St. Thomas Conference: 2006
Table of Contents
Luke 12:31-59
Reading
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And.
Our.
Lord.
The.
That we might take up, at least for this meeting and maybe another one.
Luke's Gospel, chapter 12.
But not the entire chapter. I was thinking perhaps of beginning with verse 31.
Where it starts out. But rather seek ye the Kingdom of God, and all these things shall be added unto you.
It seems that in what we have had before us in our prayer meeting and also in the hymn at the beginning of this meeting.
There was an expression of knowing more of Christ, but especially of an exercise and a response in our hearts to His love.
And here I would suggest we get the Lord Jesus speaking to his own, bringing before them on the one hand the need not to be concerned about natural things, not to be unduly worried about what they were going to eat or what they were going to drink.
But then in this latter part of the chapter, it seems that the discourse goes beyond that, because he turns their thoughts to heavenly things.
And as we have often heard before, Luke's gospel, more than any other, is the introduction to Paul's ministry, and perhaps more than any other gives us a slant on things which leads in that direction. And so the exhortations here, while certainly good for Israel, yet at the same time are given in such a way that they speak to our hearts and our consciences as well.
What can my brethren think of that suggestion?
And perhaps of reading from verse 31 and we could read to the end of the chapter, although whether we would have time to get through it all is a question.
If you don't get stuck on some verses, sometimes we go over the same verse and make comments and sometimes we even make comments which don't explain the verses.
00:05:07
With the Lord's help, we can cover more ground.
Chapter 12. Verse 31. But rather seek ye the Kingdom of God, and all these things shall be added unto you. Fear not, little block, where does your Father's good pleasure to give you the Kingdom? Tell that you have, and give alms. Provide yourselves banks which wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that faileth not where no thief approaches, neither moth corrupted. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. Let your loins be girded about, and your light burning, and ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their Lord.
When he will return from the wedding, that when he cometh to knocketh, they may open unto him immediately.
Blessed are those servants whom the Lord, when he cometh, shall find watching. Verily I say unto you, that he shall gird himself, and make them to sit down to meet, and will come forth and serve them.
And if he shall come in the second watch, or come in the third watch, and find himself, blessed are those servants. And this know that if the good men of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched, and not have suffered his house to be broken through.
Be therefore ready also for the Son of Man cometh at an hour when you think not.
Peter said unto him, Lord, speaketh now this parable unto us, unto us, or even to all. And the Lord said, Who then is that faithful and wise steward, whom his Lord shall make ruler over his household, to give them their portion of meat and due season? So blessed is that servant whom his Lord, when he cometh, shall find so doing. Of a truth I say unto you, that he will make him ruler over all that he hath. But an if not servant, say in his heart, My Lord delayeth his coming, and shall begin to beat the men's servants and maidens, and to eat and drink, and to be drunken.
The Lord of that servant will come in a day when he looketh not for him, and at an hour when he is not aware, and will cut him in Thunder, and will appoint him his portion with the unbelievers.
And that servant which knew his Lord's will, and prepared not Himself, neither did according to His will, shall be beaten with many stripes. But he knew. But he that knew not, and did commit things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes. For unto whomsoever much is given of Him shall be much required. And to whom men have committed much of him, they will ask them more.
I am come to send fire on the earth, and what will I if it be already kindled, but I have a baptism to be baptized with? And how am I straightened? Will it be accomplished?
Suppose ye that I am come to give peace on earth, I tell you nay, rather division. Or from henceforth there shall be five in one house divided 3 against two, and two against three. The father shall be divided against the son, and the son against the father, the mother against the daughter, and the daughter against the mother.
The mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.
And he said also to the people, when you see a cloud rise out of the West straightway, you say they're coming to shower. And so it is. And when you see the South wind blow, you say there will be heat. And it comes to pass. He hypocrites. You can discern the face of the sky and of the earth, but how is it that you do not, do not discern this time?
Yeah, and why even of yourself, judge ye not what is right, but now goes with an adversary to the magistrate, as thou art in the way, give diligence that thou mayest be delivered from him, lest he hailed each of the judge, and the judge delivered thee to the officer, and the officer cast me into prison. I tell these thou shalt not depart fence till thou hast paid the very last mice.
We often find the expression the Kingdom of God in Scriptures and.
Excuse me here we find it in Luke's gospel.
Quite prominently, we find it, of course, in Mark and in other places as well. We find it in Paul's ministry.
Maybe someone could tell us what it means. What is the thought here when the Lord exhorts his own to seek first the Kingdom of God?
00:10:01
It's not the future Kingdom when he comes back in power and glory, right? That is the Kingdom of.
The Son of Man when he comes back in power and glory, but seeking the things that have to do.
With God and our relationship to Him and our blessings in Christ, all of that is part of what is implied, right? And that's what we should be looking for and entering into a fuller understanding and enjoyment of these things. It's not just a question of intellectually entering into it, but that these things enter into our hearts and consciences.
And we come to enjoy them. All truths will enter by way of the conscience, Pearl and Dean said. So the conscience has to become involved. And so hopefully these meetings will result in us focusing our attention more on the things of God.
Things that have to do with the Lord Jesus and the place we have before God in Him.
Romans, Romans 1417 answer to the question, at least in part.
As for the Kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost.
For he that in these things serveth Christ is acceptable to God, and approved the men.
We say that the Kingdom of God is that moral sphere of that which is agreeable to God.
And so your verse helps there. It's that sphere, that of that which is agreeable to God.
Generally speaking, if someone has a Kingdom, if it's their Kingdom, they rule there. Their Kingdom is is their sphere of rule and so.
We are.
Ruled, so to speak, by God.
Then we're in the realm of his rule and we're in his Kingdom.
But I think that what you're saying is.
In the sense of our morality and our walk in all that we do here.
We seek to be in the Kingdom of God. It means we seek to be under His authority, which we are anyway, but under it in a practical and dynamic way. Lead of the Spirit walking according to the Spirit.
So I suppose in the broad sense we can say that when the Lord Jesus came into this world, He preached that which was characteristic of God's Kingdom. And so, for example, in what is conventionally called the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew chapters 5-6 and seven, the Lord gave the character of that Kingdom that He would set up. Could man answer to that in his natural state? No, he could not.
And any man that were to be honest with himself, if he were to listen to what the Lord Jesus was saying, he would have to say, I can't possibly carry this out unless I have a new life. I can't do this. Man couldn't even keep the law, which was a minimum requirement, and yet the character of God's Kingdom went far beyond the law, because it took in the thoughts of the heart and that which underlay the open sin.
What happened then? Man rejected the rightful King, they crucified him, and now in that sense, the Kingdom that he would have set up has to wait until the coming day. But what about you and me? There are those who by grace have been brought to know God, who have been brought into favor through the Lord Jesus Christ, who had new life in Christ. And we acknowledge the rightful King as it were, even though he is absent and rejected.
Well, then there's a moral state, a moral character that answers to him, as our brother Neil was saying, a moral character that answers to God. And that is what we are exhorted to take up here. We can't expect a Kingdom in manifestation during this day of God's grace, and it is a mistake to do so. But we can exhibit by grace the moral character that is suitable to that Kingdom and so.
The Lord Jesus says, seek ye first.
00:15:04
How does it read here?
Seek ye the Kingdom of God, and all these things shall be added unto you. Well, there's a priority here that is exhorted for every true believer but God and His claims and His things first. The rest of it is not a difficult matter for the Lord what to eat, what to drink, what to wear, where to live, and so on. But that moral character that suits God's Kingdom is of paramount importance, isn't it?
Kingdom and patience of our Lord Jesus Christ, because it's not a Kingdom in power. Man praise thy will be done on earth.
As in heaven, well, when the Lord's will is done on earth as it is in heaven, we'll be in the earth, will be in the Millennium, it will be in power. But now we're in the patience of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the Kingdom of God has taken on the character of the Kingdom of heaven now. And as you referred to Matthew's Gospel, the Lord was rejected. They said he did those miracles by the power of bills above. And so the Kingdom of God took on the character, the Kingdom of heaven. The king was going back to heaven.
And there's a sphere now over which Christ rules on this earth, and we call it the Kingdom of heaven or Christendom Kingdom, but with Christ as its head naming the king. And all that are professedly in that are in the Kingdom of heaven. And in both the Kingdom of God, God and in the Kingdom of heaven, there is profession. There may be one that are enjoying the benefits and privileges of that Kingdom and yet not have light.
And so he says, you're seeking first the Kingdom of God, and all these things shall be added unto you, because the Lord is not going to deprive us of anything to live our lives in a way that is morally suited to himself.
A brother, a brother once told me that he can't live for Christ in the situation he was in. And I said, well, you got into a situation you had no business getting into and.
We often ask what the will of God is in a situation when the only will of God is that we not be in this situation at all.
And so he said, seek ye first the Kingdom of God, and all these things will be added unto you. And whether it's good health or poor health or wealth or poverty, we saw all of these things in Paul. He knew how to experience all of these things, that he was going to have everything that he needed to live to the glory in a morally suitable way to God. And that is what he's referring to. Seek ye first the Kingdom of God, and all these things shall be added unto you. Sorry.
Should also mention that the Lord Jesus is not our King as Christians. That's not the relationship in which we have been brought by grace. He is our head, He is our bridegroom. You know we are in a much closer relationship to him than subjects are to a king. But we do know he is the King and.
When he comes back in power and glory, we come with him and reign with him. You have a beautiful picture of that in Joseph being rejected. And in his rejection he writes to power or ascends to power. And in his rejection a pride is given here. And when his brethren are restored to him, they find a Gentile bride.
At Joseph's side, that's a picture of Christ and a church. We are not in the relationship to Him as our King, although there are some hymns in Christian hymn books that express that thought. We are in a much closer relationship, but that also makes us responsible. To demonstrate this, you know there should be genuine affection and love for the One.
Who we are so close to?
How then Heinz, how do these verses about the Kingdom of God, how do they apply to us?
Let me before you answer that I want to read in Philippians 3 some verses, verse 18. Now when we get into the epistles, we're getting into Christian ground, Christian truth.
For many walk of whom I have told you often, and now tell you, even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ.
Whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, Who mind earthly things for our. This is the verse I was especially thinking of, for our conversation is in heaven, from whence also we look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall change our bodies of humiliation, that it may be fashioned like unto his body of glory, and correcting that.
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According to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself.
Now that word conversation in verse 20 is not the same word that's that is used elsewhere, meaning behavior. It's a different word pellet to pull it to a MA it it means citizenship or Commonwealth. I think there are five states in the United States that are commonwealths. It's very much like a state, but it's very similar to that.
But it's interesting that the very word that's rendered.
Here conversation or could be citizenship or it could be Commonwealth is a political from which we get the word politics.
Our politics are in heaven, not on earth. That ought to answer the question, do Christians vote? Should Christians vote? Someone asked me at the last election, have you voted yet? I said, oh, I voted a long time ago. Who did you vote for? Well, I voted for the Lord Jesus. I can't vote for anyone else. And he's not raining yet, but he will, and anyone else is not in the sphere.
That I'm concerned about, and what we're talking about when you talk about the Kingdom of God is more a moral sphere, and I think the Kingdom of heaven is more a dispensational term. Would you go along with that?
Matthew, the Kingdom of God is also found in Matthew, I think five times, but in Luke and Mark always the Kingdom of God and.
Vitally, you enter it according to John Three. You enter it when you're born again, when you're baptized. You enter it in an outward sense, but really you enter it when you have a new life. That's John Three. Can you agree with that?
It's it's probably a difficult subject.
To understand, but it's it's very precious we in the United States of America, not Malawi and these backward countries, but we in the United States of America are so.
Overfed.
Over entertained and I mean all the things that are being promoted to us on the air and television, radio, whatever it is, is all centered down here. But when it speaks of seeking the Kingdom of God, we're seeking.
That sphere over which God has complete authority and rule, and we should be living according to that.
And let the world go by.
Just to put it very simply.
That we recognize we're here, but our citizenship is in heaven. So sometimes you hear young people say, well, I'm 18 years old now.
And I can do, I'm, I'm free or whatever I am, whatever the law says, I'm 18 years old Now. We don't go by simply what the laws of the land say. We go by what the word of God says. We're citizens of heaven and we're to do what is morally suited to God. And so he gives us instruction as whether we're a child under the age of 12 years old or whether we're a young person or whether we're in our 20s. The word of God gives us instruction. And supposing tomorrow they legalize murder.
We're not going to go out and murder because we're in a different Kingdom, we have a citizenship in a different country.
And we're to take on the moral character of that country. But you often say to Christians, well, it's legal. There's nothing illegal about it. And yes, you're not going to get fined, you're not going to be put in jail, but it's entirely out of the character of God. And so we're to seek that which is suitable to God. And that's what it means to seek the Kingdom of heaven. But we're afflicted with this idea. Well, it's legal. There's nothing wrong with this. I'm 18 years old now, or this or that. And I'm not just picking on the young people. I'm using that as an example. But there is a moral character that is suited to God. And we get that by seeking those things from the word of God.
That.
We want to switch from the Kingdom of God to the Kingdom of heaven. But just to make clear that in Matthews Gospel you find the Kingdom of heaven and the Lord and John the Baptist said that the Kingdom of heaven was at hand. They meant the coming glory on earth.
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Where they made reference the Kingdom of heaven is at hand. Had they accepted the Messiah, he would have come to reign.
But he was rejected. Then you have 10 parables in Matthew's Gospel that give you the present aspect of the Kingdom in mystical form, and that presently taking place the Kingdom of heaven in mystical form. The king is in heaven, but there is on earth a sphere where his authority is owned and those who are baptized.
Are.
In the Kingdom, whether they are real or not, you find in the Kingdom there is the good and the bad seed, the wise and the foolish. You know the bad and good fishes. You know that all comes out in these parables. So the Kingdom is larger than the church. In the church only two believers are part of the church. But this fear of Christian profession is large. And there is that which is real and that which is false. But here when he says of the Kingdom of God.
I don't think he uses it as it is in Matthew where you have the dispensational aspect brought out. And in that gospel for the Jew, it's so important that they came to understand the character that the Kingdom would take because the king is rejected and it takes on a mystical form and we are in that Kingdom and every baptized person, everyone that makes a profession.
To be a Christian is in that Kingdom, and hopefully there's nobody in this audience that is only in there outwardly to be real, to be a good.
Version a wise virgin and not be a foolish virgin. They had a profession, but they had no oil. Gerard speaks of the Spirit of God. Hopefully there's nobody in the audience that is only professingly a Christian.
And not in reality. They are not really truly in the Kingdom of God as it is presented here.
32 is reality, yeah.
Yeah.
You stay mystical form even the world recognize that there is something mysterious in this world. It's covered but they don't quite understand and they know it's there. I was talking to an OPP officer, an Ontario Provincial Police officer, and he was succumbed to various sent to various countries to train police forces. He was an ungodly man and I don't think he would object to me calling him one. He was proud of the fact he was on course ungodly man. But he told me he loved going to these countries that you referred to far away.
And so he enjoyed them, but he looked at me and he said, you know, they'll never have what we've got here in these. And he was stumbling for a word to use to describe what we have in these countries. And I looked at them and I said these Christian countries. And he said, yeah. And he recognized there was a sphere of blessing on this earth in the profession of Christianity. He recognized that that was not enjoyed elsewhere in the world. And I believe that's what our And there is a dispensation now. There is a sphere.
By which man enters into that by baptism. Know ye not as many of you have been baptized into Christ.
Have put on Christ, that is being the name of Christ being put upon a person, whether they are real or not.
And they they're brought into that spirit is a sphere of blessing, and those that have traveled elsewhere in the world realize that though they can't put their finger on it, it's a very real thing, though mystical.
Activate some verses in John 18. Connection with this subject. Verse 33.
The pilot entered into the judgment hall again, and called Jesus, and said unto him, Art thou the King of the Jews?
Jesus answered him saith, Saw this thing of thyself, or did others tell it thee of me? Pilate answered, Am I unto you thine own nation, and the chief priests have delivered thee unto me. What hast thou done? Now here's the verse. Jesus answered, My Kingdom is not of this world. If my Kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight that I should not be delivered to the Jews? But now is my Kingdom not from hence that that answers the question.
Should a Christian go to war?
Absolutely not. My Kingdom is not of this world. We have another, another warfare that we are engaged in, but it's not this. It's not against Islam or whatever. And our president doesn't know that, but he is a Christian and most Christians have no idea what true Christianity is. It's a heavenly thing, isn't it?
00:30:24
There's a verse in Acts 20.
For the Apostle Paul was addressing the Ephesian elders before he went to Rome.
X20.
And verse 25.
And now, behold, I know that ye all, among whom I have gone preaching the Kingdom of God.
Shall see my face no more.
I think when the Apostle Paul said he went among the Saints preaching the Kingdom of God, he didn't go amongst the Saints as as we've had and sometimes very profitably to layout what the Kingdom of heaven is or the Kingdom of God and all the various details. But he really went about preaching practical righteousness in a walk before gone. And that's what he meant, that he went among them preaching, teaching the Kingdom of God. He taught them how to walk.
Righteously before God, and so another verse to connect with that in First Corinthians chapter 4.
And verse 20 For the Kingdom of God is not in Word, but in power, That moral power, so the apostle Peter says, add to your faith, virtue or moral courage or power. And so the Kingdom of God is in power, moral.
Courage, power to walk in a righteous way before God. And so our brother read to us that verse from Romans 14.
At the Kingdom of God was not in meat and drink, but righteousness first.
Then.
Peace and joy in the Holy Ghost.
There has to be a righteous walk in the light before there's going to be peace in the soul. Peace is in nature that's satisfying. And what the Lord brings up in the beginning of Luke 12 is an unsatisfied nature, a heart that is worried and concerned about many things in life and anxious about eating and drinking and laying up treasure and all these things. And where there's unsatisfaction, that way, you know it can lead to.
Unrighteousness.
Covetousness and those kinds of things. And so.
He says, Seek ye the Kingdom of God.
Walk in a way that's pleasing to him. It's really, Simply put, a practical walk in righteousness before God, and all these things shall be added unto you. The Lord isn't advocating.
That, oh, if you walk for me, then I'm going to give you a lot of earthly things. If we came with that attitude, it's still an occupation with earthly thanks. We're just going to get it through this channel. All these things shall be added unto you. I think really is connected with peace. In other words, I'm going to add unto you a state of soul that isn't anxious about what you're going to wear, about what you're going to eat, about all those temporal things.
He will add those temporal things, for He knoweth that we have needed them, but He's going to add to us a state of soul.
That's not anxious about all those things.
All these things shall be added unto you. And isn't that the desire of the heart for peace, a nature satisfying? It's the desire of the nations. They'll not get it till he comes, but it's the desire of every heart.
That's very good, brothers, even I think, if I may lay a little emphasis on that, that is the point that we want to get perhaps more than anything from this chapter. And that is a moral state that is suitable to God is the greatest, shall we say, possible strength that a believer can have in this world.
Many dear believers, and we don't throw stones, we don't, we aren't trying to be critical, but many dear believers feel that the way the believer can affect a change in this world is to jump into the arena and try and get quote involved. Well, in a natural sense that may be true, but for the believer, he is far more effective if he walks through this world with his heavenly calling clearly before him as we have from Philippians 3.
00:35:14
And yet a moral state that carries with it that weight, that comes from a power that is outside himself, and the world recognizes that they can't resist it. There is moral power in a believer that walks to please the Lord, and the Kingdom of God brings before us that practical righteousness which is so necessary. That's why Paul emphasized it so clearly.
As part of his ministry in Acts 20, he speaks of the gospel of the grace of God. That's where it all starts. He speaks of the Kingdom of God. That's a moral walk that is suitable to God. Then he speaks of all the councils of God. That takes me into the realm of all that he has in Christ and a coming eternity. All three are needed in the life of the believer, but a moral state that walks before him in that way.
Will keep me at peace, real peace, and will give the best possible testimony to the outside world and to other believers.
Leading Mr. McIntosh years, years ago, he said if I was driving along with my horse and buggy and there was one that was at the side of the road road and his wheel came off, I would stop and help him get it fixed. But I wouldn't join a club to fix broken buggies. And that's the difference. That's that's understanding the moral, the difference between the moral thing and the dispensational thing. And dispensationally my Kingdom is not of the squirrel, the Lord said, Now keep that straight from.
Seek ye first the Kingdom of God. That's the moral thing. That's why I say it's difficult.
This is a subject that isn't so simple because you have to be able to rightly divide the word of truth, otherwise you're going to get all confused.
Along those lines, what is the Kingdom in verse 32? Is it the same as in verse 31 or is it something different?
He wants us to enjoy that now righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost, and I just say this to move on is that the buggy wheel is found in verse 33.
Is sell what you have and give, give alms and provide for yourselves bags which wax not old and so the arms are what we give towards man. Cornelius was said his prayers went up to God and he gave much alms towards.
The people. He wasn't a saved man and God does not despise charity. As our brother said, we shouldn't be involved in charities.
Zacchaeus, before the Lord ever came along, he said the half of my goods I give to the poor, and if I've taken anything, I restored fourfold the half of the goods that he gave her arms. And the Lord didn't say, well, you shouldn't be doing that and preach against that. But certainly as believers, there ought to be a readiness to stop and help somebody with their buggy wheel, to use Brother Chuck's illustration. And so that's what it's saying. We should provide so that we can help. And that's part of it, to show what is in the heart of God, because Christianity does not know what it known by what it looks for, but by what it it brings. And so.
It starts in that way, although we do not join, as I said, societies to prepare buggy wheels.
Your treasure is there will be your heart.
So the simple exploitation is what is the object of my heart.
Is it a bank account that we have?
Do I set my heart on that?
That's not what is suggested here. We are blessed with all spiritual blessing in heavenly places. That one of the verses in the epistles. We have spiritual blessings. That's all part of the Kingdom. The Kingdom of God is a general term that includes the Kingdom of heaven, the Kingdom of Christ.
And so on. But it's so important to realize that we have treasures that are not understood and appreciated by those who are not saved. But we who are saved hopefully enter into those things and enjoy them. And then our heart be there, not in the material possessions that we have. You know, what about the house that we built?
00:40:11
You know, does it have to be a multi million dollar piece of property? Well, it's just a dwelling place, you know.
The tent was good enough for the man of faith. I'm not saying that we should live in tents, but what I'm saying and suggesting is that we shouldn't go out for what the world goes out for. You know, we ought to have spiritual values and treasures.
And have them occupy our heart and not material possessions. Let me add to that. That's excellent. Second Peter one.
I'll start at verse 3.
According as His divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him that hath called us to glory and virtue pertained unto life. I just want to pause there. The young person will come along and say we're going out and have a good time and we're going to see light. They're not looking at real life. They're looking at that which is really death. Real life is living for God, isn't it? Well, let me go on things that pertain to life and godliness.
Through the knowledge of Him that hath called us to glory and virtue, whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises, that by these you might be partakers of the divine nature. Now that just doesn't mean to be born again, but you're acting, you're seeking things which are in accordance with the divine nature and that new life that we have. But I, I haven't come to the point that I want to make.
Besides this giving all diligence.
Add to your faith virtue, and to virtue knowledge. These are all moral things, and to knowledge temperance, and to temperance patience, and to patience godliness, and to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness, love. For if these things be in you and abound, they make you that you shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see it far off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins. Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure, for if you do these things, you shall never fall. That was his next verse that I wanted to get to. For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting Kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Now, maybe 8090% of the time that's interpreted to mean your your future entrance into the Kingdom. I think it's right now.
I think it's right now that we can enter in to the real Kingdom. When we have these moral traits. We can do it right now. We don't have to wait for a future time.
32 Brother Chuck, is that what you're saying?
Of our chapter.
That's right.
In its fullness, in the future day. But we can have it right now, spiritually, morally.
Be poor from the stand work standpoint of the world, but we can be rich spiritually speaking. You might have heard me tell the story that my grandfather told me that one of the Lords servants was visiting in my hometown.
And a local brother was taking him around.
And they were going from home to home. That was the custom at that time, that the Lord's servants visited in every home in the meeting. And so underway to a certain.
Or do we even have an exercise to use what the Lord has entrusted to us like the faithful steward?
Which wasn't his. If one wasn't faithful and that which wasn't his, the true riches wouldn't be entrusted to him. You know that's in Luke's gospel too.
Well, anyway.
There's nothing wrong in having things, but the danger is that our hearts become attached to material things and we lose out spiritually.
00:45:07
Tell a story on someone. I won't tell you who it said it to me.
I after.
After I went to the hospital and my wife was in the nursing home and then I got back. And where are you going to live? Well, I'm not going to live in Allendale. It's too big a house. It's got a full basement. It's got 3 bedrooms. I'll just live in the little mobile home that we have. All that's that's that's not good enough for you? You're a laboring brother.
I shook my head. I said, oh, that's a mansion compared with a lot of people.
You've seen it over in Malawi, in these places, it's a mansion where I'm living. Me and my dog, that's all that's in there and it's fine. I don't need anything better.
I tell you, we in this country, this country, I'm including the United States, we're so filled with materialism.
Shame on us.
14 where the comforter is mentioned. I'm not really a.
Great quarter of Darby. I don't even know if I've got it right, but I believe that in one of the notes in his translation, he says that that comforter, if he could have used the word solicitor, he would have, because that's really the sense of the word that's used there. Only it's got too common a usage and the solicitor is really one who takes care of our interests. So when when the Lord sent the comforter, it wasn't only to comfort his disciples from having his departure.
Grieve them in their hearts. It was much more than that. He sent someone to take care of our affairs in this world. So if we have the Holy Spirit taking care of our affairs, it frees us to enjoy the Kingdom because our affairs are in a practical sense, are being taken care of by the Spirit of God Himself.
What we have to understand is they didn't wear clothes like we wear.
You know, they had ropes, you know, and when they walked, when they were going on a journey, they tied up the rope so that they wouldn't stumble over the ropes. That's what it means. Be ready to March, have your loins girded, you know, and you like burning, you know?
We are supposed to be lights in this world. You know how much light shines out from us, not in words, but in our actions, in the way we live.
You know we accomplish much more by our way of life than by words. Not that we should not speak when we should, but.
It's so important that we have the loin skirt it and that there is a light shining and the closer we are to the Lord Jesus and walk in communion with Him, the brighter that light shines. It is a reflection, you know that.
Is seen. It's really his life reflected in his own.
33rd Verse Sell that ye have and give alms provide yourselves bags which wax not old A treasure in the heavens that faileth not where your thief.
Where no thief approaches, neither moth corrupted. Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. It always reminds me of a dear sister. She's still with us, I believe. Quite ancient. Can hardly see she used to use that verse. Regard not your stuff.
Regard not your stuff if you're in the process of.
Going through your house, which is what we've been doing. We're not sure whether we're going to sell this house or what. We're not sure what, where do we get all that stuff? Where did we get it all? It's just unneeded and if we would search our own hearts.
We would need maybe 110th of 1% of what we have.
That's true of the way we live in our countries.
Something do you think if you had a garage sale or a yard sale, you're going through that stuff in your house and if you're going to get rid of it, you're going to look at it and you look it over and you're going to evaluate it. You're going to say, well, that's worth $5, That's worth a dollar. And I think when the Lord says sell what you have, this really is thought is evaluated. Evaluate it in the light of eternal things, in the light of the Kingdom, Evaluate what you have, what's it really worth?
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Characteristic of Christianity as they turn to the true and living God to wait for his Son from heaven.
And so on our 37th verse it says, Blessed are those servants whom the Lord when he cometh.
Shall find watching that they were prepared as our brother said, their loins were gird about that. There was nothing to stumble on in their behavior. You see what happened. The 10 virgins all slumbered and slept. There was a time when there were real believers in this world and none of them were waiting for the Lord or looking for the Lord. Five were real, five that oil in their lamps and five didn't. But as far as sleeping men were concerned, you couldn't tell the difference. And so as our brother read in First Thessalonians chapter 5, let us not sleep as others that sleep in the night. And the Lord said, you know, while men slept, the enemy came in and sowed tares. All the seed that the sower sowed was good.
But men were asleep at the switch, so to speak, and the enemy came in and the watch, and they came in and watched. And this is a very, these are very good verses to show that whether it's in the second or third watch of the night, we're not looking for the fulfillment of any prophecy for the Lord to come.
We sing them night as far as spent because we've already I believe passed through the 2nd watch of the night. But there was nothing at any time in the churches history where they should not have expected the Lord to come. Is that true?
Now further, what the consequence is, and our brother referred to Christians getting involved in war and so on, is that if we don't aren't expecting the Lord to come, then there's a beating of the men, servants. We're going to try to straighten this world out.
We're going to fight for what's right.
If we don't, if we lose sight of the fact that the Lord is coming, and when the Lord comes, he'll set things right.
And to plead with men to, as the second Psalm says, kiss the son, lest he be angry with thee, and he removed thee in a stroke of his wrath. He's going to take the nations and dash them with a rod of iron like a dash of Potters vessel. And so we preach the Lords appearing to man because he's going to come and he's going to set things right. It's not for us to do. Talking to a young man this morning, the street and he said, why is it? He said I went to Europe and not because in the street he said, I went to Europe. And he said all these crusaders and so on going I said, I don't understand this. I said Peter, who was supposedly the first Pope.
I said this to him, he cut off the high priest servants here, and the Lord told him, put his sword away and put the ear back on. And I said, he said, why is it that that happens? I said because Christians don't read the Bible.
So we see what the consequence is. It has a devastating effect on our behavior, beating the men servants if we cease to really be ready for the Lord to come.
Anytime, open unto him immediately.
For the country in which we live, what can we do better than anything else? Pray.
Pray for the President of the United States. The scripture tells us that we should pray for kings and for all that are in authority when we applied for US citizenship. And forgive me for mentioning this, but it's interesting to bring in here.
I had taken the position of conscientious objector.
And the man that was talking to me said, how can I recommend you become a citizen? You're not willing to fight for the country?
I said, I do something for the country that is better than fighting. I'm praying for it, you know, and I pray for the president. And he had first turned me down. Then I said, what's my next thing? Oh, you have to appeal my decision. Well, I said then I appeal it. Where do I do it? You can do it right now. All right? I said I'd do it right now. What's the next thing? A judge will interview you. You know, I was never interviewed by a judge because.
The judge knew one of the men whose name I had given as a witness.
They had been in school together and he knew this man to be a devout Christian. You know, I suspect that when this man came to the judge and was trying to cause problems for me, he knew the man that I had given as a witness, you know, and I was never called before the judge until the swearing in ceremony.
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And then when the swearing in ceremony came.
The judge knew that I would not swear to fight for the country and so he said normally we swear in people separately.
The conscientious objector separately from the others, but he said I don't want to make a show, just stand with the others. And when it comes to the fighting for the country and defending the country, you just don't say anything.
And I know what the situation is. Well, we accepted that. But, you know, we're thankful to live in this land of freedom. And the best thing that we can do for the government and those in power is pray for them.
Pray for them every day, you know, and we have a Goodman in power, generally speaking, I believe he might even be a true Christian. Pray for the president and for all in authority. That's right. And I think, Brother Heinz, that reminds you to pray for our Prime Minister, too. He's a Christian and for all in power. Let's read those verses that you referred to. I exhort there for the first of all supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made.
For all men, for kings, and for all that are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceful life in all godliness and honesty. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who will have all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.
So that we have three groups that we need to pray for that mentions those in power and authority. And I believe that includes everybody in different lands and for All Saints and for all men. And to my way of thinking, that doesn't exclude too many. But how good it is for us to be able to pray not only for kings so important, but for all men. And sometimes we become exclusive in our requests for prayer. We need to include them all because.
He loves them all, doesn't he? God loves them all, and so we have that responsibility to pray for them all and in that way bring them to the knowledge of the truth. But that has to be in our own hearts before we can do it for the others. Would that be true?
Points out something nice in connection with Thessalonians. He says that which, let it be taken out of the way, are really governments that are ordained of God, that are empowered by the Spirit of God for the protection of his own, as long as the apple of his eye is in this world. And it goes along with what our brother was David was saying.
I don't think the governments of these lands realize the help that they're getting by the Spirit of God, unnaturally so, to protect us from much of the terrorism that is known elsewhere in the world.
And it's not just because they're clever, smarter, have bigger guns. The Spirit of God is present in this world and especially in these lands where there's profession professing Christianity and there's an undertaking to protect his own, the apple of his eye while present. And when the church is taken out of this scene, that protection will be removed.
And so we can leave that with the Lord.
I appreciated what Doug Buchanan said at Ernie Monk's house after that little breakfast after Walla Walla conference when you're somebody asked him if he'd go to war, and Doug said why would I do that? He said it wouldn't be fair. If I shoot my enemy, he goes straight to hell, and if he shoots me, I goes straight to heaven.
He says I want to pray for my enemy and preach the gospel to him.
I'd like to refer to verse 47 and 48.
I I I used gender translation and quite different. But that born man who knew his own floss will and had not prepared himself, not done his will, shall be beaten with many stripes.
But he who knew it not, and did things worthy of His stripes shall be beaten with few, and to everyone to whom much has been given, much shall be required from him, and to men have committed must they will ask from Him the more. Sometimes we take this buses for the disciplinary matters in an assembly also, and we do at back home, because if a brother or sister has ungodly work, and which is not good in the sight of the God.
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And knowingly or unknowingly, and there are some believers who do it.
Knowingly and those others unknowingly. I think what we feel is that it all matters in the day-to-day life as a Christian hope we have to walk and how we have to be appreciable in the sight of God and what things we do. What are the things we do in a day-to-day life is approved by God or not and maybe when we see that the judgment seat of Christ. All these things will be counted whether on earth well we do things were approved of him or not.
Maybe this is very important to look at.
Prakash, the principle is certainly there that when God commits something to men, He takes them up on the ground of how much they know, and so to whom He has given more of them, He expects more, and so on. I would just suggest that perhaps to apply these verses to assembly discipline, though, is not really in keeping with the thought of the passage. I believe the thought here is for.
Those who are mere professors, and as it says at the end of the previous verse, verse 46, it says concerning the unfaithful servant.
It says the Lord of that servant will come in a day when he looketh not for him, and at an hour when he is not aware, and will cut him in Thunder, and will appoint him his portion with the unbelievers. And then I believe it shows that God will take each one up on the degree of his responsibility. So there will be degrees of punishment in hell, and I believe God will hold men responsible for taking positions of authority and power.
Under the name of Christ and exercising it in a wrong way and.
If they are unbelievers, God will judge them for it. And of course some will be beaten with many stripes and some with few stripes. So I just suggest that the primary thought here is for an unbeliever who takes the place of being a Christian, operates under the name of Christ, but uses his energy to beat the men's servants and maidservants and to eat and drink with the drunken. And sad to say, of course, that is going on today. But it generally it is a general principle with God that He does take us up on the ground of.
What He has committed to us and so that those who are more in the understanding and knowledge of His will, he expects more from them.
Impossible that new Christians who are not safe very long might not understand certain aspects of the truth of God. And we ought to be patient.
And do not expect too much from a babe in Christ, you know? Give them an opportunity to grow, you know. And then even when the need arises to correct something, how do we do it, you know?
We better do it in humility, realizing that we will never grow to the point where we might not need correction. You know and have an attitude of and willingness to accept correction. And the Spirit of Christ, if He controls the individual, you know He will, even in these matters, when correction is necessary, will demonstrate the Spirit of Christ.
You know, there might be times when there is severity needed in words, at least never in action in Christianity, you know, But we better be careful that the flesh doesn't get the best of us. You know, many times we might say it's righteous anger when it is really the flesh showing itself in US. You know, we will not lose that flesh until the Lord comes.
And gives us to be a new creature that is have a body like unto his body of glory will be brought into full conformity to him. And so let's be careful when correction is needed that we manifest a spirit that is becoming for us as Christians.
More this beating of the of the slaves I was I'm interested in this notion that it has to do perhaps with those that are.
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Going about.
In a way, persecuting believers that really believe in the Lord's.
Actual return.
Persecuting him and that they are accusing them of aiding.
You know, the gay community and so on. There was a conference.
In its interest, I just tried to find documentation for it a few days ago and I don't. I don't even know why I was doing it, but there was a conference and it would have been, I believe, in the late 70s.
And there were some very prominent Christian leaders there.
Some are still very active in their ministries today, and they put forth the idea that the millennial Kingdom of Christ was going to be brought in through political action.
And that's where all of this that is so prominent today, that's where it started. That's why I was trying to find the documentation for that conference.
But that's where this whole movement that we see going on today started. And now, you know, you've got some nice Christian brethren. We have some neighbors that are Christians, and we love and appreciate them and we're glad that they're our neighbors. But the wife came to our door with a petition.
To sign to bring something to vote in the state of Maine.
And.
I know that I don't know if her particular preacher is preaching this, but I do know for a fact that there are preachers out there that are telling their congregations that Christians that don't vote and don't join with them in these, in this political action are helping.
They're preaching that and I'm just wondering if perhaps obviously to me, I feel that to say that the Kingdom of the millennial Kingdom of Christ.
Is going to come in through political action is blatant unbelief.
That would answer to my Lord Harris. My Lord delays delayeth his coming, and so he begins to be.
His fellow men, servants and the maidens.
Thousands of years old right from the beginning of the church, because the professing church took the place of the Roman Empire and the kings of the of the western world were crowned by the titular head of the Western church. And John Calvin, if you got caught dancing or playing cards, proposed that you lose your citizenship of the city of Geneva. And so there was a complete confusion between they thought that they were going to establish the Kingdom here on this earth. And so we lose sight of that.
We're going to be very discontented and very unhappy, but if we're really looking, whether in the 2nd or the 3rd Watch of the night for the Lords coming, then.
Not that we're not unconcerned or don't feel sad about what we see going on around us, but we're not here to set it straight. We're here to deliver men from that.
It's even more reason the brothers spoke about praying for our leaders. And it seems it's even more of an incentive for us to do so now. Because, you know, it always seems to be this pattern when when those who profess to be Christians take up political action or military action, it seems to backfire, right? And when it does and, and the false professors, they have an easy way out.
They're not real anyway, so they just give up the profession.
And who is left to be?
Beaten for it by the governments of this world, so to speak. It's the real ones because they won't give up the profession. And you see the stir, the pot being stirred by the so-called Christian political movement or Christian conservative movement, and it's being stirred and it's making the rulers of this world angry.
I think that we Christians can get caught up in these political things and it's interesting to read. I enjoy reading it. I am, I'm afraid, too much so sometimes because you you get into the interest of that side of it. But all these things that we've been mentioning, not that they're wrong, but it seems to me there's a principle that we can apply and should apply. Let me just refer to an accountant, Acts chapter 18, verse 24, and a certain Jew named Apollos, born in Alexandria, an eloquent man.
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And mighty in the Scriptures came to Ephesus. This man was instructed in the way of the Lord, and being fervent in the Spirit.
He spake and taught diligently the things of the Lord, knowing only the baptism of John.
And he began to speak boldly in the synagogue, whom, when Aquila and Priscilla had heard, they took him unto them and expounded at him the way of God more perfectly. I just like to say that there's a responsibility we have, whether it be in a conference or whether it be privately. And I think maybe this brings out the private aspect of it, which is so good and important. It can be applied to the brothers and the sisters alike. There are things that we see. This menopause was eloquent.
He could no doubt sway a lot of people, but here was a couple that saw beyond that. And So what did they do? Did they openly criticize him or say, well, you're right there, but you're wrong here? No, they took him home to lunch and they had a quiet time with him and showed him a better way. And I believe we're not too good at that sometimes.
You know, I look at myself, it's perhaps easier to in a public forum to knock somebody down.
Let's do what it says here, brothers and sisters in Christ, Let's invite them back and talk about it privately. Maybe we can be a help and I believe that that is what happened here because it goes on to say and when he was disposed to passage of Kaif, the brethren wrote sorting the disciples to receive him who when he was come help them much which had believed through grace for he mightily convinced the Jews and that publicly showing by the Scripture that Jesus.
Was Christ. It gets us to the theme and to the enjoyment of those things that I believe.
We need to enjoy as a conference like this where we get on to the Scriptures. What about Jesus? Let me read that. Showing by the Scripture that Jesus was Christ. And does it not really boil down to that?
Thankful for those who take a stand, Maybe their knowledge isn't perfectly and certainly there are those that have been mentioned who perhaps handle the word of God deceitfully, or who are willingly ignorant and so on.
But I think there are a lot of Christians who see things in the Word of God who wish to take a stand for what they know to be right. And we benefit from that in a certain way, even though perhaps were they to be like Norm is saying, help belong and to understand the Word of God more perfectly, they might do things a little differently. At least we can recognize their willingness to take a stand of their courage to speak up when they see things that are, that are contrary to the Word of God. Not that we would take.
Sides with them, or you know, as we've said, join associations and such like, but let's recognize their faithfulness according to what they understand from Scripture.
A neighbor living in the same community where we were living was trying to persuade me that I should join him in an effort that was made by two Christians to influence the political arena, you know, the political world. And I tried to explain to him, I do not believe that that is my responsibility, but whenever.
I am personally confronted with something.
Or people suggesting things to me. I have a responsibility to speak up and present the Scriptures. I don't go around and become involved in political movements, even among Christians, but I have a responsibility whenever the Lord allows this to come into my life, to speak up and present the truth. And we have to remember the Lord said my Kingdom is not of this world.
If my Kingdom was of this world, then my servants would fight. That scripture helped me to take the position that I took as a conscientious objector, and that is not understood by some Christians. But the time is going to come after the church is gone.
When he comes back in power and glory, and then he will straighten out the mess in the world. Christians will not be able to straighten out the mess. If in any way they can be influenced for blessing, it is through their individual life and the examples that they live, not by joining organizations and trying in an organizational way to fight this and to fight that. But our life counts more.
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Than anything else I believe that the world observes, and hopefully it is to Christian living that they will see demonstrated. I have a small doubt if somebody can share on Boston 39 but this know that if the master of the house had known in what hour the thief was coming, you would have lost and not have suffered his house to be dug through what I thought was.
Christ would not come.
For the church as thief, it might, it might. This act might take place during the time of tribulation.
I'm right, he's not fit for us, but he's a Brighton and this might take place during the time of tribulations for the Jews.
I don't know.
You're referring to 3939, I see.
Right from the project. The Lord never comes for us as a thief. We await His return, but He will come for those who are not expecting Him. And judgment, Hey, but as far.
To bless.
But as far as the world is concerned, he's going to come as a thief because man little appreciates the fact that every good thing that is enjoyed in this world is enjoyed because of the presence of the Church of God here now.
Suggest a thought, go right in. Well, you've you've tried twice to say something though.
Well, just a quick, quick thought on this. I would suggest that the Lord is presenting the situation here, Speaking of His coming as a thief in the night, because that is the character that He will come to this world as judge and the unbelieving servant.
We'll encounter him in that character because Peter says subsequently, Lord, speakest thou this parable to us or even unto all? Lord, are you talking to us or are you speaking to all? And then the Lord clarifies it and says, Well, who is that faithful and wise servant? The faithful and wise servant will never encounter the Lord as a thief in the night. He will be caught up at the rapture. He is looking for the Lord to come.
He's watching for the Lord in the character that we have in verse 36. But what about the unfaithful servant, the unbelieving servant, the one who takes the place of being the Lord servant, but there's no reality what happens to him? Oh, it says further down.
The Lord of that servant, verse 46, will come in a day when he looketh not for him.
That is, he will encounter the Lord as a judge, He will see the Lord as the Lord will come as a thief in the night. And as our brother says, that comes at the end of the tribulation when he appears to judge this world and to set up his Kingdom. So that the Lord, I believe, answers Peter's question by pointing out that yes, there is such a thing as a faithful servant, but sad to say, there'll be an unfaithful servant and he'll encounter the Lord in that character.
Go ahead, Brother Steve, we want to hear what you have to say, though. I think that's right, Brother Bill, because you get that with the address to the church in Sardis. I'll come upon me as a thief. And even though that's addressed to a church, there's still the possibility that they could meet the Lord in that character, not as the bridegroom. But overall, it's helpful when we go through these chapters in various places in the gospel to see that the Lord's addressing his disciples as such, and the truth that we have that was later brought out in fullness by Paul.
The Lord had not given yet the germs of it in some cases. And so the first verse of the chapter is He began to say unto His disciples, first of all, and He's really not taking up so much a matter of saved and lost as we tend to think of it, but He's taking up the disciples as responsible. Now there's the possibility of having a portion appointed with the unbelievers. There's the end of a course, but if we want to get the good of it, we need to realize that each one of us carry within us in nature.
That is a spring of every wicked thing that's in here, and it's a possibility for us to fall in the same course, though we might never end up.
Having a portion appointed with the unbelievers because we know from other New Testament truth of eternal security. But let's just take this chapter as the Spirit of God intends it as an arrow to the conscience in heart to take us up in our responsibility to remember the judgment seat of Christ is yet before us. And this chapter really is given to us in a certain sense that we might have an evaluation.
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Of all that is in our lives and life, of that evaluation which he is going to make in the coming day.
385 And to him comes to mind, because we don't wait for the Lord Jesus as the Son of Man. We Christians don't wait for him as the Son of Man. He comes for us as the Son of God, you know, and we wait for thee, O Son of God. 325.
For the old son.
Luke 12:31-59
Reading
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All we can do or say.
All those merciful.
Very good 12 or someone has something else?
I.
Simply consent.
Well, that's set.
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OK. I guess there were a number that there are a number that we're not here yesterday. Yesterday in the reading we considered Luke 12 beginning at verse 31 and.
If it's the mind of the brethren to go on with that.
I would suggest perhaps starting at verse 41.
Luke chapter 12, then verse 41. Then Peter said unto him, Lord, speakest thou this parable unto us, or even to all?
And the Lord said, Who then is that faithful and wise steward, whom his Lord shall make ruler over his household, to give them their portion of meat in due season?
Blessed is that servant whom his Lord, when he cometh, shall find so doing. Of a truth I say unto you, that he will make him ruler over all that he has. But an if that servant say in his heart, My Lord delayeth his coming, and shall begin to beat the men, servants, and mates, and maidens, and to eat and drink, and to be drunken. The Lord of that servant will come in a day when he looketh not for him, at an hour when he is not aware, and will cut him in sunder, and will appoint him his portion with the unbelievers.
And that servant which knew his Lords will and prepared not himself, neither did according to his wills. He'll be beaten with many stripes.
But he that knew not, and did commit things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes.
Friend of whomsoever much is given of him shall be much required, and to whom men have committed much of him, they will ask the more.
I have come to send fire on the earth, and what will I? As if he already kindled.
But I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how am I straightened till it be accomplished? Suppose he that I am come to give peace on earth? I tell you nay, but rather division. For from henceforth there shall be five in one house divided, 3 against two, and two against three. The father shall be divided against the son, and the son against the father, the mother against the daughter, and the daughter against the mother, the mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.
And he said often to the people, when you see a cloud rise out of the West straightway, you stay there, come at the shower, and so it is. And when you see the South wind blow, you say there will be heat. And it comes to pass, you hypocrites, you can discern the face of the sky and of the earth, but how is it that you do not discern this time?
Yay, and why even of yourself judging not what is right? But now goest with thine adversary to the magistrate, as thou art in the way. Give diligence that thou mayst be delivered from him, lest he hail thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and the officer caste into prison. I tell thee thou shalt not depart fence to thou hast paid the very last mice.
Was used yesterday that I think might deserve some definition or perhaps some description, and that is the word moral. It was used in the context of Matthew, we have the Kingdom of of heaven, which is dispensational, and Luke the Kingdom of God which is moral.
And there seem to be many definitions of the word moral.
And for those that are interested, I'd recommend looking in the Oxford English Dictionary and you will get.
The fullest definition that's known in the English language.
And I cannot remember all that it says because it goes for at least the page. But one of the thoughts that has struck me is that what what is moral is something that is designed to affect our character, designed to affect our character. And so we use the word as the moral of a story. We also have that.
It is expected to.
Change our behavior.
Or to affect our behavior to a right and virtuous way. So that's two ways of looking at moral, which perhaps applies to the comments yesterday, and perhaps others would have a little more enlightenment on the use of the word moral.
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I think that's very good, brother Bruce, because.
I believe everyone in this room would recognize that God has made man a moral being.
But sad to say, man has tried, through the instrumentality of Satan, to stamp out every bit of moral light in this world and to reduce man, at least in his own estimation, to nothing more than an animal. And he finds, of course, that it doesn't work even in natural things. You cannot address issues of right and wrong. You cannot address issues of character, issues of behavior.
Without coming to the conclusion that man is a moral being, false religions in this world have tried in a sense to do that and have ended up in a hopeless situation where they at on one hand impose standards of behavior and ideas of right and wrong, and yet at the same time, in denying the moral being of man, have made fools out of themselves.
But I suggest that this chapter particularly brings before us that which is very basic, very necessary, as we talked yesterday, having to do with the Kingdom of God, having to do with our behavior as believers.
And if I could, I'd like to lay a little emphasis on a comment that Brother Steve made Brother Steve Stewart made yesterday concerning this chapter.
On the one hand, it is necessary, very necessary as we get in Timothy, to be rightly dividing the word of truth. It is necessary to have a clear understanding of what Scripture means, to keep it in its place, to understand what a verse refers to, its proper interpretation, those for whom it is intended.
But many times in the Word of God, God will put in a passage through the Spirit. The Spirit of God will put in a passage that in its strict interpretation may apply to someone other than ourselves. And yet the moral intent of it is for us. And we get that here in this chapter when it talks, for example, about the unfaithful servant.
The one who says, My Lord, delay of his coming.
Clearly in its final essence it refers to an unbeliever, but does that allow me, you and me to just say, well OK, then I disregard that. It doesn't apply to me. If I read Philippians chapter 3 that was brought before us yesterday and read about those who are enemies of the cross of Christ, whose God is their belly, who mind earthly things, whose end is destruction.
Clearly in its final essence, an unbeliever does that allow me to disregard that and say, well, I don't have to pay attention to that because it isn't written to me. Oh my no. God puts it there because there is a danger of my minding earthly things. God puts this passage here in Luke 12 because there is a danger that you and I can be found saying, My Lord delayeth his coming and we can settle down here. We can eat and drink with the drunken. We can be found beating.
Men, servants and maidservants and acting in a way that is unbecoming. And so I suggest that while it is most important to keep Scripture in its place, yet let us remember that the import of what God has given here through the mouth of our blessed Savior is intended for each one of us and intended to exercise us as to our walk and ways in this world, given the light that we have and given the fact that.
Much has been committed to us.
To say that the point of the stories in the Old Testament is not to know the eternal destiny of souls, but to know what the end of the pathway of life is. And so by consider the character of Absalom Light. I have no doubt that I am not going to see Absalom or Saul in heaven, but I may. There is a grave danger that I may get taken up with the same character of Absalom's or Saul's behavior.
00:15:02
And in naturally my life the same way that they did. And I believe that that's the point. The other thing we need to say about morality is that we sometimes hear the expression that morality is absolute. God alone is absolute. Morality is relative. God is the one who has the right to determine what is right in a relationship. And that is what man rejects. There are many people in this world, even in his own religions, that believe that morality is absolute.
And so you say, well, who did Adam's sons marry? Well, Scripture is silent on this subject, but we know who they married of necessity, if we believe the word of God and God permitted that because God is God and he has a right to say that. And what God may have allowed to go on in the Old Testament, we we cannot use that as a pretext for bad behavior on our side that God bore with that because as our brother Brakish brought out that.
One is far more responsible given the light that he has. And in this passage it is not a question of the eternal destiny of souls so much as a question of the question of what I profess to be and what I the place that I take before God. So the man who's preaching down the street, who denies that Jesus is the Son of God, who calls himself a minister of the gospel and has got pastor on the front of his church, who denies the inerrancy of Scripture and who denies that Jesus is the Son of God, He is going to be judged as a servant.
Not the same way that some Muslim moolah over in Iraq is going to be judged. And so this is really what's being brought out. And a person may be in a place of privilege and responsibility and yet not have life. And so this, these ones here that it's speaking about servants, it's one who takes that place and we're held in responsibility according to the light that we have and the place that we take. And this is something that's generally denied in Christendom because they say, well, he was saved and they divide everybody between the saved and the lost and only responsibility on that basis.
But.
The the Gospels especially take man up based on what he professes, and God will deal with him on that basis. And so the assembly has to take up a man based on what he professes, not just the question about whether he's saved or not. We have to sometimes leave that question aside.
Have to do with what is right and what is wrong, what is good and what is bad. And there's a standard that we have. We're holding it in our hands. I'm just going to read one passage. There are many lists like this in the New Testament, but I'll turn to Galatians 5 and here, the one that establishes the true morals, the things which are moral and acceptable with God contrasted with the things which are immoral.
And not acceptable with God and who sets the standard well in Galatians 5 verse 16. I say then walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh, for the flesh lusteth against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh. And these are contrary the one to the other, so that you should not should read do the things that she would.
But if you be LED of the Spirit, you're not under the law. Now notice here's the list. Now the works of the flesh are manifest. Which are these? Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft.
Hatred.
Variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revelings, and such life. That's not a complete list. He ends by saying in such life of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the Kingdom of God.
That's the sphere that we were talking about yesterday, that God is ruler in that spirit.
And we're subject to Him and he sets the rules. But the fruit of the Spirit, notice it's the works of the flesh contrasted with the fruit of the Spirit. We often misquote that as it says the fruits of the Spirit, doesn't say that. It says the fruit of the Spirit. It's a nine flavored fruit that he's talking about. And when the Spirit of God works in our lives, in our new natures, it produces this fruit, beautiful fruit, the sweetest fruit you'll ever taste. If you could eat this physically.
00:20:22
But this is a moral thing. The fruit of the Spirit is Lovejoy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. Against such there's no law. Now who sets these standards? The Word of God, the Spirit of God who has indicted the Scriptures. Everything the Lord said was given to him by the Father. So when he spoke, the Father was speaking.
When he did a work of a miracle work, it was the Father that he was manifesting. He could say he that sees me sees him that sent me. What do we know of the Father? We know that he's just like his Son and his Son is just like his Father. And the Spirit of God works in US and he indwells every single one of us who's a true believer. So that these moral standards, that which is wrong and that which is right, things that are wrong, we stay away from.
The things that are right, the Spirit of God produces that 9 flavored fruit in each one of us as we walk in the Spirit and not fulfill the lust of the flesh. Now this is just one list. There are many lists in the New Testament that contrast these things. If you throw the Bible out, there is no standard for morality. There's no standard. It's if it's if I like it, I'll do it.
And you can't tell me not to because that's just your opinion, not mine. And there's just nothing to guide us without the word of God. And that's why the our country, your country here is in such a mess. And other countries that don't even know the true God, we at least acknowledge the true God in our country. We have him. He had him in our coinage, in our in our money, in God we trust. But are we subject to him? That's the question.
Something that is moral is something that is in that sphere of the Kingdom of God where God rules and He sets the standards, and we have no right to change those or to counter them by our opinions. Our opinion means nothing in the things of God. We get everything from the Scriptures, and without that, if you don't have your Bible, it's not enough. I was talking to one of the nurses when I was being cared for and had a wonderful opportunity to talk to people.
There. And I said you have a Bible. And she said no, I said you don't have a Bible. You don't.
You're talking to a person that's in the country that everyone you think have a Bible, but it's not enough young people to have a Bible and to put it on a shelf and not read it. I remember when I was lying in bed, I couldn't read my Bible. I couldn't even hold it.
But one thing I could do, we mentioned in this morning, I could pray. And the other thing I could do that I didn't do enough of, I could meditate. And what I learned, the scriptures that I had memorized, the Spirit of God enabled me to draw them forth and.
With tears running down my cheeks.
I medicated on those precious things which are ours. Do you value them?
It's too late when you get my age to do a lot of reading.
Thank God when I was in my 20s I spent hours over this book. I'll never forget it, I'll never reject it. I'll never regret it.
Read your scriptures, meditate upon these things. Give thyself holy to them.
That they profiting me appeared to all.
You'll never regret it. Don't. Don't spend all your extra time playing games and doing all those things that have no eternal value whatsoever. Becomes so familiar with this book and with him, with him. Become familiar with him, the Lord Jesus Christ, and meditate upon him. Ponder his words, ponder his works, ponder his rebukes.
00:25:05
I remember speaking to a Jewish man, an engineer at work, and we were in the screen room. I was testing microphones and I said to him, Do you know why your people rejected the Lord Jesus Christ? I want to read to you, Matthew.
And I read to him those passages where he's speaking to the religious leaders. Ye hypocrites, ye generation of Vipers, how shall ye escape the damnation of hell? The Lord spoke the most serious condemnation words against the religious hypocrites, Ye hypocrites, He called them, and they couldn't stand it. And when I got through, I closed my book and I looked up and his face was beat red. And I said they couldn't stand the truth.
He was the truth and without this book, you don't know the truth. You can't know it because this book is truth and the Spirit of God is the truth, and the Lord Jesus Christ is the truth. And without them, without the word, without the Lord Jesus, without the Spirit, you're just at sea without knowing what's right and what's wrong. It's all a matter of opinion. That's what you think. I think differently and you have no.
Standard.
To guide us, and that's what we mean by something that's moral or immoral.
Let me throw lies what I understood in an individual's life life and the moral claims. When a good looks 16, we see unfaithfully stored and it talks of the individual responsibility towards God, how he can stand straight with God. Then when you go to look 1St Corinthians 5, they just sing in Corinthians.
And when the individual responsibility towards God was filled and it was known to the other believers and how that matter was judged. And when you go back to Matthew 1820, when the judgment was not there. I mean that was it forecast made by Lord when in time to come the assembly would have to judge a decision. And in that way we find that the the the when the matter was.
Went beyond the person responsibility between two people.
If there's anything and her brother has committed, let's take it between two people. And if that brother is still continues, take another witness and when it didn't listen to another brother, also take it to the assembly. And this is something which we can when the man in his personal level fails to be straight with God and it becomes public, then assembly has to come in and it is something to.
Take on or something to give your thoughts on this.
I just mentioned this in connection of the relationship of morality to the law. Every pure heart believes that every word from Genesis to Revelation is the word of God. But there were things that were permissible under the law that now under grace are unthinkable. And you say, well, what do I mean? Well, supposing two brothers in the assembly here, we went out into the forest. I went out with Dave Mearns there to cut down a tree and I got careless and, and through my carelessness, the tree fell on my brother Dave and he.
He died under the law. His family could pursue me and I would have to go to the city of refuge to hide.
And if they caught me before I got there, they could kill me. Well, I believe every conscience in this room tells you that under Christianity that was unthinkable. Under the law, it was permissible for a man to put his way his wife for any uncleanness that he found under found in her. But under the law, but under grace, it's unthinkable. The Lord said to put away your life except for fornication. You've caused her to commit adultery. And the one who marries this innocent one put away, commits adultery by marrying her. So the law, so grace raises the standard, if I may put it this way.
And so it's in relation to God and God alone and our conduct. And so I believe it's important in this chapter when we see that the position in which we are in relationship, in which we are now with God, determines what our conduct ought to be and how God will judge us. And so this one here in this chapter, we should not take the edge off of this and say, well, this wicked servant is going to wind up in hell. Therefore, as our brother said, it has nothing to say to me.
00:30:08
It does have something to say to me, and I may well be like that wicked servant who spends my life beating the men's servants rather than feeding the people of God, Giving the people of God. Meet in due season.
Stewards here to get back to verse 42, We are stewards.
And unfortunately, in the King James Version, the word ruler is used repeatedly in different scriptures. The correct rendering is leader. You know there are leaders even in Christianity and it is our responsibility to recognise them. But here it is not a question.
Of recognizing a ruler, but the Lord speaks to those who are in the lead, and what is their duty.
To rule no, but to give them meat in due season, you know feeding the flock of God is our responsibility and by bringing the scriptures before the Saints and living the scriptures we will lead in the right way. So it is leadership that we have but not.
Rulers.
You know that's not suited for Christianity and following the meek and lowly Jesus.
Clerk of God.
You know, that's a very important question.
Do we bring the truth of God before souls in the power of the Spirit so that they can take it in and it becomes a guide in their life?
Question who? And the Lord turns it around, and he says to Peter, Who? And so this is laid at the feet of every.
Servant of God in the Kingdom. And the Lord doesn't answer Peter's question by detailing exactly who we're saying, Oh no, it's just the 12 or anything. He turns around and he lays it right at our feet and he says who? Who?
Actually, you said it's at the feet of every servant.
I think it's at the feet of everyone who professes to be a servant, whether true or not.
Right, everyone of us.
In a greater or smaller measure. But we're all servants. We have a master.
A couple of us were just looking at Deuteronomy 22 in the intermission, and it might be helpful because we sometimes may wonder how we may be helped to those not only who are not, who are not gathered with us or Christians that we meet or that we know. Just maybe turn to that passage because I believe that there's some very helpful instruction here for each one of us.
Deuteronomy 22.
Thou shalt not see thy brothers ox or his sheep go astray and hide thyself from them. Thou shalt in any case bring them again unto thy brother. And if thy brother be not an eye to thee, or if thou know him not, then thou shalt bring it on to unto thine own house, and it shall be with thee until thy brother seek after it, and thou shalt restore it to him again. And like manner thou shalt do with his ***.
And so shall thou do with his raiment.
And with all lost things, I brothers, which he hath lost, and thou hast found, thou shalt do likewise. Thou mayest not hide thyself. Thou shalt not see thy brothers *** or his ox fall down by the way, and hide thyself from them. Thou shalt surely help him to lift them up again.
Well, you know, you may be at school and you see somebody else in your classroom that's a believer. I don't care whether you're 8 years old or 38 years old and you see somebody and they profess to know the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior. And they're going on with something that is not a good testimony as a Christian. They've they've lost their raiment. They're not acting like a Christian anymore. You're not to hide yourself. And so many a child has sweetly gone home.
00:35:19
From school and prayed for somebody else at school. They maybe don't go up and talk to them, but you take it home and you tie it up. You keep it at home until they come looking for it, you know, because sometimes you're not. You don't even know the person. And if you went up to them and said, well, that's no way for a Christian to act. You know, you may cause real harm. But you can take it home and pray about it. You can tie it up. You can maybe ask the Lord for a little word of Paul prayed for a door of utterance. Maybe they're not close to you. Maybe there's even a brother in the assembly and he's not close to you.
And you couldn't just go over to his house and sit down and talk to him about something. But you see, maybe there's something in his life that he's allowed that's causing real damage. He's lost his ox, his ability to, to, to just plod on for the Lord or his *** is burden bearing. And so you can take that home and tie it up and take care of it. It's working its energy. But you can look after your brother in that way. And so it's not just we, I, I say this because brother Heinz referred to those that take the lead. And that's very good, but he's speaking in the future.
About he'll give them the take the lead, but in the present Stephen and Philip and those others they learn to.
They were put in a place of leadership because they learned to wait on tables. It was a was a difficult task. And so there are many things that we can do that we can see. There's a brother here and a sister at work with into Christian Comedy. And he gave her a little tract and she kind of slept it off and so on.
But you're sometime later she came back and with tears and she said, you know, the custodian here propositioned me because I was always speaking to him in a lighthearted way. And so I believe his efforts and his concern for her. She wasn't gathered with us, but his concern for her had before proved. And so we can help. We can feed the Saints of God in this way and help one another. And I believe that that's what the Lord is really speaking about here that we have a concern as our brother spoke last night and they care for one another, but it does not automatically translate and right away.
Leaving the ox back to the person saying here's your ox back, or here's your *** back or here's your garment back. But it's not to be indifferent or to hide yourself from it. Say well, am I my brother's keeper as our brother reminded us last night?
Two is to be faithful and wise, faithful and and prudent. So a person may be faithful, may be zealous, they may be sincere, but as many have said, they may be sincerely mistaken. So they're the other side is to be prudent, to be wise, to know what is the right course. So our brother Gordon used to remind us of that verse in Romans 15.
Where it says.
And I myself AM.
Also persuaded of you, my brethren.
Romans 15 and verse 14.
I myself also am persuaded of you, my brethren, that ye are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, able also to admonish one another. And.
So when it comes to the aspect of our stewardship in regards to one another.
It's a heart that is full of goodness that you're for me, but it also needs to be according to knowledge, according to the wisdom that's in the word of God. You may love me and care for me deeply and speak to me, but if your thoughts are informed by the word of God, you're the tendency of your words would be in the wrong direction. On the other hand, you may have all wisdom but no love. And then it can be like in Proverbs. There is that speaketh like the piercings of a sword, but the tongue of the wise is health.
And so.
We wash one another's feet, hopefully, graciously, not, as someone said with a fire hose from a distance. So it's beautiful to see that balance. Faithful and wise, faithful and prudent.
That we.
Rightly divide the word of truth. I'm going to read a passage from Deuteronomy 20. Now this is the Old Testament. This applies to Israel. It does not apply to us. When thou goest out to battle against sign enemies, and see his horses and Chariots and the people more than thou, be not afraid of them. For the Lord thy God is with thee, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. And it shall be when ye are come nigh unto the battle, that the priest shall approach and speak unto the people, and she'll say to them, Here, O Israel, you approach this day unto battle against your enemies.
00:40:10
Let not your heart speak, fear not and do not tremble, neither be ye terrified because of them.
The Lord your God is he that goeth with you to fight for you against your enemies, to save you. That could be used today by those that are promoting in the in the political arena and so on, that Christians should go to war against their enemies.
And that's totally contrary to the New Testament and to the Epistles to the Church, period.
You have to rightly divide the word of truth. A passage like this could be misused. So when we say is it according to the word of God, we have to know what dispensation are we talking about? Is it today? Is it Christian truth that we're looking at, or is it something that was given to the Jewish people?
The United States has looked at maybe Canada too, just like the Jews looked at Israel. That was a nation and God stood for them and he went out with them to battle and so on against their enemies that had other gods. But Christianity is entirely different. There's no such thing as a nation on earth today that's Christian, never was. The Christians are everywhere throughout the world. They're members of the body of Christ. And it's, it's an entirely different dispensation where we are. So we have to.
In order to to know how we are to act morally in this present day, like the 10 commandments says thou shalt not kill. But here in Deuteronomy 20 the Israelites were to kill their enemies. So you have to rightly divide the word of truth so you know how to apply it properly. But moral things that we have in the New Testament do we get lists all through the New Testament what is right and what is wrong according for a Christian?
That's what we go by. The weapons of our warfare are not carnal is a statement from the New Testament. We have weapons and we are involved in a war, but it is a spiritual conflict and the weapon of our warfare are not carnal. It's this book, you know, and the word of God that we can use. And many people have been won by love.
You know when there was hatred and animosity demonstrated or wrong being done.
And there was a Christian attitude and spirit manifested. People were one. And that is still a possibility today. You know, it's easier to say than to do, you know. But that is nevertheless what the Word of God admonishes us as Christians. You know, we should love our enemies, and we overcome evil, supposedly with good.
Look at the Old Testament. They had many, many wives. Abraham.
Isaac, Jacob.
Solomon, David, we don't have that today. It's it's unscriptural. That's not biblical in the in the Christian dispensation where we're living, that's wrong. So they can go back to the old and apply that and say, well, they had it, they could do it. How come we can't because the dispensation has changed if we don't.
See, that will not be rightly dividing the word of truth. We'll be using Scripture against itself to prove our point. So it's just a word of caution.
As to what is right and what is wrong, we have to know where we are in the dispensation of God. How many, How many brides does the Lord Jesus have?
What the church, you know, Rich, we have an opportunity.
To give a demonstration of what is perfectly true of Christ and the church lost the husbands love your wives as Christ loved the church. We husbands do well to remember that and bring that scripture to our mind. We need it, do we not? We need to be reminded that we should love our wives as Christ loved the church. Now even wife, let me just add this. Then you go ahead. In the Old Testament, Israel was the right.
Uh-huh. Jerusalem and New Testament. It's the church, the body of Christ. So even there that you have two brides, but we're not living in a dispensation where two brides are acceptable. Go ahead. Only one. Yeah. So how? Testament in connection with Israel. Everything in connection with Israel with a picture.
00:45:12
In the Old Testament we have pictures or illustrations as whatever in the New Testament, and so we have in connection with Israel. That's not an eternal relationship between.
God and his, the bride of Israel. It's just a picture.
That we can see in the Old Testament. Christ doesn't have two brides. It's a picture that we see in the Old Testament. I have a picture of my wife and I say that's my bride. And you say, well, you have two brides, your bride sitting next to you and the bride sitting on your bedside table at home. It's a picture, an illustration that we have in the Old Testament of the news. I believe that's important because we have illustrations of truth in the Old Testament that we can take up. They were not revealed and we can see.
What God's intentions are like, you have instructions for something and we get the dispensation, we get the instruction in the New Testament, and then we get illustrations of it in the old.
You shouldn't confuse the two.
Even in the in the old, the Song of Solomon often is preached, is talked on as though the bride there is the church. That's wrong. The bride is Jerusalem, the bride is Israel, and the bride is not in a known, established relationship with the bridegroom. We are.
We are completely different.
Our relationship and and the bride in the Song of Solomon.
But the relationship of pride is still mentioned in Revelation, right? The Lamb's pride. In other words, the honeymoon is never going to be over, spiritually speaking. It will be like the first love, you know. Unfortunately, in our married life, sometimes the honeymoon is over, you know? But that is not going to be the case.
With Christ and the Church there will always be that first love for all eternity in that ought to be wonderful to be with all the Saints that are the bride of Christ together from all countries, whether they're from Bhutan. You know, we will all be together and we will all be with the Lord Jesus like him forever in the Father's house. Wonderful future that we have.
You know our home is in heaven. Our home is not here. We often sing. You know we have trials here. But then there will be perfect happiness and contentment for all eternity. It's not just a short time. It lasts on forever and ever and ever.
Let me give one third on the things going on now. If you see Matthew 25, we see both Jews and Gentiles brought in and they say he Lord is coming for the church and both. It also gives a a picture of the full denomination like shaped Christians and nominals. But at the same time I fully agree that the Judaism and the Christianity are different.
And and it is a new, the Christianity is a new thing is who is the brighter prospect for the salvation and it's something to go about. But when I talk again of the moral responsibility, I take it more responsibly towards God, towards the Lord and as well as immoral responsibility towards the assembly, because the God raises leaders in each assembly as well as he gives gives to the assembly who are by assembly. It's built up.
Edified and this is something to think about the Judaism as well as Christianity and the ghosts loving care for the assembly.
Helpful just from Israel as the bride of Jehovah and the church is the bride of the Son of God. And that helps to distinguish a little because really when Israel is taken up as a bride, it's it's not to the Son of God, it's really to Jehovah.
To well to remember the Assembly is not a democratic system.
There are those who lead and those who are let.
In the Apostolic days, the apostles would appoint appoint elders, overseers, those who took the spiritual lead, you know, and even morally.
00:50:00
We don't have Apostolic authority, but doesn't mean we don't have those who are elders or serve in the capacity of elders and leaders. Yes, we have them. The Holy Spirit appoints them. That is our responsibility to recognise them.
And how can we recognize them?
If they have the love of the Saints, characterize them, if they have them on their hearts, that is the surest way of finding out who they are that the Lord has put among us in the lead, you know, in the position of responsibility. We are not a democratic system. So let's accept God's order in the assembly, you know, and there are those who lead and those who are left, and hopefully those who lead.
Will be leading according to the principles of the word of God. Unfortunately, sometimes people have misled the Saints of God and sometimes those most gifted have been most guilty. You know, the people follow them and it's very responsible to be in a position of leadership and then leading a right and not to mislead or lead the Saints astray. That has happened.
Sometimes people do that and then they want to come back as if everything was like it was before. What about this mistake, this error, misleading the Saints and causing and having part in a division that needs to be judged, you know, and then the Lord can use these very people that have been wrong and through their humbling experiences, perhaps they might be better qualified and used.
Humility in leading amongst the Saints. So we have those that lead and those who are left and we can recognize who they are and we do well to accept God's order and not go by the democratic system. We are not all speaking with the same voice in the assembly and it's especially the local assembly where you have oversight. There is no overseer beyond the local assembly.
That's a local responsibility. That does not mean that somebody can come to an assembly.
Where there is a problem, may it be doctrinally or whatever, and the Saints, local Saints, might not exactly know how to handle it and what the position scripturally is. And then they can ask a brother or two, as it has happened in the past, what is the Scripture that guides us in this kind of a situation. And the brethren can tell them what the Scripture teaches, but then they have to tell them that isn't for us.
To make the decisions for you, you have to make the decisions. And whatever decision you make, we accept, you know, Mr. Darby said. We accept the decision of the assembly, right or wrong. If it is wrong, trust that the Lord will correct it. You know, I'm not suggesting that wrong decisions should not be corrected. The Lord will see to it that it will be corrected, but we have to accept the fact.
There is an order in the assembly that God has established. Although there aren't official elders, official leaders, but there are those who lead and those who are in the position of elders unofficially.
Important that I recognize that I submit myself through these and it's submission on my part that recognizes those who have the lead over me and those who have the lead over me. It may be not in AIDS so much, but in in in moral ways. And it may be somebody who is younger than me that I recognize that has moral weight in the things of God. And when he brings things my attention, it's my responsibility to submit to that.
And this is what he peaked in the assembly and this is what God's order is all about. And so I believe it's important to remember that that we submit ourselves one to another. We're told in in Peter chapter 5 where we're told to take the the lead and that's not taking it because of so that we will have some something of importance. But we feel that.
There should be that thought and each heart, especially of the brothers, that there is a need amongst the Saints of God for to to feed the Saints of God. And so it should be our responsibility, regardless of what our age is, to take that lead to feed the Saints of God. And then it's my responsibility to submit myself to those who do. That's why it brings that out in that same chapter that we are to take the lead, but then we are to submit everyone to one another.
00:55:30
And that is what what I say that is what keeps peace and unity in the Assembly of God. I'd just like to point out that what we have here is future about the making him leader over a leader over all he has. Let's read the 43rd verse.
Blessed is that servant who when his Lord cometh, when he cometh, shall find him so doing. Of a truth I say unto you that he will make him. He will make him a ruler over all that he has. And so I believe that the emphasis is now more on the president. I'm not don't want to take away anything that was said about bleeding, but there are many young people here and you want to be a help.
And we certainly see what has been said is that Steven earned a good degree by the way in which he conducted himself in waiting on the tables. It was a difficult thing. And anybody who's tried to help the Saints, they know that they're going to run into trouble. People don't like how this is done or that is done. And it takes the edge off our personalities as we just learned to quietly serve the Saints. But you see friends at school and you see people and, and I say it starts when you're 8 years old and you're going to school and you're seeing another Christian going on with something that they shouldn't be or you think that they don't know something that might be a help to them as a Christian and you want to help.
This is what he's speaking about it giving meat and due season. And then the future consequences of that is that the Lord's going to make him a leader, as has been pointed out overall that he has.
But I just like to turn back to a verse while our brother Bruce was speaking about wisdom, and I believe it's helpful in Romans here, Romans 15.
And.
I believe this illustrates the point of wisdom that we often lack when we're young.
Sometimes you're ready to take pick up the sword and chase somebody with a sword, and other times you're trying to encourage somebody and they need the sword. If I can put it that way, and I'm going to just read these verses. We then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the Romans 15 verse one. We then that are strong out to bear the infirmities of the weak and not to please ourselves that everyone please his neighbor for his goodification for even Christ please not himself, but as it is written, the reproaches of them that reproach.
Thee fell on me.
That is a quotation from the 69th Psalm. Let's just go back there and look at it, and I believe we're going to get some wisdom as we do as we see this, because this verse is quoted 2 Times in the New Testament.
69th Psalm in the ninth verse.
The zeal of mine house hath eaten me up.
The reproaches of them, that reproach thee, are falling upon me.
So here you find this first quoted in the Old Testament. Many a young man has said the zeal of God's house eating them up, And you see that quoted in connection with the Lord, when he overturned the money changer's tables. They remembered the Psalm, and they said, The deal of thine house hath beaten me up. The very same verse is used in the word of God to say, We then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of them that are weak.
One case that calls for patience and going on with the people of God and the other time it calls for overturning a money changers table. And we're not always wise and especially when we're younger, we're not always wise.
As to those things. And so we are going to get that wisdom by turning to the Word of God. But the encouragement here is as to the future is that in the present that we might feed the people of God, strengthen the people of God. And I say it starts with the children. When they're a little child, 7 or even three or four, they get saved and they see their brother and they maybe see their brother, their sister doing something that's not pleasing to the Lord.
And you can be a help to them by tying that up at home, taking care of that, praying about it, maybe giving them a little verse of Scripture. The Lord will give you wisdom as to what to do. And as you grow up, you'll give you more and more wisdom. And that's what the Lord is trying to encourage here in this passage.
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A little with Romans 15 with verse four. For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hoped. Now the God of patience and consolation granted to be like minded one toward another, according to Christ Jesus, that Jimmy with one mind and one note, glorify God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
I think we should not just keep referring to those who are younger who need these things.
Verse 7 Wherefore receive ye one another, as Christ also received us to the glory of God.
I think those of us who are older sometimes need to learn from those who are younger. I don't think anyone of us can hold up our heads as examples. I think we need to.
Remember and think a little of what has happened amongst us. We've spoken of leaders and so on, but I think there's a much more precious formula found in these verses to submit.
One to another.
To the point where we could with one mind and one mouth glorify God. And often those who are younger are more of an example of these things than perhaps those of us who are older. When we take the scriptures in the Old Testament, especially in referring to verse four, may we have an exercise that it would be for patients comfort and hope and not.
To impose things on each other or take positions of.
Leadership that are perhaps beyond what's necessary, but maybe you learn to submit to each other so that we can glorify God together. I'd like to add to that an incident that happened some years back out East in an assembly. There are two businessmen that had odds with each other and one accused the other one of stealing and.
The assembly looked into it and they they disciplined one of the two, the one that had been accused, and some came to him and said, we know that you're innocent. We know you're not guilty of this and we'll stand for you. And he said, no, you won't. You just leave it with the Lord and he'll take care of it. He knew that he was innocent and the other one knew that he was guilty. But it just sat that way. The assembly had.
Dealt with the wrong person, misinformation, whatever it was, and the one did not allow any to rally themselves around him and to correct it. A year later, the one that was really guilty of the crime came forward and said I'm the guilty one. And the assembly corrected the mistake they had made and received back the one that they had put away and put away the real guilty one. But the importance in that story is the one that was unjustly treated.
Accepted it.
Bowed to it, knowing that he was not guilty, but he left it with the Lord to correct it. And he did. And that's the spirit of Christ. And not to champion your cause by gathering a party around you and then splitting the assembly up. I can't think of a sin that one could commit that is more serious than dividing the Church of God.
I like to read some verses first in First Thessalonians chapter 5.
Verse 12.
And we beseech you, brethren, to know them, or to recognize them which labour among you, and are over you in the Lord, and admonish you. In this democratic land where we live, the democracy tends to slip into the assembly, but it goes on. And to esteem them very highly in love for your work's sake, and be at peace.
Among yourself now, we exhort you, brethren, warn them that are unruly. Comfort to feeble minded, support the weak, be patient towards all.
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And then in Hebrews chapter 13.
Verse.
17.
Obey them that have to rule over you, or that take the lead among you and submit yourselves. For they watch over your souls, as they that must give account that they may do it with joy and not with greed, for that is unprofitable for you. So this is what the scripture teaches, and it's always good.
To go by the scriptures and the danger is in our society that majority rule is going to be applied, the democratic principle. Just be careful. The Lord appoints those that lead and qualifies them and it is our responsibility to recognise them and to submit.
To such people, by doing so, we are submitting to the Lord's order in the church.
Majority is often wrong. Yes, very much so. I believe we need to look at the realization that he is the shepherd, the chief shepherd, and sets the example for that. As our brother Ken referred to Ephesians 5. There needs to be that feeding of the flock and we have made reference to the Old Testament and I believe it gives us some good instructions in that connection. I just like to read a couple of verses because we need to see that tenderness.
In the heart of a shepherd who takes the lambs in his arm. Let's just read a couple of verses in Isaiah 40.
Verse 10. Behold the Lord God will come with strong hand in, and his arm shall rule for him. Behold, his rewardeth with him, and his work before him. He shall feed his flock like a shepherd. He shall gather the lambs with his arm and carry them in his bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young. This is the Good Shepherd, the character of the Good Shepherd.
We, if we're older, if the Lord has given any leadership to us, are we doing that? Are we bringing along those that are younger? Are we reaching out to those that may not understand? It's true that maybe we apply some of these things to those that are young and forget that we are older need them too. But I say this because there is there's a need for their sheltering, the carrying of some of those who are young.
Then we read in Ezekiel 34.
And verse Yeah, Ezekiel 34.
Verse 15 I will feed my flock and I will cause them to lie down, sayeth the Lord. I will seek that which was lost and so on. There are so many references to the comfort, the strength, and the encouragement, and surely that has to be the first thing. And if that is in place, the chances are some of those other things that are distasteful. Necessary perhaps, but distasteful may not have to be so. I say that to my own heart and to the heart of any of us who are getting a little older.
What kind of characteristics are we displaying in the leadership of the little lambs? Are they being fed or are we? Are we stacking the hay so high that they can't feed? So have we not a special responsibility, as we see so many young lambs in our midst here today, to feed them and to bring that good word before them, as has been done this morning? I'd like to read the first verses of Ezekiel 34. Very serious.
The word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Son of Man, prophecy against the shepherds of Israel.
Prophecy, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God unto the shepherds, Woe be to the shepherds of Israel that do feed themselves. Should not the shepherds feed the flocks? You eat the fat, and you clothe you with the wool. You kill them that are fed, but you feed not the flock the diseased. Have you not strengthened, Neither have you healed that which was sick, neither have you bound up that which was broken, neither have you brought again that which was driven away, neither have you sought that which was lost. But with force and with cruelty have you ruled them, and they were scattered, because there's no shepherd.
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And they became meat to all the beasts of the field when they were scattered. Because that's enough to read, but it's enough to make you shiver when you think that those that are in that place of responsibility were like this. And it was the shepherds of Israel. It was the leaders that put the blessed Lord on that cross and would do away with Him. They were the guilty ones. So you read Jeremiah 23 and Ezekiel 34 and to keep everything balanced properly.
Well, it's enough.
We might not be shepherds, we might say, well, I'm not shepherd, I don't have the gift of a shepherd. And that is certainly true of many of us, but that doesn't mean that we cannot have a shepherd's heart. You know, I think you can have a shepherd's heart without having the gift of a shepherd. So what is needed amongst the gathered Saints, more than any other gift, is the gift of the shepherd.
You know, of course he will feed the flock, He will bring the truth of God before them. But it's the shepherds that we need. And they are especially needed in the local assembly. And the gift of the shepherd is not just local, it is for the body at large. But hopefully there will be in the local assembly those that will have an exercise to shepherd the flock of God.
Why did so many of these assemblies disappear that at one time were flourishing assemblies? I believe the main reason is that perhaps they were lacking in shepherd care. And so this is speaking to my own heart and conscience and to all of our hearts and consciences that are in a position of responsibility in the local assembly. You might say I'm not a shepherd.
Yes, you might be true in saying so, but you can have a shepherd's heart. I believe it's important.
Peter 5 again, that is the plot. It is the flock of God, it's God's assembly, it's God's people. And diatrophies did not have the sense of that in his soul, and so he tried to put out of the assembly. 31 He doesn't have the heart of a shepherd.
And he lost sight of the fact that it was God's flock, God's chief. And and it's not mine. It's not, we're told in Peter there. It's not for filthy Lucas sake and it's not for being Lords over God's heritage because it's God's assembly. And so I, I think it's important to remember to our brother Bruce brought before us in in Romans 15 those qualifications of a pastor.
If you want to know what a pastor is like, those are the qualifications right there. We'll read them again, full of goodness.
And we have that is that our our desire to be good to the Saints of God for Christ sake and the other is filled with all knowledge and we spent time over the word of God. Are we qualified in any way to not only feed our own souls, but the the the souls of the Saints of God, even if it's in a little measure. Young people can qualify in a sense to help their Phil they can they can point out that which is wrong as it has been mentioned.
Your same stuff someone who glotted their garments. You can point these things out. You're not walking as a Christian. OK, so there's there's one of the qualifications someone has mentioned. Get start can start when you're 8 years old and then it says able to admonish one another. Can we just gently and quietly say that's not right brother?
Maybe you could read in Ephesians 4.
I'd just like to get back a little to the thought of the Lord's heart.
Peter Five was referenced.
And Peter brings before us that great shepherd of the sheep, and he's going to return, and He's going to give a reward for faithfulness and connection with that shepherding we had in our chapter earlier that our treasures in heaven. But where's the Lord's treasure and where's His heart? Our hearts are to be in heaven, but His heart's down here because His treasure is here. It's the occupation of His heart. And in Ephesians 4, where we get the body taken up, that's not Luke 12.
That's a household and servants, but in Ephesians four were the bodies taken up. The head has given gifts to the church, and verse 12 for the perfecting of the Saints. And it should be translated with a view to the ministry, with a view to the edifying of the body of Christ, and whether the ministry fails or whether the testimony fails. His unceasing object is the perfecting of his Saints. And so he lays before Peter when he asks this question.
01:15:30
He says, who is that faithful and wise servant who is going to take up that which I am occupied with down here, my household, and feed them and perfect them? That's where my heart is. And when I come back, I'm going to give a reward to those whose hearts have been knit with mine. And the only way that can be is if our heart and our treasure is in heaven and our occupation is with him. And the more we're occupied with him, the more we're going to be occupied and serious about His interest down here where his heart is.
And he's going to give a reward for that. But that's also how we're kept in that service is occupation with him. And remembering he's going to return. He's going to return as taken up as a shepherd, the great shepherd of the sheep. He's going to return as chief shepherd and give a reward to those who have been faithfully occupied about his business while he was absent.
Because my heart had turned to Ephesians 4 as we spoke of pastors. Pastors, teachers is a hyphenated thing.
And it's very important because very many times we want to help, but you can't help unless you're ready to get into the Word of God and be sound as to your teaching. And I believe this goes back to what our brother Bruce was saying. We're never going to get the wisdom of how to help, how to pass to the people of God unless we did. What Brother Chuck said was get into reading the Word of God and reading the ministry and being instructed. Nothing is worse than somebody getting involved in something, however well meaning they are.
And are uninstructed or uninstructible in the things of God. And so the time is, as our brother Chuck told us, when you're younger and your mind is eager and questions are coming before you to get into the Word of God and see what the Word of God and the ministry, valuable ministry is to read that so that you're equipped to do what your heart wants to do. And that's helped the people of God.
As we go on in our chapter, there's a very solemn thing here in connection with this.
It says.
Romans 8:1-30
Reading
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Everything.
To the fall.
Center.
Way.
Of thee.
And Luke's gospel. We have the servant's place brought before us, and the prodigal When he returned, he said, make me as one of thine hired servants. The passage goes on to the judgment, the beating with stripes of the unfaithful servant. But I wondered if you read in Romans 8 if we couldn't go be there so many young people here to spend some time in Romans chapter 8 to see what is the proper Christian position.
He spoke of the pathway, and it's we have in Romans 8 as many as are the sons of God. They are led by the Spirit of God.
And if it wouldn't be helpful for us to to take up this passage?
For the young and our those of us that are older as well, to have a look at this, but I it's just a suggestion given your the fact that you left the door open to go on to something else.
That's a good suggestion.
We might get beyond that, but we could.
Chapter 8.
There's therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not out to the flex without the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.
For what the law could not do, and that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sins condensed sin in the flesh.
In the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in US, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
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For they that are after the flesh remind the thing of the flesh, but they that are after the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.
For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace, because the carnal mind is enmity against God, where it is not subject to the law of God either in these tangents. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God, but ye are not in the flesh, but in the spirit. If so be that the Spirit of God dwelling.
Now if any man have not saved Christ, he is none of his. And if Christ be in you.
The body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is light because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead, dwelling you, he that raised up Christ from the dead, shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his spirit that dwells in you.
Therefore, brethren, we are debtors not to the flesh, to live after the flesh.
Where if you live after the flesh, you still die, but if you through the Spirit you mortify the deeds of the body, you shall live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For you have not received the Spirit of ******* again through fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry ABBA, Father.
The Spirit itself, and star Spirit, that we are the children of God, And if children, then heirs, heirs of God, and joint heirs of Christ. If so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.
For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed enough.
For the earnest expectation of the creature waited for the manifestation of the sons of God. For the creature was made subjects of anarchy, not willingly by reason that you have subjected the same in hope, because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the ******* of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.
For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth and paid together until now.
And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the first fruits of the Spirit.
Even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body. For we are saved by hope. But hope that is seen as not hope For what a man seeth, why does he yet hope for? But if we hope for that we see not, then we do, Then we then do we, with patience, wait for it.
Likewise, the Spirit also help with our infirmities. For we know not what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.
And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the Saints according to the will of God.
And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God to them who are the called according to his purpose, for whom he did for know He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the first born among many brethren.
Moreover, whom he did predestinate, them he also called, and whom he called them he also justified, and whom he justified, them he also glorified.
What shall we say then to these things? If God before us, who can be against us? He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?
Making a comment, Neil, I didn't say anything because I wanted to hear what others say, but we have pretty well covered what I had on my heart in Luke's Gospel chapter 12. So yes, that's.
That's just fine if we go on to something else.
See to realize that no matter what you look like or what you act like.
What Your standing is before God. And every Christian exhortation is based on where you are before God. You're standing before God.
And.
These, those exhortations, are because we've been placed before God in an entirely new standing.
And the same is true of the condition of the world before us. In Romans, we find the guilt of those that had the law and did not obey the law, and we have the guilt of those that didn't have the law but knew in their conscience what they were doing was wrong and had the evidence and refusing to retain God in their knowledge. But we have the gospel, and it's a wonderful gospel that we have to take to the world because God has been propitiated. And that's a big $10 word. But what does it mean?
It means that God looks down on this and He's satisfied, but He's satisfied because of what Christ has done.
And so we can say to the Sinner that God has been satisfied, and you can come to Christ and find a full and a free salvation. And God has been satisfied, and He places you. No matter what is going on in your life, If you truly belong to Christ, He's placed you on a perfect standing before God.
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And he wants you to live your life. He wants me to live my life in a way that reflects that.
I'm just going to use an illustration before we come to this chapter because I believe in the preaching of the gospel. It's so important that men understand that God is not in any way sacrificed his righteousness, but he's left away open that he can be satisfied. Our brother Chuck referred to his house and suppose he said, Neil, you can come and live in that house and I carry on very badly and I trash that house and I behave wildly And all the neighbors said, what kind of a fool is Mr. Hendricks that he would let a character like that live in his house?
And that is what the way man speaks of God.
And supposing the house gets to a condition, the building inspector comes to say, the only solution for this house is it to be condemned. But then, you know, somebody from far away comes and they sell everything that they have to rebuild that house. He has been satisfied, they say, look at what kind of friends he has that they would do. That doesn't let me off the hook. I'm still the one who trashed his house, doesn't let me off the guilt, but it lays A righteous basis whereby he can say, Neil, I forgive you for what you do if I come and repentance, and we can say that to sinners, but it doesn't let me off the hook until I come and beg his forgiveness for art to to take my guilt before him for what he's done.
But God, who has been dishonored in this world, has been honored by what Christ has done, and there's a righteous basis left so that the whole creation, which now groans and travails, can look for the manifestation of the sons of God. But here in Romans we have the proper in this 8th chapter we have the proper standing, in which the believer is now placed before God because of the work of Christ.
What is important is to understand that Romans 8 follows what is taught in Chapter 7.
In Chapter 7, you have defeat, you have failure. Why?
Because the believer is seen in the new nature.
The new nature gives us desires after God, but doesn't give us the power.
To do what we desire, and that's what we have in Romans 8. The power to do what is pleasing to God and what the nature delights in is the indwelling Spirit.
You know, so you have in Romans 7 defeat because the believer is seen in the new nature.
But as Christians, we have more than new birth. People say are you a born again Christian? If you don't have more than new birth, you're not a Christian.
The Old Testament Saints were born again.
But they weren't Christians. What makes us Christians and different from any St. that ever lived before the day of Pentecost is that the Spirit dwells in us, that our body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. And that's why we have the power to live pleasing to God and to do that which the divine nature delights in. That's the secret of Christianity and that makes us Christians.
That the spirit dwells in us. If you don't have the Spirit dwelling in you, you're not even a Christian. It is possible even today that a soul is born again. There might be a time between new birth and sealing of the spirit, you know, I think if I remember correct, Mr. Darby says of himself that he was in that state for seven years, you know, but you become a Christian.
You couldn't be a Christian without first being born again, because the spirit doesn't seal a Sinner. He seals one who is born again.
And the Spirit comes then to indwell our body, and that gives us the power to do what the divine nature delights in. In Romans 8 teaches that side of things, it's the power of the Spirit of God that makes the difference. The experience of Romans 7 is a man under law, quickened or burned. Again same thing, but not sealed. And he says in verse 22 of Romans 7.
I delight in the law of God after the inward man. That's the new nature.
But I see another law on my members, warring against the law of my mind and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.
That's the flesh that's doing that, he says, oh, wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death or this body of death? And then he finds deliverance in Christ. He'd been looking for strength within, which doesn't that. We don't get that without the Spirit of God. He's not mentioned once in Romans 7. The Spirit. He's mentioned 18 times in Romans 8I thank God, he says.
00:15:27
Deliverance comes this way. I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. That's where I get deliverance.
So then, with the mind.
I serve the law of God. That's the new nature. He agrees with it, but he doesn't find the power to carry it out. But with the flesh, the law said, And then we have Christianity. There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus. I believe that's where that verse should stop. The last part of it goes correctly with verse four, that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit.
But in verse one, it's just our being in Christ. I was asked just recently with the Old Testament Saints in Christ. I said no, there was no Christ to be in. In the Old Testament, being in Christ means to be in Christ's place before God. And he he wasn't in that place until he became a man and then died and rose again and ascended to the right hand of God. To be in Christ is to be in Christ where he is in his place before God. That's the way God sees us. He sees us in Christ.
And there was number such thing in the Old Testament. They were quickened, yes, or born again. But now we are not only that, we have that, of course, but we are sealed by the Spirit, quickened, anointed, energized.
We have all our blessings by the Spirit of God 18 times mentioned in Romans 8. What a wonderful chapter just to remove any confusion, and I don't think there is any. But is stealing something we have to pray for? When is a person sealed? After that you believe the gospel of your salvation. You were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise.
And so when that little girl gets down in her bed at night and confesses the Lord Jesus Christ as her savior, she's sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise. And when she comes down to her mother the next morning and she says, Mommy, I accepted Jesus as my savior, last night, she shows the evidence that she's been sealed. She didn't ask for the ceiling when she believed the gospel of her salvation. Whether you're 8 years old or 98 years old, when you do it, you're sealed with the Spirit of God. Now, when we speak of those not to take too much time.
But there are two examples, I believe in scripture of those that were quickened and yet did not have life. Zacchaeus went to the Lord, and I didn't understand what Mr. Darby said. And I preached otherwise and.
He kind of dismissed what I preached as being a bit of fanciful thinking, and I found out he was right and I was wrong. But anyways, Zacchaeus, he came to the Lord and he said to half of my goods I give to the poor, and if I've taken anything, I restored fourfold. He was doing that before the Lord ever came along. It didn't satisfy his heart.
Cornelius, He gave much alms to the people, and his prayers went up to God. It didn't satisfy his heart. He needed to be saved. So the Lord sent along a servant, Peter, to preach the gospel to Peter, and he told Cornelius all the things he knew. He said, you know that Jesus came going about doing good, preaching, peace, these things. You know, Cornelius? But he said, I'm going to tell you something that you don't know, that Jesus was crucified and raised and that we can preach the forgiveness of sins by that man. And when Cornelius heard that, he was immediately sealed by the Spirit of God.
Faith is the hurt. That's good. Faith in the person of Christ gives life or quickens. Faith in the work of Christ brings peace to the soul. You can't have peace until you see the value of his work, where he bore our sins in his body on the tree. So that's salvation and that's what we have. It's not just being quickened, but it's quickening and then sealing by the spirit of God.
The Old Testament Saints are not in Christ. I Thessalonians 4 says the dead in Christ shall rise first. The Old Testament Saints rise then.
Rise at the same time. But that's that doesn't mean that they were in Christ.
And she addresses Christians.
And he gives the hope of the Christian the death in Christ. In First Corinthians 15 he says all that are Christ that is coming.
00:20:03
That refers to all the Saints that died in faith. 1St Corinthians 15 gives that side, while Thessalonians refers to the Christians portion. Those who are Christ's at his coming, you know he comforts the Christians they had.
Some passed away, and they were troubled about that. And so he says, the dead in Christ shall be raised first. But in First Corinthians 15 he refers to all that belong to the Lord Jesus. The work of the Lord Jesus has not only made us his. All Saints that died in faith became his through the work of Calvary's cross. That's excellent. The dead in Christ are those that die in this present day of grace, and then they'll be raised.
But those who are Christ said it's coming are all the Saints from Adam onwards.
That time when when our bodies will be the time of our the redemption of our bodies. And that is that what is referred to in Ephesians 430, where it says, Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.
The day of redemption, that is that time that we've been Speaking of, correct?
So someone.
A young sister that.
That my wife and I took in when she was put out of her home for coming to meeting.
Some years ago.
Called me recently.
And apologized or tried to explain that recently she has begun to question some some things that we had told her that she just accepted. And one of the things that she had begun to question was eternal security.
Not in a perhaps real deep way.
But she said after she asked me about that the following week from two or three different sources, she heard that verse was mentioned in Ephesians chapter one.
113.
Ye were in whom in whom ye also trusted. After that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, in whom also after that ye believed, you were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise.
Well, that is the beginning of the ceiling. When you believe that is when you're sealed.
And then I told her that ceiling lasts until the day of redemption that's in Chapter 4. So you could read these two together and say whereby.
You were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, and turn over and read sealed unto the day of redemption.
So that's it. No one can open that seal. That's it. When you believe your seal, that seal will not be broken until the day of redemption.
That is put upon the believer.
To seal that man belongs to me. That's the seal you know. But it only speaks and shows there is more coming, you know, It's just like a down payment.
And assuring future blessing the fullness.
Will come when we are brought into full conformity to Christ. The redemption of our body is future, you know. We have the present redemption of our souls and we are saved in our daily walk with him. And salvation is seen as that which will take in the future take place in the future. When we brought into full conformity to Christ, well, we have something to look forward to, brethren.
And as we get older, we're looking forward to that more than when we were younger. Is that right? We're looking forward to that because we realized that body is not what it used to be, you know? But the day is going to come when we get a new body, when we will be brought into full conformity to Christ. How is that body? How can we know what that body is going to be like?
Look at the Lord Jesus in resurrection like unto his body of glory that refers the body that he had when he appeared.
To his own in resurrection, he had a natural body, you know, a normal body, a physical body, I should say. And he could eat.
Have you anything to eat? But he didn't need to eat to sustain that life, you know, so how wonderful we will be like the Lord Jesus as we see him in resurrection. And there's not going to be any possibility of ever dying again, you know, just like he cannot die again.
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You know, we will be like him and with him forever and with all the Saints. Looking forward to seeing my mother, my father, my son, you know, all those who have gone before, those who have taught us much truth, and they are gone, We'll see them again. I'm looking for more than forward, more than anything, to see the Lord Jesus, but I'm certainly looking forward to seeing Gordon and others that have taught us much truth, and they're already there.
They got promoted ahead of us.
But that's our future. To be with and like him, and to see him face to face. Shall I? Shall we go to 1St Thessalonians Chapter 4?
Sir, for First Thessalonians, Chapter 4.
Verse 16, I'd just like to comment to Ruben Roger's questions, That's all.
For the Lord himself with an assembling shout with an.
Voice and with trump of God shall descend from heaven, and the dead in Christ shall rise possible, although in the Old Testament they were not Christians.
But when the Lord comes for the charge, he comes with two boys, one with his lost own voice. 1 voice. Because Old Testament says they do not recognize the voice of the Lord, they recognize the voice of the angels. So Lord's own voice.
Lost own voice for the Old Testament science voice of the astrangel and for the New Testament sense. He gives his own voice and they are raised up that what picture we get from this because in the Old Testament although the spirit of the Lord was there but they do not recognize the voice of Christ. They want to recognize the angels and in the New Testament weaving bride.
Choice being bride, we understand his voice. We recognize his voice. So there are two voices.
Lord's own voice in different stones.
I don't know if that's correct.
About Romans 7, It is not Christian experience, but it may be the experience of many Christians.
And so if I look within.
If I look within myself for good, I'm not going to find it. And that's why we're led to Romans chapter 8 and we may have to go through that experience as Christian and I may try and try and try, and all my best efforts fall flat in their face.
But really, the blessedness of Christianity starts with Christ in glory, a man in Christ as we've had before us. And so there is now therefore no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus. That's our standing before God.
And there's a power to that life, as our brother Heinz has been bringing before us, and the scriptures here bring before us, is there's a spirit of God. That is the power of that life. So the Lord said they were sorrowing that the Lord was going again. He said I will come again. In John's Gospel, he's not referring to the Rapture there, but he was going to come as the Spirit of God. He's going to be in US and with us forever.
We are going to the power of the Spirit of God is going to be with us in heaven to cause us to enjoy heaven.
But we have that now.
That's why he says, why is though living on earth? Why is though living in the world, you say, Well, what do you mean why is though living in the world We are in the world? But that's what he means. Yeah, you're in the world, but you're not supposed to live as if you were there.
Because your life is hid in Christ.
In the second verse of our chapter, it says for the law of the Spirit. Now that's not referring to the Mosaic law at all. The word law there means the fixed principle for the constant tendency. You take an apple and you let it go. The constant tendency of gravity is to bring that apple down. And that's that's a fixed principle, the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus.
Have made me free from the law of sin and death. The law of sin and death brings condemnation, and the fixed principle of the Spirit brings deliverance.
For what the law could not do, it demanded obedience, but it could not get it. He could not produce it. What the law could not do, and that it was weak through the flesh.
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God, sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh.
So the sin in the flesh that's there still has been condemned at the cross, and we have now a new life energized by the spirit of God.
What the law could not do, it could not produce obedience in that it was weak through the flesh. The flesh wants its own way and will not be subject to the to the law of God. God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh. You notice that the accuracy of scripture.
It doesn't say sending his own Son in the likeness of flesh. No, It doesn't say in sinful flesh. No, that would be wrong. It's in the likeness of sinful flesh. You looked at him, and when he was here as a man, you wouldn't see any difference in his outward appearance from any other man. But he didn't have sinful flesh. He had flesh, but he had no sin in it. The idea that the Lord did not sin.
Is right, but that he could have sinned is totally wrong. Don't ever accept that that that is a it is a slur on the on the humanity of the Lord Jesus.
He didn't. He could not sin. Not simply because he was deity in flesh. The Word became flesh, but because his humanity was holy. When Adam was created, He was without sin.
But he had a sin, but he had the possibility of sinning. The Lord Jesus outs innocence. Innocence is sinless but capable of sinning, and holy humanity is sinless incapable of sinning. That holy thing that was told to marry, that holy thing which shall be born of thee, shall be called the Son of God.
His humanity was holy. That's different than innocent. Adam was innocent, but he could sin and he did. The Lord was holy. He couldn't. He did not sin and He couldn't sin. And that's so important to see that because.
There, there are. There are men that are leading evangelical preachers even to this day. Billy Graham, he held. The Lord could have sinned. He didn't sin, he said, but he could have. MRI used to listen to him all the time as a young believer. He held that the Lord could have sinned.
His son, Richard Dehan wrote the most blasphemous pamphlet I've ever seen. It was so bad I wouldn't even put it in my bad doctrine. I didn't want it at all, even in my library. But I'm sorry I threw it away because it would be good to prove how far someone could go.
He wrote things like this.
Think of the struggle that the Lord had when He had those sinful desires against for Mary Magdalene, and things like that, and blasphemy. To think of such a thing. He never had an errant thought.
His whole purpose in life down here was to do the will of his Father. Therefore doth my father love me because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. No man take it from me, but I lay it down to myself. This commandment have I received of my Father.
Lo, I come to do thy will, O God, anything that was a suggestion to him of sinning was, was a terrible sorrow and grief to him, and and repelled instantly by his holy nature.
I knew I was saved and yet I came to parent And I said, you know, there's one thing that concerns me knowing me is that when I get to heaven, I'm going to sin and ruin heaven.
And this truth was brought before me, that I was in Christ, and I now have the nature of Christ to which sin could not attach itself, and the Lord could not sin. And we have a nature to which sin cannot attach itself. I have an old nature, and it manifests itself. But we have to understand that we have the life of Christ. Now the law was a schoolmaster to bring it up until Christ. That doesn't mean it was directing us to Christ like a traffic man, but it was to scare man into a form of obedience.
If I may put it that restrain man's evil passions, but it it couldn't, as our brother said, and the scriptures say, it couldn't produce obedience.
We have stop signs and we know if you go through the stop sign, you're going to get a ticket and you're going to get demerit points. And men might feel like murdering and the only reason they don't want to murder is because there's police officers in jail. But when a man gets saved, if they legalize murder in Canada, I don't think it would cause anybody in this room to murder anybody.
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The law has nothing to say to one who's in Christ.
And so the law couldn't stop a man from wandering to murder somebody. It may restrain him because there's consequences. It's like a schoolmaster, but and we're thankful that there are governments that are terror to evil doers and so on. But the gospel we preach takes a man that once wanted to murder people, and even did and and completely makes the thought of murdering and lying and stealing absolutely abhorrent to him as abhorrent to. It's as abhorrent to your soul to tell a lie as it is to Christ.
Unless the kernel of wheat fall into the ground and die and abide it alone.
The Lord Jesus came and he died. He was a human being, but he was alone.
He was not part of sinful humanity, and he had to die. If he wouldn't die, he would abide alone. But now he has died.
And as a tremendous change, now he's the head of a new race. You know, there's a new creation.
We're identified with the one who is heading up a new race. That's our blessed Lord. You know he's not alone anymore. He was alone when he was as a man on earth. The Colonel of wheat was alone, but he fell into the ground and died. No, he's not alone anymore. We're the fruit of the travel of his soul. And he will see, and does see already.
And he shall be satisfied, but a joy it will be for him to have us in heaven will be joy for us to be with him. But don't you think it will be great or joy for him to have us the trophies of His grace and what a price he has paid to make us His. And we belong to Him. We're not our own. We have been bought with a price, and we won't have the old nature anymore.
How wonderful. Yeah. In first John, three. And this is the absolute proof of what we just said first nine.
Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin. He's he's looking at the new nature abstractly now. And he says the one who was born of God does not commit sin for his seed. That's the new the new nature remaineth in him and he cannot sin because he is born of God. Now that's looking at.
The man just in the new nature. If we can't sin because we have the very nature of Christ, he certainly couldn't.
And it proves very clearly and when we leave this scene that old nature will be forever gone. Thank God. We'll never have another errant thought. We'll never have another sinful desire. We'll never want to do our own will contrary to the will of God. It'll be the same as it was with that blessed man, the Lord Jesus.
Whose every every desire was to do the will of God.
He never had anything other than that.
As you doubt, the latter part of the first verse really belongs with the fourth verse.
We can, we do have an old nature and we can go over the things of the flesh. And so we're told, make no provision for the flesh, don't feed it, starve it. Now maybe some are troubled. How does somebody sit in meeting and say, well, the latter part of that verse doesn't belong there. We all have Bibles that were printed on printing presses and so. But Can you imagine if every one of us had a Bible that was only written out by hand And many people have little notes in their bibles and so little things got crept in there?
And so it took godly and spiritual minds to know what was originally in the text. And so those that have looked at those texts see that. It is true, as far as I can see outwardly, that if a man walks after the flesh, there's condemnation. But the point of the Scripture is that if you are in Christ, there is no condemnation.
But already now.
Those of us who are Christians, In verse four it says in order that the righteous I'm reading JND in order that the righteous requirements of the law should be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh.
But according to the Spirit, what the man in the flesh could not do.
Because he only had the flesh. We who have the Spirit now can do what one under the law could not do, and we can do more than what was ever expected of one under the law. We can love our enemies that was never expected. Overdue, you know. So the righteous requirements of the law shall and should be fulfilled in the believer you know. And we do more than what was ever expected of one under the law.
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I'd like to speak especially to the young people right now. These next three verses, from verses 456 and seven, actually 8 going through 8, show how serious it is for a young man.
To start dating a young woman if he's saved and she's not, or a young woman if she's saved and he's not, that they should go together and get married.
Notice what it says.
Verse five. They that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh. If you marry an if you're saved and you marry an unsaved woman or an unsaved man, he doesn't have a new nature. He he can't.
Mind anything but the things of the flesh.
Now you have the two natures, you have the old nature that sins, and you have the new nature that doesn't sin, but to marry someone that has only the old nature, whose mind is only that which is of the flesh, not of the spirit.
Puts you in a very serious condition. They that are after the flesh.
Do mind the things of the flesh. You can't change that. You can say, well, you know, I I'll I'll just preach Christ to them and and and and and labor with them and finally finally they'll get saved. Well if they do get saved that's our our great mercy. But if they don't you're linked up with a person that can only mind the things of the flesh.
And you may want the things of the spirit you will if you're saved.
It says for to be carnally minded, verse six or the mind of the flesh.
Is death. You're my you're marrying a person whose mind and every desire has the stamp of death upon it. We come on. We want to go out to have a good time. We're going to see life. They're not looking at life. They're looking at death. Because the things of the of this world and and the of the carnal mind is dead. They that are after the flesh. I'm, I'm quoting now Mr. Darby. Mind the things of the flesh.
They that are after the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded or the mind of the flesh is death, but to be spiritually minded or the mind of the Spirit is life and peace.
Think of linking up with one that has only a nature which is against God, which only minds the things which are contrary to God. Terrible thing.
Verse 7 Because the mind of the flesh new translation is enmity against God, you're going to link up with a person whose mind is enmity against God.
Quite contrary to what you have, you have a new nature, and you love him. You love God, for it is not subject to the law of God.
To link up with one who is not subject to the law of God.
They will not submit to God's word.
That's exactly what is true of a person that's never had a new nature, never been sealed by the spirit of God, and then it says so, then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. Think of it, young person. If you're a person, if you're saved and you're going with the person that is not, you're going with someone that is at enmity with God. That is not subject to the law of God, that cannot please God.
I can't think of a stronger passage in all of the Bible that Romans 8 here to show how awful it is for a true believer to link up with one who's not safe. Terrible.
I'm the companion of all them that fear thee, and that's good for young people. What company do you see?
Seek outdoors that you can recognise.
Having a desire to please the Lord, I'm the companion of all them that fear thee. You know we don't have to have a lot of scriptural understanding to see even as young people who wants to be pleasing the Lord.
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What companions do you seek? Who do you want to keep company with? You know, I'm not now speaking like Chuck did, primarily with relationship between boys and girls. What about boys, you know?
Do you want to have a boyfriend?
That doesn't love. The Lord has no interest in the things of the Lord. He'll pull you down.
You can't pull him up. The law of gravity is in his favor. He pull you down, you know, so I'm the companion of all them that fear D is a good scripture for young people or for us older ones to remember now in our work relationships we.
Cannot help many times to come in contact with people who don't love the Lord.
But do you want to be in partnership with somebody who doesn't know the Lord?
That's not just marriage.
That's also partnership in business.
You know, and so we ought not to even consider such a step. And it's not always easy to find jobs.
And especially working in a factory, that's not a problem because they hire you and you work there. But when you want to go in business for yourself, do you want to be in business with somebody that isn't saved? He looks at things totally different. He doesn't bring the Lord into his business dealings. I'm not saying that they are not honest businessmen in the world.
There are, you know, people that deal honestly and uprightly. Thank God for that.
But there always comes a time when, as a Christian, if you have a companion like that.
That will go the opposite way than the way you should go. So I'm the companion of all them that fear thee.
Laws as being principles, as Brother Hendrix mentioned.
And there's another law that works in an unregenerate person.
And I have some experience in this. My first child in the gospel also happens to be my brother according to the flesh, and he made the mistake of marrying an unbeliever.
It was over within a year.
She turned almost immediately into someone he never knew.
And if I can put it this way.
An unregenerate person you can think of as a puppet in the hands of Satan, and he is a good puppeteer.
He can make them outwardly appear like anything he wants, including like a good, upright, decent person or a Christian.
And so he thinks it's OK I'll marry this this woman. And then.
I won't mention what she did, but you might imagine and it was over very, very quickly.
So we have to remember what law works in in the flesh And that someone who's unregenerate, they have no power. You know, my mother ran into her before the divorce between the time that they split up and there was a divorce and and she was working at a grocery store. My mother went through the line there and said, and she wanted to apologize to my mother. And my mother said, well, why did you do those things? Why did you do those things? You know what she said?
I don't know.
I don't know.
They don't know why, but it's all they can do. The unregenerate has no power over the the sin that's in the flesh.
So don't be fooled, the brother in there have setting up on that.
People meeting at a conference.
Everybody puts on a nice front at the conference, but be careful.
Get to know what the person is like in the home assembly. Everybody put on a nice front at conference.
You know, there's nothing wrong in being slow. Certainly it's nice many have met their married partner at a conference. But better make sure before you commit yourself that that person is also carrying on the way they do at a conference when they're at home, you know?
I'm bringing that in because I'm the companion of all them that fear. D There are those in the assembly, young people, who make a profession, but they're not characterized in their life by what is expected of one that fears the Lord. So be slow and make sure before you commit yourself that that person is indeed a sincere.
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Exercise Christian.
Tonight helps in this.
Because the eight first they that are in the flesh. That is not Speaking of a believer or even a carnal believer. It's talking about somebody who does not know Christ. And a believer, even a carnal believer, he is in Christ.
When he writes to the Saints and faithful that are in if. If the Apostle Paul wrote to the Saints and faithful that are in Christ Jesus and Saint Thomas, he is referring to everyone that has got their faith in Christ.
And they're a St. because of their faith in Christ. He's not referring to a small group of individuals, to the Saints and faithful. Now they may not act like it. They may go in a place and carry on in a way that you don't know it, but that is true. That's their standing. But they that are in the flesh, no matter how pretty it is and how nice it is they are in the flesh, they have a different standing before God. But in answer to what Brother Heinz is saying is how do you know that somebody is indwelt by the spirit of God?
He says if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. The way that one knows that somebody is indwelt by the Spirit of God is that they manifest the Spirit of Christ.
And so our brother was speaking about submission and obedience, and you quickly find out it doesn't matter what a person says, but is there a spirit of submission to the Lord? Is there a spirit of obedience to Christ? That is in evidence of whether a person belongs to Christ? And while the Old Testament Saints were not in Christ?
We read in Peter that even they manifested the spirit of Christ, the spirit of Christ which was in them. And so you recognize a person. We've all had that experience. We've sat down in a hamburger place, or you've been on a bus and you look over at somebody and you just see by their department. You wonder if they really belong to the Lord and then they bow their head and give thanks, or they they do something by the manner that they speak and so on. And so they are these telltale signs, if I may put it this way, that a person is indwelt by the spirit of God. But what is characteristic, as our brother said in the address?
Is of the Christian pathway is submission, obedience and where you find rebellion against the word of God. No matter how much a person knows about the word of God and and in submission to the Lords hand in their life, then certainly there's evidence that the spirit of God is being grieved in their life at at best and perhaps that they're not the Lord's at all and if they live in sin. I was in a restaurant and I saw a man bowing his head giving thanks for the food.
I went over to him, I said. Can you tell me how I can get to heaven?
He said believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and I said Amen. I said you're real and I'm looking forward to seeing him along with Heinz mother.
'S.
Heaven is going to be a wonderful place.
We shouldn't think it's not a scriptural thought to be looking forward to seeing other Saints in the glory.
That's not, that's a scriptural thought, because that's why Paul spoke to the Thessalonians about it, because they were grieving over the day and so that's why he brought that out.
I'm looking forward to eating Moses.
And other of the Old Testament says, you know, and they will be happy to see us and I believe they will rejoice in us even having a closer place than they have. They will not be jealous of us. They'll be happy for us, you know and well how wonderful to meet all those things. They all will be there because of the work of Christ. They are not there because of the sacrifices that they brought. You know they were accepted these sacrifices and the blood was accepted.
Because God accepted them, because he was looking forward to the sacrifice that his Son would bring. And if they would bring that in obedience and with the desire to please God, it was acceptable. Not because their dead blood itself could cleanse them, God accepted it in view of what his Son would do. It was a picture of that which would be accomplished through the work of Christ, the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son cleanses us from.
All sin, you know, we had a lady that we bought a house from and then I became her landlord later on.
And I would visit her because she had to make the monthly payments. And she said, yeah, I know that the Lord Jesus died for me, but there are some sins that I have to pay for. I said, Pearl, the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin. Who do you believe but the priest tells you, or what the Bible tells you Cleanses us from all sin. They're all wiped away. And the Scripture says our sins and iniquities.
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He will remember no more. Does he have a poor memory? No. But he decides not to remember them. He will not bring that up against us ever again.
They are taking care of. They are cast into the lake of forgetfulness. They are removed from us as far as the east is from the West.
Just on this point, because about the Old Testament Saints, when I came here, a brother said, well, the Old Testament Saints that were saved by keeping the law, we're not going to meet anybody in heaven that is there on any other basis than the blood of Christ. And I'm going to use this illustration. Suppose I got terribly into debt and the bank was going to take my house.
For the debt and I had no way of paying it. And then brother Brinkman wrote a letter and he said I'm going to pay what most debt when I get there and the bank manager looks at it. I don't know how he's going to do it, but bank manager looks at it and he says I know that man. I know he's generous and I know that he's able.
And so the debt is covered. The head office calls and says what about what most debt? And he says it's covered. It's not gone. But then one day he sells everything that he has and he comes and he pays my debt. And that's what it means in Romans when he says that he was just in the remission of sins that were passed.
That God covered the sins of the Old Testament Saints until the time of restitution, but they're gone. But Heinz says, I know what most brother and he's going to do the same thing. So I'm going to leave enough so that when he comes and owns up to his debt, then it'll be paid too. And that's the basis on which we're saved now is that Christ did a work on Calvary's cross at every repentance center, that their debt can be righteously not covered, but wiped away the blood of Jesus Christ, which was shed at Calvary's cross.
Cleanse at us from all sin. I guess I don't want to digress from our chapter here, but I guess I did.
Sometimes this is bothersome that the gospel is treated.
Purely as if salvation is a legal transaction.
And salvation is far from being merely a legal transaction, right? That's what this chapter, Romans 8, is presenting to us what our salvation is.
It's way beyond just the legal transaction, and we often use those legal illustrations.
But the very fact that we can't lose our salvation is because how can you? How can if you were born someone's son, how could you somehow become not their son?
Part of salvation is in the essence of salvation is we were born of God.
We can't be undone.
And the justification of God in doing that.
Was provided by the work of Christ.
Neil mentioned propitiation if you read.
The final judgment there in Revelation at the White Throne sins not mentioned.
There's nothing, no mention of sin there.
There's just one question. Is your name in the book of life?
And if it's not, you're cast into the lake of fire.
A sin isn't a question there because Christ propitiated not only our sins, but the sins of the whole world.
So God was justified in what He has done when He regenerates you and when you know He provides all the circumstances for you to hear the gospel.
And you believe in it. It's all a work of grace. It's all his work. And he was justified in it with regard to sin because of the work of Christ.
To add to what you said.
On the Day of Atonement.
There were two animals presented.
The one the blood was sprinkled before God.
That's atonement.
God's holy claims as to any sin ever committed.
Was met in the death of Christ. That's atonement. But then the second animal, the Saints, were confessed upon that animal, and the animal was sent into the wilderness to perish that substitution.
And he did not atone for the sense of all mankind.
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Yes, he did atone as far as maintaining God's holiness.
But substitution is only for those who have faith, you know, and God, who knew my sins that I would commit. And he laid them upon the Lord Jesus when he died. And he died for me. I know my sins were borne by him. You know, wonderful that we know there is.
Predestination and election and predestination. Election is the individual chosen. Predestination is what He's chosen for, you know, And God choose us in Christ, and He has put our sins long before we live upon our substitute, the Lord Jesus. And we are free when we come by faith to accept Him and His finished work.
That's the same God is not in being purchased and being redeemed.
Christ sold all that he had, and he bought this world.
And reference was made earlier in the day and through Ephesians chapter one.
And verse 4 where it speaks of.
The earnest of our inheritance until the redemption.
Of the purchased possession under the praise of his glory. That doesn't just include the redeemed, but it includes all who were purchased.
Including the world, including all creation. But redemption is for those who are who trust in Him. Because to be redeemed is not only to be to be purchased, but is to be bought back and set free. And that's for everyone who put their trust in the Lord Jesus. But there will be those who He is moored over as we get in. I believe it's First Peter Chapter 3.
The Lord who bought them. And so that's the thought in being purchased. Every one of us is responsible to him. This world is guilty of turning away from him who bought them, who paid the price for them. But if they would put their trust in him, now they're redeemed. So we get both bosses.
Coming to back to what Brother Ted said about his former sister-in-law. I don't know why I did what I did, who sometimes say Christians say well I can't help it, but in this 10th and 11Th 1St we see that the same power of the Spirit of God.
Dead is now in the Believer.
There is no power greater than the power of resurrection. And if the Spirit of God could raise a dead body from the grave, then He can give us the power to live without sinning.
That is a wonderful thing to realize that we're indwelt by the spirit of God. What a contrast to Romans 7 and even the good works of Cornelius and and.
Zacchaeus, he said, This day is salvation come to, has come to thy house.
Is that we have now in this dispensation, and dwelt by that spirit of God, to take a dead thing and to make it living again.
We also are in the spirit and in verse eight it says.
They then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.
You know flesh is used in different ways in the scriptures, even as to our blessed Lord it says who in the days of His flesh, that was when he was in the body.
But here they that are in the flesh is the position of sinful man before God.
He that is in the flesh cannot please God. We are not in the flesh. We are in the Spirit.
And the Spirit dwelt within us, but they that are in the flesh still in their natural state before God, they cannot please God. They don't have what it takes to please God. And but the believer, as we have seen here in these verses, has the Spirit, and that makes the difference. And we have no excuse beloved Saints of God for sinning. Unfortunately, we far too often.
Do sin. But if we confess our sin, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. That's not said to the unbeliever. That is said to the believer in First John. If we confess our sins, you know we judge it and acknowledge it before him. He's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. I'm looking forward to the day when that flesh is gone.
01:05:06
Where there is no more possibility of dishonouring the Lord or letting that flesh get the upper hand, you know it's something that we have to contend with. The world, the flesh and Satan are our three enemies that we have to contend with. As long as we are in this world and in this body, but wonderful, the time is going to come. When that is gone, we are no longer even positionally now in the flesh, but even.
We will not be in this body any longer. We'll have a new body like unto his body of glory, and there is no longer any possibility of dishonouring God at any time at any way. We may live after the flesh, but we're not in the flesh. That's right, and just in connection with your comment is to the world and the flesh and the devil.
Sometimes you see this thing. The devil made me do it. The devil doesn't need to occupy us by tempting us all the time because we have the flesh, and so we give no place to the flesh. But he is the God of this world, and he set up a world around us that appeals constantly to the flesh.
And where you find the devil himself active in Scripture is to oppose himself to the person and work of Christ.
And so it's going to speak later in the chapters. Many As are the sons of God. They are led by the Spirit of God. And So what the devil will do is he will attack the person and work of Christ and the word of God. That's his direct work. And so when you find the word of God questioned, it is a direct work of the devil. And even when those words came out of Peter's mouth, he said to Peter, get thee behind me, Satan. He would became the instrument of Satan, you and I, if we call into question the word of God and the authority of Word of God.
May be like Peter, an instrument of Satan.
And so the so the devil is crafty, but as to the flesh, he's created a world around us that appeals to us. And if we live after that, then we can't walk in the power of the spirit.
Speak up, speak up. OK brother, I'll try.
1St Corinthians 15.
Just for clarification, I may have missed this already.
Verse 44.
It says it is so. In a natural body that has raised a spiritual body, there is a natural body.
Verse 46 Obvious that was not first, which was spiritual, but that was just natural. That's what we are. Before we're safe, we're natural. After we're safe, we're spiritual.
My understanding please correct me on this, that if I sin after I'm saved, I'm not sending us the natural man but as a Colonel man. Now is that correct? I'm currently minded. Now so back in our chapter I thought correctly on this that our verse 5-6 and seven there that we currently mind you here and got this carnal mind in verse 7. Is a Christian the believer that the margin says it was minding minding the flesh.
This is not a long believer, but a believer who was minding the flesh. It shouldn't read carnal mind as though that that's it should mean the mind of the flesh there's treated in the Darby translation and that should clear up your question. We don't change our standing before God. When we sin we allow the flesh to act. But the flesh has a mind and it always sins and the the spirit has a mind and he always does the right thing. But the way the King James Greaves it makes it a little bit confusing.
That this really isn't. These scriptures aren't really meant to make a determination there. They're Speaking of the principles. What What is the carnal? The nature of the carnal mind.
This is the nature of the carnal mind, right? Say it right. That's the correct translation.
Because when we say carnal mind, we think that the Christian has, has, has that that acting and and that it's true, but it's it's much better. There's two minds. There's a mind of the spirit and the mind of the flesh and that doesn't if you allow the mind of the flesh to act.
It doesn't change your standing before God. When we get home to heaven, we won't have that. We won't have the flesh anymore.
01:10:01
Cannot please God either.
It's the same flesh.
Spirit. If so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you, so everyone that has the Spirit of God indwelling them. God sees him as being in the Spirit, not in the flesh anymore. Though he may have the flesh in him, but he's not in the flesh as to his standing before God.
We have to be very careful to accept the confession of one who lives in sin. Scripturally, we have to question the reality of that person's faith.
In one Corinthians 5 if one who is called a brother.
It doesn't say if a brother does this. If one who is called a brother, you know that very statement makes it a question whether the man is indeed a brother. He's called that. Now. Fortunately, this man referred to in the 5th chapter of First Corinthians in the second epistle. He has repented.
And it proved that he was indeed a brother. He was restored, but while he was going on in his sinful way, the Scripture is very careful. One who is called a brother, you know, that calls it in question well, and hopefully if that happens to any among us who fall into such a serious sin of immorality and has to be put out.
Hopefully the time will come.
He's not put out as a brother, he's put out as one who is called a brother, a wicked person.
A wicked person? Yes.
And hopefully it will prove in time that he is real and that he will be restored. And we can pray to that end, you know, pray for the restoration of such a person. Actually, we we say, sometimes we say, well, we had to put brothers so and so out.
He's assuming that he's a brother when he says that.
I mean, if he was put out, Mr. Kelly makes it very clear, he says. We only put out wicked people.
A helpful comment in connection with what you said, Brother Heinz says confession is an act and repentance is a process.
And so if if there's no confession, there's not going to be any repentance. And so if we confess our sins, he is faithful and justified, I should read it. So if we confess our sins, he is faithful, he is faithful.
Forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And so repentance is a process. And so there is a it's a turning around. And confession is saying I did the wrong thing. What I did was disobedient to the word of God. But there has to be with that repentance.
And are turning around and that's the cleansing from all unrighteousness, I believe and the 2GO together.
Thank you to brother Derek Mullins questions.
And reverse in First Corinthians chapter 3 for a couple verses.
Verse one and I, brethren, could not speak unto you, is unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ.
I have fed you with milk, and not with meat, for hitherto you were not able to bear it, neither yet now are you able, for ye are carnal.
I think that was our brother's question of Christians, and they are Christians being addressed here called carnal.
Then how is it?
That we find it in our chapter and we say, well, a Christian isn't in that standing and I guess just wanted to bring that out to make his question clear. And our brother.
Brought out that it's not the proper translation in our chapter to use the word carnal.
The Christian is never seen and is standing in the flesh. Has been brought out, and I just like to think of it this way. The Christian is never in the flesh, but the flesh is in the Christian, and when it acts up unjudged, we need to judge that flesh. If it raises its head, then the apostle said of the Corinthians.
We're carnal. We're acting in a fleshly way.
01:15:00
Speak of it as the composition of something. That's what we are.
Then two, in addition to that, we might just remark, because it's helpful that the Scripture uses the word natural as well as the word carnal, and although the natural man is carnal.
Yet there is a different emphasis. It says the natural mind, The natural man is at enmity with God. The natural mind is at enmity with God, cannot receive the things of the Spirit of God, and so on. Why? Because he has no new life in Christ. He's not indwelt with the spirit of God. There's a dimension lacking that does not permit him to do that. In First Corinthians 15, there's a natural body, the human body.
As it is natural, is not in itself sinful, but it is subject to the effects of sin, and in that sense we get old and eventually if the Lord leaves us here, we die.
Well, there is a natural body and there is a spiritual body. There is a body that the Lord rose from the grave with. That is a spiritual body, and in that sense it was different from the natural body. You and I have natural bodies now, but will be raised with spiritual bodies. And so I just suggest that the emphasis is different when it talks about there being a natural body. It's not so much Speaking of sin as that which is terrestrial.
That which is suited to this world. And so when it talks about the natural man, natural desires are not always wrong, but because they're the flesh is connected with them.
The natural desires can be used in a sinful way. It is not wrong for me to be hungry and want to eat, but if I become a glutton, I sin. Natural desires between men and women are not wrong if they're used in the right way.
But if a man uses them outside of the bonds of marriage, then he sins, and so there's a difference between the expression natural and carnal, although they may be found in the same individual.
I walked over and kicked you in the shins, Brother Bill's. Your natural body is going to hurt and I may see some of the flesh. Probably not, but.
Probably would, but I think that just in a simple way puts it. And so when the Lord came and we, we need to realize that people are not without feelings. When the Lord came to the Pharisees house, he said, You gave me no water for my feet.
He felt it. It's not wrong to feel it. We may feel the same thing and act in a very carnal way. And so that distinction that you make is very important because sometimes we say, well, it's, you know, he's just touchy or something else like that. Well, a person may respond in something of a carnal way, but really it's the natural man. It's hurting and we have natural bodies. And the Lord, we see in the Psalms that the Lord felt things he wasn't. It hurt his hands when they put nails in them.
But he never responded in a carnal way.
In First Corinthians.
The natural man is spoken of as one who is not saved. Let me read the verse, verse 14. But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he cannot know them, because they are spiritually discerned. But the spiritual man discerns all things, and he is discerned of no one. For who I'm reading the Darby translation. For who has known the mind of the Lord? Who shall instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.
Now in the end of chapter 2, the natural man is an unsaved man contrasted with a spiritual man who is a Christian. But now in in chapter three you have when I, brethren, have not been able to speak to you as spiritual, but as to fleshly. Now now that's a true believer, but he's carnal. He's fleshly As to babes in Christ, I've given you milk to drink, not meat, for you have not yet been able, nor indeed are you yet able, for ye are yet carnal.
Now that's a real believer who is in a baby state, so to speak. But the natural man, according to 1St Corinthians 2, is not saved.
Now there is a question of logic is not wrong and reasoning things is not wrong. And by simple and pure logic and upright, a man's not going to know God. And it's not really the emphasis as you point out. It's not really the flesh there at enmity with God. It's just an incapability of doing something.
It's just like if a fish was sitting here on the chair, the fish, it's impossible for you may be a very nice and good fish, but he, he can't understand what's going on in this room. And so a natural man cannot receive the things of God. It's not a question whether he's a good fish or a bad fish or an enmity or not. And so that's what he's pointing out. And so in that chapter of Corinthians, he's saying spiritual things are communicated by spiritual means.
01:20:21
And then so he goes on to tell the spiritual means by which the truth of God is communicated and spiritual men.
Carnal things are communicated to babes.
We stand for this.
Day.
For God.
Day.
Romans 8:8-39
Reading
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Son of God.
All I wonder.
Did you hear that, Dave?
No, he said. Verse 9 or 10.
Shall we read the rest of the chapter again?
But here not in the flesh, but in the spirit. It so be that the Spirit of God dwelling now, if any man have not the spirit of Christ, he is none of his. And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the spirit of life because of righteousness. But of the spirit of him that brings up Jesus from the dead dwell in you. He that brings up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his spirits dwelleth in you.
Therefore, brethren, we are debtors not to the flesh, to live out to the flesh.
Where if you live after the flesh, you shall die, but if you through this Spirit, to mortify the deeds of the body, you shall live.
For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For you have not received the Spirit of ******* again to fear, but you have received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry ABBA, Father.
The Spirit itself bears witness with our Spirit, that we are the children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs of Christ.
If so be that we suffer with Him, that we may be also glorified together.
For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in US. For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God. For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who has subjected subjected the same in hope, because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the ******* of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.
For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth and pain together until now.
And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves grown within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.
For we are saved by hope, but hope that is seen as not hope For what a man seeth whiteth yet hope for. But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience, wait for it. Likewise the Spirit also help with our infirmities. For we know not what we should pray for as we are, but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.
And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the Saints according to the will of God.
And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God to them who are the called according to his purpose, for whom he did for know He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the first born among many brethren.
00:05:13
Moreover, whom he did predestinate, them he also called, and whom he called them he also justified, and whom he justified, them he also glorified.
What shall we say then? What shall we then say to these things? Is God before us? Who can be against us? He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all? How shall he not with him also freely give us all things?
Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifies. Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died. Yeah, rather that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword, as it is written, for thy sake, We are killed all the day long.
We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Before we take up this chapter.
If the brother would mind if I ask a question that was asked of me in connection with.
The, the. The.
At the prayer meeting the other day, it was mentioned about Bibles and giving.
Funds to help those who distribute Bibles and foreign lands and and it was mentioned about going to places like China.
And about Bibles going to places where it is illegal.
To send the Bible that they do not want them, that it is illegal to take them.
And I was asked the question by a brother who may be here.
Would it be right, first of all, for us to try to take Bibles into a country like that if it is against the law of that country? Or secondly, would it be right for us to give money to those who were to support in that way that effort?
Do we have scripture that would help us with this?
We have to obey God rather than men. Is 1 scripture. You know He has told us and taught his own and that message and that commandment is gone on to us. Go you into all the world and preach the gospel.
Now of course.
Sometimes it has to be done in a country where they might not have.
A written Bible in their language.
But we are governed by the will of God, not by the laws of the land. We have to obey God rather than man. You know, when it comes to the laws of how to drive, how fast to drive, pay taxes paid to Caesar. What is Caesar, the Lord said.
All of these things we have to obey, but when it comes to the things of God, we do not.
Go by what the authorities of whatever land the Christian is in tell us. We go by the word of God. We have to obey God rather than man. Does that fit? Yes, it's very good.
Another part of the question, I'd like to just read a verse that we looked at earlier.
In the readings in Acts chapter 20.
Paul and his ministry in verse 27 says, For I have not shown to declare unto you all the counsel of God.
And the object of the Apostle, and really the Spirit of God working in the Apostle, and those that were with him when they went on their missionary journeys.
Was not just the salvation of souls.
It was that they might come into the knowledge of all the counsels of God, and the purposes of God, that he had for them to be gathered to the Lord's name in assembly, and to that there would be a local expressions of the testimony.
To arisen and ascended Christ, displayed down here below.
00:10:00
And we need to be careful, brother. And I don't think that the Lord's work is going to be hindered in any way. It's going to go on. He's going. He's going to accomplish his purposes.
But I don't think it's good to give that which the Lord has given us over and in abundance, whether it be in that which is put in the collection box or that which we have privately to put into the funding.
Of various efforts of believers in other places who have not the same object before them.
And I don't think it's that. It's a wise endeavor on our part to have fellowship in that way with those efforts. Let the Lord use them. He'll accomplish his purpose. He's doing his work. But for we who know the truth of God and have it brought before us, I don't think it be of the Lord to have fellowship in that way. With that, let the Lord take care of that. He'll get those Bibles into the hands of those that need them.
If he gives us the opportunity to do it in our way and some channel in that way, then that's fine. He's set that open door before us. But I don't think it's for us to take the Lord's money and use it in that way with those in fellowship with those who have not this object in mind.
And I'm thankful to know that there are Christians that work in areas where we cannot work, you know, and the Lord's work is not limited to those gathered to his name. And we ought to pray for the Lord's work everywhere and for God's people everywhere. Now our brother Prakash here lives in a land where they are not supposed to meet as groups, as assemblies.
But they do anyway. But they don't have big groups, you know, But they have to obey God. And so they meet, you know, and they do so.
And.
They have to be aware that anytime the authorities might find out and might cause them problems, but we have to obey God rather than men.
Coming back to our chapter is not in the flesh. We were in the flesh before we were saved and now in the Spirit, and we see in these verses that we may be after the flesh.
But the believer is not in the flesh.
But what is characteristic of this present dispensation is that the Spirit of God just does not come upon a believer, but he is in US and with us forever.
So we don't ask for the Spirit of God.
As we said yesterday that were sealed after that, you believe the gospel a person, whether they're three years old or 93 years old or 103 years old, when they believe the gospel, they're sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise until the day of redemption, the redemption of our bodies.
But the proof that a person belongs to Christ is that he manifests the Spirit of Christ.
And so we see the Spirit of Christ in the Gospels. We even see the Spirit of Christ in Old Testament Saints, because.
As we read in Peter, the Spirit of Christ which was in them did testify the sufferings of Christ, and so on. And so as you see Noah patiently working away in that ark.
And the undoubted markings of all those around him. And he worked the way he manifested the Spirit of Christ. He was not indwelt by the Spirit of God, but he did manifest the Spirit of Christ, and that is the proof that one belongs to Christ.
Always remember a local brother young. He was quite young at the time. He pointed out with David that they said man looketh on the outward appearance, but God looks on the heart and people say, well, you can't tell what's in my heart. That's true. But immediately when David appeared, it said he was Ruddy and with all of a goodly countenance. And so it manifested itself to others that were around that he belonged to the Lord. And so our outward appearance will and should manifest the fact that we've been with Jesus.
And so that's why this verse says that if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have the spirit of Christ, he is none of his. You don't see the spirit of Christ in somebody, then you don't know they're the Lords.
I believe we could say that the expression of God.
00:15:00
Refers to nature and power, whereas Christ brings it down to the practical level. In my life you get the same expression. In the first chapter of Romans. There's the gospel of God. But then Paul says I am not ashamed of the what gospel of Christ? It is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth. At the end of this chapter you get the love of Christ and the love of God.
The love of Christ is connected with practical difficulties that I can experience in this world. The love of God is connected more with that which is outside of the realm, you might say, of direct human experience. And so it talks about life, death, angels, principalities, powers, things, present, things to come. That's that's in God's realm. His power is able to deal with those things. So in a general way in Scripture, when you find something connected in the New Testament with God.
It is connected with the power to be able to carry something out, but when it's with Christ, it's the practical side of it exhibited in our lives, and I've just found that helpful in seeing some of these expressions that we find in Scripture.
Exactly. And so you see how the Lord reacted to things.
How he loved people and cared for people.
Now if you don't see that in an individual, I remember dear brother Tom Snyder, after he got saved, a friend of his professed to be saved. And Tom was not a man to make rash statements to people. And he said, Tom, I got saved and he didn't say anything. And a couple weeks later the man came back and he said, Tom, I got saved. And Tom didn't say anything till finally he said, Tom, you didn't say anything when I got saved and I want you to appreciate that. He wasn't hasty to say this, he but he hung his head and he said I haven't said anything because I haven't seen anything in your life that would indicate that that was true.
And I believe that's what we have here in the verse. It may have been true, God knows, but we we can only look at what we see. And so that's what he's saying here and.
We then he goes on to say, if Christ being you, the body of the body is dead.
Because of sin. But the Spirit is life. Because of righteousness, you see that life lived out in the life.
They are.
What I have picked up from the Ministry books as to the division of the chapter.
From verse 5 to verse 27.
That is the Spirit of Christ in the believer as the delivering power.
Then from verse 28 to 34.
God for us in every way.
Then verse 35 to 39.
No separation from the love of God in Christ. That's a nice.
Outline, you might say, or gives you an idea of the division in that chapter, so the Spirit of Christ.
In the believer as the delivering power. Well, how wonderful it is. That is what makes us Christians, that the Spirit dwells in US and he is the power, you know.
And I hope he can deliver us from whatever is wrong and demonstrate his power. He cannot demonstrate his power in the believer that goes on in sin.
You know.
The ungrieved spirit is the source of the power and the believer. And isn't that wonderful that he indwells the body of every believer? Our body is the temple of the Holy Spirit.
And we have by the takes through the indwelling Spirit, to live pleasing to God.
You're Christians and brother David Martin referred to earlier in the meetings and had some nice words about the Lord, but they immediately asked me if my pastor laid hands on my head and so on and different things, and you tried to bring it back to Christ and away from those things.
And he they asked about miracles and so on. But how is the Spirit of God, the power of the Spirit of God manifested in your life and in mind today? Maybe we could look at Colossians, where the Spirit is not actually brought out, but the life of Christ is seen.
And I believe it should we see the Spirit of Christ in this.
00:20:00
Colossians, chapter one, verse 10. That you might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God, strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, on to patient unto all patients, and long-suffering with joyfulness. That's the Spirit of Christ, and the power of that is the Spirit of God, producing that in you and me.
In this day, it's not miracles, they're signs and so on, But it's it's all all patience and long-suffering with joyfulness.
God saved as a young man, I think in his late teens came to a gospel meeting and a brother spoke on Luke 15 prodigal son. He got saved.
He's going to work the next morning. He's worried about going to work. He worked as a mechanic in a in a tractor dealership.
And he used to swear and did all those things, and now he got Christ and.
He was. He wanted. He was timid by nature.
But he wanted to let the others know.
Without bearing too much reproach, the fact that he now belonged to Christ.
So he went to work and.
What about a job 10:00 Why coffee break time? So all the guys sat around together.
And they looked at him and they said, What's good into you?
He didn't have to talk. He had Christ. It came out. It's a natural thing that will come out, brethren, in our lives when we walk with him.
Called the Spirit of Christ.
Because it's the Spirit of God and his capacity and power to form Christ and the believer.
Hmm.
Why it says in the very next verse if Christ be in you?
How is that? By the power of the Spirit of God.
Their brother has said the Spirit is in us. It's God's power to form Christ in US. And if Christ be in you that if that is if we belong to Christ. The body is dead because of sin. That is that old sinful self that.
We acted in before we were saved. We know practically it is not dead, but God wants us to reckon ourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God. And so it says the Spirit is life because of righteousness.
Through Christ we are the righteousness of God. In him we have the Spirit of God which wants to bring us to what we had earlier in the chapter here, that is verse four, that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in US.
Walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit. So it's a wonderful thing to know that.
God's desire for each one of us is that Christ might be displayed practically in us, very searching and yet very blessed, isn't it?
If you live after the flesh, he shall die, but if ye through the Spirit do mortify, put to death the deeds of the body, you shall live. And then he gives what is characteristic of.
A Christian For as many as are led by the Spirit of God. They are the sons of God.
Who was the one that was always led by the Spirit of God. That was the Lord Jesus, the Son of God. Now he says what marks out the Christian is that he's led by the Spirit of God, just as it marked him up.
The Spirit of God will never ever lead us to walk contrary to the word of God.
Hear people say it was LED of the Spirit to do this, or it was LED of the Spirit to do that, and what they're doing is manifestly disobedient to the Word of God. Spirit of God will never lead me nor you to act contrary to the Word of God.
Then the deliverance of Israel from Egypt.
You know, the Red Sea delivered them from the power of sin. And Satan, Pharaoh, a picture of Satan, their service in Egypt.
00:25:01
Serving sin, they were delivered through the Red Sea from that, But then before they entered into the land, they went through the Jordan. And what happened then? 12 Stones were put in the middle of Jordan, and they are there to this day.
And then on the other side of Jordan, 12 Stones were put up.
You know the 12 Stones in Jordan speaks of us having died with him. Not only did he die for us, not only are we delivered from the power of sin and Satan, we ourselves came to an end in the death of Christ, and we are now a new creature in Christ. That's what is seen in the 12 Stones on the other side at Gilgal. You know they had to go return there to be reminded again and again of the deliverance that they had experienced.
We do well to remember in our souls.
Not only.
Were we delivered from the power of sin? And Satan, we ourselves as sinners died with him as we expressed into him when he died. Then we died with him buried in his grave relay, you know. And we are now new creatures in Christ. We are having a new life and have new creatures and we can live for God. That's what is seen with them. Being on the other side of Jordan, you know, and entering into the promised land.
You know why do a lot of people?
Not come to much of the enjoyment of what is ours in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. They're still on the other side of Jordan, you might say. You know, like the tribes, they didn't want to go across the Jordan, you know, they wanted to have blessing for this life.
That's what a lot of Christians think of all they're concerned about, that they are blessing for this life that's seen in those tribes that were on the other side of Jordan. God does bless.
Brought people, even if they don't understand their heavenly calling. But his purpose is that we enter into that which is ours in Christ in heavenly places, by faith lay hold of that. Now that will be our eternal portion.
Wonder if I could share something I saw recently, and I won't try to expound it, but in reading that passage you referred to, I noticed that God had commanded the children of Israel to take up the 12 Stones out of the river, but He never commanded them to put the 12 in.
Joshua did that by himself.
See both Red Sea and the Jordan speak of the death and resurrection of Christ.
The Red Sea speaks of redemption in delivering them. They had three enemies. There were no enemies at the Jordan, but there were enemies at the sea. There was the the world, the flesh and the devil. Egypt the type of the world. Pharaoh type of the devil, and the Egyptians the flesh. And they were trying to.
Keep the Israelites under ******* and they got delivered from that when they crossed the Red Sea.
But if he then.
You go to the Jordan.
Let's eliminate the 40 years of wandering in the in the wilderness and put the resurrection side of the Red Sea and the entrance side of the Jordan and you you leave, you go into it's into the Red Sea and you come out in the Jordan and that's the full that's the full gospel and.
If you then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, that's bringing us into the into the promised land.
As many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.
True of all believers, not referring exactly in its context to guidance by the Spirit, but the indwelling of the Spirit.
The same question in the same way because I think I had the same question.
And you can.
Brother Ruger, correct me if I'm wrong, but I think I had the same question when I was thinking they're led to by the spirit of God.
And every believer is led by the Spirit of God, but.
Don't we all have to confess? We don't always follow?
We do sense the leading sometimes and we don't.
Is that kind of what you were getting at?
00:30:05
It characterizes the Son of God is that he's led by the Spirit of God.
That's what characterized the Lord Jesus, and there was perfection in it, not in you and me, but it's still what characterizes the Son of God. He's led by the Spirit of God and and A and a person of the world doesn't have that.
They can't. They might be a good person. They might seem to be as we look at them outwardly. Might be. We may not be able to tell much difference between 1:00 that's led by the spirit of God and one that's just a good person. But there's there's a vast difference. One is saved and the other one isn't.
He is a senior law first as what we have in First John. He that is born of thoughts and it not.
You know that a believer is viewed in the divine nature. You know the believer has the divine nature and if he lives.
In that lives, that life he will not sin. That's how he is viewed in first John. You know some Christians have great difficulty with that passage. They come to realize that they have sent something, have done something that is sin and they say well.
Am I born of God?
The scripture says he that is born of God sinneth not. But the believer is seen as in the divine nature that nature doesn't sin. That's the point in first John you know and we have to live that life and let the spirit control.
And we have what it takes to live pleasing to God. And if there is failure, it is because we have not availed ourselves of what is available for us.
As Christians?
The Lord used the expression ABBA father in Mark's Gospel, the only time.
And we have it here in verse 15.
He have received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry as a father, we cry the same cry that he did, and again you get it in Galatians.
That's Christianity. That's true Christianity. The world can't do that.
They cannot cry of a father, one of the world.
I think that the Red Sea is in Romans and the Jordan is in Colossians.
When the brother goes son came back to his father, he had a little speech prepared for him.
Of confession.
And he had a little speech prepared to ask that he be received back as a servant. Make me as one of Thy hired servants. And it would have been very gracious of his father to do that, considering the path that that young man went on and what he had done.
But you know, even if the father had received him back in that way, he would have had to work from that point on to gain acceptance.
To be a good servant and hopeful each day that his work and labor was sufficient to gain acceptance.
With his father. But that's not the way we've been received. So his father brushed aside that part of the confession. He never got it out.
And he receives him again as a son. As a son, he receives him back into that household with a particular status. The status that he has is that of a son, and it's seen as well in the Old Testament with Jacob and blessing his sons.
He blesses his son, but he also blesses the sons of Joseph. And when he does, he says as Reuben, or as I have turned back to it, as Simeon, perhaps as Levi. He says they are mine. In other words, he's bringing He's not looking and regarding them as his grandsons, He says no, I'm elevating you to a different status in the family.
I'm bringing you in on the same ground as my twelve sons. I'm bringing you in and blessing you equal with them as sons, and so they received the status in that family of a son.
Later on what do you find when the tribes go in and take the land? Is here much of the tribe of Joseph occasionally here that mentioned, but it's Ephraim and Manasseh. They share equally with the rest of the sons. When Israel, when the land of Palestine was divided to those Suns, they were brought in on that level and so this term adoption.
00:35:00
Really brings that thought before us. We're brought into the family of God through new birth as children.
But we've received the status of sons in that family. It's a different thing. So we've been chosen in Christ from before the foundation of the world.
Also, the truth He's given us a position, a status in that family as sons, and so the Jewish mind perhaps grasped it a little better. You know, they have things called bar mitzvahs and bar mitzvahs when a son comes to a certain age and he reaches a certain level of maturity.
They have a celebration called a bar mitzvah. He's brought into a new status in the family. Before that time, he's just one of the children. But now perhaps his father is a business and he's come to that age and they have that celebration. And he says, now, I want you to come down. I want to show you all the business. He I want to lay out the plans that I have for it. And I want to bring you into the good of all the councils that are in my heart concerning this and the portion that you have in it. And then he goes out in front of the business and he hangs a new sign.
And it says.
Heinz Brinkman and son.
He's brought into a new status in the family, and he's brought into all the councils of the Father's heart, and the Father confides in him. And that's the place that we have been brought into in the family. A place where the Father has confided all the councils and purposes that he has in his well beloved Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, to each one of us brought in as sons adoption.
He have not received the spirit of ******* again to fear.
But you have received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry ABBA, Father.
It's one thing to be a child in the family you're born into it, but to be adopted in you, you're adopted into it, into a place of nearness, and we have the spirit of adoption. You get that in the Galatians.
Developed as well When they were Jews under law, they were they were with if they were the Lords. If they were quick and born again, they were in in a position. But they they weren't mature.
The sign that's on the door doesn't say Smith and shot children. It says Smith and sons. That means they enter into the same position as their father.
Because.
In our normal way of thinking, when we use the term adoption we think of, that's the way a child is brought into our family. That's not the way Scripture uses it. This isn't how we're brought into the family. This is the status that we received in the family because of the work of Christ and the indwelling of the Spirit of God consequent upon that work.
We were children by birth. We've received a status in the family by adoption.
Father, only we Christians know God as Father. Let me repeat that only we Christians know God as Father. In Exodus we have that God revealed himself to Moses and he said I was known to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob as God Almighty. Now he revealed himself to Moses as Jehovah. That was a new thing and he brings them into a relationship consistent with the name by which he makes himself known.
We as Christians know God as Father.
And ABBA father, what does that mean?
Well, we have been able to travel in the Middle East, you know, and if you have a child in Egypt, addressing his father or in the Jewish land, he says ABBA.
It's like daddy. Now I would not suggest that we call God daddy, but we can use ABBA with that knowledge that we are close like a child.
And we can say ever father, it's not a distant any longer. You know, we are very close to him. We can say ABBA father beautiful to get a hold of that, you know, he's not at a distance. We're close to him, you know we are, you might say. We can sit on his lap, you know.
Be in his arms, He would love to have us that close to him.
The Lord said in John 17 six, in reference to what Brother Hines just said, as to when God reveals himself to us by a name. The Lord Jesus said, I have manifested Speaking of the Father, I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world.
00:40:15
And in relation to what Brother Hendrix said, that was Galatians 41 Says. Now I say that the air that is a child.
As long as he is a child, different nothing from a servant, though he be Lord of all so in their culture.
There was a time when all the children were adopted and I had a man visit one time with me many years ago, a brother I believe, and he said this word, adoption, he said It's important to me because, you know, my parents adopted me.
And I tried to explain to him that that's not quite the same meaning of what we use it today is not the same as what it means in the Bible. All children, even children born in the family, became a time when they were given the status.
Of sons, of children. It was males, of course, but for for us it doesn't matter.
All of us are adopted in that sense.
Sons by adoption, Yeah, I remember the story of Abraham Lincoln was having a conference with his higher ups and the door opened up and then walked his son. He came, he sat on his daddy's lap and Abraham Lincoln said, we'll just postpone this meeting for a little.
His son was right there on him. He had a place of nearness that the others didn't have. Well, that's the place that we have, isn't it?
Witness with our Spirit that we are the children of God, and if children.
Then heirs, Heirs of God.
Heirs of God? We're heirs. Who are we? Heirs of God?
Well, what? What has he bequeathed to us? Joint heirs with Christ? Everything that He's inherited is ours. We're one with him.
So that's what a portion is. Ours. If so be that we suffer with him. That's quite, a quite a joke. In the middle of that verse, it brings us up to the very highest, nearest place. If children, then heirs. If heirs of God and join heirs with Christ. And then there's a break. If so be that we suffer with Him.
That we may be also glorified together. We're we're going through suffering time. The full display of our our place of nearness with him will be in the glory.
We're not there yet.
Plan we might not suffer as those who live in Muslim lands.
And.
Where the Christians are persecuted, but there is still suffering connected for the Christian even in the Western land.
You know, ridicule may pan up. Dear young people. Don't mind if those in school make fun of you because you're Christian. You're suffering, for Christ's sake.
You know, and it is a privilege to suffer for him.
You know there's a reward given.
You know, according to the faithfulness that we have manifested which led to suffering, there will be in the Kingdom a difference in the Kingdom. Not all will be in the same exalted position. In heaven there's not going to be any difference, but in the Kingdom there's going to be a difference. We shall be glorified with him when we are in heaven, but according to the way we have suffered for him and for His name's sake.
In the Millennium there is going to be a special place given for those who have suffered for Christ.
Well then, a couple other places. I won't turn to them, but one is he speaks of. He wanted to be.
Fellowship with the sufferings of Christ.
And in another place he said that he filled up what was lacking of the sufferings of Christ for his body's sake. Those are not. Those have nothing to do with the Lord's suffering for redemption, nothing at all that is to suffer.
With the Lord for the sake of His body. And it's not just to suffer persecution by those outside. Think of how much suffering the Apostle Paul suffered at the hands of believers.
00:45:08
Both, I believe both true and false.
He even suffered.
From those that he had brought to the Lord.
And we all of us, I think, as our brother Bruce.
Made that word this afternoon, I think.
In reference to that, there's always opportunity for us to suffer for the sake of the Lord's body.
There is a difference, isn't there in scripture?
We don't want to split hairs, but I believe the difference is very decidedly there between.
Suffering for Christ and Suffering with Christ. Here in our chapter the expression is suffering with Christ and other scriptures we do get suffering for Christ. For example in Philippians under you it is.
Given how does it read there?
Better turn to it, Philippians.
Chapter One.
And verse 29.
For unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ.
Not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake, there was a question of adversaries of outward persecution and as we mentioned.
Some dear Saints of God, even today are feeling this very much, and down through the ages there has been plenty of it.
But suffering with Christ in one sense is a deeper thing, although it may not always entail physical sufferings.
Because suffering with Christ is walking through this world with his life.
Manifested in US and in that sense walking through this world.
As a man with new life in Christ, feeling everything as he felt it, and as our brethren have been mentioning, that can take place among believers that can take place in connection with the world, that can take place in many different circumstances. And in that sense, if we're willing to walk to please the Lord, then we will find that we will all suffer with Christ in that sense.
Not just in the past, but he suffered in the past. When his name is dishonored, isn't that a grief to his soul? Shouldn't that be agreed to us? When sin occurs amongst God's people, doesn't it grieve his soul? Shouldn't it grieve our soul that is suffering with him, You know? And to have fellowship with the Lord in these things, to feel these things at least in measure?
We could never feel it as deeply as he does feel it.
But in measure, at least, we should enter into it and have fellowship with him in it. He died. He died that he might gather together in one the children of God that were scattered abroad. When he sees what the enemy has done to divide the Saints of God, he suffers. We should suffer too.
You just said before we close.
I'd like to go back to some.
Earlier portion of the meeting.
And read a verse in Luke.
Actually reached out the birthday, most of which have already been read.
Luke, Chapter 9 and verse 49.
And John answered and said, Master, We saw one casting out devils in my name.
And we provide him, because he followed not with us. And Jesus said unto him, Forbid him not.
Connection with the Bibles that were asked about the beginning of the meeting.
I don't think there's any spirit among us about forbidden.
And I'm very, very thankful for that.
Albeit that's not the end of the verse.
For he that is not against us.
Is for us.
And then where we've just been reading.
In Romans 8, just read that verse again for as many as are LED.
00:50:02
By the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.
Now the subject was the Bible.
And perhaps there's things that we might say, perhaps even things have been said at this conference.
That has not been fully addressed.
And perhaps even put into a more proper context.
But we're talking about the word of God.
This is a completely different subject.
The Lord Jesus Christ, he said.
I am the way, the truth and the life.
And a little bit later.
He says.
My work is true.
And so the two are completely comfortable.
Christ and His Word.
I think we have to be awful often careful.
The Lord directs.
That there be Bibles sent out. That should be the thought.
It's not a matter of helping out Hurricane Katrina.
Or giving to the Salvation Army for certain social goals. Or the Red Cross.
But for those that carry Bibles?
Another verse that was read.
In X.
20 Verse 27 For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God.
And the only place to hear Paul is in the Bible.
The only place to read of the counsels of God are in the Bible.
So we're dealing with a completely different subject than maybe some subjects that may have come up in this conference.
Brother.
Jim Highland purchases Bible from the Trinitarian publishers in Michigan.
I know Mr. Van Holstein, I believe what the situation is, but he used to get Bibles from place in Texas.
And I don't know where Brother Ruben gets Bibles to take to Mongolia? To Liberia where?
But funds are taken out of a pocket and given to those publishers.
And those publishers also?
Send out free bibles based on people that will donate to them.
We have to trust God.
We have to trust that he uses his word, not necessarily the hand of the person that handles that Bible and puts it in someone elses hands and I have not asked our brother over here from Bhutan.
But if I were to guess.
He did not receive his first Bible from someone who has gathered through the Lords things. That's but again.
I know that that is true in the United States.
That many of.
Some in this room I should say, do not receive your first Bible from someone who is gathered through the Lord's name, but yet in that Bible.
The Word of God.
Is the counsels of God. And there is where we hear Paul and there's where we hear Christ.
Brethren, please.
Let's have a respect.
For what God himself has put together.
For the benefit.
Salvation for those who are lost.
The encouragement of building up.
Those of us, by its grace, are saved.
At.
What we can do as individuals, sometimes we cannot necessarily do as an assembly.
You know there is more liberty given to us as an individual.
Then as an assembly, there are more restrictions there, but hopefully we will have individually an exercise.
00:55:05
In connection with distributing bibles or good literature, do it.
When you have the opportunity.
You know, like Malawi, they, many of them read English and they don't have money to buy a Bible. They don't have money to get ministry books. You know, it's a privilege to help in that way. And if you know Brother Ruben is there in the South, you know they are now in Malawi 33 assemblies.
When we start first when there were a few people interested.
You know, and those people are generally very poor and we can be exercised about it, but be careful.
And channel things through people that we have confidence in and that we know know how to use things that are entrusted to them. You know there is starvation.
You know, you might have heard that news. Three people died there.
One of starvation, one from malaria and another was eaten by a crocodile.
You know, that's the kind of circumstances that our brethren live in, in some of those lands, but we can be thankful that we know people there that we have confidence in and that we can channel things through.
And they will, I'm sure, be faithful to use what is entrusted to them. And there is need for food. Now of course, the harvest isn't far off.
In Malawi, once the harvest comes in, things will be better, but just things.
Somebody, a Christian, starved to death in Malawi.
You know, and he's not the only one.
You know, so when we become aware of needs, not only Bibles.
Also such needs as lack of food.
We are in a position that we can help.
But use what you have wisely entrusted to people that you know will handle it faithfully.
I'd like to add 1 if I may. I know our time is gone, but one of the values of a reading meeting.
Is that there is opportunity for to give balanced truth. One brother may say something and another brother may say something else. And I remember years ago being in a care meeting, and I remember our brother John Brereton saying when there was difference of opinion about something, he quoted the verse in Proverbs. In the multitude of counselors there is safety. And I'd like to add one comment in connection with the verse that our brother Hines quoted. We ought to obey God rather than men.
That was quoted to the high priest. It was not quoted to the.
To the government authorities and and in.
There's a verse in Romans I'd like to read, and I'll just It's a 13th chapter. Let every soul be subject under the higher power, for there is no power but of God. The powers that be are ordained of God. Whosoever therefore resisteth the power resisteth the ordinance of God, and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation.
Now, Brother Knight, you know I'm going to tell you I've got to call myself a chicken Christian. I find it very difficult to.
Go a little bit further than maybe some other brethren would go in giving out the gospel, and maybe.
Challenge. Well, I don't know exactly what word to use, but you know I have deep respect for those who would carry the gospel. And may the Lord may we pray for those who would take a chance, maybe that some of the rest of us wouldn't take, and what their exercise is before the Lord to pray for them in connection with it, if it involves taking the gospel to to foreign lands.
Let's get on our knees and pray and ask the Lord for wisdom, for them to know what to do. I think there's difficult decisions sometimes that they face. As to crossing the line about this, I don't know what's right and what's wrong sometimes. So let's close the meeting with prayer. Let me question question one thing. Do we have to obey everything that the government expects of a Christian? Well, I don't know brother, but I just quote the scriptures and may the Lord give us.
01:00:08
I'm asking you.
Some of us have felt that we could not. I could not.
Path of Faith Job 28:7-8
Address—B. Prost
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Special significance to it.
I can well remember.
Our late brother Eric Smith, well remembered by many of us here, giving this hymn out at a Wheaton conference over 45 years ago.
And somehow the way he was able to lay an emphasis on the sentiments expressed in it made it very special to my soul, and I hope to others too. 173 the 1St 3 verses.
A little will the Lord shall come, and we shall.
His father's home, where we love, is gonna be more.
We'll save that last verse for the end of the meeting if that's OK.
Let's pray together.
I know this is detailed on our hymn sheet simply as an address.
But when the local brother here in Saint Thomas who spoke to me about having this responsibility mentioned the meeting, he mentioned particularly an exercise about the young people. I hope it's all right if we direct our comments a bit in that direction, because on looking around yesterday and today, it seems that they outnumber us who are older quite a bit, and there are a lot of children here too.
I'd like to turn first of all to two verses, one in Romans chapter 8.
Romans, chapter 8.
I.
00:05:04
And verse 31.
Romans 831.
What shall we then say to these things?
God be for us, who can be against us?
He that spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all.
How shall he not with him also freely give us?
All things.
And then connect that please with a verse in First Corinthians.
1St Corinthians 3.
And verse 21. First Corinthians 3, verse 21.
Therefore let no man glory in men, for all things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come, all are yours. And year Christs, and Christ is God's.
First of all, we want to emphasize the wonderful content of these verses.
It tells us there in Romans chapter 8, if God be for us.
Who can be against us? He that spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all? How shall he not with him all so freely give us all things? And then here in first Corinthians we are told all things are yours.
And I want to say to my own heart, as I say to each one here this afternoon.
Do I really believe the truth of those statements that all things are mine as a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ?
In Romans, the emphasis is on what Christ has done for us.
And the fact that God looked down on you and me.
And shall we say it this way? His love put such a value on us, not because of what we were, but because of His love that He sent his son to die for us. Is it possible that He won't freely give us all things?
And then Paul tells us in Corinthians, from perhaps a little different vantage point, that all things are ours, whether in this life or in the life to come.
We had it mentioned to us in the reading meeting yesterday afternoon that these things that are brought before us in Scripture are not meant merely for future blessing and enjoyment, but are meant for our enjoyment now.
But many times.
Even though, as we have remarked, we are living right on the eve of the Lord's return.
Even though you and I ought to be, shall we say, the happiest people in this world.
Can we face it? There are times when the pathway not only seems difficult.
But sometimes it seems hard to find the way. I want to talk this afternoon on the pathway of the believer.
And do we sometimes find it difficult to find that path? You know, we do. And it is not only young people, it is we who are older as well who sometimes find it difficult to find that path. And how important it is to have a path.
It's so easy to lose the path today.
I can remember when I was younger and I used to hear about people getting lost in the woods.
And I would look around at patches of woods with which I was familiar, and for the most part it was woods. And the children can understand this woods where most of the underbrush had been cleared away, where there were no fallen logs and much and things like that. And I found I could see a long way through those trees. And I used to think my somebody would have to be in a very large patch of woods before they could get lost in the forest like that.
00:10:24
Well, the time came when some of us started to go wilderness camping and I began to sing a different tune. I can well remember being on an island on in Algonquin Park here in Ontario and there are those here in this room who will remember that trip.
It was a difficult time of camping because we had about 72 hours pretty much of straight rain. And I went out looking for some dry firewood and we were camped on an island. It wasn't that large. I suppose it might have been 20-30 acres, 40 acres at the very most that island. And I said I'm not going to worry about getting lost because I can always find a shoreline and walk around the shore and get back to where we're camped.
But I'm going to keep my bearings. Do you think I could? There was number way.
There was number way I could keep my bearings. I didn't carry a compass or anything. I just tried to keep my bearings. But there were trees over my head, there was underbrush underneath, there were rocks. There were all kinds of things.
And I did have to go and find the shoreline finally to find my way back. And I was so far away from where I thought I was. I said my Oh my, and you know.
That is the way it is in the Christian life.
If we don't have our bearings, if we don't have the compass, if we don't have the Lord before us.
But let's start out with these verses first of all, and realize all things are yours. And I say it particularly perhaps to the young people here and to the children. Remember, in the day and age in which you are living, God is for you. And if God be for us, who can be against us?
As we've heard from some of the stories from foreign lands, those who live under the fires of persecution are having to prove that in a very real way. And when God is for us, it does not mean that we may not suffer. It does not mean that the pathway will be easy. It does not mean that magically all the difficulties will disappear. No, it does not.
Yes, there are times when God gives us a marvelous deliverance and you get those, for example at the end of Hebrews Chapter 11.
And you can read the account there of those who, as it tells us, were able to overcome the incredible difficulties through which the Lord put them. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego survived the violence of fire. Daniel stopped the mouths of lions. Others, out of weakness, were made strong, like some of David's mighty men who lifted up their swords against hundreds of adversaries.
Single handed and won the battle.
But then the end of that chapter says and others.
And others.
Were tortured, not accepting deliverance. Were they men without faith? No, the chapter ends. These all died in faith.
And so I say to each one of us here, God is for you.
But if God is for you.
What is the intent of God's being for you?
It's earlier in chapter 8 of Romans. It says that we might be conformed.
To the image of his son.
Oh, isn't it beautiful to think that everything that God is doing in your life and mine ultimately is going to result in our being more conformed to the image of His Son?
But there's something else that I want to bring out. Before we go on, turn to the Book of Philippians.
Chapter One.
Philippians chapter one and I want to bring this before us at the beginning of the meeting before we get into.
00:15:02
A verse that I really want to dwell on. Philippians chapter one.
And verse 20.
According to my earnest expectation and my hope that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but that with all boldness as always.
So now also Christ shall be magnified in my body.
Whether it be by life or by death.
I say to each one here, this was what the apostle Paul had before his soul, when it was a question of whether he would stay in the body or whether he would be taken home to be with the Lord. And notice he doesn't say here that with all boldness. So now he says with all boldness as always, it was his manner of life.
That Christ might be magnified in his body, whether by life or by death.
And I say to each one of us here, and perhaps it bears particularly on you and me who live in North America, we have had many comments in the meeting concerning the privileges that we have. We have had many comments here in the meetings about the things that are available to us, and they are available. We have wealth beyond the wildest dreams of most of this world's population. We eat food.
That many people in this world.
Would only dream about we live in homes that by the standards of most of the world.
Our mansions, we drive cars, we take holidays and all the rest of it, and I am not speaking against those things in themselves.
But the whole point is.
To what use do I put what God has committed unto me?
God is for us.
But for us, in a way that is not merely for.
My pleasure, my ambitions, my thoughts, my plans.
But that Christ might be magnified in our bodies, whether by life or by death.
I've sometimes read some stories about various wars that have taken place in the world's history.
And the story comes to mind about the Second World War.
And there was a very beautiful girl who lived in England during the Second World War.
Who came to the government?
She was perfectly fluent in the French language as well as in English. She may also have been fluent in German, I can't remember.
And she offered her services to the government and said I would like to do something.
For the war effort.
And so the government said we can use Someone Like You.
You're a woman, you have a measure of beauty, and in your youth you can go places and do things.
That men could not get away with. We're going to send you to a special on a special mission over to France, which at that time, of course, was occupied by the Germans.
And we have something for you to do there. It's a dangerous mission.
But if you can undertake it, it would be a big help, she said. I'm willing, I'll go.
So she went over there to France.
And the situation did not turn out as they had expected. Sometimes in war, those things happen and instead of her being able to come back to England safely as had been planned. Yes, there were dangers involved, but they had hoped that she would be able to overcome them.
But the situation changed and circumstances did not workout.
And it ended up that she was caught in a situation where rescue was impossible.
And some in the government were up in arms about it.
And they said, what are we going to do? They said we can't let this girl just perish like this.
What are we going to do?
Rightly or wrongly, Winston Churchill, it went all the way to him as Prime Minister of Great Britain at the time, and his comment was rather terse, but it was accurate, he said. I'm very sorry.
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But he said if we're going to win this war.
There are those.
That are going to have to give up their lives.
Even if they're beautiful young women.
And she lost her life.
I'm not sure exactly of all the circumstances, but they couldn't rescue her. She accomplished what they wanted her to do. She rendered her service.
The government got the intelligence that it was looking for.
But she lost her life.
I say that to each one of us here because normally in these favored lands we aren't asked to give up our lives for Christ, but there is a way that you and I can can give up our lives.
Even if we don't necessarily lose, shall we say, our physical lives in death.
But what the Lord wants is those who are willing.
Shall we say?
To come to the Lord and say, whether by life or by death, here I am, I'm willing.
But you know, if we're going to do that, we must be able to find the path.
And you know, and I know that there are many today who are finding it difficult.
To find the path.
And they aren't all young people either. And some of us know what it is like to miss the past. So don't think that I'm preaching at anyone here.
Some of us know what it feels like.
And I'd like to turn back particularly to a verse in the Old Testament that I have often enjoyed. And I'd like to make an application of it to the path of a believer, simple and down to earth, so that I think even the children here can understand it because, you know, a path is most important.
When you go into some areas when you want to go wilderness camping.
There's no path. There's no path anywhere. Oh, there may be hiking trails at various points, but normally there's no path. You get around by canoes on lakes and rivers.
And about the only path you will ever find is the one from the campsite out to the little washroom they provide for you.
If indeed there is any trail out to it.
But you know, when we're walking somewhere where we don't know the way, the path is most important, and we need to be able to find it. Let's turn back, please, to the book of Job in the Old Testament, Job 28.
Now job was one who was having trouble in one sense.
With the path.
He was having trouble understanding God's ways.
Way back, thousands of years ago, God had allowed a set of circumstances in his life.
That he could not understand. He said in so many words, I can't understand this and if only I could get the Lord face to face and have a a heart to heart interview with Him, I'm sure we could straighten this out.
I wish there were somebody that could come between us, he says. A days man.
But Job was having trouble with a set of circumstances that were so overwhelming, so inexplicable, so difficult that he said. I don't know which way to turn and what to do.
You know, sometimes we're faced with that.
And I want to read what Job had to say here because unwittingly in Job seeking for wisdom.
He made a comment that I believe the Spirit of God can apply to us to Jay today. Job 28, verse 7.
There is a path which no foul know, and which the vultures I have not seen. The lions whelps have not trodden it, nor the fierce lion pass by it.
Job here is talking about silver and gold.
And that silver and gold is mined underground.
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Where the birds don't see it and where the lions don't walk by it. And I say to you, each one, dear fellow believer, as I say to my own soul, the gold, the silver that God has for you and for me is available.
There is a path. Oh brethren, let no one ever take this away from us. There is a path.
God will never, never give you and me.
Precious truth in His word and yet make it impossible for us to walk in it.
I say that again, God will never reveal precious truth to you and to me from His Word.
And yet make me.
Have to say, because of the circumstances in which I am, because of the day in which I am living.
It is impossible to walk in it.
Now I make allowances for the fact that sometimes there are testings in our lives.
And there are times sometimes when God governmentally may blind us for the moment to the path.
Let me use an illustration that the children here will understand.
Quite a few years ago, when our son was about four years old, we visited a place in the United States that's got plenty of history. Williamsburg, VA.
And it was crowded. A lot of people there interested in going here and there. So I said to my son, please stick close to us. Don't dart off in this direction or that direction to look at something because you may get lost.
Well, as you may well imagine, he saw something that caught his eye, and pretty soon, oh, where's Eric? Looked around. Nowhere within my vicinity. Took a cursory look in the crowd, couldn't find him. Every parent that's had that experience knows how your heart jumps into your mouth and so on.
The remedy wasn't that difficult because excuse me?
I looked off to one side.
And there was an elevated platform at least 2-3 feet high, which I quickly hopped up on top of and I could see very well over the whole crowd and I spotted them in less than two seconds.
But you know, I thought to myself, Eric, you got yourself into this situation through disobedience. I'm going to let you Stew in your juice for a few minutes. Was kind of cruel. It probably hurt me more than it hurt him because he was frantic. He was darting this way and that way and trying to wend his way through the crowds. Of course, everybody was twice as height and so on. And he knew he was lost. He knew he was in trouble.
And I let him go through it for a few minutes, just stood there and watched.
After a while I simply called out and weighed my arm.
And you can imagine how quickly he came back.
You know the Lord does that to us sometimes. He's watching us. He knows where we are.
He's right there, but we're so intent on darting here and there that we don't see him. And sometimes he may let us feel the effect of being lost in order that we might not disobey and walk in a path of self will again. So allowing for that, allowing for that.
I say with all confidence.
God will never, never reveal truth to you and me and yet not enable us to walk in it. It may be difficult, it may be a narrow path. There may be a cost involved.
But I believe he'll show us that path.
Sometimes there are dear Saints of God, and my heart aches when I hear it.
They say I don't know where the Lord is in the midst anymore, or I don't know where the Lord's table is anymore.
Or I don't know.
Where to go or what to do? The situation is so difficult and so confusing.
Here in Job 28, it says there is a path and we emphasize that there is a path. That path is there. It is not like going through Algonquin Park or going through the Boundary Waters of northern Minnesota or something where there is no path.
There is a path but it says which no foul know.
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You know, when I stood up on that platform, I could see out over the crowd some of those birds of prey that fly so high up in the sky.
Those who study them tell us that they have incredible eyes and that they can focus from that great height, sometimes hundreds of feet in the air, to see something as small as a mouse running across a field or a tiny squirrel situated somewhere. And we have no doubt all seen a bird like a hawk or something like that suddenly swoop down because it sees what it is about to catch.
Tremendous eyesight, and I suggest that the eye of the fowl here speaks.
Of human wisdom. Human wisdom. Oh, there is a path which no foul knoweth. Human wisdom will never find that path.
And may I carry that a step further? And I trust.
This won't offend anyone because I speak from personal experience and I believe it to be the truth of God.
In divine things, the principles of God's Word are most important. Most important.
And I would not for a moment in any way take away from the importance of knowing and understanding them.
But even a knowledge of right principles is not enough to show me the path.
I cannot have a knowledge of principles in one hand and perhaps a knowledge of the circumstances in the other hand, and expect to put the two together and the answer to be obvious.
Yes, principles are a guide. They help me. If my imagination is running away from me or my own thoughts are taking me in a wrong direction, a principle from God's Word may quietly pull me back.
But there's no substitute. Her brother Chuck mentioned it this morning for meditation and communion with the Lord.
There is no substitute for communion with the Lord. Turn to John Chapter 7 for a verse that is well known to us.
John, Chapter 7.
Verse 17.
If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself.
If you want to know the will of the Lord and do it.
The Lord will show you. But notice how this verse is written. It does not say. If any man will know his will, he shall know of the doctrine.
Sometimes people come to me and they say, Bill, will you do me a favor?
And I have to say that my response sometimes depends on who asks.
Maybe we all have that problem if certain people were to ask me and say, Bill, do me a favor.
My immediate response would be yes, whatever you ask. What is it?
I can honestly say that there are a number of people to whom that response would be without reservation.
But I have to confess that there are others whom, if they came to me and said, Bill, do me a favor, I would probably say, what is it?
What is it?
Because I know them well enough to know that sometimes they might ask that, which I find I could not do.
Or perhaps would not be able to do.
When it's a matter of coming to the Lord, I cannot come to the Lord.
As a believer and say Lord, I want to know thy will, but deep down in my heart have the thought when he tells me what it is, then I'll consider it and decide whether I'm willing to pay the price or not.
I shouldn't be surprised if I come with that attitude if I don't get the guidance I'm looking for.
But if I come saying, Lord, I want to do thy will.
I come with an open heart, an open soul, an open mind, and say, Lord, show me and I'll do it. Whatever it is, with thy help and thy grace I'll do it. That individual is going to know the Lord's will, and it is possible to have a sense of the Lord's will in our lives. No, I am not pretending that any one of us would want to stand up and say, yes, I know I have the Lord's will, unless I have positive scripture for it, of course. But to say that in something that has to do with our personal life.
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Is to say that I am living so close to the Lord that I couldn't miss his mind, and I don't think any of us would say that.
But I believe we can have a sense in our souls of the Lord's leading and guidance in our lives.
If we come to him in this way. But again, I want to emphasize, I can't get it with human wisdom.
No, I'm not suggesting that an aptitude test in school is not valuable at times. I'm not suggesting that advice and counsel from others who know us well is not good and helpful. Yes, it can be. But ultimately, when it comes right down to it, there is a path which no foul north. And yet, in the Lord's presence, I can find that path.
Let's go back to Job 28.
And which verse 7 the last half and which the vultures I have not seen.
Everyone here knows what a vulture is I guess.
Those animals, those birds that prey on that which is dead.
That which is dead.
And, you know, sometimes we as believers, sad to say.
Can appear dead if we're out of the path.
I don't tell this story to be funny, but it makes the point.
Many years ago, my late father-in-law, Albert Hayhoe, was visiting in southern Mexico.
And he liked to walk, He liked to exercise.
And so he volunteered to walk with some of those beloved Mexican brethren from the Oaxaca area.
And the track involved going up and down over some low mountains and so on.
And he was rather forcibly reminded that he was not as young as he used to be.
And on one occasion he got up to the top of a hill totally winded.
And laid down, just flopped down on the grass there and was breathing in very deeply, catching his breath.
After a while a couple of Mexican brethren came up and 1/2 of them looked down on them and they didn't think he understood Spanish. So one of them said do you think he's going to die?
And the other one said, no, the spirit truly is willing, but the flesh is weak.
And they walked on.
There were others coming. They knew he could well afford to stay there and relax, so he laid there.
And in telling about it afterward, he said after a while, he opened his eyes just to slit because it was bright sunlight. And to his horror, he saw this huge Turkey vulture swirling up over a head, coming lower and lower and lower and lower. And he thought, uh.
That vulture thinks I'm dead, and if I don't make some sign of life in a minute or two, he's going to land on me. So he quickly sat up, and as you may well imagine, the Vulture went away because he wasn't interested in something that was alive. He wanted something that was dead.
But I thought about that story many times.
The vultures eye has not seen that path. the Vulture is pretty good. Anything dies, you can be sure the vultures will find it. They'll find it and feed on it. Up in this area we don't have so many things like Turkey vultures, but we've got crows and they'll find it and feed on it and it doesn't take them long if something dies to feed on it.
But the Vulture can't see you and can't attack you in the path of obedience and faithfulness to the Lord. If we're off the path, we may appear dead. We may appear like good material. Because the Vulture attacks those who are dead. He attacks the man of the world. He attacks those who are walking after the course of this world. the Vulture, I believe, would speak in one sense of Satan's hosts that are right there to prey on those.
Who are off the path and look dead, but the Vulture hasn't seen the path in faithfulness to the Lord.
Let's go on.
Verse 8. The lions whelps have not trodden it.
The lion's whelps have not trodden it. You know, in scripture you often get the lion spoken of, and sometimes you get Young Lions or you lions whelps or Young Lions. And I suppose if we could put it this way, the lion speaks of strength. But when it's the young lion, it's super strength, exceptional strength, because it's the lion in his youth.
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I'm getting older now, but I haven't forgotten what it was like to be young. I haven't forgotten what it was like to have boundless energy, to be able to work half the night and still be able to get up and go the next day. I haven't forgotten what it was like to have the mind so keen, as brothers were mentioning in the reading this morning, that you could read written ministry, read the word of God and remember it and hang on to it. Or when you could read textbooks at school, for that matter, and hang on to what you were being taught. And so on.
I hope some of us haven't totally lost that faculty, but it's not as easy as it used to be.
But here it speaks of the lion's whelps, and it says they have not trodden that path.
All you and I cannot walk the pathway of faith in our own strength. We can't walk it in our own strength.
There are two things necessary to walk the pathway of faith.
And we want to lay a bit of emphasis on them. One is dependence.
And the other is obedience, dependence and obedience. We need both turn back or turn on a little bit to Psalm 16. And I believe we see that Psalm 16.
Now this Psalm gives us.
The pathway primarily of the Lord Jesus, but as an example for us.
Of the perfect dependent man.
Isn't it wonderful that the Lord Jesus walked through this world as the perfect dependent man as an example for us? Isn't it wonderful that when John came to baptize him and said I have need to be baptized of thee, that the Lord said no, suffer it to be so now he identified with his own faithful ones.
When the devil tempted the Lord Jesus instead of answering him in his Godhead power.
He answered him as a perfect dependent man.
Excuse me?
As you and I can.
He answered him from Scripture.
He answered in the way that we can answer the devil.
So the Lord Jesus has taken that place and that's why He is a perfect example for us.
The brother was mentioning to me in the noon hour concerning our chapter in Luke 12 That we have been considering.
That when the Lord says, Who is that faithful and wise servant, that there is only one?
Who is really?
The faithful and wise servant There was only one who was always faithful and only one who was always wise.
The Lord Jesus Christ and so here in Psalm 16 in verse one it says, preserve me, oh God, for in thee do I put my trust.
Could I suggest that you say that verse over every day of your life?
Would that be too much? I just suggested.
When you get up in the morning, say that verse over to yourself. Preserve me, O God, for in thee do I put my trust. If you say it and really mean it, then you can walk in dependence on the Lord. Because if I try to walk the Christian pathway in my own strength, what happens? Why doesn't the Lord allow that?
Because if we walked it in our own strength, we would take the credit for it. We would get the glory. Pride comes in, and we all know that pride besets every one of us. We like to think that we're capable. And as young people, we are capable. And I want to say as I look out at you young people, that you are a big encouragement to us. I enjoy the energy of young people. I enjoy their.
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Heart for Christ, their willingness to get involved in things.
Their sense of, shall I say, the regions beyond in many cases. And I know that there are many of you who have desires like that and we encourage you in that. We encourage you in it. In fact, it was rather interesting I was reading.
Some of our written ministry, this is many years ago, so the reference may be inaccurate, but I think it was in Edward Dennett's ministry and he made a rather interesting comment. This was just in a reading meeting. I thought it was rather rather, shall I say, well, I just enjoyed it. He said, you know, if I ever want the Lord to do something in a hurry, he said, I asked some young people to pray for it because he said they don't see any of the difficulties or any of the problems.
They just go straight to the Lord with a straightforward request, and he said the Lord usually answers well. I thought that was interesting coming from an older brother. He said if I ever want the Lord to do something right away in in a hurry, I get some young people to pray for it. In my experience with young people, I can say something the same. And we're so thankful for that. Thankful because God can use that energy of youth that some of us don't have any more that ability to go places and do things.
With perhaps bodily energy and so on that some of us who are older don't have.
But let's remember that ultimately the lion's whelps have not trodden that path. It must be in the Lords strength.
Now back to Job 28.
At the end it says nor the fierce lion passed by it.
The fierce lion is a little different, thought.
The fierce lion is more the thought.
Of what we get in Peter, where the devil is a roaring lion, it says, Go with the boat, seeking whom he may devour.
The fierce lion.
And the fierce lion is here today as he ever was. He is attacking our brethren in some countries with the fires of persecution. But, you know, sometimes, while we would in no way wish persecution on anyone, yet sometimes it is somewhat easier because, shall we say, the battle lines are drawn and they're clear.
I remember a brother telling me in Romania that back in the Ceausescu years, when the communist government was firmly in place, he said there were very few nominal Christians. There were very few nominal Christians. And he said if there were nominal Christians, generally they cooperated with the Communists and everyone knew who they were. He said the real Christians were easily discernible for the most part.
Because the demarcation line was very, very clear. But in lands like North America, Western Europe and so on, where we have liberty and freedom and a measure of prosperity, all the fierce lion attacks. In another way, the fierce lion attacks.
Well, I'm going to use the words of a Christian from a foreign land.
These are not my words. These are the words of a believer from a foreign land who lived under the fires of persecution.
And when he had an opportunity to visit North America, he said the devil attacks us in our land by persecution from the world. He said the devil attacks believers in North America by difficulties among believers themselves.
His comment now not mine his comment.
You and I know, sad to say, how true that is.
If the devil cannot attack from without, he will attack from within. And that is not to say that the world is any different over here. It is not to say that the world does not attack.
That we do not feel reproach. We do, but the devil has made more havoc and more difficulty in countries with so-called freedom, Christian countries, by attacking believers from within.
Nor the fierce line pass by.
There is a path where the devil cannot attack you.
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Oh, you say Bill, show me where it is, please. I want to walk in that path. I don't want that devil to attack me.
And it is not for me to tell you what your path ought to be. I can say definitely from the Word of God what the Word of God teaches. But the path of the believer as well as being collective has to start with individual devotedness to the Lord, with individual faithfulness, with individual exercise, with individual obedience, with individual dependence.
You will remember if you've read the Pilgrims Progress how that when Christian was walking along there at one point he saw 2 lions on either side of the road.
And he wondered how he would get by.
You remember the story how he got by? He thought for a moment. He said there's no way, because no matter if I go this way, the one lion will get me, and if I go a little more on this side, the other lion will get me. There's no way to get by. But then as he got closer, he saw that each lion was chained, and the chains were measured very carefully, so that as long as he stayed right on the path, the one lion from the right could come only so far, and the lion from the left could come only so far.
And there was enough room to walk in between without either one being able to reach him. You remember that? I'm sure you do.
It was a narrow path. If he stepped a little bit this way, one lion would get him, and if he stepped a little bit this way, the other lion would get him. You know, John Bunyan, I believe the Lord gave him wisdom. Not that he was inspired. I don't imply that, but I believe the Lord gave him wisdom in writing because when he put that illustration in, he showed how that very often decisions in the Christian life are a matter of keeping the truth in proper balance.
We find in the Old Testament that it speaks of some of the kings that they declined neither to the right hand nor to the left.
And even in our society, we measure politicians and other people by where they stand. Well, he's a little bit left of center, or he's from the far right or something like that. The far right course being ultra conservative and the left being liberal and so on. And in certain aspects of studying the human mind, people speak of left brain and right brain with various differences and so on. So we recognize that there is a need for balance in natural things.
And in spiritual things there is often a need for balance in the things of God, and the devil will attack on either side. Sometimes there is a going to an extreme in one line of truth.
And if there another line of truth that would balance it is not considered, then I can find myself attacked by the fierce lion. Or perhaps I go to the other extreme in another direction.
And in one sense, I may even be able to quote scripture to support me. But I'm not keeping scripture in its place. I'm not rightly dividing the word of truth.
I'm not handling the Word of God, as I think Mr. Wigram says.
As a spirit filled individual would handle it all, the Spirit of God is here indwelling each one of us individually, indwelling believers collectively as the House of God to enable us to apply the Word of God in a balanced way. And the the the fierce lion cannot attack you in that path. Oh, you say, but he is attacking. Yes he is. And if the lion attacks you or attacks me?
Let me not look at the circumstances, Let me not look at other brethren, let me not look at various things that have happened either to me or to others.
Let me say, Lord, have I missed the path? Have I missed the pack? Because I say again with all conviction, the devil cannot attack us in that path.
We mentioned dependence.
We want to talk for a moment before we close about obedience. Turn back to Psalm 16.
Psalm 16.
Verse 4.
Their sorrow shall be multiplied, that hasten after another God. There's drink offerings of blood. Will I not offer, nor take up their names into my lips?
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And then here.
The Lord is the portion of mine inheritance and of my cup. Thou maintainest my lot.
I suppose there is no one here that would in that sense hasten after another God.
But sometimes.
In another sense, we can hasten after different gods. We can have a God of pleasure, we can have a God of money, we can have a God to do with material things or with something in this world.
And if I could really cut it, fine, I can make a God even of the Lord's things in the wrong way.
A brother many years ago, I think it was George Heaney, made the remark. He said when I was an unbeliever, I wanted to be a great man in the world and when I became a Christian I wanted to be a great man in the Church of God.
And I had to learn that both were wrong.
I can make a God of preaching the gospel. I can make a God of applying the truth.
Now, I don't want to be misunderstood. Both of those are good things.
But ultimately.
I want to have what we have in verse 5 here. It's Jehovah, but we'll apply it to the Lord Jesus.
The Lord is the portion of what? First of all, my inheritance. That's at the end of the journey.
One Step Between Me and Death
Gospel—J. Bilisoly
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 then when we get to the third stanza, if we could stand together and sing the rest of the hymn?
Dust is very brief, like the falling of.
And your priceless soul belongs.
Behind.
Me.
All the voice of Jesus holds you in the heart.
If it's in your way, you may I know again.
And you're crying us away.
In time.
And I hear the warning voice make a longer because.
I will rejoice in time, on the market, into life from nowhere.
Shall we ask God for His help in the meeting?
Could you turn with me please to a verse in First Samuel chapter 20?
I'm just going to read.
Part of this these first three verses.
And I want to emphasize the phrase that has come before me of late.
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And that's in the third verse.
But maybe we should just read from the start of the chapter. And David fled from Naooth in Rhema, and came and said before Jonathan, What have I done? What is mine iniquity? And what is my sin before thy father, that he seeketh my life? And he said unto him, God forbid thou shalt not die. Behold, my father will do nothing either great or small, but that he will show at me. And why should my father hide this thing from me?
It is not so.
And David swear moreover, and said, Thy father certainly know that I have found grace in thine eyes. And he saith, Let not Jonathan know this, lest he be grieved. But truly, as the Lord liveth, and as thy soul liveth, there is but a step between me and death.
Now I had been asked to speak in this meeting yesterday by one of the local brothers here in Saint Thomas and.
Those of you that have done this can understand the feelings of trepidation.
Inadequacy.
Feeling that this is a big task.
And yet I think often of that verse that says not by might nor by power, but by my spirit saith the Lord. And so we realize and we know that if there's going to be any soul that comes to Christ tonight, it's going to be directly because of the work of the Spirit of God. If he wants to use A4 vessel and take some message and use that as a convicting arrow to your heart, then we thank the Lord for that. But it's the work of the Spirit of God to save souls, isn't it?
And so I asked the Lord for a burden, and I asked the Lord for this burden, that he would give me a burden for lost souls.
And so I woke up rather early this morning, and this is what came before my soul was this statement here at the end of verse three. There is but a step between me and death. And dear ones, tonight I'm going to be repeating that frequently throughout these few moments that we have together. There has been a step between me and death.
You know, each one of us here in this room is taking steps right now. You're taking steps.
And those steps are leading you in a certain direction. And now we've come to a gospel meeting, and you're sitting in this gospel meeting in a chair in this room.
And with the Lord's help, we trust that you will hear something of the gospel message and you're going to be faced once again in your life with a decision.
You're going to be perhaps, as it were, at a crossroads in your life.
And you're going to have to decide what step are you going to take.
Are you going to take a step of faith that will?
Secure for you eternal salvation through the precious work of Christ in His shed blood.
Or are you going to take a step away and say not tonight?
You know, I don't know a lot of you here because there's a whole generation or two of young people that I don't don't know personally. I recognize your faces. I've seen you, most of you before.
And I don't know where you're at. I don't know if maybe there's a step between you and death tonight.
Now with David here, it was literal death.
He was being hunted, he was being persecuted by a man that despised him, that was jealous of him.
That feared for his position in this world and he wanted to remove this hindrance.
You know, he had been told King Saul had been told that his Kingdom was going to be taken away from him and given to a neighbor of him his.
That was better than he.
Now, I don't know that he knew who that neighbor was at this point.
But we do read in these chapters here.
In verse 10 of chapter 18, if you just turn back.
Actually, verse nine and Saul I, David from that day and forward.
Did he? I am with a sense of, you know, this is a great man that I can make good use of. No. He eyed him with envy and perhaps we could say hatred too.
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And so David literally thought of that step between him and death, and he was afraid.
I wonder if there's anyone here in this room that is somewhat fearful tonight because.
I think you know whether you know the Lord Jesus as your Savior or not. I think you know who you are.
I don't. I don't know who you are.
Scripture says the Lord knoweth them that are his. The Lord knows your heart.
He knows what you're thinking. You know, we've been here at conference for a day and a half now and perhaps you're getting a little wary and you're saying, yeah, another meeting.
Another meeting to sit through, watch those minute, that minute hand go slowly around the dial. I hope you're not saying that in your heart. I would ask you, and I would even plead with you for just a few moments if you would. Would you listen and think about this serious matter, of this step between you and death?
Work with a man.
Not long ago.
I had worked with him fairly closely off and on throughout.
The time that he was there at the company.
And the last time I talked to him, he asked me about my children and we had a little bit of conversation along that line.
But prior to that, I had heard him talking to others and he had mentioned something along the same line to me about his wanting to retire and he was going to retire in a couple years. He had it all planned out. He was going to move to a foreign country. He was dissatisfied with the government here in the US or back in the US, and he had his life all planned out.
He came into work one day, it wasn't even a working day for him. We're on what we call a flex schedule.
And so it was his day off, but he came in to make up some work because he was going to be taking a trip to San Diego.
And he usually rode the bus, but this day he drove in. He was going home.
And at an intersection not more than a couple blocks from the building, a man under the influence of alcohol came flying through an intersection and hit him and knocked his car almost a block down the street.
He lived a few hours and then he passed into eternity.
There was but a step between him and death now. He didn't realize that, but that's how brief life can be, how uncertain. What about you tonight?
I know of another young boy.
That was waiting in a pond along a pier and he was walking out into the water.
And he slipped, he didn't know how to swim, and he slipped and he went into a deep pocket and the floor of that lake and he went underwater.
Almost certain to drown, he didn't know how to swim.
And God, in his Providence and mercy, allowed a man.
An older man to come walking through the water alongside up here and he bumped into this boy.
And realized that something was amiss and saved his life.
And God in mercy saved that young boy's life, and he later was saved.
Well, I mentioned that because like I said, you're on a journey, you're taking steps, and that's what I have before me tonight is the subject of taking steps.
And I want to look at five men.
And see the steps that they took and where those steps LED.
And we're going to see in four of these examples, and there's many, many examples in Scripture that we could draw from, but I just have these five come to mind to my heart. We're going to see some similarities with four of these in the steps that they take. So let's go to the book of Genesis chapter 4 and look at this first man.
And we'll read a few verses from the beginning of this chapter, and we're going to speak about a man named Cain.
And Adam knew Eve his wife verse one, and she conceived and bare Cain and said I have gotten a man from the Lord.
And she again bare his brother Abel. And Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground.
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And in process of time it came to pass that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground, and offering unto the Lord. And Abel he also brought of the firstlings of his flock, and of the fat thereof. And the Lord had respect unto Abel into his offering.
But unto Cain, unto his offering he had not respect. And Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell. And the Lord said unto Cain, Why art thou wroth, and why is thy countenance fallen?
If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? And if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door, and unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him. And Cain talked with Abel his brother, and it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cane rose up against Abel's brother and slew him.
And the Lord said unto Cain, Where is Abel thy brother?
And he said I know not.
Am I my brother's keeper?
And he said, What hast thou done? The voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto me from the ground, and now art thou cursed from the earth, which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brother's blood from thy hand.
Verse 13 And Cain said unto the Lord, My punishment is greater than I can bear. Behold.
Thou hast driven me out this day from the face of the earth, and from thy face shall I be hid?
And I shall be a fugitive and a Vagabond in the earth. And it shall come to pass that everyone that findeth me shall slay me.
And the Lord said unto him, Therefore, whosoever slayeth Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold. And the Lord set a mark upon Cain, lest any finding him should kill him. One more verse here. And Cain went out from the presence of the Lord, and dwelt in the land of Nod on the east of Eden.
We know the story well, so I'm not going to go through it.
But we know that these boys, no doubt these two sons, the first sons born into this world of man.
They must have had a similar upbringing.
They must have known something about why their parents were clothed in animal skins in verse 21 of the previous chapter.
That the Lord had clothed them with.
They must have heard the story of their parents disobedience and the result of.
What happened? The consequences?
Perhaps they've been told something of the approach.
Unto God.
But we know that Cain here, he comes with.
His offering?
And we notice right away, don't we, that it's deficient. It's very deficient.
Because there's no blood.
It's a bloodless sacrifice.
And that won't do, dear ones, tonight.
Because God says that without the shedding of blood is no remission of sins.
The blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanseth us from all sin. Are you resting on that? Are you sheltered beneath the precious blood of Christ?
Cain had his own notion of how he was going to approach God.
But it wouldn't be accepted. God couldn't accept it.
But notice what he says here in verse 14. He says, Behold, thou hast driven me out to stay from the face of the earth, and from thy face shall I be hid. That was cain't thought.
That wasn't God's purpose towards him.
The Lord had graciously said to him in verse seven, If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted?
And if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door, a sin offering. God had made a provision for this man.
Whereby he could come on the same ground that Abel did, but he didn't accept it.
From thy face shall I be hid? That was his choice.
And that was his conscious choice. He chose. He took that step and said, I'm, I'm going to go out.
He could have accepted, he could have humbled himself and accepted Gods pardon. What about you tonight?
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Maybe you say, well, I would offer something better than what Cain offered.
Dear ones, tonight I don't care what it is that you have to give to God, it's not enough.
He's already made provision for you.
And he has given the best that his love could give. He's given his dear son, the son of his love, his beloved son. And anything else would be a slight to him.
He's given all that his heart of love could give, and the best that you could offer would be a slight to him.
It would be like saying to him, I have something better than what you've provided. Can you imagine speaking that way? But that's in effect what you would be doing.
God has made provision for you, but I want to just point out here.
Four things. In verse three it says Cain brought.
And in verse 8, Cain taught.
Verse eight again Cain rose up.
And verse 16, Cain went out. Now keep those things in mind because we're going to see.
At least to some degree with these other four, three men that we want to look at, we're going to see this pattern or something similar to it, Cain brought, Cain talked.
Cain rose up. Cain went out. You know, there are verses in Scripture that are so sad and tragic, and to me this is one of them. This verse 16. Cain went out from the presence of the Lord, and he doesn't say this, but he never returned.
Are you going to leave this meeting?
With an unsettled question in your soul as to what you're going to do with Jesus, which is called Christ.
You may be leaving.
The opportunity once and for all. There may be a step between you and death. Oh, don't take a chance.
You know, we probably all enjoyed most of us that tracked that Bible tract, Gospel tract, I think it was called Roger's Deliverance. It was the story of a a man that was a professional diver and he couldn't sleep one night. So he decided he had access to a pool and he decided to go down and he didn't even bother to turn the lights of the pool on. He just climbed up the ladder that he was so familiar with, went out onto the diving board, stretched out his arms.
In perfect form, as he was so good at.
And began to prepare for a dive. And as I recall the story, there was a little light coming through a window from the moon. And as it played across his body, there stretched out on that diving board, ready to dive, poised there, it made the form of a cross, a shadow of a cross on the adjoining on the wall opposite wall. And he looked, and as he stood there poised, ready to spring, he saw that cross.
Made him think about eternal things.
He turned around and he went down.
Later he found that they had drained the pool. There was no water in the pool. You can imagine there was just a step between him and death. It would have been certain death had he dove, and an awful death.
Awful, but he was delivered. He was delivered by what looked like a cross. Dear ones, tonight, you tonight can be delivered by the cross. Don't walk around it, don't spurn it. Don't turn away from it.
Now at the foot of the cross and yield your life to the Lord Jesus. Let's look at the next one in Acts chapter.
25.
Acts Chapter 25.
Verse 13 And after certain days, King Agrippa and Bernice came unto Caesarea to salute Festus, and when they had been there many days, Festus declared Paul's cause unto the king, saying, There's a certain man left in bonds by Felix.
About whom, when I was at Jerusalem, the chief priests and elders of the Jews informed me, desiring to have judgment against him. And then so on into the story he tells King Agrippa about this man.
Well, King Agrippa says.
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In verse 22 to Festus, I would also hear the man myself tomorrow, said he, Thou shalt hear him. So they planned this meeting.
And they bring Paul before this king Agrippa.
And it tells us here in this chapter 2 in verse, this chapter also in verse 23. And on the Morrow, when Agrippa was coming, Bernice with great pomp, and was entered into the place of hearing with the chief captains and principal men of the city.
At Festus commandment or commandment, Paul was brought forth.
This was quite a gathering of the notorious folks of that day, royalty, principal men of the city.
Governors.
And a prisoner named Paul.
And so I thought of this in connection with King Agrippa. What did he bring? You know, it talked about, we talked about Cain bringing something. This man brought all that man might offer.
Royalty. Pomp. Glory.
You know our brother in his last meeting. Read that verse to us. Let not men glory in man.
And there's another verse. I'm not sure where it is. Let he that, but he that glorious, let him glory in the Lord.
You know, men love praise. It says here that they came.
This king, Agrippa and Bernice came to salute Festus, and I'm sure they came with salutations and glowing words and so on. And men love the praise of man more than the praise of God.
Well.
You know he got to talk to Paul too. It says in verse one of the next chapter that he said unto Paul, Dart permitted to speak for thyself, but I want to jump down in the chapter.
And start from verse.
24 And as he thus spake for himself, Besta said with a loud voice, Paul, dart beside thyself, much learning doth make thee mad. But he said, I am not mad most noble Festus, but speak forth the words of truth and soberness for the king north of these things, before whom I speak freely. For I am persuaded that none of these things are hidden from him. For this thing was not done in a corner. King Agrippa, believeth style the prophets I know that thou believeest.
Then a grip is said unto Paul almost now persuade us me to be a Christian.
You know, I didn't mention this, but I've wondered sometimes when we were talking about Cain. I wonder what Cain?
Said to Abel. He said he talked with Abel, his brother.
I don't think we read anything that Abel ever said. The only thing we ever read of is that his blood cried unto the ground, unto the Lord from the ground.
I think that's the only thing we read of people saying I don't know what Cain said. Scripture has veiled it from us, so I'm not going to surmise what he said, but I don't think it was.
Very good. I'm sure it was in anger because it says he talked with them and then he rose up and we know what he did. He slew him. He slew his brother, became a murderer.
Well, here King Agrippa speaks to this man, this one who had given so much for the Lord.
He was in chains.
And here, with a loving heart, he says to King Agrippa, he's seeking to reach him. He sees that perhaps there's some plowing in this man. And I think he means seriously when he says here.
Believe us all the prophets. I think he meant seriously, literally, that he knew, he seemed to understand that this king knew about the prophets, that there was an interest in these customs and Jewish things. And I understand that. I believe it was his great, great, great grandfather.
That was a Jewish proselyte that had been converted to Judaism. So it was in the family line, you might say these these things, this interest in Jewish customs and the Caesars of Rome had given privileges to this man and and given him authority over cities, Jewish cities and so on.
And so he was interested in these things. And Paul meant seriously, believe us all the prophets. He was putting an honest question to him. I know that thou believe us. He was. So Paul sensed he was so close. There was just about a step between him and death. And if he could take that step in the right direction, and what does he do? Another very solemn verse in Scripture.
00:30:00
Almost persuade us now me to be a Christian. Oh, you just feel your heart, as it were. His statement, He was so close.
But he went the wrong way, as far as we know.
Almost persuade us, without me to be a Christian.
Loving answer that Paul gives, I would to God that not only thou, but also all that hear me this day were both almost an altogether such as I am, except these bonds. No note here. What he does. I don't know that we know that he ever said another word to Paul.
That was his last statement, as far as I know. Almost that persuadeth me to be a Christian.
And then what does he do? And when he had thus spoken?
The king rose up.
And the governor and Bernice, and they that sat with them.
And when they were gone aside, oh, he goes out from Paul's presence, the very one that could have been used as the vessel.
The messenger of God to reach his soul, He goes out from his presence and he's gone.
And when they were gone aside, they talked between themselves, saying, This man doeth nothing worthy of death or of bonds. Then said Agrippa and Defeestus, this man might have been set at liberty, if he had not appealed unto Caesar.
Citizen Jeremiah that it is not in man to direct his steps.
What a foolish man. What a foolish man Cain was. It is not a man to direct his steps. He can't do it. He goes the wrong way by nature.
Let's go to Matthew 26 for the next man.
Matthew 26 and verse 14.
Then one of the 12 called Judas Iscariot, went into the chief priests and said unto them.
What will you give me? And I will deliver him unto you. Who is he talking about? The blessed Lord Jesus, the one who he had accompanied with for maybe three years.
What? Judas is going to betray him? That's what it says here. What will you give me?
What did he bring?
What did Judas bring here?
He brought a plan. He thought it was a clever plan.
He had seen the Lord Jesus.
Remove himself from his enemies that wanted to take him and put him to death.
So he had a clever plan where he could benefit.
And no one would. If we can speak reverently, no one would be hurt. He would benefit and he would walk away richer.
So he comes with a plan. This is what he brought, and he talks to these chief priests.
And outlines his plan.
Now turn over John to get the rest of this story, John's Gospel, chapter 13.
John's Gospel, chapter 13.
And I'm not going to read the whole account, but they're sitting together.
Emil the Lord is having a meal with his disciples.
And he says in verse 18, He that eateth bread with me hath lifted up his heel against me, he's quoting.
An Old Testament scripture.
And so they ask who this is and so on.
And then let's just pick up from verse 27. And after the SOP the Lord had given, a SOP, Satan entered into him, into Judas.
Then said Jesus unto him, That thou doest do quickly now. No man at the table knew for what intent he spake this unto him.
For some of them thought, because Judas had the beg, that Jesus had said unto him by those things that we have need of against the feast, or that he should give something to the poor. He then, having received the SOP, went immediately out, and it was night.
00:35:00
Now I just would take a liberty here. I think most of us realize that they didn't sit at tables as we did just a while ago for supper, but they reclined.
They were in a reclining position and so Judas had to get up. We saw that Cain rose up.
We saw that King Agrippa rose up.
Can I take the liberty to say that Judas got up?
From this table where he had been in the company of the Lord Jesus.
And.
Went immediately out. Isn't that solemn?
And it was night.
What a solemn verse this is. Judith gets up from that table, he rises up and he goes out from the presence of this blessed one, the only one that could save his soul.
And it says it was night.
And I think the very next time he met this Blessed One was when he betrayed him.
And then we know the end of Judas. He went out and hanged himself. He fell.
His body split open and it says his bowels gushed out.
An awful and.
There was but a step between him and death, and he took that step and went out into the night.
It's night time in this world, dear ones. We are in the twilight of this dispensation of grace. Are you going to step out into the night, into a lost eternity?
Don't be like Judas. The Lord has given us these portions in the Scripture as a warning. Take heed. Listen.
You don't want this to be your end.
Let's go to First Samuel, chapter 18.
For the 4th, 1:00.
I want to talk about Jonathan.
Now, I don't want to imply in taking up Jonathan that he's a lost soul, because I don't think he is.
But I bring in him here now to as a warning to us, those of us that might be believers, that are believers, I should say, in this room.
That we too are taking steps.
And what struck me as I was looking at this portion was the similarity that there were between those three men that we have just spoken of and the solemn account that is recorded to us of those men, and the similarities with Jonathan here.
Verse One. And it came to pass, when he had made an end of speaking unto Saul, that the soul of Jonathan was knit with the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul.
And Saul took him that day and would let him go no more, out home to his father's house. Then Jonathan and David made a covenant between, because he loved him as his own soul. And Jonathan stripped himself of the robe that was on him, and gave it to David and his garments, even to his sword and to his bow and to his girdle.
Well, we have often enjoyed this portion being ministered to for us and each of these things that Saul, Jonathan gives to David have meaning. And I'm not going to go into it forsake of time.
But it struck me forcefully as I was looking at this just recently.
That there's something here that Jonathan didn't give to David.
Now some of you are probably thinking.
That it was his sandals.
But I'm not thinking of that right now.
That's true. We don't read that He gave him his sandals. And we have enjoyed the thought that he wasn't willing to walk in the path of rejection with David, who's the type of the Lord Jesus. And we can be like that, can't we, as believers, not willing to bear reproach for our Lord? But I wasn't thinking of that. There's something even sadder to me.
That's heartbreaking that he didn't give to David.
He didn't give himself.
The last verse of this.
A little later, we'll get to that.
He didn't give himself.
00:40:02
He wasn't like Amaci in First Chronicles, and I want to turn to that in First Chronicles 12. Just hold your place here in First Samuel. Just very quickly look at First Chronicles 12 because I think it's so touching about a Macy.
First Chronicles, chapter 12.
And verse 18, you know, this was in David's rejection when Saul was hunting him and all these different ones came to him.
Then this manumaci comes to him, and it says then the spirit, verse 18 And that should be a capital S.
Came upon Amassi, who was chief of the captains, and he said, Thine are we, David? And on thy side, thou son of Jesse, peace, peace be unto thee, and peace be to thine helpers, for thy God helpeth thee. Then David received them and made them captains of the band. Beautiful Amaci, I said, Thine, are we David? He gave himself. They gave themselves to David. That's what Jonathan didn't do. How sad, how tragic. He didn't give himself to David.
And so we read in the 20th chapter when they meet up at the end of the chapter. I'm going to hurry now because I want to get to this last man.
But in the 20th chapter, in the last verse.
42 And Jonathan said to David, Go in peace, for as much as we have sworn, both of us in the name of the Lord, saying, The Lord be between me and thee, and be between thy seed, my seed, and thy seed forever. And he arose and departed, and Jonathan went into the city. How sad.
Oh, you feel like you wish you could just say no, Jonathan, don't, Don't turn from David. Go with him. You're safer with him. Why do I say that? Well, Saul had just tried to kill his own son. Look at verse 34 of that chapter, or verse 33. And Saul cast a javelin at him, at Jonathan to smite him, whereby Jonathan knew that it was determined of his father to slay David. So Jonathan arose from the table in fierce anger.
And to eat no meat the second day of the month. For he was grieved for David because his father had done him shame.
His father tried to kill him.
And spoke very harshly to him.
Verse 30 Thou son of the perverse rebellious woman, do not I know that thou hast chosen the son of Jesse, to thine own confusion.
He chose David.
And unto the confusion of thy mother's nakedness.
He was angry. Saul was irrational.
And in his anger he tries to kill his son. Probably didn't even realize what he was doing. An evil spirit would come on him and he would just act in rash anger.
David Jonathan should have gone with David.
And then David would have said to him, like he did to a Biathar in chapter 22 at the end of the chapter, verse 22. And David said unto Abiathar, I know, I knew it that day when Doeg the Edomite was there, that he would surely tell Saul, I have occasioned the death of all the persons of thy father's house. Abide thou with me. Fear not, for he that seeketh my life, seeketh thy life. But with me thou shalt be in safeguard. Oh, look what Jonathan missed out on. He could have been with David. Yes, there would have been some hard times.
But David promised the Biothar and he stuck to his promise, and he would have protected Jonathan too. Now turn over to.
Later on in this chapter 23.
And we know that they meet one more time.
And this is so sad to me because David's in a wood in verse 15.
Saul saw and David saw that Saul was come out to seek his life, and David was in the wilderness as if in a wood. And Jonathan, Saul's son arose and went to David into the wood, and strengthened his hand in God. And he said unto him, Fear not, for the hand of Saul. My father shall not find thee, and thou shalt be king over Israel, and I will be next unto thee. And that also saw my father knoweth. And they too made a covenant before the Lord, and David abode in the wood.
Oh, I wish I could say. And Jonathan went with him.
And stayed with him.
But I'm going to read it the way the Word of God has given it. The Spirit of God has given it to us. And David abode in the wood, and Jonathan went to his house.
Notice this.
Jonathan had brought these things to David like others had brought things. All of these things that he gave David. He had talked with David. Oh, they had enjoyed some sweet communion together.
00:45:01
And now he arises. It says in verse 16 that he arose.
And he went to David, but then he goes out from his presence forever.
Or I shouldn't say forever, but for.
This scene anyway.
He went out from David's presence and he never got to taste.
The joy of reigning with David.
Oh, how sad. Well, let's look at someone. I want to end with someone very special. This man is different than all the others.
His name is Jesus.
Let's look at.
Philippians, Chapter 2.
We've been talking about steps, taking steps.
And how could we overlook Philippians chapter two such a precious chapter?
That we read so often Lord S day morning some of these verses about these steps of the Lord Jesus.
Seven steps downward, 7 steps upward.
So we want to consider him for a little while.
In a few minutes, the few minutes that are left to us, and you know, that's what it says in Hebrews. I'll just read it. Hebrews, chapter 12.
It says in verse two looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.
Consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest she be worried and faint in your minds.
It's been said that verse two tells us to look where he is and verse three look where he was. But I enjoy what our brother Bob likes Bob, Tony likes to bring before us and that is that the the an old Spanish translation of the first part of the first three says instead of consider him, reduce your thoughts to him. Maybe you can remember him saying that.
Whenever I read that, I in my little note in my Bible, I think of Bob. He gave that to us and I like that because to me it's a little stronger than just consider him. To reduce your thoughts to him means you crowd out everything else. It's sort of like a surgeon that's performing an operation and he's going to isolate that part of the body that he's operating on and he's going to concentrate on that. He's going to cover everything else off. He doesn't want to be distracted. He wants.
To isolate that one little area, or let's take the example of a scientist, he puts something under a little bitty, something under his microscope and he looks into it and he sees this display there and he concentrates on that and everything else around him that might be going on is shut out. He reduces his thoughts to whatever that specimen is under his microscope. That's what we want to do with our Savior. We want to crowd out everything else and reduce our thoughts to him. And so let's just read without comment. Let's read those verses in in Philippians chapter 2 That we read so often.
Those seven steps down, those seven steps up, starting with verse five, Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.
Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men, And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death.
Even the death of the Cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name.
That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.
Well, I know we've many have enjoyed the thought in verse seven there where it says he made himself of no reputation. Mr. Darby's translation, I believe, says he emptied himself, dear ones.
Consider the steps that this man took, this blessed man, and I would just challenge each of our hearts and especially you, dear young people.
That when you're faced with decisions, you have many weighty decisions to make.
I would just ask you to offer you this before you decide. Read. Read these verses that we just read in Philippians 2 and see if that doesn't help you in your decision.
00:50:07
Because that's really what we want, isn't it? You know, if we don't, if we don't seek to.
Emulate him if we don't seek to walk in his footsteps.
We're going to have a lot of trouble in life as believers. We're going to have lots of trouble. And I want to end with that verse in first Peter 2.
First Peter, 221.
For even hereunto were ye called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example that ye should follow his steps.
Who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth.
Who when he was reviled, reviled not again when he suffered, he threatened not, but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously, Who his own self bear our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness. By whose stripes you were healed.
You know, Joe could say, doth he not see my ways and count all my steps? That's quite a thought.
Job could say that he counts all my steps and maybe.
There's some here that perhaps are discouraged. Maybe you say it's a hard path we heard about.
The path today, and I enjoyed that and you might say that there's a path that the vultures eye doesn't see and the lions whelps have not trod. But let me encourage you with this and I thought of this as our brother was speaking.
That there is one that sees our ways. That's what Job said. Doth he not see my ways? And doth he not count my my steps? He knows how many steps you have and he'll help you. But just look to him, dear ones, and follow him, emulate him. And again, I would encourage you when you're making decisions, read those verses in Philippians 2 and see if that doesn't help you in your decision. I wonder if we could stand together and sing the first hymn in our sheet.
Almost.
Persuaded now to believe.
Almost persuaded Christ to receive. Maybe someone could start that.
Anyone is not clear as to the way of salvation. Please talk to someone. I would be willing to talk to you. I know many brothers here would. Let's ask the Lord for his blessing.
Eternity Isaiah 57:15
Children—D. Mollon
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I understand the children's ends are all in the back of this little book we had last night.
So if uh.
You have a choice, anybody? I have a choice, please.
Raise your hand and just give it out.
#41.
Around the throne of God in heaven.
Well, many children sing.
Children whose sins are all forgiven while heavenly anthem spring.
OK. So I'm going to start that for us.
A throne of God in heaven will many children sing till brothers sins are all for his will, and we have some strings saying all right glory.
Glory, glory.
Glory, glory.
To.
Anyone else?
44.
And one of the favorites back home as well. And we're 44, in our Sunday school into a tent where a gypsy boy lay.
How many?
Gypsy violence.
Nobody ever has sold it to me to that way.
Tell you all the hands without salvation. Salvation story.
00:05:38
Nobody.
How many young children were at the Gospel last night?
Let's raise your hand.
OK, remember what was spoken last night.
Or a step.
Yeah, that was a theme and one step between life and death really, wasn't it, eh? And you know, this little gypsy boy was like that too, wasn't he?
In that tent and he was going to go into eternity that day. One step. But you know how gracious the Lord is.
That they send those at least two people along and and directed them to that one tent. Doesn't say there was a mommy or daddy there, just a little boy.
And he was dying alone, and the Lord was so kind.
The Lord knew He was taking that final step that day, and He sent along someone to tell him a little story and give him a choice.
To believe it or not.
Well, we know the end of the story, right? He did believe that story.
And what a wonderful step he made later that day when he stepped into eternity. He stepped into the waiting arms of the Lord Jesus Christ welcoming him. And then he says, oh, before he gets there, he says, no, tell the rest. Go, tell the rest.
Let's sing a couple of more.
Someone else got a choice.
#40 All right, Jesus loves me. This I know, probably one of the most.
Often sung hymns of all known by everybody.
#40.
Two sons.
Yes.
Yes, unplugged me. Yeah, it's not for me, the Bible tells me.
So Jesus wants me to die and let's get through and why he will find your way. My sin lets us little child come in.
Yes, she is like one kid. Yes, it's a must make me. Yeah, it is my Swansea.
We love, Bible tells me so.
Ask the Lord Job before we sing another ring.
Well, we have time. We'll sing a few more at the end.
I was reminded last night of.
Up a little tract.
I enjoyed so much in the past I had sort of forgotten about it until.
John Villasalli mentioned it last night. Roger's deliverance.
Wasn't that a wonderful story?
Doesn't that remind you of the kind of God that we have? There was a young man, you know was going to dive into this pool.
And he's poised on the end of this diving platform and.
No matter how he dives the back flip or case might be, they always go into the water head first.
You know what would have happened, don't you?
If he never paused one moment, he looked across on the opposite wall because the light was from behind them and he saw the silhouette of himself.
And he said it looks like a man on the cross.
It looks like a man on a cross.
Who do you think did that?
Who do you think? And I was so faithful that this man who was about one little step from eternity.
Was going to plunge into it.
And was brought face to face.
With a message.
He saw in that silhouette.
The Lord Jesus Christ.
It touched his conscience.
That's what the Lord does. He just brings us to a point. He brings us to a situation where.
He wants us to stop a moment.
Reflect. Think.
For only a step from eternity.
And he brings us face to face with our mortality. That means we're all going to die. Every one of us here is going to going into eternity.
00:15:07
Every single person.
But it's where we're going to spend eternity. It's the big question. And Roger saw in that silhouette.
Something that stirred his heart.
And you know what he did? He backed away from the edge of that platform.
Not knowing he was backing away from death itself.
He wanted to think more of what he'd seen.
So down he goes.
And later he finds out that the pool was empty and he would have dove into a pool. His floor was like this.
Instant death.
And that's what our Lord is like.
Reminding us of the path that we're on.
Reminding us that we're only one step. And you know what? That's what's before me this morning is to is that one word eternity.
He turned there.
I'm going to ask you. I'll give you a choice between the number one and #500 How many times do you think the word eternity is used in Scripture?
Who like to guess, Maybe you know.
You'd like to guess? Go ahead.
50 Yeah, you think right? Because, after all, we're all going to eternity.
Well, you know what?
It's used only once.
Only once. Oh, eternal many times, but eternity only once. I check for concordances.
So if I'm mistaken, I'm going to blame the Concordance writer and David Martin.
Because.
The only reference I have is the only verse we're going to use this morning and we're going to speak about eternity, Isaiah 57.
Isaiah 57 and the verse 15.
It says this, For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth Eternity, whose name is holy. I dwell in the high and Holy place with Him also, that is, of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones. I'll repeat the first part again. For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabits us. Eternity was named His holy.
I dwell in the high end holy place.
I dwell in the high and only place.
I want to tell you a couple of stories this morning about eternity.
Stories I collect, I tend to be a person that you know, when I see things, I clip them out, you know, and I stick them in my.
Little package and later on I usually find the use for them.
And.
Most stories you tell in a group like this, of course the older people have heard these stories anyway. You get them saying Oh yes, I remember.
Rogers Deliverance. Yes, yes, we all know that tract.
So maybe we got a story this morning that most people here haven't heard. I don't know. We're going to go to two far away countries for these stories. The first one is the country of Australia.
In the country of Australia, there's a city called Sydney.
And in that city, there's a Town Center.
And in that Town Center, there's a copper plaque.
And on that copper plank, there's one word.
Know what it is?
Eternity.
Eternity downtown Sydney, Been there for many years.
You like to know why it's there?
People, you know, some people do remarkable things and people recognize that, right?
The last clipping I have in my file. This came from last month out of Toronto. Paper really.
It's about.
They found a woman. Scientists have found a woman in California who's got nearly what they think 100% memory.
00:20:00
100% memory. She's so unique they've actually coined a new word to describe her.
If I'm not mistaken, it's.
She's hyper by Mystic Hyper by Mystic. Harper New philanthropists say that.
From the word thymesis which is a Greek word meaning memory and hyper meaning super above normal.
This is Easter Sunday.
One of the things, for example, they tested her on, she went back to 1980 and she told.
What occurred on every Easter Sunday since 1980? She knew where she was. She knew what she had for dinner. She knew what her friends were. She knew what the weather was like. She has 100% memory.
Wouldn't that be nice for test timing?
But you know, she's not really pleased with it because she says I live it every day over and over in my mind.
There's nobody else in the world I know of who's got that kind of memory.
The article didn't say that she.
Has memorized scripture. She's only known by the Word, by the letters AJ.
And it didn't say that she has memorized Scripture, but it would be wonderful, wouldn't it? I think she could memorize Scripture. I know a man who actually memorized the told these War and peace.
1000 page book. I forget how many words are in there. He's memorized all of it. You can ask him what's on page.
472 fourth line, third word and he'll tell you amazing.
But what a waste of time.
But he could memorize Scripture because there might come a time, you know, when we can't read. I was talking to a brother, Friedel Ferry, a little while back, and he said I can't read anymore.
Somebody could, but he is so thankful he had committed so many memories, so many verses to memory. And my brother had mentioned yesterday, but.
Enjoying the Lord's presence because the Lord could bring back things to his memory.
Back to our story.
I can tell you that this word, which is a memorial to a man from Sydney, Sydney.
That this man was known for much as a matter of fact.
You know, he was he was the child of a also plainly he was a drunk. His father was a drunk, an alcoholic and his mother was a woman in the street and he was born in that little city. He grew up with a very small man, 5 foot three just.
Skin and bones.
And he?
He knew the hardships of life for his first 12 years. It was survival only.
He never had a home like you and I have. He never had loving parents.
He managed to survive by eating the garbage tins.
And he was abused.
And he wasn't loved.
And when he was 12, his parents kicked him out and he went to the homeless place for two years. Aged 14, he went to work in the coal mines.
But by then he had learned everything that was bad and he got into stealing and things like that, and they.
Put them in jail and let them out and put them in jail again. You know the story, don't you? How it goes.
Until the war broke out and he joined the war, joined the forces and went off to France and became a stretcher bearer in the war.
And then the Germans bombed France and he was injured, lost an eye.
Later on he got out of the war, went back home and he was shell shocked. He was injured and he was poisoned with mustard gas.
Back home, he fell back into the same things again that he had been into before he went.
Favoring when his own business, he was a watchdog for illegal gambling joints.
That was his business.
1930s came. Great Depression struck Australia as it did North America. Poverty was everywhere and he was starving. And one day.
He went into a little mission.
00:25:01
Because there was a light lunch given.
They went into the mission.
And as the food filled his belly, the words of God filled his mind and his heart.
And he left that mission hall and he went across the street to a park where there's a big tree.
And under that tree fell to his knees.
And tears poured from his eyes.
He had never gone to school.
He had never learned to read.
Couldn't write his name.
Nothing. He was at wits end corner.
And then he heard those words, and he went out and tears like the gypsy boy.
He was on his last leg.
And the Lord said Lord brought him right into that place, and gave him the word.
That he was loved.
That he was cared for. He never had a mummy like you have.
Or a daddy who loved them.
But he found that there was someone who loved him, and he went out.
Any tears flowed down.
And he accepted.
What God was offering eternity with him.
And he wanted to serve his Lord. What could he do, this little man who was himself alcoholic now?
Living on the streets, he was a vagrant. He had nothing. What could he do to serve his Lord?
For next 33 years, that man roamed the streets of Sydney.
Reverie went on the sidewalks and on the buildings.
And on the fences.
Walls.
He wrote one word.
Eternity.
Eternity.
Eternity.
They asked him later on how he could even write these. I don't know. I always could. I can't write my name, but I can write eternity.
He would use chalk, you see, It wasn't just graffiti. He would wash away. Didn't matter. He back again tomorrow, putting him back there again.
You know time will tell, eternity will tell. The fruit of his laborers.
How do we know?
The story doesn't for us, it ends right there, but Can you imagine someone scrolling on maybe one night?
You know, late from the bar and walking along and there's on the sidewalk he.
Someone.
Turning the corner and there on the side of the building, Eternity.
Some young people may be late at night and scaling the walls, trying to steal something just from sliding down over a word they recognize eternity.
How many would have stopped, I wonder?
He was known as Mr. Eternity.
That's what they call them.
He wanted to tell people what he had found in the simplest way possible, reminding people of eternity.
And he wanted to tell them more.
When he was age 57, the Lord gave him a wife.
Who could read? And she read the Scriptures to him. And the Lord gave them a wonderful memory. Probably not as good as that Lady in California, but he memorized diversities. And then he stood on the street corners and he preached the gospel the last years of his life. And when I was 18 years of age.
On July the 30th was my. That was when I was 18, but I was then.
1967.
That young man or that older man now entered into he.
He went on.
After serving his Lord.
He puts me to shame, you know that.
All that I have been given and.
And there he had nothing right, but he could pin the words eternity.
Wonderful story, isn't it?
00:30:03
Wonderful story.
He's been there since 67. Now I want to tell you another story. Time gets away real quickly. And this one, I want you to listen really carefully because.
You know there's something missing in this story. It sounds like a good story, and it is a good story.
Before I tell you this story, I want to tell you about rats.
And I want to tell you about rat poison.
If mom finds a rat in the basement.
Does an old family know it?
My wife tends to scream and anything that moves quickly, especially has a tail on it.
And she's not satisfied until that thing is head of the house, dead or alive, preferably dead.
Did you know that these rat poison to kill rats?
Did you know that over 90% of the things of the ingredients in rat poison is actually absolutely perfectly good for the rat? But 95%? They love it.
They'll get fat on it, they enjoy it, It's lovely. It's perfect food for ants.
It's the 5%.
That's where the poison is, the 5%, and that's a warning to us, you know, about stories and what people tell us that's not based upon Scripture. A lot of it is good, a lot of it makes sense. But be so careful because it's a little leaven that leavens the lump. It's a little poison.
In that food that he carries back to his family, that kills the rat.
Poison. So this story, I want you to see if you can identify something, something is missing in the story.
This story actually comes from a person I know of in Corner Brook, Mr. Sterling. He was a businessman, retired businessman, and he wrote this, one of my clippings. He wrote that one time he had the privilege of attending a seminar in London, England with many other dignitaries too, particularly one was Lord Thompson, a Fleet.
Very contrast to.
Arthur states the man we talked about, Mr. Eternity, Mr. Thompson, owned 268 publications as newspapers and things like that. Very wealthy man.
And also on that occasion, there was another man who was also well known. You won't recognize him, but some in the room will recognize the name. His name was Doctor.
Peel, Norman. Vincent Peale. You recognize him as the author of The Power of Positive Thinking.
Power of positive thinking. In other words, always think positively. It will come about that kind of thing.
Mr. Sterling said he was there along with all the others at this luncheon and Mr. Thompson turns to Doctor Peel and he says I'm an old man.
I'm about to die, can you tell me is there an afterlife?
An old room went silent.
They wanted to hear what this famous man who had motivated millions around the world with his positive thinking thing and many others after him.
Augmentino and many others like that.
And this is how we this is what he told him.
This is what he told him. This is the story. See if you can tell what's missing.
He said. I'm going to paraphrase it. That's the best I can.
He said if you could speak, he said to a baby in the womb.
And ask that baby if he'd like to be born.
He would probably say no.
I'm perfectly comfortable here.
I'm worn, I'm secure, I'm interrupt.
I don't want.
To leave this place. I don't want to die out of this place. In other words, to leave it to Passover.
But he says, you know what? When that little child is born, it's and wrapped in the mother's love, it feels the comfort, the peace, the joy.
And he realizes, oh, why was I afraid of?
00:35:02
True, isn't it?
And then?
That little boy grows up into a young man later on, maybe get married of children of his own and so forth, and then he surrounds himself with his family and then he grows older.
And is about to pass into eternity.
He says.
Does he really? Doctor Peel says to Mr. Thompson. Does he really die?
Or is he not simply born again?
Into a new sphere.
Will he not say on the other side?
What was I afraid of?
What was I afraid of?
Doctor Thompson.
Turn to Doctor Peel, he said.
He says you.
You've helped me with a question that's bothered me for many, many years.
Thank you, he says. Thank you, you've helped me today, he says. Do you think I'll make the other side? Dr. Peel says, Oh yes, you'll be fine. And shortly after that man crossed over into eternity, and not too long after that, Doctor Peel himself.
Went over.
Into eternity, believing that it was fine, that just as the baby was afraid is born. Into this life realizes. Huh.
It's wonderful. I shouldn't have been afraid that when we come to death and we crossover from death into eternity, we're going to say the same thing. What was I afraid of? It's beautiful. Aaron, do you know young people, how many books there are out there and about those who had near death experiences have gone down that pathway to the light and seen the flowers and have come back and said, don't worry, it's totally beautiful.
What's missing from the story?
Can you spot what's missing from that story?
I'll give you a clue back to our verse again. Go back to our verse and 57 of Isaiah and verse 15.
For thus saith the high and lofty one that inhabits this eternity.
Whose name is holy?
Clint Yeah.
In that second story, unlike the first one.
There was number talk about who is it that lives there?
Who inhabits eternity? It's God himself who lives in eternity, whose name is holy.
Who says I dwell in the high and holy place? I dwell there.
And in that story that Doctor Peele told, he passed over that has that to say. It didn't matter that God was there and it didn't matter that you're still in your sins, that you're a Sinner that wasn't touched upon. You know what God says.
He is holy, and no sin can be in His presence.
That's what was missing.
Tell us what was missing. He wasn't told when Mr. Eternity Arthur stays heard that message that night. He heard a message that he was a Sinner. Oh, he didn't have to be told that. He knew he was. But he knew that there was a God who could forgive sins.
And that's what brought him to his knees. That's what brought the tears to his eyes. And when he rose up, he says, oh, I'm free. I'm washed in the blood of Christ. No, I want to tell everybody, but how do I do that? I'll tell them about eternity. Eternity in shock everywhere.
You feel sad about what? Mr. Thompson was told.
An old man who asked this well known man.
Is there an afterlife? And then they be told don't worry about it?
You're OK. It's just like being born again, crossing over. No thought as to who was there. God himself.
The Holy One, you could have no sin in this presence. And that's why when I told you faithful God was, remember Roger?
00:40:05
That moment, about to step into eternity, he was brought face to face with the Lord Jesus Christ.
About face to face with the fact that he wasn't ready and he was saved. After that, the gypsy boy in that tent dying alone, about to step into eternity. The Lord was faithful, brought these people along to tell him he made the decision. I'll receive the Lord Jesus Christ.
Arthur Stays brought face to face with the Lord Jesus Christ made the decision Yes, yes, I want to Not only am I going to be an eternity.
I want to be with the Lord Jesus Christ in eternity. It's just two places, right? The law going to eternity, but where?
While I spend eternity with the Lord Jesus Christ or not.
How sad it is Mr. Thompson was.
Was made to relax and feel that. Don't be afraid. Remember I told you about the poison 5%? Most of that story that Doctor Peel told, you know, was a legitimate story, don't you think?
Sounded pretty good, but oh, with a poison that it was OK. You'll get there just as you are. Don't worry about a thing. Whereas we're told that we are all sinners and we must be saved. We're only a step from eternity. And with that we'll close. I have no time to sing, so we just close the prayer and trust that each one here the Lord is faithful in bringing us that very plain that we might decide.
To be with that holy One, to Lord Jesus Christ.
Care for One Another Luke 10:29-37
YP Sing Address—B. Conrad
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Number one 15115.
We'll pay out of all them. Don't. So don't pay for them either.
Oh my God.
Isn't it wonderful mistake that the coming of the Lord is going to answer every expectation of the believers heart and the faith that His appearance is going to answer the groaning of an entire creation?
00:10:00
100.
101 hundred.
151 one 5150 was also given.
And then one of the United States.
#16.
00:20:50
#180.
3183 and #30.
1183 and #30.
And we like the brothers to speak up for the children because maybe they're ten and twice will get drowned out. We'll go for the little ones. We like to hear what's on there.
I think I heard 100 and 9595.
27.
75.
After #75 we're going to ask our brother to speak to us and if there is an inclination to sing somewhere, you can. But I think it would be good to let our brothers speak to us. And then before we're all worn out and thing number 75.
195 in the middle block OK 195.
00:40:10
Well, that's Let's ask the Lord for his help before we get started here. This is not a microphone, is it? This is. It's a mic.
Let's pray. Our God and our Father, we thank Thee for this time to be together with so many.
For many of us, our everyday path is just with a few.
Others of like precious faith.
Thanks very much.
Well.
Kind of have a jumble of thoughts in my ricocheting back and forth between my heart and my head here, so for the Lord's help, we'll share a few of them. The basic thing I have on my heart really is something I've been thinking about lately, which is care.
Care for one another and care that the Lord's people are meant to have for each other.
And so I like to read a couple passages of scripture that might seem a little bit unrelated and then make a few comments about them.
The first is in judges.
Judges, Chapter 8.
Gideon has won a victory.
And the two kings of Midian, Ziba and Zalmuna, are before him as defeated kings.
In verse 18, Judges 8.
Then said He unto Zebra and Zalmuna, what manner of men were they whom he slew?
At Tabor.
And the answer to Thou art so were they each one.
Resemble the children of the king.
And he said they were my brethren.
Even the sons of my mother.
As the Lord Liveth, if he had saved them alive, I would not slay you.
And he said unto Jeeter, his first born up, slay them.
But the youth through not his sword, for he feared, because he was yet a youth.
Then Zebra and Zhao Moon said, Rise thou, and fall upon us.
For as the man is, so is his strength. And Gideon arose and slew Zebra and Zelmuna, and took away the ornaments that were on their camels necks, and so on.
And now a passage in Luke 10 that's very well known.
Luke 10 and verse 30.
Or I should start with verse 29?
And he, willing to justify himself, said unto Jesus, And who is my neighbor?
And Jesus, answering, said a certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell among thieves, which stripped him of his raiment and wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead.
And by chance there came down a certain priest that way, and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. And likewise the Levite, when he was at the place, came and looked on him, and passed by on the other side. But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was.
And when he saw him, he had compassion on him, and went to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast.
And brought him to an inn and took care of him.
And on the Morrow when he departed, he took out 2 Pence and gave them to the host, and said unto him, Take care of him, and whatsoever thou spendest more, when I come again I will repay thee.
Which now these three thinkest Thou was neighbor unto him that fell among the thieves, And he said, He that showeth mercy on him.
Then said Jesus unto him, Go.
And do that likewise.
And then one last passage in First Peter. The last chapter of First Peter.
00:45:01
Verse seven first Peter five and seven. Casting all your care.
Upon him.
For he cares for you.
I would like to make mostly some practical remarks about our care for one another, but lest we get too far astray, it's always good to remember who really has the care for our souls.
The one who was willing to put aside.
His purpose? The priests and the Levite.
Probably thought, well I have divine business to take care of, I can't defile myself. This guy is disgusting.
He's bloody and beaten and in a terrible state. I'll be late. You can imagine the things that may have gone through their mind. And perhaps just a reticence, a drawing back from someone who doesn't look very lovely.
But the Samaritan came to where he was.
In Luke 10 is a well known picture of the way you and I were before we were saved.
Now if you were raised in a Christian home and saved at a young age.
Fortunately, you've never had the experience to really feel what it was like in this way to be.
A wretched and a helpless Sinner, but you were.
And for many that are raised and then saved at a young age, you learn what you were after you weren't that anymore. That's OK. Matter of fact, it's probably the best way to learn it.
I'll repeat that you learn what you were after. You're not that anymore.
The fools way is to touch the stove and say now I'm burned.
In the wise man's way is to heed and to not touch the stove.
But in first Peter Five we read He cares for you, and we see in the parable of the certain Samaritan that when he takes him to the inn, having first, as we would say, provided emergency care.
It says he takes care of him. He brings them to an end and took care of him.
He didn't just leave him on the doorstep, he took care of him, but there came a time when he would go away.
On the Morrow when he departed, he took out 2 Pence and gave them to the host.
And said unto him, Take care of him, and whatsoever thou spend this more, when I come again I will pay thee.
Now every woman that runs a household.
Has some kind of a budget. Maybe not a real defined on a piece of paper type, but a general.
Concept of how much comes in and how much can go out.
And the company I work for is very, very fussy about budgets.
And this kind of language would be just absurd in a natural context.
There's very few businesses just say spend whatever you need.
Money is there.
But such is the care, such as the commitment, and such are the resources of the Lord Jesus Himself when it comes to His own.
In first Peter Five, it's thinking about this, I remembered.
An occasion where we had the great privilege to host a brother as he was dying.
Servant of the Lord.
And.
The Lord had provided this place where we were living.
And it had a wonderful cheery room. Some of you came and visited there, I think on the 1St floor and it was set up so nicely.
And.
We got the hospital bed in there and there was we put some text on the wall and one night.
I get this way, I just it'll pass, just don't be so uncomfortable but.
So one night when we were kind of.
Making sure everything was OK for the next few hours. One of my little boys, who I think was six or seven at the time, brings a chair in, put some sort of a box or something on top of the chair and starts to climb up on the on the box on the chair and is rickety situation. And he takes the text, which normally are hung about, you know, at the height of the top of the door and he's reaching way up and putting the text with a, with a push pin way up on the wall.
00:50:03
And the text was he cares for you.
And at first I'm looking why is he doing that? And then I don't know whether he said or whether we realized afterwards.
I think that was Brother Hardy's last night, but he figured where he was laying.
That's the only angle he could see it.
Now the Lord cared for that beloved brother, whether he saw or read that verse that night or not.
But it's just a little example that comes to me when I read the verse.
About how we can have an impact on one another.
A little boy took the verse and put it up there so it could be red.
And so here we are with one another, and the Lord is going on high in a certain sense.
And here we are left with each other, a whole lot of people that have been picked up out of the ditch.
And yes, I know the Lord loves you.
And the Lord cares for you, and he cares for me.
But we have a responsibility now for one another. There's no lack of resources.
We have the clear intent of one who is willing to apply all those resources whatever is needed.
Whatsoever thou spend this more.
Take care of it. So if I could get a little practical.
How are we doing at this?
We see with Gideon.
That he was when he saw those two men.
Who had slain his own brethren?
Something was bothering him. Those are the men that slew.
Those that were part of him and that he loved.
They were my brother.
What do they look like to you?
And God allows them to give that testimony.
They're like you. Each one resembled the child of the king. They were royalty.
Now I know we all don't look, a lot of us.
All of us like royalty.
Some sister recently in our meeting gave me wrinkle cream.
As a gift.
And our hair is not the same color or in the same quantity, et cetera, et cetera.
And so it's necessary for us to get the Lord's point of view about each other.
The young man, the first born, It wasn't his business to slay those kings.
The passion wasn't there. The love for the brethren wasn't there. He couldn't do it.
It was there with Gideon and he took care of it.
And so.
When the Lord was publicly charging Peter.
After he was risen, after the Lord was risen from the dead, what did he say three times?
Simon, son of Jonas, love us on me.
Because it's love that puts us to work, puts us to work for our brother, to care for one another.
But it starts with having a right value each one.
In my business, I work in the construction business and a lot of us get into that business because it's what we do when we're figuring out what we really want to do in life.
And then never leave it.
And the business kind of attracts. Somebody else is in the business. I don't mean to offend you, but it kind of attracts.
The kind of rough and tumble type people.
And yet our responsibility as those that are building bridges or tunnels or whatever.
Is to organize the work and direct the men in such a way.
That at the end of the day, they come out of the tunnel or down off the bridge or wherever they are with all their fingers and all their toes, and they walk out, may be tired but content. They go home to their families.
Believe me, you lookout at 6:00 in the morning, I had a safety meeting and you lookout at a whole bunch of people like maybe this number and they don't look very pretty and they don't shave very much and, and.
But you know what has helped me in having a care for the men that have worked for me?
Is unfortunately, if one of them does get hurt, or worse than that, if one of them is killed and then you have the sad experience of going to a funeral, you'll find that that was Grampy.
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And you find that there's a whole.
Network of people that that was a little guy was very, very valuable, very precious and very much loved.
Even though he maybe didn't have all his teeth and must only shave once a week or something like that.
And so the important thing is to get up as.
It says the numbers to the top of the rock and get a right value of one another.
And then the rest is sort of easy when we have that love for one another.
And so how does it go? How's it going? How are we doing at this?
We can ask ourselves, do I value my brethren?
Do I come in, Lord, today morning and look across the the meeting room and as they fill up the rolls and come in and all the hustle and bustle?
What is am I? Am I worried about?
Some of us are habitually late and all the other insurance and outs of any group of people Is there affection in my heart for the Lord's people.
The meeting I live in now is much larger than anyone I've ever lived in.
And I'm convinced that a person could leave their work if they had it upon their heart, and go into the Lord's service.
And never leave the confines of the local assembly there. There's that much going on.
That much need that much work.
And, and, and that much that a servant of the Lord could take up.
And never leave.
How are we doing at this?
When was the last time that I watched somebody's feet?
Is beautiful in John 13 that the Lord wash their feet.
But then he says you go and do likewise. When's the last time?
When's the last time on a Saturday morning? You said after Thursday prayer meeting, you said I really need to go see so and so and you spent just a little while Saturday morning.
Swinging over to their house.
For a few minutes.
It's so sad when, brethren, when we are not the help to one another we should be.
But it takes diligence, doesn't it? Turn with me to Hebrews 12?
The well known verse in the beginning of Hebrews 12. Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher face, verse 2.
But there's another looking in verse 15.
Looking diligently.
Lest any man fail or fall from the grace of God.
West, any root of bitterness springing up trouble you.
And thereby many be defiled, lest there be any fornicator, so on, a profane person, so on.
I have to admit that so many times I'm just so happy after the busy life that we all need, that I can make it to meeting on time, that I can be at the meeting, that I have enough energy left at the end of the day to enjoy the meeting and I really enjoy visiting with my brother and afterwards.
But do I, am I following this scripture? Am I looking after my brethren? Says diligently.
Lest any man fail from the grace of God. What does that mean?
What I think it means is that if you live in my assembly, you're to keep your eye on me to see if my attitude heads South.
I think that's what it means.
If I start to grumble and complain about my circumstances and you start to see my attitude go down.
Then that's the call to action.
Now many times this not just we just don't fly in there. We need to use wisdom, right?
And sometimes, like in the language of Deuteronomy, our brothers Ox is lost or is asked.
And we keep it by us. And he comes looking for it. And you're having a kid. You look to the Lord and maybe make a comment.
It's so humbling and so sad and has such serious ramifications when things get so far amongst us as brethren sometimes, isn't it?
When it gets to the point of contention, the contentions of brethren are like the bars of the castle.
01:00:02
Picture steel or wrought iron embedded in stone. How do you move that? How do you deal with that?
An older person where I worked gave me some good advice when I was a little younger.
He said don't run from your problems. What do you know on a on a project or building something, a big organization of people? He said don't run from them, run to them, run to your problems.
And in many businesses they train the young men, the young women and being proactive.
If something is five degrees off and it's three or four feet away, it's only I can't do the math in my head, but it's only a few inches off.
But if I am off 5° heading home to New Jersey, I'm going to end up in Ohio or Pennsylvania or somewhere.
And so people use the word nowadays to be proactive.
But it's hard, isn't it, to say a word of encouragement, or a word of guidance, or maybe even a word of correction.
To someone you've never had a cup of coffee with.
Never had breakfast with never had over to your house if you have a house.
I think you get the point.
The ability to be a help to our brethren.
Way, way, way back before there's ever such a need.
Where there's ever such a need?
And so it ought to be diligent of all the young men.
Young men like to hang out together, and the young ladies hang out together.
Older people sometimes like to hang out together.
But if in your meeting.
And if a young person can walk up to you as an older person and say, you know, I know who you hang out with, I know who you like, you always have that family to your house.
You always have this family. Not good, not good. Oh, it's good. You're enjoying one another.
But those of us that are older that have houses and.
Live close enough to meeting, we can have people over. Invite someone to your home that you don't know very well.
And when things really get serious, it's the older brothers that handle it.
And sometimes it's an older brother speaking to another older brother.
And so how do we make it so that is possible to go well?
Says in James, confess your false one to another, pray for one another.
We men like to be like shut up castles. The women are less prone that way.
But young men?
There's something on your part that you need to do to develop good friendships. And I'm not just speaking about casual friendships. I'm speaking about valuable, edifying, lifelong, Christian, helpful friendships.
You'll have to open up.
To a friend in the Lord, and we that are older.
We need to open up and not just talk about the weather.
And things that are simple.
Because it's hard to penetrate, isn't it? But if we open up to each other and take others into our confidence, you know, this is, I'm struggling with this.
They can not only pray for you, but they'll say, well, it's funny you mentioned that and they have a word that would be helpful for you, for me.
Where I live in the New York City area, they often they, they worship the Yankees. And there was this player named, was it Lou Gehrig, I think, who came down with a very debilitating disease. I think they named the disease after him.
And it's often spoken about, and he stood there on Yankee Stadium as he was retiring from his playing days and said that he was the luckiest man in the world. And so in New York, you'll all hear that luckiest man in the world stuff about Lou Gehrig. I don't know if Lou Gehrig was a believer or not.
But I don't think he was the luckiest man in the world. I think I could lay claim to be in the luckiest man in the world. Not only was I one who got picked up out of the ditch like you, but I've been blessed and privileged to have older brethren that taught me to have older brethren that kind of thumped me on the head once in a while when I needed it, and to have brothers my own age.
With whom I've had lifelong 2530 year friendships.
Who are not like if you if you've ever read.
Like in some of the writings of brethren at Lady Powers Court. Obviously I never knew but she made this famous state.
01:05:03
Nobody loves me enough to correct me or to even show me my fault.
And I used to think about that statement and say, well, that's too bad that Lady Powers Court never had. She was a sister gathered to the Lord's name, I guess at the end of the 19th century, if I have my math right. I used to think, well, that's too bad that nobody was faithful enough to help Lady Powers Court out in her Christian life.
But not knowingly. Power sport lately, I think to myself Will maybe some of the responsibility was on her part.
Maybe she needed to open up a little bit and to take persons into her confidence and so that she would develop those relationships which can be so valuable, so valuable. Let me end with a few comments on Psalm 19.
Say, how do I can? How can I tell that somebody is falling? Failing of the grace of God?
To fall from the grace of God is to lose the sense in your soul that God is for you.
And when we lose the sense that God is for us, we start to think we've got kind of a crummy deal, maybe about this or that, and we start to murmur and grumble and complain.
And if that isn't checked, it goes on and it hardens, it becomes chronic. And in the English Bible that chronic condition is called.
Bitterness and if you ever have a Lord's Day afternoon and you just just reading around your Bible, get a concordance or or vines and look up the word bitterness and you'll find it is one of the most prevalent roots in the human heart and is spoken of repeatedly in warning by the apostle.
But for the grace. But for our sense of the grace of God and our souls. As time goes on and the disappointments of life pile up, we become bitter.
And that is the exact opposite of having the thankful sense in our soul.
That God is for me.
It doesn't happen overnight.
And so in Psalm 19 where it speaks about the word of God in verse.
Verse 9 The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever. The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous. Altogether. More to be desired, are they than gold? Yeah, than much fine gold. Sweeter also than honey in the honeycomb.
That's the soul that's that's enjoying the Lord.
Feeding on the scriptures and enjoying more of Christ.
And it has a practical effect in verse 11. Moreover, by them, as thy servant warned.
Verse 12 Who can understand his errors? Cleanse thou me from secret faults.
And so in Psalm 16, the psalmist says my reigns and struck me in the night seasons.
And so we grow, and we communicate with the Lord privately.
As we read the word of God and ponder it privately and the Lord speaks to our hearts.
And work through our consciences enabling us to see things in our pathway or in our attitude that are 5° off or whatever they may be, and to get those things back on. That's the place to learn, isn't it?
But if I don't do that and things keep going.
Instead of it being secret, false, or an attitude, the Lord shows me in my heart that I say that's the wrong attitude. I'm not going to have that attitude.
Then it goes to keep back by serving also from presumptuous sins. Who?
It's gone further.
But running a stop sign?
Let them not have dominion over me.
I can't help myself.
It's going further now. The thing has dominion.
The Lord died not only to forgive us our sins, but to set us free now from the power of sin. Romans chapter 6. That's part of the gospel.
Norman Barry used to say when he came to visit us in Palmyra. I've told this before, but it's so it's good.
He used to lookout and find some unsuspecting young brother like me and he'd say.
Why do I sin?
And you kind of get nervous and not know what to say. And Mr. Berry in his nice suit and we're sitting there not going to tell the right real answer to Mr. Berry. And he would wait for a long, uncomfortable pause. And then he would say, because I want to.
And his point was that now as a believer, he didn't have to sin. He was free from the power of sin, that if he sinned, it was because he chose it. And that's why it's called presumptuous.
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Let them not have dominion over me, Then shall I be upright, and I shall be innocent from the great transgression.
The great transgression is you ran the stop sign, you ran another stop sign, you almost ran somebody off the road, you went through a red light and you crashed into a wall.
But it started way way way back.
It started way, way back because I was careless and I went as far as it did because I continued to be careless.
And maybe you could have stepped in.
I said hey brother, I noticed.
Whatever it is, am I my brother's keeper?
Yes, the members ought to have the same care.
One for another portion that Bill read this morning. The end of First Thessalonians 5 edify in the Darby translation, each one the other.
But the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in my sight. Oh Lord, my strength and my Redeemer.
It's so tragic when we when we crash into the wall.
And then it's not just my crash, it's my family has had the crash and those who love me experience the crash. And in my local assembly there's been a crash and and on and on it goes because people do love us.
And so I ask you and whether you're still in school and you come around with other Christians.
Christian girls at school I had the privilege of going to school with a lot of Christians, brothers and sisters in Christ.
The exercise wonderful to be looking unto Jesus, but look diligently after your your sister, your brother in Christ, that you might be a help, and that you might.
Stir them up in their affections so that they might not go down that.
Terrible progression, last verse, second Peter one.
1St 10.
Looking diligently for one another and verse 10 another diligence. Give diligence to make your calling and election sure. For if you do these things, you shall never fall, for so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting Kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
We don't want to make shipwreck. We want to keep on growing and abounding more and more until that day when the Lord gives that assembling shout. Maybe even this afternoon. Let's just bow our heads and pray.
Our God and our Father, we give thee thanks again for bringing us into my family and making us thy children. Help us to be able to regard one another more closely to the Way without us, regardless.
With a profound love.
We read in my word, it says we love because that is first loved us.
And help us to be watchful for our brethren with godly care.
That we might stir one another up, provoke one another to love and the good works, looking diligently for each other. That we might not turn aside to the right hand or to the left, but there might be a wholesome care and a helpfulness. We do thank the Our God and Father for the great privilege to have fellowship in our pathway. We know that thy beloved Son.
Walked alone as the Man of sorrows in a path that was his alone to blaze. We thank the precious Savior for having finished that all that work that was given me to do for living on high for us now as our great High Priest, the captain of our salvation. And we bless thee and praise Thee Lord Jesus, for all thy love to us. Help us to care for thine own and the little while that's left, that we might have the privilege of glorifying Thee and bearing fruit our God and Father for Thee in this scene.
Of his rejection.
We just ask Thy blessing upon the scriptures we've considered, and ask it our God and Father, in the name of our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.
Lord and Savior Christ, we're sending the diamond cross while we were getting and now we can actually with the greatest supervisor.
Open Mtg.
Open—B. Imbeau, H. Brinkmann, C. Hendricks
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.
Belong to the number 307.
Save your will belong to.
It.
Long we are our soul of God.
God.
00:05:37
Turn with me, please, to John chapter one.
John chapter one and verse one.
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.
The little quote I want to just read.
This happens to be a quote from Mr. Darby.
And it goes like this.
The government of the Church.
Is not a setting of points, right?
But of souls, right?
I'll read that again.
The government of the Church is not a setting of points right, but of souls, right.
There's more to that sentence.
If you wish a copy of this after meeting, I'll be happy to give you one.
I'd like to say just a little bit about some of the I am phrases.
In the book of John.
There's absolutely one thing that will set our souls right.
And that is the person of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And quite frankly, it's nothing else.
But the very one.
Who laid down his life?
That we could live.
A meeting like this morning.
Doesn't that give us some pause?
Didn't we get the sense?
Of almost the need of taking off our shoes.
On holy ground.
The consideration.
Of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Should stop us well in our tracks.
And cause us to bow.
In humility.
That will surely set.
Our souls, right?
Turn to on the same chapter in verse 20.
I'm going to read an unusual.
I am to start with.
John 120. John the John the Baptist speaking.
I am not.
The Christ.
I forget which chapter it is, but it's in the Old Testament connection with the foods that were to be eaten.
Those that were clean and those that run clean.
And actually, the list begins with those that were the clean foods.
And then afterwards in this section #2 is the unclean foods, but surprisingly.
Just before, as if a little preface.
00:10:00
Before giving us the clean foods which I'm sure would represent Christ and.
Something to feed our souls upon.
But just before that.
One little sentence says, Thou shalt not eat any unclean thing.
And then it gives the rehearsal of the clean foods.
Souls set right?
Certainly.
Should be prefaced.
With setting ourselves aside.
It's very likely that I will.
Quote UN quote missed some things.
But that's OK.
Lord.
Sets our eye upon something.
Or if we miss something, we trust it's of his mind.
Let's look at John chapter 5.
And verse 17.
John 5 and verse 17 and Jesus answered them.
My father worketh.
Hitherto.
And I work.
He had a work to do.
My meat is to do the Father's will.
And where did that will lead him?
Work is difficult.
Why should the Son of God?
Be working.
His maths are overall, isn't he?
There's a universe of servants.
For him.
And yet he says that he works, and not only that, that his father does.
And what did that work bring him to?
What did that work bring him to?
Let's turn to Chapter 6.
And verse.
35.
And Jesus said unto them.
I am.
The bread.
Of life.
I.
First hymn that we sung this morning.
Brightness.
Of the eternal glory.
It doesn't say that he was in the brightness of eternal glory.
Or that he produced a brightness of eternal glory?
You wonder what went through the heart mind of soul of that person who wrote that him.
Brightness.
That's him. That's Christ. It just is.
I his very person.
Another hymn.
The Person of the Christ.
In folding every grace.
I.
That's the one.
The Word made flesh.
I.
I am.
I am.
The verse this morning from Sunday school.
The one who inhabits eternity.
I am.
Without beginning and without end.
00:15:01
I am that I am.
I am.
He was the one speaking. He was the one standing right there in front of them.
And see what he says next.
I am.
The bread.
Perhaps.
Perhaps second after rice.
The most common staple in the world.
Common.
Staple.
The one who inhabits eternity.
Would present himself.
As bread.
He became man.
Those verses in Philippians 2.
And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself.
Three times I believe it is here, he says I am the bread. Verse 41.
The Jews.
In quoting him.
Because, he said, I am the bread.
Which came down.
From heaven.
Here is one who came down.
What impact does that have in my heart?
How many of us were on the verge of tears this morning in the breaking of bread when we considered that one?
Who came down?
Came down into the dust. Death.
He laid himself flat.
The life of the flesh is in the blood.
And we sometimes say.
That his blood was poured out.
On the ground.
How much further down?
Can you go?
The eternal Son of God.
Which came down.
Let's turn over to.
Chapter 9.
Of course, in connection with I Am, we probably shouldn't miss the last part of Chapter 8.
Verse 58 Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was.
I am.
Now Chapter 9 and verse 5.
As long as I am in the world.
I am the light of the world.
I am the light.
Light does not make noise.
And yet light cannot be missed.
To King Agrippa, I think it was, Paul says. These things were not done.
In a corner.
In the first chapter of John.
And I know there's.
Perhaps other ways of looking at that, but I've enjoyed the verse 9. That was the true light.
Which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.
It may be.
But just like the.
00:20:03
Just like the testimony of creation.
Mentioned in Psalm 19.
That it's heard everywhere, without voice and without language.
And so this one, who is the light who lightens every man that comes into this world.
And if he is the light of the world, then the very fact that people are in the world, that light has in some way and some manner.
Shine on them.
But quietly.
Silently.
In Isaiah.
And I'll read it.
Isaiah Chapter.
40.
To behold my servant, whom I uphold mine elect, and whom my voice delighteth, I have put my spirit upon him. He shall bring forth the judgment to the Gentiles. He shall not cry.
Nor lift up.
You know, he's the one that came down, wasn't he?
Not to be lifted up.
Except on the cross.
He shall not cry, nor lift up, nor 'cause his voice to be heard in the street.
A bruised Reed, shall he not break?
And the smoking flax he shall not quench.
Our Lord Jesus Christ.
I am polite of the world.
And back in.
John. John. Chapter 10.
And verse 7 Then said Jesus unto them again, Verily, verily, I say unto you, I am.
The door of the sheep.
In verse nine, I am the door.
We perhaps don't think much about doors.
Sit back here.
Sometimes just propped open.
There's something that are kind of flat.
Here's one who came into this world. He made himself of no reputation.
We come to a door and we give it a good shove.
And out we go.
It's something of utility.
I am the door.
Who is this one?
This one who had put himself as a door.
To both get out.
And a door to get in.
That people just walk past.
How low?
Did he go?
Back in Exodus.
And I'm thinking more so of the similar passage in the book of Deuteronomy.
That if there were a servant that were to commit himself to.
Master and to his family. And I'm thinking more of Deuteronomy because I think that's perhaps more of us.
Then Exodus is.
They reconsider the case.
And if that was the judgment, the position that that person wanted to take.
They would take him to a door.
And they would press that ear against the door.
00:25:05
And they would take.
And all a leather punch.
And drive it.
Right into the door.
And the blood would trickle down.
Are we willing to put our ear?
Against the door.
The one who made himself of no reputation.
And not only that.
To listen.
Ever so quietly to the one who is the door.
And then get wounded for it.
Where your own blood, which is the life of the flesh.
Could drain out.
I am the door.
And we have an association with that door.
With our ear and a wound.
John chapter.
10 again.
Verse 11.
I am the Good Shepherd.
And verse 14.
I am the Good Shepherd and know my sheep and have known of mine.
Go back to chapter to verse 11.
I am the Good Shepherd, and the Good Shepherd giveth his life.
For the sheep.
He giveth his life.
He's the one who came down.
Made himself of no reputation.
And what perhaps was his in this world? A life.
He gave it up.
As a shepherd.
And to be a shepherd.
And to be a shepherd.
Down he went.
Are we willing to follow in his steps in some measure?
Oh, I know we can't follow all of his steps, of course.
But in that which scripture has granted to us.
Can we follow?
His steps.
He knew his sheep.
He could look across this room.
And he knows you.
You say, why would he even take the time to know me?
But that's the one who came down.
That's the one who came down. He comes right down to us here.
And then he's willing to get underneath of you.
Underneath are the everlasting arms and that One who is all powerful Almighty.
The very Son of God, the Word, He would lay down his life.
At your feet.
To lift you up.
A Shepherd.
A Shepherd.
Chapter 11.
And verse 25 And Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection.
And the life.
I am the resurrection.
And the light.
Why would there have to be resurrection?
Because he died.
I lay down my life.
00:30:02
Precedes the comment and I take it again.
He is the resurrection.
And there had to be death.
How far down is this one going to go?
Who in the beginning is the Word? And the Word was with God, and the Word was God?
Chapter 14.
And verse six. And Jesus saith unto him, I am.
The way.
The truth.
And the life.
No man cometh unto the Father.
But by me?
I am the way.
He's not only the way for salvation, but it was presented yesterday afternoon. He's the pathway of faith.
He's the way.
And if we think of a way as a hiking path, as was mentioned, or even as a sidewalk for those of us that don't get out in the wild that much.
What do you do?
You walk on it.
To our hearts is He still presented to us as that lowly 1.
No man cometh unto the Father, but by me, the one who laid everything out, who put himself into every risk, the one who became in that sense a nothing, whose blood was poured out.
And he was made flat.
He is the way.
We have life not only in salvation, but through life we live now.
Because.
Of what he did.
And the truth.
I'm not going to make any sort of doctrine on this, but it just came into my soul. Truth is fallen in the streets.
In the Old Testament.
That one who upheld the universe.
The one who is everything.
Not just a truth.
Or he spoke the truth.
But more than that, he is the truth.
And he laid himself out flat.
In the streets.
A spectacle.
So that we could walk.
So we could exist.
As believers.
The Lord Jesus Christ.
And the life.
And we've already mentioned.
That he is the one who laid down.
His life.
This morning.
When the prayer began for the giving thanks.
For the loaf.
If I remember right, the comment was made.
We lift up our hearts.
And blessed or something like that.
But just we lift up.
Here we are, this one who has laid himself flat.
He is now exultant.
And so now we lift up our eyes and we see him there.
In the glory. Amazing thing.
And the verse that was read through it again, Song of Solomon.
00:35:10
As long as Solomon.
And chapter 2.
Verse four, He brought me to the banqueting house, and his banner over me was love.
Banner, it's over me.
The one who laid himself down, down, down, seven steps of down, as we heard last night in Philippians chapter 2 and then.
Wherefore God hath highly exalted him.
A banner over me.
You know, the cloud out in the wilderness.
The cloud, The wilderness.
Was over them. It was a protection for them.
And yet there the amount of transfiguration.
It was no longer just a cloud over them, but they.
Being lifted up, shall we say, on their high places.
There is an entrance into that cloud.
And so the Lord has seated us in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.
Actually quite a bit higher than Cloud of perhaps millennial glory, but I think we get the idea.
That he has gone low.
He is exalted up. He went low to lift us up. He is exalted. We now look up.
And all together will be in that glory, and we're seeing as seated in Christ.
I'd like to back up, just for a second, another thought that came to me that is not a literal thought of a song, but in connection with the door that we talked about.
There's a little song that has part of it, some lone place within that door or within the door.
You know what?
We don't have just a loan place in the door, do we?
We're all coupled together.
In that one, who said I am the door?
But here's love. He brought me to the Banqueting House.
And his banner over me.
Was love. Let's turn to.
First, John.
First John, chapter 3.
Some of these verses.
What do they mean to our soul?
What do they mean to our life?
What do they mean in our interaction with our brothers and sisters in Christ?
What does it mean?
One John, 316.
Hereby.
Perceive we the love.
Of God.
But it's hereby perceived with the love.
Might notice your bibles. It's italics of God.
Because.
It's because we see.
We observe the love because.
He laid down his life for us.
And we ought.
To lay down our lives.
For the brethren.
00:40:00
I'm going to read this verse one more time.
And after I finished reading the verse, I have a simple request.
There will be a couple more speakers.
The request is very simple that someone not come up.
For one minute.
Hereby.
Perceive we the love.
Because he laid down.
His life for us.
And we ought.
To lay down.
Our lives.
For the brethren.
Please turn with me to Matthew.
Chapter 18.
Verse 50.
Moreover, if thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone, And if he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother, but if he will not hear thee.
And take with the two or three law, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established, and if he shall not, shall neglect to hear them tell it untrue, the Church or the Assembly.
But if he neglect to hear the assembly, let him be unto thee as a hidden man and a publican. Really I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatsoever you shall lose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Again I say unto you, that if two of you shall agree on earth, as touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven.
Forward two or three are gathered together in my name.
Dear am I in the midst of them? I have an exercise to bring that before us because.
Confusion is coming in amongst the gathered Saints.
Excuse me for being bold.
Years ago.
We were with another group of brethren.
So was Chuck, and there's probably others here in the audience. My grandparents.
We're already with so-called, so our history goes quite back a long way.
00:45:03
But it was a real exercise.
When we came to realize that although we thought we were truly gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus, we realized it was not so.
Why? Who is the gatherer?
It's the Spirit of God that gathers.
Is he the author of Division?
Does he gather in division?
There are influential people among us that try to tell us there are all kinds of people gathered through the name of the Lord Jesus, not just we.
Well, if that would be true, we would have the moral obligation to find them out in fellowship with them. Otherwise we are guilty of supporting division. But the spirit does not gather in division.
He gathers around the person of Christ.
He is the center.
It's not that fellowship is the center. We will have fellowship when we are at the center.
But he is the center, and the Spirit is the one that gathers.
And gathers to Christ.
You know, just be careful young people, don't allow yourself to be influenced by those that are bringing in confusion amongst the gathered Saints. That is not what was held in the past, that all these divided groups of veterans are gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus. If that would be so, or even other fundamental groups of Christians we had would have the responsibility of fellowshipping with them. Because if we wouldn't.
We would despise the presence of the Lord in the midst.
That is the serious consequence.
The only consistent thing is, if we really believe that, go to those where I came from.
Because that's what they have done, they have amalgamated.
With all groups of brethren, I believe there is now more than ten groups of formally divided brethren, all amalgamated into one. They mutually recognized each other as being on divine ground, gathered to the name in their divided state. That was the basis for coming together. I don't delight.
To bring this up, but because of the fact that there are influential people that try to tell us there are all kinds of people gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus, that's bringing in confusion. The only consistent thing is if we would really believe that is that we would fellowship with them. Otherwise we would despise the presence of the Lord in the midst.
But what is also important in this passage?
Is that there is a difference now compared to what was the order in Judaism?
You know, if there's somebody sinned against somebody, there was some place to go.
And there would be judgment passed.
You know, that was in the Jewish system different than what it is today in Christianity.
And the first thing that is stressed is if somebody sins against another, that person has the responsibility of trying to win that person, restore that person.
And if he doesn't listen to you, take 2 with you.
Everything should be established in the mouth of two or three witnesses. If he doesn't listen to them and you of course, then tell it to the church.
And then the important point is that whatever they bind on earth is bound in heaven.
Whatever is loosened on earth that it is forgiven is also loosened in heaven.
Yes, there is authority vested in the assembly because of him being there. The assembly has what it takes to act in his name.
And has to maintain holiness in the House of God.
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Well.
I'm afraid many times we do not follow that order. I'm not saying that for every minor offense that takes place that we should make a big issue out of it.
There are things that we can just, you might say, if I put it this way, ignore, forget about it, leave it with the Lord.
But if there is a real sin committed, the first responsibility is not that you make this known to the brethren, so that person is dealt with. The first responsibility is try to win that person.
And then if he doesn't listen to you, take others with you. If he doesn't listen to them, then tell it to the assembly. And then whatever the assembly binds on earth is bound in heaven. Whatever loosens on earth forgives, is recognized in heaven. So it's a very solemn thing to recognize that there is authority in the assembly.
We mentioned something in the readings about leadership.
Yes, there is leadership in the assembly, but a leader or even leaders cannot act in the name of the assembly.
They have the responsibility to investigate a case and then bring the facts before the assembly, but it is only the Assembly that has the authority to discipline or to forgive. Of course, there are these personal offences that we can forgive that we don't have to bring before the Assembly, and perhaps most of offences that occur are of that nature.
But.
You know these scriptures here, these verses that we have read.
Are so important now.
There is such a thing that if you have labored with a person that has offended you, have sinned against you, and he doesn't listen. He doesn't listen to those that you go and take with you. They that you take with you might not know the facts the way you do. You take them with you as witnesses of what you're trying to do. Now if he doesn't listen, let him be unto thee. What does it say as a hidden?
And Republican.
I was helped as a young man in Europe by a dear brother from Switzerland. He would come to Germany every year and attended conferences, and I had the privilege to be frequently at a house where he regularly would be. Not in my homosexuality.
And then was exposed to the influence of this brother's teaching. Robetti was his name, godly man from French Switzerland, but he knew German fluently was a real help to me. Well, he was in such a situation that a brother sinned against him and he tried to restore him. And he was the only one that knew the facts. The man denied it, ignored it. He took witnesses along and.
I mean, he did not deny it before the brother that he had sinned against, but when he brought the witnesses he denied it. And the brother acted on this verse. Let him be unto thee as a hidden and a publican. He wouldn't have anything to do personally with that man. He couldn't put him out as an individual, neither could the assembly put him out on the witness and the testimony of one witness.
But the Lord allowed the circumstances to be such that he was guilty of the very same thing that he was guilty to Vodafone, and it then was known by more than two, and he was dealt with. In the meantime, this dear brother in Christ went on faithfully for the Lord, looking to him, and the Lord vindicated his name and dealt with.
The evil and the brethren took care of it when it became manifest, but in the meantime these dear brother Garbetti acted on. Let him be unto thee as a hidden and Republic, and he wouldn't have any personal contact with that person.
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But how important it is that the assembly has the authority to bind and loosen? And don't set your personal judgement up against that of the assembly.
I repeat that don't set your personal judgment up against that of the assembly.
Of course, there is the danger that.
Things might be forced.
In the assembly.
But we had an unfortunate case of discipline that needed to be done.
But we did not do anything until all the brothers in the brothers meeting were of one mind.
Well, that man moved to another location after he was disciplined and he manifested his character there.
And the brethren told him, just like what we had told him, don't even come to meeting anymore. They asked him to don't come anymore. His spirit was manifest to those brethren as well.
Well, unfortunately we were not able to restore that man, and a man was never restored again. But it said we would like to see restoration and prayerfully deal with the situation. Sometimes I'm afraid we deal and do what needs to be done, but the spirit in which it is done is not the Spirit of Christ.
So we have to be exercised to do what we do in His name, by his authority, but also remember that.
What has happened to this man that needs to be disciplined here could happen to me. I made of the same stuff.
So humility is in place, you know, and.
Humility is the proper spirit to manifest when we have to deal with evil, but the Lord will recognize what is done.
And unfortunately, sometimes it isn't done in the right spirit. But I sometimes told brethren, have you as a Father always discipline your children in the right spirit?
Didn't sometimes you get in the flesh, you get real angry, you know?
We have to discipline our children. He that's best. Darod hates his son. But unfortunately, sometimes even dear and family situations, we don't always manifest the right spirit and that is possible to take place in an assembly.
But that doesn't set aside the authority of the Father, and that doesn't set aside the authority of the assembly. So may the Lord help us that we accept divine order in the home and in the assembly. And let me repeat it, don't set up your personal judgement against that of the assembly.
It's the local brethren that have that responsibility.
Not anybody outside.
Not any gifted teacher I remember brother.
Roach Adrian Roach told us once that there was a problem in an assembly and he and another brother was asked to come there because they didn't know exactly how to deal with it and what scriptures would apply. So they went there and they opened the scriptures and then.
Tried to help those brethren to show what scriptures applied and the order in which things should be done.
And what needed to be done. And I remember distinctly that he told us that when they left, they said, now this is what we recommend. But if you do not follow our recommendation and you do what you think should be done, we have no choice but to bow to it. That was a brother that was very much used as a teacher among us. Well.
Hopefully we will be exercised.
01:00:00
To discipline in the family and when discipline is necessary in the assembly.
That we do it humbly.
And do not.
Be hasty.
To imply the extreme form.
Of discipline, Well, let's try to exhaust every effort of grace.
And love to win a person rather than to put them out.
Get rid of them. You know that's not the answer. The Lord would not be honored by us conducting ourselves and conducting things in that way. So may the Lord help us and to carry on in a way that would meet with His approval.
Have 1/2 hour.
Genesis chapter one and verse one.
In the beginning.
God created the heavens and the earth.
And the earth was without form and void.
And darkness was upon the face of the deep.
And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
I've read 2 verses from the first book in the Bible.
Which is the most attacked book?
In all of Christendom and all of the world, Those that have to do with the Bible at all.
And they know that if they can cause you to distrust the record that God gave of creation.
He will make you doubt the whole Bible.
And young people, especially on my heart.
Are faced with that in school.
And over the television, radio, and so on.
I would say the one man that has done more damage.
To Christianity.
As the man that introduced evolution.
I think that's the greatest evil, because if that succeeds.
As it does in the schools and so on.
Then it causes young people to.
Distrust God's record of what he did.
And how he did it.
To some extent.
In the beginning.
Now we don't see the force of that.
In our translation, any translation, you don't see the force of that in the English language.
You have the plural and the singular.
But in the Hebrew language you have the plural and the dual and the singular. Another dual is 2 hands, 2 feet, two eyes, two ears, and so on.
So whenever they're speaking that way, they use the dual form.
And that this word God Elohim in the Hebrew, anything ending in IM in English it's mostly ending in an S. It's Pearl.
But here the plural in the Hebrew is in the I am an Elohim.
Is Pearl so the God there is in the Pearl?
That means three or more, not one, not two, because tool has a separate form. The dual case. The dual number I should say.
And God in the plural is at least three.
And that's important.
I was talking to a young man and he I have a lot more to say than I'll be able to say in 1/2 hour and I'll give you what I have. And he said to me he was talking to a friend of his and he said he's a nice Christian.
And I said.
I said, does he believe in the Trinity? Oh no, no, he doesn't believe in the Trinity.
I said then he's not a Christian.
You cannot be a Christian and deny the Trinity, and all you have to do to deny the Trinity is deny to deny one of those three persons, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
Just deny anyone of those as being God.
And that's what's in that word God there in the plural. God created the heavens and the earth. All three persons were involved in the original creation. All three persons are involved in anything that God does, because God is 3 persons in one God.
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Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. It's not. The Father does some things and the Son does some things and the Spirit does some things, but all three are involved in everything that God does.
A little bit later in this chapter.
It says.
Verse 26.
And God said, Elohim said, let us.
Here we have a conversation going on among the Persons of the Godhead, the Trinity. Let us make man in our image after our likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
Notice now verse 27. So God created man in his own image.
God has spoken of Indiana this passage as a plurality.
And in his deity.
He created man in his own image and the image of God created he him male and female created he them. God blessed them. And God said to them, be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the fowl of the air and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb Bering sea. There you have the singular and that's that's the truth of the Godhead. God is one.
Put in three persons.
God is one and in three persons.
Now in the third chapter.
I think it's the third chapter.
Yes, verse 22 Chapter 3 and the Lord God said behold, the man is become as one of us.
To know good and evil. One of us. Again, we have the persons of the Godhead, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We don't have their names given to us in the Old Testament, but we have clearly the fact that God is one, and yet he's a plurality. He's singular and plural.
And.
Christianity is the only religious.
Belief system that holds to that, and all you have to do to deny the truth of who God is, is to deny that anyone of those three persons is not God. The Jews deny it because they say that Jesus is not God. That's why they crucified him, because he claimed to be the Son of God. He claimed to be God. He, being a man, maketh himself God.
And they rejected that. The Muslims reject that God is a plurality.
All false religions reject that.
He is 3 in one and one in three.
I've often said a Sunday school teacher is illustrating the truth of the Trinity and she takes a pie and she cuts it in three in thirds. She says this represents the Father, this is the Son and this is the Spirit.
Well, that's just a way to try to illustrate a little bit of the truth of the Trinity.
Again watered.
Waters in three stage 3 conditions. It's either a solid if it's cold enough, or a liquid or a gas if it gets hot enough.
But it's not all three at the same time. But the Trinity is all three at the same time.
All three are involved in your salvation.
You have in Luke 15.
The sheep goes astray, and the shepherd.
Goes after it and then the woman is sweeping in the house and she loses a coin and she sweeps after it. The the shepherd that goes after the sheep is a picture of the Lord Jesus. The woman that sweeps for the missing coin is a picture of the Holy Spirit and then the Father.
The Father's waiting, looking for his son to return. A picture of the Father. I remember talking to a Jehovah's Witness at the at a meeting room. We stayed, I stayed in the meeting room and in a room there, and these two came to the door and they were Jehovah's Witnesses.
And she says the Trinity is not in the Bible. Well, what is what is meant is that the word Trinity is not in the Bible.
And I saw where the very names of the Trinity here in the Bible, Matthew 28, baptizing them in the name.
Not the names, but in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
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One God, three persons, three persons.
So this boy, this young man, was sadly mistaken.
There's a group in Christendom that says that Jesus is all three persons in one.
That's altogether raw.
Altogether wrong 3 distinct separate persons, but one in purpose, in will, in action, and all that they do in thought.
Three persons.
One God and you have that in so many passages of Scripture.
New Testament is filled with that. You have it in the Old Testament too. We just looked in Genesis 3. Let's look at the 11Th chapter.
In the 11Th chapter.
Genesis.
Started verse four. And they said, Go to let us build us a city in a tower whose top may reach unto heaven. Let us make us a nameless we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth. And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the children of end of men builded. And the Lord said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language, and this they begin to do, and now nothing will be restrained from them which they have imagined to do. Notice verse 7. Go to let us.
Go down again. You have a conversation among the three Persons of the Trinity speaking together. Let us go down and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech. So the Lord scattered them abroad from fence upon the face of all the earth, and they left off to build a city. So on.
So there again you have plurality and also.
One look at Deuteronomy 6. This is the favorite verse that the Jews used to please that God, to prove that God is one.
It proves just the opposite if you look at the truth of it. Deuteronomy 6 They say this in all their synagogues. They read this verse, verse four. Hear, O Israel, the Lord Jehovah, our God is 1 Jehovah. 1 Jehovah, Yes, the Father's Jehovah the Son is Jehovah, the spirit is Jehovah. 1 Jehovah, but three persons.
Now.
They have two words in the Hebrew and no Hebrew scholar by a long shot, but two words to represent the oneness of something. The one is 1 Composed of many parts. Like this is one room, but there are many maybe 600 people in it.
And then there's an exclusive oneness, and the question is which one is used here? Hero Israel, the Lord our God is 1 Lord. It's oneness in plurality. The church is one, the body is one, but composed of many members.
Many members.
Does it surprise you that in First Thessalonians 5 it says your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless under the coming of the Lord Jesus? Did you know that you are a Trinity? You have a spirit and a soul and a body, because he who is a Trinity made you that way.
Made you that way. The animal is not. He has a soul and a body. He does not have a spirit.
And so when he dies, his soul dies along with his body. But that's what makes it so terribly serious that when man dies, his body dies. That's the only part of him that dies. His soul and spirit never die.
Never die, and he's going to receive, to complete him once again in the resurrection, a glorified body which will never die.
There's many trinities space.
His length, depth and height space.
Space.
If you think of it.
There's a book out. I've been reading a little of it recently, The Secret of the Universe. Tremendous book.
Presenting before us a triune God yet one.
Yet one.
Well, I've quoted.
Let's let's look at a few verses where.
Where all three persons are mentioned in one verse. There's a lot of them in the New Testament. Look at John 14.
01:15:02
John, Chapter 14.
And it's not always in the same order that you get in Matthew 28 in the baptismal formula, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Sometimes the Son is first and then the Father, then the Spirit. Sometimes the Spirit is first and then the Son and then the Father. Sometimes the Spirit is first and then the Father and the Son, and so on. Why? To show that no one of those persons of the Trinity is superior to the other. They're all.
All one and yet a multiple of 3.
Verse 16 of John 14.
I is the Son, the second person. I'm going to say the Father is the first person, the Son is the 2nd, and the Spirit is the third. Just so we can keep it straight. It's not because number one is ahead of number two or three. No, it's not. That's not the case. I second person will pray the Father, the first person, and he shall give you another comforter, the third person, that he may abide with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, but you see Him and know him.
Three persons, one God.
I remember speaking on the Trinity once the sister came up to me and she opened her Bible and she showed me the pages and there there was a little triangle that she'd put by a certain verse, the trinities in that verse, and there was another triangle and another triangle, another triangle. She had marked them down. And sometimes it's not in the single verse, but it's in the passage. It's in the passage. You must find all three persons there because that's who God is.
He is the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, or the Son and the Spirit and.
The Father, everything he does, look at the resurrection, the Lord Jesus said destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up. There you have the second person raising himself and he was raised up by the Father.
And the Spirit of God quickened him, raised him, gave him life. All three persons involved, all three persons involved in the salvation of a soul, all three persons involved in the creation of the universe.
Think it, think of it, but that that one that that we read about in John 11 in the beginning.
The word there was a word. The word was in the beginning.
The beginning was the word.
The Word was with God, and the Word was God. You have a Trinity of truth in that one verse. Tremendous verse. In the beginning was the Word. That's His eternal being.
And the Word was with God. That's his distinct personality.
And the word was God. That's his proper deity, all in one verse.
All in one verse.
And God speaks to us through the Word.
His Son, the Word. Father's not called the Word, the Spirit's not called the Word, but he is.
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.
He's the One. The Father didn't become flesh. The Spirit didn't become flesh, but He did.
He became flesh, and the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world. And who sat down? The Holy Spirit the Father did in John 14 and in John 15.
The sunset sends him, and John 16. He comes himself, all three persons.
Involved in everything that God does I hope that just as a result of this very.
Inadequate presentation of the Trinity that you will look for the Trinity as you read your Bible. You'll find it everywhere, especially in the New Testament, but it's there in the old as well.
As well.
Let's see if we can find a few more.
Oh, let's look at Ephesians. Let's look at Ephesians 4 once.
Just comes to mind.
Ephesians 4.
I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that you walk worthy of the vocation wherewith you're called, with all loneliness and meekness, with long-suffering, forbearing one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit. That's the third person.
In the bond of peace.
There's one body and one spirit. There He is, even as you are called in one hope of your calling. 1 Lord, There's the first, there's the second person, the Lord Jesus, 1 Lord, 1 faith, one baptism, and then the first person, one God and Father of all, who's above all and through all, and in you all three persons, not always in the same order.
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Comes to mind. First Peter one, first Peter one, first Peter one.
Verse 2.
Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, first Person.
Through sanctification of the Spirit, third person.
Unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ, the second Person.
Beautiful to find all through the Trinity and any religion that refuses the Trinity that says that Jesus was not God and all the spirit is God. He's just an influence, He's just a force. He's just an IT.
Says in Romans 8, and that throws some people. Let's go back to it in Romans 8.
In Romans 8.
Verse 26. Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities, for we know not what we should pray for, as we ought, but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered, and those that want to deny that the Spirit is a person.
Just as much as the son is a person and the father is, they say, see, it says itself.
It's in the neuter. You have the masculine, the feminine and the neuter.
And the reason it says itself is because it's simply following the dramatical rule that a word that's in the neuter is an itch is referred to as an it. Well, it so happens that spirit or wind is in the neuter. So it says the spirit itself. But when he's spoken of by the Lord, he always speaks of the Spirit of God as a as a hymn, not in it as a hymn. So the only reason it says itself instead of himself, there are some translations that say himself which is correct.
But this is just grammatically correct.
But that's why it says it.
Well, this is just barely touching the subject I.
Feel sorry that we can't go into this more.
But this book?
Is the word of God and remember if you want to know how this world was created, you read Genesis one and two and how man came here and that man has a living soul. God breathed into man's nostrils, not the animals. He breathed into man's nostrils the breath of life and man became a living. That means a never dying soul. That's what makes it so serious, that story. Our brother gave it to the children.
That these unbelievers try to say everything is rosy on the other side, well, it is for the Christian.
But everyone has a soul that will never die.
And if you're not saved.
You're going to hell. You'll spend eternity in the Lake of Fire. Lake of Fire.
And you are eternity, a Tri unity. Everyone of us is.
And you'll find, you'll find that that the whole universe is built that way.
It's built that way.
Well.
Remember, young people don't get your.
You see, the reason that I say evolution is the most serious is because it seems to have science on its side. It does not. Those that say that science has been proven are liars.
There's no truth at all in it. It's nonsense.
You don't have to be a professor to see it's nonsense, utter nonsense.
Man is a triunity.
And the universe is.
And it didn't take billions of years to create it all. All he had to say was let there be and there was.
God is a timeless being.
We would like to talk about the man likes to talk about this universe is being so old.
I don't believe that at all.
I don't know how old it is, but it certainly doesn't take God a long time. All He has to do is speak. He commanded and it stood fast. He spoke and it was done. He commanded and it stood, stood fast. He said let there be and there was. Just like that.
01:25:11
That's the God that became a man.
That they could touch and listen to.
My Savior is to your savior.
Nothing more important than that. God help us.
And number is 131. That's eternity in one. OK, that'll help us remember where it is.
Praise we to the Father.
Give God.
Your wish?
Gospel
Gospel—Dean Rule
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Hi.
Right together, blessed God our Father in verse 21, and I want to read it at the beginning because there's two words there.
Which we'll see at least one other verse in both cases.
But I can't guarantee you that the clock that's on different walls in the room, the time that's on the watches on many of our wrists, I can't guarantee you. No one can guarantee you here that it'll go one loop around the small hand and come to 7:30 and we'll pray at the end of the meeting. Absolutely no guarantees like that. And so I want to read a verse at the beginning that if you and your heart.
Believe what is in this verse. If you haven't done it before, you're going to join.
The rest of us who are on our way to be with the Lord Jesus, perhaps very soon. Acts chapter 20 and verse 21.
Testifying both to the Jews and also to the Greeks. Stop there. Someone may say, well, I'm not a Jew and I'm not from the land of Greece, but when it says Greeks here, it's referring to Gentiles. Everyone is not a Jew. Everyone in this room is included in the group that's being addressed in this, the beginning of this verse. Two things, repentance toward God.
Her desire this evening is that God, by His Spirit, help anyone here who does not know the Lord Jesus as their Savior to repent, to simply think again about eternity, to think again about your sinful nature, the same nature that every one of us was born with. To think again about sins, the acts that every one of us have done and what God says about them.
We're not interested in some.
Opinion poll that might be taken by pollsters that might say, what do you think of certain things? Brother Derek this morning mentioned a file and I will file sometimes of clippings and, and in the file I cut out something where there was a certain kind of sin and and someone said, well, do you think this is a sin? And they gave the figures for people 50 years ago and 25 years ago and now in the 21St century, they said, do you think such and such a thing is sin? And in this case it was a man and woman.
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Being together without being married. And if you looked at the statistics, the majority of the people who answered the poll said it isn't a sin, but the question is.
What we're not looking at are surveys of men and women. What we're looking at is what the Word of God says, and it has not changed. The principles that are in this book have not changed because this is a book that tells us about someone who loves you, and he loves me so much that he gave everything that could possibly be given. That's why there's a meeting here tonight.
If this was a meeting and someone was to.