God for dispensational truth and teaching. Anyway, this was a great problem, and I believe that the Prophet is trying to help them to see what caused this discouragement, what caused them to slack off from the work. Verse 4. Yet now be strong, oh Zerubbabel, saith the Lord, and be strong.
O Joshua, son of Joseph the high priest, and be strong. All the people of the land, saith the Lord, and work for I am with you, saith the Lord of hosts. Isn't that beautiful? What encouragement, how gracious, that God we have, and he would encourage them to be strong, Is that good advice for us today? To be strong in the Lord and in the power of his mind, put on the whole armor of God. We need that advice and instruction today because.
The enemy will make his attack any way that he can, so we need that advice to be strong in the Lord.
I am with you, saith the Lord, verse five, according to the word that I covenanted with you when he came out of Egypt. So my spirit remains among you. Fear ye not. What is he saying? I believe, brother, and he's saying that I'm the very same God that delivers your descendants out of Egypt. I haven't changed. My power is not one bit diminished. I'm the very same God. I can do everything.
And don't look for such miraculous things as that. I'm the same God, But don't look for miraculous things with that. And in fact, we don't have any miracles in the book of Ezra and Nehemiah and Haggai and Zechariah, we don't have any miracles.
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And it is in the time of miracles today, as far as the church is concerned. In the early days, when the testimony was so fresh and new, God confirmed it with miraculous powers. But we need to remember that the apostle did not want to infer that the apostle did not want to interfere with the ways of God, with his old and less trophimus at Malibu, 6 and such things as that gave advice to Timothy.
But God was working in a miraculous way at that time to confirm the testimony. But He is not working in that way now. He can, of course, work miracles, we know that. But I believe there is a lesson for us in this respect. But it's the same God that He's not diminished one bit in his power, and we have indeed the power of prayer now.
How do it verse 6 For thus saith the Lord of hosts.
Yes, it is a little while. And I will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land, and I will shake all nations, and the desire of all nations shall come, and I will fill this house with glory, saith the Lord of hosts. Now what's this all about?
Here he presents him as the Lord of hosts. That's like Jehovah of armies, you know. When God takes the lead, who can stand up against His power as that? And the day is coming when He will indeed shake up all nations and put down all opposition to his purposes and to his Kingdom. I believe that's how he was seeking to encourage this weakened people.
Little remnant, they were surrounded by these hostile peoples that resented what they were doing. And yet God had moved the heart of the Persian king to make this decree so that they could do this work and they needed to just simply depend upon the Lord. We didn't read it, but back there in Ezra chapter 5 and in chapter 6, you know, when they begin to rebuild again and to go about this work, immediately, the enemy takes alarm and says, what are you doing?
And they just tell them very plainly what they're doing. And the enemy says, oh, you can't do this. And immediately they send word to the king. But there's a change of circumstances because the governor, Pat and I, that was in command at that time or had the oversight of that particular area.
Was a man of integrity. We can be very thankful for that, can we not?
For men in office that do have integrity, and it appears to me that he was an honest man and he was concerned with what they were doing because he knew that there was an injunction against them and has. So he writes out everything that's said to him and he doesn't color it up. He doesn't try to make a case against them. He just simply sends to the Kingdom.
Persia a true report, a true account of what he heard, what they said. And so the the whole case came before the Persian king at that time.
And so he thought, well, perhaps we'd better make search and see if this is true, that they did have a decree to do this thing. And he did make search, and lo and behold, he did find the decree of Cyrus that.
Allowed this work to go on and when he found that decree.
He recognized that he had made an illegal decree, and so it was immediately nullified. And he recognized that. And so he made a rescript of what Cyrus had given out. And not only that, but he added a real warning to anybody that stood in opposition to it. All we've got to do is trust the Lord, that's the thing, and let him take care of the consequences.
00:35:04
The work is his, and we can just trust him to see it through. And I believe that certainly holds true today. And so he's reminding the people here of what's to come. And I think this is exactly the way Zachariah speaks to the people too. He looks way off ahead, even past the time of the church period. That's just a a blank here that that wouldn't be a thing known at all.
And he looks way on to that day when the Lord would make his appearing and He would shake all nations, and the desire of all nations would come. Verse seven. Well, what is that? The desire of all nations. Peace and quietness and safety. They're not. They're not going to get it. Not until the Prince of Peace takes control. Oh, they're so long for stability and peace and order.
But they won't have it till he takes control. And then in connection with that, he says, And I will fill this house with glory, saith the Lord of Hope, oh, I believe in connection with the desire of all nations will be a government, a central government, that will bring control into the world.
And the world will have that. And where will that government be? It'll be in Jerusalem. It will be the center of the whole earth. But of course, it will be the rule of the heavens too. And we will share in it from a heavenly standpoint, with Christ.
What is he saying here in verse 8? The silvers mind and the gold is mine, saith the Lord of hosts.
Well, the thought that comes before me is this, that God knows all about values. We don't have to tell him about value.
Let's consider the value he places upon the present testimony to the name and to the glory of the Lord Jesus.
He knows all about values. The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, saith the Lord of Hosts. Verse 9. The glory of this latter house. I believe this it could be worded in this way. The latter glory of this house shall be greater than the former, saith the Lord of hosts. And in this place will I give peace, saith the Lord of hosts. Well.
The latter glory. What is that?
Is that millennial temple and what a description that far exceeds the size and the glory of Solomon's Temple. It's so large in the temple area is so large that it will be towards the north of Jerusalem. You know, that's a very interesting thing because.
They are extremely anxious to get the present temple site back in order to build a temple.
It seems amazing to me that they miss they miss what we have described.
In Ezekiel, Because in the book of Ezekiel, from chapter 40 on, somewhere about there we have in great detail the Millennial temple, and it's fast in size and it's got to be, because representatives of peoples of the whole world will have to come up to Jerusalem as the Feast of Tabernacles and acknowledge the God of Israel, the God of all the earth. They will have to do that. And so it will be vast in size.
And it surprises me that they don't recognize that now.
Instead, their whole focus is upon that temple area and it's very interesting thing. But actually the original site, they have proven this. Jewish archaeologists have proven that the original temple site is not on the Mosque of Omar, but rather it is to the north of the Mosque of Omar. They could easily reconstruct a temple and perhaps they will in a very hurried way after we are gone.
Because the enemy will tear it down again. Only pitiful, isn't it? And there's no way that they can have a testimony like that until the Lord Jesus truly establishes it. So he doesn't even consider what they will do in their own self will at that time. He will indeed hold them responsible in connection with that Tribulation temple as we may refer to it, but he he makes no consideration of it. He goes right past that thought.
00:40:09
And considers the Millennial temple.
Its latter glory, but it's all one in the same house now. That's something that should be very interesting to us.
It's always referred to as the same house.
What did we learn from that?
Well, it's I believe it was parallel. It would equate in thought with the truth of the one body. The body of Christ, you know was formed on the day of Pentecost and has continued on since that time. And it is God that is adding to that body And there is scripture says one body and every true St. of God here in Pella throughout Iowa, throughout the world is a member of the body of Christ.
But the great question is, are they expressing the truth of the one body? That's another thing. That's another thing.
To express it in a practical way. Well, if we're going to express the truth of the one body in a practical way, we must consider other truths connected with the truth of the Church.
And certainly we cannot neglect the truth connected with the House of God.
Now, I suppose some of you may realize that our dear brother Flem Buchanan got into a good deal of trouble because he came out with an excellent article in the January issue of Christian Treasury, and I would just recommend it to your reading about the body of Christ and the House of God. You cannot separate the truth of the word of God. You cannot claim and practice the truth of the one body and neglect the truth of the House of God because with the truth of the House of God.
Comes the absolute necessity of discipline, which is carried out in a local way, you see, and is acknowledged by all in a practical sense, when we consider the body of Christ. So we must, we must not set Scripture against Scripture, and we must rightly divide the word of Truth, and we must recognize that it all has its place.
But that thought came before me, that it was always looked at as the same house as it were.
The body is 1.
So he's telling.
These this remnant company to look ahead if we're going to make comparisons. Let's not compare the present with the former or we'll get discouraged. That was the problem.
Let's compare the former with the future. In other words, the future is glorious. And if we're going to make a comparison now about the little company gathered under the precious name of the Lord Jesus Christ according to the truth of the one body, we're going to make the comparison. Let's compare it with that future glory, when all members of the body of Christ will be together surrounding him.
I've probably said this before, but I enjoy comparing Matthew 1820 you know, where two or three are gathered together unto my name with Second Thessalonians, 21 where Paul says, I beseech you by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together. Under him there's the universal gathering together of all the Saints of God unto him.
But I believe when the Lord made mention of Matthew 1820, he was considering the least possible testimony. Did he perhaps consider the day in which we live when there would be perhaps so few? The testimony has in some places been literally reduced to two and three. Yes, I really believe he was considering the least possible testimony, but let's not look upon that with a feeling of discouragement.
As few as a number, but let's think how glorious it will be in that coming day when all the Saints of God.
Will be perfectly gathered unto him. He will be the center of all. And will each one of us will have our thoughts corrected about these things in that day. The judgment seat of Christ is so necessary. I realize that more and more as I go on, and I'm sure you do too, that we don't want to carry anything into eternity that was put a cloud between our hearts and the Lord we want. We want it to be.
00:45:23
Everything perfectly there or how necessary it is.
And it's true that All Saints of God, every true born again, believer here in hell and in Iowa and in the US and Canada and the world, will all have to appear before the judgment seat of Christ. Yes, we will all be manifested, and how good, how important that is. And it will be of course the kind of rewards, but then a marvelous and wonderful to think of entering into that eternal glory.
Without one cloud, without one thing that would ever cross our conscience and trouble our hearts. Oh no. We'll learn about his love in a way that we have never known before. Instead of being the 50 pence better, we'll realize that we were the 500 pence better. Oh, how thankful we will be in that day to have all these things out of the way and above all to be done with the flesh. That's old man.
Anyway.
He brings some solemn things before them. I would just mention this. You can read it for yourself, but he brings before them the serious principle of identification and defilement.
That comes as a result and through verses 10 through.
Through 14 Very solemn to consider that and to recognize that.
The testimony must be kept pure.
Here's another thing too.
It seems like Haggy Eye will not close his little prophecy for the spirit of God without some special word of encouragement to Zerubbabel. See in verse 21 of this last chapter, this second chapter of Haggai becomes a derubable governor of Judah, saying, I will shake the heavens and the earth and I will overthrow the throne of kingdoms and I will destroy the strength of kingdoms of the heathen and I will overthrow the Chariots and those that write in them and the horses and their riders.
Shall come down, everyone of them, by the sword of his brother in that day, saith the Lord of hosts, I will take Fields Iruppable, my servant, the son of Shelfield, saith the Lord, and I will make thee a signal, for I have chosen thee, saith the Lord of hosts. Well, isn't that? And nice encouragement to rubble to indicate that he would have some special recognition in that coming day, because he was a son of David.
He was linked with the royal family.
But as I said before, he could not reign as a king because of a curse upon his household that came down through Jekyll Niam.
But he was a faithful man of God, and he functioned faithfully as a governor, even though he was a real Prince and.
Peggy, I wanted him to know. Or I should say the Lord wanted him to know, that he would have special recognition in that day. And of course, he will thrill to see David's greater son take the throne and rule supreme over this whole world. Now let's go to Zechariah for a brief moment.
And the thing I would just like to notice is that Zechariah went so much further than Haggai and brought so many things before them that should have made it plain and clear that there was yet a man to come that was the rule supreme over the world.
He really begins to introduce to them the Christ, the one who came as a man in this world.
So that when the Lord Jesus made his entry into this world, there should have been no question whatsoever that he was the one who met all of qualifications of these Old Testament scriptures, particularly the prophecy of Zachariah. If they would, if those Jews would have sincerely, and maybe the Bereans did, I don't know, sincerely read the book of Zacharias, I think they would have had to conclude. Who else could it be but Jesus of Nazareth?
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There it is. But anyway, first of all.
As we remarked before, Haggai focuses primarily on the Temple. Zachariah focuses primarily on Jerusalem, while Jerusalem will be the center in that day. Now it is set aside of course, and the assembly where the Lord Jesus is in the midst is the focal point. And it's very important to notice in the Book of Acts how the Jerusalem fades out of the picture as the center and the assembly.
Especially beginning of Antioch comes into focus where the Lord Jesus is in the midst. So it's important observation. But after we're gone, after we're in glory, His thoughts were turned back again to Israel and his thoughts will turn toward Jerusalem once again and he will take them up in blessings. And there's in the Psalms thoughts of encouragement and comfort for Jerusalem and you'll see.
That this is the thrust of Zechariah's prophecy, but over here in.
Chapter 2 of Zechariah he says in verse 4.
Run speak to this young man, saying, Jerusalem shall be inhabited as towns without walls, for the multitude of men and cattle therein.
And so forth and so forth. Now here again, I believe that Zach arrived by the spirit of God is following the same.
Basic way of encouraging the people as haggy ideas, that is, instead of getting them troubled with the weak state of things and the ruined state of Jerusalem. Because remember, it wasn't until Nehemiah came that they got serious about putting up those walls. Well remember this, he he's saying don't consider present things, but look ahead and consider that the day is coming.
Jerusalem will be so full of people that it will overflow, as it were. And this is the way in which the Prophet sought to encourage the people. But let's go on here. We already considered chapter 4, but notice in chapter 3 how he begins to bring before them the one who would bring this all about.
Verse 8 of chapter 3.
Here now, O Joshua, the high priest, thou and thy fellows that sit before thee, for they are men, wondered at for behold, I will bring forth my servants a branch.
Do I need to tell you who that is? There's only one that would meet the qualification, and the branch here is like a a nice viable shoot that's coming up out of the ground.
And this is the time of year you watch for those things, isn't it? And so here it is. You know what it says in Isaiah 53. He was as a root, out of dry ground. Do you remember that? If they'd only acknowledge that, they would have only recognized, like Peter says, so would the days of refreshing come and so forth. It would have ushered, as it were, in the Millennium. But of course we knew that in God's purposes and counsels, he had the church in mind.
But the day is coming when he will shoot forth again, you know, and he'll grow up in his place. And you're watching and waiting to see those shoots get taller and taller and to make great progress, are you not Through the growing season until harvest time. And so he'll grow right up in his place. And this is, of course, is what the Prophet is seeking to bring before them, My servant, the branch, you know, if you took all these places where we had brands. And the thought is like a.
Plant shooting up through the ground. If you took all these places, you would see that they correspond in thought to the four Gospels. Who else meets the qualification? But the Lord Jesus hears the service. So that brings the servant Gospel before us. Mark's Gospel, right? And you'll see that there are other passages that suggest the branch that bring Matthew's Gospel before she looks gospel before John's Gospel before. Who else could it be but the Lord Jesus?
And.
Now let's go on here.
Over to Chapter 6.
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This is very interesting.
Verse 11.
Then take silver and gold and make crowns. Now we're talking about crowns. You know, if you went to the New Testament to read about a crown of rejoicing, a crown of glory, a crown of life. You see, now we're reading about crowns. Does that not suggest us rewards? Does that not suggest to us a time to reign? And we will indeed reign as kings with him? But we get a thought like this here. Then take silver and gold and make crowns and set them upon the head of Joshua, the son of Jostech, the High Priest.
And speak unto him, saying, Thus speak to the Lord of hosts, saying, Behold the man.
Whose name is the branch? Here's Luke's Gospel. The man is mentioned now.
Whose name is the branch. And he shall grow up out of his place and he shall build the temple of the Lord. Now you see how he's trying to encourage the people. He's trying to let them know that there is a special man on his way that would eventually come up in his place. He would build a temple. I was looking on to a millennial day. It's looking on to a time when the Kingdom will be established.
Verse 13 Even he shall build the temple of the Lord, and he shall bear.
The glory and shall sit and rule upon his throne, and he shall be a priest upon his throne, and the counsel of peace shall be between them both, a priest and a king. How do we put that together? Oh, Melchizedek, there's Hebrews 5 and 6:00 and 7:00. If the Melchizedek priesthood is a millennial priesthood and brethren, will we be in association with the Lord Jesus? In that way we are to have made us kings and priests unto God and our Father.
Yes, indeed, we will be associated with him. And here we give it a little thought of some of these associates. Verse 14. And the crown shall be to keel them, and to divide you into Judea, and to him, and to the son of Zephaniah.
Memorial in the Temple of the Lord. Well, verse 14 seems to suggest to me that He will have associates and indeed we will be associated with Him at that time. We do know that when we get into New Testament scripture, but.
Well, let's glean another thought or two here and I see our time is just about running out. So we'll speed through here and.
Notice Chapter 11. Now we're getting into a serious matter. Now the prophet, the spirit of God, has to bring before the people how they would reject this very one who had all the credentials of being the branch and being the one truly scent of God. And what did they do? Verse 12. And I said unto them, if you think good, give me my price. And if not for bear, so they wait for my price. 30 pieces of silver.
There's a thing that was actually fulfilled in the New Testament. They sold him for the price of a slave. Oh, how some. And it just broke everything that God would have done at that time as far as reuniting Israel and Judah and reuniting all the nations under his powerful rule. That's what the beauty and ban is all about. Oh no, they would have to wait. Chapter 12.
Verse 10.
The middle of verse 10 They shall look upon me whom they have pierced. Is that any plainer?
Oh, it's so obvious. Here we've got the whole crucifixion presented to us, and we see how the Lord fulfilled in all these things His coming into the world and so forth. And then chapter 13, verse six, And one shall stand to Him. What are these wounds in thine hands? Then he shall answer those which I was wounded in the House of my friends. I believe that those that raise this question.
Are those connected with the 10 tribes who did not have direct responsibility in the crucifixion. And so here they are now and they're inquiring what's this all about? And he explained it. Chapter 14, verse four. And his feet shall stand in that day upon the Mount of Olives. There he comes. Now he comes actually down into this world to put down his enemy, to come to Jerusalem and to establish his government in Jerusalem.
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And Jerusalem will become the center of the world.
And then over in verse 17 And it shall be that whoso will not come up of all the families of the earth unto Jerusalem, to worship the king, the Lord of hosts, Even upon them shall be no rain, and so forth.
They will be absolutely compelled to acknowledge that righteous rule of government and to acknowledge that came the Lord, of course. Who is it? That's the Lord Jesus Christ or brethren? Isn't it a great mercy? Are are we not thankful that God has moved our hearts to acknowledge Him and we trust to give him the place that is His due now? Can we not acknowledge the present testimony? Is there anything more important?
That we can do than to recognize the testimony to be gathered to His precious name and to own his presence in the midst. We're going to find out in the coming days what the values are. Remember what we read. The silver is mine and the is the and the gold is mine, says the Lord of Hosts. He knows all about Chinese, and just remember we're going to be associated with him in that coming days when He rules supreme over all its world and when Israel has to recognize that.
Their. Their Messiah is not.
Lord's Supper & Passover
Address—L. Judd
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Oh Jesus, Lord, to Georgia no, thy path is all shame and woe for us so meekly crawl all finishes thy work of toil. Thou reap us now the fruit and spoil, exalted by our God. 107 If someone would starve a seed.
Four days on the floor.
The World Committee.
Of our God alone.
So we ask the Lord bless him.
What I'd like to read first of all, with all my heart to continue a little tonight with what?
Was mentioned in the conference.
Solomon chapter 2.
Verse 14.
Oh my God, that art in the cluster of the rock, in the secret places of the stairs. Let me see thy countenance. Let me hear thy voice.
Or squeeze thy voice, and thy countenance is coming.
What one has in one's heart is that we can give joy to Christ. Oh how much he has done for us, how much he desires.
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Our joy, he might say. But he also dear one, we can give him joy.
Let me see thy accountant, let me hear thy voice for please and thy countenance is coming the things that he desires to see it.
Now let's turn to Loop 22, just for a moment.
Route 22.
Verse 7.
Then came the day.
Of unleavened bread when the Passover must be killed.
Surround through Verse 13.
And they went, and found as he had said unto them, and they made ready the Passover.
And when the hours come, he sat down, and the 12 apostles with him. And he said unto them, with desire, or I have heartily desire, desire, I have desire to eat this Passover with you before I suffer.
Were 19 and he took Perez and gave sign and break him and gave under the saying This is my body which is given for you, this do and remember of me.
Likewise also the cup after supper. Say this cup is a New Testament in my blood which is shed for you.
If those words this do in remembrance of Me and in First Corinthians.
Chapter 11.
Verse 23 For I received the Lord that was also unto you, but the Lord Jesus the same night in which he was betrayed the fresh, when he had given time, he break it and said, Take eat, This is my body which is broken for you, this dude, in remembrance of me.
After the same mineral. So he took the cup when he had cup. See this cup is the New Testament in my blood, this two years off as he drinkers in remembrance of meat.
Oh, just that request.
To this do in remembrance of me.
It's a time when we know.
But we're going off with the Lord of Howard to do a lot of turnbucks.
To book a number Chapter 9.
I read that.
Poppage in Luke 22 just to show that the Passover and the remembrance of the Lord and Death are very desperately linked together.
Number Chapter 9.
And the Lord figured the Moses and the wilderness of Sinai in the first month of the second year after they will come out of the land of Egypt, saying, Let the children of Israel also keep the Passover at his appointed season.
Now we went to our 20s verse seven we would find there on the first day of the week. The disciples came together to break bread.
That is why they came together.
Yes, Paul preached under the truth, but their purpose in coming together was to break, right?
An appointed season.
Nothing wrong. We find an Act Two that broke bread from hoax to host.
It's not confined to the first day of the week.
But that was the appointed piece. It came together on the first day of the week, the first fresh, and I would judge from the contents it was in the evening.
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That they.
With a simple reason, we have a day off, you might say, on the Lord's day.
They didn't. They were working undoubtedly seven days a week. We have a privilege having that day set aside in which we are able to remember the Lord man would like to take it from him. He is whittling away at it, but we can thank the Lord we still have.
That privilege of remembering him on the first day of the week. Oh, here, then #9.
Verse three, in the 14th day of this month at even he shall keep us in his appointed season, according to all the rights of us, and according to all the ceremonies there are Shall you keep them?
A mole will speak under the controversial that they should keep the Passover. And they kept the Passover on the 14th day of the first month at even in the wilderness of Sinai. According to all the Lord commanded Moses, so did the children of Israel.
And there were certain men who were defiled by the dead body of a man, that they could not keep the Passover on that day. And they came before Moses, and before Aaron on that day. And those men said unto him, We are defiled by the dead body of a man. Wherefore are we kept by we may not offer an offering of the Lord and his appointed season among the children of Israel. And Moses said unto them, Stand still.
And I will hear what the Lord will command concern you.
Oh dear ones that we only heeded the voice like that, A verse like this, how much trouble it would save us. Stand still and I will hear what the Lord will command concerning you.
We started the beginning of this practice little book, The Book of Numbers.
Time after time is brought home to one that there is no room whatsoever for man's imagination, a man's thought.
All was appointed and regulated by the Lord himself.
The Lord appointed everything.
Named the man by name that were to stand with Moses when the people were numbered.
Everything was detailed to them.
No room for man's imagination. So here stands filled, and I will hear what the Lord will command concern you.
Moses was going to get his directions from the Lord. No thought whatsoever of saying, well, I think you should do this. I think you should do that. His direction was going to come from the law. Now they had detailed directions.
Our directions are not so detailed, but they're there. We have the word of God, and we have the Spirit of God to guide us.
Serve as God to diagnose people.
And if we're having open air, we will indeed guide her.
And the Lord figured the Moses, saying, he's under the children of Israel, saying, any man of you or of your posterity shall be unclean by reason of a dead body, or be in a journey afar off, yet he shall keep the path over unto the Lord.
The 14th day of the second month of evening they shall keep it, and even with unleavened bread and bitter herbs they shall leave none of that unto the morning, nor break any bones of us. According to all the ordinances of the Passover they shall keep them.
It was recognized that there might be a moral or physical reason why they couldn't keep the Passover.
And I say the Passover is very closely related to our remembrance of the Lord.
A moral or physical reason. They were defiled by the dead body of a man. Death was the result of sin.
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You haven't been very lost. Let me turn to James, Chapter one.
Voted correctly or read it correctly then.
James One and verse 13.
But no man say when he is tempted, I'm tempted of God, For God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempt to see any man. But every man is tempered when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Then when lust has conceived, it bringeth forth sin and sin. When this finish bringeth forth death.
Dead body for mine.
The result of sin.
Well, they were defiled by that.
Let the resolve. Though the Lord doesn't stop at their present problem, he gives further instruction. It might be on a journey afar off.
These things are recognized. The law doesn't expect to always say the impossible.
But then if they couldn't keep it on the 14th day of the first month, they were to keep it on the 14th day of the second month. You find that was done for the whole assembly, whole congregation of Israel. In the time of Hezekiah, they weren't able to keep it. On the 14th day of the first month, things were too rough.
And the priests, these lights, they hadn't purified themselves, and so they kept it on the 14th day of the second month.
Oh dear, one Julia has a voice for.
There is reason, good reason, why we may not be able to remember the Lord.
But are they reason that we can prevent to the Lord?
Hezekiah have a wreath need to prevent to the Lord.
At retire prayed for them, and the Lord pardoned them.
But whatever the reasons is, are we able, are we able to prevent those reasons for the law?
I just noticed the next word, verse 13. But the man that is clean and is not in a journey, and for bear to keep the Passover even the same soul shall be cut off from among his people, because he brought him off the offering of the Lord and his appointed season, That man shall bear his sin.
Well, the throne of those who are under the law, we're not, but because we're not under the law.
While God may not cut us off now, yet, at the same time should that make us any less bizarre.
Of answering to his request.
And the thought that one had in mind, this is what would bring joy to his heart.
Bring joy to the heart of the law, that we might do that which he has requested.
I want to turn to Deuteronomy chapter 26.
You're only 26.
And we'll start at verse one.
And it shall be when our come in unto the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee for an inheritance, and possesses it, and dwelleth therein, that thou shalt take of the first of all the fruit of the earth, which thou shalt bring all thy land unto the Lord thy God. I'm sorry.
Which also bring all thy land that the Lord thy God giveth thee, and shall put it in a basket, and shall go under the place which the Lord thy God shall choose to place his name there.
Thou shall go unto the priest that shall be in those days, and say unto him, I profess this day unto the Lord thy God, that I am Come unto the country which the Lord flare unto our Father, Forgive us, and the priest shall take the basket out of thy hand, and set it down before the altar of the Lord thy God.
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The place there was a place chosen to which they were to bring their offerings, their sacrifices. They were to bring them to that place which the Lord has killed.
There was a physical place in this case.
And later on.
Gurukul.
At the start with your shadow.
Let's just keep your fingers there and go back to the.
49 I believe.
Jonathan 49 and verse 10.
Receptor.
Showing off, depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh comes, and unto him.
So the gathering of the people be noticed that pronoun him.
Until Shiloh come, and unto him shall the gathering of the people be Kyle was both a place, a place where the Tabernacle was first set up when the charter was going into the promised land. Also a person for them. It was a place for us. It's a person. So I will the Lord Jesus Christ.
Those style of common unto him.
All the gathering with the old days. So there way back in general we have foreshadows. We would be gathered around the person of Christ.
And so here they go, to the place where the Lord has placed his name.
All we're so familiar with that work machines forward two or three are gathered together.
Under my name.
There am I in the midst of them. There am I in the midst of them.
A person, a person of Christ.
Good. On to the 10 for.
And now, behold, I have brought the first fruit of the land which thou Lord hath given me, and thou shalt set it before the Lord thy God, and workers before the Lord thy God.
For fruit they were not to eat.
Of the fruit of the land until they had offered this sacrifice. Dr. Leviticus 23.
Verse 19.
I'm sorry, verse 10.
Speak under the throne of Israel, and say unto them, When ye become into the land which I give unto you, and shall reach the harvest thereof, then ye shall bring a sheaf of the first fruits of your harvest onto the priest. He shall wave the sheep before the Lord to be accepted for you on the moral after the Sabbath, the priest awakened.
On the Morrow after the Sabbath. That was the first day of the week.
The moral after the father.
Verse 14 And ye shall eat neither bread.
Our park, corn or green here until the self same day that ye have brought an offering under your galls. It will be a statue forever throughout your generations, in all your dwellings. Christ rose from the dead on the first day of the week.
That was the Resurrection Day.
The day when they should have been offering the seat of the first group.
And they were not to eat of that new crop until they had offered that piece of the first fruit.
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What about power? The Ode of Christ must have the 1St place. The Lord must have the first place in our lives.
We give him the first place.
When Elijah went to Zarephath to that little woman.
And he was going to be sustained by that widow woman.
He met the woman at the gate and he asked for a drink of water and as she was going to get the drink of water, he said bring me a morsel of bread. Then the truth came out.
She had only enough meal left to make one tape for herself.
And her son, she is going to bait her and they are going to eat it and die. That was how bad the famine was.
I just said don't do 1000 only bring me a little taste first.
Well, again, the picture of.
Christ, having the first place, do we give it to us?
Always so loving and patient to us.
I have to ask my own heart. Do I give him the 1St place always?
And so often one finds failure in oneself.
I wouldn't look within.
We look off to Christ if we confess our sins, He is faithful and justice or giveth our sins in the cleanse us of all unlike.
Oh, there is failure in it. We know it. But there was Because Christ died on the cross. There is no sin on us.
There are no excuse for but if any man said we have an advocate with the Father Jesus Christ, the Righteous God.
Yes, there are ones. He has made provision for all our failures. As I say, there's no excuse for that failure. But he has made for reason for and we should indeed give him the first place in our lives.
And verse eleven of our chapter.
And thou shalt rejoice in every good thing which the Lord thy God hath given unto thee.
And on the Rhine house thou and the Levite, and the stranger that is among you.
Yes, God would have us to rejoice and all that He's given to us.
And what is he given to us? Bless us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ.
Oh, we had that so much before there in the meeting.
Wondered grace and love of God and all that he's given to us.
Oh dear one, we would desire them to bring joy to his heart.
Well, let us go on.
2.
Luke 22.
Word 7.
Then came the Day of Unleavened Bread, when the Passover must be killed.
Now what was the Passover?
First, Passover was kept in the land of Egypt.
Is run the first path over?
Turn box. Keep your fingers here. We'll come back to it. Let's turn back to Exodus Dr. 12, Chapter 11.
Work for.
And Moses said, Exodus 11 and verse four. And Moses said, Thus saith the Lord, about midnight will I go out into the midst of Egypt, and all the first born in the land of Egypt shall die.
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I know if it doesn't say all the first born of the Egyptians.
All the first born in the land of Egypt, so God.
Where were the children of Israel? In the land of Egypt? They came under that sentence of judgment just as much as the Egyptians.
The order made provision.
They were told to take a line and kill that lion.
And this blood was to be sprinkled.
And all. There's a thought there that's dear to my heart. That lion was killed. Its blood was caught in the basement.
But the first born looking face.
The first form of not faith until that blood was put on the lentil and the two shifts until it was sprinkled.
There was Christ has died, but only those that put their trust in Him, except Him a stages.
But our faith that our faith.
Christ has died. His love has been shed. There is provision made for the salvation of everyone.
It's unto all, It's upon all and the police.
And so little provision is made with only those that believe.
And it's a sovereign grace that is brought each one of them is what our trust inside.
Well.
Here we find then that God is acting as a judge.
Not a failure. Here in the Passover, God is acting as a judge.
God is going through the land of Egypt to execute judgment.
I don't think here I can't lay my eyes on just at the moment.
God was going through that land of Egypt to execute judgment and all the gods of Egypt.
On the first floor.
God is still a judge today.
And the thinner that is not sheltered by the blood of Christ will find God.
At the Red Sea.
God was found there as a savior. There they were delivered from all the power of Pharaoh and on the cross.
The Lord Jesus delivered us from all Satan power. Yes, there he is being in the season we're going back on to Luke 22. I just make those comments on the parcel.
It looks like to that night.
When God passed through the land of Egypt with the God.
And all remembrance of the Lord looked by to that time.
In those hours of darkness on the cross.
And Christ made atonement for our things, for your sins and mine.
All judgment fell. God was a judge, but our sins were laid on the head of Christ, and He bore the blessed.
All we find there the other aspect.
We were delivered from all faith and power.
Right. Fully satisfied a holy and a righteous God concerning the question of our sin.
The fins of everyone will put their constant price that settled there at the cross and can never be raised again against.
And thereto we were delivered of all Satan's policy.
The Lord is now in Luke 22 Then came the Day of Unleavened Bread, when the Passover must be killed.
The Passover hadn't been killed there that night. Needed.
00:35:00
All the first born, the children would have died.
If Christ had not gone to that process, Calvin.
And there accomplished that worker redemption.
Every one of them would have been lost and lost. These things the Passover must be killed.
Yeah, it was necessary that twice, though, that I crossed the houses. God's judgment was about to fall and it fell on the sinless victim. And you and I drove 3.
Now it was without before him the thought that he was going to that cross to be the sin bearer, the sin offering.
Very quote these words, this dude and remember of the oh how he desired that we might remember him.
And in doing so, it brings joy to his heart, joy to his heart and his redeemed would think of him.
Oh, it might turn over to Revelation.
Chapter 2.
Revelation after two birth codes.
Let me just go back for a moment to chapter one.
First, wow. And I turn to see the voice that speak of me.
Being turned, I saw 7 golden candlesticks, and in the midst of the seven candlesticks, one life under the Son of Man.
Clothed with a garment down to the foot and dirt about the pops with a golden girdle.
His head and his hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were as a flame of fire.
They speak like undefined brass, as if they burned in a furnace, and his voice as the sound of many waters.
And he had in his right hand seven stars, and out of his mouth when the sharp 2 edged sword.
And his countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength.
When I saw him, I saw his feet instead. And he laid his right hand upon me, saying unto me, Fear not, I am the 1St and the last. I am he that liveth and was dead, and behold, I'm alive forevermore. Amen. Have the keys of hell and of death.
I'll keep your fingers there and we'll go back to the book of Hebrews Chapter 3.
Hebrew three and verse 6.
But Christ as a thong over his own house.
Whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope, firm under the end Christ as a son over his own house? This is what we see here in Revelation 1.
Revelation One and chapter Two and three. Christ as a son over his own house.
And he's here, shall we say, commenting on what he sees in.
Dear Sandwich.
He commented on what he sees in the assembly.
Nothing escapes his eyes.
At all I'm here with Ephesus, the one I keep, the one to look at on the age of the Church of Ephesus write these things, that he that holds the seven stars in his right hand, who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks.
I know thy work now. If we read all I wanted to send to the churches, you would find that phrase.
In every address, the address lease church, I know thy work.
00:40:05
Nothing escaped his eyes.
I know thy work, and thy labor, and thy patience.
And how thou hast not bear them which are evil, and thou hast pride them which see their apostles, and are not, and that found them liars, and hath born, and hath patients, And for my name's sake hath labored, and hath not painted.
Nevertheless, I have against you, because thou hast left thy first love.
Now it's left thy first love.
Their love towards the blessed Savior.
Was not what it was at the beginning.
Thou select thy first love.
OK, keep your fingers there and go back to first Thessalonians.
Chapter One.
And verse 2.
We give thanks to God always for you all. Make mention of you in our prayers, remembering without ceasing your work, of faith and labor, of love and patience, of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, in the sight of God and our Father.
Knowing brother and beloved, your election of God, I notice a work of faith.
Revelation 2. I know thy work doesn't say a work of faith.
And labor of love.
I know thy work and thy labor.
Oh, can I give you no upgrades?
I see.
Many here there are housewives.
Now do you prepare the meals because you have to or because you love to take to your family?
The vast difference?
You're going to hire somebody and they come in, they do their work to get their wages.
That the mother does the work, the Christian loves her family. What a difference there is in the motive. And this is what was lacking in Africa and patience of hope.
Well, do you just go on from day-to-day? Because that's the right thing to do?
That was not necessary. Or do we see at the end of the day?
Or while the day is in progress, that moment when Christ, they come and call us the meeting in the air.
Dear ones, that is the patient support. We go on laboring, Expect to see them at any moment and all that makes the day go quicker. Not just labouring because it's necessary, not just going on because we could, no.
Looking for the Lord to come? Well, that was lacking here in Africa.
And he had to save all his left life for love.
Now let us go on remember therefore from whence our fallen.
And repent and do the first work, or else I will come unto thee quickly.
And we'll remove thy Candlestick out of his fleece. Accept our repent.
With this thou hast thou hatest the deeds of the Nicolettans, which I also hate. All the Lord was going to say every good thing about them they could, and I don't think there's any one of us could measure up to what the Lord could say about emphasis.
With their assembly.
But there is a ploy in their love towards Christ, but not what it should be.
Verse 7.
He's 1/2 an ear. Let him hear what the Spirit says under the churches. To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradigm.
A man had the right to eat of the tree of life at one time.
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In the Garden of Eden he was never prohibited from eating of the Tree of Life. But when man sinned, God turned mine out of the garden, lest he eat of the Tree of Life and live forever.
God had to turn mine out of the garden, lest he eat with the tree of life and live forever.
Now what do we find here? Again? Man has the right to eat of the tree of life in the midst of the paradise of God. What has made the difference of the Prophet sight?
It's the cross of Christ that has come in. And now, because Christ has died for us, our sins have been put away.
We can now eat the tree of life.
In the midst of the Paradise of God, Oh dear one.
Should that not recall our heart?
Through that first problem, that which was set before them in reality, I believe was the cross of Christ.
And what he had done for them.
How he has again opened up the way for them to be in the very presence of God.
Planned from all sins. And this is what he put before those dear ones and messages, and it's what he was set before us.
That what Christ has done for him.
Well, let's go over to Revelation Places.
About Revelation 21 for a moment.
Verse 4.
God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes. There should be no more death, neither star nor cry, neither shall there be any more pain, for the former finger passed away.
Those things we can understand, We know what sorrow is. Crying is death.
We know all those things, Pain. We have suffered those things.
To invest in our loved ones.
All that is done away with. But that's the negative side. What about the positive side? Well, we have been developed 3 structures. But the Apollo Paul caught up to the 3rd heaven, the very presence of God. What he saw there was such that he couldn't describe. There's no word in which he could describe the glory, the beauty of that place.
No words and wishes to describe what he heard there One doesn't. That's the positive thought.
God has revealed to us that which we can take in.
But the glories are roughly you'll have to wait until we're there and receive them in company with Christ.
On verse nine of Revelation 21.
And I came unto me, one of the seven angels that had the seven vials, four of the seven last plates, and talked with me, saying, Come hit her, I will show thee the bride, the lambs wife.
When to see the Bride, the Lamb's wife, And he carried me away in the spirit of great and high among.
And showed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, defending out of heaven from Gaul, having the glory of God. And her light was like unto a stone most practice, even like a Jasper, so clear as crystal.
I'll just go back to Revelation 4.
Birth to.
And immediately I was in the Spirit and behold, a throne that sat in heaven and one sophomore.
And here fireplace to look upon like a Jasper and a starving soul. And there was a rainbow round about the throne and sight like unto an emerald.
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He that thought was the look upon like a Jasper and a pardon. So.
The bride like a Jasper soul.
The one without Rome. Like a gasp or a pardon stone, he has placed his glory upon them.
Yes, we're reflecting his glory. God is going to have a family there in glory.
A family redeemed center, and we're going to reflect his license.
Yeah, we're having the season holy and without playing before him in love.
Now in Revelation 22.
Just go over to.
Verse 16.
I Jesus, I sent mine Angel to testify and do these things in the churches.
I am the root and the offspring of David and the bright and morning stars. I am the root, the originator of all the promises.
And the bright and the morning star all the love. Ezra looked for him as the sun of righteousness.
Will arise with healing in his wings we look for as the bright and morning star.
Although we look for.
We hold these things below as a doctrine. We believe it, but does it have that effect on our daily lives?
Are we really looking for him? Every man that hath this hope in him purifies himself, even as he is pure. All I ask my own heart.
Do I really hold these things practically or is this going to be adopted?
Are we looking forward with joy to that moment when we'll be with him?
Remember dear ones, where the bride think of what joy he is, looking forward to that moment when he can claim his garage and take her hold to dwell with him on high.
All of Elohim says. Trim your lands and be ready for the bridegrooms now.
And the Spirit and the bride say, Come, yes, the Spirit of God will work in our hearts.
We might cry out Even so Come, Lord to spirit, and the bride stay. Come.
And let him and hear us, they come.
Yes, there's other. My well desire is coming.
A welded virus. Government may not be in the full intelligence of it, but they desire to see the ones everybody.
And let him as the first come.
All our birthday souls out there, and they can come, and whosoever will let him take the water of life field, whosoever will oh here at the very end of scripture.
The very end of this precious book, the invitation without whosoever will.
7 takes the water of life field verse 20.
He would testify these things that surely I come quickly.
Now is the response of our hearts. Amen. Even so come, Lord Jesus.
Another sad story. You have heard it before.
Surely I come quickly the last promise in scripture.
Amen. Even so come Lord Jesus, the last prayer of Scripture.
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.
The last provincial people that grace will see us stay full to God and all dearly on our way to glory.
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Remember.
The Lord has said, Let me see thy countenance, Let me hear thy voice.
For three His thyroid and thy countenance is coming. He wants to see it, He wants to hear it. We bring joy to his heart.
As we speak to do that which is pleasing in this place. Just a verb. Well, I believe we read it before.
Maybe First Corinthians 7?
Verse 33.
But he that is married cares for the things that are of the world. How you mislead his wife.
Now Christ does not care for the things of the world, and he says of us they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.
That's still how much he is softened to do for our joy.
Now.
The end of verse 34. But she that is married terrorists are the things of the world. How she may please her husband?
Where the bride of Christ allows who we seek with these things, that our object down here to bring joy to his heart that speaks to please Him.
Oh dear one every ponder.
And may reconsider that. He wants to see our countenance, He wants to hear our voice. That brings joy to his heart. That he might do so.
Maybe we can clean 100 in seconds?
Oh Lord, the joy of look above and see beyond the throat.
Search the heights and best of love withdraw to us.
To look beyond the long dark nights and hail the coming days and thou to all thy faith and light.
Our glory will persuade 106 to someone starter please.
Four to join you.
And.
Save all of the world.
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One was up.
We need to dwell.
On the loss of First to us.
Dwell on his love to us.
Wants to draw out our affection with him.
Our Blessed.
Old Prophet of Bethel
Address—C. Hendricks
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
Shall we be holding on thy throne and sit forever with me there? Then let the world approve or blame.
Triumph in thy glorious.
2/26.
And a dull gracious.
Life.
Shunted.
In all day, all my soul.
And take forest.
And let me.
Hear that light in our world.
Our lives are playing.
We'll try.
Again, I.
Glowed as many.
I am not allowed now.
Till.
Now.
What Transformers family?
Our hearts.
Are.
Last name.
I thought I heard the Time the Lord's sleep ourselves.
Are.
Our God and our Father, we thank Thee.
Turn to Deuteronomy 17.
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Deuteronomy 17.
Verse 14.
When thou art come unto the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee, and shall possess it, and shall dwell therein, and shalt say, I will set a king over me, like as all the nations that are about me, Thou shalt in any wise set him king over thee, Whom the Lord thy God shall choose one from among thy brethren, shalt thou set king over thee? Thou mayest not set a stranger over thee, which is not thy brother.
But he shall not multiply horses to himself, nor cause the people to return to Egypt.
To the end that he should multiply horses.
For as much as the Lord hath said unto you, ye shall not ye shall henceforth return no more that way, neither shall we multiply wives to himself, that his heart turn not away, neither shall he greatly multiply to himself silver and gold. And it shall be, when he sitteth upon the throne of his Kingdom, that he shall write him a copy of this law in the book, out of that which is before the priest the Levites.
And it shall be with him, and he shall read therein all the days of his life.
That he may learn to fear the Lord his God, to keep all the words of this law, and these statutes to do them.
That his heart be not lifted up above his brethren, and that he turned out aside from the commandment, to the right hand or to the left.
To the end that He may prolong his days and his Kingdom, He and His children, in the midst of Israel.
Now let's turn to 1St Kings 10.
Verse 23.
So King Solomon exceeded all the kings of the earth for riches and for wisdom.
And all the earth sought to Solomon to hear his wisdom, which God had put in his heart.
And they brought every man his present vessels of silver, and vessels of gold, and garments, and armor and spices, horses and mules, a great year by year.
And Solomon gathered together Chariots and horsemen, and he had 1400 Chariots and 12,000 horsemen.
Whom He bestowed in the cities for Chariots, and with the king of Jerusalem.
And the king made silver to be in Jerusalem as stones and Cedars, made he to be as the Sycamore trees that are in the veil for abundance.
And Solomon had horses brought out of Egypt and linen yarn. The King's merchants received the linen yarn at a price.
And a chariot came up and went out of Egypt for 600 shekels of silver, and in horse for 150. And so for all the kings of the Hittites, and for the kings of Syria did they bring them out by their means.
But King Solomon loved many strange women, together with the daughter of Pharaoh, women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomite, Sidonians, and Hittites of the nations concerning which the Lord said unto the children of Israel, Ye shall not go into them, neither shall they come in unto you, for surely they will turn away your heart. After their gods. Solomon clave unto these in love.
When he had 700 wives, princesses and 300 concubines, and his wives turned away his heart.
Where it came to pass, when Solomon was old, that his wives turned away his heart after other gods, and his heart was not perfect with the Lord his God, as was the heart of David, whose father. But Solomon went after Ashtaroth, the goddess of the Zeidonians, and after Milcombe the abomination of the Ammonites. And Solomon did evil in the sight of the Lord, and went not fully after the Lord, as did David his father.
Then did Solomon build a high place for chimash, the abomination of Moab in the hill that is before Jerusalem?
And for Molech the abomination of the children of Ammon, and likewise did he for all his strange wives, which burnt incense and sacrificed unto their gods.
And the Lord was angry with Solomon because his heart was turned from the Lord God of Israel.
Which had appeared unto him twice, and had commanded him concerning this thing, that he should not go after other gods.
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But he kept not that which the Lord commanded. Wherefore the Lord said unto Solomon, For as much as this is done of thee.
And now it's not kept my covenant and my statutes which I have commanded thee.
I will surely rend the Kingdom from thee, and will give it to thy servant notwithstanding in thy days. I will not do it for David, my father's thy father's sake, but I will rend it out of the hand of thy son, Albeit I will not rend away all the Kingdom, but will give one tribe to thy son for David, my servant's sake, and for Jerusalem's sake which I have chosen.
It's interesting that.
Everything that we read of the king being forbidden as Solomon did, he multiplied horses that would speak of natural strength, strength of his army.
The king of Israel was to look to the Lord for his strength, for his protection, not to his.
Courses or Is Great Harming multiplied Silver and Gold in Jerusalem?
It's so beautiful to see how he began.
He didn't ask for silver and gold. He didn't ask for power. He didn't ask for riches and for fame. He asked for wisdom that he might lead and guide that so great a people. And the Lord gave him that wisdom. As we read, the Solomon had wisdom exceedingly, and all the kings of the earth stopped to him.
But he allowed these other requirements to, especially his wives, to turn away his heart.
Now he was reading the word of the Lord every day. He was to read in it, to learn the word of the Lord, and to follow it, and to walk in it. And then there would be blessing.
It says that the Lord was angry with Solomon because his heart was turned from the Lord God of Israel, which had appeared unto him twice, and we read when he was old.
That is, wives turned away his heart. There's four natural goals that motivate the natural man for goals that motivate the natural man.
Our riches, pleasure and faith.
Solomon had them all. He had power. He had the riches.
And he certainly had the pleasure with 700 wives and 300 concubines.
And he was the most famous of all the kings.
And yet, when we read the book of Ecclesiastes, he tells us that it's vanity.
It doesn't satisfy its emptiness. Vanity of vanity is always vanity.
Now it's interesting we're going to look at the division that came in for the nation of Israel. 10 tribes were rent from the House of David and give them to his servant Solomon's servant Jeroboam, who became his enemy. But two tribes were kept for Jerusalem for David's sake.
For David, his father's sake. Though David failed in the matter of Bathsheba and Uriah the Hittite, you never failed. He's running away from the Lord, never allowed any to direct his attention away from the Lord Jesus, from the Lord himself.
But Solomon did. And so now the government of God comes upon Solomon, very solemn thing, The government of God. The principle of his government is whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.
And as we read this history, we'll see that it wasn't just Solomon that.
Turned away from the Lord, but all those there at the Divine century.
We've just recently gone through a very grievous division.
And here that division in Israel was traced to those that were at the 9th center, Solomon and the rest.
The tendency of our hearts is to point to those that have left and say it's they didn't want to walk in the truth. Well, we can leave that with the Lord.
But here, the fault was right there with Solomon, you might say, If we lookout, if we go on and we'll see what Rhea Bone did, you might say it was his fault.
But it was from the Lord.
And then immediately we read that in verse 14 the Lord stirred up an adversary unto Solomon. He died the Edomite he was of the King's seed in Edom. And again in verse 23 God stirred him up. Another adversary, reason, the son of Elijah, which fled from his Lord, had it easier, king of Soba.
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And he gathered men unto him, and became captain over a band, when David slew them of Soba.
And they went to Damascus and dwelt therein and reigned in Damascus. And he was an adversary to Israel all the days of Solomon beside the mischief that Hedad did. Then he abhorred Israel and reigned over Syria. But that God served him up an enemy. God stirred him up another adversary. This is the government of God because of the departure at the divine center, because those at the divine center, those in the most privileged place of blessing, didn't walk with the Lord as they should have.
They allowed their themselves to be drawn away by pleasure, especially Solomon and all these other things that motivate the natural man. Now we read of Jeroboam in verse 26. He was the one that God was going to give 10 tribes to. Now Solomon had been told very clearly here that God was going to take 10 tribes away from him from the House of David. He wouldn't do it in Solomon's life, but he would do it in his son's life.
He was told that it was because of his failures, because of his departure from the Lord, that it would happen. Did he submit to that hand of God's government? Did he bow to that? No, he didn't. And you'll see that as we read on.
When we failed and we all have failed.
And the government of God comes in, and a division such as we've gone through comes in.
And we it goes right through families, it goes right through assemblies, it goes.
It goes to the very heart and it's felt very cleanly and sure, we all feel this.
When we are under his governmental hand, he's chasing his discipline because of our worldliness and self seeking and living for ourselves.
We have to bow through his hand with government.
And own that he is righteous in all that has come upon us.
Jeroboam, verse 26. The son of Nebat and if apartheid of Zarida, Solomon's servant whose mother's name was Zerua, a widow woman. Even he lifted up his hand against the king.
And this was the 'cause that he lifted up his hand against the king. Solomon built Millow, and repaired the breaches of the city of David his father. And the man Jeroboam was a mighty man of valor. And Solomon, seeing the young man that he was industrious, he made him ruler over all the charge of the House of Joseph. And it came to pass at that time, when Jeroboam went out of Jerusalem, that the prophet Ahijah, the Shiloh knight, founded in the way, and he had clad himself with a new garment, and they too were alone in the field.
When I hide, you caught the new garment that was on him and rented in 12 pieces.
And he said to Jeroboam, Take thee 10 pieces, For thus saith the Lord the God of Israel, Behold, I will rend the Kingdom out of the hand of Solomon.
And will give 10 tribes to thee. But he shall have one tribe for my servant David's sake, and for Jerusalem's sake, the city which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel. And then he tells Jeroboam the reason he's doing this.
It wasn't because of any faithfulness on the part of Jeroboam. Jeroboam was a mighty man of valor, as it says.
And Solomon noted that and wanted to take advantage of his skills.
But Jeroboam was not a man of God. He did not have the fear of the Lord before him, and he did not follow the Lord.
But he tells Jeroboam why he was doing this.
He says in verse 33 because that they have forsaken me. That's why I'm doing this and have worshipped Ashtaroth. Notice it's in the plural here. They have forsaken me, not just Solomon.
That's what God told Solomon, that he had done that. But now it expands to the nation of the of the Jews, those at the divine center. They have forsaken me and have worship Ashtaroth, the goddess of Mazidonians, Chimosh, the God of the Moabites, and Milcombe, the God of the children of Ammon, and have not walked in my waves to do that which is right in mine eyes, and to keep my statutes and my judgments, as did David his father.
Albeit I will not take the whole Kingdom out of his hand, but I will make him Prince all the days of his life, for David, my servant's sake, whom I chose because he kept my commandments in my statutes, but I will take the Kingdom out of his Son's hand.
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And will give it unto thee even 10 tribes. And unto his son will I give one tribe, that David my servant, may have a light all way before me in Jerusalem, the city which I have chosen me to put my name there. Notice that hasn't changed. God had chosen that city, even though there was unfaithfulness in that city, on the part of Solomon. And those that lived there that were under Solomon's reign, they had all forsaken the Lord. They had all gone their own way. They had all done what was contrary to the word of God.
But he says the city, which I have chosen me to put my name there, and that's what made it so bad, that's what made it so serious, is God had chosen that place of blessing, and those who resided there didn't walk in the truth that had been committed to them. And that's true of us.
That's true of me.
Then I will take thee verse 37, and thou shalt reign according to all that thy soul desire.
It shall be king over Israel now from this point on after the 10 tribes were taken, they were called Israel, sometimes Ephraim Israel. Ephraim was the head tribe of the 10 and the other two were called Judah, Judah and Benjamin.
So when we read in Israel in the Minor prophets it refers to the 10 tribes.
Often, anyway.
And it shall be verse 38 If thou wilt hearken unto all that I command thee. Solomon had not, and so this this hand of God's chastening in government, came upon him. Now he says to Jeroboam, If you will hearken to all that I command, and will walk in my ways, and do that is right in my sight to keep my statutes and my commandments, as David my servant did, that I will be with thee, and build thee a sure house.
As I built for David and will give Israel.
Unto thee Notice he promises him, He says, I will be with thee, I will build the assure house.
I will give Israel the 10 drives unfazed. These are wonderful promises that he holds out to Jeroboam had he walked in obedience to the Lord. But he didn't have that kind of a heart. He didn't have a heart to walk in obedience to the Lord.
You think that the very reason that God was taking these 10 tribes away from Solomon and those at Jerusalem because of their unfaithful you think it would have had a very powerful impact to Jeroboam, that he better watch out and not do the same. But he did worse. He did far worse. It didn't have any effect.
And what kind of a state are we in when God comes in in His government?
And disciplines us. And we don't even feel it. Oh yes, we feel it, but it doesn't change us. It doesn't result in repentance and a change in our ways. We cry, we weep. We shed tears. But our wings don't change.
What is wrong?
Solomon Jeroboam had ample warning, and he was told that if he had a walk in obedience.
He says, I will be with thee, I will build the assure house out here, Israel unto me.
And then he says in verse 39, and I will for this afflict the seed of David, but not forever we've gone through something which is God afflicting us.
Laying his hand in, chasing and discipline upon us because he's been displeased with our weight.
I will for this afflict the seat of David, but not forever. Now the Solomon bowed of this. Does he submit to this? Does he say that's the hand of God against us? He is righteous? I am sinful. I have failed. I have sinned, I have departed. I have done contrary to the word of God. I have taken all these foreign wives. Not only that, I've allowed them to worship their gods, and even built them places of worship for them.
How far removed had he gone from the path of obedience to the word of God? Now he doesn't submit to this governmental hand. Verse 40 says Solomon sought therefore to kill Jeroboam. He had been told. I'm going to give 10 tribes to Jeroboam.
Your servant now he seeks to frustrate that you can't do that. We can never change God's governmental hand and discipline. You sought to kill Jeroboam, and Jeroboam arose and fled unto Egypt unto Shishak king of Egypt, and was in Egypt until the death of Solomon, and the rest of the acts of Solomon and all that he did in his wisdom. Are they not written in the book of the Acts of Solomon? In the time that Solomon reigned in Jerusalem, over all Israel was 40 years.
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If Solomon slept with his fathers and was buried in the city of David, his father and Reubon his son rendered this day, it's really solemn when we think of the how how Solomon began, how wonderfully he began.
And how sadly he had been.
Reminds me of an old brother that was with us in Oak Park and he used to say, pray for this old man that he doesn't die. A wicked old man, he realized the the capability of his heart and the tendency of our hearts to depart from the Lord in our later years.
But Solomon was old. His wives turned away his heart.
Given to pleasure.
This is one of the great ills and evils of it, of the Saints of God in this present day given to pleasure.
Henry Abbott, the son of Solomon, went to Shechem, chapter 12, for all Israel were come to Shechem to make him king.
It came to pass when Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, who was yet in Egypt, heard of it, for he was fled from the presence of King Solomon and Jeroboam throughout in Egypt.
That they sent, and called him, and Jeroboam, and all the congregation of Israel came, and spake unto rehoboam, saying, Thy father made our yoke grievous. Now therefore make thou the grievous service of thy father, and his heavy yoke, which he put upon us lighter, and we will serve thee.
Jeroboam becomes a spokesman now for the 10 tribes. He had been told by the prophet that he was going to be the head of them, and he now presents this petition to Rehoboth. And he said unto him, Depart yet brought, Rehoboam said, depart yet for three days, then come again to me. And the people departed, And King Rehoboam committed, consulted with the old man that stood before Solomon, his father, while he yet lived, and said, How do ye advise that I may answer this people?
And they spake unto him, saying, If thou will be a servant unto this people this day.
And will serve them, and answer them, and speak good words to them.
Then they will be thy servants forever.
But he forsook the counsel of the old men which they had given him, and consulted with notice this expression with the young men that were grown up with him, his contemporaries.
Those are the ones that he puts more confidence in than the older brothers, the older men.
He consulted with the young men that were grown up with him, and which stood before him. And he said unto them, What counsel give he, that we may answer this people who have spoken to me, saying, Make the yoke which thy father did put upon us lighters. And the young men that were grown up with him noticed that expression again spake unto him, saying, Thus shalt thou speak unto this people that spake unto thee? Saying, Thy father made our yoke heavy, But make thou it lighter unto us, thou shalt thou say unto them, My little finger shall be thicker than my father's loins.
And now, whereas my father did laid you with a heavy yoke, I will add to your yoke. My father hath chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scorpions.
So Jeroboam and all the people came to Rehoboth the third day, as the king had appointed, saying, Come to me again the 3rd day. And the king answered the people roughly and forsook the old man's counsel, that they gave him, and spake to them after the council of the young men, saying, My father made your yoke heavy, But I will, and I will add to that your yoke. My father also chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scorpions. Wherefore the king hearken not unto the people, for the cause was from the Lord.
It says in one passage in Chronicles the cause was of the Lord. That's a wrong translation. The vision is never of God. It could be. It is from God. It's of Satan. The vision is of the enemy. But here it's right, 'cause was from the Lord. He sent it in chasing, in discipline, in government.
But it's never of God. The cause was from the Lord that he might perform his saying, which the Lord spake by a hydra, the shallow knight unto Jeroboam the son of Nebel. So when all Israel saw that the king hearkened not unto them.
00:30:09
The people answered, the king saying Now notice how they respond. What portion have we in David?
They don't say what portion have we and Rehoboam.
It was rehoboam that spoke roughly to them.
You might say it was reabones father. He's the one that caused the division because of the way he he answered the people.
He didn't hearken to the old man's advice. He hearkened to the young men's advice and he came down very hard upon them. You might say it was his fault, but that's not looking very deep.
That's just looking at the 2nd or the 3rd cause, but the real 'cause we have to be found traced back to the first first of Kings 11.
And Solomon his wives turned away his heart, and the people did not follow the Lord.
In obedience to the word that was the real source of the problem.
What we've gone through recently, it didn't just happen.
It's been building for years.
For a long time.
And finally, the lights. Eventually.
And he comes in and chases him.
He did it here. He's done it in his church.
And we velvet chemo.
They say what portion have we and David. Their response is altogether wrong.
What portion of we and David?
What wrong had David done?
David was the man of God that had kept the word of the Lord. It was Solomon.
They don't even say what portion have we in Psalm or in we both, but they go back to David.
It was for David's sake that God was going to maintain a light in Jerusalem.
David of course, Speaking of Christ. And oftentimes when these things come in, we go back and we even blame the Lord for it.
They were blaming David. Neither have we inheritance in the Son of Jesse. Why they were they were cutting themselves off for their pride from their from their chief blessings. We don't have any inheritance in the Son of Jesse. Why? The line of David was to be the to be the line by which the through which Messiah came and they were cutting themselves off from this line.
They were no longer they were no longer in the in the line of the path of blessing that God was going to bring in to the coming Redeemer.
Very serious to your 10th. So Israel now see to thine own house. David. So Israel departed unto their tents.
You never read of a godly king in the 10 tribes. Not one, not one. There were godly kings in the tomb, the two tribes.
But never one in the 10 traps, and the first was Jeroboam. And there's a point of that you hear repeated over and over and over again in the Kings and Chronicles. Jeroboam, the son of me, that which made Israel to sin.
Which made Israel to sin. But we see what he does Now let's follow up.
So Israel departed under their tents, verse 17. But As for the children of Israel, which dwelt in the cities of Judah?
Rehoboam reigned over them. Then King Rehoboam sent Adoram who was over the tributes in all. Israel stoned him with stones that he died. Therefore King Riebaum made speed to get him up to his chariot to flee to Jerusalem. So Israel rebelled against the House of David under this day, and it came to pass, when all Israel heard that Jeroboam will come again, was come again, that they sent and called him unto the congregation, and made him king over all Israel.
There was none that followed the House of David but the tribe of Judah only.
And when Rehoboam was come to Jerusalem, he assembled all the House of Judah with the tribe of Benjamin and 104 score 1000 chosen men, which were warriors to fight against the House of Israel, to bring the Kingdom again to Rehoboth, the son of Solomon. Now Rehoboth here is in danger of of also rebelling against God's governmental hand of discipline. He's going to try to, he's going to try to erase what God had done. He's going to try to bring the 10 tribes back. And that wasn't the mind of God.
That wasn't the governmental mind of God. He had said he was going to give 10 tribes to Jeremiah.
But the word of God came unto Shamaya, the man of God, saying, Speak unto Reabol.
The son of Solomon. This is verse 23, King of Judah, and unto all the House of Judah and Benjamin, and to the remnant of the people. Saying, Thus saith the Lord, You shall not go up, nor fight against your brethren. The children of Israel return every man to his house, for this thing is from me.
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They hearkened, therefore to the word of the Lord, and returned to depart according to the Word of the Lord. That's beautiful to read.
That we have all did submit through the word of God. When the prophet brought it to him, they said go back. You're not to try to bring the 10 tribes back. This thing is for me.
I've I've come in and divided you because of your unfaithfulness.
Do we realize that?
Do I realize that as I should Do I feel that? Do we feel that?
Verse 25 Then Jeroboam built Shechem in Mount Ephriam and dwelt therein. And that went out from thence and built annual. Now notice what Jeroboam does. He's not a man of God, not a man of faith, Jeroboam said in his heart. Now shall the Kingdom return to the House of David. God had said, if you were walking my ways and obey me, I will make you a sure house.
I will bless you, I will give you the 10 drives Israel. Now he starts to reason. It's not faith at all, it's the human mind reasoning without faith. And he says, if this people go up to do sacrifice in the House of the Lord at Jerusalem, verse 27, then shall the heart of this people turn again unto their Lord, even unto Rehoboam king of Judah, And they shall kill me and go again to Reubone, king of Judah, the very thing that God said he would not do.
Is what he reasons what happened.
If we have all had, if Jeroboam had obeyed, said the Lord said, I will build you with your house.
I'll give you the 10 tribes. I will be with you.
But he didn't have faith to appropriate that, to take it home to his own soul and act upon it. Instead, his mind gets to working and he says if they go down to Jerusalem, I'm going to lose them all, They're going to rebel against me, I'll lose my life, he reasons on it. He had no faith.
Whereupon verse 28 the king took counsel and made two calves of gold. And where does that come from? Remember, when Moses was up on the mount, he heard this noise down in the camp, and he came down, and the people were.
Dancing around the golden calf but Aaron had made. Now Jeroboam makes two of them.
He took and he made, He took counsel, and he made two calves, whereupon the king took counsel notice that he counseled probably with the young men that had given the advice, men of that kind. The young men, of course, were with Rehoboth, but men of this kind he he took counsel with the 10 tribes, and he made two calves of gold, and said unto them, It is too much for you to us.
But to go up to Jerusalem, behold thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.
What an awful thing to say. A fire can 1 depart in his thoughts from the truth. And he set up the one in Bethel and the other put he and Dan Dam's a very northern part of the land, Bethel's down in the southern part of the 10 tribes. And so they were all covered so they wouldn't have to go too far, and they certainly wouldn't have to go to Jerusalem.
So he sets up his own system of worship. This is exactly what's happened in Kusundo. What man has done. Instead of walking in obedience to the Word of the Lord, he set up his own system of things.
And this is what Jeroboam did.
The king took counsel, and that's what man has got.
Going to establish church and we're going to set up an order for it and so on.
And he set the one in Bethel the House of God, what it means, and the other put He and Dan, which means God will judge.
And surely God will judge cerebral what you have done.
Legal judges.
And this thing became a sin where the people went to worship before the One even unto Dan.
And he made an House of high places, and made priests of the lowest of the people.
Which were not of the sons of Levi, the order that God had established that was to be followed, He could totally ignores it.
He doesn't read as a king should have in the word of the Lord. He doesn't take his guidance and his instructions from that, but from his own mind and from the counsel of those that were round about him, that were like unto him.
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And Jeroboam ordained a feast in the eighth month, on the 15th day of the month, like under the feast that is in Judah, the tabernacles within the 7th month and the 15th day of the month, that he changes everything.
So did he, and he offered upon the altar. And he was not a priest. He had no business offering anything. He was a king.
So did he and Bethel, sacrificing under the calves that he had made. And he placed in Bethel the priests of the high places which he had made. So he offered upon the altar which he had made in Bethel the 15th day of the 8th month, even in the month which he had devised of his own heart, and ordained A feast under the children of Israel. And he offered upon the altar and burned incense. Just think when the 10 tribes said, what portion have we and David to your 10th? So Israel see to thine own house David.
They did not realize when they said that.
What they were giving up.
Talking to a young man very near to me.
My son-in-law, he's left.
Is gone with the other party. He came to me and he said I have lost so much.
I have lost so much.
And he's finding it hard to come back.
Difficult.
He wakes up at night.
Can't sleep?
Stress in his soul. No, he's wrong. You know he's gone wrong.
How can you find this way back that?
Much easier to leave than to return. Much easier.
Into these 10 tribes, they left the denying sentence.
There was sin at the divine center, Yes, it was Solomon's fault and those that throughout there, Yes, that's where the fault was.
That they left the place that God had chosen to put his name there.
And all the failure at the center didn't change the fact that God had put his name there.
Expecting the time in the history of things and in the government of God that even God left.
But this hasn't visited that far yet.
Now Chapter 13.
And behold, there came a man of God out of Judah.
By the word of the Lord unto Bethel. Notice that expression. By the word of the Lord he comes down from Judah.
To prophecy against the altar that Jeroboam has set up at Gafa.
And it's striking that there was an old prophet of Bethel that dwelt there, but God couldn't use that man because he was.
Dwelling in complicity with the evil, he was in fellowship with it.
And so God had to send a man of God out of Judah from the divine center down to.
Death out the word of the Lord. He came by the word of the Lord unto Bethel, and Jeroboam stood by the altar to burn incense. It wasn't his business to burn incense. He wasn't a priest. He was a king, and he was a bad king, a sinful king, a wicked king.
He had made these two golden calves. He had changed the order of things totally for the children of Israel, and they went right along with it.
There is not a word that we read of anyone voicing an objection to what Jeroboam was doing. They followed it. They followed it.
Followed him in his sin.
And he cried against the altar in the word of the Lord, this man of God. Out of Judah. He cried against the altar in the word of the Lord, And said, O altar, altar, thus saith the Lord, Behold, a child shall be born unto thee, unto the House of David, Josiah, by name.
And upon thee shall he offer the priests of the high places that burn incense upon thee, and men's bones shall be burnt on thee. He's pronouncing judgment against that altar that Jeroboam had set up. There was only one altar that God owned and that was down in Jerusalem. He didn't own this altar.
And he gave a sign the same day, saying, This is the sign which the Lord hath spoken.
Behold, the altar shall be rent, and the ashes that are upon it shall be poured out. They came to pass, when King Jeroboam heard the saying of the man of God, which he cried against the altar in death out.
That he put forth his hand from the altar, saying, lay hold on him. He was angry. Who is this then, this prophet that dares to come down and prophecy against what I have established?
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And his hand, which he had put forth against him, dried up, so that he could not pull it in again to him. Immediately God judges Caribou for his iniquity. The altar also was rent, and the ashes poured out from the altar, according to the sign which the man of God had given by the word of the Lord.
And the king answered and said unto the man of God, intrigued, now the face of the Lord thy God, And pray for me.
That my hand may be restored me again. A moment earlier he was ready to kill Jeroboam.
Now he's asking him to pray for him.
And the man of God, who sought the Lord and the King's hand was restored him again, and he came as it was before. Here you have remembered mercy in the place of judgment.
Man of God was sent not to condemn Jeroboam, but to pronounce judgment against the altar which he had set up.
And so he shows grace mercy to Jeroboam. And now the king said unto the man of God, verse 7 Come home with me and refresh thyself, and I will give thee a reward.
Here's the power of the Israelite Kingdom. 10 tribes, the kings that was placed as head over the 10 tribes he now offers him who he was. A worldly, worldly reward.
Notice how faithful the man of God is.
When the man of God said, verse 8 under the king, if thou wilt give me half thine house, I will not go in with thee.
Neither will I eat bread nor drink water in this place.
In other words, you wouldn't have any fellowship there. He had been sent there to pronounce judgment against it, not to dwell there, not to eat there, not to drink there, not to have any fellowship, and to go back another way. For so it was charged me by the word of the Lord, saying, you've no bread, nor drink water, nor turn again by the same way that thou penis.
So he had to go back another way so that it wouldn't look by any that might see him coming back. Seen him coming back, they might have said, well, he he had the fellowship down there, you know, he had no fellowship there.
So he went another way and returned not by the way that he came to Bethel. So he faithfully resists this overture from the world representing represented by Jeroboam. So now he's going to be subjected to another test.
Much more, much more subtle, and one which we often failed to pass.
Now verse 11 There dwelt in Old Profit in Bethel.
And his sons came, and told him all the works that the man of God had done that day in Bethel, the words which he had spoken unto the king. Then they told also to their father. And their father said unto them, What way went he? For his sons had seen what way the man of God went, which came from Judah? And he said unto his son, Saddle me the ***. So they saddle him the ***. And he rode there on, and went after the man of God, and found him sitting under an oath. And he said unto him, Art thou the man of God that came us from Judah?
And he said, I am Then he said unto him, Come home with me and eat bread. Another man of God answers very faithfully. And he said, I may not return with thee, nor go in with thee, neither will I eat bread, nor drink water with thee in this place. For it was said to me by the word of the Lord, Thou shalt eat no bread, nor drink water there, nor turn again to go by the way that thou camest, the answer is the same question that the king Jeroboam had put to him.
The answers are very faithfully by the word of the Lord, but now the old prophet starts to reason with him.
And he said to him, verse 18, I am a prophet also as thou art.
And an Angel spake unto me by the word of the Lord. Paul says to the Galatians.
Though an Angel from heaven preach any other gospel unto you than that which I have preached unto you, let him be a curse.
An Angel from heaven. There's a religion that has been built up in this country.
Has millions now.
That came from an Angel spoke to a man, so it was said.
Moroni is the angel's name, and this man, Joseph Smith, established this great apostate religion.
So here this old prophet of Bethel appeals now to the man of God by saying an Angel spake unto me by the word of the Lord. He uses the very same expression that the man, the man of God, out of duty, used by the word of the Lord. He spake to me by the word of the Lord, saying, bring him back with thee into thine house, that he may eat bread and drink water, just the opposite to what he'd been told by the word of the Lord. But he lied unto him.
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He lied unto him.
Why did we do that?
Because he felt.
His conscience was reached by the fact that God had to use another prophet, not him.
To testify against the evil that dwelt there in Bethel because he couldn't use him, because he was dwelling in fellowship with him.
And if we walk in fellowship with the evil, our testimony against the evil is null and void. And that's why the man of God out of Judah wasn't to have any fellowship there. He wasn't to eat bread or drink water, or even return the same way that he had come, so that it wouldn't look as though he had any fellowship in that place. He was to deliver a message of judgment against it.
The man of God was faithful up to this point, but now we read sadly verse 19, so he went back with him.
He went back with this old prophet of Bethel and did eat bread in his house and drank water. Now the very next word, a sentence. The very next verse says that God now uses the old prophet of Bethel who had enticed him and seduced him back to compromise the truth and to go back and eat and drink there to pronounce judgment against him, came to pass as they sat at the table that the word of the Lord came under the prophet that brought him back.
And he cried unto the man of God that came from Judah, saying, Thus saith the Lord, For as much as thou hast disobeyed the mouth of the Lord.
And has not kept the commandment which the Lord thy God commanded thee, but came us back, and hath eaten bread and drunk water, in the place of the which the Lord did say to thee, eat no bread and drink no water, thy carcass shall not come under the sepulchre of thy fathers. So when pronouncing this judgment against the man of God out of Judah, this old prophet of Bethel was pronouncing judgment against himself as well.
Verse 23. It says it came to pass after he had eaten bread and after he had drunk, that he saddled for him the ***.
To it for the Prophet whom he had brought back.
And when he was gone, a lion met him, the enemy.
By the way, and slew him.
And his carcass was cast in the way, and the *** stood by it. The lion also stood by the carcass. And behold, men passed by and saw the carcass cast in the way. And the lion standing by the carcass, and they came and told it in the city where the old prophet dwelt. And when the prophet that brought him back from the way heard thereof, he said, it is the man of God who was disobedient unto the word of the Lord.
When the man of God ate at that place that he had pronounced judgment against, when he ate and drank and had fellowship there, he rendered null and void his testimony against him.
But still what he had pronounced by the word of the Lord would come to pass in spite of his unfaithfulness.
But he loses his life.
He loses his testimony.
Very sound. He loses his life slain by the lion, because he listened to another voice, a voice of a of a fellow prophet that was in complicity with evil, indwelling and fellowship with it, One whose voice he should not listen and have listened to.
Because he wasn't walking in separation from evil.
Verse 26 And when the prophet that brought him back from the way heard thereof, he said, it is the man of God.
He was disobedient unto the word of the Lord. Where therefore the Lord hath delivered him unto the lion, which hath torn him, and slain him according to the word of the Lord, which he spake unto him, And he spake to his son, saying, Saddle me the ***. And they saddled him, And he went, and found his carpets cast in the way, and the *** and the lions standing by the carcass. The lion had not eaten the carcass, nor torn the *** contrary to nature.
The lion had been sent for one purpose, to kill the man of God. And the prophet took up the carcass of the man of God and laid it upon the *** and brought it back. And the old prophet came to the city to mourn and to bury him.
And he laid his carcass in his own grave, and they mourned over him, saying, alas, my brother, now both of these men, both of these prophets, the man of God out of Judah, and the old prophet of Bethel, they were, they were truly the Lords, no question about that.
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He Christ is the last. My brother one was a picture of the old prophet of Bethel. One was a picture who was a true believer, but dwelling in fellowship with evil, not separate from it. And the man of God out of Judah was in separation from that evil. He came down to witness against it, and when he ate and drank there he lost his life and lost his testimony.
Alas, my brother.
Verse 31 And it came to pass, after he had buried him, that he spake to his son, saying, When I am dead.
Then bury me in the Sepulchre wherein the man of God is buried. Lay my bones beside his bones, for the same which he's cried by the word of the Lord against the altar in Bethel, and against all the houses of the high places which are in the cities of Samaria, shall surely come to pass. Now he's owned, Now he owns in his very mouth that the that that was evil that he was in fellowship with.
Did this have any good effect on Jeroboam? Did he benefit from it? Did he gain anything from it? Did he cease from his evil ways and now start to follow the Lord? Not a bit of it. Notice what we read in verse 33. After this thing Jeroboam returned not from his evil way, but made again of the lowest of the people priests of the high places. Whosoever would he consecrated him, and he became one of the priests of the high places.
And this thing became sin under the House of Jeroboam, even to cut it off and to destroy it from off the face of the earth.
Jeroboam didn't change. Now let's turn to 2nd Kings 23.
Then we close.
Second teams 23. Here we read of Josiah, this godly king of Judah.
He was mentioned.
In our chapter that he would burn the bones of the false prophets on the altar.
We'll just start at verse 14. Second Kings 23 and he break Josiah, break in pieces the images, and cut down the Groves and fill their places with the bones of men. Moreover, the altar that was at Bethel and the High Place which Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin, had made.
Both that altar and the high place. You breakdown and burn the high place, and stamp it small to powder and burn the Grove. And as Josiah turned himself, he spied the sepulchers that were there in the mouth, and sent and took the bones out of the sepulchres, and burned them upon the altar, and polluted it according to the word of the Lord, which the man of God proclaimed who proclaimed these words.
Then he said, What title is that? That I see. And the men of the city told him it is the Sepulchre of the man of God which came from Judah, and proclaimed these things that thou hast done against the altar of Bethel. And he said, let him alone, let no man move his bones. So they let his bones alone with the bones of the prophet that came out of Samaria. So these two prophets, though they were both ultimately unfaithful.
They were the Lords, and so they don't take part. They don't participate in the judgment that comes upon the false prophets, the judgment that comes upon the world.
They're scared that their bones remain in the tomb.
And so though we have failed.
If we're the Lord's will not partake of the judgment that overtakes the world will be taken home, taken out of this world to be with himself.
And you'll never case any of the judgment that comes upon the ungodly world around us. But alas, what has happened to our testimony if we fail to walk in separation from the evil that has been set up in the energy of man's will, and not according to the word of the Lord, to lose that testimony?
Solemnly.
Let's close by singing.
224.
Oh, that we never might forget what Christ has suffered for our sake to save our souls and make us need of all his glory to partake. But keeping this in mind, press on to glory and the victors crown.
All that will never.
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My forget.
Why Christmas?
Fall.
Separation, The Nazarite
Address—C. Hendricks
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Certainly would no longer be at home in that which hated thee, but patience. In my footsteps go thy sorrow as thy joy to know we would, and O confirm the power with meekness, meet the darkest hour by shame. Contempt, however tried, but I was stormed and crucified 282.
Master, we will know.
We are all in the land for each other.
Again, strange gold.
By sorrow.
Numbers, Chapter 6.
And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them.
When either man or woman shall separate themselves to vowel a vow of a Nazarite.
To separate themselves unto the Lord, he shall separate himself from wine and strong drink.
And shall drink no vinegar of wine, or vinegar of strong drink. Neither shall he drink any liquor of grapes, nor eat moist grapes or dried all the days of his separation, shall he eat nothing that is made of the vine tree, from the kernels even to the husk.
All the days of the vow of his separation, there shall no razor come upon his head.
Until the days be fulfilled, in which he separated himself unto the Lord.
He shall be holy, and shall let the locks of the hair of his head grow.
All the days that he separated himself unto the Lord, he shall come at no dead body.
He shall not make himself unclean for his father, or for his mother, for his brother, or for his sister, when they die, because the consecration of his God is upon his head. All the days of his separation, He is holy unto the Lord.
And if any man die very suddenly by him, and he hath, and he hath defiled the head of his consecration, then he shall shave his head in the day of the cleansing.
In the day of his cleansing, on the 7th day shall he shave it, and on the eighth day he shall bring 2 turtles, and so on.
Verse 13 This is the law of the Nazarite when the days of his separation.
Are fulfilled.
Verse 18 And the Nazarites shall shave the head of his separation.
At the door of the Tabernacle of the congregation, and shall take the hair of the head of his separation.
And put it in the fire which is under the sacrifice of the peace offerings. And the priest shall take the sodden shoulder of the ram, and one unleavened cake out of the basket, and one unleavened wafer, and shall put them upon the hands of the Nazarites, after the hair of his separation is shaving.
And the pre show wave them for a wave offering themselves. Verse 21 This is the law of the Nazarite who hath vowed, and it is offering unto the Lord.
Or his separation, besides that his hand shall get according to the vow which he vowed, so he shall do.
So he must do after the law of his separation. You have noticed one word.
That I've read over and over again in this passage, and that is separation.
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And the word that's translated like in verse 7 consecration the same word in the Hebrew.
Same word in the original.
Consecration, separation. When a man or a woman took the vows of Nazarite.
That was that they decided they were going to be holy and altogether and entirely dedicated to the Lord for whatever period of time that fowl was the last.
It doesn't. It doesn't give a time limit to it. Maybe some vows would be for for a month, some for three months, some for a year. I don't know.
But it's a vow that they took upon themselves. They wanted to be holy, dedicated to the Lord. They didn't want anything else to come in that would interfere with this, this consecration.
I'd like to look at this.
That's right. The true Nazarite. Of course, with the Lord Jesus. He was the truly separated one. We got that, and I'll read the verse that's in Hebrews 7.
Hebrews 7.
Earth, I believe it's 25.
But I may be wrong there. Hebrews 7.
25 And six, Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing the other liveth to make intercession for them. For such an high priest he came us, who was holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens.
The position that he's in now on high is he's separate from sinners. He's taken a position in separation, even physically from sinners. He's in on high and the glory is our high priest. But he was that morally when he was down here, he was the true Nazarite. He was the separated 1.
And yet, as we were noticing this morning, he was the most accessible of all men.
The one that that woman in John in Luke 7 could could come to and wash his feet with her tears and wipe them with the hairs of her head and annoyed his feet with ointment and fists down.
He was that.
Accessible, though he was the most separated man morally.
And now positionally, and we too are separated ones.
We too, are cancer rights. Notice, I'll just read one of the introductions to an epistle. Look at First Corinthians as a good example.
First Corinthians chapter one. Paul called an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God and Sosthenes our brother under the Church of God which is at Corinth to them that are sanctified, set apart, separated in Christ Jesus called Saints. You could put in there called Nazarites because that's really the meaning called Saints A holy 1A separated 1.
With all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord, both theirs and ours.
So we're all separated to God. He separated us.
We have the sanctification of the spirit that Peter speaks of. He's given us divine life, given us a new nature, and we're sanctified by the blood set apart to God. We're not our own any longer. Notice that verse in 2nd Corinthians 5 comes to mind and I'll read it. Connection with this subject we have before us in 2nd Corinthians 5 and that he died for all verse 15 that they which live should not henceforth.
Live unto themselves but unto him which died for them, and rose again the Christian who is who is living unto himself.
Is wasting his life.
We're not to live unto ourselves. He died for all that they which lived. That's those of us who believe the gospel we live. We have life. He's given us, eternal life, the very life of the Son.
That we should not live unto ourselves, but unto him who died for us, and rose again.
So if we're living unto ourselves in any measure, we are missing the very purpose.
For which God saved us. He saved us, that we might now live to Him who died for us and rose again.
So we're all Nazarites, we've all been called into this position.
There was one in the Old Testament that was a Nazarite by birth. His name was Samson.
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He was.
Born in Nazareth and when we were born into the family of God, we were born Nazarites.
Separated ones sanctified in Christ.
Our life is now different. Completely new life has given us his own life. The life of Christ is ours.
His resurrection, life. And now we're not to live to ourselves.
We're not to live as those that are just worldwide.
Those whose vision is this scene. We have a new vision. We have a new horizon. We have new aspirations and new hopes and new joys, a new life.
Everything is new.
Many men be in Christ. He is a new creature. Old things were passed away. Hold all things to become him. We're new now. We're different.
And if you don't, if you are not perceived, if I am not perceived as different by the world, roundabout something wrong because we are different.
One of the greatest forces that young people all of us actually.
Have to face and that is peer pressure. We don't want to be different.
We want to just blend in with the landscape and go along with the crowd and not take a stand. But when we're Christ.
He was different. He was altogether different. A new kind of man. A new order of man.
They were sent, the officers were sent by the Jews to take him, and they came back. And why have you not brought him?
He was there.
He was the Holiness. He was the separated man. He was the true Nazareth.
It's interesting that the word Pharisee means the separated 1, and so does the word Nazarite. But what a difference. The Pharisee practiced the kind of separation that is.
Described by Stand by thyself. I'm holier than thou. I thank thee, Lord, I'm not like other men. I'm not like this public. And I fast twice in the week I go to church on Sundays I do this. I do that as a religious nature.
And he could look down upon the poor. Republicans, who would not so much as lift his eyes to heaven, would smoke upon his vest and said, God be merciful to me, a Sinner.
And the beauty about the true Nazarite is, he didn't despise those that were like that.
He was accessible to them and they felt at home in his presence.
Pharisees did those that practice that legal, ritualistic kind of separation.
They didn't. They didn't feel comfortable in his presence at all.
Samson had a secret secret of his strength.
There are three Philistine women who bathed in Samson's history from Judges 13 through 16.
And some of them were women of ill repute.
And they were Philistines, daughters of the Philistines, which of course, a true Nazarite should have had nothing to do with.
Well, Samson was a Nazarite from his birth, but he was just like we are in so many ways in that he wasn't true his Nazarite ship.
He wasn't a faithful Nazarite.
He allowed the.
He allowed the pleasures of nature to assume an ascendancy with him and it caused him to fall. There's two times that he revealed a secret. Do you remember when a lion roared against him and he slew the lion? He was a man of tremendous power because he was a Nazarite in the spirit of God in energized him to do those wonderful feats. And then he passed by there and there was the carcass of the lion and he saw some bees had built.
Some if they they had taken residence in the carcass of the lion, and there was this honey, and out of the eater came forth meat, and out of the strong came forth sequence, And that was his, That was his, his Riddle that he propounded to the to the Philistines.
And they couldn't have. They couldn't find out the Riddle And his wife kept begging him to reveal the secret to him. And they finally came up to her and they said, did you invite us here to to BZ Five of all our wealth?
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Get that Riddle from him, get that secret from him and she finally he finally she finally got his extracted from.
And on the 7th day of the feast they came to him and said, what is sweeter than honey? What is stronger than a lot?
And so then he had to pay them.
Instead of them paying him, but I wasn't so serious.
But with Delilah in the 16th chapter.
That was very serious.
And she.
He worked on him. Since we're on that point, let's just turn to Judges 16 as we consider this. I'm getting ahead of myself, but that's all right. The order is not too important.
In Judges 16.
In verse four, it came to pass afterward that he loved a woman in the valley of Surrey.
His name was Delilah, and the Lords of the Philistines came up unto her, and said unto her, Entice him.
And see where in his great strength lieth, and by what means we may prevail against him, that we may bind him to afflict him. And we will give thee, every one of us, 1100 pieces of silver.
Delilah said to Samson, Tell me, I pray thee wherein thy great strength lieth.
And wherewith thou mightest be bound to afflicted the very way in which she puts the question.
Should have alerted him to the fact that she was up to no good.
And he played with her.
Sampson said unto her. If they bind me with 7 green widths, you see the first step in that direction of even addressing what this Philistine woman had propounded to him was the beginning of a course which ended in a calamity percentage.
So he's toying with her, and he says, if they bind me with 7 green Wicks that were never dried, then should I be weakened? He is another man. And then the Lords of the Philistines brought up to her seven green Wicks which had not been dried, and she bound him with them. Now there were men lying in wait, abiding with her in the chamber. And she said unto him, the Philistines be upon these sons.
And he break the widths as a thread of toe is broken when he touches the fire. So his strength is not known. But you'll notice that everything that he mentions here, the seven green width is, is similar to hair. It's it's it's chords, it's things like this. And then the next one, the light has said unto Samson, Behold, Alice mocked me and told me lies. Now tell me, I pray thee, wherewith thou mightest be bound. And he said unto her, If they bind me fast with new ropes that never were occupied.
Then shall I be weak, and be as another man. While therefore took new ropes, and bound him therewith, and said unto him, the Philistines be upon thee, Samson, And there were liars in wait, abiding in the chamber, and he break them from off his arms like a thread.
Now how is it that this, this separated man, this Nazarite, could be so, so gullible?
So easy to be.
Enticed into this kind of a thing.
How is it that we Christians can be so unaware of the subtlety of of the world, and the religious world particularly like to entice us into a compromise of our position of separation?
How is it the weekends be so easily gone in and that's what this Phyllis, that's what the Philistine represents, It's the intrusion of the flesh into the things of God and.
These Philistines were Canaanites, and they should have been totally expelled from the land, but because of Israel's unfaithfulness to do that, they were left in the land to be a snare to them.
And Samson was raised up of God, the only way we can deal with the Philistines.
According to the principles of God is by separation. That's the only way we can deal with that kind of evil.
And Samson now is compromising the separation.
Verse 13 Delilah said unto Samson, Hitherto thou hast mocked me, and told me lies. Tell me wherewith the lightest be found. And he said unto her, If thou weave us the seven locks of my head with the web, oh, he's getting dangerously close now to the place that was the secret of his strength, his long him.
Seven locks with his head, leave them with the web. And she fastened it with the pin, and said unto him, The Philistines be upon thee, Samson, And he awaked out of his sleep, and went away with the pin of the beam, and with the web.
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By this time, it should have been very clear that she was out to get that secret.
Remember when they came to the Lord Jesus? And they said, tell us by what authority doeth all these things? And who gave me this authority?
While he didn't answer that question, he said, I will also ask you one question and tell me the baptism of John, was it of heaven or of men? And they reason among themselves and said, if we shall say it was in heaven, he'll say, why then did you not believe him? If we say it was of men, they feared the people for all hell, John for a prophet. So they said we cannot tell.
And he said he would tell I you by what authority that he distinct.
He did those things by the authority of the Father.
And because he was the separated man in communion with the Father, his whole pathway.
That was the secret of his friend, fellowship with the Father, and separation from this world, and in all its involvements to Truly.
Separated men with true Nazareth.
Samson was in that right like we are by birth, by position.
But he wasn't a very good worker. He was not true to his Nazarite ship, And so here he's.
Playing around, if I can use that expression with this Philistine woman. And she now turns on all her feminine charms, and says unto him, How verse 15, How canst thou say I love thee, when thine heart is not with me?
Thou hast mocked me these three times, and hast told me wherein thy great strength lieth not told me wherein thy great strength flyeth. And it came to pass, when she pressed him daily with her words, and urged him so that his soul was vexed unto death.
That he told her all his heart. He told her his secret.
Something we should never do, the Lord said. Cast not your pearls before swine.
Less turning round, they rend you and trample them, you under their feet.
We don't tell the world the secret of our strength, Our strength is in separation from the work.
Our strength is in communion with the Father and in obedience to this book.
That's the source of the strength of the naturally, and Samson now discloses the source of his strength in my long hair, a place that they would never have guessed.
There's no strength in hair. That was the symbol of his consecration to God.
Spoke of his separation to God.
There hath not come a razor upon mine head, verse 17. For I have been a Nazarite unto God from my mother's womb. If I be shaved, then my strength shall go from me, and I shall become weak and be like any other man. We read in numbers 6 and we'll go back to that shortly. But we read there that no razor was to come upon his head.
The flesh was not to be exposed, The hair was not to be cut. He was to maintain that that that long hair which spoke of his consecration to God with separation to God.
And now the razor is applied.
When Delilah saw that he had told her all his heart, she went and called for the Lords of the Philistines, saying, Come up this once, for he hath showed me all his heart. Then the Lords of the Philistines came up unto her, and brought money in their hand.
I'm going to tell you.
A little personal history.
When I was a young man.
I became very interested in a young lady who was a Roman Catholic.
And.
We used to pray together. We used to read the word of God together. I brought her to the meeting on Wednesday nights, not on Sunday. She went to the Catholic Church, then with her folks.
And I brought her to the meetings.
And she confessed the Lord.
And one night, I said to her, We can't go on any further.
Unless you sever your connection with the Catholic harlot.
And she went home and told her father and mother, and her father was a policeman. I don't know if he was active at the time or not, but he had guns.
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And she told her that she was leaving the gossip church.
And he threatened with his guns to find me and kill me.
Because I was. I was poisoning her mind.
And.
She was terrified at the rage that her father flew in.
And then she couldn't see me anymore. That was forbidden.
I didn't see her for a long while.
Finally, I had to know I didn't go to meeting Lord's Day Morning that morning. I went to the Catholic Church and that we did.
And there you go, out of the Catholic Church, a place you'd sent you is renowned. She'd never go back there. She came down the down the rocket. I went in front of her, stood right in front of her. And I said, you have returned to this abomination that you said. Bless yourself.
Then I turned from her and walked away.
And I never forget, my mother used to say.
She called me Chucky, she said.
Aren't you sorry that we are so, so strong and so firm that you pressed her that far and I said sorry I give up 1000 Marines for the Lord Jesus.
Magic.
Though it was very, very hard, she had many tears.
But thank God that I required that she take that stand. And then she failed when the persecution came, and the threat from her father and all that, and she went back like a dog to its vomit in the hawk through its wallowing in the barn.
I tell that story simply to warm any young person here that is contemplating getting involved in one. That is not so.
And it belongs to some church system that is very much in error.
Don't take the first step in that direction.
If you do, it will lead to a second and a third and a fourth step, and it might be very serious.
Well, the Lord preserved me.
Thank God Samson, he went all the way and revealed the secret of his strength.
And so Delilah sends for the Philistines.
Verse 18 At the end of the verse. And the Lord of the Philistines came up unto her, and brought money in their hand. And she made him sleep upon her knees. Sleep, my sweet sleep.
And when the religious world puts us to sleep.
We lose our separation. Samson lost his hair.
And she called for a man and she caused him to shave off the seven locks of his head.
She began to afflict him, and his strength went from him. And she said, the Philistines be upon me, Samson. And he awoke out of his sleep, and said, I will go out as at other times before, and shake myself that he was not but the Lord was departed from him. That's exactly what you read in the address to the Laodiceans.
Thou art miserable, and wretched, and poor, and blind and naked. And he says, Thou knowest not.
Thou sayest I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing, and knoweth not but thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind and naked.
He says, I counsel thee to buy of me gold fried in the fire, that thou mayst be rich, and life raiment, that the shame of thy nakedness be clothed. And I sat to anoint thine eyes, to tell me a sea.
Laodicea unaware. Samson unaware, did not know the Lord had departed from him. Laodicea the Lord's not inside, he's outside, knocking outside knockin.
That testimony was so bad, so untrue to him, that he's outside nothing.
And saying that any man hear my voice and come in and open the door, I will come into him, Sup with him and he with the individual.
The collective testimony is in Philadelphia.
It's all individual and they're deceived. As many as I love, I rebuke and chase and be zealous, therefore chase and be zealous, therefore everything.
In the midst of that Laodicean indifference, casual self-confidence self-sufficient.
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Attitude of independence and satisfied with themselves when they have nothing of Christ.
Nothing of Christ.
They weren't even aware of their state. Samson wasn't aware. He said he wished not that the Lord was departed from him, but the Philistines took him and put out his eyes. Now he learned, loses All the services has seen it.
And brought him down to Gaza, and bound him with fetters of brass. And he did grind in the prison house, Howbeit the hair of his head began to grow again after he was shaved.
Even after one has fallen so sadly as Samson did, does that mean you can never, ever be used to the Lord again? No, it doesn't.
In fact, at the end of the account here Samson Sluma and his death and he did this night.
It says his hair began to grow again.
Then the Lords of the Philistines gathered them together, for to offer a great sacrifice of their day and their God, and to rejoice. For they said, our God hath delivered Samson our enemy, into our hand.
When the people saw him, they praised their God and they said our God is delivered into our hands, our enemy, and the destroyer of our country, which threw many of us.
It came to pass when their hearts were married that they said call for Samson that he may make a sport and they called for Samson out of the prison house and he made them sport and they said in between the pillars.
Just think of that a Nazarite.
Seduced by this Philistine woman.
That was his weakness. He still assigned women pleasure, pleasure.
The very thing that the wine speaks of, the first thing that was to characterize in azurite, was to abstain from wine and strong drinks. And anything of the food, of the wine, vinegar of wine, vinegar of strong drink, even the grape juice itself, even the even the grapes themselves, to the to the seed stones, to the to the kernels or to the skin, anything made from the vine speaks of natural joy and pleasure.
And he found his pleasure in these philistine women.
Send Solomon. He had his fill of all that, 700 wives, 300 concubines, and yet his assessment of the whole thing is vanity of vanities. His emptiness is not satisfaction.
If you're really the Lord, if we're really saved, this world cannot satisfy us. It can't satisfy us. We have a nature that can only be satisfied by Christ himself.
Yes, we have another nature, an evil nature, the flesh that hankers after the things of this world.
But there's no more miserable person than the one that is playing both natures.
Going to church, going to meeting on Lord's Day and then.
Enjoying the flesh and activities of the flesh during the week.
That person is not happy, happy.
5 Aspects of Forgiveness
Gospel—C. Hendricks
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Much thy name unfolds to every open deer.
The pardon sinners memory holds none other half so dear 165.
We talk tonight on the subject of forgiveness.
Forgiveness.
Five different aspects of forgiveness.
First aspect is what we would call eternal forgiveness.
Sometimes it's called judicial forgiveness.
Is that which God alone can give.
Which he proclaims to the Sinner pardons. Sinner memory holds none other half severe.
Of the Lord, Jesus proclaimed to that woman, thy sins are forgiven. Only he could do that. No man could do that.
And then there's restorative forgiveness.
When we as Christians.
Sin.
We don't lose our salvation. We don't lose the forgiveness that we have eternally, but.
We lose communion, fellowship, and so we need to be restored and we'll look at that and then there's personal forgiveness.
How we extend forgiveness to others.
And then there's governmental forgiveness.
Very solemn subject, we'll look at that.
And finally, there's administrative forgiveness.
Five different kinds. And there's so much confusion that has resulted because we haven't distinguished one from the other.
Eternal.
Restorative personal governmental.
Administrative Let's open our Bibles to.
Well, let's look at Luke 7 again for just a few moments. I won't go over the passage in any detail again.
In verse 47, the Lord Jesus is talking to Simon the Pharisee who would invite him to his house.
And this woman had come in and bathed his blessed feet with her tears, wiped them with the hairs of her head.
Kissed his feet, the Lord said to Simon.
Thou gavest me no water for my feet, but this woman had washed my feet with her tears and wiped them with her tears.
Thou gave us me no kiss, but this woman hath not ceased to kiss my feet.
My head was oiled out. It's not annoying, but this woman hath anointed my feet with anointment.
Wherefore I say unto these Simon, her sins, which are many, are forgiven.
And then it says in verse. Well, I just quoted it, I'll read it. Verse 47. Wherefore I say unto thee, For sins which are many are forgiven, for she loved much.
But to whom little is forgiven the same love at little? And then he said unto her, Thy sins are forgiven. What a wonderful message. What a wonderful.
Truth, the only one that can proclaim forgiveness.
And when he said those words to this woman, thy sins are forgiven, he was committing himself, absolutely committing himself to the cross, because there was no way he could forgive her sins unless he had gone through the cross to bear the judgment for them to pay the penalty which her sins demanded had to be paid. And so many other those blessed words, he was pledging himself to go to that cross of ignominy and shame, and to die.
For her and for her sins.
Acts, Chapter 10 We will look at a number of scriptures.
We have to go rapidly because the subject is quite extensive.
Peter is preaching to the household of Cornelius and he says in verse 43. Speaking of the Lord Jesus, he says to him.
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To the Lord Jesus Christ give all the prophets witness.
That through his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins. That word remission means forgiveness.
Forgiveness of sins. One sins are remitted, dismissed, sent away, forgiven. So through his name that blessed one is now proclaimed the forgiveness of sins.
Forgiveness of Sins turn to Acts, Chapter 13.
Acts 13.
Verse 38 Be it known unto you. Therefore men and brethren, this is Paul preaching the previous one was Peter.
That through this man the Lord Jesus Christ, has preached unto you the forgiveness of sins.
And by him all that believe are justified from all things.
From which he could not be justified by the law of Moses.
Through this man has preached unto you the forgiveness of sins.
I was talking to.
A young girl recently about this subject of forgiveness.
And I asked her, How many sins have you committed when the Lord Jesus died on the cross?
But she had a hard time understanding my question.
Well, of course the answer to that question is none.
We didn't even exist yet, but God, who knew them, laid them on him.
God knew all the sins that we would commit, and he took those sins and laid them on his son on the cross, and he bore them in his own body on the tree. And so God can proclaim to us the forgiveness of sins. Not just sins that were passed at the time we believed, but all our sins, even those that we haven't committed yet. We can say we have the forgiveness of sins.
We'll come into the good of it at the time, but it's been it's being proclaimed now, that's the aspect.
Of eternal forgiveness. Now let's go to.
Ephesians One. We could look at many passages, but I just want to touch on a few.
Ephesians chapter One.
Verse 7.
In whom again the Lord Jesus.
We have redemption through His blood.
The forgiveness.
Of sins according to the riches of His grace we have it. I remember my brother-in-law who was not my brother-in-law at the time. He was a fellow engineer working with me at Sure brothers where I worked. And I brought the gospel to him and he got saved.
And I remember he was at we used to, I used to bring him home to the house and we would spend hours in the Bible together. And he was, he was just like a spongy. He soaked it up. He just loved every truth that I brought to him. And we prayed one night. He stayed overnight that night and typical with most of Christendom, he asked, Lord, forgive me my sins.
And so as we got into bed, I said, Marvin, if you owed me $100 and I said to you, I forgive you that $100 debt, you don't owe it to me anymore. And then every time you saw me after that, you said, Chuck, would you please forgive me the $100?
So that would mean you didn't believe I'd forgiven you. I told you the debt was canceled. I forgave you. I pardoned you. But you keep asking me for forgiveness. That means you don't believe you have it. You don't believe me, that I've forgiven you. And he got the point. Next time we prayed, he said, Lord, I thank thee. My sins are good. I'm forgiven. He entered into the good of this wonderful message.
The forgiveness of sins in whom we have redemption through His blood. The forgiveness of sins we have it.
It is not an intelligent prayer to ask for the forgiveness of sins if you are a believer, because you already have it when you believe.
Let's look at another passage in Hebrews 10.
In Hebrews 10.
This is the testimony of the Holy Spirit, verse 15, whereof the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us.
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For after that he had said before, This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them.
And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.
Now notice it doesn't say thy sins, their sins and iniquities will I forget?
That's a human infirmity to forget. I've talked to a number of older folks here in Pella and they've all told me they are getting forgetful. And I'm not all that old, but I can relate to that too. My memory is not like it used to be when I was in my 20s, but forgetting is is a human infirmity. But God doesn't say I will forget your sins, He says. I will not remember them anymore.
That's an act of his will, he says. I won't remember them. I'll never throw them up against you again. They're gone.
Isn't that wonderful? That's the testimony of the Holy Spirit. Now, where remission of these is there's no more offering for sin.
The sacrifice of Christ has put away our sins once and for all.
God has accepted that work, and now the Holy Spirit says there are sins and iniquities. Will I remember no more? That's an act of God's will He chooses not to remember and he never will bring them up again because of the blood of Christ.
Now first John 2.
First, John, Chapter 2. This is the last one we'll look at in connection with the subject of eternal forgiveness.
I, John 2, verse 12 I write unto you little children, because.
Your sins are forgiven you for his name's sake. That was the basis for his writing to them. I write to you because your sins are forgiven you.
And that's a wonderful thing to realize that you're forgiven that the question.
Of your eternal destiny has been settled by the sacrifice of Christ the once for all, never to repeated, never to be repeated Work of Christ on the cross that is done, and he proclaimed it. He said it is finished, and so now we can proclaim the forgiveness of sins.
Now the next aspect of forgiveness we want to look at is is restorative forgiveness. When we when one of us sins, we don't lose our salvation, but we lose communion. Turn back to chapter 2, verse one.
My little children, this is first John 21 These things right, I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, and he is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.
If any man's sin, notice the precision, the accuracy of the word of God.
It says if any man sin, we have an advocate. It doesn't say if any man's sin, he has an advocate. Nor does it say if we sin. We have an advocate that would suppose that all Christians must sin. And that's not true. If it says if any man sinned, he has an advocate. That would bring forth the thought that the advocacy of Christ begins to function once, once, once sins. But that isn't the case. No, what is the case is if any man's sin, which is the exception.
Scripture never puts it in such a way as to suppose that Christians are going to sin or that they must sin.
This is the exceptional case. If any man sinned, he no we we have an advocate with the Father. The Lord Jesus is our advocate with the Father right now, whether we're sinning or not. He's always there as our helper, our advocate and.
He's the one that leads us to repentance. If one of us has sinned, turn back to the first chapter, verse 9.
19 In John, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Notice it doesn't say if we if we say forgive me my sins, that's not what we say to God.
I don't believe that's ever presented in that way in Scripture. Not not in the case of eternal forgiveness. And this is a verse that is so broad that it could be applied to eternal forgiveness or it can be applied also to one who is in relationship with the Father. And that's the way I'm applying it here, Restorative forgiveness if we confess our sins.
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He is faithful and just. Notice it doesn't say merciful and gracious, which he is.
But it says he's faithful and just. Why does it say it that way? Because Christ has.
Is the propitiation for our sins. He has rendered full satisfaction to God for our sins. So God is faithful and He is just to forgive us our sins and more, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. The sins that we might confess to God are the ones that we're aware of. There may be others in our life that we're not aware of. What if we confess the ones that we're aware of? He is faithful and just to forgive us and then to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
He does more that just forgives us the sins that we've confessed and restores us into fellowship with himself. But if if we're conscious of having sinned in any way and we confess that to Him, then he He cleanses us from all unrighteousness.
Cleanses us from all unrighteousness.
Those of us who are parents, and I think just about everyone in the room is a parent. You know what? It is too, for your child to come to you and say, Daddy, I'm sorry I did wrong. Please forgive me. Well, what did you do? Well, daddy, just forgive me, But what did you do?
Oh, it's so hard for them to say what they did. This verse says. If we confess our sins, just tell me. The Lord says what you did wrong. Name it. Name it.
It's a lot easier to say forgive us our sins. That's the general prayer that we hear by many Christians. Forgive me my sins, but that doesn't really confess anything, does it? It's hard to say. Forgive me for that lie I did. Forgive me for that unkind word I spoke. Forgive me for that evil thought I had. Forgive me for stealing that thing.
Or whatever it was.
Well, that's what Scripture says.
If we confess our sins, is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Now I would like to read to us tonight on the 51St Psalm, one of the most solemn confessions of sins, probably the most solid, that we have in the whole Bible. And this will give us an idea of what it means to confess our sins. David had committed a grievous sin.
He had taken another man's wife. He had stolen a wife from a man who was one of his best warriors. He was one of David's mighty men, Uriah the Hittite, and he had taken his wife.
And made her his.
And then, when he couldn't conceal the evil deed, he arranged to have Uriah set in the hottest battle and killed by the enemy. What an awful thing. And Nathan had come to him and told about a man that was rich and had all kinds of flocks and herds, And there was a poor man that had one little ewe lamb.
That was nursed by that man and a stranger came and the rich man didn't take of his abundant flock, but he took of the poor man's lamb and killed it and fed the way for the stranger that came. And David was extremely angry. He said the man should die and he will restore fourfold.
Nathan said. Thou art the man.
Thou art the man. David had an abundance of lives, and he would have the Lord would have given him more.
Had he so desired that he took another man's life, another man's lamb?
And when it was couched in that parabolic form, David became very angry. It's amazing how angry we can get with another person's sins and not see our own. And now it says in Psalm 51 to the chief musician, a Psalm of David when Nathan the Prophet came unto him after he had gone into Bathsheba.
Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy loving kindness, according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies, blot out my transgressions, wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my transgressions, and my sin, as ever before me against thee the only have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight, that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest.
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Behold, I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me. Behold thou desirous truth in the inward parts, and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom.
Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean. Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Make me to hear joy and gladness, that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice. Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities.
Created me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from my presence, and take not thy Holy Spirit from the earth. But the New Translation puts it the Spirit of Thy holiness. Don't let me get into such a state of soul that I lose a sense of my holiness. Lord, do not allow this evil that I have done to.
Affect me to the point where I don't have horse sin any longer, but that's what he's saying.
Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation, not thy salvation. But he D lost the joy of it.
And uphold me with thy free spirit. Then will I teach transgressors. Thy ways and sinners shall be converted unto thee beautiful instance of one who had grievously sinned the Apostle Peter. The Lord had told him, You're going to deny me three times. And he said, Though I'll deny thee, yet will not I? He was so confident in himself, he did not know his own heart. He truly loved the Lord.
And he didn't think he was capable of doing such a thing. I'm sure David didn't think he was capable of doing such a thing that he did.
And there may be some in the room that don't think that, think they're not capable of doing it an evil like David did. Well, let me tell you, you're capable of doing. Every one of us is capable of doing.
David was a true St. of God, and he loved the Lord fervently. But he fell grievously into sin because at a time when kings went forth to war, he stayed home. He sent joy about to the battle and he stayed home. And then he got off his bed of ease and walked on the housetop and looked, and he saw a woman washing herself, and she was very beautiful. And that's all it took. He was not where he should have been. He was not in the battle. He was taking an ease, his ease and all the extra time that we had.
Is not good.
Because then we get into mischief.
It's probably better for the population when they had 12 hour work days instead of eight, because now a man has all kinds of extra time at his disposal to get into all kinds of evil.
And evil is increasing everywhere. And don't you believe it that we are immune to it? No, we are not.
David fell, and here we read his lament and his grief and the sorrow that his soul went through.
And the crying to God, I want a Holy Spirit within me.
And so on.
Well, Peter was one that fell deep deeply, and then you read of him on the day of Pentecost. He then restored the Lord had appeared to him in resurrection.
And.
Peter says to the Jews, he said, whom he denied in the presence of Pilate.
And a man demanded A murderer to be granted unto you, and he killed the Prince of life.
You might say, how could you do that? Because he was a restored man.
He was restored to the Lord and.
Used after his restoration. This idea that once one falls into a sin he can't ever be used again. That's not scripture. Peter was used Michael Lee after he was restored.
And so was David.
For thou desirest, not sacrifice, else would I give it. Thou delightest, not invert offerings. Verse 17. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite part of God Thou wilt not despise. Well, there's an example of confessing our sins. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
Now let's look at 2 verses, Luke 17.
Having to do with personal forgiveness.
We've looked at eternal forgiveness, which is based solely upon the work of Christ, and we can never lose that forgiveness.
Because it doesn't depend upon us in any way. It depends upon Christ in his work. And then the restorative forgiveness also is founded upon the work of Christ. He restores us because Christ has died for those sins and put them away. So He's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Now in Luke 17.
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Verse 3.
Take heed to yourselves. If thy brother trespass against thee, rebuke him, and if he repent.
Forgive him.
And if you trespass against these seven times in a day, and seven times in a day, turn again to these saying, I repent.
Thou shalt forgive him.
You might think, well if he's done it seven times, you might think after the 4th or 5th time there's a bit of insincerity in his saying I repent, but the Lord says forgive him.
Show grace to him so on a personal basis if one comes to us and.
Confesses their sins and says they repent.
We forgive. That's what the Lord tells us.
Now let's look at Matthew 18, where we have a similar passage.
Matthew 18.
In verse 21.
Then came Peter to him, and said Lord.
How OFT shall my brother sin against me now? He had said in verse 15.
Moreover, if thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone.
If he shall hear thee, thou esteem thy brother that tells us how we are to.
Deal with one who has trespassed against us. We go and tell it his fault with the with the object of gaining him, Not of giving him a tongue lashing, but to gain your brother. And Peter was thinking of all this, and I'm passing over the instruction that comes in between. We'll touch on that in a moment. But. And so he asked the question in verse 21.
How often shall my brother sin against me? And I forgive him, and being very, very large hearted and generous, he said till seven times.
And then the Lord says unto him, I say not unto thee until seven times, but until 70 * 7.
In other words, he's saying there's no limit to your forgiveness, no limit to forgiving.
We are to have an unforgiving spirit towards our brother. And if they come to us and say I repent, the Lord says thou shalt forgive him, Thou shalt forgive him. Well, that's personal forgiveness. Now some of these are tied. For instance, in Matthew 18 you have three, you have personal, you have governmental, and you have administrative. All in the same chapter. So we'll we'll now look at governmental forgiveness.
We're coming back to Matthew 18, so hold your place here, but turn back to Matthew 6 for a few verses first.
Matthew 6.
This is what is called commonly the Lord's Prayer, and in verse nine we have it.
After this manner, therefore pray thee.
Our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day Our Daily Bread, and forgive us. Here it is. Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the Kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. Now here it is again. For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you forgive not men, their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. Now that seems like it's contradicting what I've just said about eternal forgiveness. But this is not eternal forgiveness.
This is governmental forgiveness and it's very important that we understand the difference.
In government, what is the principle of God's government?
Well, I'll read it to you in Galatians chapter 6.
You want to turn to it? You may. It's in Galatians 6. This is the principle of government.
Verse 7 Be not deceived.
God is not mocked.
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Or whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.
For he that soweth to his flesh, new translation says to his own flesh.
That's what David did. He sold to his own flesh.
Shall of the flesh reap corruption. Let ye that soweth to the spirit, shall love the spirit, reap life everlasting. The principle of God's not going back to matter. Many of you are farmers, if not all, and you know exactly what that means. You sow in the spring, you reap in the fall what you've sown.
And that's a principle, an inflexible principle of God.
It applies to the Saints, It applies to the world, it applies to all men.
First Peter 117 says if you call him the father who without respect of persons, judgeth according to the work of each pass the time of your sole journey here in fear that's the government of the father over his family. And it says in the 4th chapter of first Peter, because in first Peter you have the government of God with respect to his to the church, to the assembly, and in second Peter you have the government of God with respect to the world.
The government of God in his own house. It says judgment must begin at the House of God. And if it first begin at us, what shall the envy of them that will they not? The gospel, The end of the ungodly is going to be a horrible thing, but God has his government over his house and over his family as Father.
And so again, going back to Matthew 6, we have.
Verse 12 Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. Verse 14 If you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.
But if you forgive, not mend their trespasses, neither will your father forgive your trespasses in a governmental sense.
That applies that if we are, if we carry ourselves in the spirit of forgiveness.
Your father forgives us if we harbor unforgiveness. We come under his government, which is very, very solid.
It says he won't forgive us Like this has nothing to do with eternal forgiveness. This has to do with governmental forgiveness while we're living our life down here.
Have to do with.
With our father in that way, now let's go to 8 Matthew 18.
With all that, and we'll read from verse 23. Now this is governmental forgiveness we're looking at.
Therefore is the Kingdom of heaven likened unto a certain king, which would take account of his service. And when he had begun to reckon, one was brought unto him, which owed him 10,000 talents.
But for as much as he had not to pay, his Lord commanded him to be sold, and his wife and children and all that he had, and payment to be made.
And the servant fell, therefore fell down, and worshipped him, saying, Lord, have patience with me, and I will pay thee all.
Then the Lord of that servant was moved with compassion, and loosed him and forgave him the dead.
But the same servant who had been forgiven 10,000 talents.
The same servant went out and found one of his fellow servants, which owed him 100 pence.
Very, very small amount.
And he laid hands on him, and took him by the throat, saying, Pay me that thou owest.
And his fellow servant fell down at his feet, and besought him, saying, Have patience with me, and I will pay thee all that he would not.
But went and cast him into prison till he should pay the debt.
So when his fellow servants saw what was done, they were very sorry, and came and told unto their Lord all that was done.
Then his Lord, after that he had called him, said unto him, O thou wicked servant.
I used to think when I read that, that that was an unsaved person.
Not necessarily. If a Christian harbors an unforgiving spirit, a Christian who has been forgiven 10,000 talents by God, a sum that we could never have paid, and then someone does something to me and I say I can't forgive you for that 100 pence, and I can't forgive it when God has forgiven me 10,000 talents, I cannot say that.
And for one to say such a thing or to harbor such a thought, I know of a case.
Where a husband.
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Was caught in a.
With another woman he was caught in.
A temptation?
Are they committed sin with this other woman?
And he went to his wife and he told her, he said, I've sinned. I do not love this other woman. I was caught up in the in the moment, the emotion of the moment.
And I went too far.
I love you. Forgive me.
And she would say, I will not forgive you. That's it.
She puts herself in the class of being a wicked servant.
Her state is worse than her husband's, who has asked for forgiveness, asked her to forgive him, saying I repent. I abhor myself for what I've done. I love you nothing. And she said I could give you anything, but not that.
There's a government that would come upon her for that, and if we should harbor that kind of a spirit.
Towards anyone, no matter what they've done to me.
No one can do anything to me that's so bad that I can't forgive them because I've been forgiven 10,000 times.
Like a?
All thou wicked servant, I forgave thee all that depth, because thou desirest me, Shouldst not thou also that compassion on thy fellow servant, even as I had pity on thee?
And his Lord was wroth noticed this, and delivered him to the tormentors.
Should say all that was due unto him.
Who are the tormentors?
Torment of conscience.
That conscience, because I'm harboring an unforgiving spirit bitterness in my soul towards someone because of what they've done to me.
This spirit has wrecked assemblies.
It has gone unchecked and unjust.
And the person that harbors, that is delivered by God governmentally to the tormentors, whatever that means tormented conscience.
Loss of peace and joy and happiness in the Lord because I have a bitter spirit.
So likewise shall my heavenly Father do also unto you.
He will deliver you to the tormentor of success, if ye from your hearts.
Forgive not everyone, his brother, their trespasses doesn't mean that we go to them and say I forgive you until they come to us and say I repent.
God doesn't extend forgiveness to a Sinner until he repents.
God commands all men everywhere to repent.
And when he does repent, then God Forgives him.
Forgiveness is there, ready to be given out in the heart of God, and that's the way the Christian.
Has to be towards anyone. Your forgiveness is there. As soon as he says I repent you forgive ever.
And if you want.
You put yourself in the category of a wicked circle.
Dispensationally, this applies to Israel.
And they have been delivered to the tormentors.
To pay everything that they owe, they've been driven from one nation to another to another. The Jews. The history of the Jews since they crucified their Messiah. What a terrible thing.
And what they governmentally under the government of God. Let's turn to it. First, Peter Three we have the principle of God's government, and I'll I'll just read the verse. It's important that we get a hold of what we mean now by governmental.
Forgiveness verse 12 First Peter 312 For the eyes of the Lord, however the righteous.
And his ears are open unto their prayers. Just think of a person that's harboring.
A bitter, unforgiving spirit.
If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me.
That's an awful thing.
Governmentally, he sets his face against me.
The eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, His ears are open under their prayers, but the face of the Lord is against them that do evil.
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That's been applied to a true believer.
Hebrews 12 Says, watching, lest any root of goodness springing up trouble. You and many of you defile. The one that defiles the most is the one that harbors that root of bitterness. It's a root that's there, and it's ready to spring up. It's never been dugout, It's never been judged. And some of the things that have happened of late in the Lamentable, Grievous, the awful division has gone through. There's roots of bitterness that have lain dormant for years in any experiment.
And many have been defined. Some of the things that have been written should never have been written, never have been put on paper, much less thought or spoken.
And even put it on paper.
Forgiveness governmentally.
If we fail in this.
The father says. I won't forgive you government.
Isn't that an awful thing, to be living in such a way that you don't have the sense that that the father is smiling upon us in approval of our ways and instead he has to set himself governmentally against it doesn't mean he doesn't love us. As many as I love, I rebuke and chase him, be zealous, therefore, and repent of actions.
Governmental.
Forgiveness.
For that one sin, for that one moment of pleasure, of gratifying of his own lust, David paid and paid and paid and paid.
He said two things. He said the man shall die, And Nathan said, you will not die, the Lord has put away your sin, You will not die. But David also said he shall restore fourfold, and David paid with four cents.
Four sons.
The son that was born of Bathsheba died.
And then he took Tamar. His sister was killed by Absalom because he was forced. His sister, he died.
Absolutely.
Who rebelled against his father and usurped the Kingdom he was killed.
I had an idea, the sound of it says. David had never said made to him, never displeased him at any time.
He tried to usurp the throne with God. David had said he would give it to Solomon.
Solomon got the throne.
He didn't put a genitage to death right away. He sent him home. The dad denies he made a very serious mistake. He went to.
Solomon's wife that she does.
And his mother, it wasn't his mother, it was his mother. But anyway he went to her and his mother, he went to her and he said go to Solomon and.
I want ABBA ****. You shouldn't like to write it.
And so she did that.
Solomon said you might as well ask the Kingdom before him. He's my older brother.
So you've spoken this word to his own day. And so he was put to death four sons.
Sons of David, we reap what we sow. That's the governmental principle of God. We can't get away from it. Don't ever think you get away with anything. Don't ever think we get away with anything. Thank God we don't. Thank God. He loves us too much to let us get away with sin, with wrong thoughts, with harboring the bitter spirit. Thank God he deals with us until he brings us to repentance. Either that or removes us.
From the same.
I'll read verse 34 and five again and then leave this passage. And his Lord was wroth and delivered him to the tormentors.
Till he should pay all that was due unto him, so likewise shall my heavenly Father do also unto you.
You keep from your hearts forgive not everyone whose brother trust me.
Well, that's the 4th aspect of forgiveness, and the 5th is administrator forgiveness.
And we have that in Matthew 1818.
Let's look at this passage for a moment.
Verse 15.
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Moreover, if thy brother shall trespass against thee.
Go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone, if he shall hear thee. Thou esteem thy brother. This is the activity of grace on the part of the one that was trespassed against to get things resolved between him and his brother. So he goes to him in the spirit of grace, seeking to gain him, and that they might be reconciled to one another again if he shall hear thee. Thou hast gain thy brother. Then it stops there, and never goes beyond anyone else. No one knows anything about it.
But the two?
But if you will not hear thee.
Then take with thee one or two more that they would be from the local assembly there.
That in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established.
But if this fails, again, it's the overtures of grace going out trying to gain him. But if he shall neglect to hear them tell it unto the church.
But if you neglect to hear the church, let him be unto thee as an heathen man and a publican.
Now I want to make this comment before we go on, because it's very helpful in expounding and understanding this passage.
Every second person pronoun that is singular starts with AT in our King James Bible. Same is true that Mister Darby's Bible, the modern translations. That's not true where they use you all the way through. But every second person pronoun that starts with AT is singular.
Thou, thee, thy line, we're all singular. That's it's always that way in in our Bible. And every second person pronoun that starts with AY is plural.
Ye, you, you're yours. So whenever you read you in the King James Bible, that's always Pearl.
If it was singular, it would be V.
So verses 1516 and 17 are all in the singular.
If thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between.
Thee and him alone, if he shall hear thee. Thou hast gained thy brother. That's all, Singer, that's all that individual.
If he will not hear thee, then take with thee one or two more, which of course makes that that part is plural. But it's still dealing with the individual that in the mouth of two or three witness may every word be established, and if he shall neglect to hear them tell it unto the church, the local assembly there. But if you neglect to hear the church, let him be unto thee, as it's still singular, it's still instruction to the individual as an heathen man and republican. So what started out in verse 15?
As thy brother and thou hast gained thy brother.
Now he's not to treat him as his brother any longer, but he's to treat him as an heathen man and the public, and because he has refused to, to listen to the voice of the assembly, the voice of the Lord in the midst of the assembly.
That's the final Court of Appeal that we have presented in this passage. And so the man that started out as thy brother ends up as a heathen man and republican, just as though he wasn't saved at all.
Because he has refused to submit to the voice of the Lord Jesus in the assembly of the Saints. That's the administrative the authority that the assembly has. Now in verse 18, it changes to the plural. Now he's talking no longer to the individual, but he's talking to the assembly, the local assembly that that man had refused to listen to. He did not listen to the church or the local assembly.
So in verse 18 there's there's instruction now to the assembly. Verily I say unto you, plural, the assembly, Whatsoever ye plural shall bind on earth, shall be bound in heaven, and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Now that verse is identical to the one in Matthew 16, with this one exception. When the Lord used those words to Peter, he said, Whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. That was Apostolic authority committed to Peter.
But here its assembly authority is in the plural.
The authority to bind one sin upon him and exclude him from one from their fellowship, or to rescind that and to receive them back into fellowship to loose the sin.
Notice verse 18 starts out with verily I say unto you, Verse 19 starts out with again I say unto you, he had more to say to them in that local assembly, that if two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven. Here you have now agreement. In verse 18 you have the administrative authority committed to the assembly to bind into loose.
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And in verse 19 you have the promise that if there is agreement, if there is a competent testimony to a competent testimony in agreement in that local assembly, their prayers would be answered.
4 Where two or three are gathered together in or unto my name, there am I in the midst of them.
That is administrative authority verse 18. Now let's turn to, we are talking about administrative forgiveness. Let's turn to John 20 where we have it and it's it's a very similar passage to Matthew 18, John 20.
Verse 19.
Then the same day at evening being the first day of the week.
When the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, notice it's the disciples not the apostles. What we're reading of here has to do with the the the local assembly. The church wasn't formed yet. This was the first resurrection day 50 days later 7 Sabbaths plus one day was the day of Pentecost when the Spirit of God came down in Acts 2 and that's when the church was formed or what we have here in John 20.
On the 1St resurrection morning, it is a little picture, if you will, of the local assembly with Christ in the midst.
And it says.
The disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, Came Jesus.
And stood in the midst, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you. Now he proclaims the fruit of his work, Peace be unto you he made peace by the blood of his cross. And now he stands in their midst, and proclaims peace to them.
That's the peace. That's eternal forgiveness, peace be unto you.
And then in verse 20, when he hath so said, he showed them his hands in his side. Then were the disciples glad when they saw the Lord, They recognized him. When they saw the Neil Prince in his hands and his side, and they recognized him. They were glad when he saw the Lord. The effect of knowing his work is peace. The effect of seeing his person is joy and gladness. Then said Jesus to them again, verse 21, Peace be unto you this time not for themselves to enjoy, but that they might proclaim peace to a lost world.
As my father had sent me, Even so send thou you. So he sends them forth on the mission of peace, proclaiming peace by Jesus Christ.
Not only do we have it for our own enjoyment, but we can proclaim it to the world.
He's made peace by the blood of His cross, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved. Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. That's the peace that He brings us into when we believe the gospel. And so He sends them forth with that message of peace. Now in the power of what life do we enjoy this peace? In the power of what life? Do we enjoy His presence? In the power of what life? Do we enjoy all the blessings that we have and go forth with the message of peace to the world?
Well, that's in verse 22. And when he had said this, he breathed on them.
And saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost. Now the article isn't really there, it's received, ye Holy Spirit.
The Spirit is given here as characterizing the resurrection life of Christ, which He breathes into them in resurrection conditions. He's the risen Christ here.
And he appears to them. You remember back in Genesis 2 when God created Adam, He took of the dust of the ground and he breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and then became a living soul. That was Jehovah Jehovah God that in that breathed into man's nostrils the breath of life. You don't read that of any of the other creatures. Man has an immortal soul. He has a living soul by the in breathing of God. Now here's that same Jehovah as man, as a risen man.
In the person of the Lord Jesus Christ and in his resurrection state, He breathes into his disciples who already had life, the breath of resurrection life, that is life in the power of the Holy Spirit. That's why he says, we see the Holy Ghost.
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So the Spirit of God was not to be the energizing power of that life, characterizing it and associating us with Christ in this direction.
That's the abundant life. Remember, in John 10 it says, he says I am come, that they might have life and that they might have it abundantly. It says more abundantly in the King James. It's really abundantly That is, we have the abundant life the Old Testament Saints have. Life is the same life that we have it in the power and energy of the Holy Spirit in connection with Christ risen from the dead in new creation conditions. That we could spend a lot of time on this, but we don't have the time.
Now we come to verse 23.
Whosoever sins, ye remit or forgive, they are remitted unto them, and whosoever seem to be retained, they are retained. This is a favorite verse of the Roman Catholics to quote, to try to show that Father so and so has power to forgive sins. This isn't an individual, this is the assembly he's talking to. And he says, whosoever sins, ye remit, they are remitted. That is, the assembly has the administrative authority to remit or retain sins.
And when we receive someone into fellowship, we are administratively remitting their sins.
You know, the practice today in the Christian world is that a person comes into a Christian assembly a total stranger, and he announces to the to the brethren there. I'm a Christian. I love the Lord. I'd like to remember the Lord. And I'm going to break bread here. That's my responsibility. I'm going to break bread here. Well, what should be the Brethren's response? The response should be that is not your responsibility at all. God has given us that responsibility to receive or not to receive, to remit or to retain sins. That's the administrative responsibility of the assembly.
Never do we find in Scripture that an individual can introduce himself into the into the Spirit. Or what the Spirit of God is he, that he must be received into that house? He received into the house? Well, he's baptized and he's brought into that sphere of blessing, and the brethren receive him there. I wish we had time, but we don't. There are instances in the Book of Acts that we could look at.
And the one that is the most probably the best illustration is First Corinthians 5.
There was a man that was inside. He had been received in, and he had fallen into sin. And Paul says, put away from among yourselves that wicked person, And they carried that out. So they retained that man's sins upon him. They bound his sins upon him, and excluded him from their fellowship.
Doesn't even say they put him away from the Lord's table. Put away from among yourselves. Now that should answer the question, Is it all right for us to eat with that person?
That they've been put away. If they're put away from among yourselves, you don't eat with them.
You don't fellowship with them and.
And that's been given to the assembly. It's not an individual. There's only one individual that had that, and that was Peter. He received right directly from the Lord in the Matthew 16.
But that's gone. The Apostolic authority is gone. We don't have any apostles walking along today, but we do have assemblies. So again.
I had to go very quickly because this is a vast subject. Eternal forgiveness that's founded in found the work of Christ. We can never lose it.
Restorative forgiveness if any man's sin.
We think it will be restored. We have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous. And the advocacy of Christ begins to operate even before the sin takes place. Remember, the Lord said to Peter, you're going to deny me, but I have prayed for thee. You'd already prayed for him before he even seen it, that thy faith failed. That's a result of the advocacy of Christ. And then there's personal forgiveness.
How often should my brother sin against me and I forgive him? Seven times. The Lord says 70 * 7 be come to you and say I repent. You shall forgive him seven times in a day.
And then there's governmental forgiveness, Very solid, very solid to think of governmental side of things.
If we from our hearts do not forgive everyone, our brother, their trespasses, neither will our father forgive us governmentally.
And then there's the administrative forgiveness. And I've heard preachers preach on this passage. John, 2023. I have never heard one get it right.
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Out there in the system and mess it up terribly. It's not eternal forgiveness at all.
God has never committed eternal forgiveness into the hands of men.
That's his prerogative, but he has committed restorative forgiveness.
And personal forgiveness.
Desires to exercise.
And to have a forgiving spirit in our hearts.
That's the way of blessing.
Gathering, The Lord in the Midst
Address—H. Short
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I would like to sing hymn #79 the 1St 6 verses only, Hymn #79 the 1St 6 verses only.
Rest of the Saints are.
My Lord.
And my power.
Of love.
I will be out of.
Hey, Cortana.
Freedom boy, my children.
A long future?
Let me grow in your mother.
'S name.
And play the way crazy for the hell.
I'm in this world.
I know.
Joy and I'll go and answer.
I suppose we could call it perhaps a young people's meeting, not in the sense in which we normally think of young people, but in the sense of keeping.
Our souls and our spirits youthful before.
Our God, I'd like to read to begin with a verse in the book of Jeremiah.
And prophet Jeremiah we know is a known as a weeping prophet.
What is on my heart is that our hearts affections might be stirred and particularly.
To the Lord, as he would be found in the midst of two or three gathered onto his name, in these days of very great weakness.
Brethren, he is there, and he you cannot.
Divorce with saying that him of Jerusalem above you cannot divorce Jerusalem from the Lord, and to speak of affection for Jerusalem. We are Speaking of affection for the Lord. And I have on my heart the gathering, and the Lord in the midst, and what a privilege that is.
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For us, but in Jeremiah chapter 2.
It says in verse one.
Moreover, the word of the Lord came to me saying.
Notice gold and cry in the ears of Jerusalem. Now when you get Jerusalem, it isn't exactly the same as saying cry in the ears of Israel. Jerusalem. You know without city that the Lord had chosen to place his name there.
And it's not called that way until after the division of God's people took place, when Jeroboam took off the 10 tribes around himself and said up to altars. The Lord spoke then of Jerusalem as being the city, the place where He had chosen to place his name.
And so this word would have a special effect upon our hearts, I believe. And then we read that, it says.
Jeremiah, chapter 2.
And verse 2 Thus saith the Lord, I remember thee this morning we gathered here to remember him. Now this afternoon he would say to our hearts, I want you to know that I remember these. The Lord never forget this, brethren. And he is looking down with far more interest in this little gathering here on Franklin St.
Than you and I had ever had in it.
So what does he remember?
I remember thee, the kindness of thy youth, the love of thine espousals, when thou winnest after me in the wilderness.
Oh, what a joy it was to the heart of the Lord to see.
What he here calls Jerusalem, going after him, the espousals of thy youth. Now that's without my heart this afternoon that.
Those espousals, those affections for Christ that maybe some of us may have had when we were younger and we find them waning in our souls, that that isn't what the Lord wants for us. He doesn't want us to get old and decayed in our affections. Age has not.
To do with this factor, we can go through this life no matter how old we get or how long the Lord needs us here, retaining the espousals of thy youth that brought such joy to the Lord. I was reading in my home, reading this past week in the 106th Psalm, and the Lord takes up the history of Israel there, and it's one failure after another.
One after another. And the thought came to me, Lord, where, when in the history of this people?
Did they respond to this verse? I would like to show it to you. Keep your place here and go back to the 106th Psalm. And it's such a little brief.
That you might miss it as you read that chapter that gives so much.
Of the failure of God's people and how they.
Failed. They failed in the land of Egypt, and they failed all through the wilderness. But in that song it says in verse 11, when they came through the Red Sea and the waters covered their enemies, that is the Egyptians, there was not one of them left.
Then believe they his words. They sang free. They sang his praises.
That's where this verse comes in. They had got out into the wilderness. They saw the defeat of their enemies and their hearts overflowed. But there were two things there that it says of them. They then believed they his words. They sang his crazy. The next verse goes back to their failures. They soon forgot his words. Does that have to be in our lives, breathing?
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And is that just something? We have to resign our our hearts to that?
Yes, when we were first converted, or probably when all of you here were first gathered to the Lord's name, there may have been the joy. And there was a greater joy in my soul when I began to learn the truth of being gathered to the Lord's name.
Then when I learned the truth, my soul was saved. There are those affections have to be part with the passing of time. They don't. They don't have to look. This is the beginning of Jerusalem. I remember the the kindness of thy youth, the love of thine espousals, when thou winest after thee in the wilderness.
In a land that was not sown, why were they so fervent in their soul? Because they were. There was nothing around them for to attract their heart. They they were in a place where there there was a land that was not sown. There was nothing around them to covet. There was nothing around them worth pursuing. The Lord had their hearts affected.
But he didn't. They didn't treat him first in their lives very long, and it soon waned to look over to the second book of Jeremiah, the book of Lamentations. Following this, and you'll see a tragedy there that came in and was speaking about Jerusalem, thinking particularly of those that are gathered to the Lord's name and our affections for that place where he is in the midst.
Doesn't have our heart. Does he have our hearts? Is it a joy?
To our souls to be able to meet collectively around himself? Or have we lost the espousals of our youth?
It says in Lamentations, chapter 4 and verse one, How is the goal become dim? How is the most fine goal change? Does it have to be valid? Do we have to fade in our lives? Do we have to?
Diminish in brightness and and affections to the Lord.
The stones of the sanctuary are poured out.
Into the top of every street. Now notice this expression, the precious sons of Zion comparable to fine gold. How are they esteemed as Earthen pictures the work of the hands of the body? Brethren, I think it isn't a proud thought that we should put ourselves in this verse. Zion is Jerusalem in grace.
Where the Lord had placed his name, these precious sons of Zion likened to fine gold. How did they diminish in value? How did they become so plain at what happened? Does this have to happen in our soul? It doesn't. It doesn't. We want our hearts and our spirits rekindled to the Lord. We want our affection stirred up to value what the Lord has given us again.
I'm speaking particularly in view of what we're having before us, Jerusalem or Zion, where the Lord has placed His name. Now let's go back to the New Testament and again.
Look in Matthew in Luke's Gospel. I believe it is chapter 19.
We see the city beyond.
That which was the delight and delighted, the heart of Jehovah, the espousals of their youth, those wonderful affections. And now here he comes. In verse 41 we read, and when he was come, Luke 1941, when he was come here, he beheld the city and wept over it.
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How is the Lord looking down on us this afternoon?
He is, you know, he he has such an interest in the standing and he's looking down on us.
What is? What is the word I remember the even the espousals of thyroid.
No winneth after me in the wilderness. Or is he looking here? He beholds the city, and he weeps over it.
Saying, If thou hast known even thou at least in this sky day, the things which belong unto thy peace.
Do we know what belongs to our peace? Do we know God's portion for us that would bring our souls into total rest and peace? What is that first message of the Lord in resurrection to those troubled disciples? What is it?
He be unto thee, peace be unto you, The Lord would bring us into this peace, this tranquility, this continuedness.
With himself. But the spirit beloved city did not know what belonged to the thing, what that means for their peace. Now let's go.
And I'm sorry to turn to so many passages, but let's go to the Book of Revelation and that passage that we know connected with Ephesians.
Let's search at Ephesus.
And it says.
In chapter 2.
Connecting with emphasis, it says.
Verse 4.
Nevertheless, I have somewhat against me, because thou hast left thy first love, we might say. Thou hast left the espousals of thy youth. When the Ephesians were saved and converted to Christ, their hearts were overflowing with affection for him. But that waned. Everything else went on the same, you know.
We've been they carry on.
Recognizably from those days of the early brethren in those 1800s, early 1800s.
They might recognize the form that we go on with, the way we break bread. They would even recognize our little flock hymn book the same hymns.
What is the?
Still there?
For have we left our first love? Well, if we've left our first love, we can return. We don't have to finish our days in this.
Departed condition, the Lord can stir up our hearts and cause us to value and the precious privilege we have of coming to be where He is in the midst. As I say His Jerusalem. Now go back to the book of Acts where this assembly began.
And we can see there the fervency in Acts 20. I just want to look at Acts 20 in its early days of Ephesus.
We had it this morning, a verse from it, but I would like to go when he goes.
And his word to the elders Acts 20. And it begins at verse 28.
But I want to call your attention to an expression called uses here, he says.
He tells them in verse 29 After my departing, shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flaw Also of your own self, shall men arise, speaking perverse things to draw away disciples.
After them, so we've had a little experience of the flock. Being further scattered causes us our hearts to ache. But he said down in.
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I'll have to find that a minute. I'm looking where, he says. You shall see my face no more. Perhaps it's earlier.
Yeah, that's that's what they saw where he says it, but that'll be all right. He says it earlier that they would see his face no more. And then in verse 38 they say sorrowing most of all for the words which he state that they should see his face no more. Now sometimes the Ephesian elders are criticized for saying that.
That is, he had Paul had told him of the destruction of the assembly, and they've been criticized because instead of sorrowing most of all for the loss of their brethren disciples being drawn away, they sorrow most of all because they would see false Faith No More. Now I like to make an application of that, I believe, rather than by the grace of God.
I've said this before, but if the Apostle Paul had come to tell her this morning.
I believe he would have come here and broken bread with us.
They valued Paul's presence so much that if that couldn't be true, that would cause the deepest sorrow that they had in their life. Now what do I mean? I mean this if the Lord removes His testimony from fellowship.
And there are no longer two or three gathered together unto the name of the Lord Jesus.
Would that be the greatest sorrow of your life?
The espouses of thyroid. The Ephesians.
Value this apostle so much that when they heard, they would see his face no more. That broke their hearts and it caused them to embrace him and they fell on his neck in verse 37 and chicken. It's a relationship.
Of love and affection.
Nothing else, I won't say. Nothing else matters. But that is the heart of Christianity. That is the heart of the Assembly. That is the heart of being gathered to the Lords name. Yes, we do need sound doctrine, but we need these hearts of ours stirred up.
We need these parts of our rekindle that we might love the one to whom we're gathered and where that is, brethren, where that is true in any of our hearts and many measures, that love, that same love, is going to be towards His people. You cannot love Christ and not love these people. Oh how often that smites my soul.
How often I like to think that I do love the Lord. But His people they weary me no, their barometer to our affections for Christ. And so the Ephesians fell on Paul's neck and embraced him. But in the Revelation Church at Ephesus, in the Book of Revelation, Paul had to say of that assembly.
All the way in Ephesus was one of them. All day in Asia have turned away from me.
What is the message this afternoon? He looking down. I mean, we are still. Ephesus was still an assembly gathered to the Lord's name, but their affection for Paul had waned and they had turned away from him who here they were embracing and sorrowing because they would see a face no more. That first love was gone.
How does supposing let's suppose that the Apostle had come here this morning.
What if he said to our heart, when he is said to us all day in Bella, have seen new age from the when he said that, as I say, the assemblies in Revelation are all called Assemblies of God. They were all, as we say, gathered to the Lord's name, but their condition, their state of soul, were vastly, vastly different.
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And rather than that's what the Lord is interested in, He is interested in our state of soul.
He's interested in our state with soul. He isn't so important to the Lord that we do things correctly. We have one loaf, one copy. We don't have a ministry, We don't have a organ or so. I'm not making light of those things, but it means very little to the Lord if our hearts are cold.
That's done. This is a hard relationship. Now I'd like to go back.
And again, apologize for turning to so many scriptures but.
To the songs, I think it's.
About 138.
And we get a little.
View there as to why.
Our hearts grow cold. Why the precious?
137 Why our hearts affections wane from Christ? You know, in Hindi espousals of our youth we went after him in the wilderness, that is.
We looked around and that's how we viewed what was around us. We said nothing here.
For me, I remember as a young man and brother, Brown said To me and me.
What do you want to do in life?
I just didn't say I said Doesn't matter to me. All I want to do is serve the Lord.
I have no aspirations. I was in a wilderness and that's what I do to that. Sad to say, my life hasn't always viewed what's around me as a wilderness. And so now in this song, we 137 Songs by the Rivers of Babylon, what does this tell us about?
It tells us that Jerusalem has been taken captivity into Babylon. And what did Babylon tell us about? It doesn't tell us how the wilderness Babylon is the expression of the very height of prosperity to which man has ever attained, and what is judged in the Western world.
That is identified as Babylon, the great prosperity, riches, earthly, desires, earthly, hope, earthly.
Goals and purposes.
Have come in now and instead of seeing the wilderness.
We have seen babbling something to be desired. Remember Aiken? It says he took that garment with the Babylonians garment. That's what caused Aikens downfall. He saw that Babylonian garment and he coveted it. Then we we have got Joseph's coat of many colors. If we only knew what made for our peace, if we could see Joseph's coat in the babylonish garment.
Headache and been able to see Josephs coat instead of that Babylonian Starman Joseph coat would have eclipsed it. But we have forgotten what makes for our peace and so we look around. We get a little discouraged in the assembly and we say.
Really. There's something out there for me, after all. And what will it do? It will bring us into captivity by the rivers of Babylon. There we sat down. Yeah, we left.
When we remember Zion as we ever wept for the Assemblies and doesn't mean so much to our heart, they awoke and they saw they lost.
Jerusalem. They lost lions, captives, and faith looks back and it weeps with a broken heart, Babble, and did what the wilderness could never do. It took the children of Israel. It took Jerusalem captive. Then that's what causes our affections, you see, for us to lose our affections for Christ.
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Only another object can do that.
It's like a marriage. We might look at that if time permits. When we get another object before us, between us and the wife of our youth, then the marriage falls apart. And so this Babylon and Babylon your nose, What caused dear Hezekiah's fall? They send to him when he was sick and it took him.
And it took his sons, not him. But it took his son to Babylon as slave. And so on. The wilderness is replaced by the Babylon Zion in his up in captivity. And let's say, all right, what's happened to my heart? I'm in Laodicea, the Lord is outside at all. Give me the part of my life. But he's knocking and I'm going to open my heart's door. And so it says We hanged our hearts upon the willows.
In the midst thereof, and there they that carried us away captive.
Required a song and they that wasted us.
Required as a mirror saying, Singeth one of the songs of dying. How long have been since you've done a song dying in your heart? And the joy of that city, the affection for Christ and his? Aren't they saying they couldn't sing it in babbling? Amira can read it, but notice verse 4. How shall we sing the Lord's song?
In a strange land if it's not possible.
That when the world and its Babylonians character comes into our lives and we pursue it, our affections waved wane, our song does to we cannot and be a captive in Babylon and sing the Song of Zion so we don't have to stay there.
Verse 5 If I forget the Old Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning there.
Don't just easy. And Jerusalem isn't exactly the Lord, but it's where he is in the midst, and he cannot separate the Lord from that place. And there those in captivity, they remember Jerusalem. And they said, let my right hand, if I forget thee, let my right hand forgive the coming. You know we have that expression and it's all becomes from this. I give my right hand for that or my right arm for that.
You mean we want something so badly we would be willing to give up our right arm for us? Well, that's just all here. If I forget the old Jerusalem verse six. If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth. Notice this if I prefer not to ruse alone above my cheek. Joy. Is it true in our life, Gary?
But I say, if you could take the assembly out of your life, Jerusalem.
They were taken out of your life. Would you have lost your cheek joy?
It's real. It's real good, you know, I remember.
Thinking infectious death of heart.
I didn't enjoy going to meetings, but I couldn't go anywhere else.
There was no place else on Earth that I could go. It wasn't that I was enjoying going to meetings.
But I couldn't go anywhere else and in SO measures rather.
Isn't it the chief joy of a life?
Take it out of your life. What will it do to your heart?
If I.
Is it put there if I prefer not Jerusalem? About my chief joy? Remember, oh Lord, the children of Edom.
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That in that day.
Of Jerusalem. The children of the Remember, O Lord, the children of Edom in that day.
Of Jerusalem. Who said raise it, Raise it even to the foundation thereof? Why are our numbers diminishing? Why are our assemblies getting weaker Because the enemy takes Jerusalem.
And the enemy of our souls, and he who hates the Lord Jesus, will never leave us alone. As long as there still remains to gather through the Lords precious name, He will not leave us alone. The language of his heart is raise it, raise it, even those sons of Lot who was a worldly man who loved Earth, who made his decisions based on the advantage that Earth could give him.
Father these boys and they had no use for Jerusalem. They said raise it, raise it paradigm. We don't want one stone left upon another And so it says.
Down in verse 8 or daughter of Babylon who are to be destroyed rather than you know, this world and all of its prosperity and pride. And it's arrogant.
It's going to come under the judgment of God when God looks down upon the man upon earth as they built that tower of Babel. And that's where Babylon has its beginning. They thought, all this wonderful power we're making ourselves a name. Those were not the thoughts expressed by God. And he came down and brought it all to confusion. One of the wonderful dreadings of finish our course and not have regret.
All said to Timothy upon his departure, I have fought the good fight, and he said I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I've committed to him against that day. Paul didn't have much in the bank, but he had deposited his treasure with the Lord, and he said he is going to keep it against that day. It wouldn't be wonderful to end our days, brethren.
With our treasure.
In heaven. And we would step into that fear through our treasury well.
Babylon was going to come under the judgment of God and it says in verse.
The universe.
A happy shall he be that rewardeth thee, as thou hast served us, that is, it had carried Jerusalem into captivity, and destroyed the young. Verse. 9 Happy shall he be that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the stone, if God is going to judge Babylon.
It took his city, Jerusalem, into captivity that he is going to judge it rather than let us judge it too. I don't mean war against it. I mean let us judge it for what it is in God's eyes and enemy of our souls that takes our affections away from Christ and bring us into captivity and leads us to lead a life that is improved living.
Now let's go to.
The ghost next book to Proverbs.
And see their what I mentioned earlier.
Chapter 5.
Speaking of espousals.
Additive overeations our hearts. Verse one it says my son Proverbs 5. Verse one my son attend unto my wisdom and bow down thine ear to my understanding.
Down in verse 3 for the lips of a strange woman drop as a honeycomb and her mouth is smoother than oil.
00:40:11
This is a little picture of Babylon that takes our hearts away from Christ.
Yes, her lips are as honeycomb. Your mouth is smoother than oil, a beautiful object to behold. But death to our soul if we pursue this woman. You know, the mother of harlots, babbling the great.
That's what the church ends up her character as, and she's hearing her heart the way. And then there's the the political babbling or the world babbling, just getting our hearts speaking fine things, promising you and me.
A hope down here on Earth.
And something worth living for here on Earth. It doesn't have it. It isn't found in the whole Kingdom of Babylon. There's nothing worth giving our hearts affections to at all.
And so it says down in verse 4. But her end is bitter as Wormwood, sharp as A2 edged sword, all gathering in the Hebrews, It says and follow those who stay follow, considering the end of their conversation, that is those men of faith in their conversation without regret. And you and I don't want to come to the end of our lives.
With remorse and sorrow, and we will.
If our affections have been taken away from Christ, the espousals of our youth have been attached to a strange woman, but down in verse.
9 verse 8 Remove thy way far from her, and come not nigh the door of her house, lest thou give thine honour unto others, and their years unto the cruel. She didn't seem like a cruel person. She seemed like a loving, desirable woman. But if she gets her heart, and we live a life following her, we're going to find how cruel.
She is because she will mock us at the end. The Lord won't mock us at the end, whether when we finish our days, if we have kept the apostles of our youth, if we've gone after him and retained that around us as having the character of a wilderness, nothing there to be desired. We won't regret it when we finish our course. And then it says down in verse.
28.
And it says.
Let thy fountain.
Be blessed and rejoice with the life of thy youth. Let her be as the loving hind the pleasant rose leather breath. Satisfy thee at all times, and be thou ravished always with her love. It isn't that the wife is young.
It was the same way that Solomon took in his youth and his.
Instructions were to love her all his life. How wonderful, naturally, to see a couple.
Go on through life and instead of their first love waning, it grows deeper and deeper and deeper. I remember brother Albert Mayhol saying that he said I love my wife so much more now than I did when we were first married. I don't even know if I loved her when I married her.
Well, that's the way it should be in our marriages, that it should be that way in our relationships with Christ. Also, the fine gold does not have to dim. We can rejoice in the wife of our youth. That is so you followed of our youth. And what causes us this great joy? We go to a wedding. Why is it such a half an occasion? Because we're seeing before our eyes a portrayal of the apostles of youth.
We can have that today. We can have it in our marriages, and we can have it in the assembly. If we are willing to look at all and view the place in which our lot is cast as a wilderness not sown. That is the nothing here we're pursuing. There's not an object here on earth. Where's my heart's affection? That is the only way we're going to maintain.
00:45:23
The asthma of our youth.
Now go back to.
I say it again. I think it's Chapter 40.
It's a well known verse, but it fits in here.
Isaiah chapter 40, verse 30. Even the youth shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall who fail that have to be.
To say there's no way around it, our affections just it's just one of the laws of gravity or drop something that falls to the ground and we just this is our dude, you know it isn't so.
I may be true of nature, and I may be true of young people.
But it says here in verse 31, But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with the wings as Eagles. They shall run and not be weary. They shall walk and not.
They read in love. We found the Lord. We begin our days. Let's begin them waiting on the Lord.
We go through our life, let it be marked by men and women of God waiting upon the Lord. What's that mean? That means not serving him if waiting for a word for him. He's controlling our lives. Remember that first verse he said in that 106 lbs. And they had kept his word. They heard his word. Let's wait. I'm just thought, you know, I'm gonna get.
Now it's saying you can't, Mr. Brown used to say. Why God has joined together.
Let not man put asunder and God has joined the assembly and Christ together, and you can't separate them, but you can't separate the word of God from Christ Jesus. He is the Word. And and this book should be if our if, if our hearts are going to be maintained and the espouses of our youth, this book in a very real way will be the greatest treasure of our lives. You know when I travel around.
I have to leave the car parked at A at a rest area or a store or anywhere. I hide my Bible case and the reason I hide it because I don't want anybody to mistake it for a doctor say there's something that they might think would be worth steering because it's the most precious thing I have in the car.
That's the most precious thing I have and I don't want anyone.
To steal it, thinking that it's something else? No. Is the word vicious through our heart? It's the word precious to our heart. Well, we can wait upon the Lord and renew our strength. And then I would like to.
Point. Remember I said in Hebrews that says whose faith follow? I'd like to call our attention to two men of faith who finish their day without their affections.
Being dampened, they began with the espouses of their youth and they entered. One of them entered the land and the espouses of issues, the other finished the day go back to the end of the Book of Deuteronomy.
For the first one.
And let's follow these dear men Space I I'm not sure if I put my finger right on it, but.
I think it's the last.
Chapter not true.
Yes, Deuteronomy Chapter 34.
And verse 7.
And Moses was 120 years.
Oh, when he died.
His eye was not dimmed nor his natural force abated. He died at 120. A young man and I used to read this verse like this. Moses was 120 years old when he died. His eyes were not dimmed nor its natural force abated. But it doesn't say that. It says his eyes. His eye was not dimmed.
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And that's how we're going to maintain ourselves in the condition of our youth is by having a single eye for the Lord. Moses went through the wilderness and he maintained it as a wilderness. He didn't seek his forces here below, he had a single eye for the Lord. It's true, because of the children of Israel provoking his spirit, he didn't get to go into the land.
But he had only that before his eye. His eye was single. He had no other object in that wilderness journey that turned him aside. He made a few brethren. His natural force was not abated, and we don't have to lose the affections of our heart for Christ and for the assembly.
And I'll go just in the next book in Joshua and clothing.
And read about Caleb.
You take me a moment to find this.
Verse of.
Of 12/11.
Verse 12 it says, And now behold, the Lord hath kept me alive, as he said these forty and five years.
Even since the Lord spake the Word unto Moses, while the children of Israel wandered in the wilderness.
And now low I am this day, four store, 80 and five years old, 85 years old. As yet I am as strong this day as I was in the day when Moses sent me. As my strength was then, so is my strength now for war, those to go in, to go out, and to come in the wilderness.
Was a wilderness, and he did not lose his affection for Christ the brethren. May the Lord help her.
And we don't have to decay, you know. It says. I think it was Ephraim. The Lord says I'll ask for hairs and knowest did not. Perhaps we don't even know our affection that weighing but God does. I have somewhat against these I'll have left. I first love those at Ephesus at O'hare's and their their affection had waned. They've gotten old and their affection.
But that's true of us. Rather than last weekend, there's always repentance less repent and return to the Lord and follow him in the disposal of Thy view. We can mount up brethren as the Eagles wings. We don't have to worry. You can run and we don't have the things. But it's a question.
Of our hearts relationship to our Lord, do we value what He has brought us into?
The place where he has placed his name. Jerusalem. Our Jerusalem.
Where he is in the midst of the two or three, gathered unto its precious pain, the enemy acclaim raised the phrases What is the response of our heart? Lord Jesus, preserve thy flock most graciously, within thy shall be.
Perhaps we could sing that and have to lift it up. He's always there. He's a lot of people and supplies.
You find that?
I'm not sure if that's the second verse or preserve like rock postgraduate.
00:55:05
288.
And let's sing the very the third verse we spoke about it. We knew the things that belonged to our peace to 88 years verse 3.
Do the.
Holy Grail.
And grand blasts our graves and breathe.
Oh my God.
That's a beautiful body.
Onstage.
They pray in love on the man.
Laughing, Lord you.
Gospel
Gospel—H. Short
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Perhaps the Lord might have a look tonight in John's Gospel chapter 4.
We might think as we take up this account of this poor, wretched woman.
And that you might not know. People like that. It's not the kind of friends we have.
We don't associate with them.
But when do we really know our own heart?
We don't. You know, we know far more about the heart of God than we do about our own heart.
And whenever you hear of anything that has happened that man has done or a woman has done.
I don't ever think that you couldn't do it.
John's Gospel, chapter 4. When therefore the Lord knew how the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and baptized more decisive than John, though Jesus himself baptized not but his disciples. That is, the disciples were the ones who were making disciples by baptism.
He left today and departed again into Galilee.
You know the Lord wasn't interested.
In baptized disciple.
He had on his heart and someone who wanted more than religion.
You know there's nothing wrong with baptism.
But it's only good for earth. It's not good at all for heaven. All it will do for you in respect to heaven is bring the judgment of God the Lord in heaven down upon you if you've been baptized.
As more responsible than someone who has not been baptized.
And so, though there were seen to be many who were being baptized, the Lord leave that land.
That Judea.
Knoweth the Lord's land. He is the lion of the tribe of Judah. He was born of Judah and he's going to leave it for Samaria.
Because.
He was looking for a heart to respond to him.
We occupy what would answer to Judea today. That is we here in the meeting room and here in fellow We live in a process generally obsessed Christian community.
But when the Lord doesn't find any heart.
They are responding to him. He's going to leave this land.
I speak in a figure now he's going to leave Christendom and go back to, as it were, Judea.
Where he will have a people who will be made willing in the day of his power.
They're going to be a little. There's going to be a little company in Israel amongst Judah, who will be crying for the Lord and crying out for the Lord, and he's going to leave the Christian profession because there were no hearts there to open there for him.
How about you tonight, as he said this afternoon, our relationship with the Lord.
Baptism isn't enough.
And profession is not enough.
What is here?
What does he see in your heart? See me as he looks down?
Does he see one who feels that they ought to finish?
And have a heart read of Christ.
That's what he is looking for. And so it says in verse four he must need to go through Samaria. You know the Lord is just passing through. He lived on this earth for 33 years and he just passed through.
00:05:09
And he's just passing through now. The Lord isn't taking up a permanent dwelling here on earth. He's just passing through and you don't have much time.
If you're caring for a better hour, more convenient time, I just would warn you.
No one here tonight can tell you how much time you have, but you can't do it.
The Lord is just passing through. You must need to go through scenario. Then cometh he to a city of scenario, which is called Psycho, near to the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. Now Jacob, well was there, Jesus therefore being wearied with his journey.
Sat up on the well.
I wonder, friend, how old you are tonight.
And the Lord has been, as it were, journeying with you.
Has it been a worrisome journey to the Lord?
Is that nothing in your life? As he passed amongst these baptized one, was there no refreshment for him? And so he comes to this well, and he sits down, but he's weary with the journey, you know, he says of his own. Ye have wearied me.
Sayeth the Lord those who profess to know him.
Would he say that tonight to you or to me? You've just wearied me. My journey with you has caused me weariness. I haven't gotten the refreshment. I haven't gotten the bread. I haven't gotten the nourishment from you that I would have liked to have. You know when the Lord found that big tree which speaks of profession with no figs on it.
Cursed and it dried up tonight. Is the pigs on your tree? Is there water in your well to refresh the Lord?
Well as well have been a long round, a long, long time. The Lord sits at it.
And it says, Jacob dwell was there Jesus therefore being wearied with his journey, S thus on the well at the well. And it was about six hours. Then cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water. Who were these Samaritans? Well, they were transplants that had been put into the land of Israel.
For the purchase of keeping the beast out of it. The beast was playing them and they had to be taught.
The religion.
Of the Jews. And so they sent countries back there to teach them the laws of Jehovah so the bees wouldn't devalue them.
That kind of religion you have tonight, I mean by that, you're not on drugs.
You're not frequenting the bars.
And they're not picking you up at the jail.
And you're not.
Being pursued by the police for crimes you've done, but you don't make pride.
You've got enough religion. You've been taught enough religion to keep you out of the gutter.
Don't have Christ. This woman had religion. She'd been taught it. Her parents, her fathers and forefathers had been taught by the Jews. They've been corrupted, but it had kept the beast some devouring them in the land.
Is that satisfactory for you? Just to have a good life? We need people all the time who haven't done anything too bad.
And we need people who you could trust your billfold with. Good people, but they don't know Christ. The beasts haven't devoured them. They've got enough religion to keep that from happening.
That they don't know. Christ, is that the religion tonight that you have this woman was a Samaritan.
00:10:03
And she comes to draw water. Verse 7 And it said, Jesus saith unto her, Give me to drink. If he's saying that to you tonight, friend, give me the drink. Have you ever saw of those words that the Lord spoke when he sent his disciples after that donkey? And said, the Lord hath need of him?
Do you ever think about the Lord and his relationship with you? That he has need of you? And so he takes that place before this woman hears it, where it says I have needed you. I am thirsty. Will you give me a dream? Have you ever given a dream to the Lord? Have you ever only thought this about yourself? And what is in life for me? Where is the Lord?
Slide. Nothing. Where is the inside? As he says, I will come into you and stop with you, and you with me. Have you provided refreshment for the Lord? Well, this dear woman, she comes to the well alone and alone. She needs the Lord Jesus. And he says, give me to drink. You know, this is a good word for us who are fished in the little nice pattern.
We always would like to do good things for our neighbors.
And we should. But it's good once in a while to let people do something for you.
It'll open the door for you if you have a need and you let that neighbor help you with that need.
It may open the door that you helping him won't open, and so he takes this place of lowly dependence upon this poor woman. Give me to drink.
And it says in verse eight, for his disciples were gone away into the city to buy. The disciples went there to give him a drink. He turned to the Samaritan woman.
Then saith the woman of Samaria unto him in verse 9.
How is it that thou, being a Jew, asked the strength of me, which I'm a woman of Samaria, for the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans, nor the Jews couldn't help the Samaritans. The Jews were dead in their sins, and the Samaritans were dead in their sins, and the Jews had nothing to offer. This American had no dealings with them, their religion.
Had set them apart from the Samaritans, made them feel themselves superior to the Samaritans.
Perhaps that's the way your religion has left you tonight. You just feel that I am not so bad at all. Remember, it was the Jews that the Lord had left in search of a heart that would receive him. Perhaps tonight you feel complacent about yourself. You have a religion that is higher than those around you. The Jews have that kind of a religion. They had Jerusalem. Perhaps you have Jerusalem. We talked about it this afternoon. Perhaps you've been raised in the meeting. You know more than any other believer.
In the city of Pella knows about the Bible, but do you have Christ the Lord left the Jews and he goes to this American woman?
And he says to her, give me a drink. And she says the Jews have no dealings with Samantha. Before friends, the Lord Jesus was more than a Jew.
Yes, he was. He was more than a Jew. This is the Son of God. This is the Son of God. Become flesh. Yes, they do. The Lord was. They do. But he was more than a Jew.
And he has dealings with Samaritans. He does have dealings with Samaritans. They were the most despised people. They when he speaks of that illustration of the Good Samaritan that we say the Good Samaritan, he is talking about himself. He was in the eyes of the Jews the same category as the Samaritan tour, but he was the only one who could bring blessings to those with souls need.
00:15:05
The Jews couldn't do it. They had nothing to offer the Samaritan fridge verse 10, the Lord says, but it says. Jesus answered and said unto her.
We don't call the Lord Jesus when we're talking to him.
None of the disciples called him Jesus.
When they were talking to him.
Because he is our authority and Jesus was the name given him.
In his humiliation. But Jesus is the name given to him by God in his exaltation too. But we call him Lord Jesus. But the scripture says Jesus answered that's how close he has come to the human race. That's how close.
The Lord came to man. He came right to where he was. The Samaritan went down, it says in the New Translation. He went down to him in business. The Lord has gone to the desk.
Calvary's cross that he might bring us to himself. So he comes to this woman, and he says to her, If thou knew it, the gift of God, or the giving of God, and who it is that saith unto thee, give me to dreams, I would have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water.
Do you know who it is tonight and?
If thou knewest who it was.
Two wonderful things to get to know the Lord. You know, I met a man. I said to him, do you know the Lord? He said not as well as I'm going to. Well, that's true of all of us. But it's wonderful to know the Lord. It's only in this measure of this measure. It's a wonderful thing to know the Lord. This woman didn't know him to you. Do you think he's a Jew?
That all he means to you?
Or is he this man who can give living water?
The woman saith unto him, Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with the well of sheep. I remember, you know, when those were my thoughts about the Lord, I I I fell the need in my heart. And but I wasn't sure that the Lord had anything to draw with. I wasn't sure that the Lord could meet my need. And so I kept going back to Jesus. Well, and drinking, and drinking and drinking, and never getting my thirst.
Satisfied, but not sure that the Lord had anything to draw with.
That he died. And if you come to know him as your favor and as your Lord, you'll find him one who can satisfy the 3rd and you know.
Tonight, if you have a third, it's because you don't know the Lord. You haven't got this living water when you like it.
The well the from Winston hath thou that living wanted? I remember Mr. Lundy Speaking of this verse one time, and he said, the well is deep and it gets deeper every time you draw from it where I used to work.
One of the buildings offices are cleaned. The owner and president of that company.
Very nice man. You couldn't find a kinder man, very nice man. And in his office he had a little picture of a little Fled for boys and under it said something like this. Do you remember when all you wanted this was all that you wanted in life?
But you know, that's how our life is.
You're little and all you want maybe is a pacifier. You grow up and it's a doll and there's this wagon or sled, then a bicycle, maybe a car, and then a a way for overdone, then a hole. And we go from one thing, but it keeps getting bigger and more expensive. But if all this is our pursuit of life and we don't have Christ, the well gets deeper.
00:20:17
The longings get longings are greater in our hearts.
Cost us more to try to satisfy them.
And will never be satisfied. Isn't there wonderful someone said, The Lord has made a heart in such a way, and nothing but the Lord can satisfy.
So the well was he. She'd been there many times. She didn't see that the Lord had anything to draw with. Art thou greater than our father, Jacob? Yes, he is. He created Jacob. And you know what he said about Jacob? Her father, as she says, our father Jacob. You know what this man who was sitting at the well said about Jacob? He said.
Thou learn Jesus.
Yes, he takes the highest man.
That man has ever came to you.
Thou were taken.
She was going as high as she could go, but it was still just the worm that she thought would bring her blessing.
We are all greater than our father Jacob, which gave us the well, and drank their oath, himself and his children and his cattle. Well, where was Jacob?
Where was his children? Where were the cattle? It all died with this living water. Is that all you have in life is a religion that man has given you that leaves you to die?
Safe as well, Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall first again. What a promise. Whosoever drinks of this water shall fish again. And it's true, you know, we were going over the bridge, and watching those people out on the lake, and having fun, but I know I never did that.
But I did other things on Sunday, similar things, and I know the feeling after day out, you know if we were out drag racing our motorcycles or racing them through.
Here or there or anywhere. I know what it's like to come home Sunday night tired, dirty, weary and disappointed.
That that all you got?
If you drink, you have to drink because it leaves your drinks. We saw drinking from this water.
There's again, what a promise, What a promise, and what a statement of the emptiness of the finest that this world has to offer.
Who sold drinks of this water shelters again, but whosoever drinks of the water that I shall give him, shall never.
Live but the water.
That I shall give him shall be in him a well of water, bringing up into everlasting life.
When you like that and you know, I think a little bit about the word of God for.
If spoken of as water too.
I just have been enjoying the last few months that I have a book that is inexhaustible.
Isn't wonderful. I mean to have a little volume that you can hold in one hand and have a treasure that is ineffectible. And and it is I. It's a wonderful thing to know the Lord and to have His word, to be able to sit down in the morning and open this book.
Expecting, expecting. My God.
Guitar Juliet thou were in anywhere he had passed to you. That's an inexhaustible source, that we have everlasting life. The woman sayeth unto him in verse 15.
00:25:08
Give me this water.
That I thirst not, neither come hit her to draw, she said.
Sir, I'm so tired. I'm so weary of. I'm more weary than you are, Sir.
Give me this water. Have you ever felt that first in your life?
Even as the believers had gotten away from the fountain.
Is this a well for you? A place where you go to get three, you know, total Agnes on our last trip West?
I have to get home.
I was thirsty and and I need to go back home.
So we came home.
But then, and it's a wonderful thing to know, the Lord Jesus, that eternal God who has given us his eternal word and has given me eternal life, and I don't ever have security again.
It's going to be a well bringing up, not a saying that's cool, but a well, the woman saith unto him. Sir, give me this water that I thirst not, neither come either to draw, Jesus saith unto her.
All right, your friends can come in that way.
You can't come in that way, Jesus saith unto her. Go call thy husband and come here, there. Why do you say that?
Well, if you're me had been talking to her, we wouldn't have said that, even if the Lord's mind.
He is going to make her feel her needs is the result of her being a Sinner because she was tired of drawing well, she was tired of the consequences of sin. But she hadn't said I am a senior and the Lord put his finger on her life. Has he ever done that within?
Heavy.
I shouldn't tell this story.
I was talking with some of my family members.
I said this.
Yeah, I feel like.
Your complete failure.
I don't even think that's the Christian thought.
No. One of these versions was my youngest daughter 2 weeks ago. I was walking with her and I said she was talking.
That I don't know if I do anything right. And I said that's interesting.
I said I knew a father once.
He was talking with his.
Daughter.
Said he sometimes just feel like you're complete alien, she said to him. No, she didn't.
And he walked in a few steps and she said, Dad, aren't you going to tell me who that was? I said with you.
But it didn't take much time in her life to make her feel.
She was a failure.
Do you feel that way then?
Be satisfied with your life.
Where you come to Jesus as a Sinner, that's the only way you can come and get eternal life. You can't come as a good person. The Lord had left Judea. They wouldn't have any dealings with Samaritans because Samaritans were sinners. And the Lord is saying to this woman then.
So you're thirsty because you're a Sinner? Go call your husband.
Woman answered and said after in verse 17.
Jesus sat under her.
A woman answered and said I have no husband.
What does that mean? I have my husband.
00:30:04
You know when Israel sinned against the Lord Jehovah.
In the book of Hosea, he says.
Say unto her, She is not my wife.
And I am not sure of you.
Sin is the Lord your husband.
You know he is getting a bride at this present time of which he is going to be the husband.
Do you have a husband? This woman was honest, she said. I have no husband. What is a husband thing? They husband is 1.
You know, person love. That's probably the chief feature of a husband.
Here's a man who loves his life. There can be no husband unless there is a wife.
Some words stand or fall because of another word. There can be no father unless there was a son. There can be no husband unless there is a wife. This woman, she said, I don't have a husband. I don't have anyone to love me. What else is a husband? You know, that's the thing. Good word is a husband meant a husband.
One who takes care of the vineyards in the field. One who cares for you. One who loves you and takes care of you.
I have no husband listening tonight. If you don't know the Lord Jesus as your savior, you better line up with this woman. You don't have a husband. You don't have anyone who loves you like he does, and you don't have anyone.
Who cares for you?
Laikida.
And this dear woman, she had lots of men in her life that she didn't have her.
And he says in verse 18 He whom thou now have, if not thy husband. In this thou sayest, sayeth thou truly Who do you have tonight, then, if you don't have the Lord?
They don't care who it is or what it is. If it's not the Lord, you don't have a husband. He and thou now have, tis not thy husband.
They're just being used. You know, the world will use us and they'll pay a price.
We'll pay a price for our services.
Until they have no need of them anymore.
Then they'll cast to law.
They'll cast you off. That's not what this man, the man, Christ Jesus, he will never lead you, nor for safety. But this woman didn't have her. She had a lot of men, but new husband.
And verse 29 or verse 19 The woman saith unto him, Sir, I proceed, that thou art a prophet. Why, you know those prophets? They were also called. In other words, they were called a fear.
And she was beginning to realize that this man was no ordinary man, never met her before, and he was looking right in here.
That he looked into your heart.
Is he saying, Thou sayest truly? Thou hast no husband. You don't know me. I am not your husband. You are not my wife.
Don't, don't say in that condition. You know what brings us joy as believers is.
A day coming and I don't know how far off it is.
Yeah, we're going to the marriage of the land.
To hear the joyful, joyful. It's a happy day in our lives. Those of us who.
00:35:02
Been able to be married and get a wife or get a husband. It was a joyous occasion and a happy occasion. But that great day someone said, for which all days were created. Is this marriage suffer from the lamb.
I'll ask my husband. Do you have one who's going to take you as his drive? I do.
And I'm going towards that day.
It says here woman reverse.
She's still struggling, trying to say her religion is good enough, left her thirsty, left her without a husband. But she says our fathers worship in this mountain, and you say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.
Hey Lord, maybe you don't know how religious I am. Maybe you don't know all the good things I've done for the folks in the meeting.
Do you have an open?
You know Christ is your Savior. The Lord isn't interested in our religion. And so he says to her, You worship, you know not what?
You don't even know what you're doing, and then it's true. You don't know what you're doing if you don't know the Lord. The Lord could say you know when they crucified Him, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. All to say, he was the chief of sinners, but He obtained mercy because he did it ignorantly, That is, he didn't know what he was doing.
Friends, I wonder if you know what you're doing. I can say you don't know what you're doing if you don't know Christ as your savior.
Salvation is of the Jews. That is, the Lord had come unto his own. But in this gospel it says He came unto his own in the first chapter in his own received enough. And so he's turning to this Samaritan, but she's going to have to come in.
As a Sinner, let the hour cometh, and now is when true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth.
You know the Father.
It's a wonderful thing to know God as your father. You know those of us here tonight who are fathers.
We hardly can rise to that occasion. We're hardly worthy of that.
Honor and privilege of being called a father.
It's a wonderful thing to be a father.
It's an unspeakable privilege and a very, very great responsibility. I kind of think being a husband isn't very far behind it. The only reason I stay behind it is because I do know God the Father and God the Son was the closest intimate relationship that there ever has been.
But for us?
To be a husband and to be a father is wonderful.
But what a great responsibility. We're hardly worthy to be called either.
But the Lord is saying, I would like you to know the Father. Wonderful thing to know God as your father, not only in relationship but in practice. You know, he tells the Corinthians, Come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord, God Almighty, and I will be unto you a Father, and it says, the Lord God Almighty. Why does he say that?
Well, what are you saying Paul is saying to the Corinthians? He said. If you'll stop providing for yourself by means of the will.
God will come in.
And do your file just provide for you? So now not only the Lord was going to give, but the Father was being brought forward to this woman. And then the Spirit verse 24 daughters, the spirit say that worship him must worship him in spirit and truth. So we have God the Son, God the Father, and God the Spirit the woman saith unto him, I know that Messiah cometh which is called Christ. Now she's getting closer.
00:40:18
She's starting to feel that.
Through religion isn't enough. And now she's starting to think not so much about religion, but about a person.
And she says, I know that Messiah comma which is called Christ when he is come he will tell us all things.
Jesus sayeth unto her, I that speak unto thee.
And he.
Well then you can't go beyond that.
The Lord Jesus took through religion, away from her. The Lord Jesus took her sin away from her and gave her himself. I would speak unto thee. And here tonight, do you realize that the Lord Jesus himself is speaking unto you? He wants you.
He wants to be your savior. He wants to take away your religion. He wants to take away your sins. He wants to be a husband to you. Want to come tonight? Just come right now as you are. He'll receive you as a Sinner. He won't receive you as a religious person, but he will receive you as a Sinner. Won't you, God?
Lord Jesus, we pray as we can.
The Kingdom of Heaven Pt.1
Address—H. Brinkmann
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
Feeding by Singing 256.
Praise the Savior.
Alone.
Oh, my 30.
Gladly.
All we have had more.
Jesus.
It like it's over.
There, still believing.
Tell me.
Leaving from the joy to win.
Then we can be where we were.
Being and renowned.
What we just.
Think now.
Oh no. I love me. So now we are.
Oh.
I had the desire to look into.
The subjects of the Kingdom.
And what particularly the Kingdom of heaven?
And we need more than one hour to take up that subject. But.
To begin with, I think what is important to see is that the Kingdom of God seems to be a general term.
And the Kingdom of heaven more particularly refers to.
The character that the Kingdom takes because the king is rejected and is in heaven.
But there is on Earth a sphere where his authority is owned but.
That might be that those who profess to own an authority might be male professors.
And they might see those. And there are those that are real, not just outwardly professing to call to his authority and acknowledge him, but in the hearts and in reality.
Belongs to a rejected tribe.
But then I believe the Kingdom becomes the Kingdom of the Son of Man and takes on that character when the Lord Jesus comes back in power and glory and sit upon his throne. We read of that in the 25th chapter, verse 31, the other passages in Matthew that speak of that coming day of glory, but more.
Correctly.
It is the Kingdom of the Son of Man. And then he finds the Kingdom of the Father. You know. That's where the good seed in Matthew 13 is gathered. They shall shine as the sun in the Kingdom of my Father. And when the Kingdom of the Son of Man runs its course, see the Kingdom of the Father where the good seed is and the Kingdom of the Son of Man go side by side. There's the earthly and the heavenly.
00:05:20
Realm at the same time. But then when the sun turns over the Kingdom to the Father at the end of the Millennium, and we have that in First Corinthians 15, then there's only one that's the heavenly or the eternal faith. But what we do find, and this is what is confusing to some people, is that the Kingdom of heaven, the term is used at times.
For.
The Millennium, you know, for what is in dispensational.
Way called the Kingdom of the Son of Mary, but also the Kingdom of the Father at times.
Is used to refer to the Millennium. For instance, in Matthew, when the Lord introduces the Lord's Supper, you know at the time when He eats the last Passover with his disciples, He says He will not eat of the fruit of the wine or drink of the truth of the wine fillet be fulfilled in my Father's Kingdom that very clearly referred to the Millennium.
But I do believe that.
In most places in Matthew, especially the 10 parables that we have in Matthew's Gospel, there are 10 parables that tell us what the Kingdom of Heaven is like or they are the militants of the Kingdom of Heaven. Those parables have their application to the present aspect of the Kingdom while the king is rejected.
But for instance, in the 5th chapter where you have to leave the attitude, the Kingdom of heaven is used for those who faithfully suffer for the Lord Jesus, and then in the Kingdom of the heaven they will possess their Kingdom. It's obviously against the Millennium and the Kingdom of heaven is really a term that you only find in Matthew's Gospel.
And in Matthew's Gospel, why is that term there? Well, because it is the gospel to the Jews. The Lord Jesus is presented as the King of Israel, the Messiah. But we do see that he is rejected, that he is cast out. And not only is he crucified, even before his crucifixion has become evident.
That he is not wanted, and that he is cast out like in John chapter one. He came unto his own, That Israel, but his own received him not as many as received him. To then gave he the power to be, or the authority to be the children of God. Then they believe on his name.
So we find already before the Crucifixion, for instance, that they charge him that he is casting out demons by Baltimore.
You know, and this is really bringing things to a head and the Lord Jesus from then on. This own natural relationship we find for instance in the 12Th chapter after they have made that statement that the Lord Jesus was casting our demons by gospel, that his mother and brethren are outside and.
Then the Lord Jesus said, Who is my mother? Who am I, brethren, it is all natural relationship. And he goes by the seaside by the shore, and gives the 7th parable. And Matthew 13 So let us to see speaks of a speak of the Gentiles in turmoil.
So in unrest, he reaches out beyond Israel.
And goes to the Gentiles and then later on of course we all know.
He speaks in Matthew of that which he is going to form.
Which will take the place of Israel, and that is the church we know of Peter's confession. Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. Upon this rock I will build my church. The peace of Jesus will not have prevail against it. In the 18th chapter he speaks of that which will take over the administrative responsibility, or where is his administrative authority?
00:10:20
Now that Israel is set aside, that is in the two and three meeting in the name of the Lord Jesus, it's a new thing. But what is important for Israeli to understand is that this thing has taken place.
And that there is now a difference. You know, they look for the king to come to deliver them, but they rejected him. The nation rejected him. They were individuals that received him. But the nation is such rejected him. And is this the total end of everything?
No, there is a Kingdom, a kick, and a mystical form, and that's what we have in the parables that describe to us what the Kingdom of heaven is like. Now somebody might say, when did the Kingdom of heaven begin?
I believe that Washington already begun when the Lord Jesus was here.
Matthew Chapter 3, verse 2.
Verse two says and saying repent. This is John the Baptist.
Repent ye for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand or near at hand. That hasn't come yet, but they should prepare themselves for the Kingdom by repenting. Now in chapter 4, verse 17, the Lord Caesar said. From that time Jesus began to preach and say repent, for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand.
But the verse that really helps us.
People might argue, and might well be right, that he was still Speaking of the Kingdom of heaven in connection with the Millennium, because at this point when John the Baptist speaks.
And when the Lord Jesus speaks in the 4th chapter, the rejection was not there and the setting aside of Israel had not taken place. So people might argue, and might well be right, that this these two verses do not necessarily refer to the mystical.
Aspects that the Kingdom takes because the king is rejected but now turn to.
The 11Th chapter.
We know that John the Baptist in this chapter sends to the Lord Jesus.
Though he was kind of shaking.
A third one, or do we look for another? The Lord Jesus might be rebuked him, but when those who had come from John the Baptist are gone, who speak very highly of John the Baptist.
And then in verse 11 he says rarely, I say unto you among them that are born of women.
There has not risen a greater than John the Baptist, notwithstanding he that is least in the Kingdom of heaven is greater than he. So obviously the Kingdom of heaven had not yet begun.
John the Baptist wasn't in it, but the Kingdom of God had begun.
The Kingdom of God had begun.
Start to.
At the 12.
Here they had charged the Lord Jesus, that he by Satan cast out Satan were 26 and it Satan cast out Satan, He is divided against himself. How shall then his Kingdom stand? And if by Baltimore, If I by Baltimore can't tell devil by whom do your children cast them out? Therefore they shall be your judges.
But if I cast out devils by the spirit of God.
Then the Kingdom of God is come unto you. We also have a verse where the Lord Jesus said that the Kingdom of God was in the midst of them by him himself being there. The Kingdom was in the midst of them.
00:15:17
But the Kingdom of God.
Takes on the character of the Kingdom of heaven because the Lord Jesus is rejected.
So he disowns, as I already indicated, his relationship to his mother and to his brethren. And then he goes by the seaside. Now let us read Matthew 13.
The same day, verse one, when Jesus out of the house and sat by the seaside, and great multitudes were gathered together unto him, so then he went into a ship, and sat, and the whole multitude stood on the shore.
And he speaks many things unto them in parables, saying, Behold, A sower went forth to soul, and many sowed. Some seeds fell by the wayside, and the fowls came and devoured them up. Some fell upon Stony places where they had not much earth, and forthwith they sprung up, because they had not the deepness of earth. When the sun was up they were scored, and because they had no root, they withered away.
And some fell among thorns, and the sword sprung up and choked them. But other fell into good ground, and brought forth proof some an hundredfold, some 60 fold, some 30 fold. Who has ears to hear and hear? And the Cypress came and said unto him, Why speaketh thou unto them in parable? He answered, and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the Kingdom of heaven.
But to them it is not given, For whosoever has to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance, but whosoever has not from him shall be taken away even that he has. Therefore speak I to them in parable, because they see ain't seen up, and hearing they hear not either do they understand, and the damage fulfills the prophecy of Isaiah, which says.
By hearing he shall hear.
We shall not understand and seeing we shall see and shall not perceive. For these people's heart is where it grows, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed less than any time. They should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted and should keep. I should heal them.
But blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears for they hear. But verily, I say unto you, that many prophets and righteous men have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them, and hear those things which ye hear and have not heard them.
Clearly, therefore, the parable of the stores, when anyone heareth the word of the Kingdom, and understandeth, if not, then cometh the wicked one, and catches away that which was sown in his heart. This is he which we see seed by the wayside. Notice he said, this is he the way?
The seed has an effect, or lack of effect, characterizes a person.
But he had received the seed into Stony places. The same is she that heareth the word, and Anon with joy receiveth it. Yet has he not root in himself, but doareth for a while. For in tribulation and persecution arises, because of the Word. By and by he's offended. He also had received seed among the thorns is he that heareth the word and the care of his world.
At the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and he becomes untruthful. But he had received seed into the good ground is he that heareth the word, and understandeth it, which also beareth fruit, and bringeth forth. Psalm 100 and some 60, some 30 another parable put he forth unto them, saying, The Kingdom of heaven is likened.
Unto a man Notice here that says what the Kingdom of heaven is like, and that was not the case.
In the parable that we just finished, another parable put he forth unto them, saying, The Kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his field. But while men slept his enemy came, and saw pears among the weak, and went his way. But then the when the blade was sprung up and brought forth truth, then appeared to tear also. So the servants of the householder came, and sent unto him Sir.
00:20:32
It must also good seed in thy field, From whence then has its hair? He said unto them, An enemy hastened. The servants said unto him, Wilt thou then that we go and gather them up?
But he said, nay, lest why we get off the chair, he Rook up also the wheat with them, let both grow together until the harvest. And in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, gather he together first the tears, and bind them in bundles to burn deck, but gather the wheat into my barn another parable put he forth unto them, saying, The Kingdom of heaven.
Is like a grain of mustard seeds, which a man took and sold in his spear, which indeed is the least of all tea. But when it is grown, it is the greatest among earth, and becometh a tree, so that the birds of the air come, and large in the branches thereof another parable he spake unto them. The Kingdom of heaven is like unto 11, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal.
Till the hole was level all these things fake Jesus unto the multitude in parables, and without a parable speaking, not answer them. Then it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet saying, I will open my mouth in parables. I will ask her things which have been kept secret from the foundation of the world. Then Jesus sent a multitude away and went into the house, and his disciples came unto him saying.
Declare unto us the parable of the tears of the field.
Incident said unto them he that show us. The good seed is the Son of man, the field is the world, the good seed are the children of the Kingdom, but the tears are the children of the wicked ones. The enemy that sold them is the devil, The harvest is the end of the world, and the reapers are the angels. And therefore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire. So shall it be in the end.
Of the world or at the end of the age. The end of the world appears several times, and it should obviously the end of the age. Because the end of the world is when all the elements we've turned up in fire, and this is not what the Lord is referring to. Here the Son of Man shall send forth His angels, and they shall gather out of His Kingdom all things that offend.
And then went through iniquity, and shall cast them into a furnace of fire. There shall be wailing and gnashing of tea. Then shallow right, The righteous shine forth as the sun in the Kingdom of their Father. Who has ears to hear, let him hear again. The Kingdom of heaven is like unto treasure hit in a fear to which when a man has found behind us, for joy thereof goeth himself all that he has, and bias that feel.
Again the Kingdom of heaven is like unto A merchant man seeking goodly Pearl, who, when he had found one Pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had, and bought it again. The Kingdom of heaven is like unto a neck that was cast into the sea, and gathered of every kind, which when it was full, they drew to shore, and sat down, and gathered the goodness of their souls, but cast the bad away.
So shall it be In the end of the world, or the end of the age, the Angel shall come forth and sever the wicked son to just.
And shall pass them into the furnace of fire. There shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.
Jesus says unto them, Have he understood all these things? They said to him, Yeah, Lord, then steady unto them. Therefore every scribe which is instructed unto the Kingdom of heaven is life unto a man, that is a householder, which bringeth forth out of his treasure.
00:25:02
New and old.
We have four more parables that are familiar of the Kingdom of heaven. Or they tell us what the Kingdom of heaven is like in the 18th chapter and in the 20th chapter the 22nd I believe, and also in 25. But we might be able to touch at them another time but.
It's so important to understand that the first parable is not a similitude of the Kingdom of heaven. Why?
Because it doesn't say that the Kingdom of heaven is lightened unto a man that sows seed and some fell on the wayside and.
It speaks of that which began with the coming of the Lord Jesus and with the work that he did, and especially in connection with him, bringing the gospel soul in contrast to God's ways with men before the gospel was preached.
And I'm speaking now not necessarily distinguishing between the Kingdom and the gospel of the Kingdom and the gospel of the grace of God. In each age the gospel is preached and resolved in people being drawn to the Lord or the gospel.
If you find in Paul's writings, it's an order from life unto life or from death unto death.
And there is really not in this respect much different with the gospel of the Kingdom or the gospel of the grace of God. In other words, before God expects anything for himself and man, he shows the seed, you know, because it has been tried before.
In different ways. And it was proven that there was nothing in man for God, unless there was a special work of God by the Spirit and the souls of men.
And so now by this parable of God as it were showed, and the Lord Jesus in his teaching indicates that this testing of man has come to an end.
It has been proven that there is nothing for God and man, so before there can be anything, the seed has to be sown, and he and Matthew, the Gospel to the jury, is the word of the Kingdom.
In Luke, the same parable. It is the word of God and there are differences between Matthew and Luke because that is not a question of being converted, as a Jew would have to be converted, it's a question of being saved.
And so beautiful these differences. The gospel to the Gentiles, Things of differences, but.
At any time, and even still today, the result of the sowing of the seed has various results, whether it has to do with that which the Lord Jesus and his disciples began, or that which is still going on. This parable can be applied at any time, even today.
So the first thing the seed falling by the wayside. You know this is unprepared ground.
You know many farmers who have made their living as a farmer and they know that they have to prepare the ground before they put the seed in and.
Then there has to be.
The wheat had to be.
Destroyed. So there's all kinds of work necessary before you can harvest, but you couldn't expect seed to spring up, that is on a hard surface where the seed can't fall into the ground well.
This is what that speaks of and it speaks of people.
Their condition, Their heart's condition, being such that they cannot have the seat bring it through. And you know how often the enemy still uses the same tactics of the work being preached, seat being sold. And then right after the meeting he takes, right after the meeting he takes it, Or even during the meeting he takes it away from the heart. Oh man.
I've related the story before.
00:30:03
That when I was a young man in Germany, I would say but.
We came out of the meeting and a man has been in that meeting who had grown up in the meeting. His family has been in the meeting, but they had gotten away from it all together. But this Sunday he came to the meeting and then some of us boys were standing around there talking. And you know what we were talking about right after we came out of the meeting.
Talking about epoxy and the outcome of that Sophocles, you know, instead of being occupied with what we had heard in the meeting, we were talking about a concert. This man was offended and he let us be known in no uncertain terms because he might have looked for an excuse. Who He never came back, to my knowledge. But still, for our own souls, what benefit did we get out of being under the sound of the work when right after we walked outside, we're talking about the outcome of Samsung disease?
But the enemy was busy taking away the sea.
God would have northeast be of no effect in our hearts and whether we are saved or not, I think that's the principle by which we work trying to not allow the word of God to do its job in our lives, in our and then we know of the Stony ground.
You know Stony ground, Stony heart is unrepentant part parts that are not broken before God acknowledging what we are.
But they received the word of God joyfully. And how much of this kind of thing you had, especially in system today, you know they want to accept the truth that God is love. You know they want to hear about the love of God, but they do not want the preacher to faithfully point out the condition of man, that the heart is desperately wicked. Who can know it.
And that we're dead incision, trespasses, that we are guilty before God, that we are lost, guilty, lost, Sinner, and that we have to acknowledge that before God. You know the gospel is repentance toward God and faith in the Lord Jesus. You know they want to even do away with the word repentance. You know they don't want to hear that anymore from the pulpit. Neither do they want to hear the word of sin.
You know, and this kind of misrepresentation of what God is like, not stressing His Holiness and his righteousness and his righteous demand that He has taught His creatures.
Present a distorted picture of God, and Johnson brings the Sinner to repentance.
And they joyfully received the word of God. You know, the word of God at first makes us very sorrowful. And repentance is more than just being sorry, you know, Repentance is really acknowledging what God says about the Sinner. That's true of me. I'm guilty. I deserve to be banished from God's presence for all eternity.
That is thought it done for me and bring peace with joy and happiness through me if I accept that by faith. But you know, so much of the shallow preaching is going on. I had a patient once. He was a Methodist preacher.
And I talked with him. He said, Oh yes, he says I can give a Thurman and fire and brimstone and all this kind of a thing. If you want to hear something like that, I can't do that. But he didn't give it, you know, He did not blame this before his audience.
And this is unfortunately many times what we find, but there might even be.
Preaching a faithful preaching. But the soul might only take that which they like for themselves, and to have that is more the problem. Here you know that they only take what they like and try to forget the rest. And so.
When persecution comes, when they have to suffer for the name of the Lord Jesus, they suppose they belong to him. They don't like that, you see, And then they fall away.
00:35:02
But the thorns and the pistols?
How important it is for others believers. I know the primary application is for an unbeliever. You know that because of the cares of this life and the people of the Richard don't allow the word of God to have any result in the believers heart for them. In man's heart is more mostly for the unbeliever. But doesn't that principle also work in a believers life? What I'm saying is if I'm so burdened with the cares of this life and so anxious to make the dollar and accumulate wealth.
The word of God is not going to be affected in my life, you know, and I found just notice in Mark's gospel that there is something at it that we don't have any master here. The luck of many things. It's not only the cares of his life to be faithfulness of which says why is the richest be peaceful? Because at last meant to flee and give them confidence and distinction.
Secured and so honest support and if this is all that answer is concerned about, but it might fly away. You know how many people have experienced there? But I remember there was a family in a neighboring city in Germany. They used to be very wealthy and they lost it all. And I personally heard the sister say that it was a blessing that they had lost the wall because the wealth had taken them away from the Lord.
And losing it has lost it back to the law.
Well, which is a deceitful and the last of many things. You know, in our day and age especially, there are so many things that are being offered for young people and even for older ones.
That.
Have the effect, if you do pursue these things, that the word of God is not truthful in our lives.
How sad that this is synthetic and that.
People, men and women, boys and girls, are overcome by the snares of safety.
You know covetousness, the desire to possess things.
Doesn't begin with rich people, you know, my grandfather used to say the love of money doesn't begin with a penny with $1000. It begins with a penny. You know how true that is?
You know, and we know how they catch monkeys. You know they have a hole and then they put something inside that, the monkey one. But the hole is so small that when the monkey scraps the object.
Cancel the game out of it and he's caught. But he is too dumb to let go so that he can get out of here and that is off times of safety. Pictures, people leak them down to the road of destruction.
So like I said, I don't believe it makes much difference whether it's the preaching that the Lord himself did or the preaching that is presently going on. You will find these various results. But then we have the parable, the 6th parables that are the militants.
Of the kingdoms of heaven.
You know, I should probably have said that earlier. We must not confuse the Kingdom.
And the church.
You know there's a difference, but the Church is in the Kingdom.
You could probably say the good seed that we find in the second parable at this time is the Church, those who are truly saved and belong to the Lord Jesus. But while the truth of the church is a more elevated truth, if I say and shows a heavenly blessings, and that which we have in Christ in heavenly places, we nevertheless are in the Kingdom and.
Be parable about the Kingdom have a lot to say to us. They help us to be intelligent and to what is expected of us who are followers of a rejected crime and what is not to be characteristic about. And when we look at the 6th parable in Matthew 13, we find that there are two groups.
00:40:09
The first group of three is with the first one given to all the multitudes. But then the Lord Jesus goes into the house and he gives three more parables only to his disciples only to the initiated, you might say, and this is very instructive. It's just like when you look at the book of Daniel, you'll find that there are things that are given in the Chaldean language.
For the benefit of the Gentiles. And then there are things given in the Hebrew language for the Jews, or those who belong to the people of God. Again, you have that same principle there.
But even that which he gives before the multitude, only those who are real, those who belong to the Lord Jesus, can benefit from it. It is to them given to know the mysteries of the Kingdom of heaven.
Not to the unbelievers. In judgment, God blinds the people. Seeing they won't see, hearing they won't hear, you know. That's a process in the Old Testament. A judgement for now is judicial blindness, adjustment on the part of God. And he speaks in parables, not to make it easier to understand, but to conceal the truth you know. And only the believers, only those who are true to the Lord Jesus.
Should benefit from it, but he nevertheless says it to all. Now what do we have in the first group of three?
What we have in the first group of three is the result of the sowing of the seed under the responsibility of man, and we find that all the failure, all is ruined. But then we find that he gives the interpretation of the second parable and the last three parables to his disciples, and there we have the sovereign side.
Of God, God's sovereign work that presents the same spot on God's side. It's just like in connection with the truth of the church, into the building of which the Lord Jesus speaks in Matthew.
16 That he will kill the church, and the case of pages cannot prevail against this. But then he says in First Christian that man is building and there is a possibility that there's wood hand subtle coming in.
And he wants the Spirit of God to call one again wrong principle, wrong material being used, and therefore.
You have wooden hand stubble. And so we have that In Matthew 13, the first three show what happened with the sowing of the seed under the responsibility of man, all is ruined. Is that not the history of man? Has man ever been able to keep what God had entrusted to him? No, no matter what time in the history of man you look, you will always find ruin.
And you find that even with the priesthood, and you find that.
With the king being given to the people of God, you find it with the prophets and the church is no different, different and you know.
How sad it is.
To see that man's history is always ruining, that he thought himself to him. And God doesn't recover what man ruined, but in the midst of ruins he gives a pass for his own to walk him pleasing to God. And what an encouragement that is, and what a joy it must have been to the heart of God to find at all these various times those.
Of his people who walk breathing through.
The Lord and he is looking down.
And you and me to see how we are walking.
For me, whether we are walking pleasing to him.
Well, the sowing of the sea.
Let me say this, you find maybe two groups of three concepts.
00:45:03
To find that the two kinds of seed and the two kinds of fishes really speak of the same thing.
What we find, why men slept, the enemy step is told bad seed, but you don't find that with the fishes, although there are doors drawn to shore of all kinds, only the good ones are gathered into that place. And who is doing the gathering into vessels sufficiently to them, of course we find also what is true of both of these parables, that the bad seed as well as the bad fish.
The.
Angels will deal with them for those things. Really Short speaks of the same thing. But the fishes speak of God's Father works that He's carrying on. Isn't that wonderful that you and I might have part in that which God is doing on and that which will stand the fire, that which will lead with His approval?
Yes, this is what when we really understand these parables and get into the good of it, what it will lead us to be exercised about.
If I carrying on for the Lord in such a way that my labor, my efforts, are in line with what we find in the last three parables instead of what we have in the first three.
But we have with the.
Three, and with the treasure and other concepts.
What does the tree speak of?
We have to remember what happened with King Nebuchadnezzar.
Remember he had a dream, and in that dream he saw a tree, and the birds nested in that tree. And then a tree was cut down, but out of the root another tree sprung up. So what does the tree speak of? The three feet of dominion, power, and influence.
Is it proper for a follow up of a rejected cry to want to have a place of permanent power and influence? You know, allow me to mention Doctor Dobson, not that that man is all bad, but he certainly does not understand this aspect of the speech of God. You know, there are many like him who tried to.
Make all so-called Christians join together and become a political force.
You know well they hastered to the tree. And what did you find The birds of the air come and miss the energy. The very ones that picked up the seat that fell by the windside are now in that tree in the Christian profession see that's what the Kingdom will speak. So the sea of discipleship, the fear of Christian profession. You know when king never said Nazar oh I shouldn't say never said that constant Constantine Constantine made the Christian religion the original empire.
And honor the Bishop.
People who were ambitious character witness men sought to get these positions of being Bishop because it gave them power and influence and wealth. You know, these are places, you know, I got to book somebody and Sam in German.
He knew he was going to go home to be with the law. So he sent me some of the books that he had in German and one book was on Martin Luther and his time booked his 2nd and was quite interesting. That historian describes the condition enrolled and in the church in general and also the economical situation and so on. But it's almost unbelievable that he found enrolled. So popes had children, they called them nephews and then they married them to the royal houses in different countries in Europe so that they would have more.
Influence and power, you know, It's really sad to see.
How far the church protecting church has fallen and how inconsistent for those who profess to belong to a rejected tribe. To while he is rejected and has no place here sought, a place of power for the intelligence. That's what's still going on in our daily needs. You're the founders of this country.
00:50:09
Clearly saw that church and state had to be kept to heart, you know, and.
I think what we have now is defying to control and influence and so on, and I believe what will happen.
These militants, fundamentalists, are going to bring persecution upon all those who profess the name of Christ. You mark my word. You know, it's just unbelievable.
To what extent? Some goal in the name of Christ, You know, see what happens in Ireland and throughout the history.
The Church. You know how many murders millions have been murdered?
Under the name of Christianity.
You know and even.
Plugging out the bad sea. The warning was that they might flush the good out with the bear. But isn't it what has happened? You know, as a young man when I left the church history and read that Calvin burn somebody at the stake who was a hesodant teacher denying the truth of the person of Christ.
Ravis reformers, as much as we appreciate for the good that they stood for.
Didn't understand that they were not to deal in a physical way with the enemy of the truth, you know? Look at Swingley. He died on the battlefield. He had changed the source of Harry by the court, the Lord Jesus had said well.
But how helpful in contrast to the street.
To see the treasure in the field, but I got a hold of that as the young man quite a few years ago. What a house that was to do. The followers of a rejected prize should answer to what the treasure in the field, he said. Height said, Treasury appears those who follow the Lord Jesus, it's a hidden character, not that they should not be the light of the world or the salt of the earth.
But not to be in the place of dominance, power of opinion. You know what you see. Right on, Mr. Darby. Soon.
Unknown, yet rather you know.
Many people benefited from.
Yes. They didn't even give credit that he was the instrument that God used to give back that truth. You know, some of those books that have been written like the late Planet Earth, you know, somebody is feathering his camp with what he is digging out of what he said were some yellow books in the attic. That's where the writings of the breadwinner, that which is good in that book is, that's where he encountered it. We can't accept everything that he said he had.
But there are certainly some good points.
But why did they not?
Make much of Mr. Dunn because he was overthrowing with the truth of Scripture their system.
And especially the clergy system. That's why they didn't want to make muscle pain, because.
It affected their blood and brother, you know so. But how wonderful to understand the treasure and the few pieces. You find that treasure. And then we find the treasure, the Pisces. Then he goes and finds the field. Now he himself says that the field is the world, but we do not find that after he finds the fear that he sticks up that treasure.
No, that remains a hidden presence and that answers beautifully.
A contrast through what you have in the tree in answer to what the position of the following of five proceeds.
I'll be satisfied to be a nobody.
I'll be satisfied to be a nobody.
To just.
Satisfied labor.
In the unknown, even the religious world world, you know some gifted men among graduates.
00:55:03
Have accepted positions be the pastor of Moody Church.
The radio pastor of Buddhi Bible Institute. You know, these men have thrown up among veterans, but they look for a broader skill service, you know, and then they accept an invitation, some of them.
To give lectures in churches and addresses and so on. And what actually happened is.
That they would come to a city where meeting with whom they were in fellowship was, but they had to cancel the meetings because this man was preaching in some church building up.
That which they had gone down in Galatians says, if I build again the things that I've destroyed, I constitute myself and transgress them.
In other words, the Lord used brethren to overthrow, they said. He said the traditional church assistance of men had better go back to that building out.
To support it.
For professors, but it is all because they have lost side of the fact that they have to be part of that hidden treasure.
And.
That is a privileged position to be nobody, to be identified with a rejected 5, to join as it were David and the faith and the dollar, you know he was rejected. And in that cave in fellowship and some union with David, David came mighty men of Allah. But the Lord can help us to.
Katie Sainsbury's Before Our Souls and to ask a lot of grace to conduct herself assistedly with the truth of scripture and to act consistent with what is expected of the followers of a rejected crime. Paul said to the Corinthians that they were ruling without him, and he wished that they would indeed be ruling. The day is coming when we will be ruling, but not now. Or do we want to rule?
Without the Lord Jesus.
No.
The place of rules.
And glory will be given to us when he will be in place. You know, the more faithful we know that from the word of God, the more faithful the individual has been.
In following a rested stride, the greater the revolt, you know the Millennium Rewards are given, and it is according to a measure of faithfulness that heaven and our place before God in Christ is not at all dependent on anything that we do. It's all dependent upon the work of the Lord Jesus, and therefore there is no difference there when we are before him in the Father's house.
But I do believe the Millennium will be different, Dependent on how faithful we have been in following the Lord Jesus during the time of his rejection. Shall we pray?
The Kingdom of Heaven Pt.2
Address—H. Brinkmann
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
We have looked at the Kingdom of God and more specifically, the Kingdom of heaven.
And have found that it is a term only found in the book of Matthew in the Gospel of Matthew.
And.
We see that for those Jews to whom this gospel is addressed, it's very important that they have understanding about the Kingdom, because this is what all the Old Testament the prophets had spoken about. You know the prophecies in the Old Testament. We didn't mention that last Tuesday, only dropped to the Kingdom.
But in a New Testament, we find the prophecies going to the eternal state. We don't have that in the Old Testament, but the Jew was looking for the Kingdom.
But.
We find in chapter 12 verse 28.
That the Lord Jesus said, If I cast out devils by the Spirit of God, then the Kingdom of God is come unto you. The Lajitas was here, and another verse we referred to is the Kingdom was in the midst of them by him being here the King.
But we find also that the Kingdom of heaven was at hand, but had not come yet.
That what's nearby. And then many times or quite a few times, the word Kingdom of heaven is used for the Millennium.
But.
The 10 parables of the Kingdom of heaven.
Show the Kingdom in its present aspect, and that is because.
Because the king is rejected and is in heaven, there is a sphere on earth where his authority is acknowledged and.
There is. It's a mystical form. The Kingdom has taken on a mystical form.
And there are those who belong to that sphere of profession, we might call it Christian profession or the sphere of discipleship, that are real, and those who are unreal, those who are only in it by profession and.
We have read the verses in the third chapter by John the Baptist saying the Kingdom of heaven was at hand. Then in the 4th chapter the Lord Jesus makes the same statement. But we also know from Chapter 11 That John the Baptist was the greatest of prophets but the least in the Kingdom of heaven is greater than he, clearly showing that John the Baptist was not yet in the Kingdom of heaven.
The verse that I neglected to mention is in the 16th chapter.
We did refer to the 16th chapter, and I made a statement there that I believe needs clarification. I made the statement that the Church has taken the place of Israel. By this I do not mean to say.
As many covenant theologians or those Reformed churches teach that the church is introduced into Israel's blessings, what I meant to say by this is that.
What has taken place is that Israel is set aside. God was dealing with the nation of Israel and now?
His work is to gather a rightful Christ and forming the church, the Lord Jesus says in the 16th chapter upon this rock that is Peters confession. I will build the church and the gates of Hadith will not prevail against it. And so in this in this sense the church has replaced Israel also.
The administrative responsibility.
Is no longer vested in Israel and is now vested in the Church. That's what we learned from the 18th chapter. That's the main purpose of that teaching. It doesn't teach actually how the Church is to deal specifically in details with the evil, just that the authority for dealing with evil is in the Church. Other scriptures have to be turned through in order for us to know how specifically how detailed to deal with evil that arises in the Church.
But there is also in the 16th chapter this important statement.
00:05:06
That to Peter were given the keys to the Kingdom of heaven.
I think.
This is another helpful scripture to show that the Kingdom of heaven had not yet begun.
But he has been given the keys to open the door.
To the Kingdom.
To allow entrance. And when does he use those things? Under their Pentecost. He opens the door and the Jews are let in, and then we find in.
X10 that the Gentiles are let him now some things that there were only two keys and others think there were three keys because the Samaritans are brought in in the 8th chapter.
But.
Some have questioned that because you do not find that Peter baptizes in the 8th chapter, but certainly by laying on the hand on those disciples there in Samaria.
The oneness was established between the church in Jerusalem and the Samaritan church so that it wouldn't be two distinct churches, but I think it's correct to say that water baptism.
Makes you enter the Kingdom.
The baptism of the Spirit is connected with the body of Christ. By 1 Spirit are we all baptized into one body.
And.
So.
By baptism.
We enter and Peter does that in Acts when the Jews are brought in, and then we find it again, it gives commandment that the Gentiles in the 10th chapter be baptized.
The sphere of the Kingdom is distinct from the Church in that we see that.
The good and the bad seed in the Kingdom are to be growing on together until.
The end of the age or the completion of the age.
And then the angels feel with the bad sea as well as with the bad fish. But in the church we find put out from among yourself that wicked person. But there it is not a question of in a physical way dealing with the wicked, as it will be at the completion of this age.
You know that is simply to put out of the church fellowship those who are guilty.
Business and sin that needs to be dealt with by excommunication.
It's important for us to understand that.
We are both in the Church and in the Kingdom.
And the good seed, that which is real in the Kingdom of heaven, is the church, the true believers. But we also saw that the Kingdom of God is a general term, and with the coming of the Lord Jesus.
We find.
A new work of God. He's no longer testing, man.
He is preaching the gospel, sowing the seed, and then expecting fruit. That was not that way under the law. But it is that way now with the coming of the Lord Jesus. And this is still going on even now that he is in glory. So that first parable, while it is not a similitude of the Kingdom of heaven, it certainly.
Can be applied to what kind of result the stowing of the seed has an individual life.
And so.
But we do not find that dead parable. That first parable is the stability of the Kingdom of heaven.
The second, third, and 4th are the 5th, 6th, and 7th. You also have seen that there are two groups of three, and the one presents the result of the spreading of the gospel, the word of God under the responsibility of man in its ruin. In the last three we see God's sovereign work, and we have contrast that we have seen that there are contrasts in these two groups, the two kinds of seeds, the two kinds of fishes.
Are Speaking of the same thing, but with the fishes we find that the fishermen only gathered a good intervention and.
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Even there also, we find that finally the angels see you with the bad fish. The fishermen don't deal with the bad fish, but then we find with the tree and with the treasure a contrast again. The tree speaks of dominion and power, the treasure speaks of.
The hidden character that the followers of a rejected Christ should.
Show and act with consistent with that truth, and we are not seeking a place of political influence and power, and so many interests in them today do.
We are nobody. We just walk through it and fill in strangers. We're waiting for the day when the only one that has the answers to all the problems in this world will come and straighten out the myth that is in this world. It's not for us to do that now or trying to do it. We're not called to do that, but to preach the gospel well.
That hidden characters a tremendous truth to get ahold of.
And that can be true even if we consider such pictures as that we are the light of the world and that we are the salt of the earth. We are not a political force. We're not reigning. We do not try to control things. The only resource we have is prayer when it comes to power, that be and so on. And that is a tremendous resource that the believer has.
During the day of his rejection.
The most high rules, and gives the government to whomsoever he will, that is what Levitate never had to learn, and he gives it to the basis of men.
What people, if they would have known what character, you know, Hitler would show what they had elected a man like that. What they have allowed is mouths of tongue to get into power. Joseph Stalin. They have murdered millions.
But the Lord for some reason allow such men to get into power. There is no power except from God.
And the impact size comes and the B.
You know, the beast received the power from the dragon. That's the difference kind of a situation. But after this day, every government that ever came into power in the world received the power from God. People make themselves believe that they do that by electing somebody. But God is the one that puts into power and he puts down. But we did not compare now the last of the three and three, and that is.
The leaven and the.
Pearl And that is probably the more difficult of the contrast of these three contrasts, to see that they speak of the same thing. What does leaven speak of? Levin speaks of evil, that which corrupts, and it never is used for anything good. You know that people in the churches in Christendom that teach that the gospel is 11.
And that you preach the gospel until the whole is going to be.
Brought to Christ, You know if the gospel will bring man.
To submit to the Lord Jesus Christ, we have already in the Old Testament a verse in the prophet that says when his judgments are in the earth then the nations will learn righteousness not by the preaching of the gospel. The gospel has the purpose of gathering in the elections. You know we have that in Second Timothy 2, verse 10, Paul endured all things for the elect's sake in the preaching of the gospel.
That they also might obtain the salvation. So he knew that his preaching and his efforts would result in bringing in the elect. He didn't know who they were, so he preached to all.
But in Thessalonians, first Thessalonians, by the result that had been produced in the Thessalonians.
Paul could say, knowing thereby beloved of God, your election.
By what was manifested in their life they were the elect because they proved it, the response that it had given to the gospel, and what the gospel had produced in their life.
But a woman hit this leaven under 3 measures of leave.
You know.
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The medium speaks of that which is good.
But a woman out of place, how many times you find them bringing in all kinds of trouble? In this I believe it has been true to quite an extent. In our recent trouble that we had, there were quite a few women involved that were very dominant and forceful in the waiting, carried on and contributed to this division, even forcing some of their husbands to go into a long path. But the 11Th is evil, but the meal speaks of death, which is good.
So what cools people many times is that even the worst evil doctrine in Christendom has some good connected with it. But.
The evil 11 working underneath, you know I mentioned in Cedar Rapids, you know Mr. Raven who?
Came up among brethren in England.
Taught some awful doctrines, including the doctrine denying the eternal sonship, but he never came out of it in the open with it. But when Mr. Taylor came out with it in the open after Raven's death.
He was asked where did you get that doctrine? He said. I got it from Mr. Raven, but you see what he was doing. He was working secretly like that leaven, covering it up with a lot of good things that Mister Raven had to say. But underneath were these awful doctrines.
And then finally that comes out. And you know when he looked at most of those so-called craving brethren. Now the practices and doctrines are just unbelievable, but we can see if evil unjust is going on. It will work till all is corrupt. One thing we learned from this 11 is that association with evilly files.
And but now in which way then is the Perl the contrast?
A Pearl is a valuable Pearl, and what makes the Pearl valuable is.
It's purity. You can see at once the difference. You know if there's a flaw in the Pearl that spoils the value of the Pearl, its purity makes the Pearl a valuable Pearl. That's what the followers of the Lord Jesus should be and are in the sight of God through the work of the Lord Jesus. And they should certainly in their life demonstrate it. Absence of sin, You know, if he would say that it is impossible for a believer to live without sin.
That would be a denial of Christianity, Mr. Darby said. But if he would say he lived without sinning, it's a denial of our state. But it is possible for a believer who walked in communion with the Lord to go through this world without falling into sin. As a matter of fact, Romans 6 teaches that we have died through sin. You know how? By us killing the evil that we see in ourselves. No, by the Lord Jesus dying for us, and by us reckoning ourselves that to sin.
That's the secret of Christian victory.
Well, we have to bring out a few more things as to the 6th parables. Now when you think for instance of the first parable, the Lord gives an interpretation of that parable to His disciples only, and He himself says that.
The field is the world.
And then we find that the.
That seed, you know, what is the difference between the good and the bad seed? You know, you look into the Bible dictionary, or you look into the footnotes of Mr. Darby. You will find that the two plants look very much alike, and that fools you. You know that first seed, that the one is empty. There's no fruit in it. Outwardly they look alike and it's just like with the 10 virgins. They all had a land, you know.
But the police didn't have any oil. So with these two plants that grow up there.
They look outwardly alike, but the one has proved the other has none. But you are not who the servants are, not to deal with the bad seed, lest they would pluck out the good seed.
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Well, isn't that what happened in prison? And it was not only done by the Catholic Church?
You know, when I went to church history as a young man, I was shocked to read that such illustrious reformer as Calvin burned somebody at this stage. Why did he do it?
That man denied the deity of Christ. He was a heterodox teacher, and he didn't understand that it was not the Church's duty to.
Weed out the bad tears.
And so you find that the Reformers thought that they had to take the sword and defend right? Because with the sword the Lord Jesus said he that takes the source shall carry by the sword swingly died on the battlefield. A man that had more light than most of the Reformers, like he knew that the Lord's Supper was not for the forgiveness of sin.
That it was a memorial truth. You know he had more life than Luther and others, but he sure didn't have any life on this important truth. That it's not our duty to take the sword and to defend the Lords cause or enforce the Lords truth.
So.
Outside that, this is what we have seen.
What is still going on in Ireland and different places you know in the name of 5,000,000 have been murdered. You know you still see it. People who take the place of Christian profession don't understand that since the Lord Jesus is rejected, we walk meekly and lowly and not use force in this world. When the Lord Jesus comes back in power and glory, you bet he will take force.
You reel in a very decided way, deal with the wicked. That will be the judgment that we read of in Revelation, and then also the judgment of the living. You know these preparatory judgments first, and then the judgment of the living across the talent and theologians. You're not surrounded by them here in this part of the country. You know the Dutch Reformed. They do not even believe that there are various judgments. They don't believe in true resurrection.
They think it's all going to be one thing all at the end. They don't believe in the thousand year reign, they don't believe in the rapture and so on. And by the way they're the ones that have started the NIV translation. And are you surprised when they distort the truth In John chapter 5 where it speaks of the resurrection unto life and the resurrection unto judgment? All they say is some will be raised to life and some will be raised to judgment.
Distorting the truth that there will be two distinct resurrections. And there are many other examples where they have willfully, knowingly introduced words into the translation to support their theology. Well, for that reason alone, one ought to avoid they have nothing to do with that corruption of the word of God. Give you one more example in Ephesians chapter 3 where you have the mystery.
That the Gentiles should be partakers with Christ. What they say they shall be partakers and they add 2 words with Israel. You see, they teach that all that the mysteries about is that the Gentiles are brought into Israel's blessing. Well, the mystery is not at all that the Christians or the church is brought into blessings with Israel. It's an entirely new thing and out of Jew.
Of Gentile and lute is formed. That's the truth of God. Paul was taken from the people and from the nations was sent to the nations. I'm quoting at 26 already on the 28th. Anyway that Paul we did, we first raised conversion. We had a law said he was taken out from among the people. That is, the Jews from the Gentiles sent to the Gentiles to bring them into the position from which he was taken. No.
To bring them into position where he was apart from Dru, apart from Gentiles. And now the Church of God is formed, you know, wonderful to see the truth of God, and by grace to have received understanding by the Spirit about these things. But I'm afraid among us so-called brethren, or those gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus, we have neglected some of the truth of Scripture.
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And I'm not saying that in a critical way. And if it is critical, it's constructive criticism. I believe we should be more familiar with the truth of the Kingdom.
And the prophetic scriptures in the word of God.
Well, we also find that these Tares are bundled.
And then burned. You know, I believe it's not impossible that what we see going on in Christendom like the Jehovah Witnesses, the Mormons, and the 7th Day Adventists and various other cults.
That there is a bundling of the tears taking place now.
But they all will be burned. But how wonderful the good seed.
Are gathered into the granary, and then the Lord, when he speaks of that in the interpretation of that parable, he says, Then shall the righteous shine as the sun and the Kingdom of the Father. So we know when we will be taken out of this saying, the rapture will be an eternal condition.
Nothing will change for us anymore.
But he also says in the interpretation that he will send his angels the Son of Man.
Will send his Angel, and notice it's the Son of Man that will send his angels and they will get out of his Kingdom. So it's the Kingdom of the Son of Man. Presently the Kingdom of God has taken the character of the Kingdom of heaven, but when the Lord Jesus comes back and heals with those with him, with the bad seed, and throughout the Millennium, I think he will deal with the wicked.
Wedding out the wicked out of his Kingdom. It's the Kingdom of the Son of Man. But the good seed is in the Kingdom of the Father. And there's that heavenly sign and an earthly sign going side by side until, according to First Corinthians 15, we see that the Kingdom is turned over to the Father. You know when it has run its course, so that you only have the Kingdom of the Father. It's the eternal state.
You know.
Wrote that beautiful hymn of bride and blessed scene where sin can never come that speaks of that eternal state. You know presently what is characteristic of our time is that grace reigns through righteousness. We have that enrollment. But when the Lord Jesus comes back in power and glory, righteousness will reign. He will be with every evil every morning. Isn't that wonderful?
With all the inequities and the injustices, and there are many reasons for complaint in the world, you know.
People deal with it in a decided way.
You know, these prejudice that exist in the world, what a shameful thing that is. And you find that even sometimes among believers, you know, they despise the black because they're black, you know?
There is no difference in the sight of God. Red and yellow, black and white, all are precious in his sight. You sing. And so it is. You know, we might look at people who are intelligent, educated, wealthy, and then despise the poor as we have it in James. Well, God doesn't look at men that way. Doesn't matter a bit in the sight of God, You know, As a matter of fact, the more schooling of men we have, the more difficult it is to be simple in the things of God.
It's amazing to see how a man like Mr. Darby, so highly trained and educated, was simple in the things of God.
You know, and the Lord can preserve his own. And I'm not despising learning and so on. But I do believe it's true that many times.
That lead people to think high of themselves and it makes them unfit for the simple reception of the truth of God. Let us the Lord Jesus say unless you become as little children, you cannot enter into the Kingdom. It doesn't mean to say you become childish, but childlike simplicity is required when it comes to the truth of God.
And none of us has to be highly educated to understand the word of God.
00:30:03
It's written in such a way that we can understand that even if we do not have much of.
But the words used are very simple. Very simple. It's beautiful to see that well.
Now.
We add to the tree, you know that grew up into a big tree to see that through grew up into a big tree. I think what we should mention yet is that you really have what took place.
Under constantly for what is similar to the tree is what you have in Pergamus.
When you have the seven churches in Asia Minor.
We find that the church became worldly and the world became churchy. There was a marriage of world, Church and Constantine, making the Christian religion the religion of his empire and giving honorable positions to the bishops. Wicked men, ambitious, wicked men look for these positions. They want to forget these positions, to get into a position of power and influence and well.
You know, it's shameful when you read the history how these Princess of the church have this age, including the popes. You know they had children and then called their nephews, nieces and nephews and married them all to the royal houses in Europe. You know all to enlarge and influence and power well.
The birds of the air, the very birds that picked up the seed in the first parable, are now nichting in that tree. It's satans, agents.
Adair.
Jose and Hal said for Christians not even to understand the contrast of this, that we are nobody.
You know, I think I mentioned it probably Tuesday already. What did they put on? Mr. Darby's tombstone? Unknown, yet well known, you know. And why was it that he was not recognized? Why he was not?
Given credit for what the Lord did through him in the recovery of the truth because He was undermining their church system. It's additional church system in Kyrgyzstan.
You can't believe in the clerical system.
But how sad. Many of our brethren in Christ do not understand that this is not the time that we are reigning. Today is going to come when we will rain, but then.
This.
11Th You already developed it tonight.
With the evil spreading, are you surprised when they converted hundreds of hidden trees to Christian priests? That's what actually happened in the Church of history.
They made he decree into Christian priests without any conversion.
Are you surprised that they introduced false doctrine, false practices? Isn't it surprising, or it shouldn't be surprising to see that at that time Christmas was introduced into the Christian religion?
You know.
His customs that go under the name of Christmas are hidden idolatrous customs.
Which were in existence long before the birth of Christ, and when those fathers found out.
That these awkwardly.
Converted not real converted souls, but outwardly changed. People who were brought into this Christian profession wouldn't give up the practices of their hidden customs connected with the 25th of December.
They said it was better that they get drunk in honor to the birth of Christ than in honor to the even God. These are facts. You can read it in an encyclopedia.
Well, when we understand this, beloved brethren, what is our position going to be?
Are we going to go along with these heat and pasta?
00:35:00
Is there anything more dishonoring to Christ than to take that which is more blessed, the truth of the incarnation and associated with that which is most hateful to God and to the Lord Jesus? I have no hesitation.
Say that I have no doubt that it is hateful in the eyes of God.
A shameful if we in any measure go along with it.
But it shows how far we have slept and might have slipped that we have lost our sensitivity as to these things.
We don't know anymore what breeds and what honors our Blessed Lord. We've lost our spiritual sensitivity to quite an extent at times.
But that Pearl.
How wonderful said Pearl is. And I like to mention yet there is a difference between a treasure and a Pearl. You know, Mr. Grant, Southwest Grant that they might be familiar to some of you who caused the risk amongst the brethren, thought that the treasure was Israel, the Pearl was the church, and the net was the gathering in of the Gentiles. I don't believe that's correct, if you understand that all these 10 parables concerning the Kingdom of Heaven speak of the present aspect of the Kingdom.
You can see that that is not correct and justice because the Old Testament refers.
In the Psalms to Israel as God's treasure. That doesn't mean that whenever the treasure is mentioned in the Word of God that is refers to Israel. But what we do see that the treasure is the church as well as the Pearl and the neck, bringing in those who are to be saved at the present time. But what's the difference? Well, the difference is that when you have a treasure, I believe you have many objects making up the treasure.
And although we come to the Lord Jesus and we become part of that one object.
The bride of Christ or the Pearl, we do not lose our individuality.
We are individually precious to the Lord Jesus and I believe.
We also see that the treasure is found.
In contrast to the Pearl, the one that comes to look for that Pearl comes for the purpose of finding the Pearl. So I believe it is correct to say that it looks at the church as we have it in John chapter one he came unto his own, His own received him not, but as many as received him. To them give you the power or the right or the authority to be the children of God. So in his rejection he finds.
The treasure that brings out the side that he comes for Israel, but is rejected, and that in his rejection he finds the treasure, and that treasure is hidden in the field. And that hidden character is never given up, at least not while the Kingdom of heaven runs its course. But in the Pearl we find that he comes for the purpose of finding that Pearl. So, as Mr. Darby has pointed out, we find the eternal councils and purposes of God.
Expressed in the Pearl, it was very interesting. It's not that the Kingdom of the Son of Man, when we find that in the 25th chapter and there's a good sheep are brought into the Kingdom, enter you into the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world, you know, we find that the purpose is connected with the Kingdom and with Israel. Go.
As far as the foundation of the earth. But we know from Ephesians that the things connected with the Church go as far as the Eternal Council chosen in him before the world's foundation.
And isn't it wonderful for you and I to know that we belong to that treasure?
And, you know, if this would be Israel, don't you see how we would lose tremendous instruction as to what is consistent for the followers of a rejected prize? Israel Mr.
Brand, when he was teaching Israel, was not in existence as a nation. So he said, you see Israel doesn't exist as a nation, it's hidden. But now Israel is a nation for us. It should be much more easy to see that there was a mistake in interpretation. But I think especially we lose this tremendous.
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That our work is following a rejected price is to maintain that hidden character should not be in the position of prominence and power, and then even.
As to maintaining a pure character, you know this is what we are in the sign of fraud, and that's what we should be exercised about, that we would walk apart from sin, but then with the next even what a tremendous truth is conveyed to us in the fact that the fishermen have the responsibility to discriminate between the good and the bad fish. That applies to us now.
Well, you might say, how do we know what is a good fish and what is a bad fish?
Well, we know from Leviticus 11 and then also in Deuteronomy that in 22nd chapters, one of these chapters, the early 20s, we find the list of the clean and unclean animals. And the fish are mentioned there too. And what is a good fish, what's a clean fish, you know? And those fishermen are to be governed by the instructions in the Old Testament. What is a good fish? They had to have fins in scale.
You know, I remember as a.
Boy newly saved in Germany at different times. Interpretation of that was made to us, and I met a brother in Brazil last summer. His grandfather ministered on the clean and unclean animals, and I associate always the understanding of that passage with that ministry as well as Second Timothy two, I heard him minister on that and this man his grandson.
Came to see us at the conference in Brazil.
Exercised about his association, I could tell, and I learned to know Second Timothy 2 Through your father's grandfather's ministry.
But what is the meaning then? Well, the scales are like a protective armor which do not allow the element to which the fish moves to penetrate.
You know and.
That has its answer in the Divine nature, by which we have escaped the corruption that is in the world through love. Peter speaks of that fire and the fins, because the energy of the divine nature.
In other words, the followers of a rejected Christ should not be characterized that they allow themselves to be influenced.
By what is popular and acceptable in the world and drift along?
With the stream in this world, the energy of the divine nature and the Spirit of God dwelling within makes us.
Able to go against the current. We don't go along with all the fats that come up in the world, do we? But if we do be better, be careful because we might prove that we are not good fish.
The conclusion we have to draw, brethren, And if we accept Mr. Grant's interpretation, we loathe this tremendous instruction as to what is true and what is real in the followers of the Lord Jesus and the sovereign side brought out in those left 3 parables.
Well in chapter 18.
We have another parable that tells us what the Kingdom of heaven is like.
Well, I wanted to say that don't you see that the Brethren in the meeting have a responsibility to discern whether somebody's profession is real or not?
You know, maybe we will experience what even happened during the days of the apostles like we find in Jude. Men crept in unawares, you know, unreal material entering. But.
Mature chose the responsibility of the fishermen to discriminate between the good and the bad, and people say you cannot judge.
No, but we're food inspectors by Dash Proof ye shall know them. And we have in first John several tests given for profession. The one is obedience to the Word of God, the other is love of the breadth, you know. And so we have these texts in the word of God, and we must not be afraid to apply these tips.
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You know it is expected that the followers of the Lord Jesus walk for him, live for him.
And live for the world to come.
Well, now in chapter 18 we're slightly differ, is the Kingdom of heaven lightened unto a certain king, which would take account of his servants, and when he had begun to reckon, one was brought unto him which owed him 10,000 talents.
But for as much as he had not begged to pay, the Lord commanded him to be sold, and his wife, and his children and children, and all he had entertainment to be made. The servant therefore fell down and worshipped him, Seeing Lord and patience with me, and I will pay thee all. Then the Lord of their servant must move with compassion and lose him, and forgive him the dead. But the same servant went out and found one of his fellow servants, which owed him 100 pints.
And he made hands on him, and took him by the throat, saying, Pay me that thou owest and his fellow servant fell down at his feet, and besought him, saying, Have patience with me, and I will pay thee all, and he would not.
But went and cast him into prison till he should pay the debt.
So when his fellow servants saw what was done, they were very sorry, and came and told unto their Lord all that was done. Then his Lord, after that he had called him, said unto him, O thou wicked servant, I forgave thee all that did, because thou desirest me? Shouldest not thou also have had compassion on thy fellow servant, even as I had pity on thee? It is Lord was wroth.
Delivered him to the tormentors, till he should pay all that was due unto him, So likewise shall my heavenly Father to also unto you, if ye from your hearts forgive not everyone his brother, their trespass you. So what do we learn from this parable?
Forgiveness.
Ought to characterize the followers. The spirit of forgiveness, I should say, should characterize the followers of the Lord Jesus.
A series of a thing. It is, you know, we find that both men acknowledge their death and pleaded for mercy.
The one who was a 10,000 felons there received forgiveness, but he would not forgive the one that pulled him 110. What a shameful thing that it is. It is the Spirit.
Of his wicked servant would manifest itself among professing Christians.
You know the Lord will deal with such behavior.
Governmental where he will deal with that. But you know, we find the Blessed Lord on the cross praying for those who tormented Him. Father forgive them, for they know that what they do. We find that Stephen manifest the same Spirit when he prays for those who were stoning him, and we find the same with Paul in Second Timothy.
When he did not receive any ape or comfort from his fellow believers that he could rightly expect, he said that the Lord would not play that to their charge. That's the spirit of forgiveness that should characterize the believer.
Now the Lord can give us grace that he learned from the Lord Jesus.
Who perfectly demonstrated it in his own life.
Stephen and Paul certainly learned that from him.
Now in chapter 20.
You have another parable.
The Kingdom of heaven is like unto a man, that is an householder, which went out early in the morning to hire laborers into his windy yard. When he had agreed with the laborers for a penny a day, he sent them into his vineyard. And he went out about the third hour, and saw others standing idle in the marketplace. And he said unto them.
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Go ye also into the vineyard, and whatsoever is right, I will give you. And he went their way again. He went out about the 6th and the 9th hour, and did likewise about the 11Th hour. He went out and found others standing idol, and said unto them, Why stand ye here all day idle? They say unto him, Because no man has hired us. He says unto them, Go ye also into the windy guard, and whatsoever is right.
That shall ye receive.
So when even was come, the Lord of the vineyard said unto his steward, Call the laborers, and give them the hire, beginning from the last unto the 1St. And when they came that were hired about the 11Th hour, they received every man a penny. But when they first came, they supposed that they should have received more, and they likewise received every man a penny. And when they had received it, they murmured against a good man of the house.
Saying, These lads have wrought but one hour, and thou hast made them equal unto us, which have borne the burden, and heed of the day. But he answered once to them, and said, Friend by duty, no wrong, it's not thou agree with me for a penny. Take that thine is, and go thy way. I will give unto this lad, even as unto thee.
That is not lawful for me to do. What is it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine, all than I evil, because I am good. So the last shall be first, and the first last for many be called, but you are chosen.
Well, here we have another parable and it has to do with the vineyard now, I personally believe.
That when it is a question of the vineyard, it is not so much a question of gospel work.
As it is show up and applies. I believe the vineyard speaks of death which our servers gives to God, that which brings joy to the heart of God. You know we know that mind in the Bible speaks of that which brings joy to the heart of God and man.
And I believe many times when it comes to the word of God, we are always thinking of our own blessing and of the blessing.
Of man. But we do not often enough think of what we do, what it does to the heart of God and the joy that it brings to him. That's why in Christendom you oftentimes hear that service is the big thing. You know, go out and gathering the law, you know, people that are hardly saved are thrown out on the street and they're supposed to preach to God, but they don't even know yet what they have come in to, you know.
They can't even give intelligent answers to the people that they are confronting, you know, Brother Irving, Clawson explained. You probably heard him say that there is such a tremendous instruction in the fact that.
The one that got married or the one that built a house was not to go to war for a whole year.
Why he had to come into the enjoyment of what his possession was for him, the enjoyment of his wife before he was to defend it. You know, he is to come to understand, to buy an house for ourselves that and come to enjoy that which we have and then intelligently can go out and fight a good fight.
Well, the vineyard to me is such a.
A challenging thing. How much joy do I? How much joy do you bring to the heart of God?
You know.
The Lord is looking for that, you know.
And he is looking for appreciation in our hearts and lives for what we have been brought into, and that we diligently search out these things I sometimes have said. You know, when a Jew was poor, he could bring a pigeon if that is all that he could afford. And a pigeon spoke to God of what a Bullock spoke to him of the Lord Jesus.
00:55:25
Well, wooden Israel desire to become wealthy.
You know, so that he could bring more than just a pigeon. Would we not desire to become wealthy, spiritually speaking, come into the enjoyment of the Lord Jesus his work, and enter into it more fully, so that we have more to bring? After all, what we bring to God is that which we have found in His Son and the work that he has accomplished.
It takes diligence, you know. It takes diligence to church these things alone. You know, I would encourage every young believer to study the offsprings in the Old Testament because it certainly will help you to be more intelligent on Thursday morning when you come to remember the Lord Jesus. But.
We're busy for him. It's expected to us to be busy to him so that we could for him, that we could bring that, which gives him joy.
And how wonderful. There are those that are higher, You know, they agree to wages, but then there are those who go and the master says, I'll give what's right, you know, and I believe this is the kind of a way that we would desire to serve him, especially in our position.
Labor, you know he is generous, and he has the right to reward. As he, in his graciousness and in his kindness and his generosity, wants to reward, you know there is.
That connected with the Kingdom. That has to do with reward. You know we do not find that in connection with our position before God in Christ. That is all based on the finished work of the Lord Jesus. There is not going to be any difference.
It's not going to be that the one is greater and more glorious than His presence than the other. Because he has been more faithful. No, because we are all there.
Not because of our faithfulness, we're there because of the work of the Lord Jesus, but in connection with the Kingdom. There are going to be reports that are given out, and it's the right of the Lord Jesus of our Lord to reward everyone according to his goodness and his kindness. Well, we have to stop here. We still have to go into two more.
Of these parables of the Kingdom, you know the marriage fees. And then we have.
The 10 virgins, but what I'm hoping to be able to look into also is.
Something about the Sermon of the Mount, because what we find in the Sermon of the Mount is we find the principle of the Kingdom, and they are very helpful instructions for us in that passage of the Word of God. Well shall we say?
God and Father.
The Kingdom of Heaven Pt.3
Address—H. Brinkmann
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Chapter 22 of Matthew verse one.
And Jesus answered, and spake unto them again by parables, and said.
The Kingdom of heaven is like unto her certain kings, which made a marriage for his son, and sent forth his servants to call them that were bidden to the wedding.
And they would not come again, he sent forth other servants, saying, Tell them which are bidden. Behold, I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and my paddling are killed, and all things are ready come unto the marriage.
But they made light of it, and went their way, one to his farm, another to his merchandise. The remnant took his servants, and entreated them spitefully, and slew them. But when the king heard thereof, he was wrought, he sent forth his armies, and destroyed those murderers, and burned up their city. Then said he to his servants, the wedding is ready.
But they which were bidden were not worthy. Go ye therefore into the highways as many as ye shall find bid to the marriage. So those servants went out into the highway, and gathered together all as many as they found, both bad and good. The wedding was furnished with gifts, and when the king came in to see the gift, he saw there a man which had not a wedding garment.
And he said unto him, Friend, how came is thou in? Hit her not having a wedding garment. And he was speechless, Then sent the king to the servants, Find him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast him into.
Outer darkness there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, for many are called, but few are chosen.
When we found in the last parable.
That the same statement was made that is made at the end of this parable.
Many are called, but few are chosen.
And we didn't explain what is communicated in this statement. I believe we see it illustrated or have seen it illustrated in the net. The last parable in Matthew 13 had brought up every time to the shore, but they were the good and the bad.
So many are called, many will answer to the gospel. Call, make a profession.
And claim to be followers of the Lord Jesus.
But proved to be false.
Many are called, but few are children. It's really a wonderful truth in the word of God that only those who got in His grace should.
Will answered, and there will be reality in them. It's a very humbling thing for you and me that have come to know the Lord Jesus to realize that it it wouldn't have been for the grace of God picking us out in the eternity past. We would not have responded. And if we would have responded, we might have responded like those that outwardly made a profession. But.
We're not the chosen ones. They were not real.
The solemn thing, the things that they are, those that might take.
A position and making a claim, but they are not real. But what we have seen in the 18th chapter is that the spirit of forgiveness in that parable of the 10,000 that are the 10,000 talents that are dead and the underpants that are that the spirit of forgiveness should characterize those who follow the Lord Jesus.
And you know, you and I, all of us are 10,000 talent debtors when it comes to our relationship to God, you know, but in our relationship with one another.
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Underpinned debtors and how often the unforgiving spirit spoils the Christian testimony.
To think that we have been forgiven 10,000 talents and then are not willing to forgive.
100 pence.
And as can be manifested in the followers of the Lord Jesus.
But we also have seen that in the vineyard and I believe consider that that is not so much blessing be sold upon the lost by bringing them to know the Lord Jesus, but their joy is brought to God.
There is something in our lives, if we are faithfully carrying on for God, that will spring joy.
To the heart of God, and you and I can contribute to that. But now here in this parable about the wedding.
The marriage for his son. This is very evidently bringing in the law, going out and calling the laws in, but I believe those that were bidden and did not come.
Saver. Do you know, we see in the Jude those that were bidden and wouldn't come and you find first of all that?
They wouldn't come, but then we find a more serious condition.
They made light of it.
They mocked. They made fun of the message that was brought to them from the king.
And he went to their own farm, to their merchandise.
You know that was more important to them than to consider the invitation and come and impart in their marriage fees. But they also ill treated the service.
And they killed them. But we find that what is open of here.
When the king heard thereof, he was wroth, and he sent forth his armies, and destroyed those murderers, and burned up their city that took place when Jerusalem was destroyed.
Then sent him to his servants. The wedding is ready, but they which were bidden were not worthy. Go ye therefore into the highways, and as many as ye shall find.
Bit through the marriage.
You know, you and I come in there, I believe we were not part of the people of Israel.
Those that originally the message goes out to.
And we were the beggars, you might say. You know the bum.
That I called in. You know, we were without hope, without God in the world. Yet God in his grace has reached out to us.
And he has brought us to his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And isn't it wonderful that you and I can have part in the work that God is doing?
That we may have part in being messengers and declaring this good news and looking for those that are to be brought to this marriage peace.
At one time before we were saved, we were totally useless for God. There was nothing for God in US and there was no blessing for man.
In our lives. But now we can be the servant of the one who has loved us and brought us to himself, and we can be a source of blessing to others. We can go out with the gospel. Now we might not be all called particularly to do.
Thoughtful work or having gifts of an evangelist, but we can all as part in bringing the news to others. And what a joy it gives to you if you experience in your own life that sold abroad to the Lord Jesus and then to see them go on for him. What a joy, a grace to your own soul. But how much more? How much joy it brings to the heart of God and how much blessing is God to these souls?
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You know.
Sometimes we have to labor for a long time before somebody really comes to noodle artist. You know, we had a Bible study with former neighbors of ours who lived across from us and when we were living in the country and we had Bible studies with them for 2 1/2 years and.
But for a long time, it didn't seem as if we were getting through. And sometimes we would go home and I would say to my wife, are accomplishing anything. Are we getting through?
OK, so one day we came there and he said, you know, I was sitting in front of my television the other day and listened to this gospel preacher and all of a sudden he said what you have been trying to tell me all this time became very clear to me. You know, he was saved. And I believe he has proven that he has gone on for the Lord Jesus save from being.
A staunch Catholic.
Going to church all the time.
And, you know, we did not rundown the Catholic Church and asked if he was saved. He said to us, you know, if you would have run down the Catholic Church, that would have ended the Bible study right then and there. But when he was saved, it didn't take long. He said to us, you know, we haven't been in the Catholic Church for three weeks already. You see, it didn't take him long to be delivered from the error of Catholicism. And then he came through.
John's Gospel, where the Lord made water to wine. And when he told Mary what have I to do with thee, you know, they saw the teaching of the Catholic Church that he never refused anything to his mother Mary. False. The word of God accomplished that which we with our talking could not accomplish. You know, it's not a question of convincing people by our.
Convincing arguments. The Word of God by the Spirit has to be used to bring souls into blessings. Well, how wonderful that we can have part in the work that God is doing, but how sad.
Those who make a false profession like this one that comes in not having a wedding garment, what does that speak of? He didn't have a garment. He wasn't clothed in the righteousness that God can give the garment of salvation He was lacking and he is.
Passed out. Find him hand and foot.
You know what a solemn thing that is?
To even hand the nerve, as this one did, to come to the wedding, not.
Threats in an acceptable way, in a way that would.
Be acceptable to a holy God. Remember how Adam and Eve after they had fallen.
They realized that they could not face God the way they were. They were unfit, They were naked. So they covered their nakedness, trying to cover it with strictly. They firmly well, it was unacceptable, and made himself instinctively felt that they couldn't face God with these big believements. They were still hiding among the trees. And then God takes the initiative and called him Adam. Where art thou?
What hast thou done? And he does give a garment to Adam and Eve. He takes skins and covers their nakedness, blood tattoos to shed in order to cover their negatives. And this is how we, any one of us can stand before a holy God, by being clothed in the garment of salvation, by having taken hold my faith of the death of the Lord Jesus.
The substitution of death of the Lord visa. And of course there is more to that than just him being our substitute. You know, he has overthrown the power of the enemy. He has broken the power of sin, and we ourselves have died with him. But here the point in this parable is of not having a garment of salvation. You know, sometimes it's a shameful thing, even humanly speaking, when a wedding is put on and people come.
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In Blue jeans 2 already. You know that's an insult really. Even in our day, I believe to those who put on the wedding, I'm using that as an example. You know we dress up when we go to such occasions, but.
The garment of salvation is the only thing that will be acceptable when we stand under in that day before holy God.
The Lord turned to Matthew 25.
Press 1.
Notice everyone of these parables begins with Then shall the Kingdom of heaven be likened unto, and so on. It is a similitude of the Kingdom of heaven. It tells us what the Kingdom of heaven is like.
Then shall the Kingdom of heaven be likened unto 10 virgins, which took their lamb, and went forced to meet the bridegroom. And five of them were wise, and five were foolish.
They that were foolish took their lambs and took no oil with them. But the wise took oil in their vessels with their lands. While the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept, and at midnight there was a cry. Behold the bride through here in the King James it says, the bridegroom, Comma that you read Mr. Darby's translation. It says, just behold the bridegroom.
Go ye out to meet him.
All those merchants arose, and trim the land. And the foolish said unto the wise, give us of your oil, for our lambs are gone out. But the wise answered, saying, not so, lest there be not enough for us and you, but go, ye matter to them that sell and find for yourself. And while they went to buy the bridegroom cave, and they that were ready went in with him to the marriage, and the dog was shot.
Afterward came also the other virgin, saying, Lord, Lord, open to us. But he answered and said, Verily, I say unto you, I know you now Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.
His last word here were in the Son of Man. Cometh should not be there. Why is that?
Because the Lord Jesus does not come into character as Son of Man.
For the church.
And this parable being a parable.
It's a militant of the Kingdom of heaven has to do with our present day and the coming of the Lord. Jesus as the bridegroom is connected with the hope of the Church, and He comes for the Church as the Son of God. How do we know that in First Thessalonians one we read that these Thessalonians turn to God from idols to serve the true and living God and to wait for his Son from heaven, the truth of the Church?
Is based upon the very truth that the Lord Jesus is the Son of God. Remember thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. Upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of haters shall not prevail against it. It's the truth of the Person of the Lord Jesus being the God, the Son of God, that is the basis for the truth of the Church.
And we're waiting for God's Son from heaven.
And and it is him that we are waiting for. That's why I believe.
That is so much better. What Mr. Dabris renders when he says, Behold the bridegroom, Our attention is to be directed not to the truth of his coming, but to himself. You know, we might well be well familiar with the truth of his coming, and can spell out accurately what will take place and distinguish between his coming for his own, his coming with his own, and so on. But the question is.
Where are our hearts? Are we truly waiting for the Lord Jesus? Do we long to see him?
Are the attention of our hearts directed to step blessed, one That makes all the difference?
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You know, it's sometimes outright change for the way things are presented in Christendom. You know, in a dramatic way they present things. You know all the accidents that will happen and so on and so forth and.
We don't find the truth of the coming of the Lord Jesus presented in such dramatic ways in the word of God, but it is the most enjoyable truth for the heart to enjoy that we will see Him.
You know, when a loved one has been away for a long time, we're looking forward to seeing that one personally to be again with him. And so it will be if our hearts are in tune, and if the Spirit of God is able to occupy us in a right way with these things, our hearts will be drawn out to him. We will be looking for Him. But what is here foretold is.
What has happened during the time of the Kingdom of Heaven?
The present aspect of the Kingdom, those who took a profession, those who have a land, all went to sleep. Those who were real and those who were false, those who had a mere profession or those who had life and the Spirit of God dwelling in them, they all went to sleep. And we see that in the dark Middle Ages the hope of the coming of the Lord Jesus was lost.
And with losing this hope, they went to sleep, you know? And when you look at a sleeping person and you look at a dead person, you have to look real close sometimes to see that the one is only sleeping and not like the other one did, you know? So sleeping Christians.
Outwardly appear less different than those who are dead, you know. And if the truth of the coming of the Lord Jesus is not a living hope in our lives, we'll go to sleep.
You know, and we will become occupied with all kinds of things and settle down in this scene and find all our energy devoted and going after the dollar and getting comfortable in this world. But our hearts are not in truth. We're not our life for God.
But how wonderful.
The truth of the coming of the Lord Jesus was revived.
More than 150 years ago and then truth was spread throughout Christendom and many picked up on it. Many Christians.
Realize indeed this is their hope, not like Mr. Schuler and others, that we become.
Wealthy. You know that we become successful in this world.
Possibility thinking, you know, was not the occupation of the hearts of the people of God when his blessed hope revived that the Lord Jesus is momentarily returning. You know we have to expect that anytime. This is the proper attitude.
You know, wouldn't it be a good attitude for us?
Consistent with this truth being living in our souls that we when we get up in the morning.
By saying you miss the day and he will come, or when we go to bed in the evening that we might have, the thought will be awake in glory in the presence of the Lord Jesus.
There's sometimes when we get older and feeble, then perhaps these thoughts are more in our minds.
Especially when we feel weakness and sickness and pain.
And you know, we do a dear old sister and Wausau WI you know, she would tell us she would get everything nice in her apartment in the evening, straighten everything out, and then she put on a nice nice gown. And then she would go to bed. And she would hope that the Lord Jesus would take her home during the night. And when she woke up, wake up in the morning, she was disappointed that she was still there.
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But what's a nice inter exercise? She didn't want the world to come into her apartment. That and find it as a mess.
And herself she wanted to believe. And nicely dressed, I thought it was a nice exercise that she had, but how beautiful it was. She was so living in that hope that she hoped that this night the Lord Jesus was going to Take Me Home and was disappointed when she woke up.
And what happened at home that she was still on earth? You know, it's really a painful thing that sometimes to meet Saints that are getting older and feeble and you hardly ever hear them express.
To desire that they would like to be with the Lord Jesus, that they're looking forward to leaving this world. Have you met people like that? We have, and it's a painful thing, but we met a brother in Wisconsin.
In the fellowship where we used to be that he was told that he had lung cancer and it was terminal, it was just a matter of time and he lived in a small community, invested Wisconsin.
And he would go to the restaurant, and the man they all knew him there in that little community would say, Irvin, I hear that you're really sick. Oh, yes, he said. It's only a matter of time, and I'm going to see my savior. I'm looking forward to seeing it. He was a wonderful testimony.
To those he met in his last few months of his life, that was a living hope with him that he would soon see the Lord Jesus, and with joyful anticipation he was looking.
Forward, to adapt the desire that the Lord would like to see in everyone of us, that we long to be with Him not only when we are sick and feeble at all times. I believe even young people can have their desire.
But I'm afraid many times the Lord might have to lead us into circumstances.
That are not very pleasant disappointments, sickness, or what, In order to arouse that desire to be with the Lord Jesus and to be delivered from this scene of sorrow and pain and suffering. But how wonderful.
Behold the bright truth. This is what awoke all 10 verses. But very soon it became evident that there was 5 foolish virgins didn't have oil. They had a land, but they didn't have oil. They did not have the Spirit of God. You know what really makes you and me a Christian? Have you ever thought of that? Is not that we are born of God?
It's that we have the Spirit of God's dwelling within us.
In a new birth.
Is not just a Christian truth that was already true before.
Christianity the Lord could have never told.
Nicodemus.
At our teacher in Israel, and Norris is not, if he couldn't have known it, that new birth was necessary for seeing and entering the Kingdom.
Or to seeing and entering anything that God has. For us to have capacity for divine things, we have to have the Spirit of God dwelling within, or the new life, I should say, to have that within.
But what really makes you and me different from any Old Testament saying is that we have more than new bird. You know, in Christendom, those fundamental circles that present New birth as the ultimate of Christian blessing. It's only the beginning.
If you want to have new birth, you couldn't see or couldn't enter the Kingdom. We have that in John's after three. But the Spirit of God dwelling within makes me and you a question.
You know, and this is what the foolish relaxing they were not real. They didn't have the Spirit of God dwelling within. And so the oil speaks of the Spirit of God. How do we know that? Well in First John.
That the word is used the anointing for the Holy Spirit clearly referring to the oil being the Spirit of God. And that gives us the ability to know all things that be shown that that would give us the ability to know the deep things of God even is that the Spirit of God dwells within us, and that is what is characteristic of Christianity.
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That the man 5 Jesus is at the right hand of the Manchester High, and that the Spirit of God came down on earth to dwell in the church collectively and in the individual individually, He shall be with you We have in John 14, with you collectively, in you individually.
And that's what that oil speaks of. Here we have a wonderful picture in the Old Testament.
When the priest was dedicated to be a priest, what took place? He was given a bath. You know, that's new birth. You know from John 13 that the Lord says to Peter he that has been given a bath or is washed all over need not to wash to his feet. That's a one for all things that takes place when we're born anew or born of God.
But what was next?
Blood was applied to the tree, you know by faith after we are born.
Of God we can by faith lay hold of that which God has for us.
The death of his son.
He reclaimed by water and by blood because the true cleansing agents that we have in the Word for God and water for cleansing and blood propagation from sin. Well and what is next?
The Spirit of God typically comes to oilies applied, you know. So if this order still got work today, Newburgh faith and the atonement death and then the Holy Spirit comes, you know in the tentative, in the tent of Acts.
Cornelius was born of God.
But he wasn't safe. You know, when they explained what happened to the church after they got back from the House of Amelia, they relate that Cornelius was told that he should send for Peter and he would pursue a word by which they were to be saved. But he was obviously born of God because.
What I have made clean Do not thou make unclean? And his prayers and arms had ascended to God. God heareth no Sinner. We find that in.
John's Gospel. But God did hear the prayers of this man and accepted the arms. If that would have been the prayers of a Sinner and the arms of a Sinner, you would have a justification for the teaching in the Catholic system.
But if it was the result of this man being born of God, God can accept it. And he did accept it, but he still needed to hear words by which he was to be saved. Salvation in the New Testament sense is not new birth merely, but to come into this wonderful truth that a divine guest will indwell our body. And what is the message that Peter brings to?
Him.
You read Acts chapter 10. He presents the person and work of the Lord Jesus and when death is accepted by faith then the Holy Ghost falls on them.
So in order to be indwelt by the Spirit of God, we have to lay hold of the work and the person and work of the Lord Jesus, and then the Spirit can come and involve us. So how wonderful this is true of you and me if we are saved.
Salvation is more than new birth. Salvation is to come into the good of the work of the Lord. Jesus by faith and in the Spirit of God dwells in US and then and then only can we really be like bearer for the Lord in this world.
We can't do it in our own energy and strength.
You know, to be really alike for God, for the Lord Jesus, we have to have the Spirit of God dwelling within. That's the power that we have. Remember the fish? You know they have fins and scales. You know the scales answer to the divine nature and the thin speak of the energy of that nature. And that is the indwelling Spirit that gives us the ability to go against the stream. We are not pressing along and let ourselves be influenced by what?
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Influences the world in their thinking and in their practice.
Because we have higher standards and we have the teaching of the word of God.
As we are able to walk for him going against.
The evil screens of the world, but how wonderful the cry goes out, not only the bridegroom.
Behold the Bridegroom. It also says, Go ye forth to meet him. What does that mean, to go forth? To go out of whatever is hindering our being led to him. You know, when these truth came to our spiritual forefathers, they came to see that they couldn't remain in systems that are contrary to the word of God, where man takes the place of the Lord Jesus. What is the cardinal Sinning?
The clergy system, because it replaces the spirit of God, is the leader and the Lord Jesus is the head of the Church. That gives a pure immortal a place that only belongs to the Lord himself and to the Spirit of God.
Go ye forth.
To meet him anything inconsistent with the truth of the word of God, those spiritually exercised through that call reaching them. Behold the bridegroom, They will turn their back on the and still find strength and grace to do it.
And then they will go forward, then they're ready to go forth.
To make it.
And then the foolish 1 to buy oil from the wise version. Well, it conveys this truth, does it not? You have to, in personal faith, come to an extent the person and work of the Lord Jesus. I can't do it for my wife or for my children. They have to do with each one for themselves. But what we can do is plant.
The seeds.
One has used the water path being filled and then the log turns it into.
Wine. You know, we can fill their hearts and minds with the word of God and trust that the Spirit of God.
Will use the word of God in good time and bring the joy of salvation to them.
Now, it doesn't mean that they did go and did buy oil and then the door was shut anyway.
It just indicates that it came too late. They missed the boat as we would say. You know, they were going along with an empty profession and then.
When the Lord Jesus came, they were unready. The door wasn't shut, the door being shut. And I tremble at the thought that there might be children of the Saints of God that might be in that position in the coming days. To hear the gospel over and over again, to be exposed to the truth of God and then just have an empty profession, solemn thought, that is an adore being sharp and the Lord Jesus saying.
What does he say?
I know you not. That doesn't mean that he doesn't know about them.
This means there is no relationship existing between you and me.
I don't know you.
If they're outside, and they're outside for all eternity, what a solemn thing.
Now verse 14, the Kingdom of heaven is a man traveling into a far country. It's in italics and it's not a parable of the Kingdom of heaven. But we don't have much time. I like to briefly comment on chapter 5 of Matthew. We read from verse one. And seeing the multitude, he went up into a mountain and when he was set, his disciples came unto him. He opened his mouth and taught them saying.
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Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven. Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled. Blessed are the mercy fall, for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God. Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness.
For theirs is the Kingdom of heaven. Notice, I think I referred to that.
Earlier here you clearly see that the term Kingdom of heaven is used for the future aspect of the Kingdom. That is what is properly called the Kingdom of the Son of Man when he comes back in power and glory and rewards are given. Blessed are ye when men shall revive you and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake, rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven.
Or so persecuted day to prophets which were before you. You had the salt of the earth. But if the salt had lost his savor, wherewith shall it be salted? It is then forth good for nothing but to be cast out, and to be trodden on the foot of men. We are the light of the world. The city that is set on a hill cannot be hid, neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candle stick, and if giveth light unto all that are in the house.
Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven.
The Sermon on the Mount. When we read it in man, you might get the impression that it was all given at one particular time. All.
One after the other. All these things we find in the Sermon of the Mount. I don't believe that's correct. The Sermon of the Mount is compiled in Matthew in the chapter 567.
So.
These three chapters, but what we find here is the principle.
Of the Kingdom and what is explained we haven't read them, is the difference between.
What was before and what is now and what we find that the principles are so?
But higher than that which we have under the law, but these beatitudes that we have read.
Are especially so instructive and we don't have much time. But what I can point out is that you have really.
Some of them, you might say, speaks of grace.
Others speak of righteousness, and you have these two principles that are very clearly.
Brought out and you know, we have sometimes in the word of God when the Kingdom of God, the term Kingdom of God is used. We have the moral principles and the moral side of things that are for instance in Romans, that the Kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost, you know, and here we have righteousness.
And grace or mercy? Stress. Why is it so important? Because this is what the Lord Jesus looks for in you and me. And what we find is that whether it is the family life of the believer or whether it is the assembly life, you cannot do without both.
If you stress grace at the expense of holiness, you have corruption. And if you stress righteousness without tempering it with mercy and grace, you're going to drive everybody away and a brother.
With a younger brother in an assembly of believers, came to another brother and he said, you know how come?
That there are two such different brothers in this meeting. The one is always pressing for order, discipline and this kind of a thing. And the other one, all these fences, grace and love and so on. And brother said, well, let's say what he said. If you wouldn't have a brother like the first one, we wouldn't have any order into your sense with it. Evil would not be dealt with, but if he wouldn't have anybody like the other brother, he wouldn't have an assembly.
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You know, because if you have only stressing of righteousness.
You drive everybody away. You know, we find even in the law of Sinai.
It wasn't strictly law, you know. It was tempered with mercy.
And so here we have that. And when it says blessed are the poor in spirit, it doesn't mean mental ill people, as some people have applied. No people who come to this book and to the things of God, acknowledging that no matter how high of an IQ they have, that when it comes to this book, they can't do anything with it without.
Divine help that they are really helpless.
Without the Spirit of God, open these pages to us.
And we have found that, have we not, that people of a high intellect have come to this book they can't make.
A tails out of it because they don't have divine health. So we have to acknowledge that we don't know anything, that we have to be taught of God and that we get wisdom from the Word of God.
Theirs is the Kingdom of heaven. Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted. Now does that mean that this refers to those who lose a loved one, and they shall be comforted? No, I believe not that this isn't true. That God cannot comfort and he does comfort. And how often have you experienced that? That he is a comfort? That he can comfort more than a mother can comfort?
But what this refers to is the morning that takes place here is because the believer sees what takes place in the Christian profession.
How the name of the Lord Jesus is this honor and how many awful deeds are committed in the name of Christ throughout the history of Christendom And there is a morning. I think we have an illustration of that and.
Ezekiel.
1St 49 Chapter 9 Verse four The Lord said unto him, Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark upon the forehead of the men that sighed and their cry. For all the abominations that be done in the midst there are and to the others, he said in my hearing, Go ye after him through the city, and smite. Let not your eyes spare, neither have you pity.
Slay utterly old and young, both maids and little children and women, but some, but come not near any man upon whom is the mark, and begin at the sanctuary that they begin. Then they begin at the ancient men which were before the house.
So on. So he'll be fine. Those who sigh and cry are those who mourn. That is an example of what the Spirit of God wants to bring before us.
You know, if you know of some evil taking place in any group of believers or amongst the gathered things, do we feel His sorrow?
Do we breathe over the name of the Lord Jesus?
Being his honor, You know, what did the Prophet say to David when he had committed adultery and murder to cover it up? By this sin he had made the enemies of the Lord the blasphemy.
You know, they might be right to indignation.
Which in its place is OK, but if their desire is broadly sorrow, considering the dishonor brought upon the name of the Lord Caesar.
And all of this here at the beginning is connected with righteousness.
Blessed are the Me, for they shall inherit the earth.
You know what is characteristic in the world is that you try to get ahead and you use your elbow. You know that's not the way it works. And the followers of the Lord reads us, you know.
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Meekness is what should be characteristic and if anyone wants to be great.
Among those that follow the Lord Jesus, he will take a little place, He become a servant.
Used to go. I had a man and he was in the Church of Christ. I said, how do you pick your minister? Oh, he said he go by the scriptures that he that is the greatest among us should be our minister. While he totally misunderstood that worse. You know what this verse conveys is minister means servant. He becomes the servant of the others. To be great in the followers of the Lord Jesus is to become a servant.
And that is greatness and meekness. Mr. Kelly, I think, once made the statement that Ameet brother lets his brethren use him as a doormat. You know how many brethren they'd have sought to maintain godly order, and the assembly have experienced that. You know it has been abused. You know they have been trampled upon by their brethren.
Hopefully the Lord's honor and glory has been maintained.
By dealing with evil whenever it benefits itself. But how often especially, you know, we are not very good Levis many times among Christians when it comes to our own fashion plot, you know we.
Defend when we should take science with the laws and with the truth, even if it is against our own flesh and blood.
But oh, how much meekness is necessary. But we find that Moses, the meatless men in the earth, failed in meekness.
And the same, that is, the people of God provoked him. But that was not an excuse in the sight of God. We know he didn't enter into the land because he failed in there. Blessed are they with true hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled. There is nothing wrong with desiring things to be done according to the word of God, and that righteousness be maintained amongst God's people. Remember what it says in Hebrews.
The scepter of his Kingdom is righteousness.
You know, and to pursue holiness.
You know we have that in Hebrews, do we not?
Below the lack of that austerity if you find that amongst those people said, whereas in Hebrews too.
He was 12, I believe, there.
Of the 12Th chapter followed peace with all men and holiness, without which no man shall see God well. Holiness and righteousness the.
Two things go very closely together, do they not?
And they shall be filled now the Merciful.
Shall obtain mercy. Blessed are not a pure part, for they shall see God. You know all of these things, now that come, speak of grace, and to peacemakers especially.
How much they are needed among the people of God today.
You know, we many times neglect to consider the importance that mercy should be readily extended when scripturally.
Committed. You know, if you try to.
Claim mercy and grace to cover up evil. This would not be pursuing peace.
With holiness, you know there's no problem. If you consider all of God's claims and have the desire to maintain his glory, God will help us. But how often have we spoiled things by the lack of utility, the lack of weakness, when things have to be taken up? I believe this is so important to be stressed.
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And certainly.
I needed, as much as anybody here should be exercised, about exercising grace and mercy and not just deal with matters in the judicial way.
And to work for the peace.
And to maintain peace, to pursue peace with such a sense, to seek peace and to pursue it, to really make an effort to maintain peace, but never at the expense of God's holiness, never at the expense of truth. Well, we still have. Again in verse 10. It goes back to what we had in the 1St fall behind it through.
Those who are persecuted for righteousness as they theirs is the Kingdom of heaven.
And then blessed are ye, when men shall revive you and persecute you, and shall say, O men are evil against you falsely, for my sake rejoice, and the exceeding glad for great if you reward in heaven. And so we find again things mentioned here that have to do with righteousness, and things that have to do with mercy and praise well Brother Bauman once made clear.
What the difference is, And he illustrated it in this way between suffering for righteousness, say, and suffering for Christ sake. And he said, suppose there's a young lady, a Christian.
For her to say I don't go with to the dance with you. But if she says I'm a Christian, I belong to the Lord Jesus, and for me belonging to the Lord Jesus, this is not the thing to do. And if she is then ridiculed, she is suffering for plastic because she has shown her colors and she suffers for them. You know, a young man went to the army, I'm told.
Actually happened and when he came back after his term was over.
He was told by somebody.
I suppose that wasn't always easy, to be a Christian and that could be in the Army. You know, they speak that drop language and all these kinds of things that people do. There always said it wasn't bad for me at all. Why not? Oh, he said they never found out I wasn't crystal, you know, he never showed his color. Well, is that the way we want to live? Should we not let our life shine? Should we not?
Ignore.
Where we are, where we stand. And to go behind that light you find it could be hidden under a push up or it could be hidden under the fear. And what does the bushes speak of And what does the fear speak of? Well, I believe the Bush of peace of our business. You know, you farmers know what it is to have so many push-ups of corn or beans and so on. Well, it speaks of business, but our business feelings might be such that our light is hidden.
You know that our business dealings are not consistent with what you could expect from a follower of the latter, but the best speaks of ease and comfort. You know how often this is the enemy successful tactic? That our comfort and our ease mean more to us.
Than to be a testimony in life for the Lord Jesus. Well, I think what we have seen in these parables and also in the attitudes is that the Lord Jesus expects something different from us now that we belong to him than what was characteristic of us before we came to know Him. And that there be things in our lives that will show that we belong to the Lord Jesus. That we act consistently with the being followers of a rejected Christ. That we don't seek a place of dominion and power and authority in this world. That we can tend to be what the treasure speaks of hidden.
In the earth, and to wait for the day when he will have honor and glory, and we will have it with him.