St. Louis Conference: 1994
Table of Contents
Romans 8:1-7
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No more the airs of grass. Maybe we should read Romans 8.
Missouri chapter. I was thinking about Clem, but I didn't. I wasn't the one to give it out. I wasn't the one to give it out. I wouldn't be. I wouldn't be the one to give it out.
Roman after 8 verse one.
There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus.
To walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit.
For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus.
Hath made me free from the law of sin and death.
What the law could not do.
In that it was weak through the flesh.
God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh.
And for sin.
Condemned sin in the flesh.
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That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in US.
We walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh.
But they that are after the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.
Or to be carnally minded is death.
But to be spiritually minded is life and peace.
Because the carnal mind is enmity against God.
For it is not subject to the law of God.
Neither, indeed.
So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.
But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you.
Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.
And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is light because of righteousness.
But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you.
He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.
Therefore, brethren.
We are debtors not to the flesh to live after the flesh. For if you live after the flesh, you shall die.
But if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, you shall live.
For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.
For ye have not received the Spirit of ******* again to fear, but you have received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry ABBA, Father, The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God, and if children, then heirs.
Heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ, if so be that we suffer with Him.
That we may also be glorified together.
For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us, for the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God.
For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope, because the creature itself also shall be delivered.
From the ******* of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God, For we know that the whole creation groaning and travel within pain together until now.
And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the first fruits of the Spirit. Even we ourselves grown within ourselves, waiting for the adoption to whip the redemption of our body, for we are saved in hope.
Or buy hope. But hope that is seen is not hope for what a man see us. Why does he hope for?
But if we hope for that we see not, then do we, with patience, wait for it.
Likewise, the Spirit also help with our infirmities. For we know not what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.
And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit.
Because he maketh intercession for the Saints according to the will of God.
And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God to them who are the called according to His purpose, for whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son.
That he might be the first born among many brethren, moreover, whom he did predestinate.
Then he also called and whom he called, then he also justified, and whom he justified.
Then he also glorified.
What shall we say then to these things? If God before us, who can be against us? He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?
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Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died. Yeah, rather that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God.
Who also maketh intercession for us.
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?
Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine.
Or nakedness, or peril, or sword, as it is written, for thy sake we are killed all the day long. We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, and all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.
For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels.
For principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
As believers.
We will look at this whole caster as being what God says about me to have the right reason. This is God's treatise upon the believer. What he's saying about every believer in grace and no condemnation and no separation and all the rest that goes between those two is what God is saying about every believer. What a blessing thing to know.
And.
It's a relative communication to what we had a year ago.
Some of you remember, I say it's really communication that we had from Revelation 3.
The epistles to.
Philadelphia and Laodicea.
And in those.
Addresses to the seven churches.
That the John was to write and send to the Angel of the Church.
Which is really the representative.
He used to write what Christ sees as he looked down here at this.
Church during these 2000 years.
The Lord Jesus is telling us what he sees down here, describing it in those seven churches.
Now instead of.
And might remark that in each of the seven there's one exertation that goes.
He that has a year, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. So we're to listen to the word now. What we have here is what God is saying about the reason.
That's what he's saying about the belief.
And it's like begins like John 316.
God shall love the world that he gave his only begotten son of Whoa.
The opposite We're heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ in this chapter. What a magnificent taste and we can believe.
Tells us that God is light and God is love.
All that God is as light.
In the midst of sin, through the work of Christ at Calvary, all that got in as light, was met there, and answered.
In order that all that God is as love can now flow out freely to sinners and to you and me.
This manifests fully and I thought also that.
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Verse. Well, I'll just call attention.
In the first verse, it talks about the gospel of God. That's what this book is. God's gospel, God's good news for every person in all the world, if they will have it.
And there's a Therefore, in this first verse we read, starting in the middle of a book, we need to go back and consider what we're getting.
There for.
And really it's the way of salvation for Jew or Gentile or whosoever all.
Are dead at trespassing ends. All come short of the glory of God, but the mercy of God and the grace of God comes after all.
That good news.
Now that you've had to believe in the Lord Jesus and be saved, there's all this that God can say about you. No condemnation, no separation. Then he takes up many other things that we get concerned about, like the groaning in this old creation. But the new creation comes in and the new body, and that is such a comforting everything in this chapter is just wonderful for us to have to believe.
It's important to see that it's Christian position that we're talking about here. It is not.
Our condition. It is the position that every true believer in the Lord Jesus occupies, whether he is aware of it or not, whether he.
Enjoys it or not is another matter, but this is the position that you occupy if you are a believer in the Lord Jesus.
I think it's so important that we get a hold of these things, especially as younger believers.
That because you cannot walk properly as a Christian until you understand your position in Christ and the liberty that belongs to you.
There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus.
In Christ is the position that you occupy. Sometimes I give an illustration in the Old Testament when God decreed that there is going to be judgment to fall on the earth in the time of Noah.
There was a place of safety, and the time came when Noah was told, Come thou and all thy house into the ark. And Noah went in with his household 8 souls, and God shut them in.
Noah had his his problems. He had his defects, as any of us do as well.
But Noah believed God, and God counted him righteous for that reason.
And inside that ark he was safe from.
All the judgment that was going to fall on that on the world at that time, not one drop of water fell annoyed. All fell on the Ark.
And your brethren, all the judgment fell on the Lord Jesus.
And at the end of those.
That time on the cross, the Lord Jesus said it is finished all the judgment that was against me as a guilty Sinner.
Is finished. It was exhausted completely by the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross.
And now when I accept him, that is my position. I say, brethren, we can say on the ground of this verse, if any judgment could touch me as a believer in the Lord Jesus, it would have to first touch him. Where is he now? He's at God's right hand, in the pinnacle of glory, accepted his work. That's my position, the same position that he occupies.
I'm in Christ. Absolutely impossible.
That any judgment could touch the believer in the Lord Jesus in Christ.
That's what it means. And 1St John, when it says as he is, so are we in this world. That's in relation to judgment. Where's Christ? Judgment 2000 years back there. Where's mine? Right back there too. And so in Hebrew it says by one offering he has perfected forever those that are sanctified. We occupy the same position as the Lord Jesus does.
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In regards to judgment, what you say is borne out too.
Five where it says He hath made him to be sin for us. That's the first thing, as you say, Brother Bob. But then what's the rest of the verse that we might be made? The righteousness of God in him. And I think our position before God is illustrated very beautiful in the Old Testament in connection with the Tabernacle. You remember that there were those individual boards that made-up the walls of the Tabernacle. And as we've been often reminded and taught.
Those boards, I believe, speak to us of individual believers.
But you find that not only were those boards set in two sockets of silver, which speaks of course of redemption, but we find that those boards were completely covered with pure gold. And as God's eye rested on those boards, what did God see? He saw that gold, which speaks of divine righteousness. And that's the way God views us. This afternoon in the chapter before in Romans, Here there was a man who was had a struggle.
Because he didn't realize what he his position, what he was positionally before God. And there was that inward struggle.
Had to come to the point where he said two things. He said it is no more I but sin that dwelleth in me. He says God doesn't view me in the light of the old man any longer. It's no more I. And then the other thing was before he could get complete deliverance, he had to say, who shall deliver me. It was in a person. And isn't it a wonderful thing, brethren, that though we fail and we have those inward struggles this afternoon?
That God's eye rests upon us and he sees us in the very life and nature of Christ, that it says, Christ who is your life and to get ahold in our souls of the way God views us. As the prophet went up on the mountain and beheld the people of God, what did he say? I have not beheld iniquity in Jacob, and to get that view then will give us true peace. And I don't believe that a believer will ever get true peace and rest of soul.
Until they see themselves in Christ.
And have God's thoughts as to their position.
Pointed out.
First chapter refers to the Gospel of God concerning his Son.
And the principle of deliverance has been brought before us.
And that deliverance comes.
Through the gospel of God.
We read in the 5th chapter of this epistle that where sin abounded grace.
Over abounded and there's no place like Calvary where sin abounded.
Man did his worst to the Son of God.
And.
Judged him unworthy to live here.
And there God made him to be sin for us who knew no sin, as we've had mentioned.
So there we get the grace of God.
The forgiveness of sins, and this subject is taken up as we know.
The 1St 4 1/2 Chapters of this book, so that forgiveness of sins is the first deliverance that the soul comes to know.
But beginning at chapter 5 and verse 12, we have the principle of indwelling sin taken up.
So that I find in the word of God, not only did Christ die for my sins.
That they might be put away, but he died for me. That I might be put away as well.
So that if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature.
Old things are passed away, all things are made new and all things are of gone.
In this position that we've had brought before us here in our chapter, all things are gone.
So I am delivered from my sins. I am delivered from myself.
So that now I can say that I am a new creature in Christ Jesus, but not only.
Am I delivered from sins and South, but I am delivered from the law as well?
The law could not do we get in chapter and verse three of our chapter.
The law could not give life if life. There had been a law that given by which life could be had Christ died in vain. So we get deliverance from sins, we get deliverance from ourselves, we get deliverance from the law, we get deliverance from the old man. And so now we present are presented here as in Christ. If any man be in Christ, he's a new creature, completely delivered. Now there is the experience to which our brother referred.
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Of exercise of soul as to how to get out from under that.
And I find out that not only was I not fit for God's presence as a Sinner, I also find that within myself there is no good thing.
So with these two conditions facing me, deliverance comes when I realized that everything was done by the Lord Jesus Christ at Calvary. So we come now to this chapter, which is position. It is what a Christian is, one who is in Christ for whom there is absolutely no condemnation.
In John chapter 5 and verse 24, we've often been taught.
That if any man hear his voice and believe on him whom he has sent, so that there is no judgement, well, this goes. Beyond that there not only is no judgement that can be applied to me, but there is no way that I, as a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, can be condemned.
First verse of our chapter refers back to chapter 5.
Miracle reading justified by faith. We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
And verse 2 refers back to chapter 6 and to sin.
And verse 3 refers back to Chapter 7, dead to the law.
Explain those two words, therefore very important they are here. Everything leads up to this, doesn't it? Everything that the apostle has been breaking, bringing out in the previous chapters, all converges, as it were, and we have that word therefore. But we also have that word now, now.
There's therefore no no condemnation. How blessed that is. No, this isn't something that we wait to get to heaven for. It's our. It's our joy and our.
Thankfulness. The source of our thankfulness. You're therefore now well, there are two positions we find in the last chapter and in this chapter. In the flesh and in Christ Jesus, or in in Christ Jesus, or, and as the brother Bob was remarking here.
I believe that God whenever one trusts whenever the. This isn't something for for those who perhaps know a few more scriptures than others, but it's where God places every.
Soul, then maybe the weakest soul that beats in Christ.
Is on that rock. He's in Christ. He's on that rock and there's no condemnation and all around us the the quicksands of doubt and.
But God places everyone on that rock. In Christ Jesus. There is no condemnation. But not only that there can't be. There cannot be the right bomb.
There cannot be.
I was thinking now that.
He comes and feels the wretchedness of having an old nature.
That we're told about that wrestles the wrestle against the Roman 7.
We fail as believers in Christ. We still sometimes sin, but there is no condemnation. God did not remove our old nature that we got from Adam.
The moment we believed in the Lord Jesus as our Savior. So he says in chapter 8, there is no condemnation. The end of chapter seven was looking to Jesus. I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Now let's go over to chapter 5. I want to emphasize something for us. There is no work that we can do. Our Bob really Bob's brought that out very clearly. It is Christ who has died for us.
But there's some precious things that has been nice that I have enjoyed. Verse 15.
A little bit in the middle of the verse there. Notice it's in free gift.
But not at the offense. So also isn't free gift our eternal life, our salvation in Christ? It is a free gift.
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Now.
Later on in that chamber much more the grace of God and the gift.
And then let's go down to verse 16.
It's talking about as one sin. That was Adam and I was talking about as one.
Christ. So is the gift. It is in Christ.
Notice also in verse 16.
But the free gift?
It's the free gift.
Notice also it's in verse 17.
Receive abundance of grace and of the gift.
And then in verse 18 in the middle of the verse.
By the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life.
Notice. Free gift. No condemnation. It's a free gift.
No condemnation, it seems to me.
That it's like God is just relieved to be able to say this about men if we think of Jesus.
On the cross?
Perhaps his last word were it is.
Finished. A relief to have that judgment over. He had borne it as a relief to God, I think, too.
God does not delight to judge, but man has made God a judge, so that in Isaiah 28 I think it is He's spoken of his his his strange work.
When God waits and he doesn't judge until it's right.
Well, there was Jesus.
He says finally. It is finished, that judgment was over with and it's never ever going to be repeated again.
Then when you get the judgment in Revelation, turn to Revelation 15 and you'll find.
A simple statement when the 7th Angel sounded.
These things are easy to look at and see God's thoughts about judgment.
They're coming, The Great Tribulation.
And when the 7th Angel sounds.
In chapter 16 it is Revelation 16 and verse 17.
The 7th Angel poured out his vial into the air. There came a great voice out of the temple of heaven from the throne saying it is done.
Now this is at the end I believe.
Does the great Tribulation period. Now we go over to Chapter 21 of Revelation, we find the same thing said again.
But in Revelation 21, we've come down really to the end of all things.
And the first.
6 verses.
Give us.
The eternal state when everything is completed, as to any judgment of any kind.
And so he finally says in verse 6.
It is done. It's over with. God is released. He has had to judge Christ on the cross for us and it was a one time thing. And it'll never be repeated. A complete work. It is finished with the complete work too. Well, when God comes into judgment as earth and the tribulation period, there's going to become a time when he can say he's done.
It's going to be a relief to God to have it over with, but when he winds everything down at the eternal state, he finally says it for the last time. Now here in our chapter we just think of of God looking down here at these men and women sinners.
Lost with the wrath of God upon them and he comes in and does his work and it's a perfect work and it's completeness over with, he said. There's no more judgment for these people.
There's no more separation from the love of God. They're connected with God forever. His children.
There are two words that dominate the whole chapter all the way through I and the law. Here's one who is under the law and I and me. I and me. And then I think it's about 40 times. We get that in the 7th chapter. We get that and then but the first verse of our chapter, oh, what a change. There couldn't be a greater.
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Difference or greater change than we get in the first verses here of the 8th chapter. And here we get the first mention of the Spirit. Spirit for the law he is but after the for the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus.
Hath made me free from the law of sin and death.
The Law of the spirit of life, if we turn over to A in John's Gospel, chapter 20, if we might.
Take the time John's Gospel, Chapter 20.
And the.
After the Lord had risen from the dead.
And then in the.
The 20th verse.
Let's see.
Excuse me?
The 22nd verse. And when he had said this, he breathed on them.
And saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost.
Well, no. They were born again, just like Old Testament Saints were. Old Testament Saints were born again just as much as you or I, but they were under the law of these disciples.
But after the Lord Jesus rose from the dead, then, as he says in John chapter 10, I am come that they might have life, that they might have it more abundantly.
And here there is that.
More abundant life in the power of the Spirit, that is after the Lord is risen from the dead. It's it's the power of it's in resurrection life, the resurrection life of the Lord Jesus in the power of the Spirit of God, He breathed on them the Holy Ghost.
And oh, what a difference that was. What a difference that makes.
It is that this power of the Spirit is that which delivers us.
We in the 6th chapter why we're set free from the law of sin and death, and the 7th we were free from the law.
But but the law, the spirit of life.
In Christ Jesus.
It's it's Christ who is one who has died, but one who has risen again in a in a in a new life, in resurrection life. And that's what he imparts to every believer. Is that right, Bob?
The light that you and I possess as believers in the Lord Jesus is a life.
Empowered by the Spirit of God, but it's a life that now that is completely different than.
Natural life. In the Old Testament, God gave a law.
And basically you could say that the law was do this and you shall live.
But in the New Testament?
God says, first of all, live and you will do this. That's the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus.
It's a completely new life that he gives to the believer in the Lord Jesus, a life that delights to do the will of God.
In the Old Testament, man did not delight to do the law of God. It was not his nature to do it. But now we have a life that delights to please God.
And that life.
It's kind of interesting if we could maybe use the word principle in verse 2, the principle of the spirit of life. It's a law, yes. It's something that carries through.
Sometimes we speak about the law of gravity.
And the law of gravity applies generally all the way around the Earth.
The Earth attracts to itself, and if I let something go, it's going to.
Fall to the Earth because that's the law of gravity.
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Why isn't that then, that my Bible in my hand does not fall to the ground?
It's because there is another power acting on this book and holding it up so that the law of gravity is not does not have its effect on this book as I hold it here in my hand.
And so we can say that they, as men in the flesh, there was a law that operated on us. It's the law of sin and death.
A man who was unregenerate.
Is under the ******* of sin.
May not be the same sin for every person, but sin empowers him.
And dominates him, and the end of it is death.
But now there is another principle that God has brought in. It is the law of the Spirit of life. Thank God, dear brother and sister in the Lord Jesus.
It's liberty here. We're talking about made me free. This is liberty.
And so it is a new law. He's given us a life that delights to do the will of God. And that completely frees me from the laws Synod death sometimes in South America, where they had a time of the liberation in Bolivia and all over South America really. They were under the Spanish domination for many for several centuries.
And then there was the liberators that came, and they liberated.
South America from the power of the Spaniards. There are stories. It's interesting to hear them.
Of times in those high Andes mountains, sometimes you get back into those high valleys and and the news didn't get out yet and people thought they were still under the ******* of the Spaniards when Spain had been completely thrown out of the continent.
And those Spaniards would still say to the people you have to obey.
Still the King of Spain.
The word hadn't gotten through to them. And sometimes the enemy of our souls comes to us and says especially to young people. And This is why we have to understand our liberty, dear young people.
Sin comes as a dominator and says obey. You know you desire to do these sins, do it. Don't be a hypocrite, do it.
You and I have.
The privilege of being able to say I no longer recognize the domination of sin in my life.
I recognize the authority of someone else, the Lord Jesus Christ. And I have a life now that doesn't desire to do sin. I have a life that desires to please God.
And that's where I stand. And so you're free from the ******* or from the law of sin and death.
Precious liberty. Oh, to walk more in the enjoyment of a dear young beast. And I say, all of us, really.
It might be helpful for those of us.
By an expression that has been used several times already this afternoon, and that is sin and sins. Because there were two things that were taken up at the cross, and it's true, one of them was the question of my sins, That is the fruit of being part of Adam's fallen race, the fruit of the old man. And we see that in the history of men. Outwardly sins became more manifested. That's what we see today.
The manifestation of sins, and not only is sin, are sins today.
Practice. But they're preached and glorified. But there was something else that was taken up at the cross too, and that is the nature that produces sins. And that's what is referred to as sin in the singular. The Lord Jesus said the axe is laid at the root of the tree. Why was it that it was laid at the root of the tree? Because it's the root of man that's bad. And so at the cross he not only took up the question of my sins, but it says he condemned sin.
Singular. He condemned sin in the flesh.
And as has been said, I don't believe we'll really get peace in our souls until we realize this. Because we sit here this afternoon, we know the Lord Jesus as our savior. We enjoy the fact that death and judgment are behind us, that grace and glory are before. But maybe there's someone here and you say I go out and I do those things that I don't want to do. Well, that's the struggle that the man was having in the chapter before, in the 7th chapter.
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But I say again, he had to come to the realization that he was seen in a new light now, and that brethren, where not only has Christ died and risen for us, but we are dead and risen with Christ.
We we have been brought into this new position now in resurrection life, and of course there's the practical enjoyment of it. But positionally that is our position as dead and risen with and he condemned sin in the flesh, and he didn't try to remake the old man.
You know Brother Bob was talking about the Mosaic law, and the Mosaic Law only condemned. It says in the end of the 5th of Romans, the law entered that the offense might abound. It showed just what the natural man was and that the natural man could not produce any fruit for God could not take one step towards God and it entered that the offense might abound to show man just how bad he was.
But what is the rest of the verse? Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound, and God has come in in grace and not remade the old man, but he has set it completely aside and introduced something brand new, so that now we are a new creation in Christ Jesus.
The impotence or impacity of the law to produce any fruit for God.
Is what we have addressed in the third verse.
And God.
Sending his own son.
In the likeness of sinful flesh.
For an offering for sin condemned sin in the flesh when the Lord Jesus Christ appeared into this scene.
It was Emmanuel.
God with us.
For something like 2500 years man had been under the test of God's commandment. This do and thou shalt live the soul that sinneth it shall die.
But now God himself comes in Christ. God was in Christ reconciling man unto himself, not imputing trespasses to them. And here he comes to.
Bring himself into the circumstances of man, so that the most advantageous.
Opportunity for man to produce fruit for God was there. And so we see the life of our Lord Jesus Christ going about doing good and healing all those who are oppressed of demons.
But even this.
Did not produce fruit for God. We will not have this man to rule over us, was their judgment.
We have no king but Caesar. They would not receive that blessed one. And so God, sending his own son as one brother has expressed it, coming as close to man as the human mind can conceive, his own son becoming a man apart from sin.
And bearing sins in his own body on the tree, condemned that evil nature that could not produce fruit for God. So it's wiped off the scene. And God starts over with praise, so that now if we you and I do not have life in Christ, we have no association or connection with God whatever.
Our destiny is the pit. If we do not have life in Christ, we have no connection with God.
But here we have the Lord Jesus Christ as the sacrifice for sin, setting that evil principle aside, and initiating and bringing in the new order of things, the new creation and what we had brought before us and John.
Gospel chapter 20 is the very initiation of that new creation by the Lord Jesus Christ in resurrection, in the same way in which God breathed into Adam the breath of life and he became a living soul.
The Lord Jesus Christ breathed on his own, the Spirit of God, and began.
That a new creation, life of resurrection, life, sinners saved and in connection now with Christ in resurrection. So our verse points up that the law inability to produce fruit for God.
Bringing death and judgment to the center, the Lord Jesus Christ bearing sins in his own holy body.
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Has brought in conditions now.
Whereby we can be fruitful and live for God. And so we get then in verse four what erroneously has been put into verse one.
Christ having given us this life, now it is possible for the righteous requirement of the law to be fulfilled in us. We have a new life energized by the Spirit of God, and we are now able to produce that righteous requirement which the law required but could not produce.
I have a question.
Is it all right?
Is inaccurate to say that God Forgives sins but he does not forgive sin.
Explain.
Sins are the fruit of that evil root that's been brought before us.
They must be forgiven.
Through this man is preached unto you the remission or forgiveness of sins. By him you may be justified from all things from which you could not be justified by the law of Moses. There we have again the impotence of the law, don't we, But when it comes to that evil nature.
It can only be condemned of God.
Condemned and set aside completely no forgiveness for that nature.
Only condemnation.
Before God was the end of that Adam nature.
One brother in the gospel used to say to us.
Christ's death was my death.
Christ's burial was my burial and Christ's resurrection was my resurrection.
I was crucified with Christ, Paul says to Galatians. I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless I live.
Yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. That's the new creation that we've been talking about.
And the life that I now live, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
I, as to my history and Adam, no longer exist.
Old things are passed away. All things are made new. All things are of God in this place where we've been brought.
Back in Genesis 6, God had said.
The end of all flesh has come before me.
He hadn't wiped off the Adam creation yet in people.
But he bore with it under the test. If they could recover themselves, and especially with Israel for 1500 years, then when they put Christ on the cross.
That was the ultimate there was number more.
Possibility of anything being done to recover the old Adam nature, it's over. With Christ on the crosses in before God completely of the Adam sinful nature, the sinful nature is condemned.
I think what has been said is particularly.
Of a teaching that is being propagated and ingrained in our young people today as they go to school and university. And that is that within within every one of us there's that little spark of good, that little spark of divinity, and as long as it's fanned in a proper way, it will flame up into something wonderful and produce fruit. But it's been said, this is contrary to the teaching of the word of God. And our brother Clemens mentioned the children of Israel.
Who were put under the best of circumstances that were possible in the Old Testament. We might say that they were the best specimen specimen of humanity and the best of environment. When God spoke of bringing a vine out of Egypt and planting it in relation to that nation of Israel, it says when he looked that it should bring forth grapes, it brought forth wild grapes. When the Lord Jesus came, he was prophetically spoken of as a root out of a dry ground.
Because there was number fruit for God. They had the law, they had God's mind. He built a wall around them, so to speak, and did everything that was possible for them. But it just showed what man was in himself. And that's why, I believe, when Nicodemus came to the Lord, he said to the Lord, we know that thou art a teacher, come from God. In other words, he was looking to the Lord as a great teacher, one who would teach him the way to them, the way to God.
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But what did the Lord have to show Nicodemus? He had to show him that man had had good teaching under the law. He'd had everything that was possible, the revealed mind of God under that administration, and so on. Had it brought him closer to God? Had it improved the old man? No, it only showed what the old man was in it, in himself. And so he said to Nicodemus, he must be born again. In other words, he said, what man needs is not good teaching. He doesn't need to be put in a better environment.
Needs is a is a new life and so this is important for us to keep.
Before our souls, it's just like I'm a Canadian, and when I cross the border, I tell them I'm a Canadian. And that's my standing before the customs officer. But we'll suppose I decide to live in the United States and take out Canadian citizenship or American citizenship. Now I come to the border. I'm seen in a new standing. They saw me as a Canadian before, but now I'm not a Canadian any longer. I'm AUS citizen.
And I tell them I'm AUS citizen.
And they looked at me and they say, well, there was a Jim Highland used to cross here and he said he was a Canadian. And now you say he's an American. Well, as the illustration goes, I've died out of that position as a Canadian, so to speak. Now I'm on new ground and I'm seen in a different light before them. And so it's important as young people that when we go to school and they tell us there's that, that good in us to remember that as our chapter tells us.
God has condemned sin in the flesh.
I'd like for the young people to think about it.
Might be easy to get the answer, might be hard.
Do we sin because we're sinners or are we sinners because we sin?
Do we sin because we're sinners or are we sinners because we sin?
Senator is because we.
We sinned because we're sinners. That's where we're born in the world. Psalm 51 is.
Sending My mother conceived me therefore, because I'm a Sinner. That's the old rooting because he's dog.
And his character, Mr. Hale, used to say that.
You sin because you like to, because you want to. Now that's the old nature, with nothing but sin. Nothing but sin.
Indeed you can't, not for a Christian.
We got this new nature. We're to live according to them.
I think about that wonderful scripture, how that Balak hired Balaam to come and curse the people of God.
But he couldn't do it all he could. One of the things he said was that.
He has not beheld iniquity in Jacob, neither has he seen perverseness in Israel.
That's an Old Testament illustration of justification. Justification. How could how could God look at his look at Israel?
After all that he had borne with them during those 40 years in the wilderness, how could he? Well, we have to turn to the New Testament to get that.
God looks at them through Christ, and that's the way God sees us, being justified freely by his grace.
Through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, the blood of Christ has cleared us.
Completely before God.
Then the prophet Balaam say the shout of a king is amongst them. God was looking at Christ is coming out of Israel but clear on down to the end so he could say those things.
The cause of grace and what he would do for them.
Rotten to the core by nature, but I don't say that anymore because I appreciated the.
Correction of an older brother who said if you take that, if you eat an apple and you take that core, he said there's seeds in that core and if you plant those seeds, you'll get fruit. But there was no fruit in the natural man and so he wasn't rotten to the core, he was rotten through and through.
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And there could be no fruit for God produced. But isn't it wonderful to think that those of us who sit here in Christ this afternoon have that life that cannot sin and can do nothing but produce fruit for God?
I'd like to go back for the sink.
People, the question that was raised as to whether we sin because we are sinners or we're sinners because we're because we sin.
I just saw a beautiful baby boy before this meeting began.
And if we were to say to 1.
Does that fellow have a beer?
Well, I know.
Just wait. It will come out. And that is the principle that was brought out is that the nature is there and it may lie dormant until the will is at work. And then we become sinners by nature and by practice. And so, as brother has pointed out, we do sin because we want to. We choose the way to go.
And if we choose according to nature, we go on the way of sin.
If we let the Spirit of God direct our life, then we have ability to not.
To fulfill the righteous requirement of the law because we're walking in the spirit, the apostle says to the Galatians walk in the spirit, he shall not fulfill bless his desires.
I think that's why it's beautiful here in verse three, Brethren, to see that.
It wasn't the law that God used to condemn sin in the flesh. In the flesh, finally and completely, it was.
The sending of his own son and.
It's beautiful to see how the scriptures carefully guard the sinless humanity of the Lord Jesus.
It's in the likeness of sinful flesh. It wasn't in sinful flesh. It was in the likeness of sinful flesh. Because there was no sin in him. He was perfect humanity.
When the Angel announced to the Virgin Mary that she was to be the mother of the one that was to be called the Son of God.
He said that holy thing that shall be born of thee, He was the only one that was born fully. We are all born with a nature that likes to sin and as has been brought out.
We they're just as a matter of time until that develops to the point where it becomes evident. But in the Lord Jesus there was perfect goodness.
And that was the final act of condemnation of sin in the flesh, if there was something good in man.
Surely the presence of the Son of God.
Perfection. Every way you can look at him, brethren.
Perfection. There would have been a response in man's heart and instead of that they took him out and gave him the most cruel death possible. God says the test is done. I'm not having any more to do with sin in the flesh. It's over with, you know, sometimes you and I, young people as believers in the Lord Jesus, look inside It often is the case.
Talking to young people find that there's terrible struggles.
I want to say to you, don't look inside.
God is done with what we are as men and women in the flesh.
That's dead and buried, And if something is dead and buried is to be left there, if you're going to keep on digging it up and being occupied with it, it's going to get worse every time you do it.
Leave it there.
And look up to the glory. Look up to the right hand of God. There's a man, a real man of flesh and bones sitting there.
He is our life. You and I can say now that we are believers in the Lord Jesus as we look at Him.
As we think of all his perfection, look at him as he walked amongst men down here.
They could never trip him up. They could never find a defect in him. You can say now, dear young person, that's my life.
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Oh, what a wonderful thing that is to get ahold of. That's our life, brethren. I'm not saying that we don't fail, but oftentimes we fail. It's because we look in and we're occupied with what's inside God.
Not authorize us to do such a thing. He points us to Christ. He says there's your life. That's the reason, Bob, we can leave in our hymn book that line with him that says he wears our nature on the throne. A real man. He was perfect.
From his birth as a baby.
Through death and in resurrection, a perfect man.
He's a man.
And the likeness of fentanyl, black. But a man that never, ever sinned or could have, Doesn't that give dignity to you and to me? To think that we are men after the flesh. But we're going to be like him. We're going to be like him there. What? What? What honor, What dignity?
It's the realization just said, that caused Mr. Wigram to say had the Son of God not become a man, I'd be ashamed to be 1.
In Romans chapter 3 our brother had said there's no good things in man. This emphasizes its importance of what the word of God says over all the teachings of mankind. And verse 10 says as it is written, there is none righteous. No not one. There is none that understandeth. There is none that seeketh after God. Verse 12. They are all gone out of the way they are together become a profitable.
There is none to do it good, no.
One, the emphasis that God is bringing before us in this chapter of Romans 8 is because I think there is a doctrine that runs around the country and our young people face it, that tells people that once you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, you don't sin anymore. Well, then you sin, You say, oh, I've lost my salvation. Well, God has just told us in Romans chapter 8. There is no condemnation. It's the understanding.
God will give us by the Holy Spirit of the book of Romans, to show me that I have an old nature that operates on this principle of sin, that can't do any good, and it will produce me out of me. It'll make fruits of unrighteousness. But I have a nature now.
By faith in Christ Jesus, which only pleases God that new nature.
That is that life that I have in Christ. That is the one that operates on the principle of the life that we read here in verse 2 for the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus. Another emphasis that is so dear to me is that what we get in John's epistle, chapter one, It says if we confess our sins.
Faithful and judgment to give us our sins and to cleanse us for moral and righteousness. That's because we have an old nature in the fifth well. We don't lose our salvation. That's establishing communion and walk with back with Christ because of failure. But it says if we say we do not sin, we are a liar.
It shows us we have an old nation.
Of the law might be fulfilled in US.
Who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
Well, now the believer.
Actually, this new life in the life of the Spirit, we're unable to go far beyond the law, the Lord said. We're told to love your enemies and lay down our lives for the Brethren.
And this? This goes far beyond the law of Moses.
Again, that might help along what our brother has just said to us.
Verse 4.
For Christ is the end.
Of the law or righteousness to everyone that believeth.
Christ is the end of the first man. One brother writing about that has said the cross of Calvary is the end of man outside of Paradise. That's the end of the first man.
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Christ now is the end of the law for righteousness we get in Galatians.
That the law was our schoolmaster up to Christ.
Now we have a new standard. As our brother was pointing up, it goes far beyond the law. He is our righteousness. He has been made unto us. Wisdom, righteousness, holiness, and redemption. So Christ is everything to us. He's everything to God that in all things.
He might have the preeminence.
Get into the paradise of God, Mule.
I just explained that with your comment in The man outside of the Paradise. Well, as we know when.
Adam sinned. The flaming sword had to be put up to guard the Tree of Life. He had to be expelled.
The Lord Jesus said to the thief on the cross this day.
Shalt thou be with me in paradise.
The apostle was caught up into the 3rd heaven. This is our place, he says. I knew a man in Christ. The place for a man in Christ is the paradise of God, and it will be brought about when God's purposes for this earth have been fulfilled.
So that when God took man out of the paradise of Eden, he was the only one that could get man back into paradise. Exactly. Paradise is gone.
And a place that can never be entered nor corrupted.
Or maketh the life.
A wonderful migration blog and you think, man.
And lost.
And and he lost the right to live here and enjoy the earth as as God had given it to him, but a wonderful the grace of God that opens up the heavenly paradise.
Never any return.
One of the Old English poets has used to write about the.
Paradise Regained? No, Never down here.
It's the heavenly paradise. How wonderful, the grace of God that we lost the right to the earthly paradise. God opens up the heavenly paradise, and that's where Christ is now. That's where He's got Christ, and he's there, and he's waiting the moment when he will come and bring us there too.
Another question.
Are there two things that are given?
And the Spirit.
Yeah, you get the light and you get the spirits. I think I'm going to burst back in, John.
5.
The fact of giving money this life comes from God.
Its eternal life that we would complete. John 316. We quoted the first part.
Where God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish. That's negative, the rest of it said, But have eternal life that comes from God and back in the 5th of John.
And.
Verse 26.
As the Father hath light in himself.
So hath he given to the Son to have likened himself.
And God imparts the light. The sun can impart light, the Spirit imparts life, but we also get the Spirit himself, a person.
I think in the first verse, down to the end of the 12Th chapter verse, we get the Spirit of God as the power, the formative power of life.
In the in the believer working out these blessed traits, we're working out these blessed things. But after that then we get the spirit of God as coming to dwell. He's as as a person he dwells in the believer.
Nothing. Well that's that's our position that the in the flesh but are in the spirit one who is in the in in Christ Jesus.
The spirit of God dwells in that heart. All right, Bob.
Brother has just described is to have the redemption of the body for which we wait. Then all of God's counsels will be made good to us.
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To make a special emphasis says that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled. It doesn't say that the law may be fulfilled in US. It's the righteousness of the law because the believer is never put under law.
And I think it's important to see our position to the law now. God has never undone the Law, that old Law of Moses. It remains. There is a lawful use of the Law in First Timothy Chapter one.
But it is our position that has changed in relation to that law.
Whether Jim is using the illustration of the Canadian government and the US government.
Here in the United States, our position, we have to recognize the law of the United States.
But today we take a trip and we go north and across the border into Canada.
Is the United States law still valid there?
You know, you say, what happened to it? Is it no longer valid anywhere? Yes, it's still valid in the United States, but our position has changed. We are now in Canadian territory and there is another law, another constitution that applies there and I think it is good to see that.
Young I know sometimes people.
Accuse believers in the Lord Jesus of.
Undoing the law. No, brethren, we do not undo the law. The law remains.
But it is our position that has changed. In Chapter 7 it has been mentioned we are dead to the law. We are free from the law by the body of Christ. And so it is in this verse four. It is not the law that's fulfilled in us. It is the righteousness of the law that is fulfilled in us. I think it's important to see you and I as believers in the Lord Jesus.
Are never placed under the Law of Mood, Moses.
The legal use of the law was referred to the right use of it, and I think we ought to look at First Timothy one and see, because it's so clear knowing this verse 9.
That the law is not made for a righteous man.
But for the lawless, the ungodly, the law still addresses the flesh. Thou shalt not kill. Thou shalt not lust. It's still valid, addressed to the old man. But it is not lawful to apply the law to a righteous man. Who should say to me, thou shalt not kill. I have a nature that does not ever want to kill now. So the law is for the ungodly, not for the righteous. Christ is the standard of righteousness for us as believers.
I'd like to ask a question with verse 4 because we're given an exhortation to walk according to the Spirit, not after the flesh, but according to the Spirit. In Galatians we find were to walk in the Spirit. And there might be some here who say, well, what does this practically mean? What does this have for us in the day-to-day life as a Christian and so perhaps we could have something on that in a practical way as to.
Walking in or according to the Spirit.
It's not there is practice, it's a fact.
The small, the righteous of the law might be fulfilled in US and these people who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit. There are people that do that. God is telling this about these people. It's not practice, is what God says about the believer. Of course you can bring practice in. Well, that was my thought, because we've been talking about position here. But then there's the practical, the practical side of it too.
It was scary terrific of a believer in the Lord Jesus that he does walk according to his spirit and not according to the flesh.
In order to answer our brother's question as to what it is, let's read First Timothy 316 where it says.
God was manifest in flesh, justified in the Spirit. As to the temptation of the Lord Jesus Christ, he says he was driven by the Spirit into the wilderness. Walking in the Spirit is allowing the Holy Spirit to govern our conduct. That's Simply put, justified in the Spirit is the life of the Lord Jesus Christ. Live in absolute dependence upon and in the power of the Holy Spirit of God.
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Games look at that as the perfect law of exactly.
It's a new nature to do these things.
I've enjoyed the fact that when we seek by grace to walk according to the Spirit or in the Spirit, there are two things that are a result. There's fruit for God, and there's fellowship and communion with our brethren. I know some of heard me use this illustration before, but just turn to Deuteronomy.
Because I think we have it brought those two things brought out in a beautiful way.
In the end of Deuteronomy, Deuteronomy 33.
And verse 24.
And of Asher he said, Let Asher be blessed with children, let him be acceptable to his brethren, and let him dip his foot in oil. Thy shoes shall be iron and brass, and as thy days so shall thy strength be.
Well, here we find that Asher was exhorted to dip his foot in oil, and we know that the feet speak of our walk. And oil is used in Scripture as a type of the Holy Spirit, and I like to think of it in connection with walking in the Spirit. But what are the two things that are a result of this?
One, He's blessed with children, which would speak to us of fruit. And as I say, if there's going to be fruit for God manifested in our lives, it's only as we have we are in control. As our brother said of the the Holy Spirit has control of our lives to guide us and direct us. And then the other thing is let him be acceptable to his brethren. That's fellowship. One with another. If you're walking in the Spirit, If I'm walking in the Spirit, we're of one mind.
We go on together and harmony.
Because the Spirit of God can't lead what you contrary.
It can't lead you contrary to the Word. Can't lead me contrary to the Word. And when we're going on in that way, in obedience to the Word as led by the Spirit of God, there's that harmony. And then what does it say after he dips his foot in oil? Well, two. There's two things my shoes shall be as iron. That's power. We want power in our lives. As Christians, we must dip our foot in oil. It's a life in the power of the Spirit.
That's what characterized the Lord Jesus as He was here in this world. His whole life and ministry was in the power of the Spirit. We've been reminded that he was led of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted. We find 2 That when it came to the work of eternal redemption, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, Bob reminded us of His birth, that holy thing that he would be conceived by the Holy Ghost.
And so it was all in the power of the spirit and it says iron, that's power for our lives. And then brass. Well, what's brass? That's endurance. It's not just enough to have power today and make a good start. But Paul said, the apostle said let us run with endurance. It's the marathon. It's the day-to-day going on for the Lord and for his glory. Let us run with endurance, the race that is set before us.
But and then it says, as by day so shall I strength be. We often quote the last part of this verse, but I believe that I will have strength day by day, power and endurance in our Christian life only as we differ foot in oil and seek by grace to walk in the power of the Spirit.
M254.
For the place and position that we've been brought into because of our Lord Jesus.
And his work on Calvary.
Lord Jesus.
Help this truth to sink into our souls.
That we might enjoy it, That the enjoyment of it may have power in our lives.
That we may walk truly.
In that new life.
That we now have in Christ we ask Thy help and blessing in this Father we confess.
That off time, because of lack of enjoyment of it, we do not walk in the power of it.
But we do ask you there might be more of a reality.
We look up into the glory. We see the Lord Jesus.
In all thy glory, in all thy perfection.
And we can say, Lord Jesus, thou art our life.
The Lord Jesus may be a reality we pray not only for ourselves, but we pray for.
Every one of thy dear people, to whom these things apply equally as to ourselves.
So we commend ourselves to thee for the rest of the evening.
The Gospel meeting Lord Jesus.
And would ask thy direction, giving thanks in the name of the Lord Jesus, Amen.
Romans 8:8-17
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Confirming.
Out in our Father is about to open the word of God for a little time here. Oh, how we need thy help.
I want to own heart exercise and your soul. Soul was the peace and the joy for a believer in the teachings of Romans that have been so important for our well-being, in the teaching that we get in Romans with regard to our peace.
Knowing there's no condemnation.
Knowing the internal security we have in Christ, it is in Him. He has accomplished His work on the cost, and we long for all our presence here today to understand these, particularly the young people.
As the wrestling that goes on.
In the spiritual realm, and it also you know, peace with God.
To know no condemnation, if you know, to know after we come to our own nothingness. There is the power in our weakness in looking to the Lord Jesus, and it is in him that we find these things that Godson and the people set forth here enrollment are so important.
For a joyful and peaceful walk.
As we wait for the coming of our Jesus.
To belong.
For the things of God.
He expected to grasp these things. And then there might be some here, our God my father, that they dealt their security in Christ. They dealt they have doubts of their salvation, that they could distract the excuses of what the Word of God says, that we have eternalizes in Christ.
Our God and our fathers, the wrestling in the spiritual world, in this realm.
That some would think to try to place themselves in other seven who created?
They too would feel.
Constituting in Christ.
And the recognition of the two nations.
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The teachings that this Roman teaching is so important belong to the faith of God. Again we said to grasp these things and eating ourselves. Do we threat to these things? And the Thou would.
Glorify the Lord of Jesus with him being.
Gold and his conferences to get him all through them And how?
He accomplished what the greatest celebration he created to the liberty of the Spirit of God, to to use the vessel of death, disease.
To encourage and uplift the tank for identification. And then again we think of that one word.
That gospel and salvation.
That can jump working in the reading meaning of salvation. And so we pray with our blessings in the meeting, and we pray in the name of the Lord.
We begin in the eighth of Romans.
Speak for all of them. I guess I kind of had a little hope that maybe there are some very precious foods coming up in this chapter and if we could kind of move along so that we can.
So that we can.
Enjoy some of them before our time runs up.
You tell us.
That sounds good.
Romans chapter 8 verse 8 So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.
But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you.
Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.
And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is light because of righteousness.
But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.
Therefore, brethren, we are debtors.
Not to the flesh. To live after the flesh.
For if you live after.
Kill God.
Be mortified.
For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.
For you have not received the spirit of ******* again to fear, but you have received the spirit of adoption.
Whereby we cry ABBA father.
The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God, and if children, then heirs.
Heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ, if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.
Where I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us, for the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God.
For the creature was not made subject to vanity, for the creature was made subject to vanity not willingly, but by reason of him who have subjected the same in hope.
Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the ******* of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.
For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now, and not only they but ourselves also, which have the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves grown within ourselves.
00:10:14
Waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our bodies. For we are saved by hope. But hope that is seen is not hope.
For what a man seeth, why did he yet hope for?
But if we hope for that we see not, then do we, with patience, wait for it.
Likewise, the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities. We know not what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us.
With cronies which cannot be uttered.
And he that searches the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the Saints according to the will of God.
And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God to them who are the called according to his purpose.
For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his son.
That he might be the first born among many brethren.
Moreover, whom he did predestinate, then he also called, and whom he called them he also justified, and whom he justified.
Then he also glorified.
What shall we then say to these things?
If God be for us, who can be against us?
He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?
Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justify it. Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died. Yeah, rather that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God.
Who also liveth maketh intercession for us? Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?
Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword.
As it is written, for thy sake we are killed all the day long we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.
Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.
For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God.
Which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
This whole chapter is God's treatise upon the believer. It's what he's saying about the believer.
And it is most wonderful because we are his workmanship.
God can't make anything but a perfect work, so he puts us in Christ where we began reading There's two possessions in the flesh or in the Spirit. What a difference it is.
How that the Spirit of God is prominent all the way through.
We don't get anything in the in Chapter 7. There's one there. He has a new nature, but there's no power. There's no power. But the Spirit of God is the power of the new nature. That new nature we have from God has no power of his own. But the Spirit of God is the power of that new nature which strengthens that new nature and enables us to enables us to live.
And to glorify Christ, well, I'd just like to say this, if you forgive me for taking the time but we had yesterday.
How that the Lord Jesus, after his death and resurrection, he appeared to his disciples as they were gathered. And then he says, it he peace be unto you? And then he says He breathed unto unto them, And he said, Receive ye the Holy Ghost.
00:15:13
Well, no. That was the power of life in Christ, risen from the dead. Power life in Christ as the one who was risen from the dead.
But then the question may be asked, what about Pentecost? The giving of the Spirit of God at Pentecost?
Well, that was really something else, was it not?
And I bear correction on this, but but there's really something else. It's the same Blessed Spirit.
But there are There's the work at Pentecost.
Where the Blessed Lord?
At the Father's right hand, after he had died and gone back to heaven, he receives the Spirit of God a second time.
And he spent, and he receives it for you and for me.
And for all his own. And he sends the Spirit of God down here in order to baptize into one body.
Every believer. And there we have the formation of the church.
Well.
The spirit of God dwells in the church, but it also dwells in US individually as we get into our Corinthians know you're not the dear bodies of the temples is the temple of the Holy Ghost.
And so we have the work of the Spirit. The work of the Spirit of God and our souls is one thing, but the indwelling presence of the Spirit of God is a distinct thing, and we get the both in the both in this chapter.
I remember somewhere, Mr. Darby remarked. He said that it's one thing to build the house.
But it's another thing to move in and take possession.
Well, perhaps it's a little picture, the work of the spirit of God in our souls. And we were first quickened and then it took time.
And the Spirit of God has worked in our souls. But finally the time came when the Spirit of God came to dwell, need to dwell.
Well, how precious that is, When we think of the Spirit of God came to dwell in these hearts of ours, and we believe that he loves to be there, he He He rejoices to be there in a heart that's.
That is, that is filled with Christ.
And so.
He's never going to give up his claim to that body. Never.
The Lord can say to the His, the disciples, and that He's Speaking of that other comforter. He said, He shall abide with you forever.
So the Spirit of God is not going to give up this body of yours or mine.
And the day is coming, perhaps, when this body may be laid away in the grave.
But the time when the Lord Jesus comes and that glorious resurrection morning.
He's going to utter that voice, that voice of power, but the spirit of God.
Is going to raise the bodies of all his own.
Braids his button. That can never be said of those who died without Christ died in their sins, but of those who belong to Christ.
There is the Spirit of God.
Is going to race, and we're going to be raised by the power of the Spirit of God.
Well, I was, I would just want to say that I believe in the believe in the early part of our chapter we have the work of the Spirit of God.
And in the earlier chapter, the work of the Spirit of God our souls. But say from the 14th verse on we have the Spirit as an indwelling presence, indwelling presence of the Spirit of God.
Clem, would you correct me on some of those things?
No, I don't need to. It's right.
And I was hoping yesterday that you'd bring that out. We might just read that verse in Acts 2 That you spoke of to show that Christ, when he went up, He sent He received the Spirit the second time.
I remember when I first heard that truth from Armstrong Berry years ago, and I haven't heard it ministered on much. But in Acts 2 you have it quite distinctly in the 33rd verse, beginning at verse 32.
This Jesus hath God raised up.
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Where have we all our witnesses? They are witnesses of the resurrection of Jesus.
Therefore, being by the right hand of God exalted, that's where that man is now.
And having received this, the promise of the father.
Received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, That's Christ risen up there. He received the Holy Ghost the second time. He received him the first time when he came up out of the waters of Baptism in Matthew 3 But he died.
And he rose again. He went up to heaven, and he received the promise of the Father, the Holy Ghost the second time and sent him down. And that's that's Pentecost.
We read in the 1St of this second chapter. We notice that there is a two fold character to the descent of the spirit of God.
It says that he set upon each of them, and that's what our brother's been bringing before us, the indwelling of the Spirit of God. But it also says that he filled the house. We read in the second chapter of the Epistle to the Ephesians that the assembly is the habitation of God and the Spirit. And so we have at the descent of the Holy Spirit, as has been pointed up to us, the gift of the Spirit that was not yet because the Son of God was not yet glorified, he said in the 7th of John.
The Holy Spirit's personal presence coming into this world. And he shall be in this world as the restrainer of evil until he be taken away, and he will be taken away when we go home. The assembly goes home to meet the heavenly Bridegroom. So we have the twofold character, the Spirit of God in the present time, just as the Son of God came at his.
Birth into this world So the Holy Spirit came as a personal entity into the world, a third person of the Godhead to take up the work of God in behalf of those who are His own, filling the house and indwelling individuals by His personal presence.
John 20 with the Lord Jesus in resurrection.
It says, Receive ye the Holy Ghost.
To contrast it to the original creation, when God formed man and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living soul. So in contrast with that first creation, now the Lord Jesus in resurrection, the head in resurrection of a new creation, breeze on them.
And it's interesting. Mr. Darby's translation is in brackets. And you could say, receive Holy Ghost, receive Holy Spirit. In other words, it's life in the power of the spirit of God. It's what he was breathing into them. That's the life you and I possess now. It's a life of resurrection that you and I possess. Death is behind this. Death is not before us. It's behind us now.
Off.
And dwelling collectively in the Church now, there can be an enjoyment of our position in our souls now.
In a way that was never possible before the day of Pentecost, because the Lord Jesus, when he spoke to the disciples in the upper room, he said there were many things that he wanted to bring before them, but they weren't able to take them in at that time. But he told them that when the Spirit of Truth was come, then he would guide them into all truth. And we have been able to sit in these meetings and enjoy our position in Christ. We've been been able, as it were, to have a little enjoyment of heaven in our souls before we get there.
And the reason we've been able to do that is because the Spirit of God indwells us. And I think it's important to see that the work of the Spirit of God is to bring Christ before us and minister Christ to us according to our need. Perhaps it would be good just to go back to John 15 for a moment to see this.
And the reason I want to point this out is because, again, for our young people.
There is a great deal in Christendom that would exalt the spirit.
And bring the Spirit before us rather than Christ, and occupy us with the Spirit.
Now I want to be careful, because the work of the Spirit of God is a very wonderful work, and I think sometimes we shy away from it because the subject has been abused in Christendom. But nevertheless, let's just notice a couple of verses here, John 15 and verse 26. But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me.
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And then notice in verse 13 of the next chapter, how be it? When he, the Spirit of truth has come, he will guide you into all truth. For he shall not speak of himself, but whatsoever he shall hear that shall he speak, and he will show you things to come. And very simply, what the Lord Jesus was telling the disciples was that when the Spirit of Truth was come, he was the one that would bring these things that he had brought to their attention.
To their remembrance, and not only so, but they would be able to fully enjoy now the position that they were going to have with a risen, glorified Savior at the right hand of God.
And he's simply saying here that when the Spirit of God comes and ministers to you, he won't speak of himself. Brethren, the Spirit never glorifies the Spirit. The Spirit brings Christ before us and ministers Christ to our heart and conscience according to our need. And I think this is a great test when we hear so much around us today that occupies us with the Spirit. It's not of the Spirit.
If it doesn't glorify Christ, if it if it occupies us with the Spirit, brethren, we need to be on our guard. And I think this is something important and relevant for the day in which we live, and it's the great test of whether it's of the Spirit or not.
But this I would just say too, in connection with the assembly, it's been mentioned that the assembly is the pillar and ground of the truth.
And that's why we need to avail ourselves of ministry in the assembly. Because on an occasion like this, where we have the word of God before us in the assembly, and the Spirit of God is given liberty, then Christ can be ministered to us collectively. And while the the assembly doesn't teach, it's in the assembly we learn as taught by the Spirit of God.
Then they that are in the flesh.
Cannot please God. The remark was made here yesterday about sin sins.
Quoting from Harry Hayhoe, We sin because we want to. Is that the way you said that, ma'am?
Yeah, because we like to. Well, that's pleasing self.
And this verse says that doesn't please God. It's just that simple. When you and I act or say something, it's either pleasing self or pleasing God. Don't we want to please God?
And then those people can't please God. The ploughing of the wicked is sin because they're not recognizing that. They feel they're plowing in belongs to God. They're out in another man's field, plowing. Don't recognize the owner of it.
That's those that are in the flesh.
Cannot please God. But then he says you're not in the flesh, You're not in the flesh.
But in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. What a grand change that is.
Of the flesh towards God, not one pulse, but towards God.
To fan up, not a bit.
I think it's helpful to.
Man is struggling in the 17th verse.
He is trying to. He cannot understand why the things that he wants to do, he has no power to do the things he doesn't want to do. That's what he does. And it's interesting. In verse 17 he comes to a conclusion. Now then it is no more I that do it but sin that dwelleth in me. And then in verse 20 somewhat the same. Now if I do that, what I that I would not.
It is no more.
I that do it but sin that dwelleth in me, The position of the believer is not in the flesh, but I think it is helpful to see that sin is in us. We are not in the flesh. Brethren, if we are believers in the Lord Jesus, our place is in the Spirit. If we were in the flesh, we would have to obey its dictates. But that is not our position.
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We are in the spirit.
The flesh may be enough, that sin may be enough, but it is to be reckoned dead. Sometimes young people say I feel hypocritical. I really want to do those things.
But God says.
That we are dead. And now it says, Reckon yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin. In other words, think that way now.
Sure, I feel that impulse in my heart, that sin in me.
Responds to those temptations to sin.
But I am not to look at that. I'm to look at what Christ did on the cross. In His death I died. In His burial. I am buried. And I'm to think that way now, so that when sin presents itself to me, I am to reckon myself to be dead indeed, and to sin.
Doesn't say to to to try to make yourself die.
You are dead, the scripture says. Now think that way. That's an important thing to get ahold of for young people. And if you can get ahold of it, it helps to put an end to the struggles that so often we see with young people in their souls. Yes, there is sin in US.
But that's not our position is not in the flesh, but in the spirit. That's the position you and I occupy as believers in the Lord Jesus.
Al Larson one time said.
We're not for sin. Death would have had no beginning.
Were it not for death, sin would have had no ending.
Those are conclusive things.
Sin brought in death and death stopped sin. And for you and I, it's the death of Christ that's the end of the old Adam play so our verse.
10 If Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin.
He died under sin. He died and we died with him. Now we're looked at and we're to still reckon ourselves as dead with him.
So the contest goes on because we yet have, as long as we're in the old creation, that life of the old creation. And God takes that up in this chapter too, and everything groans along with us. He has an end for that. But you never saw a dead man sin, and you never will.
That's the only thing that stops sin, and it's Christ's death for you and I.
Yeah, you go to a doctor and get a prescription for for some problem that you have. Maybe you write you out a prescription and and you take it and you get it filled. Well, God's prescription here is reckon yourself dead indeed unto sin.
And live under God.
Has a righteous basis to forgive sin and communicate life.
The life he has in Christ is a life in resurrection.
And there can be no resurrection if there has not been death first of all.
So you and I in our lives, dear young people, and all of us, must prove the to understand the practical reality of it, you and I.
Have to do what is said in Second Corinthians chapter 4 as well.
It says always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus.
That the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our bodies.
We all have resurrection life, but sometimes it is not manifested, brethren, because we do not bear about in our bodies the dying of the Lord Jesus.
And if that's not manifest, if I don't bear about in my body the dying of the Lord Jesus, the life of Jesus will not be manifest either. It's there, but it's not going to be manifest.
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Less practically, I bear about in my body the dying of the Lord Jesus. The Lord Jesus died this sin.
Completely forever. Once it's a work that is finished, it's not something you have to struggle with, it's something that you need to simply accept and think in that way.
But if we get out of the struggle and get strong?
Contradict what you're saying. That's practical and we need that, but this next verse is absolute.
If verse 11, The Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, what?
He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwelleth in you. We have eternal life. We're not going to get it. We've got that Spirit dwelling within us.
And God is going to bring in about for this body, for that body in which the believer lives according to the working of his mighty power, whereby he is able to subdue all things unto himself. So the redemption of the body is clearly brought out, and most precious truth for us to enjoy.
Change of expression in that eleven first.
But the spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead, It was as Jesus that the Lord Jesus Christ was here. Thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from his sins. That was an announcement made relative to his incarnation. So his incarnation brought him here.
As Jesus the Savior.
And so it was as Jesus he died.
But the only connection that you and I can have is with the Lord Jesus Christ.
In resurrection, if the Lord Jesus Christ had not died, we would never have a connection with the Lord Jesus Christ except the corn of wheat fall under the ground and die. It abides alone, but dying it brings forth much fruit. So when it refers to the raising up of Jesus from the dead, it's the quickening of the Lord Jesus Christ again, as the one who went into death for us, but as to us it is He that raised up Christ from the dead.
We now have to have a connection with Christ in resurrection, or we have no connection at all.
Nice contrast between the two.
Sure, it's well up in you. I'd like it to go to the Vision Chapter One so that the young people in ourselves could see when this takes place.
It's called the feeling of the Spirit. It's not called the baptism of the Spirit, it's the work that is done quite half the synagogue.
It happens to us, and here's when it happens.
In Ephesians chapter one we'll read verse 12 because the context that we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ, in whom he also trusted. After that he heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and whom also after that you believe you were sealed with that Holy Spirit promise them.
From that point on in the same capture what you're looking at it, let's go one of the other thoughts that we had three that from verse 19.
And know what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us word who believe.
According to the working of his mighty power, which he wrought in Christ.
When he raised him from the dead and set him at his own right hand.
In the heavenly places here is the greatest act of power that God has ever performed, and you and I are associated in the same act.
For it says what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us, For who believe we are associated in that resurrection of Christ.
You might say that when Christ Jesus lay in the tomb.
00:40:00
Lord's power was called in question. Could he raise him from the dead?
Would he Oh raised from the dead by the glory of the Father?
Never suffered to seek corruption.
And so it says the exceeding greatness of his power. What? What language to show the power of God to raise from the dead. But what I wanted to get is to us where do believe the same power?
We are associated in and will take part in literally when we get the new body.
That all being true, verse 12 tells us that we owe no allegiance.
To the Flesh to Live after the Flesh. Colossians Chapter One teaches that we were translated.
Out of the Kingdom of darkness, into the Kingdom of the Son of his love. So here we can say to all of those.
Powers of darkness, We owe no allegiance to you. We do not have to listen. And when we allow the old man to give expression through the desires of our flesh.
We are not acting up to the position into which we have been brought as not owing any allegiance to the flesh.
We'll raise our state, and I say that because sometimes when we fail, sometimes when there is the activity of the flesh in us, then we become occupied with that, and we become so occupied with it that it discourages us and defiles us further.
Now it is true, when we do fail, we're to confess our sin, and he is faithful and just to forgive us our sin, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. But when we confess it, then leave it, forget about it, and lift up your eyes, and be occupied with a risen Christ in the glory. Be occupied with our position in him. When the apostle wrote to the Hebrew brethren in the 12Th chapter of Hebrews, He He exhorted them there to lay aside every weight and sin which doth so easily beset us. He exhorted them to run with endurance the race that was set before before them. And then what did He say?
Looking onto Jesus, the author and finisher of faith.
Not to be occupied with the weight, not to be occupied with the sin itself, but to go on and be occupied with a risen man in the glory, the Lord Jesus Christ. And I believe this is what will encourage us to go on and keep us in the path of faith, I say as we're occupied with our standing, it raises our state.
Doesn't take us. It takes us up to resurrection, but not beyond that.
We do have life in Christ, the risen 1 resurrection, life in Christ. But we're down here on earth and we have that same life, the same life. But now, Ephesians, we're not only risen, but we're seated in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. There is no justification in in.
The Ephesians at all were already there, but in Colossians, which is sort of in between, we have both. If you then be risen with Christ, we're seen as risen with Christ. And it says seek those things which are above, but we're still here on earth.
Am I right?
Only I want to add.
About the 30th verse, because you have God's view at times.
And that's what we have in this chapter, God.
What he's saying about the believer negles the whole course, and it's from predestination to cold to justified to glorify. God says we're already glorified. Use the past tense.
We glorify, rejoice in what God says about you when you believe.
Just like you were saying about.
Balaam's prophecy, that mad prophet, the shout of a king is amongst you. I have not seen perverseness in Israel. How could God say that? He looks onto the whole end and everything in Christ. Now when we're in Christ, we're there glorified too, so we can enjoy that, I think.
My brother Bob, Tony has spoken several times to.
Our position in Christ and the new life and new nature that they're very nice and the only thing I would like to say is that.
Their People of God. Brother Darby's book on Romans. Got a book on Romans and you might have to redo it two or three times. They'll tell you why. Our brother Bob told me, has been trying to tell us. If you want to get into it a little deeper, know it a little better for yourself. The Book of Romans. My brother Jarvis.
00:45:25
Good question.
If they could be somewhat defined the word flesh.
That as it is used here, there are other ways that it is used in other parts of the scripture.
Sometimes we use the word old nature and it's not in Scripture.
And it has been commented yesterday. Sometimes it's commented sin which means.
I can't say we've put off the flesh yet, but I would like a little help on that little distinctions, if somewhere they could comment on us.
Evil principle of rebellion against God received when Adam exercised his own will, and that is perpetrated in his progenity, that is, he begat a son in his own likeness.
Evil principle of rebellion against God.
Has to be taken in context in other scriptures because Paul said to abide in the flesh is more needful for you. That that is a different context, isn't it? It simply means to abide in the body and in that sense we are in the flesh, but it's not in the sense that we have in this chapter. And I just say that because I think it's important to see the context.
Should help us to understand the meaning of the word.
You become the instrument of sin to accomplish sin, the instrument of the flesh to accomplish sin, and in that way it becomes spoken of as flesh.
Is conceived, it brings forth sin.
Sin, when it is finished, brings forth death. So we have really three things that are very good to have clear in our thoughts. That is the old man.
His number is one. That is our standing in Adam. The first man, what we had mentioned yesterday as the man outside of paradise. That's the old man that has been crucified. It's done with we. There is no standing for Adam.
In God's sight it ended at the cross. The old man has been crucified.
Then you have the flesh, that evil principle that we described as being rebellion against God.
Received in the fall, and then you have the product of the flesh and that is sin lust conceived. The Apostle Paul said I would not have known sin except the word of God said thou shalt not covet so that evil principle motivating.
The Acts of the Body we read in Ephesians Chapter 2.
That sin is doing what the thoughts and the mind willed to do. We read in first John three that sin is self will. So when I exercise the will, the product is sin.
And so those three things you have the old man are standing in Adam done at the cross.
We have the flesh which remains there as that evil principle against God in rebellion.
And then you have sin, which is the product of that evil nature acting by the will.
Earlier in our chapter. Now that is something far more solemn than breaking the law. The carnal mind is enmity against God. That is the mind of the carnal, the the fallen man. He is enmity. He's an enemy of God. Listen and.
The.
Law demanded obedience.
And the law carries with it the authority of God, the authority of God.
Well, fallen man, he's not only fallen, but he has a will, he has a will, And that will is diametrically opposed to the will, to the the the will of God.
And so the mind of the carnal mind of man is the enmity, enmity against God.
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There is nothing that God could do with it, so he put it out completely out of the way, in the death of Christ.
In our 14th verse says as many.
As many as are led by the Spirit.
Of God.
They are the sons of God. Now that's a statement that's absolute.
That's not the carnal mind leading at all. It's the spirit leading, and it manifests what we are.
Sons of God, and then we can cry ABBA father.
Relationship as you get in relations 326.
Ye are all the children of God, by faith in Christ Jesus, and because your sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your Father and your heart, For by ye cry ABBA, father that's.
Galatians 4 And it goes right along with this. There's a whole chain of blessings.
In one after the other and this what we're leading into now is is that we're, we are we we brought into. It's having the Spirit we're brought into relationship with, with God, the sons of God.
Oh, how how blessed we are.
The distinct character of that relationship.
When the Lord Jesus Christ was approaching the cross.
He cried out, his soul being sorrowful even unto death.
ABBA, Father. And so this relationship of which we have just been speaking, is in the same intimate character as that of the Lord Jesus Christ. I go into my Father and your Father. And so the Spirit of God coming enables us to use the same expression of intimacy and all we need that intimacy with God, do we not to come into His presence and let his presence color our activity and let the Spirit of God?
Motivate and lead us so that there might be the enjoyment of and the practical expression of our sonship which we have been given by the adoption of the Spirit of God being within us.
Those who know far more than I do.
How does this affect my?
Day by day, conduct here in the world.
How does it conduct? How does it affect?
My attitude at home.
At work, At school.
And my dress and my entertainment and so forth. What is the effect of these things in my life?
I'd like for some brother to help us there.
3 words, 4 words.
B what you are.
Be what you are. A son of God. They'll take care of everything. Act like it. Be what you are, a son of God.
God is seeking to write Christ on our hearts.
Day by day.
Everything.
And seeking to.
In that in connection with what brother Dave has asked, because he said he listened to his father given exhortation on the evils of pride and so on. And after the meeting was over he went to his father and he said to his father. He said if I didn't have some pride and self respect, he said I wouldn't make sure that my shoes were shined, I wouldn't make sure that my hair was combed and so on. Well his father said to him, he said if you remember at all times.
That you're a son and heir of God. It will take care of all those things without one bit of pride. And I've appreciated that because as our brother said, if we remember what we are and the position that we have, then it will cause us to walk through this world in a practical way as a son and heir of God. But perhaps I could just say too, on a practical note, that if we're going to be led by the Spirit in a practical way in our day-to-day walk, it must be by the word of God.
Because the Spirit of God guides us by the Word of God.
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Sometimes when we're younger, I've heard people say, well, I want to know what the Lord has for me in this in in my life. Perhaps it's a question of a job. Perhaps it's a question of a partner. Perhaps it's a question of living somewhere. And we need we want to be led by the Spirit and have instruction and guidance for our pathway. But if we don't read the word of God, He can't direct us by the Spirit as we read the word of God.
Then the Spirit of God can take the word and apply it to the situation. I've experienced this, and no doubt you have too. Where there was some great question was coming up in your life, some decision you had to make, and you knew it was going to have an impact on you and on your family and others perhaps. And you were reading the word of God and all of a sudden the spirit of God just made a portion stand out. Maybe it never meant that to you before. Maybe it doesn't mean that to anybody else.
But the spirit of God allows uses that portion to guide you and to answer that question in the situation. And this book, brethren, is able and sufficient to answer every question and difficulty that arises in our personal lives, every question and difficulty that arises in the family, and every question and difficulty that arises in the assembly, even in 1994.
And if we are reading the word of God prayerfully and orderly, then when the situation arises.
He can lead us step by step by his spirit. There's another very practical aspect of the Spirit's indwelling.
Mr. Wigram refers to those who walk with God.
Frequently acting for God unwittingly, if we walk with God.
The Lord Jesus says, take no thought of what you shall say, but the Spirit shall give you utterance.
So to read the word is absolutely important, as our brother has pointed up. But to walk with God and communion judge ourselves, as one dear sister said to me when I was a very young brother seeking to begin in the pathway of faith, keep short accounts with God. And so walking with God in communion allows us to act without giving thought. Particularly, is this the will of God? Is that the will of God? We're walking with God and he directs us by the Spirit?
Into the activity that is honoring to him.
Perhaps rather.
Verse in connection with what you say. Because I think, as you say, there are some steps that are taken in our Christian lives that are only known as we walk in fellowship and communion with the Lord. And I've enjoyed that in the end of Psalm 73 I'll just read. It says, Nevertheless, I am continually with thee, Thou hast hold me by my right hand, and then what's the result? Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel and afterward receive me to glory.
Missus.
That we are the children of God.
Well, it's just as simple as God can write it. Verse 16.
The spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, your spirit, my spirit what that we are.
The children of God, Do you believe that, Henry?
Tell us about it.
Well, I don't know if this is in connection with that or not, but.
Something Brother Tom just said a little bit ago in verse 11.
That God raised up Jesus from the dead.
And he dwells in you. He had raised up Christ from the dead, shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his spirit that dwelleth in you.
That in our chapter it's taking up two heads, the one.
Fathered a fallen race.
Incapable of delighting in the law of God. Now the law of God has been mentioned in our chapter. The law has been.
Brought forth in our chapter not as a bad thing.
Now Psalm 40.
Is to me very precious and it's this that I believe connects with what has just now been asked.
01:00:02
The Spirit bearing witness with our Spirit that we are the children of God.
Now this is about Jesus. Now I say this distinction between Jesus and Christ.
In Hebrews 11, her brother Jim mentioned about looking unto Jesus. I think that's.
Looking at his life here below as he authored A Path of Faith.
For us to follow. But it's not as Jesus that he heads a new creation. It says Christ.
But we're here, you might say, like Jesus, belonging to that new creation, but still here on earth.
Well, here was his heart.
In verse 8, verse seven, we know it's about the Lord. It's quoted in Hebrews then said, I, lo, I come.
In the volume of the book it is written of me, I delight to do thy will. Oh my God, yeah, Thy law is within my heart now. That's why the law couldn't bring blessing to Adam's race. It wasn't in his heart he had. It was applied to a Stony heart. There was no delight in it. So they that are in the flesh cannot please God but as believers.
Belonging to a new creation, the law is in our heart.
And the Spirit of God bears testimony to our spirit.
We love this book.
Sometimes we speak of the laws. Well, we're not under the law, and we use it in a sense that it's good to get away from that *******. That isn't the Lords attitude toward the law. His attitude was it's in my heart, I delight, to do thy will, O God, and so do we. So the righteous requirement of the law is fulfilled in US.
It's a condition of heart that we find the spirit of God bears testimony to us that we are the children of God. No longer are we at enmity with His word, we delight to do His will, O God. Now, I don't know if that connects with this or not, but it's a it's a new creation, and we're new creatures, But we're down here, you might say, in the character of Jesus.
Walking the path of faith, belonging to an entirely new creation, still connected with the old, as we'll see further in the chapter. Because we're still here in the body, but we delight to do His law, It's within our hearts.
The hymn we sang to begin these.
Meetings yesterday had the line in it. No more the airs of wrath. I think it's sad.
Now we get what we are heirs coming up our.
Next verse 17.
If children, well, children.
Children of God.
What than heirs? What kind of heirs? And what's the inheritance?
Heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ.
Christ, whole things were created by him and for him. He gets the whole of his creation and he says, I'm going to share it with you. Heirs of God, Joint heirs with Christ. Once we were the heirs of wrath. What a magnificent change in the gospel for those who are the sons of God.
And you mentioned.
This is it says in Hebrew 6 verse 18 that by two immutable.
Things in which God cannot lie His word and His promise there, but his Spirit and our Spirit here.
In two unchangeable and unchanging.
Things in which God, who cannot lie, has witnessed to us that we belong to Him.
Excuse me, I'd like to go back to verse 14 just a bit.
Fingers. That's something that's so wholesome there for us all.
It's the characteristic of the sons of God to be led by the Spirit of God.
There's another principle that you and I run into all the time in the world is the wisdom of this world.
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And if you want to look into the wisdom of this world, you're going to find a lot of books that tell you how to live.
How to be LED? What to do in certain situations and?
Many of them. There's something of human wisdom.
But the characteristic of that life that you and I possess now in the Lord Jesus is to be led by the Spirit of God. I just want to challenge each one of us as we make our decisions in life. It's so important to seek the leading of the Spirit of God, then mention that the Spirit of God.
Always leads by the word of God.
So don't make a decision without.
Without something of the light of the word of God, some verse, some principle, don't go anyway until you have light from the scriptures.
And are led by the Spirit of God in the scriptures to make your decision. Sometimes we unconsciously absorb the wisdom of this world and make our decisions accordingly, and the results will be sad. That's not our desire. The characteristic I say again of that life that you possess is not to be led by the principles of this world.
But to be led by the Spirit of God, that's the way God has ordered it, and that's the way you and I ought to look in that direction for leading the Spirit of God is definitely there.
To lead you.
It's in that connection because I think you see a nice desire with David in the 27th Psalm. He said, Teach me thy way, oh Lord, and lead me in a plain path. And if we really have that desire to be led by the Spirit, then he wants to show us. It says in all thy ways, acknowledge him and he might direct by past. That's not what it says. And he shall. It's definite. There he shall.
Direct thy paths, but I believe there's only one way to.
Discern the mind of the Lord. And that's first of all to have a desire, because it says, if any man desire to do his will, he shall know. But then when there is that desire, he delights to show us through the Word. And so when you come over to the 119th Psalm, David recognized that if he was going to have light and instruction for his pathway, it must be through the Word. And that's why he says, there thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.
In fact, that whole Psalm brings before us the importance of God's word in our lives as light and instruction and direction for our pathway. Every every verse except, I think two or three. I counted one time, but almost in every verse there's some mention of the word of God.
Either called commandments or precepts or thy word, because David recognized that if he was going to know the mind of the Lord, it must be through the word. But then when you come over to the 143rd Psalm in the 10th verse, it says, not teach me thy way, but teach me to do thy will. Because I think sometimes perhaps we really have a desire to know the Lord's mind in some situation in our lives. But then when he shows it to us, we kind of hold back and say, well, I wouldn't mind if it was something a little different.
But that's too big a step. That's not for me. And so perhaps we hold back.
David says, as it were, when you do reveal your mind to me, then give me the grace to take that step of faith and to walk in it, whether it's hard or easy. And brethren, if we seek grace, and it's only grace, but if we seek grace to take that step when he reveals it to us, then he will give us light for the next step, and it's only then that we're going to get light for the next step. Just like that with the word being a lamp under my feet.
If I don't keep moving, if I don't take those steps that he lightens step by step, then there's not going to be further light for the next step. And I think some of us come to this point sometimes when we don't know the mind of the Lord. And the reason is we haven't acted on the light that He has given us for a previous step.
For this God.
With his good pleasure.
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God leads us to be occupied with that coming day of glory.
The wisdom this world gives us to be occupied with this world as it exists now.
But remember, God's purpose is not to make us something great down here. God has in view that coming Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ.
And so that's what we have in these verses that follow.
Set your sights high, dear brother and sister in the Lord Jesus. Don't set him down here in this world, merely we. If we are sons, we are heirs of God.
Tremendous fact. Set your sights into that millennial Kingdom.
It's interesting in several portions in the Gospels that it definitely shows it that accordingly.
As we use the talents that God has given us now, there will be a position in that coming Kingdom.
For us in that coming day and our sights should be set on that day, not on this world's brief day. The wisdom of this world focuses is on this present age, but that's to be short sighted for a believer. Let's get our sights set beyond We're heirs of God, joint heirs with Christ.
Then between mentioning the inheritance and arriving in glory, excuse me.
In connection with being joint heirs with Christ, a judge Christian judge was dying on his deathbed and a Christian pastor went to visit him.
And the judge said to him, do you know anything? You know what it means, what joint tenancy means. Well, he said no, he says, I've never.
I've never studied law. I don't know much about legal terms.
Well, the judges, I'll tell you. See those fields out there?
He says, well, he says that's all my properties, that's all my property. But if we were legal, if we were joint tenants, he said, I couldn't say that, that this is mine and that is yours and this is mine and that is yours. He said no, he said it's ours. We would share it together. It belonged to both of us. And just to think of the Lord Jesus, when you think of all his glory and all that, thus that inheritance, all that, all that is.
Comprised in the in the inheritance.
He's going to share it with you and me and he won't take it until he has you and me with himself.
On this a little while before we got here.
Mr. Darby has a note where he refers to joint heirs and then he refers to.
Co sufferers and Co Rainers. Well, he says that's not English, but it's the truth. We are joint heirs, Joint heirs with him.
He has given us the glory that he won as a man.
In order that the world may know that God has loved us.
As it loved him.
But that association is going to bring.
Cold, suffering with the Lord Jesus Christ. And so the Apostle speaks of.
In Philippians, being conformed unto his sufferings, that is the closing up of our affections to all that we had down here, that we might be partakers of that we might have.
The glory opened up to us the power of his resurrection. That's a thought.
So we are heirs with him, we are Co sufferers with him and we are Co reigners with him.
Just going to say this is not the raining time now and we need to keep this before us while we look on, as you said earlier, to the time when Christ will have his rightful place not only in heaven but in this world. And we rejoice in that because it really is part of our hope, looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ. Yet we need to keep in view that this is still the time of the Lord's rejection here in this world.
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They cast him out, they said.
Cruz away with him, Crucify him, they said in their hearts. We will not have this man to reign over us, and we are following a rejected Christ now it's not the reigning time. And the Lord Jesus said the servant is not greater than his Lord. If they've hated me, they will hate you also. And so there will be a reproach connected with following the Lord Jesus now in this dispensation.
It may not be physical persecution in a land like this. We don't fear that the authorities are going to come in here this morning and break up this meeting and drag us off to prison. Like perhaps some of our brethren have suffered in past ages, and even in parts of the world today may suffer physical violence for the testimony of Jesus. But there there are two ways that we will suffer for Christ. We'll either suffer in a physical way and if we don't suffer in that way.
There will be a reproach.
Let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp bearing his reproach, in the measure in which we are faithful to him, and follow that blessed one. We're going to suffer a reproach, because it says, all they that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. I'm sorry, Brother Bob.
I just say I'm afraid the reproach we suffer isn't very much either, brethren. We don't suffer very much, but it's been interesting to me to see those who have suffered.
Something major that I've been able to meet and speak with them. It seems like the glory is very real to them. And the glory is set before us, brethren, to be an encouragement to us in this present time, so that we will be able to go through whatever the Lord asks us to go through. Permit that we go through in the way of suffering, but it's the glory and we need to be occupied. If you know that, you're going to be an inheritance.
Inheritor in a large inheritance, it's interesting to find out what you're going to inherit And brethren, the scriptures are talk a lot about the inheritance. How much do you and I know what the inheritance includes? I'd like to read a verse that perhaps I'd like some help on this if this is not the case, but according to how I see it right now perhaps.
Gives the widest view of the inheritance.
Going back to Ephesians chapter one.
And verse 10 and 11.
That in the dispensation of the fullness of time he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are in earth, even in Him in whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the council of his own will.
And it seems to me the widest view of the inheritance all things.
In heaven and which are on earth.
Every created.
Being or every created thing is our inheritance.
Is that right?
Revelation 21.
Seven says essentially the same thing.
Without using as many words, but it's very, very clear to the overcomer in Revelation 21. Seven He that overcometh shall inherit all things, and I will be his God. He shall be my son.
That's the eternal state.
Run ahead, Whatever that inheritance may be is.
Far grander than we can imagine now.
No, I'm sorry. People saying here's being it's suffering with him.
It isn't suffering for him, but when you think of the Blessed Lord, what a what a burden he carried in life when he saw everything ruined here below, all his fair creation. Look at those. Look at that poor woman of of name going out with her, her last hopeless gone. Her husband dead and her son was gone now. And he just drew out his heart in pity.
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And you know, we ourselves, we we we know what's what sorrow is. And we see things and we hear that blessed name used and used in where men give vent to the worst of their character and use that blessed name. And perhaps we see a poor animal, a deer or a dog, or run over on the highway, or we see suffering, and we see Saints of children of Saints of God suffering and people in hospitals.
Again, Oh, when we think of the sorrow that bore down upon the Blessed Lord, oh, we can share that sorrow with him, can we not?
I think that distinction is very good.
Suffer for Christ. When we perhaps give a testimony, we speak to someone about the Lord Jesus, and we they reproach us, and that's suffering for Christ. But as our brother said, to suffer with Christ is to enter into what he felt, such as at the grave of Lazarus, when he looked around and saw the consequences of sin, the effect that sin had brought in, that that one he loved was dead. There were those there that were sorrowing, and so on.
And he entered into that and that, and so that is to suffer with Christ.
As our brother said, to realize and enter into his heart as to the effects of sin, but then to look on to the coming day of glory and to realize that the day is coming when everything will come under His authority and we little realize what a day is coming for this world.
It's true. We look for the Lord's coming to take us out of this world. But then to think that he is going to have his rightful place in this world, I think will help us to go on in this world, to suffer for and with Christ, knowing that when he comes back we're going to be associated with him. I often think of those who associated with David in The Cave of Adalam. There they suffered that reproach with David.
And identified with him in his rejection.
What were they looking onto? They were looking onto the Kingdom, They were saying, as it were, When David comes into his Kingdom, we're going to be associated with him in that Kingdom. And so for the moment, they were content to identify with him in his rejection #18 in the back of the book.
And is a soul.
For the great days, the greatest beginning of the morning.
Have fun.
Our God and our Father, we thank thee and at this time that we've been able to be together to have Thy Word open before us. Thank you for the liberty that we have to do so. And our God our Father, we thank you for these practical portions that we have been considering.
What we were before.
In our sins when God, God's righteousness, was against us.
And now His righteousness is for us. That power that would have been against us is for us now. And we think of that that which we have in Christ. We think of the glory that we have before us. We've been singing about it just now too. And our God, our Father, we are overwhelmed when we think of that portion that will be ours in the coming day. We thank you. We can enter into the good of it now in our souls, and we pray that they'll cause each one of us to have the grace to do so.
The desire in our hearts that we might.
Have that desire, Lord Jesus, to look into those things that thou so gloriously brought us into.
We we pray our Father, that they'll just cause both young and old here this morning to to contemplate these things and to realize that we are no longer now under the power of the flesh, but we are. We have the Spirit of God going within us.
Our Father, we do need to realize more and more that we are no longer in the flesh, but in Christ.
And that not only have our sins been put away, but we have been put away. We thank the Lord Jesus for thy cross, the cross, that upon which thou has bleed and die. And there as we look at that, we see the end of Adam, and that Adam creation. And then in resurrection we see that new creation.
Our Father we just praise, and we thank thee this morning for that which is ours in Christ, And to think that Thou has thought of this in a bygone eternity, and we have been.
We were in Thy thoughts before this world ever was. We can't understand this, we can't enter into it. But we believe it and we rejoice in it, and to think of that which is going to be ours.
Our Father, that which still lies before us, that we can only enter into by faith now.
But it will be our portion for all eternity. We just bow before the end. We thank thee.
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But it is our portion, and that we can think about these things, and we can have our hearts drawn out afresh more and more as we think, Lord Jesus of that coming day when they are going to receive us unto thyself. And thou can say to the Father, behold, I and the children whom God has given me.
And so, our Father, we just thank you for this time, and we would commit the remainder of the day to thee and our fellowship together. To we just give thee our thanks, our Father, and the precious name of the Lord Jesus, our Savior. Amen.
Romans 8:18-38
Reading
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It's in my love, but will enjoy all lead us to thee in heaven above 23 in the appendix.
And which with some of thy appearing, and thy coming for thy truth.
And for all thy sweet and blessed Lord Jesus, we thank thee too for that day of the manifestation of the sons of God.
For then here in this world thou will be displayed, and we will be.
And even this world, so suffering and groaning now.
Those drones and sufferings to be hushed for that millennial day.
We anticipated with joy, Lord Jesus, for it will be for thy glory.
Our blessed Savior now as we again open Thy precious word.
We pray that our hearts may be warmed. We pray, blessed Lord Jesus in thy name.
Amen.
For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory.
Which shall be revealed in US.
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For the earnest expectation of the creature.
Waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God.
For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who has subjected the same in hope.
Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the ******* of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.
But we know that the whole creation growneth and travaileth, and pain together until now.
And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the first fruits of the Spirit.
Even we ourselves grown within ourselves, waiting for the adoption to with the redemption of our body. For we are saved by hope. But hope that is seen is not hope.
For what a man seeth, why does he yet hope for?
But if we hope for that we see not, then do we, with patience, wait for it.
Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities. For we know not what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.
And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the Saints according to the will of God.
And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God to them who are the called according to his purpose, for whom he did for know, He did also predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son. But he might be the first born among many brethren.
Moreover, whom he did predestinate, then he also called, and whom he called them he also justified. And whom he justified, then he also glorified.
What shall we then say to these things?
If God before us, who can be against us?
He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?
Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died.
Yay, rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God?
Who also maketh intercession for us.
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?
Till tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword, as it is written, for thy sake, we are killed. All the day long we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter, Nay, and all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.
For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
We barely have.
Adam as a head, plunging that creation that he was head of.
Into utter ruin and it seems to me like in the first.
Portion that we've covered in the chapter, we see the effects.
Of you might say, say the.
Moral degradation, Degradation of that first creation, so that.
Morally, we we did nothing to please God. It was impossible for man in the flesh to please God.
But then there was this new creation and the Newman.
Delights to do His will now God has the people on this earth right at this present moment.
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In whom the you might say the fall is no longer manifested morally. They delight to do the will of God, but we're still in the body.
The body that we have as being part of that first creation.
And that first creation still exists before God affected, if we could say it now physically.
By the fall, and even the lower creation plunged into vanity, not willingly, but because their head subjected them. So our was telling a brother coming up here.
I counted 4 beautiful deer killed along the highways.
And now we're taking up suffering in connection with.
Not so much the moral side of it, but the physical side of things, or the natural side of things, so that.
Even the sons of God, as we look at each other and we watch each other here, even at the conference, we hear groanings and we hear of sorrow and pain because of we're still in the body connected with that first creation.
Which has been subjected to vanity. And so now we are waiting and the whole creation is waiting.
For the manifestation of the sons of God.
John says it does not yet appear what we shall be, but it's going to. When Christ appears in that millennial scene, we will appear then and everyone will know we are sons of God. They can't tell it by looking at our bodies now.
But they will in that day, isn't that right?
We are the sons of God, but there's going to be a manifestation so that outwardly the whole creation will know it. Is that right, Henry?
When is that?
I believe it'll be the millennial reign, and we have that verse Brother Bob brought before us in Ephesians about the dispensation of the fullness of times.
Well, God is going to be glorified in this earth, on this earth that we're walking upon.
It's going to be looked at. I can't. I wouldn't be able to put my finger on, but it's looked at during the millennial, even before what we had mentioned about the eternal state. But.
Before the Millennial or the Millennial will be introduced with a new preparation of this earth for.
Suited to the sons of God.
And the curse will largely be removed, not entirely. The effects of the fall will not entirely be removed, because there still will be deaf, but it's going to be redeemed. It's going to be brought back into a condition that will be able to glorify our God, that our our first head, Adam.
Brought dishonor and shame to.
But in 2nd Thessalonians 110, when he shall come to be glorified in His Saints, and to be admired, and all them that believe, because our testimony among you was believed in that day same time.
The Lord in his prayer could say to those disciples about them, to the Father.
I am glorified.
In them.
Even when they were here.
There was a little.
Faith and faithfulness in walking with the rejected Christ then.
There is. There's a little today, but when it comes out, it'll be fully made known.
Is that what he meant? We're speaking about this other prayer in Matthew and Luke, yes?
Thy will be done on earth as this in heaven.
Yes, that's that's going to be the Millennium.
He'll write the law on their hearts and they will do it.
Verse 18 is interesting, brethren.
All with the comparison of the years. And he reckons it's interesting.
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Things about two matters with an interference and one with another.
One is the suffering of his present time.
And the other is the glory which shall be revealed in us, which is, as it's been mentioned at the end of the tribulation.
We come back in glory with the Lord Jesus.
Every eye shall see him what glory in that day.
But he says on one side, here's the suffering. On the other side, here's the glory, He says. There's no way you can compare the two. No way.
So much far greater is the glory and brethren.
Naturally speaking, we shrink from suffering.
But if we get our eyes more on the glory.
We wouldn't shrink from suffering so much. It's interesting what he says.
In 2nd Corinthians 4 as well. I'd like to read those verses because it's an encouragement to us.
For the present time.
Says something of the same in verse 17, Second Corinthians 417.
The Apostle Paul was a vessel.
Especially chosen to suffer great things for his namesake. Here's what he says about his suffering great things.
Our light affliction, which is but for a moment.
Worketh for us a far more exceeding than eternal weight of glory. Seems like he just runs out of adjectives.
Describing the immensity of the glory that's before, O Brethren.
We've got something we're going towards that is fully worth.
Anything we could ever suffer down here in this world.
You see that illustrated in the Old Testament with redeemed Israel in the wilderness, Because they weren't very long in the wilderness until they began to look at their circumstances and it caused them to murmur and complain. And when Moses cried unto the Lord, the Lord said to Moses, tell the people to turn around. They're looking back. They're looking in the wrong direction. And when the people turned around and looked out over the wilderness, what did they see?
Were they occupied with all the difficulties that were ahead? No. They saw the glory of the Lord revealed in the cloud. In some way, Jehovah was pleased to reveal himself to them in the cloud. And with that, before them they could press on, knowing that they were going on to something far better. And so I think it's in Proverbs where it says where no vision is. The people perish, and God always puts an object before our souls. He always gives us a present portion. It's true.
But there's always an eye to the future given to the people of God, and with this before our souls, then we can press on in the path of faith. You mentioned the Apostle Paul in Second Corinthians, and as you come over to the 11Th chapter of Second Corinthians, you read there a list of things that he suffered in the path of faith. And it's a tremendous list, things that I've never been called on to suffer for the testimony of the Lord.
And you read that list and you say, how could he go on year after year and suffer feedings and shipwreck and stonings and so on. Well, the very next chapter, the 12Th chapter, tells us he knew what was ahead. He didn't just have a vision of the coming glory. He'd been caught up to the 3rd heaven and seen a risen, glorified Christ there in the dwelling place of God. And with that, before his soul, he could press on amidst the difficulties.
Because he knew what lay ahead.
And brethren, that's where we're going. It may be this very afternoon that will be called, as it were, from his presence into his presence.
To see him, and to share in that glory for all eternity. And if we can just grasp this in our souls, it says that every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure. In the measure in which I'm looking on to the glory and grasp the truth in my soul, it will have a moral, practical, purifying effect on my life down here.
That was even true of the Lord for the reading Hebrews 12.
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Who for the joy looking under Jesus, the author and finisher praise, and for the joy that was set before him endured the cross. He looked right past that cross, getting back to the Father's house with a work well done, and bringing the fruits of the travel of his soul in there to share the same place. I think you had something on this chapter this morning, Clem. You wanted us to get on into this part of the chapter. You had something to give us, I think.
Oh, well, no. Just what? We're just what we're getting.
Fine.
No, it's fine.
Convert whatever.
In Hebrews 11.
Roses in verse 24 by face. Moses when he was coming here used to be called son of favorite daughter.
Choosing rather to stop reflection of the people of God, than to enjoy the places kids and seeming their approach to Christ. David Richardson the treasures needed for he had a set under the recompense of the reward.
I was thinking of the Apostle Paul like Moses.
Having the Lord Jesus revealed himself to him on the road to the master saw the risen glorified Christ. He didn't see the Lord Jesus as the other possible have seen him before Christ ascension into glory. He didn't know Christ after the flesh afterwards and the Lord Jesus had his human body without.
Rising.
From in resurrection from the dead, and taking the place at the right hand of Father, the Apostle Paul saw this Christ.
That's good. That never probably ever left his soul. That would stir him down. And probably when it comes to suffering, I I don't know much about suffering, but when it comes to suffering, we have something to the Lord each time.
Sometimes our suffering is a mental suffering more than a physical suffering. When you lose your job, that's a very depressing thing.
And when I lost my job.
I didn't exercise to take up the book of Hebrews. What were the exercise come from came from my God, You love me. And I took up Hebrews and I was enjoying it so much that it carried me through the losing of my job that I had a vision of the heavenly thing was far superior and the earth was being at that time. Well, that's the way our Lord does it for us. The Apostle Paul had a vision of Christ.
Never left it. He got more, as he said, when your product is the third.
The redemption of the body is a wonderful statement.
GV Wigram.
Described this world as.
A swinging sepulchre in space.
Containing much dust.
Precious to God.
These bodies belong to God.
He buried Moses and showed that he knew where he was and brought him out.
You'll do the same with Abel and everyone else that has turned back to dust. Oh, he's able for that. The redemption of the body, etcetera. It's a wonderful thing to see that the body in which we live is precious to God. We want to treat it that way and take care of the body too.
The Spirit of God will never give up its claims.
To these bodies.
Death may claim the body for a time.
But if the Spirit of God is going to raise these bodies hard.
Spirit of God. That's the one we hear so much about in this chapter. Spirit of God.
It's interesting that this is called the adoption, the redemption of our bodies we know as we had in verse.
15 That we already have received the spirit of adoption.
Ephesians, one tells us that we were predestinated unto the adoption.
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Children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will. So we are already sons of God.
That in the as is mentioned, our bodies still are the link with this present creation. And as the world looks at us, they still see wrinkles on us, they still see Gray hairs on it. They see the effects of sin in our bodies. But when He appears, brethren, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.
Then there will be a physical change. Then it will be outwardly, physically evident as well that we are children of God. And I suppose that's why it calls this the adoption, the redemption of our bodies. Is that right?
Meetings. The brother asked me what a three fold cord was in Scripture. Well, I said.
There's a Trinity, the Father, Son and Holy Ghost, he said. What about faith, hope and love? Here we've got hope. What a wonderful thing hope is. We are saved in hope.
Wonderful thing that we belong to new creation already.
The work of the Spirit of God, the inward work of the Spirit of God in our souls has been wrought perfect.
It'll never be improved upon, never be to all eternity. Perfect work of the Spirit of God and our souls are ready, but the last link we have with the old creation are these bodies of ours.
And we're waiting for the redemption of our bodies that way.
I think it's helpful to see enrollment.
For justified through His blood by His blood, and saved from wrath through Him. That's the salvation of our soul, that which we received when we came as sinners, confessed our sins, and received that salvation that we enjoy. And then in Romans 5/2, it tells us that we're saved by His life, that is, we're preserved day by day and moment by moment by His intercessory life for us now.
At the right hand of God in the glory.
But then it says in the 13th chapter, now is our salvation nearer than when we believe now. That's what we've been Speaking of this afternoon. And that's the aspect of salvation that we haven't yet received. We're saved from wrath because we're sheltered under the blood of Christ.
We're preserved day by day because there's a living man for us in the glory at the right hand of power. But we're, as we've been reminded, we're still waiting for that time when we will have the salvation of the body. And isn't it a comfort to know that that salvation is nearer than when we believe? And brethren, I wonder if it isn't nearer than we really think.
I believe we're just on the verge of this time when we will be called away and experience that physical change to be with and like our precious Savior.
In the Spanish.
The verb for to hope and to wait is the same word. And I think that's so nice because that's really what we have in Scripture, that blessed hope is not something that unsure we think we I hope.
This will happen. Hope that and it's very unsure down here, but not this hope we're saved in hope. It's a sure hope we're just waiting for.
What happens in that connection? We could just look at those verses in Hebrews.
In connection with our Hope Hebrews Chapter 6.
And verse 18 That by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, that we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge, to lay hold upon the hopes set before us, which hope we have as an anchor of the soul both sure and steadfast, and which entereth into that within the veil, whether the forerunner is for us entered.
Even Jesus made an high priest forever.
After the order of Melchizedek, well, there's much in these verses. But what I've just enjoyed recently in this connection is that as I understand in reading Greek history, this forerunner was in connection with the with navigation. In those days, often the ship would come to the harbor and the tide would be too low to enter into the harbor at the present time, and so they would send a boat, a forerunner with an anchor in it.
00:35:19
Into the harbor, and that forerunner would drop the anchor into the harbor.
And that anchor was the assurance that when high tide came, that boat was going to enter the harbor because the forerunner was already there. And brethren, isn't it a thrill to look up and to see the Blessed Lord Jesus, the forerunner entered into the heavens, accepted there by God, having glorified God here in this world and as to the work of eternal redemption? And there he seated at God's right hand. And that's the the assurance.
That we're going to be there.
With and like him, what a hope it is. As Brother Clem says, it's not hope that has uncertainty. We hope for things in this world and they never come to pass. But this is a hope that sure and certain because the forerunner, Jesus Christ, has entered in before us.
Sometimes.
We speak much about the Rapture as we speak of it.
We might turn to 1St John Three and notice something there, because I think that's what's before us in our chapter.
Now we will get our bodies. The believer, the sons of God will get their bodies. At the Rapture it says, we we shall not all die, but we shall all be changed.
But that isn't just what our chapter is talking about. Our chapter is talking about the time of manifestation that we have gotten those bodies.
And so in first John chapter 3 it says, Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God. Therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not Beloved. Now are we the sons of God.
And it does not yet appear what we shall be. But we know that when he shall appear we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is now. Notice, this takes us to the day of manifestation, the Millennial Day.
Every man that hath this hope in him purifies himself, even as he is pure. In that day all of us has manifested.
As sons of God.
That's all going to be pure. But realizing that day is coming when it's going to be manifested in this world that we are the sons of God, we purify ourselves morally and manifest it morally now, so that people do look at the children of God and they say there's something different about that person. They may not know what it is.
Because it knew them, knew him not. But morally, we should display the features, the characteristics that will mark the sons of God when they're manifested during the millennial now in our lives.
And.
Teaching in Spanish and English.
In the beginning of our chapter we've had in Christ.
And then Paul says, and to depart and be with Christ is far better. And this verse you're bringing us is you like Christ. That's a progression. We are in Christ.
Our departed brethren, able on down, are with Christ. When he comes out, we shall be like Christ. How marvelous is the work of God?
Mention a little ago the converse or opposite of having our hope and him is set before us in the 12Th of Luke.
Where it says, the servant said in his heart.
My Lord delayeth his coming.
He then began to eat and drink with the drunken and to beat the maidservants and the men servants.
When the Church.
Lost the hope of the return of the Lord Jesus Christ, it settled down in this world, took on all the characteristics of the world, and the Dark Ages came out.
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And when the midnight cry came, and the hope of the return of the Lord Jesus Christ was revived, we had the opening up of the truth that we have enjoyed, having been brought before us in these meetings. But the greatest.
Deterrent to our settling down in the world and becoming in our behavior like the world.
Is to have the certain expectation of the Lord Jesus Christ imminent return.
Is there a double intersection?
For us A2 fold intersection.
In verses 26 and 27.
And if so, who is it?
You know the scene is indwelling, is that right?
But the Spirit also help with our infirmities.
In the Psalms, it's the Spirit of God in the remnant helping them to present before God, before the before God.
Their needs and their their sorrows. Spirit of God help is is helping the Remnant in that coming day, but here it's the Spirit of God who's helping us as Christians.
And.
And then it goes on to say he does search with the heart, knows what is the mind of the Spirit, so he.
So the Spirit of God in our in our souls is.
He presents to God.
In He presents to God He knows what's the the deep soul searchings, and the and the Perhaps we may not even express them, but the Spirit of God knows what is, what is in these hearts of ours, and what's and he.
Help with our infirmities.
Verse 27 He that searcheth the hearts.
North, What is the mind of the Spirit?
Just wondering if that isn't Christ up there.
Taking the things of the spirit down here, who is making these groanings, uttering them, and then the one that searches heart crashed up there.
He knows what the mind of the Spirit is because he maketh intercession. He maketh intercession, but it's according to God because he is God.
You leave out the italics. It's much better.
He makes intercession according to God. It's perfect intercession for you and I both down here and up there. Is that right? Henry's up there. Is that right? Is that right, Henry?
I have not noticed that before.
He's not wrong with a girl.
If it is.
There is a difference, isn't there, between complaining and groaning.
And groaning is proper, brethren.
We see the Lord Jesus in his perfect pathway down here.
Many times he groaned in spirit when he saw the misery.
It's proper for us, but we groan in hope, brother, and we don't groan.
As not having.
Any.
Exit to these problems that we go through down here. We have pulp before it, but still we grow them and there's times when.
We don't know how to ask. Just like it says here. Isn't it wonderful just to lay ourselves before the Lord's presence?
And groan about it.
And let God by his spirit intercede.
For us.
He intercedes according to God.
And it's a comfort to know, too, that the one who intercedes above the Lord Jesus never passes his own through anything in the path of faith that he hasn't felt as a man himself, so that he fully enters in and understands what we pass through. It says that that we have such a nice priest who is touched with the feeling of our infirmities.
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The way the hymn writer put it, it's 281 in the little flock. It says he, in the days of feeble flesh, poured out his cries and tears, and though ascended, feels afresh what every member bears. Sometimes we come to some point in our lives and we say, well, nobody knows what I'm going through. Well, there's one who does.
The creation itself, the creatures of the Goddess creation.
That there is.
They don't. Perhaps not intelligently like you and I.
Can see things and hope for, but there is is there not a a longing and A and a looking for something better, something they.
It seems that the the struggle to to live.
Creatures don't want to die, they want to live. We see that there's a struggle sometimes for life.
Live and it seems to me that there is a even in the creature themselves there is a there's a groaning there, and a hope of of deliverance of some kind not intelligently like you and I have been brought into.
That's why I mentioned earlier that it isn't the Rapture here, because when we're raptured, this creation will continue to groan, in fact, as it's never grown before.
But it's going to experience the work of Christ.
And there's going to be that lion no longer stalking that lamb and taking its life.
And the little creature suffering, but they're going to lie down together and there's going to be a recovery of what the first head lost, and that's going to be to the glory of the last head.
He's the 2nd man, but he's the last head and he's going to recover this creation that's now marked by groaning. And they're they're just there's two things that if we understood this portion, it would free us from 2 very serious errors.
One in Christianity amongst the.
Faith healers.
It says here we're saved in hope, that is our body is not yet redeemed. They teach that because of the work of Christ, we can demand from God complete healing of the body. No, we're saved in hope. And the other is the teaching of the great Beth Wicked system that denies the resurrection. It says our bodies go in and become gases and that's the end of it.
No, the hope referred to is the resurrection or the change of these present bodies.
It's so instead of looking for healing, the spirit of God intercedes and helps us with our infirmities. That's connected.
With our being now in the body, we groan in the body.
The Word 26.
But verse 28 says you know, what a wonderful thing to come to that.
One of the best known verses is this 28th, perhaps more enjoyed because we want it to work out this way.
But the largeness of it, I suppose, has missed all of us.
When it says all things.
That's what it means.
All things. All things.
All the purposes and counsel of God are predetermined.
No matter what happens, all things are working to that end.
To the good of them that love God. Now that's not.
A special class of believers.
That's all believers, because we do love God.
We've got the very nature that can't do anything else but love God. When we're when we're believers, we do love God.
00:50:03
So that what's working out in Asia, the breaking up of the Russian Empire.
Whatever it is, is all controlled by God. I say this currently understanding it because of Ezekiel chapter one if you want to read that.
And I recommend we read it and just enjoy it.
A wonderful vision.
Talks about the wheels and the wheels within wheels and.
The amber and the crystal and.
All those things in that vision that he saw. And then above there was a throne and a man upon the throne. It's a vision given to Ezekiel to tell us what this verse means.
All the workings of the government, all the workings, the wheels within the wheels, the precious and beautiful colors that we cannot understand.
They are all in the control of God, and they all work together for good. To you that love God. To me that love God according.
To His purpose, His eternal purpose. And nothing can ever change this verse.
Chapter One.
We get the purposes of God.
For his people.
Today and.
Future as well I believe, but.
In the beginning of the chapter, early in the chapter, he speaks out that we were predestinated according to counsel for him.
Having predestined us under the adoption of children by Jesus Christ.
But later on in the dispensation, verse 10, in the dispensation of the fullness of times he might gather together and want all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth, even in him in whom we have obtained an inheritance being predestinated according to the purpose.
Of him who worketh all things after the Council.
Of his.
Own will now remember all power is his.
He can speak in the universe, can come into existence. He's not limited in power in any way except to do he can't do evil. But remember, God is love.
And He has us upon his heart for blessing. His house is going to be filled with those whom He has chosen.
A long time ago.
And now He has us as his children upon his heart.
And so we can say all things work together for good, and we can say God is working all things.
After the counsel of his.
Will. So when we pray and we want something done for us, let's always say, Lord, thy will be done.
Then God can work as he sees fit to work.
Not yours.
What you said I enjoyed so much about Christ as the second man and the head of the.
New race?
Is that somewhat we have in verse 29?
The head of the new race.
The last part of the verse.
I would think so.
I would think so.
I prefer to spend the book verse 28, isn't it?
Things work together for good to them that love God.
To them that are called according to his purpose, what was that purpose?
To conform us to the image of his son, that he might be the first born amongst many brethren.
When was that purpose taken, brethren?
Was back in that past eternity, before there was any worlds in existence.
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We live in man's world today, where man has a lot to say about things.
And we're influenced in our thinking by what man says about things. Sometimes we're willful.
Is our willfulness.
Going to frustrate God's eternal purpose.
Isn't that wonderful, brethren, to think that he's going to work it all out?
How he does it through all the major things that happen in the world, and also, brethren, the little minute details of our lives.
Every one of them is working in eternal divine wisdom to bring about His purpose to conform us morally to the image of His Son.
And we're going to be physically like him, too. Right now, he's working through those things to conform us morally.
To the image of his son.
I like to think, brethren, in this way that the work of Christ has set us.
So completely in God's eternal favor that nothing that happens to us, whether it be ever so disagreeable to us, naturally can work against us. It can only and always work for our own good.
The first way to think of all things working for good is what our brethren have just said, turning everything to our advantage.
I noticed that in a Greek dictionary one time just looking through for something else, but it's everything works to our advantage with God.
6 verse three first back to the 26th for he speaks about.
For we know not what we should pray for as we ought, how often we pray for things, and some of our prayers are so.
Well, we must admit they're foolish, But nevertheless the Lord will never discourage us from coming and speaking to Him. Even the Apostle Paul, he prayed for, He prayed, apparently prayed for things that.
He didn't know what to pray for.
He after coming down from the third heavens, and when the He was given that thorn in the flesh.
He besought the Lord Christ, the Lord would the Lord would take it away.
Well, now. But it wasn't God's mind to take. He prayed not only once, not only twice, but three times.
But.
The Lord says no, my grace is sufficient for thee. And God's answer was better than his prayer. God's answer was, and it always is, Is it not so? God's answer is always better than our prayer.
He always gives us more.
Than we can ask for. If he doesn't give us what we ask for, he'll give us something better.
It does seem like that is true. It's connected with the thought of our infirmities, which.
Again, relates to our still being in the body and we hear of things that happen to our brethren and to man.
And it just breaks our heart.
Someone comes down diagnosed with cancer.
Maybe a father or mother going to leave a family behind?
And it would be easy for us to become bitter.
And resent what the Lord has allowed. But we have this verse.
To rest upon We may not understand, we may not even know how to pray, but we know whatever is happened in this body of ours.
It's happening for our good and it's for the purpose.
Of of forming Christ in US.
When we think of him.
And the sufferings that he went through as a man in his body.
He knows he knows all about it, doesn't he?
The glory of God. The glory is going to be.
To 1000.
1000 questions and 1000 sorrows and 1000 things unanswered. The glory, the coming glory is going to be God's answer.
01:00:09
One thinks about the.
How that speaks about we hope.
We hope the hope of righteousness.
Well, that's the glory, is it? Not Clem?
It's about the hope of righteousness, the glory. We're not waiting for the righteousness. We have it now. We have the righteousness now. But the hope of righteousness. That'll be the glory and where grace is going to bring us.
Proper home of the new race.
The new creation and he is the first born of many brethren and he's going to bring us all in if we look at Hebrews chapter 2.
Just the.
Verses 10 and 11.
It talks about brethren there in a special way, it seems to me.
For it became him for whom are all things and by whom are all things in bringing many sons unto glory. See, that's where we're going to be.
That's our proper home that you were saying about. That's what we're going to be brought to make the captain of their salvations perfect through sufferings.
Tremendous thing is he is touched with the feelings of our infirmities. He's a perfect type priest because he has learned it. Then he goes on and says for both he that sanctify it.
And they who are sanctified.
Are all one one in kind, so it goes on and says for which 'cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren one in kind if you want to read in notes and comments.
I'm not sure of the volume, it's after the account about the will. Darby has written something.
That I still wonder about and rejoice in concerning.
Now and the Millennium and the eternal state.
And it's practical, he says. In effect, now is a training time for a raining time. Now we understand that we're getting trained down here for the time when we will reign. If we suffer with him, we shall also reign with him. But he's training us, bringing us through to suit us for the rain. Then he goes on and says.
Even as that Millennial Day will be an education for the eternal state. Now I can't get into that, but I believe it. It carries us that far as one in kind, the first born amongst many. Rather, I tell you the truth is so high you just can't get a hold of all of it.
Speak about those.
Those 4 deer that you find land.
Dead on the highway.
I hit one myself.
Poor thing, lovely dough.
Broken, bruised, she struggled into the ditch and couldn't get any further. She's and I could still see her face looking up at me.
I looked. I looked at her. I looked into those eyes and she looked into mine.
And I thought, well.
The glory will be God's answer to this.
A young police officer happened to come by Thursday minutes a few minutes later and he put her out of her, out of her pain and misery.
Someone had said in our meetings earlier somewhere about.
Of some kind of a practical application of these truths to our lives.
Well, I can say it's a wonderful thing if we can instill.
Sensitivity to suffering to our children in the lower creation and teach them to not abuse God's lower creation over which man had been placed as the head and subjected it to vanity. Let's not add to its sufferings and teach them to be tender and kind and compassionate.
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People, for they shall have mercy.
We have a merciful God.
You every morning.
Great is thy faithfulness.
It's wonderful 30th verse.
We've already had the end of the story.
We're going to be like his son. We're going to reach the glory.
But this wonderful 30th verse?
Brings the whole thing out in a most marvelous way.
With the four stated things.
Whom he did predestinate, That's one.
He also called.
And then he justified.
Then he also glorified us all in the accomplished past tense.
Because it's God looking at it.
And in effect, it begins in heaven.
Comes down to the earth, touches the earth, and goes back up to heaven. The predestination was there in the heart of God.
Then he came down here and he called us.
And then to get us there, he had to justify us. But he says the whole thing is over with, glorified.
Brother Highland used to.
Give a an illustration of that, he said. This is.
Like an inverted rainbow, if you can think of a rainbow. We saw a beautiful one just the other day.
Many colored rainbow will a rainbow begins over here in the earth, goes up and touches the sky and comes back down to the earth, he says. This is an invertible.
Manifold wisdom of God the many colored wisdom of God begins up there and comes down to the earth and takes us right back up to heaven.
That would precede these.
4 facts in our verse.
Is that we were chosen in him before the world's foundation.
Paul says that we were called by the gospel chosen, then we were predestinated. Those chosen were set apart to be like his Son, and God calls by the gospel to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. But as has been said between the calling and the glory is the justification justified by his blood. Blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin and makes us fit.
Suitable companions for Christ in glory.
In the end of the 29th verse, we should be conformed to the image of his son, that he might be the first born among many brethren. We're going to be like him, but he's going to be the Facebook, He's going to be the first born. He's going to have that preeminent place.
He He is.
He speaks about him as the 45th.
45th Psalm and then he also quoted in Hebrews 1.
He always. How about it? Bob takes about the.
In the moment.
Yes, he speaks about his fellows. Give us that for you.
The oil of gladness above thy fellows.
Well, we get in Zechariah. How that the.
Waco sword against my spirit, except against the man that is my fellow, saith the Lord.
And so the man who is my fellow is the Lord himself.
And the sword of God went deep into the bosom of that blessed one. But when we get himself as as his fellow, then we get fellows but he isn't. And that takes that's you and me in all his own. And we are seen as but He is.
First born among many brethren, he is anointed with the oil of gladness above above his fellows.
01:10:07
In the 89th Psalm and we might just turn to that because it's a very wonderful Psalm.
Is concerning the king.
And it ends up with the.
The 89th and the 27th.
Verse I will make him.
My first born.
Higher than the kings of the earth.
I was looking at the end. I thought it was the prayers of David, the son of Jesse are ended. Where is that?
72nd
Oh yes, that's right. It's the other book. It's that book. The prayers of David, the son of Jesse are ended because you get the king there set up, and that's that's what he was wanting. Well, it's in the plan of God. I will make him my first born higher than the kings of the earth.
In that 89th Psalm, it is David that's being referred to. When he says that, isn't it? I think that's nice because we know that David was the last of the sons of Jesse, but still he's made the first born. It's a question of preeminence. Whatever position he occupies, his first born, he has the 1St place. That's the thought, isn't it? The first born? Yes, it is.
Shortly afterwards, our brother.
Brought before us those precious words, it is.
Finished.
We had in our early verses that God sending his own Son.
And I thought when our brother.
Suggested those words.
That there are hard.
Any words that set the Lord Jesus Christ in the infiniteness?
Of his person before us more than those words.
Coming into the world we had yesterday, he was announced Son of God.
At his beginning of ministry, he was declared from heaven.
This is my beloved Son and throughout the entire gospel record.
Many references that show that the disciples embraced him as the Son.
And now God sending his own Son here in our second verse.
Third verse And now in 32 who spared not his own Son? It was the eternal Son of God that was believed upon, and it was the eternal Son of God become man that died.
At the hands of God, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
But at the end of those hours of darkness.
He and the full consciousness of his faculties knew that there was not one more stroke of judgment to be born as the Son.
He said it is finished, no more to be done.
And then that blessed word coming from his mouth. Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit in perfect confidence. There was nothing left to do. He could commend his spirit to the Father. No longer. My God forsaken because he had borne it all. It's finished. And now, my Father, into thy hands I come in my spirit. It's the Son that we have before us.
Blessing that you were speaking about cleanliness, Jesus, I'm not in the 30th verse. It begins with the past eternity, doesn't it? And ends in the glory.
01:15:09
We need to remind our hearts, don't we, that every blessing that we put, that and all that we have enjoyed in these meetings is based on the fact that God done.
That.
There is God's Amen to the work of Calvary, and now God can flow out in blessing to us and bring us into this position of a relationship. We have the glory before us and that enjoyment that we're going to have for all eternity. But brethren, let's never forget that it's all based on the work of Calvary. Every blessing, every grace that ever was showed to man was because God announced in the garden when man sinned.
That the woman's seat would bruise the head of the serpent.
And all blessing in the Old Testament looked onto that time, and all blessing now looks back to that time. There's no other ground of blessing or way that we could be brought into the enjoyment of these things.
That cross of our Lord Jesus Christ that He is for us. There should be no further doubt that we entertain the enemy likes to God when things go contrary in our back, where he likes to point doubts and to question God's goodness.
Don't allow God, those darts of those fiery darts of the enemy to enter your heart.
God has proved without any shadow of a doubt that He is for us in giving his only Son now.
Not with him also. Really give us all things. How is he going to work it out? I don't know brother. You don't know either. But the fact that he is going to work it out is A7 factor and we are just simply to trust him in the meanwhile. One day you'll go. I enjoyed what another said. They said we can't always see God's love in our circumstances, but we can always see His love displayed at the cross.
And we see when the children of Israel came to Mara that it was a bitter circumstance, and the waters were so bitter that they couldn't drink them. But what was it that made the water sweet? They cast the tree into the water. And sometimes that's the only thing that will make the water sweet, you say? I don't know how God's working this out for a purpose of blessing in my life. Just look back to the cross. And when we look at His love displayed at the cross, can we doubt His love and His wisdom?
In our circumstances.
When we see how much he paid to redeem us, can we doubt that he isn't going to bring everything to fruition? Not just for a purpose, brethren, but for a purpose of blessing? I say that because we sometimes say, well, the Lord is working everything out for a purpose. But it's more than that, because I might have a purpose, some plan for my family, but in the long run, it may be just some selfish motive that I have. Maybe, really, it isn't for the blessing of the family in the long run.
But God's purposes are for blessing. And I'd like to just say this too, in connection with what has been said, because maybe there's someone here and here saying, well, I don't really know how this is working out for good in my life, you'd say, I read this verse, I know these truths, I know all things work together for good, but I just don't see it. But brethren, I believe there's many things we're never going to see until we get home to glory. It says now we know in part and we prophecy in part.
Now we see through a glass dimly. There's many shadows and shades, many things in our circumstances that maybe we don't understand now. But I've enjoyed a little expression in connection with the heavenly city in a coming day. It says it's clear as crystal. Maybe things are We see things dimly now, maybe there are those shadows. But, brethren, when we get home to glory, everything is going to be clear as crystal.
01:20:16
We're never going to question his ways and his purposes there because we're going to see the fruition of it all.
Paul as he went on in his pathway, There were many things that he didn't understand, his brethren and sometimes didn't accept his ministry. They spoke against him. Sometimes he had to say, the more I love you, the less I be loved. I'm sure he wondered about those things, but what does he say?
I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I've committed unto him against that day, he said. I just leave those things with the Lord, knowing that while I don't understand it, now everything is working together for good. And I'm going to look back in the coming day and I'm going to praise him as I see that everything was for a purpose of blessing. And I think that's part of what it says means when it says in First Thessalonians.
1St Corinthians 4 It says judge nothing before the time until the Lord come who will bring to light the hidden things of darkness.
Make manifest the counsels of the heart, and then shall every man have praise of God, if you just allow me to use one more illustration. You know, sometimes when my wife travels with me, she keeps a little handiwork to do as we travel and visit from place to place. And I know nothing about handiwork, but I do know that sometimes, depending on what she's doing, you turn the canvas over to the back of the canvas and it just seems like a tangle of threads.
And maybe, I say to her, I don't even know what the picture's going to be from looking at the backside of the canvas.
All those threads just seem, you wonder if they really have a purpose. But when she's finished the work and you turn the picture over, you see that every one of those seemingly tangled threads had a purpose to go into making up that beautiful pattern. Now, brethren, we view things from the backside of the canvas. Now there's threads and tangles that we don't understand, but when we get home to glory, we're going to view it in its fruition.
And completion and we're going to view it from the other side of the canvas.
And we're going to see that God had a purpose in it all. And as our brother said, he was working everything after the counsel of his own will.
50 To turn to the cross there in connection with Christ and get some words that are quoted right here in our chapter.
So that we can understand many things right now.
If we go to Isaiah 50.
And verse five. We'll read a few verses.
The Lord God hath opened my ear, and I was not rebellious, neither turned away back. We know who that was and who he he was listening to, he says. I gave my back to the smiders and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair.
I hid not my face from shame and spitting.
Then he says, For the Lord God will help me, therefore I shall not be confounded. Therefore have I set my face like a Flint.
That was to go up to Jerusalem to suffer on the cross.
And I know that I shall not be ashamed.
He is near that justifieth me.
Who will contend with me?
Let us stand together.
Who is mine adversary?
Let him come near to me, behold.
The Lord God will help me then this question we have in our chapter.
Who is he that shall condemn me?
Our chapter answers it is Christ that died. Yeah, that is risen again.
So we get the answer.
There's no condemnation. We began with that.
Nobody can condemn us, brethren. They might quarrel against us and try to condemn us, but they can't.
We're justified.
Next one, that 20.
32nd verse He that spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all. God spared Abraham the Father.
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And he spared Isaac.
But God the Father didn't spare himself, nor did He spare his Son.
For you like to.
Are given here in these last verses as a result of all that.
The Apostle has been bringing before.
The tremendous place of privilege and favor we've been brought into? He asked for questions.
Beginning with verse 31 and it's been likened. I know probably a number occurred, but I have really enjoyed it to a court case.
First of all, the first question is in verse 31. If God be for us, who can be against us?
In a court case, there's always the party that is taking you to law.
Number two. Question #2 is verse 33. Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect?
There is a prosecuting attorney who lays the charges out against that person that is being tried.
Verse 34 Who is he that condemneth?
There is the judge that condemns, and then verse 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ. When the person is condemned, the jailer takes them away and separates him. All those things, any possible way that you can think of any party being against his brethren. It's all been settled. It's been taken care of every possible way.
Oh dear brethren, how our hearts should overflow.
In praise and appreciation for all he's done for us, and the best is yet to come.
Would you say, Brother Bob, then there are two great outstanding crews right before us in this chapter, The 1St at the beginning, no condemnation, and now at the end there's no separation.
Nothing shall separate us from the love of God.
God himself.
Supreme.
Supreme authority and in power, He's all for them. Nothing shall separate us from the love of God.
Which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
I have very much enjoyed in my own soul.
The expression we have here.
Of being more than conquerors through him that love us.
In the battles and difficulties with men, there's always a conqueror. But how can one be more than a conqueror? Simply beloved by being companion with the Conqueror?
15 #141.
Of the richest, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God.
How unsearchable are his judgments?
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And his ways past finding out.
For who hath known the mind of the Lord?
For who hath been his counselor? Or who hath first given to him? And it shall be recompensed unto him again?
For of him and through him and to him are all things.
To whom be glory forever. Amen.
Blessed God our Father.
What a precious portion we've had before our souls.
We look up.
All glory to thy blessed name, blessed God our Father.
For having given given thine only begotten son.
And we know that now since he has been freely given.
That all the rest is going to come in its own new season.
Help us to trust more implicitly.
Help us to repel those darks, those fiery darts, those doubts of the enemy. Help us to live in simplicity of faith, Lord Jesus, the rest of our time here.
We really believe the moment is near.
When it's going to be actual fact, even as to these bodies.
Redeemed.
Conformed to thy image, Lord Jesus, we look forward to that moment and say, come Lord Jesus.
The meanwhile.
Keep us, Lord Jesus, we pray, giving thanks in that most worthy name.
Thy thy worthy name, Lord Jesus. Amen.
2 Thessalonians 2, Jeremiah 3, Isaiah 49
Address—H. Short
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OK, God and our loving Father, we.
Thank you for all in the room, asking the room.
I'm seeing this here and.
To thank your fathers for that moment, we.
That is soon coming.
And you're going to be.
So as the open right word.
Hearts may be warm and drawn.
To say our God and Father for his glory.
For the blessing of I belonged to people here this afternoon.
We do need thy health, our Father. We pray in the dream.
Of our world.
Would like to read a verse.
And we just saw.
2nd Thessalonians.
Chapter 2. Second Thessalonians.
Chapter 2. Can everyone in the room Hear Me?
Now we received you, brethren.
By the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
And our gathering together.
Unto him.
And then I would like to read one more verse in Isaac in Jeremiah after three.
Jeremiah, chapter 3.
And verse 17.
At that time they shall call Jerusalem.
The throne of the Lord.
And all the nations shall be gathered exactly gathered unto it.
To the name of the Lord.
And then we won't turn to it, but we're very familiar with.
After 18 months.
This afternoon.
Is to look at Jerusalem in the book of Isaiah.
Realizing that her future.
Those beloved people, the children of Israel and the nations.
Will be gathered together unto the name of the Lord at Jerusalem.
It would have been the Lord's mind for his dear people.
To responded in their hearts.
And to have been gathered to his name even today. But they're not.
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And then in 2nd Thessalonians 2.
We see that the Church of God.
Is some time perhaps not too far off?
Going to be gathered together to the Lord Jesus Christ.
But it's his mind.
That his beloved assembly would have been gathered together unto his name even now.
But we here this afternoon.
Many of us enjoy that.
Act of grace on God's part.
That has gathered us to the Lord's name.
But we're painfully conscious.
That most of the Lord's beloved assembly.
Is not there.
Where he is in the midst of the two or three gathered together unto his name.
But I'd like now to go back to the book of Isaiah.
Chapter 49.
And look at that city, Jerusalem.
And seek to draw not so much the prophetic truth of this chapter.
But the moral application of it to our own souls?
As believers, you might say, and gather to the Lord's name.
For in the equivalent in Israel's history at Jerusalem, where the Lord had placed his name.
Of course, failure had come in to Israel.
And she was scattered.
But there was a resource that God had in his beloved Son.
His servant in this chapter.
And so in Isaiah 49 and verse one it says Listen to me and hearken ye people from far.
The Lord hath called me from the womb, from the bowels of my mother.
Hath he made mention of my name?
And he hath made my mouth like a sharp sword.
In the shadow of his hand hath he hid me, and made me a polished shaft in his quiver at the hidden knee, and said unto me, Thou art my servant, O Israel, in whom I will be glorified.
Now it's true. God is going to be glorified and His people Israel.
As he is going to be glorified in US His things.
But I think what's before the Spirit of God in this chapter is the Lord Jesus taking the place of Israel before God.
But what is on my heart?
Is to go down through this chapter.
And seek to encourage our hearts not to give up in the day of departure.
And not to leave.
The Lord Jesus and his gathering center, which is himself.
You know Jerusalem will see.
Was pretty well desolated.
But she has a glorious hope.
Of soon being gathered to the Lord's name there in that city.
And the Assembly of God is to God's mind that He would have had us move as one man through our history here on earth.
Thinking, one thought, moving, as they did on the day of Pentecost and in the early assembly, as one man.
Gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
But the assembly has been left desolate virtually.
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And that gathering center, the Lord Jesus, his precious name, as pretty well been left by most of the people of God.
And so it was the case with Jerusalem, and we're going to see it restored and the principles involved in restoring souls to that city.
And the exercises of heart that will be involved in that restoration.
And they have a moral application to us, brethren, this afternoon.
Who would like to say in verse three? I believe it's the Lord Jesus himself. And I said unto me, Thou art my servant, O Israel, in whom I will be glorified. Then I said, I have labored in vain, I have spent my strength for naughty, and in vain.
You ever felt like that?
Do you have loved ones right now on your heart that you wish were sitting next to you?
Some you've prayed for. Some of you have prayed for them for many, many years.
But the seed is empty.
They don't feel it.
And you might feel a bit discouraged and say Lord Jesus.
I've labored in vain. But the Lord had a pathway like that, and He can relate to it. And he knows the feelings of walking this through this world, loving the people, laboring for them.
And ending up not having them beside him. And that's the sentiment behind this expression of the heart of Christ. I've labored in vain, but then he had something.
Yet surely my judgment is with the Lord and my work with my God, but rather and maybe it it does look like we're just failures. And maybe we have had exercises about the assembly and about believers being gathered to the Lord's name, and we've seen little fruit in our lives. And that's the thought here. And as we'll see in the next verse.
There was that longing of the heart, and when we meet believers, and no matter what state of soul they are in, above our own state of soul, we long that they might be gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus, because we know that's where the Spirit of God would want them to be.
But evidently.
Any could look at us and say our labor has been in vain instead of growing.
We're getting smaller. We'll see that happen to Jerusalem.
But the Lord said, But my work is with my God, and that's what Paul said when he finished his course here on earth.
If anyone looked at him, they would have to conclude he was a complete failure as a servant of the Lord. As he expressed those words, only Luke is with me. All in Asia have turned away from me.
Here I am alone.
No, he didn't say my labor was in vain, he said. I know whom I have believed, and persuaded that he is able to keep that which I've committed unto him against that a brethren Lord, takes note of your heart. He knows those tears. He knows those longings of our hearts that those believers that we know and pray for.
That they might be restored, or that they might be gathered to the Lord's name, but it appears like it's in vain, that kind of a labor.
But our work is with my God.
Sin in verse 5 And now saith the Lord that formed me from the womb.
To be his servant, to bring Jacob again to him, that was the Lorde desire. He came here to his own, and they had been scattered, and the Lord labored, and he he dung that digged and dunked about the fig tree.
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He longed that they would be gathered to the Lord, but he wasn't successful in that labor Yet shall I be glorious in the eyes of the Lord?
Though Israel be not gathered.
Yet shall I?
Be glorious in the eyes of the Lord, and my God shall be my strength. And he said, It is a light thing that thou shouldst.
Be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel. I will also give before a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation unto the end of the earth.
Then it says in verse seven. Then said the Lord the Redeemer of Israel and his Holy One to him whom man despiseth to him whom the nations abhorrent to be a servant of rulers.
Well, rather, in the name of the Lord is despised.
The apostle had to labor with the same people.
And as he laid down his pen, and writing to them, he said, Let us go forth therefore unto him without a camp bearing his reproach.
But brethren, that's where we find ourselves, as gathered to the Lord's name and position, at least outside.
Bearing his reproach, not much to look at, but the Lord Jesus is there. Well, the Lord failed in gathering Israel.
And as we look around, we see the assembly hasn't fared any better.
And down in.
Verse.
24.
We read Jerusalem or zions heart.
But Zion said, The Lord hath forsaken me, and my Lord has forgotten me. Do you ever feel like that again? You know we?
Come to our meeting rooms and there's more empty chairs than filled ones.
And yet we find ourselves praying and praying.
We could naturally conclude the Lord hath forsaken us.
There's Mr. Brown used to say, you know, there's nothing a believer can point to and say I have that because I'm a Christian.
But rather than as gathered Saints and nothing we can point to either and say, we have that because we're gathered to the Lord's name from all apparent.
Outward appearances.
Here's a company of feeble folk.
And it speaks of in the.
Umm, the kings, The poorest of the sort.
And one would look at us and say the Lord has forsaken us.
I look just not what evidence of the Lord's presence.
Well, let the Lord have his thoughts.
Let's not thank them for him. And so the Lord answers Zion's heart. She says. The Lord hath forsaken me.
And my Lord has forgotten me.
But the Lord said.
Can a woman forget her sucking child?
That she should not have compassion on the son of her womb. Yay, they may forget. Yet will I not forget thee?
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Now what I want?
To consider this afternoon, brethren, is the possibility.
That the Lord Jesus heart.
Finds delight.
In these few poorest of the sort, believers gathered to his precious name around himself.
I think we are to allow that consideration. He hasn't forgotten us and he does appreciate, you know.
Sometimes we.
We think we're going to meeting and we forget.
It is going to meeting, but it's going to meet the Lord in our midst. And I believe He values that better may not seem like much to us. We may feel forsaken of the Lord, but He cannot forget us. And I'm not saying He is forget forgotten those who are scattered. No, but this is talking about Zion.
That gathering center in Israel, she thought she had been forsaken of the Lord. But he says a mother may forget her child, but I won't forget you. And then, he says.
In verse.
16.
Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands, thy walls.
Are continually.
Before me.
Does the Lord have an interest?
And that little assembly gathered to his name.
I say.
The walls are continually before him. He hasn't forgotten us.
And brethren, may we not forget the assembly. It's so easy for us to look at each other and get discouraged and walk away. And we say we're walking away from the meeting. Or I've read recently of one who said he was walking away from the assembly.
Gathered to the Lord's name.
We should rather, brethren, be taken home to be with Christ.
Than to take a step like that.
Because we're not just relieving the poorest of the sort of believers.
Relieving the Lord Jesus.
In the midst of those two or three, and it breaks his heart, he said. Your walls are continually before me.
Down in verse 17.
Thy children shall make haste.
Thy destroyers and they that made thee waste shall go forth. Of thee brethren, there is coming a time.
When we're going to be gathered together there in glory around the Lord Jesus.
Here it says your children are going to make haste. Why does it say that? We'll see a little bit later why it speaks of the children making haste. That is, they're going to come back. Those Israelites who have been scattered throughout the world, they're going to come back to that gathering center, and they're going to do it quickly. And perhaps, brethren, the whole Assembly of God scattered clear across this world.
God's children are going to come back to His gathering center. We're going to be gathered together, perhaps soon to Him. Wouldn't you like to be there when we just stepped from that place here to that same place in heaven and not have to change our position one bit?
Well, it's going to happen for Israel. It's going to happen for the church.
Verse 18. Lift up thine eyes round about and behold, all these gather themselves together and come to thee. It's going to happen, baby.
00:25:05
And our laboring to that end while he is despised.
And abandoned like the apostle in his closing days.
Our laborers that we labor to that end are not going to be in vain.
Then in verse 22.
I want to take up now.
The principles of restoration, because these principles had been abandoned and that's why there was the scattering.
Verse 20 Thy children which thou shalt have after thou, hast lost the other.
Shall say again in thine ears, The place is too straight for me.
I just want to call attention first to that expression, the children.
Thou hast lost.
The children thou hast lost.
And down in verse 21 in the middle of the verse.
See, I have lost my children.
I believe this is going to have to be the first principle of restoration, even in those who have left us.
Who were once gathered with us, but they're now gone.
If we're going to see some recovery there, we're going to have to say we are the ones that lost them.
The children that I have lost.
Zion is going to own her failure in keeping her children.
When that door is opened before our God and we say Lord Jesus.
I am the cause.
Of the loss of my children.
That opens the door for restoration.
If we point our finger at our children.
Or if we point our finger at our gathering and say they are the reason they're lost. I'm not saying they're going to be able to point the finger at us and say you're the reason I left the Lord.
But I am saying, brethren, let's take the responsibility of our present condition of having lost our children.
The first principle of restoration, But you know, and that verse ends in verse 20 when they come back.
It's it's like this, they say the place is too straight for me.
Give place to me, that I may dwell, but brethren.
Let's anticipate the Lord's day when we're gathered in His presence to remember Him if all of the brethren in Saint Louis area alone.
Came to be gathered unto the Lord Jesus, this building would be too straight for them.
It would have to be expanded. And that's the thought when Jerusalem, it kept losing and losing and losing its children and it was just this little small city.
But when God restores them, they're going to say you're going to have to enlarge the borders of it to make room for the abundance of blessings of those children being brought back to that city. But, brethren, when the Lord comes for His church.
This isn't to our glory.
But we're gathered here to his name. We will be gathered there to himself, and we won't have to change our position, but those who have left him.
And they're not now gathered but are looked at as scattered sheep. And they're gathered to the Lord. It's going to be like they're going to have to say you'll have to make room for us too. You're going to have to make room for us too. And there will be roommates for them. Well, someday you might say these empty seats are going to be filled and more seats added, because all of the Lord's dear children.
00:30:16
Are going to be gathered to him. Wouldn't you like to be there when he comes?
Do you want to be somewhere else then around himself when he comes?
We may be a few numbers, but everyone is going to be gathered and that day to our Savior, the Lord Jesus. And so those who were scattered, they are going to say this place is too small for us.
Going to have to make room for us. Verse 21. Then shalt thou say in thine heart, Who hath begotten me these? Seeing I have lost my children, and am desolate A captive and removing to and fro. And who hath brought up these? Behold, I was left alone. These Where had they been?
So that's the second thing we're going to have to see.
That we can't gather. We may lose our children, but we can't gather them. We're going to have to cast ourselves upon the Lord and say Lord Jesus.
And cry out to him, for he alone will be able to do this mighty work. He did it for you and me here on earth, and he can do it for those we've lost. If we'll truly turn to him and acknowledge our failure and his sufficiency, the door can be opened for this restoration. And so Zion says, I lost these children. Where did they all come from?
For the God of grace, you know, in Deuteronomy 2929.
He spoke of having secret things that were not yet revealed. Well, they're going to be revealed to Israel. And the secret things are his ways of grace with his people. And Israel is going to be brought in on the principle of mercy and grace, just as you and I are. And if there's going to be restoration of those we've lost to the gathering center, it's going to be on our part in acknowledgement. It's got to be.
A work of grace, the grace of God. And so she says.
She didn't bring them back.
Then verse 23 it says, And kings shall be thy nursing fathers, and their Queens by nursing mothers.
Now here are two other things, for it says in the next verse they shall bow.
In verse 22 I want to read that thus saith the Lord. Behold, I will lift up my hand to the Gentiles, and set up my standard to the people, and they shall bring thy sons in their arms, and thy daughters shall be carried upon their shoulders.
And King shall be their nursing, thy nursing fathers.
Well, those who bring them back have these two characters, nursing fathers and nursing mothers. I want to talk a little bit about that this afternoon.
For it says in our verse, kings shall be thy nursing authors. We're taken now to the family scene, and I believe rather than it was because the family was disrupted and destroyed, that we've lost our children.
Unawares we let the family decay.
There, that circle where they should have learned the principles of the assembly.
We let them go.
And so our children ended up not knowing the assembly from anything else.
They lost.
A view in the home of the assembly principles. Two of them are here in the Father. He was to be a king, and he was to be a mercy father.
Those two principles 1 without the other, are sure to lose our children.
If I take my place as a king in my house, but not as a nursing father and we need to drive them away.
00:35:10
If I take my place in my home as a nursing father and not as a king, and we need to lose them too, what do I need?
I had a dear friend.
He was a very dear friend of mine.
One day he told me he was having difficulty with his children and he said I'm the father in my house and they must obey.
Well, that's how he rules his house.
And they're all, including himself, scattered to the land.
Authority.
Kingly authority there must be in a house.
A man must have more honor than his house.
But if that's all that I have.
We'll never gather our children like that.
But what about the nursing father?
We might think of the Father who is unable to say to his children no.
He loves them so much and he can't restrain them.
And all he can do is whatever they want him to do.
He's seeking to nourish them, but there's no authority there.
They're going to leave.
Because there's no head in that household.
But what is a king? And what is a nursing father? King shall be their nursing fathers.
It's a father who is able to have his yay be yay and his nay nay.
There isn't a rising up and questioning when the decision is made by the Father.
He says yes, we're going to do something. He says no, we're not going to do something.
And there's rest in the family because there's submission to the king in figure.
But he also must be a nursing father. Now what's that? A nursing father is someone who thinks about his children and their welfare before he thinks about himself, and I would say.
Don't forget our wives either.
Perhaps we could call a nursing father or a husband. I wouldn't call him a nursing husband because our relationship, our wives are not in the same position as we're going to see as our children are sometimes being think they're wives and their children are the same.
Now for the moon.
But we might ride over nursing father.
The considerations.
Of love.
We can provoke our children to anger when we make decisions after decisions. Based on the fact that it troubles me if I do this, it's going to be put me out. If I do this for my family, they say I want to go to a picnic, Let's go camp. Can we go camping, Dad? And I think, oh, go camping. There's a heavy cooler I'm going to have to carry. There's that tent I'm going to have to put up and sleep in the rain.
And then when I come home, I'll have to dry it out and the kids will be too little to help me and the bird and such a burden is so big. Oh, let's do something else. Or no, not this weekend. I want to get something done that I want to do.
That's not the consideration of love.
The considerations of love look at our children and consider what is the effect of this decision going to be on my children?
Is it simply an inconvenience to me or is there really some reason that I would say no to the request?
But when we say no to the request, it should be because the Lord himself would have had to say no.
00:40:09
A nursing father who is a king. It's vital and brethren, if we.
Will, look at this. There's only one father to a family, and some of us may have abandoned fatherhood and given our children to others to raise. Maybe you've even looked at the assembly as responsible to raise your children.
God had never placed that responsibility on the assembly unless they were orphaned.
But you're here as a father, and your children shouldn't be.
Orphans.
It's on your shoulders.
To be a king and a nursing father. But then there's the Queen.
Who is a nursing mother? I am inclined to think when we think of a queen as a nursing mother.
That's more the natural side of things. We know it's not natural for a man to be a nursing father. I mean, there's something outside the realm of nature involved in that. I believe it's the spiritual side of things, and we as fathers have the responsibility.
Of setting the spiritual tone of our families if it's set by the mother or the wife.
It's a very, very shaky foundation.
The man is to be the king and is to be a nursing father.
I believe that's the spiritual side of things, but the natural side of things. There were Queens who were nursing mothers. What's the thought of a queen?
That she has authority over the children too.
And a wise husband.
And father will not undermine his wife's decisions regarding the children when he was absent.
If she made a wrong mistake, if she made a mistake, you better be very, very slow about reversing it in front of the children.
But she has a place children are subjected not to the father only, but to the parents.
Do we support our wives or do we find ourselves taking sides with the children?
It took both the nursing father and the nursing mother to bring these children home.
And so she has a vital role in a wise woman builds the house as much as a man builds the house. And so, both in their proper spheres and in their proper roles, bring these children back in restoration. What's really on my heart is you parents here this afternoon with little ones.
We have to acknowledge to you we've pretty much lost our children.
But I don't want you to do that.
But you're going to have to grasp what it is to be a king.
And a loving father.
You're going to have to grasp what it is to be a queen.
And a nurturing mother.
You know people are going to tell you, dear mothers, your work.
Is insignificant. I tell you, you couldn't find a greater work than what you're doing.
Don't let anyone.
Make you feel.
Like you're not doing the work of the Lord in nursing your children.
Well, they were both involved.
And then it says.
Verse 24.
At the end of verse 23.
I am the Lord, for they shall not be ashamed.
00:45:00
That way for me.
Are we going to weigh in his presence?
Till he comes, we won't be ashamed.
The brethren, if pure, I turn aside from the assembly gathered to the Lord's name.
I believe we're going to be ashamed. We're going to be made.
To feel what we did in departing from our Lord.
One time I have a dear friend.
And he.
Who? He was still in the assembly, but he said.
Henry, Utah.
Like it's everything is lost if I leave the meeting.
I said it was.
It is.
I don't think we have any idea.
What it means when the assembly is typified as a city of refuge.
And you go outside of that city of refuge.
You've lost everything. You've lost everything, brethren.
God has given us.
An immense privilege in gathering us to the Lord's name and Satan. And now, right now in this room.
Is communicating to hearts.
Is that I'm tired of hearing it.
You walk away from the Lord.
You walk away to sorrow. You can't do it. You'll lose everything. But if you stay, you're not going to be ashamed in that day.
Down in verse 25.
Well, verse 24 Shall the prey be taken from the mighty, for the lawful captive delivered There again the thought is we deserved.
What we got? It's the language of the Remnant.
Expressed by that repentant thief, he says. We indeed justly we get the due reward of our deeds. So they're saying here.
Can these captives be delivered when?
They deserve to be captives, the Lord says.
But thus saith the Lord, even the captives of the mighty shall be taken away, and the prey of a terrible shall be delivered. For I will contend with them that contendeth with thee, and I will save my children.
Brethren were going home soon.
We're going to be gathered to his name and all of his children are going to be there with us.
Again, I say.
It's no point of pride at all.
If we for this moment.
Enter into the concept that I have lost my children.
I am little few in numbers. The walls have been constricted because I have been unfaithful.
We won't come home saying I stay faithful, Lord, we won't come home that way.
Say Lord Jesus.
Honest, my children.
But I thank the Lord Jesus. Thou hast saved them, and has brought them here finally. Around thyself. For brethren, let's go on. If our labor be apparently in vain, so let it be.
But let us never give up the principles involved in the assembly and the precious privilege of being gathered to his precious name in this day of his abandonment. Let's pray for Jesus.
We pray that thou will encourage our hearts. We pray, Lord Jesus, that there might be a deepening appreciation.
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In our souls of the great grace.
That has kept us to this moment in thy presence here on earth.
And for that great grace to Lord Jesus that will catch us up out of this scene together.
To be forever with the Lord Jesus.
We thank you for that hope. We ask Thy blessing on thy word and Thy precious name. Amen.
The next meeting is at 3:30. We beg you to all try to be seated by three.
Deuteronomy 6 & 12
Address—K. Harman
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.
Meeting this afternoon.
By Singing 139.
139 This world is a wilderness wide. We have nothing to seek or to choose. We've no thought in the ways to abide. We've not to regret nor to lose. The Lord is himself gone before he has marked out the path that we tread. It's as sure as the love we adore. We have nothing to fear nor to dread. 139.
This world is a wilderness.
Wide way of.
We can come as long as.
You regret water to the.
We ask God's help.
Our gracious God, our Father, we think that we can sing a hymn like this.
To encourage us in the pathway of faith.
We thank thee, our God and our Father, that Thou hast sent thy beloved Son into this world.
We thank thee that he came to do thy will.
And we thank thee, our God and our Father, that as he tread the pathway down here.
As I could look down upon him and say, this is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased.
There only did could self fully trace a life divine below.
And so we thank the Lord Jesus that for our pathway down here, we are not left alone, for Thou hast been here before us, and now we can look to Thee for our guide and our comfort. And we do thank you for thy word that that is our instruction for the pathway. And we just pray, our Father, that as we open it this afternoon, they'll give us help and they'll give us guidance and they'll give us direction.
We pray that the Lord Jesus might be glorified in this hour and that our hearts might be encouraged that we might be reminded again of Thy grace that is extended toward us as we walk through this scene.
The grace that sought and found us alone can keep us, keep us clean. And so, our Father, we would just ask thee for thy guidance. Now. We ask thee that doubt.
Give help to the speaker and to the listeners too. And so we would just commit this hour to the Our Father with Thanksgiving in the name of the Lord Jesus, Amen.
Turn with me for a moment to the the Book of Deuteronomy.
Chapter 6.
We'll begin at verse one.
Now these are the commandments, the statutes, and the judgments which the Lord your God commanded to teach you, that you might do them in the land whither you go to possess it. That thou mightest fear the Lord thy God to keep all his statutes and his commandments, which I command thee, thou and thy son, and thy son son, all the days of thy life, and that thy days may be prolonged.
Here therefore, O Israel, and observe to do it.
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That it may be well with thee, and that ye may increase mightily, as the Lord God of thy fathers hath promised thee.
In the land that floweth with milk and honey. Here, O Israel, the Lord our God is 1 Lord. And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, with all thy might. And these words which I command thee this day shall be in thine heart.
Thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shall talk of them when thou sittest in thine house.
And when they'll walk us by the way, and when thou lie us down, and when thou risest up. And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes, and thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates.
And it shall be when the Lord thy God shall have brought thee into the land which he swear unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give thee great and goodly cities which thou buildest not, and houses full of all good things which thou fillest not, and wells digged which thou digest not, vineyards and olive yards which thou plantest not, when thou shalt have eaten and be full. And beware lest thou forget the Lord which.
Brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt from the House of *******.
Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God and serve him, and shalt swear by his name.
And then in chapter 12.
Perhaps we could read from verse one also. These are the statutes and judgments which ye shall observe to do in the land which the Lord God of thy fathers giveth thee to possess it all the days that ye live upon the earth. You shall utterly destroy all the places wherein the nations which ye shall possess serve their gods, upon the high mountains, and upon the hills, and under every green tree. And ye shall overthrow their altars, and bring their pillars, and burn their Groves with fire, and ye shall hew down the graven images of their gods.
And destroy the names of them out of that place. You shall not do so unto the Lord your God, but unto the place which the Lord your God shall choose out of all your tribes to put his name there, even unto his habitation shall ye seek. And thither thou shalt come, and thither ye shall bring your burnt offerings, and your sacrifices, and your tithes, and heave offerings of your hand, and your vows, and your free will offerings in the firstlings of your herds and of your flocks.
And there ye shall eat before the Lord your God, and ye shall rejoice in all that you put your hand unto ye, and your households wherein the Lord thy God hath blessed thee, ye shall not do after all the things that we do here this day. Every man whatsoever is right in his own eyes.
For you're not as yet come to the rest and to the inheritance which the Lord your God giveth you. But when you go over Jordan and dwell in the land which the Lord your God giveth you to inherit, and when He giveth you rest from all your enemies roundabouts, so that you dwell in safety, then there shall be a place which the Lord your God shall choose to cause His name to be to dwell there. Thither shall ye bring all that I command you, your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, your tithes.
And the heave offering of your hand and all.
Your choice vows which evolve into the Lord. And ye shall rejoice before the Lord your God, ye and your sons, and your daughters, and your men, servants, and your maidservants, and the Levite that is within your gates, for as much as he hath no part nor inheritance with you.
Take heed to thyself that thou offer not thy burnt offerings in every place that thou seest, but in the place which the Lord shall choose in one of thy tribes. There thou shalt offer thy burnt offerings, and there thou shalt do all that I command thee.
Perhaps that's far enough.
What I have on my heart this afternoon.
Is.
Primarily to those that are my age bracket and perhaps younger.
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As a young person, I was.
Brought up in the assembly, gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus. Though I didn't always appreciate the place. I didn't always know that where I was gathered was was the that which where the Lord Jesus was alone, that is where there was one table.
Now, we've heard much in this last while about there being one table. There has been an attack on this and.
As though the Lord could be, could have more than one table, more than one place. I want to tell you this afternoon that that it is not so. He has one place.
He has one table.
Well, as young people, perhaps we don't always know this. And again I'm speaking to the young people. I said it was going to be those my age and maybe a little younger.
I say that primarily because.
That is where the responsibility lies.
So much of our sometimes we direct so much of our ministry to the young people as though they were the only ones that needed this. But I feel so much in my own soul that it is.
Those who have young people.
That the word should go to.
Well, we all need it, don't we, Young and old, We need to be reminded of it. Peter could always could say, though you know these things, I put you in remembrance of these things, though you know them. And so how often we need to be reminded of all the truth of God.
We need to be well-rounded in the truth of God, do we not?
Well, as a young person, they say I was brought up in the assembly and I didn't always appreciate, I didn't always know it. And the Lord had to put me through things that whereby I came to appreciate the place. And I wonder if there's anyone in this room this afternoon that that really is questioning as to and wondering perhaps why am I here?
Why do I come to this little meeting and why don't I go down the street? I remember when I moved to the town I'm now in, it's a large Mennonite community, and my helper asked me once he saw the little meeting room we were going to and he always asked, well, how many are there there? I told him. He said, what do you do that for? Why don't you just come down? Come, come with us, he said.
Why just go on with a little group like that?
How would you answer that?
Well, I can't remember what I said and I'll leave the I'll leave it to you as to how you would answer that.
But, you know, it's a challenge, is it not? In our souls and especially as young people, they say, well.
I don't. Well, we that's where I was brought up.
And sometimes that's all we can answer, and the time comes when we have to give a little bit more than that, for our own souls if nothing else.
Well, the time came in my life when I had to, when I had to be put to this test and, and thankfully the Lord came in and undertook for me and showed me the truth of being gathered to the Lord's name.
I don't want to stay on this.
Life of mine, that's not profitable, but if I say anything, it's for the encouragement of those who are younger. But you know there is an attraction out there in the religious world for you.
And if you've got anything to offer in the line of abilities or whatever, they want you. Yes they do, and it is an immense attraction and snare.
The children of Israel found this soul in their midst. There were those attractions of the nation drawn about them.
And they were not immune to the fact that.
There were those things that they desired, and yet God had told them that they should not.
They should not take wives of those of the nations roundabout them, or give their daughters unto their sons, and so forth.
But nevertheless, the attraction was there and they failed in many ways.
They failed terribly. Well, it's so the attraction is no less.
Today, with our young people and with those of us who are older, you know, discouragement comes in sometimes and we, we sometimes.
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Lose sight of the.
The importance of the assembly.
You don't want just two or three. The Lord Jesus said it would get down to that number. Two or three gather together.
Unto his name. You know, if you don't see the Lord there, then it's very easy to stop coming, isn't it?
But you know, if you see the Lord there, it's easy to keep coming.
And so where does the where? What is the answer to this? Do we? Do we just?
Read our Bibles and and get the doctrine all up in here and.
Perhaps go because of a certain brother that is there? What? What is the answer to this?
Well, the answer is found here in Deuteronomy 6 I believe.
We'll go down. I started at verse one in reading, but I want to start here now at verse four. Cure O Israel, the Lord our God is 1 Lord.
We have to, we have to get to the place in our souls where we see that the Lord is 1 Lord and that there is one Lord, 1 faith, one baptism, and there is one body. We need to see all these things and to see them from God's point of view.
You know, it was, it took a while, a long time in my life before I understood what it meant with the truth of the one body meant I, I looked about me and I saw the, the people Christians out there and I said, well, they're all members of the body of Christ. And so I can identify myself with them. And so I did. And I, I, as a young person, I went out there and I, I.
I had fellowship with them. I want to tell you what it did to me. It made me despise the assembly.
You know, as I said before, they want what you have if it can help them.
For the sake of the young people here, I want to just say, you know, I found in my life a snare.
I one thing, music was a snare, another thing my car was a snare. Young, young fellows here, they like to have their cars and so forth. And I got involved with the.
A Christian car club affiliated with a branch in California. And I thought this was the greatest thing. But you know, as it went on with it and I didn't go on very long, but as it went on with it, something told me that there was, it wasn't right. And I couldn't, I couldn't say what, but it just wasn't right.
Well, the Lord delivered me from that.
And he gave me the desire in my soul to.
Seek out his people nor and I got to to understand what the truth of the one body was. I began to hear it in meetings like this.
In conferences, you know, I come from way back and beyond and, and I there, I didn't hear that much there, but I, I thank God for being able to get to the conferences and, and the Lord opened my eyes as to the truth and I began to pursue it and he delivered me from that which was the camp.
And I, I, I haven't had a desire for it since, because there's something that takes, that is far more valuable.
Than that which is only catering to the flesh. Oh, that's what I saw out there. You know, there's so much. There's so much for the flesh.
So much of man, but when you come into the little assembly where there isn't anything for the flesh, there's got to be something else, isn't there?
And so it's important for us as we're younger and, and I say especially for those who are a little older, perhaps raising your family, raising your little kids, if you haven't laid hold of the truth of the assembly by now, you better get busy and you better get on your knees before the Lord.
Because it's going to be vital for you and for your children if you're going to stay there.
The word to the children of Israel is here, and I believe it was to the parents here. It says, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. And these words which I command thee this day shall be.
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In thine heart.
Dear father, mother, younger person.
Is the Word of God abiding in your heart? That's where it needs to begin.
That's where it had to begin in my heart. I had to lay hold of myself, and you have to lay hold of it yourself. The word of God, thy Word have I hid in my heart, that I might not sin against Thee.
And all these things are important.
The word of God, we must value it and we must door it up in our souls. We must read it and meditate on it. And I, I might say that that that is an important thing, meditation.
It's by meditation that the truth of God gets into our souls.
We can hear it with our ears, we enjoy it, perhaps and and and and yet, if it doesn't get down into our soul, that's the that's the resting place, the soul, the home of the truth.
Souls and it only gets there by meditation.
And you know, the truth gets into us by way of our conscience.
And so we must make much of the Word of God. May the Word of God be laid up in your heart. And that's where it has to start as.
Perhaps there's young people here that have just started their families.
I trust that you have already feeling your responsibility.
As the head of a home.
Because the next thing that comes is your responsibility in your home.
You know.
I feel sometimes that the that we have failed in this in that we have made a substitute.
Of.
I don't know how to say this exactly.
But there were those, there are those that those camps, let's put it that way. And my children went to these some of these camps too, but.
You know the danger was always there of using this as a substitute for the home.
I was talking to a young person once and she said, you know, different ones I've talked to, they said, well, I have to come here in order to get what I don't get at home.
And I said, do you ever feel that way? She says no, why not?
Because we always got our questions answered in our reading at home.
Now some perhaps you say, well, I would, I know I should have have family reading, but I I'm just so unlearned. I just, I just hesitate. I can't bring anything out of the scriptures.
That's not the important thing. The important thing is to set the example before your children that it means something to you.
And you know, we have all sorts of helps. I may just suggest my wife and I when we first were married, we we got a set of chapter Macintoshes books and we read them along with the scriptures as commentaries and it is very helpful.
And I would encourage you who are younger, young brothers to do that or something like that just as a help to get you started and keep it up, keep it up.
You know, there are habits that are good and there are habits that are bad, and I believe that's one of the good habits is to keep up the reading in your home. And that's what we get here. First of all, it has to be in your own heart.
And then it says that thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children. How can you teach it to your children if you haven't got it in your heart?
Diligently unto thy children, and shall talk of them when thou sittest in thine house.
And when they'll walk us by the way, And when they'll lie us down. And when thou risest up every facet of the home.
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Is it an awkward thing in your home to talk about the Lord? You know, sometimes it seems like that that is a is a separate entity all by itself. We talk about the Lord on Lord's day.
Is it a?
Is it just the normal conversation in your home? It should be to talk about the Lord, your circumstances, your children come home, you got a problem, you go to your mother and father. Does your mother and father say to you, well, let's just leave it with the Lord or let's pray about it or, or how do you how do you attack a problem like that? Do you just leave the word of God aside and and as though it has it doesn't enter in here.
Oh, teach it to thy children when thou liest down, when thou sittest up, when thou walkest. Talk about these things. Make them a topic of conversation.
Make it real for them.
How many young people have we heard say, well, we never talked about those things in our home?
I just couldn't talk to my dad. I couldn't talk to my mom.
What's wrong with you mothers and fathers?
And when thou walkest by the way, and when thou lie us down, and when thou rise us up, and thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand.
And they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes.
Do they know about this outside your home too?
What kind of a reputation do we have as Christian parents in our community?
In the assembly.
What does it go as far as our gates or does it just stay within our doors?
This this was to be known right out so others could see it right at the gates.
Right outside your home. It was to characterize these people. These were the people of God.
And it should have characterized every home in Israel.
That they so enjoyed the Lord's guidance, the Lord's direction.
That it would characterize them. The nation's roundabout could say the Lord is there.
But what did they see?
They saw failure. They saw them giving up their children to the nations. They saw their families going after other gods.
What a dishonor to the God who had brought them through the Red Sea, through the wilderness, through Jordan, stayed with them all the 40 years in the wilderness.
And then they come into the land, and they sink into idolatry, and they forget the God of their fathers.
Well, we get on to that it shall be when the Lord thy God shall have brought thee into the land which he swear unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give thee great and goodly cities which thou buildest not, and houses full of all good things which thou fillest not. In wells, digs which thou digest not, vineyards, in the olive trees. What's our planets not when thou shalt have eaten and be full. And beware, lest they'll forget the Lord.
You know, we have a mind, a wealth of ministry. We have those that have gone before us and have dug the wells and have have supplied us with with everything that we need.
For life and godliness, we have it right here in this word. And there are those faithful men and I, I tell you young people, you're not too young to start reading good ministry. And I want to warn you about that ministry that is out there that is not based on the truth that we value.
I've known of young people.
Close at home that have been carried away by that.
God LED these men of old that we value.
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To dig those wells of water.
To bring out the truth from the word of God for you and me.
To partake of for refreshment for our nurturing for you.
And me. And for our children. And for our children's children.
Our brother the other day yesterday, our brother the other day yesterday brought this home to our souls that we have lost our children.
How true.
Where did it begin?
We didn't have the word in our hearts.
And then because we didn't have it there, we didn't pass it on to our children.
We sat back in our assemblies and we didn't as though all there's brother so and so he can, I'm glad he's here so that there's somebody that can at least carry on the meeting.
You know in First Corinthians 14 it says everyone of you had the Psalm at the hymn and so on. Is that true in our assemblies, brother?
Or is it just certain ones that we lean on?
Are there fathers there that would that should be laying these things up in their hearts and enjoying them, meditating upon them?
That they might come to the meetings where their children are.
And pass them on.
Not as something that you have read necessarily, but something that you and I have enjoyed.
In our souls, how often have we heard young people say, oh, I go there and it's so dead, it's so dry, there's nothing fresh. Why?
Because I have been meditating.
I just like everyone in this room who has that responsibility in your assembly.
To think about that.
And to get before the Lord about it, you can't just turn it on.
Like a switch when you're when you turn the radio on you just that isn't how you turn it on brother or sister the sisters too you know it's not just the brothers in the assembly that have an effect on it but the sisters have a big effect.
When you see a godly sister come into the assembly and you know she's there every time, and you know that she has a word of wisdom once in a while, you're thankful for it, and you miss her if she's not there.
And so, sisters, don't be discouraged because you can't say something in a meeting. You have a great impact. Young sisters, older sisters, faithfulness is that which is needed.
It speaks of passing this word on to those faithful men who shall be able to teach others also.
That's so important, you know, in a generation, slips by, slips by and what happens? We've just gone through it. Yes, we have.
Beware lest thou forget the Lord which brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt.
From the House of ******* thou shalt fear the Lord thy God, and serve him, and shalt swear by his name. He shall not go after other gods.
What is it that we're seeking after in our assemblies, brother?
Are we just happy to be there because the Lord is there?
Is that enough? Yes, it is sufficient, isn't it?
Is that what we're going to pass on to our children?
Or do they find in me, do they find in you some seed of dissatisfaction and they pick it up and first thing you know, they're gone?
You know there's nothing so sad as a seed of bitterness.
Is there any here in this room that is carrying with them a seed of bitterness in your soul against a brother, A sister is there? If there is, you better get rid of it.
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Because it spreads.
Just recently I've heard of a young man who was put out of our assembly 22 years ago.
He's just on his way back.
I trust.
But he said my family had a deep root of bitterness for years.
That's why they were put out, that's why they were why they were there no longer the whole family and others also.
Followed them out in sympathy.
This young brother now that has asked to meet with the brethren, has said, ten years after I was put out of fellowship, I was saved.
Not something.
I say that because it's so important for us to when I just say this in passing.
I've shared it with others, but I'll I'll share it with you too. And that is the fact that when something is done in the assembly in the name of the Lord Jesus, that we submit to it implicitly.
We didn't know that man wasn't saved.
But the Lord did.
There are other things that were hidden that we didn't know about, but the Lord did.
The brother was put out for one reason, but I believe the Lord dealt with him for another reason that we don't even know about. And so it's so important, brethren, to bow to.
The assembly decision. Now I know that isn't in this program here, but I just say that by the way.
Because these things are so important.
I trust this young man will see his way back to the assembly with his children.
He said I have come to see the importance of the authority of the Lord Jesus in the assembly.
That's a wonderful thing to hear.
In the face of so many that have left.
Well, the Word of God, brother, needs to be in my heart, and it has to be in your heart.
If we're going to remain here in the place of his appointment.
It's got to stay there.
And we have to thrive on, we have to dwell on, we need to feed on.
A young couple have been saved recently in another assembly and gathered to the Lords name.
They come to the first breaking of bread and they say, isn't that wonderful?
That's the way it should be, they said.
Beautiful.
The simplicity of it.
Is that what bothers you?
Anyone here that? Is it the simplicity of things that you don't like?
But you know when the Lord is there and we see him there.
The simplicity is beautiful.
That's what makes a difference. And if you don't have him there, you have to have all sorts of activity to make up for it because it pleases the flesh. I saw that when I was out there.
All sorts of activity, but there was nothing for my soul.
Until I heard and acted on the truth.
Of the one body.
And the Lord showed me that He was sufficient.
Does it cost? Yes, it does. I had turned my back on all those things and all my friends, and I want to tell you something else. There was a young brother who was in that assembly who was a good friend of mine.
And I let him out and he never came back.
So it costs in more ways than one cost my own soul cost him.
00:40:03
I talked to his father and I apologized. He said, you know, these things don't happen overnight, it's just a manifestation of what was already there. I said I don't care, I was still responsible.
Well, beware, lest thou forget the Lord which brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt from the House of *******.
Now I want to turn over to the 12Th before we get too far.
I don't want to take up each verse individually. I read the verses and I want to think of them in a hole.
The gist of this portion?
Take heed unto thyself that thou offer not thy burnt offerings in every place that thou seest.
There's a thought, you know.
Very predominantly that it doesn't really matter where we go, as long as they're Christians, we can have fellowship with them and we can participate in all their love feasts and so forth.
That's wrong.
I'm not saying that we can't have fellowship with other Christians.
I I'm not saying that at all. I have many Christian friends in the community where I live and I value them. I have, I can talk with them about the Lord and when I talk to them about going to the prayer meeting, they know what I talk about, what I'm talking about.
They don't want anything to do with the path of separation.
And you have to take heed. We have to take heed that those are the ones that we don't have fellowship with.
I'm not saying you can't talk to them. I'm not saying that you can't have fellowship with them up to a point.
But take heed that thou offer not thy burnt offerings in every place that thou seest.
You know when we come together to remember the Lord Jesus in his death, that loaf that we have on the table.
Not only speaks to us of his death, of his body that was bruised for you and me.
That body that was nailed to the tree.
We think of that and we we meditate upon it in His presence, and it draws forth the worship of our hearts. It's wonderful, is it not, that we can come into His presence and just sit there in quietness? No great things, no activity, no program.
There were those who came into an assembly once, maybe you heard about it and they said.
Afterwards they were asked.
Do you think that this was all pre arranged and they said Oh no doubt about it.
Well, it wasn't, was it?
The Spirit of God is there to guide and direct our hearts as we sit there in His presence.
Just to think about him.
Well, the other thing is that that loaf speaks to us of of the fellowship that we have in the body of Christ.
We are.
One body, one bread, one loaf, and as that's looked at in its entirety, as we are there and we see that loaf before us, do we think only of the gathered Saints? If you do, you're narrow minded.
We think of all, all of God's children, all the members of the body of Christ in that loaf.
And you know, that makes us the most wide open fellowship that there is, right?
Remember Mr. Brown saying that, brethren, we are the most we have the most wide open fellowship there is, excluding evil.
Don't let anybody tell you that as gathered to the Lord's name, we are narrow minded.
That's an excuse to leave.
Let's value what these men have dug these wells. Let's value their ministry. Let's read it. Let us, let us avail ourselves of this ministry. Young people, you can start now.
00:45:08
Right now you don't have to wait until you get married. You don't have as much time. I thank God for the few years I had before I got married that the Lord helped me to to take in a little bit.
It's been far more difficult since.
You have your responsibilities you have.
Many things that enter in, you get a family and then you have your responsibilities there.
It's wonderful if you have.
If you have the desire right now to to read the Word of God and to read good ministry based on it, it's helpful, very helpful. Let it get into your soul because when the time comes, you have a family or you have grandchildren.
You can pass it on to them because you've enjoyed it yourself.
You know there's nothing that they pick up faster.
Then that which is not real.
There's nothing young people pick up faster than someone who just says the same thing every meeting.
Brethren, is that where I've gotten in my soul?
Is that all I am enjoying so that I can only pass on to my brethren that which I have enjoyed 20 years ago and I've said the same thing every meeting since? Or something like that, You know what I mean?
Let's meditate upon these things, give ourselves wholly to them that are profiting might appear to all.
And that we might not just save ourselves, but those that hear us. Is that not the fun?
Young, not just young. Brother, brother, my brothers here.
We have a responsibility.
In our assemblies, to pass on the word, to encourage those to have a word, to have a prayer, to have a Thanksgiving, to read a portion of the Scripture.
Let's not just leave it to brother so and so.
Let's feel each one of us feel our responsibility.
That we might pass these things on.
That's what they were told to do here. You know, in the 6th chapter they were to it was to characterize their whole life, their whole pattern of life. I have to stand here and confess that it hasn't always characterized mine.
But the Lord knows our hearts, and we're thankful for that.
So let us remember that there is one place, because the children of Israel, there was that one gathering center.
How good to know that we don't have to go up to Jerusalem?
We don't have to go to some city.
Could the Lord make it more simple than He already has?
To sit in your home, brother or sister, sit in your home and bring us the loaf and the wine, in fellowship with your brethren in other places, and sit down in simplicity and do what he wants you to do.
Anything more simple than that?
Well, how is it that we're so ready to do things that are more complicated?
We want to do something that has more show.
It's in my heart. Is it in your heart?
But oh brother, and if we just forget about ourselves.
And if we realize why we're there with the Lord in the midst, and we see Him there, that's all we want. And we can talk to Him. We can tell Him how much we value what He has done and to thank Him. There's nothing simpler than that. You young people. Is there anyone here that still has not responded to the Lord's desire?
What's holding you?
What? What else does he have to do?
Doesn't it mean anything to you? The Lord Jesus says.
Is there any sorrow like unto my sorrow?
Do you see him standing there? Dear young person, dear older one, do you see him there with his hands on Calvary?
00:50:08
Behold, and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow.
That's what he did for you.
For me.
What else do we want?
Do we want to follow the ways of men and say that's not I want more than that?
You know when the apostle Paul says in Philippians 3 that I do count them, but done, then I might win Christ.
That's what we need to do rather than with those things that.
Hinder us.
I thank God that He was able to give me that grace to do that.
When he showed me the truth.
Of the one place.
But you know that alone won't keep me, and it won't keep you either. You have to go on in the truth. You have to go on in your soul, and you have to feed your soul. You know if you stop eating, you soon expire.
Is it a legal thing for you to go and have supper?
Or to have your breakfast.
I don't count that as legality, I count that as my necessary food. I need to be sustained. And yet how many times people feel that it's legal because they have to go to meeting tonight?
Am I too plain on these things or is that so?
I say these things because I've gone through it.
And you know, so many times we give our children the idea that it's a legal thing for me to go to meeting tonight and they pick it up. And when they're old enough, they don't hang around.
Brethren, we have to let them know that we value the fact that the Lord Jesus is there and He is sufficient for our gathering as well as our salvation, and it's only until He comes.
Very soon he's going to come and take us unto himself.
And you know what a privilege it will be to step from the breaking of bread, or being stepping from being gathered to His name in the truth of it, and right into the presence of Him.
I like the expression that the brother said once we walk down here like Enoch and he stepped right into the presence of God.
That's the way it can be, you know, without any changes mentioned in our meetings, I believe there shouldn't be any change.
From one position to the other, that's a rebuke to my soul because I'm not always that way.
But I trust that we will see that what was true of the children of Israel.
Is true of us, brotherhood. It's true of us. We have responsibilities to fulfill in our local assemblies. And you young people, it doesn't exclude you.
You have your responsibility too, because you're coming up.
And you're going to be next in line if the Lord leaves us here, and the responsibility will rest on your shoulders.
How about the young sisters too? Yes.
Who you get?
Can affect it.
Are you going to seek those who are from the, shall we say?
The nation's roundabout.
And say, well, I can bring them into the meeting.
Well, if it's of God, thank God for that. And sometimes he overrules for a while. He, it seems there's many cases, but oh, I tremble when I think of that. It weakens the testimony.
Stop by His spirit in those early 1800s.
Then is your responsibility in mind to identify with it and to be sure we're there?
And how do we know we're there? If any man will to do my will, he shall know of the doctrine. That is a promise. It's not just a coincidence if you happen to find your way there.
00:55:00
It's a promise. He promises this, that if you want to know what the will of God is in your life and in your soul, as to the assembly, as to who you want to marry, or whatever it might be, where you want to go to live, if it's all there, you shall know.
It says the doctrine that's true.
And if you want to know what how what it is to be gathered to the Lord's name you're not sure, ask the Lord about it. Don't try and be convinced just by someone that you ask.
Ask your Lord about it and He won't misguide you, He won't mislead you. Oh, how wonderful it is if you can find your way and be happy in the little assembly where you are.
Because you know what? It's not waste time because the Lord Jesus values it.
It's something you can do for him. Have you thought of it that way? Or is it something that just kind of weighs heavy on you and you just, you know, you can, you can come to despise it.
Despise it, for the Lord Jesus says there am I in the midst.
Does that not mean anything?
If we ever get that feeling, brothers and sisters, let's judge it right away. Then there's something wrong with me, not with the Lord.
And so, as it was with the children of Israel, so are the tendencies.
In our life too, it's the same. The same things that face them face us.
And yet God is faithful.
And the foundation of God standeth sure.
Shall we pray?
Our gracious God, our Father, we thank Thee.
For the truth of these verses, these thoughts, we pray that they'll bless them.
To our souls, the speaker included. Our Father we are so prone to.
Forget them. When we think of the unfaithfulness of the children of Israel, we sometimes wonder how they could be so unfaithful. The Lord.
Give us the ability to look into our own souls and realize that we are no different but for Thy grace.
We pray, our Father, for everyone in this room. We pray for our dear young people. Give them solemn thoughts about these things, and may them, may they, realize that they are important to Thee.
And the daughters want to bless them. And we can only be blessed.
In our souls the children of Israel were blessed as they were faithful.
But we know that this is not necessarily sold in this age.
Our Father, we praise that, though we we know that as we walk in obedience to these oldest blessings in our souls, and we thank you for this.
And we pray that we might value these things, and that Thou give us grace to go on in the little time that is left is here to walk in obedience to the truth.
And that we might seek to encourage one another in this path.
We would thank Thee, our God and our Father, and ask Thy blessing in the name of the Lord Jesus.
Finding We Are Lost
Children—D. Rule
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The whole time this is a time for the children. So the other times are mostly for big people, but you that are smaller on the front row and near the front row, we're going to try and forget that there anybody else in the room. Okay, so I'm not going to try and talk to the big people.
We want to talk to you, and I want you to talk to me too. So this is your time, and you can pick any you get to pick. The other times you're supposed to be quiet, aren't you? And the other times you don't get to pick the songs that we use. But this is the time when you get to choose the songs we're going to sing. And some people say pick from the Backpage. Well, I'll just point you to the Backpage, but you can pick any song you'd like.
So who has a song you'd like to sing?
What number #4 OK, we'll sing #4 And I don't know how to start songs any good at all. So somebody's going to have to just volunteer themselves to start the songs for us #4.
The Savior of Savior.
Now I just raised, I am praying.
Save your sins shaved your sinners like me.
She is love for my friend.
Now there is no condemnation.
This is a savior for me.
Today.
Stand there all sinners like me.
Shining is like for my grandson.
It's just like, say, good morning, love, with all of that's unchanged.
Let's make all the blessings so great.
How shall I tell you this is a savior for me?
Say you don't see it.
Save your own secrets like me shining inside for my grandson. This is the savior for me.
Very good. Who else would like to sing one for you #40 OK #40.
How do you know that Jesus loves you?
How do you know?
Where do you find that Jesus loves you?
In your heart, where else?
In the Bible, OK, we're going to read, it says Jesus loves me. This I know.
I know Jesus loves me. Do you know that Jesus loves you? I think you do. So let's sing #40.
00:05:05
Jesus wants me to God having taken to open quiet, he will wash away my sins that hardly ever close trials come in.
Yes, in swampscreen. Yes she's a swamps me.
You have to be such lovely screaming.
It may say from every time.
It's made, yeah.
Love to speak beside me all the way.
Can I trust him should I die if you will Take Me Home on time?
Yes, Jesus loves me.
Yeah, let's see if you can satisfy this meeting.
Sure. I never see you so it's blocked me.
Other.
OK, Breezy 46.
All right, I'll read it. Because maybe if you're real small, we're going to sing some letters and you won't know what it means, so I'll read it. It says. Glad tidings I bring.
That Jesus has come to save me and he calls and he calls all the girls and he wants all the boys to to trust in him and have all their sins now washed away #46.
What?
Are you?
Saying.
And we call and we call all the deciding our relatives and they want us to feel wise you.
To hear you.
Have seen so much away.
We still have time for some more.
Any boys at the other end? You think about it? We got one here. What one would you like to see? 4545? OK. Do you have two eyes?
Yeah, how about two years?
OK, two feet. Well then, maybe this song is about for you. We'll see. Let's sing it.
00:10:16
Take down originals and let them be all the ways, all big hands and truth community.
Okay.
Oh, I see a hand down here.
14, OK #14 Thank you.
See what number 14 is.
Have you been to Jesus #14?
For the cleansing.
One more.
Going to be an all, well not quite all girl day, but close.
Okay #39.
What a friend we have in Jesus #39.
Everything to God in prayer.
Oh my God. Oh God, he's the same.
Because we do not fear.
And everything to God in prayer.
00:15:58
Lord in prayer.
Okay last song we just sang talks about praying. I suppose most of you know what praying means we're going to pray now and you know what it it means simply to talk to God. So we want to talk to God now that means we're going to pray and the reason we sometimes.
Say close your eyes is just so we will pay real careful attention to what we want to say to God. Sometimes I've heard people say fold your hands and I think they say that simply so we won't be tempted to use our hands and distract somebody else from what we're going to do. So right now we're going to stop and ask God to help us. So we're going to talk to him. That means we're going to pray. So let's do that.
Our God, we are thankful this morning for the privilege of being able to speak to Thee and to know that.
Thou art listening to what we have to say, and we're going to ask two. And we thank thee, our God, for being sure that we're going to have an answer to what we ask. So this morning we think of these boys and girls here, our God, we don't know what's in their heart.
But we're thankful that thou dost know, and we pray that Thy word might speak to each one of them, that they might be able to understand it this morning.
And believe it. And each one of them be saved. So, our Father, we pray for the salvation of each one of these children here this morning. We ask this in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.
Where I come from, we have a Sunday school every week and right at this time in our Sunday school, and I think it's the same, and a lot of other Sunday schools too, we have the children that wish say, a verse that they have memorized. And I think that's a very important thing for boys and girls to do. And I'll say I think it's a very important thing for mothers and fathers to practice because the children usually can't.
Or don't always do it on their own.
And so a lot of times it needs a mommy and daddy to help them. So we're not going to take time for everybody because there are a lot of us here this morning, more than we would have in our Sunday school at home and most Sundays anyways. So I'm going to just ask if any of you would volunteer to say a verse that you've learned for this week. And if you have, you raise your hand and I'll let you have the mic in front of you so that everybody can hear.
OK, you've learned one, all right. You say in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made.
What part of the Bible?
First John, one John. John, John one very good. Somebody else.
Do you learn a verse?
00:20:01
OK, we'll see what you learn.
I don't know. You don't know.
You ever heard the verse God is light?
You say that for me.
God is light, God is light, and it also God is love. So you say that for me.
OK, now you said 2 verses.
Somebody else?
All right.
For God so loved the world that he gave his own beating Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. John 316.
Okay now does anybody remember what verse was in the?
Sunday School papers for this week. There's a memory verse that's also in the Sunday school paper. Does anybody remember what that one is? I see a hand down here. We'll see what that one is.
The Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.
John 1.
20 well 1272929 Thank you.
OK, does anybody remember the memory verse that was?
You were to memorize 2 weeks ago in the if you memorize them in a Sunday school paper, not this last week, not Behold the Lamb of God, but the week before. So I want to tell you something about that verse. Do you remember it?
Oh well, you say that one then behold the Lamb of God, it shaketh away the snow of the world on 129, OK?
Does anybody remember the week before?
It's in the Psalms.
Psalm 40, verse 2.
Pardon me.
Oh, OK. Can you say it for us?
Just a minute.
He brought me up all sort of a horrible pit and out of the Miley clay, and set my feet upon a rock and established my goings. So on 40 verse 2.
10 Thank you.
Now, the reason I asked how old he was because I want to tell you something that really impressed me this last Sunday where I live. There was a little girl that came up to me after Sunday school. She's pretty small. She sits with her mommy and daddy. She doesn't sit up on the front row where some of the boys and girls do.
But she came up to me and she started and said all the way through that verse, he brought me up. And I wondered if she could even pronounce a word like horrible, but she could.
A horrible pit. And then I wondered about Myrie and she said Miry Clay. And I didn't prompt her for one single word. In fact, I didn't even ask her to say the verse at all. She just came up to me and said the verse and that little girl. And this is the point I want to make. She is two years old.
Just two years old and I was so struck by that that I asked, I went up to her mommy and I said, did you teach her the verse? And she, I thought maybe her mother decided to start teaching her the verses and she said no, I didn't. She said she heard her older brother learning the verse and we found her just saying it after her older brother. So that's a word of encouragement to you that are a little bit.
That have the responsibility as parents to say that children are different. This child perhaps is a little quicker than some to be able to Start learning. But here's a little girl that started to learn the word of God. I don't suppose she understands even all the words that she was saying, but she could listen to what her older brother was as he was saying it out loud to himself, learning it. She could learn it along after him.
And she did, and she said the whole verse and now I suspect that her mommy and daddy are going to have her Start learning it because now they know she can.
And probably will. Seemingly, she wants to. So let's remember boys and girls.
00:25:06
And mothers and fathers, it's important to store up in our minds and then in our hearts. God puts it in our hearts.
The word of God.
This morning for a little while, I want to talk about.
Lost and found and it came to my mind because last night Mr. Tony was speaking here and I will say he was talking from the Lost and Found chapter.
If you were here, and probably almost all of you were here last night, he read a chapter out of the Bible, Luke chapter 15, and it's a lost and found chapter because there are things in that chapter that were lost. We learn about things that were lost and I'm thankful to say that each one of them that's called lost in the chapter was also found. Do you remember?
What we were listening or hearing about last night in a Lost and Found chapter. What was Tell me something that you remember that was lost.
Project called Sun OK, a boy was lost. Called the product. We call him the Prodigal son. But a boy got lost.
I've been lost.
This boy, he was lost, and we'll talk maybe a little more about that boy later, but you know, he was an older boy and I'm thankful to say he knew his way home too. He was lost, but he knew the way home. And many of you boys and girls may know the way to the Lord Jesus.
But you may still be lost. So here was a boy that was lost even though he knew when the time came. But he had to do something first. He had to have a change of mind. He had to repent and then return to his father. What else was lost in that chapter? See if somebody else can help us.
How about you boys on this end?
OK, here we've got a volunteer.
What else was lost? A silver coin? A coin was lost. You ever lost any money?
Get it back.
Or is it still lost?
Somebody here lost. We heard the other day they lost some money and I believe they never got it back because I have it.
So the man that found it said if nobody claims it, I could have it to use in the book room that we had up there.
So I think I still have that money. So it was never found by who lost it. So sometimes we lose things and we don't find them again.
OK, there was a lost coin and a lost boy and one other thing that was lost. What was it?
A sheep.
Have you ever lost a sheep?
I haven't either.
I haven't lost a sheep. What have you lost?
You ever lost anything? What?
Some of your toys, did you find them?
OK, they're still lost.
What you lose?
My silly party, My silly party, silly party.
So we know what it means to lose things, don't we? And that's the reason I ask you if you see whether you know what it is to lose something.
We heard about the first day, about fathers and mothers who have lost children.
And so we all know what it is to lose things, and I think most of us can say what it is to find something as well.
It's surprising how often we lose things. I remember just two things that came to my mind that I lost. I lost this pen and I pens with one color. But when you're kids, you like pins with more colors. And I like pins with multiple colors too, because.
Lots of things I have to mark up in red.
Like a school teacher, I guess. So I found this be in the cushions in the in the living room where I sometimes lie on a sofa and they dropped down out of my pocket and in the cushions and I just found it the other day. Last night I lost something and I hope I find it but I don't expect I will. But I lost the screw out of my glasses and I know where it is but I don't know if I'll be able to find it. It's on the floor.
00:30:17
Of the van that I'm driving, but there's lots of stuff on top of it right now.
And so it's going to be kind of hard to find for the moment. So we tend to lose things.
That we need to find and boys and girls.
The most important thing that we can lose is ourself.
That's the most important thing that can be lost is ourself, and I don't mean lost so we can't find mother or father.
But I mean lost, I remember.
Lots of fun for me when I was your age.
There was a great big store that my mother used to take, used to go shopping, and we had to go with her. And I didn't mind. I guess when I looked back, there were some things about it I didn't like very much because so much of the time I just had to sort of stand there and go around with her looking at things that didn't interest me very much. But this was a great big store. I don't know if you've ever been in a store this big, this store.
Was one whole block square. If you wanted to walk around this store, you had to walk all the way around the block. And the store was, I think if I remember, was five or six stories high. And it was called a department store named Lazarus. That was the name of the store. And you know what my mother said to me, there was one place in the store. No matter where it was in the store, I knew how to find that place.
What part of the store do you think that was where they sold what stuff? Candy. Candy. That's a good guess. But it wasn't toys. Toys, you got it. Kids understand real well these things. It was this where the toys were in the store. And if I remember now, it was quite a few years ago, but it was on the 5th floor then where they had the toys and they had these nice big escalators and so on. But my mother said that if you get lost.
If you can't find me, you go to the toy department and I'll find you there.
Sometimes it was a temptation to get lost, but I liked that store if I was able to go where the toys were. And yet sometimes if I were walking along like this, you know, down the aisles of the store and suddenly I looked around and my mom, or usually it was my mom, wasn't there.
I didn't feel so good inside. You know what it's like not to feel so good inside. I was a little bit afraid. I was frightened because I wanted mommy.
Wanted mommy right then. In fact I've been in stores where somebody that wants mommy right then when they couldn't find her, I've heard him crying mommy, mommy mommy and running down the aisle looking for mommy.
Maybe you haven't done that.
Now I've got to find out something here.
This is Barry. I know Barry.
Very. You know where your dad is? Yeah. OK, Go to your dad, will you?
There, he knows where he is and he is, you know, it's good to know where you are and where to go.
So there's Barry, and he was very confident, wasn't he, Barry? Or do you know where you're?
You did know where your dad is, but you don't know, right? You've lost him. Can you find him?
Probably not. Probably not. You tried.
We'll let Barry try and find his dad for a minute.
He's lost his temporarily.
And there are lots of people in the room that know Barry's dad and they could, probably, some of them anyways, could help him. But the point of it isn't just the fun of hide and seek as it were, but boys and girls. Sometimes we think we know something that we don't. And other times Barry was pretty sure to start out with where dad was, but now he knows, so he has to find him. And you know, the Lord Jesus wants to find you.
00:35:02
And he wants you to be searching for him if you haven't found him. And you know if you look for him, he'll come right to you.
In fact, I'm going to let.
I think he's getting, we say, warm.
Barry, do you know where your dad is now? Yeah, OK, He's found his dad.
But thank you, we'll let you sit down.
But boys and girls, it sells us in the word of God, the Son of Man. In Luke 19 and verse 10, the Son of man is come.
To seek and to save that which was lost.
It comes to seek and to save that which is lost. Now, Barry was seeking his dad. He didn't need to save him. He wasn't in any kind of danger, but it was just that he needed to find him. And you, boys and girls, need the Lord Jesus. And the Lord Jesus wants you. I'm going to tell you something about me when I was your age. And this is the kind of loss that's important. When we talk about loss, sometimes we just mean that we we don't know where somebody is.
We can't find them.
But there's another kind of lost.
And that's being lost from God.
When I was your age, I lived in a house that had two stories in it.
And I had heard a lot about the Lord Jesus. I was. We moved from that house when I was seven years old.
So I must have been 4-5 six years old at the time.
But I heard about the Lord Jesus. I heard that the Lord Jesus had come.
To die and that he suffered.
For me, I had heard that that he had shed his precious blood.
And I didn't understand it, perhaps real well, but one thing, boys and girls.
I also heard that the Lord Jesus was coming again, that he was in heaven at the time, and that's where he is this afternoon or this morning.
He's in heaven, and I heard that.
He was coming again.
And they told me that it was in the Bible. At that time I couldn't read.
But I believed they said.
He's going to come for everybody that have put their trust in the Lord Jesus.
And those who haven't trusted in Jesus would have to be left behind.
Well, I knew I was lost.
Myself, or at least I wasn't sure I was saved.
And I was afraid that if the Lord Jesus would come, I would be left behind.
So you know what I did sometimes a few times and I still remember it very well.
When I went to bed at night and the house, everybody else was in bed and the house got real quiet. I lay on my bed and I said, I wonder if the Lord Jesus has come.
Well, I knew that if the Lord Jesus come, those that had trusted in the Lord Jesus were going to go with him.
And so I got out of bed.
Very quietly, I had a room to myself upstairs.
And I had a brother and an older brother and an older sister upstairs too that time.
So I sort of tiptoed out of my room and I went and looked in their bedroom to see if they were on the bed.
And I thought, well, if the Lord Jesus comes, they'll go.
So if they're still in bed, then must be the Lord Jesus hasn't come yet.
And I looked and it was very serious, boys and girls, because I was lost and I knew it.
And it bothered me down inside. I was sort of afraid. And I looked in my sister's room and if my sister Judy was on her bed, I thought, well then must be the Lord hasn't come yet. And usually I go back to my bed. But once in a while I wasn't sure. I've had to double check. And I thought, well, maybe they're not ready. I don't know, but I'm sure my mom and dad are.
00:40:04
They lived, or I shouldn't say lived, but they slept downstairs in the downstairs bedroom. And so, real carefully, I got out of bed. I went down the stair steps. Try not to make any noise.
And when I got to the bottom to their bedroom, usually their door was closed so that was real hard because I had to try and open their door and look inside to make sure they were still in bed.
And I remember one time my mom woke up.
Said, What are you doing?
Oh, nothing.
Of course, moms are a little smarter than that, but.
Anyways, I wasn't ready, I was lost and I needed to be found.
I needed to be found and I can thank the Lord this morning that He found me.
The Lord Jesus said, come unto me, and I will give you rest. And so I said to the Lord Jesus, Lord Jesus, thank you for saving, for dying for me to save me.
And now I get to thank him every day for that. And I'd like to say to you boys and girls, you know, mommies and daddies.
Doesn't always work to ask. I remember when people ask me when I was a boy.
I can still tell you exactly where I was standing outside a Sunday school room one day when an older boy and girl came up to me and said, are you saved?
I said something like, of course I'm saved, but it upset me that they asked me that they thought maybe I wasn't.
Now that doesn't bother me like it did then.
But mommies and daddies like to hear us without being asked to tell them. Mommy, Daddy, I love the Lord Jesus, He's my savior. And I would encourage you if you've never done that, to tell your mommy and daddy if you love the Lord Jesus.
And tell the Lord Jesus, first of all, say thanks, Lord Jesus.
For dying to save me. Our time's up now and I'm going to thank the Lord Jesus.
For dying to save me. And I hope when I do, you will in your heart too, thank the Lord Jesus. OK, let's just speak to Him.
Lord Jesus, we want to.
Say thanks for dying for us.
I thank Thee, Lord Jesus, for loving me, for coming to die to save me.
And.
For coming to die to save each one of these boys and girls here this morning.
We thank our God for sending the Lord Jesus to be the Savior.
And we're thankful for each one of us that can say I am found. I know Jesus as my Savior.
And we pray for these boys and girls. We believe that.
No.
But we are not sure that they have simply said yes to the Lord Jesus for loving them and dying to put away their sins. And if they don't realize that they are sinners, we ask our God to work in them, to make them understand that they are lost, that they might be found. And so our God and Father, we ask thee to bless thy word, We ask in the name, thy name, Lord Jesus, Amen.
Gospel
Gospel—R. Thonney
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#33 nothing either greater small, nothing Sinner. No, Jesus did it, did it all.
Long, long ago. It is finished. Yes, indeed. Finished. Every jot. Senator, this is all you need. Tell me, is it not?
#33.
Nothing, neither great or small.
Nothing.
Did it all.
Here we're so thankful that we know that the work of salvation.
Is finished and that there is full and free salvation to everyone that believes.
But Father were concerned tonight about those present in this room in a very special way. We come to thee to ask that those who still may not be saved.
May be convicted of their sins and brought to the feet of the Lord Jesus. We confess our own weakness in doing this, but we count upon.
The work of Thy Spirit in our midst. We thank Thee for His presence here and would ask that there might be His constraining power to bring souls to Jesus. We ask, blessing gracious Father, because of the worthiness, and in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.
I'd like to sing another hymn too in our Little Flock hymn books that I think everybody probably has it #3 in the appendix.
Am I enjoy very much and it's a gospel hymn.
The wanderer no more will roam the lost one to the full have come. The prodigal is welcomed home.
O Lamb of God, to thee.
Long wanderer no more will roam, love.
Like to speak from the 15th of Luke tonight, but before we do so I'd like to start with a verse from Second Corinthians chapter 4.
Actually 3 or 4 verses.
In Second Corinthians chapter 4 and verse.
Three.
But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost, in whom the God of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.
For we preach, not ourselves.
But Christ Jesus the Lord and ourselves your servants, for Jesus sake.
For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness.
Hath shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
God has revealed Himself.
God is so great a being, there is no way that you and I.
As finite creatures.
Could ever comprehend him? In the book of Job there is a question, Canst thou by searching find out God? No way you and I can find God out ourselves.
Someone years ago challenged Daniel Webster, the statesman.
00:05:08
How he could believe being an intelligent, educated man? How he could believe in a God that he could not understand?
He said if I could understand God, he would be smaller than my human brain.
And that would be no God at all.
No, my friend, God is so great that if you and I are going to know him, he must reveal himself, and that's exactly what he has done. In the person of our Lord Jesus Christ, God became flesh and dwelt among us, and the apostles say we beheld.
His glory, glory as of the only begotten full of the Father full.
Grace and truth. God has revealed himself in the person of the Lord Jesus. And as I mentioned, I'd like to go over to the book of Luke chapter 15. A very well known chapter, but one that thrills my soul every time I read it.
In this chapter, the Lord Jesus is speaking a parable.
Let's read it from the first verse.
Luke chapter 15 and verse one then drew near unto him. That's Jesus.
All the publicans and sinners for to hear him and the Pharisees inscribes murmured, saying, This man receiveth sinners, and eateth with them.
And he spake this parable unto them, saying.
What man of you having an 100 sheep if you lose one of them?
Does not leave the 90 and nine in the wilderness and go after that which is lost until he find it.
And when he hath found it, he layeth it on his shoulders.
Rejoicing, And when he cometh home, he calleth together his friends and neighbors, saying unto them.
Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost. I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one Sinner that repenteth more than over 90, and nine just persons which need no repentance either. What woman, having ten pieces of silver, if she lose one piece, does not light a candle and sweep the house?
And seek diligently till she find it. And when she hath found it, she calleth their friends and her neighbors together, saying.
Rejoice with me, for I have found the peace which I had lost.
Likewise they send to you there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one Sinner that repentant.
And he said a certain man had two sons, the younger of them said to his father.
Father, give me the portion of goods that falleth to me. And he divided unto him his living. Not many days after, the younger son gathered altogether, and took his journey into a far country, and there wasted his substance with riotous living. When he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land, and he began to be in want.
Anyone and joined himself.
To a citizen of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed swine.
And he would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat. No man gave unto him. And when he came to himself, he said, How many hired servants of my father's have bred enough, and despair, and I perish with hunger. I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father.
I have sinned.
Against heaven and before thee, and am no more worthy to be called thy son.
00:10:04
Make me as one of thy hired servants. And he arose.
And came to his father. And when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion.
And ran and fell on his neck, and kissed him. And the sun said unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in thy sight in him no more worthy to be called thy son. But the Father said to his servants, Bring forth the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet, and bring either the fatted calf.
And kill it, and let us eat and be merry. For this my son was dead, and is alive again. He was lost, and is found. And they began to be married. Now his elder son was in the field, and as he came and drew nigh to the house, he heard music and dancing. And he called one of the servants, and asked what these things meant. And he said unto him, Thy brother is come.
And thy father hath killed the fatted calf, because he hath received him safe and sound, And he was angry, and would not go. In therefore came his father out and entreated him. And he answering, said to his father, Lord, these many years do I serve thee. Neither transgressed thy at any time thy commandment. And yet Thou never gave us me a kid, that I might make merry with my friends.
But as soon as this thy son was come, which had devoured thy living with harlots, thou hast killed for him the fatted calf. And he said unto him, Son, thou art ever with me, in all that I have is thine. It was meat that we should make merry and be glad for this thy brother was dead, and is alive again, and was lost, and is found.
You know, we live in a world, dear friends, tonight that is extremely man centered. It's how it affects me. That's the way people think of everything. But tonight I would like to put a different focus on what we're going to have to say tonight. We're not going to focus so much on what man is and his need. We're going to focus more on what kind of a God we're talking about in the gospel.
What kind of a God is the God that we proclaim in the Gospel?
Yes, He has to do with us in all our need, but what kind of a God is He? I really, truly believe that many times there are young people, maybe older ones too, who grow up in our assembly meetings who have not very much knowledge of God.
Sure, they have some head concept, but they've never really had to do with God as He truly is.
And that's a different matter, friend.
You can fool me. You can fool the brethren that are around you, no problem. But there's one you cannot fool. It's the God that made you who knows every thought you think, the one before whom all things are naked and open.
You cannot, you will not fool him. You have.
To do with God. What kind of a God is he?
In this chapter the Lord Jesus meets up.
With two glasses of people.
All the publicans and sinners came to hear him and there's a complaint filed against him.
By another class, the Pharisees and scribes, the religious people.
I suppose this may characterize people present here tonight.
Some who know that they, yes, are sinners. Others who think I really never have gotten off into the messy things of this world. I'm not that bad. I remember myself when I was growing up, hearing the gospel from week to week, having those thoughts. I lived in a protected home.
00:15:18
My folks took care where I went and.
I didn't think I was that bad.
Is that where you stand now before God? I truly fear that there are some present here.
That fit into that category. I don't know where you are, but you know you're sitting there. You know exactly how you stand before God right now, trusting in the fact that you're not that bad or with a true sense of realization. I've messed, I've sinned, I've lasted. I don't have a chance.
Those are the kind that came to Jesus. Oh, to me it's tremendous, the complaint they filed against Jesus. It thrills my soul. Let me say it to you again, this man.
Receiveth sinners, and eateth with.
Glory to God, He received sinners like me.
And so the Lord Jesus begins a parable. Beautiful how he gives this parable. It is a parable that has three parts. 1 parable 3 parts. The first part is about a man that had 100 sheep.
And he lost one of them. Doth he not leave the 99 in the wilderness and go after that which is lost?
Until he find it. You know in today's business world, a 1% loss isn't that bad. You hear of losses that are 50%?
Sometimes even greater. 1% isn't that bad. Can't you be satisfied with 99 is not enough for you? Is it worth the trouble going out after that one sheep that's lost?
Oh, my friend, what kind of a God do we have? Is he a God that's going to say that?
I might say that yes, with my business interests, but the God that we're talking about tonight.
Does not say any such thing.
They're just one 1%.
God's interested in that and the Lord Jesus is seeking.
That 1%, wherever you're sitting out here in the audience tonight, he's interested in saving you tonight.
Whatever your condition, whatever your need, whatever your possession, if you're lost, he's interested in saving you.
You know, it's interesting the way we think that way in our American Society down in South America. Remember being out in the high Altiplano of Bolivia in a little place out on the countryside called Adi Kochi. It's not even a town. It's what they call a probably an estancia out in the countryside, a few houses there. We were out there to have some meetings with the brethren that lived in that area one time.
And I remember in the evening, one of the sisters, the place she had quite a few animals, she had between sheep and yama, she had almost 300 animals.
And she would sit at the door of the corral where they went in. At night. They all came in by themselves, and she would watch as they went in, one after another. And it would take quite a long time for them all to get in to that corral. But when they were in, she knew which ones were missing. It was a marvelous thing to me to see. I don't know how I would ever learn to know 300 animals well enough to know which ones were missing.
But she could tell that, and that's the kind of a God we have. He knows if you're missing, He knows if you're lost.
The Lord Jesus, the Good Shepherd, is the one who gives his life for the sheep. He's interested in you. Wherever you are sitting in this audience tonight, I don't know you.
00:20:14
But you know, if you're lost and the Lord Jesus is interested, he's searching for you, searching for you. Notice how it puts it. I think it's so beautiful. He says He goes after that which is lost.
How long does he go after it? Until midnight? Doesn't say such thing. Such a thing. How long he goes after it? Until he finds it. Let me tell you, friend, of how long the Lord Jesus had to go to find his lost sheep. It was an awful journey. The Lord Jesus was God's son.
Ever in the bosom of the Father, but he was sent into this world to be.
The savior of the world.
And.
He came during his 33 1/2 years of his life. Here he manifested ever the love of God.
Especially during his 3 1/2 years of public ministry, he showed the love of God on every side, healing the sick.
Giving sight to the blind, raising the dead, feeding the hungry, and preaching the gospel to the poor.
The end of those 33 1/2 years, he went up to Jerusalem. It was his last time to go up to Jerusalem, and when he was there he was betrayed by one of his own apostles.
And taken before.
The religious council first of all and condemned.
And then taken before the political authorities of that day, Pontius Pilate.
And condemned to death, his innocence was evident.
But to please the people.
Think of our friends to please the people. Pilate allowed them to take the Christ of God and to condemn him to the death of a cross. And they took Jesus outside that city. The soldiers took him, they beat him. Pilate scourged him. It says His face was so marred more than any man's.
They hit him in the face with their fists. They beat a crown of thorns into his head. That's how far the Good Shepherd went.
To save his lost sheep. And yet farther he went. To that cross they nailed his hands and feet. To that cross they hung him up there, they jeered him.
They mocked him. Those religious leaders who were to defend the innocent were the ones who passed before him, mocking him, jeering him.
They said if he be the Son of God, that God deliver him and we will believe on him.
Did God deliver him?
No answer there, he says. Reproach is broken my heart, and I'm full of pity. And there is none to take pity. None.
That's how far he went. And yet further, after three hours of that mistreatment from the hands of men, God clothed the earth with darkness. And in three awful, awful hours of darkness.
Something happened that never has taken place ever before or ever since.
Isaiah the prophet says it so clearly.
He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with His stripes we are healed all. We, like sheep, have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way, and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. According to that prophecy. We know that during those awful hours of darkness.
God took the Lord of my sins and laid them on Jesus.
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That holy spotless Lamb of God took.
My sins and God poured out upon him the fury of His judgment that I deserved to bear.
In eternal hell, he bore it all before he died, he said. It is finished. Every ounce of judgment that was against me as a guilty Sinner, Gone, gone, gone forever.
And Jesus bowed his head in time.
Soldier came up with a spear and opened that blessed side and out poor blood.
And water. The price was paid in full by the blood of Jesus.
That's how far the shepherd went to find his sheep, my friend.
Nanny's searching for you tonight. Are you going to keep running away from him? Is that the way you are? Let me tell you, he's going to keep searching for you. That's the kind of God we're talking about.
He's not just interested in having the 99, he wants that one. Wherever you are sitting tonight in the audience, he wants you to be saved.
Second part of this parable is about a woman.
And she has 10 pieces of silver. She is in a house. And when she loses one of those pieces of silver.
She lights a candle and sweeps the house.
And seeks diligently until she finds it. This to me, is very solemn. We're talking about a house.
And there is such a thing as called.
The great House of professing Christendom, that is.
All those who profess to know, even if it isn't in a mere outward sense, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Did you know that in this House there are people who are lost?
Lost in the house?
Yes, you say you're a Christian. That means nothing. You say you're baptized. That means nothing in relation to your soul's salvation. You say you break breath.
That means nothing if you're not saved.
Lost in the house, I fear that there are too many here.
Who are lost in the house?
Plus.
The Spirit of God is present tonight. You know where you are.
I don't have to point my finger at you individually.
Spirit of God is pointing his finger to you. You know where you stand if you're lost in the house. My friend, I want to tell you, the Spirit of God is searching for you. She lit a candle. We have the precious light of Scripture open before us. We have the full revelation of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. The light is shining.
Spirit of God is searching diligently.
That's the kind of God we have. She didn't say, well, I just still have nine pieces. That's enough. 90% is enough. No kind of God we have is not satisfied that way. He's interested in saving your soul wherever you are tonight. He's interested in it. But notice when she finds it, she calls her friends and neighbors.
And says, Rejoice with me, for I found my peace, which which I had lost. Likewise I say unto you, There is joy. Notice the way it puts It doesn't say there is joy amongst the angels. There is joy in the presence of the angels of God.
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Whose joy are we talking about?
God's joy Oh how God rejoices 11 Sinner repents.
Was that word repent me?
I suppose we've talked about it before, but I think it's important to understand it comes the word pandas from a root word that means to think.
Repent means to rethink, to change your thoughts, to have different thoughts than what you have right now. I don't know what you think of God.
But people think that God is as severe and austere man.
That's their thoughts. Many times God just wants to kill us. Having any good time?
That's people's thoughts of God. I want to tell you, if that's the thoughts you have of God, repent. That's not the kind of God the Bible talks about. Kind of God that Bible talks about is a God that rejoices in blessing, a repentance soul. That's the kind of God we're talking about.
So we have the Lord Jesus figured in this man first of all, then the Spirit of God.
Searching as well for the lost and then the last part of this chapter.
I like to call it the story not merely of the prodigal son, The story of two prodigal sons.
One that repented and another that thought he was good enough. And as far as we know, no repentance is ever recorded of him.
I don't know where you stand in relation to these two categories.
But let's speak a little bit about these two sons that the father had.
One the younger says Father give me.
The portion of goods that falleth to me.
Isn't God good?
He just keeps right on a given.
I can't imagine how good he is to this country.
Giving crops like he does in such abundance, tremendous crops.
Living down in Bolivia.
Pitiful, the crops that sometimes they have to put up with.
Remember being down there and visiting one home.
And they had a bowl on the table.
Of potatoes the size of peas.
They had to get that minute to make things, make a go of things. They had a good crop of quinoa. That's a small grain on the altar, Plano, this last year, thank the Lord, but this year doesn't look like it's going to be a very good crop. Maybe they'll get a good crop one in four years.
But in this country, I just marvel as much as this country has turned away from God, God keeps right on a giving and a giving and giving abundantly. I marvel at you young people sometimes, the tremendous facilities that you have, the intelligence, the strength, the energy. I wish I had half the energy, some young people.
What are you doing with it? The Father divided to him His living. Oh, how he gives, and he just keeps right on a giving. He gives his reign to the just and to the unjust. That's the kind of God he is. He's a giving God. He's not a God that's requiring that you give something to him.
Sometimes people have that idea.
Because preachers preach.
To give to them so much that people have the idea that that must be kind of the kind of God they have.
The God that needs some money. Is that the kind of God you think God is? I want to tell you the God that we're talking about here is the God that gives and gives and gives again. That's the kind of God we're talking about. He gave this Son his living. I don't know if I would have been that way, but that's the way God is.
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And not many days after, the young younger son gathered all together.
And took his journey into a far country and there wasted his substance with riotous living.
Get as far away from God as possible. That's what people like to do.
Any thought of God is a restraint on their sinful desires. Get a fall as far away as possible from it. Get out of here. Let's leave every restraint behind.
That was his thought.
You know, as long as you got money in your pocket, you'll have a plenty of friends. When the money runs out, your friends are going to run out pretty fast too. And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land.
Oh, thank God for the famine that he brings into the lives of people who are running away from God.
Says in Psalm chapter 90 he brings man to destruction, and says, return ye children of men.
God, if He has allowed some catastrophe in your life, it's because He wants you to return to Him.
That's the kind of God he is. He doesn't want to ruin you. He wants to fill you with blessing. He wants to give. He wants to continue to give.
But you and I have a nature that loves sin, a nature that is at enmity with God.
By nature, every child of Adam has that tendency. Enemy of God, naturally speaking, cannot please God. And so we run from God.
And so.
God allowed.
This mighty famine that arose.
And this poor man's life, there he is.
Hungry, he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country.
And he sent him into his fields to feed swine.
You know you're going to have to work for your money. It's tough business in the world today. If you don't have any money, you're going to have to really slave it out. And that's what this poor fellow found out.
Neath would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat, and no man gave unto him. There is plenty of food for the pigs. There is no food for him.
Poor fellow.
He wanted to even eat that pig food.
Sometimes in South America.
I see lines of people.
Lined up to go into the theater to eat pig food.
That's what it is.
Pig food.
I've stood outside sometimes and watched him come out to see if there's people that look satisfied after having been in there eaten pig food.
Don't see very many satisfied people coming out of there. It won't satisfy you, it'll just make your hunger that much worse.
And he says here in verse 17, I want you to notice this carefully.
When he came to himself.
Isn't this wonderful? Here's a change. He's still sitting there with the pigs, but there's a change. Here's what repentance is. He's changing his thoughts now. He's not thinking and going farther away from his father, getting as far away from his father as he possibly can.
Rather, he's thinking other thoughts, new thoughts.
He says how many higher servants in the in my father's in the of my father's have bread and enough despair and I perish with mine I will arise. There's been a change in his thinking.
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Oh, how we long to see in the lives of some who are running away from God this change in your thinking.
Running away from God. Here's a man.
Who is repented?
And then it says in verse 20 he arose.
That's conversion turning back to God.
And came to his father.
You know, he made-up a little prayer that he was going to say when he got home.
Verse 18 I will arise and go to my Father, and will stand to him. Father, I sinned against heaven, and before thee, and him no more worthy to be called thy Son, make me as one of thy hired servants.
Here he comes home with his prayer, ready to say to his father, and he gets close enough to where the father sees him.
Father runs, falls on his neck and embraces him and kisses him.
Oh, how God wants you to come back. How it longs for you to come back. That's the kind of God you have. That's the kind of God I have. He longs for. You say I've made such a mess of things. I don't dare come back now. It would be cheap to come back now. I say come back anyhow, Fred.
He is waiting for you. He longs to have you. He's just waiting for you to come.
Right there where you're sitting, turn back to God in your heart. He will embrace you. He will kiss you.
That's the first thing the sun comes out with his little prayer. Notice it in verse 421. Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in thy sight in them no more worthy to be called thy Son.
You forgot about the last part.
You know you get to know God.
You're going to find out.
That he's not needing more servants. He's got millions of angels to serve him. What he wants is sons in his house to share his thoughts, his mind. That's what he wants. He doesn't need any more angels. He doesn't need any more servants. He's got millions to serve. Oh, it's a privilege to serve him in any measure that you and I can. But I say.
He doesn't need any more servants. He wants sons. That's what he's looking for. Come back to him tonight. And then there are four additional things. There's five things that the prodigal son received when he came home. First, the father's kiss.
Secondly, the Father said to his servants, Bring forth the best robe and put it on him.
There he was in those filthy clothes.
That he'd been wearing when he was feeding the pigs.
You know when you're with pigs how you smell when you come away.
Couldn't go into the father's house in that condition.
Absolutely not. You cannot go into the Father's house with those sins on you. No way.
Impossible.
There has to be a change in force.
There has to be a glance. There is nothing that can bring you into the favor of God. There is nothing that can cleanse like that Precious, precious blood of Jesus cleanses from every stain of sin. But this best robe is the righteousness of God in Christ that God himself puts on the repentance Sinner that.
That's what it is. There was.
A prodigal son who was a religious zealot in the third chapter. Philippians.
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Who had a righteousness that was to be coveted? He said. As to the righteousness which is of the law, I was blameless. Pretty good Paul, pretty good Saul, good Saul of Darcy's at the time. But he says.
When he saw what he could have by faith in Christ, he said he counted all that. But done.
That I might be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness of God. By faith, that's what God clothes the repentance Sinner with you, and I can go directly into the Father's house.
Because we are clothed with God's own righteousness, which is by faith in Christ Jesus, that road of righteousness.
Second thing put a ring on his hand, the sign that he belonged. Oh, how many people in this world long to be long?
Young persons want to belong to a group.
Of young people.
Everybody likes to belong.
When you come to God, you're going to have a seal put on you that you belong to God.
The Spirit of God is the seal that He gives to the believer in the Lord Jesus.
Third thing or the fourth thing?
Shoes on his feet.
A lot of people have said to me, sometimes, you know why I don't come become a Christian. I don't think I could walk the Christian life. I said, do you want to know something? I never have been able to walk the Christian life. It's not a question of my capacity. It's God that has given me the capacity. He's given me a new life that wants to walk the Christian life.
So don't stay away for that vain reason.
And then the fifth thing is spring. Hit her the fatted calf and kill it and let us eat and be merry. There's death here.
There was death that you and I could rejoice in. The presence of God was the death of God's own Son and all the feast of joy that awaits you when you simply repent and turn again.
To that Father, that of which they began to be merry, it says never talks about them. And this is a feast that begins here on earth and will continue for all eternity. Oh, the joy you can experience if you simply come in repentance to repentance to God. There's this other.
Prodigal son. He's prodigal too. He never got off in the messy life his brother did.
He lived close to home, he said. I never disobeyed your command.
But the father besought him to go in, and he would not. What did he want? He wanted a kid so he could make Mary. Not with his father, but with his friends. He was just as bad as that other son.
Who went a long ways off and celebrated with his friends.
This sun didn't go that far off, but he didn't want his father at his party. He wanted his friends excluding his father.
That's the way you are, my friend. If you think you're good enough, you're excluding God from your plans. And I ask you to repent too, if that's the case, to change your thoughts, to turn around, to come to this Father that is waiting for you. Oh, my friend, what a God We have a God that's interested in the 1%.
00:50:04
That is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. One more word before we close.
You cannot escape doing with God.
You must come sooner or later.
Face to face with the person of the Lord Jesus Christ.
If you refuse to have to do with Him as Savior, you will have to meet Him as your judge. He will sit on that great white throne.
That day, that final judgment day when there will be no mercy.
And you will have to bear your sins forever in the lake of fire in that place. The Lord Jesus said that worm dies not and the fire is not quenched.
You cannot escape. I plead with all my heart, together with every other true believer who's present here, if you have not come to Jesus.
Right where you're sitting, you know where you are.
Open your heart.
Turn back to God.
Repent of your thoughts.
And come to Jesus tonight.
Let's just pray.
Gracious God our Father, so thankful for.
The way thou hast revealed thyself. Oh, what a God thou art, gracious Father.
Oh, how wonderful to know thee Father. There must be some out here in the audience.
Still don't know me.
We plead for them.
That right now, where they're sitting, they might be convicted and brought to Jesus.
In simplicity of faith, we ask in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.
Gospel
Gospel—J. Hyland
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I'd like to start our Gospel Meeting this evening with hymn #15. Oh, bless it.
Yet there is room. It tells to all around. Yet there is room the guilty may draw near. Though vile they need not fear with joy they now may hear. Yet there is room. Hymn #15. Will someone please start it?
Yeah, there is room.
And tells you all around.
Yet there is room.
Oh, guilty.
May draw near, go vile way near.
It could not be.
Yet there is room.
There is always sun here.
Is willing now to say.
Oh.
All things are ready.
Come.
Yet there is room.
Price Everything has done.
Yet there is room.
War is now come.
Play for the Mercy seats.
All day you will be.
Yes.
Feeling fast?
Yeah, there is room.
Some guests will be the last.
Yeah, there is room.
Salvation.
Day from you will pass away.
Then grace no more will say.
Yesterday. Yesterday.
Shall we ask God's help and blessing? We thank Thee, our loving God and Father, for the precious truth of this hymn we have been singing together. We thank Thee for the glorious gospel, that good news that has been going forth in this world almost 2000 years. We thank Thee that Christ is still the Savior of sinners. And we thank Thee that though thy house be filling fast, yet there is room. We thank thee tonight for one more opportunity.
To hold forth the word of life, we thank thee that thy grace is still flowing out.
And that thou art still compelling sinners to come in that thy house may be filled.
And now, as we are together and we have Thy word before us, we pray that as we read together from the scriptures.
But thy word might be used in power and blessing. Tonight we know that thou canst use thy word in convicting power. We pray that if there's someone here who still lost still on that broad Rd. that leads to destruction, we beseech these. That tonight thou would speak to them, but as it were, thou would stop them in their tracks, That they might realize that they are sinners, but that they might realize too, that thou dost love them, and thou hast provided full and free salvation.
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Through our precious Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, we thank thee that thy word is going forth this day in many places and by many means. And we pray that wherever it's gone forth there might be much fruit for thy glory and honor. We pray, too, that as we have thy word before us, that the sweet story of Jesus and his love might touch each of our hearts, and that those of us who are saved might rejoice tonight in our salvation. And so we ask Thy help. We ask Thy blessing.
And we ask it with Thanksgiving in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, our precious Savior, and for his glory. Amen.
I'd like to begin this evening by reading several portions of The Word of God. The first one is in Mark chapter One.
Mark chapter one and verse one.
The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. And then just notice the last clause of verse 15 repent ye and believe the gospel. And then notice in the 16th chapter of Mark.
Mark chapter 16 and verse 15.
And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. 1St Corinthians 15.
One Corinthians 15 and verse one.
Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you.
Which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand by which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preach unto you, unless ye have believed in vain. For I delivered unto you first of all that which also I received, How that Christ died for our sins according to the Scripture, and that he was buried, and that he rose again the 3rd day according to the Scripture.
Two Corinthians 4.
Two Corinthians 4 and verse 3. But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost.
In whom the God of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them first. Peter 4.
First Peter 4.
And the last part of verse 17 What shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God? And one more verse in the first chapter of first Peter.
First Peter, chapter one, and verse 25. But the word of the Lord endureth forever, and this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you.
Well, the reason I read so many verses at the beginning of this gospel meeting, it's because my your salvation and blessing tonight doesn't depend on my ability to present the gospel. It doesn't depend on my ability to explain the word of God. It doesn't depend on my ability to explain God's plan of salvation. But your salvation tonight does depend.
On the word of God, in all its power, in all its simplicity, and so at the beginning of a gospel meeting.
I trust and I pray that these verses that we have read together concerning the gospel of God, the gospel concerning His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, will be used in blessing to your soul tonight.
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You know, I am challenged when I look into an audience like this. Sometimes I have the privilege and responsibility of looking into the faces of those who have perhaps rarely heard a clear gospel. Perhaps are hearing a clear gospel for the first time, and that is a tremendous challenge and responsibility before God. But I sometimes wonder if it isn't a greater challenge to stand and look into the faces of those that have heard it many, many times.
You know there was a prayer meeting before this gospel began. And as one and another expressed their desire in prayer for the blessing of souls tonight, invariably those who prayed audibly had a concern and a burden. For those who have heard the gospel many times. For those who have heard it from the very early days of your youth, I'm thankful that I grew up in a home where I don't remember the first time I ever heard the word of God read.
It was part of our lives from the before the time I can remember. I don't remember the first time I was brought to a gospel meeting. I was there before I knew what was being said or understood the gospel and what a wonderful privilege it is to sit under the sound of God's word year after year. But you know, it's a solemn thing as well because you, who have heard the word of God from the days of your youth are very responsible this evening.
You are more responsible than the heathen who have never heard the gospel.
You are more responsible than those who are on the street and have never perhaps come into a meeting like this. Never had a praying mother and father. It's true that they are responsible too, but you are more responsible tonight before God. You know, sometimes when the gospel is preached, people think, well, that's all right for somebody else. You take that message to somebody that's in a worse condition morally than I am.
Perhaps the gospel is presented to someone and they say, well, you know, I'm a good living person. I come from a Christian home. Perhaps you say, take that kind of message to the drunk on the street. And so you take the message to the man in the gutter and you present the gospel and God's love and grace and salvation through the Lord Jesus Christ. And they listen, perhaps. And they say, well, you know, I get drunk, but I don't hurt anybody else.
You take that message to someone who goes out and robs from others. They need that kind of message.
And so you go out and you speak to the robber, the thief, and he says, well you know, I do take from others, but everybody's dishonest and I don't really hurt anybody in the long run. You go out and talk to the person that's taken someones life Isn't that the human heart? Isn't that what we're like? We look at somebody that we feel is in a worse condition than ourselves and we say that's for them. But you know, God's word says men measuring themselves by themselves are not wise.
To look at someone else and to measure your standing before God in relationship to them is not wise, because God's Word plainly declares that there is no difference, that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. I've often told of the occasion when I was picking up children with a large van and we were taking them to a gospel tent meeting, and the van was quite full that evening and as we drove down the road.
There was a lady walking on the side of the road, and they pointed to that Lady, It seemed those children with one accord. And they said that Lady is bad, she needs to come to the gospel meeting. That's the heart of man. He looks at someone else and feels that they need salvation, that they are sinners. But all tonight I want you to look within and realize that this message is for you and to realize that you are a Sinner tonight.
But then I want you to look to the cross. I want you to look to the cross of Christ. I want you to realize tonight that from the God's word that the gospel is going forth and has gone forth from the.
Time when the Lord Jesus rose from the dead and went back to the glory.
And he gave a Commission to his own that we read here, go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.
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And so I'm thankful tonight that your blessing and salvation doesn't depend on my ability.
To present the word of God. Because if it depended on that tonight there would be no blessing but all tonight God is willing and able to save you, and He wants to speak to you through His word.
September 23rd, brother Walt van Holstein and I arrived in Nigeria and there are several checkpoints, immigration and custom checkpoints that you go through before you enter a country like that. I had got through 3/2 of the four checkpoints. I came to the senior customs official and he wasn't going to let me into the country. He opened my passport, it was a valid passport. He looked at my visa and it was a valid visa.
But there was one small difficulty. I hadn't realized that when I applied for a visa at the High Commission in Ottawa, they had issued me a business visa, and that man was suspicious that I was entering the country on some kind of official business. I tried to explain to him that I was just there on a visit, but my words were to no avail. The more I tried to use some explanation, the more he doubted my story.
He turned away to speak to someone else. Brother Walt pulled the Bible out of his carry on satchel and handed it to me and said perhaps this will convince him. When he turned back, I handed the man the Bible with the short explanation and he let me pass and enter the country. And you know, this evening we're going to speak of salvation, we're going to speak of entrance into heaven. And it's only.
Through the Lord Jesus Christ, and as we have the Word of God before us, I want to impress upon your soul tonight.
That the word of God is true, and that as if you accept the message of God's Word tonight.
There will be blessing for your soul, blessing for all eternity, just as that Bible let me pass into Nigeria. So this word of God, if you accept its message, if you rest upon it tonight and rest upon its message and rest upon the one of whom it speaks, the precious Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, oh you will have a title to glory, because it's only the Lord Jesus.
And the work that he accomplished on Calvary's cross and the blood that he shed there that can put away your sins and give you title to that happy land called heaven. It's your only title to the Father's house. Sometimes with the boys and girls we sing that little song. How many children say I'd like to go to heaven, but never think that they must have their sins forgiven? And so, for a few moments tonight we pause.
And we ponder the glorious gospel and these verses that we have read together.
I don't mean to speak on each one of them, but I just want to point out how many times, and this is just a few of the times in Scripture, that the word gospel is brought before us. Two young people were talking at the back of a meeting room like this, and they were saying just before the gospel hour, well, it's just another gospel meeting. It'll probably be over around 8:00. Oh, I want to tell you tonight, no gospel meeting is just another gospel meeting. It is a thrill to be able to open the word of God.
And to read scriptures such as we have read tonight, and present that one who came into this world, He died, He was buried, and he rose again the 3rd day. And it's the gospel concerning Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the gospel concerning Jesus Christ, the Son of God. It's the only way of blessing. It's all that God has to offer tonight.
God gave his Son the Lord Jesus Christ. And in Mark's Gospel, where we began, if we were to read chapter after chapter, we would see the story of that blessed one, the Lord Jesus Christ, as he came into this world.
And I suppose Mark's Gospel is summed up in that glorious verse that says the Son of Man came not to be ministered to, but to minister and to give his life a ransom. For many, that's the gospel concerning the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Do you believe that tonight?
Do you believe that the Lord Jesus came into this world and that he went to Calvary's cross to die for your sins if you'll have him as your savior?
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Sometimes I have the privilege of visiting in Asheville, NC.
North Carolina is a state unlike the state of Illinois in that and Missouri in that. There are rolling green, lush hills as far as the eye can see. Beautiful country. I don't mean that Missouri and Illinois aren't beautiful in themselves, but it's a different kind of beauty, and I love to ride out into the mountains on a clear day and look off onto those blue rolling hills.
And I have had occasion to visit Vanderbilt estate. It was built by Mr. Vanderbilt many years ago. He was a very wealthy railway tycoon. And he built this castle like built a home on this estate. And you look out from the porches of that beautiful mansion and you see the rolling hills and the beautiful gardens which are still preserved and used as a museum.
But you know, Mr. Vanderbilt, with all his wealth and with all his beautiful estate.
He came to the point in life where he knew that he was going to leave this world.
And face eternity. And as he lay on his deathbed, he forgot about his millions.
He forgot about his beautiful estate. Those things didn't seem to mean anything to him anymore. And he remembered that there was an old servant in his hire who often sang hymns concerning the Lord Jesus Christ. And so he called for that servant, And that elderly servant came into that room. Vanderbilt's life was ebbing away fast.
The servant sat down by the bed, and he began to sing that old hymn, Come ye sinners.
Poor and needy. He's saying it with much feeling. He sang it in its entirety. The tears streamed down his face. And when he was finished, the tears were streaming down Mr. Vanderbilt face as well. And he turned to that servant and he said Vanderbilt is a poor and needy Sinner. What about you tonight? Do you realize that you are bankrupt before God? It doesn't mean.
Anything to have something of this world's goods.
We're not talking about position in this world. We're not talking about whether you were brought up in a Christian home.
We're not talking about some standing before man, some honor that you may have obtained. We're talking about standing before God, with the eye of God looking on you. And you know, as God looks down into this room tonight, he sees not as man sees.
You know, I lookout over an audience like this and I can see pretty well everyone in this audience. But I can't look into your heart because the Lord alone looketh on the heart. You can't hide one thing from God. God looks into your heart. He knows the very thoughts and the intents of your heart. But all the wonderful thing tonight is that while we are sinners and while it is true that we cannot hide from God.
Isn't it wonderful to present the good news of the gospel that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners?
You know, the gospel is a word that simply means glad tidings or good news. There's not much good news in this world today. Everything is out of control. There's the breakdown of everything in this world, and even governments are recognizing that they are dealing with an interplay of economic and political forces beyond their control. But all tonight, we can stand here with the word of God before us and present the good news.
Of the gospel. You know, it's a word that was used many, many centuries ago.
When Greece was not the United nation that it is today, but a series of walled cities apart, one apart from the other, And often there would be battles and feuding between those cities. And usually those battles were held a great way off from the city. And often there were messengers sent when it was determined how the battle was going and those messengers would run toward the city that was involved in the battle.
And there would be those, usually on the city wall, who were watching, and they were watching for one man. They were watching for that runner, that messenger, because they knew that the fate of the city hung in the message that this man brought. And as that man was running, he would be shouting while he was still far off gospel, gospel, gospel, and they would strain to hear and all how it would rejoice their hearts.
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When they would hear that, it was good news, that there was victory for that city and all. Tonight there is victory because Christ has died and risen from the dead. He's victorious over death and over sin. And this evening, on the basis that the Lord Jesus has died and risen from the dead, salvation is being offered to you and to me. Have you received that salvation?
Do you rejoice when the gospel goes forth? Do you rejoice when an hour is announced, when the glad tidings can be sounded forth in this sin sick world once again? Or when the gospel meeting starts? Do you feel a little uncomfortable and you squirm a little, and you wish that the hour would move by a little faster, so that you can go out and on your way once again and not consider these important things?
Oh, tonight I want to impress upon your soul that God in his love.
Is allowing the gospel to go forth still in this world? Do you realize that the very fact that you're here in this room tonight is a proof of the law and the grace that's in the heart of God? The very fact that he has allowed you to come to another gospel meeting? The very fact that he has allowed you to hear the word of God, once again I say, is a proof of the love.
And the grace that's in the heart of God. But I want to warn you too, that if you don't repent and believe the gospel, there's judgment. There's a solemn side to the gospel. And I would not be faithful tonight if I didn't warn you from God's word that there is judgment coming on this world. You know, the Lord Jesus lifted up his eyes on one occasion, and he saw the multitude and he had compassion on them. Why?
Because he knew they were a sheep. Not having a shepherd, He knew that they they were souls on their way to eternity. And God views this room tonight, and he sees this company and he has compassion on you. I don't know why you've come to this gospel meeting this evening.
Perhaps someone invited you here. Perhaps you came with a loved one.
Perhaps you felt compelled out of a sense of duty. I don't know why you came to this gospel meeting.
But I know that as God views this room tonight, He loves you and He has allowed you to come once more in His grace so that you can hear that not only are you a Sinner, but that their salvation and blessing all repent and believe the gospel. Do you believe, really believe that you're a Sinner? Do you really believe that you are a Sinner? There's no blessing if you don't really come to that point. Repent.
And believe the gospel, because it is appointed unto men once to die.
And after this the judgment, you know, the Lord Jesus feeling the awful reality of judgment.
He said. Now is the judgment of this world.
Now is the judgment of this world, and he hath appointed a day.
And the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained. But all judgment, as has been often said, is God's strange work. God never delights in judgment, though he must carry it out in accordance with his holy nature. But you just follow through the history of man. In God's word, God always did two things before he brought in judgment. He always gave a warning, and he always made a way of escape.
You know God looked down in Genesis chapter six, 1600, short years after creation.
He looked down and he looked at man, and again he looked into the heart of man.
In fact, I think it's significant that there in Genesis 6 you have the first mention of man's heart.
And what does he say concerning the heart of man? That the thoughts of his imagination were only of his heart, were only evil continually 1600 short years after creation, That which had come from God's hand in creation and placed in the garden in that beautiful earthly paradise, was now something that had become so corrupt that the thoughts of his heart were evil.
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Continually. And God pronounced judgment. In Noah's day he said that he was going to destroy the world with a flood. But what happened? God did those two things. He gave a warning. Noah preached righteousness for perhaps 120 years, and there was a way of escape and all that entered that are though they were only eight souls were saved from the judgment that fell at that time.
You come over a little farther in the history of man. Jonah is sent to that wicked city of Nineveh, and finally he does obey the Lords command, and he goes, and he preaches a message of doom to that city, he tells them, Yet 40 days and Nineveh shall be overthrown.
And the people repent. They believe God, and the judgment didn't fall at that time.
But you know, I think there's something very solemn if you go on over to the book of Nahum because they're about 120 years later we have the final doom of Nineveh. The judgment did fall. God in his grace spared it for a generation because they turned to God from the king on the throne to the lowest of of citizen in that city. And God spared that city in his grace. But the judgment did fall, and God has withheld the hand of judgment for almost 2000 years.
He's withholding it a little longer tonight, but I want to impress upon you.
That the judgment will fall. Well, the gospel was to go forth then to every creature.
You know that's the message of the gospel, Whosoever will may come and take of the water of life freely.
The gospel is not for justice. A certain class of people, I sometimes think of this as I sit in a busy airport and announcements are made and everybody's straining to hear those announcements and how disappointed folks are when they find that that announcement really wasn't for them. They were hoping that that delayed flight would be announced and that they would get on their way or something like that. But the announcement wasn't for them. Announcements in a public place like that are only for certain people.
And many people go away disappointed. But all the announcement of the gospel tonight.
Is for all, even though all have sinned, Yet whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but have everlasting life. I like what a little girl said when she was asked what that word whosoever meant, she said. Why, that means you and me and everybody else. Isn't that a wonderful thing that I can stand here tonight and present from God's word the gospel? And I don't have to tell you tonight that it's only for a certain age.
But it's only for a certain class of people. But I can tell you tonight that God loves you each one in this room, that no matter what your condition, no matter how long or how bad you have gone on in sin, that God's salvation is for you tonight and all. I say again that the glorious gospel is brought before us, summed up, as it were, in these verses that we read.
In First Corinthians together, let me just read them again. First Corinthians chapter 15.
Moreover, brethren, verse one, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand, by which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless you have believed in vain. For I delivered unto you first of all that which also I received, how the Christ died for our sins, according to the scriptures.
And that he was buried and rose again the 3rd day according to the scriptures. Isn't this good news, brethren? Those of us who know the Lord Jesus as our Savior, doesn't it thrill our hearts to hear it again and again and again? Notice who this is specifically written to, He says here. Moreover, brethren, isn't it a wonderful thing to be able to sit under the sound of the gospel?
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And to hear the story over and over and over again of how the Lord Jesus.
Died, was buried, and rose again the 3rd day. You know, Paul often delighted to speak and to write to the Saints concerning the glorious gospel, to remind their hearts of what God had done for them in reaching out to them in grace, David said. He brought me up all throughout of a horrible pit, and out of the miry clay set my feet upon the rock.
And established my going. Paul wrote to the Roman brethren, and he said as much as in me is.
I am ready to preach the gospel to you also that are at Rome, and I want to just take a minute and exercise our hearts, those of us who know Christ as our Savior.
Because if we ever get tired of hearing the simple gospel story.
If we ever get tired of sitting in a gospel meeting where the way of salvation is presented in simplicity.
We need to get down on our knees and examine our state of soul because it's going to be our eternal occupation when we get home to glory.
And it's the ground of every blessing that we possess. We've had a wonderful privilege today of sitting in these meetings with the word of God before us, to open to a chapter that says, therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus.
Oh, it's all based on the work of Calvary. And when we get home to glory and we see our precious Savior, that lamb freshly slain, the one who is the center of that heavenly redeemed throng, Oh, what are we going to sting of? We're going to sing as those who are redeemed out of every kindred and tongue and people and nation by the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. We're never going to forget the cost of redemption.
For all eternity. But, oh, I say tonight, if there's someone in this room tonight and you don't know Jesus as your Savior, you don't thrill as we speak of the Father's house. You don't look forward to that time when all the redeemed will be around the Savior there, and what rejoicing it will be.
All I say tonight, what keeps you away? If the love of God tonight doesn't touch your heart, I don't know what goes on within your heart.
I wish tonight I could tell you how much God loves you. I wish I could convey in some way how much God loves you and how much he has provided in his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. But all tonight, only God can touch your heart. And that's our prayer tonight, that God would touch your heart, that you would taste and see that the Lord is good. How many people go out of a gospel meeting?
And they say that's not for me, as it were. They won't even taste and see that the Lord is good. I've used this illustration before, but sometimes I go with my family to the grocery store.
And as we enter the grocery store, sometimes there's a table set up near the door.
And someone is behind that table, and on that table is some new product, maybe some new ice cream, some crackers and cheese that they're trying to sell. And as you pass by that table, they're offering you a taste. They're recommending it to you. And tonight, God commendeth his love toward you.
You know, we rarely pass a table like that without trying some of the product that's being offered.
We stop and we try that little dish of ice cream, those few crackers and cheese, that little piece of meat.
And as they offer it to folks, they're hoping that once they get a little taste of it, they will buy the product so that they can enjoy it further. Oh, I often think of that in connection with the gospel. Oh, if you could just get a little taste tonight of the love of God. If you could just realize in some little measure how much God loves you, how much the Lord Jesus loves you all, you'd want more. I have not seen nor ear heard, neither hath entered into the heart of man the things that God hath prepared.
For them that love him sometimes on an occasion like this, people will say, well, I'll have to give up this.
I'll have to give up that if I get saved. But you know, I only gave up one thing when I came to the Lord Jesus. One thing I gave up when I came as a poor, helpless Sinner. And that was my sins. And thank God they're gone. Washed in the blood of Jesus tonight. The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin so far as the East is from the West. So far hath he moved Our Trent removed our transgressions from us. Can you say that?
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Can you say that Jesus has died for you? Can you say that the blood of Jesus has washed your sins away? There was a doctor in Scotland some years ago and he would go out and treat his patients and many in the community had no money to pay for their treatment.
This doctor was a very kind, lenient man and when he would realize that there was number way that many of these individuals could pay his bill, he would open his Ledger book and he had a special red pen that he kept for the occasion and he would right across that debt forgiven.
Well, there was hardly a page in his Ledger book that didn't have those words written and read across at least one account.
And time went on, and the doctor passed away, and his heirs gathered together, and they opened that Ledger book. And they thought that perhaps if they took that book to a court of law, that they could benefit if some of those deaths were collected. And so legal proceedings began. The heirs to that man's estate presented themselves before the judge, themselves before the judge. The judge took that book, and he opened that book in the presence of those heirs.
He ran his finger up and down the pages of that Ledger. He saw those words written in red ink, forgiven. He closed the book. He handed it back to the heirs. And he said there isn't a court in this land that would uphold collection of those payments. They're forgiven. And that red ink across those accounts meant that they could never be collected. And all I stand here tonight.
Saved and on my way to heaven, washed in the blood of Jesus. Not because of something I have done.
But because Jesus has paid the debt for me and I'm forgiven.
This evening, it's just as if those are that word is written and read across the record of my sins.
Forgiven, Washed in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. I'll never have to pay for my sins.
It's true that the wages of sin is indeed death, and I don't have to tell you that tonight you'll see it on every hand but all. The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Oh, this evening, look up into the heavens. See that blessed one who's risen from the dead? That one who's there at God's right hand as the Savior? He's risen.
As I say, we were in Nigeria not many weeks ago and it broke my heart.
At certain hours of the day, to hear on loud speakers set on poles men who come, men who are followers of the Prophet Mohammed. And they would bow down and they would pour out their souls in the most pitiful, mournful wails and cries that you can ever imagine. It's indescribable. If you've never heard it, you don't know what I'm talking about, but it breaks your heart and rends your soul to see these men pray.
And they have no hope. They realize within themselves that there's no blessing from their prayers.
And yet tonight, the good news goes forth in a land like this.
We present a living savior. Muhammad is in the grave tonight. Buddha is in the grave tonight. But tonight we're presenting a new and a living way. We're presenting A risen savior there at God's right hand. It's true he died on the cross. It's true, as the scriptures plainly declare, he was taken down.
In that new tomb. But the third day he rose again. You know, to my own soul there are no more glorious words than these.
He is not here. He is risen. Come see the place where the Lord lay. 2 missionaries were serving the Lord in India, and one day they went out on the street and there was a great to do and large crowds of people moving up the street. And when they inquired as to the situation, they were told that a bone of Buddha had been found and that they were carrying this bone on some kind of a conveyance through the street.
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And people were out there bowing down to that bone, and there was great rejoicing.
The two missionaries watched this procedure for a little while, and then they turned and went on their way. And as they got talking over the incident, they remarked that if a bone and I speak reverently, if a bone of the Lord Jesus were to be found today, it would not cause rejoicing amongst Christians. It would cause great sorrow and remorse. Because tonight we're presenting one who's not in the tomb, but one who came forth victorious.
God hath raised him from the dead, and seated him at his own right hand.
Giving him a name above every name, and that's the name and that's the person to whom every knee is going to bow.
And every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.
All look up tonight. Look to Jesus tonight. There is a Savior on high in the glory, a Savior who suffered on Calvaries Tree. A Savior as willing to save. Now as ever, his arm is almighty, his love great and free. You know it's a wonderful thing to be able to say. The Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.
I wonder if you can make it that personal tonight.
You know, that's one of the verses I learned when I was a very young child. I suppose about the time I learned John 316, I learned that verse Galatians 2 and 20, the son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. But you know, sometimes I wonder how many of us learn those verses and we can stand up in Sunday school and we can quote them and we can get a reward. But I wonder how much those verses really mean.
To our soul, can you say this evening the Son of God who loved me was a young couple one time. And they had that verse hanging in their home, and someone came into their home to do some business with them and they had to be out of the room for a few moments. And while the couple were out of the room, that man was sitting there and he was just reading that verse over and over and over again to himself, the Son of God who loved me.
And gave himself for me and when they came back in the room he looked at them and he said.
No wonder you're happy if you really believe that, oh, this is what brings true happiness, true joy in the heart. How is it that many of us can sit here tonight with the peace of God in our hearts, where everything is turmoil around us, where we know that the world is ripe for judgment, and yet we sit here tonight and we have rest and peace in our souls. It's because we know the Son of God. We've tasted of that love, and we know that there's something better.
Are waiting for us in the Father's house. We know that there's a bright future ahead for us. We know that we'll never die for our sins. We know that we'll never come under the judgment of God for sin because the Lord Jesus has borne the judgment. But all I say again this evening, what about you tonight? You know, this is a very personal matter tonight. It's true. There's a large crowd in this room tonight.
But all don't pay attention to the crowd. Don't think of the young person beside you. Don't think of mother and father for a few moments. Just consider your own soul and whether you know the Lord Jesus as your savior.
You know, I've been solemnized to realize that when the prophet Elijah was called away to heaven without dying.
Taken up in a whirlwind a chariot of fire. But there were those who missed the Prophet when he was taken away. And it was we might not, we might say that the general public, but it was the sons of the prophets.
You know, if the Lord Jesus were to come this evening, and he may, that clock is ticking by. It's almost 8:00. And if the Lord Jesus were to come before 8:00, because it says the coming of the Lord draweth nigh, I wonder about you.
I'm speaking to the boys and girls and the young people here and I want you to listen to me and take in these words just for another few moments because this is for you.
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Suppose the Lord Jesus were to come.
And mother is gone, Father is gone. The young person sitting beside you is gone.
Brother is raptured out of this room. Sister is snatched away, this ceiling, this roof, no difficulty snatched away. Our bodies changed in a moment in the twinkling of an eye, and we rise to meet the Lord in the air. What about you?
As you look around and you view those empty seats.
Maybe yours is the only one that's still occupied. Will you understand what has happened?
Will you know where mother and father and grandparents are gone? Will you know where that young person that you came to the conference with is gone? Indeed you will. It was the sons of the prophets that Miss Elijah. What about you tonight?
Behold, now is the accepted time. Behold, now is the day of salvation. You know there is always haste connected with the gospel but all. Perhaps tonight there's someone who doesn't believe. And you know, we read a verse that tells us that our gospel is hid. And who is it hid from? It's hid from them that believe not. It's hid from to the lost. Are you lost tonight?
You know Satan is seeking to blind your mind tonight. He's the God of this world. He's seeking to interject at this point in the Gospel, meeting every kind of distraction, every kind of thought. Perhaps he has someone beside you who whispers in your ear, someone who distracts you in some way so that you won't listen to the gospel message, so that that pricking of your conscience is not heated and you turn away.
So that that heart that's touched with the love of God.
Turns away and becomes a little harder and rejects once again. Is that what Satan's doing tonight to you?
Is he seeking to distract you so that you don't listen to the gospel message, so that you don't heed the pleadings of a loving God?
So that you don't heed the pleadings of the Blessed Lord Jesus, who died on Calvary's cross, that you might be saved from judgment and from sin.
Is busy tonight, but all I'm thankful that the spirit of God is still striving, that God is still working by his spirit. Or you're going to listen tonight because God says my spirit shall not always strive with man. You're looking forward to going out that door In a few moments this may be your last opportunity to receive the Lord Jesus as your Savior.
I wonder tonight if you knew for certain that this was your last opportunity to be saved. I wonder if it would make a difference in how you listen to the message and how you receive it.
If you knew for certain that this was the last opportunity to receive the Lord Jesus as your Savior, I wonder if you would go out that door and block your ears and your mind to what you've heard. Or would you turn from darkness to light? Would you turn and receive the glorious gospel message and the one of whom it speaks?
I read this verse in Peter concerning the word of God and how it endures forever and how.
It is through the words that the gospel is preached.
Because maybe you'll go out the room tonight and you'll say, I don't believe that. That doesn't change the truth of God's word. God's word stands, and we have read several portions together tonight from God's Word. They're all true. If I don't believe it, that doesn't change the truth of it.
We have quoted several verses of Scripture together this evening, and they are all true.
The word of God is settled in heaven. The word of God is unchangeable, and justice, because you reject it tonight, doesn't change the truth of it. And the Lord Jesus said these solemn words when he was here in this world. He said, He that rejected me and receiveth not my word, Hath one that judgeth him the word that I have spoken the same shall judge him in the last day, these scriptures that we have read together tonight.
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At this moment are applicable to you as to refuge in Christ. But there's a day coming when these words will be brought back to your memory, and they will no longer be offered to you as far as to salvation. They will rise in judgment of you.
Have you ever heard John 316 before? Indeed you have, and you've heard it this evening. How solemn to think that in a lost eternity you remember John 316 But it rises in judgment of you rather than offer you eternal salvation. Oh, how sad my heart breaks as we come to the end of a gospel meeting, because I am solemnized to think that perhaps there is someone who has come into this meeting in as a loss Sinner.
And that is Solomon. That is sad. But I believe there's something worse tonight than having come to this meeting a lost Sinner. And that's to go out of this meeting and still be lost in your sins because God for one hour has given you another opportunity. We were singing all blessed gospel sound, yet there is room. It tells to all around. Yet there is room. But all the day will come when the door.
Will be shut. The door will be shut, never to be opened again. The day will come when there will be no more Gospel meetings.
Will stand here 24 hours from now and present the glad news of the gospel. Your opportunity is this evening. Oh, won't you come to Jesus? He loves you. He wants you. He died to redeem you only believe his word. You're a Sinner. Yes, but oh God loves the Sinner. He's provided salvation full and free in the Lord Jesus Christ and the Lord Jesus, as it were tonight is saying.
Ho everyone that thirsteth come ye to the waters. Come, yay, come. Buy wine and milk without money and without price. He's offering a free gift tonight. The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. I'd like to sing in closing.
That hymn decide for Christ today and God's salvation seed #21.
Yield soul and body, heart and will to him who died. For the Christ alone can save break the power of sin. Christ a fully satisfied the heart that cleaves to him #21 Will someone please start it?
It's like for Christ today.
And God's salvation.
Will.
Do him.
To die for the.
Praise and the soul.
Can't say break the power of sin.
Right, just always satisfied.
The Lord and I please live again.
It's all right for Pariah's new day.
Under judgment Brave.
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The power of sin.
The Holy satisfied.
The heart.
Open Mtg.
Open—C. Buchanan, J. Hyland
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.
Oh.
Go having a nurse will pass away now, and thy word of mine is forever. And I noticed everlasting that we have been seen.
Now we turn to the for this last meeting.
Give thanks for thy grace and business to us least 2 1/2 days.
And look to thee for one more meeting.
God bless us all. We thank people love brethren here who have made this possible. We ask that special.
Now we ask for this hour and give thanks for our Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, and Amen.
The new creation.
Has come before us.
In these meetings and I thought it would be interesting and I think good to look at it, but let's begin by turning to.
First Corinthians chapter 15.
There's also the powers of that new creation.
But to introduce.
This.
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We'll turn to 1 Corinthians 15.
And begin with verse 42.
For that new creation begins with resurrection.
And the resurrection of the Lord is where it is seen. But we will read the doctrine here. So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption. Now that's us.
His body couldn't see corruption, but he did die, and he rose from the dead. It is raised in incorruption. These things will be true of these bodies, of all the believers.
It is sown in dishonor. It is raised in glory now. That's the home of the new creation, the glory. It is sown in weakness.
It is raised in power.
It is sown a natural body. It is raised a spiritual body.
What a term that is.
A spiritual body. Can you understand it? I think not, but we believe it.
And we will see the powers of that new body in a little bit. Some of them there is a natural body. We all know that we've had about our groaning in these natural bodies.
In Romans 8 and there is a spiritual body.
So it is written.
The first man, Adam, was made a living soul.
The last atom was made of quickening spirit.
Howbeit that was not first, which is spiritual, but that which is natural.
As a man, that's even true of the Lord.
A natural man, a real.
Perfect man.
Who could die?
Albeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural, and after that which that which is spiritual. We're waiting for that that spiritual body. The first man is of the earth, earthy. The 2nd man, You remember, we had this stated to us yesterday, perhaps the day before. The 2nd man is the Lord out of heaven, as is the earthy. Such are they also.
That are earthy, and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly.
As we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.
Like Christ.
Well, this is kind of an introduction and we were talking about.
The first man Adam and the 2nd man.
The Lord from heaven. The two races. Someone told me years ago that the Bible is a story of two races.
The atom race and those that are after Christ.
We're going to look at that.
And we have read these to get these things fixed in our mind.
But about the last Adam?
I'll say what an old brother said to us years ago, quoting from Revelation one perhaps 18.
I am.
Those are the 1St 2 words we read this morning, and.
And lamentation 3 When you get those two words, think of the great I am. But this was Jesus talking in Revelation. He said I am.
He that liveth and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen. And have the keys of hell and of death.
He said. That verse tells me that God will never again visit another planet in grace.
God's plan is for this earth and for the men that He's put upon it, and there's never going to be anything like it again. Christ has died once. He could say I am He that liveth and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore.
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Amen. And have the keys of hell and of death.
He is the controller of the two places the tomb.
And the place of departed spirits for everybody but for us. First of all, we rejoice in this as believers. Now let's just go back to John 20 and look at the person of Christ who is the head of the new creation. We had a few verses here, but the powers of that new.
Race.
The chapter is well known.
We'll pick out slowly certain parts of it.
He had.
Raised himself or been raised from the dead in the early chapter, early part of the chapter, and in verse 11 Mary comes.
She stood without at the sepulchre, weeping.
Now the first lines of this chapter are the first day of the week.
It was the Day of Resurrection, the very day of it, and there was the empty tomb. Mary couldn't find him, and she was weeping.
And as she wept, she looked down. She stooped down, and looking into the sepulchre she seeth 2 angels in white, sitting, the one at the head and the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain.
They said unto her woman, Why weepest now? She saith unto them, Because they have taken away my Lord, and I will know not where they have laid him, what a devoted soul she was when she had thus said she turned herself back, and.
Saw Jesus. Thank you. Now here's the first view.
The first view of new creation.
The very first view of new creation, it was to Mary. She saw Jesus standing.
New creation. She didn't recognize him.
He had a different appearance to her. That's one of the powers of that new creation.
Jesus standing, and knew not that it was Jesus. Jesus saith unto a woman, Why weepest thou whom seekest thou? She saith.
Supposing him to be the gardener, she posed in her intelligence at least as somebody that kept that garden where he was buried. She saw him. She didn't know it was Jesus. She thought it was a gardener. Now that's one of the powers of the new creation, to have a slightly different form if necessary, and to do any many mighty things.
And so she said, Sir, if thou have borne him hence, tell me where thou hast laid him, and I will take him away. Now there's the faith of this devoted woman, she thought. Well, I'll just pick him up and take him away and.
And she was talking to him and didn't know it well, the wonders of that new creation.
Jesus saith unto her, Mary there was the one who knew her name, Just like when he approached the grave of Lazarus, he called Lazarus by name and said Come forth. I think that's the sample or an illustration of what's going to happen.
When the one has the power the keys of hell and of death calls out at the out resurrection.
Everyone whose bodies laying in this earth, I think that God or the Lord who has that power will call them out. Personally, it seems to be so.
And so he says, Mary, she turned herself, and saith unto him Rabbuni, which is to say, Master, immediately when he spoke her name, she knew him the quick intelligence.
Because she did know the Lord, and he could reveal himself to her that way. But he says, touch me not, for I am not yet ascended to my father, but go to my brethren and say to them, I ascend. Now here's another power of the new creation.
When Elijah went up.
He was.
Carried out of this scene.
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When the Lord went up, the new creations eye as sand.
The power of that new creation.
I ascend.
Unto my Father and your Father, he brings in a new relationship to my God and your God. Mary Magdalene came and told the disciples that she had seen the Lord, that he had spoken these things unto her back in that.
15th chapter One Corinthians there is a long list of those who saw the Lord in resurrection.
And he only showed himself to his followers, those who knew him. He showed himself not to the world. When it comes to the world, it will be in power and glory after he is judged it largely. And that's prepared for his display. We had that before us in our meeting. But to his own in comfort, he showed himself right away above 500 brethren that once saw him.
And new creation was seen on the earth for 40 days.
A proving time.
What a wonderful thing the new creation is. We've seen a little bit of the power of it. We'll go on here.
The same day at evening, being the first day of the week. This all happened the Resurrection day.
Now notice the power that comes out here.
When the doors were shut, where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus, and stood in the midst no limits.
In that new creation as we know them, these boys would like to be able to walk through that wall of bricks, but they can't.
There's no limit to the new creation.
Neither in time, nor distance nor barriers.
It's the spiritual body. Granted, I cannot understand it, but it's a fact. It's a truth. The doors being shut, he stood in the midst. And what did he say unto them? Peace be unto you.
Now let's go on down to the next chapter. We have the case of Thomas.
In this same chapter, but I don't want to take too much time just to enjoy a little bit of the new creation and the power of that new creation. And here he appears the third time to some of his disciples in chapter 21.
And I do believe that this scene here at the beginning the 1St.
14 verses is in connection with the Lord's reign in power and glory over more than the Jews, bringing in the Gentiles and the spirit of the nations in connection with this fishing expedition.
Which was carried out by 7 of the Lord's brethren, typifying the going forth of the gospel of the Kingdom, to gather them in to be ready for the Millennial day.
Because it connects with the fishing expedition in the 5th of Louvre when the Lord had come the first time, but the Nets break there. But they didn't in this chapter because the Lord was there and they made a great catch of fish when the gospel the Kingdom goes forth.
By his brethren it will be in great power to bring in.
To be there for the king to reign over them.
And they got a big catch. But as they drew it to shore, look what's happened.
As soon as they were come to land. Verse 9.
They saw a fire of coals there, and fish laid thereon and bred.
Jesus saith unto them, Bring out the fish which ye have now caught.
What an interesting scene.
Simon Peter went up.
And drew the net land full of great fishes and 150 and three.
And for all there were so many, yet was not the net broken because the Lord was there.
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He's going to make it work with the gospel of the Kingdom when it goes forth during the end of the tribulation period. How much of it, I don't know, but in preparation, certainly for the Kingdom.
Then he's going to rejoin them. The Lord has a remnant on Earth.
In the end of John, and in the end of Matthew it ends up in Galilee. And in Galilee the Lord is in connection with the poor of the remnant of the Jews who believed on him. So it's the same people that go forth.
And what does he do? What does he say? Verse 12 Come and die.
New creation. Here's the Lord standing on the shore.
And he has already prepared a feast for them.
He says. You come and eat with me.
He had departed from supper in the 13th chapter.
Now John, he had been at supper with them, and he rose from supper and took a new position, washed their feet. That's his high priestly service up there. He's still doing it for his followers.
Is going to change from that priestly service. He's going to rejoin the.
Godly Remnant on the earth, he's going to have food for them.
And he's going to eat with them, I believe. And that is another power of the new creation. Let's go back now to Luke, chapter 24, and get the interesting picture there about the two on the road to Emmaus.
And the Lord's love to restore.
Discouraged souls to the.
Divine Center.
You have to look big and think big when you read Scripture and think of those.
Discourage disciples, of whom one was Cleopus, perhaps the other his wife, were not told there were two of them.
And they had been disappointed. They had lost Jesus, the one who was to be their king, and they did not understand it. So they were walking away, discouraged.
And the Lord seeks them. Oh yes, he seeks, and He seeks until he finds these were sheep.
And they were discouraged, and rightly so. And he appears to them, and walks with them as a stranger.
Art thou a stranger in Jerusalem? They said they didn't recognize Jesus yet.
Their eyes were holding, and he tests them. If you and I walk away from the Lord, the Lord is going to seek us to bring us back. If we depart from the Divine Center. He's going to want to do that. He's going to walk with us as far as he needs to, to get the job done. He's going to test the heart. Do you want me in your home? Do you want me in your home?
If you're walking away from the Lord, invite him into your home. He'll come in any of us.
And you'll warm up the hearts.
And he'll display who he is.
And you remember.
He broke the.
And he was known of them in the breaking of the bread.
And immediately vanished the power of the new creation. Their hearts had been reached. They returned to Jerusalem, and they found the Lord there.
Now this is another example.
Of the power of the new creation.
I won't go any farther with the Lord in this. There's much more that could be said.
This is the Lord in new creation.
But I'll go back in thought to the mount of Transfiguration.
When and Matthew, Mark, and Luke all recorded 3.
Peter, James and John, specially privileged servants, were taken up into a high mountain, and the Lord was transfigured before them. Luke perhaps gives the fullest account.
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And he was transfigured. And there appeared unto them two men, which were Moses and Elias.
Real men. One of them had died and been buried by the Lord, and the other caught up to heaven as we heard here.
And a whirlwind and a chariot of fire display of the Angel.
Elijah couldn't say, I ascend. The Lord took him up.
And yet he was there. Now we'll turn to 2nd Corinthians chapter 12.
To get an experience of the Apostle Paul, which tells us, I think, just a little bit more about the power.
Of that new creation.
Which was shown to pull.
And I don't think we can get far into this subject.
We ran out of being able to talk about the glory yesterday, and we always shall.
But there's a few little things here. First, Two Corinthians 12. It is not expedient for me, doubtless to glory. I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord. See, if we're going to get these things, they have to be a revelation of the Lord.
And he says I knew a man in Christ above 14 years ago.
Now here is the power of the new creation.
Which Paul couldn't even understand.
Couldn't know for sure, he says, whether in the body.
I cannot tell or whether out of the body I cannot tell. God knoweth.
It's just wonderful what God tells us here, and I believe he tells us all that we can get a hold of. It's just the absence of any limitation. We got great limitations in this body, Paul says. I didn't even know whether I had a body or not.
The power of that body is so great, you're not even conscious of any limitations. And he says it over again. Let's read it.
I knew such a man. Verse 3 and he says it again. Whether in the body or out of the body, I cannot tell God nor.
Yes, God knows. There are so many things that God knows.
And why didn't he?
Report more on this. Let's read the next verse, how he was caught up into the Paradise.
And heard unspeakable words which it is not lawful, not possible, says the margin for a man.
To utter.
It's God telling us through Paul. It's so it's so wonderful. It can't even be put in language.
So we just have to stop and believe it. But thank God for the few things that we do know of the power of that new creation appear here or appear there. No limitations of walls, no limitation of distance. Emmaus or Jerusalem instantly one place or the other.
And the power to ascend. For Jesus, at least he will take us out. We know that. But Paul was caught up.
Apparently he was taken up. I knew a man in Christ about 14 years ago.
Whether in the body I cannot tell, or whether out of the body I cannot tell. God knoweth such an one caught up to the 3rd heaven. That's where you and I are going to be caught up soon, and we'll have the new body that suited that place of glory.
I.
Wonder brethren if we could look at 3 verses well known portions in the Psalms.
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First one is in the 23rd Psalm.
Psalm 23 and verse 6.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the House of the Lord forever. And then a verse in the 122nd Psalm.
Some 122.
And verse one.
I was glad when they said unto me.
Let us go into the House of the Lord and then in the 27th Psalm.
Psalm 27 and verse 4.
One thing have I desired of the Lord that will I seek after that I may dwell in the House of the Lord all the days of my life to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in His temple. Well, I was just thinking of these three portions this afternoon, in connection with our enjoyment of the presence of the Lord. Our brother has just mentioned that we are going to soon be there in the Father's house.
We're going to be with and like our precious Savior, everyone of us who know the Lord Jesus as our Savior. This afternoon we look up with glad anticipation, and we look on to that day. And I trust there's a response in our hearts this afternoon. By grace even. So come Lord Jesus. Is that really our desire? Is that really our hope? David, here in this 23rd Psalm where we began, he spoke of how the Lord.
He had experienced the preservation and the care of the Lord in his pathway.
And you know, David was one who didn't have an easy life. He fled as a bird to the mountain. He felt reproach, he said, Reproach hath broken mine heart. He felt it. When Jonathan didn't associate with him in his rejection. He lived in The Cave of Adelaim. He suffered all these things, and even when he came into his Kingdom, it was one that was plagued by a continual upheaval from without. There were wars.
There were difficulties from within, even in his own family. But as he speaks of the Lord's preserving care, he also looks on to the future, but not in the way we do. He speaks here of the article of going through the article of death, the valley of the shadow of death. And he knew that there was something better awaiting him on the other side. And so he says, I will dwell in the House of the Lord. I will dwell dwell in the House of the Lord.
Forever He looked forward to that, but I say not in the way in which we do, because we're looking for the momentary return of the Lord Jesus Christ, and we're looking too, for the Father's house. That's the way the Lord Jesus introduced this truth in John 14 when he spoke to his own before he left them, He comforted their hearts. And he said, I will come again and receive you unto myself, that where I am, there ye may be also.
And so we're going on, brethren, to something far better as we leave these meetings.
It brings separation. We feel the separation. We've enjoyed happy fellowship with many of our brethren.
Some we haven't seen for a long time. And now we're going to leave them. We're going to go home to the everyday circumstances of life. We're going to go home to the situations at work and at school and in the local assembly. But what is it that's going to cheer our hearts and preserve us And from day-to-day, oh, it's to lift our eyes above the horizons of this world, above the difficulties, above the circumstances, and look on to the father's house.
To look on to that coming day of glory, when we will not only be with our precious Savior, but we will be like Him. For we shall see Him as He is. What a hope we have in a far greater way than David ever enjoyed. Because not only do we look forward to the Father's house, but we look forward to seeing that lovely man in the glory, that one who has remained a man and will remain a man for all eternity so that he can enjoy.
00:35:05
The company of his bride. Think of it, brethren. He has remained a man, and will remain a man.
So that he can enjoy your company and mine, and so that we can enjoy his.
There in the Father's house, our brother was bringing before us that verse that speaks that where Paul spoke of what he saw and heard in the 3rd heaven.
As being unspeakable, impossible to describe. And I suppose there are really two reasons why we're told so little about the Father's house, so little about what heaven is really like. We're given hints of it here and there, but we're really told very little about what that place will be like. Because first of all, it's indescribable. It's a scene. It's a realm that really we can't take in with these minds.
And in these bodies where we're so governed by time and distance and physical hindrances.
But I believe there's another reason too, and that's because four walls and fine furniture don't make a home. It's the presence of those that dwell there have often said that when I'm returning from a trip, I'm looking forward to being back in Smiths Falls. Not because I have a comfortable home in Smiths Falls, but because my wife and children are there. And, you know, sometimes when I arrive home, my wife has made some changes since I've been gone.
Maybe rearrange the furniture a little bit, maybe put up a new picture or something of that nature.
And sometimes she waits to see if I'll notice that change. And after a few days, she'll say, well, didn't you notice what I did? And I say, that wasn't what I was occupied with. I didn't notice those changes. I was just so glad to be home, to be able to enjoy my family, my wife and children. And so the hymn writer put it this way. I will not gaze on glory, but at the King of Grace. I believe, brethren, that that's what's going to make heaven in that day.
Four walls and fine furniture don't make a home. It's the presence of those that dwell there.
And when we get one look at his lovely face in that day, are we going to take our eyes off him for all eternity? I believe he's going to so captivate our hearts and our and our gaze that will look at him and it will bring forth fresh bursts of praise from our soul for all eternity.
But all brethren, as we leave these meetings and as we go back to the everyday situations of life, may this hope be before us. Not merely as a doctrine, not merely as something we open the pages of God's Word and read and understand in a certain way. But may this truth so grip our souls that it would have that moral, practical, purifying effect on our lives that when we get up in the morning, it's with the thought that before another sunset.
We may hear that assembling shout and be safe home in the glory when we go to bed at night.
That we have those that thought that before another sunrise we may see our precious savior.
In the Father's house, if this hope is a living reality before our souls, it will have a practical effect on our lives, and it will give us the character of strangers and pilgrims, because a stranger is one who doesn't belong and a Pilgrim is 1 who's just passing through. You know, when I visit in the United States and I crossover the border, they always ask me first of all my citizenship.
And I say I'm a Canadian. And secondly, they say, how long are you going to be in the States? Because I'm a stranger here. My citizenship is Canadian, and as soon as they realize I'm Canadian, they know that I'm a stranger here. And they also know that I'm only here for a little time. Brethren, our citizenship is in heaven. We're fellow citizens with the Saints and of the household of God, and may we have this reality before our souls.
That we would have that character as those who don't belong and as those who are just passing through.
Brethren, we are on the very eve of the Lord's return, as we see the condition of this world getting worse and worse.
As we see things ripening for the judgment of God, as we see the stage set for the prophetic clock to begin ticking once again.
Oh, how thrilled our souls should be to look up and realize that very soon we're going to be taken out. We're going to be taken away. And how is it that we have been able to sit in these meetings and have the peace of God in our hearts, in a world of confusion and turmoil, In a few, a world where things are getting worse and worse? It's because we have claimed this promise. I will come again. I will come again.
00:40:17
It was given for the comfort of the disciples, and it's been the comfort and the consolation of the brethren.
All down through the ages, when Paul wrote to the Thessalonian brethren, he explained by inspiration very carefully the truth concerning the coming of the Lord Jesus. How it would take place. Those that would it would involve. And then at the end of it all he says, wherefore comfort one another with these words? And if our only look was around and back, wouldn't we be discouraged if in this life only we have hope in Christ?
We are of all men, most miserable. But we don't look just around and back. We look ahead and we look up. And so as we leave these meetings, may we have this hope before us, the hope of the imminent return of the Lord Jesus. And so this is what preserved David in the trials and the difficulties. He was thankful for the preservation of the Lord all along the way, but he says that goodness and mercy would follow him all the days of his life.
And there was something better at the end, he says. I will dwell in the House of the Lord.
Forever. But then we find where we read in the 122nd Psalm something for our present enjoyment. Because God always does those two things that's been mentioned in these meetings. He always gives us that hope, that eye to the future, that goal that Paul spoke about. But then, what about the present? Does God leave us to stumble through the wilderness on our own? Oh no, He provides everything that's needed.
And here David rejoiced when they said, Let us go into the House of the Lord.
And I just like to apply this in a collective sense, because if you notice, it begins with the individual I.
But then he says, when they said unto us, Let us go into the House of the Lord.
And I believe this morning we had the precious privilege of sitting down in the presence of the Lord Jesus, gathered by the Spirit of God around himself collectively with the Lord in the midst. What a blessed thing to know, brethren, that he desires our company.
You know, I think we need to keep this before our souls. I trust it was a joy to our hearts.
To be in the presence of the Lord Jesus this morning, it was a joy to David's heart when he could go up to the House of the Lord.
But, you know, I think we need to keep in view that his joy far exceeds ours, that he has made the provision for us, that it's his desire. I think of it in connection with Israel as a redeemed people in the wilderness. He brought them out of Egypt, redeemed them by the blood of the Passover lamb. He brought them through the Red Sea. By his power, they looked back. Their enemies were dead, and they had complete deliverance.
And God knew that when they entered the land, flowing with milk and honey, that he would place his name there, and that the Temple would eventually be built under the direction of Solomon, and that he would dwell with his people collectively in that day.
But you know, to my own soul, it's just as if Jehovah looks down at that redeemed company and he says it's a long time before I'm going to enjoy their company in the promised land. And I don't want to have to wait until that time. I want to enjoy their company now while they're still in the wilderness. And so I believe it's the 25th of Exodus. He looks down at that company and he says let them build me a sanctuary.
That I may dwell amongst them. Whose desire was that? Was it Israel looking up and requesting the presence of Jehovah amongst them?
Was it their desire expressed? Oh, no. It was Jehovah's desire to enjoy their company every step of the wilderness journey. And so, brethren, he desires to dwell amongst his people. And he has made provision so that we had the privilege this morning not only of breaking bread, but, I believe, of partaking of the Lord's Supper at the Lord's Table. It's only by grace, and if we find ourselves there, to remember him in death from week to week.
Let us remember, it's no credit to ourselves that it's His grace that brings us there.
00:45:02
And not only His grace that brings us there, but His grace that preserves us there as well.
And I trust, brethren, that the prayer and the sincere desire of our hearts is preserve me, O God. For in thee do I put my trust. And when we get home to glory, and we look into his blessed face, and as we look around at all the redeemed, there are we going to have something to boast in in ourselves? Are we going to be able to say that we kept ourselves in the path of faith? Are we going to be able to boast that we were at the Lord's table? Never, brother.
We're going to realize fully the impact of that verse that says it's God that worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. Well, it's true. His joy is great, and far exceeds ours whenever his people are gathered around him. Yet we need this exercise. Like David, I was glad when they said unto unto me, Let us go in to the House of the Lord, and does it rejoice our souls not just on Lord's day? Morning, brethren.
Wonderful privilege that we had this morning.
No privilege like it on the face of the earth. I trust it means something to our hearts and we value it until he comes. But not just on Lords Day morning. What about when we have the privilege of being gathered around himself for collective prayer?
What about the privilege when we are what? The privilege of being gathered around himself for the ministry of God's Word and to have the Word before us in the assembly? Is it our desire to be there? Is there that exercise with us? Are we glad when there are those times set aside by the assembly, when we can come apart from the cares of life, from the trials and the situations, and we can sit down in His presence?
I say he's made provision for us. He said. Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them. You know, this expression in the Psalms, the House of the Lord, is a remarkable expression, especially when we consider that the House of the Lord as we think of it, that is, Solomon's temple, had not even been erected yet. It wasn't built till after the death of David, and Solomon took the throne.
And why does David use this expression over and over and over again? The House of the Lord? Well, I've just enjoyed it in my own soul in a simple way. To me, it's just as if David would say there's one thing I covered above all else, and that's the company of my God. That's the company of the Lord He desired to be in the House of the Lord. We know what it is to have someone over to our house. Why do you invite someone over to your house?
Because you enjoy their company, you want to have fellowship with that person.
And this was David's desire to walk so that he might have the company of his God of Jehovah. And so he valued those times set aside when he could go up to the House of the Lord. And I just want to say something to those of us here who have young families.
Because, you know, as I've often said, I am thankful that I grew up in a home where our lives were planned around the Assembly. You know, I didn't always appreciate being brought to the Assembly meetings three or four times a week. But, you know, as I look back, I appreciate that exercise on the part of my father and mother. Because though I didn't always appreciate it, as I look back, I realize that even as a young child.
I knew what was important to my father and mother sometimes. There were times when we couldn't be there.
But I knew that that's where my parents desired to be and our lives were planned around the assembly.
But I fear, brethren, that sometimes what we do today is we plan our lives and try to work in the assembly. Brethren, it just doesn't work. And especially in this day of pressure, when life is so busy, society is on a roller coaster that's getting faster and faster. And so we need to plan our lives around the assembly. Is that the pivotal part of our lives? Does everything revolve around Tuesday night and Thursday night?
Does everything revolve around being in the presence of the Lord on Lord's Day Morning? If it does, brethren, if that is important to our hearts, then our children are going to see that these things mean something. And if they see that joy in us, like David said, I was glad it wasn't just a routine. It wasn't just something that he felt obligated to do, but he was glad there was a joy that radiated from David.
00:50:12
Every time he had the privilege of going into the House of the Lord, is that the way it is with us as our children look at us? Do they see that joy or do they see it something as just something we do because it's that time of the week again. Well, these things exercise my own soul because our children, even at an early age, they look on and they know where our values are. They know what's important to mother and father, and they know if there's a joy in our hearts in doing.
These things well then, we find in the 27th Psalm something a little different. David says one thing have I desired of the Lord. You notice it takes exercise in these things. It's true, it's only grace that puts a desire and a response in our hearts, but nevertheless there needs to be that exercise. It says of Daniel when he came to the court in Babylon, that he purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the King's meat. There had to be that purpose of heart for Daniel to go on.
In a difficult day, he might have said, well, it's a different day than we had when we were back in Judea. And when we were back there, well, everybody did those things, but now everybody's doing something else. Is that what he said? Was he going to give up? Was he going to compromise the truth as he knew it? Oh, no, He had that purpose of heart because it must be the heart. You know, I think it was mentioned the other day that the dwelling place of the truth is the must be the heart if it's going to have a practical effect on our lives.
I sometimes put it this way. The entrance of the truth is the mind, because you have to read the word and take it in that way.
The channel is the conscience because it must always speak to our conscience, and the dwelling place is the heart.
The entrance is the mind, the channel is the conscience, and the dwelling place is the heart. And when the truth enters in that way, then there will be that purpose of heart. Barnabas went down and exhorted the early brethren that with purpose of heart they would cleave unto the Lord. It takes energy to cleave or to hold fast. And how often we're told to hold fast that which thou hast hold fast till I come. And so David said one thing have I desired of the Lord.
One thing you know, sometimes it's possible to have everything in order.
And one thing is missing and it spoils the whole thing. Everything else is can be tossed out because that one thing is missing. We used to do jigsaw puzzles when we were children, and my father used to go to a sale and he'd get a whole box of a stack of second hand jigsaw puzzles and we'd bring them home and we'd work for hours at those puzzles. And when we got done, there was one piece missing and it spoiled the whole picture.
Even though it was just one corner of the puzzle. And so sometimes one thing can be out of order or one thing missing and it spoils everything else the Lord said of Mary. One thing was needful are to Martha. One thing was needful and that was to sit at Jesus feet. There was a man who came to the Lord and he was a very fine young man. But he lacked one thing. He lacked salvation. And so David says one thing of high desire. This was before his soul.
Of us, despite everything else. He had this before his soul. And what was that?
To dwell in the House of the Lord all the days of his life. We've spoken of it in connection with the future and that which lies ahead for every believer. I will dwell in the House of the Lord forever. We've spoken of it in connection with the collective side of things. I I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the House of the Lord. We enjoy those privileges, I trust from week to week. But here's something a little different now that I may dwell in the House of the Lord all the days of my life.
In other words, David would say, I don't want to wait till I leave this world, and I don't want to enjoy it, as we would say for one hour on Lords Day, but I want to enjoy the company of the Lord Jesus every day of my life. Do we have that exercise, brethren? I say this to my own heart. Do we have this one thing, this one desire before our souls, that we might walk in a way that we would enjoy His presence and His company with us?
No matter where we are, no matter what the situation, so that we have one that we can turn to at any time.
00:55:03
This was the fruit of David's desire to enjoy the company of the Lord all the days of his life, that he would turn to the Lord and inquire in any situation, and to see the beauty of the Lord as well. What a blessed thing it is to walk through this life in the company of the Lord Jesus brethren, There's no substitute for communion. To enjoy His company is everything He wants, our company. His desire is to enjoy our company.
Is that our desire and exercise? You know we don't have to pray and ask the Lord to be with us.
He is with us, he says. I will never leave thee nor forsake thee. David said I am continually with thee. He never leaves us, but all the exercise ought to be are we walking in a way that we can enjoy? His company. It was brought before us, those two on the way to Emmaus, and how they were leaving Jerusalem. They have been told to remain there, but they're going away now. And Jesus himself drew near and went with them. He didn't forsake them. He didn't leave them.
It's true, they didn't appreciate who it was at the time. They didn't understand that it was the Lord Jesus with them. But he was there nevertheless. And there was, this was pointed out, a restoration for them. And they returned with great joy. And so he's there. He's with us. He'll never leave us. He'll carry us safely home to glory. But the joy comes only as we enjoy his company. You know, there's a sad contrast made with the prophet Jonah in the Old Testament.
Because, you know, Jonah was one who decided that he had had enough of the Lord's company.
And he it says he fled from the presence of the Lord. But you know, it was a bitter experience.
He had to pay the fare. And when we seek our own way, when we go on and don't enjoy his company, there's a fair that has to be paid. There's a loss in our souls, a loss of fruit, a loss of testimony, a loss of rest of soul and peace of heart. And Jonah found that the fair that had to be paid was too costly. And the Lord did come in, in His grace and restore Jonah. He had to go through that bitter experience. It's true.
But he was restored. He was one of the Lords, and he was eventually used to deliver that message to Nineveh.
But I say he could have saved himself that bitter experience if he had not fled from the presence of the Lord. And so I say to those of us who are younger, particularly as we go from these meetings, may we have that purpose of heart. Like Daniel, may we have that exercise of soul that we would walk in obedience to the word, that we might enjoy the company of the Lord Jesus all the days of our life. And if you do that, then you can inquire in his temple, you can turn to the Lord in any situation.
David said in the 73rd Psalm. Nevertheless, I am continually with me. Thou art continual. I am continually with thee. Thou hast holding me by my right hand. Thou wilt guide me with thy counsel and afterward receive me to glory. It's true we're looking on to the glory, but do we need counsel? Do we need to be upheld? Now David was walking so close to the Lord that he said, I'm holding his hand. He's holding my hand. You have to be close to somebody. You have to be conscious of somebody to hold their hand.
That's the way David desired to walk in communion with his God will. I trust, brethren, that these verses will encourage our hearts then to go on the little time that remains, because it is a little time we're going on to the Father's house. Just as David looked forward to dwelling in the House of the Lord forever. In the meantime, he's made provision that we might be gathered around himself collectively and that he might enjoy our company now.
And not only collectively, but as individuals to go on.
In the presence of the Lord, this alone brings joy in our path of faith and service.
01:00:05
Six in the back of the book.
I.
Our loving Father and our God.
Thumping gratitude begifies.
01:05:03
That we belong to the new creation.
They that are joined to the Lord.
Are one Spirit.
And we have so enjoy.
The expression.
Of one of our hymn writers 1 Spirit for the Lord.
And so as joined to the head.
In glory by the Spirit.
We enjoy.
In our measure now a taste of the powers of the world economy.
And we are glad are glad our God to be invited.
To places such as this.
Our love brethren here who have labored for our comfort to provide such a place where we can taste a foretaste of hope.
We are glad to argue on.
And the precious privilege to know of the desire of our Lord Jesus Christ.
For our company.
For he has expressed it.
That he longs to see our countenance and to hear our voice.
Oh, do thou give us.
That purpose of heart.
It quickly judged that which would hinder.
Our desire for his presence.
Give us our God.
To take to heart.
The desires of our Lord Jesus Christ be found in His company until we until He comes for us.
We commit some of our loved ones to be already on the road.
Some of us must shortly depart. We pray for the gospel like grace that has gone out here.
And we'll go out in a little meeting room across the way. If we're left here, Oh, Father, gather in precious souls, we pray we have been reminded of the urgency.
Of the times through which we passed.
Time is short.
We can look up and know that our salvation is nearer than when we believe. And so we pray for an end, gathering through the preaching of the precious gospel of Thy grace. So we give thee thanks again for having been here. We pray for the little companies that have suffered.
Weakness because of some of us being gone help us to take something from here.
To benefit our lost brethren that have sacrificed for us to enjoy the precious ministry that's given here. So we committed to be and give thanks Lord Jesus and Thy appearance and precious and worthy being. Amen. We rejoice our hearts to be able to survey the past three days.
In my tender kindness and love and grace and goodness.
To answer many hundreds of thousands of prayers to give us these three days of sweet, sweet communion with thyself and with one another, and to give journey mercies our Father.
For those who have come here and we pray for those who will be returning now to their homes, that thou wilt repeat this and give journey versus back home again.
How good thou art our father to look down upon us with real favor and.
Give us more than we asked for, and the liberty of the Spirit to.
Feed our souls and refresh our souls and edify us. And we trust, Father, that in the gospel of Thy grace some precious soul will get saved, if it hasn't already.
That we just commit our ways to be giving thanks. Praise to Jesus made your name. Amen.
01:10:04
Second Chronicles Chapter 4 and verse 18.
Thus Solomon made all these vessels in great abundance, for the weight of the brass could not be found out. And then in the 6th chapter and verse 12.
And he stood before the altar of the Lord in the presence of all the congregation of Israel, and spread forth his hands. For Solomon had made a brazen scaffold, A5 cubits long and five cubits broad.
3 cubits high, and had set it in the midst of the court, and upon it he stood and kneeled down upon his knees before all the congregation of Israel, and spread forth his hands toward heaven. And then one more verse in Ezra, chapter 8.
Ezra chapter 8 in the middle of verse 27.
And two vessels of fine copper or shining brass precious as gold.
Well, this morning, as we have sung these hymns together, as we have read these scriptures, and as we have had the blessed privilege of once again remembering our precious Savior and death, our thoughts have gone back to Calvary. And we have had much this morning before us concerning the sufferings of Christ, not so much His sufferings at the hands of man, cruel and terrible as that was.
But we have had, I believe before us, directed by the Spirit of God, those sufferings that he endured at the hand of God, when the rod of God's wrath was lifted up against him and when he bore our sins.
In his own body on the tree, and it has been often pointed out, and I believe rightly so.
That when we take up the subject of brass in the scriptures, it speaks to us in type of divine judgment, that which the Lord Jesus bore in those three hours of darkness. And it has been often mentioned as well that when they brought the different materials for the building, first of all of the Tabernacle in the wilderness, and then for the building of Solomon's temple, where we have read here that each commodity was carefully measured out and weighed and recorded.
But when it came to that which spoke in tight of divine judgment, there was no record of the weight. The weight of the brass could not be found out, because brethren, I don't believe for all eternity will ever fully enter in to what He passed through in those hours of darkness. Sometimes we sing how deep the sorrow. Who can tell that was for us endured. We sometimes sing the depths of all thy suffering.
No heart could ere conceive I like the way another hymn writer put it, he said. And none of the ransomed ever knew how deep were the waters crossed, or how dark was the night the Lord passed through ere he found the sheep that was lost.
And so I believe in that coming day we will have a deeper and more full understanding of these things.
But I don't believe that we will ever fully enter in to the weight of the brass. And then we find in the 6th chapter where we read Solomon comes that beautiful temple is completed. God has placed his name there at Jerusalem.
And Solomon comes, and he views that temple God has promised to dwell with his people there.
And as he comes, and as he prays at the dedication of the temple, what does He stand on? He stands on that which in tight speaks of divine judgment.
What is his footing here? How does he make his approach? He comes on a scaffold of brass. Because, brethren, I believe we have had the privilege this morning of being in the presence of the Lord Jesus, gathered around himself for this precious privilege. And I trust that we realize in our hearts that we come this morning, and that we have been gathered in this manner, because another has borne the judgment. We come in tight on that scaffold of brass.
Realizing that the Lord Jesus bore the judgment.
And now we have been set free, and we have made, been made fit for His presence. The judgment has been born, the blood has been shed. And now we come with boldness and access this morning into the very presence of the Lord Jesus. And we sometimes sing to thy our title to glory. We read in Thy blood, and I believe in that day we will have a full understanding and realize that we are there in glory.
01:15:28
Around the Savior, not because we have brought anything of ourselves.
But because he has died, and by one offering he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. But then I believe we have something a little different in the book of Ezra. You know, it's always good to get God's view of something, and God always gives his appreciation his estimation of a truth. And I believe that that's what we have here in the book of Ezra, because, you know, you find in Scripture that at a time.
When God's people perhaps had a little understanding or didn't have the proper appreciation for something, God always gave his view. And here we find that they had returned. Now, after the captivity, they had returned to the very spot where God had placed his name. They rejoiced to be there and again, As the commodities for the rebuilding of the temple are brought, they are carefully weighed and measured.
But you know, the more I read Scripture, the more I'm impressed with its accuracy. Because we find here that that while we're not told the weight of the brass, we're not told that it could not be found out. Because this is God's view, This is God's estimation. And it's true, He doesn't tell us the weight of the brass because we couldn't take it in. But brethren, he alone knows God who knew them, laid them on Him. He knew my sins.
He knew your sins, and he laid them on the blessed Savior. I say this is God's value. This is God's appreciation. And so we find here that it's shining brass. Isn't that precious, brethren? We don't always have a full appreciation for these things.
But God views that work this morning in all its freshness and perfection.
Sometimes in Canada they build government buildings and they put copper roofs on them and they shine for a little while, but then they lose their luster. But all though it's been 2000 years since the work was accomplished at Calvary's Cross, it has not lost its luster to the heart of God. He views that, I say, in all its beauty and perfection. This morning it's shining brass, precious as gold. This is God's view.
And, brethren, I am thankful this morning that as I have been here in the presence of the Lord Jesus, and as I look on to the glory in the Father's house, I am thankful that my acceptance before God does not depend on my estimation of the work of Calvary. But God this morning views that work. It's precious to his heart. It's fresh to his heart. And my acceptance before God does depend upon that.
All. May we never lose sight of this brethren. And I trust as we've had a loaf and a cup before us this morning, and as we have partaken and remembered him in his death, I trust that our hearts have entered in.
In some deeper and more full way, in some little measure to what he passed through, and brethren in some little measure what the person and worth of Christ means to the heart of God.
Its shining brass precious.