St. Thomas Conference: 2023
Table of Contents
Overcoming the World
Address—Josh Stewart
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.
Can we begin the meeting this afternoon with number 76 in the appendix?
#76 in the back.
Dying Jesus, thine no more, This heart of mine shall seek its joy apart from thee. The world is crucified to me, and I and thine, thine, thine alone, my joy, my hope, my crown. Now earthly things may fade and die. They charm my soul no more.
For I than thine alone.
Thine ever, thine forever to recline on love, eternal, fixed and sure. Yes, I am thine forevermore, Lord Jesus thine #76.
I'd like to read a couple of verses before we pray. John chapter 17.
Verse 11.
And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to Thee, Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one as we are. While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name. Those that thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost but the Son of Perdition.
That the scripture might be fulfilled? And how come I to thee?
And these things I speak in the world, that they may have My joy fulfilled in themselves. I have given them Thy word, and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. I pray not that Thou should just take them out of the world, that Thou should just keep them from the evil. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.
Sanctify them through thy truth. Thy word is truth.
Our God and our Father as we open this meeting with prayer.
We pray, each one of us.
Holy Father.
Not here we trust to do our own will.
But here to do Thy will, we look forward to that coming day, and we'll be free from every earthly care.
Free from those things that draw us down.
To be completely free.
In that relationship that we are already in now.
For all eternity to enjoy the Father's love.
But we just pray for help as we're not there yet, that we might have deliverance from those things that would distract us, that would turn our eyes and our thoughts and our hearts away from the Lord Jesus. We pray for help in this meeting, help for the speaker and those who listen, that the result of this meeting would be that our hearts would be fixed more.
Importantly, on the Lord Jesus Christ, we pray this our God and Father, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Amen.
Well, the subject I want to speak on this afternoon, with the Lord's help is the subject of overcoming the world. It's the subject that I've had on my heart recently. I have to say if something I've struggled with, but I'm encouraged to speak on the subject because I feel that it's a subject we need.
You know the Believer has three enemies.
We have that great enemy of God, the devil. We also have the enemy from within.
The flesh.
But there is another enemy, the world.
You know, to meet the devil, God has given us the whole armor of God. That's an Ephesians 6, that we might be able to stand against the devil and his power to deal with the flesh. We have the wonderful truth of deliverance outlined so beautifully in Romans.
But how do we overcome the world?
That's what I want to talk about a little bit this afternoon.
You know, one of the difficult things about having three enemies is that it's easy to lose track of them.
I've got four children and they like after supper to have a little wrestle. So we get down and Russell, did you know when you're wrestling 1 opponent it's really pretty straightforward to keep track of where they are. When you add 2 into the mix, it's more difficult. But when you have 3 opponents?
00:05:14
It's very easy to lose track.
Of where they are, and I believe, at least for myself, but maybe it's true for you too, I can tend to lose track of that third enemy. The world is the forgotten enemy.
And I believe the Lord would have us not to lose track, not to be.
Overcome.
And not to be discouraged by what we face either. I really don't want this meeting to be a discouragement because it says in first John chapter 4 that greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world.
We have no need to be discouraged. In fact, the opposite is true. We have every reason to be encouraged.
And even to be full of joy in spite of what we face.
Well, the word world is used a number of different ways in Scripture.
Maybe you might say three different senses. Paul says in Romans chapter one the creation of the world, and by that he means the world in the sense of the physical place. We might call it the world place or the world planet. But then it says in John 316 that God so loved the world. So we can tell from from the context of that that he refers to the people.
God loved the people that were living on the planet, so the world in that sense is the world people.
But we have, so we have the world place and the world people. But there's another sense, Jesus said in John chapter 15, If the world hates you.
He's referring to something other than the place and something other than the people.
We might say it's the world system, maybe the world program, but I like the word system.
There is something that is all around us that we are in, and everyone who's alive on the face of the earth is in it.
It's a system that's set up by man in independence of God.
And Satan is its head.
And each one of us is in that system. You say, well, how do you, where do you get that?
Well, the Greek word for world that's translated into our English word world is cosmos.
It means a vast ordered system.
So to understand that system a little bit more.
You know, hopefully when we want to understand a subject from God's Word, we know that it's good to go back to the beginning.
You know, we can read about the world in many different verses, and we'll turn to a few this afternoon, but it's helpful to go back.
I feel that the beginning of the world.
It's back in the book of beginnings.
So I just want to read from Genesis chapter 4.
Genesis chapter 4, as you know, reports the history of Cain and Abel.
And how Cain brought a bloodless sacrifice to God and how he.
Killed his brother Abel.
And then in verse 16 it tells us what happened with Cain, says in verse 16. And Cain went out from the presence of the Lord and dwelt in the land of Nod on the east of Eden.
And then in the middle of verse 17 it says and he builded a city.
What we find here with Cain is that he leaves the presence of the Lord to build something.
And he builds something great, a system.
Why does it say that King went out from the presence of the Lord? I mean, God is omnipresent, He's everywhere.
How could Cain leave the presence of the war? It means that he went out and did something in independence of God. When he built this city, he was setting up something, an independence of God. And that is what this world takes its character from, independence from God.
We look down on this chapter that the family of Cain and we'll see what characterized that family and that city we might say that he built. Let's look at verse 20. It says here an ADA bear Jabil. He was the father of such as well intense and if such as have cattle and his brother's name was Jubal. He was the father of all such as handle the harp in the organ.
00:10:17
And Zilla? She also bare tubal cane, an instructor of every artificer of brass and iron.
So we find here that the descendants of King, the one who built that city, they become experts in all sorts of things, you know, business, industry.
Music. Entertainment.
Technology, all these things, all these things were developed out of that system. That city came built outside of the presence of Jehovah.
You know, one of the myths I think that we can tend to believe is that the world is only things that are positively evil.
But I don't think that's true.
Because, you know, is there anything positively evil about having cattle?
How about the harp in the organ? Of course not. What about building things of brass and iron? Of course not. You know, we read about the labor being made of brass, and you know, the other instruments of the Tabernacle made of different metals, the musical instruments. Think about the harp that David built, or that David played and so on. None of that.
There's nothing wrong with those things in themselves.
We must see that there is something greater.
There is a system.
A system cleverly architected and designed to keep us independent from God.
If there is something you need.
The world can provide it.
If there's something you want.
The world can provide it. You might be interested in some very strange things, and there are people that are, but I guarantee you the world can provide it. There's enough in this world to keep you occupied for your entire life. Going from one thing to the next now can't satisfy. The world cannot satisfy you, but it can keep you.
Occupied so you never turn to God. The world takes the place of God.
In the hearts of men, the world takes the place of God and the hearts of men.
So what we have here?
Is the birth of civilization without God turnover Now to first John you know John and his ministry speaks of the world to a very great extent and we'll read probably a number of verses from John's writing but.
John First John chapter 2.
In verse, let's see here verse 15 love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world. The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life is not of the Father, but is of the world.
So here we find something additional. Not only is the world a great system, but the world has.
An ally. The ally is our fallen nature.
You see, the things that are in the world are the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life.
In the world system is tailored to to cater to our fallen nature.
So the world presents to us things that are nature are followed. Nature desires. There's a there, there's an alliance there between those two enemies. And enemies, as we know, get stronger when they form an alliance. But you know these things that are in the world, the lust of the flesh, the desire for pleasure.
The lust of the eyes possessions, the pride of life.
Position and power, those things.
We have a nature that desires those things.
Those are the things that he calls here, the love of the world, but they're not of the Father.
You cannot have the love of the Father and the love of the world.
We find in Scripture that the world and the Father are opposed. I mentioned earlier that we had three enemies. We have the devil, and the devil and Christ are opposed. We also have the Father and the world and they are opposed, and then we have the flesh.
00:15:13
And the Spirit is opposed to the flesh.
Again.
The devil is opposed to Christ, the world is opposed to the Father, and the flesh is opposed to the Spirit.
You know, we cannot have the love of the world and the love of the Father. These two things are mutually exclusive. And if we go over to chapter five, first John, chapter 5, we'll see in verse 19.
And we know that we are of God, and the whole world lieth and wickedness or lies in the wicked one. In other words, the whole world is under the influence of Satan.
So now we have our third enemy, and now we have a triple alliance. We have the world, the flesh and the devil all allied together.
To steal our hearts, to blind our eyes, to distract us and turn us away from God.
I think that's something we need to remember, that ultimately the one who is behind the changes.
Behind the systems of this world is the devil. It is him. The whole world lies in the wicked world. He is. He is the one on top of the hierarchy.
God allows the devil who is not sovereign. Only God himself is sovereign, but God allows the devil and permits him to have his way over this, over this system.
And we need to remember that because sometimes we think that we can have something in this world and we can get away with it. But we have to remember that we are dealing with an adversary that is far stronger than we are far stronger. We need to remember.
Who it is that's at the top of the hierarchy that is behind the system of this world. It's the devil. But remember, greater is he that is in you than he that is in this world.
We and ourselves are no match for the devil. He is called the Prince of this world in John chapter 12. He is called the God of this world in Second Corinthians chapter 4. Politically and religiously, he is its head.
Well, the world is progressing.
The progress of this world is really the world system better adapting itself to do what it does to fill our minds, to steal our hearts, to blind our eyes.
That is the progress of this world.
This is the thing that's really on my heart.
So much of the time I feel that.
I'm unaware.
Maybe this is true of you too unaware.
Of the progress.
Very carefully. Very skillfully.
The world is adapting to take more and more of our time, of our lives, of our hearts, of our children.
You know the access to the various departments of this world system and it has many departments.
It's better than it has ever been before. You can access anything you want with a touch of a finger.
With the device that we carry around with us in our pockets.
You know, it's amazing when you consider the progress of the world. What do you want that you can't get?
Pleasure, entertainment, even religion. Yes, the world has religion.
But what do you want that you cannot get with Amazon?
You can get almost anything you want and often with one or two day shipping.
The world will provide it. The world will provide a lot of things too, that are far more sinister than what you find on Amazon.
We mentioned from first John 2 verse 16 that the world is opposed to.
The world and the Father are on opposite sides of a battlefield.
And the point of contention between the world and the Father is the Son.
Why? Because the father loves the son, he loves him and the world hates the son, and you cannot have fellowship with the world and with the father. They are completely opposed to each other and it all comes down to the issue.
00:20:17
Of what the world did with the Lord Jesus.
John chapter 12, you know, we won't take time to turn there, but in John chapter 12, the Lord Jesus referring to the cross, said, now is the judgment of this world. Now shall the Prince of this world be cast out. Now is the judgment of this world, the world cast out the Son of God. And so there is a state of enmity between God and the world.
And that has tremendous implications for you and for me as Christians.
What is our place in all of this? Well.
Back in John 17, you know those verses we read at the beginning of the meeting, we find that the Lord Jesus said of His disciples as He was praying to His Father as He went to the cross, He said they are not of the world even as I and not of the world. Well, in what way was the Lord Jesus not of this world?
He came down from heaven.
He had a nature that was completely different, completely different from the love of the world and all the things that are in the world, the lust, the pride in all of that. He had a nature that was totally separate. He kept himself unspotted from the world. Now, not isolated, he was in the world, but he kept himself from those things. And he says, just as I am not of this world, so they are not of this world.
You and I are different.
We are not of this world at the very root. We are different, if you're a true believer.
You're not of the world. We might try to make ourselves comfortable here, and sadly sometimes we do. But ultimately, if we are real, we don't belong.
We will not fit in again. You might try. Go to all the functions, be part of the conversation, laugh at the jokes, do all the things, but at the root, At the root you are different and you know it.
And if you're a true believer?
They are not of the world, and so it is our responsibility and our privilege. Young people are privileged to walk as those who are not of this world because we follow someone who is cast out of this world and who has been glorified in heaven at God's right hand, and he is now the center of another world altogether.
And so laying hold of that fact draws us up. He draws us up from the temptations of this world and delivers us. I'm getting a little ahead. But you know, Paul says in Romans 12 That we should present our bodies a living sacrifice and that we should not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of our minds. There's a, there's a contrast there between conform and transform. To conform is to change by outward pressure, like pushing a mold.
On us to change us into what the world would have us to be.
Now God wants the changes too, but he wants to transform us now. A transformation is an inside out change, and God does that by the Spirit of God.
We have that in Second Corinthians chapter 3 and verse 18.
So as the world is seeking to conform us, there's a danger that we might be conformed to the world.
God now is trying to transform us, and the way it begins is by renewing our minds, by having our thoughts constantly reset with what God tells us in this book.
That's how our minds are renewed.
But it's not just our minds, it's our heart.
We're going to talk a little bit about that.
Yet there's something for our conscience too, and that is the cross. Let's go over to Galatians 6.
Galatians chapter 6 in verse 14. But God forbid that I should glory.
Saving the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, whereby the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.
Now the cross has come in and separated us from the world.
When we think of what this world did with our Savior, it brings us to a point where we have to decide, are we on His side? You know, if it wasn't for the cross, we might almost.
00:25:10
You might almost forgive the world.
Because of the cross, a believer can never forgive the world. They crucified our Savior.
They put Him on a cross. They said we will not have this man to reign over us and we love him. We love the one the world rejected. How can we then have a vested interest in this system that cast out our blessed Savior?
So Paul says that by the cross the world is crucified unto me, and I into this world. I know I cannot glory in anything except for the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.
May God preserve us from from the world, from the love of the world.
You know, there is so much damage that the world can do to us. Worldliness we might call it. It produces emptiness in our soul. Jeremiah 2 Says how they have viewed themselves out cisterns, broken systems that can hold no water.
The world cannot satisfy you. It produces emptiness in your soul. Worldliness can rob us of our appetite for the Word of God, for the things of God. In Numbers 11 it speaks about the foods of Egypt. You can take up that subject maybe a little bit later.
It can rob us of our effectiveness in service. You know, there's a number of types. I already mentioned Egypt. There's a number of types of the world in the Old Testament. But think of law and Sodom. He wanted, he wanted that system, although he was a believer. And when the time came to preach to his sons, his sons in law.
He was as to them as one who mocked.
They didn't believe him. He had shown by his by his own life that he loved the things of the world, and so they wouldn't listen to him when he warned them to flee.
What about our discernment? Hosea Chapter 7 and verse eight? You know, we don't have the time to turn to all these verses, but there it says Ephraim is a silly dove. You know, Ephraim turned to idols. That's the 10 northern tribes, the 10 tribes to the north of Israel. They turn to idols. And the result was that they lost their discernment. They became silly doves.
You know we too will lose our discernment if we go after the things of this world.
And we take what the world offers to us instead of being unspotted from this world, as James tells us. Communion. What fellowship?
Light with darkness, What Concorde hath Christ with filial? 2 Corinthians, chapter 6.
We cannot walk in fellowship with God and have fellowship with the system that we just talked about. It has cast out His son. We just can't do it. So we won't be able to walk in communion, daily communion.
In a relationship with the Lord Jesus, the most important relationship, but there's other relationships too, and the world will destroy those relationships with one another as well. You know, the world is changing more and more rapidly, and when people are tied into that as it's changing, it produces real problems in families and assemblies. Generational divides are a result many times of worldliness.
Because we're tied in at different points in the progress.
Of this world. So we can't get along with those that have a different generation because we're too tied in with a system that is changing at an ever increasing pace. I don't know if that makes sense.
I could maybe draw it on a whiteboard, but I'm I'm probably not able to explain it but.
These are some of the results. And so our prayer is our prayer is that we would realize what the world is first of all.
But not to leave it there. How do we overcome the world?
Let's go back to first John chapter 5. I want to leave you with three closing points as to how we can overcome the world.
Maybe a young person here.
If you're a child.
Maybe older, maybe you're 12 or 10 years old. You haven't been out into the system of the world yet, but someday you will.
00:30:05
And I hope that what we've talked about today will be a help to you.
First John chapter 5, verse 4.
Whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world, and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?
The first key to overcoming the world is faith.
And if you're a true believer, you have it.
Do you believe that Jesus is the Son of God?
What can the world offer you that compares with that? They can't offer you anything that can hold a candle to who he is. And the more our hearts are are occupied with him as the object that's above this world, the center of a of another world altogether will be able to overcome the world around us. There's another thing that's the cross.
We need to be reminded.
To keep the cross before us, we cannot forget.
What happened 2000 years ago? Nearly.
As I mentioned before, if the cross hadn't happened, Satan would still be the head of this world.
And we still couldn't love it. But in a sense, we could maybe more easily forget what the world really is.
But you know what? If you love Jesus. If you love the Lord Jesus.
The cross makes it.
You cannot forget what this world is really like.
You know, Moses in Egypt, another type, I encourage you to, you know, to look into that. Egypt is a type of the world. And then Moses in Egypt, he was raised in that system. He was raised in Pharaoh's household. He had every worldly advantage.
And their team a moment when he rejected all of that when he turned away from it. And it tells us what happened. You know, it says in Hebrews Chapter 11 verse 24 by faith, Moses when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season.
Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt, for he had respect unto the recompense. You know there came a day when Moses looked.
And he saw what the Egyptians were doing to his brethren. He saw the abuse. And it clicked in his mind.
This is what the world is. And he refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter.
You know, Pharaoh's daughter might represent to us the warmth of the world, and the world is warm in a certain sense. It has love, not true love, but it has love and it will. It will wrap its arms around you and draw us in.
But what God wants us to do is to remember what the world truly is, and as Moses saw, what was happening to his brethren.
He esteemed the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt.
And we too, we need to look back to the cross and remember what the world really is. It will help us to be free of it.
Nay, world, I turn away, though thou seem fair and good.
That friendly outstretched hand of mine is stained with Jesus blood.
How can we, as James says, be friends with the world?
For friendship with the world is enmity with God.
But you know, there is something more.
That's what I want to leave you with, that I believe is more important than all that I've said. And it's what Jude writes at the end, at the end of his epistle. Keep yourselves in the love of God, because I said before, the love of the Father and the love of the world are mutually exclusive, as we saw in first John.
Chapter 2 maybe, you might say in the more negative sense.
That if we love the world, we cannot enjoy the love of the Father. And that's true.
00:35:01
But I think it's a circle.
That the more we are in the enjoyment of the love of the Father, the less we will crave the love of the world. So keep yourselves in the love of God. And I believe that is the greatest antidote to the love of the world. You know, it's a matter of the heart. But you know Daniel in Babylon, you know, another picture of the world he purposed in his heart.
And you and I can too.
And we can have the victory.
The victory that overcomes the world.
You know, Jay and Darby gave an excellent example of this, He said. Let's say there's a boy in an orchard and he's eating rotten fruit.
And next to him, there's a tree with beautiful, delicious apples. And you say he must not know that the apples are there. I mean, that's the only reason why he's eating the rotten fruit.
Is because he doesn't know about the good. And that is how it is with you and with me. The delicious good apples, that's the love of the Father. The rotten fruit is the love of the world. The more we learn, the more we enjoy of the love of the Father. Then we will have no appetite.
For the rotten fruit. For the things of this world.
So.
These three things, the faith that we have, the cross of Christ and the love of the Father, the faith that we have in the Son of God is the center of another world altogether, and by renewing our minds in that faith through the Word of God.
Then the cross which makes it so we cannot forget what the world really is.
And finally, keeping ourselves in the love of God. Well, I hope that this could be a help to some of you.
And now let's close in prayer.
For God and our Father, we think of this subject that we've had before us.
How it was prayed earlier in the prayer meeting that we were are in a spiritual conflict.
We just pray as those who have been given to the Son out of the world, that we would walk in a way that would be in keeping with that. Think of the things of this world around us.
That would draw out our hearts and our desires in a way that would be ruinous to our Christian pathway.
That we would remember what the world truly is, That our faith might have its object in the One.
Who is glorified in heaven today? That we would keep ourselves in the love of God, that we might know what it is to overcome the world. So we just pray that we would keep ourselves in the enjoyment of the Father's love. We pray this Lord Jesus, in my worthy and precious name, Amen.
2 Peter 3:1-6
Reading
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
We sing #3.
#3.
Oh God, we see.
In the rain.
Who gave our whole heart?
Come on, Grace, I come all the time.
Great.
Our God and Father, we thank Thee again for such a time to be together like this. Knowing of Thy love and Thy goodness and mercy to us, we can sing this hymn that tells us that we see Thee in the Lamb.
We thank thee that we are thine fought with the blood of Christ, thy beloved Son.
00:05:02
We're reminded now of.
What this world has to offer mid scenes of confusion.
And the address we had of the need to overcome these things.
We're so thankful.
That thy son could say, I have overcome the world.
And now like those ones in Nazareth and Nehemiah that gather together as one man.
Lord, that thy word might be opened up to us in such a way that by Thy Spirit each one of us here with our hearts prepared and our ears opened, or that we could take these things in.
And as we consider him abiding in us, that we might walk in them as he did.
And so we asked the.
For help now, Lord, to provide a portion for us.
Lord, that might encourage us.
To press on and to encourage one another.
To occupy until let us come.
And that we might do it in a way that would be pleasing to thee, and that we might give thee all the glory and honor that's due.
While we wait to hear thy voice calling us home to be with thee.
To be reminded that the joy of our Lord is our strength. And so we just pray for this now. We thank thee for Thy.
Love to us and bringing us here together. Thy name we pray, Lord Jesus Christ, Amen. Amen.
Wondered, brethren, if we could read Second Peter chapter 3?
We're living in days when things are developing in this world that are unprecedented in quite a few ways, and I think it's just important to.
Keep in view.
Two days that are mentioned in this chapter, the day of the Lord and the day of God.
And its moral implications for us today. I suggest that.
Idea help?
Is there something else that needs to be taken up?
I would heartily second that suggestion, Brother Bob. I think as you say, it's most apropos in the day in which we live and.
The exhortations that go with it are very necessary.
Two Peter chapter 3 and verse one.
This second epistle, beloved, I now write unto you, in both which I stir up your mind, your pure minds, by way of remembrance, that ye may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandments of us, the apostles of the Lord and Savior. Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers walking after their own lusts and saying, Where is the promise of His coming?
For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation. For this they willingly are ignorant of that. By the Word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water, and in the water, whereby the world that then was being overflowed with water, perished. But the heavens and the earth, which are now by the same word, are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.
But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as 1000 years, and 1000 years as one day. The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some men count slackness, but as long-suffering to us word not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with urban heat, the earth also, and the works that are therein shall be burned up.
00:10:12
Seeing, then, that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought to.
To be in all holy conversation and godliness.
Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens, being on fire, shall be dissolved.
And the elements shall melt with urban heat. Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. Wherefore, beloved, seeing that you look for such things, be diligent, that you may be found of Him in peace, without spot and blameless. An account that the long-suffering of our Lord and Savior of our Lord is salvation, even as our beloved brother Paul also, according to the wisdom given unto Him, hath written unto you.
As also in all the epistles, speaking in them of these things in which are some things hard to be understood.
Which they that are unlearned and unstable rest as they do also the other scriptures.
Unto their own destruction. Ye therefore, beloved, seeing ye know these things before, beware lest ye also, being LED away with the error of the wicked, fall from your own steadfastness, but grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be glory both now and forever. Amen.
It's helpful to realize that this second opinion, this second epistle was written to the same ones, the same brethren that he wrote the first epistle to and so you can find this in first Peter chapter one verse one he's there addresses them. Peter an apostle of Jesus Christ to the strangers scattered or the sojourner scattered throughout Pontus Galatia Cappadocia Cappadocia Asian Bystinia elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father through sanctification of the Spirit.
And unto obedience and the sprinkling of blood by Jesus Christ.
Unto you and peace be multiplied. So the two epistles are often written in connection with a breakdown, and here it's really a breakdown in the days that Peter was writing a breakdown of godly order in the testimony. And so practical righteousness was necessary. And here he brings out this.
Exhortation, you might say, this purpose of his writing. I right now write unto you in both, which I stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance, that you may be mindful of the words.
Which were spoken before by the holy prophets and the commandment of us, the apostles of the Lord Jesus of the Lord and Savior. So he brings in the Old Testament, the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and then the New Testament, the epistles that were already written, and the commandment of us, the apostles of the Lord and Savior. So it's a whole word of God that's necessary for us. And Peter stirs up the brethren.
To read and to be engaged in understanding and knowing all of the scriptures.
We need the Old Testament scriptures just as much as the New Testament scriptures.
And so there's that balance that he brings in.
Maybe you can give us Brother Bob enlarge a little on your exercise about suggesting this chapter.
Well, I just if you go to.
First Corinthians chapter 4. There's an expression that comes out in Mr. Darby's translation that I find very interesting.
First Corinthians, chapter 4.
And the apostle says in verse 3, and I'm going to read it in Mr. Darby's translation.
But for me, it is very the very smallest matter that I be examined of you or of man's day. That's the day we're living in.
00:15:02
Man's day Man is at the center of his world.
You do what you like. That's democracy. You have your rights and it's become such a focus.
That more and more God is being left completely out of the picture. It is shocking where we are going and I think brethren, we need to feel it.
The question of abortion, it's a political issue and we don't need to get into politics, but we need to feel it. All those little children that have been.
Killed.
Do we feel it?
Yes, we should feel it, brethren, but this is man's day.
Like I said to the young people sometimes.
Go to Burger King.
And they're saying is have it your way.
OK, That's indicative of the day we live in, man's day. And I don't think, brethren, we realize how much we've been affected by that way of thinking. I think our best.
Place is to admit it and to confess it to the Lord and ask him to help us to overcome it, because it is permeated.
In Christian thinking and when I go between Latin America and North America quite often.
I ask myself, what is it? Why in my time frame when I first went to South America, there are only assemblies in Peru and Bolivia. In South America it is spread across the continent and is not my anything I've done.
It's the Lord that's working. And when I compare, why is there a decline?
In North America and in South America, the thing has spread.
I have to say, brother, it's the principle of self pleasing. We like to do what we like to do. Yes, I'm a Christian, but I like to do certain things. I like to have my food a certain way. And brethren, it's killing the Christian testimony and we need to have our minds stirred up about these things. We're living in man's day, but we're coming fast towards a time that's talked about in verse 10.
The Day of the Lord and then of course in verse 12, the day of God did The Lord begins at the end of the great tribulation and runs through the whole Millennium.
The day of God is eternity. I find that so fascinating to try to think about it. I just find myself totally limited and DML to understand.
Eternity. What? We're going there, brethren, doesn't it interest you to know about where we're going? It does mean tremendously. One other thing I'd like to mention before we get into detail in this chapter is that there are three worlds that are mentioned and it helps us to see it. Notice in verse 6.
Talking about the world of creation, it says whereby the world that then was being overflowed with water perished. That's at the time of the flood. The world that then was that there was a world before the flood.
Verse 7 But the heavens and the earth, which are now, this is the ones we live in.
The 1St 13 says nevertheless, we according to his promise, look for.
New heavens and a new earth, completely New South. I'd just like to leave that as kind of a brief.
Maybe outline just to get into the chapter.
Maybe somebody else has something to comment on that.
Too.
Well, we might mention too, just in connection with Peter's ministry as an outline.
00:20:00
That he tends to emphasize the House of God and the conduct in the House of God and God's ways of government with those in the house. And so is Robert has already pointed out it has a Jewish flavor because Peter was the apostle to the Jews, but nevertheless.
It's good for us too, because as I said a moment ago, the emphasis is on the House of God.
And in the first epistle we might say we find the House of God in relative order, but then there's been a decline, as we've had just mentioned. And then the second epistle, things are not going so well. And so there is an emphasis in the first chapter on God's government among his own when things are in disorder, but then eventually in the second and third chapters.
God's government with the world with a view to bringing everything into.
Line everything into the realization of God's purposes and counsels, and that of course, will all be found in the day of God, which is is is the eternal state which is mentioned toward the end of the chapter. And so this last chapter is very solemn, very serious, and yet most necessary.
And if Peter could write it in the day in which he were living, how much more it is needful for us in this day and age.
It's good to remember as well that Peter doesn't bring in the rapture. That's not his ministry. He's Speaking of the appearing of Christ and that it's interesting to notice in this chapter that he says that God has intervened before in this world and he will intervene again. And that's really his concluding ministry is concluding thought you might say. And so we might just point that out in verse five. It's this they are willingly ignorant of that. By the word of God, the heavens were of all.
That's before Genesis one and two.
If there was a bull, there was a creation, and when God acted, it says that the earth was standing out of the water and in the water.
And so there was perhaps a time when the Lord intervened, God intervened in the creation. Perhaps this was at the time that Satan was cast out of heaven.
We're in the earth that was brought into a state of chaos, perhaps as a because of judgment, and so says in Isaiah that he created it not void and without form. And then the second time he intervened is in verse 6, whereby the world that then was.
Being overflowed with water perished. So he says, well, God intervened another time.
He says the flood came and Noah and his family and so on were spared. But then he says there's another intervention coming and the Lord will intervene in this world. It's not going to continue just the way it is. The heavens and the earth, which are now by the same word, are kept in store, reserved. There's a reservation under fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. So Peter's saying God is going to intervene. So if we read these passages, this passage of Scripture, and remind ourselves that what Peter is very saying, very solemnly.
Is that God is going to intervene and He's going to bring the whole system under judgment. Our brother spoke of the world system. This is Speaking of the world system. We know the end. We know the battle plan. We know what God is going to do, and it's going to be for the glory of His Son that he's going to deal with this. He's going to cleanse this scene by judgment.
Another comment that I found very helpful years ago some brother made was that first Peter speaks of the Kingdom of God or God's government in the House of God, whereas second Peter takes about talks about the government of God in this world and that has been a help to me. So if you go back to the first chapter of the 2nd epistle.
You notice that Peter exhorts them in verse five to give all diligence.
To add to their faith. And then there's seven things that he exhorts them to add to their faith. Virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, godliness, brotherly kindness, and brotherly kindness.
00:25:06
Charity and then he says if these things be in you notice verse nine, he that lacketh these things.
Verse 10 If you do these things, you shall never fall.
Verse 12 Wherefore I will not put you negligent, to put you always in remembrance of these things.
Verse 15 Moreover, I will endeavor that you may be able after my deceased to have these things also always in remembrance. He's referring to those seven things. Brethren, we need to be stirred up in our remembrance of these things. And sometimes we say, well, the brethren keep on going over those things. There's a reason for it.
And Paul says in the book of Philippians.
To write the same things to you, to me, is not grievous, but for you it is safe. And so it's good to be back and hear it again and again. Lord help us, brother.
So in verse one of our chapter he says this second epistle. Beloved, I now write unto you in both, which I stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance.
Oh brethren, we have been called to glorious things. Let's not neglect them. We live in a world that is changing fast, but there's something that does not change the precious truth of God.
The consistent testimony of Old Testament prophetic scriptures. The object is Christ, of course, but consistent testimony of the Old Testament scriptures and of the epistles, as well as the Lord's ministry, points on to the end that everything is going to in this world.
And so we might look around and become flustered, upset.
Why can't we change things? Why can't we, you know, put our efforts into setting things on a different course? We need to stop this in intrusion that's happening in the the decay of Christianity on and on, whatever it might be, injecting ourselves to support.
Certain political factions in this world, but the scriptures have told us already.
Where everything is going and so he takes up both Old Testament.
That which was spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandment of us, the apostles.
Of the Lord and Savior knowing this verse and what does he point out the character of the last days that there are going to be scoffers coming. When we have Daniel and we look at the visions of Daniel and we see the success of Gentile empires and what are they characterized by those four beasts that are raised. We have laid before us what the Gentile powers in this world are going to act like, what their character is going to be.
And what's the end?
Or the Son of Man is given a Kingdom and groans are set, and he destroys those beasts and brings that to an end. And so we shouldn't be surprised.
At the character of the Gentile powers that God has been pleased to give the sort of government to in this day. It's fully laid out in the word of God shouldn't be any surprise to us. But we can get surprised and we can get upset and we can wring our hands. And I think the apostle says, I want to stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance. Remember what the prophet said.
Remember what we the Apostles have said.
Our testimony is consistent. This is where everything is going.
His brother Bob said we should feel things like the massacre of babies in our country and around the world, and it's understandable why young Christians, or any Christian for that matter, feels an impulse to do something about it. This subject came up at John Levin's camp two years ago, and a lot of the young people were talking about this.
00:30:10
Into the night and I had the privilege of sitting there and being part of that conversation. My question was, when has it ever worked?
When has it ever worked?
When have Christians gotten themselves involved in in politics and done that? Outside of maybe very short term kinds of things? When it has ever worked, it hasn't. It does not work. It's like when the Peter picked up his sword and cut the man's ear off.
The Lord said put it away and he healed the ear. We're not fighting this way anymore.
That's Old Testament. They were told to take the sword and fight, but in the New Testament.
We don't fight like that and Peter didn't know what to do and we don't fight that way because it doesn't work in our day, it cannot work and it will never work.
I think that these first few verses present to us the way the modernist thinks, maybe down to verse six or seven.
And the modernist judges everything by what he can feel.
Or no right now.
And so he thinks about this judgment that supposedly coming. He says there's nothing to that. Maybe he looks to creation. And he says no, no, no. The scientists tell me this.
Geology tells me this, and so I'm going to judge everything by what I know now through something that he can see or feel.
And what Peter tells the Christians in that day and what he's telling us today is don't succumb to the modernists, young people. You're going to college and you're going to run into people who are brilliant, brilliant minds. And they will try to trick your minds into thinking that you have to judge the word of God by what you can see and feel and what what scientists tell you is right or wrong. Don't fall for it. The only thing that you need.
Is to know that you be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets and the commandments of us, the apostles of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Lord and Savior, that's it.
Don't get into a battle of the wits with the modernists. Come back to what God said. What did God say? He said there's going to be judgment. There's going to be judgment. He said there was a creation. There was a creation. He said it happened in seven days. It happened in seven days.
If we try to get into a battle of the wits trying to make the word of God more palatable.
To the modernist who doesn't have life, you'll never win. There were men a little bit different context near the end of this chapter, taking the Apostle Paul's writings, it says which untaught and unstable people twist to their own destruction. If we seek to twist the Word of God to make it more palatable or more argumentative, it's not going to work. We have to come back to what God has said. And if you're ever confused as to what a scientist is telling you or a modernist or anyone else, just read the Bible. Take up what the Word of God says.
And find that from from the.
Beginning to the end, there is consistent see through it all and rest on that alone.
Verse two, when it says to be mindful, it means to pay attention to this. Pay attention to the word of God.
And so, as I said, he brings in the Old Testament scriptures which unfailingly presented Christ as coming into this scene, being born to the nation of Israel. The prophetic scriptures told us where He would be born, how He would be born, and that He would be rejected. So it spoke of the sufferings of Christ and the glories that should follow. So always presents, and very consistently presents the Lord Jesus as the.
Really, the key figure and the purpose of God is to exalt Him.
That's really Ephesians chapter one, verse 10. We might just read it to be clear.
As to what the purpose is that God has in view. This is the end that he has in view. Ephesians one verse 10 that in the dispensation of the fullness of times. That's really the Millennium that he might gather together in one all things in Christ or in that Christ which are in heaven or in the heavens and which are on earth even in him. So Christ is the center of all that God has purpose for and so.
00:35:11
There's two different groups here that are mentioned, those that are mindful of those scriptures of the Old Testament scriptures, mindful of the teaching, the apostles and two of the gospels, I believe they're included here, and then the others that are scoffers.
A scoffer berates the word of God and he really scoffs and denies publicly ridicules the word of God as not being really practical for the a man to believe. But by faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God says in Hebrews Chapter 11. So there's they're scoffing, they're ridiculing the word and then morally.
Their path, their walk is consistent with what they say.
And so they're morally corrupt, walking after their own lusts. So we can identify that there's a giving up of moral truth, what God has established in the creation for the blessing of man, and the distinction too, in the day that we live in between the man and the woman. And so there's male and female that's under attack in this world. And then it says saying, where is the promise?
Of his coming. So a denial that God is going to intervene. A denial.
That he will hold man accountable in this world. Man accountable for how he treated his son.
That blessed one man accountable for how he ridicules the name and the glory of Christ and ridicules his precious word. God is going to hold man accountable and this is what Peter says. You can count those three things go together. They scoff, they walk after their own less, and they question the veracity of the prophetic scriptures and the glory that God has said that He will bestow upon His beloved Son.
Sadly, the world has always done that, but sadly today many who are Christians are doing the same thing. They scoff. Whether it's the rapture or the coming of the Lord, just about anything about prophecy is beginning to be scoffed at and even mocked openly on the Internet and other places that if you believe in that, there's a turn going on amongst believers, amongst formerly barely fundamentally evangelical. So this attacks is not only from the world, but from people who claim the name of Christ.
Verse five says they are willingly ignorant.
Interesting. That's because they want to walk after their own lusts. So man accommodates. Since we're living in man's world, Man's day. Man accommodates his own desires to what he wants to believe.
But they are willingly ignorant. I think it's important to realize that when people.
I can't believe the gospel that there is a will in the picture. Notice a verse in John 5 and verse 40, the Lord Jesus speaking.
Says.
And ye will not come to me that ye might have light. It's the will that's in the fiction. And you know, in a certain way, when you come to the Lord Jesus, you surrender.
You own him not only as Savior but as Lord, and that means you own his authority. That is so important in Christianity. People think, Oh yeah, I'll accept the Lord, but I want to do my life my way.
Listen to what scripture says.
In Romans 10 and nine says, if thou shalt confess with thy mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. So it's recognizing Jesus as Lord, you are surrendering your life to Him, and that's important. I found it interesting in that case to look at the last verse of John 3.
00:40:00
In the Darby translation. I'm going to just read it here just to look at. I found it quite interesting.
John, 336.
He that believes on the sun.
As life eternal, and he that is not subject to the sun shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him, so that includes that matter of.
Surrendering to the Lordship of Christ. Tremendous to think about. Is there some young person that has never came come yet to surrender?
To the Lord Jesus He gave everything for your eternal blessing.
And you're going to reserve something in your life that is not subject to his authority.
Think it again, that's not the right way to go.
Surrender to Him.
Their willingly ignorant. They have their own will about the matter. You've got to surrender your own weapon.
I know, I remember your father-in-law used to say it had this little expression that he used to tell us as young people and you no doubt heard it often times yourself. Young person, when you got saved, you gave up your right to choose. You gave up that right, that authority. You addressed the Lord Jesus as Lord. You own Him as your Lord. You allowed Him now to choose. He has authority in your life.
He directs things in his the way they should be. So not there's not two of us that can manage life. We relinquish our our, our rights, you might say, and we've become the Lord's freed men. We were once bonds men to sin and slaves to sin and to the enemy of our souls. We heard in the meeting before, but now we're the Lord's freedmen. Now we own this authority and we delight to own his authority. And that's a path of obedience.
Thought of the example of Saul in Acts on the Road to Damascus.
Chapter 9.
And the Lord Jesus all saw Why persecutest thou me? In verse 4, verse five, he said, Who art thou, Lord?
So he acknowledged them, and the Lord said, I am Jesus, whom thou persecute us, it is hard for thee to kick against the fricks. And the trembling and astonished said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? So he surrendered himself to the direction of the Lord, didn't he? The Lord told him then to arise and go into the city. And you see in verse 8.
And Saul arose from the earth, and so on.
Well, we need to remember what we've just had mentioned though, that our hearts were no better naturally, were they?
And we do recognize, and we have a need to recognize, and that's why Peter emphasizes all this. And he does not particularly bring in, in this chapter, the preaching of the gospel. But what he does bring in is our walk. And that's later on in the chapter. We'll get to it. But I just mentioned it. Our walk, our character, our outlook.
That will have a strong effect on this world. And again, it bears on what Brother Bob was saying earlier. If the world sees that it's reality with us and not merely outward show. When they look at you and me, they say, is his Christianity? Is her Christianity real? Do they believe what they say? Does their lifestyle reflect that?
Very, very important. And so here there are pretty strong words used in this chapter.
Concerning the way the world is going, and as we've had mentioned, it was always that way.
But it gets more blatant, doesn't it? As time goes on and the world may appear outwardly to be reasonably friendly, reasonably tolerant. We see that interact with people sometimes we can bring in the Lord's things and there's a tacit agreement to what we're saying in a general way. But I believe the Lord put it right on the line. And I think it's John Chapter 7 and verse 7 when he said.
00:45:08
But me and Heda, because I testify of it that the works thereof are evil.
And if we bring Christ in and his claims, and the fact that no matter how you work it, the works thereof even of the moralist on the clean side of the Broad Rd. his works are evil, that is going to arouse the animosity and hatred of the world and it will come out.
And so the scoffer attitude may not always appear to be right on the surface, but if we are faithful, it will eventually appear. There is a Christian testimony in North America, and we can be thankful for it, thankful for what's left of it. I was just in a hotel on the other side of the United States a few days ago. Had a need to have something to eat. And I mentioned venture to give a gospel tract to the girl who was waiting on our table.
From my table, herself alone at it. It turned out to be a believer and we had a nice conversation.
Wonderful. In the midst of all this breakdown and things that we're reading in this chapter, we can be thankful for it. But deep underneath in this world, that scoffer attitude is there. And what will bring blessing into their lives is the character that you and I display if they see that it's real.
It's a challenge. It's a challenge nowadays in.
If you're given a test.
And all the.
All the answers, but then I wrote across the top of the page. I said.
I know that my answers are not really true.
And I handed in the test.
I didn't get much Flack back except for the TA kind of had a word with me.
What do you mean by this? And that was the inscription he put on the top. What do you mean by this? Well, he knew full well what I meant by it and.
But.
The education system, how are we really going to tread?
In a higher education, and that's a challenge, and each of us have to handle it by ourselves. There's no, there's no one way to.
To answer that.
You can just you can close your mouth.
You can put the answers down that they want and hand it in that way.
Or you can have a talk with the.
TA there might be many ways of doing it, but it was.
Not exactly funny, but it was kind of interesting. What do you mean by this?
They knew full well exactly.
Young man who did an internship in Florida, raised in the meeting, raised by a father who loved his son. And he knew he wanted to go to college, so he prepared him a bit. And he told him, he said, you're going to run into things from professors and people in college that you don't know the answer to, but there is an answer.
And his faithfulness in college resulted in a student who watched how he responded.
You mentioned testimonies and got saved because what there are actually some answers to these things that are not just in the book. And I know that when the professor figured out he was a Christian, I don't think he went after him aggressively, but he would pick at him a little bit and his responses were kind of along that line. He would say, well, do you want the answer from the book or do you want the truth? You know, and those conversations took place.
00:50:13
In front of a body of students. Well, they found out that there was someone. He did. He was very gentle in his manner and way, and he related to me how that those things proceeded. The professor didn't document his grade, although there might be some, but the result was that someone actually came to know Christ as their Savior because they heard that there were answers that were not in the textbook.
Might be helpful to read the fifth verse and the new translation, similar to the verse that Bob previously alluded to in John's Gospel. For this is hidden from them through their own willfulness, that the heavens were of old and earth having its subsistence out of the water in the water. So the point is this. For this is hidden from them through their own willfulness. There is a consequence to willfulness.
In the governmental ways of God, you find in the Scriptures oftentimes that there was.
Blindness, spiritual blindness as a result of willfulness. And so here you have.
They're willingly ignorant, they're willful. And Mr. Darby made a helpful comment in his writings. He says ignorance is bold because it is ignorance. Ignorance is bold because it is ignorant, Mr. Kelly also said in his writings several times.
Says the spirit of error is not to hear is to refuse to hear. Pardon me. The Spirit to refuse to hear is the spirit of error. And so May God help us to relinquish our own will for the will of God. It's interesting and very helpful to read in the Gospel of John and to read how the Lord Jesus time and again spoke of doing the will of the Father. Maybe we could just, if you don't mind, I would just point those things out and John's gospel, chapter 4, verse 34.
We'd be well advised to read these scriptures and to bow through the truth that we ought to do the same. Jesus saith unto them, My meat is to do the will of him that sent me and to finish his work. And then in chapter 5, verse 30, he says partway through, well, let's read verse 30. I can do, I can have my own self do nothing as I hear I judge my judgment is just because I seek not my own will.
But the will of the Father, which has sent me, and then a little later on in Chapter 6.
38 I came down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him that sent me. And then I think that there's another one in chapter 8. Yes, verse 29.
He sent, he that sent me is with me, and the Father hath not left me alone, for I do always those things that please Him. And it says in Romans that for even Christ pleased not himself. What a happy course, isn't it? You know, Brother Gordon Hale used to often remind us again of young people that there are two things that go together, obedience and happiness. And you cannot be happy if you're disobedient to the Word of God. It's not possible.
Your conscience will never let you rest.
I apologize to come back to verse one and two for a moment. I'd like to point out four interesting things.
In our German Bible, it's a little bit easier. In first one it says keep or make clear that people don't get sleepy, stir up. So that means there's a danger for us as a child of God to get sleepy, at least to fall in sleep. That's a dangerous situation for us. When you look into the Acts, there's a situation with a young boy sitting in a window and he did fall asleep.
And he did make a deep.
The second what is important is that it says remembrance. Why? Because we are so forgettable.
My wife can tell me something four weeks ago I can't remember. It's with spiritual things, no difference. We need remembrance because we are forgetting and by that reason that the Lord knows that we are forgetting. He started very, very early with the prophets.
00:55:00
The first prophet who did talk about what we just read this chapter today was the 7th of Adam Eno. He was the first who did make clear there will come a church and there will be judgment very early. We should never forget why. The reason is very simple. Brother Bob Tony did already mention it in the beginning.
The day of the Lord Jesus is his public day of glory and honor in this world from which we had heard this afternoon. In this world, whatever this word means, it is in everything His public day of glory and honour. It's necessary that we get remembered, that we don't forget. This one who was rejected will come again.
And that's what the Apostle Peter has in front here. He has this wonderful person. We should never forget what happens and what will happen. And it comes at least.
To when it says.
Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days. What are last days?
We are in the last days.
The days started with the leaving the Lord this earth, and now we are in the last days.
People change the Lord never.
Could I go back just to make a practical comment on what Brother Bruce mentioned to us, and that is?
As young people getting an education, you may still end up having to take a course in which you find things taught that you find contrary to the word of God.
And of course, sometimes the attitude can be well.
If that's what you have to study, you shouldn't be taking that course. Get into something else. But it doesn't always happen that way.
I had Bruce's experience 60 years ago at the University of Toronto and I answered on my exam paper the same way he did.
And all the professor wrote after my answer was really question mark. But I still got a good grade in the course. He must have had some respect for what I said. Don't ask me why I expected to get a thorough trouncing for it, but it didn't happen that way. And so I just say as an encouragement to young people, if you find yourself in that spot, I don't believe you will ever lose.
By honoring the Lord and trusting Him for the result.
This world outside of us sometimes needs, as Brother Jurgen was mentioning, if we need to be stirred up not to fall asleep, so does this world. They that are asleep, they that sleep, sleep in the night. We read in Thessalonians. And sometimes a joke like that is what the Spirit of God can use to bring a soul into realization that as we've had, there are answers and there's a way out of this mess.
Because I don't care who you are, if you believe the theory of evolution, you have to turn the blind eye to so much evidence that makes the whole theory so absolutely ridiculous that if it ever had a lake to stand one, which it never did, it certainly doesn't today. And they're having to reinvent it to somehow make it work. But it doesn't work. And so I just say this, that trust the Lord, honor him.
And I don't believe you'll ever be the loser.
That is really.
The last days really began with the apostles, didn't it, in the apostles day. And it really speaks of a class of unbelievers that scoffed and it's really the beginning of apostasy. And So what we have really now is the spirit of apostasy growing in a like a snowball going down a mountain. It's the.
Momentum is becoming very.
Unreversible, you might say. And so we're living. Peter could say he lived in the last days and that these things would happen in the last days. Paul speaks of the last times and John speaks of the last hour. And so John's ministry takes us right to the last hour and we're in those days, brethren, if there's not going to be any recovery, it's we're not going to have another revival. And the truth was recovered, as already mentioned.
01:00:20
Meetings and now the admonition, the directive, the energy of the Spirit of God is to energize us and to give us to have a responsible attitude and to hold that fast which we have and to strengthen the things that remain. And that's really what the apostle here was doing. He was reminding them so that they would not forget those principles that he had brought before them in spite of the apostasy already beginning.
I just wanted to make a comment in regards to what you were saying. Bill from evolution. And I I agree that evolution doesn't have a leg to stand on, but that isn't the only reason why it's ridiculous. The primary reason is because it's contrary to the word of God, and so there might come a time when scientists can present what looks like irrefutable proof that evolution is real.
I don't believe that they'll be able to, but let's say that they can do this.
Let's say that they are able to find some sort of fossil record that as of right now is not not there, and they're able to show what seems like irrefutable proof that this is real. Is it real? No. Why? Because God said otherwise. So even if something is does have seemingly a leg to stand on from outward appearance, if it goes contrary to the word of God, don't believe it, only believe what God has said.
I agree with that, Joe. I was just to make it clear. I was really referring to what your testimony and mine and the effect it might have on an unbeliever who perhaps somehow is trying to believe. And we don't need to get hung up on evolution. There are a lot of other things. But somehow I was trying to believe it and yet deep down inside realizes that the proof is utterly lacking from his point of view. But I heartily agree.
Whatever man may present to us, if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no life in them.
What he says about evolution, the.
First, being a brother once told me that when you're dealing with evolution, it's a theory. So if you actually find irrefutable proof that shows it's wrong, they simply look at you and say thank you, we'll adjust our theory to fix your facts. And so you can never actually ever win the point that we can just adapt to your facts now.
Turning to our chapter, one of the things that they use to support the fact that or not the fact, but they're they're stopping is that what we have in verse 4, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation and what is underneath that? That's exactly what they say. All things continue according to the same rules, according to the same principles.
It never changes, and what's underneath that is that unwillingness to acknowledge that.
Is outside and greater than his creation and he does do miracles and he does go against the rules of creation as science season. And so underneath that there is a choice to be ignorant and there's a choice to choose not to allow God to be God. So it's right here in this portion what is very common today in the whole debate, and that is God is not allowed.
According to mad thinking to change his rules or work outside of his rules.
So all things do not continue, do they? From the beginning of the creation, God judges sin, and that's what happened at the flood. The earth was filled with violence and corruption.
Bridging somewhere recently and, it was suggested, the main cause of death before the flood was murdered. There was no government.
01:05:09
There is no capital punishment.
And so the earth was filled. Don't get in my face. You'll suffer if you do. And so they took things into their own hands. It came to the point when God intervened and God judged this world.
A universal judgment of this world system and on the 8 souls.
Were saved. They're ignorant of that. They deny that so how solemn to think that you don't get away from God and when God says the wages of sin is death. That's exactly what it is. That's what's going to happen. You sin willfully, the result will be death. You don't escape that no way.
Like Ben mentioned, the will is the major thing.
Bob brought it up.
Bill Gates recently said that DNA is a computer code.
He doesn't believe in God.
What else would you say? If it's a computer code, somebody wrote it. He doesn't believe in God. That's the win. Refusing clear evidence. Just refusing.
It says in Genesis chapter 6 verse 11 it says.
The Earth, I'm going to read it in a new translation, but it's the same. Essentially. In the King James, the earth was corrupt before God, and the earth was full of violence. So God himself mentions corruption first. And so I think his brother Clarence London used to say that moral corruption is the harbinger of governmental overthrow.
I'll repeat that.
Moral corruption is the harbinger of governmental overthrow. So you have corruption first and it sets in and the moral corruption of the Western world, we look at it, we say it's thorough, but the the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full. God is waiting and he will judge when the matter is complete. When it's thorough, the corruption is thorough. But what we are seeing now?
With the corruption that began perhaps in the 1950s, and with rock'n'roll and the drugs and all those things that went on in the hippie movement and so on, the moral corruption, what we're seeing now is the violence.
And moral corruption is a sin against God, but violence is a sin against man.
Man against man, yes, it's a sin against God, but it's a sin against man himself. And so we don't need to be surprised what God has said. The order is corruption first and then violence and it's not going to recover, but God by his grace will preserve us in this scene isn't wonderful to read these words and to recognize the grace of God, our responsibility, but he will preserve us and he mentions that the word of God by the word of God.
And it's not changing, is it?
We sink 200 and 42242.
I love to go.
See, without breathing and swallowing.
The water and my God will do.
It for me just worries favorable.
01:10:43
Cancel and spread the word.
Below or you? Come on.
And I stand there.
The rest of the sun from the treasure.
Here without the eternity.
Plan. There will be none of my people.
All our falls shall not be bigger and.
For your dream, completely complete and wisdom.
Could we also sing the last two verses of #141?
141 verses 3:00 and 4:00.
And when the day of glory.
Shall burst upon this sea.
Every eye shall see.
I reinforced.
I wish I could continue.
Born in the brackets. Boring.
And I upon God.
I will be crazy.
Our hearts ceaseless, praise God.
Right, our gracious thoughts, loving Father, we.
Thank you so much for time we've been able to spend over thy word and consider these last days in which we are living.
01:15:10
Moral darkness.
Here and deepening, and yet, our God, we thank Thee for the encouragement of Thy Word.
Give us to understand these things are not to be a surprise to us, or they're not a surprise to be without us. Have a path for us even in this Dark World, and we can sing as believers.
Knowing where our path will end and that glory that is ahead, Lord Jesus will now have thy place and will be with thee. And we pray to encourage our hearts.
As we wait that moment that our lives might be more suitable to the we just thank you so much for this time in the past before that continued blessing, giving you thanks and thy precious name, Lord Jesus, Amen, Amen.
Look at Things from God's Perspective
Sing Talk—Mark Allan
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.
Before we open the Word of God, maybe we can just.
Lord for his help.
Our God and Father, we come before you this evening and we thank you that we can be.
Here together in this way, to have your word open and enjoy the Lord Jesus together.
Lord, we just would pray as we open Your word that Your Spirit would have liberty. You know the needs of everyone here tonight.
To the to the littlest detail, Lord, we've sung your eye is on the Sparrow and we know, Lord, that your eye is on each one of us here. And so we ask for your help. Lord, we just pray for your blessing on your word as it's opened. And we ask this in the name of the Lord Jesus, Amen.
Well, when I was praying about what to speak about.
This evening I was struggling a little bit.
From a couple weeks ago and.
I prayed about it and you know, the Lord seemed to lay in my heart to follow up on a topic that I had thought about looking into a little bit before and.
Some of you may know I've I've enjoyed looking at a few things in Psalm 34 and this is the last of five things that I had wanted to look at. One was seeking the Lord like King Aesop. Second one was crying to the Lord.
Like Israel did and the judges did, and then the next was tasting and seeing that the Lord is good. And another one was listening to the Lord like Samuel did through his whole life. And this last one was.
Looking to the Lord, there's a verse in Psalm 34 that I'd like to just read to start this Psalm 34.
And this is really what I wanted to to mention tonight, Psalm 34.
And verse five, they looked unto him and were lightened, and their faces were not ashamed, agreed Mr. Darby's. I think it says they looked unto him and were enlightened, and their faces were not confounded. I was considering the fact that if we look at the Lord, it changes everything. It changes everything.
And, you know, I thought, well, maybe what, where in the Bible would I find out about looking to the Lord, you know?
I've very much enjoyed and many of you may have heard Dave Myrne speaking on Abraham lifting up his eyes and looking to the Lord 7 times. I think it is. And you know I've enjoyed looking at those who look to the Lord when the Lord was on the cross. And this is Easter weekend and I had wondered about speaking on that, but the Lord seemed to lay something else in my heart that I want to go through. Came out and breaking a bread a couple weeks ago and it was just a different perspective of looking at the Lord from Revelation 5 which I'll get into so.
What I would like to take out very quickly, and our time is very short, is how looking at the Lord changes.
Everything. And to start with, I just, you know, this week, a little story that made me realize this a little bit. I was in Johnstown, PA, which is near Pittsburgh, for work this week. I had meetings that were supposed to run Tuesday and Wednesday, and I knew I had to come home.
To a meeting at my work in Ottawa where bad news was going to be delivered that I had been dreading for four months and had been under NDA not to talk about, and I really didn't want to come home and, you know.
I was hoping that the meetings would extend so I wouldn't have to come back. And I called my wife and talked to her about it and texted my boss and she said she'd like me to come back. And, you know, I started home and leaving Johnstown. It was 31° or 80 Fahrenheit.
In Ottawa, where my wife was, it was below 0 in freezing rain. Totally different perspectives.
Now he's driving around, driving home, and it was sunny and beautiful and I thought, when is this going to change? My wife called me and said power went out at 2:00. There's a flood in the backyard. Can you help me get the kids to set up the generator? I kept driving along and I was thinking about all the things I was struggling with and had his burdens on my mind. And you know, the temperature stayed at 31. I got over to Ithaca and it was about.
It dropped from about 80 to 70.
I got to Syracuse and it was still at 60 and I was like, I'm only two hours from home and it's 32° or freezing at home and they're having an ice storm. I was thinking what a contrast between the two. I got to Watertown and it was still 15° or 50. You can correct me if I'm wrong on any of these. And you know, by the time I hit the border to Canada, it was below 0.
00:05:15
And it was an ice storm and the roads were the trees were all slumped over and.
On the roads and, you know, I arrived home on Wednesday night, the power was out, we had a generator running and climbed into bed, dreading what the next day held. Got up in the morning, couldn't take a shower, went into work and, you know.
They the meeting was going to be at 11:30, they were going to announce it and then everybody was going to be able to go home for the weekend. And I had been dreading that because I worked with those people for 25 years.
Basically, since I graduated and I was a heavy heart and you know, it wasn't there, they were shifting some of the work to other sites and leaving it as an engineering site. So it had a big impact. And you know, I was thinking about it from what's my perspective on this and I was aching and you know then.
I was talking to my boss who had flown in from Dallas, and she said no. You know, Mark, I've gone through this a couple times before, and I think she's actually a Christian.
She said, you know, it's difficult the first day and something needed to be done and thank you for coming. And, you know, we went through that conversation and her perspective was completely different than mine. And then, you know, last night, 12:30, I got an e-mail from someone who I worked with for 25 years, and her husband works there, too. She had gotten the news and just wanted to chat with me about it.
You know, our perspectives were totally different and I don't mean to get into that, but where I want to start is I'm going to go through very quickly.
And I would like you to look at this yourself, 7 little references from the Bible where people looked at the Lord and it was totally different. You know, in Pittsburgh it was 80°. In Ottawa it was in the high 20s. You know, from my perspective was totally different from my bosses, was totally different from a person on the production floor. And you know, when we can get our eyes on the Lord, it changes.
Everything.
In the first story I want to look at and just think about very quickly is Abraham. In that story, when he goes to OfferUp Isaac, he has been waiting 25 years from 75 to 100 for a son. Then his son grows up and then what does the Lord say? Go to the mountains of Moriah and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the hills that I have held the.
He must have thought that was.
Crazy, you know, I can't imagine. And we know it was a test of his faith, a culmination. And his faith had been building through those years. And I was just thinking, you know, we can look at it from the eyes of an external person, which would say.
That's crazy. We can look at it through Abraham's eye of faith, which says I'm just going to trust God. He can even raise him from the dead.
And he obeys. And then we can look at it from a third perspective, which is what God saw.
And you know, we don't even it's 2000 years later until we have an inkling of what God saw when He saw that sight. I'd just like to read the two verses in connection with this. This is in Genesis 22. There's two verses about looking to the Lord there that I want to specifically read Genesis 22.
Verse four it says on the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place afar off and then later on it says Abraham left it up his eyes and looked and behold.
Behind him a ram caught in the thicket by the horns, and Abraham went and took the ram and offered him.
Up for a burnt offering in the stead of his son, and he names the name of that place.
Jehovah Jireh the Lord will provide. That was a momentous occasion in Abraham's life.
What even waiting for for 35 years and was a promise that would go on.
Way into the future.
He was being tested on and that was his perspective. But you know when God looked at that.
Not only was the Lord going to provide a substitute for Abraham, just in that one circumstance for one person, he was going to provide a substitute for the billions in this world, and it was going to be his only thing. You know, you can read through that story and you can look at it from the eye of someone who.
Doesn't know the Lord and it'll seem ridiculous. You can go through it and read it from the eye of Abraham and it has a completely different perspective. You can go through it from the eye of God and it just magnifies it beyond.
Belief. That's the first one. The second one, I'd like to look at it. I was also thinking about this because this is Easter weekend, Exodus 12. When I see the blood, I will pass over you. I was thinking, looking, When I see the blood, I will pass over you. You know, to the natural eye, that must have seemed crazy. They were slaves in Egypt. That had been for several 100 years. Things had gone from bad to worse. They were in a terrible situation.
00:10:28
And.
Then they're told to take a young lamb and kill it and put the blood on the door.
Seems crazy from the natural eye, but from the eye of faith that was going to be for their deliverance. From what we had this afternoon in the world, Egypt is a picture of the world. It was going to be for their deliverance where God would take them out and not only that, protect their the first born from being killed. Totally different perspective.
But when you look at it from God's perspective, it's magnified. When God looks down and he sees that blood on the door, it's not just one family who's worried about their eldest child. It's not just one country of Israel. It is.
Every person who's going to be covered by the blood. And so God looks and ceases, son, in both of those stories. And you know, we go on. And the next one that is in numbers.
Numbers chapter 20 and sorry you don't need to turn to these because I'll have to go through them quickly. Numbers 20 where they sin and the Lord allows serpents to come. These are very well known stories and the Lord tells Moses to take.
A serpent and put it up on a pole.
From the natural perspective, that just seems completely ridiculous.
From the eye of faith.
It would provide.
Healing to a dying person, and it would have meant everything to them. They'd sinned and it was a result of that sin that the serpent had bitten them and they were going to die. But when they looked at that pole.
They would be healed. You know, if you look at it from God's perspective, we see that in John three, it says.
That let me just read it to make sure I get it right.
As Moses left it up the serpent in the wilderness, Even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
That wasn't just a symbol that we see if you were to go look at an ambulance today.
People wouldn't really have any particular understanding of it. Perhaps it wasn't just for the healing of an individual who had been bitten because they had sinned. To God's eyes, that was His Son being lifted up. For God so loved the world that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. It just amplified it when the perspective was on the Lord, and particularly how God saw it, you know? Totally.
Different when you looked at it in a different light. You know the next one I'd like to.
Look at is in. I mean, it was David when he sinned. This is in.
First Chronicles.
Umm.
21 You don't need to turn to it, but David sinned in numbering the people and God gives him the choice of what he's going to have for a punishment and he sends, he chooses to fall into the Lords hands and he sends a destroying Angel and you know.
That seems like a crazy story from the natural eye. Why would God punish somebody for counting #1?
But you know, when you look at it through the eye of faith, you know David knew that he had sinned before God and he cast himself on the mercy of God. And the Lord showed mercy when that Angel reached Jerusalem. But the thing that struck me is how did God see that? It says in verse 15, it says God sent an Angel unto Jerusalem to destroy it. And as he was destroying.
The Lord beheld.
He saw when he looked at Jerusalem, something that David didn't see, that was far greater, and that was the place where his son was going to die.
You know, the perspective totally changed from the natural eye to a David saw to what God saw, you know, or Nan saw it and he said, I'll give you everything.
00:15:07
And so when we look at the Lord, it changes everything. If we can see it from God's perspective, it amplifies it even more.
The next one I'd like to look at is in Second Chronicles, and this is at the dedication of the temple. Again, I'm not going to go into the detail of it.
Solomon and interestingly enough, by the way.
The mountains of Moriah was the same place, and I don't know, the same region as Ornan's threshing floor, which is the same region as where the temple was built and in all of those places God saw.
Something that was beyond.
Anything that we could imagine that nobody knew about for 2000 years, he put it there for us to dig it out and understand it and appreciate it. You know, if we go to second Chronicles of the dedication of the temple.
What I wanted to.
Comment on there you know Solomon built this building that was the one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. It was a beautiful building took seven years to build covered in gold, perfectly built didn't require a hammer to put it together and.
God is going to dwell in that place. You know 100,000 plus animals were sacrificed at the dedication of that temple.
So what does a natural man see?
It seems like an understandable opulence. Maybe I don't know. What did Solomon? Solomon recognized the immensity.
Of God wanting to dwell among his people at a place where he put his name.
But what did God see when he looked at that?
He saw a day ahead where his son was going to be glorified as King of Kings and Lord of Lords over this whole world in a temple far grander. But to do that he would have to die on a cross and shed his blood.
In a way that was far more precious than those hundreds of thousands of animals that ever died. His perspective was completely different. You know, you go on.
To the cross again, these are all well known stories. You know you can go through Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, every one of those books. You can see people at that cross looking up at the Lord. See those the chief priests and the scribes mocking saying, if you be Christ, let him come down from the cross. They they that passed by wailed their head saying or.
You can see that the women standing afar off, you can see the Centurion and three of the books. And you know, everyone had a different perspective when they looked up at that cross.
From the natural perspective, he was just a troublemaker. Who.
The Romans decided to kill.
From the Centurions perspective and I just want to read this in Luke 24.
You know he saw something for.
More than that.
He stood afar off, it says now in the centurion saw what was done.
He glorified God, saying certainly this was a righteous man. And the other two other references, it says that he saw that it was the Son of God. You know, he recognized that this man on the cross.
Was the Son of God. But you know what's interesting to me is the perspective of the centurion pales in comparison to what God saw.
He wasn't just the Son of God.
He was taking the sin of every believer from eternity past to forward.
Whose own self bear our sins, and his own body on the cross.
And he there was forsaken of God. It wasn't just that he was the Son of God. He was taking the complete punishment of all of those stories in the Old Testament and it was put on him there. It was far more far more amazing. It changed the entire course of history. And you know, this is Easter weekend. You know, I think sometimes and I know we remember the Lord every week of the opportunity to.
And you know, sometimes we just.
Miss seeing it the way that we should. You know, even, I guess the Jews celebrate, celebrate Passover last weekend and maybe it's Easter this weekend.
For, for Kristen's, it's the timing's a little bit different, but you know.
00:20:04
The Jews can look at the story of Abraham and they don't see the Lord in it. They can look at the Passover and they don't see the Lord in it. They can look at the story of the serpent on the cross.
And they don't see the Lord in it. They don't see it in any of them. We see something far grander that God just.
Revealed to us in the New Testament, far more incredible than anything that was written. It was completely hidden just for his eyes up to that point. And this gets down to the last one that I wanted to mention. It's really the one that really struck me as I considered this topic. And this is in Revelation 5. You know, in Revelation 5 we have this.
Read in Breaking of Bread, probably.
More times than can be counted. I was trying to just guesstimate how many times you have a verse read from Revelation. It's like one in every three break. Breaking of breads in Reno Ferry. Maybe that's it is a tremendous chapter, but you know, I always looked at that chapter from the perspective of the redeemed.
And seeing that lamb that was slain, you know, this is a story that seems crazy to the natural eye.
Why on earth would they be praising? When you're opening a book of judgment? It doesn't make a particle of sense.
But when you look at it from the redeemed eye, they needed a substitute. They needed a deliverer, they needed someone to cover their sin, they needed someone to stop the angels destroying sword. They needed all of those things. They needed somebody to set this world right that is on a path of self, of complete implosion as it is right now.
And there was one person worthy.
To take that and it was just this one verse that struck me, it says.
The verse about look I'm beholding is 2 verses already says and I beheld and lo, in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts.
And in the midst of the elder stood a Lamb as it had been slain.
And then later on it says, and he came and took the book out of the right hand of him that sat upon the throne. You know, when I've read that chapter over and over and over and over again and, and seen those verses, you have that chorus break out of those praises that are beyond imagination and they fall down on their faces. And it is amazing. But you know, what I thought about was.
Taking that book and what was when?
God saw the Lamb.
What was in his heart?
Here for the first time you might may not for the first time, but here.
He sees his son.
Perfectly fulfilling everything from past and is going to be able to set it all right and you know that is I can't I'm not a very articulate person, but you know my cousin Harold Smith's funeral. I wasn't his funeral it was about a year before his funeral he spoke in this chapter and it changed my perspective on it ever since to realize what.
Is actually happening.
In Revelation 5, and you know that from the respective of the redeemed, it's absolutely amazing, but from the perspective of God, it's infinitely more beautiful and amazing. You know, as I said, I can't articulate that very well, but there's going to be a day when.
When every eye will see him, it says in Revelation 1.
Every eye is going to see him.
So whether you want to look at him now or not.
Every eye is going to see him.
You know when he comes out of heaven.
For.
As King of Kings and Lord of Lords, this world is going to see him for who he is and there won't be any question at that point. But you know, I was just.
To come back to the point of this verse, that when we look at the Lord, you know from the natural heart, we see nothing. You know, when we look at it through the eye of faith, it is momentous and beautiful. When we look at it from God's perspective, it's infinitely more incredible to consider.
And so, you know, as we go through, I was thinking about this from a practical perspective. You know, this week there's fighting on the Temple Mount on perhaps ordnance threshing floor where the Jews and the Arabs are playing games with each other this week.
What does God see?
00:25:02
His perspective changes everything.
You know, there's a war in Ukraine right now that is changing the course of power of this whole world.
What does God see?
You know, when we look at the moral foundation of the West completely crumbling, what does God see? He's preparing his bride. He's almost to the point where he's going to call us home. Getting that in our eyes and even the smallest way changes everything. And if I were to tell you that I have this fully understood, I don't when I was in that car driving home.
You know I this is cliche, but I thought of it saying if the Lord brings you to it.
He'll take you through it. And you know, as I thought about it, I thought, you know, I'm enjoying the sunshine here in 31 degrees. My wife sees something completely different and she's only two hours away. You know, when we get our eyes on the Lord, it changes everything. And so there's just one thing that I could say from these few minutes and soriumly is to try and just look through the eye of faith, and not only through the eye of faith, but look at it from God's perspective and it will change everything.
It's just thank the Lord.
Our God and Father, we just thank you for your word.
Lord help us.
To see wondrous things out of your law.
Lord, help us as we face the mundane and difficult situations of every day, the things that seem to drag on for years and years and years. Lord, help us to see it from your perspective. And even more, Lord, help us to see it through the eyes of God. And Lord, we just would pray for your blessing on this weekend. It would be a real help and encouragement. You know the needs of everybody here in this room today.
And so, Lord, we just would ask for your help. We thank you that we can look to you, Lord.
We think of that day so many years ago when you were hung up on a cross.
To bear our sins, and we thank you for it. Lord, know that eternity.
We will be able to praise you for this in a way that perhaps we don't fully understand now, so we just would ask for your help and blessing on the balance of this evening. In Jesus name, Amen.
The Conflict of Faith in Judges 4
Open—Robert Boulard
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.
Our comfort be number 166 of Brotherhood started.
Lord, thou has strong.
And that will be fine my friend who can shout come and go on 3rd game thyself.
Brethren, shall we also sing 100 and 97197?
Oh God, what pours up?
Like to read just a couple verses?
2nd Corinthians chapter one verse three, Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort, will comfort us, us and all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God.
Our loving God and Father, we thank you for thy wondrous love.
You my comfort course and the various needs that each one of us has and some were mentioned in the prayer meeting before. Now we're about ready to open Thy word and just praise our fetus with what we need, the word of comfort, word of exertation, word of encouragement. So we just ask thy help in the meeting before us. The name of the Lord Jesus we pray, Amen.
Amen. Amen.
Just like to turn to the Book of Judges. We'll read a few verses in the Book of Judges.
Have it on my heart just to speak a little bit of the conflict of faith and our brother yesterday brought before us the three enemies that we have. But I'd like to just concentrate on a passage of scripture, the really the 4th of judges, but we'll read in chapter 3 just as A to open up the stage of.
00:10:08
How things were at that time in among the children of Israel.
So Judges chapter 3, verse five, the children of Israel dwelt among the Canaanites.
Hittites and Amorites and Parasites, and Hivites and Jebusites, and they first they took their daughters to their wives to be their wives, and gave their daughters to their sons, and serve their gods. The children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord, forgot the Lord their God, and served Balaam in the Groves.
Therefore, the anger of the Lord was hot against Israel. Then let's turn to chapter.
Chapter 4, we'll just read a few verses here and a few verses there, and we don't have a lot of time to read the whole passage of Scripture, but I'd like to point out some of the things that could be an encouragement and help to us as we face the enemy in the last days of the day of grace. So chapter 4, the children of Israel.
Again, did evil in the sight of the Lord when Ehud was dead. Maybe we should read chapter 3 verse 30. So Moab was subdued that day under the hand of Israel, and the land had rest 4 score years.
And after him was Shamgard, the son of Enath, which slew of the Philistines 600 men with an ox goad, and he also delivered Israel, and the children of Israel gained evil in the sight of the Lord when he hood was dead. Well, the first thing we want to notice is that the state of the people of God was such, you know, that they had.
Set aside the word of God. They had disobeyed, truly disobeyed, the word of God.
They had been told not to make mixed marriages and they had illicit intercourse with this world and it speaks to us of the day we live in. We all have the temptation to compromise with the world and to have illicit intercourse with this world.
To join up in some way and have.
A mixed testimony, you might say. It's, you know, we don't like to speak of.
Separation. But let's look at Two Corinthians chapter 6. We'll just read it just at the end of it.
God speaks of separation. He's not ashamed of that word.
It's for our strength, it's for our blessing to maintain separation.
And so it says in verse chapter 6, verse 14, Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers? For what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness?
Their rhetorical questions We know what the answer is. And what communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial? Or what part hath he that hath that believeth with an infidel? What agreement hath the temple of God with idols? For ye are the temple of the living God, as God hath said. I will dwell in them, and walk in them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
Wherefore come out from among them, and be separate, saith the Lord.
And touch not the unclean thing, and I will receive you, and will be a father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty. Well, not an encouraging word to think of how the Lord delights in having us be in His presence and enjoy His fellowship, and to reveal Himself as the Father.
And you and I have a relationship with the Father. In Christianity, we know the Father, We know the Son.
Were brought into relationship with him. And so here he speaks in this little portion that we read of the children of Israel. And there was a change of administration, we might say. And so the older ones were passing off the scene. And we all of us know what it is to have those that are older pass off the scene. So there was restraint. There was some measure of deliverance from the enemy.
And you know every one of us.
Has to be engaged in the spiritual warfare. And as our brother pointed out yesterday, it's not with Spears and with swords that we have a battle. But in Ephesians chapter 6, it says that we have an enemy and that we're to put on. We're responsible to put on all of the armor of God. And so all seven pieces of armor ought to be put on.
00:15:04
And we ought to in really responsibility to take up that that armament.
That will be preserved as we find ourselves in the enemy's land. Well, there was a change of administration.
And there was responsibility now passed on to the next generation. And so the older generation is seeking, I believe.
To pass on the truth in the same measure that they received it, in the same truth that they received as ministered by those that have passed on. Well, there was departure. They did evil in the sight of the Lord. So what you and I do is in the sight of the Lord. Make no mistake of it, you and I are doing what we do in the sight of the Lord. He sees it all.
Oh, what a blessed thing it is that he loves us. He loves us with unfailing love, her brother read this morning.
Having loved his own, He loved them unto the end. You know it has the sense, if you look in the Darby translation, the little note, that he says He loved them through it all. He loved them through everything. And you know, it says in the Hebrews chapter 13 that I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee, so that we may boldly say, what is man?
What shall man do unto me? I'm not quoting exactly right, but.
You know, it's just a comfort of the heart. The Lord is faithful and He loves you individually and as you have an exercise to walk in the fear of God and to engage in the spiritual conflict. We do have a conflict. We have an enemy. We have three enemies, as was pointed out, but here it says the Lord. The second thing that we want to notice is that the Lord sold them into the hand of Jabin, the king of Canaan that reigned in Hazor, the captain of.
Host was Sizzra who dwelt in Hirosheth of the Gentiles. Well, if you look in Joshua, I think it's Chapter 11, the first few verses speak of this man Jake in Jay Ben, the king of Canaan, another king, and it speaks of the land of Canaan being this Canaanite king being destroyed, every last one of them, so to speak.
They were destroyed. The enemy was brought into subjection.
But now here it is, years later, and they've risen up again.
We have an enemy that will never give up.
And he will use the same tactics among the people of God to destroy and to weaken and to distract the Saints of God. And how we need to be watchful in our own hearts, in our own lives, and to rely upon the Lord for deliverance and for strength as we go through this scene. And so the enemy never gives up. He has a whole, He has a leader, the captain of the host, scissor and.
So we know we're going to read a little bit about Sizera, the children of Israel, verse 3.
They cried unto the Lord.
For he had 900 Chariots of iron, 20 years. He mightily oppressed the children of Israel. Well, you know, this fact that this man had 900 Chariots speaks of really a power that is insurmountable, a power, an imperial power and force that no one could overcome, no one could oppose. And you have an enemy that is strong, that says.
I think it's Luke's gospel chapter 14. He speaks there in connection with discipleship of taking note of the strength of the enemy. It says in chapter 14 of Luke verse 31 what king going to make war against another king sitteth not down 1St and consulteth whether he be able with 10,000 to meet him that cometh against him with 20,000.
Or else, while the other is yet a great way off, He senteth an ambassador, and desireth conditions of peace. So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsake it not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple.
Well, we need to recognize the strength of the enemy.
None of us are suitable to face the enemy on our own strength, our own merits, our own intelligence. We need the Lord's help, and this, you know, the people of God. He had raised up his hand in discipline.
20 years it took to balcony. You know God is in the business of bending knees and he knows how to bend every knee.
00:20:00
Thank God that many in this room have bent the knee to our Lord Jesus Christ. You know, I was in Ohio doing business and one time years ago and I went to a factory to see a fellow.
By the name of Jim Stingle, and he was. I was a little early for the appointment, came in and sat down.
At the in the front lobby, there was a young girl there at the computer.
She was perhaps 1617 years old. Her name was Jessica Blaine. And she had by her computer while she said to me, you know, just come in and sit here. Jim's not here. He'll be here shortly. And we can just visit while you're waiting. So she had on the wall a couple of photocopies of some verses of Scripture, and she had this little expression on the wall. She says, if you meet me.
Me who have lost nothing, but if you meet Jesus Christ and forget him.
You've lost everything. And she had a couple of verses of Scripture there.
And I think it was Revelation. I think it's Revelation 320 that she had on her on the. I'm just going to read it so that I don't misquote it.
Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come into him, and will Sup with him, and he with me.
I said to Jessica. I said.
Do you know the Lord Jesus as your Savior?
She said this to me.
She says. I'm pleased to be numbered among those that have bowed the knee to our Lord Jesus Christ in this life.
She said every knee is going to bow.
I'm pleased to be numbered among those that have bowed the knee to our Lord Jesus Christ in this life.
Well, these dear Saints of God, children of Israel, crying unto the Lord, it took them 20 years of sorrow and oppression. And isn't it the kindness of the Lord to bring different circumstances into our lives, to humble us, and to recognize that we need Him for deliverance? And so they had an enemy that was powerful. You and I have an enemy that's powerful.
And we ought to be engaged spiritually in the battle, the conflict of faith.
While he mightily oppress the people of God, verse 4. This is another thing that we need to notice is that God has to deliver Deborah a prophetess.
The wife of Lapidus, she judged Israel at that time, and she dwelt under the palm tree of Deborah, between Rama and Bethel and the Mount Ephraim, and the children of Israel came up to her for judgment.
Well, it was a time of great weakness. And here's a woman, you'll notice that she was a prophetess. She was able to be used of God. She was a woman that walked in fellowship with the Lord.
She walked in humility and in communion with God, and make no mistake of it.
The sister that walks in fellowship with God, in communion with the Lord in a quiet way behind the scenes can be used of God. And this was a day of great failure, great weakness among the people of God and all how he delights to use those that will walk in fellowship with him. And so she was a spiritual woman, I believe.
But it mentions here that she was the wife of Lapidus. She knew.
What it was to be married. And she had, she was, she judged Israel at that time, but noticed this where she dwelt. She dwelt under the palm tree of Deborah between Rama and Bethel in the Mount Ephraim. And the children of Israel came up to her for judgment. So you remember Samuel he was, he dwelt at Rama, I believe, but he had a circuit. And so he went from place to place to place, and he judged Israel.
But she was a woman. She knew her place.
And she perhaps delighted in that place. She was in the home. And she was used of God in this way to comfort the Saints of God, to perhaps stir them up and to exhort them. And she was used of God in different ways. Perhaps we're not told, but she abode in the home by the palm tree, a place of.
Rest a place where the people of God could come, and if they wanted to have a word from the Lord.
00:25:02
Why they would come to her and she had wisdom, discernment from the Lord. What was a day of great weakness?
But.
She went on in the capacity that she should have gone on in connection with her being a woman. Well the next thing we want to notice here is verse six. There was a cry to the Lord for deliverance and the Lord gave her a message. She sent and called Barrack the son of Abenuum of out of Kedish Naphtali and said unto him, hath not the Lord God of Israel commanded saying, go?
And draw toward Mount Tabor, and take with the 10,000 men of the children of Israel, of the of Naphtali and of the children of Zebulun. And I will draw thee to the river Kai Shan Sizera, the captain of Jabin's army, with his Chariots and his multitude, and I will deliver him.
Into thine hand.
Well, isn't it nice that, you know, God had prepared a man who perhaps didn't know that he was being prepared for this work of deliverance? And you may be a younger brother, perhaps middle age and so on, and you've been reading the scriptures and studying the scriptures and you've been trying to walk in communion with the Lord. I hope that's the way it is. I hope you're studying the Word of God and reading written ministry, listening to audio ministry, perhaps in the cars you go to work, whatever it might be.
And God perhaps is preparing you, but you don't know.
And there will be a time, if you walk with God, that he may give a little call that.
To deliver His people in certain circumstances, certain issues that arise among the people of God, and He may use you to deliver in His love and His great love for His people.
He loves his people.
There's nothing on the planet that he has that is more.
Valuable to him than his beloved people. He bought the church with his own blood, bought every member of the body of Christ and loves them, desires that they would go on, and he wanted to deliver them here. So Barrack was raised up quietly somewhere and so.
Here it says we want to notice in verse seven that God has a battle plan all picked out and he's going to deliver his people. Isn't it nice to know what the battle plan is?
You read prophetic history. You read the prophetic scriptures, read the prophets.
Read Isaiah. Read the minor Prophets. You're going to find out what the battle plan is.
You're going to find out. Read The only prophetic book that's given to the church is the Book of Revelation.
Written to the church and for the church so that we would be intelligent as to what God is about to do.
And concerning the glories of his son.
He comes as the Ancient of Days. In chapter one, the judge is introduced and all of his judicial glories. That's wonderful.
To read that little passage in Revelation chapter one and the read of his glories in chapter 4.
Chapter 5 and then to see how he begins to do his work in Chapter 60, it's wonderful.
The battle plan is already written and we know what the end is, and it's nothing but delight for the Son of God and for those that belong to him. And so we don't need to be taken up with the affairs of this world where ambassadors for Christ. We ought to be taken up with the One, the Son of God, the Son of his love, and that one who is going to be.
So gloriously exalted in this scene, to whom every knee shall bow, every tongue confess that Jesus Christ.
Is the Son of God to the glory of God? Oh, he's going to be raised up in glory. So we have the battle plan. It's already recorded. Have you read about it? Oh, it's wonderful, exhilarating. It's heartwarming to read. We know there's sorrow, there's judgment. He's going to cleanse this world with judgment, So there is sorrow in connection with it. But in this little passage of Scripture, he gives him the battle plan. Isn't it wonderful to know that the Lord Jesus knows?
How to defeat the enemy. He knows how to defeat the enemy even the day that we live in. And he can give strength. And so he raises this man Barrack up. He tells him here's the battle plan.
Just as an aside, you know, I sometimes think, you know, Mr. Putin really should read Ezekiel 38 and 39. There's a battle plan, and he really should read that because there is a battle coming and he's really not going to win this battle. And so.
00:30:13
The Christian can read those passages of Scripture and intelligence, recognize that he doesn't need to get all upset about what's going on in Ukraine and Russia, why the battle plan is already written, but it's going to be 7 years, really about seven years after the church has taken out. Well, let's read here. It says there was a response now to this instruction, this battle plan.
And this dear man perhaps didn't have the faith for the work that he was given to do.
The barracks said his response is this. He said unto her, If thou wilt go with me, then I will go.
But if thou wilt not go with me, then I will not go.
I could use a little bottle of water.
Please.
Thank you.
What a response.
You know, I like looking at some of these little three word responses in Scripture. These little three word statements that the Lord Jesus makes in the Gospel of John and other passage of Scripture. He uses 3 words. Often times in the English language. I don't know what it is in the Greek, but here in the Hebrew this man gives a response.
I will go.
But he sets conditions on it.
We ought not to set conditions.
For whether we will obey or not based on certain conditions, He didn't appear to have the faith. You know this little word, There are others that used it, this little phrase. Let's look at Genesis chapter 24.
It says here in Genesis chapter 24.
Verse 58, just at the end, in connection with Rebecca, they called Rebecca and said unto her, Wilt thou go with this man? She said, I will go, oh, there's faith, I will go. I trust you have a submissive spirit to the direction of the Spirit of God, to the direction of the word of God and just submit.
And say, I will go, I will do it. It's what the Lord desires in our hearts. A positive response. You know, there's another one in Genesis. I'm not going to turn to all these ones that I've enjoyed, but it's.
Genesis chapter 45 in connection with Jacob. Jacob had a quite the history. It's worth tracing the the restoration, you might say, of Jacob and his.
Training and deliverance even to the land of Israel, to the land of Egypt, says in Genesis 45, the last verse, Israel said it is enough. Joseph, my son is yet alive. I will go.
And see him before I die Oh, I think those words are beautiful. I will go. Esther, you know, faced certain death if he has the earth even her husband didn't raise up the.
His.
Scepter to her in favor, but she says I will go. Oh May God give us the grace to go in the path of obedience, a devotion, affection for Christ as we engage in a spiritual conflict.
For his glory, Well, he said I will not go. The will was set. He said under these conditions, I need Avip to go with me, I need a prophetess, I need somebody. I can't go myself. And it's true you can't engage in the battle by yourself, but isn't it nice to have a sense of the presence of the Lord?
You know, I think of the Apostle Paul, how he says the Lord stood with me.
In the last chapter of Two Timothy, the Lord stood with me. Isn't that good enough for you to have a sense of the Lord's presence as you go through this scene? Always, always cultivate.
Communion with the Lord. Don't let anything come in that would break that communion and have a sense of the presence of the Lord.
The Lord stood with me.
Well, he says, I will not go, she said in verse nine. I will surely go with thee, notwithstanding the journey that thou takest shall not be for thine honour, for the Lord shall sell scissor into the hand of a woman. Deborah arose and went with Barrick to Kadesh.
00:35:17
And Barrett called Zebulun and Nephili to Kedish. He went up with 10,000 men at his feet, and Deborah went up with him.
Well, you know this sister, if I could use New Testament language, his sister and the Lord.
A dear St. of God had divine life and.
She submitted to this suggestion that Barrick, she wanted to develop the deliverance of the people of God and if it necessitated her leaving her home to go with this man and 10,000 soldiers, that why she was willing to do it for the deliverance of God's people. So she stepped out of the role that God had given to her of quiet submission in the home and went with this man. Just think of it.
10,000 men, maybe 10,000 and one and one woman.
10,000 men and one woman.
Going to face the enemy that had depressed the people of God for 20 years mightily oppressed them.
Oh, it's a sign of weakness. It's just a symbol of the broken state of things in Israel at that time. And we face young people and older ones here, brethren, we face a time when things are broken. We know that the governmental systems are broken in this country, in the country, the South of us, all over the Western world, things are broken.
The assemblies, you might say, are broken. Things are breaking down. Morally, things are broken down.
But there is a path of faith. There is a path and the Lord delights to deliver his people. Well, it says that Deborah went up with him. Now the Spirit of God breaks in and says, now there's a little bit of a parenthesis here. I'm going to tell you about a man. His name is Heber in verse 11, the key knight, which was of the children of Hobab, the father-in-law of Moses.
Had severed himself from the Key Knights and pitched his tent unto the plain of Zenayam.
Which is by key dish.
You know, here's a man written in God's word and we don't know what the conflict was. He probably had a little falling out with some in the family or didn't really like to be at the center of the heat of the.
Persecution of these from Jabin, the king of Jabin, King Jabin of Canaan. And he thought, you know, well, I'll just leave and I'll go to the plane.
And he left all of his brethren and he pitched his tent. So his family, perhaps his wife, we know, I don't know, it doesn't mention his family. But he took his whole household out from among his brethren and in isolation there on the plane, that's where he was. Not a good place to be. All we need the fellowship of our brethren. We cannot be alone, it says in Acts 242.
Is very striking in the language of it. It says they continued steadfastly in the Apostles doctrine and fellowship.
Breaking of bread in prayers. Oh, I wonder if that's how do you have that desire to continue steadfastly in the apostles doctrine and fellowship. Breaking of bread and prayers. Oh, it's a wonderful path. It's a normal path for a Christian to go on in that way. Well, it says that a little bit later on that the Lord.
Delivered. Let's read verse 14. Deborah said unto Barrack.
This is the day in which the Lord hath delivered into thine hand. Is not the Lord gone out before thee? So Barrack went down from the Mount Tabor, and 10,000 men after him, And the Lord discomfited Sizera with all his cherries and all his hosts with the edge of the sword before Barrack, so that Scissor alighted down off his chariot and fled away on his feet. Now I just, I missed a little part that we really need to.
Look at it says in verse 12 or verse.
Let me see here.
They went up to yes, let's read verse 12. They showed Scissor that Barrack son of Ehinuam was gone up to Mount Tabor. Now the Lord had told him to go to Mount Tabor.
00:40:07
And mount Tabor means I believe separated or separation.
So here he took these men, Barrack took these men, 10,000 men. They climb a mountain, Mount Tabor, not easy, but they're going against the flow of the common day, the day, the flow of apostasy, the flow of apathy and all those sorts of things. The little image, they go up into the mountain, really spend time in the presence of the Lord alone.
We're not told how long they were there.
Brethren, it's necessary to spend time individually and with the people of God.
In self judgment, and in fellowship together waiting. And so here these men were called. Barrack had made the call, and they came up to that mountain. They spent time on the mountain, and they waited for the Lord to give the direction as to when they would leave.
And so it's a good thing just to wait upon the Lord, and justice to wait.
In the presence of the Lord to enjoy his company, but to wait and to be exercised as to the matter. And so we can well imagine that these 10,000 men, Barrack included, and Deborah, there was deep exercise of soul.
They wondered what it would what would take place when they left that mountain, whether some of them would face the enemy and be killed physically.
Well, everyone of us, before we face the enemy, need to spend time in the presence of the Lord on the mountain with God.
The self judgment, just seeking his blessing, crying to him in our weakness to tell him how weak we are and how we cannot deliver ourselves. We cannot deliver the people of God. We absolutely need his presence. Oh, the Lord didn't disappoint them. It says, is not the Lord gone out before thee? There's a time to act, a time to be born, a time to die.
You know Ecclesiastes chapter 3 gives us.
The sense that there are there is a time, a proper time to go. And so God called them at a specific time. He knew when they were prepared. He knew when the work of self judgment was complete and he knew how to deliver his people. And so we can take courage, can't we? That God knows how to deliver his people and God will give the signal at the right time and they will be delivered.
And so the Lord discomfited in verse 15.
All his Chariots and all his hosts. So Sidra takes off.
He leaves his chariot, faces the heat. I can't imagine.
Leaving your chariot and deciding you better run for it. But you know God knows how to deliver the people of God, and it was an unnatural thing. But let's notice in verse 17. Howbeit, Scissor A fled away on his feet to the tent of jail, the wife of Eber the key knight. For there was peace between J Bin, the king of Hazar, and the House of Heber the key knight.
The.
You know the end of verse 16 says there was not a man left. God knows how to give complete deliverance.
Knit wonderful to have eternal security. There's complete deliverance.
You and I know what it is to have complete deliverance, but there's many Christians in this world that don't have a sense of eternal security. But you and I ought to have that. I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish. There's complete deliverance at the cross of Calvary. He died for our sins. Put them all away, they're gone.
Well, there was peace between Jabin, King of Hazor, and the House of Heber the Kenite. Just a little compromise. Let's not be so tight about this. We're living in the world and we don't. You don't have to go out and look for persecution. Let's just compromise just a little bit.
And this dear man.
Made an agreement, made peace with the enemy.
It's a solemn thing to make peace with the enemy and to say that I don't want to stand for the truth. It says earnestly contending for the faith once delivered to the Saints. I'm not saying that we need to get argumentative or to be belligerent, but isn't it wonderful just to stand firm for the Lord, for his person, for his glory?
00:45:07
And to desire to defend that Blessed One and His glory in this world.
And to recognize that we live in the enemy's land and we cannot make peace with the world.
We cannot give an inch.
Or else it will be all over. Well, God mentions in his precious word this one man that made a compromise with the enemy, and God could not use this man for his work of deliverance. But you know where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. So we have here that in verse 21 jail Hebrews wife took the nail, a nail of the tent or a pin of the tent, took a hammer and her hand went softly onto him and smoked the nail into his temple's.
Fastened it into the ground so he was fast asleep and weary, so he died. You know this little story is mentioned in the Psalms.
And I believe it's mentioned in Hebrews Chapter 11.
Barracks mentioned God is gracious, but here's a woman and it doesn't appear that she agreed with her husband about peace with the world, peace with Jabin the king of Canaan. And how often we've heard of those that are husbands, those that ought to take the lead in their homes and to bring the things of God before their families, and they get irritated with their brethren and they run off and isolate themselves.
And their families and their sorrow.
There's disappointment, there's heartache, and perhaps the wife submits to that. And years go by and we know that there have been husbands that have gone to be with the Lord, and the next Lord's Day, the wife is at the Lord's table again. It touches the heart.
It doesn't appear that this woman, woman of faith, made the same agreement. And so, dear sisters, you have a real responsibility to maintain the truth of God and to really engage in the spiritual conflict as well. We're all to be engaged. Well, she had the privilege, you might say, of executing judgment on this man.
She had not made an agreement with the enemy.
Or if you don't make an agreement with the enemy, if you walk in communion with the Lord.
If you will walk in fellowship with that blessed man.
And don't be tainted in your fellowship, in your associations with this world. You don't know what God might use you for. He may call you, He may call upon you in some situation, in your home assembly, in some situation, perhaps in a brother or sister, in the camp, in in some situations, someone that you meet on the street.
You may, you may be used of God because you kept yourself pure.
He says in, I think it's in first Peter chapter one, be be pure even as he is pure. It's really a quotation from Leviticus. So this woman jail receives a blessing. If you permit me to just look at a couple of incidences of those that didn't go to the battle, those that were not engaged in the spiritual conflict.
There in chapter 5 it says in verse 14.
Of chapter 5 out of Ephraim. I'm going to read it as it is in the new translation. Out of Ephraim came those whose foot was in Amalek.
They were to destroy Amalek's, a type of the flesh. And so there was intermarriage between Amalek and the children of Israel. Ephraim verse was quoted in Hosea chapter six. I think it is that Ethermeth mixed himself. There's a hair, Gray hair here and there upon him. He knows it not, but there were those that had come from this intermarriage situation and they rose above it.
Perhaps judged it in the presence of God and they were used of God. They had heard the call of Jabin and they were a part of those 10,000 that went up and faced the enemy. The enemy had sought to destroy from association, marriage association. But they came up, they came up to the battle. And then it says after the Benjamin among thy people, Benjamin. I think it's in the 68th Psalm. It's called little Benjamin and we remember.
00:50:01
There was immorality, there was wickedness in the tribe of Benjamin, and the whole tribe was almost wiped out. But you know, in the sovereign grace of God, there were two tribes that were preserved to the Lord, to David at the divine center, Jerusalem.
Judah and Benjamin, little Benjamin and you may be from a little family among the Saints of God, from a little family, from a little assembly, but you can be engaged in a spiritual battle too. You need to be exercised about that spiritual battle. You know, the Lord knows what it feels to be little and to feel like you don't belong. You'll forgive a personal.
Illustration of it when we were first came out of the McDonald Division.
In 1969, we didn't know anybody. We came out from a little group of brethren that had gone out in division. We came among the gathered Saints and we felt like nothing. Nobody knew us. We weren't related to anybody. Some were kind to us, and I remember to this day I can see their faces.
But Benjamin's just little, and so God delights in faithfulness and devotion to him, affection for him.
It doesn't matter how big you are.
And how grand the family is, it's not family first in the assembly. Well, it says make here out of make here came down governors. So here I think this make here is referring to the tribe of Manasseh, some of the half tribe of Manasseh. And they came out, they came down governors. So here's those I think they were.
I can't remember what the other translation calls them, but they were.
Those in governmental authority among the people of God and they came down to the battle. So they didn't say, well, you know, I'm the mayor or I've got, I've got responsibility. I can't be engaged in spiritual battle. I'll damage my reputation. No, they were engaged in a spiritual battle. They had a delight to help to deliver the people of God from the enemy and from the inroads of the enemy.
And then it speaks of the Zebulun.
They that handle a pen of a writer. So some of the scribes they, they came. So you think of a scribe, a writer, a book guy.
With a sword.
But, you know, they knew how to use the Word of God. It's illustrating to us, God's Old Testament is our picture book. It's a picture book of the new of the Scriptures. It gives us figures. And so even though we're just book people, why we can be engaged in a spiritual conflict. The spiritual conflict is for every one of us.
And we cannot plead ignorance. We cannot plead isolation. We cannot.
Plead neutrality. Everyone of us needs to be engaged spiritually with the Lord.
In connection with the enemy and to judge those things, that would be a hindrance. Well, it speaks of the Princess of Issachar with Deborah, even Issachar and also Barrick, he was sent on foot in the valley for divisions. Let me see, the Princess of Issachar, really, we just want to say that these were men that were really at the top and the top echelons.
And they they could have.
Pled that they weren't a part of the army and so on. It just shows that there's exercise of heart from those in Essecar, in Barrack and then the divisions. I'm going to read it somewhat of how the Darby translation goes. It says the divisions are the rivulets of Reuben. There were great thoughts of heart, great resolves of heart. Why abode us, thou among the sheepfolds, to hear the bleedings of the flocks for the divisions of Reuben.
Great. Or the rivets of Reuben. There were great searchings, deliberations of heart. So here it appears that those of Reuben heard of the battle. They heard that there was a spiritual, there was a conflict with the enemy, and they were down by the rivets, I believe would speak of the borders of their territory. And they were down there by the borders. They said, well, you know, yeah, there's a battle going on.
And we're going to, you know, scissor is.
The scissor, the army of scissor is there and the barracks down there with 10,000 men and boy, there's a real battle going. They had a lot of discussion about it, but they didn't get involved.
00:55:06
So it's a shame to our shame if there's a lot of discussion about the spiritual conflict among the people of God, but not a searching out of the truth for ourselves and not a really a desire to be engaged ourselves in the spiritual conflict. You say, well, how can I be engaged?
Can you do what they did at the beginning of this, what we read, the children of Israel cried unto the Lord.
For he had 900 Chariots of iron and 20 years he mightily oppressed the children of Israel. You and I can be engaged in prayer and we can study the word of God, study the principles, and cry to the Lord for his blessing upon his people. And so he speaks of those that just deliberated. They didn't have the they didn't actually get up and go.
And then it says that Gilead abode beyond Jordan.
They just stayed home. Maybe they heard about it, but they did. There was number discussion or anything. They just stayed home. They said we're not going.
Oh, it's a work of the enemy to say, you know, I'm just a Christian, I'm saved and I don't need to be spiritually engaged in the conflict.
But you and I need to be engaged, and we need to put on that armor, the whole armor of God, to be engaged in the enemy's land, against the flesh, the world, the world system that is against Christ, and to be really to recognize the stratagems of the enemy. And so it says that Dan. Why did Dan remain in ships?
The tribe of Dan, they were more interested in business and the ship speaks of mercantile things.
Of this world, and so they were more interested in their mercantile activity than in the deliverance of the Saints engaged in to be engaged in the battle, in the spiritual battle. Asher continued on the seashore and abode it in his breeches or in the creeks. So they stayed.
By the beaches, they were by the beaches, and they just weren't interested. Let's just drop down to verse 23. Kerski Miraz said. The Angel of the Lord cursed ye bitterly, The inhabitants thereof, because they came not to the help of the Lord, to help the Lord against the mighty blessed above women shall jail the wife of Eber, the key knight, be blessed? Shall she be above women in the tent.
While there's a curse and there's a blessing.
Miraz really was a little place, a little city, I believe, right in the middle of the place where the battle took place. And I think Miraz means cedar palaces. And so they just, it was pretty comfortable at home and, you know.
The Angel of the Lord you'll notice in the new translation as capitalized capital A.
Angel of the Lord, Lord you know is Jehovah in the new translation and in the French translation it's L apostrophe eternal. Mr. Darby uses that in his French translation, doesn't use Jehovah, it's the eternal 1.
It was the Lord Jesus Himself.
That was there to deliver his people.
Well, I think this is blessed. Dear brethren, the Lord Jesus is in the midst.
It loves his people.
But these people in Miraz had an enemy of prosperity, cedar houses, and they weren't too interested in getting into the battle. And so he says Hershey bitterly, the inhabitants thereof, they came not to the help of the Lord. Let's help in the spiritual battle. None of us liveth unto himself. No man dieth unto himself. You have an influence on this company of believers on the whole Church of God.
The testimony, the Christian testimony that we live in. You know, Brother Bruce Anstey is writing a little exposition on Matthew's Gospel.
He's writing on Chapter 14 now. He's been writing for a year. Maybe not quite a year. Half a year.
And this pretty pathetic situation in connection with his health, but he's doing what he can do.
And you may not have a lot of strength, you may not have a lot of knowledge, but isn't it nice to have a sense of the Lord's presence?
01:00:06
The Eternal 1.
The Eternal 1.
Once your fellowship in the conflict of faith.
Don't stay in a place of prosperity. Don't stay in a place where prosperity will hinder you from being engaged in the spiritual conflict. It's not worth it. Well, they didn't get a blessing, but jail got a blessing. Blessed above women. She was engaged in that spiritual conflict. Well, I trust that these words will encourage us. Beloved brethren, every.
To rise up in a day of great weakness and great breakdown in this world, and in the Christian testimony. To strengthen ourselves in the truth of the Word of God. To read the word of God, and to enjoy it. To be found steadfastly going on in the apostles, doctrine and fellowship, breaking of bread and prayers, and to be engaged to help.
The city in the testimony, in the whole of the Christian testimony. May God give us the grace and the strength to do it.
The Power of the Word of God in Spiritual Warfare
Open—Sam Ludvicek
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.
Wise man once said be part of the solution, not the problem.
Robert could have entitled his message something like that.
Because the truth is, if you just talk about it.
You go on about it problems. There are all kinds of problems. You really are part of the problem because you're not offering a solution. I was talking with a young brother and his wife a few months ago and he was recounting lots of the problems in the little assembly where he's at. And I said brother.
It sounds like there are a lot of problems and we can find them everywhere. And he described what he thought was.
A good place, what a good assembly might be like. And I said, where is this magical place you described to me? It said. The only place I know that sounds like the one you're describing is in glory.
Well, turn with me to Psalm Chapter 11.
In Psalm Chapter 11.
Verse 3.
It says that the foundations be destroyed. What can the righteous do?
Then over to reverse or chapter 12 beginning with verse 6.
The words of the Lord are pure words that silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified 7 times.
Thou shalt keep them, O Lord, Thou shalt preserve them from this generation.
Forever.
If we are to be men and women of Issachar.
Who know the times and what's going on we had a brother yesterday talk to us about the kind of enemies we face and how difficult it is when there's more than one and he spoke of wrestling with his children and when one comes and another and another and he compared it to the spiritual battles that we face and I thought that was really good we had another brother remind us that no matter what questions people raise, whether it's.
School or at work or wherever. He reminded us that the Word of God is the Word of God and it is the truth.
But here's what the enemy is doing right now. The attack, the main attack that he's doing, the spearhead of his forces, It is to undermine the word of God.
And the effort to undermine the word of God and the confidence in it because if you have a sword and you don't think.
It will work or you think it's made out of rubber? How can you use it?
And dear young people, that's pretty much everybody less than 70, but especially you children, preteens, teens, early 20s, thirties. My heart breaks. I really love you guys. And I know and I hear about what you're facing, but there is a real questioning of whether the word of God can even be trusted.
There's a real questioning and undermining. Is it really? Do we really have it in our hands?
Brother Robert was talking about reading it and studying it. And if you believe that it is true and you believe that you do have it in your hands, well, then it's valuable and you can use it. You can use it as a sword as you face the enemies that you face. But what if you've had some doubt brought into your mind and heart that first lie that the enemy told?
To Eve, yeah, hath God said. Are you sure that's what he said? A brother reminded me yesterday.
That there is along with this is this effort to make everything in the Word of God subjective.
If you do that, you're lost, man, You're off. But there is an effort, the main effort to undermine the Word of God and our confidence in it. If that's taken away, you don't have a sword anymore. Well, there is a sword, you just don't know how to use it, and maybe you don't have confidence in using it.
Remember having a conversation with brother Bill about.
What protected us?
He's older than I am, but what protected us growing up and I think was maybe a lot older ones will say the same thing. I had learned from my father and those in the assembly where I was at a lot about prophecy and when people said things to me that I couldn't answer, didn't know or tried to say something that would undermine the word of God in my thoughts in mind were that wait a minute.
00:05:09
There are prophecies in this book.
That have been fulfilled detailed ones.
And just minute detailed ones. And that those things prove to me that this was a divine book and justice because I didn't have an answer for whoever was questioning me.
It didn't shake me from believing that this still was a divine book. The world wants to tell you and there are well educated and smart people that want to tell you. This is just a bunch of of ignorant people, shepherds and sheep herders and fishermen that just made-up some stories so that they could explain why lightning and Thunder and all natural disasters happen. Well, we know better than that if we have studied anything about.
There was a man by the name of Stone. He was a mathematician.
And he had been introduced to the gospel by someone, and one of the things that he'd been told was that this has to be a divine book and can't just be written by human beings because no one can tell the future in those kinds of details. We know there are people who pretend to be psychics and we've heard of Nostradamus and people like that, but.
Their predictions are so general you can make them happen and it it appears that things can come to pass, but not like this book.
And as he became a Christian, he took his expertise as a mathematician and he began to apply it. And I thought this one was of great interest in young people.
I think you will too, and maybe you have heard it before, but he said if you just take 8 prophecies that are given in the Old Testament about the Lord, Jesus just ate, and there's many more than that. If you just ate of them and that they would, what are the mathematical probabilities that they would be fulfilled in any single human beings life? He wrote a number with A1 and a lot of zeros behind it.
Well, it doesn't mean much. Maybe if you're a mathematician. Well, I know a lot of zeros is a lot, but he put it in an illustration, he said if you were to cover the state of Texas 2 foot deep with silver dollars.
And take one of them and put a black X on it and then mix it all up. The chance of you walking into that pile and picking that out first time.
He said that's the odds.
And when I first read that, I said, wow, there are more than that. There are more than eight that are fulfilled in the Lord Jesus. And if you have that kind of confidence because of the prophecies that were written in the word of God, no matter what somebody says to you, and they may say things, as our brother reminded us, that shake you and you you can't answer and you may come up against people.
That are smarter and and better educated than you are. But if you have this.
This confidence that this book is a divine book, that God wrote it.
And you have it in your hands that won't shake you from it, and you still have a sword that you can use. And what you do know of this book often is enough when you're faced with a challenge and faced with the enemy. And God will draw it up out of the well of your heart to use it in that moment.
Brother Robert was talking about who knows what assembly you might be in, a small one, and you've been studying the Word of God and coming along. If you believe in it, then you speak it and you quote it and you act on it and you stand on it. It's living and powerful and it will do what God says it will do.
Turn with me to mark Chapter 13.
Mark's Gospel chapter 13 and I'll just begin at verse 32. But of that day, in that hour, N no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son but the Father. Take heed, watch and pray, for he know not when the time is.
For the Son of Man is as a man taking a far journey, who left his house, and gave authority to his servants, and to every man his work, and commanded the Porter to watch.
Now I want to reread that in the middle. Who left his house and gave authority to his servants? When did the Lord Jesus leave?
00:10:05
The disciples watched him go up.
So who are his servants?
From that day forward, it's every single child of God, every blood bought child of God.
And what does he say? We have those that pretend charismatic power in the world today, those who pretend to be reconstituting apostles and so on and so forth, those who pretend to be performing miracles and they put on sideshows to cover the the deceit with which they are producing those things.
But at the simplest child of God, a little boy, a little girl of five years old, three years old that's truly saved as authority.
We have authority to speak in his name. We have authority to preach in His name. We have authority to stand in his name.
And we certainly have authority to meet in his name.
There's power there. Real power.
If you'll permit, there was a lady that showed up at a Bible study we had years ago going on about 48 years ago.
And someone had told her that there were people in this Bible study that understood the word of God. She was a Methodist lady, and her family went to a Methodist Church and they knew the Lord. But they had a little boy, and that little boy was seeing something appear in his room at night.
And he came to his mother and said, mommy, there's, there's a, there's a thing.
It's appearing in my room.
And they became concerned. They took him to his psychiatrist and the psychiatrist responded by saying.
Well, I don't believe there's anything wrong mentally with your young boy. He believes he's seeing something.
Well, that's a strange way. You're not mentally challenged. But he believes he's seeing something. But they wouldn't go so far as to say that he was seeing something. The Sunday school teacher at the Methodist Church said, oh, it's your guardian Angel just hovering around. That's all it is. And someone else, because it looked like an old man with a hat that looked like Abraham Lincoln.
And he described it and another person said, oh, it's just a ghost of some old man that's haunting the house.
All these foolish things. So she came to the Bible study and at the end.
She wanted to talk and we went out to the parking area and she told me this story and I asked her, is your husband the Lords? And she said yes. And she believed her two little boys, both were the Lords too, that had trusted the Lord Jesus in Sunday school.
And so I told her, I said, well, when you go home tonight.
Walk down in the basement. It always happened in the basement.
And I said just pray out loud.
And I said just say simply.
In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and the power of shed blood.
If there's an evil spirit here, leave.
And she did, and a voice came out of the dark, just said no.
Well, the next Bible study she was very agitated and she told me the story and how frightened she was. So she invited me for supper.
And I went for supper and I met her husband and talked with him, and I talked with them at that supper table.
And I told the little boy, I said, you know, I want to tell you. I believe you.
But it's not a harmless guardian Angel. It's not the ghost of some man.
It's not a poltergeist or playful spirit of some ghost. It's none of those things. I said. I believe that for some reason in this house, and I found out later, several years later that there had been a woman who practiced witchcraft that lived in the preview. It was a previous owner, one of the previous owners, something left over from what she did. And I told the father, I said.
You are the head of this house. This is your home. You have authority here.
And mother, you have authority too, under your husband.
And I shared this this thought here in this in Mark's gospel.
And I told that little boy, I probed a little bit. You have trust. Your mother says you've trusted the Lord Jesus as your Savior. And he said, yes, I have. And I said, you don't need to be continue to be afraid of this thing.
00:15:07
So I told the dad, I said, and I went with him. We prayed, we prayed in the basement together. There was number confrontation of any kind. But I told him, I said when you pray in this house, you pray that As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. This place belongs to the Lord Jesus and so does my family.
And neither didn't see the family for quite some time. And I ran across the mother and I asked her how her little boy was doing and if anything more had happened. And she said one time.
And she's I said, well, what happened? And she said my little boy stood there and pointed his finger and said.
In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and the power of His shed blood, you leave me alone.
And that was that little boy.
A little boy, he could use and speak the name of Christ.
Because an enemy had come against him and was trying to harm him, destroy him, or do whatever he was going to do. Every child of God can stand in that name.
Recently I've had a wonderful several wonderful conversations been meditating on David when he comes with all of those people lined up two armies. Brother Robert was talking about how many or an overwhelming army was facing that the people of God were facing. Well, think about this. There's an array of the Philistines there. There's a giant in the front.
And behind.
Over here with Saul, as are the children of Israel, and they're trembling in their boots.
And they're afraid. And here comes this young boy out of the mountains.
That takes care of sheep, because his father sent him with some victuals to his brothers.
And they mock him. Brother Robert was telling us how that the Lord may want to use you for something. And maybe there will be a moment in time where it's you because God has prepared you from your birth, from before the foundation of the world for a moment in time to be a help to your brethren, to be helped to someone to help them to be delivered, to come alongside in the right moment.
Or for such a time as this, you've been prepared to be part of the solution.
And to deliver and not be part of the problem. And then here you are.
God has prepared you for that moment.
Why David is confounded by all of this?
He doesn't understand why everybody is so frightened. Well, what had happened? Brother Robert said that maybe in quietness and privacy, you've been prepared. God is preparing you. You've been reading, you've been studying, you've been coming along, and there have been victories maybe nobody knows about. Well, what do we find out about David?
He had killed the lion and the bear. The Lord had delivered him into his hands. Why should he be afraid of these people?
Because he knew that they were coming against the people of God, and they were really coming in the face of God.
Well, his charge had been to take care of the sheep in the mountains. He had a job to do and he had faith. He trusted that the Lord would help him. Young person, at 17 years old he sees a lion grab a little lamb and it's in its mouth. He walks up to it and grabs it by the beard and Thrones a knife into it and kills it.
Any 17 year olds here that can imagine doing that? He did.
This lion has one of the sheep I'm protecting. He's been prepared for that. He certainly has learned how to do that.
And then it's almost as by the way, he says, And I killed a bear.
OK.
Young young lad up in the mountains killed a bear, so he never calls the giant in front of him. In scripture, when he speaks of him, he calls him an uncircumcised Philistine. He doesn't call him a giant.
Everybody else is afraid of this guy, trembling in their boots, the army arrayed behind him. They're laughing and mocking along with him and outcomes. This 17 year old boy picks up the stones. It's astonishing to me that what is he? What does he do next?
He runs at the enemy.
I think most of us would want to stay as far back and swing that, swing that sling.
But he didn't. His faith was in the God that he had proved in the mountains. Because when you prove God, he's proven you. Do you trust Him? If you trust his word and it hasn't been on your mind. You have a sword. You have a real sword that you can fight with and you can use. And when you, the enemy comes and he's standing there and it seems to be overwhelming, you take your sword. You've already got the authority. You're not alone.
00:20:26
I will never leave thee, nor forsake these right there.
And you go forward and you run at the enemy, and God's Word works, and it will always do what it sent forth to do. And when you go in that kind of holy boldness forward because you have confidence in this book and what God has said, what God has told you, what he's proved himself to you to be, and you have proved him by trusting Him in those moments, in those times.
Why then, maybe in quietness, you've been prepared for a moment where now maybe a little more publicly.
God uses you to restore somebody to the Lord. Would that a lot more people amongst us would take to heart. Galatians 6-1 really take it to heart and prayerfully seek the restoration of those who have been turned aside and have been maybe overcome. That little lamb in the mouth of the lion was sure glad when David came along and grabbed him by the beard.
Maybe there's someone here?
That has an opportunity to be able to do that. You see one of the lambs of the Lord being attacked, the lion, the enemy has the lamb in his mouth and you get the chance. But the power of the Spirit of God in you, He that's in you is stronger than he that's in the world. And with the confidence you have because you've proven God in the past, you go and you grab him by the beard and you thrust in the sword.
Deliver a dear child of God, a blood bought child of God.
Well, brethren, the hour we live in, do whatever you can to help any believer not lose their confidence in the sword that we hold in our hands.
312 #312.
2 Peter 3:7-9
Reading
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
9/1.
Still in a land.
Mike mentioned before we pray, Manuel Adamus called me.
Just a few minutes ago and you said that Rafael and those that were with him had a very difficult time with the fuel situation in Cuba. They had to go to 10 gas stations before they were actually able to fill their vehicle up. There's like an acute fuel shortage even in Havana, which is very unusual for Havana to be scarce of fuel so.
We might just pray that the Lord will preserve and open the door to be able to travel a little bit. It may be that when Manuel and I go, we'll have to stay local to Pontelegre and Chambas.
Gracious Father, you know all about these difficult situations, and it's a wonderful thing to be able to come. And if it's your will that Robert Manuel go, we do pray to provide what is necessary. We look up to one who is overall. And so as we begin this meditation, time of meditation of Thy precious word and the subject that we've taken up, we do pray that Thy Spirit would have liberty.
To use me well, give us grace, Lord, to say what you give us, and then to leave room for others as well. We give thanks, Father, for the time together. In the name of the Lord Jesus, Amen. Amen. Amen.
00:05:20
For those that may not have been here.
Yesterday we had second Peter 3 before us in the in the reading.
How far do you think we got, Bob? I think about verse seven, wouldn't you say? Sounds about right, yes.
From Two Peter 3.
And.
Starting at verse 7. Two Peter 3. Starting at 7.
But the heavens and the earth, which are now by the same word, are kept in store, reserved unto fire, against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. But the love be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as 1000 years, and 1000 years as one day.
The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness, but is long-suffering to us. Word not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also, and the works that are therein shall be burned up.
Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness, looking for and hastening unto the coming of the day of God?
Where in the heavens, being on fire, shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat. Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwells righteousness.
Wherefore, beloved?
Seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent that ye be that ye may be found of him in peace, without spot and blameless.
An account that the long-suffering of our Lord is salvation, even as our beloved brother Paul also, according to the wisdom given unto him, has written unto you.
As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things in which are some things hard to be understood.
Which they that are unlearned and unstable, rest, as they do also other scriptures, unto their own destruction.
He therefore, beloved, seeing ye know these things before, beware lest ye also, being LED away with the air of the wicked, fall from your own steadfastness, but grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be glory both now and forever. Amen.
I know we did comment on verse seven a little bit yesterday, but it bears going over again. It was mentioned that the heavens and the earth which are now are kept in store, reserved under fire until the Day of Judgment.
And kept in store, I believe can be looked upon in two ways.
In the first place.
It's the absolute assurance that God.
Is going to carry out the judgment and as we know at the end of the millennial day.
He is going to consume the heavens and the earth that are now with fire.
But keeping them in store, I believe, has an encouragement for us.
Everyone is all worried today, or I shouldn't say everyone, but many people are worried today about the environment and what's going to happen to this planet if we don't do something about it.
00:10:06
Well, I hope this doesn't come out the wrong way, but I believe every Christian should be an environmentalist in the sense that this is the Lord's creation and we ought to treat it with respect. But at the same time, we ought not to be all concerned about whether the planet is going to survive until the time when the Lord decides to burn it up.
The Lord assured Noah when he came out of the ark that as long as the earth endure, there would be 4 things, summer and winter, day and night, sea time and harvest and.
What's the 4th 1:00?
Hear me listen. Harvest seek time in Harvard, summer and winter, day and night.
Better turn to it.
What happens when you get old? You can't rhyme things off as we cold and heat, thank you, cold and heat. And so God has promised that the earth is going to endure and it has to last at least another thousand years, even if the Lord came today.
Again, that doesn't mean that we should be careless and wanton in our treatment of the resources God has given us.
Nor does it mean that we should deliberately waste things that God has provided for us, but at the same time.
They're kept in store until that day, and there's going to be, as we know, marvelous blessing in the Millennium, blessing that this Earth has never seen since the Garden of Eden.
Marvelous blessing, but then when this Earth has run its course.
When God is finished with it, He's going to burn it up. And as we find later on here in this same chapter, there will be a new heavens and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness. So that at the same time is a comfort to our souls and an assurance, while also reminding us that the judgment is going to come just as the Lord has said. And this earth is kept in store in the heavens too.
In view of that day.
On verse six, it was the world that was that then was.
Which was before the flat, and it's interesting to think about the difference between the world before the flood and after.
It does seem that there was a Cape of water over the atmosphere. That probably.
Concentrated the oxygen content in the atmosphere. And that's why mankind lived so much longer before the flood. After the flood, you notice the dramatic reduction of human life. Noah got up to 950, but his children only got up to 600.
And that is 400 and then 200. I think Abraham's father was 205 and Abraham 175 and Isaac 180. But it just is dramatic, the reduction. And so that was a different world then. Another thing, before the flood, mankind did not eat meat.
They only ate of the herb of the ground.
Fruits of the Earth and so I'm sure that made a difference.
Another thing, the animals did not have the fear of man. They did be after the flood. It was after the flood that God put the fear of man into the animals. And so there was a different world back then, but it's interesting. It's the world that now is, and that's the world we live in today. And it's interesting that God gives us the perspective that he does and I think.
Say, Bill, about environmentalists and the effort to take measures to preserve the world are those who do not have this perspective at all that God is going to intervene very directly. And I'd like to read in Romans chapter eight of one of the things that's going to take place. It'll be a different change in the environment too, but it will not be a different earth.
00:15:21
It'll be the same earth. But notice what it says in Romans 8, verse 20. The creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who has subjected the same in hope, because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the ******* of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.
For we know that the whole creation grown up and travaileth in pain together.
Until now not only they, but ourselves also, which have the first fruits of the Spirit.
Even we ourselves grown within ourselves, awaiting the adoption.
To whet the redemption of our body, so that in the millennial day, the ******* of corruption.
Is going to be taken off of this creation.
I really think it's going to be incredibly different, and you think of the different things that God announced to Adam and Eve and to the serpent that were the result of sin in Genesis chapter 3. That's the ******* of corruption that was put on mankind.
And since man is the head of his creation, even though it wasn't their decision, the animals and the plants, to have to undergo the ******* of corruption, they are included in that, and that's going to be taken off of the creation. What a different world it will be.
I stand to be corrected, but I think that during the Millennium.
Satan is going to be bound and so people will not be deceived the way they are today.
And so if a person sins during the Millennium, he will know he's doing it in direct rebellion to the Lord Jesus.
And he's going to be cut off the next day. But those that enter in to that millennial day, I think there will be a great number that will pass the thousand year mark before the flood of his 969, as far as we know, the highest that they got up to. Do you think that is right, Bill, that you can see? Think it'll be over 1000 years. They will live. That's the way I looked at it. And those that survived the Millennium.
Maybe that's the wrong word to use, but those that live through the Millennium will.
Go into the eternal state that's mentioned here, won't they?
So it's an amazing thing. It's the ******* of corruption that's going to be lifted off of this creation. Incredible. And we have a lot of descriptions of that in the book of Isaiah. I just like to notice that because in this section we are in our chapter three of Second Peter, it talks about the day of the Lord. And I just like to say the day of the Lord.
Begins at the end of the Great Tribulation.
When the Lord Jesus comes in person, that man this world saw.
Last on that cross.
Hanging dead. That's the last glimpse this world had of the Lord Jesus. The next time they see Him, He will be coming in power and glory to reign supreme, to impose His rule and authority in this world. That is the day of the Lord. And the day of the Lord lasts for 1000 years like Bill was mentioning.
And at the end of the day of the Lord is when this present earth and the heavens and the earth that are now will be dissolved. And so it's going to be a glorious day. In fact, brethren, I honestly have to say when I look at Scripture, I don't think there will ever be a more glorious day than the day of the Lord when Jesus comes back in person.
00:20:05
To reign supreme.
And you know what? You and I are going to be accompanying him in that day we're going to have.
A eyewitness seat to see that day when the Lord Jesus takes the Kingdom and reigns supreme and puts down his enemies under his feet and reigns supreme. Oh, what a glorious day. People ask me if I've gone to the Holy Land. I say no, I haven't, but I got plans to go.
I think you do too, if you're a believer in the Lord Jesus.
Over today it's going to be we should live for that day. This is the day that we should live for. We look forward to the rapture. Yes, that's our hope. Lord Jesus come, but we also look forward to the day of his appearing when he will reign supreme.
We often look forward to the Lord's, the rapture, the Lord's coming for us. But if you look at Second Timothy 4 and verse 8, there's a crown, a reward for those who love the appearance. So it's a nice verse here in Second Timothy 4, verse 8, henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge shall give me at that day, and not to me only, but to all them also that love is appearing.
So we we can look forward to this day when the Lord Himself will be glorified before everyone.
In Titus chapter 2 also and verse 13 it says looking for that blessed hope, that's the rapture.
And.
The appearing of the glory of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ. Like I say, I don't think there will ever be in human history a day as glorious as that day. It's interesting to me to notice that even.
Enoch, who lived before the flood.
Prophesied of that day, you might say. How in the world did he know about it?
Enoch walked with God, and I think one day God said to him, you know, I want to tell you about something that's coming.
And it's when the Lord will come with 10 thousands of his Saints to execute judgment.
Oh, what a day that's going to be. That's the day we live for, Brethren, young people. We live for that day. We're not living for anything great down here in this present world. We're living for that day.
It's interesting that verse that was quoted in brother Tim just quoted in second Timothy, it says that we unto all them also that love his appearing, but then very just the next verse down a couple verses.
Her demons hath forsaken me, having loved this present world. So there's one or the other, and so the heart cannot be divided on this matter.
Short comment.
Noah did get a warning from God.
And he took that morning very serious and started to build Narc. And in this moment he did condemn the world.
But that does that mean the result was he knew there would come judgment?
And the people didn't believe.
That's so terrible.
And the result was judgment by water.
And now we should give us a rhetoric rhetoric question.
Why now? Judgment before the day of the Lord.
And this is not a judgment by water, it's a judgment by fire.
Well before the day of the Lord can appear and can start, the Creator has to prepare and to cleanse that place where the Millennium should be occur.
As it is in our days, in the same way like Noah's days if you tell people.
Judgment is coming. There is a hell if you don't repent.
00:25:06
You get lost or whatever. You will meet Jesus Christ as your church if you have and not as your Savior. People look to you. You are from a different star. They do not believe.
And it was on my heart yesterday, but my voice didn't help me out yesterday.
We heard a lot about the word, the word of the scripture that it is the truth and I want to give.
The young people.
A very simple help to understand that we cannot discuss about the truth because the word of God is something we can believe or we don't believe. The word of God is nothing for human intelligence to explain that it is true.
The Word of God is in itself the truth. You believe or you don't, and then the Scripture tells us here that there will come a day of judgment.
You should believe it will come.
That were the day of the Lord is a expression that occurs a lot in the Old Testament prophets. They knew about this day that we're talking about now and Isaiah talks a lot about it. It shall come to pass in that day and he talks, he gives us details as to what's going to happen and Joel is another.
Scripture that talks a lot about the day of the Lord. It's the day when God will vindicate publicly His own beloved Son.
Thank God he's going to be vindicated, fully vindicated, brother. He's not vindicated yet in this world, but he will be.
That should thrill our hearts, and it does thrill our hearts.
Might be good to just turn to Joel and read one of those quotations. It's Job, chapter one, verse 15, and he says, Joel, I'm sorry, chapter one, verse 15, Alas for the day, for the day of the Lord is at hand.
And as a destruction from the Almighty shall it come, So the Old Testament prophets, they knew about the appearing of the Lord Jesus.
As you mentioned, Enoch prophesied, he actually preached and there was Noah preached that there was judgment coming, but they did not know about the rapture. And so that was something that was revealed to the the Lord himself gave the seed plot of it in John's Gospel chapter 14. He said if I go away, I will come again and receive you unto myself. That's where I am. There ye may be also.
And so those Old Testament Saints didn't know how they would their bodies would arise and how they would be there with the Lord.
When he came with 10 thousands of his Saints, I think it says is it in Zechariah that he's going to come with all his Saints, not one missing.
Every single one of faith from Adam right to the time just before his appearing that will be raised Revelation chapter 20, the last installment, you might say, of the resurrection, the first resurrection, every single St. of God.
Will be there with the Lord Jesus and he will display his own with him, and those crowns of glory that have been bestowed upon his beloved Saints will all be in display and so will augment the glory of Christ himself at his appearing. There'll be a wonderful thing. I might just point out the in Matthew chapter 13, I think it's chapter 12 and 13, the appearing is spoken of.
And the rapture is spoken of in chapter 25. I'm sorry, chapter 24 and chapter 25. And it's good to get the distinction.
Verse 42, Chapter 24, Matthew Verse 42. Watch therefore, for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come. He's speaking to Jewish people, Jewish disciples here. But know this, that if the good men of the house had known and what watched the thief would come, he would have watched and would not have suffered his house to be broken up. Therefore be ye also ready, for in such an hour she think not the Son of Man cometh.
00:30:26
So the Lord Jesus, when he is identified as the Son of man is always in connection with his appearing and it's his title as the judge. Read it in Revelation chapter one. He's the Son of man and he will come as a thief in the night. And so then in chapter 25, you have the coming of the Lord spoken of him. So the Christian time that we live in from verse one down to verse 13, but you'll notice.
In verse 13, let's read from verse 11. Afterward came also the other virgin saying, Lord, Lord open to us. That's profession. But he answered and said, verily I say unto you, I know you not watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour. Now the last few words were in. The Son of Man cometh should not be there because it's in connection with the church. And so the translators, the King James translators, were immersed in the error of covenant theology and they didn't understand the distinction, so they put those words in there.
So isn't it nice? There's a distinction in the Word of God between the appearing of the Lord and then the rapture. And so He's going to come for us first. Those that are apart. That's really the 2nd installment of the resurrection. The Lord Jesus at First Corinthians chapter 15. He's the first fruit of the resurrection, the first resurrection. The resurrection has already begun, you might say, and you and I are a part of the 2nd installment.
And as I say, the third part, the last part of the first resurrection is spoken of the martyrs that go through the tribulation period. They'll be raised right just before the Lord comes. I don't wonderful every single St. of God from Adam to that very time, regardless of how they were brutalized by this world and treated mistreated like the blessed Savior, they'll come in glory with him.
Going to be a major invasion from outer space. You ever thought of how many the redeemed of the Lord are I? I don't have any way we could calculate it, but I think we could easily say they're going to be billions of the redeemed and not only of the redeemed brethren. The Angelico, Second Thessalonians, chapter one says accompanied by his mighty angels. How many angels are there? We have no clue.
But they're going to accompany us on that major event. Just think of the poor people down here in this world that are arrayed against the Lord Jesus. They don't have a chance. The Lord with this sword of his mouth is going to level one army after another after another, and he's going to reign supreme. And we're going to be eyewitnesses of it. Oh, brother, that's the day of glory. That's what's ahead. I have a question.
We know that in Revelation we see this large group under the throne that are killed for their faith in the tribulation.
There's a statistic that I recently researched that says we're supposed to have 8 billion people on the planet. Now 2.3 billion claim to be Christians.
Those who have researched this say that they believe out of that 2.3 billion, there's only about 600 million that are real. If that's true, that means almost 7 1/2 billion people are on their way to a lost eternity. It seems like when we look at what happens in the tribulation, that in spite of the wrath of God and the wrath of Satan and the wrath of man being on this earth and all the horrible things we read about, that God and grace takes a huge company out of that.
Perhaps billions that get saved that do not accept the mark of the beast.
And so that company you're talking about might be rather large. It would seem that that that that would honor the Lord that he should at that moment gather so many in and respond to the the preaching of the Kingdom that goes on during that time. Does that sound right? That's what we have in Revelation 7. Just look at it because at the beginning of the Revelation 7, you have the 144,000, which I take to be.
00:35:10
A symbolic number.
But notice after it talks about them and notice verse nine. And I think this is what you're referring to, Sam. After this I beheld and lo, a great multitude which no man could number, of all nations and kindreds and peoples and tongues, stood before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes and palms in their hands, and cried with a loud voice, saying salvation to our God, which sitteth upon the throne.
To the Lamb. So they're the ones that heard the gospel of the Kingdom during the great tribulation and God's going to bring in a great number there doesn't say how many. It says that no man could number them. Well, that's in verse 14 then.
More of those people, right? Yes, man versus I'm talking about verse nine, a great multitude. It says we might just notice that there's two companies that are spoken of in Chapter 7. The first company as you mentioned, the 144th 1000. It's a symbolic.
Number a symbolic figure of those of the children of Israel. So there will be.
Those that are from every tribe of the nation of Israel. The spirit of God is just giving us this is a parenthetical chapter in Revelation. So it looks like chapter 6. The whole of the the continent, the whole of the world is just going to be destroyed that there won't be a survivor. But God says no, no in his sovereignty and his love. He says I'm going to preserve for myself some from every tribe of Israel.
And so he speaks that first company, these first few verses from verse one down to verse eight, and then.
The second company Speaking of Gentiles, verse nine, a great multitude.
Of all nations and kindreds and people and tongues. So he's Speaking of the Gentiles there. So in that, the grace of God, the love of our God.
That there are some from every single nation and family upon the face of the earth that are going to be spared and they will go through, perhaps.
The tribulation period and there will be those of faith from every nation. I would just say this to the in connection with the the tribulation period that it is a time of judgment, but there will be.
Significant blessing at the end of it.
And so as our brother from Germany mentioned that he's going to cleanse the earth with judgment and he'll cleanse it thoroughly, and then as the Millennium is ushered in, every knee shall bow. But there are those that are going to yield a feigned obedience. And I think, Brother Bob, you mentioned it's 101St Psalm. There are other verses too that tell us of this, but.
In the 101St Psalm he says that he's going to cleanse the earth every morning. I'm going to read it as as it is in the Darby translation 101St Psalm, verse 8.
Every morning will I destroy all the wicked of the land, that I may cut off all wicked doers from the city of the Lord. And so he's going to rule with a rod of iron.
But we need to be very clear. I believe there are going to be more in heaven.
Than in a lost eternity, it says in Luke's Gospel chapter 12, compel them to come in that my house may be full, it will be full. But he says in the book of Proverbs, he says hell and destruction are never full. And so God is going to have his way.
When the rapture happens, every single child of God will be removed. Who preaches to these people?
Every believer that has received the Lord Jesus as Savior will be taken out of this scene, and those children below the age of responsibility will go as well, even if they only have one saved parent. But those Jews that have never heard of the Lord Jesus, those godly Jews, the godly remnant, they will preach the gospel of the Kingdom. So the gospel of the grace of God is just about to cease. We are hearing the last gospel message.
00:40:02
Of the day of grace and that gospel of the free forgiveness of sins, the grace of God, the love of God to save souls and make them a part of the church. It's almost up. And then the gospel of the Kingdom will go forth, and it will go forth from Jerusalem and out from Jerusalem to the whole earth.
Brother Robert, you were speaking about the blessing coming to the Gentiles, going back a little bit about the Apostle Paul reaching the continent of Europe. And some years ago, I had the privilege of standing on a hillside overlooking the seaside, overlooking a town called Neapolis in Greece. And it was the first spot that the Apostle Paul set foot on.
When he reached Europe.
And it really overcame me when I saw that location, I said to myself, if the apostle Paul had not stepped foot on here, I would probably not be blessed today. And it really made quite an impression on me. So we see the grace of God going forth not only at that time, but continued into the future as we've read.
And so from a practical point of view, if we go back to our chapter verse eight, we find the Lord bringing before us what our brother Mark brought before us last evening, man's perspective and God's perspective. And I believe here in Peter, he is seeking by the power of the Spirit of God to bring us into God's perspective.
Man's perspective is bounded by time, and we all are. We can't think beyond that. We can't, with our finite minds, wrap our minds around eternity as we are here on this earth now. We can't think in terms. We know what the word means, we understand the concept, but that they think in terms of eternity. We're bounded by time, but we were made for eternity, weren't we?
And so.
Here we are reminded in verse eight that one day is with the Lord.
As 1000 years and 1000 years as one day, and how good it is to get from man's perspective into seeing things from God's side. It's very necessary and we could go on and on about that.
We know Paul could talk about it in Second Thessalonians where he well, we might turn to it just for a moment. I've really enjoyed the Scripture.
Now read it is Second Thessalonians 3 and verse five and I'll read it as it is in the Darby translation. And the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God, and what into the patience of the Christ.
That's looking at it from God's side, from the side of Christ. He's far more anxious to have you and me with him than you and I are to be with him, seeing things from God's side. So when God brings in this perspective of 1000 years as one day.
I remember at the Bhutan conference several years ago, way over in northern India, some of the young people put some questions out publicly and said, we've been hearing all along about the Lord's coming and we keep hearing that it's very soon, but he never comes. What's what's all this about?
We have to get it from God's perspective, don't we? I don't want to go on about it, but I had happened to fall to me to answer it. I said how many here have been saved within the last 10 years? 50% of the hands went up. How many people here have been saved in the last 20 years? 75% of their hands went up. I said, you know, I was waiting for the Lord to come long before 20 years ago, but aren't you glad He waited for you?
That settled it. And so it is. God is patient.
And as Brother Robert is brought out, his house will be filled, and the iniquity of this world has to be full. So God lives and moves in eternity. And while we can't in that sense.
00:45:08
Wrap our minds around it yet we can understand that God is going to accomplish all his purposes and if we're getting a bit impatient, we have to remember that God looks at things from his side in 1000 years is as one day.
And as it said earlier in the chapter, God is not willing that any should perish, that all should come to repentance.
So that's in verse nine, I guess it's not earlier in the chapter, but verse nine. That's why he's waiting His name, that's his desire that all should come to repentance.
We might just make a comment on the two days in Scripture. The Jews were not clear. They didn't know it's Christian revelation that the church period would take place. They didn't know about the church period. They knew that the from the prophetic scriptures. They didn't like to read them, but they knew that Christ the Messiah would suffer. They they could read of the sufferings of Christ, but they love to read of the glories that should follow. But they didn't know that the nation would be set aside. They had a sense that it would be set aside if they read.
Daniel Chapter 9 and but let's just look at Hosea chapter 6 and I think it's verse two. Yes, verse two. He says after two days he will revive us. In the third day He will raise us up and we shall live in his sight. Then shall we know if we follow on to know the Lord. So they were familiar with those two days of Scripture in a sense, the third day.
They didn't understand this, but you and I do. And it's Moses that really spoke of the one day being 1000 years and 1000 years is one day. I think it's in the 90th Psalm. He, he speaks of it and.
He has a prayer of Moses, the 90th Psalm, a prayer of Moses the man of God. And so in verse 10, the days of our years are three score and 10 years.
I'm sorry, that's not what I was looking for.
Verse four OK yes, 1000 years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is passed and as a watch in the night. And so there are different passages of scripture in the New Testament that give us the two days of Scripture. He says in Luke chapter 10, the Good Samaritan, he says he took out 2 Pence and gave them to the innkeeper.
And said take care of him. So we're being taken care of in the presence of the Lord in the assembly during the time of the Lord's absence and he will come again. So the third day really is the Millennium that in connection with the the Jews.
Might just clarify that comment. It's in John's Gospel chapter 2 That the marriage and Kingdom of Galilee was on the third day. And so there's the Lord Jesus was the Spirit of God was Speaking of that third day. So what Peter was saying about one day being 1000 years and 1000 years being one day was something that had been revealed even to Moses. And so they knew that there would be an interval of time and that interval of time is almost over.
The Lord has never spoken of his coming for his church or His bride in the character of a thief in the night. That is all in connection with the judgment that is going to be poured out upon that the unsaved. So the day of the Lord extending from tribulation right through to the end of the Millennium.
Is all described as the day of the Lord.
But.
The Lords in connection with the Lord's appearing, certainly not with his rapture. So this the term Son of Man is is always connected with the Lord's appearing in revelation and judgment. So this year must be at the end of the.
00:50:06
The the end of the millennial period, because it speaks of fiery judgment here, when Satan is released from his prison and that he goes about to deceive all the nations of the earth. There's a great conflagration there at the end of the Millennium, just prior to the commencement of the eternal state. Is that right?
Yes, that term, the day of the Lord shall come, as a thief in the night always refers to his coming in judgment. I sometimes say to the Latin brethren, I say, Do you want a thief to come to your house and say no?
You wait for thee, no. Now a couple other questions. Do you want the Lord to come? Yes. Do you wait for him? Yes. And I think that clarifies that when we talk as is coming as a thief in the night, it's not for believers, it's for unbelievers that don't wait for him, that don't want him to come. It's very clear. Look at First Thessalonians chapter 5 where we have that expression as well.
And we know that in chapter four we have the revelation that Paul was given.
About the Rapture, the most clear exposition of what's going to take place at the Rapture. There are other scriptures, of course, but.
Verse 15 to verse 18 in chapter 4 are a parenthesis and then he says in verse one of chapter 5, but of the times and the seasons, because times and seasons are not in.
Effect when you're talking about the Rapture, it has no time frame that we can give when it's going to take place.
When you're talking about times and seasons, you're talking about when the Lord Jesus is going to come back to establish his Kingdom that, yes, is connected with times and seasons. And so he says yourselves, know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. But now notice in verse four, he makes it very clear, ye brethren are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief. So.
He's not coming for us as a thief, brethren, He's coming for us as our heavenly Bridegroom. Oh, what a wonderful day.
Your comments about the.
About our God, the first being as to is nature. God is far beyond our comprehension but it says here one day is with the Lord as 1000 years. So for us to understand that we would have to try and conceive having 365,000 days packed into this one day that we're experiencing now and our God is capable of that and more than that.
In terms of what is understanding this power is.
And then the other side of that is the exact opposite that.
1000 years as as one day, it's all expanded out. He has that complete extremely long time frame in which he can look at all the details as if he has 1000 years to look at them inside any one of those time periods. And it kind of boggles your mind to consider a being that has the ability to do that kind of thing and comprehend that kind of thing.
Is to me really points out how much greater our God is.
Than even the greatest mind that we have. And then the second thing speaks to his character in verse 9.
And that is that he's not willing, He's not choosing, that any should perish. And that's where his patients come from, that he has that heart of love and that desire for blessing. And yet at the same time, in the midst of the fact that he is a holy God and will bring judgment, you have that character of his coming out, that desire to have blessing and to have as many as possible.
Come into blessing. It's not his desire that any should perish.
00:55:05
They perish.
It's their responsibility, not God.
It's nice to see this little expression in the Scriptures. Verse four, it says that they say, where is the promise of His coming? There's a promise made, God's going to keep His promise. And then verse 9, the Lord is not slack concerning His promise. He has made a promise, He's going to keep His promise. And then a little further on in verse 13, nevertheless, we according to His promise, look for new heavens, new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.
And so it's absolutely certain to take place.
What a marvelous thing we can trust. The living Word of God. The blessed Savior spoke these things too, and so by inspiration. What a comfort these words must have been to those dear Saints of God who had seen Jerusalem. I guess it hadn't been destroyed yet, but they were going to see it destroyed. But this epistle would be a comfort to them as they went through and saw the destruction of that whole religious system.
They had the promise of God.
So in verse 10 it says the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night. And then notice it says in the witch, the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat.
And maybe you think that the Lord is going to come and that's what's going to happen at the beginning.
Of the day of the Lord. But what we have in Revelation shows it's what happens at the end, but it's still in that same day, in the witch in that same day. But at the end of that day is when the elements shall melt with fervent heat. The earth also in the works that are there in shall be burned up.
Still remember a brother that went to I forget what city it was and they were showing them around at the.
Wonderful skyscrapers in the buildings that were there and they asked them after they showed them it, a lot of it, he said, what do you think brother? And he says, I see some words written across it, reserved under fire. And so, brethren, there are interesting things to look at these skyscrapers that they build. Incredible, the wisdom that God has given to mankind. But it's all going to come to its end.
And this takes place, and let me show you, in the Book of Revelation in chapter 20.
When this happens, chapter 20 of the Book of Revelation and verse 11.
And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heavens fled away, and there was found no place for them. This is the time that it's spoken of. Here they shall melt with proven. I don't know, some may remember.
Our late brother Jimmy Smith from California, he was involved a lot in the Latin work and so I had a lot to do with him. He was an engineer.
By profession. But he says verse 10 describes an atomic explosion. You remember that bill? No, I don't. But I didn't know him as well as you did. OK.
The word really.
Burned up really means to be. I believe it's Holocaust and it's.
Strong's #2618 or something like that. And it means to utterly consume. So what happened at the what we read in Genesis chapter one is the reconstruction of the earth or a renovation. You might save the earth and but this is no renovation. This is the place where man and his great wickedness.
01:00:00
Crucified the Son of God.
And has done everything possible.
To develop the world system, to live in comfort and to live in a state.
Of pleasure in the state of alienation from God.
And he's tried to make himself as comfortable as possible while he's alienated from God and all of his works, every single one will be destroyed, burned up utterly so.
Your pardon, a personal reference that I was working on my house and some of you know, I got an old wooden house, Janet and I and now it requires a lot of work and I had my level out my square and I was working way on something. My son came in and he said, Dad, what are you doing?
As well, I'm trying to make this just doing a real good job, making sure the next generation gets a nice house. If somebody ever has death, He says nobody wants this old house. He said what's going to happen is they're going to take an excavator and just smash the thing up and then, you know, take a couple of bucket loads, put it in a couple of dumpsters, haul it away and then burn the rest. He says don't waste your time. Nobody wants an 80 year old house and so.
You know, we need to have that perspective, brethren. That's all going to burn. It'll burn real well. It'll be utterly consumed. I might just say, too, that Jonathan, the fire that he had in a shop, the shop burned and.
I never heard a noise like this. I've been to Niagara Falls and you hear the roar of Niagara Falls. It was similar to being right next to the fall, the noise of a fire.
Is astonishing. And the heat, brother Dave Hurlbut was taking a shovel and shoveling snow against the wall of the next building that was over. I don't know, might be 60 or 70 feet away. The heat was intense. And so God knows how to destroy and to he's going to take this platform, this planet Earth where his son was so dishonored and he's going to destroy. He's going to be finished with it. So he's going to translate those that are of faith.
Translate them to the new heavens.
And a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness, it says in verse 13.
I wonder if it's a new heavens because man's depiled the heavens as well. If you go out tonight and it's a clear night, you're going to look up and you're going to see constellations and planets that are named after man's gods as well as he's flung out his technology. Think one's actually left. The solar system is not very far enough. Full scope of things, but man's defiled to heavens too.
You're not going to look up in the new heavens and new earth and see anything that was named after any God that man ever worshipped will not be.
Yeah, I believe that's important, Brother Steve, and thank you for that remark, because man has crucified the Son of God in this world, but he is also polluted both it and the universe with sin, as he and God allowed it, but he created this whole world and the whole.
Universe essentially in order to display and to honor. Well, let me rephrase that. In order to honor and glorify his beloved Son. And so when God created this world and created time, he did it so that his Son could be honored and glorified. And he will be as Bob is brought out.
God is going to vindicate His beloved Son.
In the very place where he was crucified and rejected. And as I thought the words were very good. You use Bob vindicated. There's going to be the public vindication of God's. You might say honor and glory to his beloved Son during the millennial day.
But then what's the other half of the story?
The eternal state spoken of in verse 13.
And also in verse 12 is going to be for the everlasting satisfaction.
Of God's heart the vindication takes 1000 years.
That'll be that'll be enough to vindicate God's beloved Son publicly. But the eternal state will be the satisfaction of God's heart in a scene where every possible, I shouldn't say possible, every vestige of sin will be forever removed, never to raise its head again.
01:05:17
I think that's why you could say it's not only the Day of God, but perhaps very literally translated the day according to God. In other words, it's a day in which everything is perfectly according to God and all He is in his holy nature.
Light and all, He is in his love.
Really. Is the the?
Verse that we often quote behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world, the.
Full bearing and fulfillment of that verse.
Is the destruction of every.
Source of evil in all the corruption that sin has brought into this world, the animal creation groans together with us because of man's sin. But I was thinking it's remarkable that this judgment referred to takes the plague takes place at the end of the millennial period.
Men and women have had 1000 years of.
Unexamined prosperity and blessing.
And.
Fruitfulness in the natural world and blessing.
Materially as never before, and yet at the end, the last Test of God, they follow the enemy, Satan.
They're not to regenerate, they're not saved people, but they've enjoyed the blessings of of the Millennium as long as they were in submission to the Lord Jesus and the lineal descendant of David who is ruling over the earth at that time. As long as they are subservient and obedient, they enjoy those blessings of the Millennium, even though they may not be truly believers.
But at the end, when Satan is released from his from the abyss, he gathers a large number together to follow him and to attack the holy city of Jerusalem. It's, it's really amazing, incredible to think that.
Man's man's heart is still in alienation against God and cannot be changed. Just going to say before I was just looking back into Genesis Chapter 9 when he thought set that rainbow in the sky.
Was a token that God would no longer destroy the world by a flood, but today.
That same rainbow that was put into the sky by the Lord has been perverted, has it not, and is a symbol of something that is very displeasing to the Lord? So it doesn't take very long for something that God has established to be changed and perverted. Here we had a provision of God's grace. He would no longer destroy the world by a flood, but now that same symbol.
To me, when I see a rainbow, I go back to Genesis Chapter 9, but it's taken on an entirely different perspective today. May we clearly see what God has intended in these symbols. We might just sorry what you were saying, Brother John, about the rebellion that takes place at the end of the Millennium.
Shows that.
The problem is not in government, the problem is in the human heart, because 1000 years.
Of perfect government, the Lord Jesus reigning in righteousness.
And man rises up in rebellion. So it shows the problem is the human heart.
Could just touch on the issue that is so common today. I believe it's called critical race theory.
01:10:03
And the assumption is that it's our environment, it's our culture, it's our society that is the cause for the corruption of men. And that thousand years is the final proof that, as you just said, the problem is the hardest deceitful above all things, desperately wicked. The will is corrupt and against God. And after that point in time, the great White Throne judgment is perfectly appropriate.
Man has no excuse.
Was just going to say in verse 11 we have the conclusion of what Peter is Speaking of, that there should be the coming of the Lord. The appearing of the Lord should have a practical effect upon our lives. It's not just that he's telling us about these facts and that we Get the facts straight, but that they should have a practical display in our testimony in our personal lives. And so he says, seeing that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be?
In all holy conversation and godliness, our manner of life and godliness should express to one another, and should be a testimony that we are waiting for the glorious appearing of the Son of God to set this place straight, and to assume His rights, and to, as you say, be vindicated, glorified. And so God will bestow upon His beloved Son every honor and every dignity that is possible to bestow upon him.
In this world.
Want to give 3 scriptures.
That I find go together.
And like to say to young people, jot these down because I find it very helpful. The first one is Romans chapter 5 and verse 21, and this is in connection with today.
Where we are today in the dispensation of grace. Notice how it puts it in the last verse of Romans chapter five, that is.
As sin hath reigned unto death, this part, Even so my grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.
So today grace reigns through righteousness because God has been satisfied, fully vindicated in the work of the Lord Jesus as to His righteousness.
Grace reigns through righteousness. Second verse I'd like to give you, as in Isaiah 32, and this is about the Millennium.
Verse one.
Behold, a king shall reign in righteousness, and Princess rule in judgment. So the Millennium, it will not be a day of grace, it will be a day when righteousness reigns. And then back to our chapter talking about eternity, it says in verse.
13 Nevertheless, we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and the new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. Those 3 verses help to understand those 3 periods. So just give you that to meditate on. Brother Bob, you earlier contrasted that.
The the world that then was.
And the world that now is. But there's a comparison with the world that then was.
To the new heavens and new earth, there was number government in the world. That then was because there was nothing. There was nothing instituted by God to restrain man, but there's no government in the new heavens and new earth because there's nothing for righteousness to put down. There's no nation. There were no nations in the world before the flood. There are no nations. And the new heavens and new earth, they were all of one language.
That's all going to be one in that day and I think it could go on. There's other comparison as well. I would like to.
01:15:03
Pick that up next reading maybe in the Lord. Well, the eternal day. I find that so fascinating to think about. Scripture speaks very little of that day, but it does say things about it, and perhaps we can meditate on that.
Could we stand?
What was that again #40 in the appendix?
Hail to the Lord's anointing.
And grace, and where you'll find my Lord, we're only here shall come.
He comes to bring a crush on.
Decepticons.
To take away the scratch.
And begin.
To love every now and the sound can't stand.
God and Father, we thank Thee for this blessed hope that we have.
Of soon entering into all the glory that we have.
Been reminded of in these scriptures. When I thy consort, thy bride, we shall share the inheritance with thee over this whole created scene.
The establishment of thy glory, where thou wilt have thy rights.
And well, where every tongue will be united in Thy praise. But here and now, our God, we do seek grace and strength for the pathway which may lie a little while before us. How often we become occupied with these material passing things.
01:20:21
Help us to live in view of eternity.
The time when?
Blessed Savior, we shall reign with thee.
And enjoy thy company and fullness.
And the administration of this scene.
Which will be so blessed through.
By the establishment of thy Kingdom, which we look forward to, but now, Lord, as the in the scene of thy rejection.
This dispensation of grace we seek guidance and help and energy to hold forth the word of life with our long-suffering, and not willing that any should perish, beseeching men and women to be reconciled unto Thee. So we do pray that we may hold the things of this world lightly and live in view of the glory that is before us. And as stewards of all that Thou hast given to us, so we pray thy blessing on the remainder of the meetings this day.
In the glorious gospel going forth.
Asking it with Thanksgiving for this privilege, above all for the gift of Thy Son, Thy Blessed One, who bore the penalty of our sin and guilt, went down into those deep waters of judgment and shed His precious blood to give us a flawless title to eternal glory. So we pray for all our brethren in death. Give Thee thanks for this privilege of being together.
In the worthy and precious name of our Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior.
Amen. Amen.
What the Bridegroom Sees in Us
Address—Stephen Rule
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
Perhaps a brother could start Number 83. Begin the meeting this afternoon, Number 83.
Dear Lord Jesus, we just do ask.
That the effect of the next hour would be to make each of our hearts drawn out to thyself.
That we would look through the eyes.
See from thy perspective and think forever.
And to the riches of that love we've just sung about. We do ask it, Lord Jesus.
In thy name, Amen.
Turn with me to a verse that was read in the.
Reading meeting, the last meeting we just had and 2nd Thessalonians chapter 3.
And verse five gives the.
Could say burden.
It's more like a pillow that's on my heart this afternoon.
And so let's read it together, Second Thessalonians chapter 3 and verse 5.
And the Lord direct your hearts, and to the love of God.
I was going to read the second part of the verse, but it was able to explain in the last meeting, so you've already had a chance to enjoy it. I'll stop with that first part because it's the primary pillow on my heart. The Lord direct your hearts into the love of God. That's comforting because I don't think any of us here have the power to properly express.
What that love is, the Lord direct your hearts into it. It's been my prayer for quite some time.
My prayer for a number of years for certain ones there was a.
Intractable situation. An impossible situation. A situation with all kinds of things.
Going on, on the surface and in meditating on it this verse.
Was what was impressed on my heart. There were all kinds of things on the surface. There were all kinds of things that needed correction, that were done wrong, et cetera.
But what was missing for this individual was this.
Since deeply in the heart that God.
Was love toward them. And you know, that's the need of everyone of our hearts here.
The Apostle Paul had and did love these Thessalonians Saints. He spent some time with them, just a few weeks perhaps, according to Acts.
And then he'd gone away. There had been tribulation troubles come in. He'd written to them here in this second epistle. There was some wrong teaching that had come in and needed to get corrected so that our hope could be restored. And so he leads them back and he draws them out, and he restores that hope. And at the end of the second chapter, he's restored their hope.
But it's almost like he the the ship that they were on was was drifting.
And it had left the dock and it was going, and he swam out and he got it and he brought it back.
That wasn't enough. He wanted it anchored so they'd stay there in the safe harbor. So what does he do? He says the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God. We all need it. And so he anchors. We sang it last night. So those that were here last night and him saying we sang anchored firm and deep.
And the Savior's love. So I want to give one more by way of introduction.
Image perhaps the stick in your mind. I grew up in Columbus, OH until I was nine. Then we moved to the Addison, IL area. But my grandparents lived just a couple miles from us and they had a ravine out in back of their house and it was beautiful tree ravine, nice and wide, no trash back in that era is just was just lovely and so sometimes when we went over to grandpa and grandma's we could go out in the back and.
00:05:25
This There was a stream that ran through that ravine and it was always flowing.
At least when we went down there and the thing made a tight bend, the bottom of the Cliff, my grandparents property ended in a kind of a Cliff down to this ravine. There's this big Cliff, the stream took a turn, so there's a nice great big pool there and it was a rocky shale.
Rock bed for that stream. So there are all kinds of these wonderful flat rocks and I have no clue how many I picked up and slung at that stream trying to get it to skip along.
In the stream had an awful lot of fun as a little child doing that, but as those rocks skipped along and pick up a little bit of water and then they're airborne and they lose energy and gradually they sink down.
Into that water. And sometimes our experience of the love of God is like that.
They pick up a little bit at a conference like this, have a nice little reading. Somebody gives you a little uplift and bounces up a little bit, and then the water sprinkles off. It dries out, and then it hits the water again. But the when the natural energy that's behind that dies out, the rock sinks into that water and it stays there. My desire for every one of our hearts this afternoon. We're just going to spend some time. The Lord has to direct your heart into it, just as He has to direct mine into it. But that love.
That's going to you're going to have to apply it. I don't have any exhortation on my heart this afternoon. I just want to present.
His heart. You can apply it in your marriage, you can apply it to your children, you can apply it in all kinds of ways.
There's something more fundamental than that, and that's his heart. Just simply his heart and his person. And when we know it and we sink into it, we have what we need.
Let me turn to I'm going to turn not spending the majority of our time. We'll spend in one chapter of Song of Solomon. I'm going to turn here to Ephesians chapter one.
To make a point.
And in one sense, I apologize for what I'm about to do. I'm going to tear the heart out of this portion.
I'm going to do it in a way that leaves you remembering it, and that's the purpose behind it. I don't think that you're going to walk away remembering the wrong thing. Sometimes when something's read wrong, that's what you remember. I don't believe that will be the effect of what we're about to do. I'm going to read Ephesians chapter one, verses 3 to 14, and I'm going to leave out 13 phrases.
They're all themed in the same way and you'll catch the theme quickly, but.
Feel this passage without this phrase.
Ephesians, chapter one.
Verse 3.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who have blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places.
According as He has chosen us before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame and love having predestinated us, and the adoption of children by Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace wherein He hath made us accepted, we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace, wherein He has abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence, having made known unto us.
The mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He hath purposed, that in the dispensation of the fullness of times you might gather together in one all things both which are in heaven and which are in earth. Also. We have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of Him who worketh all things, after the counsel of His own will, that we should be to the praise of His glory, Who first trusted.
He also trusted after that he heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation.
Also after that she believed you were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise which is the earnest of our inheritance.
To the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of His glory.
I ripped.
One of the most wonderful things out of that passage.
00:10:01
And if you'd never heard it before, you might have nodded your head and said, well.
Then you weren't following along in the Bible. You might have nodded your head and said that sounds pretty, but what did I tear out of it?
13 expressions, 11 of them all have the word in. I'm going to use it in a way to help us remember. But I tore out the in Christ, in him, before him, to himself, in the beloved, in whom? In himself, in Christ, even in him in whom? In Christ, in whom? In whom?
We can't have the blessings without the blesser.
And they're anchored there. I don't know. I forgot to ask her. I didn't forget. I just didn't get the opportunity. I assume most of the homes around here are wood frame homes. Hey, ho, homes. Most of your family dwellings, aren't they wood frame? You don't do concrete and Adobe around here, right? I thought about reading this passage without one other element. It would have been like what I did was I took the house and I lifted it off its foundation and I set it on the side. And it still might have looked OK if you hadn't.
Seen this passage before, but imagine now we tried to go back and reread this passage and pull out of it every, every single he, his, and him. There's fifteen of them. If you took that out, that would be like taking the wood frame out of the house and then you couldn't even read the passage.
This passage is God expressing who he is. Period. And you and I come into it. There's you, you and you, and so on in here. There's the ye and the you throughout the passage. There's another a dozen or so he his and hims at the end and the apostles prayer. But the heart of it is God expressing who he is.
And he starts with individuals, he begins this chapter and he deals all the way down. You don't get the there's this Saints mentioned as a collective group. When the inheritance comes in, the church isn't mentioned till the next to last verse.
It's made-up of individuals and individuals who have the immense privilege of being taken out of in Adam and put in Christ in him, and we can't have his blessings like the Amazon drone delivery. Drop it on your doorstep and get a little image on your phone that it's there.
Well, maybe it's not drone delivery, whatever kind of delivery you want, that would be no person involved.
But God doesn't deliver his blessings to us and then leave and say enjoy them.
They're in him.
This is love and it can't be understood without that. I've sometimes said and it's and it's an exaggeration and meditating on it in the last few days, I realized it's an oversimplification. But I'm going to give it to you as an oversimplification because it captures the thought. There's a bunch more in him in Christ in the next couple chapters of this book, the 1St 3 chapters of this book of Ephesians.
You'll see more of them. We've read the biggest concentration of them in the foundation here at the beginning.
But there's more in those first three chapters. In the last three chapters, the expressions vary a little bit.
But there's a bunch of As, and I'm going to read a few of them in Ephesians chapter 5. There are several in Ephesians 4. There's another one in Ephesians 6. But to get the flavor of it, in the second-half of the epistle, there are some ***** just a few of them. Ephesians chapter 5 and verse two and walk in love.
As Christ.
A little further down.
Just to get several to get the flavor, uh, verse 22. Why submit yourselves unto your own husbands as unto the Lord?
The little further down verse 25 Husbands love your wives even as Christ. And there's more later on this epistle to the Ephesians could be oversimplified into the north and the as.
There's other similar expressions in the second-half.
This is what I want my heart to always remember. I want to share it with you.
You can't have the as if you haven't spent time at the inn and if there's no as in your life.
The solution to it is to go back to the inn and spend time there.
There's 13 Inns to choose from. It's a full resort, you can go to anyone of them and spend time there.
But if you spend time at the end, there's no choice but to have the As, and if you're not in the in and you're acting like you can get the *** it's not going to work. I don't know who told the story, but I read it recently in the last few weeks. There was, I think it's from the 1800s in England. The author I read it in wasn't, but I think he was looking back and quoting someone else. There was some factory in London.
00:15:26
And someone was walking down the street with a local.
As they walked down the street with the local, a whole bunch of people came pouring out of that factory and crossed the street to buy their lunch and the guest to London commented. They said wow, you know, in the middle of this dirty industrial part of town, it really smells beautiful.
And their guide, their local guide said that's a perfume factory. Those people have spent their time inside that perfume factor. They're going out to lunch. They can't help but smell beautiful.
If we have spent time in the end, we can't help but smell beautiful in the ***.
Let's turn to where we'll spend a little longer.
And Song of Solomon chapter 4.
My burden is not to.
Take this and apply it to your life. My burden is to present.
The heart of a person.
The heart of the Lord we are going to look in Song of Solomon chapter 4.
Before I do, just want to set a little context here.
Before I was married, I had quite a bit of time to get to know my wife. We lived in the same city, we knew each other. As I was finishing my college education, felt I needed to do so to be able to support a family. So we had two and a half hour, 2 1/2 hours, no about that each day. We had about 2 1/2 years.
To get to know one another and as we got to know one another.
I was fascinated with all of it. In fact, my sisters and others put together a song for the.
Rehearsal dinner and they set it to popular Christmas music and the line repeated at the end of it was and a long talk. You can sing it. I'm not going to and a long talk in the driveway. I had a lot to know get to know about my wife and a lot of what I wanted to get to know was what her life had been like up to that point.
And in fact, I have a T-shirt I use it for.
Uh, pajama shirt and it has a picture of a 12 year old girl on it. And I, I liked that picture. I never knew that person as a 12 year old. I know them a whole lot better. Now. What we're about to look into is something akin to that. We're going to look at the picture of the Messiah and his Jewish bride, but it's the same person.
I heard stories from those times when I was getting to know my wife.
About how she liked the animal behavior class at school and how to sit and watch the ducks.
And we spent time at the end of our street, just a few blocks down, watching together, enjoying together flights of ducks come in and land on the water. That's the same person. That's the point. So as what we pick up here is going to be not directly written to you and me, but it's the same person with that same heart. A second piece of context here as we take up the some detail in Song of Solomon Chapter 4, that second piece.
As this bridegroom speaks to his bride, he tells her in this book.
Eight times.
You're fair 8 times, he repeats. You're fair. Four of them are in this chapter we're going to go through and he gets to Chapter 7 and in Chapter 7 is the last of Nate one in Chapter 7, verse six. And he says, and I'll read it just as part of setting the context.
Chapter 7. Verse 6.
Let us go up. I'm sorry I turned so far over. I'm in Isaiah, Song of Solomon, Chapter 7 and verse 6. This is the 8th. How fair and how pleasant art thou, O love for delights? I think it's just, it's just precious that God wants to express himself. He wants so much that his heart be known. They'll repeat it over and over and over and over again.
00:20:15
As probably husbands here in this room have told your wife that she's beautiful.
And she hasn't, really.
Agreed with you.
So you quit because she didn't agree with you?
I doubt it. I doubt it. You're probably There's a couple seated here that are.
Past 70, they're in there, OK, one of those past 70 and the other ones in the decade beyond that and they've been in our home and there's probably this, OK, not probably the discussions still going on. He's still telling her that she's beautiful and she's still not convinced. So he's still telling her. And that's how it is with us. When God says this is my heart for you, we have a hard time believing it. We think I need.
More as so that I can be more loved. We can't be more as to be more loved. We're loved and that's why. And we'll see it at the end. That's why there's the as because he set his heart upon us. And you know, it says here, and I'll read it again, how fair, how pleasant art thou, O love for delights. And then she says.
Verse 10. I am my beloveds, and his desire is toward me.
You've probably enjoyed that trilogy of verses, so I'm not going to go through it where this is the culmination of it. She gets up to it and she says, Oh yes, he loves me and God wants us to live there. Oh yes, he loves me. Just live there. And we can't help but be like him. So let's look at this 4th chapter. It's part of how he builds that.
Picture.
Of what his heart is toward his bride. Again, it's Jehovah with primarily Judah.
What we'll look at is the bridegroom with the bride, and you'll have to make your own applications.
Verse one. Behold thou art fair, my love, Behold thou art fair. He anchors the start of what he has to say by saying it twice. And then then at the end of the the section he says it again. And then in the next part of the chapter he says it again a fourth time, Thou art fair. And then he says, Thou hast doves eyes within thy locks, or within the veil.
I suppose there are a lot of thoughts on Dove's eyes, but I like the fact that this dove here in this verse.
Is the same one different than many other doves that are mentioned in the Old Testament, but it's the same one?
That you get in Genesis chapter 8, that's the same dove. And so I'm going to read it because of.
Keeping my thoughts straight, you could probably quote it, but Genesis chapter 8.
And.
Verse.
7.
He stayed yet another, yet other seven days, and again he sent forth the dove out of the ark. And then the dove came into him in the evening. Lower mouth was an inner mouth was an olive leaf. Lucked off so no one knew that the waters were abated from off the earth. Sent out the Raven, and as you know, the Raven didn't come back.
Probably found a lot of dead stuff to feed on. Send out the all of I'm sorry, Send out the dove and back it came.
It came back to the person who sent it because that's where it's, if I can apply it, that's where its heart was. It wasn't looking for anything but what satisfied the one that sent it. Then it sends it out again and it finds something, the olive branch, and that's the verse we read, and it comes back with that olive branch to where it was sent.
I'd like to think of this these doves eyes as this their eyes that look for and return to the one that satisfies it was that Israel was that Judah. He could turn to the prophets and see them looking for other lovers all over the place. Their eyes were roving everywhere but what he says to this one because he's put his beauty on her and he's restoring her and she'll be fully.
Later in the book, but he's restoring her and so in a sense, she has this new, new life and.
00:25:01
He looks and he says this because what I've made you, you have doves eyes.
You look for food that's pleasing to me. It's beautiful. She might have argued with them. And in fact, in the next chapter you see failure in her. But he says, this is what I see because I put it there. That's his heart toward his people. And more than that, just by the way.
A dove can fly along at.
I read, I think it's accurate. I can fly along at around 90 kilometers an hour.
That's above the posted limit between London and Saint Thomas. So if you were driving from the hotel to here today.
At least that much.
Close to the posted limit.
You were driving around the speed that a dove, this kind of dove, can fly. And as I understand it, a dove like that can spot at that speed a grain of food on the ground nearby. Isn't that beautiful? He says. You have eyes to go through this world with the ability to spot a grain of food as you blast by at 90 kilometers an hour and you can spot it and eat it. That's what I see.
And then it says.
The next expression, thy hair is as a flock of goats that appear from Mount Gilead. You know, the Eastern way of poetic way. It's kind of different than ours. I doubt there's any husband here that's turned to his wife and said with affection, Your hair, this is a flock of goats.
It just wouldn't convey.
Quite the message.
That this program is conveying.
But if you lookout at that.
Mount Gilead, the mountains of Gilead, they lay to the east of the Jordan. I'm sorry. They lay to the Yes, they lay to the east of the Jordan. And so you could look out at those mountains, those hills, that's where the 2 1/2 tribes settled. They settled there because of their cattle. And so you have rich cattle there and the.
The goat that the Syrian goat, that's common I guess in that region even to this day, has a very long haired goat.
So if you can see a whole flock of them just flowing smoothly down the hillside together, you can draw different things from the figure of it. But he's describing her beautiful, luxuriant hair. And I'd like to give a thought that the heart of God would look down and see like the hair of a Nazarite, not an Absalom, the hair of a of a Mary.
It was there in full.
Consecration to him. It was given over to him and here he says you feed on what's clean and pleasing to me. Not only that, he says you're consecrated. You belong in your submission and your consecration and your devotion, they're mine and it's beautiful. I look on it and I see beauty in it. That's what he says.
We're not supposed to argue with him, are we? You wouldn't if he were in the room, and I wouldn't either. But I must confess that my heart frequently.
In practice argues with these things, but he set his love on us, He's put his beauty on us. And this is this is his heart and he wants to express it to his people.
And then she says, Then he says All but the last verse of Song of Solomon 4 is the bridegroom speaking, I believe.
Thy teeth are like a flock of sheep that are shorn.
Which came up from the washing or of everyone bare twins.
And none is barren among them.
As a teenager.
Brother Norm Wood was in the assembly where I was at the time and still AM, and he loved the Song of Solomon, at least sure seemed to me as a teenager that he loved the Song of Solomon. Somebody can correct me later if you didn't, but I wouldn't believe you anyway. He spoke on it with affection and love.
Because.
He loved the Savior, but he's the one that explained this verse to me for the first time. To me, this was just a strange Eastern poetry and he, he said, well, those.
00:30:02
The the teeth there that are twins, everyone, they're twins. Well, obviously there's a an upper for every lower. I said leave it to a dentist. That's what I got out of it at the time, but I remembered it.
Sure, they're matched because there's no teeth missing. And that's beautiful, isn't it?
But there's there's more than that. They were.
Come up from the washing.
Nope, that doesn't take a dentist to tell you that if your teeth have come up from the washing, you're in good shape. And.
That says none is barren among them because they're twins and they're even shorn. You know, when I was.
I don't know.
1819 Somewhere in there I was at a young people's get together. We're playing football in the snow in the state of Michigan and it was touch football. So what can go wrong, right? I was blocking. I wasn't carrying the football or anything. And in my mind at the time, doing such a good job that the person on the other side just couldn't get at the quarterback. And I was kind of, kind of pleased with the quality because he was probably twice my size.
But I fancied myself to be a little quicker than him in the snow. And it was all real nice. And then he lowered it. He got, he was very determined and he lowered his head and he charged and he was twice as big as I was. And that head went right into my top lip and cracked the bone, shoved the front 2 teeth in. And I was writing to some emergency dentist in Michigan and he patched it all together and he said you need to talk to your dentist when you get home.
College and allegedly.
The.
Scholarship I had should cover the dentistry, so I went to the.
Dentist and on campus, they have a whole Medical University campus there in Dennis and whatever and the supervisor looked me over and said.
Go to your regular dentist. I didn't have one. Go to your regular dentist and I'll let him take care of this. I've got to coordinate the surgeons because we're going to have to redo this and I'm going to get the orthodontist and I've got to get a dentist. And then to put it all together to be so far out into the future that we're not going to service you. That's, that's great.
Thanks so much. So we found somebody that would take care of it and they put a little appliance in and I was supposed to clamp down my teeth on this appliance and just shove those teeth back up where they belonged. They went part way back up, but now you're going to look at my teeth when I clamp down. And here's the point of the story. When I clamp down, the nothing lines up the way it's supposed to line up.
So when I eat, it just doesn't put pressure on teeth where they're not supposed to put pressure on. Now one of my teeth is no longer a twin toward the back and.
A peanut. I'll get caught in there if I'm eating peanuts. And here's the point.
When your teeth are beautiful and they all line up nicely and they're all twins, you chew your food and you chew it well.
He says to his bride, not only do you eat the right food, but you chew it well. You take it in, you get that full value out of it. You get everything out of it that I put there for you in it. Isn't that beautiful? He doesn't say you should be doing this.
It's not like going to my dentist who always is ready to offer me teeth whitener.
They'll be happy to offer me that so that they'll be nice and pure and.
I say no, but there's other things that I have to say yes to because when you go, there's stuff to get fixed.
He's not fixing her here. He's saying this is what I see in you, what I've put in you. If it were addressed to Christians, it would be addressed. That eternal life that you have loves to meditate on my food.
It's beautiful to me because I put it there and I see it there and it's a delight to my heart.
Then he says verse 3.
Thy lips are like a thread of scarlet in my speech is coming.
King Solomon is writing this.
You remember who his great, great grandma was, right?
We know a lot more about Solomon's family tree than we know about one another's family tree here, probably in many cases.
You know his great, great grandma.
00:35:00
That was Rahab.
Solomon also wrote the book of Proverbs, right? And when he wrote that book of Proverbs, he wrote about a strange woman who, with flattering lips, lured Proverbs 7A young man.
She was plowing the trade of his great great grandma.
But his great great grandma Rahab.
Took a threat of scarlet, she hung it into her window, hunting in her window. And she says this is what I am now. This is everything to me. Now that threat of Scarlett hung in the window. You know, the threat of scarlet here is the exact same words is what she hung in her window. And that's what we hang in our window. That's what our lips express and our speech is comely when we're feeding on.
When our food is getting properly digested.
Well, I shouldn't turn it in exhortation. This is what happens when the new life is being expressed.
This is what I've made you, the bridegroom says. In a sense, this is what I see in you. I see speech that's comely.
Then he says thy temples are like a piece of pomegranate within thy locks. Piece of pomegranate maybe it says a piece of pomegranate, right, Not the whole pomegranate fruit. So I take it that this is the pomegranate cut open. And if you've cut open a pomegranate or had it on your table, you see that red and white mixture?
So perhaps it's an expression of the health of this individual.
But the temples?
And.
Mr. Darby's translation, The King James agree on it.
And trying to get a better handle on it. I looked on a number of modern translations. Most agree that it's the temples actually up here, but one of them, probably trying to understand it a little better, set it with the cheeks. But really one of the few places where temples are mentioned. We already had in this prophecy meeting earlier this afternoon. Sisara put her nail. Not through the cheeks, through the temples.
Of Cicero, and have done much good to put it through the cheeks.
But she put it through his temples.
And.
Clamp down your jaws here for justice a second.
Please fix me afterwards, those doctors that are sitting in the room, but clamp down your your jaws here. And I did look it up. Can you feel it up there? Feel that muscle tightening up there? That's your temples chomping down and affecting the muscle up here. And I wonder if that's why the figure wasn't chosen, because here's his bride.
With beautiful teeth, eating clean and beautiful food.
In perfect consecration, submission to him with a desire that everything that comes out of her mouth.
Is something that goes with that threat of Scarlet and now the mind.
The mind is affected, right? You can feel that the temple is affected. Right now there's the figure carrying you up to the mind. Her mind is beautiful, healthy, probably. Why the pomegranate, the red and the red and the white, But healthy. A healthy mind, guarded, kept.
By what she was doing.
And then verse four, thy neck. It's like the Tower of David.
Builded for an Armory.
Once again, enjoy it as Eastern poetry.
And you're not so foolish as to go home and say to your.
Well, I saw a young couple having the Bible reading together this morning and I will guarantee you he did not say to the young lady that he was sitting there reading their Bible together this morning. I guarantee you he didn't say your neck. Is this the tower of David this morning? So what's being expressed here? Remember the Messiah with.
His earthly bride. I want to read you a verse about the same people.
And Isaiah chapter 3.
In fact, maybe we'll read a couple verses here.
Isaiah chapter 3 and verse 16.
I'm moreover, the Lord said, because the daughters of Zion are haughty.
00:40:04
And walk with stretched forth necks and wanton eyes, walking and mincing as they go, and making a tinkling with their feet.
Let's turn over also to Ezekiel chapter 16.
Ezekiel 16 and verse 11.
1St I'm going to back up verse 9. Then washed I thee with water, yeah.
I thoroughly washed away thy blood from thee, and I anointed thee with oil. I clothed thee also embroidered work, and shod thee with Badger's skin. And I girded thee about with fine linen, and I covered the silk. I decked the also with ornaments, and I put bracelets upon my hands and a chain on my neck. I put a jewel on my forehead, and earrings in thine ears. And he goes on.
And verse 15 without its trust.
In thine own beauty and play it's the harlot because of thy renown. And he continues on. The Lord had brought up his people Israel out of Egypt, and he set them in that land and he gave them everything. And you could loosely correlate it with their in atom condition. They set them there in responsibility in that land. And he decked them and he put that chain around their neck and he made them beautiful.
And they squandered it all. So here he is in the Song of Solomon.
And he's given them a renewed heart and he's bringing them up. Did he give up on that chain about their neck? No, he didn't.
I need to back up for a moment. I missed a piece. Remember what happened with Joseph when he was in the dungeon? And he's brought up out of the dungeon and he washes and he comes before Pharaoh, and what's Pharaoh do?
Puts the chain around his neck and he makes him a ruler. That beautiful expression of his favor.
We still do it to this day. Sometimes husband may buy a necklace for his wife and put that expression of his love on her. And so back in Song of Solomon Four, I believe this is what he's expressing. My neck is like the Tower of David builded for an Armory.
More than one thought here. I'm going to give you one of them.
He says now for your defense and your beauty, you're not going to stretch that neck out in self will. The neck is a figure of self will in many places in the scriptures. Steven says in Acts 7 stiff necked and adulterous generation, that stiff necked set will that stretched out and expressed itself and he says no, that's not it.
Your neck is a beautiful expression.
With my strength and my victories.
It's no longer an expression of you.
It's an expression of Maine and I find it beautiful. He looks on her and he says this is beautiful to me.
And then he says thy 2 brass, and there are three things.
Are like two young rows, it's the 1St that are twins.
That's the second which feed among the lilies. That's the third three compliments, 3 expressions of the beauty that he sees in her.
Two young Rose.
Freshness there isn't there.
He says every time you have your heart turned toward me.
It's fresh.
Have you ever, if you're older, thought when you were 10 or 12 or maybe 20 or a year ago? You know, when I get to heaven, I wonder if it's going to be the same old, same old.
Because don't we come to the end of it?
She's a bride to him in the Book of Revelation. She's still a bride at the end of the Millennium. She's a bride forever. Her affections are fresh, and that matters to him. They're fresh. They're young. They are what they were when they were young. They're too young, Rose.
00:45:23
And they're twins.
If you ever had affections that go.
Like my the skipping stone I mentioned at the beginning and it goes up and it goes down and it goes up and it goes down and it comes and it goes and.
Everybody has right affections. They come and they go.
But he says their uniform, they're unchanging. That's what I put in you.
You now have a heart with affections for me and it's steady. It's not going to change. It's fresh as uniform. And he goes on and he says which feed among the lilies, they feed what's pure and fresh. Your affections are feeding on me and it's pure and it's fresh.
Isn't that beautiful? That's what he sees in her.
And he says, Until the Daybreak, and the shadows flee away, and I will give thee to the mountain of Myrrh, to the hill of Frankincense.
Thou art all fair, my love. There is no spot in the.
How can he say such a thing?
Doesn't he know better?
How can the Lord make an expression like that?
About his bride, this is going to go through something in the next chapter and it's maybe.
Our human habit to take a compliment, to take an expression, and because it's made by another human, we slap a 90% discount on it.
Haven't done that to some expression. A husband and a wife and the husband says to his wife you're all fair to me or you're beautiful. Calls her beauty or something like that and slaps a 90% discount.
Well, you say that because you're you. That's the point. In that particular case, that is the point. But it's more with the Lord. He's made us like Himself.
He's brought us to the end. We are now in Christ every.
Movement of our hearts that renewed Newman. All of it delights just like Christ delights in everything that he delights in were anchored there, were brought back to that harbor, were put at that end. If you can say it that way, and that's what I've made you. That's what you are.
Last half of the chapter.
Shows how it comes out.
That's the end. The last half of the chapter shows how the AS is brought out.
We won't have time, nor did I intend to, to go through all the details of it, but I do want to touch on a few of them.
And verse eight he says, come with me from Lebanon.
My spouse with me from Lebanon looked from the top of a manna, from the top of Sheener and Herman, from the lion's den's, from the mountains of the leopards. Now he's going to work to bring out the ***. He's described the inn. He's going to bring out the ***. And when he does it, he starts out by saying those beautiful Robert referred to this afternoon.
This morning I guess 3 words.
Here's 3 come with me.
He doesn't say get out of there, it's dangerous. Leave.
Go get. Be gone, he says. Come with me.
Ephesians one and all that we are is it's like tearing out the foundation to remove the in him, the in the beloved, the in whom.
The come loses all its force and lets us come with.
Me. He's drawing her out. And what's he drawing her out?
He's drawing her out from a place of danger and it's a little hard to see here, but it's clear in the first phrase. Come with me.
From Lebanon, my spouse with me from Lebanon. But then he says look from the top of a Manor.
00:50:01
And from the top of Sheener and Herman struggling with this verse, I looked at four different commentators, all the ones that probably are at the back here on the side, and they all agreed that this was a dangerous thing. And keep reading this and say, look from the top of Amana and they're saying this is dangerous, but he's telling her look from there. But if you look up that word, I guess in its root sense.
It's travel away.
And that's what he's telling her. He's telling her travel away from what?
North of the Land of Israel is the is a range of mountains in southern Lebanon.
That range of mountains is a manna. That's the range of the mountains, and in that range of the mountains there's a highest peak, Mount Hermon.
And Mount Hermon has multiple peaks. I understand one of them.
As sheener, I assume it's the tallest one. You can correct me later if you look it up and find out it isn't. I couldn't, I didn't see that detail.
What he says is something similar to the following.
When the Lord was tempted.
Tested and proven.
In the Gospels, the devil took them up into a high mountain and he showed them the kingdoms of the world. And we've already had exhortations here about some of the dangers that are there, and we've already had that exhortation that what will keep us from that world is the love of the Father.
That's what he's doing here and it's fully relational, he says. Come.
With me, this is my heart for you. So when I draw out the as in your life, when I bring it out, you need to know my heart 1St. And then as I bring out the sweetness of that character that I put there, you're going to feel some things and they're not all.
Without pain in the next chapter shows some of that, but he goes on. He warns her the dangers, the lion's den, the mountains of the leopards.
He says, come with me from that. And then he says, Thou hast ravished my heart, my sister, my spouse, those ravished my heart with one of thine eyes, with one chain of thy neck.
You know that.
One of the things I'm looking forward to the most about the glorified body is that it doesn't meltdown when it gets hooked up to the beauty of the Lord. You know your body of glory is going to have a full.
Adequate wiring to take in the fullness of that glory. These bodies of clay don't, and they sometimes when you're enjoying them.
It comes short.
Before I come pick that verse back up, I want to tell you something that gives a little context.
My wife and I lived for six years in Ecuador. I taught high school there and my high school science.
My boss was named Batcha. She had a beautiful home. I was there at least once. So it was part of a ten story roughly, I don't remember exactly, 10 story, beautiful high rise condo building, building that her husband had been the contractor for there and her husband was an engineer there. An engineer kind of functions as a contractor as well as an engineer. And he built bridges in the country. It was important and wealthy and it was in her home. Her home was built. Quito comes.
The slopes of Mount Pichincha and there's a shelf and then there's a valley and then you can lookout at the eastern Ridge of the Andes Mountains. There's two gorgeous snow capped peaks there. Her home was a two-story penthouse condo at the top of this building her husband built. And you can look out the the living area. I didn't go up to the upstairs in the bedrooms. You could see there's a beautiful balcony up there and you could look down on the entertaining area. And we sat some of us teachers with her one time in the area. You could look out those.
Windows over them over the valley, there's 1000 foot drop. The mists fill the valley and you can look on two snow capped peaks.
Mount Kiamby to the north, Mount Auntie Sana to the South and it was gorgeous.
I was with Batcha. I was her nickname. That's what everybody called her. I was with bots at the coast on science field trip, a couple other teachers.
And we're ready to go back up to Quito in the mountains. And she got a little fidgety.
00:55:07
And she started to get her makeup on just right. She called herself more of a tomboy. Her children had given her a pocket knife.
And she was fidgety and she was putting on.
Her makeup.
And I asked why and I found out that that's the way her husband liked her and so she was preparing to go home to him. I found out later from others that her husband had left her for some period of time, had an affair, had returned and what she was doing.
Was trying to hold on to him.
By being something.
That she thought he wanted her to be.
She was trying to do so that his heart would be toward her.
Now let me read this verse again.
This is the heart of our heavenly Bridegroom, expressing itself to His earthly bride.
It's the heart of the same person. Thou has ravished my heart, my sister, my spouse. Those ravished my heart. With one of thine eyes, with one chain thy neck. What's he saying? He's saying?
You are beautiful to me.
And then he says, how fair is thy love, My sister, my spouse? Two more details.
Verse 11 Thy lips, O my spouse, drop as the honeycomb.
We're getting into the as here, we're getting into what comes out and I looked up this fact. I'm not a not a beekeeper. There are beekeepers here.
So they can fix the fact if I get it wrong, but I read it from a it would look like a reputable Canadian source so I hope it's accurate. They estimated that there were. The bees on average travel 90,000 miles to make 1 LB of honey.
The Gaza up the pollen and nectar, and there's a place near us where you can go and the beekeepers will lead you through the whole process and you have ones here who can bring out some far more.
But this is what I enjoy. They go out more than three times the circumference of the earth.
To bring in and produce that honey and what he says is all that sweetness that's coming out of your lips.
There's 10s of thousands of trips to the nectar and pollen that I put there for you. 10s of thousands, hundreds of thousands. I don't know. It depends on how close the flowers are to the hive. And you've gone back and forth and back and forth, and this is what I see coming out of your mouth, those thousands of trips in secret.
And now your lips are dropping as a honeycomb.
Isn't that beautiful? Now the response, the only thing the bride has to say in this chapter.
That's what she says, verse 16. I believe the whole verse is her. You can meditate on for yourself. Some split it up, but most give it as as all her. And she says, awake, O North wind, and come thou S blow upon my garden. The spices thereof may flow out. Let my beloved come into his garden and eat.
His pleasant fruits. What's she saying?
I believe she's saying. I've spent so much time hearing what you see here.
And maybe I don't see it and maybe my eye can't pick it up, but you do what you need to do to bring it all out and enjoy it.
And wouldn't that be the response of spending time at the end? The in the beloved, the in him, the in whom of Ephesians one the expression of the heart of our God for sitting there can't say anything. But I don't know what's coming. Maybe a north wind from Mount Hermon coming down from those snows in Mount Hermon and blowing through my orchard, and maybe a S wind coming off the desert. But whatever it takes, you know what's needed.
If you bring out those sweet spices, because I know your heart and I know you're going to do it right, and we sit down in his presence and feast on anchor, have our hearts directed into the love of God, thank him, dear Lord Jesus, we just ask the effect of picking up that word, considering it, but draw our hearts to thee. That would anchor our hearts, Lord Jesus.
01:00:11
And I love.
Thy heart, thy thoughts, we'd ask him, Lord Jesus, in thy name, Amen.
Gospel 1
Gospel—Bernie Roossinck
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.
Good evening everybody.
What I honor and enjoy it is look at all these faces.
Friends, this is the gospel meeting. The gospel means good news.
And we have good news.
Good news that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.
Let's begin the meeting by singing #2 Their hymn sheets.
Come tis Jesus gently calling ye with care and toil oppressed.
With your guilt, however appalling, come and I will give you rest #2.
Come to Jason.
Or we open God's Word. Let's ask for his help.
Loving God and Father.
Thank you so much.
For sending your beloved son into this world to go into Calvary's cross and there take upon himself.
The punishment and the.
00:05:01
Wrath of a sin. Hating God against sin. My sin. The sins of each one here in this room.
Our God and Father, thank you for loving us. We ask for help this afternoon. This evening. I pray, Lord, that thy spirit would be free to.
Work on each heart that the invitation of the gospel would penetrate and that souls would be blessed. Father, we need your help. I pray that anything that is not right would fall to the ground that the Lord Jesus would be magnified tonight.
Thank you again in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Amen.
See a lot of young people in here.
I would like to respectfully ask you for the next half hour, listen.
Carefully.
Never mind the person that's sitting next to you. I know that it's exciting to go play hockey and skate and you kids. I know it's exciting to rush away to the swimming pool. Please listen.
To what God is saying to you.
I have on my heart a number of questions to take up. Not sure how this will go.
Let the Spirit of God take this where He wants it to go.
My burden as I look across your faces. My joy, really first, as I believe that most all of you know and love the Lord Jesus already.
But I'm afraid.
There may be some in this room that, as we have written in Romans, they have not all believed the gospel friend.
The first question I want to ask you was one that it was asked by Pilot to the Lord Jesus about the Lord Jesus. Turn to Matthew 27.
The Lord Jesus was standing before Pilate.
And the accusations against him were coming out vigorously and loudly.
Away with this man, we don't want him. And Pilate asked this question in Matthew 27.
Verse 22.
All right, let's set unto them.
What shall I then do with Jesus?
Which is called Christ my friend.
The answer that you give to that question tonight.
Will dictate the destiny of your never dying soul. What shall I then do with Jesus, which is called Christ?
Friends, you may say to me, Bernie, what do I owe God?
I don't understand why do I have to decide Jesus?
The answer is.
We don't have enough time to answer this like I would like to. The answer is all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. That means, friends, that because of Adam and Eve's decision in the Garden of Eden to disobey God, sin entered into the world and death by sin. We find that in Romans chapter 5 by 1 man sin entered into the world.
Death by sin. So death passed upon all men, and it's that reason.
That everyone of us is born in sin and shaping in iniquity.
I've often said this in the gospel, but I'll say it again. Nobody had to teach me how to be a bad kid.
I already knew how to do that, and I know that's true for everyone of you, that you were born in sin and shaping inequity because God said so.
And so.
I guess what's what this develop? Let's go to Genesis 3 for one of the first questions in the Bible.
So I guess the first question that God asked this is Genesis 3 verse 9.
The Lord God called unto Adam and said, Where are you? Where art thou?
00:10:01
Friends, that question from God went out to Adam and it established 2 great facts #1.
Man is lost.
Did God have to ask where Adam was? He already knew where Adam was.
The question is asked, where are you, Adam? And it established that Adam was lost.
The other great fact that thrills my soul is that God asking this question tells us that God is seeking for you and he says, friend, where are you right now? Where are you in your soul? Does Jesus mean anything to you? Is he your Lord and Savior? Or is he just some historical person that we stand here and spend time?
Talking about.
Lord Jesus mean anything to you, Stephen.
Your message just touched my heart. And you know, I thought you were speaking about the Scarlet of Rahab there. You know, kids.
I'll give you an illustration of of this. God has woven throughout the word of God, His beloved Son, and the blood of Christ.
And so many passages, we haven't nearly enough time to take this out. I'll give you an illustration because I like boats.
During the British Navy, every single rope that the British Navy has has a red line woven throughout it. And the reason it's there is so they know who owns the rope. And if there's a red cord going through that rope, it belongs to the British Navy.
It's an illustration of the Lord Jesus and the work of Calvary's cross woven throughout the entire Word of God. That scarlet line, Steven, it's there right from the beginning of Genesis.
When God clothed Adam and Eve and coats of skin, and I think if Cain and Abel, you know, God had respect to Abel's sacrifice and he brings the lamb. You had to say to Cain, I can't take your offering. Why? Because he brought maybe of the fruit of the ground. Maybe it was a nice fruit basket or something, but it came from the cursed ground.
And so God could take that lamb of Abel's and say, yes, I accept that.
He had to say to Cain, I can't take that. And all the way through the Scripture, the Passover, the law of the leper, the serpent on the pole.
So many hundreds of beautiful examples of Christ Jesus woven into the.
Word of God now.
Sin. We all have sin.
There is no sin that can enter into heaven.
We are separated from God by our sins.
We're short. You know, if I asked the tallest person in here to to turn that projector on for us, Can't do it short.
Kids, young people, you're short of God's standard. And outside of the Lord Jesus coming into this world and going to Calvary's cross and laying down his life for you, you're short of God's standard. You're in debt. I'm in debt.
Somebody had to pay the debt.
The message of the gospel is Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners and friends, God is seeking for you. Where are you tonight? What will you do with Jesus? Will you say yes to him or will you say I don't want you?
The answer to that question will decide your eternal destiny, and it's important to decide tonight.
You know, I, I could tell you so many instances in my time on this earth of people that have put it off. It's a dangerous thing to say. Not now, not today. So dangerous.
I think back to when I was in high school. I had a good friend, his name was Chris Waterman. He was on the ski team.
And.
Those of you that have been to Newfoundland and ski know that Marble Mountain is a pretty decent ski hill and Chris was on that hill. I was on that hill that day too and.
He got to the bottom of the slalom running. He dropped dead in his tracks.
00:15:00
Gone instantly gone. Boy, what a shock to my, to myself and my friends. But you know, friends, we're not guaranteed tomorrow. We're not promised tomorrow. And there were so many other examples of God.
Beseeching and man refusing Don't do that.
Well, we don't have much time here. Let's turn over to Job 33 for a verse.
Jill, Chapter 33.
Verse 13.
Why dost thou strive against him? What a question. Are you striving against God tonight? Are you telling him I don't want your plan of salvation, My way is good enough. The Lord Jesus said I am the way, the truth and the life. No man cometh to the Father but by me. One way, friends, to come into you blessing and to have your sins forgiven, and that is.
Through the Lord Jesus. And yet we find striving against God, fighting against Him.
You know God speaks to people.
I shared this story earlier this week with a brother, but I'll just tell you kids about this. This happened when my brother Reg and I were.
Probably 10 or less, but around that age, 8 or 10, my dad had a bus and he needed some work done on it. Faye, you probably remember this man Jim Sloan. Remember him? Jim Sloan was a wicked man. He would poke fun at the gospel tent unbelievably, brutally.
But it was a good fabricator and a good welder. Dad asked him if he would Weld a skid plate on the back of our camper. You see? Yeah, I'll do it. Bring it out. Zout and Lark Arbor where they was nearby where you were at Faye, Right.
Gets down in the fall.
Time to winterize things. And dad called him up and said, Jim, I got to have the bus back. He said come out Saturday and then it'll be ready. So we got out there.
And it would not start. Let's turn the key. And nothing, nothing, nothing. And they hooked up the payloader and they exploded the battery. Tried this ether that, nothing, nothing, nothing. Finally my dad said to him, Jim, I think the Lord wants us to pray about it.
Jim, sorry, go ahead.
So they prayed about it, turned the key. Same thing. Nothing. Wouldn't start.
And Dad was ready for the mockery to begin. You know what happened.
He sat there, he said cease. I've had this bus in my yard for three months. I get up in the morning, look out the window. Jesus is Lord on the front of it.
Come down for breakfast, Lookout the kitchen window. Jesus is Lord on it.
I walk out to my shop, there it is, Jesus is Lord. He goes really getting to me and he started to unfold throughout his life how God was speaking to him and dealing with him and warning him to flee from the wrath to come. He was, He told us he had a 1957 Chevy, a fast car.
Flipped it over.
Upside down on the railroad tracks.
Gasoline dripping off of him. Can't speak forth in his own pocket.
And they gather around because the trains coming and they're going to cut him out.
And you can imagine what the result would be.
The Lord preserved him. He got out of it.
At the time he was in a dump truck in the winter time. He said cease. I had the ears for a cigarette.
Yes, I try to reach for my cigarettes. I couldn't move a muscle.
It's beginning to be carbon monoxide poisoned. Woke up mile from the dump truck in the snow bank on his hands and knees. Don't know how he got there. He said cease. I know.
That God is speaking to me.
It's not the response that my dad thought would happen. I don't know if Jim Sloan ever got saved. He didn't get saved that day, but dad took that time to speak to him about his never dying soul. And when they were done he said Jim try start it now and he just touched the key and it was instantly running.
00:20:18
And boy, I was impressed with that. But so was he. You remember him, Faye?
A wicked, wicked man.
A few years later, on a Sunday afternoon, he called our house.
He said cease, I'm in big trouble, come and see me went out there.
Spoke to him about his soul again. Put it off. Never got saved. I don't know what happens, but man is striving against God and the question is why? Why are you striving against God? He loves you, He wants to forgive you, and he sent his Son into this world to come to Calvary's cross and to be crucified. The most cruel death that mankind could ever come up with.
But it wasn't that crucifixion that paid for your sins.
He had to go to the cross and die In those three hours of darkness on the cross God poured out on his son.
The penalty and the punishment for your sins and my sins.
And so when it was done, he cried out, It is finished, completed. And God could look at that and say, I am satisfied. We find that in Isaiah 53 shall see of the travail of his soul and shall be satisfied.
And God could look at that and say that is payment for all those sins. Now, friends, the gift of God is eternal life.
You have a gift before you and you reject it. Say I don't want it. It's not really yours until you take it.
I know we don't have much time. I'll tell you tell you guys the story. This is how the Lord deals with people last year.
I work in agriculture. I was going up and down M37 in West Michigan and in the morning I passed the guy with a backpack pulling a suitcase.
And later in the day I passed him again.
He was a couple miles South of there.
And the Lord said to me he should talk to him about his soul. I told him, I'm afraid to do it, Lord.
Went into my office for a couple hours, came back out. I watched him walk by my office. The Lord said go talk to him about his soul.
Got in my truck, passed him again.
The Lord said, if it was me, would you talk to him?
Yes, Lord, I would. I turned my truck around and went up there. I said where you going, man? He said. I'm walking from Bately, Michigan to Allegan. That's a long ways, folks.
I said to him, Gideon, I'll give you a ride as far as I can.
I'm a chicken, brethren.
How am I going to talk to this man about his soul? How do I reach him?
I said to him his name was Owen. He told me about his life, addiction, broken family.
Said that when was the last time you ate anything? Oh and he goes, I'm starving. But.
OK Lord, can you use this? So we went through McDonald's drive through inspired and I held that out to him as no one.
This is a gift for me to you, but it's only yours if you take it. He says, oh, I'll take it. And he did. And that opened up an opportunity to share the gospel with him while I got down as far as I was planning to take him. And it was raining. And the Lord seemed to say to me, it's Bernie, if it was me, would you drop me off here?
Says no, Lord, I wouldn't. He goes, keep moving. And you get down through Grand Rapids. There's a lot of big highways. They can't let the men walk through all that. And then the rain, too.
This whole time we're talking about his soul.
They get down South of Grand Rapids and I thought, well, we're this far, we may still go all the way now.
So I called back and told her I'm going to be late for meeting, I'm on a special mission, but the Lord just put that on my soul to give him that bag of food and say this is only yours if you take it. And boy, he was glad to take it. Friend, there God is offering you salvation tonight. He said my son has paid it all and all I'm asking you to do is take it.
00:25:11
Are you willing to do that? I hope you are, friend. That's God's offer of salvation.
Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord.
Shall be saved. It's that easy. Jesus has paid it all.
Yeah, we got down to where I was dropping him off. He said to me, thank you.
He goes, You're the second Christian man that's been kind to me this week. I know God speaking to me about my soul, and I don't know where he's at today.
My friends, the Spirit of God gives you something to do. Do it. Do it right then too. Anyway, I told that story about because I wanted to illustrate. It's only yours if you take it.
Now, we haven't really gotten to all the questions that I wanted to get, but we're almost out of time. I'll ask you one more.
Speak to you young people for a minute. The Lord Jesus asked this question.
In a couple of places what? So what profit a man if he gained the whole world?
And lose his own soul.
I know the pressure that you render in your careers.
I know the.
Pressure that you feel to succeed and to get ahead.
Friends, don't do it if it means putting the Lord Jesus aside. It's better to go into heaven's glory a pauper than it is the past eternally ruined into hell as a rich person.
And you know, God deals with people. Tell you one more story. Some of you know that I like racing.
There's a driver named Dale Earnhardt Junior that's well known.
He was in.
Sports car race in California a few years ago. Very good driver.
And this is during practice laps too. They weren't even in race yet and got on the throttle and the back of the Corvette came around and backed it into the wall and the fuel cell ruptured and it was instantly.
Engulfed in flames and I heard him telling the story. He was talking to a friend of his name, Boris said those two guys were racing together that day and he said I knew I had to get out.
And somebody just grabbed me and pulled me out of the car and I want to know who it was and think of them. Well, nobody pulled him out of the car that we could see. Friends. I think God pulled him out of the car and was speaking to him about his soul. And I heard the man that was talking with him giving him the gospel.
Don't put it off. God speaks once. Yeah, twice.
Yet man perceiveth it not. Don't put it off, it's so dangerous.
Last question, how shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation? That's from Hebrews chapter.
Two, I believe it is, or three or three, Chapter 2, verse three I think it is. How shall we escape if we neglect our great salvation? The answer is you won't escape.
God's offer of salvation is open right now, but it may not be.
At 8:00 tonight, you could be an eternity, or the Lord could come.
And I believe, friends, that we are very, very close to the Lord coming back. This world is in an absolute demonic tailspin. It's unbelievable how quickly things are spiraling out of control. And God said, my spirit will not always strive with man. We're close, but whether the Lord comes.
You're called into eternity. If you've neglected the way of escape, it's too late for you. We had earlier in our meetings about.
Those that would hear the gospel of the Kingdom and the tribulation, but for those that have heard the offer of salvation.
Today in the day of grace and have said no God. That's what it says in.
Some can't remember the Psalm right off. We don't have time to dig for it. The fool has said no God.
Is that you? Are you saying right now to God, no, I don't want you, I don't want your gift of salvation, I reject it. Don't do that. There is no second chance for you. If that happens, says there in Thessalonians that they might all be damned that believe not the gospel. If you say to the Lord Jesus, I reject you.
00:30:21
That question again that we started with What shall I do then with Jesus?
Which is called Christ. You have to answer that question. I think of the old hymn that says What will you do with Jesus?
Slip in my mind now. I'm sorry, brethren.
You can't not decide. To say later is to decide no.
Please consider where you're at in your soul. And you know, you may, you may sit there and say, Bernie, I'm in my mid 20s or more and everybody in here thinks I'm saved and I know I'm not, but I'm ashamed. I don't care and God doesn't care. He says come now.
Let us reason together, says the Lord. Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow, though they be red like Crimson. I think I got that backwards, but you know what I'm saying. Come now, says the Lord. You kids is maybe you're hearing this for the first time and understanding Jesus died for me. Come.
Come and say yes Lord Jesus, I accept what you did for me. Come into my heart. Be my Lord and Savior to do that.
Let's close with him.
Sing number.
So many good ones in here listening #21 decide for Christ today.
And God's salvation see yield soul and body, heart and will to him who died for thee. Christ alone can save break the power of sin. Christ the fully satisfy the heart that cleaves him, 21.
This side.
Wake up. Power upstairs.
Rise and blood rings and his father.
And his new heaven.
How crazy people don't create the cities of the world.
Christ alone and say.
Great people.
Christ without moving, satisfied.
The heart that glazed through heaven.
00:35:02
It's closing prayer.
Our God and Father, thank you again.
For your beloved Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, that one that came into this world.
And fully satisfied every single.
Demand against sinners fully paid the debt so that we could be brought right into thy family. O our God and Father, I pray for any boy or girl.
Young person, man or woman, that is yet in their sins that today they would come and accept the Lord Jesus and the work that He did on the cross.
Bless thy word.
In Jesus name, Amen.
A Young Lad and A Young Maid
Children—James Ferguson
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.
OK. Well, welcome everybody to Sunday School. Great to see you all this morning.
Let's spend some time, we're going to sing some songs 1St and then we'll get into the message from the word of God and there's time to, if any of you kids have been working on a memory verse this week, then we'd love to hear it from you. So keep that in mind so.
Timmy, your hand shot right up. You've got a favorite.
4/20.
Number 42, OK, 42.
Number 42.
I do believe.
And from today, 10 o'clock, I will confess.
My Lord.
Well, great song says I will confess my Lord at the end of that song. And there's that verse in Romans 10, verse nine. It says if we will confess with our mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in our hearts that God has raised him from the dead.
Thou shalt be.
Save. You betcha. Save from your sins. OK, Kyra, you had one.
46.
#46.
OK.
In the house.
I'll do it all for Jesus. I'll do it all for Jesus. I'll do it for you very soon.
There is none. I will send out outdoor. It's chomping what I'm doing. Chores and angels are driving through. These are the things that I can do. I'll do it all in Jesus. I'll do well. I'll do it all for Jesus.
For his coming very soon.
In that.
Sense neatly.
Helped me throughout the middle.
Christie's house. I'll do the comprehensive transportation.
OK, it's good to remember that when we're doing our little chores and life, they might not be anything too important, but you know the Lord Jesus is watching us through it all and He wants us to do it. First of all, to be obedient and do the job, and second of all to do it to the best of our ability. So this is a good reminder.
OK, yes. What's your name?
52 K say that 5252 good choice.
50.
Jesus loves me this night.
00:05:05
Me so let's all answer him in all day. I wish my tears strong. Yes, he transplants me now. Jesus loves me.
Yes, Jesus loves me.
Yes, Jesus must be. Yes, Jesus loves me.
Yes, she wants to speak. The Bible tells me so. OK, I'll interrupt for just one SEC. Let's have the girls only sing verse three and everybody sing the chorus, and the boys only sing verse four and everybody sing the chords.
OK, go ahead girls and ladies.
You will stay close beside me all the way. If I trust him, shouldn't I die? He will take me O my.
Jesus loves me.
And she likes me.
My Bible tells me some.
What a wonderful truth that is that we've been singing about that Jesus loves me. And how do we know? How do I know that Jesus loves me from the song?
How do we know that for sure, without a doubt?
The Bible tells us. You bet. And we need to read the Bible in that simplicity. We know this. We know something because the Bible tells me so. And it's God's word, so awesome that Jesus loves me. OK, Lori.
Up from the grave he arose. OK.
Let's sing verses one and three from Up from the Grave Heroes. I don't. It's not in the book, but I think most of us would probably know it.
Low in the graveyard.
Jesus, my Savior.
Wake me by God in day.
00:10:15
Thanks for reminding us of that fact, Laurie, that the Lord is risen indeed. And you know what today.
Maybe more than other days of the year, a lot of people are thinking about the fact that the Lord Jesus rose from the dead, that he tore the bars away, and that death could not keep him in the grave. OK.
ASA.
#11.
#11.
As you journey.
Always bring my voice in. My spake is through you.
It's a message for you.
Let my boyfriend send it to you. Open to the Bible, my voice.
What Jesus the Lord by the Word is right here.
All the way to the Bible, my girl.
I was playing to the Bible, my God.
OK, who knows what it means to cling to something?
OK, Avery, hold it tight. You want to hold my Bible tight, Nice and tight so you don't drop it, right? Do you think that's what the song is saying? That every time you carry your Bible around, you need to hold it nice and tight so you don't drop it? No, we don't. We don't want to drop our Bibles. Of course. Right, Because.
Then we might have to get a new one if pages fall out. But it means to cling to the Bible that the words that are written in it, we need to live by them and not let.
Other people tell us to do something else if the Bible.
Tells us something, then we need to obey it. It's simple, OK? That's how we cling to the Bible.
OK, well let's close our hymn books. Maybe we'll have some time at the end. We'll see how it goes.
To sing a couple songs, but let's ask for the Lord's help.
Our God and Father, we just give thanks for another resurrection morning, first day of the week, the Lord's Day. Thank you that we can be here, that we can open the Bible together. We just pray for each one. Our Father, each of these children sitting here listening, just pray and help them. Our Father, pray that each would.
00:15:24
Know what it means to be saved, to have their sins forgiven, washed away.
In the work that the Lord Jesus has done on the cross. And so we just give thanks for all this and.
Just pray for a simple message in Jesus name, Amen.
OK, so I'm going to share a little story. Well, 2 little stories from the word of God, OK?
Ones about, I would say a young boy and one's about a young girl. But the story about the young boy in the Bible, they don't call it him a young boy. They call him something different. And it's a word that we hear nowadays. But I must say that I didn't hear it too often where I grew up.
But then I moved. No, I don't think I even heard it much when I lived in Perry Sound area in Hammer Bay. But when I moved to Smiths Falls area, then everybody always refers to boys as this. So does any of the kids want to guess? Lori, do you know?
Young man, you're close, almost young man. But in Smiths Falls they would say, oh, I went out with my young, young lad. Yeah, you bet My my young lad and I went out on the weekend and we did some fishing or something.
And so they always say that in Smith's Falls, and that's the way that it's referred to in the Bible is a is a young lad. So let's open up to and and the word for the the girl something different too, but we'll get to that after John chapter 6.
And let's read this little story together, so starting at verse one down to verse 14.
So it says after these things, Jesus went over the Sea of Galilee, which is the Sea of Tiberias.
And a great multitude followed him, because they saw his miracles, which he did on them that were diseased. And Jesus went up into a mountain, and there he sat with his disciples. And the Passover, a feast of the Jews, was nigh, or it was near. When Jesus then lifted up his eyes, and saw a great company come on to him, He saith on to Philip. Whence shall we buy bread, that these may eat?
And this he said to prove him for he himself.
Knew what he would do. Well, maybe we'll just stop there and speak about these.
First few verses.
So Jesus went over the Sea of Galilee, it says in verse one.
And where there are lots of people that were following him.
Yes. How many?
5000 we learned that later on, but here it says a great multitude. So a lot of people following Jesus, listening to what he had to say.
And it mentions here.
To that there was a feast.
That was coming up, a feast of the Jews. And what was that feast called?
Passover. You bet, Kira. And who knows a little bit about Passover? What did the Jews have to do for Passover? OK, Avery, can you tell us a little bit about Passover?
They would love.
They would eat unleavened bread. That was part of it. Yeah. And what about the story that we read about in Exodus? What did they have to do? Do you know? Whoever but.
Sheep blood on their door shall not have their youngest child killed.
Yes, that's exactly what happened at Passover. So when we whenever we hear Passover, OK, I'm just going to read a verse that can remind us just the awesome story of Passover in Exodus 12.
And verse 13, OK, so I think most of you kids would probably be familiar just like it was said here.
00:20:06
They had to kill a lamb at Passover and.
They had to take of the blood and put it on the side post of their door and on the upper part of their door called the lentil. OK, they put blood on there because judgment was coming on Egypt. But the Angel says in Exodus 12/13 the blood.
Shall be to you for a token upon the houses where you are. OK, and remember this little verse. The Angel says, When I see the blood, I will pass over you. When I see the blood I will pass over you.
And you know what this story talks to us about? It's not.
Say sheep's blood that we're concerned with.
Whose blood are we talking about, Evangeline?
Jesus is the blood of the Lord Jesus, and he's called the Lamb of God. Yes, and.
God's statement remains the same. You know what? If we take the blood of the Lord Jesus that he shed on the cross and we believe in him, like that first song that we sang today, it says I will, I do believe. I will believe.
That Jesus died for me if we take his blood and we.
Have it in our hearts by believing in Jesus when God says.
When I see the blood, I will.
Passover you. Yes. Passover you in judgment. No judgment for you when I see the blood.
Not only no judgment, but.
Very, very rich blessings instead. So it's a wonderful trade.
OK, back to John 6.
OK, so.
The people were probably getting a little bit hungry and Jesus asked Philip a question. He says where are we going to go to buy bread so that we can get something to eat? And then in verse six he said this to prove him OK and proving means like he was given Phillip a little task.
He was wondering.
Would Philip be worried about where they were going to get food from, or would Phillip trust the Lord that the Lord would provide the food? Because we know that the Lord provides food for us. And do we get worried about where it's going to come from or are we going to trust him? Yeah, we want to trust him. So it says that he, he was going to prove him. And at school sometimes.
I teach something at school and then after a while.
I give the kids, ah, what to make sure that they know.
That that they know. I don't give them God's word, although that would be good to do that. Avery a test. Yes, I give them a test. And then when they write the test and they do well, you know what they prove that they know the they know the material. And if they don't do so well, I guess they prove as well that they didn't really know.
The know what they should have known. So this is what Jesus was doing to Philip was giving him a bit of a test.
So Philip, of course, he maybe has some money in his pocket and he says 200 penny worth of bread is not sufficient for them, that every one of them may take a little because there was a great multitude to feed and there was maybe only a little bit of money that Philip knew of. He said it's not going to be enough.
One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, saith unto him. There is a lad here which has five barley loaves and two small fishes. But what are they among so many?
00:25:15
And Jesus said, make the men sit down. Now there was much grass in that place, so the men sat down in number about 5000. So good job Avery, you were right. And your guests of the great multitude, there were 5000 men there.
And.
There was probably.
Maybe even a lot more than that when you count women and children as well. So there was a lot of people there, a lot of food that needed to be served.
OK, so I brought something from home here.
Who knows what this is here? A lunch box? Yeah. So who goes somewhere during the day where they have to bring a lunch box with them?
School put up your hand if you have to bring a lunch box with you. OK. Yeah, quite a few hands. Not to me that I don't seem to bring lunches with them. Oh, there we go, some more hands. I was thinking, wow, everybody's got lots of money to buy lunch every day.
Now, just out of curiosity, OK, I bring a lunch every day, but who here packs their own lunch every day? I got to put my hand down.
OK.
And the reason I wanted, I wanted to say that is packing lunch is one of those jobs.
That it's so important, but those people don't often get thanked for doing that. So after Sunday school, if somebody else packs your lunch for you every day, then you should go to them and say thank you. Because I always just grab my lunch and head out the door and I don't have time to say thank you to the person who packed my lunch, but I really appreciate it now.
There was a lot here and he seemed to have brought his lunch.
And.
It seems to be a different lunch than what I would have brought. So what did he have in his lunch? Who knows?
OK, Aiden.
Bread and fish, right? Let's see what we have in our lunch here today. So.
We have.
Two small fishes. OK, not even big fishes, just small ones and.
Loaves of bread, right? How many did we have here? 123?
4.
Five. Wow. You know what? That boy must have left his house maybe hungry that morning, thinking he was going to eat a lot. Or you know what? Maybe he decided I'm going to pack extra today because I'm willing to share what I have with other people. I don't really know.
What he was thinking exactly how he had it, but.
And I got my fish here.
Frozen from the store.
And maybe he went to the fish market to get his fish, but you know what he might have done instead?
What do you think, Leah? Maybe he caught his own fish, maybe that morning, maybe fished on the way to go listen to Jesus and he managed to get a couple small fishes. I don't really know. Anybody want to guess what what kind of fish these are?
Not walleye. You want to guess Jack.
Salmon, you got it. Salmon. OK and I enjoy a little bit of salmon from time to time. But you know what's the neat thing about salmon is they swim really hard against the current, OK? They go upstream to have their babies and so when I go to my parents cottage, you can go to a little stream.
At a certain time of year in the fall.
And there's a bridge there and you see all these huge salmon coming from.
The South end of Georgian Bay and they're swimming up this Little River up to have their babies up there and they work really hard against the current OK and what we want for each one of you kids here is to be little salmon, OK, because.
00:30:10
The world, the current of the world, it's trying to.
Wash us down, but the Lord wants us to swim against the current.
OK to work hard to be different because we have the word of God.
Before us. And so it's very important. So I want each one of you kids to remember the salmon today.
And remember that salmon work really hard to go against against the current.
OK, so you know what? That boy, he was willing to share his lunch with the Lord Jesus, and the Lord Jesus was able to do amazing things with it. Let's.
Where did I put my Bible? Here it is.
So let's continue on with our story.
Just want to say that.
The Lord.
When he said sit down, you know he provided.
Sweet green grass for those people to sit down on, and when you have nice grass to sit down on, there's almost not a comforter chair that you could be on.
Sure.
So it says that Jesus took the loaves, verse 11.
And when he had given thanks, he distributed to the disciples, and the disciples to them that were set down.
And likewise of the fishes, as much as they would when they were filled, He sat on to his disciples, Gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost. Therefore they gathered them together, and filled 12 baskets with the fragments of the five barley loaves, which remained over and above unto them that had eaten. Then those men, when they had seen the miracle that Jesus did, said, This is of a truth that prophet that should come into.
World.
And so.
The Lord Jesus took the loaves and the fishes.
And who did he give thanks to?
Yep, God, OK, and you know what, He set the example that we need to follow that when we're enjoying our food as well, we need to remember who it's from. It's from God above and he provides it provides that bread provides those fishes for them. The Lord Jesus gave thanks and then you know what he could have.
Just given it out to everybody himself.
But instead, he wanted to give it to who?
So that they could distribute it. It. Who did he give it to? Kendra, do you know? Yeah, let's say it into here.
The disciples, yeah, because you know what? The Lord Jesus, he doesn't need our help, but he loves it when we do help him. And so he gave it to the disciples. The disciples were able to hand it out to all those people. And it says.
That they were all filled. They all had enough to eat.
So I know my kids.
And if we just had salmon and bread?
They might have thought, is there something else to eat here?
But you know what? All these people were filled, OK? And so it's good to be thankful for what is given to us and to eat what's set before us, OK? The Lord provided it, so let's do our best to not be a picky eater, OK? But to eat what's put before us.
OK. And when everybody saw the miracle that Jesus did, and the miracle was that he took two small fishes, 5 loaves and fed maybe 12,000 people with just that food.
They said, the people said truly, this is not profit that should come into the world.
Wow, the Lord Jesus was much more than a prophet, wasn't he? But it was a good start that they realized that.
00:35:05
This was number ordinary man and maybe they were thinking of.
Back in Deuteronomy chapter 18.
And verse 18, So Deuteronomy 1818.
God says in his word, he says, I will raise them up. A prophet. Capital P.
From among their brethren like unto thee. And will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him. And of course, the Lord Jesus, he always spoke, He always did those things that please the Father. So he was that prophet that should come into the world.
OK. And there was not only enough that everybody was filled.
But there were.
What?
Yeah, there were leftovers. So you know what? When the Lord provides, it says in Ephesians 3 that He often goes exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think. And you know what? Sometimes we ask the Lord for something, and He's going to provide much more.
Then what we ask him for. And that's the way it is with our salvation too, you know?
We'd probably be happy with.
Just a small fraction.
Of what he provides us, but He's done so much for us.
OK, let's go over to the other little story. So this was the story about a little boy, and he had something and he was willing to give it to the Lord, and the Lord used it. OK, let's go to the story of the little girl now. OK, that's in Second Kings 5.
We don't know the name of this little girl, but she's not called a little girl, she's called a little maid.
And we'll see why she's called a little maid in Second Kings 5 and verse two. OK, this is about the story of Naaman which.
You'd probably be familiar with.
Verse 2 The Syrians had gone out by companies and had brought away captive out of the land of Israel a little maid, and she waited on Naaman's wife. So this little girl had a job to do.
She was.
Brought away captive from Israel, she was in a strange land. She was in the land of Syria, and she was a servant girl. And she had to wait on Naaman's wife. And if Naaman's wife wanted her windows cleaned well, the little girl would clean the windows. And if Naaman's wife wanted the floors scrubbed well, she'd asked the little girl, and the little girl would willingly scrub the floors.
So she was a little maid, and she said unto her mistress, Would God, my Lord, were with the prophet that is in Samaria, for he would recover him of his leprosy. So naaman her.
Her mistress's husband, OK, he was a very important man, it says in verse one. He was the captain of the Syrian Army. Everybody looked up to him.
But Naman had a problem. And what was that problem?
OK, Oceana, Leprosy. Leprosy. Yes, and you know what? Leprosy in the Bible speaks of sin. And we all have that same problem.
All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. OK, now that little made girl.
She could have said I'm sick of scrubbing floors.
I'm sick of being here.
Doing everything that's asked of me. My master has leprosy.
And I hope it takes them because I'm tired of working for these people. She could have had that attitude, but she didn't. She loved her Master and her mistress. And she said, oh, if only Naman could go see. Go see who?
00:40:11
Elijah. Yes, If only Naman could go see Elijah.
Elijah would be able to tell name and what to do and so.
That little girl is like us when we go about our day.
And we know that not only maybe we've had leprosy, but hopefully.
We've accepted the Lord Jesus as our Savior and our condition is cured, Our sin condition is gone, but there's a lot of people around us who still have sin leprosy, and you know what we can do? We can tell them, Oh, if you only.
Went to the Lord Jesus, you could be cured of your problem of sin.
If only you did that.
While did Naaman take the little girl's advice? Did he go for a visit and go see Elisha? Yes he did. And what did Elisha tell Naman to do?
Tutankhamun Doodle seven times. Yeah, to go for a dunk under the water, seven times. And what river did it have to be in?
The Jordan River, The Jordan River, yeah, the instructions were very.
Detailed OK, not just any river would do. Had to be the Jordan. Not just six times. Had to be 7 times. OK and name and thought that's a bunch of baloney, I'm heading home.
I'm upset that he would ask me to do this silly little thing, OK?
But of course, his servants convinced him that.
I love this verse.
They say if the Prophet had bid you do some great thing, would you have not done it?
And Naman would have agreed that, yeah, he would have done it. And you know what? It's the same with salvation, OK? If God had said you need to, you know, climb the highest mountain, we would all try to do it. We would try to do something if we had to travel across the world to.
Some pilgrimage, OK, we would all do it, but it's so much simpler than that. He just says believe and be saved.
It's very, very simple.
And yet some of us say, no, I don't want to do that. I don't feel like doing that.
OK, it's so, so important that we believe in the Lord Jesus name and washes seven times in the river.
It says wash and be clean.
And we can wash.
Ourselves in the precious blood of Christ, that Lamb of God.
Who was crucified for us? We can wash and be clean of our sins.
On our way to heaven.
Well.
I need to apologize because I haven't left too much time for a memory verse, but there's one or two children want to share a memory verse they've been working on. OK, let's.
Do you need help getting started?
Yeah.
OK, I'm just going to go to somebody else, OK? And if you think of it, then you, you let me hang on a SEC. Let's go to somebody who hasn't spoken yet, OK, Emma.
Troubled you believe in God, believe us certainly to interrupt the 14 verse one.
Awesome.
OK, Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
In Hebrews 11.
Faith is the substance of French hoped for the evidence of Finch not seen. OK, Evelyn, come on up.
Hebrews 11/1 Faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen. Hebrews 11/1 Thank you, Evelyn. OK, well, I'm really sorry, but I'd love to give everybody a turn here, but our time's gone.
00:45:05
OK, so we are going to pray.
But let's remember.
Those.
Song #15 I think in here no 1313 is one of my kids favorites. OK the last verse goes like this says the things we do for Jesus may not seem like very much.
But if he is your savior, God will see and honor such OK so I want to leave that with all you kids that.
If we are willing.
And able to do something for the Lord.
You know what he appreciates and values it so much and it will give us confidence.
To continue on in our path of faith. OK, let's bow our heads.
Our God and Father, we just give thanks for this time together. We give thanks for this reminder of this story, our Father, where you provided an abundance above all that we could ask or think in taking this little bit of food and distributing it amongst so many. We just give thanks for meeting all of our needs and most importantly.
Our need of salvation in sending your Son the Lord Jesus to die for our sins. So we pray for each child here that they would be.
Like this little maid and this young lad and.
Be willing to be used of God and blessing to others and so we just.
ISIS in Jesus name, Amen.
The Armor of God
Open—Bob Thonney
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
200 and 88288.
I'd like this afternoon to pick up on something that was touched on yesterday.
The question of spiritual warfare.
It's pretty evident, brethren, that we are living in days of tremendous spiritual warfare and it's important that we understand we are not living in days of peace. It's days of real warfare. Things that have been taken for granted are being challenged and given up all over the place.
And if you and I don't know where we stand?
Then.
We're going to get swept along with the tide, so I'd like to go to Ephesians chapter.
Six, where we have that subject.
Taken up.
Ephesians is the book where we have probably more than any other.
The spiritual blessings that are ours in Christ.
Wonderful panorama of spiritual blessing.
00:05:05
But we have an enemy that doesn't want you to enjoy that. He can't take away your blessings, but he can take away the enjoyment of him. So I'd like to go over these verses, Ephesians chapter 6, and we'll read from verse 10.
Finally, my brethren.
Be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might.
Put on the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to.
Stand against the Wiles of the devil, for we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
Wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all two, stands.
Stand therefore having your loins girt about with truth.
And having on the breastplate of righteousness, and your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace, above all taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.
And take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for All Saints. And for me that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the Gospel, for which I am an ambassador in bonds, that therein I may speak boldly.
As I ought to speak.
There we have the question of our spiritual warfare taken up and the armor that is provided for us. And you know, a soldier puts on his armor before he goes into the battle. So it's something for us to reflect.
Do you have the armor of God put on, or do you just know about it? It's important that we put it on and so he says.
First of all, and just want to mention this before we go on, be strong in the Lord, in the power of His might. It's only in that way can we go forward. It's not a matter of how strong you are physically or mentally. It's a matter of our faith in the Lord and walk with the Lord. Oh, how important it is.
It's only that way can we stand in this evil day?
Lord help us.
I must say, brother, in my travels through Latin America, I remember.
The years when I was still single and we were hiking through the Andes of southern Peru in the department of Ayacucho and and we came to this one town where we met some believers. They had been saved through some missionary that had come through there, but they hadn't anybody to take care of them spiritually.
And so they said to us, why don't you come and have a meeting with us? So they arranged and it was on one of the streets of the city there, and quite a few came together. And we were speaking about these spiritual realities that we have in chapter one of Ephesians, that we're blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ, that we are accepted in the beloved that we have.
Redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace. You know what? All of a sudden the door was open to the street there and here comes a drunk man and he starts shouting out in Quechua. I don't understand Quechua that enough to be under to understand what he was saying, but he started shouting in catch with his drunkard.
And all the attention went from the word that we were speaking to the drunk man at the at the.
00:10:04
At the back door, at the door of the entrance.
Well, somebody had mercy on us and went out and took the drunk man by his arm and walked him down to the corner and around the corner.
And we hoped that that would be the end of the matter. And so he left him there and came back and we continued with our meeting. It wasn't too long before the drunk was back at our door. There's a lot of other open doors along the street, but he was at our door.
The enemy knew that they were enjoying the truth of the scriptures, and they didn't want that to happen.
It's when you are walking in the enjoyment of the truth of God that there is power in your testimony, and that's what Satan doesn't want to happen.
And so it's a real warfare. It happens in so many different ways.
But I want to get it down, especially to leave time for somebody else here to the seven pieces of the armor of God. And I'm going to just enumerate them first of all, before we talk about them individually. They start in verse 14. The first one is having your loins girt about with truth.
#2 having on the breastplate of righteousness.
#3 your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace.
#4 above all, taking the shield of faith.
Wherewith you shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked #5.
Take the helmet of salvation number six, the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God and #7.
Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for All Saints. They all go together and I just want to challenge you, dear brother, and to stop and think whether you.
Have really put on all the armor of God. It's important it goes together. So the first one is having your loins girt about with truth. It's not just learning the truth in the head, it's girding it on. It's putting it into practice in your life, how important that is.
I'm sure you've all heard.
That.
The truth of God tells us that we are all.
Priests, holy priests, to OfferUp spiritual sacrifices to God. That's what we were doing this morning.
In the breaking of bread meeting I was very pleased to hear some younger brothers.
Take part as well, because it's not a matter of age, it's a matter of consecration, the use of priesthood. Sisters are priests as well. That's why in the breaking of bread, meeting the sisters, take part in the hymns of praise to the Lord, your priests just as much as the brothers. And so to realize that you know what the enemy uses.
He uses the idea that there's certain ones that are qualified to take part in that.
Meeting others are not quite up to that category yet.
Lord help us brethren to have the truth gird on and to. It concerns me sometimes when people talk about certain brother and I are in the Lord's work and others not. If you are a believer in the Lord Jesus, you are in the Lord's work. There is no qualifications of no categories.
Like his practice was practiced in Judaism where you had one tribe that was doing the service of God of that one tribe, one family that could go into the holy place, and one person of that one family could go into the holiest of all.
Christened them as returned to that in setting up the system of the clergy. And sometimes I find we fall into that mentality rather than let's put on this truth.
00:15:01
That we are.
Priests to God, this is one of the things we need to put on.
Enjoy it and I want to say something that I have found a real blessing in our own. My wife and I as we're at home by ourselves is to learn to praise the Lord in your family as well. We try to do it after we have our Bible reading. Take some hymn of praise. You know, there's a lot of hymns that are about our spiritual blessings, but there are hymns.
That are directed directly to him. That's what a real hymn is.
And what a privilege to be able to do that. It says in Hebrews chapter 13. Let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God.
Thursday morning does it say Nope?
Continually make a practice of praising God in your home life. Oh, it's a blessing. I must say, when I hear that in some homes, I am thrilled.
I still remember.
In one place I was in South America and there was a little kid outside the window. He was trying to sing Jesus Loves Me. He hadn't learned it very good, but he was singing. And I just thought how much God must appreciate to hear that precious name of Jesus, even though he had the hymn all mixed up.
That's all right.
And I think God really appreciated it. So the Lord help us brethren. And so the truth is affects every aspect of our life, not only the aspect of praising the Lord, but it's oh brethren, our walk in ways down here put on the truth of God. It's not just merely.
Understanding it. Yes, understanding is important and I really appreciate conferences like this where we have reading meetings where the truth can be presented.
And balanced, you know, it says let the prophet speak two or three. Let the others judge. We're not judging people. We're judging what is said. We have the scriptures open before us. Is this what it says? You judge and say that rather speaking right? Or is he a little bit off and sometimes we get off.
But then there's another brother that comes along and says, hey, here's another verse I want to present in connection with this subject.
And he balanced it out. I must say, brethren, sitting in conference meetings since my youth has been a tremendous blessing and has left the truth of God as something I treasure in my heart. But I hope it's not just matter in my heart. I hope it's put on the Lord help us in these things, brethren, it we could go into so many different aspects of.
Girding on the truth.
Gird your loins with truth. The loins are the strong part of the.
Of the body and very important to have that belt of truth on for a soldier that helped him in the battle.
So that's the first thing that we are to gird on the truth. Truth is the word of God, but it's not only to be known, it's to be put into practice in our lives. The second one is.
Having on the breastplate of righteousness.
The breastplate was a part that covered the breast of the soldiers, so that when the arrows came a flying at him.
Bounce right off. They wouldn't be able to do any damage to the soldier. What is that for the believer? I like to think of it as a good conscience. Let's look and see what Paul says to Timothy. Was a young man about a good conscience so important?
Chapter one of First Timothy and verse five. The end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart.
And of a good conscience and of faith.
Unfeigned, from which some, having swerved, have turned his sight into vain. Jangling. Verse 19.
00:20:08
Holding faith and a good conscience, which some, having put away concerning faith, have made shipwreck, mentions a good conscience. You know, where man got conscience, I'm sure was in the Garden of Eden.
When man was innocent.
And there was one tree that he was told not to eat of it, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And of course we know the story how Satan came along and deceived the woman, didn't deceive the man, deceived the woman, and she put out her hand and took the fruit and ate of it.
Scripture definitely says that men that the man was not deceived.
He knew what he was doing. He didn't say anything when he saw his wife reach out and take that fruit.
He is the responsible head of a fallen race of human beings.
Oh, how important it is. And immediately after they had eaten, they knew that they were naked. That's the knowledge of good and evil. And every man has that, whether they like to admit it or not. Sometimes I've seen little kids in the home. Their mom has told her don't touch that vase on that table in the middle there. And so they know they understood that.
So they're wandering around, they come to that table.
And they reach out their hand to touch that vase, and they look around and see if their mom is watching. Why do they do that? Because conscience is working. It's interesting. And every man has a conscience. Sometimes a conscience can get seared. You do bad stuff. You get used to it. Like a blacksmith who picks up those hot irons and his hand gets calloused. He doesn't feel it, but you take.
Pin and poke down through the calluses. He still got feeling down there, and so conscience is still there. Oh, how important it is to cultivate a good conscience, Paul says in the book of the Acts. Herein do I exercise myself to have always a conscience void of offense toward God and toward man.
How important it is to exercise ourselves in that way, Brethren, this is part of the armor of God. If there's something on your conscience.
You know in your life that is not right. I ask you to judge it and to put it where it belongs. The Lord help us. This is part of the armor, and it's extremely important. When people give up, a good conscience is no telling how far they may go.
And the third one is.
Verse 15. Put your feet shod with the preparation of the Gospel of peace.
When it talks about the feet, it's talking about our walk.
And notice it doesn't say that our feet shod with the gospel of peace. It's the preparation of the gospel of peace. In other words, the way you walk prepares souls from for hearing the message from you.
I've heard people say sometimes about Christians the way they walk.
Speak so loud I can't hear what they're saying. And that's a lack of having our feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. Lord help us, brethren, if we walk properly. I still remember the story of a sister, and I'm not just sure where she lived here in the United States, but her testimony in the office where she worked. She was quite a shy girl.
And her testimony was such that another secretary came up to her one day and says, what do you have? You have something that I want, Just tell me what is it that you have? And so she was able to share the gospel with her and talk to her about the Lord. And I do believe that she got saved. That other secretary, it was because of the walk.
Of that, sister. So it's important to have our feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace.
00:25:05
Now comes the 4th, the middle.
1.
And notice that it's prefaced at verse 16.
With those two words, above all, something that is extremely important, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. Those darts that he's throwing out in this spiritual warfare are doubts.
Satan wants to get us to doubt God.
That's what happened with Eve.
She started talking to the devil, and the devil said Yay hath God said. He put a doubt into Eve's mind, and in the course of things he got her to fall.
Lord help us, brethren, I can understand if you want to doubt me.
Or others, but when it comes to God in his word.
Don't entertain any doubts as to it. That's the shield of faith.
When it comes to God's word, believe it God.
Is as good as his word. He will never deny himself.
Just want to read that in Second Timothy. This to me is a bulwark of for our time Second Timothy chapter 2 and verse.
13.
If we believe not yet he abideth faithful, He cannot deny himself. I love that.
God is God and God is true, and when he says something, maybe I don't understand it very well. And that's to be expected. We're all growing in understanding, but God will never deny himself.
Oh, how wonderful to have him, and to have that shield of faith wherewith we can quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. So if you want to doubt me, brethren, I can understand. I failed in my life.
And quite a few things I can understand. But don't doubt God. Never doubt God. You know, I think of the Apostle Paul as one who illustrated this. You remember?
In the 27th of the book of the Acts, when he was.
On board that ship and that terrible storm that they were going through and.
Paul stands up after quite a while and says.
Wherefore, sirs?
God, an Angel of God, stood by me and said that we will all be saved. Somebody might have stood up to Paul and says, come on, Paul, be reasonable. Look at the state of this boat. Look at the storm. It's not abating. There's no chance that we're going to be saved.
He says, Wherefore men be of good cheer for I.
Believe God. That's the shield of faith, and how important it is to know how to raise the shield of faith amongst the unbelief that's in our era of the history of this world, to believe God.
How important, above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.
Now verse 17, the next one is the helmet of salvation. The helmet was something that went over the head.
The knowledge that, brethren, we have a full.
Salvation.
And no matter what happens in this life, it will never change.
The outcome, if you could tell a soldier as he's going to the battle, I know you're going to come out victorious.
What a bolster that would be to his confidence to go and fight.
00:30:06
I think it's in the.
Appendix of our hymn book. We have a hymn. Can I borrow your hymn book? Just a minute.
You got it, You got it.
This this is the.
The.
Shield of the helmet of salvation verse six says for every tribulation.
For every sore distress in Christ.
I have full salvation, sure help and quiet rest. No Fear of false prevailing. I triumph, Lord in thee, oh Jesus, friend unfailing, how dear art thou to me that's the helmet of salvation. Thank you.
Put on the helmet of salvation, brethren. Sometimes things go heavy in life.
But remember, God is using those heavy circumstances to work His eternal purposes of blessing for every tribulation, for every sore distress in Christ, with full salvation, sure help and quiet rest.
The sixth piece is what follows the Sword of the Spirit.
Which is the word of God. Oh how important to have that in our lives as well. To use the word of God I find in my own.
Reaction to people off times, I like to stop and try to reason with them. To me it's interesting to see that the Lord Jesus in interacting with different peoples.
Often did not answer their questions. He gave something else.
He gave something of the word of God, and when the devil came to tempt him in Matthew chapter 4, every time he said he didn't reason with the devil, don't get reasoning with the devil, just give him the scriptures. So when he tempted him with the saying, make those stones bread because the Lord hadn't eaten for 40 days.
You can imagine how hungry he must have been physically. He didn't fall for it. He was guided, not by his.
Physical needs he was guided by the word of God and he gave the word of God. It is written, a man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. And so each one of those temptations he answered with the word of God. How important that is to have the word of God as a living reality in our lives. Not only.
To.
Understand it, but to memorize it. I just encourage you young people.
To memorize the Scripture. You know, there's people that have memorized the whole New Testament and I have heard of them, but they're not that many. But I think as beautiful when you can memorize Scripture, but not only memorize it, but let it live in you, that's important. And then when need comes, then you can respond.
You don't have to reason with the unbeliever.
You can simply say it is written and when the devil quoted a scripture to the Lord Jesus, he said it is written again.
Then the last thing in verse 1819 and 20 is prayer. Oh how important. Prayer is the word of God and prayer. And so we have the word of God in what we have in verse 14. The truth is the word of God to dirt it on. And then we have prayer at the end.
Do you take time?
To pray seriously, take time in quiet to pray to the Lord, I must say.
I do it at a time when I didn't. I don't have any other thing to.
Interrupt my prayers during the early hours of the morning. I find that's the best time to pray.
And you might say, aren't you sleepy? Yeah, I'm sleepy, but it's more important.
00:35:01
To pray than it is to sleep. I'll get some sleep afterwards. But oh how important it is to take time to pray. God is a personal God. He wants to communicate with us. He does communicate through His word. He wants to hear from us too. And it's interesting the words that are used there in verse 18, prayer.
Supplication Watching.
Perseverance supplications for All Saints.
You know, it came to me one day. Why do we have to supplicate God? If it's something that God wants, why do we have to supplicate?
Supplication is something more intense than just simply prayer.
And this is what's come to me, brethren.
God is intense about the desire to bless souls. Are we in fellowship with Him on that level to really desire as well blessing for souls? I suggest you think it through, but this is so important.
Impressed me when I was reading the biography of Martin Luther. You remember Martin Luther was a man God used in the Reformation period to restore the truth of justification by faith alone, and it was a great blessing. He didn't have all the truth of God, but he did have something that was very precious and was mightily used.
One of the statements he made.
I found, and I think it was a biography I read of him, he said. You know, I have so much to do every day. I dare not take any less than three hours to pray.
No wonder God used that man the way he did.
O brethren, the Lord, help us to pray, to take time to pray, to be intense about it. God is working in this world, but more things are.
Affected through prayer than we realize we're told to pray for those in authority.
I find sometimes in our prayer meetings rarely a mention of the president of the country or kings or prime ministers. Whatever it is, Scripture is very clear that we should pray for those.
Do we, Lord help us brethren, because you know, I think we don't get involved in political movements. I don't feel that's our place. The Lord Jesus standing before Pilate said my Kingdom is not of this world. If my Kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight that I would not be delivered to the Jews, but now is my Kingdom not from hence?
And so.
Do we have anything we can do about it?
What's going on in political circles? We sure do. We can pray.
But we need to be intense about it, we need to be deliberate about it.
I just want to challenge our dear young people to take time.
To spend with the Lord.
I don't like to mention myself, but I must say there was a time when I was still single or working in the Chicago area.
That I thought convicted that I needed to take more time with the Lord. And I decided that I was going to take an hour each morning before I went to work. I had to leave for work in downtown Chicago at 7:00 in the morning. I'd take an hour before that to read and to pray.
I must say those were times it took some discipline to get myself out of that bed and get up and read a chapter.
And read some of the ministry that was written on it. And then take time to pray.
I have to say that was a time of real help in my life. It gave me an understanding going through some of the ministry books on Scripture. Get intentional, young people, about understanding the Word of God. It's going to serve you in the long run. It will be a blessing to you.
00:40:09
So the Lord help us, brethren, we are in a very real spiritual warfare.
But we have every reason to believe that we can come out victorious.
Not by our own strength. Be strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might. Take unto you the whole armour of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, having done all to stand.
Comments on the Battle
Open—Bruce Christensen
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
We just turn to the 14th chapter.
We see a household in order.
And how much scripture talks about a household in order?
Then following from that, we have other things that are brought into an order. So let's just turn to Genesis chapter 14 and let's turn to verse 14. In this chapter we have Abraham delivering a lot.
And in verse 14 it says, And when Abram heard that his brother was taken captive, he armed his trained servants born in his own house, 318 and pursued them unto Dan.
Oh, here were 318 servants that were trained in his own house.
And he didn't go out to another place to select those to go out.
And recover a lot. The 1St place they looked was in his own household and we see that they were trained servants and we see that Abrams household was in order and as a result of that he could go out and recover lot.
And just another very brief account that I'd like to read is in Psalm 78.
With very little comment.
We go down to verse nine in this chapter.
We heard much about the whole armor of God.
And how important it is.
To be equipped with that, as our brother has said, let's just look in verse 9.
It says the children of Ephraim being armed.
And carrying bows. Well, let's just stop here.
Well, one thing that you want to do is when you're going out to warfare is to equip an army.
And here was an army that was being equipped. They were carrying bows and they were armed. But what does it say here? They turned back in the day of battle.
I was just enjoying recently a scripture that we have, I believe in the 8th chapter of Judges about Gideon.
He had 300 men that the Lord used against that whole company, and it says they were faint, but they were pursuing, and may we each.
Be found like those 300 men, faint but pursuing. We have been given the equipment, we have been given the armor. But let's not be like these.
Children of Ephraim turning back in the day of battle.
A Servant of the Lord
Open—Tim Roach
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.
Banned on what Brother Bob was saying specifically about how you do that, how you put it on, how you put it on. As a young person, I enjoyed hearing messages like that, but exactly, specifically, how do you put it on?
I had some thoughts about that, Sam.
Don't know if it's exactly what you were thinking, but I'll share what I had.
You know you may have a desire to serve the Lord.
You put on the armor of God. You're a servant of God. You're ready to serve.
And you may have that desire to serve the Lord, but you may think that you do not have the necessary requirements to serve the Lord. And I want to look at some things that you do have in order for you to be a servant of the Lord.
And I want to look at Romans chapter 10 and verse 8.
Everyone here who knows the Lord is their savior is a servant of God.
Maybe a man, a woman, a child. If you know the Lord Jesus, you are a servant of God and you need to put on that armor of God so you can go out to serve the Lord. And the first question I have is what is in your heart? You have something whereby you can serve the Lord. What is in your heart in Romans 10 verse 8. But what saith it? The word is nigh thee even in thy mouth and in thy heart.
That is the Word of Faith which we preach.
The point is in this verse.
A servant of the Lord needs to have a message.
Do you have a message in your heart that you can share with your friend?
You know, I when I was in high school, I was a very bad servant. I didn't do very well. One young man, he came to me and he said, you know, there's something about your life that I like. I don't know what it is, but what is it in your life? I was afraid to answer. I was embarrassed to answer.
When you get persecuted so much.
It.
It makes you fearful and you're afraid of persecution, but persecution generally builds you up, makes you stronger for the next time. But I did not answer this young man. I had a wonderful opportunity.
The next time I had something to do with this young man, he was calling me.
Hojo, I said. Please don't call me that. He was thinking I was Jehovah's Witness.
Again he called me Hojo another time, and I took him by the throat and slid him up the wall and said, don't you ever call me that again.
What kind of a servant of the Lord would do that?
He never did call me that again. He never talked to me again.
Amidst opportunity. But do you have a message in your heart? And how does the message get into our hearts?
So that we have something whereby we can have a message what we read our bibles, we take time like Bob was mentioning, take time in the morning to read the Bible and pray study. Maybe you can listen to to some meetings on the recordings, you can ask questions, you can go to the Bible meetings and listen. But you need to learn.
And understand.
Have some knowledge so that you have a message because we all there is a message.
And when you have the message, you write down the points that you have learned to help you remember the message so you can better share the message. I want to look at a verse in Second Timothy chapter one.
Second Timothy chapter one and verse 13.
Hold fast the form of sound words which thou hast heard of Maine in faith and love, which is in Christ Jesus. Hold fast the form.
Of sound words, a form. I like to think of that as an outline. You can do that. You can, As you read and you go through scriptures, you can outline the truths of Scripture. And if you can't put them in order in your mind, write them down. Make notes.
00:05:19
Ezra in Chapter 7 and verse 10. I like this verse.
For Ezra had prepared his heart to seek the law of the Lord.
It takes energy to be able to read and pray and study and think and meditate about these things. He prepared his heart to seek the Lord, to seek the law of the Lord, and to do it. And so after you, you study and you learn a little bit, try to practice that, implement that in your life in some way, and then after you're able to experience what you've learned.
Then you can What does it say here, Ezra? He began to teach in Israel the statutes and judgments.
So that's the order that we do things, We read and we pray and we meditate and we practice what we learn.
Then we can have the word in our mouth so that we can teach it to others.
I have another thought about what is in your heart.
Well, what is in your heart? We need to be careful what we put into our heart.
If I have bad thoughts in my heart.
Eventually it's going to lead me to do bad things, but if I have good things in my heart, it will lead me to do good things. And there's a verse in Luke chapter 6.
Luke, chapter 6 and verse 45.
A good man, out of the good treasure of his heart, brings forth that which is good.
And an evil man, out of the evil treasure of his heart, bringeth forth that which is evil.
For of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. And so it's good for us to have thoughts of Christ, good things to think about. When we start looking at things that aren't good, or thinking about things that are bad and doing things that are bad, it's going to affect our whole life and our whole testimony. And as a servant of God, I need to have that testimony that gives honor to the Lord. And out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth will speak.
And So what you are thinking about will come out in your conversation or in your actions.
My next thought Second Kings Chapter 4.
And this question is about what is in your house.
And second Kings chapter 4, we'll read the 1St 7 verses.
Now there cried a certain woman of the wise of the sons of the prophets unto Elisha, saying, thy servant my husband is dead, And thou knowest that thy servant did fear the Lord, and the creditor has come to take unto him my two sons to be bondsmen.
And Elisha said unto her, What shall I do for thee? Tell me, what hast thou in thy house? What do you have in your house? And she said, Thine handmaid, hath not anything in the house save a pot of oil?
These verses we find that the lady had something in her house that she could use to be a service. She had a pot of oil and the oil speaks to us of the Spirit of God. What do you have in your house? Our body is the temple of of the Holy Spirit.
In our house we have the Holy Spirit indwelling us, and so we have the Holy Spirit. So we believers, we have the Spirit of God in our hearts if we look in First Corinthians chapter 6.
Have a lot of verses to turn to if I can come up with them all. First Corinthians chapter 6.
Verse 19 and 20.
What? Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, which is in you, which you have of your own, you, which you have of God? You are not your own, for ye are bought with a price. Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are gods. So as we live our daily lives, we need to know that we have the spirit of God, and whatever we're thinking, whatever we're doing, where we have the Spirit of God with us at those times.
00:10:13
And so that will help us to know not to have bad thoughts, not to do bad things, but that we would have a message from the spirit of God to be able to share with others. You have the Spirit of God. You have something that gives you the power and the understanding to be able to share the message that God has given you the servant of God. Now let's look at John chapter 16.
John chapter 16 and verse 13 and 14.
Howbeit when he, the Spirit of Truth, has come, he will guide you into all truth. For he shall not speak of himself. But whatsoever he shall hear that shall he speak. And he will show you things to come, He shall glorify me, for he shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you. Oh, what a blessing we have when we receive the Holy Spirit into our lives to guide us into all truth, to comfort our hearts.
To to lead us through this Christian pathway and as a servant of God.
We need to trust the Spirit of God and His leading and His guidance.
There's another verse in Ephesians 5.
Ephesians 5 and verse 18.
Be not drunk with wine wherein is excess, but be filled with the spirit.
How do we become filled with the Spirit? We have the Spirit indwelling us. We're not going to get anymore of the Spirit than what we have.
But so how can we be filled with the Spirit? We don't pray with our hands lifted up to try to draw the Spirit into us. No, we have the Spirit of God, and so we.
If you have your heart full of of many other things that this life has to offer.
You have a lesser room for the Spirit of God to take in your heart. But if we can take those other things out of our heart, it leaves room for the Spirit of God to fill us as we are occupied with Christ and His word. So what is in your house? We have the Spirit of God indwelling us. Next question is what is in your hand? And let's go to Exodus chapter 4.
And I'm just going to read verse 2.
And the Lord said unto him, What is in thine hand? And he said.
Iran.
You have something that you can use to serve the Lord. You have something in your hand.
Moses had a rod in his hand, and that was his life. Everything he did, he needed that rod for his work that he did. He had the sheep. He needed to use it to protect the sheep, and to and to preserve the sheep. He needed maybe to dig holes he needed it to.
A rod is useful for many things when that's all you have in your hand.
You have your life, you have your job, you have your work. The rod is your life. What do you do with your life? Maybe you're in school and you don't have a job, but you have your life, and there's something about your life that can be used to serve the Lord. The rod was the life of Moses, and he used that rod to serve the Lord. And we have a life that we can use to live for Jesus.
And I want to look at some verses in connection with this in Matthew chapter 16.
Matthew chapter 16 and verse 24.
Then Jesus said unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.
For whosoever will save his life shall lose it. Whosoever shall lose his life for my sake will find it.
00:15:05
Whosoever will save his life in this world will lose it. This world has so much to offer the Christian.
But not on a Christian level. It has things to offer the world to draw the Christian away from the Lord.
I think of the prodigal son. I like to look at the prodigal son as a young Christian man.
He knew the Lord as a savior, but he wasn't living his life for the Lord, and He got carried away with the attractions of this world, and he went off.
He was a son.
But he was living his life for himself. He gained what he ever he wanted in this world, which was a big loss to him in this world, but it was also a spiritual loss. What does he have now of his life to give to the Lord? What can the Lord say? Well done, thou good and faithful servant. You've wasted everything I gave to you.
And whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it. If you're I know we need to do our job. We have responsibilities in life to provide for ourselves, our families, and and so many things that we have responsibilities that make us so busy in this world. But.
We can still use our life to serve the Lord.
If you're willing to lose some of those benefits and some of those pleasures and some of those experiences in order to serve the Lord, to be a servant of the Lord, you're going to have blessing. The Lord's going to reward you for that, and you will find your life rather than lose your life. I know it's complicated, but if you lose your life, you'll find it.
There's a verse in Philippians chapter one.
If you want to be a servant of the Lord, it's not going to be easy and that's why Bob was presenting to us the the armor of God. We need that protection because the Christian life is very difficult and if you are going to serve the Lord, Satan's not going to allow you get to to get too far before he tries to pull you down and bring you down. And this verse in first in Philippians one verse 29, it is for unto you. It is given in the behalf of Christ.
Not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake. I see in this verse 2 gifts that we have been given by God.
One gift is the gift of faith to believe it's been given to you.
To believe.
And so we know the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior. We are a servant of God. But then the second gift.
Is to suffer, and the Lord gives us the grace.
To suffer.
How can you serve the Lord when you have all these problems? It's given to you to suffer, and so don't expect an easy life if you're going to be a servant of the Lord. It's going to be a lot of trials and difficulties along the way. Satan's going to try to take you down.
But be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Another verse in Romans chapter 12.
Romans chapter 12 and verse one.
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.
And so we have something in our hand that we can use to serve the Lord. We have our life. And are we willing to make our life a sacrifice for Christ? A living sacrifice? Yes. It's going to be difficult times, hard times. Maybe we won't experience persecution or face death for our service for the Lord, but we might. Especially the way this world is going, things are changing so fast that it could come very quickly.
To this world, to this country, to our own environment. But are we willing to sacrifice our bodies? You might have to do without going to a conference. You might have to do without having your birthday celebrations with your friends. You might have to suffer in a a physical way or in another way.
00:20:11
And there will be suffering. Are we willing to put our bodies in the line of danger, in the line of of suffering?
In order to serve the Lord, it says, which is your reasonable service.
How much is reasonable to give to the Lord? How much of my life I have my life? It's something I can use to serve the Lord. How much of my life am I going to give to the Lord?
I need to confess that I don't know that I have been able to give that much of my life to the Lord.
But what is reasonable? Wouldn't 100% be reasonable? What did the Lord give to you for you? How much did He spend to He sold all that he had to buy that Pearl of great price. He gave everything he had for you. He gave everything He had for me. Am I willing to give anything for the Lord? He's not asking for 10%. He's not asking us to tithe. He's not asking us to put all our money in the basket.
He wants our life. He's given us our life and that's something we have in our hand that we can use to serve him.
Now go to 1St Corinthians chapter 4.
In verse.
Verse 7.
And then? And I ask this question. What have you received? You want to be a servant of the Lord. What have you received to be able to serve the Lord? 1St Corinthians 4 verse seven. For who maketh thee to differ from another? And what hast thou that thou didst not receive? Now, if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory as if thou hadst not received it? And so sometimes we get into a groove where we can serve the Lord, and things go along just great, and we feel we're pretty good about this thing. Look at these others. They can't do anything.
Well, who are you? Who am I to think that I'm doing this all of my own volition, my own my own energy, my own abilities? No. If you have received something, it didn't come from yourself, it came from the Lord, so you can be able to serve him.
There's another verse in Ephesians 4.
Ephesians 4 and verse 7.
But unto everyone of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. Wherefore, he says, when he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive and gave gifts unto men. The Lord has given every one of us we are servants of God, and He's given us, every one of us, a spiritual gift for us to use for him. No use, you may say. Well, I don't know what my gift is. How can I serve with my gift if I don't know what it is?
Don't be so concerned about what is my gift. But when the Lord gives you something to do and and to serve him or to say a word for him, just do it. Just say it. Don't worry about what your gift is and as you as you get, get more experience in your your Christian life and in your your path of service.
The Lord is going to present you opportunities to speak for him, to do something for him, and in time a gift, a gift will be developed. So don't worry about what your gift is, just do what the Lord has given you to do and do it for him.
One more verse in closing. Romans 12.
Romans 12 and verse 3.
For I say, through the grace given unto me to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly according. As God has dealt to every man the measure of faith, so the Lord has given us a number of things that we can use to serve him as a servant here in our pathway.
We have our heart.
We have our house.
We have our hand, our life, and we have received from the Lord a gift for service for Him.
#33 and the appendix.
00:25:00
My soul take up the cross, count the gain, despise the loss, labor for and with the Lord brings exceeding great reward. 33 In the back of the book some brotherhood started, please.
Salvation.
Rust in my soul, hard works and gods.
Despite the boss.
Labor for every.
Support.
Really. Come back. Breathe near by the ground.
Read one verse before we pray.
Second Timothy Chapter 4.
Second Timothy Chapter 4.
Verse 7.
I have fought a good fight, or perhaps to express it better.
In English, the sense of it is I have fought the fight, the good one.
I have finished my course. I have kept the faith.
Paul could say this. I trust that we all can too.
The end of the journey, remembering that there was one and only one who could say.
I have finished the work which thou gave us me to do.
Blessed God our Father, we thank thee for what thou has brought before us.
We pray that whatever time may be left to us may be used for thy glory.
Not only in service, but above all in worship and praise.
And we do pray.
That we may indeed remember.
To put on the whole armor of God.
To stand in the evil day.
And having done all to stand so, we commend thy word to thee that it might have its effect on each one of us. Pray for those that may need to leave shortly, and pray for mercies, for them, and for those already on the road.
I give thanks our God in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Amen.
2 Peter 3:10-18
Reading
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
13 in the appendix.
Hasty on from grace to glory, armed by faith and winged by prayer.
Heavens, eternal days before thee. God's right hand shall guide thee there.
13 in the appendix.
Filed of God by Christian.
Everything's going to do.
Joy of God without reason.
Read a few verses before praying in Hebrews Chapter 11.
Hebrews Chapter 11 and verse 13.
These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.
For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country, and truly if they've been mindful of that country from whence they came out.
They might have had an opportunity to have returned, but now they desire a better country that isn't heavenly. Wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he hath prepared for them a city.
Ray.
Our God and Father, we again thank you that we can be over the Word of God.
Think of how these verses speak of ones in the Old Testament who didn't have the word of God. They didn't have the indwelling of the Spirit. Still, they were able to, by faith, see something beyond this earth and.
Live looking for that?
And now, Lord Jesus, we do have the word of God in the Spirit of God, and we know much of what lies before us, and we know the future of this earth. And as we go over these things a little bit, we're willing that our hearts would.
Not be touched that we would more be found on the right side of the battlefield, contending with the father for the honor of the Son, and not on the wrong side, caught up in this world.
And we ask this in the name of the Lord Jesus, Amen.
Would verse 11 be about right, Bob, or were we further than that?
00:05:00
I was thinking of reading from verse 10 just to get the connection. Sure.
Second Peter chapter 3 and verse 10.
But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night in which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, The earth also in the works that are therein, shall be burned up. Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought he to be? An all holy conversation and godliness, looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, or in the heavens, being on fire, shall be dissolved in the elements shall melt with fervent heat.
Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. Wherefore, beloved, seeing that you look for such things, be diligent, that you may be found of Him in peace, without spot and blameless. An account that the long-suffering of our Lord is salvation, even as our beloved brother Paul also, according to the wisdom given unto Him, hath written unto you, as also in all His epistles, speaking in them of these things in which are some things hard to be understood.
Which they that are unlearned and unstable, rest, as they do also the other Scriptures, unto their own destruction. Ye therefore, beloved, seeing that, seeing ye know these things before, beware lest ye also, being LED away with the error of the wicked, fall from your own steadfastness, but grow in grace in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be glory both now and forever. Amen.
I just suggest as a brief outline of what we have left in this chapter, and I admit that it's a personal.
Exercise and enjoyment I've had the last little while. We happen to have had this same book before us in the conference in Egypt back a couple of months ago, and we enjoyed this over there.
In verse 10, we have the day of the Lord, the Millennial Day.
And then an exhortation in verse 11 which is related to it.
Then in verses 12 and 13 we have the day of God, the eternal state.
And we have an exhortation which I believe is connected with that in verse 14.
And then we have.
Peter speaking about.
His beloved brother Paul and what Paul had written. And then we have in verse 17 an exhortation related to that.
And then finally, most precious of all, perhaps the last verse, which kind of wraps everything up.
The beautiful thought of growing in grace. Is that a fairway of looking at it, Brother Bob?
Very good. Thank you.
I would like as we start the meditation on the.
Day of God to read it in the new translation because it gives a little different focus and.
I would like help on it myself, so let me just read verse 11 and 12 together.
All these things being to be dissolved.
What ought to be? What ought ye to be in holy conversation and godliness?
Here's the point waiting for and.
Hastening the coming of the Day of God.
By reason of which the heavens, being on fire, shall be dissolved in the elements, burning with each shall melt.
That expression waiting for and hastening.
The coming of the day of God.
Don't stop there, brother, Tell us what it means.
I said I needed some help.
It's so wonderful, the day of God and.
00:10:00
I think there are three places in the New Testament that deal with eternity, maybe four if you count the end of Ephesians 3.
But why is it that we have so little said about the day of God?
You ever thought on that, Brother Steve?
And my only thought is that it passes out of the sphere of being, the Spirit of God being able to communicate it to us and the language that we presently possess in our capacity that we presently possess to understand.
Hmm, it's really we might read those 3 passages brother, or or the four. In First Corinthians 15 it says verse 28, When all things shall be subdued unto him, then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him. That's put all things under him, that God may be All in all, and so he'll be a blessed man for all eternity, and as a man subject to God.
So this is in the eternal state, and he's just.
Bringing in the change, the glorious change that will take place, the redemption of our bodies, and much more that he gives in this chapter, the 15th chapter. And then we've read of the eternal state here in second Peter chapter 3. And then we have in Revelation.
I think it's is it chapter 2020 or 2121?
Yes, 21 and it's really, I think the 1St 8 verses that speak of it. I saw a new heaven and a new earth. That's Revelation 21 verse one for the 1St heaven. The first earth passed away and there was no more seed. And I, John, saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for husband. And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, behold.
The Tabernacle of God is with men. He will dwell with them. They shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them.
And be their God, and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes. There shall be no more death, neither sorrow nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain, for the former things are passed away. And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, right, for these words are true and faithful. And he said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that his thirst, fountain of water, of life freely he that overcometh.
Should inherit all things, and I will be his God and He shall be my son. But the fearful, unbelieving, the abominable, and murderers and ************ sorcerers, idolaters and all liars shall have their part in the lake of Fire Lake, which burneth with fire and brimstone, which is the second death. So, as Brother Steve mentioned, is he gives us language in these passages of Scripture that we can relate to, that we can understand. We are in wealth with the Spirit of God, so we can take in, We have the capacity to take in these words and to understand in some measure.
Shall live very little bit that he can tell us that we can't understand. So in God, in his wisdom tells us these things, but he tells us for a purpose. It's to have an effect upon us, isn't it? It's not just so that we would know. The future man in this world wants to know the future. He wants to know what's happening so that he can buy the right stocks and he can enrich himself and so on. But God has told us these things and it should stir our hearts.
As we wait scripture when it tells us to wait.
Or to watch there is, if every passage that I believe that's given to us in this way is to stir our hearts affections and to stir us in some way. And so here it is really where to watch. We're to be watching, waiting, hasting unto the coming of the day of God, where in the heavens, being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with urban heat. He's going to fulfill his promise.
And everything will be new. Sin will no longer be a problem for us, and God will have His way.
00:15:01
Can you re ask that repose that question again? What what you have said? Would you re ask that question?
I don't know what question you're talking about, the one you asked, but what it means looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God.
You raised a question about that. Yeah. It's as if that we in the measure that we are exercised to live properly as Christians, we hasten the coming of the day of God.
The day of God, I take it, is where everything is of God, nothing remaining of man's sin, or his what he has sinned.
Well, it says here, seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be? When I was visiting Brother Vandenberg they told me the story in 2019, how their house burned down, and that year was a terrible year in a lot of ways, medically and otherwise. And I was sitting there what sorrow difficulty went through, and his wife was describing to me.
The house is burning down. They wake up in the middle of the night. What's important, Get the family out. They're out in the van. They have flip flops on and they're wearing their pajamas. But.
There's Brother Vandenberg in his underwear up on the roof in the cold, trying to put the fire out. His wife. What's important to her. You need to get down from there. Let the fire trucks take care of it. Get one more thing. He knew the fire was at the end of the house. He goes into the other end.
The family's dog is trapped in a room. He rescues and comes out. That's what I think of when we're being reminded here that everything we've got is going to burn, everything is going to go. Then my attitude might be changed if I really believe that, if I really believe that that was. We were rushing towards that end because I think there's a sense in which this whole world, the rapidity of everything that's going on, what we see in prophecy and all that, it's just rushing towards this destruction.
And it's not far down the road. We've been reminded of that, that all of these things aren't that far down the road for any of us. And that that thought that if we really got a hold of that, there would be other things that don't matter much. They didn't rescue anything out of there except the most important things out of that fire. And that's what came to mind as you we read this portion.
Materialism of our culture has done tremendous damage to the Christian testimony brethren, and I think it's important, and that's what we really have focused here.
Material things are just a means to an end. They are not an object.
For the believer, and oh, if we could get ahold of that. We live for an eternal day. We live for eternal glory. Why is it that when you're distracted?
I have to confess myself. I get distracted. But when we think of that eternal glory, I'd like to go back to Revelation 21 There a little bit and perhaps we can meditate a little bit on this. I.
Want to say that?
The eternity really starts in chapter 20 verse.
11 where you have the great white throne and it says.
In that set on it, which is the Lord Jesus.
And from whose face the earth and the heaven LED away, and there is found no place for them? That's the end of this present creation no more.
You know time is based on the movement of heavenly bodies, so when they're gone.
One more time. That's something that just blows my mind. I I don't know how much we can understand.
Our thinking is based on time. Even our hymns, we have that hymn.
The eternity with Raptor Dorian eyes looks onward and back to the Speaking of the cross of Christ. That's the way we think, brethren, and we talk about the past eternity and the future eternity. There's not really a past and eternity. Eternity is a vast place where God dwells. It's the habitation of God.
00:20:00
And time is just like a little bubble in eternity.
But here we have eternity and we have the.
Judgment of the dead here and the end of chapter 20. And then we have in verse chapter 21 a new heaven and a new earth. The 1St heaven and the first earth are passed away and there is no more sea. And then John sees the holy city.
New Jerusalem, coming down from God, out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. Here's a bride that's 1000 years old and she's still a bride adorned for her husband in eternity. Nothing changes. It's all fixed. Everything connected with time changes. Everything connected with eternity is fixed.
And he says in verse three, I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, behold.
The Tabernacle of God.
Will remember we have this portion at a conference in Denver, Co if you remember years ago.
I'd rather London and brother Gordon Hayhoe were there and the Tabernacle of God, Gordon said, is Christ and his people joined together forever. But it says the Tabernacle of God is with men. So you have the heavenly and the earthly.
To me it is very interesting that in all gods the purpose is a blessing. There's a heavenly sphere, there's an earthly sphere, and God promised it to blessing. To Abraham. It was as the stars of heaven and as the sand by the seashore, the two spheres. So here in eternity there's the two spheres. The only difference is there's no distance. The Tabernacle of God is with men, since there's no sin.
There's no distance to me that is wonderful to think. The Tabernacle of God is with men. I take it on the earth. He will dwell with them, and they shall be his people and God himself shall be with him and be their God. And then he tells about all the things that won't be there. But I wanted to get down to verse six. Guys, there's a something there that puzzled me for the longest time.
Says I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely.
First in eternity thirst. What is this?
This is the way it came to me, brethren.
Even in that eternal day, we're not sufficient in ourselves. We will always need God to satisfy our souls. Isn't that wonderful? And it's a fountain that can never be exhausted.
Hmm, There's something very precious to in this account in Revelation 21, and that is that when it comes to the heavenly Jerusalem that begins in verse 9, the description of the heavenly Jerusalem, we find that the bride is portrayed as a city.
And that's necessary because as we had before us yesterday, the millennial day, the millennial Kingdom is necessary for the public vindication of God's holy character. And so the city is connected with administration in this world.
That's why the foundations are the apostles of the Lamb. But the gates are named after the tribes of Israel administration. 12 of each. But when it comes to the eternal state.
The city is portrayed as a bride. You mentioned about beautiful. The city is portrayed as a bride. Why is the city still there? Yes, but the emphasis is not on administration, it's on relationship and something else that I have enjoyed. I know our early, I see our late brother. I better be careful because you have to be pretty near as old as I am to remember Harry Hajo. But.
He used to tell us that the millennial day, the Millennium, is really only the front porch to the eternal state. And that's I believe why it says in our chapter in second Peter 3, hastening the coming of the day of God.
00:25:12
Technically and completely, the Millennium is not God's full rest.
It's the Sabbath of rest, and it's the reality of rest for this world. And in that sense it'll be a wonderful time. But sin will still be here. It'll rear its ugly head as we had yesterday. Yes, it will be instantly dealt with every time, but it will still be there. And that awful rebellion at the end will show, as we had yesterday, that man's natural heart has not changed under absolutely perfect conditions.
Man still does not want God's beloved Son.
But after it's all over and as you just pointed out, Bob, the great white throne, then God brings in the eternal state. And I would suggest that we haste. Well, let's turn back to second Peter 3 for a moment. Verse 14 Wherefore, beloved, seeing that he looked for such things, be diligent that he may be found of him in peace without spot and blameless.
That is characteristic of the Kingdom of God.
We're living today in the days of the Kingdom of Heaven, when the Lord Jesus spoke to his disciples concerning the Kingdom of God and Luke's gospel.
He could say don't say low here or low there. And our King James is a little defective in the translation. It should read for the Kingdom of God is among you. Meaning that in the person of God's beloved Son, they could see the full display of the Kingdom of God. What's going to happen in the eternal state? That Kingdom will become an eternal Kingdom, water. It'll be a vast, everlasting Kingdom with Christ at the head.
And I like your thought, brother.
Steve about the.
Reason why we don't hear much about the eternal state in Scripture. Wouldn't we like to hear more our natural, if I can say it, our natural curiosity would love to have more, but God says it'll it's too much for you right now, imagine you. We can't think outside of time in our relationship. That's why we talk about a past eternity and a coming eternity.
But there isn't really any such thing. There's a little blip of time in the middle.
And one eternity is the same as the next, But we can't, we can't get our minds around that. And that day we will. But that vast moral Kingdom of God will finally have its full display. And in one sense, in John's ministry, the two are brought together, whether in the Millennium or in the eternal state. John often brings them together so that they aren't differentiated as much as they are in Paul's ministry. But I just mentioned that.
That that will be the full display of that glorious Kingdom. What does God want to see more of that Kingdom displayed in you and me. Now that's the way I believe we haste the coming of the day of God by displaying more and more of God's Kingdom in our walk and ways in this world.
Is that I don't know. Does that commend itself?
I was thinking that.
We look in Hebrews chapter.
Well, when the apostle is describing the particular blessings that we have in Christianity, verse 22.
Unto your come, unto Mount Zion, unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, into an innumerable company of angels, to the General Assembly and Church of the first born, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all. Is that not a?
A millennial scene there because the first boring.
Are really the Church of God?
The Bride of Christ.
Who will?
We will reign with the Lord during the millennial period.
But.
That position as the bride of Christ will go on into the eternal state. So my question was, what is the difference between?
00:30:10
The the heavenly Jerusalem mentioned here and the.
The Bride of Christ.
Which is referred to here as the first born.
Well, I believe, Brother John, that they are essentially the same and the church is portrayed as the city, as I say, in the millennial day. And so I believe, as you say, this is really referring to the Millennium here in Hebrews that you mentioned. But as we said earlier, the in the eternal state, the city is more in the background, although it's there, it's definitely there. But what is brought out more in the in the eternal state is.
Her relationship as a bride. And so we get the heavenly city described in Revelation 21 from verse 9 onward. And it's beautiful to see her display there. And as Bob has mentioned, there will be communication between heaven and earth and, and so it's nice, it's nice to see that. And God uses the description of the heavenly city to indicate the vastness of the glory.
That will be displayed in that day.
But when it's a matter of the bride, it's a matter of relationship and the warmth and loving kindness of God in bringing us into that relationship. Would you say, brother Bill, that the Old Testament Saints who are, we know, friends of the bridegroom, they are not part of the bride. They will be part of the heavenly city.
They'll definitely be part of the heavenly company, not just your. When you talk about the city, like Bill says, you're talking about administration and that is what we have in chapter 21 of Revelation from verse 9, like you said, down to verse five of chapter 22 is a description of the heavenly city in the millennial day.
And so you have their walls, you have gates. Gates were for administration, judging. And so there will be that in the millennial day, there won't be an eternal state in need of that because sin will no longer exist. Hard for us to imagine a world without sin. But during the millennial day there will be. And so it talks about nations too.
Eternal state that doesn't mention anything about nations, only the Tabernacle of God with men. That's all it says. Interesting.
It's helpful to read in that verse nine in Revelation chapter 21. It's very clear.
That it is millennial. It says, It came unto me, one of the seven angels which had the seven vials full of the seven last plagues, and talked with me, saying, Come hit her, I will show thee the bride.
Unless the church in her millennial glory, that lamb's wife, that's her position of responsibility, you might say, in assisting him in the rain. And then he carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain and showed me, it should say, that holy city.
The holy Jerusalem descending out of heaven from God. So we have the millennial scene told to us in that we have much more of a description of the millennial scene than we do of the eternal state. And so we can be thankful for what is revealed to us and we don't need to chase about what is not given to us. And I think it was again, Brother Harry, Hugh, I never mentioned. I never met him. But you had this little expression. Never let the things that you don't understand.
Spoil the enjoyment of the things that you do understand. Enjoy the things that you do and understand, and the Lord will bless them. The Old Testament Saints will have part in the in the Millennium, won't they? In reigning with Christ. Is that right, Robert? Yes, but from heaven.
I'd like to come back for a moment to Revelation 20, verse 11.
00:35:00
The creation that we know now.
Did start by God's powerful word He spoke, and it became something visible out of nothing.
When the end is reached, there is no more any vert. When this creation will disappear, nobody is talking. It is only your face on the great white throne.
This face is so bright.
It is so holy. It is so perfect righteous.
That this earth just will disappear.
It's hard for us to imagine this.
Because we are so connected to material or two words, what is very interesting is the day of the Lord.
Ends with this action, with this face on the great white throne. And then first Peter 3 talks again. When it comes to the eternal days, the day of God, the earth does disappear.
That means the Day of God starts with the Great White Throne. Why? It is the absolute end of what we have all seen and known. What was not worthy for God?
And the last enemy is stun set aside. That's the beginning of this day. And what did really?
Capture me one day when I did read on the end of this scenery, that the Lord the King will come to God and will give back all his responsibilities he had taken on in the Millennium. And then the scripture says, and then everything is for, in and about God and nothing else anymore.
That's what we have in First Corinthians 15, and maybe we go there just a brief moment because I think that is good. It's a reference it First Corinthians 15 really touches.
The eternal day, but it really.
Don't know how to explain it but.
Here chapter 15 and verse 24.
Then cometh the end.
When he that's the Lord Jesus shall have delivered up the Kingdom to God.
Even the Father you have kingdoms. It's because there's still sin in existence.
And there needs to be control.
Delivered up the Kingdom to God, even the Father.
When he shall have put down all rule, and all authority, and all and power, for he must reign, reign in his. For when there is sin, he must reign until he had put all enemies under his feet. And the last enemy that shall be destroyed is death. That's what we have in the end of chapter 20 of Revelation.
Death in Haiti's are cast into the Lake of Fire.
For he hath put all things under his feet. But when he saith all things are put under him, it is manifest that he is accepted the Lord Jesus as man, which did put all things under Him. And when all things shall be subdued unto him, then shall the sun also Himself be subject.
Unto him that put all things under him.
That God may be All in all, so the Lord Jesus as man.
Delivers up the Kingdom to God the Father. He has subdued all things for God's glory, the 1St man.
But everything made everything in disorder. Now here's the 2nd man, the last Adam, and he puts all things in order, and then he submits.
00:40:01
He is. One of the things about humankind is that we are.
Dependent and submissive. Dependent because God has all power. Submissive because God has all authority.
And the Lord Jesus as man submits, and then God is All in all, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and that's the beginning of the Day of God.
And that's ultimately beyond our understanding, isn't it?
Here is our blessed Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who remains a man for all eternity to enjoy your company and mine.
And he's, in that sense, subject for all eternity.
And yet who is All in all pointed out God in Trinity, and he's part of that beyond our understanding isn't.
The first creation began with a heavens and an earth, and it ended with a man.
The new creation begins with a man, and it ends in a new heaven and new earth.
For all eternity, the inverse order of things. I Just a question, brother Bill in connection with hastening that day would breathing from the new translation and John's the first Epistle, chapter 2 and verse eight, would this connect with it?
And again I've write a new commandment to you, which thing is true in him?
And in you, because the darkness is passing and the true light already shines, that that display of those characters is looking on to that day of God. So the true light, the darkness is passing, but already in the believer, because it's that thing which is true in him and in us, it already shines. It's a it's a glimpse of that coming day of God.
Absolutely.
The darkness is passing, as you say, and it's still passing. There will be a time when it will be passed completely beautiful.
It's another thought from Ephesians chapter 2.
We find that the Church is the habitation of God by the Spirit.
And so is the Millennium closes, and the Lord delivers up that perfect Kingdom, having fully discharged all that adamant failed in He.
That second man takes it up for God's glory. He delivers it up and the administrative features.
Of the church disappeared, just the bride character remains. But there's one other thing. The Tabernacle of God is with men forever. The church will be the habitation of God by the Spirit. And so when she comes down from heaven in that way, the Tabernacle of God is with men, but she is always pictured.
As coming down from God out of heaven, her true origin is gone. Her character for all eternity is heavenly, and though those two spheres, as it were, become so close that there's no distance, she is always from God and always out of heaven for eternity.
And it's the last time that the habitation of God is mentioned in the Word of God in that passage.
Maybe for some that are younger here in verse 12.
Where it's talking about Eastern, the coming of the day of God.
Spoiled growing up in the assembly and having the right. The word of truth rightly divided and presented to us. But you'll hear many people who truly love the Lord Jesus.
Hot quite a bit of those preparing for the Kingdom and that's a very common phrase that you will run into and it's a warning sign that they don't believe in the dispensational truth that we've been talking. They're feeling that in some way they thought to get ready because they're going to be part of the Kingdom and God has his own plan for getting ready for the Kingdom. It's a seven-year period that's going to fix things up.
00:45:28
We're not pulled to be healthy, to prepare for the Kingdom. We're told to preach the gospel.
You know, well, sadly, and I think that's an important point, Robbie, that you bring out, sadly, Satan has done.
All too good a job in bringing Christianity down to the level of a worldly religion. And he knows, even if believers don't realize it, that when we lose, and if we lose the sense of our heavenly calling, humanly speaking, we've lost everything.
Because a believer who gets into the arena to try and straighten this world out.
Will find that he has to work with worldly people and then pretty soon you're down to the level of the world and there's no question no matter who you are or how much you try, it'll end up in compromise. And and so it's one of those it it may not seem that serious, but it's one of the worst errors that Satan has brought into the profession of Christianity to persuade believers today that they need to get involved in trying to straighten this world out.
And Scripture is very clear, isn't it, that the world will not be straightened out by the gospel, nor will it be straightened out by the efforts of believers. It says in Isaiah chapter 26, when thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness, and that's the only way it will come.
Mike point out maybe in connection with.
Good understanding of prophetic and dispensational truth that the Old Testament speaks of a new heavens and new earth, but it's not the same thing that Peter is giving us in this chapter. Isaiah 65 and verse 17.
For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth, and the former shall not be remembered nor come into mind.
But be glad and rejoice forever in that which I create. For behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy. And I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and joy in my people. And the voice of weeping shall be no more heard in here, nor the voice of crying. There shall be no more events and infant of days, or in other words, none will die in infancy.
Nor an old man that has not filled his days. Even with Ozila didn't fill his days. He didn't reach 1000.
For the child shall die 100 years old. There's death there, not an infancy, but comes a time of responsibility of their sin. It will be judged. But the Sinner being 100 years old, should be at first. This could hardly be the new heavens and new earth that Peter is Speaking of. They're still death. There's still sin that will be judged, though there'd be a great time of blessing.
And so this is not Peter picking up and telling us.
This is the fulfillment of the prophecy that Isaiah gives and Isaiah 65. That is the millennial earth, the new heavens and new earth of the Old Testament prophecies. But it's not what we have in this chapter.
We read in the first chapter of Second Peter.
Verse 10 of the first chapter.
Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election.
Sure, Ricky, do these things. You shall never fall.
00:50:02
For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting Kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Well.
The abundant entrance here is not referring to heaven. Every believer will have an abundant entrance into heaven, but this is in connection with the Kingdom. And so we've spoken of all the material things of this world being dissolved and disappearing, but not the way in which we have used what the Lord has entrusted to us.
Whether it be financial resources, whether it be time.
Or energy.
The those things are going to perish, but the way in which we have used.
The.
The things which the Lord has entrusted to us.
If we have used them for the glory and the furtherance of the eternal.
Interests of our Lord Jesus that will be rewarded in that coming day and our place in the coming Kingdom. That's mentioned here in the verses I read.
Our place will be according to our walk down here, and so we read in Luke 19 of some having ten cities and five cities and so on, the place of administration, which is our reward in the coming millennial day.
Will be according to our walk down here. So the judgment seat of Christ will reveal how we have used these material resources, possessions that the Lord has entrusted us with. They can be used for the glory of the Lord Jesus and for the furtherance of his interest down here. And that's an encouragement. I believe that the abundant entrance here the apostle is Speaking of is the portion.
That the believer will have in that coming millennial day. Is that right, Robert?
There's another thing that perhaps we could just mention in passing that when in the Synoptic Gospels, whenever lasting life is spoken of, it's really from a Jewish perspective and you might just turn to Mark chapter 10 to get the point. He says in Mark chapter 10 verse 17 that when he was gone forth into the way, there came one running and kneeling and kneeled to him and asked him, good Master, what shall I do to inherit that? I may inherit eternal life.
Well, he wasn't asking.
For eternal life in the sense, the Christian sense that wasn't revealed yet, but he wanted to live on the earth forever and as long as the earth existed, that the Jews, when they said eternal life, it was for as long as the earth would exist that they would live. And so he wanted to live on the earth.
For as long as the earth existed. And so it's called eternal life, and he mentions it in the 133rd Psalm.
And it's really in connection with the Millennium in verse three, I'll read it, 133rd Psalm, the dew of Herman, and as the dew that descended upon the mountains of Zion, for there the Lord commanded the blessing, even life forevermore. So it was mentioned in the Old Testament. That's what they look for. And so is what Brother Steve was bringing out is the new heavens and new earth in connection with the Jewish perspective. That was really going to be a renewal.
A regeneration the Lord Jesus called that I believe in Matthew's Gospel chapter 28 is it and and so they looked at it from a Jewish perspective. Peter here is talking about the eternal state from a Christian perspective.
I have a a question.
On Friday or Saturday we talked about.
The how the believer often has the rapture before him only because that's what's going to affect us presently.
And our thoughts oftentimes don't go beyond to the appearing. And as we went through this chapter, we saw how they very much should go on to the appearing because that's when God is going to be vindicated.
00:55:03
But it seems like we go down further in this chapter and now it's not so much that our thought should even be on the day of the Lord, but it needs to be on the day of God. And I'm struggling a little bit because.
I've always thought about it, God's eternal counsels from Ephesians chapter one, where his Son is going to be glorified in heaven and earth and the the place where his, his rightful place is finally going to be there. But then I'm coming to these verses and it's saying, well, we kind of want to get by that as quick as possible. We want to get beyond that. We want to get to the day of God. And so I'm just trying to reconcile that in my mind. I don't know if anybody can follow what I'm saying or to give a thought on that.
I found that comment that Bill made earlier helpful, although I don't know what scripture to give for it that.
The Millennial day is the anteroom into the Grand Palace, which is the day of God eternity. And so yes, we do desire the Day of the Lord.
In the sense that we're going to see the Lord Jesus vindicated in the world where he's so dishonored. But that's the introduction.
Into that day of God that we have so little said about it in the Scripture and and when you get into the anteroom and there's a lot about the millennial day. So be occupied with that and that's going to give you a sense of what you got.
This time is over after 7000 years.
There comes new day. It's the 8th day.
And this will not end. And everything is new. It's too difficult for us that that this eternal goal would have given us any physical description or whatsoever. It would be too much for us. We are too limited.
There remaineth therefore rest for the people of God, and we will enter into God's rest, His eternal rest.
He's been looking forward to that since the first creation began, and He will not be disappointed. And He's going to bring us into it with Him. And so in that sense, it is very much part of our bright hope as much as seeing the Lord vindicated. But when that all closes, the eternal day of rest begins, and we're going to enter into it and all of His joy for all eternity.
I had mentioned that there are two exhortations. First exhortation related to what? Joseph asked.
What manner of persons ought to be in our manner of life to be associated with holiness and godliness? And there's an aspect to the millennial Kingdom in which we reign with Christ. And there's an aspect in terms of how we live our life today in which we are associated with Christ in his Kingdom. And I believe that that's part of what's put before us here. And then the second part that we've been talking about that eighth day.
We have the 2nd exhortation in connection with the new heavens and the new earth and we're challenged to be found without spot and blameless. That's exactly how we'll be when we enter into that 8th day. We have complete and perfect acceptance in our Lord Jesus Christ. He's our righteousness. That's true, but that we are exhorted many times and to keep ourselves unspotted, for example.
From the world, that's our future and we should live towards exemplifying that and living that.
Today, so I, I put that forward as something for our hearts that there is both in the millennial Kingdom, a portion that we are sharing with Christ and in the eighth day, that that our moral character needs to be conformed to that today. And that's I think part of what these exhortations are for. The exhortations are there, but what Bob had said at the beginning of this, he was talking about how he likes to think about these things and how wonderful it's been to think about these things as we've been discussing them.
And I'm.
I was thinking about from our side of things as we observe, we listened and we enter into this. We have different levels of understanding here and maybe some people are learning some things that are citing to them and new that are here. One of the Bible studies we have back home.
01:00:05
Is attended by little old ladies and couple of little old men that are in their 70s and 80s and they know the Lord and the first thing they knew was that they're going to heaven when they die.
That's all in pretty much new. And then someone asks a question about what's this rapture thing and then they know about that and then a little further, well, what happens after that? And, and I heard all these terrible things go a little further and a little further. These folks know the Lord know hardly anything. And some are from different backgrounds like Methodist, Presbyterian, this and that and the other thing. And it's just to watch their faces.
As they learn just a little bit more and more and more and their bodies are breaking down and they've got disease and illness and sickness. And as they're entering in, you should see their faces. You should see they're they're soaking it up like you **** ground on, on pouring water on a parched ground. And I think there's a side of this as we learn and understand what's coming, what's coming, what's coming. And like Bob says, thinking about it, they love talking about this and what's down the road and not too far down the road.
That the Lord is coming from. And then I'm not just going to die and go to heaven. But you know what? They might actually be here.
When the Lord comes and then what? There's a millennial Kingdom and we're going to reign with Christ over it and all the things going on and the wonder of that. And then we've been talking about the end of all things. And where not only is the Lord Jesus vindicated in the Millennium, there's a sense in which all that have been faithful to him are vindicated with him then at the end of it.
Nothing corrupt, everything settled, all matters are done and gone has his desire from the beginning before anything was made. His family is around him, that great host. And we sometimes think about that and think, wow, what that'll be like every family that God has. And then this is right there. Everything is there. Well, we we enter, it's like we enjoy more and more and more as we think down. But in the Thessalonians, the first thing they do was they turn to God from idols to wait for the Son of God from heaven.
Well then, Paul, Paul told him more, more, more, and now we get a bigger picture.
Just like to encourage the younger brothers and sisters to get into the prophetic word. I was encouraged some years ago.
I happen to be reading an article in the National Geographic magazine and most often today many of the articles there are not that encouraging.
There was an article on a man had made a name for himself and public radio, a man by the name of Garrison Keeler. He had a program called the Prairie Home Companion and he was brought up in a brethren household but largely gave up most of what he was taught as young man, but the.
Author of this article had been informed that he was brought up in a Brethren household and wanted to know a little bit about the Brethren and inserted some material there concerning that. But there was a photo or picture that I was very encouraged to see that showed a group of young men at the table going over who's chart from eternity to eternity.
And what an odd thing to see in the National Geographic magazine. And it thrilled my heart that there were some young men that were anxious to learn God's purposes. And it thrilled my heart.
I'd like to read a verse in connection with what you say, Joe, and it's not exactly an answer, but something that I find interesting to think about and 1St Corinthians 13.
Verse 9.
Or we know in part.
And we prophecy in part, and that's what we have to say.
The more we learn, the more we realize how little we understand.
Him. But then notice that it goes on. When that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away.
01:05:06
Knowing, in part, is going to be done away.
And it gives a little.
Similarly here when I was a child, I speak as a child. I understood as a child, I thought as a child.
I sometimes think when we look back from heaven's side, when we think of this meeting, we have this action.
How little we really understand. But we do understand something, brother. We can enjoy that.
When I became a man, I put away childish things for now we see through a glass.
Dimly or darkly, but then face to face. Now I know in part.
That then shall I know, even as also I am.
Oh, what a day that's going to be. We get into the Lord's presence and the Lord is going to say that the judgment seat. Now I'm going to show you the whole picture and we're going to enter it.
It said fears that.
Peter.
Did have a problem understanding all the truth that Paul had unfolded as to the purposes and councils of the of the Lord in his epistles, because he says here in the 16th verse that some things hard to be understood. Of course, Peter was very much immersed in the whole Judaistic system prejudice. He had to have a special vision from the Lord before he would go.
And preach the gospel to Cornelius, a Gentile, but he acknowledges that those.
Those writings of the apostle Paul were inspired, authenticated by the by the word of God. They he calls them Scriptures here.
And in Christendom to a large measure.
Paul's doctrine that we have been speaking about the heavenly calling of the church, our position as as separate from this whole world system.
Is generally not understood by Christendom. They have what is called covenant theology and what have you mixed in. They leave things in a state of confusion but.
They they rest the scriptures, they take them out of their true bearing. But Paul, Peter here.
Recognizes the the divine inspiration of the scriptures that that Paul had received.
And also, as we might mention, he didn't hold any resentment.
By the fact that Paul in Galatians had to rebuke Peter not behind his back face to face among all the other brethren and he refers here to our beloved brother Paul. He didn't hold any resentment for that correction which he needed because Paul was Peter was really throwing the church back under the.
Under the the Old Testament wall of partition, he was.
Going to erect it again. But Peter has no resentment. He received that rebuke from the Apostle Paul and he profited by it. I think it's, it's lovely to see that.
And that's so important because as we see here.
This tendency to, as it says in verse 17 or verse 16, rather to rest or that's where the word wrestling comes from, That is to take Scripture out of its proper context and make it say what it really doesn't say.
Is exactly what has happened and.
Judaizing principles were introduced, as we know, into the church very early in its history.
And eventually, of course, was the utter ruination of the Church.
Now you and I can be so thankful for the precious truth of God that He saw fit to restore to us almost 200 years ago now. But the devil is still attempting to do this. And so-called reconstructionism or covenant theology is part of that and we get a warning here about it. Way back in Peter's day. He knew what Paul taught. He knew it was the truth.
01:10:26
And to understand prophecy, we must see the heavenly calling of the Church.
If we don't see the church's position as being a heavenly body.
Prophecy does not make any sense at all. But here Peter recognizes that's the way to see it, but he realizes that it's sometimes hard to be understood. And let's not point the finger at the Jews. The natural man does not like the heavenly calling of the church either. Remember well reading about how one of our older brethren, this is way back in the 1800s, and this was at a Bible reading, and they were talking about bringing out the precious truth.
Of the church and one brother said, well, what do you do if people don't want to listen to you?
And the brothers said they will probably listen to you until you try to take them to heaven.
Now that doesn't mean going to heaven at the end of the journey. He meant going to heaven in the sense that Ephesians gives us the heavenly calling of the church. But what is so precious here? And I just allow me to make this comment. I know our time is gone, but.
The last verse.
What's the real answer to it all?
All the glory of the millennial Kingdom.
All the glory of the eternal state, everything that will take place, then it's right for us to understand it and enjoy it in our hearts.
But Peter recognizes, as we've already expressed this afternoon, ultimately we can't understand it. And that's why God doesn't say much about the eternal state in Scripture. But one thing we can't understand growing grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Allow me to repeat some words. I think it was from Brother Vela, his ministry, he said. The glory will be wonderful.
But he said far more wonderful than the display of glory will be the celebration of the grace that has brought us there. Very true.
And I believe that's why Peter puts this verse in. He realizes that much of this is beyond our understanding. But in the coming day, what will be the greatest joy in heaven to celebrate the grace, the braces there?
17.
#17.
Holy Spirit.
Favor.
Rest up on us.
May we?
Have I didn't hear you?
And the Lord.
Also #48.
#48.
I.
01:15:09
AM.
Free and there are brave things. We will be rewarding the world.
The Lord Jesus Christ.
Just do thank thee that we can anticipate by very soon.
Thank you.
These thoughts?
That brought to you and the encouragement and knowing that our one desire to bless.
Is thy desire to gather thy people around myself, and there will be none this God.