Reading
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.
General Meetings, Burbank, December 1964 reading meeting Friday PM.
Revelation.
Play the seventh verse would be our starting point.
Behold, he cometh with clouds.
And every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him.
And all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him.
Even so, Amen.
I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord which is and which was and which is to come. The Almighty I, John, who also am your brother and companion in tribulation and in the Kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, was in the aisle that is called Patmos.
For the word of God and for the testimony of Jesus.
Christ, I was in the Spirit on the Lords day, and heard behind me a great voice as of a trumpet, saying, I am Alpha and Omega, the 1St and the last. And what thou seest, write in a book, and send it unto the seven churches which are in Asia, unto Ephesus, and unto Smyrna, and unto Pergamos, and unto Thyatira.
And under Sardis, and unto Philadelphia, and unto Laodicea. And I turned to see the voice that spake with me. And being turned, I saw 7 golden candlesticks. And in the midst of the seven candlesticks one like unto the Son of Man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about the paps with a golden girdle. His head and his hairs were white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were as a flame of fire.
And his feet like unto fine 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 went a sharp 2 edged sword. And his compliments was as the sun shineth in his strength. And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead. 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 am alive forevermore. Amen.
And have the keys of Helen of Death.
Write the things which thou hast seen, and the things which are.
And the things which shall be hereafter. The mystery of the seven stars which thou sawest in my right hands.
And the seven golden candlesticks, the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches. And the seven candlesticks which thou sawest are the seven churches.
00:05:20
Behold, he summers with clouds. That's not the coming we're looking for, is it? Longing for?
Is the pot in there?
Which begins with part of him that locked us down to the end of Amen. Is that sort of a parenthesis?
And then this beginning with the seventh verse linking up with the Prince of the kings of the earth.
He's getting into his subject here in this seventh verse. This is what he's bringing before us.
Well, the part that you call our attention to Brother Anderson, unto him that loved us and so on is the Church breaking in into this announcement. At the mention there of the name of Jesus Christ, the church breaks in and prays. And So what we get there then is what the church has to say. It's loveless and voices and our sins his own blood and made his kings and priests unto God and his Father and.
Glory and dominion, forever and ever. Amen.
Well then that response the Church ceases and then goes on with the subject. So it is, as you would say, a parenthesis.
What's nice to see that is a response from the church at the mention of the name of Jesus.
Is it correct?
The Church is heard only in the first and last chapters.
Well, the disease hurts. 5th chapter in Heaven asks.
But there is a voice that speaks below, isn't there? First chapter last?
It might be all right to look in Acts chapter one.
Verses 9:00 to 11:00.
And when He had spoken these things while they beheld, he was taken up, and a cloud received him out of their sight. And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven, as He went up, behold two men stood by them in white apparel, which also said, Ye men of Galilee.
Why stand ye gazing up into heaven? This thing Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as you have seen him go into heaven.
Well, in this verse nine he was taken up.
And the cloud received him. Now look at Luke 21.
And verse 27.
It is describing the awful distress of the nations and the verses before it.
Verse 27 And then shall they see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.
There is an attempt being made now to.
Deliver different ones from the reproach of the being responsible for the death of Christ.
But God hasn't removed.
His citation of them for guilt in that matter He cometh with clouds, and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him.
The Jew is going to be held responsible.
Right down to the end for the rejection and.
And murder.
00:10:01
Of their Messiah.
And the present attempt.
Of Roman authorities.
To state otherwise.
There's a flat denial of the Word of God.
Of course, they're not alone in it.
Protestantism is all linked up in the same thing.
They're determined to exonerate.
That people from any particular responsibility connected with the death of Christ.
But the Lord, the Lord said.
He that delivered me unto thee hath the greater sin.
And he knew.
Would be their primary purpose for such an asset to enlarge room racks? Well in the devil's behind it. And the devil is preparing the way for apostate Christendom and apostate Judaism to link up in one grand confederacy of apostasy.
And then atheism will overthrow the whole works.
This wailing here is judgment, is it not? It isn't the same as when you have them weeping every family apart. Entirely different things.
They're frightened, they're fearful. It's terror.
Doesn't sorrow?
But they don't. They don't want to greet that. And coming out of heaven.
The world has not seen you since they put him on a cross, no.
Now when they see him again, it will be their condemnation.
Or rather, it will be the execution of the sentence.
Pilate said 3 * / I find no fault in him.
And yet, incited by the insistence of the Jews, he not only delivered him over to be crucified.
Saw to it that he was scourged first.
But three times over his lips had uttered that.
That statement I find no fault in him.
The Word of God doesn't leave any doubt as to where the responsibility lies. What turned the tide and had Pilot changed his mind was.
They said if you let him go, you're not Caesar's friend.
They got Pilot into the place where he had to choose between Christ and Caesar.
He'd made them choose between Christ and Barabbas. They turned the tables.
The prison then will turn almost Pagan before the end, and their practice anyhow, it'll be almost the same thing over again, won't it? Yes.
These seven other spirits, more wicked than themselves, will enter in and dwell.
And that condition will be true of both Protestantism or Christianity and Judaism.
In Matthew and Luke you get the difference, don't you? And one of them it says, So shall it be to this generation?
The other it look it doesn't because they'll be combined in their hatred to Christ.
Idolatry was always the national sin of Israel all down through their history. Idolatry.
And the Babylonian captivity cleared them of it for the time being.
But in the end time, they'll go back to it.
As her brother was saying, 7 times worse than before.
Now as far as as one knows at the present time, if we went over to Israel, we did not see any idolatry, any idols put up.
But I'm persuaded as I see the.
The increase of these figurines that are on sale everywhere you can, you can buy the most hideous idols. They're on sale right here in Los Angeles.
00:15:00
You can buy Buddhas and various representations of heathen gods.
Everything is getting ready for the grand plunge into the darkness of satanic idolatry when the church is taken to glory.
That's a remarkable expression, isn't it? Even so, Amen. Because the church doesn't really look for judgment to come. Instead, our message is telling of God's grace and of his desire to bless. But when the time comes, the judgment will have to be executed. Will certainly recognize, as the godly ones do, that it's the only thing. It's like the 45th Psalm where it says.
Birth thy sword upon thy almost mighty, and in thy majesty rise prosperously because of meekness and truth and righteousness. So we don't like to speak of judgment, but when the time comes that it must be executed, we all know that it's the right thing, the only right thing.
Has sometimes heard Christians say they didn't know how they could be happy and think that God was.
Having to punish lost relatives, have to deal with them, perhaps even in the lake of fire. But you know when the time comes that God must execute that judgment, we will recognize that it is the right thing. But the time has come right? And that there is no other alternative for God to act according to His own holy character as He is acting now in grace. Grace reigning through righteousness.
Onto eternal life.
We turn to a verse in Hosea. It might be helpful to see the what has been mentioned in the third chapter of Hosea.
The third verse.
And I said unto her, Thou shalt abide for me many days. Thou shalt.
Not play the harlot that thou shalt.
Not be for another man, so will I also be for thee. For the children of Israel shall abide many days without a king, without a Prince, without a sacrifice, without an image, without an epod, and without a tariff. In afterwards shall the children of Israel return and seek the Lord their God, and David their king, and shall fear the Lord and his goodness.
In the latter days now verse in the 5th chapter.
The last verse.
I will go and return to my place.
Till they acknowledge their offense and seek my face.
In their affliction.
They will seek me early now, the margin I believe reads. Until they be guilty.
Now in Matthew 12.
The verse that's already been quoted.
In the 43rd verse.
When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places seeking rest, and findeth not. Then he set, thou return into my house from whence I came out. When he has come, he findeth it empty, swept, and garnished. Then goeth he, and taketh with himself seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter in and dwell there. And the last state of that man is worse than the 1St.
Even so, shall it be also under this wicked generation? Now that generation, we're told in Matthew, will not pass away until all these things be fulfilled. Now, is that the generation that began at Mount Sinai?
To which have the word of God, the law presented to them.
I was more connected with a.
The apostate thing that rejected Christ when he was here.
Of course, in a certain cinching and trace it back to Israel not keeping the law.
Yes, but I believe that in particular it would it would refer to their rejection of Christ when He came. Now somebody else may have a thought on that.
00:20:10
That was the end of the Pepsi Job, John, Chapter 15.
The 22nd verse.
If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sinned. But now they have no cloak for their sin. He that hateth me, hateth my Father also, if I had not done among them the works which none other man did.
They had not had sin, but now.
Have they both seen and hated both me and my Father? But this cometh to pass, that the word might be fulfilled that is written in their law. They hated me without a cause. Isn't it so that man was under trial from the giving of the law until Christ was presented, but when they rejected the Lord Jesus?
They not only showed their guilt, but they showed what the root of the fallen man is, because the root of man's nature came out in the rejection of the Son of God. Perfect goodness. Here in this world, a man might tell us, well, I can't help being a Sinner, but why does he hate perfect goodness? Why does he hate God's beloved Son? All this shows what He is in His nature.
That same generation will be here when the Lord He came first in grace. When He appears again as the one who is about to establish the Kingdom, man's rage and enmity will know no bounds, and he will not want to see that one take His rightful place. And this will bring down God's final judgment when man rises up, so to speak, to fight against the Lamb, come to establish the Kingdom.
It might be nice brother. Hail to.
Attention in connection with this verse that you put in or called our attention to in John 15. They hated me without a cause.
The word that's used there.
Is the same word that is in the original language that's used in the third chapter of Romans. And to me it's it's lovely to see that.
In the in the Old Testament.
Psalm 65 nine is where the quotations from They hated me without a cause.
In Romans 3.
And the 24th verse, well, we'll read the 23rd to get the connection. All of sinned and come short of the glory of God.
Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.
They headed me without a cause, being justified without a cause, the same word.
I think it's wonderful exhibition of the grace of God that super abounded over sin.
Can we say that?
God is not condemning man because he is born a Sinner, but he practiced sins and he rejects that which God has revealed. Thomas, isn't that right?
The work of Christ has met man's need, having been born in sin by when he displays his heart and self will against God's grace. By that it's a very solemn thing. It brings down the judgment of God so that a little babies are born in sin.
They don't fall to heaven because they haven't sinned. They go there because Jesus died, because they were born part of a condemned race. But through the work of Christ, the way of blessing has been opened up. And all who do not reject that grace.
I brought in the blessing, but when a child comes to the age of responsibility, it sets its will in the open opposition against the heart of God. And that's that's what brings down God's judgment. Although I will say, and I think it might be important to mention, there is a teaching that man is only condemned for one sin and that's for the rejection of Christ. That is not scriptural.
00:25:07
That the great white strong, They are judged according to their works. They are judged for the sins they have committed. The crowning sin, of course, is the fact that they rejected Christ. But having rejected him, they must be charged with all their sins, which He alone could have taken away.
I remember remarkable, Brother Potter. I think Brother Ashman will remember this with me in connection with the children that you've been Speaking of.
Umm, they're not lost. They're not as, uh, as Calvin used to teach.
I don't want to repeat his expression because it was too wretched, too horrible, but he taught emphatically that.
All the children, babies included, that weren't of the elect were in the Lake fire well.
The what you brought out I think is true. The death of Christ, the Son of man has come to save that which was lost. There was no seeking there, but He took care of that and.
The those that are saved under the age of responsibility, Mr. Potter said, form one of the families of heaven.
Of whom every family in heaven and earth is named. Remember that, brother. Yes, I do.
They, they couldn't be a part of the Church, could they? No, but that's one of the families of heaven.
They're going to be various families in heaven.
When the Lord comes and gives the shout that calls the sleeping dead forth, not all those that answer that call are going to be part of the Church. No, all the Saints of all time, let her asleep, let her dead are called forth, and they go up with us. Well, they're not all a part of the Church.
We get something that we're not in the 12Th of Hebrews. There where we have the the end of the 12Th of Hebrews, we have the Church of the first born. Then we have the spirits of just men made perfect. They're separate companies.
It's I have enjoyed the thought there in the fifth revelation where they're redeemed, are seen in heaven.
It says from every kindred and tongue and people and nations. Isn't it a lovely thought, brethren, that God is going to have a representative from every kindred and tongue and people and nation, and in families where they seem so callous and indifferent about the gospel? To think that God so delights in blessing that he perhaps takes a little baby out of that family and takes it to form part of the redeemed company?
To manifest his grace. And so there will be from every kindred a representative in heaven to show how blessed and how full the work of Christ. And people often speak about the heathen. But you know where the gospel has not entered. Human life is not valued, and many, many babies die in infancy. Our brother Eric Smith tells us that the infant mortality rate in Bolivia is 60%.
Well, this is a remarkable thing. 60% of the population of Bolivia are going to be in heaven. If there wasn't one grown up that was saved. How wonderful. God's grace. Let us not be among those who question that, brethren. Let us be among those who praise Him for His grace. And if there may be, if there are things that we cannot understand, what He has revealed to us is enough to fill our hearts with praise and Thanksgiving.
For the great blessing that is going to come to man and to us through that grace that accomplished redemption of Calvary.
Something we said on the back, rapper, it looks lazy that the first time she was going to take the babies out of our homes from the heat.
No, that's a mistake.
That isn't the way God deals.
Come thou and thy house into the ark. He deals on the household principle. And what would be the point in in God invading the homes of unsaved people to take their children from them? Those children, if they grow up to the responsible age, will have the opportunity of hearing the gospel of the Kingdom and being saved. They're not necessarily going to be condemned because they don't go up. When Jesus comes, they'll have the opportunity of bringing the gospel of the Kingdom preached.
00:30:27
But one does believe with all his heart that in the homes, Christian homes, God isn't going to take the father and a mother and and leave little ones behind by the very thought is offensive. He's going to take the household. I'm speaking now in terms of those that have not reached the age of responsibility.
In this eighth verse we get another one of those verses, such as we were Speaking of this morning, where it's difficult to sort it out. And I think most of us here may have noticed that in the other translation the beginning and the ending are omitted. I am Alpha and Omega, saith the Lord God, which is, and which was and which is to come.
The Almighty.
Now the verse seems to comprehend both Christ and God.
But that's in the nature of John's ministry. He often does that.
I read it I believe as it is in the corrected translation. I am Alpha and Omega Seth, the Lord God. Which is and which was and which is to come, the Almighty.
That was the way Abraham knew him, wasn't it? The Almighty? It isn't quite the the way that it's used in Christendom, or I mean in Christianity, but it's the way it will be used to the title again in coming days on the earth, will it not? The Most High or the Almighty.
My Most High is always connected with these millennial titles.
Abraham knew him as the Almighty enough.
Where you have the millennial scene spoken of, it's the most high.
What the one who is most high is.
Is the Almighty.
Connected together.
As it saw that in the tribulation, the name is Almighty, that is God taking his rights in connection with the earth.
You will assert his rights. In fact, that's when the Day of Man ends.
And Christ comes and takes over. That will bring the day of man to an end. But the day of the Lord is a day of darkness, day of judgment.
And is coming here and.
Clouds of evidence, The beginning of that day of judgment.
Sometimes we hear the best Christians today using that same expression on their prayers. God don't like you. But that's not what goes along with Christianity.
Our prayer should have brought our fathers. That's more what characterizes the present time.
Not even Heavenly Father, because he's not known at a distance. But we've been brought into nearness to call God our Father.
The word Almighty is used once.
In connection with Christianity.
That's the sixth of Second Corinthians.
Reading the 17th verse to get the connection.
Wherefore come out from among them, and be separate, that the Lord, and touch not the unclean. And I will receive you, and will be a father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, Seth, the Lord Almighty.
00:35:20
Well, one believes that the point there is that the path of the believers in going through this scene down here in separation is such a difficult one.
Be set with such problems and involvements that we would tend to be discouraged.
But God is assuring us here not only that he will be a father to us. He's not telling us that He is our father. He said He'll be a father to us. He's going to look after us the way a father looks after his children. And then he assures us that he is the Lord Almighty. That is greater is he that is with us than he that is against us. He's on our side.
And he is going to vindicate us for taking that path of separation.
I don't know. I don't recall another place where Almighty is used in connection with Christians.
With Abraham again doesn't.
He was called to walk a path of separation. The Lord says walk before me and be thou perfect. He says I'm the Almighty, I'll take care of you and I'm able to do it. Well, then you have to go to the New Testament to find them. Called out to walk a path of separation. And there he renews it and says, and I'll, I'll do a father's part for you.
It's connected with Saints on earth walking in obedience and separation.
It was used, was it not, just before Isaac was promised.
Just the chapter before.
Almighty God.
This is the thought of the scripture about the Spirit of God. Let me do when the responsibility to separate was proxy for me and it was wonderful.
To read that deeper and to see the promise that the Lord made.
Are we considering that ninth verse this morning? I think pretty fully.
So perhaps we could go on to the 10th.
Because I believe there's something there for us.
That we wouldn't want to miss.
I became.
I'm reading the other translation I became in the spirit.
On the Lord's Day.
Heard behind me a great voice as of a trumpet.
Now that is the only place I believe that we get that expression, the Lords day.
Now there have been those who have handled the Book of Revelation that have tried to teach that what was meant there was the day of the Lord, that is, that John was going to take up the subject of the coming judgments of the day of the Lord.
But.
When one examines the original language, that doesn't workout at all.
If we were to translate this literally, it would be I became in the spirit on the dominical day.
Now what identifies it very definitely.
As not being the day of the Lord. If we go back to the 11Th chapter to the 10th chapter, First Corinthians, we get the only other place where this word is used.
11/20.
Yes, First Corinthians 11/20 When you come together, therefore, into one place, this is not to eat the Lord's Supper or the dominical supper. The word is exactly the same.
So the Lord's Day, the dominical day, is that that belongs to Christianity.
And it's the only day that is sanctified in Christianity.
00:40:02
We have an attempt on the part of the translators of our Bible to.
Sanctify other days and they put in that word Easter in the 12Th chapter of Acts.
But it's not there. It was just gratuitous. They had no right to put it in there.
So that the only day in Christianity that's of any significance.
Is the Lord's day Well, in as much as that word is only used twice.
And is used in connection with the large supper. I think we're safe in concluding that God intends it to me that first day of the week according to Acts 20, when the disciples came together to break bread.
This.
To I have thought perhaps that the Bollinger was the one who made so much over trying to make this teach. That is the day of the Lord, a prophetic day.
I decided it would be good to mention that name because the Saints would do well to leave his ministry alone, for he has a number of confusing things that he teaches that are wrong.
Well, the expressions in the original are altogether different. There's no resemblance to them at all.
If you followed the Book of Revelation for context, how much of the Book of Revelation is connected with the day of the Lord? Yes, very little of it.
These first chapters the Church is still on earth.
Then it goes on through the tribulation, and that that much that is prior to the day of the Lord. Then it goes on into the eternal state way beyond it.
To make that fit into and make the Book of Revelation fit into that picture, it just wouldn't do so that the day of the Lord.
Does not commence in the tribulation period at all. It does not commence until the Lord comes back with power and great glory to take over His Kingdom. Is that right? That's the verse that we have right here when He appears.
Power and gore. What were you going to say, brother?
Say, you could hardly be in the spirit on the day of the Lord, for it hasn't come yet.
Well, of course, the thought that these people have in.
Making that explanation is that he was in that spirit of the last things handling the subject of the day of the Lord, when he gave us the prophecy. That is the way they explain it, but.
I think it's, as Brother Brown says, absolutely without any foundation. He was in the Spirit on the Lord's Day, the dominical day, and that day is sanctified for us in the Word of God.
Repeatedly.
The Lord arose from the dead on that day, and he appeared among the disciples on that day not only once, but at least.
Twice this is called to our attention.
The Holy Spirit came down to form the church on that day. It was on that day that the disciples came together to break bread. It was on that day that they were to lay aside.
Their money for the special collection. It's it's mentioned repeatedly with a special significance attached to it. Well, if it is the Lord's Day, then we ought to dedicate it to him.
We have to be very careful about expressions that are in these new translations at the present time. Now the end of the last century there was a great deal of research by God fearing men to try to find out what was the exact meaning in the various manuscripts or in existence. The comparative and translation at that time were more of the thought of giving an exact translation.
Well, at the present time the translations are more to conform to present day usage. Now. For instance, one translation that appeared recently, why in Timothy and wherever the word elder is used while they put in pastor.
00:45:02
Make it conform the present usage.
I was talking with a.
So-called pastor just last week.
And we were talking on friendly terms. There was we weren't arguing at all.
And one said to him.
Well brother, there's no such thing in the word of God as the pastor of a church.
There is such a thing in the word of God as a pastor of the church, but no such thing as the pastor of a church.
Well, he said, what about the Angel of the seven churches? The Angel of the church?
Well.
This shows how these thoughts can get so ingrained in people that when they read their Bibles, they think in terms of accepted error.
With while that's moving ahead, Little Brother Brown, while you've touched on it, what is the Angel of the Seven Churches? Well, the the Angel of the Seven Church, it's a representative expression.
Uh, you remember when Peter got out of prison there in the 12Th chapter of Acts and Rhoda told them that Peter was out in front? They said it can't be, it's his Angel.
Then you get expression about the little children in heaven. They're angels to always behold the face of my Father. It's a word that is used in a representative sense.
And I don't think that it can be tied down.
To literality at all, so that in addressing the Angel of the church he would be referring to that.
Element that had responsibility in each particular assembly.
They were. They were put together in this representative word.
Now if someone can word that a little better and more clearly, I'll appreciate it. I believe that is the force of it.
I thought you have expressed is certainly clearly brought out in the Scripture because we never find the elders spoken of in the singular in any given place they chose elders in every city saw that if that referred to pastors, well then there were there were more than one in each place, so it couldn't refer to one person in the in the assembly. If the word elders means pastor, Welland there was more than one.
So it all ties in together that it must be a plural thing. And so it is. There are those who have godly responsibilities in the assemblies, not just one brother. Would that be so Brother Ground? Yes, I think so.
But the expression Angel.
It's it's used in a representative sense.
If someone can say that.
A little more clearly than I put it. I'll be glad to listen. Are they messengers? Is that the thought? Well, they they weren't. Angel is a messenger, but.
It's that that that God looks at, and that expression represents to him the responsibility that there is in that assembly.
They were. They were responsible to shine.
For the angels, it says, are the stars or the stars are the angels. It's reciprocal.
In the Book of Revelation I believe according to Alfred Burtons little booklet on the symbols of the Apocalypse he has their enumerated about 220 different symbols in the Book of Revelation.
And by repetition of some, of course, it runs higher than that. But when you're in this most unusual book that has 220 different symbols, we must be on the alert to understand what the symbol really speaks of. And that's what we're touching on right now on the Angel. And not to tie it down to literality because we'd be in deep trouble if we do.
00:50:18
Well, I thought this thought, there are those in every assembly who are responsible.
And the Angel represents the responsible ones. But who are the responsible ones? Is everyone in the assembly responsible?
They are responsible as an overcomer.
It seems to me it shows a difference in the ministry in the Revelation and for instance, what we get in the ministry. Apostle Paul, for instance, now when he writes to the clippings, he writes to the Saints which are at Philippi with the bishops and deacons.
That it doesn't come down through the bishops and deacons, but the Saints where the bishops and deacons. But when we come to the revelation, why?
Rewrites to those who are responsible and then he goes down to those who are the overcomers.
Those who princely overcomers before the Lord are a mean responsible for the Lord. He addresses immediately their responsible look upon being responsible for the state. But then he gets down to the overcomers, though they're not to go along.
But they wouldn't carry the same responsibility as those of the mentions as the Angel, whatever seemed to me.
In the Spirit on the Lords day he was completely under the control of the Holy Spirit.
Is that the same thing filled with square? I think it's a special thing here.
We we get different cases of where they were all filled with the Spirit.
And we get a man like Barnabas that was full of the Holy Ghost and the faith.
But I believe that here it's a special thing.
Taken over by the Spirit in a special way.
He doesn't say that he was full of the spirit. I was in the spirit, or I became in the spirit.
Control of the Holy Spirit.
For this special purpose.
And being in that barren Isle has been spoken of this morning, while there wouldn't be other things to attract him and and get him occupied with things around.
I suppose it could have a practical application to us, while it ought to be our exercise at all times to see, to walk in the Spirit, we're told in in Galatians, Nevertheless, there is a special energy of the Spirit of God, perhaps on the Lord's Day and when we are free from business and its cares.
We ought to be exercised if it's possible.
Feels the day for the Lord and not just to use it for our own pleasure.
So here was John. He might have said, well, I can't assemble with the Saints of God today because he was banished to this island, but he didn't use the day carelessly. Even although he couldn't get with them, there he was all along. But the Spirit of God was leading him into occupation with praise and into those things that concern the glory of Christ and the interests of Christ here upon earth.
So for us, if we're able, of course, we delight to gather with the Saints and remember the Lord and be at other meetings on that day. But whether it's the time between the meetings or if we should be in a place where it's beyond our control and we can't get to the meeting, we can always be in the spirit on the Lord's Day and always, I believe, bear in mind to our own souls, Provident for the glory of Christ.
That there is something special about that day, not because we're under law like Israel, but because grace teaches us to value that day when the Lord Jesus rose triumphant over all the power of sin and Satan.
00:55:04
Of John's ministry that he encourages the individual.
We have to remember that John wrote about 30 years.
After the apostle Paul wrote, and when Paul wrote the last part of his ministry, he says that all day and age he be turned away from me. The ruin had already set in. So John now writes 30 years or so afterward, and there's much to encourage the individual child of God. That's of course John's ministry where children of God the Father.
God is our Father, We're his children.
And there's an encouragement for each of us as individuals, and we need to be encouraged as individuals. And not forgetting, of course, that we're also members of the body of Christ. But if we go on with the Lord, encouraged by the Lord as individuals, we'll find other individuals to go along with. I'm thinking of our brother Steel at Broad Stairs, England. Not long ago he came back from division.
He's all alone there, broad stairs, but every large day, morning, he spreads the table. The table of the Lord has been set up there, and he spreads the table.
He puts on the loaf and the cup, and he sits there at the table for the hour from 11:00 to 12:00. If there is a brother or sister that comes along to visit, then they can remember the Lord together. If there's not, he is content to sit there by the table for the hour. And at the end of the hour, if no one has come, he just clears the table again.
But he's had a happy time with the Lord, sitting there with the Lord and the Lord being present with him. And the most encouraging verse for suction one or two, as I've had a little experience in this.
Is Nehemiah part of verse 10 which says?
The joy of the Lord.
Is your strings those two that sat there in patience and did it as unto the Lord, knew that the Lord was getting joy out of their fidelity.
Christendom has lost.
Tremendously.
By confusing the Lorde day with the Sabbath. It's been a tremendous loss.
But The thing is gone to such an extent now that.
There's there's no hopes of any recovery on that point.
But in Christianity we do not get a Sabbath down here. There's no Sabbath in Christianity. There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God. But that's at the end of the journey. It isn't here.
The Lords day is not a rest day, it's a day that belongs to the Lord. We give our lives, our time, our thought to Him on that day.
Is it due to the fact that there's a tendency of going back to Judaism that to make such confusion with the Lord's day in the Sabbath? Certainly. Certainly it is. It's all a part of the Judaizing process and God will go back to the Sabbath when we're in the glory Sabbath will be reinstated again.
New wine must be put into new box.
If we don't do that, the.
The wine burst the bottles and they lose the bottles and the wine both.
But no man, having tasted old wine straightway desires new. For he sat, the old is better.
So Christina Morales is saying that the old is better, the old Judaism.
Judaized Christianity formed ceremonies, days, weeks.
01:00:01
It's it's the accepted pattern I.
I tore the verse off my calendar this morning.
Skip your calendar.
And it's a German calendar.
And on the front of it. And this comes from those that ought to know better.
It says by Nokia says Christmas.
Well.
I.
I went to the trouble to write them some time back. Not not about today's verse of course, but sometime back I wrote them about this same error.
And they said, well, this calendar is used by a lot of church people and they expect to find it there.
Well, is that our standard?
Wasn't that very thing that Paul was combating in Galatians? Yes, Sir, definitely.
Oh, I'm Speaking of the Lord's Day and the Sabbath, with that question ever clarified in the Reformation.
I don't think it ever was, Brother Aaron. Well, I have no recollection that it ever was.
Something being carried over from Romanism.
But I think that in.
In the recovery of the truth 135 years ago, these things were all.
Clarified crystal clear the truth.
Was recovered.
It's the the Philadelphian line of truth.
We we have the seven churches and.
The only two against which there is no criticism whatsoever are Smyrna and and Philadelphia.
Well, the one was the period of persecution when to be a Christian you risked your life. You had to retreat to the catacombs and live under the under the ground like moles and rats.
There is no criticism there because that tended to bring out reality.
Well then, when we come to the other churches.
We get the darkness of Jezebel, the partial recovery, recovery.
Out of that under Sardis.
And then the loss of much that was recovered, recovered in Sardis, then we get a marvelous recovery in Philadelphia, but not of a major proportions. It isn't looked at as some gigantic affair. It's looked at as a very weak affair. But it's complete recovery. And there's no criticism found of the Philadelphian church.
Well, the Lord said that when he was here did not fear not, little clock. And is that not the character of that revival? A little flock? And some of those at that time said when numbers increase, worldliness increases.
And I believe that's very true.
The tongue goes down.
First day of the week, then, is not the Christian Sabbath. The Sabbath is the Sabbath, and it still remains. It was God's pledge of rest on the earth. When I say it still remains, I mean we don't keep it in this present dispensation. But God hasn't forgotten those promises, and He is going to bring in rest upon the earth. But we're connected with a new scene of glory.
The first day of the week links us with heavenly things, and so we belong to that scene above.
And it's it's not a change from one thing to the other, it's an entirely new thing. And as it's been remarked, God will again bring in his people, and the keeping of the Sabbath will be resumed and will be right because rest will be brought to the earth, but not through man keeping the law. But it will be brought through Christ himself, who is the only one who can bring it in.
01:05:05
Play third chapter of Leviticus.
Would settle the difference between the Sabbath and the Lord's Day for anyone who was subject to.
With the 23rd chapter of Leviticus gives 7 feasts of Jehovah.
Beginning with the Sabbath, with the Passover going on to the.
The last piece, the one was the 8th day, the Feast of Tabernacles, but in between there that which characterizes Christianity, was the Feast of the Wave Sheath and the Feast of the Wave Loads. They were offered on the first day of the week, tomorrow after the Sabbath. One was the resurrection of Christ and the other was the formation of Church on the day of Pentecost.
They took place on the Morrow after the Sabbath.
That characterizes his whole dispensation from the resurrection of Christ on through until Christianity is no more. The Church has taken home.
Marks that day out, and the day of Pentecost was fully come the first day of the week.
Oh wow, what an inconsistent thing it would be for the church to take.
As their day.
One in which the Lord was under the power of death in the grave, enemy soldiers watching to see that he didn't get out.
What? What inconsistency? What mockery? To take that as the day that should characterize us as Christians.
No, we we, we don't have a dead Christ. We have a living, risen Christ that came forth victorious. I have power to lay down my life, and I have power to take it again.
And it came out and they didn't roll away the stone in order for him to get out either.
He came out of his own will and his own authority, a victor the first day of the week. Well, thank God that's our day.
Listen to the ironic that.
We might say most of Christendom follow the Lord to the cross, to his death, but say very little if anything about his resurrection.
I got an expression.
Years ago, I think it was from Mr. Blount, is in connection with the 1St chapter of Acts. We read the verses this morning or sometime today.
About him being taken up and a cloud received him out of their sight.
And the remark that was made was this Christianity begins the other side of the cloud. Now, if we remember that simple statement, it's a big help. Christianity begins the other side of the cloud. Not Christ down here on the earth, but Christ risen and glorified. Now we're ready for Christianity. So the as the Lord has gone back to glory.
He receives the Spirit again and sends it down and forms the church.
But that didn't begin immediately after the disciples went away, when they'd seen the Lord in his ascension. It was the day of Pentecost when that began.
I say that because I've heard some say that's the, that's the hinge point. But really it's the, the Pentecost. But the cloud had to come in between and that was about 50 days after 10 days or 10 days, I should say 10 days, and the Holy Ghost sent down.
And the Holy Ghost was sent down on the day of Pentecost.
With that the we want to be literal.
Would that be the beginning referred to in the first verse of the Epistle of John, that which we had from the beginning?
That be associated with the Lord's presence here, or the Day of Pentecost, the Lord's presence here. That's incarnation. You're referring to the epistle.
01:10:07
That's incarnation there.
Both referring there to anyway to his ministry.
Had seen and heard, and that with all that has been before the Affenti Cup.
You're quite correct, Brother Harrison, if I thought I wouldn't have asked that question because it's what they heard, saw and witnessed in him. One, yes.
Well, the Sabbath is always connected with rested on the earth and I believe if we see that, why it's very simple for us to see. It could not be the day that we keep when we are not looking for our rest down here at all. Our rest is up there with Christ in glory. God rested when the creation had been made a suitable dwelling place for man.
There was a rest in the connection with the giving of manna.
Figured Christ, the only one who could bring rest to man upon the earth. Then it was made.
A Shall I say, when man was put under probation, that was made conditional on his obedience. And that's why the Lord healed and blessed on the Sabbath, to show them that He hadn't obtained that rest, even though He had been placed under law, which made it conditional if He could. So that when it's kept again, it will be because Christ will bring in that rest upon the earth and those who go back to the Sabbath.
Will always find that there are people who do not see the heavenly blessing of the Church at all.
And are connecting the blessing of the church with blessing upon earth. And once we see that plaque that we are a heavenly people, the hope is laid up for us in heaven. Why, we can simply see that the Sabbath would have no place whatever in connection with the people that don't look for rest upon the earth.
It's it's what, the Sabbath?
Typify that's referred to, isn't it in the fourth of Hebrews?
For we have believed, for we were to believe. Do enter into rest, as he said, as I have sworn in my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest. Although the works were finished from the foundation of the world.
Then going on down in the chapter 8 verse, if Joshua had given them rest then would he not have backwards have spoken of another day?
There remaineth therefore arrest to the people of God, for he that has entered into his rest, he hath also ceased from his own works, as God did from his. Let us labor, therefore, to enter into that rest, lest any man should fall after the same example of unbelief.
Well, we, which I believe do enter into rest. That's at the end of the journey, isn't it? We enter into rest up there.
No.
Yes.
Well, doesn't this rest in the fourth of Hebrews? It goes off to the eternal state. Yes, I think so. Yes. That is, God does not cease from His works until that time.
On the Lord's Day.
It is not exactly.
In that sense, like the Sabbath, a day of rest, because very often we find ourselves very much occupied.
And I'm sure that it means that since it is the Lord's day, we should be occupied with the Lord and His things.
And there's nothing in common between the Sabbath and the Lord's Day. There's nothing in common with them.
We see #39.
Come back to the same.
Rise.
From the glory.
From.
God.
And squirt wrong legs.
My love for all the frost to the end of the world.
So.
We.
Move forward.