St. Louis Conference: 2019
Table of Contents
Parable of the Sower
Address—David Mearns
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.
Wonder if we could open our meeting this afternoon with singing #42 in the back of this little Block hymn book #42 in the back. If somebody could please start that.
And I saw the birds of all happened to me.
Not many.
Are.
Being.
Non Israeli No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
It is my brother's blood sweaters.
Turn with me, please, to Luke's gospel.
Luke's Gospel, Chapter 8.
This is where we're going to spend most of our time this afternoon.
It's my purpose to make a few preliminary comments with regards to the Gospels.
Then to read this parable of the sower.
Which is usually read in the gospel.
What I would look to look at often we we speak about our state of soul. We speak about being in a good state of soul. We speak about good being in a bad state of soul. But I'd like to narrow it down and perhaps look at this portion and to look at four states of Seoul that we find in this wonderful power parable of the sower. Now the Gospels are, are very different.
00:05:19
They're very different, but I love them because of how they.
They they mold together and what you don't get in one, you get in another.
And they're a beautiful.
Array of various different situations that cross our Lords pathway and they're different. Just just for an example.
The in Matthews Gospel there's 21.
21 miracles.
In Mark's Gospel, there's 18 miracles.
In Luke's gospel, there's 22 miracles.
In John's Gospel, there's nine.
And of those nine, there's six of them that are only in John.
That's kind of interesting. And yet out of all those miracles, there's only one that's in all four.
The feeding of the 5000. So why would the feeding of the 5000 be in all four and not the feeding of the 4000 feeding the 4000? It's only in two. You know, it's very interesting to go through this pathway of the Lord Jesus in these gospels. To me, it's fascinating. I'm fascinated by details. Some people are.
Well, as we say, some people are splitters and some people are lumpers. Some people could see a big picture, some people narrow into small things.
It's good to have an outline of sound truth. I am affected by details.
If you were to ask.
If you were to ask four different people to give a discourse as to what I was like, if you were to ask my wife, she could perhaps write a paragraph as to what I was like as a husband. If you were to ask my daughter over there, she would give you a little discourse as to how what I was like as a father.
If you were to ask one of my customers, they would maybe let you know what I was like as a, as a, as a, as a Carpenter.
Free to ask my brother and sister-in-law were there, they would give you perhaps a little different flavor as to as to what I was like. And so we have in the gospels 4 different presentations of the Lord Jesus in a wonderful way. And I want to look at this parable. It's found in three gospels.
Department of the Sower in Matthew's Gospel. The focus.
Is on the sower. That's the focus. In Matthew's Gospel, the focus is on the sore. In Mark's Gospel, the focus is on the work of sewing.
That's if you go through the discourse in Mark's gospel, that's what's going to tell you the work of sewing this gospel.
The focus and I appreciated our last prayer meeting because there were so many mentions of the need for the Word of God in our life. In this gospel, the focus is on the seed.
That's the focus in Luke's gospel is on the seed. So let's read this parable and then as we go through it.
To.
To look at the different states of soul in which every one of us here have found ourselves in at one time or another.
And perhaps everyone of us here is in one of these states of soul.
And as to what the Lord has for our good and for our, our blessing in these states of soul with regards to his precious word, it's, it's, it's very instructive. So let's look at Mark's gospel, Elisa, Luke's gospel, chapter 8, and we'll look at this parable of the sower.
So in verse 4.
It says and when much people were gathered together, just make a comment on just that phrase before we read the portion. Sometimes the Lord Jesus spoke to individuals, sometimes he broke. He spoke to much people. We have before us this afternoon a group of people, not an individual, and I trust that as we go through this.
I would suggest that the speaker needs what we have here more than anybody else in this room.
Having meditated on it and looking at it, I need it so much. Well, I think we all need what we have here. So we find here there's much people and they were gathered together. I would just like to suggest too that.
00:10:00
It's a serious thing.
Under any circumstances to gather people together.
Whether it's for three days of meetings, whether it's for him, Singh, whether it's for a soccer game, it's always a serious thing to gather people together and it can be for much profit if there is exercise when people are gathered together. So here we have much people were gathered together and we're come to him.
At a vet every city and he spake by a parable.
So of Sower went out to sow. Now here's the focus in this particular gospel. He went out to sow his seed, his seat. There's the focus. As he sowed, some fell by the wayside.
And it was trodden down.
And the fowls of the year devoured it.
And some fell upon a rock.
And as soon as it was sprung up, it withered away because it lacked moisture.
And some fell among thorns, and the thorns sprang up with it and choked it.
And others fell on good ground, and sprang up, and bear fruit a hundredfold. And when he had said these things, he cried. He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.
His disciples asked him, saying, what might this parable?
He said unto them, unto you. It is given to the mysteries of the Kingdom of God, but to others in parables.
They might not see and hearing, they might not understand. Now the parable is this. Here again we have that which would show us where the focus is.
In Luke's gospel with regards to the sower, we have in the 11 first the seed.
Is the word of God, and that is peculiar to Luke. Those by the wayside are they that hear. Then cometh the devil, and taketh away the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved.
And on the rock are they which when they hear, receive the word with joy. And these have no root, Which for a while believe, And in time of temptation fall away, And that which fell among thorns.
Are they which, when they have heard, go forth, and are choked with cares?
And riches and pleasures of this life, and bring no fruit to perfection, put that on the good ground, are they which in an honest and good heart, having heard the word, keep it, and bring forth fruit with patience, as also peculiar just to Luke.
So I realized that we take up this portion. We are very used to taking this portion up in the gospel.
But that's not my exercise.
This afternoon, as I said, it's to look at the states of Seoul that we find here. So the first one.
The wayside.
Verse 5A Sower went out to sow his seat.
Has he sowed some fell by the wayside and it was trodden down and the fowls of the air devoured it. The wayside we read read quite a bit about the wayside in the Word of God.
If we were to go back into Genesis, we would read about Judah in the 38th of.
Genesis And what does it say when he sends someone out to pay his debts? It says we're looking for the harlot that sat by the wayside. Sometimes the wayside is not a very good place. It says about Eli.
When they had taken the Ark of God out to the Philistines, it says, Eli sat in his seat by the wayside.
The wayside is the place where you have the hard packed dirt we all have the experience of of going down.
A pathway in in a vehicle that's perhaps not traveled very much and you see some grass on either side, you see some grass in the middle and where the tires go, there's nothing growing.
00:15:07
That's the wayside. It's the hard packed dirt.
And we read here that when it comes to that hard packed dirt, when it comes to the, the, the seed that's sown, it says some fell by the wayside and was trodden down and the fowls of the air devoured it. You know, the reason that is, is because it, it couldn't, it couldn't germinate.
It can't penetrate that hard packed dirt.
You know, I can relate to that in my own life when there are those times in my life when the good seed is so in my soul and there's a hardness of heart and it just can't penetrate.
I wonder if there's someone here this afternoon. I know there's a lot of young folks here and you're going to identify with these states of Seoul. Perhaps there's someone here and the Word of God just can't penetrate it, just cannot get past that hardness.
You know, it's a state of soul that I found myself in numerous times. And there is a solution. There's a beautiful solution. Let's turn to.
Well, let's before we turn to it, let's look.
Let's look at the 12Th verse where the Lord Jesus is speaking about the is speaking about the wayside.
He said, Now the parable is this in the 11 First the seed of the word of God, and those by the wayside are they which hear and then cometh the devil, and taketh away the word out of their hearts.
Lest they should believe and be saved. You know, the devil is spoken of twice in Luke's gospel. The first time we read of him is when he unsuccessfully seeks to tempt the Lord Jesus. But here we find that the devil has spoken about and where he very successfully deceives men, and he takes away the word that's sown in the heart.
And I can identify with that the many times where there's been a brother that stood in a place like this.
And he has told forth many things and it has not made any connection whatsoever in my heart. And why? Because that hard packed dirt.
Because there was just no penetration. There's a hardness, there's a hardness. Oh, what a solemn thing to to have hardness of heart. But turn over with me now to the book of Job for a moment.
The Book of Job.
Job Chapter 23.
Chapter 23.
And in verse 16 we read this.
For God maketh my heart.
Soft.
God maketh my heart soft.
I've prayed that many times that God would take.
That hard packed dirt of my heart and make it soft, make it pliable. So the good seed that is sown. I think of the many times the the word of God has been held forth as the word of life and it hasn't had that effect in my own soul because of a hardness of heart.
We're not talking about unbelievers here. We're not talking about unbelievers that have hard hearts that are not interested in the gospel. We're talking about those of us who are believers that sometimes.
Whatever circumstances arise, it causes us. It says that it's trodden down and then there's a hardness there.
And because of that hardness.
The good seed just can't penetrate all that we would realize that God desires to make our hearts soft. You know there's another scripture in Speaking of the let's turn to it. It's in the book of Ezekiel. You farmers will appreciate this better than I will. Ezekiel chapter 36.
00:20:04
Speaking about the mountains of Jerusalem, but.
The word there in Ezekiel 36 and verse nine is Behold, I am for you.
I will turn unto you, and ye shall be tilled, and so on. Although we desire that in our own souls to have that hard packed dirt killed up so that the seed can fall, the seed can go in it, the seed can germinate, and the seed can bring forth fruit. You know, it's not one of us here that doesn't desire to bring forth fruit for the glory and honor of the Lord Jesus.
But you know, even being able to sit down with the Lord to enjoy his presence.
If there's a hardness of heart.
There's going to be no connection. There has to be that, that pliable soil, that soil that's worked up. Oh, God is able to do that with our souls, isn't he, To make our hearts soft. Let's go on to the next one.
Luke's Gospel.
Just before we read that, if you look at the 12Th verse.
It says in connection with the wayside those are they by the wayside are they that hear, then come with the devil and take it the way the the word of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved.
You know, I was, I was visiting with.
With a brother.
And.
Hadn't seen him for a long time and I had a visit with him and he was he is someone that.
Got away from the Lord. The Lord had restored his soul. But in the meantime, from the years when I enjoyed fellowship with him as a young person, until a short time ago when I when I had a discussion with him, he had.
He had a marriage and had broken up, family broken up. He spent some time in jail and as I'm visiting with him and.
We were enjoying some things of Lord together, and I said, you know, and I called them by name and I said.
Since we last saw each other, there's been a lot of water that's gone under the bridge. And he kind of looked down and he said, yeah, a lot of dirty water, a lot of dirty water. And what it says here that the enemy wants to take away that seed lest they should be saved, That has to do with a saved life.
I'm amazed as I reflect on a young person like many of you are here.
Those that I had fellowship with, sweet fellowship, those who were encouragement to me when I was younger and how at the present time they've had a lost life. Yes, their souls are souls are are saved, but their life is lost. And that's what the enemy wants to do. As it says here. He wants to take away that seed sown lest they should believe and be saved. Well, let's look at the next one now.
The Stony ground.
The Stony Ground, verse 6.
Some fell upon a rock.
And as soon as it was sprung up.
It withered away.
Because it lacked moisture, it withered away.
Because it lacked moisture.
Now let's go over to.
The 13th verse.
Where the Lord speaks about this.
It says they on the rock are they which when they hear, receive the word of God with joy. Before I read the rest of that, I just want to make a comment, particularly those of you who are young.
What I enjoy doing as I read the scripture is to read.
Whatever portion it is as if I'm reading it for the very, very first time.
And then also to read it listening for the voice of the Lord as if I'm listening for the very, very first time. I mark up my Bible. I mark it up, but I read from one at home that's not marked up. And I read those verses as if I'm looking at them for the very first time. You say, how do you read John 316 as if you're reading it for the first time? You can do it.
00:25:08
Read it as if you're seeing what's on those pages for the very first time, as the as the, as the wonderful Word of God.
And also read it as if you're hearing the voice of the Lord for the very first time.
And so we have that here, don't we? It says they that are on the rock are they which when they hear receive the word with joy. And these have no root, which for a while believe. You know, that's an interesting statement is, isn't it? If you turn into turn to marks gospel, it's just rendered a little differently. It says those endure for a while. They endure for a while. To me, that's such a solemn thing.
To look at this the the rocky soil. But what's the problem with the rocky soil?
The rocky soil as we have in the in the sixth verse, it says it sprung up and it withered because it lacked moisture. I understand the concept. It just withered. You know, I've, I've, I've experienced that in my own life.
When there's been a lack of moisture, a lack of the moisture from the word of God, and what does it do?
It has that withering effect, doesn't it? It just and.
We all know what a plant looks like when it needs moisture.
It's a symptom. We've got to get that plant some moisture.
I'm not a farmer, but I hear the farmers around around our place and you know, they have furrowed brows when there's been a dry spell and how we really need rain. Why? Because the plants need moisture and so our souls need moisture. And that's the problem here in the rocky ground.
It says here that it withered because it lacked moisture.
You know, I was I was visiting with a brother just last week, had breakfast with him, hadn't seen him for a long time was a brother that was once gathered and.
He was very much enjoying the Lord and we were reflecting on.
When we were younger, the many people in the sphere of our acquaintance that had a good start and yet had a bad finish. A good start but a bad finish.
And you know, the Lord's desire is for us is to have a good finish here, it says.
It says that it endured for a while.
Which for a while believe, and in the time of temptation fall away.
You know I'm going to do something.
I'm going to turn back to Second Chronicles just to make a point with regards to what we're Speaking of here. So let's go back to Second Chronicles.
Second Chronicles, the 13th chapter.
I want to go through a few of the kings.
We're just going to read very briefly some of these kings just to make the point that I'm making with regards to the Stony ground. So here in the 13th chapter we read about a man of by the name of Abaja.
And we read in the in the third verse it says Abide just set the battle in Array with an army of valiant men of war, even 400,000 chosen men.
And Jeroboam also set the battle in Array against him with 800,000 chosen men. You have a hopelessly, hopelessly unbalanced scenario here where you've got 400,000 against 800,000. And it says Abai GYM stood up upon Mount Zemaram. And in this tenth verse he says, but As for us, the Lord is our God and we have not forsaken him. And we read in the 12Th verse, behold, God himself is for us, for our captain.
You know, you read that, you think, wow, what a marvelous thing. But let's go over to 1St Kings. Now the rest of the time we're going to spend in Second Chronicles, but here, in here in First Kings chapter 15.
Turn with me there in connection with this King. First Kings chapter 15.
It says in the 18th year of King Jeroboam, the son of Nevat reigned Abay Gem over Judah.
And we read in the third verse, And he walked in all the sins of his father, which he had done before him. And his heart was not perfect with the Lord his God as the heart of David his father. Here's a king.
00:30:02
He had a good start, but he doesn't have a good finish.
Look at chapter 14 of Second Chronicles.
Have I just slept with his father's? They buried him in the city of David, and Asia's son reigned in his stead. And in his days the land was quiet. 10 years. And ASA did that which was good and right in the eyes of the Lord his God. The 11Th verse in connection with a battle. And Isa cried unto the Lord his God, and said, Lord, it is nothing with thee to help, whether with many or with them that have no power, help us, O Lord our God.
For we rest.
On the turn to Chapter 16.
Chapter 16. Verse 12.
And ASA, in the 30 and 9th year of his reign, was diseased in his feet until his disease was exceeding great.
Yet in his disease he sought not to the Lord, but to the physicians. A good start.
Bad finish.
Turn the page Chapter 17.
Jehoshaphat, his son ringed in his stead, strengthened himself against Israel.
Verse three And the Lord was with Jehoshaphat, because he walked in the first ways of his father David, and sought not to Balaam, but sought to the Lord God of his father, and walked in his commandments, and not after the doings of Israel.
Turn over to the 20th chapter.
20th chapter.
Verse 35.
After this the Jehoshaphat king of Judah join himself with Isaiah king of Israel, and who did very wickedly, and he joined himself with him to make ships to go to Tarshish. And they made the ships. And Izan Kiber. Then Eliezer the son of A of Marsha, prophesied against Jehoshaphat, saying, Because that was, Join thyself with Aziah, the Lord hath broken thy work, and so on.
Good start.
Not so good a finish.
Turn the page.
Chapter 24.
First, first, Josh was seven years old when he began to reign, and he reigned 40 years in Jerusalem. And his mother's name was Zabaya of Beersheba. And Joash did that which was right in the sight of the Lord.
Chapter 24. Verse 17. Now after the death of Jehoiada came the Princess of Judah.
Made obeisance to the king. Then the king hearkened unto them, and they left the House of the Lord God of their fathers, and served Groves and idols. Verse 22. Thus Joash the king remembered not the kindness which Jehoiada, his father had done unto him, but slew his son.
And so on.
Good start, bad finish.
One after another turn the page.
Actually don't don't even turn the pages. Chapter 25, a Messiah, a Messiah was 20 and five years old when he began to reign. He reigned 20 and nine years in Jerusalem and his mother's name was Jehovahan of of Jerusalem. And he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord. And you turn the page in verse 27, it says after the time that Amaziah did turn away from following the Lord.
Can you read that? You read that life history and you realize here's a man, he's got a good start.
And again he's got a bad finish. Chapter 26. Then all the people of Judah took Isaiah, who was 16 years old, and made him king in the room of his father Amaziah. Verse four. And he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord. Verse five. And he sought God in the days of Zechariah, who had understanding of the visions of God. And as long as he sought the Lord, God made him to prosper. Verse 16 But when he was strong.
His heart was lifted up to his destruction, for he transgressed.
Against the Lord his God. Good start, bad finish.
That's the point of the state of soul.
Of the seed that is sown on the rocky ground that Withers if we do not give it the moisture of the Word of God. And so that's why it says here in our chapter, Luke's Gospel chapter, chapter 8. And these have no root which for a while believe.
And in time of temptation, fall.
00:35:00
Away.
Dear young people.
It's sometimes hard for me to look at young ones. I'm just delighted when I see those that have a desire to go on in a manner that's consistent with the truth have a joy in the Lord. But as I look in my own souls experience, I look back to those that were an encouragement to me. Many of them had a good start and a bad finish.
You know, I was my wife and I took a woman out for supper there a few weeks ago.
And.
She.
Her husband left her.
And she was trying to get her life back together and she a number of months ago when this first happened, I, I said to her and I dressed her by name. I said, these are folks that were once gathered. I said, when was it that you stopped reading and praying together? And she hung her head and she said.
You know, Dave, we never did. We never did. And they always lacked the moisture of the word of God. You know, we had a we had a delightful.
Message in Montreal is in the reading meeting, a brother said we were looking at John's Gospel chapter three, he said. I'd just like to share a thought that was advanced to me many years ago when I was younger, he said in John's In John's Gospel Chapter 3, we have look and live.
In John's Gospel chapter 5, we have here and live. In John's Gospel chapter 6IN connection with the bread of life, we have eat and live. But in John's Gospel chapter four, we have drink and live, and that's the Stony ground. There needs to be a continual drinking. Who shall drinketh of this water? Shall thirst again? But who shall drinketh of the water that I shall drink? It's a continual drinking the water that I shall give him.
Shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life. Is there someone here this afternoon and you kind of feel withered?
You just kind of feel withered.
You know, it's the moisture of the word of God.
That revives us. I had the privilege of having a man some time ago, he called me up and he said, Dave, I had two aunts. I had two aunts and they passed away. When they passed away, they had peace.
And he said they had they had the same peace that you have. I want your peace.
I asked him to come over, he came over and umm, we chatted together and.
After we chatted some time, I said, you know, how real is this? Oh, it's, it's it's very real and to hear and poor, it's harder to God and to tell God that he was a Sinner and to and to receive his offer of salvation, which just a delightful thing.
But a short while later.
I was speaking with him. It was in the springtime. I was speaking with him and he said, you know, Dave, I'm having a hard time reading the Bible, just having a hard time.
And I was reading this portion at the time I went home and I, I thought about this portion. I thought, you know, he needs to hear this. He needs to hear this. And so I got in my truck and I drove over to his place. On my way over, I, I didn't quite get there. I pulled off of the side of the road and I, I wanted to read him the portion about how the, the, the good seed that fell on the rocky ground without moisture withered. I wanted to read him that. And, and he said.
And I said, I pull off to the side of the road and I just committed it to the Lord and asked the Lord to help me be able to present it in a manner that's he's going to be able to receive it and the time he's going to be right and you worry about all those things. And I got back in my truck and I drove in his driveway just as he's putting a sprinkler.
On to some fresh grass that he planted a week ago. And it's up this high. Like you couldn't possibly orchestrate such a thing like that. You couldn't dream of orchestrating anything like that. So I drove in the driveway. I watched him come down the driveway. The sprinkler's going and he goes over to the grass and he puts it down on this grass that's all up this high, comes around from the side of my truck. I roll down the window and I read in this portion.
As soon as I read a portion about the about how the the lack of moisture makes things wither, he just looked at me and said I get it. I get it with the God that we would always get it ourselves.
That when there was a withering in our soul that we would provide from the word of God that moisture that.
00:40:02
Enables us to revive, to be able to grow well the rocky ground. What a solemn thing to read this. And on the rock the 13th verse are they which, when they hear, receive the word with joy.
These have no root, which for a while believe. Oh, what a sad thing to have a good start and a bad finish, and in time of temptation fall away. Well, what's the next one? The thorns?
The thorns.
Verse 7.
Some fell among thorns.
And the thorns sprung up and choked it.
And then we read over in the 14th verse, where the Lord is opening this up, and he says, And that which fell among thorns are they which, when they have heard, go forth, and are choked with cares.
And riches.
And pleasures of this life and bring no fruit.
To perfection.
I want to turn over to.
Matthew's Gospel for a moment.
Matthew's Gospel, the 18th chapter.
Just to.
Show what's happening here if we were to go further on in our chapter, the 8th chapter, it's where the.
It's where there's the 2000 swine and they run down the side of the mountain and they, they, they run right into the sea. And the word that's used there, it says and they choked and they choked Here in Matthew's Gospel, we have just what it is to be choked, and it's also a discourse.
That that the Lord gave. He spoke in the 23rd verse about the Kingdom of heaven, likened unto a certain king, which was to take account of his servants.
When he began to reckon, one was brought unto him, which owed him 10,000 talents.
And for as much as he had not to pay, his Lord commanded him to be sold, and his wife and his children, and all that he had, and payment to be made. The servant therefore fell down and worshipped him, and said, Lord, have patience with me, and I will pay thee all. Then the Lord of that servant was moved with compassion, loosed him, and forgave him the debt. But the same servant went out and found one of his fellow servants, which owed him 100 pence, and he laid his hands on him. This is the thought.
This is the thought of the thorns. It says He laid hands on and he took them by the throat. He choked him. That is a thought of the thorns. Have you ever watched?
A mother with a baby.
And the baby starts to choke.
Have you ever watched as to how involved the mother is with all the things around her?
You know, everything drops and there's full focus on the little baby that's choking and to try and get that little piece of whatever out of the throat. This is the thorns. These are the thorns in our life. It's a state of soul. And what does it say? It says here, these are they that fell among the thorns, and they which when they have heard, go forth and are choked.
With the cares.
The riches.
And the pleasures of this life and bring no fruit.
To perfection.
I think we understand that concept. You know, the cures of this life are real. They're very real.
But we can allow them to choke out the word.
The pleasures of this life are real.
And they can choke out the word. We all carry one of these things. It's a tremendous, tremendous tool of use.
Starting to brother in Egypt this morning because of this tool. But what else does this tool have? It is filled with corruption.
It is filled with that which completely wastes our time.
00:45:01
That which is really for our good and profit. But if we allow it the cares of this life, the pleasures, the riches they choke out the word they choke it to me that's you know it turned Matthews gospel for a moment where where we we read.
A statement that we can put right alongside of this portion that we're reading Matthew's Gospel chapter 313, where we also have the parable of the Soar. But it's just a statement I want to make.
Which to me is so solemn in my own life.
Because in Matthews Gospel chapter 13 and verse 24 we read another parable. Put he forth unto them, saying, the Kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man which sowed here we are good seed in his field. But oh, this next statement it says, But while men slept, his enemy came.
While men slept, his enemy came. You know, I find myself in connection with these.
Cares. With these pleasures, with these riches, I find it's so easy to be asleep. It's so easy to be asleep. What happens when we're asleep? The enemy came and he did his deadly work.
We're having a little trouble with time, so let's push along now.
To the next state of soul.
Verse 8.
The other fell on good ground, and sprung up, and bear fruit in a hundredfold. And when he had said these things, he cried. He that hath ears to hear, let him hear. And then over to the 15th verse.
Verse 15 But that on the good ground are they which in an honest and good heart, having heard the word, keep it and bring forth fruit with patience. And that is that is peculiar to to Luke's gospel, but it starts off here.
In the in the eighth verse it says He that hath ears to hear.
Let him hear that little word. Let.
Pretty important word in the.
Scripture and justice about every time we read about read that word let in in the New Testament, it's God seeking.
To bring our soul.
Into a state where the Spirit of God can develop things.
In our life and take our wills into control and put us in a position where he can work that which he desires to work in our lives. The little word let well here it says in connection with the, the, the, the good ground. He that hath ears to hear, let him hear so. So what are we going to say about the good ground? What are we going to say about the good ground? You know, I got a text from a young man.
A week ago.
Here's a note. It's coming. He's here, but nobody would know that. So this is anonymous. He texted me this, this text, he says, Dave, how can we?
In faith fully depend upon the Lord when everything is going fine.
When everything is going well, you know, a good question. You know, I believe that is the very time when the enemy sees that there's an enjoyment of the Lord, that he wants to destroy it.
And I shared with them, you know.
Just talk to Joe. How long did it take for things to be going fine?
To be in a position where things were completely upside down, it wasn't very long. Oh, that we would seek to bear each other up before the Lord. And when we see those that are going on for the Lord, you know, we have a tendency to pray for those that are in the back row, those that are really having a struggle in their, in their Christian pathet. I'm not saying about those in the back row. There are those that have kids here that I'm very thankful you're here. You know what I mean? It's those that that that have no interest whatsoever in what we have here.
00:50:09
But oh, to be able to realize that the enemy looks down and when there's an enjoyment of the word of God, that when there's an enjoyment of the Lord just does not want that. He wants to destroy that totally. Oh, that we would be mindful of the enemy and how he comes in so many ways. You know, he comes as an Angel of light. He comes as a roaring lion. He comes as a serpent. He comes as an adder. And when you step on an adder, it's a surprise. You don't see him coming. You see the lion coming.
Ephesians 6HE throws those fiery darts the world is seen in a bear takes takes a person that squeezes the lights out of That's the enemy of our souls, and he wants to destroy us.
He does these states of soul well. I'd just like to look now in closing to the Song of Solomon.
Song Solomon.
The Song of Solomon and the 2nd chapter.
The Lord's desire is that whatever state of soul we find ourselves in is that we pick up the word of God and we would enjoy it, and that once again we'd be able to carry on in a manner that we're delighted with. And a brother shared with me in Montreal, just in private, he said, you know, I like this. I like this, this definition of communion. And he turned me to Song of Solomon chapter 2, and he read this.
The end of the third verse.
I sat down under his shadow with great delight and his fruit.
Was sweet to my taste. I sat down under his shadow with great delight and his fruit was sweet to my taste. Oh, might we recognize that if we find ourselves in a scenario where there's the wayside and there's the hard packed dirt. Oh the Lord's desire.
Is that he would make our hearts soft.
If there's that scenario where we find ourselves in the rocky ground.
And there's a withering, oh, that we would feed our souls with the moisture of the word of God, and should we find ourselves where the thorns and they're choking out the word with perhaps real things, the cares of this life, but because we're asleep, we don't realize the pleasures. We don't realize the riches and how they overcome.
Oh, that we would find ourselves delighted.
In the moisture of the Word of God and the good ground, they would realize the enemy. When we're enjoying the Lord just like this, He wants to destroy. But oh, to be able to sit under His shadow with great delight, and to have His fruit sweet to our taste is a wonderful thing. Could we sing together another?
Another hymn.
Maybe 318 if a brother could start that for us.
318.
Oh God.
Close to the light here so I can't find.
It.
I hear it's been screaming on.
God.
Please.
Hebrews 1:1-4
Reading
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
8 Savior, we long to follow thee daily, thy cross to bear or teach your soul the power to know of risen life with thee. 2783.
Save your, we won't.
Call it.
Take it by draws the world.
I found all the drum rolls away.
The first two chapters of Hebrews brethren, we are living in a world that is called man's day and the focus is so on man and we need to have our book is redirected to.
That glorious person we're going to spend eternity with. And in these two chapters, the focus is.
On the Lord Jesus.
Both these two chapters. I may be in the three chapter 3 readings we have. We could cover most of it. I suggest that.
Read the 1St chapter right now. That's what I would suggest if the brother and her in agreement with that.
Hebrews chapter one.
God, Who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time passed under the Fathers by the Prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, by whom also He made the worlds, Who being the brightness of His glory, and the express image of His Person, and upholding all things by the Word.
00:05:23
Excuse me? And upholding all things by the word of His power, when he had by himself purged our sins.
Sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high, being made so much better than the angels, as he hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they. For unto which of the angels said he had any time Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee. And again I will be to him a Father, and He shall be to me a Son, and again when he bringeth in the first begotten.
Into the world he sat, and let all the angels of God worship him.
And of the angels he saith, who maketh his angels spirits.
And his ministers a flame of fire, but under the sun he saith, Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever. A scepter of righteousness is the scepter of thy Kingdom. Thou hast loved righteousness and hated iniquity. Therefore God, even thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows, and thou Lord.
In the beginning has laid the foundation of the earth.
And the heavens are the works of thine hands. They shall perish.
But thou remain us, and they all shall wax old, as doth a garment.
And as a vesture shalt thou hold them up, and they shall be changed.
But thou art the same, and thy ears shall not fail.
But to which of the angels said he at any time sit on my right hand?
Until I make thine enemies thy footstool. Are they not all ministering spirits?
Sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation.
It's interesting in this book we think it's probably the apostle Paul who wrote it, but his name doesn't appear in this book. Most of the epistles that Paul wrote start with Paul, an apostle or a servant of Jesus Christ, but this one begins with that word God.
Stands out because it's the only book in the Bible that starts with God.
But it's interesting because the Hebrews, or the Jewish believers at the time, seemed to have a problem with Paul. They were.
Offended by the fact that when he said that the Lord sent him far hints to the gentiles and that just threw them into a theater and.
So he as if that is the case that he is the one that wrote this book when he writes that he doesn't put his name in it at all. In fact, you have the apostle of this epistle is in chapter 3 and verse one or for holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling. Consider the apostle and high priest of our profession, Christ Jesus. So the apostle.
Is the Lord Jesus Christ himself. But how important it is? Because of their occupation with their religious system, which in its time was given of God, they could not accept what Christianity really was. And So what does the apostle do? He focuses on the glory of God's beloved Son.
As I mentioned before when I suggested it, that we live in a world, brethren, where the focus is on what we are.
And I find it so much everywhere I go that people are thinking of who they are.
And it's characteristic of the day which we live in. It is a positive hindrance in understanding what we are called to in relationship to God's beloved Son. Who is he? And so in chapter one, you haven't presented as God's Son.
00:10:14
He has spoken unto us in these last days by His Son or in son.
In chapter 2 we have him presented as the Son of Man.
The Glorious.
Person of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Son of God and Son of man, what a tremendous thing to be occupied, brethren. How wonderful to be delivered from thinking about ourselves. Except sometimes we have to think about ourselves, to judge ourselves. But beyond that, you and I have no justification to be thinking about ourselves. It's to have our sights set on this glorious person that we have presented in these two chapters.
I speak really don't mind. I was thinking that little background to the vessel.
I would think that it was the Apostle Paul who wrote it. I couldn't think of anyone else.
Could give us such a masterly treatise on the superior, on the superiority of Christianity to Judaism, that comes out very clearly in the Epistle, that.
Now in Christianity we have something that is infinitely better than all the Judaistic ritual and ceremony that was performed. But as their brother Bob said, it was very difficult for the Hebrew believer to let go of those things they were given of God.
The holy oracles of God. And they were something they could see and feel and taste and hear and so on.
But here in Christianity it was a spiritual worship. Now not by means of.
Outward ceremony, but access into the holiest of all. And so the apostle regrets that these Hebrew believers were really babes. He mentioned that in the 50s, the 5th chapter, babes in the sense that they were being held back by the Judaistic.
Customs and teachings that they had had.
They were held back in their growth of the truth of Christianity and what we have now as being much superior to anything that Judaism offer. I think that's background is helpful to us. There was a danger of a hostage and in Hebrews apostasy is without any remedy.
At any time.
Apostate is altogether different to a backslide, and if they made a profession of Christianity and then.
Returned to Judaism, they were not a backslider. They were an apostate in a number of places in the book of Hebrews.
Paul it was Paul he mentions this chapter 6 chapter 10 the danger of turning their back upon the.
Truth of Christianity that was being brought forth and returning to that system in that case, and only an unbeliever could do that, but there was no remedy for it. It was apostasy.
History of what we call Judaism.
The one that they looked for was the Messiah. And so for their thousand years and so on, they looked generation after generation for one who would be king over them, the one who would elevate the nation to that place of prominence in the whole world, the one who would bring peace.
00:15:29
To all men, and they looked and looked and looked for the Messiah.
Even in their darkest days, there were those who looked beyond their present condition of things and saw and hope someone who would come. And when John's gospel begins, we find those who come to know him. One of them says he goes and finds another, his brother, and he says we found the Messiah.
And a little farther on, in John One, the thought is we found the one of whom all the Old Testament scriptures speak, the Messiah, He's come. And so they look forward to the wonderful promises that were made in connection with His person.
But Hebrews one and John's Gospel.
John's epistles present the Sun.
And the sun presents a person that goes far beyond solely the Messiah.
The sun that's presented to our souls is.
God the Son, and we have Him in this first chapter and a little bit of His glory presented to us. But the wonderful thing is, God brought to them someone that was far more wonderful than they had ever imagined or that had been revealed to them after the Holy Spirit came and the Lord himself.
Presented himself to them. They got to start to know him.
In a way that far exceeded anything they'd ever hoped for. And so we have him in this first chapter as already mentioned, God the Son, the 2nd chapter the Son of Man and the third chapter Jesus and the Christ. And he's such a wonderful person that no one title fully.
Explains him or fully presents him to us. And I would suggest, brethren, the one that we're going to meditate on in this hour and the hours to come.
Is one that for all eternity will continue to grow in our souls, in the majesty of His person, He's the one that.
Solely and completely presents an object for our heart's affections that nothing else in all creation and nothing else in eternity compares to.
We all know what it is to have something and enjoy it and keep on enjoying it, but after we've had it 100 times or whatever, it doesn't necessarily have the same appeal that the very first time it did. We may still enjoy it and as it's been said.
When it says God put the world in their hearts, that the world itself and all it has to offer doesn't ultimately perfectly satisfy the human heart. And to teach us that lesson, God gave us the man Solomon who had everything that man ever goes after. He had wealth, he had power, he had wisdom, he had honor, he had all in one person, everything.
That man would ever seek after as man, and yet it wasn't enough in itself and his heart was taken away from it. But we have to enjoy this afternoon a person, the Son and all the Messiah and Jesus as the man and the Son of man and so on.
That in fact, as God says, it says the Son of his love.
That God has given us to enjoy with him that which is central to the whole heart of God's enjoyment of anything. It's his Son. And now he says I'm going to share him with you and enjoy him. And so it's presented here to the Hebrews to draw them away from Judaism to something that is far more wonderful, and it's found in the person of the sun.
00:20:27
It's interesting in the first eight chapters of this book.
As far as we can say that it is.
Occupation with the Lord Jesus and his many glories.
And then in chapters 9 and 10, we have the work of the Lord Jesus focused on those two things. His person, His work are the foundation of our faith. That is extremely important to be clear about those two things. Who is he and what has he done?
His person, his work. How important to be clear about those two things.
But I'd like to point out three words in the 1St 2 verses that seem to.
Show what the apostle is saying.
Verse one. God.
Verse 2.
Hath spoken.
God has spoken. That is amazing thing to think about.
Her brother was talking about His word in this last meeting and how important it is to have hearing ears. What a tremendously important exercise to when God speaks to hear.
I'm not sure why but maybe some brother has an I reason. But it's interesting. In the gospels it says he that hath ears to hear, let him hear. When you get to the Book of Revelation it says he that hath an ear to hear, let him hear.
Not sure why that is. You thought about that Brother Dave.
But it's interesting at least. Oh brother, and God has spoken.
Have we listened?
Has that voice.
Has His precious Word penetrated into these hearts of ours? Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. How important to let the Word of God penetrate, Let nothing.
Impede its effect on our hearts.
So many things that the enemy uses so that it doesn't.
Get to that good ground.
Oh, may the Lord help us.
To listen God has spoken and so in verse one he spoke in diverse manners and in.
Sundry at sundry times, and in diverse manners in the time passed unto the fathers by the prophets. Well, that's well known at the Old Testament and his wonderful that God spoke in the way he did.
And there was a Moses that could speak to God face to face. Incredible to think about.
But the revelation of God is not complete.
Until we have him speaking as it is in verse two, as spoken unto us in these last days in the sun, because He is God Himself.
In the sun He has spoken to us. We have the complete revelation of who God is in the person of the Lord Jesus. Yes.
They knew God to a certain extent in the Old Testament.
But now, with the coming of the Lord Jesus into this world.
We have the complete revelation of who God is.
We can look at him, this glorious person.
There.
The revelation of God is complete. And that amazingly wonderful thing, brethren, to think about, to meditate on. Oh, it takes me sometimes time to chew on it, to think about the impact of the fact that God has spoken in Son.
00:25:21
Nice to know what wants to be known. He wants us to know him and so he has communicated to us. You know, the law was a communication, but it wasn't a full communication of the heart of God. And so that's why the book of Hebrews shines so brightly is because in the Lord Jesus, he is the he is the IT says he's the brightness of his glory.
And the expressed image of his person. And so we have a full revelation of God who wants to be known and he wants a relationship with us.
It speaks of him. You don't come to him unless you're drawn.
Of Him. He draws us to himself because he wants a relationship with us. We'll never really know who God is just by the revelation of what? The what? What you had in Judaism, you had the righteousness of God somewhat revealed in the law. But when we have the full revelation, you can't have a fuller revelation.
Of who God is.
Than as it is expressed in God the Son. And so that's what makes this book so beautiful and that's why the Hebrew believers that were stuck in a partial revelation were being drawn on to understand what the full revelation was in Christ and that's.
You know, it's important for us to listen to what God has spoken because He's drawing us.
To have a relationship with himself. He wants us to know him because he's got so much to reveal to us. He's got so much fullness. As you've been saying, Bob, the revelation is going to take eternity, but it's something to be drawn to. And when, when he presented his son as the full revelation of himself, now we have an object or.
We don't have any doubt as to who God is.
Two and three, we have 7 little phrases, most of which speak of the glories of his person. There is that which relates to his work as well.
But it's mainly the glories of his person because it's the person that gives value.
To the work.
Who is this person that we're talking about?
O brethren, that's what Christianity is, the revelation.
Of who God is and the person of the Lord Jesus. So it begins in verse two. You have two phrases.
And then another 5 phrases in verse three that speak of the Lord Jesus.
His person, his work.
So it begins in verse 2 with this.
He is appointed.
Heir of all things.
Why does he start with that?
He doesn't start with creation. That's the next.
Statement.
Why does he start with?
He is appointed heir of all things.
Because God's eternal counsels, brethren.
Were formed before there was any world or a universe in existence.
And in those eternal councils.
00:30:00
God.
The Father and his beloved Son, which dwelt in his bosom.
It was determined that this person would be the heir of all things.
Wonderful to think about it.
Lord Jesus is going to fill that place. Wonder of wonders, we don't have it developed maybe so much here as in other places, but.
We too have obtained an inheritance and we will inherit with him.
In that coming day when the Lord Jesus.
Says or when God the Father says.
Sorry, brethren.
In Psalm chapter Psalm 2.
God the Father says to his Son, Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession. So the time will come when the Lord Jesus will ask, and he will inherit all things.
Believe that to me at the end of the great Tribulation, when the Lord Jesus comes back.
To reign with his people, and then he will take the kingdoms of the world as his own.
So it's not fulfilled yet.
Making himself, choosing to make himself known to us because he loves us. He created us in love.
And in order, because God is God and infinite in his being, and we as creatures are finite in our beings.
The Person of the Sun encompasses both.
And God, in order to make himself fully known to us, the Son who is all that God is to give an expression to us who are finite beings.
The son in love to the Father and to us, said I'll become a man.
And in becoming a man, he comes close to us. He enters into those things that we as finite beings experience, and it is God's way of communicating something of his own heart to us that we might know him.
In the capacity that we have as creatures to be able to know our God. And it's an expression of the greatness of his heart that he would choose to do that. And so the Lord Jesus takes into his person manhood, and we will. It's a mystery really that we shall enjoy, although never fathom the fullness of it.
But it shall encompass our hearts attention.
The measure to which God would go to make him spouse known to us and would speak in the person of the Son. And we will be forever worshippers as we consider his person. And we we get to do it here in this epistle, as it says in chapter 2 when he becomes a man, verse nine, we see Jesus.
Having become a man, Bob stopped at Chapter 10.
And his outline of the book. But in Chapter 11, in order for the work and the person of Christ to have any value to us, you have a chapter of faith. And we have a whole set of witnesses that witness to us of a walk of faith. And if we're going to come into knowing God and his Son right now until we see him face to face.
It's a walk of faith.
But what about the walk in chapter 12?
00:35:02
Is it where you can put aside all Chapter 11 and all the witnesses and get the benefit from them? But what does it say about that walk? It says looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured. What is it? It's not telling us about the work of redemption.
In that chapter we have that elsewhere, but what is it? It's to say, And now for you, you have a perfect example to follow in the walk of faith. The perfect man who walked his walk as a man in perfect faith is the sun. And so look off unto him, and see in him the whole path of faith, and see what?
He saw.
At the end of his own walk, who for the joy that was set before him, he looked beyond this life to something beyond it. And he's the perfect expression to us of how to walk life as a man. And in doing so, we get to know him. We get to know God, and we also get to know his person in that way, in the measure in which we have capacity to do so because.
He's a person that will never exhaust getting to learn to know him better.
Yeah, the Lord as the eternal Son.
He he never emptied himself of his deity, but he took manhood into union with himself.
That we read in him while of all the fullness of the Godhead model it so as the Lord walked through this world as a man.
His divine glory was not manifest at times that it was seen His His divine power in spilling the storm and healing, but He veiled His glory in manhood and but He never left the bosom of the Father, and He is the eternal Son. He did not become Son in manhood.
He had that position from a past eternity, but now he is the Son of God in manhood.
Going back to that second phrase in verse two, there we have the creation of the world, by whom also he made the world's. The Lord Jesus is the creator of all things. Incredible to think of the power that's involved in the universe, the incredible size of it. If you start to try to talk about the billions and trillions of stars.
In the universe, astronomers now say that there is easily.
You can easily say that there are more stars in the universe than grains of sand on the seashore. Well, either of them are in accountable as far as we're concerned. But the point is, is that here's one who made it all by the word of His power. He spoke and it was done. He commanded and it stood fast. What tremendous power involved.
Oh brethren, we don't grasp how great this person is.
So that's the creation. Then when you come to verse three, you have statements as further statements as to His person, who being the brightness of His glory, the full outshining of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
You go out on a sunny day and try to look at the sun.
I created star. You can't do it. It's way too bright. We're not talking about the sun, brethren, the SUN. We're talking about the Son, the one who made it all and who made the billions and trillions of other stars in existence in the universe.
00:40:07
And put them there by the word of his power. Oh, what a tremendous person to get to know.
Person of our Lord Jesus, He is the brightness, the full out shining of the glory of God. You want to know God, look at him.
That's the way you get to know him, nor God is by looking at Him, and it's wonderful, like you were saying, brother John in the Gospels, to trace him. There's our God walking amongst men. In Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.
And yet men came up, and they spit in his face.
What kind of reaction did they get?
That spittle just ran down his face.
Is that our God?
Yes, Brennan, that's our God. He's patient. He's long-suffering.
Incredible to think of it, here in this world, he was every bit.
Much as God as he ever was.
And then it says the express image of his person.
Images visible representation of that which is invisible.
God is invisible to human eyes.
But how can we know God?
By looking at the Lord Jesus.
In Colossians, he's called the image of the invisible God.
Oh, what a tremendous thing that we have been brought to know him, brethren.
Do we enjoy this? This is what Christianity is.
I have to say for myself a little, the impact of all this tremendous truth makes on my life. But this is Christianity. To get to know Him. It's not a religion. It's the knowledge of a person, God and the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. How wonderful to get to know Him.
Some of these comments that have been made, especially on the second verse, make me think of the way the Lord Jesus is introduced to us in the Gospel of John and I just like to read the first few verses because I think it fits in. 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.
In him was life, and the life was the light of men.
Especially the fact that he's presented as the Word, the word. Words are what we use to communicate. And so here in Hebrews, the Lord Jesus is presented the Son of God as the way that God is communicating with us in this world. And so indeed, He is the Word.
If I might just I don't mean to turn our vision away from Christ, and I trust that won't be the result, but.
We were made in the image and likeness of God, weren't we? The purpose was that he might see his own reflection.
In his creatures. And it wouldn't. Wouldn't it be nice if those who don't know God and haven't?
Had much of the communication of who God is, and here we are enjoying the communication of who God is and the person of the Lord Jesus. But there's a world full of people that don't have that revelation, that don't have that understanding, and they may only see you and me.
They only may only see those who bear the image and likeness of Christ who have the life of Christ in them. Spirit of God is capable of taking that life and manifesting it to them.
So that God would speak through you and I as to the glory of His own person. And so the more we know and enjoy, the more we're changed into His likeness and the more there will be a reflection of the one that we are enjoying here now. And the more blessing can you know the heart of man is is empty.
00:45:18
It's looking for something to satisfy Phil. It's looking for.
A ray of of of love and that all can be reflected in us. It's the reflection of the glory of the Lord Jesus that the Spirit of God can reproduce as his life is lived through us and in US.
Which we live was not only created, but it has to be sustained.
We do use a little example of it.
We have decided, our man has decided there's something called gravity and that the bodies in the universe have an attraction according to certain properties with each other and so on, and each one of us has life in this room, and we assume that in a natural way we'll still have life.
To go to supper and so on. But the Word of God would teach us, as it says here, upholding all things by the word of His power.
That God maintains everything working the way it does.
As as it was said in the Old Testament, if he thought only for himself for a moment and stopped paying attention to.
Managing the Earth, everything would stop.
Gravity would cease to be gravity. The next breath that you take is maintained by the God. Maintenance of what how life works and every single moment of.
Creation is God maintaining it for the next moment. And if God only would, as it were, turn aside for a moment his attention and not stop paying attention, it tells us in Job it would just come to a stop. That'd be the end of it. And so he says, upholding all things by the word of his power, But then the next phrase, when he had by himself purged our sins.
Sat down on the right hand of the majesty on high. It's important to see these expressions as Speaking of the sun in the next chapter, where is Jesus? He becomes the man in order to be able to die.
And so he becomes in manhood, because it was necessary.
For the putting a waste of sin, according to what the Old Testament taught, the soul that sinneth it shall die. And so to be the Savior, He had to become man in order to go through that which was necessary, as God had established it, to deal with the matter of sin. And having become man, He is man forever. He will never give up that place, but.
And as man, and in the gospels that present him in that way.
He dies.
God puts upon him our load of sin.
He dies to it, and then he's in the grave and God as God raises the man from the dead.
But notice what it says in this verse. It's quite in contrast to that, and it's in keeping with John's gospel where it presents him as the Son.
He had by himself purged our sins.
Sat down.
On the right hand of the majesty on God.
There isn't God raising him from the dead here. There isn't God putting upon him.
Our sins in this view of Him, it is the divine Person of the Son.
Accomplishing a work, and in the deity of his person, he finishes it, and he returns to a place that is rightfully his in the glory. It's the same as in John's gospel in the 17th chapter he says I have finished the work.
00:50:07
None but he could have ever said that. Can you say I finished the work that God gave me to do in my life?
Not a single soul that's ever lived that can make truly make properly make such a statement.
But the Son could make it, and He makes it. And in John's gospel you have no forsaking, you have no expressions of suffering on the cross, and so on. It's all left out in order that the glory of the person might be seen and focused on as to who He is. And it's the same here, and we lose a lot in our souls.
We would lose a lot if we didn't see it as presented in Matthew, Mark, and Luke. But we would also lose a lot if we don't see him in the majesty of his person, accomplishing a work in himself, by himself, and by his own right and power, finishing that work, returning to his place of the majesty on high.
I'd like to think of this.
Thought here in connection with that what you said brother Donna this work of purification of sin it's it's a divine act every bit as much as him creating the worlds and him upholding all things by the word of his power is making purification for sin is every much as a divine act as these other things we like to.
Contemplate Him making the world's, and then to think of Him upholding all things. We can't enter into that. But brethren, we also cannot enter into His work on the cross.
It's such a divine act of glory and power.
We can't take it in, but we're going to enjoy it as we are now. We're going to enjoy it even more and throughout eternity we're going to be enjoying that aspect of this. Divinity is power.
And making purification for Saturn.
When he made the creation.
He spoke and it was done.
But when it was purification of sin, there was more than that.
He gave himself, and that's a beautiful little expression there when he had.
By himself.
Nobody else could do it. Nobody else.
When?
Judas Iscariot betrayed him, it says. They all forsook him.
And flatten. We know that Peter denied him three times.
But there on the cross.
In those hours of darkness.
By himself.
Those waves and billows of God's judgment rolled over Him.
For three hours.
There's no complaint until the very last.
And there's that awful cry. My God, my God, why stealth forsaken me?
By himself he made the progression of sins.
Will never understand the awfulness of that moment of abandonment.
But it was that by that means that he made the purgation of sins.
O brethren, what a work he's accomplished on the cross.
And then, as Don has already mentioned, the last phrase of verse 3.
He sat down.
On the right hand of the Majesty on high.
The new translation says he sat.
Himself down, in other words, in view.
Of the worthiness of his person and the sufficiency of his work.
He had the right to go right into the presence of God.
00:55:03
And sit himself down, the right hand of God.
Oh, what a glorious person we worship.
Brothers.
It's helpful to see the new translation, How it begins verse 4.
This breeds taking a place by so much better than the angels.
That is when he's seen before our eyes as Jesus, the man who dies. It's then God who raises it from the dead. It's God who gives him a place in the creation superior to the angels, but in His Majesty and the His person here is presented to us. He has the dignity, the right, and its proper to His glory.
That he simply set himself down at the majesty on high and take by his own right and power a place greater than angels in the mind of men. That's brought out partly for the Hebrews who thought so great of angels and how great they were. And it's to bring out before us that they're they're just creatures. They're they're not comparable to his person. And when it comes.
To the Angel, they're like us, they're creatures and they don't have the glory of God.
But here, this one, when he's finished his work and he sits down, he in his own right and dignity and proper to his glory, he just takes that place which is his, greater than the Angel.
And it's intended that our souls respond to it.
To bow and worship.
In awe at the glory of the one that has become our Lord, our Savior, and has always been the Son.
He's in powers, isn't he?
He was the creator of the angelic beings, but now in manhood he takes that position of the principalities and powers. Principalities refer to angels and this is what is brought out in in our chapter here that Lord is infinitely superior to these created beings that.
Fascinated or occupied the Jewish mind so much, but the apostle is bringing before them the the superiority of the Person of Christ.
Chapter 2 He's made a little more than the angels because taking human form.
It shows us that the human creation was a little lower than the angels.
Angels excel in strength, but they are spirit beings. Tremendously interesting to see what scripture says about them, but.
We're not occupied with that, but the Lord Jesus has been said sometimes past angels up twice.
First time on his way down to become a man he was made a little lower than the angels and that's chapter 2 where you have him as Son of man. But here is done is brought out in verse four. He's taken a place that is so much better than the angels and that's the place that is his by right because of the work he has accomplished on the cross.
And because of who he is, really.
Jesus is a perfect man constitutionally. He had a body, he had a soul, he had a spirit back. Very false doctrine came into.
01:00:03
Among brethren in the early years, when they.
Deny there's some.
Prominent resident denies that the Lord had a perfect human spirit.
Which was very serious doctrine. The Lord was a perfect man in every sense of the word. He had a body, body that has prepared me. He had a soul, He had a spirit. He was a perfect man, in fact, in every sense of the word.
I don't think it says that he was made staff to be corrected, but I don't think it says the Lord was made in the likeness of God.
That would imply inferiority if someone else have a comment on that. The image of God, yes. Is that right Bob? Yes, it says the Philippians chapter two. He was made in the likeness of men.
So we are, as has been brought out in the image and likeness of God, that the Lord Jesus was the image of the invisible God.
But he was made in the likeness of men.
So how does this drive with?
Paul's.
Remark in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
These two chapters.
What chance?
Well, he did for us because He's the one that accomplished that work of purgation of sins.
Just a general comment.
We're talking about something that is beyond human comprehension.
And it's just a word.
To all of us, at every age, really, never try to go beyond Scripture.
Stick as closely as possible to the language of Scripture.
Know the Lord Jesus, the Son of God, and all that said about Him.
Come to know him as Son of Man and all that's expressed in it.
Come to know him as Jesus the Lowly 1.
Among men, that God is highly exalted.
But don't try to put it all together with human understanding. Enjoy each aspect of it and leave it without attempting to make it reconcile altogether with the human mind. It's beyond our minds, and some of the worst God dishonouring teaching that's ever come out has been the attempt to reconcile to.
The human mind, the person of the Lord Jesus, will never do it in eternity.
And it's a we just want to know Him as he presents himself to us, and not try to bring him down to our little minds, but enjoy it lest it be His name, a name that is God alone can fully comprehend.
Or just rate confirmed that John in first Timothy chapter 6 we have.
The Lord Jesus Christ presented, and in verse 16 it says, Who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach, unto whom no man hath seen, nor can see, to whom be honour and power everlasting. Amen. So it's beyond our human minds, and so it's tremendously important to keep close to Scripture.
01:05:04
335.
But when we view.
Thy strange design.
To save rebellious worms.
Where vengeance and compassion join.
In their divinest form.
Here thy bright character is known 335.
Oh God.
In the Lord.
I'm on the way more than we are. We need my great chance so.
While.
I was hardly full of.
All the heart.
In the wind.
Well, my thyroid and thy heart, thus our thy heart.
Good morning in the morning and everything we're going to have to do it all over the competitions screams services and.
Gospel 1
Gospel—Stephen Rule
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.
So you turn with me. If you have your Bible with you and you know your way around in it, would you turn with me? Exodus chapter 12. We won't spend too much time there. Tonight, I'd like to introduce the subject that's on my heart.
Exodus chapter 12.
Street a few verses beginning in verse 5.
Your lamb.
Shall be without blemish. Your lamb shall be without blemish. A male of the first year. You shall take it from the sheep or from the goats, and you shall keep it up until the 14th day of the same month. And the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening.
They shall take the blood and strike it upon the two side posts.
And on the upper doorposts of the houses wherein they shall eat it, they shall eat the flesh, and that night roast with fire an unleavened bread, and with bitter herbs they shall eat it. Eat not of it raw, or sadden it all with water, but roast with fire his head with his legs.
And with the pertinence thereof, or with the inwards.
I would like to share with you this evening something very simple. Perhaps it won't cover all the aspects of the gospel, but I speak to ones, I think in the majority, perhaps all of you that have heard many times the facts of the gospel. The burden that's on my heart is this. There's a person that's offered for your acceptance before God is without blemish.
00:05:21
And there are three aspects that are on my heart tonight, two of which.
Will cover, perhaps in detail, one we won't, but we'll cover just a touch on it. That is his head. We'll just touch on that. The intelligent purposes and plans of God's Lamb.
His legs, the actions, the speech, what shows on the outside of that person.
With the pertinence thereof, the inwards, the affections, what's in his heart.
And the sole burden on my heart this evening is to present to you that person. I believe you know something of his work. I believe you know something of the cross. I believe you know something of the blood that he shed there to put away sin.
If you don't, be very happy to share more later. Perhaps there'll be some time at the end to go through a few of the details. But that's not what's on my heart tonight. It's on my heart tonight. For you is the person, his head, but especially his legs, his actions, what he was like as a person expressed to the eyes of others, and the pertinence there of the inwards, the affections of that person. What was in his heart? What was in his soul?
At the time when he made himself an offering for sin as it's expressed in the word I want to present to that person because just another verse if you would turn over with me to Leviticus chapter one.
Leviticus chapter one. Just want to read 2 verses, verses three and four. If his offering be a burnt sacrifice to the herd, let him offer a male without blemish.
She'll offer it of his own bullish voluntary will, at the door of the Tabernacle, the congregation before the Lord, and he shall put his hands.
Upon the head of the burnt offering, and it shall be accepted for him.
And it shall be accepted for him. I want to present to you tonight in a partial way, in a feeble way, but as completely as I can. Then the time ahead of us, this person, because that person is God's lamb, and God has accepted him. God has accepted that sacrifice.
That man, Christ Jesus that suffered on the cross is in heaven tonight. He's accepted at the right hand of God. That person is accepted by God and by so many of us in this room we have the figure that we just read, reached out with our hand and said the full acceptance of this lamb is my acceptance before God. This is God's lamb that we'll look at tonight.
He's my lamb too, and it's the lamb of so many in this room.
But if tonight you can't say that, you have by faith reached out your hand and placed it on the head of that lamb.
If the value of that lamb hasn't been to your soul applied, I want to say to your knight very simply, I'm going to present to you that lamb. But you must reach out and by faith receive that person as your Savior. You must take him as yours. I want you to reach out. And there's so many in this room that want you to reach out with the hand of faith and simply say.
This is God's lamb. This is my lamb.
I want to read one other verse, an introduction in John's Gospel. You know what I'm going to turn to? But I'll read it anyway. John's gospel verse, chapter one.
There's a burden on my heart this evening.
John, chapter one, verse 36.
John the Baptist speaking and it says.
And looking upon Jesus as he walked, he saith, Behold the Lamb of God. I want you to not just behold him, will behold him together. We'll look on him together, we'll consider him together. But I want you to reach out by faith and receive him as your Lamb, as your Savior, as the one that you need, the one that's the substitute for you.
00:10:11
Before God.
Don't intend to ask this again, so you don't need to feel comfortable. And I'm asking once tonight to do the following. I want you to think about this for a moment. I'm going to ask you to raise your hand in just a minute. In the past month, somewhere in the last month, we'll say in the month of November.
Have you crossed a bridge? A bridge of any kind? Not a massive bridge across the Mississippi. A bridge across.
Culvert a bridge across.
The Little River, a small stream, an overpass. That's a bridge. Now raise your hand if in the last month you've crossed a bridge. Now, I'd like you to keep your hand in the air for just a moment. Leave it up. You can put it down. If you didn't, talk to the Department of Transportation ahead of time to make sure the bridge you crossed was safe.
Do you have any hands left in this room?
I saw virtually every hand a moment ago, and I think if you knew what the question was, every hand would have enough. There's bridges everywhere when you drive around. Not a single one of you asked for a requisition from the Missouri Department of Transportation, from I dot in Illinois or from the state you're from, and you wanted to look over carefully whether or not there's any stress damage in the bridge you're going to cross. In fact, you never even crossed your mind for most of you to even think of doing such a thing or whether they even have those kinds of documents.
You drove across the bridge either as the driver or as a passenger.
You trusted your life. How many? Well, I'm not going to ask the question. Many of you have crossed the bridge where you could have been plunged to your death. You didn't ask for a document proving that that bridge, built by a bunch of engineers many years ago, perhaps damaged by a semi last week, was still trustworthy.
And yet you're going to face an eternity of forever.
Of forever is ahead of you. We're going to take just a few minutes together to look at the trustworthy of your bridge to the presence of God, forever, the Lamb of God.
You're not going to know everything about him by the time you're done, and you don't need to know everything about him. Every last one of you just about confessed that you put your life in your hands without looking into the reality of whether that's sensible or not.
You simply drove across the bridge.
We're going to take some time to look at that person. You don't need to know everything about him. You just need to know that he came to this world. He entered this world because he loved you. He entered this world because he had a purpose and plan to bring you to heaven with him. But he had to be that perfect without blemish lamb. Let's look first at Luke chapter 23 at his.
Legs, the actions, what was outward and as we do so, I just want to touch on a small number of points that contrast the person you're about to see with you and I.
The contrast the person, because if you present yourself for acceptance before God as you are in your sins, you're going to be presenting the persons that we'll talk about tonight. But if you come in the full acceptance of the person of Christ.
The Lord Jesus, you're going to be coming to be received as he was received.
Because of who he is, Luke chapter 23.
Just read the first few verses.
Enough for the moment. An all multitude of them arose and led him, that is Jesus, unto Pilate. They began to accuse him.
Saying, We found this fellow perverting the nation, the forbidding to give tribute to Caesar, saying that he himself is Christ a king. Pilate asked him, saying, Art thou the king of the Jews? And he answered him and said, Thou sayest it, and said, Pilot to the chief priests and to the people, I find no fault in this man.
Little context here.
What are you at your worst?
When you're most likely to say something a little sarcastic.
00:15:03
Something that's maybe just a little got a little edge to it, something where there's just a little feeling in the voice.
When it goes through the circumstances of this man as he appears before the Judge Pilate, how much sleep did he have the night before?
I don't believe you had a minute.
He was before the Sanhedrin. He was being accused, he was being mistreated, he was being struck in the face.
How much food do you suppose they gave him at the Sanhedrin? What was this breakfast like?
It was found in the Garden of Gethsemane. Where were his friends that went in there with him?
Left by his disciples, abandoned by those that did have a love for him, didn't have the strength to stay with Him without sleep, without food, bound. And then they're saying things about him. They're saying things about him that weren't true.
Where's his answer to this statement? Perverting the nation and forbidding to give tribute to Caesar? 4 chapters before 3 chapters before this.
He said show me a penny. He said render the Caesar the things that are Caesar's and to God the things that are Gods. 3 chapters back you can look for it.
What does he say about that here? Nothing.
Doesn't defend himself, doesn't say a word to defend himself. But when he's asked who he is, the legitimate question before Pilate, the Roman governor, Arthur, the king of the Jews, and he answered and said they'll say it.
A beautiful man What a man who would act with perfect dignity in front of an accusation. I'll tell you two stories, and there's a reason for why there are two. Just to draw the contrast. I want to do that several times this evening. To draw the contrast. It's one thing to talk about perfection. Sometimes it helps to see it in the contrast of what we are.
Probably a couple of years into our marriage, we were living. We lived the first eight years of our life in an apartment building.
And the owner of the apartment building was a retired farmer in the area. And then when the area started to build up, he had built some apartment buildings. And so he built the building we were in and he did the maintenance on it. I was off at work and something was wrong, I don't remember what it was with the shower. So he'd come over, my wife was home and he was busy in the shower and.
Somehow the shower head or the tap that he was working on the pipe snapped off inside the wall.
And my wife heard some cursing and some evident.
A lack of appreciation for the event coming from the bathroom.
A moment later, the bathroom door opened and he stepped out. He's going to have to go buy some new things now to do a more extensive repair. And he very he was a professing believer, he very piously said on his way out. Just just a small cross the bear. Just a small cross the bear. And.
He went out to buy the parts.
For a long time that was my favorite example of justice. Kind of funny, little bit hypocritical. But quite a few years later.
I don't have any.
Build their skills. Some of you have many builder skills. I have virtually none. And I was trying to get a curtain rod properly placed in bedroom and I don't remember the exact specifics of it, but I was pushing hard on the the screwdriver and something slipped and I the part broke loose and I had a little hole in my my drywall and I thought.
No, I didn't think, I said I hate this.
Somebody was listening.
They're probably only a couple of years old about a week later.
They're using their little plastic toy bench with a bunch of holes in it. There's a little plastic pegs, you know, a little plastic hammer. You put the little plastic pegs into the little plastic holes with your little plastic hammer.
And they weren't going in, and I happened to be where I heard.
Exact same expression I used.
00:20:05
Now look at this man.
Could I present myself before God and say take me the way I am?
No, I couldn't. Can you present yourself before God and say take me the way I am? No, you can't. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. But what about this man?
He's been accepted before God. Will you receive him as your acceptance before God a little further down in the chapter?
Verse 8.
When Saharan saw Jesus, he was exceeding glad, for he was desirous to see him of a long season.
Because he had heard many things of him, he hoped to have seen some miracle done by him. Any question with him in many words.
But he answered him nothing, and the chief priests and scribes stood and vehemently accused him inherited with his men of war sediment, not mocked him and raid him in a gorgeous robe, and sent him again the pilot.
You know.
Herod was the son of the Herod that was the.
Ruler when the Lord was born and the ruler when the Lord was born. Here the Gray had built palaces all over the place. You can see there were ruins everywhere. He was called by history Herod the Great because of all of his palace building program, his works, and he built tremendous number of places. He had a beautiful palace down near Jericho and so on. His son.
This Herod here that we're reading about was the same Sensuous man.
Who had been provoked by the dancing of Herodias daughter and had.
Promised half his Kingdom and ended up cutting off the head of John the Baptist. That's the man we're talking about here. Period.
Lord Jesus is before him. He's on trial, we would say, for his life. And here's a man that is a very sensuous person, but what he's looking for is a little bit of excitement, it says. And he hoped to have seen some miracle done by him, just a little miracle. It'd be nice to have something exciting. That's what Herod's looking for, some little miracle.
You know.
When we have the chance to show off, we ever showed off.
Ever put on a display of some of your special capabilities?
You know.
I've cousin, he's a doctor, he's working at the Mayo Clinic. And he told me that there was some research that he'd done and there was a doctor there that was very well known in the medical community. He'd gotten his name on all kinds of papers. He'd had his name published and this particular doctor wouldn't give. My relative was much younger.
Junior member of the staff wouldn't give him the time of day, passed by him the hallway, he'd be greeted, he'd say hello and wouldn't bother to answer. But in this particular occasion our relative had a a paper and I guess the way it works, he wanted some signatures of others on it before it got sent for publication and apparently had been received for publication. So he asked this doctor if he could get his signature.
Oh, the man was quite He paused. They pulled his $200.00 fountain pen out of his pocket and reached over and signed whatever document they need to decide and shared a kind word and went on down the hallway.
When there is a chance to just do a little bit of showing off.
He did it well, you say. I've never done that.
Just a little bit of showing off was a young person and I remember two people. I won't name them. Some of you in here will know both of them. Some of them, you will know them quite well. I won't name them. There are two young people that were perhaps four or five years older than I was. We were going downtown. We're at the train station in Villa Park waiting to catch the train downtown and there wasn't much to do. And so one of them challenged the other to a foot race.
And one of them was very athletic, perhaps 6566, and well known for their athleticism and abilities. The other one was shorter than I am, didn't look particularly athletic, didn't look particularly fast. So the athletic one said sure, and he kind of casually came up to whatever their starting line was, and they got lined up and somebody said go and they took off.
00:25:20
And they took off and they went as fast as they could. And I remember sitting there and all seeing the the six, six athletic 1 lost by probably 1520 feet wasn't exactly a photo finish.
Do you know what he did?
He did what I think many of us can relate to, He said, well, I wasn't quite ready. My shoes weren't properly tied. I wasn't. The other one said, fine, yeah, let's do it again.
So he very carefully tied his shoes. He very carefully got ready, he arranged for how that signal would be given so he could get off exactly the right moment. And they ran the race again and he lost by 15 or 20 feet. Anything but it's a little finish.
It's not what we are.
Maybe you would never try to win a foot race, maybe your thing is not being an athlete, but have you ever been in a situation?
Not a situation where you're on trial for your life, any situation, and you're willing to try to make people look and be impressed, draw attention to yourself so they would think, wow, she's pretty good at that. She's not. That's impressive.
Can be as something as simple as.
Listening while the food's there on the table at the potluck dinner to hear if there's sufficient number of compliments for the food that we prepared and put there on the table. It can be just about anything where we want to look a little better than the person next to us. Here's a person who could turn water into wine. Here's a person.
Who was and is the Son of God? There's a person who's absolutely perfect.
And when he has a chance to show off and he's on trial for his life, he doesn't say a word.
Doesn't say a word. Heritage had a testimony. Didn't need a testimony. He had John the Baptist. He didn't need another set of words. He'd heard his words and he cut off the head of the messenger.
Lord Jesus, to bring attention to himself as a man, didn't say a word, did nothing to draw attention to himself as a man, nothing.
Let's look a little further down in the chapter verses 33 and 34.
And when they were come to the place which was called Calvary, there they crucified him and the malefactors, one on the right hand, the other on the left.
Then, then.
Then in that context.
Said Jesus. Father, forgive them, they know not.
What they do, Father, forgive them.
Play no knock what they do.
An amazing man.
What an amazing person.
Crucifixion, as you know, was an act that put someone not only in great physical pain, but presented them to public shame.
Presented this person, this king of this Jews, this man that Pilate didn't find any fault with, this man that Herod didn't find any fault with this man, was being placed for the view of the crowds in public shame. Why were his words? Father forgive, They know not what they do.
An amazing person.
There was a time in my life.
When I was publicly shamed by somebody.
They came to me later that very same day and with others present. They weren't trying to hide it, they said with tears. I'm sorry, I was wrong.
00:30:04
Took me.
I, I said in front, you know, I said, oh, that's, that's fine, that's OK, you're forgiven. Whatever it was I said at the moment was the appropriate thing to say.
But in my heart, I didn't forgive that person. You know, there's probably a good.
Month or so that went by, and the Lord made me.
Physically sick, couldn't go to the breaking of bread was the first time in my life. Perhaps the second. I guess it was the second time in my life that hadn't been able to go.
And during that time, Lord had to make me in the heart forgive.
What they said wasn't that awful. They didn't do anything other than yell at me in front of others.
Took me, I think, over a month to forgive from the heart.
This man in the presence of total injustice, of hands nailed to a cross, his feet nailed to a cross, he says, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. That's an expression coming from a perfect heart of love. This man is my lamb. This man is my acceptance before God.
I can't present myself to God for acceptance.
Wouldn't have anything to stand on. I don't know the half of it. You don't know the fraction of it. I told you a couple stories, one of them sufficient. I can't stand for my own personal acceptance before God. But this man stood in my place. Does he stand in your place?
Is he your Lord? Is he your Savior? Is he the one through whom you find acceptance with God? Can you say that you are accepted in the Beloved, accepted before God? One more thing on his actions, the legs here in Luke's gospel.
Turn to verse 43.
And Jesus said unto me, speaking to the thief, barely I said unto thee, Today shalt thou be with me in paradise.
As about the 6th hour there was a darkness over all the earth until the 9th hour.
The sun was darkened, and the veil of the temple was rent in the midst.
Now in this Gospel.
These are the next words recorded after those hours of darkness and when Jesus had cried with a loud voice he said.
Father, to thy hands I commend my spirit. Having said thus, he gave up the ghost.
Dresses God before entering those.
Hours of darkness.
He addresses his father. He says father forgive them. Then he goes through three hours.
Immense suffering for sin. I speak to ones who have heard before what those hours of darkness mean. I speak to ones who don't need to be informed as to their facts of what happened in those three hours and how you knew no sin was made.
To be sin for us.
Do you realize that he's the end of those hours? He says father. As he comes out of those hours. What does he say? He says father.
What happened to the Communion? It's been broken.
It goes in in communion. It comes out of him being made sin and taken care of, fully putting away sin.
He's his father, not beautiful.
You've been through a circumstance where you've suffered and you've come out. You're thinking about nothing but yourself.
I have.
He goes into the suffering and he comes out and who is he thinking about? Who's he speaking to? Speaking to his father. So I want to take you to that. What was going on inside? This was what was outside. We've heard the expressions that others could hear. We've looked on what others could look on. Those are his legs, the actions, the work, the walk.
00:35:04
If you will and you want to connect it, you can look at First Peter 2/22.
He did no sin.
But there's something more than that. There's what was going on inside in his heart during that period of time. There's what he went through as a person during those hours on the cross. That's what was inward. That's the pertinence of the inwards. Those are the affections. Those are the feelings on the inside. I told you a moment ago that I said the right words, but I didn't feel them. We can say the right thing.
We can do the right thing and be rotten on the inside.
The Lord Jesus did the right acts as recorded here. He said the right things as recorded here. He did no sin. But in first John it says in chapter 3 verse five, and then Mr. Darby's translation for those familiar with it. In him sin was not, there was no sin in him.
There's nothing in him, nothing hidden from the eye of man. So God opens it up so that you and I can look at it. Let's turn to Psalm 22.
I challenge you to look at this man.
You cross a bridge with your life depending on it without a second thought.
But he's presented himself to you fully in his word, to be considered.
You know that lamb was kept up for multiple days where it could be inspected. I suppose with the lamb you might look at it and externally it would look OK. But if there was any inward disease, if there was anything on the inside that might express itself over a period of days. So it's kept up for the period of days so that inside could be seen. The inside is seen here in Psalm 22.
And we go.
Go through the fullness of it.
We don't have the.
It's far too much here. It's far too much in the person of the Lord. I just want you to notice a few things and I challenge you to do something when you go home tonight. I'd like you to read who he's talking to from verse one to verse 22.
I'd like you to go through that carefully. I'll point out a few.
Verse one, my God my God Verse two, Oh my God, verse three but thou verse 9 but thou but verse 11 be not far from me addressing the same person.
Verse 18 still talking to God they talking about others. Verse 19 but be not thou. Verse 21 talking the safe same person save me.
22 I will declare thy name.
Look back through it carefully. Not until verse 23 as he talked to anybody but God.
That whole period of time on the cross, going through the absolutely most intense, incredible 3 hours that could ever be.
This man.
Presents himself and all that he is to his God.
He presents himself and all he is, imperfect submission and perfect obedience to his God. And there's nothing but what that God found acceptable. Everything was perfectly acceptable to his God. You know those first. And again, I address those who have heard this word many times before. So you've seen those words. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
And you know when he said them, the recorded in Matthew and the recorded, I believe in Mark.
And you know that he said them the end of those three hours on the cross. But if you ever pause to contrast that with what you are.
And what I am, I'm not pointing you out. I've already given multiple examples of what I am, and I could not be accepted before God as I am. I must be accepted in this person, in this one, in this Lord Jesus Christ. There's no other hope for me and there's no other hope for you. But have you thought about it for even a moment? How do you stack up?
00:40:01
Suppose.
For a moment that you're doing some work around the house and you've done a pretty good job on something. Perhaps you're a child in the home, perhaps you're an adult. You've done work around the house and it's been nicely done and the person that you did it for will say for a moment that it's your mom and your mom comes along.
And they see the work that you've done and they look it over.
And they just keep right on going, totally ignore it, and all they can talk about is whatever's on their mind at that particular moment.
Sometimes they say that they blew you off. You presented something and totally ignored it.
You feel kind of abandoned a little bit.
Found it hard when meditating on this one even come up with something or to go through anything in my experience that came close to what the Lord Jesus felt on that cross. What an example I just gave is trivial. It's minor, it might not even seem like abandonment, but you'd feel ignored and that's why I chose it.
You feel ignored, You feel like you didn't count. You felt like you didn't matter.
And in the heart, for maybe just a moment, would surge a little bit of irritation.
What does this man do? Who does he talk to? Who does he cry to? He says, my God, my God, what language do people use when they're distancing themselves from someone else? They say my no.
I first noticed it with sports when I was in high school, I guess. And somewhere during my high school years, I noticed that there was one year, may have been more than one, but I don't remember 1, where the University of Illinois football team did quite well that year. And I saw this orange and blue in my high school and I heard a lot of we we're doing well this year. We're doing great this year.
We're, we're, we're going to die, forget. And I don't know whether they went to the Rose Bowl or what. We'll say we're going to the Rose Bowl this year. And a lot of my friends were talking in this language and wearing these clothes. And the next year, as I recall it, it wasn't nearly as good a year for the University of Illinois. And there was a lot less blue and orange around. And I heard words like, boy, they are not doing very well this year.
Boy, they need a new coach. The wheeze were gone, and now it was they.
It's not what happens. Distancing from the failure. We when it's success, they when it's failure, pushing ourselves apart. But what does this man do? He's being made thin. He's in those hours of darkness and he's having my sin laid on him. What does he say?
My God, my God, what an amazing man.
What an amazing person he is.
If you come down a little further or six, well, I'll read from maybe just a little before that.
For the full connection, we'll read from verse 8, from verse, I'm sorry, from verse three to verse 8. But thou art holy, O thou that inhabit us, the praises of Israel, our fathers trusted. In thee they trusted, and now that's delivered them. They cried unto thee, and were delivered and trusted in thee who were not confounded.
But I am a worm and no man. Her approach of men and despised of the people.
All they that see me laugh me to scorn. They shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying He trusted on the Lord that he would deliver him, let him deliver him, saying he delighted in him.
And explain by enjoying these verses in just a moment about the Lord Jesus. But I want to tell you another story from high school to create the contrast. Trying to remember being mocked, being made fun of, being laughed at. And this situation occurred over 30 years ago, not to me, but to a friend of mine.
His name is Jim Runkey. I had a physics class with him in high school.
00:45:04
It's probably our junior year. We had a teacher who was a brilliant man. He told us what his SAT score was and it was above the average four. And I looked it up once. It was above the average necessary to get into any school in this nation.
It was well above the average to get into any school in this nation. It was a very bright man. He was a very sarcastic man. And we had exams, tests that had 30 questions on them and each question had six. It was multiple choice, but there were six options for everyone. And they were deliberately designed to be extremely tricky. And so if you came to that test and you closed your, you know, just covered up the questions and you randomly.
Marked off your answers to the 30 questions at six possible answers to each one. So if you got it one out of every six right, you get about 5 right? And my sarcastic physics teacher, as he returned the papers off and had a little opposite of a I guess he probably viewed it as a word of motivation for his students. It wasn't a word of encouragement, but I remember sitting two seats back.
One row over from Jim as he got his paper back from the teacher.
Held it between his thumb and his forefinger. Jim was sitting on the outside row, so he was twisted around a little bit toward the rest of the class, just waiting for the teacher to come by. Sitting up in his seat. Teacher held his paper between his thumb and his forefinger. He brought it over his desk. He turned toward the class, and he kind of flicked it toward Jim as he said.
A monkey flipping levers could do better than that.
Jim got three or four right. A monkey flipping levers could do better than that.
Well, Jim was pretty good-natured, but I watched him and he kind of, he smiled, he smiled at the teacher. He kind of had a little goofy grin on his face. They splint down this chair a bit. He split around from the Class A little bit and he didn't have anything to say.
He was publicly mocked for his failure.
He was publicly laughed at and he was embarrassed. He wanted to hide.
Now back to this man, Psalm 22.
Challenge you to read the verses again in the quiet of your room, but I believe in verses 3 to 8. Here's what this man was concerned about. He was concerned that God would look bad because a righteous man was suffering without deliverance. He's not there to hide because he feels ashamed before man. He's not there to demand.
That he be looked at in a positive way by others.
In the context, in the totality of the section, in the context of those verses, look at it for yourself. I suggest to you that his concern was answered at the end. It was answered when he was delivered in verse 2122. His concern was answered, but his concern was that God would look bad.
Because a righteous man was suffering, he justifies him in relation to other righteous ones.
In relation to himself, he's concerned for God's honor. He's there in that moment.
Not blushing red.
Not wiggling down to not be seen.
She's there crying out to God that God will vindicate himself.
Verse 12.
Many bulls have compassed me, strong bowls of basin who beset me round.
They gaped upon me with their mouths as a ravening and a roaring lion.
May the Lord Jesus was surrounded. He shares the experience with God. He was surrounded by those that had absolute hatred for him.
But it goes through it all with absolute perfect quietness.
They do want to look at one thing I did not intend to skip over. I'm going to read verses 9:00 to 11:00, and then we'll pass on very briefly to the head.
This is the inwards. This is his feelings expressed, his affections.
00:50:01
Verses 9:00 to 11:00 But thou art he that took me out of the womb.
Now it's make me hope. When I was upon my mother's breasts, I was cast upon Thee from the womb. Thou art my God from my mother's belly. Be not far from me, for trouble is near, for there is none to help. This is His dependence. He addresses God, I think, in these verses four times, and He depends totally on His God. But I want you to notice it came from the earliest age. You've noticed that before.
It came from when he was the youngest he could possibly be.
I'll tell you one more story. The purpose of the story is to create. The contrast is to create a background that displays the gem. The story may sound cute at first.
But has another side to it.
When I was being potty trained, I don't know what age and I knew better. I guess I had diapers, but I was being whatever process my parents used. I don't know what it was.
And I was being taught how to go to the bathroom properly in the toilet. And my mom was working, as I recall the story. I don't remember, but I heard the story from her many times. She was working, as I remember it, in the kitchen. And I must have been around. And I vanished. And I went into the next room and I went in behind the door.
And she heard.
From behind the door.
She said, Steven, what are you doing? Nothing. Apparently I was old enough to use that word, so I don't know how old I was. I said nothing. I went and hid. I said nothing.
And then the next part was.
Steven, what was that noise I heard?
Bears, Mom Bears.
Kind of ridiculous, isn't it?
You know, Mom told that story when I was a teenager and older, and some of the times she told it because it was a funny story about a little kid. Some of the times she told that story, it was because that little kid hadn't changed very much.
An excuse to cover sin that makes a mother laugh. I don't know if I got punished or not. That wasn't part of the story. What was part of the story was that I was stubborn, that I was hiding my evil, and that I was willing to come up with a flimsy excuse to justify myself. And apparently it too. I thought it was pretty good to say Bears mom. Bears Mom wasn't fooled.
Do you think the eternal God who looks into the bottom of your heart is going to be confused?
If you present yourself to Him in your sins for acceptance.
You think it's going to be funny in that particular moment? Do you think he'll Oh, he hadn't thought of that.
When you present your excuse, Mom didn't say. Oh yes, the bears.
It wasn't the slightest bit confusing to her, and God is not going to be the slightest bit confused if you present yourself for acceptance before Him as you are.
You must come to God in the full value and virtue of this person and his work. You must come to God and be accepted. Have that sacrifice, that Lamb accepted on your behalf, accepted for you. You must receive him and present him to God as your sacrifice and not yourself.
Just want to read one brief.
Spot further along in the psalms related to the head.
You know that in First Corinthians 5 it says. Our Second Corinthians 5/21 it says.
He knew no sin. Here's the head. He knew no sin. Psalm 139.
Just want to read the verses.
Expression of his thoughts, expression of his purposes. There's so many more. There's ones in Ephesians.
I thought perhaps to read to you, but this was more light on my heart because it expresses the thoughts, the intelligence, the purpose of this one, what He sees and what He knows and what His heart is really and along with His thoughts. Psalm 139. Just read from verse 13.
00:55:18
Thou hast possessed my reins, Thou hast covered me in my mother's womb. I will praise thee, for I am fearfully and wonderfully weighed. Marvellous are thy works not my soul knoweth right well. My substance was not hid from me when I was made in secret and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Thine eyes did see my substance yet being unperfect.
And in my book all my members were written which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them.
How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God, how great is the sum of them. If I should count them, they are more in number than the sand. When I awake, I am still with thee.
You know, if you were honest.
And you could sit down and spend some time to think about it and you were to calculate.
What percentage of your thoughts in the last week have been about this person?
What they've been like.
What the content of them has been?
How much you thanked him for the flat tire, how much you appreciated the food that was got burned, Those little things, those little things that happened that God allows and your response to them. And then compare that with this.
This conclusion of the psalmist, when he thinks about God's thoughts of him, how precious also are thy thoughts unto me, Oh God, how great.
How great is the sum of them?
His thoughts toward you are not ones of hatred.
They're not ones of demand. There's not. They're not ones that say, come, bring me this sacrifice. Bring me this bit of work. Do this for me. Do that for me. This thought toward you is only for your blessing. It's only for your good. But your sin must be put away. It must be washed away. You cannot come presenting yourself.
The God you must come presenting the gift that He's given of his Son and his work for you. You must come in the value of that work.
Do you think God, who delights in this person is going to look at you as you are in your sin and say well?
Not the best, but I'll take it.
Not perfect.
But it will have to do.
He says he'll take one lamb that's without blemish, that's perfect in his head, his legs and his inwards Perfect. That one person is his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Will you receive that one simply as your lamb, as your sacrifice, as your acceptance before God? It's as easy as saying.
Thank you. It's as easy as recognizing that you need him.
And that you appreciate what he's done for you. It's as easy as receiving it. It's as easy as crossing that bridge you've done in the last month without thought. Now you can do it. You don't have to know everything about him. You don't have to know the fullness. You can't. You'll have eternity to learn it.
You just need to know a little bit. You've known a little bit before tonight. You've heard a little bit more tonight. Will you receive Jesus Christ as your Savior?
YP Talk 1
Hebrews 1:5-2:1
Reading
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
Run the never tired Vice President, shall our comfort be 166?
Lord.
I want to cheer on ground.
All the strangers. You are saying that I'm saying all.
Before Thunder.
Luke 15, verse 22.
Verse 21 And the Son said unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in thy sight.
And in no more worthy to be called thy son. But the father said it to his servants. Bring forth the best robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet, and bring hit her the fatted calf, and kill it. And let us eat and be merry.
But forever we'd be on that.
Hebrews chapter one and verse 5. For under which of the angels said he had any time, Thou art my son, this day have I begotten thee. And again I will be to him a Father, and he shall be to me a Son. And again, when he brings in the first begotten into the world he set, and let all the angels of God worship him, and of the angels he saith, Who maketh his angels, spirits, and his ministers a flame of fire.
But under the sun, he saith, lies thrown, O God, is forever and ever. A scepter of righteousness is the scepter of thy Kingdom. Thou hast loved righteousness and hated iniquity. Therefore God, even thy God, has anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows.
00:05:23
And thou, Lord, in the beginning has laid the foundation of the earth.
And the heavens are the works of thine hands. They shall perish, but thou remain us. And they all shall act old as does the garment, and as a vesture shalt thou pull them up, and they shall be changed, but thou art the same, and thy ears shall not fail. But to which of the angels, said he, at any time Sit on my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool.
Are they not all ministering spirits sent forth to minister for them? Who shall be heirs of salvation?
Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which have been.
Which we have heard, lest at anytime we should let them slip. For if the words spoken by angels was steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense of reward, how shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation, which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard Him?
God also bearing them witness, both with signs and wonders.
And with divers miracles and gifts of the Holy Ghost according to his own will.
For under the angels hath he not put in subjection the world to come.
Where we speak.
May stop here.
With our chapter in respect to the verses that were just read before we prayed.
We know that Luke 15, we call it the parable the prodigal son because we know of the son that left his father's house and went into the far country and wasted the substance in riotous living and versus red bring us the place that the father brought that son into when he repented and came home.
But I also believe that we can look at that parable and enjoy an opposite side of it.
Of the Father who sent his perfect Son into the far country for the blessing of others, as we have in our chapter. The Son, the perfect Son who returns home from having gone into the far country. Here in our chapter and in the verses just before where we started, it says.
In verse 3.
He sat himself down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.
And then in verse.
13 The Father says, Sit on my right hand, brethren, we can't imagine it, but at least in our hearts we can enjoy the what kind of a welcome.
Did the perfect son have when he returned to the father's house and sat down, not as a prodigal, but sat down as the son at his father's right hand who had?
Perfectly represented him and fulfilled the work given to do in the far country, and returns home and sits there. I think in our hearts we can only imagine the joy of the Father and the Son together as the Son is welcomed in the dignity and the majesty of the work and person that He is. And there are things like that in the Word of God, for example, in Genesis 22.
Where the Father and the Son, it says they go Yonder to worship.
We don't go with them in that. That's personal to the father and the son.
And that aspect of the work of the Lord Jesus at the cross, and also I think here it's, can I say, too private, too personal a moment between them that it's not made known to us, but we can enjoy the thought of the welcome home and the pleasure of their being together again, and that for eternity. And the Father saying to the Son, well done, thou good and faithful servant.
00:10:36
Whom I am well pleased.
When you went to the glory.
He went in in a way that.
That he was not there before he went in as a man.
A real human being is in the glory of God, in resurrection glory.
You might say, well, Enoch and Elijah went into the glory as well, but that was not in resurrection glory.
The Lord Jesus as a man in full resurrection glory.
Went into that glory and sits at the right hand of God.
Incredible to think one of the human race sits in the glory of God right now.
References to the Lord sitting down on the right hand of the majesty on high here it's in virtue of him as the son of God and if we look over in the.
The 8th chapter we would see that he is sitting down there again.
In virtue of his intercession for us as our great High Priest, then, when we come to Chapter 10.
He's sitting down.
Victoriously having completed the work of redemption.
To God's glory, having met all the demands of sin, is set down in set down in perpetuity there.
Because of the virtue of His finished work at the cross, then in the 12Th chapter we have Him sitting down again as the object of our faith, as the one who started the pathway of faith and finished it to God's glory. Every every other one, including ourselves, of course, have been, have failed in that pathway of faith. But here was one.
Who have begun the author and finisher of faith. He began the pathway of faith and he completed it perfectly to the glory of God. And that's the the thought in that 12Th of Hebrews. I think it was mentioned yesterday that we don't have the atonement there for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the majesty on high.
Not the question of atonement there, but of a perfect man, having suffered all the rejection of the nation, endured the contradiction of sinners against himself, and.
Entered the glory, having been perfectly glorified God.
And it was the joy of returning to the Father, having completed the work that God had given him to do. He despised the shame. We've been studying in Ottawa, Matthew Mark 15 And with all the shame and the reproach the Lord endured, we make a great deal of the shame. But the war despised the shame in His perfect lowly obedience.
To the word and will of thought.
Last night in the Gospel meeting we had ourselves compared to the Lord Jesus.
And his incomparable worth compared to our sinfulness.
00:15:06
In various ways, in verses 5 to 9 where we started this reading meeting, we have him compared to angels, and the Jewish people had high respect for the angels as something greater in power than themselves and as angelic beings that ministered things of heaven to them through the prophets and so on.
And so they had a high respect for the angels, and tended to give them a great place, and in order to put them, if you will, in their proper place with respect to the wonder of the majesty and glory of the person of the sun, there in verses 5 to 9 we have them compared to Himself. And so it says in verse five, under which of the angels said he at any time?
Thou art my son. What Angel ever sat at the right hand of God in that majesty? What Angel ever had the right to be?
Put in such an exalted place or position.
They're a creature, the sun is not, and they have the creature's place, even though it's in power greater than our own, although in blessing they have a much less place than we do.
Our place now in the order of things far exceeds what an Angel has. Our intelligence of God exceeds the intelligence of an Angel. And entering in they know God in power, but we know him in his heart in a way that an Angel doesn't. And so.
He's here comparing them and it's important for us that anyone that.
Would compete in any way with the place that he has. There should be no competition. And so we're taught as well as the Jew to put the Angel in their right place, respect them and the work that they do, but they don't compare with the sun.
It is interesting to see what the scripture says about.
Angelic beings, they it says later on in this chapter he makes his angels spirits.
And his ministers a flame of fire in verse 7.
So they are spirit beings, but they do appear in.
At times, like we have in the case of Abraham in the 18th of Genesis.
There he lifted up his eyes and saw three men standing there. Of course one was the Lord, and.
The other two were angels.
Interesting. He prepared a meal for them. He served them.
They ate the meal. Interesting. Do angels eat? Yes, they do.
How do you explain that? I don't know. I just say you have to take Scripture where it is. And it's very fascinating. But it's interesting that angels are careful not to get the glory. They know the glory belongs to God. And so when John in the Book of Revelation falls down at the feet of the Angel to worship, they said, see that you do it, not worship God.
So it's interesting what Scripture says about they are very interesting being. And so in chapter 2 when it says when the Lord Jesus became a man, he was made a little lower than the angels, which shows us that the human creation is a little lower than the angelic creation. Very interesting details to think about. But oh brethren, even they don't compare with the glory.
Of the one we are considering to notice in verse five that first statement that is made there about the Lord Jesus.
Has two parts.
Thou art my son. This is a quote from Psalm 2 as we read yesterday.
This day have I begotten thee.
That statement, Thou art my Son, was what he was from all eternity. He never began to be the Son of God, He always was.
00:20:08
Oh, what a tremendous thing to think about. But then it says this day.
And when you're talking about days, you're talking about time and in time.
He came into this world to take a human form. The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us. And so when it says this day of I begotten, these talking about his incarnation, the two parts of His glorious being, He being the Son of God and He being the Son of Man, is comprehended in those two statements.
Important to be clear about this.
One of the popular translations in Christian circles today.
As mistranslated this in the second place second statement they say this day have I become your father?
Is that right?
No, He always was his Father, but it was in time that he took human form. This day have I begotten thee. His incarnation was in the course of time, so it's so important.
It's interesting that the publishers that publish that translation.
When they did it in Spanish, they corrected that. I think it was because they got some flak on it. They didn't translate it that way. But the tragedy is that quite a number of other Spanish translations, they use that wrong translation. So let's be careful about the translations we use. If he only became the father.
In time, then, he was not the eternal Son. That is not the truth of God.
He was always God's beloved son.
Chapter 9 Unto us a child is foreign, unto us the Son is given in the government shall be upon his shoulder. So you have the incarnation. There a child is born. Never says that a son is born, because, as mentioned, the Lord was the eternal Son that you never relinquished.
When he took manhood into union with himself.
But here we have compared to the sun in verse 5.
They're compared to the sun.
What Angel?
Was ever in relationship to God as Son.
With a capital.
S as a creature they were, they could, like we are.
In creation, sons of God. But in the sense of the the sun, what Angel compares to the sun? None.
It's he uniquely and only, and so the Angel doesn't measure up in that sense to be compared to himself. And then he says.
When he brings the.
Sun in what Angel has ever been the object of in verse six of worship?
Are angels to be worshipped?
No, but he says in verse six of the Son, the angels are to worship him.
And so that's the comparison between himself and an Angel. The angels were to be worshippers of himself as we are as well. And so their place is quite inferior in that sense. And then he goes on in verse seven in the comparison, and it says he's made his angels ministers. And so they have a responsibility and his work and God's creation.
There to be ministers of things. But in comparison, in verse 8, how do they compare to the sun? All the sun is to have the throne. He is to have the supreme authority over all other things, including angels. And so they have a place as ministers. But the Son, the throne, is his. The one who is to be over all things is the sun, not an Angel. And so they have their place.
00:25:17
And in fact, where did Satan go wrong?
Satan wanted the sons place.
Satan wanted to have the place that belonged to the sun. He wanted to be in that place of authority and power and rule. And so in rebellion he has rebelled against in order that the world might be his world and that he might have his subjects to follow him. But it's all a work and opposition to the sun, and it will be in its time properly put down fully.
And the son vanquished his power in his work at the cross. And so on. But that's a different subject than here.
And so here we see in these verses the sun and the angels compared, and it what does it bring out, should bring out to our hearts the glory of the sun as having the place of the throne, having the place that we should bow down thankfully. Do I trust and worship Him and recognize that the angels are ministers for us and for God.
And yet in that place in which they too with us, would worship the sun.
And so we do well to the comparison brings out the glories of his person.
Were given the authority to rule, were they? But it's remarkable when the contemplate that.
We who are so far from God.
Now are part of that new creation race.
That has been formed through the death of Christ and his resurrection and the coming of the Holy Spirit. We are part of that new creation race.
Of which Christ is the head, and.
In back to in that position.
We're going to rule with Christ in that coming day. We're going to share the inheritance. That's the inheritance. All the material things of this world. Inheritance are used in two ways, in a spiritual sense and all sorts of material sense. But we're going to share with the Lord Jesus all that inheritance that he has rightfully going to assume.
Feedback coming day after the judgments have been poured out upon the world.
Verse eight he.
Addressing the Lord Jesus and it's interesting as God.
Unto the Son This is a quote from Psalm 45. Unto the Son, he saith.
Thy throne, O God.
Is forever and ever.
A scepter of righteousness is the scepter of thy Kingdom.
Thou hast loved righteousness and hated iniquity.
Therefore, God, he's addressing the sun.
Even thy God.
Hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows.
Amazingly wonderful, the glory of this person.
God is made known to us in two ways. God is light and God is love. Those are the inherent characteristics of His being.
00:30:11
And if God overlooks sin?
And didn't deal with it. He would cease to be holy in the fullness of that word.
He would cease to be God in his deity.
And yet it's impossible the thought relief. But here in what is said in verse 8 and verse nine, we find the sun as God having that same character. He loves righteousness. We talk about love. We talk about often in love, dealing with the Sinner and his sins. And thank God we do.
John 316 The wonderful most well quoted verse in the Bible, I'm sure.
Here there's a love spoken about, but it's a love of the holiness, the righteousness side of God. Thou hast loved righteousness and hated iniquity. That's the character of the sun as God, and we thank it. We're thankful that it is so and unlike us.
Oh, we weren't born that way. We didn't have that characteristic in our being of loving righteousness and hate and iniquity. That doesn't characterize us inherently. We thank God that when we put our trust in the Lord Jesus, we receive a life that does love, righteousness and hate iniquity. That is the new life. The everlasting life we have is of the same character as with God.
It's imparted to us to enjoy it as a creature.
But here it's the Sun in his inherent nature, loving righteousness and hating iniquity, and that way he's above his fellows.
Come back to 16.
Of course, this is a Messianic Psalm and very important. It begins preserving the old God from these who I put my trust. There we have the Lord as the fully defendant. Obedient man is far away down here. As it goes down the Psalm, we come to the resurrection for the end of the song. Therefore my heart is glad, my glory rejoiced it. I fled also shall rest in whole.
My soul in hell neither wilt thou suffer thine only one to see corruption.
00:35:00
I was made known will show me the path of life in thy presence is fullness of joy and thy right hand there are pleasures forevermore, so the Lord.
Voluntarily yielded up his life. Our death is is involuntary. But the word dismissed his spirit and he never saw corruption went into the grave. That is true, but God raised him from the dead. He raised himself.
The Holy Spirit of God raised him, and then we have the words that refer to His exaltation. The path of life is resurrection. That's the fullness of joy that He had now has at the right hand of God, having accomplished the work of redemption for us. Would that be the oil of gladness there? I'm not sure.
I like the thought.
If we could turn to John 20.
Well, maybe first of all, if we could turn to Psalm 89.
In Psalm 89.
And verse 20.
We read here. I have found David my servant.
With my holy anointing, my holy oil, have I anointed him? We never read of Saul being anointed with holy oil. This seems to be a special.
A oil that was used in the anointing of David. A picture of the Lord Jesus and I've enjoyed if we look at John chapter 20.
In John chapter 20.
The Lord Jesus speaking to Mary in the 16th verse.
Jesus said unto her, Mary. She turned herself, and said unto him, her bow and eye.
Which is to say, master.
And Jesus said unto her, Touch me not, for I'm not yet ascended to my Father, but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your father, and to my God, and your God.
The relationship of the people of God of old was a relationship between them and God.
They did not know him as father and now that relationship has changed where they can now know him as father.
But the relationship with the Lord Jesus when he became a man and as we've had brought before us, he was always the son. We have in Mark 12 The the the picture of the husbandman and how we sent the servants. And then finally it says I have one son. I will send my beloved son. He was the son before he was sent. But the relationship that the Lord Jesus had.
With his father.
Never changed from a past eternity to when he was the Son here.
As a man, but his relationship.
To viewing his Father as God was changed when he became a man.
And so I've appreciated in the 22nd Psalm, which is perhaps the Psalm that is quoted most in the breaking of bread, he says there, let's turn to it.
In Psalm 22.
In Psalm 22, which we had last night brought before us so beautifully here, he's quoted.
In the first verse we have him on the on the cross.
00:40:00
Saying these words which that that scene in the darkness was hid from us. Nobody could see that, but we can at least hear what happened in the darkness. And so he says here my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? But if you go further on down.
He says in the ninth verse, But thou art he that took me out of the womb. Thou didst make me hope when I was among my mother's breasts. I was cast upon me from the from the womb. Thou art my God from a past eternity. It does not say that.
It says I am my God, thou art my God from my mother's belly. And so I've appreciated here in our chapter the thought of the holy anointing oil. There is a special provision that is made for only the Lord Jesus as the eternal Son, who always knew his Father as Father, but now knows him as God. And there's a special oil that anoints him. And we have the oil of gladness, and it's above.
His fellows, I've just appreciated that. I don't know if it commends itself.
One other thought. There's a I think of this in First Kings one when Solomon is anointed.
First Kings 1, verses 39 and 40.
And Zadok the priest took him horn of oil out of the Tabernacle, and anointed Solomon, and they blew the trumpet, And all the people said, God save King Solomon, And all the people came up after him. And the people piped with pipes, and rejoiced with great joy, so that the earth rent with the sound of them. The verses being quoted here in our chapter in Hebrews one come from Psalm 45, as was already mentioned.
And if you look at the Psalm, righteousness is established there, and then there comes the oil of gladness.
Here the figure of Solomon is righteousness. His rule is characterized by righteousness and peace.
Is a figure of the Lord reigning in the Millennium, and right up to that moment righteousness is suffered. And those that were righteous look out and they say, well, how is it that righteousness is suffering? But when the true king comes and from that point forward, righteousness won't suffer. Metal rule throughout the Millennium. And so there's great joy with those that share with God the desire to see righteousness rule and not suffer. Who's central to the whole scene? Well, in the figure it's Solomon.
In the person he speaks of, it's obviously our Lord above his fellows.
This is all very beautiful.
Bring it down to our own hearts a little bit. Like to suggest looking at that verse in Psalm 45.
Psalm 45, verse 7.
Thou.
Lovest righteousness.
It's the orientation of the heart.
Thou lovest righteousness and hatest wickedness, therefore God, thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows. I've underlined just a few words in this verse.
Thou lovest righteousness, hated wickedness, therefore gladness for my own heart. It's a reminder that holiness and happiness go together. No one knows more of that than our Lord Jesus.
But it's true for us too. Holiness and happiness go together.
His fellows.
I think it brings in us, doesn't it, brethren?
He is anointed with oil of gladness above his fellows, but I think it refers to his being a man in that position, and as such he relates to.
Us in our position and resurrection, we are united to Him and so it's a beautiful thing to think about.
That he is anointed with the oil of gladness above his fellows.
00:45:04
He necessarily occupies the place of preeminence.
But also as a man in that position is related to us.
I've enjoyed the thought that the fellows there you mentioned including us.
I think this isn't This is something I picked up from one of the writings, but I think that the Greek word for fellows is the same as what we have in the third chapter.
And in verse 14 where it says we are made partakers of Christ, I think it's nice to see that connection. So the the word, the Greek, the word in the Greek is the same for fellows and partakers.
So as king, he's brought into that supreme place.
Above all others and the joy.
That is associated with him in that and his place in God's anointing of him and in the verses that follow, we recognize the permanency of the place.
Kings come, kings go, kings rule, kings die, and someone else takes their place.
They are not permanent. There's no ruler.
Ruling over a country of this world that's going to last very long. Every single one of them is going to have his day and pass on. But in the Lord we find, even though people might look at it and say, well, he's, he's come, he's gone, he has no place here. And they said he was a king, but he never ruled.
When he was here and so man would look at the Lord Jesus some that way and over His cross was the statement of His being a king, but a king that never ruled really as far as history is concerned. But here we find it brought out as to His person that this Supreme One is going to be and will be forever a king.
Whose Kingdom will never pass on to another. It will be his.
And here's to rule as king as long as the earth is. And so he says, you sit at my right hand in verse 13 until I make your enemies your footstool. And as we have it in Psalm 45, the Kingdom described there and the king doesn't pass on to another. In Psalm 24, we have the same thought brought out as to the king of glory.
Who is the King of glory, It says, and it brings before us the same blessed person.
Above his fellows. And so here he's brought on some things. They wax old like a garment, and they perish, as it says in verse 11. But for him, no, He is from eternity to eternity. And when he rules and when he takes his place as ruler, it will never pass on to another. He is supreme in the order of his place.
As in authority and rule.
So it says in John, one of him, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.
And we have him first brought before us in John's Gospel as the one who.
Takes away sin by the sacrifice of himself.
But in the other sense of the word, the Lamb of God in Revelation removes sin and rules in righteousness. And so we see his character, and Revelation is coming as a Lamb to judge, to rule, to remove sin and the activity of sin, and then rule in righteousness above his fellows. And so we see Him removing sin.
00:50:15
Whenever first says Redeemer, and then the one who puts down all unrighteousness, loving it above his fellows, and he rules in righteousness in the revelation.
And God puts him there to make his.
Those who would oppose his footstool.
So I contrast his glory.
In these verses that follow 10:11 and 12:00.
To the creation which he made. And God's glory is revealed in creation. And I think it is beautiful to think about it, the grandeur of it.
The immensity of it, it just goes way beyond our capacity to comprehend.
I love to think about the stars in the universe that exists.
And what we have learned about it.
An incredible, but we they can't find an edge to it.
But we find that it is part of His creation, the heavens.
Are the works of his hands.
They shall perish.
But thou remainest, and they all shall wax old as doth a garment.
Now what's happening in this world? It's waxing old.
And as a vesture shalt thou fold them up, and they shall be changed in that. An amazing, interesting way of putting it. He's going to take this creation that we are a part of. He's going to fold it up and it's going to be changed.
But notice at the end of verse 12 Thou.
Art the same.
Here is one who.
Is eternal. And now in that glory, in that eternal glory as a man.
Thy ears shall not fail.
You know that word. The same in.
The Darby translation, you'll see that it's capitalized.
It's one of the titles of our God. I just want to suggest I remember one time out at the Burbank Conference, Brother Chuck Hendricks.
Was talking about this and he went through the some of the Old Testament scriptures. If you'll notice it refers in the new translation to Deuteronomy 32 verse 39. And if you go in the Darby translation to that verse, you'll have a list of I think it's about 18 different verses through the Old Testament and the new as well that.
Take up that title the same.
Everything we know.
Changes.
There is only one.
Who is the same?
I've known a lot of you brethren for many years.
Don and I traveled down in Bolivia when we were young.
Don's changed.
But there is someone that is the same. Isn't that amazing, brother? We know one who never changes. So I just encourage you young people especially to go to to Deuteronomy 3239 and there you'll find it says.
See now that I am he and that word is the same.
The self existent one, the one who never changes.
00:55:03
Oh, what a wonderful thing to know somebody who never changes.
You mentioned the stars and we see pictures of this that are taken of the quasars and so on. There's a glory to it all. It's magnificent.
But it's his handiwork, he is the artist.
All of those things that he placed out there, we can look through and see them.
We see it.
John Le Ben talks about his beloved mountains and how he enjoys God's handiwork and we see it close at hand. Those who look in the microscope see it.
In the small world that's there, but there's a glory to it. But the glory of the one who made it all is greater than all of that.
And there is a contrast between the one that has made it be told the Jews in John's Gospel before Abraham was I am.
We have.
The going back and forth in this chapter Speaking of the Eternal Son and the man.
Well, the man wasn't before God, before Abraham was, but he was, and the Jews knew what he was talking about because he wanted to kill him for it.
He was telling them he was the self existent one. The I am remember thinking about these things and the Lord kind of gave me a poem.
In the beginning, before the beginner began to begin the beginning, the beginner was in the beginning.
That's our savior.
He begun the beginning.
But he was there already.
Sadly, there are cults that try to say that.
The eternal Son of God had a beginning.
And that he was begotten, that goes against the word of God.
And that the Jehovah's Witnesses want to say that he's a little God.
But that goes against the idea that God exists outside of time.
Because if something has a beginning, it's in time.
This person who is our Savior was the eternal Son of God.
Who became a man, went to the cross and died for us.
Time has no constraint upon him.
Eastern religions speak of transcendence or eminence being this state of what they believe that a God might be.
Our God is transcendent, but that which he built.
Like a man who builds a house, he entered into it and came into time.
I remember my mother reading stories as I was growing up before I could read, and one of them was the story of a king.
Who felt like his advisors were not telling him the truth about his subjects.
And he expressed the wish that he could find out the true state of things and his son overhearing him the Prince.
Decides to put on beggars clothes and go among the people in the Kingdom and find out how they are and how they were.
Well, our God doesn't need to find out how they are and how they were.
But I remember thinking of that and my mother saying that that's kind of what the Lord Jesus did, He laid aside.
His princely gowns and clothes, and he put on, as it were, a servant's clothes, and went.
Among us to look us in the eye.
That's an amazing thing to think about, that the eternal Son of God came down to do that.
There's another story about a man and a boy who are walking along and.
There were some ants going across the sidewalk, and the little boy began to stomp on them. And the father said, well, don't do that, they're God's creatures. And he saw it as a moment to teach his son some things. So they got down on their bellies and looked at the ants closely. And the Father began to talk to him about their diligence and what the Scriptures had to say about the ants.
And that little boy became sad and said, Daddy, I'm sorry I stepped on these ants. I wish I could tell them I'm sorry. His father said. To do that you would have to become an aunt.
01:00:09
And go and speak to them that way. And he told his Son, that's what the Lord Jesus did.
He became like the Ant. He became a man came down and looked us in the eye.
And walked among us.
And when you, brother Bob, were talking about how there's a man in the glory, that's another astonishing and amazing thing that our God has chosen.
For eternity, to remain as a man, to take that place as he did, resurrected, ascended, seated at the right hand.
But that's who will welcome us as we go in all those who've gone before our loved ones.
Have gone there to be with this man who is there.
Brother Phil McCoy told me when his father was passing.
He asked him, What are you going to tell your dad? What are you going to tell the Lord when you see him face to face?
And Phil told me that his dad said, I will say to him, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you on ending.
It will be to a man.
Who is there that he will say thank you?
For dying for him.
And these things, these glories that we speak of.
One of the last messages Jim Highland gave.
Was in Cedar Rapids.
And it was the first message that my brother, who had recently been restored to the Lord, heard anyone give.
And my brother came home and said I learned something I never knew.
That the Father loves us with the same love he loved the Lord Jesus.
So these things that we talk about that are so special between the father and the son.
Because of what he did on the cross, we are going to be brought into those things.
To as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God.
Sometimes people demean those words and say that sons and daughters, no, we're brought into a place of a first born son. Whether you're a man or a woman, that's the position you're brought into.
We who are less than the angels.
Are going to be brought into this place, this relationship with our father.
Like the Lord Jesus, To me that's just astonishing.
And we can just barely enter in a little bit into some of those things, but as we gaze as we have been on these things and it's been unfolded to us.
It feels good in the heart, doesn't it?
But the general that he appears in all his regalia and uniform.
Before his soldiers, but when he comes home, he takes off those.
Those clothes that I had identified him as a general and he puts on casual clothes in the home where he is with his family.
So the Lord had that eternal glory in it.
In past ages, it was his to command not to obey.
But when he became a man.
He took human nature into union with himself.
Apart from sin, of course.
Whiteness of men. He was body, soul and spirit. But we need to be careful there.
Was not the likeness of men morally because man is a Sinner in the rebel of God?
But he is a man now at the right hand of God.
With all the sympathies of a of a man, he will remain that for eternity. He took a a a body capable of death, but not subject to death as ours is. And now he's in the place of exultation, ground with glory and honor.
01:05:22
Angels never said to any angels, Sit on my right hand until I make thine enemies thy footstool that's said to the Son. And then he explains what the purpose of angels are in verse 14. Are they not all ministering spirits sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation?
Very interesting, brethren, to realize that there are angelic beings. I really believe that there are many angels in this room right now. That's why our sisters cover their heads when there's anything to do with praying or prophesying. Because of the angels, they are looking at us. Do we recognize?
God's order in creation.
Man.
Was created in the image of God and then Eve was created to be a helpmate for him.
His equal at his side, but in submission to her husband. And that's the way she shows it, by putting a covering on her head when she prays her prophecies.
I have a notice that in certain circles that when the guys sing on their guitars or whatever they sing, they put on hats they should take them off.
You're spinging about the Lord Jesus.
And by taking off that covering, you are respecting your head.
Which is Christ. And so it's important to recognize there are angelic beings that are around us.
I honestly believe that we see angels more than we realize, probably just don't recognize them and see them as another person. But they're sent to the ministering. They're ministering spirits sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation. We are the heirs of salvation. We're living in a world that is very dangerous.
But there are ministering spirits.
And in a spirit, brethren, it is not like we who are physical.
It doesn't take time to.
Transpose yourself from one place to another. It's instantaneous. Whereas us, I'm going to come here to Saint Louis, it takes us about 3 hours to get here from Lawrenceville. That's not the case in these ministering spirits. They're sent forth to minister.
Oh, what a wonderful thing it is that God uses those angelic beings, but they are not to be.
Thanked or worshipped. And it's interesting to me to hear stories of those who think they have seen an Angel. And it's interesting to me to almost always hear that they disappear before the person ever recognizes what it was and what they were helped in by that particular being. And it's because they don't want the glory. They want God to have the glory because they know God.
In his glory. And so, oh brethren, may the Lord help us to give God the glory.
Dimension here we know that.
After the.
After the crucifixion of the Lord.
We look in the book of the Acts up to the 7th chapter. The Lord has actually seen standing there. Now that's not a contradiction, but I believe that the the thought there is that.
01:10:08
The Spirit of God had come at Pentecost, and he was wearing a mighty testimony.
For the Lord Jesus, and actually the Lord was standing and waiting for the Kingdom to be established. He would have returned and set up the Kingdom had there been repentance on the part of the nation of Israel.
So when when Stephen was martyred the first martyr?
In relation to the parable, they said we will not have this man to reign over us. And they sent a messenger after him, after Christ, who was Steven, whom they martyred, and.
And the Lord was was viewed there as still standing, as it were, waiting to establish the Kingdom. If only the nation would have repented. But of course they did not. They sent the the message after.
That they wouldn't have Christ on any terms, and they martyred Stephen. But then after that, we see in the book of Hebrews, which was written after some years after the martyrdom of Stephen, that the Lord is definitely looked at as having sat down. That is nationally, no longer dealing with the nation of Israel.
Of course it's postponed. The Kingdom is only postponed. It will be established in that coming day, so.
There were many miracles performed between Acts chapter one and Acts Chapter 7. These were to confirm that the Messiah was living and waiting to establish the Kingdom.
That is the dispensational character that I.
Just wanted to bring before us.
When a new king is brought into power, it said that he is seated upon the throne doesn't mean he never leaves it or stands up.
I like to think of the moment you spoke about, brother was Steven, that the Lord has a very special interest in the death of his Saints. Of course, Scripture tells us that.
And here is the first this martyr, this man whom the Lord was deserving to have such a man.
Stand for him and die for him there, proclaiming the truth.
And the Lord Jesus stands up to receive him.
Bob was speaking about the angels in verses 13 and 14, and we have in verse 14.
The word ministering and to minister, that means serve, doesn't it?
When brother Prapada came to visit Cedar Rapids many years ago.
He asked my wife to go with him in the car.
And she said there's got to be at least four guardian angels on every corner of that car as we drove around.
She said that she was scared the whole time that she rode with him.
Yeah, probably they are there watching over us. I think it's proper to thank the Lord for our angels that he sends and.
I know there have been times in my life where something close happened. Where?
A very dangerous moment passed and I felt that there was protection around, about, and there are other times I'm sure many can attest to that. I'm thankful that the Lord has His servants sent unseen and around us. I'm grateful for that. And it's their privilege to do that, you know?
You know one day, as we said, know ye not, ye shall judge angels. One day we will be over them.
Not yet as heirs, but they are sent to serve and protect and watch.
01:15:18
Like to tell a story of that was told to me down in Oaxaca, Mexico.
A number of years ago there was a brother.
His last name was Robles.
I didn't know him. I knew his son.
But before he got saved, he was.
Commander of a group of bandits, about 400 bandits that used to operate in that area of Mexico.
One day he gets saved.
He heard the gospel and gets saved.
Generally speaking, when somebody wants out of a group of bandits like that, the way they take care of them, the remaining bandits just execute him so that they won't be telling the police anything.
So he was in his house one day and.
The city of Rio Grande, where there is an assembly.
And he saw some of his companions coming towards his house with their machetes in their hand, and he knew exactly what that meant, that they were coming to execute him.
And so he says to his wife.
Let's kneel down. If they kill us, they'll kill us praying.
They kneeled down and prayed and nothing happened.
They got back up again. There was nobody around.
And they didn't know whatever happened until a few days later somebody came to him and said, Senor Robles, where did the soldiers come that were around your house the other day? He said, I don't know anything about any soldiers.
Yes, when they came to attack you, they couldn't get through because there were soldiers standing around your house.
I guess it means that soldiers sometimes dress, angels sometimes dress as soldiers. But it's fascinating to listen to the stories, brethren. And it's like I say again.
They don't sue around for any thanks. We give the thanks to God.
For the protection they give. It's a real thing, brethren, in this world we tend to look at.
Physical dangers.
We don't realize that there is a spirit dimension.
That we do not see with our eyes.
It's a very real thing.
And for that, God has his angels as ministering spirits.
Wonderful.
There was one time in the history of man when there wasn't a legion of angels.
To.
Be there to deliver.
One and that was when the Lord Jesus went to the cross.
There was a work to be done and he wasn't to be delivered from it.
And so the angels were not commissioned, but it's because of that that we're here today.
Part of Chapter 2, because we'd like to get into it for the next reading. Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard less than any time we should let them slip or should slip away.
Brother John Kemp was mentioning the other day of the sin of apostasy that is mentioned in the book of Hebrews, and I think this is addressing that.
There were those in the Jewish community that were being addressed here in this epistle that had made a profession of faith in the Lord Jesus. You remember when Paul went to Jerusalem?
In Acts 21 and 22 That.
01:20:00
They were, he was told. You see, brethren, a brother. How many thousands?
Have believed, and they're all zealous of the law.
They had made a profession of faith in the Lord Jesus.
But some of them weren't real, and this is a very real danger, especially amongst them. But it is a danger in our world today. Apostasy, it means to go back.
And give up the profession of Christianity. And we need to be clear about this.
A real believer can never become an apostate.
They might be affected by the apostasy that's going on around us.
But an apostate is one who has never been real in his heart, and only God knows who exactly they are. Let me just take you to Hebrews chapter 10 to show you how carefully the scripture speaks about such people.
Hebrews chapter 10 and verse 26.
Is dealing with this question of apostasy and notice how it speaks.
If we sin willfully, after that we have received.
The knowledge of the truth. Notice what it says they received.
The knowledge of the truth. It doesn't say they received the truth.
But they see, yes, they had a knowledge in their head of the truth.
There remaineth no more sacrifice for sins. That's an apostate.
There is no salvation for an apostate.
And only God is the one who knows who that might be.
But what a solemn thing it is. These things that we've been Speaking of in chapter one are real, brethren.
They are very real.
We ought to give the more earnest heed.
To the things which we have heard, lest at anytime we should let them slip or slip away. For if the words spoken by angels was steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense of reward, how shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation, which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard Him?
So what a solemn thing it is. These things are real.
May they be real. Is there someone here sitting and that never let it be really real in your soul.
Open up your heart and let it be real with you.
There's a great dangerous What more could you do to persuade, to convince, to impress upon somebody the reality of the person that was there than someone who spent day and night with him?
And he would not.
There is a danger of being around the truth and familiar with it.
And never having that truth penetrate.
Some of these early Jews were converted, maybe by the excitement of what was going on.
George Barnett and I think coined the term being converted to community, to the culture of a thing, but not to Christ.
The seeker friendly movement amongst evangelical churches.
Had good intentions, but the result was many people got converted to the culture of it, the community of it, never coming to know Christ.
In the appendix.
Hail to the Lord.
01:25:01
It becomes good to bring all the proud, handsome and water up. The girls were great.
A Journey with the Lord
Address—Don Rule
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.
Yesterday afternoon we.
Started.
The reading meeting by singing hymn #278.
I wish us to sing that same hymn again. And I want to emphasize before we start.
The first line of the Hem. Savior, we long to follow thee.
And verse four, thy life is now beyond the grave.
Verse 50 teach us so the power to know.
Of risen life with thee not we may live while here below.
But Christ our life might be. We'll sing the whole hymn 278.
Save your way.
I.
'M ready all the world.
We are.
Now.
Dreams, by the law of the day, our life.
Our.
Life's rain and grace.
It has been.
Alive, oh Lord, Amen.
Let's turn with me to begin to Mark's Gospel Chapter 3.
Mark's Gospel, chapter 3.
And verse 13.
00:05:02
And he goeth up into a mountain, and called unto him whom he would, And they came unto him, and he ordained 12 That they should be with him, and that he might send them forth to preach and to have power.
Here's the Lord Jesus.
As he was here on earth.
And he calls.
Some to himself.
I look upon you this afternoon as a company of people that the Lord Jesus has called to Himself.
In order for the word of God, for the truth of God to.
Have its proper effect upon us. We need to make it personal.
I've recently started sometimes for myself using the expression. We need to personalize the truth.
And in order to.
I trust of the Lord to seek to make the truth personal. We're going to this afternoon together.
Take a journey with the Lord Jesus.
And I hope that as we take this journey in our hearts and in our consciences.
You will and I will respond to it personally.
Here the Lord Jesus.
Has taken.
Some personally.
For three things.
1St that they might be with him.
And 2nd.
That he might send them forth.
And further in sending forth.
That they might have power.
So in our journey this afternoon.
The first step.
We believe we have already been called to himself. Last night we had that calling to himself and I trust that each one in the room has responded to it. But now we find here a desire.
Of the Lord Jesus.
He says that they might be with him.
We're going to take the journey from a village to a village to a village.
And as we do so.
We're not going to go alone. In fact, we're not even the ones that chose.
The village, those that we go to.
We're going with someone else who's asked us to come with him.
And so this afternoon we would have the Lord Jesus.
Speaking to us.
And would say to you and to me, follow me.
We're going, and I trust here this afternoon that the response of my heart and your heart is to go. Yes, Lord, I want to go with you. I want to be with you.
Isn't that a nice expression of heart that they might be?
With him.
Then you consider this afternoon that there is anyone's company you would rather have this afternoon than the Lord Jesus.
Well, here in Mark.
He says that they should be with him.
We'll turn over to the same point.
In Luke's Gospel and see a little more about the journey in Chapter 9.
So let's turn to what the Lord says to us as we're about to begin a journey with Him.
00:10:04
Luke Chapter 9 to get the context he says in verse one.
Then he called his 12 disciples.
You're not one of the original 12.
I'm not, we're not one of the next 70 that he calls, but we are equally called to go with him. And so you and I this afternoon.
Have the spiritual privilege. They had also the physical one, but we have the spiritual privilege.
Of going with him.
Now turn over to verse 51.
Luke 9, verse 51.
And it came to pass.
When the time was come that he should be received up.
He steadfastly set his face to go Jerusalem.
The first part of the journey that we're going to take with the Lord.
Is really in spirit the last trip he made on earth?
It's interesting in the gospels that a large part of the gospels are taken up with his last trip.
The same point in John's Gospel he comes to in chapter 12.
And in the whole of the John's Gospel, approximately, or close to half of it is about the last six days of his life.
John 12 one It's six days before the Passover, the Passover, the time of his death, And here we have him taking a last journey in spirit.
And so he sets his face steadfastly.
To go to Jerusalem.
Or he's going to die.
And he would say to you and to me in spirit.
This afternoon, will you go with me?
Are you willing to take the journey with me?
For me, and in spirit for you, the journey we're going to take together is going to end in death.
So they start out.
Verse 52.
He sent messengers before his face and they went and entered into a village.
Here's the first village they went to, the village of the Samaritans.
But verse 53 they did not receive them.
Those in Samaria.
It says of them they did not receive him because his face was set as though he would go to Jerusalem.
As a people, the Samaritans had nothing to do with Jerusalem. They had set up their worship elsewhere.
You remember the story of the woman at the well in Samaria, and she said to the Lord, we don't have anything to do with your people.
We're our own. And so perhaps as a word to the conscience this afternoon.
Is it possible that you didn't get the message last night and didn't receive him for yourself? Well, I say to you, the rest of us are going to go on a journey, but you're not.
You won't, you have said. No, I do not receive him.
And where he goes, he goes, my life goes my way, His life goes his way. And so you choose to stay there were the disciples who didn't have a right spirit about that at that point, and they didn't. They were ready for fire to come down from heaven and take care of the villagers there. That's not the spirit that he chose.
And so they.
00:15:00
Go on.
Verse 56.
With the Son of Man has not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them.
And they went to another village. And so here we come with the Lord Jesus to another village.
And perhaps this afternoon in your own spiritual life.
Life.
You didn't start out this journey as the Lord did with the 12.
Or perhaps with the 70 that came after, but now the Lord's coming to the village where you live.
And are you going to join?
To be with him.
Well, here's what comes up.
He says verse 57 it came to pass as they went in the way.
A certain man said unto them, Lord, I will follow thee.
Whithersoever thou goest, here's one that says I'm willing calls him Lord. I'm going to go with you.
Let's take the journey wherever you go. I'm ready to go.
I'm perhaps at first enthusiasm or whatever, as a young person, we reach that point where we say yes, Lord.
Whatever you say, I'm ready. Let's go.
The Lord is not like we are in many things and so.
He immediately responds to that statement of the man. Maybe that man or woman is you, and he says to you or to me. Verse 58 Jesus said unto him, Foxes have holes.
Birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man hath not where.
To lay his head.
He sang in response.
Following me.
As a cost.
Not free.
The world would say it's not all fun and games. There's a seriousness about it.
And in fact.
It means.
Giving up?
Having a nice little comfortable.
Place for yourself on Earth.
We all kind of naturally like to have.
A nest.
Or a bird type, A place that we consider ours, our home, our comfort zone, the place that we can be and enjoy for ourselves and others.
And so we wherever we tend to be, we tend to be nest builders.
We tend to find something that we can be comfortable with and settle down in.
The Lord said I don't have it and if you're going to go with me on this journey.
And be with me. It's something that you need to count the cost.
Here's what it is. We don't know. It doesn't tell us how that person responded. I don't know how you yourself this afternoon respond to the call.
It we don't know about this person, but you know.
You know, he knew whether he left his nest and started down the road with the Lord or he didn't.
So there's another person there in verse 59, he says to another. Follow me.
Here. The Lord asks.
This one, the first one volunteered. Perhaps you didn't exactly volunteer to follow the Lord. You didn't say in your heart this afternoon. Yes, Lord, I'll go wherever you go. Just that I hear you're going to take a journey. I want to go too.
But the Lord says to this one.
Again, I say my burden is make it personal. Make it personal for yourself.
Imagine.
00:20:00
That the Lord Jesus right now.
Is speaking to you as an individual and he says to you, follow me.
Follow me.
We get a response to the Lord's request or statement.
The response is Lord. That's a good not first word, isn't it Lord?
Lord means to acknowledge the authority of that person.
You probably didn't say Lord to a single other person in this room, and probably will. Not this weekend.
That word Lord is not used for everybody in every situation.
It is a word that speaks to us of one who we recognize as authority over us.
And it's a statement of giving respect to that person, Lord. And so the first word is a good one, Lord.
You said follow me.
But what are the next words?
Suffer.
Me first to go and bury my father.
Suffer means allow. We don't use suffer in this way.
In our present vocabulary, very much the word we would use is allow, Lord, allow.
Me first.
To go and bury my father.
2 words I want to give emphasis to here me and my.
Me is pretty important Speaking of the first person, right?
When we use the word me or my, we're talking about ourselves, and we are talking about ourselves in a very personal way.
We say, I say to you, please make it personal.
To yourself this afternoon, in your heart. And so here it's me and my.
I say Lord, but when it comes to walking out of town, down the road with the Lord and leaving the nest.
Am I like? Is this my response?
Don't just be a visitor listening to somebody else. Talk to somebody else. It's not the Lord talking to this man this afternoon. It's the Lord talking to you and me.
And the Lord says to you, follow me.
Do you have a response of me first?
You say Lord, yes I recognize your claim over me, but does the response also say me first?
And my father.
I have some.
Claims for myself.
Me and mine.
And yes, Lord, I recognize you as Lord, but I have something. Let me do it first, and then after I've taken care of my things, then I'll follow you.
I would suppose that the Lord left the village with that man left behind or that woman left behind.
So he turns to another.
Verse 61.
And to another also the Lord said, Lord, I will follow thee.
Same starting point.
But notice what he also says.
But let me first.
Go and bid them farewell, which are at home at my house, my nest, my house.
It's repeated in spirit twice here, showing us.
00:25:05
But these are things that.
Very basically.
May keep us.
From taking the journey with the Lord.
There's something in our heart, there's something in our life, there's something that we call our own.
That comes first.
Very legitimate, very natural things that are talked about here.
My house, my family.
My things.
We would say they're all legitimate.
As far as it goes, they are.
But are they first?
Or is the Lord's claim first?
Surreal test.
It's not an easy test.
It's easy for me in a certain way to say the words.
Because their words.
But it's quite another thing that those words that I don't doubt that you understand.
I've learned something a little bit. I've repeated it a number of times in recent months.
My wife to be and I exchanged 16 months of letters.
During courtship and engagement.
And I found in rereading those letters.
That were saved.
At the time I was 20 years of age.
There are a lot of things that I understood and believed of this book.
I understood what I'm talking about this afternoon in my head.
And I do not doubt that as you stand in the room or sit in the room this afternoon, what I'm saying to you, you're not having much difficulty understanding up here.
But in making the truth personal to you, whether you are.
20 years old, Oregon. 15 years old, Oregon. 50 years old.
Or older.
It's only for me, roughly 6 feet from here to my feet, but unless what's in the head gets to the feet, you're not going to go with the Lord Jesus.
And I have found some things that have been in my head 50 years and more haven't traveled 6 feet to the feet.
To walk in them, it's a serious and solemn thing to recognize that to get from here down to the feet, to walk with the Lord, there's a heart and there's a conscience in between, and the truth of God needs to get through the conscience and reside in the heart, and then the feet will follow.
And so for you and for me, the challenge is the Lord's heading to Jerusalem.
Are we going to, he picks us up here at the village, Are we going to go with him or is it just going to be something in the head? We say, Lord.
But then the hindrances but small 2 words me first.
And we stay at our nests.
OK, we're going to continue this, not here in the gospel, but we're going to take it up in a figurative way or in a picture story way in an Old Testament story. Go with me to 1St Kings.
Chapter 19.
Here in First Kings Chapter 19, we're going to pick up the story of a journey connected with.
Elijah and Elijah.
And we're going to look at Elijah as a picture of the Lord Jesus.
And our story and our journey, and we're going to look at Elijah as ourselves.
00:30:03
So we're going to pick it up here at the point at which.
Elijah comes into the life.
Of Elisha.
And in First Kings chapter 19.
Verse 19. First Kings, 1919.
And so he departed. That's Elijah. He departed thence and found.
Elisha, the son of Shaphat, who was plowing with 12 yoke of OPS in before him, and he with the 12Th. And Elijah passed by him and cast his mantle on him. And he left the oxen and ran after Elijah and said, Let me, I pray thee, kiss my father and my mother, and then I will go follow thee. You get that from the story we've been reading.
Of the Lord. And he said unto him, Go back again, for what have I done to thee? And he returned back from him, and took a yoke of oxen, and slew them, and boiled their flesh with the instruments of the oxen, and gave unto it the people, and they did eat. Then he rose and went after Elijah, and ministered unto him. I just pick up the story back here to get a connection to what we've just read.
We're going to look at Elijah as.
His last journey of his life as the Lord took the last journey of his life and the villages through which he passes and.
Elijah is.
To go with them and he has his challenge.
Until he says yes, and he goes, and maybe you've had your challenge and your soul about truly following the Lord through this life in which you're living and going with Him in it. And you may hesitate, but we will assume that you say yes and you're willing to take up the journey. So let's pass over to 2nd Kings Chapter 2.
Where we will perhaps spend the rest of our time.
Second Kings chapter 2.
And verse one, and it came to pass when the Lord would take up Elijah into heaven by a whirlwind, that Elijah went with Elijah from Gilgal. We're going to look at several villages here that have meaning in Scripture and we're going to take thoughts from the general meaning of that's associated with those villages in the journey.
But the point is, the Lord Jesus was going to Jerusalem and his journey.
That meant death.
And here this is the last journey of the life of Elijah, as it was a last journey for the Lord Jesus, and he is going to be taken out of this life.
And so.
Elijah.
Is going to heaven in a whirlwind, and Elijah goes with him.
1St place they leave as Gilgal and verse one it says he went with Elijah from Gilgal.
This psalmist suggested this is not the same Gilgal that the children of Israel went to as soon as they crossed the Jordan River into the Promised Land with Joshua.
But I'm going to use the name Gilgal and what it stands for, whether it's the same place or not.
Gilgal, when the children of Israel came into the land, was the place they first went to. Before they had any battles or any conflicts in the land of Israel, they went to this place.
And there they were circumcised.
Circumcision has to do with the cutting off and a separation, and we're not going to try to get deeply into that, but I'm just going to take the thought.
To follow the Lord Jesus.
Requires the willingness.
To go with him.
When it requires separation.
Separation from those things.
That attract the flesh.
Let me illustrate it in a practical way.
You may say I'm following the Lord Jesus in my life.
00:35:03
Let's take last week.
A week of your life and mine.
And I'm going to turn it around as if instead of you last week followed with the Lord Jesus, with the Lord Jesus was going with you.
Would you feel comfortable?
If you stop and think about it, that everything you did last week.
You were happy and content and comfortable to have the Lord Jesus participate in it.
Everything you watched or saw.
Everything that you occupied your time with.
Everything that you did and how you did it, you were very comfortable and content that the Lord Jesus was right at your side. Last week they picked one week.
I find that pretty challenging for my own soul.
But it isn't that reverse it.
Gilgal in one sense is a reminder to take a journey with the Lord.
Is to be willing to be separated from anything and everything that he would not participate in.
But to go with him?
In those activities, in those patterns of thought, in that behavior, in that activity that he would be involved in.
Another thought about it is Joshua, a picture of the Lord Jesus after the people were in the land. We read the life of Joshua and we find that he very, very frequently.
Went to Gilgal himself and in fact when people wanted to.
Have a meeting with them. They went to Gilgal to see him.
I just suggest to you that it was a place of strength.
Was a place of separation, but it was a place of strength.
And our strength is independence on God, not ourselves.
And so, to go with the Lord Jesus, he was often found himself alone on the mountain.
His place of strength and fellowship with God in prayer.
If we're going to go with the Lord Jesus.
We have the assurance that the path that he takes and the path that he leads us into and with himself is a place of separation and strength.
So verse two, Elijah says unto Elijah, Terry here I pray thee, for the Lord has sent me to Bethel, you know.
When you're taking a journey, there are lots of opportunities generally, probably many of you, if you traveled much distance to get here, you stopped at least at the gas station or for food or some of you perhaps even for overnight lodging and so on. There isn't a journey multiple times where there's different villages and there is stopping and.
In the spiritual journey, there's also the opportunity to stop.
And not go on.
Something that attracts, something that gets the eye, as we had yesterday afternoon. All the kings of Israel that had a good start and a bad finish. They stopped somewhere along their journey.
And something else got their attention, or their heart, even the best of them.
Had that tendency, like Solomon, one of the greatest, stopped.
When his heart got attracted to something other than walking with the Lord.
And so here there's this question. I'm going on to Bethel. Were you, are you going to stay here? Are you going to go on with me?
00:40:10
Lord in one sense didn't force the disciples to keep going. They didn't beat Him into subjection. It was a matter of their own hearts responding to Him. And you will find on your journey of life, if it's with the Lord, that he's not going to beat you. He's not going to force you to take the go on with him to the next village.
He's going to encourage your heart to do it. He's going to give you something to draw out your heart to himself.
But God loves a cheerful giver. God loves one who is willing and responsive. And thank God the Spirit works to make us that way. But here he goes on to Bethel.
That's all you remember in the history was.
Jacob.
I don't know 1500 years or more or 500 years or more before this.
Jacob had been fleeing.
And he?
Comes to this place and he puts his head down and he's ministered to by angels.
And he's given a message from the Lord to encourage him, and he says, surely this is the House of God. That's what Bethel means, the house.
The House of God El Bethel.
He says this must be the House of God. He found God there.
In the angels who minister to him.
If you go with the Lord.
The Lord is going to take you to God's house.
Even in your journey.
We're going to have the joy of coming in spirit into the House of God.
Enjoying the privilege and the fellowship of it. That's the trip the Lord Jesus takes.
And.
Another factor that's important in the Bethel is later on in the life of Jacob.
Some of his family got taken up with idolatry and there was idols in the household.
But, you know, sometimes in the path of life, we or those that are identified are part of our families or with us in some way or another. Sometimes idolatry. What's idolatry? It's anything.
That has a place in my life.
More important than the place God should have.
Anything that's.
Is becomes a substitute for the place that God should have in my life is an idol.
Doesn't have to be a physical image.
And in its sense to us, probably none of us in this room have such an image.
I'm confident we don't, but it's very possible.
For us to have something that gets a place in our life.
Solomon.
The greatest of all the kings, in his honor and glory.
In his personal life got carried away first with many wives and then by their idols.
And so his heart was taken away from the Lord by it, and.
Here they come to Bethel and with the Lord Jesus. And for Jacob he was told, you get back to the House of God, and he did so. And when he went back to the House of God, it was an exercise to his conscience, and the idols were put away.
And the Lord would take us to his house.
In that way that it would bring us back to himself and separate us.
From anything that's at that point has a more important place in our lives.
So we journey with the Lord. We go to Bethel.
We don't stay there, he says.
00:45:00
Verse four, we're going to have to skip a little in view of time. Verse four, it says.
And Elijah said unto him, Elijah, tarry here, I pray thee, for the Lord has sent me to Jericho.
You remember Jericho was the place that when the children of Israel first came into the land.
They had to fight the people of Jericho, the high walled city.
And there was conflict there.
The Lord.
I deface.
The world.
When he went to Jerusalem.
He had to face the whole power of Satan.
Arrayed in Satan's greatest effort to turn him aside at this the beginning of his public ministry, Satan came and tempted him, and then he leaves him alone for a time, and he comes back with all the power he could Marshall at the time of the Lord being in Jerusalem, to turn him aside from being faithful and going on.
To death.
And so.
Elijah was going to have to or have the privilege of going with the Lord even to the place of conflict and to the place where the Lord Himself.
But if you.
We remember it was a hard place. Do you remember how John acted? Do you remember how Peter acted when they were with him on the journey?
Remember how the rest of the disciples were affected by the way John and Peter acted in the upper room and the last time when they instituted the breaking of breath, and how they went out from there and Peter faced the palace. He went that far with the Lord.
But then he had to go out and weep bitterly when he came short. And so here it was not easy, not easy thing in reality, to truly follow the Lord all the way.
So they go from there.
And they come to the Jordan verse 7 and.
The 50 men of the sons of the prophets went and stood to view afar off, and they too.
Stood by Jordan.
It's very personal. You know there may be 50 people in the room to view you.
But when it comes to the choices we're talking about, it's personal.
The others, in that sense view you.
But your response this afternoon isn't to the person next to you. It isn't to the 50 others that my or more 150, whatever others that might be viewing.
It is they too, that you and the Lord.
That's before his heart this afternoon. It's the Lord in your heart that have to connect, not somebody else in the Lord or not us and the Lord here. So he says they too went over on dry ground.
And it came to pass, when they were gone over, that Elijah said. Elijah said unto Elijah, What shall I do for thee before I'm taken away? Now again, our time's passing quickly. But this is a picture. The crossing of the Jordan is a figure of going through death.
And here we see the Lord Jesus.
In figure.
He's gone through death.
And he's on the other side.
Colossians tells us that's what we do if you be dead with Christ.
Colossians says to us, if he be risen with Christ.
And so in our spiritual journey with the Lord Jesus, as he goes into death, we are seen as going into death with him. And we are seen in the way the New Testament presents the doctrine to us. We're seen as coming up on the other side of death.
00:50:01
And we're with the Lord still.
But with the Lord. And so the two of them are together.
But look, now we come to a point of parting.
Verse 9 Gain to pass When they were gone over the Elijah said to Elijah, Ask what I shall do for they before I'm taken away from thee.
And Elijah said, I pray thee, let a double portion of my spirit be upon thee. And he said, Thou sask a hard thing, nevertheless, if thou see me when I'm taken up, it shall be so unto thee, but if not, it shall not be so. And it came to pass, as they still went on and talked, that behold, there appeared a chariot of fire, and horses of fire imparted them asunder. And Elijah went up.
And a whirlwind into heaven. And Elijah saw it.
Quickly turn with me to Acts chapter one. We'll continue the story.
Acts chapter one.
Verse six. When they therefore were come together, they asked him, saying Lord.
Wilt out this time. Restore again the Kingdom Israel. Here's the Lord Jesus.
On the other side of the Jordan, here's the disciples and figure on the other side of the Jordan with him.
The other side of death.
And he's getting ready to separate from them. They're not going to be able to continue with him in the same way, in the same journey. And so here they've been with him and he's ready to go up.
And he's going to depart from them. And if we had time, we'd read it here. They watch him until the cloud receives him out of their sight. But he says to them, But I'm going to give you, as he had promised, to ask the Father for them. I'm going to give you power.
And the Holy Spirit descends.
And in.
I'm looking at a room, I believe, full of people.
In which God the Spirit is in.
You.
Sit there in your seat.
And the Spirit of God.
Is within you.
Is that sufficient power to walk?
Is that enough? He says that they might be with him and that he might send them forth.
With power.
In a few minutes we have we're going to talk about the sending forth.
We've had a journey with the Lord.
And we've gotten to go with him.
All the way to death and on the other side of it.
But now we are to go forth, and here's the key point in the power of resurrection.
You know, back in Elijah.
It's time at the end of that chapter 2, if you read it, there were some of the prophets, the sons of the prophets, and they say let's go look for him. And they tried to find him, but they were trying to find him on the wrong side of death. They said maybe Elijah's still here, let's go look and they wanted to take.
And embrace him as they had had him before there were some young children.
Who said go up, thou bald head, go up? And what were they saying? They didn't believe in the truth of Elijah and resurrection going to glory.
Another point that's there is he goes back.
To Jericho.
And the people of Jericho say it's a nice place here, except the waters. Not pure.
00:55:06
And so they trace the source of the impure water.
And in figure.
A lie secures the water with the salt, and it becomes pure, and the Lord Jesus is going to go to the source of the impure water of the world.
At the time that he sets the world right in the Millennium, and he's going to make it pure.
But the point for you and I this afternoon, I believe, is this.
If you live.
On the other side of the Jordan, in the resurrection life, you will recognize that the whole system of the world in which you live, no matter how pleasant it appears on the outward, it's missing one thing, they said, and that was pure water.
The water was polluted. You will find that the system, the whole system of the world in which you live, is madly deadly.
Trying to make it a pleasant place.
But the source is polluted because Christ has no place in it.
He's been crucified from it. He's on the other side of the Jordan in heaven. And if you're going to live.
As sent forth by him to be a light for him in this world you've got to live.
On that side, the resurrection side, and recognize that you're serving him as light and testimony for him in a place he is no longer at himself.
But it must be in the sense of your soul that you live.
On the resurrection side.
You've got a life that belongs to the resurrection side.
You have eternal life that doesn't belong to this world.
That's the life God gave you that doesn't belong to this world. I was thinking this morning.
In the reading meeting, God introduced time.
For a temporary purpose.
He introduced the wonders of the creation for a temporary purpose.
So that He could have us, mankind, and bring us into a relationship with Himself, that we would participate in eternity with Him as His children and as His family. Are you going to live for time?
That's the other side of the Jordan. Or are you going to live for eternity?
And spend your time, as He did for its temporary purposes, of drawing us into that which is eternal. Are you a light to your neighbor, to your fellow man of that which is eternal, that which is beyond the time? Or are you going to live in your nest for time?
And have a lost life.
Or are we going to go with the Lord Jesus all the way?
1St in our spiritual experience to the Jordan.
To cross it, to watch our Lord ascend into the glory.
And the rest of our lives spent as a testimony sent forth for the Kingdom of God's sake, of that which is in the glory.
Hebrews 2:1-18
Reading
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
Lord, what is vanity?
Danger, glory, righteousness, and craziness.
When people immersed in life all right.
Hebrews, chapter 2.
Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip.
For if the words spoken by angels was steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense of reward.
How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation, which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him, God also, bearing them witness, both with signs and wonders, and with divers miracles and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to His own will?
For under the angels hath He not put in subjection the world to come wherever we speak. But one in a certain place testified, saying, What is man the dark mindful of him, or the Son of Man? That Thou visited him, Thou maidest him a little lower than the angels, Thou crowned him with glory and honor, and did, did set him over the works of thy hands.
Thou has put all things in subjection under his feet, or in that he put all in subjection under Him. He left nothing that is not put under him. But now we see not yet all things put under him, but we see Jesus, who has made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor.
00:05:27
That he, by the grace of God, should taste death.
For every man.
For it became him for whom are all things.
And by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings. For both he that sanctifieth, and they who are sanctified, are all of one. For which 'cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren, saying, I will declare thy name unto my brethren, in the midst of the Church, will I sing praise unto thee.
And again I will put my trust in him. And again, behold I and the children which God has given me.
For as much then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death that is the devil.
And deliver them, who, through fear of death, were all their lifetimes subject to *******.
Preparely He took not on him the nature of angels, what he took on him the seed of Abraham.
Wherefore in all things it behooves him to be made like unto his brethren.
That he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God.
To make reconciliation for the sins of the people, or in that He himself hath suffered, being tempted.
He is able to succor them that are tempted.
What's said and been told thought that with privilege comes responsibility. And so in this first chapter we've had the superiority of our Lord over and above the angels that may have been given, and still are for our benefit. So then this chapter starts out with the word. Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed so with.
Greater privilege Here again, there's greater responsibility, isn't there?
So the 1St 4 verses are giving us that responsibility.
That is ours and the danger that is involved in it. God tells us wonderful things and blesses us and then brings us into a responsibility connected with what He's given to us. And also the warnings that go with not walking in that which is been given to us to walk in.
And so here for these Hebrew believers, as just mentioned, they were brought from the first chapter and the wonder of his person and the greatness of that one, not to fall back from it, not to go back to the practices that they'd known in Judaism, but rather to go forward into that place of their Lord in chapter one, who was now in the glory and much greater than the hopes that they'd had under the Messiah.
00:10:04
He was the Messiah, but he was more than that. And now they were separated from the practice of Judaism to embrace Christianity. And they were being told don't go back. And in fact, he says we he doesn't really treat them here as apostate as what Bob was bringing out later in the book where there were apostates, but rather we need to be warned to and exhorted to walk in that which is given to us.
Third verse here.
It's often used in relation to.
Salvation of the soul.
And we would not object to the use of that expression. Neglectful great salvation, because it's really if a person neglects.
To accept Christ and to bow and.
Repentance toward him they will.
They will be in a lost eternity, but I think perhaps the.
The primary application is to the nation of Israel.
They were under the.
******* of the Roman power.
That was because of their own sin.
They sent him John eight. We have never been in ******* to any man, but at that very time they were in ******* to the Romans.
They royally hated it and had insurrections and so on.
We are told, but.
The Lord preached the gospel of the Kingdom. It said that the first began to be spoken by the Lord. I don't think that refers to the gospel of the grace of God, but the gospel of the Kingdom. Now had they as a nation?
Bowed to their Messiah and acknowledged Him. They would have escaped.
The judgment that was coming upon the nation when Titus moved in in 70 AD and.
Destroyed Jerusalem and a million Jews were either taken captive or put to death. I think that's the salvation that is referred to here by the apostle.
And they refused their Messiah.
He was he preached the gospel of the Kingdom.
And it was confirmed as we mentioned this morning by the.
The apostles during the early.
Period of the Church's history, there were many signs and wonders that confirmed the Word. And really, as we said, the Lord would have come back to set up the Kingdom in power and glory, have the nation.
Repented and accepted their Messiah even up to the time of Stephen's martyrdom.
But this Gospel of the Kingdom now is postponed, and we no longer preach the Gospel of the Kingdom per Southeast.
We preach the gospel of the grace of God, but that was not actually the gospel that the Lord preached in Marks Gospel and Matthew at the beginning of his ministry. It was the gospel of the Kingdom.
But.
They having refused their.
Messiah and then sent a man after saying we will not have this man to reign over us in the martyrdom of Stephen.
They were going to come under that judgment, a temporal judge, that temporal judgment.
May in fact, the apostles said, save yourself from this untoward generation separate from the nation that is rejecting their Messiah, so that you don't come under the judgment.
That is before them.
Because of their their rebellion against the.
The truth of the Word of God and their Messiah and the gospel of the Kingdom. Is that right?
00:15:00
It's the subject of angels in verse 2.
And it says in the book of the Acts, Stephen, when he's talking to the Jewish people in before the Sanhedrin in Chapter 7, he says the law was given by disposition of angels, so that the.
Words spoken by angels was steadfast.
In every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense of reward. How shall we escape which neglect, who we neglect so great salvation, which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord?
And was confirmed unto us by them that heard him, God also bearing them witness, both with signs and wonders and with diverse miracles and gifts of the Holy Ghost according to his will. So that was the testimony in the beginning of the Church age that there were signs and wonders and diverse miracles. God showing that this was a worker, that he was behind.
And then he continues with the angels in verse 5. For unto the angels hath he not put in subjection the world to come whereof we speak.
God used his angels to control government powers today and it's interesting if you look in the book of Daniel, it's often been noticed that in both Chapter 9 and chapter 10 of Daniel, Daniel is praying and in Chapter 9 he gets his answer immediately.
Gabriel came and gave him the answer, but in chapter 10 it's the answer is delayed for three weeks. And when the answer comes by the Angel, he says, I've been with the Prince of Persia and now that I go, I'm going to the Prince of Greece. It shows that in government circles there are Angelica influences.
Both on the part of Satan and the part of God. Sometimes when we look at what's happening in our government today and the conflict there is, brethren. That's why we are to pray for those in authority because there is spiritual conflict going on there. Angelic beings on the part of God and the part of Satan as well. To take things in the direction that Satan wants. But God is over all and he will have the last word.
And it will all conform to His will in the end. But it is very interesting to see that God uses angelic beings in the government of the world today, but in that future day He's not subjected the world to come to angels.
Angel, who will still be present, but it is to men.
So we are told in the Book of Revelation that we shall reign over the earth.
We are going to be those in connection with the Lord Jesus who is the King of kings that will have those positions of government in the earth. And so it's not to angels that he's submitted the world to come. Who is it? It's to men and more especially to that man who is the Son of man.
Tremendously interesting title, The Son of Man that we have in both the Old Testament and the New Testament. Look at Daniel Chapter 7 just for a few moments.
Where you have that title mentioned.
I'm going to read a few verses here because I think it is so majestic.
Daniel 7 verse nine I beheld till the Thrones were cast down.
And the Ancient of Days did sit, whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like the pure wall. His throne was like the fiery flame, and his wheels as burning fire. A fiery stream issued and came forth from before him.
00:20:01
Thousands, thousands ministered unto him, and 10,000 * 10,000 stood before him.
And the judgment was set, and the books were opened, And I beheld then, because of the voice of the great words which the horns spake, I beheld even till the beast was slain, and his body destroyed and given to the burning flame. As concerning the rest of the beasts, they had their dominion taken away, yet their lives were prolonged for a time, a season and a time. Verse 13. And I saw in the night visions.
And behold, one like the Son of Man, came with the clouds of heaven.
And came to the Ancient of Days, and they brought him near before him, and there was given him dominion and glory, and a Kingdom that all people, nations, and languages should serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away in his Kingdom, which shall not be destroyed.
And now look at a little further on in the chapter.
Verse 21 And I beheld in the same horn made war with the Saints, prevailed against them until the Ancient of Days came and judgment was given to the Saints of the Most High, and the time came that the Saints possessed the Kingdom. So it's interesting the Ancient of Days is mentioned both in verse nine and verse 22.
And what is mentioned here in verse 13 is.
That one, like the Son of Man, we know, that's the Lord Jesus Christ.
Was brought before him, but in verse 22, the Ancient of Days.
Is the Lord Jesus himself?
It corresponds to what we have in the first chapter of Revelation, where the Lord Jesus is seen.
As his hair as white as wool.
So it's the Lord Jesus, the Ancient of Days, but He is the Son of man. He takes His position as a man in connection with the government of this world. So He's not put into the hands of angels, the world to come, but one in a certain place. Going back to Hebrews 2, verse 6.
Testified saying What is man, that thou art mindful of him?
Or the Son of man that thou visited him. There you have that title again.
The Son of Man, what a glorious title, one of the titles of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Son of God, but Son of man.
That Israel has rejected their Messiah.
God is now calling out from the Gentiles of people for his own namesake and.
The gospel of the grace of God is what characterizes this dispensation. We're not.
Looking for a better world or the establishment of the Kingdom here like the covenant theologists teach. But we look forward to the Lord's return. We're now separate from the world. So just one dimension that in those early preachings that we have in Acts.
It really was a second opportunity for the nation to receive their Messiah. I'm not sure if you call that the gospel of the Kingdom, but it was giving them a second opportunity to repent and receive their Messiah. Thank you.
I enjoy the way this is Virginia.
Of course we have this is a quotation from the Psalms. What is man that thou art mindful and of him and the Son of man that thou visitest him. But it starts off by saying one in a certain place testifies saying the author I'm sure knew this was David and he could have said David, but rather than this lodge our focus from being on the Lord Jesus. He words it this way and doesn't say David, he just says one in a certain place.
00:25:57
Question Can you ask why did God have any interest in such a tiny?
Speck of his creation called Earth and those little tiny.
Creatures that are on that earth. Why does God, in the immensity of His being, really have any particular interest in man? But if you look at it and you say His Son became man, then what else does God have interest in? It's the center of all His interest in that which His Son has become and what He is doing through His Son for His own honor and glory.
And so.
We might, if we were God in the greatness of power, look at the earth and what's on it is just a tiny little speck of our created creation. But when we look at the sun that has become the Son of Man, then we can recognize why God has such interest in it. It's this very object of his heart's affection.
And everything that the son is interested in, he's interested in and.
He knows that the Son has said to him, My delights were with the sons of men, and so the Father and the Son have a common interest in us that began before eternity. And so the very center of God's thoughts are now connected with this creation and the head of it which He has made His Son to be a Son of man.
As Messiah he was head over all to the Jew, but he has the much larger title of Son of Man.
As having head over all men, but head over the creation itself and all that God has created.
Is under the hands of the Son of Man.
When God made man in the beginning in chapter one of Genesis, it says.
Let us make man in our image and after our likeness, and let them have dominion.
Over the fish of the sea, over the fowl of the air, over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over.
Every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So the God made Adam and put the whole creation under his dominion. He was to manage it properly. But we know that he fell into sin, and the whole creation fell under the ******* of corruption that we see today, and things are in such terrible disorder.
But now there is a man, another man.
Ahead of a new creation that is going to come into the picture and he says, what is man that thou art mindful of him, or the Son of Man that thou visited us, him. Oh brethren, isn't it amazing that he has taken us into the picture? He's not really thinking about angels, even though they are superior to mankind.
He's thinking about mankind. And so the Lord Jesus became a man. Verse seven says thou mayest him a little lower than the angels. The Lord Jesus, as we said yesterday, passed up angels twice, and here we have him passing up angels on the way down to become a man in this world.
00:30:13
Oh, what a story it is. Here he was walking as a man through this world, a real man. But then it says He set him over the works of his hands, as put all things in subjection under his feet, For in that he put all in subjection under him. He left nothing that is not put under him.
So in God's purposes, it's that man that occupies the highest place in the whole creation, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Angels are creatures not subject to death.
Angels don't die.
They're not like man who is a mortal creature subject to death. And so the Lord Jesus in becoming a man becomes in that way inferior to the Angel because he is taking a place where he could die. And it was necessary for him to take that low place in order to be our Savior because the consequences of sin, the Old Testament.
Told us, and we knew as well, the wages of sin is death.
And if he was going to take our place and be our savior, he had to be a person who could die.
And so he becomes a man, and as such takes that lower place in the creation than the Angel had for the suffering of death, and he dies as Savior for us. But God, in exalting him, gives him a place that even the angels are made subject to him. And so he's exalted even as man to a superior place.
In the creation than the Angel who did not have mortality in his being or the subject to dying in his being. And yet God has put him over everything that is created and as son of man, his highest title that he has as man.
I think it was Brother John mentioned yesterday that the Lord Jesus was not subject to death, but he could die as a man.
Because there was number sin there, he was not subject to it, but he chose to die.
In that Amazing Grace, brethren, he came to die. We all are born into this world to live.
But here is one who came into this world without sin.
The Angel said to the Virgin Mary, That holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.
He was completely holy. He was not sinful like we are when we're born.
He was holy, so he was not subject to death, but as a man he could die. And he did take that position to be our substitute, to go to the cross, to answer to God. And as a perfectly subject man, he gives up his Spirit to God. None of us can determine when we're going to die but the Lord Jesus.
Said at the last into thy hands I commend my spirit. And having said that, he gave up the ghost, or he died.
But the end of verse 8 says, But now we see not yet all things put under him.
This world continues.
00:35:01
Recognizing.
The authority of mankind and not the man Christ Jesus. So there are many parts of the world. They may recognize God in a certain way, but we have to say we see not yet all things put under Him. What do we see? We see.
Jesus, that beautiful, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death.
Where is he?
Crowned with glory and honor, that he by the grace of God, should taste death for every man.
In that he died. He died unto sin once, in that he lived.
He liveth unto God.
So the Lord was in contact with sin throughout His pathway down here He.
Groaned in spirit at the grave of Lazarus.
He wept with the Soaring Sisters, Mary and Martha. He was in contact with sin throughout his life, but perfectly holy and separation from it.
Then he even became sin, was made sin on the cross. So in that he died, He died unto sin once he completely now is separated from that whole system of rebellion against God and paid the price for our redemption and now in the glory he's.
He is associated us with him in the new creation race.
Actually, the what's just been said also connect that with.
Chapter 9 of Hebrews.
We thought our brother John has just said.
Chapter 9 of Hebrews and the end of the chapter verse 26.
Well, Chapter 25.
Now yet he that he that's Christ should offer Himself often, as the high Priest entered into the holy places every year with blood of others. For then must He have suffered since the often since the foundation of the world. But now once in the end of the world, hath He appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself, as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment.
So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many.
And unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin.
Unto salvation, that is, he was made a little lower.
Angels for the suffering of death. In the suffering of death, the question of sin was taken up by the grace of God. He tasted death for everyone as we read in the verses that we just had. While it was for everyone, the benefit, the value of it is for those who have received it. The many, not all, receive it and come under the value of what He did.
And dying for all men.
But his the point in verse 26, He came to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself, and so the whole matter of our sins and the matter of sin itself was taken up in his death. Both what man is in his nature and what man has done in his deeds were taken up by the Lord Jesus before God.
00:40:03
Within purpose of the salvation of our souls as so great salvation.
But it's also a work to remove sin completely.
From the creation itself, and when the work, the results of the work are done, God will be able to look upon a new heaven and a new earth wherein dwells righteousness, in which there will. His eye will not rest upon a single sin or anything connected with it. In the new heaven and the new earth, every single cemetery that existed in the present heaven and earth will have been empty.
Everything connected with death will have been taken care of and removed. And so here when he says I'm coming a second time for those for whom he comes, it's without sin. Meaning the subject of sin doesn't have to be taken up again. It was taken up once and it was settled before God. And when the Lord Jesus comes to take us home to heaven to be with himself, the matter of sin won't be taken up in that way at all.
It's already dealt with, it's already done with, it's already taken care of atonement.
Was made sin was purged, removed from our record, and so we come into the presence of God to appear with this so great salvation without the matter of sin having to be taken up at all. And the Book of Revelation, the last book in the Bible is at final work of his as judge to refinish the removal of sin from the presence of God until in chapter 21.
We have the new heavens and the new earth, and it says God shall rest.
Because he doesn't have to look at sin anymore. It's all gone. And so he says that God will dwell with man. He will be able to dwell with the one that he loves and his creature with man, without the question of sin ever coming up again. And it's all through the greatness of this person who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death.
But at the end of verse nine and Mr. Darby's translation, it says.
Sorry, the end of the verse nine it says by the grace of God he should taste death. For not every man, but everything is even broader than every man.
Yes, the whole creation is affected, hasn't it? Not only mankind.
But that's quite an expression. Taste death.
I don't think that we as believers, if the Lord should allow.
Any of us to go through the article of death?
Will taste death.
He tasted death. You look at the story of the cross.
The awfulness of what it meant to be made sin for us because sin is the reason why there is death. Wages of sin is death.
We sin, we die.
But he tasted death for everything.
So he went through it all. He faced the issue.
Fully wonderful redemption we have in Him.
Just like to mention too what Don.
Was saying in Chapter 9.
It says he put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. I like to contrast that, brethren, with in the Old Testament you have the word atonement used quite frequently and you don't find the word atonement in the New Testament. It is in the King James Version in Romans 511, but it's really.
Supposed to be reconciliation if you look in the margin of your Bible.
But atonement means a covering, and so the great high priest on the great day of Atonement would take blood and sprinkle it on the mercy seat, and sin was covered from the eye of God. God saw that blood, and He could.
00:45:08
Consistently dwell amongst that people, even though they were sinful because the blood had been shed. But when we come to the New Testament.
We don't have.
Blood or sin covered, we have sin completely put away by the sacrifice of himself. I think that is so amazingly wonderful.
Place that we now have sanctification as the thought of separation.
It is used in different ways. It's there's progressive sanctification and there is, you might say, positional sanctification and.
Hear it in Hebrews. It's always the absolute side. So we we have been set apart through the work of Christ.
We're now connected with Christ.
Christ in resurrection.
He's the head of that new creation race, in fact, in the same epistle it speaks of.
The Church of the First Born.
I can find the Hebrews chapter 12. It speaks of the General Assembly verse 23 and Church of the First Born.
That is not referring there to the Lord Jesus as the first born. He was, but not in this passage. It's referring to us Church of the first born one. So through the work of Calvary we have been brought into a nearer place before God than even the Old Testament Saints. They are not.
Included in the Church of the First Born Ones. It's marvelous.
You see the result of the work of Christ and the special position that believers now have that we are.
Connected with the man in the glory, and we're going to be part of the bride of Christ.
Place of special nearness that no Old Testament St. would ever enjoy.
Verse 11 Says for both he that sanctify Ethan. That's what you're speaking about, John. And they who are sanctified are all of one, For which 'cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren, saying, I will declare thy name unto my brethren, in the midst of the church will I sing praise unto thee. Of course, that is a quote from.
The 22nd Psalm.
But it is beautiful to think of the Lord Jesus in the midst, brethren, singing, and we get to sing with him. Isn't that beautiful?
It's a wonderful thing that he has become like us.
That we might be made like him.
00:50:03
That we might be becoming a man like us. That we might be brought into the position of being children of God.
And to share in what He is, not in the perfection of His person or His deity, but that He could call us brethren, not only his earthly brethren, but we, and be identified us with Himself, of being a likeness to Himself. So He becomes like us, that we forever might be taken into the glory to be there like Him.
So it says in first John Three and the ultimate of it.
We shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is, and so we will see Him in the glory. He's entered there ahead of us. But when we enter there, God says yes, and I'm going to make you just like him. I'm so pleased with what He is that I want you to be like Him, and then I will enjoy you in that way.
And so we shall be forever like him as he has.
In His tremendous love to us, come down to where we are, making Himself like us as a man set apart of course, and yet in that way bringing us, elevating us into that place of glory like himself. That's the grace of God.
So we when we get to glory, who's going to be the song leader?
Knowing you, often when there's community saying of some sort, someone takes the lead and starting a hymn and giving it out and leading in it. Sometimes who's going to have the most joy when we're in the presence of God and leading the singing before God?
The Lord Jesus.
Join the singing that he leadeth loud to God. Your praises bring.
And so when He takes us home to glory in the place that He has come for us, and now he takes us into the glory which is the place of His rights for himself, there His joy will be so great before God, and God's joy will be such, to see the results of the work that we have Him as leading out in the praise and worship to God Himself.
This first part of verse 12 is fulfilled in I think Brother Dave, you mentioned it earlier that what the Lord Jesus said to Mary Magdalene when he rose from the dead, He said touch me not.
Some people have wondered why did he say that and I think it was because Mary wanted to have him back as she had known him before in life. And in fact the Lord Jesus says no Mary, you're going to have me in a new position much more wonderful than you ever knew in this light. But she said she he sends her to his brother and says in John 20.
Go to my brethren, and say to them, I ascended to my Father and your father, and to my God.
And your God, now that's the way, the Lord Jesus.
New God is Father from all eternity.
But as brother Dave mentioned this morning, I think it was.
It was in incarnation that he could finally say.
My God.
Because he was God.
And so it was when it says from my mother's belly, Thou art my God.
So in incarnation he could say my God.
We know God is God at first and then as Father.
But for the Lord Jesus it was Father. What a wonderful thing that we've been brought into the relationship with God.
In the intimacy and the amazing, wonderful relationship as Father, we can look up into the heavens and say the God of the universe is my father. Oh, what a privilege, brethren, it's you need to just sit down and let it sink in. Sometimes the wonder of these precious truths, God is my father.
00:55:17
And so he declared unto them his Father's name, and the result was that he would sing praises in the midst of the Church.
And then verse 13 again in our chapter, and again I will put my trust in him. And again behold I and the children which God hath given me. He's an association with others now.
And then beautiful this verse 14, for as much then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood.
That's what our life is here in this world, flesh and blood.
He also himself likewise took part of the same.
That through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is the devil, and deliver them, who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to *******.
So he took part of the same and he went into debt and he shed his blood.
In resurrection, he said to his disciples, a spirit has not flesh and bones as you see me have.
Remember our brother Clem Buchanan mentioning that in resurrection the life of the body is spirit, it is not blood.
But in this life it is flesh and blood.
And so he partook of the same that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is the devil.
That is amazing that he went into death and when Satan thought he had his greatest victory against the Lord Jesus was when he destroyed himself completely.
Through death he destroyed him that had the power of death, that is the devil.
Part about that is the enemy looking on.
And seeing the Lord bow his head in death and thinking you have the victory.
But he knew he had lost immediately.
Because every creature and every man that had died.
Immediately started to see corruption.
And so the enemy looked on to see this one, whose head was bowed and death and nothing was happening.
There was number corruption and he realized his defeat immediately.
You have a beautiful picture of it and.
What happened between David and Goliath in First Samuel 17?
David, with a sling and a stone, brought the giant down.
And then he ran and stood on the giant.
And drew the giant's own sword out of the sheath.
And with the giant's own sword he cut off his head. There's the picture through death he destroyed him that had the power of death, that is the devil, and delivered them, who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to *******.
Oh brethren, it's wonderful. We don't fear death any longer.
I must say I've been rather challenged to hear the testimonies of believers in Muslim lands. One of the things that really has impressed me was that they say they do not. They learn not to fear death. They know that at any moment those Muslim people will pull out their pistol or whatever it is to end their life when they make known their faith in Christ, especially if they've converted from the Muslim religion.
01:00:05
But they say we have learned to not fear death. Death is not something we need to fear any longer. And it is amazing in the book of the Acts when you see the apostles preaching the gospel.
There in Jerusalem and the authorities take them aside and say we're going to kill you for a man naturally speaking, that's the.
Ultimate of threats.
It had absolutely no effect on those men because in a certain sense they had already passed through death. They were dead with Christ and risen again. They were experimenting resurrection life in Christ, and so there's No Fear of death. They didn't know how to deal with that. It's a power that only God.
Can work in people. Wonderful to see it.
I think it might be helpful I'm done to address the issue. If the devil Satan is destroyed, why is there still spiritual warfare?
Go ahead, John. I'm asking the question I'm much better at asking than explaining.
Because people don't believe what is written here, do they? And God and the devil uses that unbelief to bring people supposedly under his domination.
Brethren, do we believe it? We have a life.
That is beyond death.
Death may touch this body of mine.
But death can never touch the life that we have in Christ. It is a life in resurrection. It is a life that can never die.
I think I don't remember if it was Mr. Moody or one of the old preachers said one day you're going to hear that I've died. Don't you believe it. I'll be more alive than ever in the presence of the Lord.
There's another aspect of it and.
The highest Christian truth.
Revelation to us is found in the book of Ephesians.
And in the book of Ephesians, in the very beginning of the book, we have resurrection life and we have ourselves seated in the heavenly places in Christ. And so we have our very greatest present spiritual position brought before us. But it is also the book that brings before us the conflict with Satan, the spiritual warfare in the last chapter, and it gives before us the need for the armor of God to be put on.
And there, in the armor of God, we're seen as across the Jordan and in the.
Promised Land. And yet there's conflict, and the conflict is specifically identified with Satan.
And the reason is because Satan, while he is a defeated foe, and in fact, Mr. Darby translates destroy to be annulled. The power of Satan is the fact that while Satan is ultimately going to lose, he hasn't given up his struggle to destroy the enjoyment of the believer in the place to which God has brought him presently. And consequently, as it says, we need the whole armor of God.
To withstand.
Spiritual wickedness in the high places and that Satan and his emissaries that we are in conflict with. And it's because Satan may not be able to ultimately win, but he would seek to destroy the joy, the testimony and the work of the life of God's people on this earth if he can. And in many times, sadly, he's been successful.
So we have to recognize that while the Lord has defeated Satan, we're still in conflict with him, and He's not going to give up the struggle with us as long as we're here on earth.
01:05:05
World War 2.
The Japanese knew they were defeated at Midway, but they didn't quit fighting. Then there was a moment when Germany knew the same thing. There's a story.
That George Foreman, who became a Christian as a result of his boxing match with Muhammad Ali in Africa.
Who said when Muhammad Ali was leaning against the ropes and he'd given all he had and he said to him, and he's here, is that all you got, George? He knew he was defeated.
If an enemy throws everything he has at you and you take it all.
You want death through everything it had at the Lord Jesus.
As a man.
And he didn't stay dead. It's the most amazing thing for men to know is that a man did not stay dead. Sometimes you hear people say, well, nobody knows what's on the other side or what comes afterlife because nobody ever came back. Are you kidding me? I know somebody who came back.
Yeah, there's a man who didn't stay dead. That's an amazing thing. And when we preach the gospel, that's what we're talking about. Not only what he did on the cross, but the result of what he did on the cross, and that God received that sacrifice on our behalf, that he didn't stay dead. That's one of the most amazing things of the gospel story is that he didn't stay dead, He defeated it.
And what more can the enemy, What more can Satan throw at anyone?
And we know, because we know him, that we're not going to stay dead either, even if we should die and leave this earth. And we know that. And I guess it's how much we know that. Brother Bob, you were saying that there are those who have learned not to fear death.
If you are really living in the good of that, that you're not going to stay dead while it's just a promotion, isn't it?
And some people see it fully like that when we heard this story of Antonio.
Brother Lemoine read that story in the meeting. Tears running down my face to think of a man who has got peace from God in the midst of a difficult situation and in in that moment, because his Savior was there with him and gave him peace, that he didn't fear death.
Because he was in the good of it.
Where we get to the end of our time, we want to touch versus 17 and 18 because here we have something further.
As to our Lord Jesus, it says, Wherefore in all things it behooves him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in the things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people.
For in that He Himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succor them that are tempted. In other words, the Lord Jesus, in going through what He did through this life and into death, and through death into resurrection, He has been made a faithful and merciful High Priest in the things can pertaining to God to make reconciliation for the sins of the people.
That amazing brethren, the high priest, it says in chapter 5 of.
Of Hebrews here that a high priest was.
Verse two it says who can have compassion on the ignorant and on them that are out of the way for that?
He himself also is compassed with infirmity, so the high priestly service of the Lord Jesus is for us in our weaknesses.
When we fail, he is our advocate, as we have in First John chapter 2, but here.
He is our great high priest. Does he understand what we're going through Indiana, this life? Yes. He fully understands what you and I are feeling in this life and through what he passed through. He is now a faithful and merciful high priest. Just to think of him there in the presence of God interceding our 'cause when we are going through difficult things, sometimes we say, I don't think I can continue here.
01:10:10
Too weak, yes, you are too weak that He is there interceding for us in our weakness to bring us through it all. And I just love the way it reads in the Spanish translation and verse 18 brethren, that says He is able in the Spanish that says espo de Rosso para socorrera Los queson tentados.
It's instead of able. It says he is powerful.
To sucker them that are tempted. Are you tempted, young person? Yeah, we live in a world of temptation. But he is powerful to help those that are tempted. Remember that when you're tempted.
Is touch of our infirmities that once was asked in a Bible study by an older lady. She said he never had a baby. How would he know how I felt having a baby?
I said, do you think that the pains on the cross were any worse than when you had your baby?
No.
Have you been betrayed? The Lord was betrayed. He knows what that feels like.
We think of the pains of the cross. Those things were very painful. They're hard to even think about. If you go through some kind of suffering pain in your body, well, he knows what that feels like. Literally. He experienced those things. But other things, loneliness.
You see it when he talks to his disciples. He says you don't understand, you don't know.
And he goes by himself to pray. He felt loneliness. That's one of the veins of our modern society is that people that are in contact with devices with all kinds of people feel more lonely than ever.
Lonely. So lonely that suicide is up.
Did he feel lonely? Yeah, he felt lonely. Not as he always had his father and was close, but as a man. Did he feel loneliness? Yeah, he felt loneliness. He felt betrayed. He knows what those things feel like. There's not a a feeling of distress that we go through that you can't find somewhere in the Lord's, the life of the Lord Jesus, where he experienced and felt those things.
We're seeing #39.
On his Father's throne and seated Christ the Lord, the living One. All is toil on earth Completed all his work for sinners, done in the glory. See him God's eternal son #39.
On his father's road is it?
Right.
Things where you understand.
And my Lord is my Lord.
Same #6161.
01 Dress the glory.
Inspiration.
Is love, is detractable and sweet.
Your mind is also divine.
Here in the world and how long when you come in summer?
The Beginning
Gospel—Bob Thonney
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.
Let's sing #10 on our hymn sheet.
There is a savior.
On high in the glory, a Savior who suffered. On Calvary's tree a Savior is willing to save. Now as ever, His arm is almighty, His love great and free.
There is a.
Please see him this morning.
00:05:00
Let's sing another hymn #13.
Man of Sorrows, what a name for the Son of God who came ruined sinners to reclaim. Hallelujah, what a Savior.
Man of Sorrows, what your name will hold on?
It's really nice and.
Doing anything?
Know.
Tonight I'd like to start at the beginning.
You probably have the experience sometimes of telling a story to some of your friends and.
In the middle of the year story about halfway through, here comes some more.
And they join in, and they listen to the rest of the story.
But they don't really understand it fully because they haven't been there from the beginning.
And so let's go back to John's Gospel chapter one, and we're going to start.
At the beginning.
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.
In him was life, and the life was the light of men.
And the light shineth in darkness.
In the darkness comprehended it not.
Going to just stop and make some comments on what we have read as we go on in this chapter, but to me it is incredibly majestic the way the apostle John.
What we would consider a poor, ignorant fisherman.
Pens here by the Spirit of God in the beginning was the Word. So any beginning you want to talk about?
He already was.
Beginning of the creation. We have that in Genesis 11. In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth, but here is a beginning that goes back beyond that. Whatever beginning you want to talk about.
He already was because he is an eternal person.
He always existed at something that doesn't exactly Fit in this head of mine. I accepted simply by faith, but he was there already.
And then the second phrase of verse one says in the and the word was with God. In other words, he was a distinct personality within the Godhead.
00:10:03
In Genesis 11, when we have in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.
God is in the plural in the Hebrew. I understand you can have singular.
Or dual when there are two, or plural when there are three or more. And the Word there for God is in the plural. Because we know God has revealed himself to be 3 persons in one, Godhead, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. So the Word was with God.
In other words, the word is the Lord Jesus Christ.
He wasn't the Father, not talking about the Holy Spirit. We're talking about God the Son. How do we know that? Because in verse 14 it says the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and that is only applicable to the Lord Jesus Christ.
And then it says the Word was God. In every sense of the word, he is God.
Oh, the wonder of this person. You know, we have two gospels that talk about his genealogy, Matthew and Luke. And Matthew brings the genealogy down to what we would call his stepfather. Joseph in Luke, the genealogy brings it down to marry his mother.
And that was proper in those gospels because of the focus.
But here we have the Lord Jesus presented as the eternal Son of God.
Is there any genealogy necessary there?
Absolutely nothing. The only verse that refers to his birth is verse 14. The word was made flesh. I'd like to stop and talk about this title of the Lord Jesus the Word.
Sometimes, say if I stand up here and Justice spend some time looking at you all without saying anything, you would sit there and say what in the world is he thinking about?
It's not until I open my mouth and use words that you know what I'm thinking about. God is so great, so immense.
So eternal, there is no way that we could know who God is until.
Jesus came and he is the full expression of all that God is. He is.
The Word of God. What a wonderful thing to know the Lord Jesus Christ.
The same was in the beginning with God, in other words.
Relationship in the Godhead was not something that started at anytime, it always was in the beginning.
He was already there with God. And then verse three speaks about creation of the physical universe of which we form part. All things were made by Him and without Him was not anything made that was made.
Some doctrinal error says that Jesus was the first of God's creation and then he created all the rest.
That directly contradicts verse 3. All things were made by him and by him, and without Him was not anything made that was made. He is the creator of all things necessarily. He is not a creature.
Necessarily, He is the Creator.
You know people don't understand who they're talking about when they talk about they're going to say a thing or two to God when they get to the final judgment, they have no clue who they're talking about.
This is the one who spoke into existence the whole universe, and when you stop to start, you start to think of the vastness of the creation that we are part of.
Some time ago I had.
An interesting experience on the High Plains of Bolivia. We were coming across from Photo SI. They had built a new highway and we came across to the Altiplano is the High Plains that's stretched between the inner and the outer Andes and the High Plains are at 12,000 feet and from there the inner and the outer Andes go up.
00:15:15
To sometimes up to 20,000 feet.
Depending where you are on the ranges of the Andes, but we stopped there before we dropped off to the 2012 Thousand feet altitude and it just looked off in the distance. In the distance you could see the outer Andes along the coast of South America and the vastness of it all just does something to my soul when I see.
And this is just a minute particle.
In the universe that God has created because they say that the sun is over a million times greater than the planet earth, and yet we think we are so great.
And the Sun is only one of approximately 300 billion stars in our Galaxy.
And our Galaxy is only one of the numbers I.
Have heard and every time I look at another book I sometimes have to readjust my figures. But say there are at least 250 billion more galaxies in the universe. We're talking about the one who spoke it all into existence by the word of his power.
Tremendous power involved. This is the one we're talking about. This is the word by him was everything made that was made. Now another detail about him, verse four in him was life.
And the life was the light of men.
What is light?
According to.
Ephesians chapter 5 light is that which.
Makes everything manifest.
I've got good eyes. I can see you all if you're listening or not tonight.
But you know what? You need more of the good eyes to see. You need light. Light is an interesting thing.
Not only does it make us see, but through it we can see everything else. We can form a judgment. How far away are those sitting in the back? Are they paying attention? Everything is made manifest by the light and His very presence here. People resented him. The religious people resented him.
Why did they resent them so much? Because of his presence. He showed exactly who they were in his presence. What a person.
Now verse five, the light shineth in darkness.
And the darkness comprehended it not. There is darkness, morally speaking, in this world. And when you're in darkness, you might open your eyes, but you cannot see things as they properly are.
You need light.
This is the condition not only.
Is it that they cannot see? It is that they will not see?
There's a willfulness involved in not being able to see.
Sad, but it's the case that many people in this world.
Are in darkness, you can argue with them. Doesn't do any good.
But to me, it is such an amazing thing to hear the testimony of people who.
At last have opened their eyes to who Jesus is.
Oh, I never realized how wonderful it is.
Verse 6.
We turn from the Word to talk about a mere man. His name was John the Baptist. There was a man sent from God.
Whose name was John. The same came for a witness to bear witness of the light, that all men through him might believe he was not that light, but was sent.
00:20:09
To bear witness of that light.
John the Baptist was sent before.
The Lord Jesus, to bear witness of him. You know, it's interesting to thank God.
I sometimes have said if I'd go downtown Saint Louis.
On a nice sunny day and say to people, hey, the sun shining, the sun shining.
They would say, you crazy guy, everybody can see that the sun shines. But you know what? When the Lord Jesus came into this world, people were so blind that God had to send a man before him to say, this is it. Here's the true light that lights every man that comes into the world. Verse 9, That was that true light.
Which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.
He was in the world.
And the world was made by him.
In the world knew him not.
How tragic.
When Jesus came into the world, he was born.
In Bethlehem, as we know.
There came wise men from the east, and asked in Jerusalem, where is he that was born king of the Jews? We have seen his star in the East, and there come to worship him. Those Jewish people had the scriptures in their hands. They could tell where he was to be born.
Scripture also shows more or less the time frame he was to be born.
But those Jewish people had no clue that he was already in the world. Is it possible that you have the word of God in your hands and you still do not know who he is? Yes, that is possible.
And I ask you to open your eyes to who he is tonight.
He came unto his own, that's the Jewish people, and his own received him not.
Tragic.
But verse 12 as many as received him to then gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them which believe on his name.
It's tremendous. There were some that received him, thank God.
Have you received him?
How do you receive him? I remember.
A number of years ago in Bolivia, a young man who was.
Studying law at the university came to my house and he had been listening to the gospel and he seemed to be quite troubled and said.
What do I have to do? The brethren tell me. I have to repent. I don't know what I should do.
So I led him to this verse 12.
I said you're a law student. You know what words mean. You tell me what you.
What this verse says you have to do.
And he looked at it and read it, as many as received him.
To them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name. And he looked at me and he said believe on his name exactly. I said you got it.
Doesn't say you have to get down and pray. You can do that if you want, but it doesn't say that's the way you do it. What do you do? Believe on his name? Trust him?
And God is looking at your soul right now.
Do you truly trust Him? That's what he's talking about. And to those that believe on His name, He gave the right or the power to become the sons of God. Now notice verse 13 which were born.
Not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh.
00:25:01
Nor of the will of man, but of God.
Anybody in here decide to be born the first time?
In this world.
Nobody.
That was the decision of your parents. They wanted children, and you and I are the results of the will of man we were born.
God wants sons and daughters in his family too.
And if you believe you will be one of his children and his family born of God, you know the first time I was born, I was born with a nature that was just like my parents nature, a sinful nature.
And so as I grew up, I had sinful tendencies.
I wasn't the best of boys.
Many times my dad had to take me into another room and deal with me.
Thank God for a father that let me know that doing bad stuff gets bad results. I was thankful I learned it from him instead of having to learn it from the.
Earthly authorities, like some people, have to do.
But when we are born of God, we have a nature that wants to do the will of God, and to me it is the most wonderful thing when a person truly is born of God. How is it in John chapter 3 the Lord Jesus meets up with a religious.
A person, a Pharisee who knew the law and he said accept a man be born of water and of the spirit, he cannot enter the Kingdom of God.
Water is the word of God. That's why we use the word of God. Not so important what I have to say about this book. What's important is that you hear.
The Word of God because faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. And when the word of God penetrates your heart.
It produces new life by the Spirit of God. Wonderful to see it happen. I think I've told you the story of a man I knew in Bolivia.
Who was a mechanic and.
I gave him a little New Testament one time and he said a few times later when I visited him, that book you gave me, I don't understand anything. Why don't you come over to my house and explain it to me? So we set a time and we went over.
And we got in this John chapter one, we got down to verse 4.
In him was life, and the life was the light of men.
And I looked at him and I said, what is light?
You know what? He didn't answer me anything. He just looked at me the longest time.
And we continued to read the rest of the chapter and.
But it was a few days later when I went by his mechanic shop, he said, you know what, that book you gave me, I can understand it now. What had happened? The Word of God had penetrated and it showed reality in his life. And I think it's so amazingly wonderful.
When the Word of God penetrates, it's by the Spirit of God and by the Word of God, not by the will of man.
But by the will of God, he wants you to be saved. He wants you as a member of his family. And that's why we're preaching the gospel tonight, so that through that word you might be born again, not with corruptible seed, but with incorruptible by the word of God that lives and abides forever.
The life that we have from God is a life that never gets old.
00:30:01
Last year this time, our brother Jim Highland was still with us.
I don't remember if he was here last time. Was he?
But.
He's gone now.
But the life that we're talking about is a life that he possessed and so.
He is more conscious than ever in the presence of the Lord Jesus tonight. Wonderful to think about.
He was 60 years old. That's not really old.
But that was the corruptible life, and the life we have from God is incorruptible. Wonderful to think about. It never gets old. I love to visit. Remember visiting an old brother who was old enough that his Memory wasn't functioning enough to know who I was. That was all right.
But you know he got talking about the scriptures and he quote one scripture after another after another because.
That life that we have is an incorruptible life. I was amazed at how much he could still quote from the scriptures.
Verse 14 and the word was made flesh. Like I said, this is the only.
Reference to His birth in this world in the Gospel of John, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth, and this wonderful this person.
The glory. What is glory? It is the outshining of the excellencies of this person we saw. It doesn't say exactly what He refers to, and he says we saw His glory, but we know in certain occasions during his life that they were witnesses of his glory.
The amount of transfiguration. His face shone as the sun.
His garments were white as the light.
Another time they were crossing the Sea of Galilee and a storm overtook them.
And he was asleep on a pillow.
Does God go to sleep?
He was a real man.
But they woke him up.
And they said, Master, save us, we perish, he says. Where is your faith?
Another place that says how is it you have no faith?
Didn't they realize who he was? He gets up and he says to the wind and to the ways to be quiet, and immediately there was a great calm.
You know what his disciples said? What kind of a man is this, that even the waves and the sea obey him? Didn't they know they should know? No, they didn't know. Do you know?
Sometimes when we have difficulties, we get all upset.
Do you know who this person is? Do you really know him?
Verse 15 John bear witness of him, and cried, saying, This is he of whom I spake. He that cometh after me is preferred before me, for he was before me. Seems to be a contradiction in this.
But it's not because John the Baptist recognized that even though he came after him, he was born about six months after the John the Baptist was born.
He was before him, He was the Son of God, and as such he never had a beginning.
And of His fullness have all we received in grace.
For grace, the end of verse 14 it says full.
Of grace and truth. I love that grace is the outshining of the truth that God is love. Truth is the outshining that God is light. There is nothing hidden from Him.
00:35:02
And it's those two elements in perfect balance. How often we might be gracious, but we forget about the element of truth. Or maybe we're very truthful.
But we forget about the element of grace. But in the Lord Jesus there was a perfect balance.
Of grace and truth.
The law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.
No man hath seen God at anytime, the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father.
He hath declared him that was his eternal dwelling place.
The bosom of the Father was the place of the enjoyment of the affections of the Father, that which he had enjoyed from all eternity.
Later on in this chapter, there's two disciples that are following him.
And he said.
Where, what are you seeking? And they said.
Rabbi, where dwellest thou? And he said come and see. I think that's so beautiful because it's something that's applicable to us too. You want to know where he dwells? Come and see.
His dwelling place was the bosom of the Father He wants you to enjoy.
Those affections that he's enjoyed from all eternity, that's why he says in John 14, in my father's house are many mansions, many abodes.
I love that he doesn't say in my house number.
In my Father's house. Why? Because it was the place of the enjoyment of the Father's affections from all eternity. And there's a place for you there. You'll simply trust Him.
Now I enjoy going to the Dominican Republic because they have some pretty big families there, one brother down there.
Has eighteen children.
I like to ask people like that, which of those children are as your favorite?
And when it's a proper relationship, a father and children.
They generally say they are all my favorites, but in different ways.
And I think that's the thought in my Father's house are many abodes. There's a place for you if you are a believer in the Lord Jesus that is being prepared, that is prepared that I can't occupy. There's another place for me that you can occupy. So in the billions of the routine that are going to be in that heavenly home.
No one is going to be lost.
In the crowd, like we get lost in the crowd down here.
Wonderful.
Verse 19, John the Baptist comes into focus again. This is the record of John.
When the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, Who art thou?
He confessed and denied not, but confessed I am not the Christ. They asked him what then art thou Elias and he said I am not. Art thou that prophet? He answered no. You notice every time he answers his answers get shorter. First time is five let words, second time is 3 words. Second, third time it's one word.
He's not interested in talking about himself.
He wants to talk about somebody else. He said, Who art thou, that we may give an answer to them that sent us. What sayest thou of thyself? And he said, I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness. I'm just a voice, that's all.
Make straight the way of the Lord, as saith the prophet. Is this They which were sent were of the Pharisees. And they asked him, and said unto him, Why baptizes thou then, if thou be not Christ, nor Elias? Neither that prophet notice his answer. It really isn't an answer to their question.
00:40:04
John answered them, saying, I baptize with water, but there standeth one among you whom ye know not. He it is who coming after me is preferred before me, whose shoes latch it I am not worthy to unloose.
These things were done in Bethabara, beyond Jordan, where John was baptizing.
The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold.
The Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.
Here we have another title of the Lord Jesus, the Lamb of God.
And of course, we've had quite a bit about this. Last night our brothers spoke about the lamb without blemish in Exodus Chapter 12. It was a lamb that was chosen on the 10th day of the month and kept up to the 14th day of the month for four days. It was under observation to make sure there was no blemish in it.
That is figurative of the 4000 years.
From Adam to Christ there was 4000 years in which God was reviewing the human race to see if there was one.
It was without blemish and there were none until the Lord Jesus came into sight in, John the Baptist said.
This is Him, this is the Lamb of God, which takes away the sin of the world.
You know, when it was a matter of creation, he could speak the whole universe into existence? Extremely.
Impressive the power that was involved in that. But when it came to the purgation of sin, to putting away our sin, it took more than just speaking a word, it took sacrifice. And this is what we have addressed here, the Lord Jesus.
In the 19th chapter of this book. Let's go over there a bit because I'd like to.
Talk about where this lamb was sacrificed. Chapter 19 verse one. Then Pilate therefore took Jesus.
And scourged him. I don't know if you've ever read anything about Roman scourging.
They call it sometimes the living death because it was so.
Traumatic that often men that were scourge died at the scourging.
Had big pieces of metal in the ends of the whip and it cut.
In the back of the person that was scourged, soldiers planted a crown of thorns and put it on his head, and they put on him a purple robe, said Hail, King of the Jews.
And they smote him with their hands. Pilate therefore went forth again, and saith unto them.
Behold, I bring him forth to you, that ye may know that I find no fault in him.
Pilate, why did you scourge him if there was no fault in the end?
Oh, the awful injustice of the judicial system.
He scourged him and then said, I don't find any fault in him. Then came Jesus forth wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe.
Pilate said unto them, Behold the man. When the chief priests therefore an officer saw him, they cried out, saying.
Crucify Him, crucify Him, Pilate 7 to them, take ye him, and crucify Him, for I find no fault in him. Another time he pronounces him without fault.
Jews answered him, We have a law, and by our law he ought to die, because he made himself the Son of God. Is that true?
No, it was not true. He was the Son of God, He did not.
Make himself the Son of God. When Pilate therefore heard that saying, he was.
The more afraid went in again into the judgment hall, and Seth unto Jesus, Whence art thou? Jesus gave him no answer. Then said Pilot unto him, Speakest thou not unto me? Norest thou not that I have power to crucify thee, and power to release thee? Jesus answered, Thou couldst have no power at all against me, except that we're given thee from above.
00:45:22
Therefore he that delivered me unto thee hath the greater sin.
And from thenceforth, Pilate sought to release him, but the Jews cried out, saying.
If thou let this man go, thou art not Caesar's friend. Whosoever maketh himself a king speaketh against Caesar. There were good politicians. They knew how to sway this man to do get done what they wanted. Pilate therefore heard that saying. He brought Jesus forth and sat down in the judgment seat in a place that is called the pavement in the Hebrew Gabbatha and.
Is the preparation of the Passover in about the 6th hour, he said unto the Jews.
Behold your King, they cried out. Away with him, away with him. Crucify him, Pilate saith unto them. Shall I crucify your King?
He priests answered, We have no king but Caesar then delivered he him therefore unto them to be crucified, and they took Jesus, and led him away.
He, bearing his cross, went forth into a place called the Place of a skull, which is called in the Hebrew Golgotha.
Where they crucified him.
And two other with him on either side. One.
Jesus in the midst.
All the awful.
Guilt.
Of humanity against the Son of God. Pilate wrote a title and put it on the cross, and the writing was Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews. This title then read many of the Jews. The place where Jesus was crucified was nigh to the city, and it was written in Hebrew and Greek and Latin, and said the chief priests of the Jews to Pilate, right, not the king of the Jews, but that he said, I am the king of the Jews.
Pilate answered. What I have written, I have written.
Go down now to verse 28.
After this, Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished.
That the scripture might be fulfilled.
Sad.
I thirst.
Now there was set a vessel full of vinegar, and they filled the sponge with vinegar, and put it upon Hyssop, and put it to his mouth.
I believe it's only in John's Gospel that we have this statement from the Lord Jesus.
I thirst.
And other gospels in Matthew, Mark and Luke we read.
About this time, there was three hours of darkness.
At the end of which, in Matthew and Mark there was a cry, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
I don't know if this relates to that, but.
But the Lord Jesus is me. His drink was to do the will of God. And here is a perfect man, condemned on a cross to die. And God in those hours of darkness, laid on him the iniquity of us all. And God's judgment fell on all its fury, on that glorious man, the Lamb of God.
He says I thirst.
The only man that always did the will of God was forsaken of God.
Can you understand that?
The reason is.
There was number other way that you and I could be forgiven our sins.
Somebody had to pay the price and did pay the price on that cross. And so in verse 30, Jesus therefore had received the vinegar. He said it is finished.
And he bowed his head and gave up the ghost.
It's done. The price of redemption is paid, thank God.
00:50:04
It is finished.
And then verse 31 The Jews therefore, because it was the preparation that the bodies should not remain upon the cross on the Sabbath day.
For that Sabbath was in high day, besought Pilate, that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away.
Then came the soldiers and break the legs of the 1St and of the other just crucified with him. But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was dead already.
They break not his legs, but one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came there out blood and water, and he that sought their record, And his record is true, and he knoweth that he said true, that he might believe.
This is the only one of the four gospels that gives this detail about.
The crucifixion of the Lord Jesus.
You know the Lord had other wounds in his body.
When he was scourged, I'm sure there was blood from his back, and when he was nailed to the cross from his hands, from the crown of thorns, from his head. And scripture doesn't speak anything about the blood that came from those wounds.
It only speaks about the blood that came from 1 wound and it was after he had given up his life.
And the soldier pierced his side, and out blood and water. That was the testimony that there was no more life left in that body of his. He gave his life. He shed his precious blood.
That which was demanded to take away sins.
Was paid in full by the Lord Jesus Christ on that cross.
The blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanses us from all sin.
Nothing else can cleanse from sin than blood of a God accepted victim.
Remember when I used to work in Chicago, Downtown Chicago? I worked in a hospital and met up with a man who said that he had converted from Christianity to Judaism.
I said wow, that's interesting.
I say then you must know if you've converted to Judaism that it says that the only thing.
That God accepts for the remission of sins is blood.
Of a acceptable sacrifice, I say, where is the blood for your sins?
Oh wow, we I hadn't thought of that, he said to me. Well, I said that's pretty important to think about.
If you have sins, God will not allow one sin in His presence.
But the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanses us from all sin.
And so the blood was shedding. It showed that there was number more life left in that lifeless, battered body on the cross.
But the story doesn't end there. After he had died, they took him down from the cross.
They wound his body with linen clothes and they buried him.
Notice chapter 20 Now just before we get to the end of our meeting, the first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early, when it was yet dark under the sepulchre, and see if the stone taken away from the sepulchre. And she runneth and cometh to Simon Peter, to the other disciple. It's John whom Jesus loved and said unto them, They have taken away the Lord out of the sepulchre, and we know not.
Where they have laid him.
Doesn't give this detail in John's Gospel, but in.
Matthew's Gospel we learned there was a great earthquake and an Angel came down from heaven and pushed that stone that was over The Cave where the Lord Jesus was buried, pushed it to one side. Why did he push it to one side? I want to tell you it was not to let him out. It was to show that he was not there any longer.
00:55:06
He was risen.
And that's the glorious message of the gospel, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he rose again the third day according to the Scriptures. If God had not been satisfied with the sacrifice that Jesus made, he would not have raised him from the dead. The fact that the tomb was empty.
Showed that God was satisfied, fully satisfied with the sacrifice that Jesus made.
Now I ask you, what have you done with that sacrifice? Have you accepted Jesus as your Savior? Have you trusted Him? Have you believed in Him?
I just ask with all my heart that you will come to know the Lord Jesus as your Savior.
You know what, we're getting down to the end of the history of this civilization in this world and there is evidences that it's not going to last a whole lot longer.
God is going to judge this world in righteousness. Jesus himself said I will come again. He has not come since he said that, and so he's going to come again. And when he comes, Are you ready?
Oh, how important it is to be ready. What about those sins of yours? You know you haven't repented properly of them.
And what are you going to do in that day when you come face to face with Jesus? Because every single human being that has ever lived on this planet, man, woman or child, is going to come face to face with Jesus. You don't have to believe it. It's going to happen.
Oh, the solemnity of it, when that day comes, that you will be faced.
To face with Jesus, to give an account. I plead with you to think seriously about it.
You have questions about faith in Christ? We're here to help you.
After the meeting.
We're glad to speak with you about it, but I ask you with all my heart to take these things seriously, because the day of judgment is at hand. God has appointed the day in which He will judge this world in righteousness by that man whom He hath ordained, whereof He has given assurance unto all men in having raised.
Him from the dead.
YP Talk 2
What Is More Serious — Sin or Death?
Children—Craig Buchanan
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.
Familiar with the ones on the back like #40 But you're welcome to give one out and from anywhere in this book and we'll try to sing it. OK, how about we get started with #40 Jesus loves me.
Jesus loves me.
They are refined.
Yes, please come to me.
Yes, Jesus loves me.
Yes.
Revival tells me so.
She thinks I want me.
Heaven's grateful and white April, I shall pray my sin.
When holidays close out from him.
Yes, yes, I do understand.
One's being.
The Bible tells me so.
Jesus loves me on my mind.
I've been waiting to make me God, grace to hold me in his heart.
Stay from every arm, yes.
Jesus loves me.
Yes, please, as long as you can't help me so.
Jesus loves me, God may spill when my merry reign can go.
Run and shining when one prime is gonna watch me where I die.
Yes, Jesus loves me.
Yes, it is a lot of community. You have a spirit that's not a screaming God. My Bible tells me so.
Jesus loves me. He will scare me all the way.
If I trust him, should I die, he will take me on my heart.
Yes, give us one thing.
You ask me to love me.
I will tell me so.
OK, very good. Who has a song they like to give out? Yes 46. All right.
Glad T.
I.
'S come to us anything.
And be called and be called all the king. I'm all about that. And I gave unsolved to be a bias to beauty on you right here with him. I have all their sins I washed away.
All right, how about another one?
Yes, Amy. Amy Slaughter.
34 OK.
00:05:23
Now it's all birthday.
Is made.
Lord, I stands, I read my grandmother.
'S shells that can make them.
Why as a snow?
Christ.
Ian.
All Christians falling from everything.
All right, how about another one?
You have one.
3737 OK, let's do that one next 37.
Maybe somebody else could start that one.
The Gospel.
My grace, my soccer heart, and one or one.
The world tore up your umbrella. They can stop her life in life. Reece's sleeping songs.
Once I hungry, my pleasure.
Lord, give me some of our last name, heart, greatest city from our world.
I'll be my greatest name.
Speaking of.
Right breathing. See.
Christmas.
Reading.
OK, these are nice songs. How about maybe one more? Somebody else have one? Yes, over here on the end. Which one?
00:10:00
5858.
OK.
Maybe 48 or no. Let's see, which one is it you're wanting?
How about #47?
Anger, all the same ones, all the pride was his love and his soul, like the stars of the Lord, is crying on the laundry.
Face of sightseeing University right down, foreheads Brown.
Literally no chills around, like no chill, no crying for a little bit of a little better being in your heart.
OK, well where I come from.
The children say a verse in Sunday school, and I know some of you probably worked on one. So I'm going to give you the opportunity to say verse if you'd like to. You don't have to. So I'm not going to make you. And but if you want to do that, we're going to take some time here to to listen to what you may have learned. OK, Does somebody want to start and tell me the verse?
Do you have a verse you want to say? OK.
And the steamcraft she lives there now, but thanks be to God who gives us the day who I like Jesus Flash fresh go with him 1556 and 57 very good, very good. Would you like to say the verse OK.
Nothing of death is sin, but the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
1St Corinthians 1556 and 57. Very good. OK, who else would like to say it?
The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. Thanks be to God who gave us us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. 1St Corinthians 1556 and 56.
OK, I got another hand over here.
The sting of death is sin, but the and the strength of sin is law. But thanks be unto God, who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. 1St Corinthians 1556 and 57.
OK, who else?
The sin of I mean the sing of death is sin, and the strength of sin is death. 1St Corinthians 56 I mean 1556.
I got another one here.
The sting of death is sent 1St Corinthians 1556.
Very good.
00:15:00
The sting of death is sin. 1 Corinthians 1556.
OK, this thing of death is sin.
1St Corinthians, 1556.
OK.
The sting of death listening.
1St Corinthians, 1556.
The sting of sting of death is sent 1St Corinthians 1556.
All right. Anybody else?
Right, small bullets.
15 and 56 death is sent Chris ( 1556 this thing I just sent her friends and 50 and 56.
OK, this isn't a very long verse, is it? Some of you learned 2 verses and that's nice. Anybody else want to say it? I want to give you a chance. I don't want you to miss out.
We did a very nice job on that, saying your verse and learning it.
Maybe it wasn't a very hard one to learn because it was short, right? But it talks about some really serious things.
Have you ever been stung before?
Yeah, I think most of us have. That's not very fun. But it also talks about two other things that we're going to talk about. I'm going to tell you a story here in a little bit about being stung. But first of all, I want to ask you, there's two other words in this verse.
Death and sin, right? Those are some other important words in this verse. And if, if I ask you children, I wonder which do you think is even more serious, death or sin?
What do you think, William?
Death or sin?
You have to think about that, isn't it?
What do you think?
Sin.
All right.
Anybody else?
Yes.
Death. OK, yeah, well, I think when I, when I read a verse like this, maybe I think boy, death, that's more serious than anything else. It is serious, isn't it? But you know what, children, if you know the Lord Jesus as your Savior, you know, death just brings us right into his presence, into the Lord, into heaven to see the Lord, doesn't it?
So there's victory over death, isn't there? What about sin? Is it serious too?
You know, we may not, we may not think it's so serious sometimes. In fact, it says in the Bible, it says.
There may be pleasure in sin for a season. We might even joy some things that are sin. We might not think it's all that serious, like we do death. But sin is very serious, isn't it? Because sin can keep us from the Lord's presence forever. That's how serious it is. So I told you I was going to tell you a little story about stings.
So I'm going to try to relate this story as best I can to the verse.
This was a few years ago.
It was a kind of a friend of a friend had a beehive that they didn't want anymore, and so my dad and I thought we would go move this hive. They didn't want it, so they offered it to us and we thought we'd go move this beehive to our farm.
And I was mostly interested in this this beehive because they can pollinate our crops and with that time we were growing some strawberries and pumpkins.
And things that that benefit from bee pollination, OK, I think dad was more interested in the honey, but anyway.
We thought we would move this hive to our farm. That sounds like good idea.
I'm going to probably get in trouble here because there's probably some people in this room that know about keeping bees, and I gotta admit I don't know very much about it at all. So that was the first problem. We didn't really know what we were doing.
I wonder, children, do you know the way of salvation we've talked about?
00:20:00
We've talked about sin and death and how sin can keep you from heaven, can keep you from the Lord's presence. Do you know the way of salvation? If somebody asked you, if I were to ask you what must I do to be saved, what would you say? Anybody know a verse?
Good, say that again. Please believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Yeah, that's Acts 1631, isn't it? So you know, that's good. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
Thou shalt be saved. That's that's the way of salvation. OK, well, back to the story. We, so we, we drove up to the field where it was in, in our pickup and there's kind of a, a big hill there. And the high was at the bottom of the hill and it was a little bit wet. So we were afraid to drive all the way down to the high. We were afraid we'd get stuck down there. So we had to park on top of the hill and walk down to the high.
And so we had borrowed some gear. Some.
Equipment, you know, a beekeepers helmet you put on that has a a net that goes over your face and we put on some gloves and and so we thought maybe that helped us protect us from the bees stings, right?
But there was a problem, another problem besides not knowing what we were doing. We had some faulty equipment. And I know my mask had a hole in it over here somewhere, and I think maybe Dad's dead too. And we didn't do everything wrong. You know, we went in the evening and when the bees are supposed to be calmer and back in their hive and, and we had some of the right equipment, but as we approached very carefully to that hive.
Pretty soon there was a bee already inside my mask.
Inside in that little hole there and I think maybe Dad had got got one in there too. We hadn't even touched the hive yet. So we were, we had problems, didn't we? We had some faulty equipment.
And that reminds me a little bit about this verse 2.
Do you think these bodies that we have are going to last forever?
You think so. You know, you all are young, healthy looking, and that's good. As we get older, you might think a little bit more about as you get older, you might think about how this body isn't going to last forever. Maybe you eat your vitamins, maybe you eat the right food, do a little exercise. These things help our bodies, don't they? But they're not going to last forever. This body is capable of death.
And is guaranteed, if the Lord leaves us here, not to last.
Our body. So we have some just like our faulty equipment that we had in our in our beekeeping experience, you and I have bodies that just are not going to last. OK, well back to our story.
As we approached that hive, there was another problem and this hive had been let go and no one had been keeping it and taking care of it. And the box, it's a big box about this tall, you know about this wide had holes in it all over the place. And since we wanted to move all the bees, we needed to patch up those holes before we could carry it off right, Wanted to keep them inside their.
So we had some.
Screen and Staples.
And we started stapling screens over these holes with a staple gun.
Everybody's laughing wasn't very funny.
How do you think the bees like that?
Wham, Staples going into their home? They didn't like it at all.
And so the problem was we just needed to tell these bees what we were doing so that they wouldn't be scared, right? We just need to communicate a little bit with these bees and explain everything. We weren't going to hurt them. We didn't want to hurt them. We weren't even taking their honey yet. But they just didn't get it. And so we had a problem. We couldn't communicate with these bees very well. They didn't like us at all.
And that reminds me, too, of actually a story that was told yesterday about the ants. You remember that?
Someone said if you want to communicate with an Ant, you'd have to become an Ant, wouldn't you?
We couldn't communicate with these bees very well and that reminds me of.
00:25:03
The Lord Jesus because it says in John. I'm going to read some verses in John chapter one.
We've read these already conference.
About the Lord Jesus.
The Son of God, it says in verse 14 The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us.
And we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace.
And truth.
So the Lord Jesus.
He did this. He became a man. The Son, the Son of God, became a man.
And He came into this world for you and I. He communicated God's love. He revealed his Father's heart to each of us, to this world, to this lost world. And did they appreciate it?
What did people do to the Lord Jesus when he was here?
Well, we know the story. It says actually here He came unto his own, and his own received him not.
And even worse than that, they put him on a cross.
So the Lord Jesus.
He didn't just leave us here in our sins, did He?
And John chapter 3, it says for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son.
That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
So God sent his Son into this world to save us.
Knowing exactly what was going to happen.
OK, well, I'm going to continue more with our story.
As we approach the hive there, it it became obvious that we were going to have to, to carry this, this hive up the hill. There was no way to get it to the pickup without carrying it all the way up the hill. And it was quite heavy, as I recall, for two of us. And you can imagine if you're carrying something with two hands, you just don't have any way to.
Brush off a bee if it gets up your sleeve or down your collar. And so here we are trying to carry this thing up the hill and getting stung. And it seemed like a long ways up that hill. In fact, I think we had to set it down at least once and rest.
That made me think of another another thing about the Lord. You know the Lord Jesus.
When he, when he was before, he was actually put on the cross.
Pilot had him scourged. His back was whipped.
And they laid that cross on him, and he was to bear it.
Up a hill to Golgotha. Remember that reading about that.
Do you think that hurt? Do you think that was painful? Yeah, it certainly was very painful. So that makes me think about our Lord Jesus and what he did out of love for you and for me.
That's what he did and when he got there, they set up that cross. They nailed him to that cross and set it up on the hill there. That's where He suffered for you and for me. That's how much He loves you and me, and that's how much He doesn't want you to suffer for your sin. That's how much He wants to give you life after.
Even if you have to die, even if this body dies, we can have eternal life, can't we? Through Jesus Christ our Lord. That's why it says.
I'm going to read the verse that that some of your children said already, the last verse of the chapter there in First Corinthians.
15.
Well, verse 57, but thanks be to God.
Which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
There is victory, children, over death, over sin, because of the Lord Jesus and what He did on that cross. That's where He bore your sins and mine because He loves you so much. So I don't want anyone here to have to suffer or pay for their sin. I don't want anyone here to go through death without knowing that Savior, the Lord Jesus, and He doesn't want that either.
That's how much he loves you.
Well, we did eventually get the hive back to our property there, but we paid for it with a lot of, a lot of stings. And so I don't, I don't have a very good experience with these, but I it, when I think about that story, at least I can remember what the Lord Jesus did for you and me, right? How much it cost him more than just a sting.
00:30:22
A bee sting.
And I also want to, umm, maybe close with another, another thought, another verse, because I don't want anyone here to just think about death being before them. I want you children to have something else before you. Another hope. Wonder if I could get somebody here to read a couple of verses in John later in John 14.
One of your children want to read this.
All right, let's read.
John 14 verse one.
John's Gospel 14. Yeah. Back this way, John. Yeah.
We're going to read the 1St 4 verses of John.
14.
You want to read that?
Go ahead, let not your heart be troubled. Ye believe ye believe in God, believe also In me and my Father's house are many mentions. If it were not so, I would have told you, I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself, that where I am, there you.
Also.
Isn't that nice? You know, children, we don't have to look forward to death. It may happen. We've talked about that our bodies are capable of death, but that's not what we're here to to look forward to. We're here to look forward to something better than that. We're here to look forward to the coming of the Lord Jesus. And you know what? If the Lord Jesus comes today, I don't think anybody.
I hope nobody in this room will have to pass through death.
So that is much better thing to look forward to. I just wanted to kind of close with that because we don't really expect that, do we? We expect the Lord to come. That's our hope. The hope of each of us is to look forward to the Lord's return for us. He wants us to look for that. That's why he tells us, let not your heart be troubled. So things like death may be to us.
We can. We can look forward to victory. We can hope for the Lord's coming.
And we can know for sure that He loves us and that He's provided that way of salvation for us.
Maybe we'll close with another song or two because we've got some time.
Is anybody else here in the front have a song? Yes, Laurel.
4043.
#43.
One door.
And only one again.
The Lord's View of the Assembly
Address—Doug Buchanan
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
We open our meeting with #22 in the back of the book.
#22IN Appendix.
Thou Holy one and true.
Our hearts in thee confide and in the circle of Thy love, as brethren, we abide.
The Holy One.
You're not going to have to turn your Bibles to very many portions this evening. If you're worn out of looking through your Bibles, we're probably just going to be in one book, couple chapters, the last book of the Bible.
Revelation.
Topic is about.
The Church of Philadelphia and the Lord Jesus.
Walking among the candlesticks.
Observing. So we're going to start out in the first chapter where we have the Lord Jesus presented.
You know, we I wasn't here for the rest of the conference. So I think you had Hebrews chapter one and in that chapter you have the Lord coming down.
Becoming a man passing angels by.
And then he goes back to heaven again, and he passes by angels a second time, and then he takes us up there.
Well, in this book.
We don't often think of it this way, but you have the Lord Jesus at least prophetically coming down and walking among these little light bears these testimonies and observing what he sees. And that's what I want us to look at. We have a commentary of what the Lord Jesus sees as he looks at the different testimonies during this period of that church.
So let's start reading in verse chapter one of the Revelation.
And in verse.
10 John says, I was in the spirit on the Lord's Day, and heard behind me a great voice and a trumpet.
Saying, I am Alpha and Omega, the first and last. And what they'll see is write in a book, and send it under the seven churches which are in Asia, unto Ephesus, unto Smyrna, and unto Pergamus, and unto Thyatira, and unto Sardis, and unto Philadelphia.
00:05:14
And to lay the sea out. And I turned to see the voice that spoke with me.
And being turned I saw 7 golden candlesticks.
And in the midst of the seven candlesticks, one like the Son of Man.
Clothed with a garment down to the foot and gird about the paps with the girdle and it goes on. I won't read the whole description but passing on down verse 18.
The end of verse 17 says fear not, I am the 1St and the last.
I am he that liveth and was dead, and behold, I am alive for evermore. Amen, and have the keys of hell and of death.
Write the things which thou hast seen, the things which are, and the things which shall be after hereafter, the mystery of the seven stars which thou sawest in my right hand, and the seven golden candlesticks.
The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven candlesticks which thou sawest are the seven churches.
Just brief comment about this. John got this revelation. This is a amazing revelation here of Jesus.
Nobody else could Fit this description but Jesus being once dead, alive again and so on and so.
The Lord.
Through the apostle, John gives us a prophetic history of what was to happen after him.
Now that is an amazing fact that God could tell us beforehand everything that's going to happen and give to us something that we can read right now, here, today.
And realize that the Lord Jesus is walking amongst us here today.
That is in spirit, and he tells us.
He said it a long time ago, but it's applicable right now.
You know, we when we return from conferences, sometimes we ask people, well, how was the conference?
And we get a little report.
And 90 some percent of the times everything is pretty good, usually thankfully, rather than enjoy it. And so on.
And we hear what ministry was given.
And people expressed their opinions. That was a good meeting that really touched my heart.
And different comments like that.
What I want to bring before us this afternoon is.
What the Lord thinks about this?
He's looking down here.
What's he saying about this conference?
What's he saying about our life testimony?
It's here.
We're going to read it. It's very brief, but it speaks a lot.
Isn't it amazing that he would do that? He did it, but it's applicable right now.
So we have these seven addresses or these 7 messages that were revealed to John and he wrote them. Now I can well remember when I was a young person, first time getting a hold of the truth of this.
How it was a marvelous display, these chapters 2:00 and 3:00.
These seven Churches is a marvelous display of the course of the history of the church since Pentecost down to the end times.
And.
I can remember getting all enthused about.
00:10:02
The seven dispensations and how there were seven testimonies in the church period. And you have you make these charts and you have the the starting with Ephesus, which started and how the church history began and they left their first love and and going on down through and that's true.
It's wonderful that God would do that and reveal this to us in this way.
But I want this afternoon to dwell on something that are him suggested.
Thou Holy one and true.
Now that hymn was written by a brother in fellowship at the Lord's Table.
Lord Cecil was his name.
These hymns that we sing in our Little Flock hymn book are many of them.
Are from those that have gone through life and laid hold of the truth of God.
And applied it in their lives.
And develop thoughts and expressions that are marvelous.
Put together in poetic form so we can sing them. And no, I grew up in the meeting.
I was raised.
In this environment.
And I think probably the majority of you were, too. It's a great privilege to have that kind of a upbringing, to be taught these things from your youth up. But sometimes, you know, we take things for granted.
And don't appreciate them. Like the saying goes, you don't appreciate water until the well goes dry.
Things like that.
We need to appreciate what the Lord has told us about the times we're living in.
So let's turn on over then with Chapter 3.
Hopefully this is the last time you have to certain page in here this afternoon.
Not that I am not in favor of reading scriptures.
Very much, very much so.
Wonderful. Let's hit go on, then down to. We're going to skip the the the first addresses and go right straight to.
The the message to Philadelphia.
Chapter 3 and verse 7.
So this is John.
Who?
Got this message.
You know, it's interesting that.
When he wrote these seven addresses or messages here.
That he wrote them using symbolic terms sometimes.
What we read about how the Lord appeared and.
Is symbolic language.
His.
He gird about with paps of golden girdle and so on, and these are figurative or symbolic.
Terms.
A lot of it's plain and simple, but it's mixed in.
With symbolism. In fact, that's what the 1St 2 verses of the book when it says signify in chapter one at the beginning there it really is, the word for symbol.
And so God or the Lord Jesus wrote this couched in terms so that only those who really have a desire.
To lay, hold and to obey and follow the truth will really get the message.
This Book of Revelation is probably the least well understood book in the Bible, and yet there's probably more books written about it than about any other book. People want to tell what they know about this book, and they don't all agree.
00:15:08
But there's something special in this book.
For those who are close enough to the Lord and to His word.
To figure it out.
There's a verse in John that says if any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine. That's the principle here behind this.
That's why the Lord has written.
This book.
In a way, he did.
Literal and symbolic language.
Chapter 3 and verse seven and to the Angel of the Church.
In Philadelphia, right these things, says he that is holy, he that is true, he that hath the key of David, he that open us, and no man shut us, and shut us and no man open us. I know thy works. Behold, I have set before thee an open door.
And no man could shut it. I'm going to just stop there for now.
The Lord Jesus presents himself in these seven different churches.
In a different way.
And what I want to emphasize this afternoon is the Lord's side of it.
Why does he why does he take this character of being the holy and the true?
If you go over to the the last church, it says.
The faithful and true witness.
Because.
That church was pretending to be a certain kind of witness and they were saying I am this and I am this and I'm not that. They were basically pronouncing about their own spirituality.
That's a dangerous thing to do, by the way.
Tell the Lord.
What kind of a person you are?
In everyone of these he starts out. I know thy works.
That's interesting, I'd forgotten it was in all of them. But it is. I just checked it out. I know thy works. We don't have to inform the Lord what and who we are or what we've done. He knows.
Not that he may not want to hear things from us.
So when he speaks speaks to Laodicea, he speaks about their witness.
He speaks of himself as the faithful and true witness, I think because they were occupied with being a witness.
Now we are to be witnesses. I can't. You can't find fault with that.
But here, what is it that the Lord?
What is it that he says about this church, this testimony?
He says I'm the faithful and true.
I really think we enjoyed that this morning at the breaking of bread.
We had before our souls the Lord Himself.
I I said that wrong. It's the holy and true. Sorry, the holy and true. Sometimes we read in the remembrance of the Lord.
The verse from Psalms I believe it is. Come, let us worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness.
When we get into the Lord's presence, we're in holy. We're in the holy position.
00:20:02
That isn't necessarily scary.
If you're on good terms.
If there's no problem between two people.
Holiness is a good thing. It's only when somebody is in disobedience.
Gospel 3
Gospel—Bobby Woods
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.
Like to sing #15 But just before we do that, I'd like to read a couple of verses. Look at Luke 14.
Luke 14 and verse 13 But when thou makest a feast, call the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blonde, and thou shalt be blessed, for they cannot recompense thee.
For thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the just. Verse 15. And when one of them that said it, meet with him, heard these things, he said unto him, Blessed is he that shall eat bread in the Kingdom of God. Then said he unto him a certain man made a great supper.
And bade many, and sent his servant at supper time to say to them that were bidden.
Come for all things are now ready.
And look at verse 21. So that servant came.
And showed his Lord to these things, and the master of the house being angry, said and his servant.
Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in hit her, the poor and the main, and the halt and the blind. Verse 22 And the servant said, Lord, it is done as thou hast commanded, and yet there is room that tremendous.
One other look at this and.
Genesis 7.
OK.
Genesis 7 in the last phrase of verse 16, you know, as we're we're here, it's just the third time that we're have the opportunity to present the gospel. You know, as we stand here, don't we marvel that we're in 2019, that the day of grace.
That were that far into the day of grace.
Look at this little phrase here at the end of verse Chapter 7, verse 16 at the end. And the Lord shut him in, you know.
Then let's connect that with the 1St Thessalonians 4.
We all know this, but First Thessalonians 4 and verse 16 For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the Archangel, and with the trump of God.
A day of grace will be over.
The door will be shut. There won't be any other opportunity. Whether.
For souls to be saved. So let's see #15 So could somebody start that?
00:05:26
All things are ready come.
Here.
Right now and they think I'm done.
Yeah, everything.
Is going out and crazy.
For diversity.
Yeah, there is room. God's house is bearing fire.
In the room.
Some gasoline.
Never to move.
Look at look at a verse in First Timothy.
First Timothy one.
First Timothy one the very first verse, there's a phrase. It's 3-3 words.
God.
Our Savior.
And that wonderful.
You know, we we think of the Lord Jesus as our Savior and how appropriate that is, but isn't it wonderful?
That we can say that our God is the saving God, Tremendous. And it's really a reminder to us, isn't it? There's no other religion that can present God as a saving God that tremendous.
This phrase that's used here about our God, you know, we've already been here, but let's, let's go back and look at this in the light of God, our Savior. Look at the very beginning in Genesis.
And go to Genesis chapter one and Justice. Look at these verses that we've already looked at.
But look at it in this in this lot, Genesis chapter one, in the very beginning of verse 26.
And God said.
Let us make man in our image after our likeness. And then verse 27. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created to him. You know when you read this chapter here and see what God did in creation when you get to these two verses.
The significance that God is placing on this, and it's because.
God wanted a relationship with man. Now let's go to the next.
Go to Chapter 3.
And go to verse 15. Now we're at the fall, aren't we? This is where sin came in. Did it change God's plan?
It didn't.
And look at what it says here. God makes a statement, and I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed. This is what I was thinking of. It shall bruise thy head.
So in this tremendous this didn't change the counsels of God, did it?
The Fall.
God had a plan.
And can't we say this is proof that our God is a saving God? This is the plan that's looking to the Lord Jesus that would Vanquish that enemy. So now let's go to where the where the Lord Jesus is born.
00:10:20
Go to loop.
No, it's really tremendous what we said about the role of the angels and when the Lord Jesus died.
They weren't summoned.
Now look here in Luke 2.
Loop 2.
And verse nine. And lo, the Angel of the Lord came upon them.
And the glory of the Lord shone round about them, and they were so afraid. And the Angel said unto them, Fear not, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people, for unto you is born this day in the city of David.
A Savior, which is Christ the Lord.
So.
The Angel makes this announcement when the Lord Jesus is born in a tremendous.
Bring unto you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. That tremendous Again, doesn't it magnify that our God is a saving God and that tremendous?
So now let's even go further back and let's look.
Before Genesis One and let's look in Titus.
Looking TARDIS chapter one and verse two in hope of eternal life which God that cannot lie promised.
Before the world began.
But hath in due times manifested His word through preaching, which is committed unto me according to the commandment of.
God, our savior net tremendous. We have a saving God. This was a plan that was.
From the very beginning.
It was before the world was created. And you know, isn't it wonderful to see this little phrase here which God that cannot lie promised as if there was a communication between God and the Son and that tremendous.
And so can't we can't we say our God is a saving God? And this was from the very beginning and the fall had nothing to do. God had a plan, didn't he, to save sinners that tremendous.
Now let's look at Back to First Timothy.
And again, isn't it wonderful in this first chapter here where we were emphasizing, it's kind of like the theme, isn't it? God our Savior. Now look at verse 15.
This is a faithful saying.
And worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus.
Came into the world to save sinners.
You know as we stop we are perverse that know the Lord Jesus as your savior.
It's wonderful to read this, you know, It was encouraging. Let's read it as if it's the first time that we ever read it. Can we?
It's beyond belief that God that the Lord Jesus could save.
Sinners.
00:15:02
Could it be?
How could it be?
Isn't it tremendous that no other religion could boast of such a thing, that sinners could be saved?
That wonderful.
So we could say, how could it be? Let's look at we could look at many different verses, but let's just go to a couple to, to to just.
To emphasize this, look at Romans 3. We all know these, but let's just look at it in this lot, Romans 3, verse 10, right at the end. This is the word of God, isn't it? This is what God says about each one of us, about every man that is born into this world.
There is an unrighteous no, not.
1.
Then let's look at verse.
23.
For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.
And then let's look at just one last one in Galatians.
Galatians 3.
In Galatians 3 and verse 22. But the Scripture hath concluded all under sin.
So now let's go back and justice think that this wonderful saying that is here in verse 15. This is a faithful saying and worthy of all exception that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.
Now we could say, couldn't we? How could this happen?
That the Lord Jesus could come and save sinners. Look at let's go back to where we were reading in Psalms 22.
This is how, isn't it?
There's 5 words here that I'd like to stress.
And it's at the very end, it's the last, the last five words of Psalms 22.
That he.
Had done this.
Swear the Lord Jesus had to die in it.
This is why he came. It was for that very purpose, wouldn't it?
You know what this really means? These 5 words really mean 3.
It is finished.
The work that was accomplished here that we see in Psalms 22 where the Lord Jesus was on the cross bearing our sin.
Vettel was accompanied. You know, we quoted it today, Isaiah 53, Six.
Our iniquities were placed on him.
So it was accomplished, wasn't it?
You know, it's really when we think of the gospel and we say, don't we? It really is truly glad tidings, isn't it? It really is truly good news. And it's really when you stop and think about it, we can't, we can't hardly contain ourselves, can we? We're recipients of this, aren't we? And what a tremendous thing to be able to think that.
God would take a Sinner and his holy claims would be met because.
The gift of his son, the wages of sin is death and the Lord Jesus took the punishment so all of the righteous claims of God could be met, couldn't he? So God didn't just sweep our sins under the rug, so to speak that he they were fully mad at Calvary. So that's how he could blast the Sinner, you know, just.
Look at this in Isaiah Isaiah 1.
00:20:06
Look at Isaiah 1 and verse 6.
From the sole of the foot, even into the head, there is no soundness in it but wounds and bruises and putrefying sores. They have not been closed, neither bound up.
That's a picture of a Sydney and Sin. It's really a picture of the center. You know, it's not 1% good, is it? We can't say there was 1% because it's clearly.
100% from the top of the head to the bottom of the foot.
It magnifies the work of Christ, doesn't it? The tremendous work that was accomplished on our behalf, and then at the conclusion it is finished.
Completely satisfied God. So now we can say this is a true saying.
It's true, isn't it, that sinners could be saved?
It's beyond our comprehension, isn't it really, that we are recipients of such? Isn't it really?
So really, it is indeed like it says there. This is worthy of all. Guess what? Look at that that we read in Acts. Look at. Go back and look at Acts 1 where we read.
There, you know, immediately after the Lord Jesus ascended to heaven. Look at look at what happened there in Acts One. We read it yesterday.
X1.
And verse eight, that he shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost has come upon you, and you shall be witnesses unto me, both in Jerusalem and to all Judea and in Samaria.
And to the uttermost parts of the earth.
The gospel went out.
Over the whole globe.
So indeed, that was the purpose, wasn't it? Again, doesn't it manifest?
God our Savior that tremendous immediately.
That's what happened. So indeed we can say, can't we? It's worthy of all to accept this work is so grand and so great. What the Lord did there on Calvary's cross is for all. It's worthy for every soul that has been born into this world, isn't it?
That tremendous the work, the marvelous work that was accomplished.
Is so grand and so great.
That it could accomplish redemption for all.
It's worthy of all acceptation that tremendous.
Now let's look at in regards to this look at Isaiah. We all know this verse, but in this regards, this wondrous work.
Now again, it really manifests the the wonderful work that the Lord Jesus did on our behalf. Look at Isaiah 43.
Isaiah, 4325.
I even I am he that blotted out thy transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember my sins. Doesn't it magnify the work of Christ? We couldn't even begin to to add up the account of our sins.
And then all of the accounts of our sins, of all of us just in this room and then.
Couldn't begin, could we?
The account is settled for those that come as a poor, wretched Sinner. That's the key, isn't it?
00:25:04
That's the key, isn't it? To be able to come as?
And that's it really, isn't it? God be merciful to me, a Sinner.
And he was blessed.
Not the other.
And that's the key, isn't it? That is really the purpose that the Lord Jesus came was to save sinners. And so you and I that have been blessed, we have come on that ground, haven't we, as a Sinner?
And God was merciful. It's as if we can say this, can't we? Whosoever.
Shall call on that name shall be saved, no question because of the work that was accomplished for sin there on the cross and in the very end there it's finished, it's complete God satisfied with it. And so now we can say it's a it's a true saying.
And it's worthy of all.
Acceptation and then the other will go back to it in First Timothy 1:15. This is pretty significant, isn't it? To look at, look at. We could quote it, but look at it with our eyes. First Timothy 115, the very last of whom I am chief.
Another 5 words.
No one can claim that title, can they?
In this marvelous that we can present.
The Savior of sinners.
And to know that the cheapest has been saved.
And you know, the Apostle Paul wasn't being humble in saying this.
This was inspired by the word of God, wasn't it? This was the inspired Word of God that had the apostle Paul to write it. The apostle Paul says I was a monster. I was a terrorist.
And he says it doesn't he look at, we can say in verse 13, I obtained mercy.
Can't we say this about our God?
God who is rich in mercy not a tremendous adjective God is rich a description of our God can't wait to give mercy to any that would claim to be a Sinner that tremendous what other religion could boast of such grand.
And you know, look here, the little phrase in verse 11, look at what the apostle Paul says, and we can say it too, can't we?
Glorious Gospel.
That wonderful.
That's so wonderful, it really means glad tidings. Indeed it is, isn't it? It's it's really, you can't even put it into words to think that a wretched Sinner such as us could be blessed in such favor. Indeed, we could say glorious gospel, couldn't we, of the blessed God?
Isn't that tremendous?
God, our Savior, that wonderful.
Now what's really tremendous isn't it is look at this that he says.
But I obtained mercy and look at 14 verse 14, and the grace of our Lord, look at the words was exceeding abundant.
With faith and love, which is in Christ Jesus, every one of us can say that, can't we? That no the Lord Jesus as our Savior.
You know, as we read it, we can say it's, it's us and individually each one of us, 'cause we look at this, we can apply it to ourselves, can't we, and say.
Just like the Apostle Paul, can't we the mercy that was shown, the grace? And then look at what he says here.
00:30:03
Look at very look at verse 16. Howbeit for this, 'cause I obtain mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might show forth.
Orlong suffering.
And look at what he says.
Our God used me as an example to.
Everyone that would believe from this point forward, you and I are included, aren't we?
It's tremendous, isn't it?
So now look at, go over and look at Chapter 2.
And look at verse three, the last three words of.
First Timothy, 2/3.
Look at what it says about our saving God.
God, our Savior.
Who will have all men to be saved and to come into the knowledge of the truth?
It doesn't that.
How do you say?
Doesn't that continue to proclaim that God is a saving God?
To emphasize it even more, it says it doesn't it? It says.
Who will have all men to be saved and to come into the knowledge of the truth. Now just keep your place there and go back to what we read in Luke 14 in this light. Look at this.
I think this is so tremendous look at in this lot.
Luke 14.
In verse 16.
Then said he and to him a certain man made a great supper, and bade many, and sent his servant at supper time to say to them that forbidden come, for all things now are ready.
You know the work the Lord Jesus did on the cross.
It's finished.
So everything's ready. The invitation is going out.
It's really to feel God's house, isn't it? Because our God is a saving God.
And can't we say we're here in 2019?
Doesn't it magnify the mercy and grace of our God?
Think about judgment that's about to be on this world. You know when the trump of God sounds, the dispensation of grace is over.
Oh, the judgment that's going to fall in this world.
In about seven years.
That's the rapid pace that it'll be.
The door will be shut on it.
So.
The Spirit of God is working. That's the servant.
The servant is working and look in verse 22 what we read and the servant said, Lord, it is done as thou hast commanded and.
There's still room for more.
Is the Spirit of God working in this late day in 2019? Absolutely. Isn't that wonderful?
The Spirit of God is, we can say, just like we connected, God would have all men to be saved.
And come into the knowledge of the truth. The Spirit of God is doing that today.
Until.
That door is shut, that marvelous, and can't we say it's a testament?
That God is a saving God. That wonderful.
Now we'd like to look at.
You know, as we think through this.
No.
Each one of us that know the Lord Jesus as our Savior.
00:35:01
We would like it to be like just in her head, wouldn't we? We really would like it to go all the way to her feet and go through our heart and conscience because.
It'll have a result on our feet, on it, in our what we do and where we go and who we see. It's like, and this is what I had in mind. Look at the result in Mark Five. Look at this.
In Mark 5.
Mark 5 and verse 15.
The account is before this, but just because of time. Mark 515 And they come to Jesus and see him that was possessed with the devil. Listen, we can say that this is a picture of us as a Sinner, can't we?
This one that the Lord healed, go back and look at it's a it's us, isn't it? It's us in sin. So look at what he says.
And they come to Jesus and see him that was possessed with the devil, and had the legion sitting and clothed in his right mind, and they were afraid.
And they saw it, and told them how it fell to him that was possessed with the devil, and also concerning the swine, after the devil left him, went into the swine, and they.
I mean, this was something to see this fella closed and in his right eye. Listen, can't we say we can personally say that this is this is me, this is you, can't we?
That those of us that know the Lord Jesus as our Savior.
Now look at what he says and they begin to pray him to depart out of their coasts. And when he was coming to the ship, he that had been possessed with the devil prayed with him that he might be with him. This is what I'm thinking. You know, as we read it, we can apply it, can't we, to ourselves that it would, this would be the response, wouldn't it? For all of us when we think about what we're, we're talking about, this is what the Lord Jesus says.
Go home to thy friends and tell them.
How great things the Lord hath done for thee, and hath had compassion on thee.
Look at what happens verse 20 And he departed and began to publish and to capitalist how great things Jesus had done for him.
And all men did marvel.
Now let's go back to what we were reading there in First Timothy and just connect this with First Timothy.
And let's just read our verse again and the next few verses. This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. Of who I am, chief. How be it for this, 'cause I obtain mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ.
Might show forth all long-suffering for a pattern to them.
Which should hereafter believe on him to life everlasting.
Look at what happens.
The parcel park can't contain himself. He's overcome.
As the Spirit of God is having him write this, look at what he says.
Now unto the King eternal.
Immortal, invisible, the only wise God be honor and glory for ever and ever. Amen.
In essence, the Lord Jesus is telling this one that was possessed with the devil.
Go and tell the marvelous work that accomplished on your behalf. Go tell everybody and can't we say as we think about it, we can't help it. It is it does have something that has an effect on a sudden it to think. Now the last one I want to look at in this regard is look at.
Look at Second Kings.
Second Kings.
00:40:08
And look at justice at the 1St, just to get the picture. Then Elijah said, Hear ye the word of the Lord. Thus saith the Lord, Tomorrow about this time shall a measure of fine flower be sold for a shekel, and two measures of barley for a shekel in the gate of Samaria.
A horrible family is coming.
Horrible.
Verse three And there were four lepers men at the entering end of the gate. They said one to another, why sit we here until we die? If we say we will enter into the city, then the famine is in the city and we shall die there. And if we sit still here, we die also.
Now therefore, come and let us fall unto the host of the Syrians. If they save us alive, we shall live.
And if they kill us, we shall but die. And they rose up in the twilight to go into the camp of the Syrians.
And when they were come to their uttermost part of the camp of Syria.
Behold.
There was number man there.
For the Lord had made the host of the Syrians to hear a noise of Chariots and a noise of horses, even the noise of a great host. And they said one to another, Lo, the king of Israel hath hired against us the kings of the Hittites and the kings of the Egyptians to come upon us. Wherefore they arose and fled in the twilight, and left their tents and their horses, their ***** even the camp as it was.
And fled for their life. This is what I'm thinking of.
And when these lepers came to the uttermost part of the camp, they went into one tent, and did eat and drink, and carried dense silver and gold and raiment, and went and hit it, and came again, and entered into another tent, and carried dents also, and went and hit it.
Verse 9.
And they said one to another, we do not well.
This day is a day of good tidings.
And we hold our peace.
If we tarry till the morning, light some mischief or components, and now therefore come, that we may go and tell the King's household.
You and our recipients of this great.
Salvation.
So great salvation, can't we say, for recipients of it?
We can't hold her peace. It's too wonderful, it's too great, it's too grand. It's worthy of all acceptation. One more verse. Look at this in Psalms 126.
Psalms 126 and verse 3.
The Lord hath done great things for us, whereof we are glad.
Maybe we can sing.
#4.
Someone started please.
Christ is thy savior of saviors. Christ is a savior. Glory no longer. I want to bring God and pray.
Save her on Sanders.
Sinner on sinners like me.
Shake it What for my grandson? The best of sustainer for me.
Now I can say I am farmer and happy and justify.
Say my blessing greetings as I Savior for me.
00:45:03
Say the rock Sanders.
Say they're all sinners like me shedding this blood for my grandson, listening to say there for me just as I was in Congressman to pray.
Now there is no God that makes sense, mistakes sustainer for me.
Saver of Sinner, Savior, sinners like me.
Shame his blood for my grand thumb. This is a savior for being.
Love waiting for love that's unchanging. Blessed pray love. Blessings so free I shall.
Praise friends, the victims are savior for me.
Savior and sinners.
Savior are sinners like me.
Sharing this blood for my grandson. Listen to Stand here for me.
Making the Lord the Center of Your Life
Is Jesus God? Does He Claim to Be God?