Address—Rick Shower
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Nice to see so many out on a blustery night.
Indeed, overwhelm my heart by seeing each other of you here. Trust the Lord won't let you down. Uh, let's begin tonight with hymn #206.
Oh Lord, we know it matters not how sweet the song may be. No heart, but of the spirit taught, makes melody to Thee.
Then teach Thy gathered Saints, O Lord, to worship in Thy fear, and let Thy grace mold every word that meets Thy holy here. Hymn #206 brother, raise the tune, please.
Lord Reloaded.
Your life, I don't do anything.
No apology. No, no, no, no, no.
I have a long day for you to believe me.
And behavior and blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah.
Afraid of words, but I didn't make any. Thy holy hair, but I've been.
What I want to be here with you.
Osiris, Jacintha. May I know How many 1000?
Make a prayer.
Just ask the Lord's help. Our God and Father, we look up to thee tonight.
And we're so thankful for the word of God that thou has given to us.
We're thankful as we've sung.
That thou art our only passport, Lord, to take us from here to there.
And that our confidence comes from Thy word as we open it, study it, meditate upon it as it draws our hearts to Thy beloved Son, the Lord Jesus. And so we are thankful to have it open again once more. Thankful for each one here tonight. We pray that all would have listening years and the speaker also that there might be something for each.
To take home with them tonight, maybe to encourage the hearts of one here. So we just ask all this in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, Amen. Amen.
00:05:14
I have decided.
By the Lord's.
Grace, I believe to take a look at a little meditation.
In connection with the questions that the Lord Jesus asked his disciples.
Now the the Lord asked a lot of questions. He asked questions of the disciples.
And he asked questions of the people and of the leaders and of the demons.
He asked questions of all those, but I want to look at just not even all the examples, but a few of the examples tonight of when the Lord asked His disciples a question.
A little different takes. I know there's some that have taken up the questions that the disciples asked the Lord that I'm going to look at the reverse.
There are 31,000 questions in our Bible, King James Version. There are more questions than in our statements, almost 2 1/2 to one. So lots of questions. So, and to I, I'm not taking them up particularly in any order except one. Uh, it'll be a little out of order. We'll refer back, but I'm going to start in the Gospel of Matthew and take some questions from the Gospel of Matthew.
And then?
Mark and Luke and finish up with John. That way we don't have to be turning a lot of pages. Pretty well stay within a book.
Now the 1St place I'd look like to look at and the first question is Matthew chapter 10.
In verse 29.
The context here is that he's speaking to his disciples and then he raises a question here in verse 29. He says to them, are not two sparrows sold for a Farthing?
Are not two sparrows sold for a Farthing? You know, that's a good place. I believe to start tonight because I believe this brings before us God's care for everything in this world. Not only, uh, man, but also is creation that he placed here his eyes on it all, he's looking at it.
And of course he's concerned about it. Especially man, but also creation.
And that outward, uh, world around us is measured just like our lives are measured, each one of us. And so I think this is a nice place to begin because I think the Lord wanted to bring before the disciples here that there is nothing too small.
For him to be concerned about.
And, you know, he was concerned enough for you and I to die on that cross that we might be here tonight, the Spirit of God, to be able to have it open before us. So I'm starting here with the Sparrow. You know, a Sparrow is a pretty insignificant bird, often not liked by farmers and others, sometimes a messy bird when they get in large groups. But you know, the Lord had his eye on him just like us.
Like us before we were saved, a lot of things we did wrong, a lot of sins we committed. But his eye was honest. His eyes on each one of you tonight too, and his eyes on you for good. He's taking note of each and everything, youngest and oldest tonight about what we're doing. So here we start with the Sparrow and we'll go over to Matthew chapter 16 for the next question.
Matthew, Chapter 16.
And verse 13.
Now the Lord is interested in us as he expressed to his disciples, He was interested in the very smallest of things, even a Sparrow. In chapter 16 here and verse 13 we get another question. When Jesus came into the coast of Caesarea Philippi, He asked his disciples saying, Whom do men say that I, the Son of man, him?
00:10:06
Ask you tonight, how would you answer that?
The Lord was standing here and he said to you that same question.
He said, Who do men say that? I, the son of man in.
How would you answer it?
Would you answer like Peter or like some said here? Well, you know, it's like John the Baptist, Elias Jeremias, one of the prophets, an important man, a good man.
But could you say he's my Lord and savior?
The one that loved me and gave himself for me.
You know, if we can say that.
Then we're on the right track. We're on the right track for the types of things that he has for us. But you know when he asked this question of the disciples.
They said several things in verse 14. Some said some say that thou art John the Baptist, some Elias, others Jeremias or one of the prophets. But he gives them a second question here. He wasn't concerned about what other people thought. He wanted to know what they thought. He know the Lord Jesus doesn't care about what other people think. He cares about what you think each and every day.
He cares about what you think. We're going to look at some portions, sort of like the Sparrow, where he's concerned with the smallest details of your life and he wants every day to have you bring those things to him that he might bless you.
And bring forth to you that which would be of value.
So he says in verse 15, But whom say ye that I am? So for each of us tonight, that's a good question. How would we respond?
Has the Lord captured our heart in such a way that we would have, uh, a very loving response? Do we see Him as a hard taskmaster? You know some do.
They seem as an austere man.
Reaping where he did not sow.
But I trust that for each of us tonight we see him in a different light than that, because experience in the days that we've been saved tells us otherwise.
We know the goodness of God because He's showing it out to us in multiple ways.
Let's go over to the 26th verse of the same chapter for another question. Chapter 26. Danny is talking to his disciples. He's raising some questions before him. First of all, who do you think I am? And then he says in verse 26, For what is a man profited if he should gain the whole world and lose his own soul?
Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?
Now we know that that's a great gospel portion, nice to apply to the center. But are we guilty of that? Are we so occupied with our jobs, we're so occupied with our lives we're so occupied with?
Going from point A to point B that we've lost out spiritually.
Lost out spiritually, you know, we don't have many days left.
Before the Lord comes, I believe, and it would be a sad thing to be not.
Keeping up, so to speak on things with him and come to that last day and hear the shout.
And not hear. Well done now, good and faithful servant.
So he says to them, what is a man profited? You know, we uh, we can profit in a lot of things, but the biggest profit should be spiritually for us. Often times we want to see profit in the books of business. We want to see a profit in, uh, maybe our children. We want to see a profit somewhere else rather than down in our own souls.
And that's where the Lord would have us to profit. I'm applying this portion here. You well are aware. What shall a man give in exchange for his soul? Well, we know that once saved, always saved, we're not going to lose our soul salvation. But what?
What about a life that's lost here, a life that doesn't go on for him?
00:15:08
The life that's like those, uh, like the ground with the rocks starts out, grows fast, but when tribulation and things come along, what happens to that seed that was sown on that rocky ground? It says it Withers and dies.
Weather is up, becomes not what it should be. When I worked in the agricultural office, used to go out and measure wheat fields. Pretty obvious when I'd get out there in the fields where the bad spots were, where the rocky ground was, where was thin. You see this nice stand of wheat and all of a sudden it dipped down and be what we call Shorty variety, very small and it'd be dried up. The rest of the crops would be growing. Well, it had withered. Why? Well, the heat of the day, the heat of the summer had come along.
And there was nothing down there for the roots.
So spiritually, are we in that condition tonight?
Spiritually lacking exchanging something for our spiritual soul that doesn't have a real value.
Over to the Gospel of Mark.
Marks the servant you know, and Mark has questions in it too. Chapter 4.
Mark Four and verse 40. I don't want to take time for the context here, but they had gone out on the sea and there were other ships, and there arose that great wind and a storm.
And he has to say to them after, after he demonstrated his power, he says to them, why are ye so fearful?
Why are you so fearful?
Umm, someone gave me an acrostic a long time ago for fear.
Prostate means the 1St letter of the word. Fear fits, uh, a word and you get a little phrase out of it.
Uh, fear false evidence appearing real. It's what fear is all about. False evidence that appears real. You know, we, we fear that, uh, something's going to happen. Maybe we made a mistake at work and we know the boss is aware of it. And so we fear what the boss might do. But you know, a lot of times it's false evidence that appears real.
The box may not be upset about it at all, He might just take it in stride. But you know, we can fear and tremble in a lot of different things, and sometimes we fear many things that don't come to pass. The Lord goes before us and clears the way and we don't, we don't have that fear. But you know this, this question comes after he had just demonstrated that he could quiet the whole scene.
Now, someone said, if you've ever been on the sea, you know that after a storm the sea is still moving, still going up and down. It doesn't become a calm in an instant. But that's what happened here. It became a calm in an instant because he had that power to be able to do that. And yet they were fearful, Fearful.
I believe, and I would just suggest this, and maybe one of the reasons why He asked this question of the disciples, Why are you fearful? Because they didn't know Him.
They really didn't know him yet. And as you read through the gospels and you you hear the Lord speak about his going to the cross and his death, his resurrection, and it doesn't seem like they ever laid hold of it.
They never really did know, really, the man that was there. Now, I'm not faulting the disciples at all. I'm sure if I'd have been one of them, I wouldn't have been one whip better. But you know tonight.
We don't have an excuse. We have the Word of God. We have the Spirit of God indwelling us to give us and to provide for us a marvelous understanding of who the Lord Jesus is, and in such a way that it would draw our hearts after Him.
So we asked that question, why are you so fearful? And then he says the second question, how is it that you have no faith?
You have no faith.
00:20:03
Satan loves to use fear because fear casts out the faith that we have.
It causes us to discount God Himself.
And when that happens, who's the victor? Satan.
He's got the victory, then He's got us in that position where we don't believe, we don't have faith, and the Lord is, should I say reverently, the loser in that regard. So easy for us to fall into that. And so He brought that before the disciples here. Why are you fearful and how is it that you have no faith? The two seem to go very much together.
Let's go over to the Gospel of Luke.
In chapter 2.
As far as recorded scripture, here we have the first question the Lord ever asked, and I will apply it kind of loosely that it was to his disciples.
In Luke chapter 2 and verse 49.
We know that familiar, I'm sure with the portion here where the, the parents have gone up to the Passover, that Jerusalem and they had celebrated the Passover and then they were headed home and after they were on the road aways, uh, lo and behold, the Lord Jesus wasn't with them.
He wasn't there, and so then they had to backtrack to try to find him.
And I just suggest this that.
They were gone one day on the road, but there were three days finding him.
One day away from the Lord, 3 days to get back into the enjoyment of what He has for us in communion with Him.
One year away.
Three years to get back.
You know, he has to bring us back to the point of departure so that we'll judge the root of whatever it was, the cost of departure, and then he can bring us on once again. But if we don't go back to the point where we departed and it's only a partial thing, it's only kind of a gloss over and it'll probably rise again. But that's kind of by the by here. But in verse 49, he says to his parents, how is it that she sought me?
Was she not that I must be about my father's business?
Even as a child, he could not put aside his father's business.
And you know, there have been children.
Uh, who have been saved at a young age and they.
So to speak, couldn't put aside their Heavenly Father's business.
Children who would rather listen to ministry on a tape recorder than go out and play with their peers.
Why?
The Lord had captured their heart in some manner.
They realized they had a Heavenly Father and they wanted to be about His business.
Now we might say, well, that's kind of an abnormal person. Well, it might be an abnormal young person, but what a testimony to the others. Remember Albert Hayhoe and you people knew him much better than I ever did. I remember Al Albert Heyho saying in an address one time that uh.
His brother Gordon, I don't know if he was old or not, but anyway, his brother Gordon, he would be on the way out the door to go play ball with his ball, ball, bat and glove and he'd look over there, Gordon and Gordon was reading his Bible.
He said, you know, my brother made a far different choice than I did.
And he said I believe he chose the far better path.
I thought that's quite a statement to make when you know, like I said, you guys know Albert a lot better than I ever did. And I had, I had admired him very much as a very godly man and had a heart for the Saints of God.
But for him to say that, you know, my brother chose a better path when we were younger for quite a testimony to make. And I'm wondering how many young people tonight are making the decision not in regards to their peers.
Or their.
Wants. But what his wants are the Lord Jesus wants.
00:25:06
And so he says, should I not be about my father's business? From the time of approximately they, I think they figure he was. Well, it says verse 42, he was 12 years old. From the time he was 12 years old, the body's father's business had it always before him.
I taught 12 year olds for probably over 20 years and there was one thing I noticed about 12 year olds at least back then. It may not be true today. A lot of things have changed with children, but back in that day, what a 12 year old was when he was 12 was pretty much what he was going to be the rest of his life. If he was a person that could be counted on, if he was a person who was honest, if he was a person who was respectful of others at 12, it was that. When he got older too, and I traced him out through high school.
It was the same character, but if they were rascals when they were 12 and they were disobedient and they were talked back to adults and so forth.
Found the same types of things, no respect for their elders and that just kind of seemed to go on and characterize her life. I'm talking in general terms is always exceptions both ways. But I just observed that that age 12, you know, we get to age 12 mentioned several times in Scripture, I think, uh, 312 year olds. In fact, I'll let you search that out. Uh, not all in the New Testament.
So here he is at 12 years old, and he's about his father's business, and so he's asking his parents which we might apply as disciples.
What she not that I must be, must. That's imperative. It's imperative form of the verb. I must be about my father's business. Can't do otherwise, Must be part of it.
Luke chapter 6 for another question.
Now, like I said, I'm not taking all the questions. There's some more here, but time would fail me to take up all of them.
Luke chapter 6 and verse 45.
A good man, out of the good treasure of his heart, bringeth forth that which is good.
And an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart, bringing forth that which is evil. For of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh.
I'll stop there because the next one is the question, but I want to just stop there for a minute.
I have met young people that when they were younger they loved to speak of the Lord as they got older, went on through high school, maybe to a University College. Met him later. You couldn't ring.
The name of Jesus out of their mouth.
They are absolutely no talk. Nothing out of their mouth had anything to do with the Lord Jesus.
And you know what we just read here says that, uh.
The out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.
So word to myself and I trust it's a word to each of us tonight and we're in conversation. How long does it take us to get to the Lord Jesus?
Especially with her brethren.
You know, it's easy to talk about the storm that's coming up the coast and how it's going to impact all these different places and, and the people and our brethren there in New Jersey and elsewhere.
But sometimes we just get to the weather. We don't even get to the impact of our brethren.
Sometimes we talk a lot and I'm guilty. Brethren, don't think I'm not. I'm guilty doing a lot of talking and never get to the Lord. But it shouldn't be that way.
You know, you don't have to talk to me very long before I'm gonna say something about my life.
Usually good.
And that's because there's an affection there.
And you know, if we love the Lord Jesus, it should just come easily for us out of our mouths to speak well of Him for all that he's done for us.
But then he says, Why call ye me Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?
00:30:13
I'm afraid I see an awful lot of that today.
Amongst the Saints, I don't travel about a lot. I do see ones from different meetings, see ones in our own meeting back in Phoenix.
But I see an awful lot of that.
Why call ye me Lord, and do not the things which I say?
The old story That too can be wrong, but two cannot be right.
And how is it then that we don't say the same things? We don't agree on the same things? Does the Spirit of God tell you one thing and tell me something entirely different? Scripture has no verification of that.
Scripture is that the Spirit of God would speak the same thing to each of us.
So how is it that there's so much disagreement sometimes amongst us?
Mr. Darby was asked that question.
Ran across one of his writings and his response was.
Two things. One, we're not subject to scripture.
The Word of God. And two, we take our thoughts to Scripture.
Rather than taking our thoughts from Scripture. I think Harry Hagel may have been great at taking that similar comment, but I think you got it from Mr. Darby.
Isn't it? Isn't that usually the case?
We are talking, some of us not too long ago about the, you know, the different, uh.
Divisions. The different groups.
And how is it that one says one thing and one says the other, and we say we have the truth and they say they have the truth and yet there isn't an agreement? How? How can that be?
You have to go back to the word.
Can you back it up with the Word of God? Can you back it up with the context of where it is and the Word of God? Do you have principles to support it? Do you have, I'm not going to say always chapter and verse? When I first came in the assembly, I asked a laboring brother. I said.
When I grew up in the Baptist Church, I had a very beloved sister in the Lord who told me even as a young man.
That every answer that you need is found in the Word of God.
And I'm.
Gone down the road a few years and there'd been times when I needed an answer but I couldn't find it if it was there.
So I asked him, you know, is, is there a chapter and verse for every single thing we need? And he gave me this answer and I never forgot it. He said there are some questions that cannot be answered by chapter or verse in Scripture.
But it can be answered by principles in Scripture.
Principles, a line of things that can be brought out from the Scriptures to give you an understanding of the yay or nay of your question. And I thought that was a very interesting answer, especially because I didn't know much about principles. I didn't know much about the principles of the Word of God. But I have found over the years since that time that that is a big help.
God's moral ways don't change from dispensation to dispensation.
So in the Old Testament we have many things that can give us the principles of God's moral order of things.
I'll give you an example, adultery.
Adultery was to be stoned under the law.
Why? Because God hated such a thing, whether it was spiritual adultery or physical adultery.
He hated it, he didn't want it amongst his people. He knew what corruption it would bring about.
To his people. And so he had to say that person needs to be stoned.
Now, does he hate adultery any less in the year 2012?
00:35:05
No, he does not.
But his means by which he's going to treat that is different.
But he still hates it.
He's willing to forgive an adulteress. We have it there in the gospels, a woman taken quote in the very act.
And what does he say? He that's without sin cast the first stone.
Different than stoning.
A whole different concept, but the principle did not change from Old Testament. New Testament. He hates it.
And I suppose he hates spiritual adultery even more than physical.
Because spiritual adultery is a reflection on himself.
As the Son of God.
As the creator of this world for the one who gave himself for us and yet to weaken so easily be duped into taking up with with other things that become a blasphemy to his name.
So he says here you do not the things which I say, oh what a word to myself. How many times through the day have I gone through it and get to the end of the day and think?
Hike. I did everything wrong I could do wrong.
Sometimes I wonder why the chariot wheels turn hard.
Seems like everything just going not like it should.
And then I realize, maybe I didn't start the day with prayer. Maybe I didn't start the day by reading this word. Maybe I thought I had too many things I needed to do. I'd take care of it later. And I found in my life, and I don't know about yours, but later never comes.
Seems like once you hit your feet down on the road running, there just seems to be no time. And I think Satan makes sure that you don't have time.
And so.
He wound up he didn't do the things he wanted.
Let's go on to another question.
Chapter 12 Loop.
Chapter 12 and verse 42.
Now this is the parable that he gives about the steward and his servants. But he asks this question right at the very beginning of his parable. And he says, verse 42. Who then is that faithful and wise steward whom his Lord shall make ruler over his household, to give them their portion of meat in due season?
Blessed is that servant whom is Lord, when he cometh shall find so doing.
We don't have much time.
Believe the Lord's coming is eminent and I know uh ones have said that from.
The year 100 on but really.
When we look at the state of of the testimony of the Church.
We look at what's going on in this world, but especially what goes on in even the professing church today. How close is coming? Must be. And so because it is close, are we going to be good stewards, Should I say, right up to the end? Or is Satan going to win out right at the end? Because, you know, he's making a play. He's making a play for the young people. He's making a play for you and I. He's making that last desperate charge to disown.
Desolate. Do everything you can against the testimony.
He wants to rack as much havoc with it as he possibly can. Why? Because the testimony is to the Lord Jesus Christ.
And that's his arch enemy. And if you and I are going to be that testimony, we're gonna run into conflict. There's going to be instant and continual conflict because Satan knows that his time is limited.
He knows as well as you as a you and I that the time is running out. We've gone 2000 plus years. Our Lord still hasn't come and yet he said I will come quickly so that every generation would have that hope before him. And so we likewise have it. But wouldn't it be nice when we hear that shout for to for the Lord to look out upon us and say well done.
00:40:19
You didn't quit right at the end.
You kept it up right to the last very minute.
When I used to train kids for track in my early years before I was gathered.
One of the things I had to make sure the kids knew and didn't do when they were running is to not look behind him.
Because the instance you look behind you, you slow down. I don't care how mentally prepared you might be, but the instant you turn your head, you'll slow down. It might not be much be enough to lose the race.
You never turn around and look until you've crossed the line. Brethren, the lions almost here. We don't wanna stop now, Tehran, look back and see what others are doing or what we should have been doing. We'll have our eyes, like Paul said, focused on the goals.
And then once we're there, we can look back.
But to hear the Lord to say to us, Well done, thou good servant, no good and faithful servant, what a joy to his heart.
What a joy to his heart to be able to say that. I'm afraid for some he's just going to say, well done thou good servant.
But wouldn't you want him to hear that added word? Faithful?
Faithful right up to the end never gave up.
Blessed is that servant whom his Lord, when he cometh, shall find so doing, doing the work, No, Lord Jesus. And we read there at age 12, He had his Father's business before him at Gethsemane. He had his Father's business before him. He knew that that cup had to be taken. He didn't want it.
Let this cup pass from me.
He didn't want that cup.
He knew what it was to be sin. He knew what a excuse me, I didn't say, let me say that again. He knew what sin was.
And he knew what was going to be laid upon him, and he shrank from it because of the heinousness of it.
God's thoughts of sin is hell.
Do you ever think of that? He hates sin so much he created hell.
That's a pretty awful thing, but that shows the magnitude of his dislike for sin. The Lord Jesus, when he was in that garden, he knew what was going to happen. He knew what was going to be laid upon him. He didn't want that.
Not because he was not capable, but because of what sin was to a righteous, holy God.
But he said nevertheless, not my will, the perfect surrendered will.
No, you and I, sometimes we don't surrender our wills. We submit our wills, but we don't always surrender our wills like he did.
So that servant is going to be blessed in that day. Chapter 18 of Luke.
Move on here a little faster.
Both chapter 18 and verse 8.
I tell you.
That He will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth? I believe that should correctly be Shall He find thee Faith, not faith in the individuals. It's the revealed body of truth.
That God has given to us in His Word.
Is it, uh, Jeremiah, where it speaks of, uh, the truth falling in the streets?
Does the truth fall in our streets?
Do we give up truth? A little here, a little there?
Then comes the folding of the hands slumber.
00:45:03
Sleep.
We'll get to that one. He raised that question too, to him about sleeping.
But here he says, shall he find thee faith, or that revealed body of truth on earth? Is he going to have those servants faithful to the end, holding to the truth right up to the end? Chapter 22, Luke 22.
Luke 22 and verse 46.
And we know this is a situation in the Garden of Gethsemane when He was weighing before the Father that He was going to go to the cross. But here he says to his disciples in verse 46, Why sleep ye?
Why sleepy?
You know, it's easy for Christians to sleep spiritually.
When our circumstances are pleasant.
Our business is going well, our job is going well, our family is going well. Things are OK in the assembly.
Great time for us to go to sleep.
That's when the enemy sowed the tares there in the 13th of Matthew.
It's easy for us to go to sleep and let our guard down.
It's also easy to go to sleep when things go well spiritually, individually with us. Maybe we've been enjoying some things in the world. We've taken up a study and boy, every morning I just, I just can't wait to get up and continue on with that. And what else does Lord have and what else am I going to pick up on this? This is this is really something I've got these nice thoughts that the Lord has brought before me.
But that's a time when we can also go to sleep because we're not being faithful.
And so he says here in verse 46, Why sleepy? What's the antidote? The next 2-3 words rise and pray.
If we're not rising and we're not praying, we're going to be.
Material for Satan to do something with.
Pryor makes us dependent, and if we're dependent, then he's going to have us going in the right direction because we're going to be dependent upon him.
And so he tells them to rise and pray. Why? Lest ye enter into temptation?
Something, Satan, come along and get some something on you. Some besetting sin brought up. Keep you from it.
Chapter 24 of Luke familiar portion.
Luke chapter 24 and couple of questions. The first one in verse 17. We know this is the two on the way to the AMA umm 2 on the way to Emmaus. What manner of communications are these that you have one another as she walk and are sad.
Isn't that touching? It's touching to me.
He saw these two.
Leaving the place of his appointment, Jerusalem.
He saw him going away and he looked at him and he thought.
They're going away from the place of my appointment, the place where I chose to put my name.
Place I chose.
Not them.
And so he comes to them and the first thing he says is what manner of communications are these?
That you have with one another as you walk and are sad.
He didn't want him to be sad, but he knew why there was a sadness there and he wanted to bring him back around, back to the place of the appointment. I'm not going to go into the details here, but you know, if you read this portion, where do they end up?
They go to Emmaus.
It breaks bread with them, and what do they do? Their eyes are open, they realize their heart burned within them, and they turn right around and go back.
To Jerusalem.
The place of his appointment, place where he wanted him to be.
A lovely picture of the Restoration. Back to the place of his appointment, brethren.
And then verse 19, he says, they say, He say unto them what things and they say concerning Jesus of Nazareth He was concerned about. He wanted to know. He just didn't say, well, why are you sad? He wanted Him to delineate. He wanted Him to bring up to Him what it was.
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A brother said to me one time, my younger years, he said.
When you've had a really hard day at school since, you ever come home and just fall down on your knees at your bedside and cry out to the Lord for the day that you've had and tell him all about it.
He says you'll find you'll have a far better evening if you do.
Why? Because he wants to know how many times has a has a child heard their parents say, Well, what happened today at school?
Why do they ask that? Well, they wanna know what's happening. They wanna know what's going on.
And if the child comes home and they're down at the gums and they're looking really sad, the parent go, oh, looks like you're sad. No, the first thing they wanna know is what's the matter? What's happened? What went on? Oh, the Lord Jesus loves us so much. He's gonna do the same thing. He's gonna say to us what happened? What's wrong? Let me put in the oil and the wine. Let me love your heart.
So that you don't feel that way.
And so that's what he did here with these two on the way to on the way to a mass.
Go to the Gospel of John for the last question.
A big one in John chapter one.
There's two questions here. John chapter, one verse.
38.
Then Jesus turned and saw them following, and saith unto them, What seek ye?
You know he didn't say whom. Saiki. He said what?
And I believe he did use the word what, because he didn't want to put, should I say, words into their mouth. He wanted them to respond with what was in their heart. We had that before us already. Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh. And so he says, What seek ye. And they say unto him, Rabbi, which is to say, being interpreted, Master, where dwellest thou?
Where dwellest thou?
That's a question that has arisen to some fairly recently that have come out of system, come out of division, because they wanted that question answered. Where dwellest thou? Where are, where is the place of appointment?
And a brother said recently, you know, we don't choose the place of his appointment, he chooses it.
All the way through Scripture.
The principle is the same. Here we go, principles again, the principles the same in the Old Testament, he told them. I will choose the place where I'll put my name, and there it will be forever. And a marvellous thing today that city of Jerusalem for the Jews is a mess.
But he said my name will be there forever.
There's a day coming when he'll turn around and Jerusalem will be the focus point of this entire world.
In between, there's an interim period here where there are low IMI, not my people.
You can't collectively take up with them, but he had a place of appointment for them. And brethren, he has a place of appointment for you and I. It's not the place you and I choose, it's the place he chooses, for He chooses to place his name.
And so the question is, where dwelleth down?
That was their desire. They wanted to know where he dwelt. He could have told him, well, I'm going to be at so and so's house. Does he say that here? No.
Does he say it's on Rio Ferry Road? And then you turn and you go down the old Kingston Road and you'll see a brick building there on the right hand side that looks like a box and it's got some things out on the front of it.
Is that it? No.
It's not a geographical place.
It's where he is in the midst.
According to scripture.
Chapter 6.
Chapter 6 and verse.
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61 I'm going to read a couple of verses here.
When Jesus knew in himself that his disciples murmured at it, he said unto them, Doth this offend you? And he said that to the disciples, Are you offended?
What and if ye shall see the Son of man a sin up where he was before? Another question. It is the Spirit that quickeneth, the flesh profiteth nothing. The words that I speak unto you, they are Spirit, and they are life. But there are some of you that believe not, for Jesus knew from the beginning who they were plural that believed not, and who should?
Betray him.
And he said, Therefore said I unto you, that no man can come unto me, except you were given unto him of my Father. From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him.
Then said Jesus.
Under the 12 will ye go away?
Will you go away? I think Mr. Darby renders it. Is it in your heart to go likewise?
I might be paraphrasing that a little bit, but it's the thought of it. Is it in your heart to do that?
I see brethren walking away.
I see brethren giving up the truth. I see Him going and taking up with that which I left and christened. It breaks my heart.
Breaks my heart, not so much for them, but it breaks my heart for the Lord Jesus.
Brethren, we have such a privilege of what He has brought us into, the immensity of the things He has before us, and we're right at the end of the time.
And we see many.
Why did they go away? Why did you take up the context here? And he says, uh, does this offend you? Well, it really had to do with doctrine, with his teaching.
And you know, there's some people that take up and they say, well, I don't agree with that. I, I think we need a little broader path than that. I think we need to make it big enough that we can kind of just take in everybody. That's an awful narrow stand right there.
I didn't make any difference what I think doesn't make any difference what you think. What does Scripture say?
If scripture says it's a narrow thing, and it's a narrow way, then by golly that's what we should do.
Stand for it, not give it up.
Is that gonna be popular? Absolutely not. Oh my goodness.
I'm sure there's some would take exception with me right now.
Take exception with me, but if you can prove in the Word of God that anything needs to be broader than what I believe in right now, I'll be glad to hear it. I'll be glad to bow to it.
Because if it's in the Word of God, I want to bow to it. Because it's His word, not mine.
And so they went away, and the Lord had to say, Will you go away also?
Is it in your heart? You know, the heart manifests where we're at. Somebody once said we never leave the Lord's Table at right angles. In other words, we just don't go.
Walk away.
Comes a slow little turns, little things to kind of slowly turn us until we're not looking in the right direction and then we begin to move away.
Little things.
And sometimes a doctrine that's offensive, teaching that's offensive.
Let's not give up, brethren, what He's given to us not, not this close to the end.
And you know, it's for his heart. Now I want to look. Here's why. I'm going to digress for just a moment to Matthew. I want to look back at Matthew at a, at a reference in the 26th chapter of Matthew.
Matthew 26.
And verse 40.
Here's another question.
I'm gonna make this application.
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The one hour between 11:00 and 12:00 from Lord's Day morning.
One hour.
1St 40 And ecometh unto his disciples, and findeth them asleep, and saith unto Peter.
What could you not watch with me one hour?
There are some that find it more needful to go on a picnic than to go.
To the breaking of bread.
There are some that find it more needful for a sports activity.
And it is to spend one hour with the Lord, 1/4.
I guess that's enough said there. And one one last thing.
If we think of the one hour in a prophetic sense, we're in the last hour. Are we going to stay with it for the last hour, That one hour right up to the end?
Are we going to be like Peter?
And not watch.
Last closing, uh, back to John.
Chapter 21.
Their familiar verse.
John, Chapter 21.
And verse 22.
Right at the end here Jesus saith unto him, If I will that he tarry till I come. What is that to thee? Follow thou ME3 little words bread.
Sums up everything I've said tonight.
Follow them me. Follow not me. Follow the Lord you. Follow the Lord you. You honestly seek after Him with an honest heart. He'll never let you down. He has provided everything for you in the past, why would He let you down now?
He's been faithful beyond faithfulness to each of us in our lives. Why would we want to quit?
Why don't we want to go on?
With that which we know is tried and true and truth or something that's new and not true.
Stay with the old pass.
The loving with all our hearts.
That we might have an abundant entry, yes, but that He might have the joy of our faithfulness.
Our garden, Father, we do thank Thee, blessed Lord, for thy word. We think of these many questions I'll ask the disciples probing.
That thou did seek to work unto their hearts, their affections, their conscience. Ah, blessed Lord, how faithful thou art. May we respond to that faithfulness that we might be found in these last days going on with the going on with the truth of Scripture, going on with that which many have been raised in some of us have been brought into, that we might know the joy.
Of pleasing one who gave everything for us.
And so it is that we would look to Thee tonight. We know the time is short. Maybe tonight we'll hear that shout. The blessed Lord, when it occurs, may we be found continuing on as faithful stewards of all that this house given to us, that Thou may speak glorified. We ask this in thy worthy name, Lord Jesus, Amen.