Address—Dan Liening
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.
The 1St 5 verses of 31 in the appendix.
The 1St 5 verses of 31 in the back of the book.
Lord, thy love has sought and found us.
Rolling.
My soul.
For me.
My soul.
For you.
My soul.
God.
'S role?
On the cross to save my soul.
Man.
Free.
We shall breathe my life so much.
She escaped himself again. He's crying.
I cannot resume.
God, my God.
My God for save thee.
Yes.
Shall we pray?
God blessed God and Father.
What a theme to be singing about.
That Jesus gave himself for me.
00:05:01
And as this meeting has been called to address the younger that are in the faith.
We pray that Father, we all with them.
Might be strengthened in our inner man.
By thy spirit to have a deeper appreciation of this one, who is the Lamb of God.
That is, in his work will take away the sin of the world.
And we thank the Lord Jesus. For many of us here today, we can say that our sins are gone.
And by thy precious.
Thy glorious person, we have been set free from the law of sin and death.
And so we pray thee, precious Savior, that thou hast help us to.
Speak rightly of what thou hast done, and of thy most holy person.
So we ask this precious Lord, and pray in thy worthy precious name, Lord Jesus, Amen.
Well, as others have begun their addresses up here.
And spoke of things that they had had on their heart.
Before the call came from Aberdeen.
It was the same with myself.
And I certainly wasn't expecting to stand up here for sure, but there was a line of truth that had come before me.
That.
Is a very precious truth.
And that is about sanctification.
And it's not that I want to speak necessarily doctrinally today.
Though you can't hardly get away from the fact that what has been written through the Apostle Paul.
Through the Gospels.
Has is laid down a foundation not even the gates of hell can prevail against.
So that it becomes us as we speak of these things.
To Revere them.
In our hearts, as the Apostle Paul said to Timothy, take heed to thyself.
And to the doctrine. For in so doing thou shalt both save thyself and them that hear thee.
Sanctification.
You know, as I understand it, it seems like this thought in the word of God. We're going to come to it in Ephesians Chapter 5.
But this thought is is might say, developed in two different ways in the Word of God.
And one is.
That we are placed in sanctification before God by the work of the Lord Jesus.
And another sense in which sanctification is spoken of is that it's a practical experience.
And I think we felt that as we've gone through the beginning of Ephesians 5 in that first reading that we had together.
In which we were made very much aware.
That we, by the grace of God, have escaped the corruption that's in the world through lust.
It's a very real thing.
And my desired dear young people.
Is to strengthen your hand in the Lord today.
You know, when Jonathan and David had solidified a relationship between them?
Because Jonathan saw him as Israel's savior, I'm sure.
That he went out to David on one occasion, and it says that he strengthened his hand in God.
And I don't know how any of us, you or myself, or any of us, can have our hands strengthened in God.
Except through a.
A realization of where God has put us.
Now the second one as to the practical experience.
Oftentimes what happens is when a young person gets saved, there's this burning desire.
To want to please the Lord.
You can't help it because you've been washed with the washing of regeneration. You have a new life. You've been born again.
And sometimes what happens is there's an effort to be more holy.
00:10:05
Without starting with your feet on the solid foundation of the work of Christ.
It becomes very subjective.
And and there are segments of Christendom.
That make very much of this subjective experience.
So much so that your joy depends on how holy you are.
I had a young man one time. I met him in the barbershop.
And.
He had just gotten saved. He lived in Puyallup, where I was from.
And he told me the experience of how he was saved.
And he said, in fact, you know, I have a tongue now. Not this.
But he was talking about.
A spiritual tongue. And he said. I'd like to come over to your house.
And he had been taught, Brethren, that the apex of his Christian life depended on him being in the Spirit, and therefore he would speak in tongues.
So sanctified that he would speak that way while he came to my house.
And I didn't know what to do because my mom was home.
So I told him to come into my bedroom because I had. I had two single beds in there and I shut the door when he got in and he sat on one side and I sat on the other and.
I said, well, go ahead.
And he did.
And I had been exposed to Spanish.
Probably a little bit of French.
But here was something that I had never heard before.
So when he was done, I said, well, what did you say?
And so he interpreted what he said, and there was nothing to it.
If this was spiritual language.
It was empty.
But you see, it's possible to be so.
And I'm going to use the word deceived.
Into thinking that there is such a spiritual state.
That if you are controlled by the Spirit, if you are filled with the Spirit, you are going to speak in tongues.
He believed that.
And it set me to searching the word. And we're not going to go through that today. But when I went through the book of Acts, I got complete peace about the fact that this is not the Lord's mind.
I'm not denying that there weren't tongues in the early church, but what it has developed into today is something totally inflated from what was ordered by the word of God through the apostles in the early church.
So I came across a statement of Mr. Ballots a long time ago.
And I so appreciated it because.
Rather than put me on the dilemma.
Coming to a certain state, I thought he put it so well and this is what he said.
The first duty of faith.
As well as its sublimus acting.
Is to stand before him, that is the Lord, to stand before him and his ways.
Adoring.
And not begin by examining ourselves to see whether we're making suitable returns to the life giving grace of the Son of God. Oh, brother I. That's a choice piece of ministry.
The first duty of faith.
As well as its subliminous acting.
Is to stand before him and his ways adoring.
And not begin by examining ourselves, looking introspectively to see if I'm making a suitable return.
You know, if my eyes are on the inside, I'll never be making a suitable return.
Because according to Galatians, faith that we have in Christ works by by love.
And if the love of Christ has taken a hold of our hearts?
It's not hard to live for him.
We fail absolutely.
All the time.
But by the grace of God, there's a person out there. And I so enjoyed a statement that I read recently of Mr. Wigrams. And he said, you know, it's a wonderful thing to have Christ as your object.
00:15:09
And he said, and there's something that's, I'm going to say this carefully, But he said there's something even more precious, and that's to have Christ in your heart.
And I thought of Ephesians 3 that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith.
Yes, he's out there. He's the one that I think has been drawn to our attention in Philippians 3 that Paul, he had set his mark to go to that prize for the calling on high of God in Christ.
Yes, he was going to that place in his heart. Nothing was going to hold him back. But he also had Christ in his heart, and I think that's a good word for us that are younger because it is truly the love of Christ that constrains us.
Not the sense of duty.
Not the sense of obligation.
But because like this hymn that we've sung this today and that's why I I gave it out.
Because as young believers, I don't know of anything that is so transforming than to think about this one who died for you and for me.
The Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.
So the first thing I would like to speak of.
And I know this is nothing new to most of here, but how we have been established, how we have been placed?
Where they're standing, that's unimpeachable.
You know, when Richard Nixon, president of the United States, sometime back, was impeached, I don't know that hardly any of us ever thought of that word. Impeached.
But in Mrs. Darby's translation, he speaks about that the Saints.
Let's read it. First First Corinthians chapter one.
And we're going to turn to a number of scriptures.
And end up with a little picture of all of this but.
First Corinthians chapter one and verse 7.
So that you come behind in no gift.
Waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Who shall also confirm you unto the end? And now that's where it says Unimpeachable.
There's not even the gates of hell.
That can prevail against one who is on this rock.
Christ is the rock, and our feet are there, by the grace of God, never to be taken off.
Now we've talked earlier in this, the meeting before this one, as to the solemnity of walking at a distance from the Lord to where you can't hardly tell if the person has been saved or not. That's possible.
It's possible to have the world so close.
To our thoughts and the intents of our lives.
That the Lord Jesus as he saw this in a public way.
Had to say to those that lay out a sea, I am about to spew thee out of my mouth.
But I don't want to cast a doubt in anybody's mind.
That the work of God was to place us in Christ before him.
Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Well, here it says who shall also shall confirm you blameless, or I think it's unimpeachable in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.
So in chapter one and verse 30, we're going to read this verse verse here that we're going to speak about.
It says, But of him are ye in Christ Jesus?
Who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification and redemption?
What does sanctification mean?
Have you ever gone by a piece of property?
That's up for sale.
And people. Or maybe it says sold on it. Either way.
It'll say, oh, there's a sign there that says private property keep off.
To me, that's what sanctification is.
00:20:00
God, in his matchless grace, has set us apart.
He said. And that's really what it means to be set apart.
And dear young person here today.
Have you ever stopped to think that the Lord and His love for your soul?
Has said I want you.
And I want you for myself, and I'm setting you apart to be just for me.
I love that thought. I love the thought that the Lord thinks of Maine as private property.
And that's why I believe the Lord Jesus said they are not of the world.
Even as I am not of the world.
How far is this from legalism?
It's miles away.
Because if we would read there the next verse there in John 17, the Lord Jesus says, therefore I sanctify myself, that they may be sanctified through the truth. What is the sanctifying power to be appreciating and enjoying the fact that you're set apart?
Is that the Lord Jesus set himself apart for our sake?
And he's up there this afternoon.
Looking down even upon a company like this, and for everyone that's trusted him as their savior, there is a jewel.
A jewel.
As we sometimes say.
When he When he cometh, when he cometh to make up his jewels, precious jewels, precious jewels. And that's what we are, brother.
We have been set apart for him to be, for his pleasure. Now it says that in the Book of Revelation because it says that we were created for his pleasure, for his will.
So because we are in Christ Jesus, he has made unto us sanctification and redemption.
Now you know as far as performance is concerned.
We might have thought that the the, the assembly at court would have been not too good of a a shining example of of teaching sanctification to there were so many things that might have been censored as far as the way they were living.
But you know, let's go over to Chapter 6.
To show that the depths from which they had been brought.
Chapter 6 of 1 Corinthians.
And this kind of reminds us of some of the things we were reminded of today, verse 9, knowing not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the Kingdom of God.
And then these classification of different characters of persons that he says they shall not inherit the Kingdom of God. And then verse 11 he says, and such were some of you.
But ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.
I think this is so wonderful.
Because what they were, they weren't anymore in the sight of God.
If we could have delved into their private lives, it would have been like it says in Ephesians. It's a shame to speak of those things that are done by them.
But as we heard last night, the kindness and love of God towards man appeared.
And David expressed it so beautifully to to Mephibosheth, as we were told.
And so they were washed. They were sanctified. They were justified.
In the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God. Now let me ask you, dear young people.
Have you ever considered the fact that the Lord considers you as a sanctified person?
Do you have to go through some kind of confirmation class?
In order to be sanctified.
It's all based upon the work of the Lord Jesus. That song that we sang is so poignant. 31 in the appendix.
Hark what sounds a bitter weeping. There he went. He went in what was in the Old Testament called a valley that was neither sown nor eared. Nobody had been there before they could stand the judgment of God.
00:25:08
No, he bore it all with a view that by his spirit.
And by the name of the Lord Jesus he would put us in that place of being sanctified, set apart for him.
Now you know our brother, Bob Bowman.
One time as he was reading a certain passage of Scripture, we may read it later, But he said, you know, sometimes I hear the Lord's people say, well, if the Lord leaves us here.
Dot dot dot.
If the Lord leaves us here, well then you know what he said.
He said. What do you mean if the Lord leaves us here? He said. The Lord has sent us here.
I thought that was so good. It just seems to put a noble motive. We spoke about focus and motivation the other day, but think about you and me when we go to the workplace. Some people have body shops.
And some people have.
Engineering degrees and they go to their office.
Others are carpenters, others are farmers.
In whatever way, it is as our brother Jim brought before us.
I have sent them as thou hast sent me. I have sent you.
What an ennobling thought. How can it be? The Lord Jesus said. Ye are the light of the world.
And we were told this afternoon or this morning rather, that to walk with the Lord Jesus in whatever those categories that I mentioned.
There's a light that is given off.
And what a privilege to be sent.
We say to ourselves.
Me, he sent me.
What? I'm not gifted.
I don't know how to preach.
It just seems like it's so hard for me to talk to people.
I have sent you as the Father hath sent me.
So have I sent you?
And you're looking at the one that's probably the most backward in these ways.
But it's so good, brethren and dear young people.
To remember.
That as being set apart for the Lord.
He has sent us here and he wants us to be to his pleasure and for his will.
Yesterday my brother and I were talking together and he was talking about the different decisions in life that he has to make.
In waiting upon the Lord to open doors.
And I just recalled to him what my mother-in-law said one time, and that was he said she said, even the Apostle Paul.
Could do nothing greater for the moment.
Than to carry out the will of God in his life.
So where has he placed us? Where has he placed you? Where has he placed me?
You've heard the expression bloom, where you're planted.
It may not be very pleasant at times. Circumstances may be adverse, as we heard about some of our beloved brethren this morning.
But by the grace of God, we can bloom where we're planted.
Because we have been set apart, we have been sanctified. We are there. It's not something that next year we're going to attain to.
Our feet are upon the rock. They can't be moved.
What grace, what mercy this is?
Well, there's a lot of verses I could read.
I'd like to now.
Because each one of the verses that I had looked at and I've got them written down right here because I've got a poor memory. But rather than read them all just to establish this one fact to start with, that we have been set apart for the Lord by an act of God's will to place us there.
And we are set apart. We are sanctified apart from anything we have ever done to to merit it or to to attain to it.
And were unimpeachable.
Until the day of Jesus Christ.
Hallelujah. What a savior.
00:30:03
So let's go to John 17.
Because there's the other aspect of sanctification.
And that is where we experience sanctification now. I think our brothers have faithfully brought before us that once we're saved.
And I think it was touched on this morning that.
The Lord doesn't say, OK, you're saved. Do the best you can.
No, he has given us, shall I say, material.
He's given us things in the scriptures to help us to fortify us, that we would experience this sanctification in a practical way.
I think in really simple terms, it's like Peter when he said to the to the Jewish Saints. I think it's the very last verse of second Peter. But grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, but grow in grace.
Are we going to get to a place that where we never grow again? Maybe physically?
But I know there are some that have been quoted in this room, those that have gone on before us.
And when they spoke, they did something to your heart because they didn't stop growing. In fact, Mr. Darby was on his deathbed and it was such an encouragement to my soul, and he was talking about his.
Last days and and his death forthcoming.
But.
He said. You know, I noticed something I hadn't seen last night.
And I don't know about you, but you'd think that after 32 volumes or maybe 34 volumes, notes and comments, notes and jottings, now there's more writings that he's put out that they found, he said. I thought of something last night I've never seen before. And brother, that was an encouragement this morning about.
For the fruit of the light, isn't it? There's things that we learn all the time by by the Lord's mercy. And that's what is upon my heart. For my younger brethren and for myself, for all of us.
That rather than become stagnant.
And we see the course of the church and the seven churches, and it really did become stagnant.
That the Lord would touch our hearts today with a sense of the pristine.
Glory of being set apart for God.
You know, somebody wrote to him. Now I belong to Jesus and Jesus belongs to me.
Not for the years of time alone, but for eternity.
That's where we are. We belong to him.
In John 17 here.
It says verse 15.
And I think this was brought before us too. I pray not that thou shouldst take them out of the world, but that thou shouldst keep them from the evil they are not of the world.
Even as I am not of the world.
Sanctify them through Thy truth. Thy word is truth.
And the verse we quoted later, verse 19. And for their sakes, I sanctify myself.
That they also might be sanctified through the truth.
You see, Jesus is the truth.
But you know, it struck me some time ago when I read that they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.
The Lord could have gone into a very detailed account of what the world is.
Sometimes we hear the expression well, what harm is there in this?
Is that the basis by which we judge what is of the world?
And I just thought, well, this is really wonderful.
Because rather than say don't go there, don't go there.
Don't partake of that, he says. They are not of the world.
Even as I am not of the world and rather than put a detailed description of what we can do and what we can't do.
He's saying to us, where is your heart?
00:35:02
Where is our heart? Where is my heart?
We had a young brother one time come to a conference.
And the young people were going, not all this was not a united thing. There was just a few that were going to go to a certain place.
And it was so sweet to me whether I understood it or not.
He came to the door of that establishment.
And he said to himself, I can't go in.
He didn't have a word from the Lord, at least not that I knew of. He felt it would have been improper for him to be there.
Now how did he come to that?
Through reading the word of God and walking with God, walking in the Lord's presence, communing with the Lord because he wasn't under a rule.
He wanted to be controlled by the Lord Jesus.
The others went in and he went to the house where he was staying.
You know, that really struck me and it it's it smoked my own conscience.
Because I thought, wow, what a wonderful thing to have a conscience exercise to discern both good and evil. You know, it says that in Hebrews chapter 5, who by well, let me read it, Who by reason of habit have their consciences exercised to discern both good and evil. I'll I'll read that though.
The strong meat belongs to them that are of full age.
Even those who, by reason of use or by reason of habit, have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.
You know if you as a father.
Or if you as a mother, if one of your children said, you know dad, a bunch of us were at a certain place, but you know dad, I I just didn't feel free to go.
There were some things there that I didn't think the Lord would want me to be involved there, and so I went the other way.
Father and mother.
That would be pretty special, wouldn't it?
And so I believe that's what the Lord wants for us.
That rather than having a set, a rule book of where to go and where not to go, he just says even as I am not of the world.
That's powerful.
That's commanding.
Because it's love that's making the decision.
Through the Word of God, having the senses exercised the discern good and evil.
And then by the eye.
If the eye be single, the body shall be full of light.
So we have that and then what I already mentioned I guess.
In verse 18 as thou hast sent me into the world.
Even so have I also sent them into the world. But anyway, this thought of sanctification, in a practical sense, is what we want to come to now. First, we're there in a positional way, never to be taken off that ground through the work of Christ, through the work of the Spirit. It tells us in Peter that we're sanctified by the Spirit.
Through the offering it well in another place, it says, we've been sanctified to the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
That's a positional, stable, eternal thing, Unimpeachable until the day of Jesus Christ. But now we're looking at our life in relation to daily growth, daily, considering situations. This is all a part of Christian growth.
And sanctification as to being set apart for the Lord.
There are so many verses and I want to end up in Genesis 47, so I I've got to kind of be careful here.
Well, let's just go to Ephesians 5, even though we're going to take that up probably this afternoon, but at least to get the the thought.
Verse 25 or 26 Well, let's go. 25 Ephesians 525 Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it, that he might sanctify and cleanse it with a washing of water by the word.
00:40:17
You know, I I think this is very very practical here.
Now some have used the statement or the expression progressive progressive sanctification and I don't want to give off the idea that.
We are, as it were, ascending up and up and up.
But more that we are going deeper into the heart of God.
And understanding more of what his will and what his thoughts are. But anyway, the Lord Jesus is up in heaven and as we make ourselves available to that throne of grace.
It says that he is he is sanctifying us and cleansing us by the washing of water by the word.
You know, I remember somebody asking me a long time ago.
Do you have your altar in the morning?
Do you have a time?
In your daily routine.
Before you go out the door.
Where you can get into the Lord's presence and read the scriptures by yourself.
And I know there are many here that are practicing that.
You'll never be sorry for it. There's nothing like the word of God. There's nothing so fulfilling.
I remember a brother. He's not with us anymore, but there were times when he would reflect on some thought from the word of God and he would just kind of chuckle.
It struck him so deep he would chuckle a little bit and he said isn't that wonderful, you know?
And this is what we desire for us all.
But that question do you have an altar yourself in the morning?
Some people might say, well, I'm not a morning person.
I'm not an evening person.
Whatever it is, I'm not laying down a rule, but I just know that every minute you spend, every minute I spend reading the scriptures, using the helps that the Lord has given us is so fulfilling. There's nothing, as our brother said, that that girl that had seemingly had everything in her life, she was not fulfilled.
She still was empty.
And if we are honest with ourselves, we have to say I am.
An empty vessel.
Scarce one thought to thee I've ever brought.
But still.
The Word is there for us, and the Lord is going to use that word to continue.
Helping us to grow, helping us to perceive more things.
And again, to go back as brother Darby said, I never saw that before. You know, that's the way it should be, shouldn't it? No matter where we are in this this Christian course that we have?
Now there are times.
When to continue on in faith before the Lord.
There are times when we have to use some energy.
And I'm going let's go to second Timothy chapter 2.
Second Timothy chapter 2 and verse.
Well, it's just hard to know where to start here. Let's just go verse 15 study to show thyself approved unto God.
A Workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. Now notice, but shun profane and vain battlings.
Notice now in verse 19 the last line there just about let everyone that names the name of Christ depart.
Shun vain babblings.
Depart from iniquity, verse 21. Purge himself from these, verse 22. Flee also youthful lusts, but follow.
00:45:02
And I believe these verses at least help us to see that there's a there's a certain measure on our part.
That we see grace in the Lord, that we do these things, that we might continue to grow.
Might continue to be enlarged. You know, when the apostle Paul gave the truth of separation? I love this. It was with a view of being enlarged.
And you remember the the.
The.
The scriptures that spoke of the Nazarites thou.
The Nazarites Val to me is seen in this, and if I'm not mistaken there's 6-7 or eight times where it says he was to separate himself onto the Lord.
It doesn't say separate from.
But it says to separate themselves to the Lord. There's the key to sanctification.
You see, but it it it and the end result is that there's enlargement, there's a deeper joy than there was before.
There's a deeper gratification spiritually.
Sanctification by experience. Little by little we get it Line upon line and precept upon precept here a little, there a little. That's what I'm trying to bring out. But there are times, and especially in days of Second Timothy, when the Christian profession gets to the point where old wives fables are thought to be great.
The very vitals of Christianity are denied.
The instruction is through the assembly. How an assembly is to be?
Is to function.
If we're enjoying this, being sanctified, continually growing.
Then we look at those things, and we say, Lord, what will thou have me to do?
Depart, Shun. Purge yourself, separate from.
Those principles that deny what God has given us as regard the Church. Now I'd just like to say, well, let's come to a little bit later.
Let's stop at this point, because I want to now.
Well, let me say this one thing, that the day is at hand, brethren, and I think that verse was quoted, I don't know how many times already since we've been together, Even so come Lord Jesus.
This this.
Experience of being sanctified more and more separated more and more to the Lord is going to be finished at the coming of the Lord.
Then we shall know even as we are known.
We shall see his face. His name shall be in our forehead.
How often, as Mr. Darby said, no infants changing pleasures like my wandering mind?
We have to confess that, don't we? But then his name is there and I to me, that's like all of our thoughts.
We don't speak about time there, but could we say all the time eternally?
We'll have our thoughts just totally focused on the blessed Lamb of God.
That took our sins away.
How glorious. Now in the Old Testament there is a figure of this and I.
Say this especially because Brother John Jensen the other night said how much he appreciated a picture.
And I didn't tell him what I had on my heart, but I'm going to now.
In Genesis 47.
To me, I've enjoyed this as a picture of this.
This way of, shall I say, realizing more and more just what we have in Christ.
How full we have been blessed.
We've often heard there are those seven spiritual blessings in Ephesians 1.
And.
I think we have a picture, not necessarily of Ephesians one, but of a people who realize that they are totally dependent on Joseph. Now this is a time when there's been a seven-year or there is about to be a A7 year time of famine.
And the circumstances are very straightened. So it says in verse 13. And there was no bread in all the land, for the famine was very sore, so that the land of Egypt and all the land of Canaan fainted or exalted. What does the word exalt was exhausted by reason of the famine.
00:50:08
And Joseph gathered up all the money that was found in the land of Egypt and in the land of Canaan for the corn which they bought. And Joseph brought the money into Pharaohs house.
Now that's the first thing that people give. They need to be sustained. Now, these are Egyptians. These are not Israelites.
But I think it's a picture nevertheless of.
Shall I say this process of realizing how dependent we are, how totally linked we are with this one who's the head over all things to Egypt. You know, when he had that Pharaoh's ring put on and his signet and the people bowed the knee to to Joseph?
That tells us that this suffering young man who became the sovereign ruler of Egypt under Pharaoh.
That now they were, they were totally dependent upon him.
And so they well, let's read this. And Joseph gathered up all the money that was found in the land of Egypt.
And in the land of Canaan for the corn which they bought.
Now notice verse 15. So I just want to say this dear young person.
I don't know what you've got in your bank account.
But have you ever considered that every penny of it belongs to the Lord?
And one thing that struck me, and I don't know if we're going to get to it totally here, but you know, when Christian or shall I say in Judaism rather that the people were enjoying, they commanded to give a 10th of everything that they got to the Lord 1/10.
In the end of this chapter they give 1/5.
And I'm not saying that this is what we have to give as the 5th, but I think it shows how much more Christianity and what the Lord has done for us is set us apart for Himself.
There is so much more, shall we say.
Shall I say required of us.
To whom much is given shall much be required.
We have been blessed with every spiritual blessing.
And so now here's this money.
Joseph gets all the money. The people said you can have it. I need to be sustained. And so he brings it into Pharaoh's house and when money failed.
In the land of Canaan, and in Egypt, and in the land of Canaan, all the Egyptians came unto Joseph.
I love that when money failed, all the Egyptians came unto Joseph.
And Joseph said, give your cattle.
Verse 16 And I will give you for your cattle, if money fail. And they brought their brought their cattle unto Joseph.
And Joseph gave them bread in exchange for horses, and for the flocks, and for the cattle and the herds, and for the ***** and fed them with bread for all their cattle for that year.
When that year was ended, they came unto him the second year, and said unto him, We will not hide it for my Lord, how that our money is spent, my Lord, hath our herds of cattle. There is not aught left in the sight of my Lord, but our bodies and our lands.
Wherefore shall we die before thine eyes, both we in our land by us, and our land for bread?
And we in our land will be servants unto Pharaoh.
And give us seed, that we may live and not die, that the land be not desolate.
You know the Apostle Paul in that very same chapter that we read in First Corinthians 6. Paul says to them ye are bought with a price.
Now we spoke about being set apart.
And now we find out that he's going to buy us.
Now I belong to Jesus.
Jesus belongs to me.
I am a purchased one.
If you're in the in that circle of eternal love, you are a purchased one too.
In your body does not belong to you anymore.
Your body belongs to the Lord.
And one of the things that I would just like to pass on that has been seminated or disseminated among us for a long time.
And it kind of bears upon what we had during our first reading. And that is when Paul saw Paul in the practical sense of sanctification, he said. And I pray God.
00:55:07
That your whole spirit, soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
And we often notice how when somebody quotes that verse. I don't say us necessarily, but oftentimes you hear it. Yes, body, soul and spirit.
Body, soul and spirit, Paul says. I pray that your whole spirit, soul and body, what's the difference?
Well, I think this the difference is, is that if I can say that the things number one that are most important is how I'm what is my relationship to Christ?
He's the first one, then my soul belongs to him.
And finally my body belongs to him.
And the thought that was put forth was in relationships between young men and young women.
A young brother told me not too long ago that the way of the world now is you don't date a girl.
You live with.
If you like her, then you start dating.
What corruption?
Utter corruption.
Paul says. I pray that your whole spirit, that's the most important thing for a young couple to realize.
That the basis upon which you are coming together is that you both see eye to eye on what the Word of God teaches in your relationship to the Lord Jesus. That's number one.
And in a natural way, the things that you may enjoy together, you enjoy that too.
One is not one that, shall I say, likes to crochet 6 hours a day and the other likes to go out biking.
Now, not that that can't be overcome, but it's something to consider.
That there are things that we like to do naturally.
And then finally after the marriage.
Then the body goes.
Brother Gordon passed that on to me or to the young people when I was a young people and I thought it was so wholesome. Just remember that, dear young people.
Number one, it's the Spirit, and that's to be preserved for the Lord to the soul and finally the body. And when you apply it to your being exercised before the Lord, as through having a help meet or young sister, your desire to be linked with one who fears God.
And one that you can look up to.
See to it that those three are kept in that order.
Well.
The next thing is, and this is kind of if I can find it here, yes, verse 21. And As for the people, he removed them to cities from one end of the borders of Egypt, even to the other end.
You know, I think that is so sweet because if I can apply this to a Christian day in which we live.
When the Apostle Paul was saved on the way to Damascus.
And then later on became the apostle to the Gentiles and was given a depository of truth as to Christ in the church. Excuse me, the very things that we're taking up in our reading. Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it.
Well, not only were these different things shall I say they they were enjoyed progressively in Egypt, but now he's brought them into cities.
And I think that tells us that just like Israel, if you've noticed the 107th Psalm.
Is in the little couplets in the end, each at the end of each little section, all that men would praise the Lord for his goodness and for his wonderful works through the children of men, And then it tells us they look for a city.
They look for a city. Now to the Jew, that's Zion. Zion shall be redeemed with judgment.
It's the controversy of Zion that the Jews had to do with.
Well, what does this tell us? Our city? Can I take the liberty to say that our city is being gathered to the Lord Jesus? It's the it's the communal place. Shall I say it's where we are together, where two or three are are gathered together.
Is that?
Godly social time, shall I say.
01:00:00
And for some reason, I don't know why it was, but apparently Joseph saw the wisdom of gathering the people in the cities.
And I take a little. I take a lesson from that.
That when we came to the Lord as our Savior.
It was not to be heeded when somebody said, well, just find a church that that you like, you like the preacher, you like this and you like that. No, it's search the scriptures to see what the Lord says about being gathered to his name. Search those scriptures. Don't let anybody tell you, well, you know.
There's a lot of this and there's a lot of that and there's a lack of this and there's a lack of that.
Well, rather than be moved out of the city, so to speak, go to the word of God. Be persuaded, dear young people, that where you are has the countenance of Scripture, has the verification of Scripture to it.
That's what the Lord desires for us. And finally, verse 25, we will be Pharaoh's servants.
You know, in all this going and growing, finally they end up and say, Lord, we want to serve you. It's kind of like going back to what we said about.
As this thou hast sent me into the world, I send them. And so we go, as servants. That's.
Shall I say the road that we're on?
In sanctification, in growth, maybe, say better, our time is up. Shall we pray?
Blessed God our Father.
We thank thee for our young people that are here today.
And we pray for them as well As for ourselves.
In our need to be preserved spirit, soul, and body for thee.
And we thank thee for the wholesome words that we have received for the during the readings.
And we just pray Father as to.
This thought of service, or the thought of sanctification, O Lord, that thou wouldst keep us in the joy and in the growth of these things, that together, as we are in our, so to speak, our city.
That we could come together.
With love to one another. With love for the truth of God. With love to the Lord Jesus above all, even though it be feeble here.
How we thank thee for that verse that we sometimes sing and we love thee, Blessed Lord.
Even now, though feeble here.
Thy sorrow and thy cross record what makes us know thee near, and so we bless thee. Lord, we thank thee for thy death and resurrection, thy giving of thyself, that we might be set apart, and that on a righteous basis, that thou didst glorify God and thy death, and now soon are going to come and take us home to the Lord Jesus. Even so come we pray.
And ask for thy blessing for the remainder of this day.
And I worthy precious name Lord Jesus, Amen.