Scranton Conference: 2017
Table of Contents
Ephesians 5:17-25
Reading
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Or by thy Holy Spirit reveal in US thy laws, the joy we shall inherit, and with thee our head above 187.
Uh, they are called my home. Thy people delivering, however.
Lord's grace and help Grace.
Ourselves enjoying the life, the world and far and joy. Grace Joyce.
And whatsoever.
Again.
Makes everything everything happened.
Waiting for my die, so I thought I'd throw.
And straightener we arrived, there was a problem.
Oh, the water's not good. All I want to say is that.
It's very thin.
For highlighting.
So.
I love that one.
I went thy heart again.
All gracious to me.
Uh, where to see our head and blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah.
Other We have, uh, much to be thankful for this morning.
I'm thankful most of all that I saw in the Lord Jesus.
We're thankful that through His work on the Cross, we've been brought nigh unto Thee. We're thankful that this morning we were able to make a request known unto Thee. We're thankful now for these two days that we have before us to spend in My Word. We're thankful for Thy Word, thankful that we can have it before us in this way here in these lands. We're thankful for Thy Spirit, which will.
Work to make Thy word quite plain to each one of us, to make it have us through and proper effect in our hearts.
And, uh, with these things, we also have many things that, uh, come about us in this way. And we know that thou has given us all the things that are necessary to go through them. And so, uh, we thank you for the promise that, uh, that will send my son again.
00:05:15
Uh, we look forward to that time and for this.
Interim here. We pray that that would, uh, give us in this time here.
Always give us the words that each one of us needs, umm, for strength, uh, to endure, uh, the things here, not only to endure, but to uh, be a light and a testimony to those around us, uh.
These times that we hear of now, umm, these hurricanes, wildfires, umm.
There is a time of opportunity for the gospel to go out. There is a time now to find safety. And myself, we just ask that, uh, through thy word here, uh, both now and for the time to follow, that we would have a portion that would, umm, be of use, be, uh, of good use to each one here. And pray as well that, uh, we would make use if Thy word which will be presented to us.
So we just ask these things in faith, in the name of thy Son the Lord Jesus, and for his honor and glory.
Amen.
A little over a year ago at Vestal Conference, we had.
Had before Ephesians chapter 5, and for those of us who were there, we had gotten down.
About a little over halfway through that chapter, and it was later complained by some that we seem to get about halfway through chapters and then we never get to what's beyond that and what comes beyond that. Ephesians chapter 5 is the whole section about submissions.
In relationships starting with husband and wife.
And going on to service our children and fathers and then to the master servant relationship, all the different relationships that we have in life. And I was just wondering if that might be profitable for us to go on and take from maybe Ephesians chapter 5 and and verse 20 going down to the first part of chapter 6.
Perhaps down to verse 9.
That would be profitable.
I think that would be very nice, brother. We live in a world that is not submissive in any way to God is in living in rebellion and opposition to His Word and will, and so we are sometimes influenced by that spirit of things ourselves. Would be nice to take up a passage that has to do largely with submission.
Tim, is there any reason why you're suggesting verse 20 rather than the beginning of the sentence verse 18?
No, that'd be just fine.
I was thinking too, we sang in this opening hymn, O by thy Holy Spirit revealed in US Thy love. And so here in this portion we have the love of Christ for the Church.
So Ephesians chapter 5 beginning with verse 18.
And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess, but be filled with the Spirit.
Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. Singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord. Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Submitting yourselves 1 to another in the fear of God.
Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord, for the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church.
And he is the Savior of the body. Therefore, as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives see through their own husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for it, that He might sanctify it, and cleanse it with the washing of water, by the Word, that He might present it to Himself. A glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle.
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Or any such thing but that, but that it should be holy and without blemish. So ought men who love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife, loveth himself. For no man ever yet hated his own flesh, but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the Church. For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife.
And they too shall be one flesh. This is a great mystery that I speak concerning Christ and the Church. Nevertheless, let everyone of you in particular so love his wife, even as himself and the wife see that she reverence her husband.
Children, obey your parents and the Lord, for this is right. Honor thy father and mother, which is the first commandment, with promise, that it may be well with thee, and thou mayst live long on the earth. And ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath, but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Servants, be obedient to them that are your masters, according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in singleness of your heart as unto Christ.
Not with I service as men pleasers, but as the servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart with goodwill, doing service as to the Lord, and not to men, knowing that whatsoever good thing any man doeth, the same shall he receive of the Lord, whether he be bonds or free. And ye masters do the same things unto them, forbearing, threatening, knowing that your Master also is in heaven.
Neither is there respective persons with him.
I'd like to put a context on what our brother Jonathan just read by pointing out that, uh, verse 17 gives us this instruction not to be unwise. So if you want to be wise, pay attention to what our brother just read. And when I was a teenager, and even now as I go through my life, I'm often wondering, why is the will of the Lord? What would please the Lord make my God happy in my life?
And that 17th verse.
Tells us the same thing. It says, uh, understand what the will of the Lord is. So as we go through these meetings, as we spend time meditating on the 5th and 6th chapter, which we've just read, these are things that are extremely practical. And as our brother Robert was at mentioning, uh, just before Jonathan read this whole principle and concept of submission to God first and then to the authority that he's put in place and to one another is the principle that really gives, uh, peace.
And, uh, order and harmony.
In a family, in a relationship, in the assembly and in society.
It is important that the uh, Spirit of God, uh, do not, uh, breathe in our walk and ways to go back in uh, Ephesians chapter 4 and 30, it says, uh and green, not the Holy Spirit of God.
Whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption. There is no exhortation to be sealed that took place when we believe in the finished work of Christ, whose death and resurrection, but there are exploitations as in our passage to be filled with the Spirit. What is the difference? Well, we have the spirit of God is a divine person, however.
Uh, alas, we sometimes grieve him.
And, uh, we are filled with, uh, our own ambitions and, uh.
Plans and pleasures and the Spirit of God is there. He is not removed. He is sealing us until the day of redemption when the Lord comes, but He is not controlling our lives.
There are other things that are interfering with the ministry of the Holy Spirit so.
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Uh, we are not fruitful for the Lord because the Spirit of God is not in control of our lives. We're not owning the Lordship of Christ. So I think this, uh, comes out in this passage of the exhortation, uh, that we need, uh, day by day because there is so much that, uh, hinders.
The the new nature explaining itself and the Spirit of God.
Whose UH office is to take up the things of Christ and to minister them to us, to strengthen us in our service for the Lord.
There are two things that ought to.
That's those that are believers, and our brother has mentioned one of them here in this verse 17, the will of the Lord. And so the Lord, it brings out His Lordship authority over us. Because brother Norman very used to remind us in older days, he used to say that when we took Christ as our Savior, we gave up our right to choose. He is the Lord, He has the right to choose. Do we give him that?
Right. Do we allow him to have that authority in our lives?
The other thing that governs our lives is the word of God. And you'll see that in the apostles writings he quotes the word of God. And so forever thy word to settle in heaven. And every word of God is pure and we know that here he quotes the scriptures, the Old Testament passage in Ephesians chapter six he says honor thy father and mother, which is the first commandment with promise.
That it may be well with thee, and that thou mayest lived long on the earth. So those two principles we need the word of God.
At the fall, when man fell into sin, he lost the ability.
To guide himself, he had to have the influence of the word of God. He needed divine intervention. He needed divine wisdom to show him the proper guide, and then he needed to understand the will of the Lord. And so that's these are two things that we need to be cognizant of that in all of our daily pathway and our responsibilities as as brought out in these this passage that we've read, we have true responsibilities.
And our responsibility can be fulfilled if we know what the will of the Lord is and we abide in the truth of the Word of God. It doesn't bring in opinions here. We're not talking about opinions. This is not just your exercise or my exercise. This is the will of the Lord and the Word of God.
We have only two reading meetings, except for the final one on the Evening of Lords Day. I'd like to ask our brother Tim Ruga, did you have some special thoughts you would like us to dwell on in this chapter?
Well, I really would like to get down to versus 21 on down if we could, but it seems to me that going back as we did is helpful because it does bring out the the Spirit of God and being filled with the Spirit. There are things that that would lead to in our Christian life and the first of those things are found in verses 19 and 20. I believe there might be four of them here. In 19 we have two.
The first would be speaking to yourselves and palms and hymns and spiritual songs, and that is really to, uh, exhort ourselves in the things of the Lord and have Him constantly before us in a a way that is quite put in contrast to being drunk with wine.
It might be some similarities to somebody look on the outside is Eli. But uh, Hannah certainly didn't have wine.
On her, yet there was something about a heart overflowing. And that's what we can do with song. And then it says making melody in your heart and not just the outside, but the inside. To have that absolutely failing us, not just to have the spirit within us in a, umm, morose way, but in a way that has the joy of the Lord. And then in verse 20, it goes on to really what I think sets a stage for the fourth thing, which is submission.
Verse 20 gives us giving thanks always.
For all things unto God and the Father, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. We already had this earlier in the chapter. Umm verse 4 giving of thanks.
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Very essential for the Christian to do this, to have thankful hearts to God and express that to him. And we have these first three things in order.
The song in our heart and that flows out and Thanksgiving going back to God.
Then it puts us in the right frame of mind for the fourth thing, which is the submission that we have in all these different aspects of our lives and the verses going down from verse 21.
Yes, and I believe verse 21 also in that sense sets the stage for all of the exhortations that go on further in a general way. There are those who are given positions of responsibility and authority and leadership, and there are those of us who are in a position of submission. Both are very important in the Word of God.
But it says here in verse 21, submitting yourselves to one another in the fear of God. We find, for example, here that wives are, uh, exhorted to submit to their husbands. But as we well remember, for example, in Abraham's life, there was a time when Sarah had intelligence, spiritual intelligence that.
Abraham had to recognize, and the Lord had to tell him to recognize, that her advice was good and proper and he should follow it. So a spirit of submission on the part of all of us, whether or not we are in that sense in a position of authority and responsibility, is very good, isn't it? None of us can be so sure of everything that we cannot afford to listen to the.
Advice and counsel, and perhaps.
Feelings of others in any particular situation. And then of course, to take it before the Lord as to whether it is from the Lord or not.
Let's make one observation on the four points that brother. The first being that, umm, we often ask ourselves the question, what does it mean to be filled with the spirit? That's a state we're supposed to be in. But umm, the four points that Tim mentioned are all verbs, which means there are things that we can do and I believe if we practice them, we will be filled with the spirit.
This epistle deals with the Christian umm standing and the umm blessings that are ours in the heavenlies in Christ and deals with the church as and this instruction as the church is going on in good order. It's not addressing a condition of disorder. And so this is what you might say a presentation of normal Christianity. And so it says in verse 24. Therefore, as the church is subject unto Christ.
Well, is the church subject unto Christ today? No. It's splintered into something like 1500 different groups, Whatever.
And the church, if we really searched our own hearts, we have a problem with submission. And the assembly is not often submissive to the order that God has placed in this scene. So here we have the order that's given and submission spoken of in its normal context and to those that are the most likely to fail in the relationship are addressed first. And so he addressed.
He addresses umm in verse 21, submitting yourselves 1 to another in the fear of God. Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands as unto the Lord. So we addresses the wives there. Our sisters might have trouble submitting to the authority and the leadership of her of the husband. And why is that? Because perhaps the husband might not be walking in the spirit.
And he might be walking in the flesh and he might be treating his wife in a way that ought not to be. But in the Epistle to the Ephesians, it's taken as the wife is, the husband is walking in a right way, and the wife is exhorted to submit to the authority. It's a little bit different in first Peter chapter 3 because it's reverence. She's to reverence her husband. She's to have respect for her husband.
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Brother Gordon used to remind us as young people, maybe some of us remember, he used to say, young sister, if a young man shows interest in you and you can't seem to respect that man, that young man, don't marry someone that you can't respect. You're exhorted in the Scriptures to reverence or to respect the one that you marry, and then you're going to need to submit to the leadership of that one. It's a God-given authority.
It's a God-given responsibility. It's not something that man took upon himself.
But it's something that God has placed man under. He's got responsibility as he takes the leadership in the home spiritually and in natural things. And so it will require submission. And it says as unto the Lord, not nice. You know, the Lord just gives these instructions and He gives them within an encouraging way as unto the Lord.
That expression, fear, the fear of God in the verse 21, is really, uh, a key.
You know to submit.
At any level we must have a very old confidence in God Himself.
We will not be able to submit to anything if we really do not trust God.
Problem we have off the time with submission is uh.
We're thinking of the ones we're submitting to as being the ones we're supposed to fear.
And uh, this says submitting to one another.
In the fear of God, It's in the fear of God which.
More or less implies a distrust of yourself, doesn't it? Anyone who knows God knows that he can't trust himself. And, uh.
Some been asked a couple of times about.
Statements I've made in meetings about submitting to one another, especially by younger ones.
And I can think of cases where I've submitted to ones much younger than I.
It was not in the fear of death, it was in the fear of God.
And, uh, it's not a matter of submitting to some order.
That they said to do something.
Uh, submission is an attitude and you recognize that the Holy Spirit is in every believer.
And it doesn't matter how old they are, whether it's a brother or sister, submission is an attitude and a submission in the fear of God, And it's for His glory, because it's His assembly.
So this is an important point that Brother Bruce is making. It's in the fear of God, not in the fear of the ones we're submitting to.
Had one thing to I I agree with that about it being in the fear of God, but I think in the new translation.
Makes it not just God, but Christ, and there's something very precious about that because it takes in all of what was just said. But throughout this passage, everything is brought back to Christ himself. The perfect example in these things, even even the verse that was read earlier in verse 24. And therefore, as the church is subject, I think it should be subjected onto Christ.
That is that we are put into a perfect relationship with him.
And that's the overriding thought is we go through this particularly with the husbands and wives, but also with the other examples that we have an object and a relationship even more importantly with that object that in absolute perfection. And if everything we do is with reference to that person who with whom we have that relationship to then whatever others.
Relationships we have in in life, whether it's with our wives or husbands, our bosses.
Our children, our fathers, will be able to take them up in a proper way. We'll understand the true meaning that we have in Christianity for that submission. The Lord put the authority there, but when we do it, it's really is unto Him. It goes beyond whatever the object of authority is to the one who's behind it, and it sees beyond whatever the mistakes are with the one who has.
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The authority it sees beyond all of that to the perfect one who set that authority in its place. And that's the point, isn't it?
That we can think of, has been displayed perfectly in Christ, as you're saying, in Him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and as a man he displayed this virtue.
Of submission to his father. I do always those things which please my father, he could say.
And so when he invited us to come to him in Matthew Chapter 11, he then says, take my yoke upon you and learn of me, or I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest unto your souls. Normally when we think of taking on a yoke, we think we're getting ready for some, for some strenuous activity. We're getting ready to work. And so what's striking? How it says the end of that verse.
Shall find rest under your souls. Where my yoke is easy, my burden is light. And why was that? It was because as as Tim is saying.
In perfection he always understood the true import of every situation, circumstance, and he could even look beyond pilot think of it, and in calm dignity and the majesty of his soul he could give an intelligent answer.
In spite of all that was being thrown at him on that momentous occasion. And so as someone mentioned that it's often been mentioned that the person in the subject position is mentioned first year, the servants before the masters, the children before the parents, the wife before the husband. The person in the subject place has the has the opportunity by Christ displayed here in his entire life.
To show that beautiful virtue of submission to the will of God. In this case, as you point out, Tim, in the fear of Christ, when Paul writes to Titus, he speaks to those that were servants there, and without turning to it, he does say that they may adorn the doctrine of our God, our Savior in all things. You stop and think about that.
How? What does it mean? I remember the one of the first times I read that adorn. I even looked the word up in English. It means to enhance something's beauty.
How can you possibly enhance the beauty of the word of God? It's perfect, purified. Nothing can be added to it except when it's displayed in life. It adorns the doctrine when it's displayed in their life. It was displayed perfectly in him. And so whether it's in the workplace as we may get to, or in the family, as I mentioned before, I have a father, a living father and I, he's always my father and he's always.
Uh, has that honor and respect from us children that doesn't go away, whether it's in the home again, all of it. We have these opportunities, uh, to adorn the doctrine of God, our Savior in all things.
Thought on the choice cleaning's calendar this morning in connection with that verse that you mentioned in uh, Matthew Chapter 11, connection with the yoke and where it says my burden is light. We know that the Tabernacle was to be carried through the wilderness and the verse that appeared on the calendar this morning was a verse from.
Exodus chapter 27 it gives a description of the brazen altar and.
In verse 8.
Uh.
I should have mentioned in connection with the Brazen Al Alter rather than the Tabernacle.
Uh, it says hollow with boards, shalt thou make it? Well, the thought was if that was made so solid, it would be such a burden for those that carried it. And so God had given some thought to that too. And uh, I enjoyed that thought and there was some connection with, uh.
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Matthew 11 and 29 in connection with this scripture. I had never thought of it that way, but it's one of the things you see sometimes after you read something again and again.
Might be good to point out that the fear of the Lord and pointed out a little earlier in verse 21 is the fear of Christ, but a little later on we have the fear of the Lord.
It's not being afraid of God. It's as an older brother used to remind us when we were younger, it's being afraid to displease the Lord. And so you could read it this way in verse 21, submitting yourselves 1 to another being afraid to displease Christ. And so let's never be afraid of the Lord. It's not our place that says that we don't have the spirit of fear.
And because we know the Lord as our Savior and so on, let's read that in just to make this point clear.
First, John.
Chapter 5, I think it is no chapter 4, verse 18, there is No Fear in love, but perfect love casteth out fear, because fear hath torment. He that fear, it is not made perfect in love. So we're not talking about being afraid of the Lord Jesus. We're not talking about being afraid of God, but being afraid of displeasing him. Because as the verse has already been quoted that the Lord Jesus could say truthfully, I do always those things that please my Father. He walked in the fear of the Lord.
All his pathway.
Never disobeyed, not once. And so we have this principle that we want to obey in connection with submission in these natural relationships, that it might please Christ. Someone has said that the happiest people upon the earth are those that are occupied with Christ and those that are trying to please someone else. You're going to have a happy marriage if you're trying to please someone else, if you're trying to please your marriage partner.
You're not trying to please yourself.
And you're going to have a happy Christian life if you're trying to please the Lord, you're not trying to please yourself, you're not trying to make Christian doctrine suit the course of activity that you want to go in. And so it's wonderful to think of how the Lord sets before us Christ as the object, and then his, his submission as well, and then gives these practical instructions.
As to the order that God himself has established.
For our blessing.
Help us to see that.
There are three circles which we're all familiar with. Umm, the first one is the sphere of the body. The second one is the sphere of profession, and the last one is the sphere of Christianity. From from, uh, chapter 4 to the end of the portion that has been read, umm is divided up into these three different sections and explains those sections. Umm, and we'll go through each section, but this last section that has were taken up with is creation.
So if you look at those circles.
And it says one God, one Father of all in verse, I'm sorry, chapter 4 and verse six. It's one God and Father of all who is above all and through all and in all that has to do with creation. That is to say that what we're taking up with here is what God's order for us is in creation.
That is that in this world, you look around this whole world and no one is living and walking in these principles.
Why is there not honoring their husbands?
God and creation has set us in an orderly way, giving Christ as an example that we might live in the creation that he has set up in a way that's according to his mind. And so we do it in the fear of Christ because he is he is the one in whom is our example, in whom we follow. And so I just, I just say this because it brings out something that really is preceding this portion.
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So when we're reading this, what we're really reading is that we have the privilege of walking in God's creation according to his mind. You can only do that if you're filled with the spirit. You can only do that if you're enjoying the the, the pathway, the trials, the spiritual exercise, the praise that we have in these hands and and that that what do we do that we that we're obedient 1 to another.
And everything flows from that. So I just say that just so it's, it's beautiful to see that that what this is, is in this world that God has created. Only God's people live like this. Only God's people have the privilege of walking according to his mind.
Yes, that's very, very good.
Good. What others have said too, if we can be practical about it. What kind of a world do we live in today? We live in a world of self, don't we? And we have to recognize that that attitude and spirit can creep in and does creep in among believers. And without wanting to point the finger anywhere but back here, sometimes we approach marriage as if it's going to be the.
Panacea for all the problems in our lives. Everything is going to straighten out. Everything is going to go well. Once I get a life partner, everything will be nice and smooth and even. But if self is before me, it only compounds the problem, doesn't it? Because I am then expecting my partner to do everything that I want while I sit there and have my own needs satisfied.
It's a prescription for disaster, isn't it?
But what do we have here? We have Christ as the perfect example, whether it's one in submission or one in leadership.
We have said that everything and I agree with our brother Robert when he said this was written when the church was in order.
And it's true. But I think you will agree, Robert, that even when the church was in order, no one carried this out perfectly, did they? Did anyone ever submit as Christ submitted? I don't believe so.
Did any wife ever submit the way Christ submitted perfectly to the Father? No, and not only that, but the Lord submitted to the authority in this world wicked and.
Wrong as it was, he submitted to it. He showed his power. But then he allowed the Jewish leaders and the soldiers to arrest them to bind him. He allowed Pilate and the Roman soldiers to mistreat him.
Did anyone ever submit as he did? No. But did anyone ever love as He does love the church? Did any husband after love ever love his wife as Christ has loved the church? There's a husband here that does that. I'd like to meet him after the meeting. No, we didn't. We don't do that, do we? But God never sets before us an example any less than His beloved son, knowing, if we could say it reverently, full well.
That will never reach that height down here, but He sets Christ before us and as has been brought out, and I agree 100% with it, we are to look beyond the human vessel in this world and see the honor and glory of Christ beyond it.
And I suppose that, uh, this would, uh.
Also apply in the assembly situation because.
Submission is a healing principle.
Most of the divisions.
Have, uh, denied this, uh, this principle in, uh, in opposing, uh, an authority of the assembly imparted by the ward, resulting in some serious division. So the submission here, uh, in the family, so important, but also in the assembly and in the work world because, uh, there is so much, uh.
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Uh, agitation now to, uh, to oppose the authority in the, uh, secular world in order to obtain what we want. We shouldn't be part of that. We should accept our circumstances from the Lord and, uh.
And take our difficulties to the board.
Responsible position in this world isn't he. To be the husband is to take the leadership and to be in responsibility that there might be fruitfulness in the home for God. A husbandman is a farmer, another word for a farmer, and he tills the ground and so on. He's responsible to bear fruit and that's how he makes his living. But you and I that are married, we are responsible to God.
That there might be a spirit, a condition of things in the home, that there might be fruit for God, and that the whole might be ordered in such a way that there is fruit for him. And so we have the Lord Jesus. And it says in verse 25 that I'm just going to point out the actions that the Lord is presented as doing in this little passage. It says love your wives, and even as Christ also love the church.
He did that in the past. He gave himself for it. He gave, so He loved. He gave. And then what's he doing presently in verse 26? He sanctified. He's sanctifying it and cleansing it with washing of water by the Word. And then he's going to, in the future, He's going to present it to himself, a glorious church. And what's he doing right now in verse 29? He's nourishing it and cherishing it. It's wonderful to think of how Christ is cherishing.
The church he will in a future day, but he does now. He cherishes you. He nourishes you day by day and so a husband is to be the head. He is the head of the wife in verse 23 as Christ is the head of the church or the assembly. We know that this word church should be translated assembly and he is the savior of the body. Well, the body isn't saved yet. Is it worthy? We're still have.
We're waiting for the redemption of our bodies, and the Lord Jesus is going to have a perfect bride.
The man in this world doesn't have a perfect bride, and the wife doesn't have a perfect husband, but in that day the perfect husband is going to have the perfect bride, and that's what's presented to us here in this passage. And so he, Christ, is the head of the assembly. He is the Savior of the body, and he presents this fact that the church is subject under Christ.
And so let the wise be to their own husbands and everything husbands. Now we have that responsibility.
Would it be possible for a wife not to submit to a husband that dearly loved her and proved it every day? I suggest that our wives would be more, umm, fruitful in this way as they walked in the fear of Christ, as they experience the love of their husbands in a very real way. Love and giving. Marriage is a sacrificial relationship, and that's what's brought out here in verse 25. Christ loved the church and gave himself for it.
And so.
If our if the husbands were much more exercised about this and loving their wives, and not only just saying that they love their wives, but acting in a practical way, there would be fruit in the home.
Fruit for Christ, and there would be that submission.
I'd like to read a couple of verses in first Peter chapter 5, but I think applied to our topic.
First Peter, chapter 5, verse 5.
Likewise, the younger submit yourselves under the elder. Yay, all of you be subject 1 to another, and be clothed with humility, for God resisteth the proud and giveth grace to the humble. Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time.
Casting all your care upon you. Free territory. And on the topic of submission, I think that.
00:50:05
It can be helpful to remember that a lack of submission exhibits itself in many different ways in different people, and when I was growing up and needed to submit myself to my parents quite often that meant doing some chore that I didn't want to do. But I find that.
As an adult.
It is so much more difficult to accept health than to do work that you're asked to do and so.
There in verse seven, casting all your care upon him for he cares for you. Our pride often times says I can carry it all myself. I don't need any help. I'm strong enough to carry it but.
It's interesting to me that submission follows with casting your care.
On the Lord and to our brother's comments that the the yoke is easy and the burden is light, and to trust the will of God because as was mentioned, He's our Creator and our Savior. And we may think His way is more difficult, but He knows us better than we know ourselves. And so when we can submit to His plan for our lives, and that may mean accepting help from others.
But when we can submit to his plan, he knows the best way forward for us and it's going to bring much more joy and it's going to be much easier for the believer to follow His will.
Why does it say your own husband?
As opposed even 11 I I was sitting here thinking of the same language because it's in both verses. I suppose there might be a temptation to just kind of pick and choose what principles or what line of things you may you may want to adhere to. But as has been mentioned before, and I have I mentioned this to my.
Daughter when she was about to be married.
I, I spoke with, with her. Uh, seriously, if this isn't a man that you feel you can happily submit to and respect, then don't proceed into this marriage. Because the woman is the glory of the man, so to speak, in a natural sense, and is responsible to adapt to that man. Not men in general, but to that man.
And in that marriage and in that home, and she and he together, uh, uh, are responsible for the tone of things in that family. So I suppose, you know, putting myself, if I were to put myself into that position as a wife in the assembly and listening to the ministry and different brothers have a different exercises and line of things. He said, oh, I kind of like that. And I like a little this and a little of the other. Yeah. We're all members of the body of Christ and we listen, uh, re, regardless of whether we're male or female.
But when it comes to these practical matters of submission and how the principles of God, the word of God is translated into a life, it's it's your husband and your family and and that's the way it should be. It's not a pick and choose its own husband said twice. And I think in other places in the New Testament, it may say it as well.
In First Corinthians Chapter 11.
Says this, but I would have you know that the head of every man is Christ, and the head of the woman is the man, and the head of Christ is God. You'll notice there it doesn't say husband because a woman wears a head covering when she's in the presence of Mass, because Christ has placed man as head representative of his world. But it would be very wrong.
For my wife to be subject to Steve.
To be subject to her own husband because in creation God has given me the headship of my home and I believe that's part of the reason it says the head of your husband. It would be very irresponsible for another man to feel is still somehow my wife should should be under his headship or that he has some right to dictate to her. That's my responsibility and care.
00:55:16
So it's the order in which God has set up a husband and a wife.
Deal to have one man and one woman married. We know that these institutions that God has introduced and and has established in creation for man's blessing and to display some little picture of Christ in the church. Those pictures, those illustrations have been corrupted by man, corrupted thoroughly. But in first Corinthians Chapter 11.
Verse seven it says for a man indeed ought not to cover his head for as much as he is the image and.
Glory of God. But the woman is the glory of the man, so she will represent the glory of the natural man. And so she covers her head as an act of submission, showing that she submits to the order that God has created and established in creation. And so the man represents the glory of God. He's not to cover his head. There's only the room, the place for the display of one glory.
When we're engaged in divine things, whether it's singing or praying or reading the Scriptures, we're divine. We're engaged in divine activities. Why the sister has to cover her hair, her head. It's the glory of the natural man, and there's only room for the display of God in his glory, the glory of the first of the the last Adam or the last man.
I'm getting it mixed up. What is it the 1St?
Last Adam's second man, so the last Adam, his glory as a sinless man needs to shine forth. And so that's why it speaks. Paul speaks different aspects of the truth in connection with submission in there in First Corinthians Chapter 11. It speaks of when we're engaged in spiritual activity.
Was there's one condition that, uh, could be, uh, mentioned in this, uh, line of truth, and that is, uh, we ought to obey God rather than man. So if the government or the authority imposed.
A regulation, uh, contrary to the word of God, uh, we should not submit to that.
Uh, he is the highest authority of all.
Umm.
I think I heard the story of a.
The husband who was not a believer.
Who forbid his wife to attend the Lord's Day morning meeting?
Uh, some brothers that, uh, I have heard, they said, well, she should have proceeded because that is a command of the Lord, but it's not a command of the Lord. It is a request. And, uh, brother who told the story.
Was right for the wife to submit to that.
Uh, although she.
Did not want to, as she wanted to remember the Lord in his death, but she submitted to her husband in that regard. And if I remember correctly, probably Bill remembers the story that the Lord came in in a remarkable way and delivered her from that imposition.
I just wanna make a little comment in connection with the thoughts that were brought out. It would be, uh, easier for a wife to take that place that God has given her if her husband shows her the love that God intends the husband to show. I'd like to take the inverse.
Sisters, if your husband is reticent.
To take the place that God has given him as head.
Takes the place of being subject to him. Let him take that headship. You may see some activity that you discern should take place, should be happening, and he's not stepping up to what he should be doing.
01:00:12
Take the subject place. Be patient, Give him the time and space to take that place. You can't force him to take it by words.
But in a certain sense you can by taking the retiring place and saying I'm not going to fill those shoes. You have to do it.
By just taking the quiet and retiring place, there's an inverse of it as well. And there's such a great temptation to go fill those shoes and to take up. And perhaps there's more energy with the wife and more discernment.
Than the husband don't take the temptation to step into those shoes. If that activity doesn't take place, can you just submit your will to the to the will of God and leave it there and go on happily with your husband? Or you become agitated that the thing you think should be happening isn't and then you step out of the place where the Lord has given you.
To get a similar thought, don't you in First Peter chapter 3 where there is a sister that is married unbeliever?
And she's to be subject to him and everything and not adorning herself by dressing up and and her apparel, but by an obedient heart. And that it was the whole interesting in the Lord that she may win her husband to Christ by living obedience. And that's really the proper. And that's similar to what you're saying there, Steve, except you're talking about a believing husband that doesn't walk up to his responsibility.
That's very wise to give that advice, I believe.
And there is an.
Believe that perhaps we could mention here, and I believe it's an important one.
It was already pointed out that generally speaking, in Scripture, those in the position of submission are addressed first. And perhaps.
Uh, with the thought that yes, as we have just been hearing, the one in a position of leadership and authority may not be carrying that out in the right way, may not be stepping up to his or.
In some cases, her responsibilities, in the case of children perhaps. Uh, but generally the one in submission is addressed first, showing that we should submit even if the one in authority over us is not exercising it in the right way.
But then what do we find toward the end of the chapter, right in the last verse? Oh, we find the orders reversed, don't we? Verse 33 Nevertheless, let everyone of you in particular so love his wife even as himself. And then it says and the wife see that she reverence her husband.
Mr. Wigram points out in his ministry and uh, I read it many, many years ago, was quite impressed with it, he said. Generally speaking, in my experience, whenever there is failure in a sphere of authority that God has set up, it has been the higher member that failed first.
That hit me hard, but the more I have seen it in my observation and experience over the years, I feel that generally it's true. That is, that when God puts a husband, puts a master, puts parents within a sphere of authority, and gives them a charge, He holds them responsible for the character of things which they foster in that sphere of authority.
Does that excuse the one in a position of submission, as has been brought out for acting improperly? By no means. I am called, as we have sometimes said, to read my own mail. When it comes to Scripture. If I am in a position of submission, I am not to step out of it, even if the one in authority is not doing what he or she should. But at the same time, let us recognize that generally.
01:05:02
The failure starts with the one who's in the higher position. Now. Again, I heartily agree. Much trouble has come about from a lack of submission. I don't take away from that at all. But let's remember there is a serious responsibility on both sides of the equation.
Is that right, Robert?
Here it speaks in verse 32. This is a great mystery. Now under Judaism and in the previous days as Adam and his wife were created and placed in the garden, man didn't know what this relationship represented, the marriage relationship. They had no idea. The Jews had no idea. They said to the Lord Jesus in Matthew 19. Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for any cause?
They abused the marriage relationship. They didn't have any respect or reverence for it, but a believer brought into the knowledge of the truth that Christ is the head of the body and he is the bridegroom. That heavenly bridegroom were soon to be united to him, and we are a part of that bride. We acknowledge and we enjoy the fact that man, that little picture of Adam and Eve in the garden of the Lord is a picture of Christ in the church.
Price went down into death, a little picture of Adam falling into the deep sleep and the bone taken out of his rib taken out of his side and a woman built by that with that rib. It's a picture of Christ in the church. There were many mysteries that were given those things that were hidden in the past. But he says in verse 32, it's a great mystery. And so This is why.
It's brought out here in such loveliness as the.
Picture of Christ in the church is to be maintained in Christian marriage. There should be an abundant evidence, a witness, a testimony to a Christian household in the neighborhood that you live in, that I live in. It should be distinctly different to a worldly household. There should be real evidence that there's we represent Christ in the church.
And I'll just point out in verse 31, I didn't mean to go on too long, but it's umm.
The husband and the wife don't become one person.
There's still two peoples, there are two persons, there are still two wills, there's still two opinions, there's still two people that are married, but they're one flesh and so.
We need to be accurate in connection with this. That's why the Spirit of God gives this instruction. Nevertheless, let let everyone of you be in so in particular so love his wife a different person even as himself a different person and the wife see that she reverence her husband.
I feel pressed to just add one comment that I don't think has been touched on, and to do so I try to briefly tell a story that right after my wife and I were married, we were at a conference and brother Norman Barry came up to me and squared me up like he would had a habit of doing and umm.
And, uh, when he got my full attention, he looked at me very seriously and he said, I have something to tell you that which was obvious. And, and then he, you know, he kind of sit there and pause for that seemed like the longest time ever. And I thought, well, this is really gonna be heavy and he's, he's really gonna give me something good here. When he and he did, and he said, and the way Norman did, he kind of pause between each word and he said.
Listen to your wife.
Now, unfortunately my wife was standing by and heard this communication and I had been reminded of it over the years a few times. But it's important.
In in the story of that Nathan gave to David after David sends so grievously he he laid that parable out and the little you lamb was like a daughter to the man and drank out of his cup and.
And so the husband and, and we men, many of us find this difficult, but we have to open up and allow the wife to come close spiritually and emotionally.
01:10:02
Because we need that.
And it's helpful to us, and so to the brothers, I think especially we are encouraged in the Scriptures to wait upon one another.
The sisters who are silent in ministry and the assembly have the advantage of just listening and taking things in. And that's a big advantage. And so I'm sure I'm not the only one who's, you know, you if you get done speaking. And so I enjoyed that. You never know what to say. I enjoyed that. But when you get back to your room, you kind of hear hopefully the other side and you need that. And sometimes when we misbehave, brothers.
The sisters see that and not to quote any particular sister, but they say.
Don't, don't they have a wife? Don't their wives, you know, don't they ever say anything? And so submission is not being totally.
Dialing down the energy and not saying anything ever. But submission includes being a wise counselor that's in the inner circle of the man to be a help. Think of Abigail, how she handled David and she thought of his best interests and looked forward to what would be for his glory and and not to his regret. And she made a suggestion that David took in and said, wow, am I glad I listened to that. And he he took the counsel and she went home and submitted to her husband.
Who the Lord dealt with, but I just say that I'm sorry to run over the time, but I feel it's important to add that side of things for the sisters. They have spiritual understanding and wisdom and they have a special perch to be a help to that husband that no one else possibly has that opportunity to be a help. Maybe not even the brothers dearest male friend. And so don't don't ignore that that helpful portion that's yours.
So we just closed with fair.
Our God and our Father, we thank Thee for thy precious word. We.
Exactly. That's, uh, the loftiest truths have such a practical, uh, outworking in their display in our lives. We think of the things that have been before us and how they affect our walks So, uh, intimately down here in our individual pathway and our, uh, family life and in the assembly life too, for that is, uh, largely touched by, uh, our individual and family life. And so we pray.
That we might take in these directions, these exhortations, uh, words of wisdom that uh, the Spirit of God would uh, bring before our souls and uh, to walk in the good of them. We thank thee for, uh.
Practical wisdom for the pathway, but also for that high motive given to us of having everything in our lives directed towards Thy beloved Son and and as the perfect example for us, and then submission to him and His Lordship over. So we ask for help. We feel how far short we each come in these things.
And, uh, we need thy help. May we, uh, indeed have lives that are, uh, in the PO walked in the power of the Spirit of God that would exclude things of nature that otherwise would control us. So we just ask this, our God and Father and the precious name of our Lord Jesus Christ, Amen, Amen, Amen.
The Priesthood of Christ
Address—Bruce Conrad
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
We start our meeting this afternoon with singing hymn #5 in the appendix.
And #5 in the back of the book, prone to wander, Lord, I feel it prone to leave the God I love. Yet thou, Lord has designed to seal it with thy spirit from above. Some brother could start attuned to five in the appendix.
Alright, Good. Good, good, good.
Roller coaster.
Lord, I fared away.
Great.
Our God and our Father, we look up to Thee this afternoon.
For a portion from thyself, that would be a suitable food for us.
Out of snow, the needs of our hearts.
The needs of conscience and the needs that we have in every aspect of our life. And we look to Thee that Thou provide, meet and due season for Thy people. Especially think of those that are younger in the faith and younger in life are a word in season for them. We know our God and Father, that having given us gifts and having given us knowledge is not sufficient.
We are dependent upon Thee and the leading and liberty of I, Holy Spirit, to take these precious things.
And put them before us for our help and blessing. And so we look to Thee for this. We thank Thee, Lord Jesus, for Thy love, for living for us on high. And we acknowledge Thee as we've had before us today as Head of the Church, which is Thy body. And we are so relieved that Thou art still providing nourishment through all the joints and bands.
00:05:05
With yet a fine building up of the body of Christ, thine own body. And so we just count on thee for thy help, and ask for thy blessing, as we would open thy word.
Our God and Father, and the worthy and precious name of our Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.
We could turn, uh, to start with to John chapter 13. John chapter 13.
And verse 3.
Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he was come from God, and went to God. He riseth from supper and laid aside his garments, and took a towel and girded himself. After that he poured water into a basin, and began to wash the disciples feet and to wipe them with a towel wherewith he was girded. Then cometh he to Simon Peter.
And Peter saith unto him, Lord, dost thou wash my feet?
Jesus answered and said unto him, What I do thou knowest not now, that thou shalt know hereafter. And Peter saith unto him, Thou shalt never wash my feet. And Jesus answered him, If I wash, or really it's bathy not thou hast. If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me. Simon Peter saith unto him, Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head.
Jesus saith unto him, he that is washed, or really bathed.
Needeth not saved to wash his feet, but is clean every wit and ye are clean, but not all.
Subject I have on my heart today.
Is is one of those tools in our tool boxes as Christians that we do well to understand and that we need to be aware of.
For the preservation of our own souls and for those of others.
It's not my thought really to take up foot washing per SE, but to take up the care of the Lord Jesus Christ over us as we go through our journey through this life.
You and I will put our trust in Christ.
Have an eternal relationship already. It's not gonna get any closer than it is right now. We are brought into God's family.
And.
It's it almost feel embarrassed to say it, but we've been assigned a place that only Christ deserves him right or put it. We stand accepted in the place that none but Christ could claim we're joint heirs with him.
Of all that he has won as a victorious man.
Where members of his body.
We have his life, we're loved with the love that the Father has towards him. We're sons of God. We have that now. Nothing can change that or nothing can break that tie.
It's eternal and He is the one who.
Assures us in his word.
That nothing can ever take us away from that place of closeness and acceptance we have with him.
We were noticing recently in visiting with a brother.
And a couple of brothers and sisters.
And Leviticus chapter 21, I think it is. And we started to notice the 12 blemishes that would prohibit a priest from being able to exercise his priestly privileges and responsibilities.
That any one of these 12 blemishes would keep him, disqualify him from being able to offer the bread of his God. You and I know, I suspect that we are all priests and all the children of God now have this highest position here in this life as being priests. And so as you go down through those things, there are things that I believe different parts of the body.
Or different nutritional issues that that were pointed out in that list of 12 and you can look it up at your leisure.
Our mention there and I think in picture, they have to do with discouragement or they have to do with aspects of our walk that might disqualify us broken handed or broken footed or or hunched back. Or you can you can kind of put the picture together yourself. But my point here in mentioning it is that what is not in that list of 12 is anything pertaining to the ear.
00:10:09
Or anything pertaining to the mouth. You and I have heard the Shepherd's voice.
That's never gonna be undone. And as believers, no matter how far we may wander from him, we'll always have that ear. He's always the Lord. He's always the shepherd. He's never gonna leave us or forsake us. There's always going to be that Ave. between him and us to hear his voice. And so that's not on the list at all. And of course, the other thing is the mouth. We have confessed with our mouth. Jesus is Lord.
And by putting our trust in Him.
We've received the only kind of salvation God has, an eternal salvation. If you don't feel you have that salvation, you don't have God's salvation, the only one He has to offer. And if you put your trust in Him, you have the best that God has to offer. There's nothing better, there's nothing more except glory so that can never be broken.
That relationship, but what can be broken is what?
I have it on my heart to speak about today and that is the enjoyment of that relationship. When I was younger and and living up in northern New England, the brothers, we were kind of on the on the highway between Montreal and Quebec and Ontario and the Maritimes when there was so much gospel work going on there. And so we were kind of right on the literally about a mile off the highway between.
Those two places, we got so much helpful ministry and it seemed like back then a lot of the brothers spoke about communion.
We always heard about communion. I don't hear the word where I live mentioned that much or where I've been and maybe you hear about it still out here today, I don't know. But communion really is the enjoyment of the relationship and.
That as brother quoting brother Barry today, but he used to say that communion is like a spider's web. It can be easily broken. The energy of our communion and our actual practical enjoyment.
Of the favor and love of God comes through the Holy Spirit that indwells you and me, and when we grieve the Spirit. As someone has mentioned today, that communion is broken. So my exercise today is what causes that. Why does it come like that into our lives? And then what happens next? What are the options?
We turn in in this portion before we turn in John 13. I believe what the Lord was telling the disciples when He went to wash their feet.
Is that I am going to be and your brethren are going to participate in maintaining you in the enjoyment of your relationship. And then I'll walk through this life that is suitable to that relationship, IE to be washed, to have, so to speak, clean feet. We need our feet washed. And Peter, of course, lovable Peter.
That first says, Oh Lord, you're not you a great one as you.
To wash my feet. This is inappropriate. And then the Lord tells them as we read, if I don't wash you, you don't have a part with me. It's practical. And then Peter goes to the other extreme and he says, oh, and wash, wash every. Wash my head, wash my hands, wash it. No, he said, it's just your feet. You're bathed already. And as believers, we're already bathed. We have been judicially forgiven.
Through the work of Christ, we have believed on Him.
And all the value of his work, which he fully understands, has now flowed out to us for our eternal blessing.
You don't have to understand all about the gospel to get all the fruit of it in your life. It's an enjoyable study. But he knows, as one brother put it, I read years ago, he knows what he did, and he applies all the goodness of that to you and me. So we need the maintenance of this relationship. Turn, let's turn quickly to Romans chapter 5.
Romans 5 and verse 9 much more than being now justified by His blood.
We shall be saved from wrath through Him. This is what we've been speaking about. As to our position in Christ, that can never change.
For if when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.
And then over in Hebrews, I think it's the 7th chapter, a similar passage I'd like to refer to.
00:15:03
In Hebrews Chapter 7.
And verse 24.
But this man.
Because he continued with ever hath an unchangeable priesthood, wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him.
Seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them. For such an high priest became us who was holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, made higher than the heavens.
The Lord Jesus Christ lives for us on high.
Having died for us on Calvary's cross.
Been raised out from among all the rest of the debt.
He's a glorified man and he's in heaven and there he intercedes for us all the time. It's a continuous service. You don't have to ask for it, you can count on it.
And he delights to exercise it for us in love.
It's not something that kicks in only when we need it, because we need it all the time.
That lovely him, his hands uplifted in sympathy and love.
And yet it says in this 25th verse he is able.
Also to save them to the uttermost and I believe that aspect of saving has to do with our life here.
To save them to the uttermost or forever evermore.
That come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth.
And so I read a a pamphlet.
Where the brother raised this question, I thought it was excellent.
And the question was, well, if the Lord Jesus serves as our high priest always and he's always able.
Why then do we fail? Or why then do we fall?
Peter wrote in his epistle, We are kept by the power of God unto salvation, ready to be revealed in the last day, last time.
But on the other hand, we read in Jude, Keep yourselves in the love of God.
And like with many of the aspects of our position and of our life, there are two sides to it.
There's God's sovereign prerogative which he exercises.
And as a sovereign God, He's exercised the prerogative to give you and me responsibility.
And so, yes, he is our great High Priest.
But he wants us to come unto God by him.
Yes, he said. I'm gonna keep you. But he says keep yourselves in the love of God.
And this is an exercise for us.
When I was newly saved as a young man, there were some older brothers next generation up. My dad's generation took me under their wing.
And some of the things, many of the things they said were prophetic in the sense that I didn't understand the need and import for them at the time. But as the years went on, boy, did those words just keep coming back and coming back and coming back.
Brother Royce Temple, maybe some of you have remembered, was kind of a father to me. You say Brother Isaiah is going to come a time in your life when you're just going to be.
When you kind of feel two weeks of pray.
So he says, what do I do? I just look up to the Lord, and I say, Preserve me, O God, for thee. Do I put my trust? That's a pretty short prayer.
Another prayer he suggested to me was.
One of those shorter versions was hold down me up and I shall be safe.
I can't remember how many times I've been in that exact situation, probably through my own lack of, of, uh, managing budgeting my time and spiritual diligence where I felt when I get up, I had to really get moving and go and everything pressed on me.
But how many, many times you know as you feel a little bit neglectful of your spiritual life?
00:20:00
And I've had to.
Utter that prayer and how thankful I am that the suggestion was made.
These are great high priest and we want to come unto him to be preserved. It's amazing to me and natural things.
Sometimes how little it takes to keep something where it belongs.
We build things for a living and the things nowadays are getting bigger and bigger.
And you can build a big structure, a temporary structure to build another structure, or you can build a big column, say for a bridge or something like that, or a big set of forms. And it just takes a few cables in the right place to keep all that heavy load, all that mass, and it kind of stays up there.
But if it just starts to go out a little bit, oh boy, that gets really heavy. If it goes out a little further, oh, it gets so heavy, so heavy. That's the way it can be. In our spiritual lives, it's our wisdom to seek to keep things centered, Paul said. I keep keep under my body. In other words, I keep my balance about me. I keep myself oriented properly.
He didn't want to be after he preached to others like a castaway.
And so God has given us responsibilities in our spiritual life.
Paul wrote to Timothy. We have two epistles.
And he mentioned many times in his epistles to Timothy the need for faith.
And a good conscience.
And we need both, don't we?
A brother nicely put it this way.
Faith really brings God into our circumstance and into our life. A good conscience is the result of keeping things out of our lives that don't belong. It's kind of a front door and a back door, kind of a right hand and a left hand.
When I was, uh, newly married and just starting to have a couple of children, we moved back to our to the assembly in Palmyra where we had been and I had been transferred for.
Three or four, maybe four years or so.
And we had a few more kids and we needed, uh, more space, we felt. And so we added on to our house and, uh, was working in an office at that time, which was kind of easy duty. And so I would come home at night and, uh, and have, uh.
Have dinner with the family and then the little ones would be off to bed and my wife would, uh, take over there and I'd go into that part of that. They used to call it Daddy's house because I wouldn't let them in there. I didn't want them getting hurt. And uh, into the evening I would, uh, I would tape sheetrock because there's no saws, there's no hammers, there's no noise. But it's a lot of man hours to spackle these joints and tape them and all that stuff. And I listen to tapes.
And I can remember listening to that tape by, uh, Harry Hayhoe, who I'd never met.
And in the tape and I'm just kinda in my own world listening like I was sitting in the meeting and taken away there and, uh.
He made this comment at least once and it kind of stuck with me. He said I wouldn't be able, brethren. He said I wouldn't be able. It was in an address. I wouldn't be able to stand before you today if I didn't get down on my knees and ask God for help to carry on something like that.
And here I'm 30 something 30, I don't know, 33 or 34. And I'm saying, come on, I have heard of this guy. This is Harry Hale. I've met Gordon, I've met Albert and uh, these men are giants in the faith. You know, he kind of exaggerating this kind of making it dramatic.
As I was, I was a young, untested, probably half of an irritant to my brethren at that time, I'm sure, and I just couldn't see it. But as time went on, Oh my.
Those words have come back to me so many times.
If you haven't hit that stage in your life, young believer, I hope you never do. But if you do, remember what he said. He got down on his knees and he asked Lord for the strength to carry on. Put one foot in front of another, as we say, because there is an adversary. It's not just that we go out spoiling for a fight with the new armor that we've gotten as believers.
00:25:08
In the 6th chapter of Ephesians, I got this great armor. I'm gonna go out and I'm gonna go. I'm gonna go. I'm gonna swing this thing around here.
No, the fight will be brought to you.
And the armor is largely defensive, and it's for the front of you.
And it's needed because your adversary, the devil, walketh about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.
And he'll find and look for the ***** in your armor. And whether it's spiritual, doctrinal, emotional.
Whether it's through the lust of the flesh or the lust of the eye, or the pride of life or whatever it might be, those ****** will be explored.
We have a text on the wall of our house. We've always kept it wherever we've lived. Near the near the door, everybody goes out. Usually the back door says greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world. I don't mean to frighten anyone because we have the resources and capacity to withstand the Wiles of the devil and to stand.
He's he. He fits us and will fit us.
But how? We need that resource. And I can tell you, I've been so discouraged in my life and I don't think a soul knew it.
And across my mind, why don't I just give up?
Why is it that older people, sometimes their children get to a certain age and they leave the large table?
He said, well, that's disappointing.
Then the parents leave.
Why would you do that?
It happens, you all, everyone has seen it.
And you say getting back to our.
Question that was raised, if the Lord is able to keep us to the uttermost, why does he even allow failure in our life?
Why didn't Peter? Why didn't Paul, why didn't the Lord Jesus say to Peter?
I prayed for the.
And you're not gonna fall.
Why did he say that? He could have said that.
He could have made that situation not happen.
But he saw in Joel something he wanted to perfect. He has such aspirations for you and me, higher than we probably even have for ourselves. It has such aspirations.
Wants us to enjoy. He's a Potter and we're the clay and He wants to enrich us now. Not when we get homes merely, but now.
So Job, a righteous man, he said Satan came and Satan thought he had going to have his way, and he did to a certain extent.
But God allowed all those trials in his life.
And so I suggest to you, and I think I found it so in my own life, that the Lord has allowed me to fail. And he's just stepped back a little bit and pulled that protection away, that hedge like Job had around him. Because we need to learn lessons that we were, as we say in slang, we are a little bit too much of A knucklehead.
To learn in a better way.
I ought to have been able to learn a lot of the lessons I've learned in life from the lessons I have in this book.
Because all scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable and the things that were written aforetime were written for our learning.
Well, I've had to go through some things in my life that are very humbling.
Things I should have learned from this book and from the experience of David and Joel and Peter, but I had to learn them in my life, and perhaps you'll learn them in your life that way.
If we turn to 1St John chapter 2.
We see that there's another aspect.
Of the Lord Jesus living for us on high.
And that is, uh, we'll pick up in first John for John's first epistle.
And verse 7.
I'm sorry, verse six, if we say that we have fellowship with him.
Communion with him, fellowship with him, and walk in darkness. We lie and do not the truth.
But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another in the blood of Jesus Christ. His Son cleanseth us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. We say that we have not sinned. We make Him a liar, and His word is not in US. My little children, these things right? I answer you that.
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Not and if any man's sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.
And He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the whole world.
When the Lord Jesus and his wisdom with in his special care in your life and in my life.
Determines that we need to go through some experiences.
To do us good at our latter end.
And we fall or fail.
The Lord Jesus.
Is there as our advocate with the Father because as we started the meeting with, we're in relationship, the relationship Joseph doesn't change. God is now our father. We are sons of God. We are children and his family. It's not a question of kicking us out of the family.
It's a question of working with us to address the failure to restore us into communion, into fellowship with him practically.
And so if we I believe we read the verse about Christ as our high priest, He's a merciful and faithful high priest to us, merciful and faithful to us. But here it says he is faithful.
Looking for the verse if any man sin we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.
I'm sorry, it's verse nine. We are confessed our sins. He is faithful and just to forgive us, to forgive us our sins.
And the truth of propitiation is brought in here, I feel, to show that that our Father is faithful to that work which has been accomplished for our blessing. It's not faithful and just to us because we deserve the fruit of our deeds. God is not mocked as a man's souls, so shall He also reap.
So it can't be faithful and just to us. It's faithful and just to Christ in that sense, faithful to that work that has been accomplished for God's glory on Calvary's cross, faithful to the position he's put us in, and based upon the value of that work.
And as Christ is our advocate, he works with us in a different way, works in our souls if we were to read in he in Romans chapter 8, the Spirit itself makes intercession for us, and Christ intercedes for us in this way when we fail to restore us. And I'd like to look briefly as our time is left to a situation that we have in the book of Second Samuel with David.
With which I'm sure most are familiar and I think we can see in a practical picture.
Evidence of this work with one who is.
So strikingly called a man after God's own heart.
We pick up the accounts in Second Samuel 11.
And it came to pass after the year was expired at the time when kings go forth to battle.
That David sent Joab and his servants with him and all Israel, and they destroyed the children of Ammon and besieged Rabbah, But David tarried still at Jerusalem.
It, it can be a humbling lesson for you and I as Christians as we become young adults and we start to take hold spiritually and start to grow and start to feel like we're making some progress and some traction to realize that our flesh, that fallen nature that we have, that John said we have that sin in US and if we deny it, we're a liar. It never gets any better.
And whenever we go back to it, it always acts the same way.
00:35:03
Never improves.
Another statement I found hard to swallow at first was when our late brother Clarence Lundin, and I can't remember whether it was in a, in a, in an address or whether we were just standing in line for our meal and he looked at us younger brothers. We were all kind of hanging on his words. We loved him so much.
And he says, you young brothers don't know what sin is.
And I thought to myself without saying anything.
I thought I knew what sin was. I wasn't saved till I was 23. I was a pretty prodigal. Prodigal. Well, I thought I knew what sin was before he said that with such conviction.
I stash that away and you know he's right.
You think you know what sin is as a young person because you see this world's display all around you.
Fall around. You can't. Can't ignore it and you can't. It's just there.
But as you grow spiritually and as the Lord, if the Lord tarries and you have more experience, you look back from a perspective that you didn't have when you were young, and you'll see that same flesh which has not gotten a bit better.
In in such a more deeper and profound context, and I think that's what Brother Londin was referring to. Doesn't get any better. Here's a man after God's own heart.
Here's a man that slew the lion and the bear as a young as a youth he went out after Gath when when hundreds of thousands were petrified.
He behaved himself wisely.
He was.
Be sought to the point where This is why it why bother to chase me? What am I?
And he had the opportunity to do away with his his adversary, and he deferred in holy respect to the authority the Lord had put on that King's Hall, and so on. All these beautiful things we see in David.
But we see in his life in weaknesses too.
And here we get to this chapter and we see that instead of going out as the warrior king, that was really his portion, he's hanging back in Jerusalem. He's complacent.
And like I said, with that great big structure that you're holding up.
It will be loss of life and limited falls.
And it doesn't take much to keep it there, but when it starts to go out, Oh my, it can really go and snap cables and cause death and destruction when it gets away from its center.
I'm old enough to have remembered the first time since I was saved later in my as a young adult, I can remember the first time I read many passages and what my impression was, and I can remember reading through this story for the first time And you're following the story along and, and you just have to stop and say, I can't believe this. I can't believe he would do that.
But we believe it. We're made of the same stuff.
And so with Scripture in in our New Testament knowledge now says walk in the Spirit and you shall not fulfill flesh's lost. There's practical instruction for us to look to the Lord to be preserved in the enjoyment of Christ.
That we don't get complacent, that we don't say this armor is a little too hot or this armor doesn't isn't really needed today. And the next thing you know, you've got some arrows in you and you're on your heels and things can snowball.
And so it was in David's life.
So it was in David's life.
It's hard to I'm not gonna read the whole account.
It's hard to imagine that a man that was favored in such a way and had such a a a godly and upright man as we would say today, working for him.
To steal a man's wife.
And you know, once, once, once we get out of center.
As the old brothers used to say, Sin doesn't travel solo.
Sin usually travels in pairs and one thing leads to another.
And David's conscience was so hardened at this point. Maybe that's too strong a word. His conscience was so inactive.
00:40:05
That he just starts dealing with things as if he's playing with Legos or something rather than people's lives.
And so he's going to cover it up with the taking of the life of Uriah.
And on he goes in his sin.
Why do we get away from the Lord? Because we get away in our heart.
Keep thy heart, the word of God says above all keeping or everything that is kept for out of it are the issues of life if you have something very fragile.
And very precious and very important.
You wanna protect it?
I've seen men in military and other special circumstances protect special things and man do they go to a lot of extreme.
That's what you and I need to do with our own hearts.
And the heart grows cold.
And then things start to tip.
And our affection towards him starts to dial down. Still going to meeting.
Still going to meeting.
Still reading the word.
And then we start effects our relationship with our brethren, with our family.
And then effects how we walk in this life because our feet are not washed.
And separation goals. And then things begin to snowball. And pretty soon this is the story of you and me, and we're just going along this way like sleepwalkers.
Instead of walking in the in the sensed presence of God.
And that's the way we can be.
And so Nathan comes to David in the 12Th chapter and relates to him this.
Parable.
With the.
Verse four. There came a traveler onto the rich man, and he spared to take of his own flock, and of his own herd, to dress for the wayfaring man that was come unto him, and took the poor man's lamb, and dressed it for the man that was come to him.
And Davide anger was greatly kindled against the man, And he said to Nathan, As the Lord liveth, the man that hath done this thing shall surely die.
And he shall restore the Lamb fourfold, because he did this thing, and because he had no pity.
Nathan said to David.
Thou art demand.
What David did not lose in his state of soul, as we would say, is his sense of righteousness.
He called it right academic or theoretical. When this happens, you do this.
When the local assembly gets that way, brethren, we're in trouble.
Things get routine. Where's the rule book? This happens, so we do that.
Brother said to me the other day, he quoted to me, He said, you know when a person gets away from the Lord in their heart.
There's the display of two things, self will and self righteousness.
What a what a couple of what a what a couple of those two are.
You don't wanna meet a person that is driven by self will.
And full of self righteousness.
To stop and think about it, it's a bad combination.
David was self-righteous, he had no clue, insensitive to how he was going on and this is one of the worst problems of us. When we get away from the Lord in our heart is because we have no sense of it anymore.
Isn't that true?
The way the children of Israel got.
Lord had to say to them through Jeremiah, Thou hast forgotten me days without number.
Wow, have you ever done that?
You can do that.
You can be going to meeting and walking in and out of meeting and taking part in the meetings and everything in your life can be OK. You're not doing what David did.
But in your heart you drifted from the Lord.
You're a sweet Walker.
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I've been in that situation. I have sad to have to confess. I can remember laying down in the dark, putting my head on the pillow and the Lord saying to me, hey, Remember Me?
What a what a sobering verse.
Days without number we can get at a distance from the Lord.
And it's characterized by the lack of enjoyment.
It's characterized by self righteousness and indifference really to our brethren and a careless walk that mingles with things that we shouldn't be involved in.
And it's characterized by indifference to all of the above.
Who me? The Lord says that the book I can remember that when I finally got to for my first time reading through the book of Malachi. I'm about to finish the Old Testament for the first time and get to Malachi and the book starts. I have loved you, saith the Lord, and I just got done reading all that stuff.
And the Lord says I've loved you and I just, I think I had to just stop after that. Man, that's really something.
And one of the children, did you say where it?
We're indifferent.
But oh, Nathan's words affected David.
And this is a picture, really, of what the Spirit of God will do with us.
When God graciously.
Through the work of his son as our advocate.
Intercedes for us when we failed.
In Psalm 23, even the young children know the verse that says He restoreth my soul.
You can't restore yourself.
You can't wake up one day because somebody, finally the Lord, used one of your brethren to finally touch your conscience.
And you say you know, and you feel there's a word from the Lord. You just have to get by yourself and digest it. Just a passing comment a brother or sister might make.
So I wanna get back to the enjoyment of the Lord. I wanna get back to the way I need to be living in personal enjoyed relationship with Christ.
OK, so you go to bed, get up the next morning. How does it go?
What's it like when you've, uh, neglected your personal care? When you don't exercise?
When you eat too much.
When you, my daughters are all kind of healthy people now and so you're not supposed to eat at this time of night and all the rest, what happens? Say, oh, I'm going to, I'm going to get healthy now. You can't get up in the morning.
OK, I'm going to go jog 2 miles, I'm going to eat some granola or something and all of a sudden boom, here we are. Doesn't work that way. We all know that it doesn't work that way spiritually either.
But there is a way back for us.
He restoreth my soul.
If we were to turn and time is about gone, so we won't. But in Numbers 19 we see that there was a waters of separation for when a person had become unclean.
And the person was supposed to do something on the third day. Let let, let us, let us do. Turn to it and hold your finger. Turn some numbers 19.
In numbers 19.
And verse 11, just to pick it up in the middle there he that touches the dead body of any man shall be unclean seven days. He shall purify himself with it on the third day, and on the 7th day he shall be clean. But if he purify not himself the third day and the 7th day he shall not be clean.
On the third day, they're sorrow.
The 7th day, figuratively speaking, there's joy again.
On the third day.
We are led to feel the magnitude of the distance we've allowed between us and our Savior.
On the 7th day, we're brought back into the enjoyment of our Savior.
And we marvel at the grace he shows to us nonetheless.
And so if we were to turn to Psalm 50, not 51, which is a Psalm that is directly connected to this experience, and we won't read it for the sake of time, but we see there that that the exercise of the psalmist of David was not just to have things made forgiven.
00:50:10
But that he might.
Have a restored sense of holiness, and then he might have joy again. And as you go through that Psalm, you can see those steps. And so in our passage in Second Samuel 12, we see.
As Nathan had said to David.
Thou art the man, and this is the beginning, you might say, of the third day with David. The first sign of a turn in David's soul is he confesses his sin.
But confession isn't restoration. Confession is an act that you do.
And despite the fact that David said the man that did this thing shall surely die, Nathan says thou shalt not die. He was forgiven.
That's an act that God chose to do. Is it all over now? Everything good? No.
There's a process that David needs to go through. There's a process that you and I go through. There's a process that Peter went through.
In that process whereby we arrive at a deeper sense and we restored to the joy of our salvation.
And so if you turn down to for example.
To verse 20. It's a little picture here. Then David arose from the earth after he.
Finds out that the child has died.
David arose from the earth, and washed and anointed himself, and changed his apparel, and came into the House of the Lord, and worshipped. Then he came to his own house, and when he required, they set bread before him, and he did eat.
Confession is an act.
That David did repentance was a process that probably followed.
And worked in his heart for the rest of his life.
Forgiveness was an act that God did at that moment, pronounced by Nathan, but the restoration of the soul of David was a process that went on.
And this is what our brethren go through when they have a fall, and we should be aware of it.
And if the Lord has to pull back the hedge and you and me and we go through something like that, let's be intelligent if that's what we're going to go through.
And a person that decides, you know, I need to take care of myself. This is not upright for me to live this way in a natural sense, What do you gotta do? You just gotta put your head down and just day by day, just start. Cease to do evil. Learn to do well, even in natural things.
And so, as it says in the 16th Psalm, I have said, the Lord always before me.
You can do that. It's what I call priming the pump. She's got cold in your soul.
Get the one of the gospels open or an epistle open before your soul and just start priming your pump. You can do that. You can't change your heart, you can't warm your own heart, you can't do any of those things. But you can set the Lord before yourself.
And that's what this man in the psalmist in the 16th Psalm did.
I have said the Lord always before me. Isn't that beautiful? And guess what?
That sense of the Lord's presence started to work in his life, and he regains confidence. Because thou art at my right hand, I shall not be moved. And eventually at the end of the Psalm, it brings joy. We don't function properly as Christians when we're not happy.
My wife, you know, you haven't seen us much for the last seven or eight years. She comes walking in and she looks all down and dreary and everything like that and say, what kind of a life are you living? What kind of a husband you have?
I don't know exactly how you feel about it, but I feel when I'm not happy in my soul, and I don't mean to be giddy jumping up and down, but if you're not happy in your soul, I feel, I feel it's a reproach to the Lord because He died and He has made everything necessary for me to be happy even in the midst of every circumstance He could bring in my life. Doesn't mean I'm not experiencing difficulty.
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As the apostle Paul could say, as sorrowful and yet always rejoicing.
Only a Christian can understand a verse like that as sorrowful yet always rejoicing. So David goes through this process in type here where he's cast upon the Lord, and he goes through the third day and he feels the weight and his eyes are open and he sees the horror. But I can't, you can say I can't believe how I got into this state and judges that.
And self judgment is is is one of the old pamphlets put it. What does it say? The inescapable condition.
Of a walk or a life in communion with God.
If we don't judge ourselves, God will step in and judge us.
Yes, we are all the recipients of the grace of God, and the grace of God has brought us into God's family, and now he's our Father. And Peter says, if you call on not God, if you call on the Father, who without respect of persons judgeth according to every man's works past the time of your sojourning here.
Not fear that I'll lose my salvation.
But fear that I will disappoint my Father, my Savior, myself, my brethren, and my testimony, my usefulness to my brethren, will all will fall.
And so David gets up, he washes, he anoints himself, he changed his apparel and the psalmist. And as we read in first, John.
Our conscience and our heart. We wanna know we're forgiven. We wanna know it's OK again. But more than that, we wanna be LED in paths of righteousness for His namesake. We wanna do right now because our heart is right and that's what He wants and we wants, and we're in fellowship together.
And that's why I believe the psalmist in Psalm 51 and in one John one and two goes on to the effect of restoration in the life.
And so these are indications in our brethren, in our children, and our brethren in our local assembly.
Of what the work of God is going on in their lives.
We should be intelligent about it.
Our time is up. Let's just turn in closing to Isaiah.
Chapter 57 Think it is chapter 57.
In verse 15.
The habitations of God. For thus say, at the high and lofty one that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is holy, I dwell in the high and holy place with Him also, that is, of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.
God obviously could dwell anywhere he wants to dwell.
Catalon, 1000. Hills or his?
He's a high and lofty one that inhabits eternity, but such is his heart that he wants to dwell with you and me.
He wants our fellowship. He could have saved us and not given us a new nature, just forgiving your sins and left us in a certain sense to go on the way we were. No, we wouldn't do that.
It didn't have to give us the capacity to enter into divine things now. He could have waited till we got home to glory. Couldn't you?
But He's given us that now, in the midst of this world of difficulty and infirmity, because He wants our fellowship now.
He has and dwells in the high and lofty place, but wants to dwell with you and me. And then in John 14, last verse.
In John 14, so very well known in the beginning of the chapter, the Lord Jesus speaks about His Father's house.
And how He has gone to prepare a place for us. If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself. That hasn't happened yet.
But notice down in verse 23.
Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man loved me, he will keep my word. I believe that you'd say, and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him and make our abode with him, rather than that's now.
That's during this wilderness journey.
He wants to be with us on our way through. He wants to see our confidence. He wants to hear our voice because he thinks our countenance is lovely and our voice is sweet, and he wants our fellowship.
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When?
Joseph sent his brethren back to.
Get their father.
Says he gave them provision for the way.
When you and I fail, it's our fault.
Because He's given us all things that pertaining to life and godliness, and we don't have to fail. He's given us wagons full of provisions, so to speak.
It gave them provision for the way, but a couple of verses down from that, what does it say?
To see that you fall not out, by the way.
See that you're falling on it, by the way.
So, young young brother, young sister, there's no joy in this world like the joy of being able to walk along in simplicity in our everyday circumstances, enjoying the precious, sweet truth of God in fellowship with the Father and the Son. Let's be jealous of it.
You can't go through on Mom and Dad's exercise. Lot came out of Egypt, had a tent just like Abraham had, but he had no altar. And pretty soon Lot veered off and ended up not in a tent at all. And you know the rest of the story. And Abraham was preserved and he was useful and he was blessed and happy, and so were his sons.
So let's let's see that we don't fall out by the way.
And take advantage of God's rich provision that we might be preserved as we go on. Whether it's one day or 1000 days or how many. Until the Lord comes, let's just pray.
Our God, our Father.
We thank Thee for Thy love to us, that love that will never let us go.
We thank thee that thou so concerned with our.
Our lives, our hearts, our minds without us even allow these humbling circumstances with us at times to humble us and to do us good at our latter end.
We thank Thee, Lord Jesus, for living for us on high, and we thank Thee for restoring us when we get out of the way. We shall look back at the end of our journey, we're sure. And we shall praise Thee in fuller, richer tone for the way that Thou hast LED us through this wilderness. We thank Thee for thy love, Lord Jesus, We ask Thy blessing upon the portions that we've had before us.
We pray for the young people and those young in the faith that they would take hold at a young age of that which is really life.
Maintain faith and a good conscience, that they might be happy and fruitful. Or Jesus for Thy glory, while we wait for Thee to come to take us to be with Thyself. We give Thee thanks, blessed Savior, and thy worthy and precious name. Amen.
Ephesians 6:1-9
Reading
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166 was in my law Possess we not our star by night, our sun by day.
Lord, thou hastro.
Now let us cry. I never very far.
I expressed a joy converting.
Thyself, our own, thy soul is by. I've got to play. It's a wild marketing noise and you can't come and flower here.
Oh no, it's late. You're right here. What, are you going to come back out and again?
Oh my dear.
And I changed my heart. I won't be for myself.
I'm changed out of all my gracious all I heard. We have, and I see it like here in the world.
Where you are.
That's great, our loving God and our Father, we ask for help for this time that we anticipate spending over Thy word.
We acknowledge that Thou has spoken to us over the past meetings, and we thank you for the words of.
Reproof and instruction that we've received for our hearts and for our conscience. Now we would just ask for a fresh portion here this afternoon.
'Cause that there would be strength and energy to carry out in our lives what we would hear and just that our, our hearts would be warmed and that there would be that that energy to follow the Lord Jesus. And so we would ask for thy help in this. Commit this time to thee and thy name we pray, Lord Jesus. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.
We kind of talked in general terms about Ephesians 5 in the last meeting. Uh, do you have any thought where we should start, Tim?
I was hoping we could start with Ephesians 6. That would be OK with the brethren.
No, there's much more that could be said in chapter 5, but.
We go back there, we may never get to chapter 6, so the 1St 9 verses of chapter 6.
Perhaps that would be good.
Ephesians chapter 6, verse one.
Children, obey your parents and the Lord, for this is right. Honor thy father and mother, which is the first commandment, with promise, that it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long on the earth. And ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath, but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.
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Servants, be obedient to them that are your masters, according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in singleness of your heart, as unto Christ, not with eye service as men pleasers, but as the servants of Christ doing the will of God from the heart.
With goodwill, doing service as to the Lord, and not to men, knowing that whatsoever good thing any man doeth, the same shall he receive of the Lord, whether he be bond or free. And ye masters do the same things unto them, forbearing, threatening, knowing that your Master also is in heaven, neither is their respective persons with him.
And what alluded to in the previous meeting, that there are different ones that are instructed in this passage that we've had in Thursday season chapter 5 and exceeds in season chapter 6, might just point them out because God is very orderly in how He presents the truth in His Word. And so we have in verse 22, and then we have the husband instructed in verse 25.
And then we have the children instructed in chapter 6, verse one. And then we have the umm.
Fathers instructed in verse four. Then we have servants.
In verse five. And then we have the masters in verse 9.
And then we might say in verse 10 that we have the brethren, My brethren, I know it's not a part of those.
Instructions. But it's good to remember that these practical exhortations do eventually have a bearing upon how we go on with our brethren. And our brother Gordon used to remind us that if the family is not in good order, your family is not in good order, and there's an unhappy state in the family.
It's sooner or later filters down into the assembly. And so we could say that that 7th one in verse 10 has to do with the assembly. And so he says, finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord.
We have in this chapter, verse one, a word that we haven't come across yet. That's the word obey. There's two kinds of obedience.
One is horse obedience. There's a word for that. That's a pressure.
We have had before us a different kind of obedience. In the previous chapter, a word that was means voluntary obedience. That submission has been pointed out.
There is submission as a thing of the heart. It's a voluntary obedience.
And so we have voluntary obedience to one another as brethren.
We have.
An expectation to the wife to be involuntary obedience.
Umm, but then come to children. It doesn't say submission. There should be submission, but it simply said obey because that is a command and it's it's not.
I mean, uh, whether it's oppressive or not, they're commanded to obey. And so likewise the service, they're commanded to obey. But the exhortation, especially to our brothers or wives is that do it voluntarily. And I think for children, it would be a good thing if they would do it voluntarily also. And.
I'll just bring that out the difference in.
Voluntary obedience and the.
Forced obedience.
Along that same line, Paul, someone has made the comment and there's truth in it that rules without a relationship produce rebellion.
00:10:09
Now rebellion is wrong. It's always wrong in that sense. And so we should obey. Children are to obey. But as you say, it's nice if it's voluntary. It should be that way. And the reason that it can be voluntary is again contained for us in verse 4, where we get the injunction, especially to fathers.
Not to provoke their children to RAW, that is, not to create an atmosphere of oppression, an atmosphere of rigid rules without any relationship at all. That tends to make rebellion in the child. So it's beautiful to see how perfectly balanced the scripture is. But at the same time, and properly so, it does not take away from the need for us to obey if we find ourselves in the position of children.
Because it says in verse one, this is right or this is just, I think is the Darby puts it very, very important principle which sad to say, we are finding is being severely neglected in the modern world.
And if we may say so, that attitude and and spirit is filtering down into Christianity where the wisdom of the world.
Such as it is, is being allowed to usurp the wisdom of the Word of God. But it's very, very important that children be taught to obey and to be taught to obey without questioning, without reasoning, without objections, and all the rest of it.
Very, very important according to Scripture and to maintain God's order in the home.
In Colossians chapter 3 we also have an excitation to obedience. Here it says.
Uh, obey your parents and the Lord and Colossians 3.
It says, obey your parents in all things. Then it goes on to say, For this is well pleasing, on to the war. So it's not only right, but it is well pleasing unto the Lord.
You might also say that.
We don't want to give license for a child to be disobedient, but we've had an order set before the children, but I believe is absolutely necessary. They should see in the household a wife that is obedient to her husband, and they should also see a husband that loves his wife. If those two things aren't seen in the family and there's this order in that, it's very difficult.
For a child to have been schooled properly and that love scene to obey, to learn to obey. Now again, I'm saying I'm not giving license, but I am saying that scripture puts things in order before it gets to the children that they might have proper objects to have learned from.
It's going to be like, uh, Eli, if you look at uh.
For Samuel, chapter 3.
Uh, we probably know these scriptures, but, uh.
Verse 11 And the Lord said to Sam, You'll behold, I will do a thing in Israel, at which both the ears of everyone that heareth it shall tingle, And that day I will perform against Eli all things which I have spoken concerning his house. When I begin, I will also make an end. When I told him that I will judge his house forever for the iniquity which he knoweth. Notice he was responsible here because.
Because his sons.
Make themselves vile and be restrained them not.
Therefore I have sworn unto the House of Eli that the iniquity of Eli's house shall not be purged with sacrifice nor offering forever. By contrast, Abraham commanded his house before him. Uh, so there's that authority, uh, uh, residing in the head of the house.
00:15:11
It's interesting that the order that's given in the instruction here is, uh, to the wife, as we've said, and to the husband. And then the fruit of the marriage now is the children and there's instruction given to the children. And so it's instructive to read. I just want to turn to Malachi chapter 2. It says there in Malachi chapter 2 That just part way through verse 14.
And it says, She is thy companion, and the wife of thy covenant. And did not he make one, one flesh, yet had he the residue of the Spirit? And wherefore one, that he might seek a godly seed. And so a Christian boy, young man, and a Christian young sister.
Mary, and what God's purpose was among the children of Israel is that a godly seed might be the result.
Of that union.
And so he was looking for fruit, and in the epistles of the Ephesians here he brings in this.
Fruit of the marriage, children. And there was to be that spirit that would be consistent with Christianity, a spirit of obedience and submission to the parents. And so this is right, or this is just. And then that's in the home. And then I believe verse two goes beyond it. Doesn't it honor thy father and mother, which is the first commandment, with promise that it may be well with thee and that thou mayest live long on the earth?
You will notice, and I'm not a very old man, but I have noticed in my brief time in this scene that those that rebel against their parents and those that dishonor their parents in a public way, generally speaking, have a shorter life than those that submit to their parents and those that honor their parents. Now it says in the Lord. And so I believe that there's a recognition that the children know the Lord Jesus as Savior and submit to Him.
As they acknowledge his lordship over them, but it's there's a reward we might say for obedience to the word of God. It's the first commandment with promise that it may be well with thee and thou mayest live long on the earth. That was a promise specifically to the Jews to the children of Israel. But God in a sense applies this in the New Testament as.
Uh, evidence, umm, in his governmental ways, that he allows a longer life as a result of obedience to the Word of God and to the principles of the Word of God.
Yes, that's very, very true.
And even if God does allow them to have a relatively longer life, it doesn't go well with them, does it?
We can't use the converse and say that because someone as a Christian was taken home relatively young that we act or think in reverse and say, well, probably they didn't honor their parents correctly or something like that. No.
But at the same time, it is an important principle that God transfers over from the Old Testament. It's true even among us today that things do not go well with those who float the God-given authority of parents in the home.
In the last chapter we talked about, I think you mentioned it probably Bill, about reading our own mail.
This is very important when it comes to the husband and wife, but in a certain sense what we have here with the children and verse one is the male of the parents as well.
It's uh.
Actually, something that the parents need to pay attention to, you might say this is written to the children. And so when they get old enough and understand what this means and they're to do this, but that's not so. I mean, it is true, but it's not the only thing that's true. Before they're old enough to understand it, the parents need to teach it to them. And it's important as parents, we're responsible to teach that kind of Obi obedience to the children.
From when they're very young.
Look at First Timothy chapter 3 here. It's in this chapter speaking about the overseer and the assembly. And it's often been mentioned that this is what's required of an oversight overseer, but it certainly gives the qualifications that should be just so for a Christian father. And one of the things it says here in verse 4 is.
00:20:30
Says one that ruleth well his own house, having his children in subjection with all gravity.
That's his responsibility, that they should be in that state. And no doubt there's various parts to that, such as having the marriage relationship in order, as already mentioned. But it also has to do with the father and the mother teaching the children from the earliest age that obedience and that authority without apologizing for it or any way shirking that responsibility that God gave them.
Brother John mentioned the verse from Genesis 18.
With Abraham, I know him that he will order his household after him. The Lord said Abraham was responsible to do that, and he did it.
And the Lord knew that he was going to do it, and he requires that. He requires that of us. And it says here in our verse, it says obey your parents and the Lord for this is right. It doesn't say here because it's reasonable.
Or because it makes sense doesn't say any of those things. It says because it's right or just. It's actually what God is looking for and his parents if we don't teach the young children.
This kind of obedience from their earliest stages will be very hard for them to come by the time they're able to read these words and do it. And so it's really, in a very real sense, our responsibility as parents to do this. And we need to take that responsibility before the Lord. There's a lot involved in it. And if we lose our children at the young age when they don't know the reason for obedience.
They're just starting out as.
Uh, really not understanding much at all except that they have a will and they want to do their will and that will have to be broken when they're very young or else they're going to get into a much more difficult state later on. And so I just say that, that we need to take, and this verse, the hardest is young parents, older parents, whoever we are, that we need to help our children from their early age to, to act on this and later on.
They'll come to understand. It's a great example, of course, that I can think of in Scripture is in First Samuel, where when Samuel was just old enough to be lean, that's all he was. When he was weaned, his mother took him there to where Eli was to the Tabernacle, and she left him there. And it says First Samuel chapter 2, I believe it is, that he worshiped the Lord there. Well, how did this child just lean go and worship the Lord? He didn't even really know who the Lord was.
You find that out shortly after. He had to find out who the Lord was, but he had learned obedience and his mother and his father. It doesn't give us the details that they had done what was necessary before the Lord to raise that child in such a way that she could take him and just leave him there at that age. What age was it? I don't know, but he was just finished being nursed according to the Scripture, and they could leave him with confidence. That's a challenge. Can we do that with our children?
Bring them up in such a way that they're that obedient at that age.
Connection with Abraham and his household. It's interesting in the 14th chapter of Genesis and.
And this is before the mention made in the 18th chapter.
We have an instance of Abraham.
Uh, taking or arming his trained servants. So there was evidence of that order early on, wasn't there? The household was in order. His servants were in order. We don't read about those servants rebelling against Abraham here and say no, we will not go down and pursue them. They didn't question it.
00:25:03
They knew it was right and they called Abram in this, didn't they?
There's uh, just don't want anyone, especially the children.
To take away from some of the comments that have been made that uh.
A bad attitude on your part or rebellion on your part would be your parents fault. You know, we as parents, a lot of times we fault ourselves for uh, what we see in our children's, umm.
But oppressive rule is not.
The sole source of rebellion. I hope nobody thinks that. Turn to Isaiah chapter one.
I just happen to know of some faithful Christian parents who were very serious about their faith and serious about raising their children for the Lord. And their children, uh, without exception, went off and, uh.
I believe this verse has been a comfort to them.
Isaiah, chapter one.
And verse 2.
Arrow heavens and give ear O earth.
For the Lord outspoken, this is the Lord.
I have nourished and brought up children and they have rebelled against me.
Was the Lord an imperfect parent?
Did he make mistakes? Was he oppressive?
As the Lord says, I have nourished and brought up children. They have rebelled against me.
The source of rebellion is not the way you've been treated.
In the world today, they teach that the reason that for crime and reason for so many things is poverty, or it's this or it's that. Remember this. Your circumstances don't make you what you are.
Your circumstances manifest what you are.
And we're all sinners. We're born that way, and our circumstances don't make us that way. They manifest what we are.
In regards to verse four, our regular translation says uh, for both not your children through law. And if you go to Mr. Garbage translation, it says uh, provoke not your children to anger.
Now I have to leave home before I was 21.
Because of my father, he had a lot of anger.
But brought that angle on was because there was no love.
And there's a difference, a mighty big difference. If you're a young teenager, we're getting on a little older and you're not showing love.
That can turn to anger and turn your way.
I look back and say, uh, I tried to love my father. I tried to obey my father, but because he showed no love.
I love you.
And that, I think is the key.
If you want to train your children, show it in love. Love is the key, lady.
I'm sorry that I had to learn the hard way.
Is much more effective, isn't it, When your children are constantly assured of your love for them, then when it does come the need for discipline, they automatically, even if unconsciously, understand that's part of the same love they've been enjoying.
And there's something wrong because my dad would tell me, but if there's no loss there, there's no response.
Might be good to turn to Hebrews chapter 12 and look at verse 6, verse six and seven. Hebrews 12, verses 6 and seven. For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth, if he endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons. For what son is he whom the Father chasteneth not? But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all our partakers? And are ye ******** and not sons?
00:30:08
And so he goes on to teach the practical application. Even in the in the home, we had fathers of our flesh which corrected us. And so we didn't. We've all had fathers of our flesh and we've been corrected by them. And some of us are fathers and we haven't conducted ourselves Florida State, but there is one who did and there is one who does.
In loving, chastening, and training of His, of His own, He not only chastens us in connection with punishment, but He trains us, and it's because He loves us. And so this expression, as you'll notice all through this little passage of Scripture, it brings in the love of God and the love of the Lord Jesus and how He loved the church and gave himself for it. Husbands, love your wives.
And so the principle of love is to be used in these relationships. It's not just a relationship that's technically correct, but there is that love, but it's really in connection with the Lordship of Christ. And fathers, provoke not your children to rock, but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord if a father does.
Provoke a child to anger.
A child should be at liberty to know that the child is loved and come to the father and seek to have the comfort of a father. A father trains, a father loves. The father does need to discipline. We know that David was a good king but a very poor father. He didn't discipline at Niger and the consequences were serious.
The only qualifier and the verses connected with the person in the subject place is to the Lord and in the Lord. It's not if your husband loves you and treats you kindly. It's not if your parents discipline you rightly and always show you love. If not if you have a good and kind master. There is no such qualifier in these verses.
The qualifier is to the Lord, and in the Lord. He is the safeguard, He is the measure, He is the limit.
The child is asked by their parents to go out and steal their.
There you go. They have a higher authority in that way. It's.
In the Lord, He at once is all of those things. He is the only qualifier.
And and on the other side, we.
We are those who have been shown the highest truth of scripture. We we see ourselves at this very moment seated in the heavenlies with Christ. It's true. It's it's where we are positionally. We've been given to understand that that our standing before God is holy and without blame before him in love and what is what is the responsibility of our walk. I agree with what said.
Umm, there are there are these indications of uh, or I should say that there, there are these things that speak to us, umm, in reflection to as as fathers, it says, and he fathers provoke not your children to rap. Why does it say that? Well, because there's a tendency for fathers to become impatient with children. That's why that's that's the whole reason for it. It's it's because.
Umm, fathers, unlike mothers, quite honestly, have a tendency to become more impatient. They give snap answers because I said so. Don't do as I say, do, Don't do as I do, do as I say. These aren't some of the qualifies. These are some of the things that fathers do. But but then what does it say? It says, but bring them up in the nurture and the admonition of the Lord. So he not only tells us what the dangers are, what our tendencies might be.
But the thing tells us to to really give the answers.
That you are trying to teach your children from the Word of God. Nurture them from scripture, not according to your opinion.
00:35:00
But according to the mind of God and admonish them not according to these these things that have a tendency to provoke your children, but admonish them from the word of God and and the Scriptures are suitable to meet the needs to answer the questions to the children, but perhaps being disobedient.
Well, the the Word of God addresses these things. So he not only addresses the tendencies and the weaknesses, but he he addresses what is necessary and what is right when it comes to your children.
Yes, the last clause of that verse, and it's important, the word nurture really should read discipline, shouldn't it? Bring them up in the discipline and admonition of the Lord? And that goes along with a verse in the Proverbs that says the rod and reproof give wisdom. And both are needed, aren't they, as has been brought out when a child is very young.
It may be impossible to explain exactly the whole situation and why something is wrong, but as soon as they are old enough to understand, both are necessary, aren't they? The world today says all you need is reproof. Just explain it to them, talk to them, explain why it's wrong. Well, that can have a good effect and it's proper in its place.
But the discipline is necessary in God's Word says so, and it tells us what kind of discipline over and over again in the Proverbs. It can be a problem in today's world. Sometimes parents are forbidden by law to do this, and sometimes things are rather stringently defined in order, supposedly to protect a child from abuse. And sad to say, there is a lot of abuse in this world.
But man is a creature of extremes, isn't he? But we need both the rod and reproof. Give wisdom, bring them up in the discipline and admonition of the Lord.
I well remember reading a story about a father who disciplined his son, I think gave him a good spanking for something, and then went downstairs. But happily, he had a wife. And happily he was willing to, as we had this morning to listen to her. And she said to him, calling him by name, you know, you're not finished yet. Oh, he said, what do you mean? She said, you've left your son upstairs crying.
You need to go up.
You need to take them on your knee, you need to comfort them, you need to explain to him clearly, if you haven't already, why what he did was wrong, and you need to bring the Lord before him and complete the work of restoration. Good word. I remember hearing about a sister who in her mature years said.
When my parents disciplined me and especially my father, and the fathers are named here, she said. My father would never leave me or let me leave after he disciplined me until I had gotten on my knees along with him and confessed to the Lord what I had done that was wrong.
My Oh my I thought what an example.
And in later years, she could look back on that and say that really had an effect on me. He wouldn't leave, nor could she. And I'm not suggesting she did or she wanted to, but nor could she flounce out of the room in a spirit of anger. Well, thank God that's over with or something like that. No, she had to stick around and he stuck around until.
There was a confession to the Lord about what she had done wrong. That was real restoration and enabled the discipline to have a proper effect.
Those are little encouragement from verse one is Paul's writing and epistle. This was going to be read in assembly. Children would be there. It's an encouragement to have your children at the meeting to hear the word of God. He's speaking to the children. It would have been in the meeting. The other thing is this isn't just speaking to young children, It's speaking to grown children, young children in verse one while they're in the home.
00:40:11
Verse two is grown children that have left the home. There's a continuation there. There it's honor. It's not obey anymore because you're not in that home and under father and mother's authority, but there's still to be an honor that's paid the father and mother even after you've left the home.
Going to comment a little on 1St Kings Chapter 11. Two because we have principles in connection with how the Lord deals with us in discipline. And I'll just read the first Kings 11 and verse 9. The Lord was angry with Solomon because his heart was turned from the Lord God of Israel, which had appeared unto him twice and had commanded him concerning this thing, that he should not go after other gods, but he kept not that which Lord commanded.
So the Lord appeared, and he.
You might say he admonished Solomon privately twice.
He appeared to whom He spoke about this thing, and we don't particularly read of that admonition, but he was admonished twice privately, and then the Lord had to speak to him the third time. And now the whole thing becomes public. And so I think the principle is this, that the Lord deals with us privately first, and He seeks to gain the obedience from our hearts and a devotion to Himself. And if we will act in self will, then perhaps the matter becomes public.
A little later and so it's a good thing if we those of us that are parents and we have young ones in the home is to admonish and to if you, if it's necessary to discipline, do it in private. Do it with the child and yourself. Don't do it in a public venue. There's a, an active discipline that needs to take place and in grace and kindness and love, admonish and discipline in private and by the grace of God, there will be correction and then the thing won't become public.
Perhaps.
Perhaps we could uh, look at some verses that our brother read, uh, in the last reading meeting in first Peter chapter 5.
Umm, in regards to rebellion, umm, in any situation where we're called to submit and things don't go the way we want, and the natural reaction the flesh is to want to uh, to rebel. But let's read here, umm versus 5, uh through 7. Likewise, the younger submit yourselves unto the elder.
Yeah, all of you, be subject 1 to another and be clothed with humility, for God resisteth a proud and giveth grace to the humble. Humble yourselves therefore, under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time.
So this is never, this is never standing up and saying I want my way. Maybe my parents are doing something that's not right or they're not doing something that they should be doing.
What's the response here? It's still to submit and it's to it's in this place of humility. And then the seventh verse, This is the context of this verse we quote so often. Casting all your cares upon Him, for He cares for you. If we're in a situation and we see something wrong, whatever the situation is, can we submit ourselves? Can we humble ourselves and leave the problems with the Lord?
The uh, nurture or discipline and admonition of the Lord has been.
Bringing the Word of God before the children.
In that discipline.
Then centers their obedience on the Lord. So when they leave the home, they've learned to obey the Lord. If they only learn to obey mom and dad, when they leave the home and they're not under mom and dad, they're going to just go their own way.
So it's nurturing ammunition of the Lord, I think takes in the thought that it's really his discipline and His way, and it's so important to couple it with the Scriptures that the obedience be to the Scripture. So it was brought up explaining why, explain why from the Word, so that that's where obedience is centered on the word and to the Lord.
00:45:08
It it also places it on a higher authority, doesn't it? It's on the Lord. So a child is is being taught or one that's being under discipline. And I'm not talking about assembly discipline. I'm talking about at home. But if.
Is is bringing a higher responsibility than just you? It's bringing in the Lord Himself.
It might be good to move on to verse five. He speaks of servants there. Be obedient to them that are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, and singleness of your heart.
As unto Christ. And so we might say that we don't have that.
Institution anymore we don't have slavery, we don't have servitude in that way, but we do have and I believe it applies to the work relationship that we have in the workplace. So we agree to work for a company, we agree to a certain wage, we agree to duties and so on and we place ourselves in a place of servitude to that company in exchange for.
The ability to make, earn a living. And so there's to be a consistency with that, uh, arrangement that glorifies Christ. And so the unbeliever, uh, resists authority and it resists authority in every sphere. And so this isn't to be characteristic of a believer. If he works for somebody else, he's to have a spirit of submission in that relationship and to be obedient to them that are your masters according to the flesh.
With fear and trembling in singleness of your heart as unto Christ. And so there's fruit. There can be fruit in our lives as we labor in the workplace. And with a spirit that would be consistent with those that call themselves Christians and say that they know the Lord Jesus Christ.
It's interesting here in connection with servants.
They're sorted to be obedient to their masters. Often when a new servant is employed, the first commands are oral commands, aren't they? And so they're tested in that way. But as that relationship grows between servant and master.
The servant almost instinctively knows what his master wants. We see that with those that were with David, that broke through the enemy line when David expressed his desire to drink of the wealth, uh, the water of that well, they knew his mind. And I was just thinking of a verse that we have in Psalm 123.
And this shows a progression in verse two. It says, behold, the eyes of the servants look unto the hand of their masters. They don't even need a command sometimes. They know what their master wants and as a result they do it. They don't need that verbal command as perhaps they need it when they first began.
And then, uh, let's just look at a verse or so and Genesis chapter 24.
It speaks here of the eldest servant in the House of Abraham, and verse two it says, Abraham said unto his eldest servant of his house that ruled over all that he had.
Well, here was confidence in that service. Net confidence was built up over the years as a result of consistent faithfulness of consistency and service. And so he has put in a position of responsibility. And as we know what this chapter deals with, he used to go out and seek a bride for Isaac and he is faithful.
In that service. So the ward has entrusted us with a measure of responsibility too, hasn't it?
I think of that verse in Titus chapter 2.
That we know in relation to these verses.
Verse 9. Exhort servants, the obedient unto their own masters.
00:50:06
And to please them well in all things, not answering again, that's not backbiting, not purloining, but showing all good fidelity. They may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in all things. So if a woman comes into a meeting with an adornment, some piece of jewelry, immediately everyone notices it.
It is quite evident.
And, uh, we used to be reminded that, uh, though your employer might be opposed to, to Christ, we cannot deny a faithful testimony in his employer and, uh, if it is carried out in the fear of God.
Uh, the warning, The doctrine of God, our Savior in all things.
Then he can speak when the opportunity arises.
To his employer.
In eternal matters, because he has a testimony that is respected, so it may not be loved, it is respected. So Brother Hale used to say to us when we were younger, if you have a difficult boss to deal with.
Some of us have.
A very cantankerous, oppressive individual. If you are submissive, the fear of God to Him, when sometimes his commands may sound unreasonable, but you submit and you adorn that doctrine of God our Savior in your manner of behavior, you'll get a greater reward in that coming day than if he was a amiable type of person.
You could get along with UMM. So I think there's a principle there of UMM.
Of, uh, adorning of the manifesting that the Spirit of Christ in our workplace.
So taking this as the workplace as.
So he's been doing it. I think that's a good application, right? But it's interesting what it says here. It's a little different from the others.
And verse five, it says, is unto Christ.
Verse six is the servants of Christ, Verse 7 as to the Lord.
Said repeated over and over again.
Honduras. Why? Why is that It didn't repeat it so much and the other things?
And yet I think I can see why in my own case.
Umm, submission is something that I struggle with. And as men we might have some authority. We're often the ones in the workplace. I know a lot of the women are too, but umm.
It's one thing to have authority, but it's quite another to submit to authority and it's a struggle and it's something that we need to really judge in our own lives. But those past just judging it before the Lord.
And get on to what this is actually saying, and that is.
As to Christ.
Servants of Christ says to the Lord, we really need to see him as is mentioned in all these things and, and, uh, do whatever it is for him and let the consequences see what they may. But it does remind you anyway of what Peter says, You know, who will harm you if you do that which is good. And that general thought is found in these verses too, isn't it? In verse seven with goodwill.
Doing services to the Lord, Well, we can do it for the Lord, just directly for his sake. But if we do that, there's likely going to be an effect too, isn't there? There's going to be.
That result from maybe a hard boss who doesn't understand repair and certainly not the relationship of love that we had in the end of the last chapter. It's just a boss who wants to get work from us at all costs, perhaps and in many cases.
Let's submit and do it for the Lord, Do it with the right heart, the right motive, and see if it doesn't have an effect on those around.
00:55:05
Those versus uh, in Colossians, uh, Tim, it might be good to read those, uh, at this juncture, cautions UH-3.
Versus 23 or 22 servants obey and all things your masters according to the flesh.
Not with I services, men, pleasers, but in singleness of heart, fearing God. And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily as to the Lord, and not unto men. And notice in verse 24 this is in connection perhaps with our secular calling. Knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance, we serve the Lord Christ.
Wouldn't you say that this is this is not in what we sometimes call full time service?
This is in the day-to-day activities in the home or in the workplace. We have the motive higher than the others we work with to serve the Lord Christ. And there will be a reward for conducting ourselves in that way, the reward of the inheritance.
Mentioned here.
For doing wrong shall receive for the wrong which she has done. There's no respect to persons. So we reap what we sow in the government of God.
So it's not only what we do, but it's the motive of the heart, and the Lord values the motive of the heart. And if we do what we do in the workplace, wherever we are, we do it faithfully as unto the Lord. We not only, you might say he'll, he'll not only reward what was done, but he'll reward the motive. But he delights to see his children walk in such a way that the motive is to please him.
The Lord is no man's better.
Uh, I remember when we first moved here, I was invited to, uh, married men's camp and it was the first time I went.
And, uh, a number of the brethren were gonna get together and go in one car.
And my boss said to me on Friday after well around lunch time, we're supposed to get off and I had a job on the press and my boss says we have to finish his job.
I wasn't happy because I promised his brother that I would go with him.
But I felt, well, he's my boss, I gotta do what I gotta do. But the Lord is no man's after I was mad because I have to pay for my own gas. But you know the Lord, The Lord looks wonderful. He gave me double time. He didn't need to worry about any of the gas. And the Lord worked with us. These things with the Lord, even when it goes against your brain.
Isn't it true that versus 6-7 and eight of our chapter apply not only to our occupation, but everything we do as believers and it certainly I trust can be applied to service that we may do for the assembly, whether it's.
Working in the kitchen or administering publicly and it reminds me of in Matthew 6 when he speaks about.
Those that do their arms before men or they pray publicly and they make a big show and it says they have their reward.
And so the scripture doesn't deny that you may get a reward from men for doing things publicly.
But that reward won't last, and.
Umm, how sad to live a life seeking for reward only now only to discover that you could have had a reward that will ask for eternity.
So the last one in verse nine is the masters. And so those that have responsibility and have others that are working for them are very responsible. And so we have the same responsibility to do the same things unto them, forbearing, threatening, knowing that your Master also is in heaven, neither is their respective persons with him. And so there is the responsibility that those that are masters.
01:00:10
They have the responsibility in connection with the influence of their authority, and so they use the authority in a right way or in a wrong way. It doesn't matter that authority ought to be submitted to, but the Lord gives this instruction for bearing threatenings. And so there should be a spirit of those that find themselves in leadership, the spirit of things that would manifest, the spirit of Christ.
What does it mean when it says neither is uh in their respective persons with him?
Is it not referring to the government of God in connection with how we might conduct ourselves if we conduct ourselves in an ungodly way in connection with the authority that we are given?
The Lord may have to deal with this in a governmental way, and so those that are in leadership, those that are in authority and have others under them, need to recognize that they are responsible to a higher authority.
Yes, that's very, very important, isn't it? All authority, whether it's a husband with his wife or parents with children, or masters of servants and write up all the way to the government of the country, it's all derived authority, isn't it? And it's God who gives that authority. And in that sense every authority is responsible to God and he will take that up.
Maybe not right away, maybe not even in this world, but at one time or another, perhaps in a coming day.
All of us will have to give an account of how we have conducted ourselves, whether in submission or whether in authority. And ultimately we are all eventually in a position of submission, aren't we? And so that's very, very important to remember. We cannot dispose of ourselves and dispose of our authority in any way that we want. We have to recognize, as we've just had brought before us, that.
There is a government of God, and what a serious thing it is if I exercise the authority in a wrong way, or on the other hand, fail to submit to authority, because that may well have and does have not merely present but eternal consequences. And so God would bring that before us by invoking the name of the Lord in all of these things, in order that all may recognize that.
Of course, we can't expect the natural man to recognize that. Thankfully, sometimes they do at least recognize God's supreme power and authority. But how much more? You and I as believers should be able to recognize that and to act accordingly in the fear of God.
In verse eight, it's really referring to the judgments of Christ, isn't it? Knowing that whatsoever good thing any man doeth, any person do it, the same shall he receive of the Lord, whether he be bond or free. And so each one of us are going to have a private interview with the Lord at the judgment seat of Christ. He'll review our lives. He'll delight to review our lives and to reward us for what he can.
And so we're not going to.
Get anything passed over, so to speak, in our private lives. It's not just Speaking of our assembly lives. We're responsible to the Lord and to the authority that He's placed this under in all spheres of life. And that we have should do it in view of pleasing the Lord and with the conscious sense that if the judgment seat of Christ, He will be glorified.
In how we conducted ourselves or he is not glorified in the way that we.
Walked and he will reward accordingly.
Short book of Philemon brings before us not only a servant, in this case at first an unprofitable servant, but brings before us a master. Now we know that the apostle Paul, he may on behalf of the unprofitable servant here, but that relationship was not abolished, was it when, uh, the servant became a convert?
01:05:04
That did not change his status as a service, did it?
So if we are working for a Christian, uh, boss or master, that should not change our responsibility, should it? And we should, as masters or bosses too, act in accordance with, uh, what God has said before us. So there are some that, uh, perhaps have taken advantage of this situation because they've worked for a Christian boss, but we still have that responsibility.
Uh, to him as such, don't we?
There is a scripture that says if you're someone probably will turn to it, but if it's especially important for you to serve well, if your master is yeah.
Verse one and two. Go ahead, Ted. Well, I thought you were going to read it. Well, all right. Let as many servants as are under the yoke count their own masters worthy of all honor, that the name of God and his doctrine be not blasphemed.
And they that have believing masters, let them not despise them because they are brethren, but rather do them service because they are faithful and beloved partakers of the benefit these things teach and exhort. This often imposes a bit of a strain, doesn't it? Because.
As Bruce has pointed out, and Ted has called our attention to sometimes the servant who is working for a Christian boss.
Especially if he happens to be gathered to the Lord's name. Can take advantage of the boss. And it works the other way too. The boss may take advantage of the servant. And we have to remember that there are different spheres, aren't there? It's quite possible that a man might be will save for purposes of discussion, a boss in a company or in his own business and have a believer working for him.
And the believer would be responsible, as has been pointed out, to honor that individual as his boss, to follow orders, and to do his work as under the Lord. But suppose we come to the local assembly.
It might well be that the servant would have a better knowledge of the Word of God, and perhaps in that sense have more responsibility in the local assembly than the one to whom he was responsible in the business world.
And sometimes that becomes difficult, doesn't it? I have seen it and it has caused difficulty. But the servant would have to recognize his place in working for his boss in the secular world. The boss would have to recognize his place in perhaps listening to the servant and perhaps the servant taking more responsibility in the assembly. So God gives wisdom for every circumstance in which we are placed, doesn't He?
And gives the grace for it too. Illustration Bill has been, uh, propounded different, uh, different times that, uh, in actual life, there was, uh, coachman going back, uh, to the history of England, the days of, uh, cultures and masters and servants And, uh, this coachman was a believer.
But I don't think his master was a believer.
So, uh, when he, he was, uh, engaged to uh.
Umm, no, I think the master was a believer. I'm sorry. So he was engaged to drive his master to the assembly meeting?
And when they arrived there?
This, uh coachman, having a much better knowledge of the word than his master, took the preeminence in the meeting and the master was was happy to listen to him.
And to profit from his ministry and understanding of the work. When the meeting was over, they resumed their former roles. The coachman in all respect to his master, drove the horses and, uh, brought back his master home. So there were things in the balance that you have mentioned there.
01:10:04
Our brother Ed brought out the beginning of this portion that is based on those three circles of unity in Ephesians 4, and we're taking up the utmost outward one created relationships.
Not properly the assembly sphere at all. And yet these things affect the assembly and affect assembly life. And so the centurion that wanted his servant healed said to the Lord, I'm a man in authority and under authority.
There's nothing that fit to lead like being under authority yourself. And so one who was taking up oversight in the assembly had to have his children in godly order in his home. That responsibility helped fit him for a place of oversight. And so in all these things, learning to be under authority and in authority fits one in the assembly.
For assembly matters. The other thing is these things affect us so intimately in our lives, these relationships, and we bring the effect of those things into the assembly. And some tremendous difficulties can arise in assembly life because of disorder in these relationships. And it may come down to where there's a need to address them because they affect the assembly.
We just would encourage us with this. We are never wiser than the Word of God when those things come up. He's given us principles in the Word of God to come back to, to understand how we should act and how we should evaluate these things. We're never wiser than the Word of God. When Hagar LED from the face of Serie AI, her mystery, what did the Lord face for her? Return and submit to her hand.
We're never wiser.
Than the word of God and the relationships and the order of those relationships He has established in creation.
6.
OK, great.
All right.
We are.
All.
Umm.
Reading meetings that we have had, we just thank you for the Lord Jesus and for His perfect example in all these things. We just pray that we would follow His examples day by day in each saphir that we've been talking about. We just looked to be for help. And that's the name of the Lord Jesus, Amen. Amen.
Mephibosheth
Gospel—John Kemp
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Good evening everyone. We are going to open our gospel meeting.
With a well known song.
#15 Oh blessed gospel sound.
Yet there is room.
God's love in Christ we see, yet there is room.
God's toast is filling fast, yet there is room, so we'll start with #15 someone would raise the tune.
Oh, 10-4 together and I remember it's true.
All right, and.
To know.
Now we're going to have a word of prayer. Loving God and Father, we thank Thee for the words of this hymn, that there is still room in the heart of God for sinners to come and receive the grace of God, salvation, pardon. We thank Thee for that finished work of Calvary.
And we thank thee for the Lord Jesus, the unspeakable gift sent by the heart of God.
That, uh, men and women, boys and girls, may escape that awful judgment. We pray that if there is anyone a stranger to God in his sins, that.
Thy voice may be heard.
The word might be as a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces, convicting, revealing a Savior provided by Gods wondrous love. Help us our God. We own our weakness and dependence upon Thee. We pray for wherever the gospel goes forth. We pray, especially tonight, that if there is one soul in his sins.
With judgment before him or her, that thou will speak by the follower of thy Holy Spirit.
00:05:04
To that conscience and that heart we seek Thy help. We thank Thee for this privilege. In the name for the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.
And I think another him.
#11 #11.
Will your anchor hold in the storms of life when the clouds unfold their wings of stripes?
Shall we stand In Sync #11?
When the water closed to your place.
On the right.
It has never failed.
While your ankle.
Whole dragon thought hell.
We're hard to make sure that it's gone full.
As I've been sure I feel.
Thank you. And we want to ask you that question tonight. At the outset, do you have an anchor for your soul, both sure and steadfast, which enter us within the veil? One week ago I was in St. John, NB.
00:10:08
And we had a group of uh.
Strangers in for a gospel supper.
In fact, over 40K. We are thankful to see such a good response.
But being in a maritime environment, I thought that an anchor might be a good illustration. So I obtained an old anchor because there's lots of them down there, you know?
And I held up this anchor before the people.
And I said, I think you all know about an anchor.
I'm not from a seaside city, but I know that an anchor is important for a boat. If you don't have an anchor, the boat will drift away. You've got to have a solid anchor that will hold that ship when it's put down on the bed of the sea. There was an anchor in.
Halifax, which weighed half a ton. It was holding down a battleship.
But uh, an explosion took place in December 1917 and that anchor didn't hold anything.
It was lifted up by the tremendous force of this explosion and it was hurled across Halifax.
1/2 a ton and I don't know how many miles an hour clipping off trees and everything.
1000 people, some say 2000, were killed instantly.
9000 were injured.
That anchor wasn't of any value.
It didn't hold anything.
With dear friends, tonight we want you to know.
That God is an anchor for your soul.
And I thought this evening before I came here to speak.
That life is real and life is earnest. The grave is not its goal.
And I thought of a verse in Jeremiah chapter 8, verse 20. The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved. Can that be said of you? You have had the opportunities, you have heard the gospel of God's grace again and again until it doesn't make much effect upon you.
As we sometimes say, goes in this year comes out the other.
My wife and I visited.
Niagara Falls sometimes.
If you go down underneath Niagara Falls, there's a tunnel and the wind is blowing. It's an awful roar and there's a man down there. This is the story of some years ago.
Who takes around the tourists through the tunnel?
But.
Someone said to him how can you endure this awful noise day after day ringing in your ears? Well, he said it was difficult. When I first started this job, it did trouble me and bother me, but now I never hear it.
I'm here every day. I never hear that roar. He became sole accustomed, so hardened to that noise it didn't make any effect upon him. Is that the way it is with you, my friend, tonight, that you've heard the gospel so much that you've become hardened to it with eternity before you?
Not knowing where you will spend that endless eternity.
With Christ or without Him in the blackness of darkness.
With a conscience that will trouble you forever, or else in the glorious presence of the Son of God, the Lord Jesus, who loved you, gave Himself for you the anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, which entereth into that within the veil.
Children are starting school today or this week, I guess.
Nearly everyone in Canada, United States starts school at this time of year. They don't do that in Brazil. They start school in January, where my wife comes from, and I was thinking of a story.
00:15:03
That is a very solemn story.
There were a lot of young people.
That we're ready to start school in Brazil.
In a place that is called Santa Maria in the South of Brazil.
My wife knows the place and she has been there a number of times. Here were 200 or more young people ready to start calling.
But they wanted to have a night out, you know, to celebrate.
The, uh, opening of the college.
They went into a nightclub or a a bar, whatever.
And they were drinking and carousing and having a good time.
When suddenly there was.
A short in the electrical system somewhere and uh.
Something the the uh.
The curtains ignited and it was soon evident that the whole place was going to go up in flames and infernal 200 young people sitting there drinking with no thought of anything else but starting school in a few days.
And the sad thing in that catastrophe was that the doors were locked.
The person who, uh, managed the bar or the cafe, whatever it was, he hadn't got all his money from his, uh, clients, so he wasn't going to let them out until they paid. Just think over 200 people, young people, probably in the prime of youth.
In their late teens or early 20s.
Ushered into eternity.
Ushered into eternity when the classes began. 6 people in this class. Five people in this class.
The others gone into eternity. How salt, how solemn.
I don't know if they heard the gospel before, but I know, dear friends, that you, I think everyone under the sound of my voice this evening has heard the gospel message from the heart of God.
And God is giving you one more opportunity.
To close in with God's offer of mercy, faith is the hand that appropriates what love provides. That's faith. And tonight we want you to place your faith not in a sandy foundation, but in a person who died for you on Calvary's cross.
And rose again, triumphant over the power of sin and Satan and hell.
And a man in the glory, who is offering unto you.
A full and a free salvation tonight. Oh how wonderful that the gospel.
The gospel of God's grace is still going forth.
And we're going to look for a few moments at a character that I love to to read about.
And we're gonna start when he was a little boy. We're gonna make a few comments about him. Perhaps we know this story already.
But uh.
We're going to look at it again anyway. So Second Samuel.
Chapter 9.
Second Samuel, Chapter 9.
I think we, uh, we have heard this story before.
It's a hard name to pronounce here, but umm.
It is.
Umm.
He was called Mephibosheth. Now who was this Mephibosheth? Well, he was the son of Jonathan. He was the grandson of Saul. He was really heir to the throne.
And now you know, at this point, David, who had been haunted like a Partridge by his grandfather Saul, was now crowned. He had. The Kingdom had been established in his hand.
00:20:15
And now with all power in his control.
He said I want to show kindness to someone.
Because, you know, there had been a covenant made between Jonathan and David. If you go back in First Samuel, you'll see there was a covenant made and, uh.
Although David could have brought vengeance upon this boy.
Stern justice could have demanded his life.
Here he was in the land, but he had never recognized David. When David was coronated as king, Mephibosheth was not there.
When, uh, they said God save the king, Mephibosheth was indifferent. He really feared David as an enemy. You know, people, dear friends, have that idea in their minds that God is their enemy. That is the lie of Satan. God is not the enemy of man.
He beseeches you.
To be reconciled to him tonight.
He has done everything possible that you might be brought into his presence. From darkness to light, from the power of Satan to God, Mephibosheth is a beautiful example of the wondrous grace of God.
He didn't do anything to deserve this grace, really.
He was of the House of Saul and he could have come under judgment. Instead, David says in verse one, David said, Is there yet any that is left of the House of Saul that I may show him kindness for Jonathan's sake? Isn't that a wonderful expression?
The kindness of God, the benevolence of the heart of David is going out here.
To this poor lame person, Mephibosheth.
Who was in low Debar, the place of no pasture, And how many people are in the far country spending their time looking for satisfaction from the things of this world?
When a strongman.
Keepeth his palace. His goods are in peace. And that strongman is Satan. His palace is the world, and his goods are the souls of men and women who live without Christ. That's his, his, his goods. And he wants to keep you in peace. He doesn't want you to understand.
The love of the heart of God that overwhelming.
Grace that God is showing.
To sinners tonight. Well, we might go back in the history of Mephibosheth. How was Elaine here? He was a young man now, I suppose. I think he even was probably married, but he was lame on both his feet.
He was the son of Jonathan. If you go back in this book to chapter 4, you will see.
That Jonathan's son Mephibosheth.
When he was just a little boy.
And being looked after by a nurse.
Who heard that David was coming? And she thought immediately, David, we know him. Certainly he's going to demand the life of this child because he's of the House of Saul. His grandfather was Saul. He'll take his life. I'm going to pick him up and get him out of the place of danger.
Before David comes and in her rush.
To get the child into a place of safety, she dropped it.
00:25:00
Dropped him on the ground.
He became lame on both his feet.
And he never regained his ability to walk for the rest of his life. He was lame.
But you know, he was the son of Jonathan.
And uh, if we go back in the history of Jonathan.
We know that wonderful love that existed in the heart of Jonathan and David when they wept together. They made a covenant together and they loved each other, and David promised to be good to his household. But Jonathan did not follow David into The Cave of a doula.
Jonathan went back to the court of Saul.
He went back into a worldly atmosphere, and this is where Mephibosheth was brought up. I don't think there were any nice moppers on the wall like in some of your homes, boys and girls, I don't think. I don't know how much of the gospel Mephibosheth heard.
From his father, Jonathan.
Because Jonathan was killed, you know, in the attack of the Philistines, he lost his life.
So he never reigned with David as he thought he would. He never did.
He loved David as his own soul, but he did not share his rejection. Well, that's an aside, but coming back now to our chapter here.
Uh, verse two. And there was of the House of Saul a servant whose name was Zaiba.
While Zyba was a very shrewd character and he, uh.
Was a self-righteous man, but really he didn't know the heart of David.
And I don't think Mephibosheth knew the heart of David either, because he feared as he was in low debar there. And when he heard the summons, when David said go and fetch him, bring this boy into my presence, I believe that Mephibosheth was trembling.
He dreaded the presence of David.
For in one word, he could have sent him. He could have dispatched him.
But you know that was not the heart of David. There was of the House of Saul a servant, whose name was Zyba. And when they had called him unto David, the king said unto him, Uh, art thou Ziba? And he said, Thy servant is he? And the king said, Is there yet any of the House of Saul, that I may show the kindness of God unto him? And Zyber said unto the king, Jonathan hath yet a son, which is lame on his feet.
So, dear friends, tonight, let me stop here for a moment.
And assure you.
Of the kindness and love of a Savior God. That God is not willing that any should perish, and he is not looking for something good from you.
The fibrosis didn't do anything to merit the kindness of David and you. By nature, and myself also, we were guilty before God. We were in the far country, we were enemies by wicked works. We were sinners guilty.
And helpless and without God in the world.
But remember.
That God has a heart full of love and grace we turn over to the book of Titus. We'll see an expression there.
That uh, assures us of the love of God, Titus chapter 2 and verse umm chapter 3, where we at verse three, we ourselves were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice.
And envy.
Umm.
Hateful and hating one another, but after that man had displayed the worst that was in his heart. What do we read after this? After that, the kindness and love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness, which we have done, but according to His mercy.
00:30:14
He saved us and so David, here is a picture of God coming out.
In his boundless grace.
In his mercy.
To meet the need of this poor boy, to bring him.
From the far country lo debar into his very presence in Jerusalem, to bring him to his table as a royal son, not as a servant, as a royal son Mephibosheth, as he came into the presence of David, it says here verse 5. Then King David sent and fetched him out of the House of Machir.
The son of Amiel from Lodi Bar.
David.
The love that was in his heart was now manifest. You know this gospel meeting has its origin in heaven.
Because the gospel comes from the heart of us, Savior God.
And uh.
The gospel is free, but it is not cheap. And we are giving you facts tonight, dear friends. The truth of the Word of God is something that you can depend upon. It's an anchor of the soul. When I was visiting McGill University a few months ago, giving out tracks, a scientist came out. He says I'm a scientist.
And.
He knew what we were giving out, but he said I want to have facts.
Not some theories as he thought, some fable. I want to have facts. Well, Sir, I said here, here are the facts of the gospel right here in front of you. But he didn't want it.
So God is giving us.
Facts from His word about our need of Christ and salvation through the finished work of Calvary. The finished work of Christ. Your friends, are you trusting in that work tonight?
Is your confidence and faith in what Christ has done for you when He suffered the agony of the cross, when He bore the punishment In the hours of darkness, are you resting upon what Christ has done or on your good works? It's a sandy foundation.
I've been reading the story of Hudson Taylor. You all will remember him as being a great evangelist in Canada.
When Hudson Taylor was brought up in a godly home, he had a mother and father that taught him the word of God from the time he was an infant.
And he responded to it. But as he became a teenager, 1617, he went out into the work world. And of course, his colleagues and his fellow workers, they made fun of him. Don't believe that old religion. They were skeptics. And you know, it affected the soul of Hudson Taylor. And he began to question.
What he had learned from his father and mother over the years, he began to question it. Is it really true? All his friends said, come, enjoy the pleasures that we are having. You can't trust these old ideas anymore. And dear Hudson was affected by this.
He began to question what he had learned from the Word of God.
In fact, he became himself almost skeptic.
But you know, he had a mother who loved him.
And she knew the direction that her son was going. And he had a sister that that was a believer, too. And they said, we're going to start to pray for Hudson.
So the mother was visiting some friends some distance away from their home in England.
And.
She had her lunch and then she did not socialize anymore. She went into her room there at her friend's home, and she said, I'm not going to get up from my knees until I am sure that Hudson will be saved. Hour after hour she pleaded with the Lord. It's a remarkable story.
00:35:19
For her son Hudson, she knew the direction he was going.
Her prayers were earnest and filled with tears, but she got the assurance The Lord is going to save my boy Hudson at the same time.
Hudson disappointed with life, really feeling wretched, miserable because he had turned his back on light. He didn't know what to do this afternoon in the warehouse or where his father's library was so just to.
To while away the time, he picked up a pamphlet.
From the box that was on the table. Well, I'll read this story. I like these interesting stories, but the lesson at the end I don't want.
So he began to read the story.
And as he read that story, page after page, he came upon these words.
The finished work of Christ, he said. That's strange why the author would use that expression. The finished work of Christ, what does it mean? I've never heard that before. And as he went on and read.
His heart was opened and.
He was enlightened and his soul was convicted. He knew he was a Sinner, but now he saw the simplicity of salvation, that it was not through anything he could do. It was resting upon what Christ has done, had done for him, that finished work, that perfect work done by a perfect person to give man a perfect standing before God.
And he believed it.
He put his faith in that work of Calvary. Well, the rest of the story you may have heard when he came home.
The oldest sister that now he had the assurance of salvation. Oh, she said to Hudson, this is an answer to our prayers when he told his mother. Or she said, Hudson, you don't have to tell me because I know it had happened already.
And, well, if you have the trans young people.
Most inspiring biography I think you could read is the biography of Hudson Taylor Went to China 18.
18501852 And uh, was used of the Lord in a mighty way in that land to lead many thousands of souls from darkness to light in the power of Satan to God. Coming back to Mephibosheth, just let me make a few more remarks as time is going. Umm, it's a picture of the.
The love of God, David, from the very bottom of his heart.
He spoke these words as Mephibosheth, that lame boy. I suppose he had to be carried. There were the carriages from David. He had to come. He didn't know what to expect. Is David going to?
Take my life because of who I belong to now, the Lord David said Mephibosheth.
He called him by name. He fell on his face and did reverence.
Here he was in the presence of David. Have you ever been in the presence of God?
Here there was one who could have wrecked vengeance upon him. But no, instead David.
Displays the benevolence of his heart, the love of his heart. For Jonathan's sake, let me tell you, how can God show love to a Sinner like me and a Sinner like you? Guilty before God, deserving judgment like mephibosheth deserving punishment.
Deserving eternal death and banishment from the presence of a holy God. How can God show mercy to a person like me and you? It's because of the work of the cross. If you get a view of Jesus dying on the cross, this will lead you to repentance. The goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance when you see the Son of God.
00:40:24
God's beloved 1 allowing man to spit upon him. Spit in his face. Imagine.
To crown him with thorns, to scourge his back, to mock and ridicule the Son of God. And he did not give one word of retaliation.
Father forgive them, for they know not what they do.
This is what reconciles man to God.
God doesn't need to be reconciled to you. Why? Because God was never against you. That's a wrong thought, to think that God has to be reconciled to us. We are the enemies. And so the message is.
Be reconciled to God, but not God to us. Because like David in our story here, there was no change of mind in David. No, but there was a change of mind in Mephibosheth.
And it's beautiful to see the grace of God here.
David speaking here to this poor boy Mephibosheth.
He answered. Behold thy servant. Yes, there's some people that think that they can serve God, that in some way or other they can escape judgment by their good works, their sandy foundation.
You know, I read a story recently about.
A man in England back in about 1696, his name was Mr. Winstanley and a lot of boats coming in over the English Channel had been wrecked. Many had lost their lives on Eddie Stone rocks there, those stones that were so, so dangerous.
Mr. Winstanley said.
I'm going to build a lighthouse that will stand the worst storm that ever came. So we had a model of it built there and he showed it to some of his friends and they said, Mr. Winstanley, that's not going to survive. Oh, yes, it will. Look it. I just give me the chance. So he went out on the Eddie Stone rocks and he built this big lighthouse.
It looked good.
And it lasted for a few years. And he says, I want to be in that lighthouse when the worst storm comes because he thought I'll be safe in that lighthouse. He had strong confidence in what he had done.
Well, the worst storm came in 1703.
It hit. It raged for days against Mr. Winstanley's lighthouse.
After a few days from Plymouth Harbor, they looked out.
They saw nothing of the lighthouse or of Mr. Winstanley. Everything was washed away.
He had strong confidence in what he had done.
But it was misplaced. It was. He did not have a solid foundation for his faith. So, dear friends, there's a storm of judgment coming, and we want you to be safe. We want you to be sheltered. We want you to know the man who is recovered from The Tempest. The man of Calvary who?
Himself went through the most terrible storm possible when he was.
On the cross.
In the hours of darkness, that was the most terrible storm that could ever.
That it could ever be seen or felt. The storm of judgment for you my friend, because of his love. That's why God can show kindness is because of the work of Christ on the cross. Oh what Amazing Grace.
In August, I wasn't able to go to Brazil this year because the doctor didn't want me to travel abroad, so I stayed in Ottawa area. But I like to go to the Highland Games.
00:45:08
Uh, once, once a year, so I knew where they were.
And I packed up my bags with tracks and calendars and bookmarks and.
I went out to the Highland Games at Knoxville, Ontario, just about one hour from where I live, and I prayed for the Lord's help and I started to distribute trucks. There were thousands of people there.
Thousands. And there were all the regiments in the regalia, the Scottish regiments, you know, the Highland clans from all over the country. But then their afternoon was going on.
And the show was going to come to an end.
I said to one lady, when I was here before they all played Amazing Grace, are they going to do that today? Yes, they will. So I looked out over the field, big field and all those regiments, 400 pipers and drummers, I don't know how many regiments, they were in their kilt. They all walked out onto the field.
It was a moving sight. I was standing there and there they were.
Big like a football field. And they all played Amazing Grace all in unison. It was a moving sight.
So I said to a few, I said I've tasted that Amazing Grace, my friend, because I was a Wretch and the Lord saved me so he can save you and I want you to impress this upon you in our story that we have been looking at how wonderful the grace of David.
And it's just a picture to us of the grace of God. Some people say you do your part and God will do his.
Haven't you heard that by some people?
Just do your part, and God will do the rest. But that wasn't the case with Mephibosheth. We've all done our part, and it's been a very sorry, uh, demonstration of what we really are. We've all done our part, but there's nothing we can do to make ourselves fit for the presence of God. We're just helpless like Mephibosheth.
We're a cripple. How can you get to heaven to glory?
If you're a cripple on both your feet, well, dear friends, we want you to know that God has a deep interest in your blessing tonight. And if you will come, the Lord is fetching you tonight. He is sending out the gospel through his ambassadors. Is there any of the sons of Adam in this room who are still away from God?
Still in your sins?
God is reaching out with his arms wide open like David did to Mephibosheth, and he's saying, come, all things are ready. Yet there is room, room in the heart of God, Room in God's house. Every day you would have seen Mephibosheth at the table of the king. There he had his.
Scarlet robe on. He was one of the King's sons. He wasn't a servant.
He was a royal son and his lame feet were under the table.
He didn't get cured of his uh.
His problem there, but he kept his feet under the table so.
Remember, brethren, that we.
We are. We have forgiveness of sins through the work of Christ, and we're justified from all things when we believe in Him. But we still are lame on our feet. We still have the old nature we still have.
Those evil, those evil desires there, if we get occupied with our lame feet instead of looking to Christ, we're going to be troubled. But you know, Mephibosheth was enjoying the company of the King every day. And so I say this as like we draw to the close of our meeting. Are you enjoying the company of the Lord?
He died in order to enjoy your company for all eternity, and tonight, if you are not saved, He is inviting you to bow the knee in repentance, acknowledging, like Mephibosheth, I'm only a dead dog. What could be more hopeless than a dead dog? You boys and girls don't want to have a dead dog around.
00:50:15
No, but if it was, it said, I'm just like a dead dog, dead in trespasses and sins. I want to look at one passage before we close. Look over in this same book.
Chapter 19.
And just to get a little background here.
You remember that, David? Uh.
He was anointed the king of Judah.
Uh, but as was mentioned this afternoon, he was a good king, but a poor father. And, uh, he reaped a lot in his family. And one of his sons, whose name was Absalom, he rose up in rebellion and usurped the throne of David. You read about it. We won't take time to, to go back, but you can read it the earlier chapters.
And now King David had to flee for his life. He was a fugitive.
You have to get out of Jerusalem to save his life.
And.
Mephibosheth wanted to go with him, but you know he couldn't go because he was lame on both his feet.
This character Zyba was a rogue and a deceiver and David, when he got out of Jerusalem, he was met by zyba with a great abundance of food and wine and.
All sorts of provisions because they were in the wilderness. David and his company.
All, Messaiba said.
Well, uh, David asked. Where is Mephibosheth? Oh, he said. He's just waiting to take over the Kingdom when you're away. That was a blatant lie.
Because Mephibosheth really had prepared all that abundance he had. He was the one that had prepared it and put it on the ***** and the and the donkeys. But Zyba intervened and David was deceived on this occasion. But now I want to come in closing to the 19th chapter, just for a few thoughts.
Verse 24 of the 19th chapter and Mephibosheth.
The son of Saul came down to meet the king, and had neither dressed his feet, nor trimmed his beard, nor washed his clothes from the day the king departed until the day he came again in peace. And he came to pass when he was come to Jerusalem to meet the king.
Uh, that the king said unto him, Wherefore went Is not thou with me, Mephibosheth? And he answered, My Lord, O king, thy servant deceived me. For thy servant said, I will saddle me an *** but I may ride thereon and go to the king, because thy servant is lame. He has slander thy servant unto my Lord the king. Well, I think we can see in Mephibosheth.
A loyal.
Faithful man. Here he was surrounded by the enemies of David, those who were.
In merriment and exalting Absalom that were had completely forgotten about David. They didn't want him. They were having a good time with this person who had taken over the throne, but everyone in Jerusalem.
New one thing.
The fibrosis is loyal to David.
And.
Uh, he didn't make himself attractive to Absalom, as we see here. He didn't trim his beard, he didn't wash his clothes. He didn't make himself attractive to the world. He was a mourner. He was waiting for the return of the king. He said. Never mind about Zaiba. Everything will be set right when Mephibosheth, when David comes back.
Everything is going to be set right.
When he returns, and David did return, and it was the joy of Mephibosheth to have David back with him. That was the one that had captured and won his heart and he was faithful.
00:55:07
In that environment of Jerusalem where everyone was opposed to David and dear friends, a word for us who are believers in the Lord Jesus. We are surrounded by those we meet every day. We know they don't have love for our Savior.
We cannot have fellowship with them. We can give them the gospel. Separation is not isolation. We are left here to be an ambassador for Christ. But are we going to join with their entertainments, with their their pleasures? Mephibosheth had nothing to do with what was going on in Jerusalem. He was waiting for the return of David Hope.
Characterized Mephibosheth, and that should characterize us when the Lord returns.
Those difficult things in your life that you cannot understand, they will be made straight. The Lord will explain it all to you, and you'll be satisfied with what He says. Because there's things in our lives that are difficult to bear. Remember reading about a woman, a dear Christian woman. Her husband was a drunkard.
And he drank all the money that came in.
He says.
To this brother, I think I'm going to lose everything.
She said.
My outlook has never been darker, but my uplook has never been brighter. So, brethren, for the Lord is coming when all will be set right. But may we be like Mephibosheth, loyal.
True and.
Separated from this present evil world as a testimony for our Lord Jesus Christ.
That others might know of this marvelous love that has been demonstrated.
Through the death of our blessed Savior on the cross of Calvary, we hope that no one in the company will go to a Chrysler grave. One story and I'm finished, Sister Abigail.
Was the daughter of Mr. Townsend. I have this correct. We wrote the track, Can we be sure? And sent it to Queen Victoria. Sister Abigail was an avid track distributor, distributor in the city of Buffalo. She never missed an opportunity when she traveled to streetcars. Every conductor got a track.
Probably everyone in the in the vehicle. Sister Abigail was faithful with her Bible.
And with their tracks. So one day she often traveled this route. There's the same conductor, old lady, He says, you always give me one of those tracks. But you know, I'm better than most people. And I know you mean well, but I really don't need that. She held up her Bible and she said, remember.
The Word of God says the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked. That's your heart, Sir.
You need to come to the Lord. Oh, well, maybe, maybe so, but I've got lots of time. I'm just a young man.
Remember, it says, boast not thyself of tomorrow. Tomorrow is in God's hands, except Christ as Savior today. Well, day or so later, Sister Abigail traveled the same route. Where is the conductor? He's not there. There's another man. So I'll ask him what happened to the other conductor?
Old lady, the man said. Did you not hear?
Just a few days ago.
This man went out for an afternoon of pleasure.
And in jumping from one car to the other, he missed his footing and fell underneath the wheel.
And they rushed him to the hospital, hovering between life and death.
And he said that Lady that gave me that tract, I want her to know because he died. I want her to know that I'm not going to a Christless grace. He had accepted the Lord as his Savior when I don't know, but before he was taken into eternity. May God bless his word. Thank you for your attention. We want to sing just a very short song.
01:00:07
In closing here.
Maybe one for the children?
I was thinking of that.
That number 8 #8 maybe we'll.
Shall we stand and sing the first and last verses of #8?
Shall we pray? Loving daughter and our Father, we thank thee for the Lord Jesus Christ came down from the glory.
And accomplish that work of redemption for us and shed his precious blood, our only title to eternal glory. We pray that if there is anyone who is not yet.
Been under is not yet under the shelter of that precious blood escape from eternal judgment, that they may hear the voice of the Lord calling to them in tenderest tones. Come unto me, and I will give you rest. Bless thy word that has gone forth here unto moral, if thou dost tarry, and may each one of us realize our privilege of being ambassadors for Christ.
In this Dark World, hastening on to judgment, and yet still we are in the day of grace. We thank the Lord Jesus for loving us when we were so far from Thee. And we ask Thy blessing on the precious gospel message wherever it goes forth, and we ask it to a Thanksgiving for this happy day of fellowship and ministry in the name for the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.
Jesus Loves Me
Children—Rob House
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.
Buddy in the room because some of you are just grown up children.
Including me. So umm, anybody have a song I'd like to start with?
Alright, which one of you is younger?
Well then you get first choice.
#45 Thank you.
#45.
Tulip.
And trim the work for him Almighty.
Well, I'm glad I don't find you're sleeping. Get through one little part for him now in my ear.
And I'm Lord, she thought that last time. It's always open and sure to be.
All right, thank you. Anybody else have one? Well, I got a lot of volunteers. Now, what would you like to think #44 OK #44 into the tent where a gypsy boy lay.
Into the tank where I did see Boy lay dying.
We carry that he nobody ever had told him to me through how many I can. I'm hoping that I can.
Salvation so.
I can stay out of the children of men.
Nobody ever has told me before.
No, I didn't remember the story in her soul.
Where he started again proudly and come again. So I'll get you some solar injury before I can go.
No one can say all about children. All of them.
What number did you want to sing?
#40.
Thank you.
What is it?
Jesus loves me. I'd like everybody in the room to stay together. Jesus loves me, OK #40.
Jesus loves me.
For the Lord will help me go, Let go, let go of him in the heart. They are rich by king, and strong.
00:05:11
Yeah.
Yeah, it's like me.
You have enough.
Life for the hell to make so.
It didn't cost love, meaning to the gods have been taken to a cowboy.
Yeah, well, I still read my sins. Go ahead and handle the child coming.
Yeah, I've been lost one thing.
Yeah, I need your help me.
Yeah, you did not love me. The particles around me so.
She has lost me. Oh my God, I can't wait to make me laugh.
Wait to hold me and him hard. His mistake from every heart. Yes, she has. What did you have since I taught me?
Yeah.
You don't trust me?
Like I could help me to.
She does love me, loves me now when I carry it, I feel wrong and shining from my heart.
Comes to watch me where I live.
Yes, today's not a long story. Yes, if I love me.
You need to talk to us. Maybe we'll spend most things to our community all the way there by trust him should I die.
He will take me on my heart. Yeah, she never lost me.
Yeah, I think I lost me.
Children, that's what I'm going to talk about today. Jesus loves me the song. And before I start talking, I want to pray and ask the Lord Jesus to help me to be able to communicate by his Spirit to your hearts. So let's pray.
Lord Jesus, I come to do this morning and with the other believers in this room, we would ask for help.
To be able to communicate, to explain.
The hearts of these children, the fact that Dallas love us and we ask for thy blessing this morning.
We pray that each of our hearts might be touched by the fact that I love the solemnity of what Thou has done for us and just commit this.
45 minutes. And thy hands, Lord Jesus, seeking thy health and the blessing of thy Holy Spirit.
No precious name. Amen.
You know, Jesus Loves Me is a song. I think that by the time you get to my age, you can sing the whole thing without even thinking about what you're saying because you've sung it so many times. You know it's so well, the words just come out.
And it's interesting to me, you know, I have the same habits as somebody else in this room. I lose track of where I am because I'm not paying attention to which verse I am. There's other thoughts running through my head.
And then I get through Jesus loves me and I don't know what word comes next.
Because I haven't been paying attention.
So this morning I want to go through the song that you gave out Jesus Loves Me, and I want to explain a few things.
00:10:07
Talk about a few things.
So that we all understand what's in this verse and can remember it in this hymn.
I would like help with this question. Does anybody know a verse because it says here the Bible tells me so anybody know a verse in the Bible that tells them that Jesus loves them? Anybody in the room in the front row? We'll start with OK, just a minute. I'm gonna get you a microphone so everybody can hear you and me.
All right.
John 316 For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. John 316 Thank you very much. That's an excellent verse. It tells me from the Bible.
Whosoever, that includes everybody on the front row, doesn't it?
Does it include everybody on all the roles behind you?
That's right. Now somebody else has their hand up here. That new verse. Anybody else know verse other than John 316 that tells them Jesus loves them?
Mr. Boulard knows one. Let's see which one he knows.
Jesus, beholding him, loved him.
Jesus, beholding him, loved him.
And one of my favorites is the Son of God who loved me. That's a beautiful thing, the Son of God who loved me. So thank you for those verses. I appreciate them very much.
Now it says here little ones to him belong.
Do you have anything that belongs to you?
What belongs to you? Can you think of something that belongs to you?
That's OK if you can't.
Can you think of anything that belongs to you? No. OK.
Anybody think of anything that belongs to them?
OK, uh, maybe my Lego? Your Lego belongs to you, right?
Would you be happy if you lost it?
If your brother takes some of your Lego, do you take it back?
Maybe I should have had this closer so people could hear that. Maybe. Right. Yeah.
All right.
Little ones to him belong to the Lord Jesus.
Did you know that everything on Earth?
Everything on space, even you.
Was created for the Lord Jesus.
For his pleasure.
You know what he says about the cattle on 1000 Hills.
Who do they belong to, do you know?
Try the word their mind, their mind. Thank you. That's all.
God says about the cattle of thousand hills are his. He made it all. It's all His, including you.
That's important.
Tom's Legos can't get up and run away.
Tom's Legos can't be disobedient.
But you can.
So I'd like to move on to verse 3.
It says.
What does it say, Ernie? Verse three right here. First line verse verse three verse line.
Jesus loves me, so I'm bad.
Well, that's nice to know that Jesus loves me, though I'm bad.
Do your brothers and sisters like it when you're bad?
Do your brothers and sisters love you when you're bad?
OK, let's try. Does your mom like it when you're bad? Can you answer that question? No.
00:15:09
Does your mom love you when you're bad? Yes. Yes.
Who here has a dad? Do you have a dad because your dad like it when you're bad?
No.
Does he love you when you're bad?
Yes, that's good, eh? Imagine if your dad didn't love you because you were bad. That would be pretty sad.
But doesn't like it when you're bad.
If your dad finds out you've been bad, you usually what it means you get into what.
What do you get into when you've been bad? You know, trouble, trouble, trouble with a capital T if it's been really bad, right?
Is it fun to be in trouble?
Can you say that a little louder? Nope.
Yeah.
You know the verse in John in Romans chapter 3.
And verse 23. Anybody in the front row know it?
Romans, chapter 3, verse 23.
OK, somebody in the front row can read.
And has a Bible. Mr. Dappling probably has a Bible.
I'm curious you boys and girls don't know Romans chapter 3 verse 23.
I think I found the volunteer, Paul. Maybe you're off the hook.
What is it?
For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.
So what's the difference between sinning and being bad?
Paul, there is no difference.
Did you have something you want to share? Umm, when you sin that you can never enter in. But we all sin and we all get in trouble, so either way we're never going to enter heaven like this.
All have sinned and come short.
Of the glory of God, right? What's Romans 323? Paul, just a second. I'm short of the glory of God. Thank you.
They've been bad everyone, right?
How many children think they'd like to go to heaven?
Lots of children who are listening think they'd like to go to heaven.
Do you think you can go to heaven with your sins, those bad things that you've done?
What do you think?
Can you go to heaven if you got bad sins?
What is there?
On you.
Bad fins.
Call.
Can you go to heaven?
With your vatsin still on you.
I brought my suitcase today.
I brought some things in my suitcase.
Somebody wanna come and open the lid?
Oh, I got lots of volunteers to eliminate. OK, you can open the lid.
Very good. Thank you.
Now can you take out the yellow container?
And we'll just put it down. Thank you.
See, I didn't know what I was going to talk about today.
So I brought lots of stuff.
And one of the things that I brought was this cord.
There's a verse in the Bible that says a man shall beholden with the cords of his sins.
00:20:06
You know what that means? That means if you put your hands together, just put them like this.
OK. And if that was one sin, this would be two sins and three sins and four sins. And then if we just tied them around here and around here.
And then I said go see your daddy, what would you do?
I need the microphone.
I don't know.
Because are you all tied up?
Yeah, you're all tied up, so I'm gonna set you free.
And if these are sins and they keep you all tied up, how do you get set free from sins? That's what I'm going to talk about next.
Because it says though I'm bad and he waits to make me glad.
If you have to be made glad, what does that mean?
Most likely you are something that rhymes with glass.
Alright, what rhymes with?
Sad. Thank you. What kinds of things make you sad?
When your brother takes your Legos.
Does that make you sad?
Uh, no. It just makes me angry. Oh.
And angry is kind of an extreme sad.
How about you, when you lose some of your favorite toys, when you lose some of your favorite toys, so it says, the Lord Jesus waits to make you glad. This little girl over here was all tied up. She couldn't go anywhere. She couldn't go to her daddy, couldn't go to her mommy.
But I set her free, and that's what the Lord Jesus wants to do for you, because you have bad things in your life that make you sad.
And you can't come, so you have to be set free. So what does it say in the second verse?
Jesus loves me.
What does it say?
Can you help me out with the second verse, the first line? Jesus loves me, he who died, he who died.
How does the Lord Jesus set somebody free?
What does it mean that the Lord Jesus died?
What is this?
I'll ask you.
Across. Across.
Yeah, that's a cross, and the Lord Jesus carried his cross.
El Toa Hill.
Outside of the city of Jerusalem.
What was on his head?
A crown of thorns.
A crown sounds all right. A crown of thorns doesn't sound nice, does it?
Anybody want that on their head?
Why feel one of those? Don't feel it very hard. Because they're pointy. Yeah. You know, they put something like this on the head of the Lord Jesus.
And then they took a stick. It's already hurting my head.
And they hit him with it.
But more than that.
When they took them out to that cross.
What's this?
Thank you.
Now this is a nail from train tracks.
But I suspect it would have been a nail, something like this, maybe even a little bigger that they took and they put through the Lords wrists.
And they put through.
Seat.
00:25:01
And then they hung him up.
On the cross.
Do you think that hurt?
What happens when you get hurt?
What comes out of your eyes?
Can you say that a little bit louder? Tears. Why?
Because it hurts.
Yeah.
The Lord Jesus felt that pain on that cross.
The Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.
Few days ago there was an eclipse. You know what happened on that day.
Any of you live in a path in the path of the total eclipse?
What happened that day?
The moon blocked out the sun. Yeah. You know, a friend of mine went down. He took it in his car, and he drove to South Carolina and he booked the hotel.
On the day of the eclipse.
And, uh, he went out.
And, uh, he was watching the eclipse go by.
And he said, you know, it was getting a little bit dim, a little bit dim.
And then when the moon went in front of the sun.
Suddenly got really dark for a couple of minutes.
And all the birds stopped singing.
And the crickets started to make their noises.
And the mosquitoes came out because they thought it was nighttime.
And then about two minutes later, the sun started to come back out, the birds started to sing, the mosquitoes went away and the cricket stopped.
When the Lord Jesus was hanging on the cross.
He'd been hanging there for three hours.
Feeling the pain that that girl was talking about.
Three hours.
And at the third hour, what happened? I'm gonna bring the mic over.
He said that he would rise up in three days.
He did, but after three hours of hanging on the cross.
It got dark.
Right at noon time.
Not just for three minutes.
For three long hours, it was dark.
When you get in trouble with your parents.
Sometimes you get punished.
And you cry.
And you would become sorry for the bad things that you have done.
But even if you're sorry for whatever you did being mean to your brother or breaking something or disappearing, disobeying your mother or father.
Even though you're sorry, you cannot undo it. You cannot go back in time and not do something that you've done, can you?
Once it's done, it's done.
You know, in those three hours of darkness, something awful happened.
The Lord Jesus.
Was punished by God.
For three hours.
If you think the crown of thorns was bad.
Do you think the nails in his hand and his feet were bad?
The punishment of God.
Was worse.
The punishment of God was way worse.
Than any pain you've ever experienced.
I fell off my bike one day and landed on my face.
And it hurt.
But there's nothing compared to what the Lord Jesus went through.
The wages of sin is death.
But the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ.
Our Lord.
00:30:02
That's what the Lord Jesus went through. He bore the punishment of my sins and your sins, if you'll believe in Him in those three hours of darkness.
Now.
It says here.
Jesus loves me though I'm bad and I've just spent.
A fair amount of time talking about what the Lord Jesus suffered because I've been back.
He bore the punishment of my sins in his own body on the cross, but it says next.
Any way to make me glad? Ways to fold me in his arm? Keeps me safe from every harm?
In Rio Ferry, there's a cemetery.
I drive by it on my way to meeting.
On one of those tombstones.
Is one of these. Does anybody know what it is?
What's a little sheep? A lamb. A lamb, yeah.
Little sheep a lamb.
You know why there's a little sheep on that tombstone?
Because there's a little 7 year old boy.
That's buried underneath that tombstone with a lamb on it.
You know, there's a little.
Grave in Canada.
Ontario and on the Stone.
A little brown lamb in the stone.
Because there's a little boy.
That's buried there. That was precious to his parents.
They loved them.
I have a little granddaughter I.
I like to pick her up.
Put her in my arm and just hold her.
Who would like to hold one of these little lamps?
You'd like to hold one. After you held it for a minute, you can pass it to your brother. OK. Who else would like to hold the land? Would you like one? You can pass it down, hold it for a minute and then pass it down.
You know, it says here the Lord Jesus would like to take you like a little lamb in his arms.
I have another little lamb here.
It's kind of a cute little lamp. Would you like to give it a hug then pass it to your cousin?
And I have a little little tiny one. Maybe this is a really young lamb. You wanna try it?
What do you think?
The Lord Jesus loves children, big or small.
He even loves 18 year old children.
He loves the children in the back row.
He loves them whether they love him or not.
He loves you, He wants you, He died to redeem you.
Only believe His word.
I need my Bible because I'm gonna turn to the Gospel of Mark.
And the, uh, 9th chapter.
Mark Chapter 9.
And umm, verse 36, the Lord Jesus took a child, set him in the midst of them, and when he'd taken him in his arms, right now you have a lamb in your arms, some of you children.
The Lord Jesus picked up somebody like you, took him in his arms.
Because he loved them. Because he had affection for them.
It's a beautiful thing to think about.
Taking a little child into your arms.
To look at a little child and see the marvel and beauty of what God has created.
And then to think of how he looks at you.
00:35:01
25 years old.
Maybe you were born one of those beautiful little lambs that these children like, and maybe you've turned into the kind of land that that girl made a face at.
Because she didn't think it was a very cute lamb.
But Jesus loves you just the same.
Further on in the 9th chapter.
In verse UH-45, if I put a Fendi cut it off, it's better for lead and or halt into life than having two feet to be cast into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched, where their worm dieth not and the fire is not clenched.
The devil has a deal for you.
The devil's deals look really, really good.
They come wrapped.
In gold packages.
They may have diamonds and sparkles all over them. They are highly desirable.
There are some people in this room who had an object less than once.
And they had to choose between a plain paper bag in which there was something valuable, and a beautiful wrapped package, gold with all sparkle on it.
Do you know which one was the popular one everybody wanted? The one that looked beautiful.
That's what the devil does. All your friends are smoking.
It looks so glamorous in the advertisement to be smoking.
What do you get at the end? You look on the package of cigarettes to show you a picture of your lungs, at least in Canada. All filled with cancer and smoke garbage.
When you die young.
Not everybody. A lot of people.
You know the devil wraps up some drugs.
So if you take this drug, your life will be so good.
Teenager takes it once.
And I need another one tomorrow and another one tomorrow. It's only 10 bucks.
But then it's 10 bucks in the morning and 10 bucks at lunch and 10 bucks at night and 10 bucks when you go to bed. The next thing you know, that gift wrap gold fancy package called drugs.
Has destroyed your life. Your brains are not working right. You're feeling or whatever you have to do. And that's the kind of package the devil has for you.
Maybe you're not a teenager anymore.
Maybe you're a 40 year old and once the devil has wrapped up for you, is this successful business.
And he's just taking you one deal at a time, just leading you along, leading you along, leading you along.
Towards a Cliff of some sort, or maybe just neglecting the fact that Jesus loves me.
Design all.
Until it's too late.
And then, uh, I'd like to turn to the, uh, 10th chapter of Mark. My Bible is the same page.
Verse 13 They brought young children to him, that he should touch them as disciples, rebuked those that brought them.
When he saw it, he was much displeased, and said unto them, Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not, for of such is the Kingdom of God. Verily I stand you. Whosoever shall not receive the Kingdom of God as a little child, he shall not enter therein. He took them up in his arms, put his hands upon them, and blessed them.
That's the heart of the Lord Jesus Christ. You like that lamb, don't you? Thank you. I like him too. You know, He sits on my bed a lot of the time.
Just waiting for me to come back.
For the Lord Jesus is waiting for you to come to him.
He says, Behold, I stand at the door and knock, Any man hear my voice I will open to him, and if any man hear my voice, I will open the door. I will come in to him and Sup with him.
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And he was me.
Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so. Jesus loves me though I'm bad, and he waits to make me glad.
He can do that because he's Jesus loves me, He who died.
He who wore the crown of thorns.
Has the nails through his hands and his feet.
When you ask how much do you love me?
He stretched out his hands and he died, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanses us from what all.
All unrighteousness, all sin.
That's how you get untied, isn't it? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.
You know, versus 4:00 and 5:00.
Tell us some beautiful things.
Jesus loves me, loves me still when I'm very weak and I'll Tom knows what that's like to be weak. And I'll doesn't. Don't you? You don't feel like running around anymore. You don't feel like jumping up. You're really tired, aren't you?
But Jesus loves you under those circumstances. There's a verse in Psalm 41 I believe it's verse 3. Maketh all his bed in his sickness.
That's a loving and compassionate Savior, the one that loved me and gave himself for me. And then it says from his shining place on high comes to watch me where I lie.
That's true all day long. You don't have to be sick to have the Lord Jesus watching you. He sees.
What you do, Here's what you say. My God is watching all the time.
Have you had your sins washed away? Have you asked Jesus to accept you to? Have you asked Jesus? Have you accepted Him as your Savior?
Do you think?
That a savior that loves you that much is gonna make you miserable.
Are you being deceived by the gold wrap package that the devil puts in front of you that this world presents?
To draw you down to hell, to the lake of fire. Well, what's the alternative? Jesus loves me. He will stay close beside me all the way.
There's a verse in Hebrews that says I will never. Anybody in the front row know what comes next. I will never.
Leave you.
Lord, forsake you, nor forsake you.
Once you're one of his sheep.
You're his forever.
You're in his arms, in his father's arms, and no man can pluck them out of my father's arms. Now let's just turn to John, chapter 14 for a minute.
And verse one.
Let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house there are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you I go to prepare a place for you. We're talking about those three hours of darkness. That's when the Lord Jesus prepared a place for you.
It's his blood that he shed at the end of those three hours that washes your sins away.
And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you on to myself, that where I am, there you may be also.
Jesus loves me. He will stay close beside me all the way if I trust him. Should I die, he will Take Me Home on high.
In my father's house are many mansions.
The river of pleasure is there not here on earth.
It's in God's house.
With that right hand, there are pleasures forevermore. Is that what you're seeking in this world?
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The only place to find them is in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Jesus invites you now. He loves you, He wants you. He died to redeem you.
Only believe His word. I have time for one more Him who wants to choose it.
OK.
#46 Thank you #46 glad TIDINGS, is that it?
OK.
Glad TIDI.
Begin to live on constitution that's a baby and he's all standing all falls he forever ever thank you all thank you once told to be no Wi-Fi as soon as you to.
Are you happy and him? I am tired of all this and some walks away.
Let's pray, Lord Jesus.
Thank you so much for loving us, for the truth of this hymn that we've gone through this morning.
Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so. Lord Jesus, we think of how we are bad and deserve nothing but punishment, how our lives.
Are not happy ones without me. Thank You for waiting to make us glad, and for the invocation to come to Thy house to have our sins washed away. That whoever calls in the name of the Lord be saved. Think, Lord Jesus, of what thou hast done to make a pathway for sinners to come on Calvary's cross.
To have their sins washed away by precious blood. So we just thank thee, Lord Jesus, for thy home, thy promise to come again. And we pray that, uh, if there is someone in the room.
A little child of seven or three or four, or a child of 18 or 19254050 or 70. Lord Jesus, that those touch their hearts. They might think about the fact that thou hast loved to take them in thine arms, comfort them.
Care for them for all eternity. We thank thee, Lord Jesus, for thy love. Ask for Thy blessing on our message. In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen.
Spirit of Power, Love, and Sound Mind
Address—Bill Prost
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Could we sing together the 1St 3 verses of #77 in the appendix?
Very beautiful hymn written by a woman by the name of Anna Cousins, Anna Ross Cousins, but really inspired by a man who lived 200 years before she did, or 250 years. Samuel Rutherford who lived way back in the late 1600s or mid 1600s I suppose.
Very, very Godly man who didn't know nearly as much truth as most of us know here today. But.
Wonderfully devoted to the Lord number 77, the 1St 3 verses.
The sands of Christ.
Mas.
The hell are you strong?
Let's look for the Lord for yourself.
Our loving God and our Father, we look up to Thee now this afternoon, and we thank thee again for the words of this hymn that we have been singing. We know indeed that the sands of time are sinking, and we thank Thee that as this takes place indeed, the dawn of heaven breaks.
And we thank you for that bright prospect, Lord Jesus, of thy near return. Perhaps today, but while we are down here, we know that as we have also been singing together, though we're measuring everything in our lives and putting it before us according to Thy perfect wisdom.
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Help us to recognize this. Our God. Give us help as we open Thy word together. We pray that Thou will encourage our hearts this afternoon, but if necessary, that Thou wilt stir them up too. But above all, Lord Jesus, that Thou mightest be glorified and that we might be drawn closer to Thee. We ask all this now, and also look to Thee for those whom we know are already.
We pray for thy care and keeping over them each one.
Ask all in the precious and worthy name of our Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.
Turn with me, please, to Second Timothy, chapter one. Second Timothy, chapter one.
I'd like to read just a few verses this afternoon and dwell on them a little, although we may refer to others as time goes on. But what I have before me is particularly in this chapter, verse 7, Second Timothy one, and verse 7.
But in order to get the connection, we'll read from verse 5.
When I call to remembrance now, this is of course the apostle Paul writing to Timothy, a relatively young man.
Whom he could call his own son in the faith.
When I call to remember the unfeigned faith that is in thee, which dwelt first in thy grandmother Lois and thy mother Eunice, and I am persuaded that in thee also.
Wherefore I put thee in remembrance, that thou stir up the gift of God.
Which is in thee by the putting on of my hands.
For God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner, but be thou partaker of the afflictions of the Gospel according to the power of God.
Who hath saved us, and called us with a holy and holy calling?
Not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began.
We've often made this remark before, but at this point in his life, the apostle Paul could have been.
A broken man.
He had labored very strenuously for the Lord, and suffered greatly too. Labored fervently in the gospel and in the truth.
And here he was knowing that he was not at this point going to be released from prison. We know that he was in prison prior to this, and we can presume that he was released, perhaps for a short time. It's not totally clear from scripture just how or when that took place, but very likely he was released.
But this time, he says later on in the 4th chapter.
I am now ready to be offered up in the time of my departure is at hand.
He could have been a broken man, because later on in this same chapter he has to say, all they which are in Asia be turned away from me. The scene perhaps of his most, shall we say.
Beneficial laborers, particularly Ephesus, where he had spent a long time, two years, and where there had been such a bright testimony that went out to all Asia.
Both in the gospel and in the truth. And now he has to say all day which are in Asia, be turned away from me.
But as we've often said before, and pardon my repeating it, although Second Timothy dwells on how we are to conduct ourselves when there is a departure, when the days are dark, when the truth is being given up, when there is.
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That which is potentially discouraging, if we can put it that way. Although that is the character of Second Timothy, there is not one hint of discouragement in the whole book.
And if you and I had been privileged to go there and meet with the apostle Paul in prison?
We would not have found a broken man. We would not have found a man who was saying it's no use, I have done so much and look what's happened.
Sometimes we can get that way, you know, sometimes perhaps, and I'm looking into the faces of some and perhaps many who have sought to please the Lord. I know that. And perhaps you have worked hard seeking to preach the gospel faithfully, seeking to carry on in the truth, and you don't see what you would like to see as a result of it.
Remember, you are not alone. The Apostle Paul who was a most faithful man.
And a man who labored, perhaps more than he could say.
I labored more abundantly than they all, and yet we find at the end of his life that things were not the way he might have expected. Yesterday we had a good word in Ephesians 5, and particularly in Ephesians 6, where it was pointed out that sometimes parents and husbands and wives and maybe masters.
Seek by the grace of God to do things properly and things don't always work out right. Yes, we have to be prepared for that.
But here in second Timothy chapter one, what is Paul seeking to do to Timothy? And allow me, if I may be so bold, to seek to do that for my own heart and for each one here this afternoon. He says in verse 6, wherefore?
Why the wherefore? Oh, because he was speaking to a young man who had a good background.
Now, that isn't true of everyone here in this room. I don't want to center him out, but he said it out of his own mouth. Our brother Bruce said that he wasn't saved till he was 23, and even now he told us that his own father at an advanced age is not the Lord's.
Yes, we are thankful when there are those who are saved.
Out of homes where they didn't perhaps have a good background, but many here have a good background. Timothy could look back to a mother and a grandmother who had been godly people.
I remember not too long ago talking to a young man and we started to look back in his genealogy.
And I said to him, just think, just think, you have the privilege of being the 8th generation of a family gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Oh what a privilege. And many here share that privilege. Maybe, maybe not 8 generations, but many here have been brought up.
Under the sound of the word of God.
Now, sometimes you and I might look back on our past and say everything wasn't always said and done properly and maybe there was failure. But let's always remember that we are, I hope, where we are. Not so much because of our background, not so much because of the brothers and sisters, although we are thankful for everyone of them.
But for the Lord and who he is, and Timothy has that brought before him here.
But what does Paul say here? Wherefore I put the in remembrance that they'll stir up the gift of God, which is in thee.
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If you look in the Darby translation, it's an even more explicit word. The word there I believe is rekindle.
Rekindle.
You know, Timothy, it seems, was a somewhat reticent man. He wasn't one of those. Go forward.
Face to the wind, if you like. Type of individuals. He was somewhat reticent, and no doubt he felt it very keenly as he saw the one who had been his mentor, the one who had done so much for him, shut up in prison, and perhaps even more.
Hard on Timothy was to have to look around and see what we mentioned a few moments ago that.
Those to whom Paul had been used in most blessing, we're now turning away from them and saying, Paul, your brand of Christianity doesn't suit us. That heavenly calling, no, that's too difficult. And everything that goes along with it. Yes, we want to live for the Lord and we want to do in a general way what's right.
And you see that exemplified in what the Lord has to say to Ephesus 30 years after this.
In Revelation chapter 2, but the spark, the real.
Inner motif for it all was missing, wasn't it? Thou hast left thy first love. And so Paul here says to Timothy.
Re Kindle.
I wanna say that to each one here today, there is an opportunity to rekindle and we are going to look a little bit at this seventh verse. We won't worry too much about the excuse me.
We won't worry too much about the last part of verse six, except to say that the gifts were given from a risen Christ in glory. And I believe in the days of the early church, the apostles in some cases had the administration of those gifts. And so Paul could say the gift which is indeed by the laying on of my hands. Paul had recognized in Timothy a godly young man recognized one who had potential, who had.
To follow the Lord. And that gift in that sense, had been communicated through Paul. But that's not the point we want to make today. The point we want to make today is that Timothy, I believe, was beginning to be a little cast down. He was beginning to flag a little.
Have you ever felt that way? I have. I don't mind confessing that I have felt that way.
Where are things headed? What is going to happen?
But then there's encouragement here, tremendous encouragement, and I want to look for a few moments at verse seven and see how Paul addresses the issue.
First of all, he says.
For God hath not given us the spirit of fear.
Fear is often spoken of in the Bible and we don't intend to go through the whole question of it. Just as an aside, if any have read, uh, the magazine The Christian, there was a recent issue on that whole subject and we aren't going to try and recap everything that was there. But the point is, fear is mentioned many times in the Word of God.
And there are if we can use the expression.
Good kinds of fear. There are good kinds of fear.
The fear of God is often spoken of in Scripture, a very important thing, and it was commented on in the reading so that we don't need to be.
Going over all of that, but as was very aptly explained, fear for the believer, the fear of God is the fear of doing that which would displease the Lord. Very, very good. The fear for the believer of the Lord is the fear of doing that which would displease the Lord. That's a good, healthy kind of fear.
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There was also a fear.
And we will only mention it in passing. We tread on very holy ground that the Lord Jesus felt as He was going to the cross. We get it in Hebrews chapter 5. It says there that he cried to His Father. It says with strong crying and tears to him that was able to save him from death.
And was heard in that he feared.
Yes, he feared the prospect of being made sin for you and me. He feared the prospect of going into death.
A prospect which he didn't have to face as a sinless man, but he would end to death with all its terrors, so that you and I could have the sting of death removed. There was a fear there, a right and proper kind of fear.
But there is a kind of fear, more than one kind of fear that we should not have.
We don't want to dwell on it, but very often fear in our own lives is the product of what is unjudged in our own hearts. He who is afraid is often afraid because there is that which is in his or her own heart which is unjust.
We don't have to go very far in man's history to see that, do we? Adam hid behind the trees of the garden with Eve too. Why? Oh, because they had a bad conscience and they were afraid of the presence of God.
Going on, we find in the book of Job, here was an upright man, a man to whom even the Lord himself could pay tribute. And Satan himself, it doesn't seem, could pick holes in Job's character.
But when the Lord allows Satan in one fell swoop to take away everything that Job had.
We find there in the very early chapters of Job, this godly man who walked before the Lord in integrity.
Is brought to the point where he says that which I feared have come upon me. Oh my, why? So Joe, what's wrong? Ah, deep down inside, Joel knew somehow that there was something that was not right that needed to be dealt with. And it takes 40 chapters to get to the root of it, doesn't it? But the Lord does the work until finally Job gets clear of that route.
And going on down further, we find the Lord Jesus standing before Pilate.
Here he was, as far as this world is concerned, the prisoner.
And there he stands before Pilate, having endured that awful Roman scourge and having been ill treated and humiliated in every possible way.
I've seen videos and maybe you have two and pictures of those who perhaps in Eastern countries and Muslim countries have been let out to be executed.
And as they are let out, what kind of a posture and attitude do they have? Oh, they have a posture of being utterly beaten, don't they? Their heads are down like this. Some of them are in tears, totally humiliated and shamed and just waiting for the executioner's sword or whatever it might be. But here the Lord Jesus stands before Pilate, knowing full well what is ahead of them.
And who's afraid?
Who's afraid?
Pilot, pilot, He was already afraid. And then when the Lord Jesus speaks to him.
Everyone that is of the truth heareth my voice. When he heard that saying, Pilate was the more afraid.
But not the Lord Jesus. And how many times has the Lord given believers down through the ages that boldness to stand there?
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While their tormentors were afraid.
Maybe I tell too many stories, but it takes me back to a time well over 500, maybe close to 600 years ago now, when a man by the name of John Huff from Bohemia, what is now the Czech Republic, stood before the German Emperor Sigismond.
There he stood, behold, before that August body of leaders of the Roman Catholic Church and civil leaders and everything, knowing full well that he was very likely and was eventually LED out to be burned as at the stake.
And he quietly stood there in all the dignity that Christ gave him, and reminded Sigismond of the safe conduct that he had been given to the conference, and of how the Emperor had broken his word. He reached his conscience.
And that emperor blushed to the roots of his hair in front of that man, and quailed before him. Why? Oh, because there was moral power there, and he was afraid.
And 100 years later, when they tried to get the emperor of Germany at that time to do the same thing to Martin Luther, to break his word, offering Luther a safe conduct and then breaking his word. Oh, no, he said. I'm not going to blush the way Sigismund had to blush. No way.
He wouldn't do it. But anyway, what do we have here? God hath not given us the spirit of fear. I want to impress that on our hearts today, because the spirit of fear can take many forms.
Sometimes we are afraid of what is going to happen. Shall we say it?
For the testimony.
Are we afraid for that?
Concerned. We ought to be burdened, yes, but afraid? No. Why not?
Oh, because you and I are not gathered to numbers. We are not gathered to one another. We are gathered, I trust, to that one and to His name, the Lord Jesus Christ.
And if we have him before us, there is no room for fear.
But sometimes, you know, we are afraid for ourselves and maybe we don't want to admit it, but as someone has remarked in the past, and it's a very good word, he said, often we are afraid of ourselves and for ourselves. Why is that? Why is that?
Oh, it's because shall I say it? And.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not pointing the finger anywhere, but right back here that kind of fear comes.
From being occupied with myself and what is going to happen to me? What is going to happen to me?
Fear.
Yes, it's a healthy thing to be afraid, as we said, of displeasing the Lord, To be afraid for myself that I may end up being lured away by the power of Satan because I haven't got my eye on the Lord and taken down a wrong path.
Some of us are old enough here to remember a brother from the Chicago area by the name of John L Erosman.
You have to be old to remember him. He went to be with the Lord in 1965.
And I can remember well his ministering.
He always had very connected thoughts, very, very orderly.
And he wasn't a man given to emotion. Those who remember him, he wasn't given to that kind of thing.
The only time I ever saw tears in his eyes.
And it really went to my heart as a young man because he talked about being faithful to the Lord and he talked about going on faithfully for him.
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And he said, I believe the Lord will have those who answer to Philadelphia.
Until he comes.
And then he got a few tears in his eyes and he said, and I trust by his grace that you and I and he spoke. He said, and I, I trust I will be among them. The time he said those words, he was probably even a bit older than I am now.
And I thought, are you afraid? Are you afraid of that really? Because he was a kind of a man that sat behind the mics in the front row and took part in conferences. He was a kind of a man that even Armstead Barry would defer to. And he said one time, you know, whenever we get a really tough question, we just look at Brother Arrowsman. Maybe that was a bit misplaced, but I don't think so. The point is.
None of us are immune to those influences. But what do we have here? God has to not given us the spirit of fear.
But of what?
Of power.
We wanna talk about that for a couple of minutes because it doesn't say God has given us power. Now He does give us power.
But we can interpret that in the wrong way.
Sometimes we want power as a display when we really aren't equipped to use it properly.
And it's important to be able to use properly the power the Lord gives us.
That's why it says in the address to Philadelphia in Revelation chapter 3, thou hast a little strength. Why that all because you and I have to recognize that with all that the Lord has been gracious to give us in these last days, we are a testimony to the ruin of the church and we have to remember that we can't start, if I can use the term, throwing our weight around as if we.
The times that Paul lived in, as if we lived in the times of Pentecost. No, Paul in Second Timothy is showing us energy, if you like, but in the last days?
Why do I say we have to be careful about power?
I mean, do you use an illustration?
As most of you know, my wife and I moved a couple of years ago from our home in Hamilton where we had lived for over 40 years. We moved to the Rio Ferry area and in that area, especially in the summer months, of course, boating is very popular. And a little while ago they had a regatta in Rio Ferry there with all kinds of boats on display, sometimes some old ones that were very interesting and sometimes some.
New ones and some big ones and so on. But among other things, they had some races, boat races, and I didn't see it happen, but others who were eyewitnesses told me about it, about one man who was.
Anxious to race his boat. And he wasn't that young. I think he was probably in his 60s. And he had a really speedy boat, tremendous motor in it. And of course, when the signal was given, they all took off and he was really moving, I guess. But what happened? Oh, that motor was so powerful that eventually, I don't know whether he crested a wave or just what.
Happened, but anyway his boat became airborne.
The wind caught it from the underside, took it up into the air, spilled him right out of it into the water, smashed the boat to pieces as it hit the water and killed him instantly. Oh, there was plenty of power, wasn't there? Lots of power. But it didn't do what he expected it to do, the boat.
Had it gone on, its course might have won the race, but somehow that power was his undoing.
You know, we have to be careful about asking for power, but I believe the spirit of power is this, the spirit of power is this.
That in everything that you and I undertake with the mind of the Lord.
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All the power of God is behind us. Isn't that beautiful? And that's why the Lord says to Philadelphia, Thou hast a little strength. Why all? Because the Lord is the same, His word is the same. The Spirit of God is still here, and there is no reason. And we have said this before.
Why any one of us cannot enjoy the Lord individually?
Just as much as anyone did right at the beginning of the dispensation.
And if the Lord gives you and me something to do?
We cannot limit what the Lord can do.
When we are in the place where he can do it.
That is in the recognition of the ruin of the Church. That is in the recognition that we cannot pretend to have the power of Pentecost.
And allow me to say this, because this is not specifically a young people's meeting, but I wanna say this to the young people here, and maybe those of us that aren't so young needed to. And that is that, as Timothy is told in the first epistle, the real power in his life starts with a godly walk.
A godly walk. That's where the power is.
The power is in a godly walk.
I say this very kindly because God is using many in the world today, and we are thankful for it. We are very thankful for it. He's using many here too, and we are thankful for it. We are thankful, for example, for what the Lord is doing in Brazil and what and those whom He is using in that work and so on. We're thankful for that.
But.
It starts.
With a godly walk and the recognition of where we are in the church's history. And so the Lord says to Timothy, let no man despise thy youth, That's good, but be thou an example of the believers. And then he details all of that. And it's only later on at the end of the chapter that he talks about being a help to others.
And teaching others and so on. Very, very important.
And so if you and I perhaps wonder, well, what would the Lord have me do? And where would he have me go? And I'd like to serve him, but what would he have me do? I say to my own heart, as I say to you, start out first of all with a godly walk and walking according to God's Word, and then do what's right in front of you.
Simply do what's right in front of you, and I can assure you that if you start out that way.
You will never find that. You have to say, well, I I'd like to do something for the Lord, but I haven't any idea what he would have me do. No, the Lord doesn't do that with us.
He wants willing servants, but he wants those who are serving because they have walked before him in the right way. Well, our time is going.
For God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of power. One more little word. The word for power. Here is the word that is often used of God's power. I don't know Greek, but anybody can look this up. The Greek word used here for power is the root word of our English word dynamite.
There's real power there. If you're walking before the Lord, don't worry about the power.
And of love. And of love.
Power and of love. Why does he have to emphasize that? You and I would think that in a day of ruin when there was a giving up and some unfaithfulness, that perhaps Paul would have used a different word and might have said the spirit of power and of truth or something like that. But he says love.
And notice the first verse of the next chapter, chapter 2.
Thou therefore, my son, be strong. In what? In the truth.
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No. In the grace, in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. Why does he say that?
Oh, I believe Paul recognized, and I speak again to my own heart because the tendency is there that when there is a giving up, there is a tendency sometimes to use human energy to try and control things and bring things back into line. Isn't that true? That is our natural human tendency.
And human energy has always been the vein of the Church.
When the spiritual power declines.
I can well remember.
When my late father-in-law told, he told me a story that happened when he was a relatively younger man and he had gone to a Bible conference at which his own father, Harry Hayhoe, whom I remember well, he was there too and sad to say.
There had been an open meeting where there was.
A very evident lack of the leading of the Spirit in some of the ministry, and an evidence, sad to say, of the flesh being exhibited.
And he told me of how he went up to his father afterward and said, father.
Don't you think now he had his tongue in his cheek when he said this? Needless to say, said Father, don't you think that maybe we need to organize things a little better and control things a little better here so that all this doesn't happen?
And he told me what his father said. And of course, having known his father, I can just imagine the way he said it. And he knew very well, of course, what the answer would be. The answer was, son, it's far better to be reminded of our weakness than to cover it up with human arrangement. Very definitely, Very definitely.
But at the same time, we need to remember.
That the strongest power to keep us walking before the Lord is not human energy. It's not a legal standard. It's not a list of do's and don'ts. What is it? It's the power of the enjoyment of Christ in the heart and the understanding more and more the deeper understanding of His.
Grace.
And that's why I believe love is mentioned here, because the word for love here once again is the word for divine love, Divine love. And that's what ought to be operative among us. And as we've often heard, and it bears repeating, true divine love on the one hand, does not pass over that which is a dishonor to the Lord. Natural love may do that.
Divine Love does not do it, but at the same time Divine Love keeps on loving.
Even when the object of that love does not naturally seem very lovable.
This morning, our brother Rob was asking the children, do your parents like it when you're bad? And they all said no. And then he said, but do they love you when you're bad? And I was glad to hear them. Those that he asked say yes. They knew that they came from that kind of a home.
You know, the Sunday school with which I was connected for many years in Hamilton. If I had asked many of those children, they probably would have said no, my dad doesn't love me when I'm bad. He kicks me around, he beats me, and so on. Because many of them came from ungodly homes and from broken homes and from homes where alcohol and drugs and abuse and everything else was rampant.
I was thankful to hear those children very.
Confidently and in a good, clear, strong voice, say that.
That is what ought to be evident, and it's the spirit of divine love, the spirit of divine love. Do I always carry that spirit? And finally it says.
And of a sound mind.
00:45:02
Sunny and on an unusual expression, and it doesn't occur very often in the Word of God. Some time ago I looked it up just to see and it's much easier now you. I can still remember having to go through Wigram's Greek, or in the case of the Old Testament, his Hebrew Concordance, to try and find out how many times a certain Greek or Hebrew word.
Occurred in the Bible and we were thankful for the tremendous input that he had the whole of Christianity owes a great debt to GB Wigram because as a wealthy man he spent his money among other things to do the research and produce that document long before the days when you could simply.
Grab it on the Bible program on the Internet or something like that.
But he had to do the work, and of course, being an eminent Greek and Hebrew scholar himself, he was able to do it. But anyway, I looked up this word and it doesn't occur very many times in the New Testament. It's a variant of it is often translated sober, sober.
A variant of it also occurs in the case of the man in among the Gadarenes. You'll remember who could say to the Lord, My name is Legion. And when the Lord cast out those demons, it is recorded that he was sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind.
A variant of that word. So what does it mean to have a sound mind?
That means a number of things to me.
One thing that I suggest is important is to recognize that all around us in this world we are seeing those and it affects us too, who do not have what Scripture calls a sound mind. Jay and Darby uses the words, I believe, wise discretion.
But he also makes the remark in his ministry that I have never forgotten. He says we talk of common sense, but man often forgets that it is God that gave it to him and God that preserves it to him. That is true. And when man departs from God, he often departs from common sense.
Let me use an illustration.
When I was in university, I had to study briefly the theory of evolution.
And I can remember at the beginning of the textbook. Excuse me.
The author of that textbook, who was evidently otherwise a brilliant man with a PhD from Harvard University.
Said the evolutionary theory is a fact. It has the same status as every other scientific fact.
And then in the very next paragraph he says we may well assume.
And I remember looking at that when I was only 17 years old and thinking this man is somehow he's lost it with his PhD proceeding to call something a theory and then tell me it's a fact in one sentence. And then the very next paragraph tells me that relative to that fact, he has to start assuming something.
Common sense not there. And so with many other things in this world.
And I say to you, on every moral and spiritual subject you will find the world has lost its common sense, because as our late brother, and again I'll quote Harry Hayhoe, every time you and I think we think wrong on every moral and spiritual subject, unless our thoughts are founded on the language and on the wisdom of Scripture.
Absolutely true.
Having a sound mind means to have our thoughts formed by God's wisdom in every moral and spiritual subject Yes, I can learn computer technology from a man of the world yes, I can learn mathematics from the the man of the world. And in my case, I could study medicine and learn much from those who were not believers because they knew a lot having.
00:50:04
Uh, been in the medical field.
And studied very aptly the particular line of things that they were in but.
On moral and spiritual subjects, if we want a sound mind, we cannot have our thoughts formed by the wisdom that is of this world.
But there's another thought I'd like to bring in with a sound mind, and that is this. As I say, J&D uses the term wise discretion. How does that come in in spiritual things? It comes in in this dispensation by a walk with the Lord.
I can learn much of the Word of God, I can read it, and I encourage each one here to read the Word of God as much as you can.
But I've told this story before, but it bears repeating. Way back about 150 years ago, a young man was writing letters to a well taught brother.
And he had some very difficult questions.
And the brother in question was very well equipped to answer those questions. But after about the third or maybe the 4th letter, the brother in writing back to him after having answered the question said I want to make a comment. He said, based on the way you are writing to me and the content of your letters, I suspect that you.
Are studying your Bible too much and not reading it enough?
Kind of a mouthful, isn't it? Studying your Bible too much and not reading it enough? What does that mean?
Oh, I know what he meant. He meant that that young man was studying the Bible the way he'd go out of textbook in university or in high school. He was looking at it intellectually rather than reading it as if it were a revelation directly from God, addressed not to his mind, but to his heart and his conscience.
And if you and I go at the Word as an intellectual thing, what happens? We get it out of balance, because there is much in the Word of God that has to be kept in proper balance, and it can only be kept in balance by a walk. And we had that before us yesterday in communion with the Lord and walking in the power of the Spirit of God.
I don't mind admitting that I had to learn that the hard way.
Because of knowledge. A mere knowledge of the principles of the word is not enough.
We need the Lord himself, We need him to learn how to apply those principles properly in any given situation. As human beings, we like everything kind of in nice, neat little pigeon holes, don't we? We like to be able to say, well, if this happens and this happens, then that belongs in that pigeonhole. And we do this and we'd like a little.
Book that if a certain situation came up, we would turn to Chapter 4, Subsection 2, Part C.
And that would give us the answer about how to handle things.
No, the New Testament isn't written like that. If that's the way it worked, I could do that without communion with the Lord.
I have to walk with the Lord and a sound mind and wise discretion comes in that way. And then what will happen?
Oh, then I won't fear, as it goes on in verse 8, to be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord or of meet his prisoner.
Opal says I'm in prison, it's not a very bright thing. And later on in this very book he has to talk about Edemas, who formerly was a fellow worker. But now he has to say, Dimeth has forsaken me, not having loved this present evil world, simply this present world. And if I may say this, sometimes the prosperity and the.
Good life, if you like it, in North America can overtake us, can't it?
And there is a danger that those in other lands, as we had before us yesterday, are going to take our crown if we're not careful.
Let us not have either the spirit of fear in One Direction or the spirit of fear in the other direction. I can have the spirit of fear in One Direction by saying it's all over with. What's the use going on? After all things are falling apart. There's no point in contending for the faith once delivered to the Saints. There's no point in holding fast anymore.
00:55:21
Or I can have a fear in the other direction.
That causes me to use human energy to try and do the things of the Lord. No, that will never work either. No, there is only one way and that is in communion with the Lord. And then I will find, as we have here, that God has not given me the spirit of fear. That has not given us the spirit of fear, but of power.
And of love. And of a sound mind.
Let's sing the last two verses of that hymn that we started out with.
Number 77 in the appendix.
I expose most here know that what we have in our little flock Him book is only a very small part of the original Him. The original Him has 19 verses and if you want to know what they are you can Google them on the Internet. But if you have any trouble finding them then I'd be glad to give them to you. Very very interesting.
Some of them are perhaps of are not because of the.
Uh, poetic license that Anna Cousins took their perhaps not strictly as scriptural as as they could be.
One of the verses goes like this. There the red rose of Sharon unfolds, it's gladsome bloom and fills the air of heaven with ravishing perfume and so on. Well, we know of course, that the Rose of Sharon and the Song of Solomon is really a type of the believer, not a type of the Lord himself. And so that verse isn't in here, but very, very beautiful.
Him and.
Well worth reading it for the nice sentiments that are expressed.
But let's sing the last two verses, showing us, I believe, what the Lord would have us to have before us above all things. Verse 4.
Oh, I am. I am.
Trying to find.
Radio in the world. I'm still in the middle of the night. Thank you so much on your head. And I'll talk about flying. I'll make all of you. Can't get this together. I'll have a day. How are you at all? I'm going to do it. I'm going to come to play. I'm going to say I'm going to. I'm going to have to do it. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, No, no, no, no, no, no, no. No.
Our loving God and our Father.
We give thanks for Thy precious word, praying that what is of thyself may take root in our heart and bear fruit. We thank Thee, Lord Jesus, that we can have thyself before Thee.
01:00:04
But we own how easily other things get in the way.
We pray that Thou will give us the grace, and we thank Thee.
The doubt is delight to give us not the spirit of fear, but the spirit of power and of love, and of a sound mind. In these last days, help us, our God and Father, to put all this into practice, for we ask it in the name and for the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.
The Glory of Christ
Love
Gospel 2
Gospel—Wally Dear
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I've been asked.
To present the way of salvation.
And.
It brings to mind a little strong.
That we've sung with the boys and girls. It goes like this. The Bibles greatest.
Message Salvation, which God planned. I'll tell you in five phrases on the fingers of one hand.
I have sinned.
But God loves me, and in love Christ died for me.
And if I but receive him, I know that I am saved.
I like that. I thought perhaps we'd just talk a little bit about this. That doesn't say at all.
And we can add to it.
But how many here this afternoon?
Know with assurance, beyond a shadow of a doubt, no question in your mind, that you are truly.
SAPED saved.
I see some break into a smile.
And that tells me something. I believe you have the assurance, but there's others.
That perhaps do not have that assurance.
And this afternoon, God wants you to know here and now.
That you have eternal life, that you're saved, that you belong to Him, that you're one of His children, you enjoy a relationship with Him, and that you're on the way to glory.
And I'm gonna say something.
I don't believe.
Anybody can be truly happy unless they have the assurance of salvation.
If I thought that I was going to perish or that God was going to turn against me and let me go.
As some would try to tell us that we can be saved and lost again.
How can there be any joy in happiness in that type of a belief?
There's a man.
This past into eternity.
But he started.
An oil business. It grew into a, shall we say, an empire. His name is JD Irving.
And we see his name emblazoned all over the place.
He's got really impressive service stations.
But the Irving company owns newspapers and.
Paper companies, very wealthy organization, but the founder of this organization, his name is Irving, he said. No one knows until the end of the road whether they're on the right road or not.
How sad.
Oh man.
That could have anything, perhaps, that this world had to offer, but no assurance of salvation. Is there anybody like that here today?
Where are we going to start?
Well, I believe we need to come to the realization that we are sinners, that we need salvation, you know, the Lord Jesus said.
They that are whole, they need not a physician.
But they are sick.
And here this afternoon.
Perhaps there's somebody that thinks.
That's they're pretty decent people.
And they point the finger, and they think that somebody else is the Sinner.
But what does God have to say now? This morning we heard reference to Romans 3 and 23. For there is no difference. All of sin come short of the glory of God. But take a look at Ecclesiastes.
00:05:16
Now this is in the Old Testament.
Ecclesiastes Chapter.
7.
And.
20 Ecclesiastes 7 and 20.
Four. There is not.
A just man upon earth that doeth good and sinneth not, not one.
If we turn over to.
The Psalms, Psalm 14. It says that the Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men to see if there were any that did understand and seek God.
They are all gone aside. There is none that doeth good. They're all together. Become filthy. There is none that do it's good. No, not one. This is the word of God.
And people don't like to hear this, he said. This is very negative preaching.
And there's a man that.
He preaches and Christendom.
And you don't really appreciate too much this kind of a preaching.
And so he likes to try to make people feel good about themselves.
We don't wanna beat up on people.
Because they're already beat up. Fine, You know, we've got a lot of problems in the world, a lot of difficulties, and let's not think negatively, but let's.
Think positively and make people feel good about themselves.
But I want to tell you something this afternoon.
God wants you to come to the end of yourself.
And why is this? Because he wants to present to you his own dear son, who is altogether lovely.
Psalm 14 speaks of altogether filthy.
What about the Lord Jesus Christ?
The perfections that we see in Christ.
Are so beautiful they lift us up and I appreciate you know what has been said in the open meeting by our brothers here today to assault the person of Christ.
And that's what we're here for today, to magnify his name.
David could say or magnify the Lord with me and let us exalt his name together. People say, well, you know, I don't appreciate.
What the Bible has to say. But if you don't accept the Bible, you're going to be in big trouble. The other day I was working on a little project and I cut a board.
And I had taken careful measurement.
At least I thought I had, but I cut the board and I put it in place. It didn't fit. It's too short.
I thought to myself, what's going on here? So I pulled out my little tape measure.
Wait a second, this board was supposed to be 25 inches is 24 inches.
For us to tape measure right out the door.
What's wrong with this tape measure?
I see people smiling here today.
Yeah.
The problem wasn't with the measure, the problem was right here.
Right here, and the sooner I was willing to own that, the better.
Dear ones, this afternoon, this is God's measure stick.
How do you measure up to what God has to say? You take God's word and you're going to find.
00:10:00
That you go by His word and things are gonna work out for you and you're gonna have a happy life and you're gonna have a happy eternity. Well.
I'm getting in trouble here time wise.
I'd like to turn to Romans chapter 5.
Romans, chapter 5.
I have sinned, but God loves me, and in love Christ died for me. So we're going to put these two together in Romans chapter 5 and verse.
Eight. But God commendeth his love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
That marvelous, that God loves you and me even when we were unlovable.
Because this is who God is. God is love.
And we love because he first loved us.
First on four says here in his love, not that we love God, but that he loved us and gave his Son to be a propitiation for our sins. Think of the love of our God. It's so wonderful.
And we are just here today to you might say, skin to surface. It's so wonderful.
People say, well, why does God allow sin into this world? This world is in a terrible state. Why He didn't have to allow sin. The suffering now in the world as a result of sin is terrible.
But you know.
Who suffers?
As a result of sin, it's God himself.
And I believe that God allowed sin into the world in order to provide a means whereby He could demonstrate His love for you and for me.
How is this?
He allows sin into the world, that he might put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.
This marvelous.
You're not gonna find this in any other religion.
This is what distinguishes Christianity from every other religion.
It extinguishes.
The fact that we have a God that loves us to that extent, that he would be willing to sacrifice himself.
Hereby proceed with the love of God, because He laid down His life for us.
This is what we have here. While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Now, uh.
If we but receive him, you know.
Again John one John one verse 12. But as many as received him to then gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them which believe on his name.
There once this afternoon receiving is believing.
Believing is to have confidence in one.
Spurgeon used to speak up. The little girl, you know. She's on the third floor of a burning building. She looks out the window. There's a cloud of smoke.
What's she gonna do? She hears a voice.
From the ground, she can't see anybody, but she hears the voice.
Little girl, jump and I will catch you.
And she jumps.
Now that, I believe, is the essence of faith. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
That little girl heard a message. She believed it. She jumped. What did she believe? That there was truly a fireman there. He was big enough.
To catch her.
Loved her enough that he would not drop her and so she committed herself to the firemen and it's the essence of faith. And here it tells us, you know, that the Lord Jesus on the cross gave himself. He was wounded for our transgressions. Christ died for our sins. Christ also suffered for sin that just for the unjust to bring us to God. Can you say that, Jesus?
00:15:22
Died for me.
She's aside, many believe that it's history. But to be able to say that Jesus died for me, that's salvation. It's receiving Him and the work that he accomplished. Now in Romans, it speaks about how we are justified by his blood.
You know Martin Luther, he said. The law.
It terrifies.
There's no salvation in the law, but it's a good thing. It's holy, just and good because it shows us how bad we really are. And if we try to line up with the law, it will strike terror into our souls. We see how far short we come of God's standard and God's holiness, but that's good.
The law terrifies, the blood of Christ is what testifies.
Faith justifies.
When I was growing up, my mother used to take my temperature.
If I was sick and.
It was a thermometer that told me I was sick.
And that was a good thing. That thermometer could tell me if there was a fever or not.
But she didn't then tell me to swallow the thermometer and get better.
There is no salvation in the law. By the works of the deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified.
It's through the work of the Lord Jesus Christ, therefore be justified by faith, we have peace with God.
It's the only way.
To enjoy peace with God. Now the last one, and then I'm done. First, John.
First, John.
Chapter 4.
Sorry, first John chapter 5 and verse 13.
These things have I written unto you, that believe on the name of the Son of God.
That he may know that he had eternal life, and that he may believe on the name of the Son of God.
Here it is.
Believing is knowing.
It's what the Bible says. I enjoy that little song that we sang with the children.
Despite words and that song we need to think about.
The Bible tells me so.
And if the Bible tells me so, believe it.
God said it.
One little girl said I believe it and that settles it. It's faith, simple faith, and God appreciates that and that's what saves.
Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures.
He was buried and he rose again the third day according to the scriptures.
You believe it. If you don't believe that Jesus rose from the dead, you will not be saved. It's critical to salvation if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in thine heart that God has raised him from the dead.
Thou shalt be saved.
Little Rose question their salvation. Am I saved well?
Rose looked at that first.
And Rose.
She said.
Now this verse says, if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, she said, I have done this. I told somebody that Jesus is my Lord.
00:20:08
And believe in thine heart that God is raising from the dead.
Roast as I believe that.
I believe that God raised.
The Lord Jesus from the dead.
Thou shalt be saved, Rose said to herself. That means I'm safe. And it seems like she had lost a sense of her salvation. But she went back to the word of God and she got reassurance well here this afternoon.
We have a wonderful God he loves.
You and me displayed it in the giving of his son. What more could he give? He wouldn't give less.
That's what was required to meet the need of our souls.
He wants us to trust him.
The Lord Jesus told Darius.
Be not afraid, only believe. I'd like to leave those two words with you. Only believe. So we pray. Our God and Father, we thank you this afternoon for this wonderful time that we've enjoyed over Thy precious word of Bible. And we thank Thee that by Thy grace Thou has worked in the hearts of many here.
And we know it's olive grace.
The fact that any of us.
Have been saved.
They have been cleansed in the precious blood of the Lord Jesus.
We honestly do pray for any in this hall today, perhaps without the assurance of salvation.
We earnestly pray that souls that are still outside of Christ that they might.
Feel the weight, the burden of their sins, and call upon thee. We thank thee for thine invitation. Lord Jesus, come unto me. All you that labor are heavy laden. I will give you rest, and perhaps there's somebody here who's lost the assurance of their salvation. We ask thee that thou will.
Through Thy word and the power, Thy living Holy Spirit, that Thou will work in their hearts to restore that joy of knowing that all is well for time and for eternity. So we do commit ourselves to Thee, and we do again pray for those that would be traveling for safety for each one, and we thank Thee for this.
Opportunity to uh.
Present the way of salvation, and we thank Thee for the prospect of the believer, for the hope that I soon return. We thank Thee for such a bright and blessed hope. And so we ask and give thanks to night worthy and most blessed name, Lord Jesus, Amen.
Ephesians 6:10-18
Reading
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So yes, the Lord help.
I mean God and our Father, we thank thee for thy well beloved Son, Lord Jesus Christ, Person, Savior, and seeing of him coming back in power and in glory, and every knee shall bow. We thank thee that he came first in grace, uh, to be the Savior of sinners, and we thank thee that he will have his rightful place, uh, here in this world.
He has his rightful place now in heaven, but.
Every knee shall bow, every tongue shall confess, and this world shall receive its word of power. And so we pray for refreshment, uh, in a portion of thy word this evening, something for each heart and conscience. We thank thee that we have a, a pure object for our meditation, even the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. So let us know what we all stand in need of, uh, this evening. And so we pray.
To, uh, refresh us again as we have the word before us, we thank before all that was brought before us this conference weekend.
Commit those that are traveling to bitender care. And so we look up, uh, with expectations and, uh, with dependents and with confidence and we ask these things and the worthy and the precious name of the Lord Jesus Christ, Amen, Amen.
Mm-hmm. My heart award.
Coming in the world, owning this.
Lordship, but we have privilege now to bow to his worship. I wonder if we could sing #52.
Lord, we are thine, thy Queens we might.
And.
All.
00:05:08
Right.
I was wondering if it would be profitable. I think we got as far as first ten and Asian 6 in our meeting and I was wondering if it would be profitable to continue on from there. Our brother Bruce didn't mention the armor and her tight looks for ****** and I was just wondering if it would be proud to continue on in pieces 6 starting at 1St 10.
Each piece of the armor is necessary, especially the.
The helmet because Satan tries to attack tactics to the mind and and and and the breastplate as well, trying to track their affection. Those are those. I mean all the pieces are important are necessary, but those are certainly.
Important.
They might good, yes.
Chapter 6.
Verse 10 Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the Wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day.
And having done all to stand, stand therefore, having your loins skirt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness, and your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace, above all thinking the shield of faith. For with thee shall be able to quench all the fiery dark to the wicked, and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for All Saints.
And for me that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in bonds, that therein I may speak boldly as I ought to speak, but that he also may know my affairs and how I do. A beloved brother and faithful minister in the Lord shall make known to you all things whom I have sent unto you for the same purpose, that you might know our affairs, that he might comfort your hearts.
00:10:04
Peace be to the brethren, and love with faith from God the Father.
And the Lord Jesus Christ, praise be with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ and sincerity, Amen.
Two different places in Scripture where the Lord says that take my shoes from off by feet for the place Randall stand is is fully found. The first one, of course, is to Moses and it's in Exodus and there we learned that that going through the wilderness is a is a is a holy exercise and there we learn.
What is in our heart and what is in God's heart, and it's completely different than what we're having taken up with here. The other place where it was said was with Joshua, wasn't it? And it was before they they took the, they moved forward to Jericho that it was going to be a holy battle. And the place where in Eastwood was fully ground and it was connected with the promise.
That every step that they move forward was ground that would be given to them. And So what we have here in Ephesians that we have, that God has given to the believer the understanding of his position before God. He's been given to understand what he is as a bride of Christ. He's been given to understand that he's an heir and joint heir with Christ in heavenly places we've been.
Happy for us.
Responsibility, There's, uh, those 3 spheres that were brought out. We didn't develop them all, but umm, uh, there is the, the center, uh, circle is connected with the body and we have the next circle which is connected with profession, how we should go on in profession. And then the last circle is creation. And so we're given how we're to conduct ourselves in these three spheres.
In view of who we are as a heavenly people seated in the heavenlies with Christ, The Walking in this world. Now the battle comes. We've been given all of this. It's our responsibility to possess it, to walk in it, to enjoy it. And now Satan is going to come in and to try to hinder us from taking and enjoying those truths. And so this is in view of now the enemy's attack against us just like.
On the children of Israel had enemies that attacked them as they were trying to possess the land, and many times they were defeated. And so this is the warning to us as to how we're to go on in connection with who we are as the people of God, that we might enjoy the truth that have been delivered to us.
Yes, that's very good, Ed. And as you say, we've been given heavenly blessings in Ephesians, but we need an armor to maintain us in the good of them and to advance in possession of the land. And of course, the land is the enjoyment of all those heavenly blessings, now, isn't it? But we need an armor to maintain us there.
It takes us back, as you've brought out, to what we have in the first two chapters of Ephesians, where all those heavenly blessings are brought out for us, but every effort of the devil is to drag us down to the level of this world, isn't it?
And Satan knows very well that if he can drag the believer down to make Christianity a worldly religion, even though people may be saved, and in that sense there may be blessing in the Gospel, he knows that if he can drag Christianity down to the level of the world, then it nullifies any testimony they will have. And of course, it's going on in the past, sad to say.
The history of the church shows it all too well, so we need to be reminded of the need for that armor.
00:15:02
You know, before we could put off that armor, we have to realize verse 10. Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. That's our first and most important prediction. But when we are in this position, then we can put on our armor. Then we can face it because we've got something within us.
MMM.
If we look at Second Corinthians chapter 2 verse 11.
It tells us that we have an enemy and he's strategic in how he does things. It's not a haphazard enemy that we face. It's a very strategic. He has objectives and if the plans that he's trying to.
Accomplish so in verse 11 it says, let's say we should get an advantage of us where we are not ignorant of his devices.
Or I think it's, umm, maybe Mr. Kelly's translation says stratagem just for we are not ignorant of his strategy.
Well, we maybe we are figuring a strategy because we don't know the words and we don't know the tactics.
Uh, we are ignorant of this strategy, but the Spirit of God gives us the treasures that might in connection with the treasures of the blessings that we have that are in the heavenlies in Christ, and then gives us instruction as to how to defend ourselves. This is defense of armor. We're going to face an energy that is vicious, unprincipled and determined. And so we need all of this armor and.
You're responsible to put it on the armor of God that you may be able to stand against for a while. Or I think Mr. Translation better translation the artifices, perhaps a similar word to stratagems the enemy has.
Is organized, you might say, you and I have a greater enemy than we think in connection with coming into the knowledge of truth and enjoying it. It reminds me of is it loop trap?
UH-14 I think that's uh, an enemy comes against the comes war. It says that 14 versus 31 or what came going to make war against another king says knock down 1St and consultants whether he gave me 10,000 to meet him that cometh against him with 20,000.
We have an enemy. We need to count the cost. It's going to cost us something to be able to stand, not to be able to be offensive, not to be on the offensive, but to be on the defensive, to be able to be ready to defend ourselves and to defend the land. And that's really what we're given here.
I'd like to read just these verses and perhaps someone can help us whether or not it applies to the verse here. 10 in Joshua chapter 4, I'm sorry, chapter 5 and verse 13 it says, And it came to pass when Joshua was by Jericho, that he lifted up his eyes and looked. And behold, there stood a man over against him with his sword drawn in his hand. And Joshua went on to him and said unto him, Art thou for us?
Or for our adversaries. And he said nay, but as captain of the Lord of hosts, am I now come? And Joshua fell on his face to the earth, and did worship.
And said unto him, What saith my Lord unto his servant? And the captain of the Lord's host said unto Joshua, Loose by shoes, from off by foot, for the place wherein thou standest is holy. And Joshua did so.
Well, I have a a sense that that applies to this first tense.
Well, I believe it does. It does that because as we know, Joshua in the Old Testament is the book that corresponds to Ephesians in the New. It's the entering into in the conquering and possessing the land, isn't it? And so the land for them was a physical land which God had given them. But their enemy, there were enemies there that were standing in their way. For you and for me. We are blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ.
00:20:06
So that in the same way we have a land that has been given to us, so to speak, but the Lord wants us to enter into it and to possess it and dwell. And it doesn't be, but it has to be in the Lord's strength, not our own.
Joshua, no doubt, was a very confident man. He knew the Lord had given them the land. He had no doubt that that would happen. But he had to learn that it was go. Excuse me.
It was going to be a daily exercise of daily dependence on the Lord as to how to proceed. Humanly speaking, you would have said the way that Jericho was conquered sounded a bit ridiculous. Marching around with trumpets and going seven days in a row and so on, and then seven times on the 7th day and all that. But that was the Lord's way to teach them dependence. When they conquered AI, there was a specific way they had to deal with it.
And so with other cases. And so there has to be direct dependence on the Lord. In our case, as Carl was pointing out, we have to be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might, because we don't have the strength in ourselves, do we? And he provides the armor. It's up to us to put it on. But the battle is very definitely still his, isn't it?
No, we have David as an example. I mean when he went to visit Goliath.
Who was he concerned about?
Present concerns about Goliath at all, he says. You are defying the living God.
And that was his armor, so to speak.
Figuratively.
What were you, what you were saying, Bill? Uh, it's the armor of God. It's not armor. It's armor of God. And our brother Robert said these are defensive things. We have a whole list of defensive things and then we come to a sword and sword is an offensive thing, but it.
Is specifically specifies that the sword that is the sword of the sphere, the spirit sword. It's not our story, it's the spirit sword. It's the word of God.
Very definitely. That's very good. Yes, When we get to the end of our defense of armor, there is one offensive weapon, isn't there? But.
It's the sort of the spirit, and unless it's wielded in the power of the spirit, it won't have any effect and so.
Remember being in an old reading meeting where a brother asked the question, what is your sword? I know this is going ahead, but we only have an hour here, so we can kind of skip around the arm of it maybe. But uh, he said, what is your sword? And somebody of course spoke up and said, well, it's the word of God. And he said, no, He said, it is the word of God that you have read and meditated upon and walked in.
He said that is your sword. And it's true, isn't it? We can't pick up the word of God in the energy and in human energy or in the energy of the flesh. We can't pick it up and use it when we're away from the Lord. It just, it doesn't work.
Is that right, Steve and are likely to hurt ourselves.
The prophet servant took the prophet staff and laid it on the child's face and it didn't produce anything. Wasn't his staff.
I was thinking of a line of things Tim was bringing out today. I'm not sure he he got all the way to it like he would like to have, but.
The Lord Jesus here is man displayed.
All that God is in himself. He displayed that eternal life and now the corn of wheat has fallen to the ground and died and it's brought forth much fruit. He's up on high. We're still here. And if there's going to be the display for for Christ's glory of his glory here, it's through the believers, it's through you and me. So so it's kind of striking what what you have there in Joshua 5 because we would think.
That the Angel of the Lord would have said, oh, I'm on your side. He would have said, yes, I'm, I'm with you guys. Doesn't say that at all. He says net. And because it was the wrong question and coming from the wrong point of view and it wasn't picking them for their side. He's he's like this as if to put it readily, this is my show. This is about me and my purposes and my counsel, the counsel of God. And this is about just like the gospel itself. This is about it's the gospel of his Son.
00:25:18
And so.
It's the captain of the Lord's host was going to go in and they were privileged to be his people, to follow along behind him because his help. And so it is today. So it's not so much us going in, as I'm sure you guys have been saying, but it's all about Him and aligning ourselves behind Him and what's appropriate to Him and as you say, taking possession for His glory, that there might be a display here in this world.
Of that eternal life.
The Ephesians, we didn't read those chapters, but Paul speaks of the mystery and the mystery of Christ in the church in chapter 5 and in a different sense in chapter 3 and one in Colossians. The mystery is Christ in you, the hope of glory. That's what needs to be displayed. And there's an adversary that doesn't want that to happen.
And the adversary is taking the offense and.
To be aware of that and face in and seek to.
We belong behind the Lord. So as you say in the figure of Joshua that we, umm, that we take possession of the land with our feet, and then we realize that He's given to us what we put our quote on the Lord, umm.
He starts out, doesn't he?
Showing the children of Israel and Joshua his power and his ability to take down the stronghold as we have the Jericho and as he said Bill, it's a very unlikely way. Who would have thought to want to take it down that way seems silly, but yet we we need to trust the Lord regardless of what our thoughts are in the things and here it is. It's not talking about.
Fighting against the strength of Satan.
Talking about the wild of the devil. And we get 2 examples of that early on in Joshua, don't we? The first one is that certainly it's a little city, there's a few people there and we don't need to look to God to go take down this city. We'll just go in and we'll take it. So that is a picture of us trying to do things in our own strength.
And not trusting the Lord, it's our armor, not the Lord's armor. And so that's the first example we get a failure. The second example we get a failure is the Wilds of the Gideonites as they come in and they have their moldy bread and their old clothes and their, I remember right, their water bottles were old and torn. And, and so they came and they said that they were from afar and wanted to make peace.
And they made the leak with them. Well, that is us trying to defeat Satan in our own wisdom. The first one is our own strength. The second one is our our own wisdom. And we learned by the failure that we need to trust the Lord. Now one of the things is, which is interesting, and I think it was Bruce that brought it out before, is going back to Gilgal one time they did.
And, you know, the problem is that sometimes we can feign that we're humble and go back to Gilgal and own that, you know, we're nothing. And it was God's victory. But really, it was really all done in the flesh. So it, it brings out here what we're fighting about. We're we're fighting against very crappy things that sometimes might even seem to make sense.
Take a stand with Christendom against a particular 'cause that is really none of our business. That's the wild of the devil. Get us off the path. Get us off the enjoyment of who we are as a heavenly people. Earthly affairs are none of our business. And yet there's constant causes that pull us into these things. And I believe that's connected with the Wilds of the devil, and it is not using the armor.
To which properly uh is given to us to umm, to fight against umm, these things.
00:30:07
There's something else in the principle and that failure that you mentioned Joshua 7 and that is that he sent men out and viewed AI in verse two and then verse three they returned to Joshua and seven and let not all the people for what?
But not about two or three thousand men go up in smite AI make not all the people to labor their sitter for they are but few. And so as he he says the war, the battle isn't for all he says just a few select ones that that this is an easy enemy. And so this epistle is written to individuals in the first verse of decision chapter one follow apostle Jesus Christ by the will of God to the Saints.
Which are at Ephesus and to the faithful in Christ Jesus.
He's writing them into individuals and so there's individual responsibility in it for all believers.
To defend recruitment and to walk in all of the truth, and to walk in it by faith, and to be able to defend it. In Philippians chapter 2, the Wiles of the Emmy were engaged in trying to destroy the ascendant. He says there's fault now, much more in my absence. Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling for his God that worketh in you. Both are willing to do with his good pleasure, but here it's the individual.
Your individual testimony. Your individual.
Walk with the Lord. Fruitfulness for Him is going to be based on not what you know of the truth, but what you have come into the knowledge of and enjoyed and digested and are willing to walk in and defend. And so now we have this.
Battle. It's in verse 12. You wrestle not against flesh and blood. I'll read it in the new translation.
We because our struggle is not against flood and flesh, but against principalities, against authorities, against the universal Lord. This starts this against spiritual power of wickedness in heavenlies.
So we have enemies that are powerful. We can't even see them. We can deserve their influence, but we cannot see them. And in the spiritual realm, seeking to destroy our enjoyment of those things that are ours. And so as already mentioned in Joshua's physical enemy, here is the spiritual enemies. And they're very real. They're just as real as the physical enemy.
And, uh, Joshua is, uh, going back to the portion of red a few left and Joshua had to learn that there was a captain for the Lord's host. So that was lesson. But you know, he did get something right.
There's no neutral place in this battle.
There's no neutral place, and that was right. The other lesson you had to learn is that God is holy, whether in warfare or among the people. The captain of the Lord. So he said take your shoe from off your foot. What was the first failure really with AI?
Israel has been really that was the route that Jehovah points out. They were defeated. Israel had sent the first lesson Take your shoe off your foot.
This is a failure in holiness.
And I take 2 with the gibeonite.
They've been deferred to the captain of the host. They use their own wisdom. So the very initial lessons given to Joshua were where those two failures had their their roof, I believe.
I was thinking also with with was said in in connection with they sent spies and the spies came back. How often is the danger that we take counsel from man and not the word of God?
In both cases, whether it was to give you a night or going down to AI, the Council of God was to be sought. Should we go down? David would say, Lord said go down. He asked again, very same battle, very same people, very same place. Should we go down? Lord says don't go down. And so we're going to get fresh direction. It's not always going to be the same. Even though the situation may be similar, He may have a different step of direction for us.
00:35:18
But so often today, when trials come in, we seek counsel from men that is not based on scripture and it will always lead us astray.
So we better get to the armor before, yeah?
Before we title this region on Joshua, there is an evil day. You know, not every day is an evil day, but there is an evil day and it comes and it comes unexpectedly. And so we need to have the armor to be prepared for the evil day. And I think a little example you get in the book of Ezra with the the building of the temple.
And.
They left off that building and what had happened? Well, the letter had gone through the king of Persia, and he wanted the work to cease and so on. What do you find happen behind the scenes to get that in day? There was a Prince of Greece, there was a Prince of Persia, angelic beings, fallen angelic beings that were involved in the workings of those courts of those kingdoms.
And there was one there that was for God's people that had was doing battle in connection with what was going on in those courts. I just don't want to take time to refer to it, but there was a tremendous battle going on behind the scenes to stop that work in Jerusalem.
And it's the same with us. The evil day comes and that letter comes from the king. Just to put it in that way, to stop the work, you know, or whatever. Behind the scenes, there's a tremendous warfare that's going on, and that's where our real battle is. And so we have to be ready for the evil day. It will come to each of us.
The armor seems to start at the middle and work to the extremities.
Verse 14.
Stand therefore having your loin skirt about with truth.
Then it goes to the breastplate, the feet, the.
Shield, which is very much external, and the helmet. And finally, the sore.
It almost seems to me I know when.
Trying to recover from my.
Back surgery, physical therapist says what you have to strengthen your core and, uh, work from the things that you don't see in your body. You know, if you go to a gym, which I don't really like, if you go to a gym, you see people doing that, you know, pumping their arms and trying to build up the muscles that people see. But, but for most of us, especially as we get older, we need that strength in our core.
And so in spiritual things we need, and I think that's much of what Paul was writing to Timothy about, because things in his core that he was going to be effective against the Wiles that Paul was warning him about, he needed those.
I needed to have faith and good conscience.
And this bill was putting before us today that list of things, you know, the absence of fear, love and sound mind. These are core things in a person that will enable us to.
To to to be stable, understand.
Some of the writers suggest that verse 18 is the 7th part of that armor. Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, watching their own through all perseverance and supplication for All Saints. So in the sense we have the defense of the prayer, dependence upon the Lord and recognizing our own weakness, it's something to stand. We have all this armor. We can comment on each one individual piece of this armor.
But if it's not.
Worn, it's not born.
In a defensive posture, in the spirit of dependence.
We just won't achieve the objective. And so it's not uh, that we're told to, uh, go out in an offensive way, but to, to stand doesn't sound like much doesn't stand. But when you have to stand against the force of the end and the enemy doesn't give up, you know, try every angle. He'll try every while, every little.
00:40:24
Uh, unprincipled.
Unprincipled and he'll try everything but to stand, and to stand solidly and firmly, and to recognize that the Lord Jesus is the.
He's a leader and the host.
The God of Lord, the Lord of hosts, and He is the one that is going to affect the stand in a spirit of dependence. So May God give us the grace to depend upon Him.
I think one of the things that's important to recognize is when the Lord asks you to do something, something, that's one thing. If He asks you to do it twice, you better stop and ponder what he's asking. So he says in verse 11, put on the whole armor of God.
But then after he tells you what kind of an enemy you're fighting against, he says in verse 13, wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God. So what does that mean? Well, it means you better take each piece of armor to heart that you shouldn't be trying to fight against the Wilds of the devil with piece of armor missing. So each piece here is very practical to be able to have a victory at the attacks of state and so.
If it's said twice, we should really ponder what does it mean? And then we should ask ourselves, is there an armor, a piece of the armor that we're missing that we're not exercising, that we're not moving forward and embracing and walking it because they won't have a victory for missing a piece of armor or find a way to get in.
So it doesn't hurt to look at a few of these things just briefly.
The first one is in verse 14, stand. Therefore, again, there's that standing, as we were noticing, having your loins gird about with truth. For the loins are the place of strength, as we've been hearing, core strength as our brother Bruce was mentioning, and we need to have our loins gird about with truth. Now again, we can't hold the truth in our own strength.
But in the Lord's strength, we can do it. But I can't have my loins girt about with truth if I don't know what it is, can I? Nor can I have my loin skirt about with truth if I think of truth the way much of the world thinks about it today. You can have your truth and I can have my truth, and they can contradict each other. But, well, you do what works for you, and I'll do what works for me. And I can't criticize your truth and you can't criticize mine because.
After all, everything is relative, and what's truth for you may not be truth for somebody else.
A ridiculous argument because truth by its very definition excludes that which is not the truth. And it means having a right thought about everything. And the only way we can have a right thought about everything in this world and what we see is by the Word of God. The Word of God is the only book in the world that will explain everything that you and I observe in this world.
The way creation works and the how it came about, the way this world is going, where it's heading, what's happening, uh, tells us who God is. It tells us what man is. Everything that we see about us in the world of today is perfectly explained in the word of God. And if our loins are gird about with truth, it enables us to see everything from God's perspective and to rise above what we see in this present world.
And it seems not to go on too much, but the breastplate of righteousness is connected with that, because righteousness is the effect essentially of truth being taken in and understood and then expressed practically in my life.
I can talk of truth.
Without a second person being around. But righteousness involves someone else. Righteousness involves dealings with some other party. And so the breastplate of righteousness, how necessary in the world of today that what you and I call righteousness is founded on truth according to God's Word. Just to use an example, and I heard this many years ago.
00:45:30
Boy went into a store, a boy in his late teens, and bought a couple of pairs of trousers and a couple of shirts or something like that, and it duly paid for them and had them all in a bag. And then on his way out of the store, he casually picked up another shirt just off the rack and stuck it into the bag and proceeded to walk off with it. And when he was arrested for it and charged with stealing, he was most indignant and said well.
It's a nice spends enough money in that store that you know I ought to be able to do that. And he just couldn't quite see what all the raw was about what was wrong. His ideas of righteousness weren't based on truth, were they? And so the world's ideas of things when they don't have the word of God tend to be very shifting. Now, of course, if it's your shirt that's being stolen, perhaps the.
Shipped a little bit in the other direction, but what I'm pointing out is that.
The Walking in righteousness is connected with truth and its truth as it is from God, isn't it? And of course it includes everything that we normally would say is the truth. When it comes to the truth of gathering and everything like that. It's all part of the same truth, isn't it?
What do you mean to have your feet charged with the preparation of the Gospel feast?
Is that related to the 1St, 8:00 or 3:15?
The preparation, right?
MMM.
We're all we believe everything is called to be gospel creature or evangelist, but we're all called upon to be ready.
For the whole concern in US.
There, there is. Umm.
There is the danger of.
Statement attacking us, giving us to.
Trying to persuade us that we don't deserve.
The grape that has been extended to us through the work of Christ. And there there is the having a full understanding.
Of the gospel and your position before the Lord, so that when such attacks. Remember this is defensive. So it is really more personal than it is going out, I believe, and it has to do with grasping the understanding.
Of the work of Christ so that Satan cannot attack us from that point. And so, umm, there is that danger of, umm, you know, many, many have been become discouraged, perhaps because they weren't holding the truth or perhaps because they didn't have a righteous life and then they're under attack of the gospel. They're, well, what makes you think you're worthy to be a child of God?
And so you see this buckling and so I believe it's, it's part of of what we can grasp a hold of and and we can use that the the love, the standing that we have before God is never compromised because the work of Christ was complete.
Did you have a thought on it? No, I was, I, I, I've always puzzled over that one more than all the others. I thought I would. I thought of it. Uh, you ever have to run out for something in the car and go across the gravel driveway and you decide you're gonna just chance it, not put your shoes on? What happened?
Right. So there's nothing that speaks so louder to this, loudly to this world as to what we have in Christ.
And a sole that goes on in peace through the trials and difficulties in everything that Satan might throw at us. There's nothing that speaks more loudly to this world as to what we have. And if we go on in peace and let the world come out there. Yes, I believe the emphasis here.
00:50:13
Is really on the word peace. Uh, we do need to be ready to give an answer to every man and.
I wouldn't in any way take away from that thought, but the emphasis is on the piece here. Here we're talking about an armor. We're talking about a soldier. And after all, what's a soldier good for if he's not good for warfare? That's what he's equipped to do. That's what he's, uh, available to do. And there is warfare. But here is a soldier that is to be a man of peace, to walk in peace, as you say, in the trials and difficulties of the way.
And in that sense, be lifted up above this present world to enjoy heavenly things. And so he's to be equipped with that preparation of the gospel of peace. Yes, there's going to be warfare and there's going to be having to defend the ground that he's taken. And in that sense, there has to be defensive armor and there is to be the sword of the Spirit used in its right time and place. But it's the emphasis is on the fact that.
The believer walks in peace and the world sees that and uh, in the sense that we walk in peace, we are able to be lifted above everything in this world that would drag us down to its level.
Is there any connection between this and?
Feet and Scripture, I've often seen, especially in the New Testament, we have feet washing. We have. How beautiful are the feet of them? The preach, the golf course. Is this something to do with when we're walking in this world and our interactions with them? The gospel should be part of that. Mm-hmm.
Well, umm, from a national point of view, soldiers occupation is not necessarily in warfare. It, it could also be uh, saving people like evacuating in areas, uh, because of these hurricanes, for example. So, umm, that would be another function that a soldier could have. I think looking at it from an actual point of view, I believe we have the principle of it illustrated in MOOC 16.
Verse 22 The father said to his servant, Bring forth the best world, and put it on him, put a ring on his hand.
He threw those seats and so it really brings before us the the dignity of the position of being a son with this the feet shog. And so there's dignity to the place, the position of favor and blessing that we've been brought into and to defend the truth and to walk in righteousness as those that are sons with our shoes, with our feet shocked is.
A work of dignity.
I think it's good to remember the distinctions of things.
Umm, this is not talking about walking on the earth. It's talking about fighting a heavenly battle. And and because of that, it's it's really talking about what comes in to interview from continuing to take and maintain and hold what you have. So we found that, you know, we would find if we went to Joshua that.
That they fought a battle, but they didn't take in all, they didn't defeat all the enemies. But what happened is later on they came in and they took the land back away from them. They became servants. And so that's the danger, isn't it? It's, it's the danger of knowing these things and to have this armor on. We, we want to maintain distinctions of things. And this is fighting against the wild of the devil in spiritual high places.
It's not against flesh and blood. It's not really about going out and saving souls. It's about what's necessary for us to hold and maintain what we have in heavenly places that the battle in heavenly places. So I just think it's good to to remember that. And there's a similar place, I think it's in Second Thessalonians. I think it's might be, might be, I'm sorry, it might be Philippians. But anyway, there's another armor that it speaks of there, but it only gives a partial.
I think that has a little bit more to do with the earth, but this is heavenly. So really I'm getting the sense then that that it's it's practically entering into not just peace with God, but practically being in the good of.
00:55:13
Of the peace of God and yeah, maintaining ourselves, walking through this world as those that can display the good of what, of what we've been brought into. I can remember giving my father the gospel once in the kitchen now that you mentioned this and, and I said something about peace or, or something like that. And, and it's kind of a terrible thing to say, but he said, well, your mother's a Christian and she doesn't seem to have much peace.
Which unfortunately was true and I hate to tell tales out of school like that, but but boy, it, it hurt, you know, to and and that was because she wasn't walking, she didn't have on the preparation of the of the gospel peace. She wasn't practically in the good of that and she was living in distressed life. So I think perhaps that's where your brothers are taking this into that practical side.
So we better keep going here. Sorry, Carl. That's OK. Go ahead. Well, if I was going to go on to the next verse, so if you had a further comment, I just want to put it in a practical way that people who live in the United States, of course, are are subject to going into the reserves.
And, uh, you're equipped with the equipment.
That you're supposed to put on and you're to go out in battle if that's the case. But what is the main object of the ruling? It's listening and watching your commander.
New that's the most important thing that I've never been in before. So I don't know, but I I gather that your commanders one that you should look to if he says you could do something, you do it.
Now, if we're focused on our commander, and I say that regularly, if we're so focused and our eyes are on our commander, we don't have to worry about anything else technically or spiritual speak.
Well, we better go on here. Our time is pretty near gone. In fact, it is almost gone. But we have the shield of faith in verse 16.
Someone has said that.
A little faith will bring the soul to heaven, but much faith will bring heaven.
Will bring heaven to the soul. And how necessary that is, it only takes a little faith to lay hold on Christ. And as we've often remarked, I may not understand think it was remarked in these meetings. I may not understand even all about the work of Christ, but if I lay hold of him I can be saved. But faith active in our lives and.
Increased as we exercise that faith and learn the Lord more.
It enables us to look at everything in our right perspective, doesn't it? And to realize that those fiery darts that are coming at us, well, again, the battle is the Lord's, isn't it? And that shield of faith yet not merely deflects those fiery darts. I never yet, and I'm no expert on armor, but I never yet heard of a shield that would extinguish fiery darts. It might be able to deflect them if you had the shield in place.
But to it says here, quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. We know what those darts were in warfare in years gone by. They would deliberately put a gob of pitch or something flammable on the end of an arrow and then light it on fire with the idea that it would not only hit and do damage, but it would light on fire anything flammable that it landed on. And it could cause an awful lot of damage because even if it didn't hit an individual, that could light something else on fire and cause havoc.
But here's a shield that not only, if you could say it this way, wards off those fiery darts, it quenches them so that they don't do that kind of damage. And so how necessary faith is in our Christian pathway, faith in the Lord for every step of the way. And again, to maintain us in the enjoyment of those heavenly blessings, Satan brings troubles and difficulties into our lives.
And then that occupies our minds if we let it, let them do that. And again drags us down, quenching those fiery darts, lifts us above them and our time is gone. But just a quick story. There's a there's a brother that's in Tacoma now and.
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He's through sickness, he's confined to a wheelchair. But more than that, he's.
Can't move around except for blowing inside of a little tube and he steers from left to right in that tube and he has to be fed, has to be clothed, he has to be showered. And everything about him is it's hard to imagine if any one of us were in that condition, how would we be going on? How would we be thinking what, what must Satan have been telling him about? What kind of God would love you like this?
And yet he has grown in faith like you would never believe. He is one of the one of the most shining testimonies of faith and love and joy in Christ that you could ever imagine. And and I'm just saying that because he's living those verses of the fiery darts that he is able to deflect by faith. And so any of us could be going through different trials.
And Satan might be telling us that God doesn't love us. What kind of a God would let this happen to you? But that's the point of this, isn't it? That did not discourage us and not give us to not look up to our heavenly blessing to lose sight of who we are as a heavenly people. And so it's just, I know our time is going to go over, but I just, he's such a shining example of of that bird. Should we sing 318?
318.
The greatest?
And only.
Hiding.
Through it being an alarm sound singular.
Only and they are fighting.
Fluid riser face to face.
And riding bearing glory. Who else is like power and grace?
So I give the Lord and glory.
The wandering of thy love.
Shall be made.
Oh, I say.
We pray together.
Our loving God and our Father, we thank Thee for what we have had before us.
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We thank thee that thou hast provided an armor.
Dallas provided all of that which would maintain us in the enjoyment of heavenly things.
But we trust, blessed Savior, that we recognize our responsibility, first of all to put that armor on, and secondly to recognize our God that it is to be used.
In the power of thy might we know our God, that we have no strength of our own.
But we thank Thee that thou hast not only given us those heavenly blessings, but everything to enable us to enjoy them down here. And we thank Thee for that, for that day, the full result of our salvation, when we shall forever be with thee and like thee, Lord Jesus. No more, as it were, to have to wear that armor. No more to have to be concerned about an enemy that seeks to drag us down.
To take away the enjoyment of those heavenly blessings.
But while we are down here, we thank Thee for the opportunity to live and walk before Thee. And surely what a blessed path it is. So we commend ourselves to Thee, some who are now traveling, others who may be traveling later this evening. We ask Thy mercies for each one. Commend all these things to Thee in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
The Gloy of Christ Love
Open—T. Ruga, E. Staggs
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I'd like to say a few words.
Simple words, perhaps, on a subject that I feel wholly inadequate to speak on.
But we had much this morning about the glory of the Lord Jesus.
And I'd just like to speak a little bit about that. We can start in First Timothy Chapter 6.
First Timothy chapter 6 and verse 15.
The end of verse 14. Our Lord Jesus Christ.
Which in his time shall show who is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, and Lord of Lords, who only hath immortality dwelling in the light.
Which no man can approach, unto whom no man hath seen nor can see, To whom be glory and power.
Everlasting. Amen.
This first tells us something about the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ, who, as we know, is God.
And the verse speaks about His glory as God. We might refer to it as His intrinsic glory, His essential glory, that glory which belongs to Him as God. And that glory is a glory that goes beyond anything of what we know.
And our experiences, man, it's a glory that is overwhelming in a sense.
And just taking that part of what we have, what it says here in verse 16.
Dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto.
That's a glory that man cannot bear, and he has it in his person as God now in the Lord Jesus.
Came into this world God had prepared for him a body and he took that body and we had that part of it a little bit before us this morning and the remembrance meeting and if I could just go back again to.
What we have there in John chapter one.
And look at that again.
These are not umm.
Thoughts perhaps that haven't been expressed before, but I hope I have the Lord's mind to save them because.
When we talk about the Lord's glory, it should have a direct and moral effect upon ourselves, and so it's important.
John chapter one and verse 14. It says the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father.
Full of grace and truth. Now something happened, this one who had this essential eternal glory.
That brightness that was beyond what man could approach unto. Now it says that He was made flesh and he dwelled among us. Now how could that be possible? It could only be possible as Brother express in the meeting before that He took that glory. And as it says in in hymn #27, in our little flock hymn books, He laid his glory.
I or He took that glory, and He shielded it there in His flesh. Maybe the thought even of the words here He was made flesh and dwelt or tabernacled among us. It's often been expressed in connection with the Tabernacle in the Old Testament. There was a house that was made for God, and God Himself came down and He dwelled in that house.
And there his glory was, inside that holiest of all.
But it was shielded, the people couldn't bear that glory. And so there it was, clothed there in that Tabernacle, the Lord Jesus in similar fashion, coming into this world, He comes. He couldn't come here in his essential glory. Who could bear it? And so he takes upon him a body.
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And that glory then is, we might say, laid by, because He doesn't bring it all here with him. Or we might say it was Tabernacle. It was concealed in his flesh.
And he walked here as a man in this world as he grew up as a child. Men didn't see that glory. They couldn't, they couldn't bear it. And yet glimpse of that glory did shine out of him. And we read that it's recorded in the Gospels on different occasions when he did things such as.
Calming disease. And they would see, the disciples would see that, and they would say what manner of man.
Is this well, that certainly went beyond what a man could do. Here was a glory coming out. And I know from the Lord's own words in the Gospel of John.
Chapter 5 for instance, he says that their works that his father gave him to do, he didn't go beyond one thing that his father gave him to do. He didn't let his glory just go out in his power, but it was carefully according to the mind of what his father.
Commanded Him to do at that time. And yet there was another occasion in which His glory went out even further again, no doubt with the perfect plan and program of His Father. And that we have recorded in Matthew chapter 17, where the Lord Jesus took Peter, James and John, and they went up into the mountain, and there He was transfigured before them.
A little bit of that essential glory.
So now there.
And so that was the Lord in his life on earth, in that glory that he had.
But you know, there were other glories that the Lord Jesus had.
Beyond His essential glory, Glory is which He has. Beyond His essential glory and those glories we often refer to as His acquired glories. Glory said at one time he did not have, but now he does. There was a time when the Lord Jesus Christ was not the Creator.
But then he undertook to create the world.
And he became the creator of the glory that he has.
Wonderful. He's worshipped that way in Revelation chapter 4.
And then he goes on further, and there was a time when he was not yet Redeemer, but he came into this world, having taken that body, and he completed that work that his God and Father gave him to do, and he then became the Redeemer. He had the glory of redemption and acquired glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. Wonderful.
There's also a Kingdom.
And that Kingdom was one that the Lord spoke of when he was on earth. And now that Kingdom exists in its mysterious form, and we acknowledge him in a glory that the world doesn't yet acknowledge him as King.
He's the rightful king and heir of all things and we recognize that and soon the world will the Lord Jesus will take that Kingdom and he will reign. They said glory that is his and it's been acquired glory. These are wonderful things and if we go over to.
John chapter 17. I just want to see something more about that.
Because we talked about his essential glory and how he laid that aside when he came into the world.
He speaks about that a little bit there in verse.
Verse 5 Now, O Father, glorify thou may with thine own self.
With the glory which I had with Thee before the world was. That's His essential glory there. He had that glory with the Father in heaven, and eternity passed. It was there in all of its brightness. But now the Lord Jesus had come into the world and He had laid that aside. And He's looking on to the time in this prayer when He would have that glory again with the Father.
And so it was, He rose from the dead and ascended to his Father, He seated there in glory.
All that essential glory there, no longer shielded, but there in its brightness.
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Again.
But he goes on and says something else in this chapter that brings us in.
He says.
In verse 24.
Here's another part that I'm looking for here.
I'm sorry.
No, it's, uh, it, no, it's looking beyond that. I'm, I'm, I'll find the verse here.
We're over 22 as the first I was looking for, and the glory which thou gave us, me, I have given them that they may be one even as we are one. Now I want to talk about that glory and that goes beyond what we've talked about so far, but I do believe it might take in that acquired glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. He's going to share that with us. His intrinsic glory He does not share with us.
But when it comes to his acquired glory.
Particularly that part where he reigns, He takes us in to himself with that. And so it tells us in a number of places like Romans chapter 8, that we shall reign with him and we are going to be one with him in that day of the display of his glory. And we're going to, together with him, enjoy that.
But I believe there's something else here, and that's really what's on my heart.
This morning is to talk, this afternoon is to talk more about that side of it, because we talked about the Lord in His essential glory and we talked about Him in His acquired glory and these tremendous things that He had, but they were not openly displayed in this world and they are still not acknowledged in this world. But when the Lord Jesus was on earth, neither of those glories were those things.
That he was giving credit for.
Or that we're seeing in him directly. But there was another glory that the Lord Jesus had in this world that he could not lay aside and that he could not shield, and that was that he had a moral glory.
And we talked about that already a lot, too. Brother Paul read it at the end of the meeting, at the end of the breaking of bread. He had gone all things well.
The sense the, uh, the, the man who was sent out to take the Lord Jesus, the officer came back and said, never man speak as this man. I think it's the end of John 9. Everything that the Lord Jesus said, everything that he did was an absolute perfection. And so that was a glory that he had, that it could not be ignored. Everybody who saw him understood it.
And the ones who refused him hated it.
The ones who received him acknowledged it, but it was obvious in his person that this was one who went beyond all others and the Lord Jesus when he spoke of it, he could say honestly and there in John chapter, I think it's 14 says now have they both seen and hated both my father and me and what he said and what he did. They saw that and they saw.
Father and they saw the sun. What was that? His intrinsic glory? No. Was it his acquired glory? No. Was it some of the power of God? Yes, it was, certainly. But that's not what he's talking about. It wasn't the healings. It wasn't the works of power. They heard His words. They saw what he did, how he acted, how He treated people. And that was an absolute perfection.
In fact, they rejected. They said no, we will not have this man. We won't have him to reign over us, away with him off the earth.
It's not fair that he should live either.
And they would get rid of Him. But that glory is a glory that He shares with us.
Because having gone up, ascended into heaven, He's now given us His life. And I'm not going to belabor this, we don't have much time, but we have His life. Colossians 3 says When Christ, who is our life shall appear, then shall we appear with Him in glory. But He's our life now. Galatians 220, the verse that we were talking about earlier.
I am crucified with Christ, and nevertheless I live, and yet not I, but Christ.
00:15:03
Listen me, he's the one that lives there. It's his life that lives in me. It's his life now that is given to shine out of me. And what is that to be?
That is to be what he is in this world. It tells us in First John. Let's look at that for a moment. First John. Chapter one or Chapter 2, sorry.
First John 2.
Verse six he that saith he abideth in him ought himself also to walk, even as he walked. And we can too, because we have his life, but this is what we're called to. He's our object, and so we walk as he walked. And is that moral glory of the Lord Jesus Christ could not be hid, because that's what he was in this person. They would say, Who do you say that you are? He says, I'm altogether that which I say unto you.
No difference between his words and what he was. Absolutely he was.
That glory of his person that shone out of every bit of him, and it is to shine out of us as well.
How does that happen?
Well, our brother was bringing before us a lot of that in the last meeting.
And it's important. We need to take up with Him who is our life and our object. We need to take up the Word of God and to learn of Him and let the Spirit of God take those things and make them real to us. And that brings us really to the last part of what I want to say in this meeting. There's much that can be said of it, but I just want to look at it in connection with the glory in Second Corinthians chapter 3.
2nd Corinthians chapter 3 in the early part of that chapter.
We find there that there's something happening, happening to us as Christians and that is, and there's a work being done in US, and it's a work that's being done in us by the Spirit of God. And it has as its result something that goes out to others who are around us, and not just other Christians, but out to the world itself that we have in verse 3.
Says For as much as you are manifestly deca declared to be the epistle of Christ.
Ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God.
Now just go back up to verse two. It says you are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read of all men. And now here's something being written by the Spirit of God, and it's being written in our hearts and it's being known and read of all men.
What that is is when we take up.
With the word of God. And the Spirit of God takes that word of God. He applies it to the heart, and what does he do?
He writes Christ there and does it stay hidden away there so it can't be seen? No, just like the Lord Jesus Christ in his life, it goes out and it's seen by all. It's seen by all those who around all man. It says here known and read of all men. It can't be hid. When the Spirit of God takes Christ and writes them in our hearts, that can't be hit either.
That shines out to everyone. That's his moral glory, working out.
In our lives, and that's something that he does.
Continuously in our lives and it is to go on to a greater and higher thing. That's what we have in verse 18, but we all with open face beholding is in a glass of glory of the Lord are changed into the same image from glory to glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord.
It's the Spirit of the Lord that takes.
US and attack and focuses our gaze on the Lord Jesus Christ himself and no doubt he does it through his word and he takes us and he takes us from step to step in learning more of him to learn more of his ways. And it puts it this way, changed from glory to glory, we've become more and more.
Like Him, it isn't that acquired glory that will come, but right now in our lives as we allow the Spirit of God to take our hearts.
And occupy them with the Lord Jesus Christ. Then we become transformed more and more into His image. And that's a glory. It's His glory. It's His moral glory. And that glory is the way that the world sees Him right now. When they reject Him, they see it in us. This is how He wants it to be. This is how it is to be in our lives.
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That's the exhortation, the comfort is.
However much we may fail in this, in a moment this work is going to be completed and Brother Gary and I were talking about this before the meeting.
I'm just going to reference it because I need to let someone else speak, but first John chapter 3.
It tells us that when he shall appear, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.
In a moment, it's going to be that way perfectly. That moral likeness is going to be completed the moment we see him. When he comes at the Rapture, that work will be done.
But we're not gonna have a chance then to be that epistle, known and read of all men. This is our opportunity to let the Spirit of God transform us.
And to be used in a world that still rejects them. So there is a responsibility. But thank God, there's going to be that moment, and it may be at any moment where the work will be completed and we're going to be just like the Lord Jesus Christ. And then I was glad Brother Gary reminded me the next verse. He that hath this hope in him purifies himself even as he is pure. And so we look forward to that moment, the Lord.
And I come and finish the work too. And it's going to have a purifying effect that to help that transformation to become more like Him. Now, may the Lord help us to reflect more of His glory in this world until He comes.
I have on my heart some of the.
Some of the portions I'm going to be looking at are are actually some of the verses our brother had already read. Umm, perhaps a little bit different aspect, but I want to talk about love.
You know, sometimes we talk about nature.
And, you know, we look outside and we see the trees, we see the grass, we see the flowers, we see the beauty of of God's creation.
But when I look at nature, I look around this room.
And I see what is nature, what is natural.
And I see that even though God might speak to us, the Father might speak to us, Christ might speak to us through the Spirit of God, of something of nature, something about his, his creative power, his his variety of what? What a God we have that he could create so many beautiful things. But.
What I appreciate and enjoy is.
The creation that we have amongst us and inside this room there's something very interesting and and that is that everyone in this room is loved by somebody.
And love somebody, everybody.
And I think that God uses that love to teach us about his love, to teach us about Christ's love, and he uses that as an opportunity to mold and to form us and to build us up.
We have what I believe is the highest love you have in this room, and that is the love between a man and a woman, husband and a wife.
There is nothing that reflects more the beauties of of what we are going to be in eternity with Christ in glory that we are loved by the Lord Jesus and that we will love him and it'll be a perfect love. It'll be unhindered speaks a little bit about what our our brother that glorious scene where he will present us to the Father and we will enjoy the same love that he.
Had with the Father, which is by far the love between the Father and the Son, the highest of all loves. In fact, when we look at love in Scripture the very first time that we find it in the word of God, is it not in Genesis chapter 2 when the Scripture God speaks to Abraham and he says, take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest.
00:25:19
And offer him on amount that I will show thee. Of course, that was Mount Moriah. Mount Moriah was the very place Jerusalem, that the Lord Jesus would be crucified in the future. And So what is the stage is set?
What is the stage?
Well, the highest love that can be known to us in eternal things is the love between the Father and his Son. And then we find only that in that particular scene, as he's walking along with Isaac, he says, Father, where's the lamb?
And he says God will provide for himself a lamb. That's what that means there. It's not taking up the work of atonement, but it's taking up the glory.
That the Lord Jesus accomplished for the Father as He gave Himself on Calvary's cross. It was the glory He came to glorify the Father. Now we're not really a byproduct, but the highest.
Of the love that could be manifested was that seen on Calvary for the glory of God.
The next time we find love in Scripture is in UH Genesis chapter 24.
And there is a picture of Isaac and Rebecca, which of course is Christ in the church. And what does it say? He said he took Rebecca, umm, into his mother, uh, Sarah's tent and he loved her so in, in eternal things.
And it's, it's, it's beautiful.
Look around.
Look around.
The greatest expression of love.
Is Christ for the church? And I look around and I see the church. Oh, we're a small group of the whole.
But nonetheless, when I look around, you are the most valuable people ever created by God to have the highest place and the highest portion.
And so we've, we've had early on, umm, uh, in uh, Ephesians chapter 5 and, and there we find that Christ loved the church and gave himself for it.
But I wanna, I wanna just read, uh, umm, well, I'll, I'll go to that. Let's go to Ephesians chapter 5. It's, it's not, it's not at all my intention. As though, umm.
That umm, I wanna take up the an aspect perhaps that umm, that that we didn't exactly touch on umm, even though it was alluded to, but I would like to just bring this out because, umm, as I said earlier, the the highest, highest place that I can see if you really if you want to know.
What the character of the love that you're going to be enjoying in the future?
You're going to get it by your relationship with your, with your spouse, with your wife.
And to me, it's a wonderful thing that that as I look around and I see both men and women in this room that that I can, I can and you can as men take up a position where we long to be in connected with those bridal affections as being identified with the bride of Christ. It's unnatural to us, and yet in some way it's very natural.
It's very pure and very loving.
But in this portion what I what I want to to bring out is and and not so much the husbands love your wife side, but the the love that Christ has for the church.
And it says that Christ also loved the church. Verse 25 of Ephesians 5 Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it, that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of the water by the Word, that he might present it to himself. A glorious church. And our brother spoke about the glory.
00:30:10
Imagine being a suitable companion for the Son of God.
Imagine having a life that no longer is connected with the flesh that has so dishonored him in this world. And you know, just to touch on this when we talk about husbands and wives.
You know, one of the things that I've noticed here.
Is that?
Christ loves the church. That's not perfect.
Not interesting. He's really setting himself as a standard. But Christ loves the church. That's not perfect. If we were perfect, he wouldn't have to sanctify and cleanse us by the washing of the water by the Word.
The point that I'd like to make here is that because we're so inconsistent with the perfection of Christ, he does tell us here what we have to do to enjoy his love and to be more like Him day by day. And what is that? That we might be sanctified, set apart wholly.
And cleansed, that means that there are those things like our brother brought out when the feet had to be washed, that there are those imperfections in us that need to be cleansed away. And then it goes on and it says with the washing of the water by the word. That is how we grow to be closer with Christ, to enjoy His love, to become more like Him day by day.
Is to allow Him to minister to us through His Word. And the more that we understand about who He is and what we are, the more will take sides with God against ourselves, that we might be more and more and more day by day. Like the precious Lord Jesus, He wants to present us to Himself.
A glorified church.
Now I want to go to John chapter 17 real quickly because I'm almost out of time.
What John 17?
And like I said, I I actually had umm, chapter one on my heart as well, but I'm I'm bypassing that to go to 17 here.
And down below, we're going to find another.
It says.
I'm going to, I'm just going to go straight to to 16.
They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.
Sanctify them through thy truth. Thy word is truth.
How valuable and important it is to see this.
There needs to be an exercise of reading the Word of God.
So that we might have God's mind and thoughts about the activity of our lives, about ourselves, that we might be conformed more and more.
And then there's one other thing that we find here. This is now remember, this is the Lord's desire.
As thou hast sent me into the world, Even so have I also sent them into the world. So here we're not taken out.
It's talking about how to go on in a world where everything is against us, where there are the drawings to pull us away from the exercises of who and what we are.
But he doesn't say take them out of here. No, no, we're going to learn about more of God's love, Christ love for us, and we're going to be changed and conformed. And then one last thing.
And for their sakes, I sanctify myself.
That they also might be sanctified through Thy truth. That is, I believe that the Lord has set Himself as the perfect example for us to follow. He has sanctified Himself for us that we might learn obedience.